Socialist solution to long bread lines in Venezuela: Gov't says it'll fine any store that allows lines. Seriously.

Totalitarian dictatorships are so predictable:  They routinely use their total control of state-run media to try to make problems go away.

Of course the problems don't go away.  Instead the stories and directives (commands) merely give the illusion that a problem has been solved.

Clever, eh?

For example, the socialists who rule Venezuela saw people spending hours standing in line to buy bread (as well as every other kind of food).  People standing in line often complained about why they were having to stand in line--and despite the government constantly blaming "anti-socialist forces" and Yankee meddling for the country's problems, presumably most Venezuelans blamed the shortages on the nutty policies of the socialist rulers.  (Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro has blamed any shortages on the private sector, accusing businesses of promoting an “economic war” to destabilize his government and sabotage production.)

Also, all passers-by, seeing the long lines, were reminded of the constant shortages.  The rulers knew this wasn't good, since the more people realized how bad things were, the more likely they'd be to go after the rulers with machetes and hot tar.
 So the rulers came up with a typical socialist "solution:"  A government office called the "National Superintendency of Fair Prices" announced that the government would henceforth fine any bakery that "made" people stand in line to buy bread.  The Superintendency claimed the lines didn't indicate  an actual shortage of bread but were actually a kind of political protest. 

Great "solution," eh comrade?  Lines at grocery stores and bakeries causing unrest?  Simply fine any establishment that "allows" lines.  Voila!  Problem solved.

By the way:  The socialist rulers of Venezuela issued the above decree two years ago, in 2016.  But despite the fact that this should be far more relevant than breathless articles about the latest outfit worn by some Hollyweird "star"--the kind of story you read every day from the Mainstream Media--you never heard this story before now.  And there's a reason:

Just before our last presidential election, with Hilliary trying her best to tack hard-Left to steal win the support of Bernie followers, Democrat bigwigs absolutely didn't want to see any stories about what the glorious benefits of socialist policies had inflicted on the people of Venezuela.

But fining bakeries that allow people to stand in line is a hug compared to another Maduro policy.  In a rare break from the media's silence about Venezuela, one shady U.S. paper recounted this:

Alexis Camascaro woke up at 4 a.m. to get a good place in line outside the supermarket.  By the time he arrived, there were already 100 people ahead of him.

He never made it inside. Instead, truckloads of Venezuelan troops arrived in the darkness and arrested him and nearly 30 others, seemingly pulled from the line at random.

Camascaro was charged with violating laws against "interfering, directly or indirectly with the production, transportation or sale of food."  He's been in jail for three months awaiting a hearing.
 .
Camascaro was jailed as part of a new crackdown on Venezuelans trying to buy food, part of President Nicolás Maduro’s attempt to assert greater control over food distribution and consumption.

Maduro blames his country’s chronic scarcities on an “economic war” against his government waged by foreign enemies, opposition leaders and business owners.

Many economists attribute the shortages to simpler, less conspiratorial factors. Price controls and excessive regulation, they say, have discouraged domestic production, making Venezuelans ever more dependent on imported food. But after the slump in petroleum prices, hard currency for imports is lacking, leaving supermarket shelves bare.

For those libs who don't believe such an incendiary charge against a wonderful socialist government, this story was from the Washington Post, two years ago.  (Libs: please verify by clicking on the link.  Wouldn't want any of ya to claim this is "fake news.")  But note how even while seeming to report on that country's problems--and one would think an unbiased reporter would at least wonder about the causes of any dire problems--the Post's reporter and editors not only failed to mention the words "socialism" or "socialist policies" anywhere in the article, but instead attributed food shortages to other factors entirely, such as a lack of "hard currency for imports."

Wait, did the Post just blame food shortages on lack of currency to buy imported food ("hard currency for imports is lacking, leaving supermarket shelves bare")?   Yes, they did.  But for the lack of hard currency to be the cause of food shortages would mean there wasn't enough domestic food production in Venezuela--which doesn't require foreign exchange to buy.  But there have been lots of farmers in Venezuela since its establishment.  Did they all decide to become interior designers in the last 20 years?  Somehow I doubt that.  So why aren't they still farming?

The Post doesn't say.  Instead the Post just blames a lack of "hard currency," not goofy socialist policies.  In fact, as noted earlier, the article never mentions "socialism" or "socialist policies" in the entire article.

You'd think they were deliberately trying to mislead readers.  Seriously, in an article about something so awful, so dire, how could any honest editor NOT mention socialist policies?

To the liberal reporters and editors at the Post--as at the NY Times, CNN, MSNBC and all other mainstream media organs--the problem can't possibly be socialist policies.  Blame anything else.  But not socialism.

Here's another article on Venezuela's woes, this time from the NYTimes.  Again, no mention of  "socialism" or "socialist policies" in the entire article.  What the hell?  Are the editors stupid?

No, they're canny.  They know the Democrat party doesn't want to see socialism portrayed in a bad light, because that IS the goal of the Dem party.  Starting to see a pattern yet?  Of course enthusiastic Democrats will deny that their party is full-on socialist, but that's to be expected.

Here's more from that very rare Post article.  And keep in mind, libs:  This appeared in the Washington Post, so unless you claim they're fake news, how can you reasonably accuse them of fabricating this?

Over one weekend in June, more than 3,800 people were detained in Barquisimeto, a city west of Caracas, for trying to spend the night outside supermarkets.

Officials at Venezuela’s Ministry of Justice did not respond to requests for information about the crackdown.

The crackdown began with Maduro’s 2014 decree, the Law of Fair Prices, which was aimed at punishing businesses he said were “destabilizing” the Venezuelan economy. But few expected the government to apply the law broadly to ordinary consumers.

In a country where people who are awaiting court hearings account for more than half of the prison and jail population, many of the accused are stuck in detention for weeks or even months.

Some of those arrested in the crackdown were caught in possession of goods without receipts, or proof of how they obtained excess quantities of items such as rice, toilet paper or deodorant. Others had what soldiers deemed suspicious amounts of cash. Some, like Camascaro, say they aren't sure exactly what they're accused of doing.

Raymar Tona, 34, was arrested on a Friday in May while waiting to buy diapers for her baby.  A national guardsman pulled her out of the supermarket line, burrowed into her purse and found 10,000 Venezuelan bolivares, she said.  In the past, it would have been a lot of cash, but in today’s Venezuela, which has the world’s highest inflation rate, her 10,000 bolivars are worth about $10.  “It was my salary for two weeks,” she said.

With prescription drugs and hospital supplies essentially unavailable, desperate Venezuelans have found themselves accused of hoarding medicine.  Isaura Pérez, 66, said she traveled three hours to Barquisimeto in July to deliver hard-to-find drugs for her 38-year-old diabetic cousin, who was in intensive care.  National guard troops arrested Pérez at the hospital entrance for allegedly trafficking medical supplies, she said.

The soldiers confiscated the drugs she'd brought.

Her cousin died three days later.

Of course this is all probably fake news.  Probably didn't happen.  The Post probably made it up to goose sales.

Yeh, dat's da ticket.

So let's look at a source that doesn't have a profit motive:  The International Monetary Fund.  Here's how the IMF thinks socialist policies are doing:

Venezuela remains stuck in a profound economic and social crisis. Real GDP is projected to fall by about 18 percent in 2018—the third consecutive year of double-digit declines in real GDP.

We are projecting a surge in inflation to 1,000,000 percent by end-2018; a crisis similar to that in Germany in 1923 or Zimbabwe in the late 2000’s. The collapse in economic activity, hyperinflation, and increasing deterioration in the provision of public goods (health care, electricity, water, transportation, and security) as well as shortages of food at subsidized prices have resulted in large migration flows, which will lead to intensifying spillover effects on neighboring countries.

So who're ya gonna believe, liberals:  The liberal WaPo, the neutral IMF, or U.S. Democrat leaders like Kamala Harris and Nancy Pelosi?

When are you all gonna stop saying "I didn't know this was happening!  It was so far away"  "I didn't know what would happen if we adopted socialism!"  "I didn't know what would happen if we opened our borders to everyone!" "The leaders of our party promised everything would work fine!"

And my personal favorite: "No one could possibly have predicted this would happen!!!"

No.  Just...no.  History will not let you get away with letting you claim you weren't warned about the result if you forced socialism on the U.S.--as you are doing by supporting the Democrat party.  You've been shown exactly what would happen, and why, backed up by a real-world example from a nation that once had the highest per-capita income in all of Latin America.

You refused to listen--apparently because you think you're so smaht and that those who disagree with you are terminally stupid.

Yeah, that must be it.

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