Posted on 12/14/2016 6:59:10 AM PST by Brilliant
This is a time of year when many Americans count their blessings, and among these is the annual Marine Corps Toys for Tots program. Marines accept voluntary donations and distribute toys to millions of needy children. In Venezuela they are developing a different tradition. The government has deployed soldiers from its National Guard to seize millions of toys before they reach Venezuelan shoppers.
Rather than accepting blame for inflation that has been running at 470%, the government of President Nicolás Maduro is pretending that the countrys largest toy distributor, Kreisel-Venezuela, is simply charging too much. CNN reports that along with seizing the toys, the government also detained at least two people and that Kreisel executives may be prevented from leaving the country.
The regime is promising to offer the toys at below-market prices in poor areas. But with less than two weeks before Christmas, parents are wondering if they will be able to find gifts in a nation where shortages of meat, vegetables, medicine and other basic necessities have become common. Parents also cant shop for toys while they are forced to line up this week to deposit their 100-bolivar notes, which the government has decided to outlaw in an attempt to disrupt a thriving underground market.
Venezuela has also been racked by surging crime and poverty. The unfolding misery ought to inspire U.S. musicians to collaborate around the holidays and record songs of protest. But raising awareness of the horrors of collectivism is rarely in style among American pop stars.
Venezuelans are now aware of what happens when the rule of law disappears from a nation...
(Excerpt) Read more at wsj.com ...
Maduro the Grinch.
The worse the grinch, the more people hold to the love of Christmas from the PRINCE OF PEACE.
President Trump should come out and publicly ask Bernie Sanders to become Special Ambassador to Venezuela, so he can show them how Socialism is supposed to work.
Might explain why the Pope is such a communist.
Send Sean Penn there. He’ll fix it...................
I discovered some months ago that google protects the privacy of the venezuelan socialist hunta. There is an upscale neighborhood in Caracas where Maduros thugs live, and every house is blocked from view in google earth.
The brain drain that has resulted in Venezuela, as their whiter, educated people have been fleeing for a couple of decades now, will cripple them for the foreseeable future. They will be reliant on civilized (often enemy) countries to provide basic necessities like clean water and food for their remaining population.
Living in NJ, I can sympathize with normal people caught up in these situations (as I can for many Californians); for others they are getting their just desserts...
OOOOOOOOOOOWeeeeeeee! Those wonderful fun-loving socialists are doing this “for the children”. Everywhere and anywhere, the leftists are a plague upon civil society..
Burghermeister Meisterburgher.
CC
The three words that best describe Maduro are as follows, and I quote, “Stink, stank, stunk”!
That is not a bad idea. Venezuela or Cuba. In the interest of saving money, let him do both.
ROFL That came to my mind too. Looks like Santa Claus will not be visiting a Venezuela town.
Cabbage patch kids for the masses! ... but no cabbage...
The left loves this because it’s “fair” and takes from the haves and gives to the have-nots. Unfortunately it doesn’t. The ruling elite is rich and doesn’t give a snot about the ordinary people, who are all pisspoor.
The sheer pettiness of taking kid’s toys away from them is mind boggling even for a socialist. But I guess they’re doing it because that’s the only thing left to steal and that’s what they do.
Nicolas Maduro is NOT St. Nick!
Should Trump bother to wait for the next election down there? A populist revolt would sell a lot of popcorn in my house.
One way or another, socialism always ends in mass death.
We’ll see if Maduro is made of good socialist stuff soon enough, I reckon.
Weep for Venezuela.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.