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In Venezuela, Cooking With Firewood as Currency Collapses [1300 words - no "S" word!]
The New York Times ^ | September 2nd, 2017 | ANA VANESSA HERRERO and NICHOLAS CASEY

Posted on 09/04/2017 6:24:05 PM PDT by Bon mots

CARACAS, Venezuela — Food shortages were already common in Venezuela, so Tabata Soler knew painfully well how to navigate the country’s black market stalls to get basics like eggs and sugar.

But then came a shortage she couldn’t fix: Suddenly, there was no propane gas for sale to do the cooking.

And so for several nights this summer, Ms. Soler prepared dinner above a makeshift fire of broken wooden crates set ablaze with kerosene to feed her extended family of 12.

“There was no other option,” said Ms. Soler, a 37-year-old nurse, while scouting again for gas for her stove. “We went back to the past where we cooked soup with firewood.”

To read more, visit the NY Times...

(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: communism; liberalslie; msmlies; newyorktimes; nyttimeslies; socialism; venezuela
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1300 or so words and not once did they say the 'S' word. Either of them (Socialism, Socialist).


1 posted on 09/04/2017 6:24:06 PM PDT by Bon mots
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To: Bon mots

Quite amazing how the New York Times can write over 1300 words on the collapse of Venezuela and not once mention the word “SOCIALISM”.

It’s almost as if that word had to be somehow eliminated from the collective vocabulary when it comes to all things about Venezuela as a failed state - what was once the model for Bernie Sanders and his bernouts.


2 posted on 09/04/2017 6:26:29 PM PDT by Bon mots (Laughing at liberal tears!)
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To: Bon mots

Original article archived here to prevent sneaky, stealth edits:

https://archive.is/c36Wj


3 posted on 09/04/2017 6:28:54 PM PDT by Bon mots (Laughing at liberal tears!)
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To: Bon mots

>>Ms. Soler prepared dinner above a makeshift fire of broken wooden crates set ablaze with kerosene

Doesn’t she care about saving the Erf? Her CO2 emissions are going to destroy the wealthy people’s homes on the coast!


4 posted on 09/04/2017 6:29:30 PM PDT by Bryanw92 (If we had some ham, we could have ham and eggs, if we had some eggs.)
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To: Bon mots

Could be worse. In North Korea they have to decide: Should I put it in the fire or in the pot?


5 posted on 09/04/2017 6:30:53 PM PDT by Jeff Chandler (https://imgoat.com/uploads/645920e395/39513.gif)
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To: ADemocratNoMore; Aggie Mama; alarm rider; alexander_busek; AlligatorEyes; AmericanGirlRising; ...

Starnesville ping.


6 posted on 09/04/2017 6:31:07 PM PDT by Publius ("Who is John Galt?" by Billthedrill and Publius available at Amazon.)
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To: Bon mots

We should offer to send them Bernie Sanders - he’s the one who knows how to make socialism work, right?


7 posted on 09/04/2017 6:34:15 PM PDT by Stosh
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To: Bon mots

I remember when a cord of wood was about $35. Boy does that seem long ago now.

I bought up some extra charcoal when WM overbought. Great price. They were doing end-of-season sales on their propane (good for regular cooking) - but could not quite pull it off. Still there might have been a way. I still need to look.


8 posted on 09/04/2017 6:34:48 PM PDT by SaveFerris (Luke 17:28 ... as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold ......)
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To: Stosh

9 posted on 09/04/2017 6:36:12 PM PDT by SamAdams76
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To: Bon mots

They’re eating cats in Caracas.

Every American professor should have to spend a year in Venezuela.


10 posted on 09/04/2017 6:36:54 PM PDT by blueunicorn6 ("A crack shot and a good dancer")
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To: Bon mots

11 posted on 09/04/2017 6:37:43 PM PDT by SaveFerris (Luke 17:28 ... as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold ......)
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To: Bon mots
The article shies away from identifying any cause whatsoever for Venezuela's troubles.

The closest they come to any attempt at an explanation appears in paragraph 23:

Many economists trace the inflation to problems at the state oil company.

As the company's production declined, it became increasingly dependent on the outside world, depending on foreign companies to pump oil and even on the United States for the crude oil used in refining. Now the use of these foreign contractors is generating steep bills at a time when the company has little income to pay them.

No mention of the nationalization of foreign oil company capital assets in 2010.

No mention of the oddity of a nation that is one of the most oil-rich in the world having to import "crude oil used in refining" from the United States.

I guess the New York Times sees that as too obvious to mention, although obviousness doesn't usually inhibit them.

I do note the use of the superfluous words "used in refining" in that sentence about importing crude from the US.

It's as if they feel a little guilty about pointing out such an embarrassing fact, and want to let Venezuela off the hook a little bit by making it sound like "crude oil used in refining" is some sort of special stuff that may have to be imported from elsewhere to an oil-rich country.

12 posted on 09/04/2017 6:49:00 PM PDT by Steely Tom (Liberals think in propaganda)
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To: Bon mots

Socialism is their fake religion. They believe it and when it fails cognitive dissonance kicks in to save them.


13 posted on 09/04/2017 6:50:19 PM PDT by MtnClimber (For photos of Colorado scenery and wildlife, click on my screen name for my FR home page.)
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To: Bon mots

This is the same newspaper that in the 1930’s told us lifein the Soviet Union was fine, and there was no genocide going on in Ukraine.


14 posted on 09/04/2017 6:50:45 PM PDT by PGR88
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To: SaveFerris

15 posted on 09/04/2017 6:51:48 PM PDT by Fiddlstix (Warning! This Is A Subliminal Tagline! Read it at your own risk!(Presented by TagLines R US))
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To: SaveFerris

There’s only one solution: more socialism!


16 posted on 09/04/2017 6:52:02 PM PDT by Flycatcher (God speaks to us, through the supernal lightness of birds, in a special type of poetry.)
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To: Bon mots

Why don’t all those celebrities send donations down there? They are not helping folks in Houston so why don’t they help the Venezuelans.


17 posted on 09/04/2017 6:52:36 PM PDT by Karoo
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To: Bon mots

I posted a story here some time ago that said the rich people there are doing fine and have nice, fully-stocked grocery stores much like Central Market, Whole Foods or Trader Joe’s. I can’t put my hand on it right now.


18 posted on 09/04/2017 6:53:24 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet (You cannot invade the mainland US. There'd be a rifle behind every blade of grass.)
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To: Bon mots

Long term weight goals can be met by voting Socialist


19 posted on 09/04/2017 6:53:48 PM PDT by BigEdLB (To Dimwitocrats: We won. You lost. Get used to it.)
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To: Bon mots
Say it. SAY IT!! They won't say it.

It is remarkable to observe. An economy as robust as Venezuela's used to be takes a great deal of stubborn, systematic damage over time to be brought as low as it has, and they've managed it. Every single step along the way was a product of Chavez's socialismo. The expropriations of private property, the nationalizations of corporate property, the tinkering with taxation, the printing of money (until they ran out of money to pay for the paper), the rationing, the insistence on a command economy while the demand economy was staggering, and the death blows in the form of inflation and the government's stubborn refusal to bend its ideological policies in response to the clear evidence of the real world. Maddening to watch, because by the time anyone admits that the past has been full of failure, which they are yet to do, the situation is irrecoverable.

There is a true economy - it is the black market economy and it is Venezuela's only lifeline at the present time. A police state of sufficient rigor and brutality can suppress even that, (excepting those portions that bribe the state), and the Venezuelans have expert Cuban consultants who are hard at work in that regard. This is a long way from its end state, however tragic and unnecessary it is at the moment. If Zimbabwe's model holds, Maduro will soon demand international money with his own people as hostages: "pay me or watch them starve." In Zimbabwe, it worked.

20 posted on 09/04/2017 6:54:12 PM PDT by Billthedrill
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