Free Republic

Florida's Hispanic voters are fleeing the Democratic Party and there's little indication that the trend might reverse post-2020. MIAMI, Fla. — Democrats are on track to lose Florida in November, and there’s little indication that the Sunshine State will turn reliably bluefor the foreseeable future.As of this writing, RealClearPolitics’ latest aggregate of Florida polls shows former Vice President Joe Biden leading President Donald Trump by about two points, well within the margin of error for most polls. This time four years ago, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was up by three points and still lost the state’s 29 critical...

Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro dodged an apparent assassination attempt when drones armed with explosives detonated while he was delivering a speech, officials said. Mr Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, looked up at the sky and winced on Saturday after hearing the sound of an explosion pierce the air. He was giving a speech to hundreds of soldiers in Caracas which was being broadcast live on television when the incident occurred. “This was an attempt to kill me,” the 55-year-old said later in an impassioned retelling of the events. "Today they attempted to assassinate me." A uniformed official bleeds from...

People are fleeing the socialism forced on them in Venezuela by the hundreds of thousands. Starving, and facing violence over crumbs of food, many have no choice but to flee the wasteland which used the authority of government to destroy the lives of its citizens. Thousands of Venezuelans are attempting to flee the socialist dystopia their nation has become. They are attempting to make it to Colombia. In a desperate bid to escape the hunger and soaring crime rate caused by the spiraling economic crisis, fueled by socialist policies, incredible pictures have surfaced showing the mass exodus of refugees crossing...

<p>Collapsing oil prices have a turned a difficult economic situation into a dire one. Oil exports brought in 60% of the country's revenue.</p> <p>Wall Street is watching and waiting, which is why the spread on Venezuela's 5 year credit default swap — basically debt insurance — has spiked. You just don't see charts like this everyday people.</p>

Students here study math by calculating the benefits of government land takeovers. They practice English by reciting where late President Hugo Chavez was born and learn civics by explaining why the elderly should give him thanks. Pro-administration messages scattered through the pages of Venezuela's textbooks have become yet another point of conflict in this hyper-polarized country, where Chavez's socialist party won a bare majority in the presidential elections of 2013. Parents recently tossed books into the streets in front of some schools and burned them, acts the loyalist media compared to censorship by the Nazis in 1930s Germany. As children...

Linette Lopez November 28, 2014In a passionate speech on Thursday, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro vowed that he would not rest until oil prices were back to "where they should be," reports Venezuelan paper, El Universal. For Maduro's purposes, that's at about $100 a barrel. "We will maintain the depth and rhythm of our investments into society," Maduro said speaking at a military celebration. "The best response in the face of obstacles is to come together in work, in struggle — it is to have discipline. On Thursday OPEC leaders agreed not to reduce global oil output, thereby increasing the price...

Tyler Durden09/11/2014 Bidet sales across Venezuela are set to soar as just months after running out of toilet paper, AP reports that Venezuela's oldest newspaper is shutting down due to falling advertising, mounting inflation and a lack of basic materials. In addition, at least nine Venezuelan regional newspapers have stopped circulation because of the shortages. Of course, this is likely great news for President Maduro who can now manage his people's minds direct from his Twitter feed... welcome to socialist utopia. As AP reports, Venezuela's oldest newspaper is shutting down because of a lack of newsprint and a difficult economic...

Alexandra Ulmer, Reuters August 29, 2014 CARACAS (Reuters) - A government plan to combat Venezuela's food shortages by fingerprinting shoppers in grocery stores has sparked a backlash ranging from violent street protests to social media campaigns ridiculing the idea. Shoppers have for more than a year struggled to find basic goods including cooking oil, powdered milk and corn flour as well as detergent, shampoo and diapers. Apart from a short supply of dollars for imports, the shortages have been blamed on heavy subsidies that allow shoppers to stock up on staples and resell them in neighboring Colombia or on the...

Venezuela And Argentina: The Party Is Over Latin America’s weakest economies are reaching breaking-pointThe Economist Feb 1st 2014 WHEN the euro crisis was at its height it became commonplace for struggling European economies to insist that they were not outliers like Greece. Whatever their woes, they declared, Greece’s were in a class of their own. In Latin America, by contrast, the unwanted title of outlier has two contenders: Argentina and Venezuela. Both have been living high on the hog for years, blithely dishing out the proceeds of an unrepeatable commodities boom (oil in Venezuela; soya in Argentina). Both have been...

MOSCOW (AFP) — A group of Russian warships will from December 19-23 visit the Communist island of Cuba, a long-time adversary of the United States and Moscow's ally in the Cold War, the Russian navy said on Monday. "This will be the first visit to Cuba by Russian warships since the Soviet era," the Russian naval headquarters said in a statement.

There's an old adage in election-year politics: "Vote early, and vote often." While that second part is usually meant as a little humorous jab, Sequoia Voting Systems apparently wasn't in on the joke. See, in California and other states, some polling places have these e-voting devices (made by Sequoia) known as AVC Edge voting machines, and each machine comes with a yellow button located on the back of each device. The button is designed as a manual backup, which activists claim allows people to vote as many times as they like.

Insecurity, "malignant narcissism" and the need for adulation are driving Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez's confrontation with the United States, according to a new psychological profile. Eventually, these personality traits are likely to compel Chavez to declare himself Venezuela's president for life, said Dr. Jerrold Post, who has just completed the profile for the U.S. Air Force. Chavez won elections for a third term last December. Since then he has stepped up his anti-American rhetoric, vowed to accelerate a march towards "21st Century socialism" and suggested that he intends to stay in power until 2021 -- a decade beyond his present...

Summary of BBC broadcast report: Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez, who refers to President Bush as a "terrorist," has launched “his latest front in his cold war against the U.S.” in the form of a political stunt to provide discounted Citgo heating oil to low-income Americans. The Chvez gesture, with the world press watching, costs him only “peanuts” in terms of his cash flow but is “gold as politics,” according to a Harvard professor commenting on the situation. The recipients, and a good many New England politicians including the “Kennedy clan,” are expressing gratitude to Chavez. Former congressman Joe Kennedy spoke...

The Axis of Oil: China and Russia find a new way to advance their strategic ambitions February 7, 2005 by Irwin M. Stelzer The Weekly Standard Volume 010, Issue 20 A COLD WEATHER WAVE HITS America's northeast, oil inventories are drawn down, and prices rise. A pipeline is blown up in Iraq, and prices rise even more. The OPEC cartel meets and agrees to cut back production, adding to price pressures. The government announces a rise in inventories, or weather forecasters predict a thaw, or the Saudis say they will step up oil production, and prices fall. All interesting, all...