Venezuela, a socialist disaster

U.S. SHOULD STAY CLEAR OF VENEZUELAN POLITICS

WHY RISK BEING BLAMED FOR THEIR SELF DESTRUCTION

We have been watching for several years as the drama of Venezuelan Socialism has run its course in a remarkably short time. Many nations experiment in socialism have taken decades to reach final collapse. It seems that everything today is on a much more accelerated pace.

We watched as an oil rich, reasonably advanced nation fell for siren song of socialism, free stuff for everyone guaranteed by the government. We watched as they nationalized foreign owned companies, who then proceeded to withdraw investments in the country. As the government took over the means of production, the natural incentives to excel and operate efficiently were eliminated and quickly led to shortages, inflation, and an economic decline. It was all very predictable.

The U.S. should keep out of this affair, let the Venezuelans reap what they have sown. We are not their parent or protector. They voted for this system, let them figure out how to get out of it. They are an example to the world, that should be reported on and watched from a distance. 

The neighboring countries in the region have a serious incentive for dealing with the collapse of Venezuela. They are already being overrun by over three million refugees. They will have to figure out what is in their best interest.

It seems that usual suspects in our State department and CIA are counseling our intervention, as usual. They use the fear of Russian, Chinese and others gaining a foothold in Venezuela, Let them have this mess. 

Our intervention can only lead to our being blamed for this fiasco and then the required aid, refugees,  and possible military occupation. Just sit back and watch the natural economic laws work. Refuse Venezuelan's entry to our country. After all they broke it, they should stay home and fix it.

Mexican President accused of accepting $100 million bribe

TRIAL OF JOAQUIN "EL CHAPO" GUZMAN MAY REVEAL U.S. CORRUPTION

QUESTION IS: WHO TOOK THE MONEY ON THIS SIDE OF THE BORDER?

It has been revealed by testimony in the trial of Joaquin Guzman that he had paid Mexican president Enrique Pena Nieto $100 million in October of 2012. This testimony was given by Alex Gifuentes, Guzman's secretary. He claims that president asked for $250 million but they settled for the $100 million. He also claimed that the Mexican Federal Police also accepted money.

This should come as no surprise, as it is part of the business plan of major drug enterprises to payoff politicians and authorities to allow their business to continue. The most famous Drug dealer was of course, Pablo Escobar, who dominated the Cocaine business for 2 decades in Columbia and whose enterprise's were worldwide. It has been verified that almost everyone in public office in Columbia was on the take. Low level bureaucrats were receiving up to $200,000 a year. Escobar was asked how he could maintain such a vast illegal business. His answer, "it is very easy, pay off everyone here , and payoff everyone there", meaning the United States, the biggest market for illegal drugs in the world.

Guzman was a  associate of Escobar, he was instrumental in moving drugs through Mexico into the United States. When the Colombian cartel was broken up it was replaced by groups in Mexico. Chicago was, and still is the main distribution point for drugs entering the United States. Does anyone believe that all this traffic continues without some cooperation. It will be interesting if questioners will pursue who was being paid by Guzman and who is probably still being paid by whoever is now running the Sinaloe Cartel. Or is this something that no one would really want to know.

The fact is, the illegal drug business would not be possible without the collaboration of political, and law enforcement officials. Of course, most law enforcement are honest people, but I assume the cartels know which important points to grease. It will be interesting to see if any of this will be revealed. I don't believe that I can recall that anyone in the United States was ever convicted of accepting cartel money. Are our politicians more honest than those in Mexico and Columbia?

Managing Iran and Turkey, biggest obstacles to Syrian peace plan.

SYRIAN STABILITY PLAN MOVES FORWARD

REAL JUGGLING ACT FOR LEADERS OF PEACE PLAN

Much progress has been made in the quest for the stabilization of Syria. Much of the plan is falling into place but it is still a very fragile endeavor.

Positive developments are that the UAE and Bahrain have reopened their embassies in Damascus.

Syria may soon be readmitted into the Arab League.

Saudi Arabia has pledged financing for reconstruction in Syria and other Gulf countries are expected to sign on to such plan.

Saudi Arabia, UAE and Egypt will supply forces to protect the borders of Iraq.

A stable Syria will allow displaced refugees to return home and help to stabilize the region.

There is a summit of all those involved to be held in Poland in the near future to work out more details of implementing the course to a stable and more democratic Syria.

The concern by most is that Iran will try to fill the void left by the withdrawal of forces from Syria. Dealing with Iran's support for terrorists and proxies in Libya, Lebanon and Yemen will be a difficult issue, but economic sanctions and unity of other middle east nations will help in making that possible.

Turkey's insistence on attacking the Kurds is another matter. If Turkey believes the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Syria is a sign of weakness and a opportunity to punish the Kurd it may be a huge miscalculation for Ankara. The Trump administration has warned Turkey that any attack on the Kurds will lead to crippling economic sanctions. The Kurds, with U.S. air support would not be as easy of a target as they believe.

Such an attack would also not be well received by Russia which has invested much time and energy into this plan. Putin has never acted on Turkey after it shot down one of their aircraft several years ago, but you can bet they have not forgotten the incident. Turkey may want to be careful not to give Putin an opportunity to make a statement in retaliation to aggression by Turkey.

A stable independent and secure Syria is a first step in a quest for overall Mideast peace. The cooperation of the many nations involved is a positive sign for the future. We will have to hope that it will continue.

Issues being set for 2020 campaign, Trump in control

DEMOCRATS BEING LED BY TRUMP IN SETTING AGENDA

IMMIGRATION IS NOW NUMBER 1 ISSUE

Democrats have now allowed Trump to set the course for the 2020 campaign. They took the bait and now must fight Trump until the end over border security.

It is always dangerous to have a reflex NO answer to everything. They have now foolishly given Trump the lead on this issue. They could have negotiated concessions from Trump and come out as the reasonable, bi-partisan players in Washington, instead, like being tapped on the knee by the doctor, their foot hit the ceiling in reflex action with an unequivocal NO.

Now we are in a standoff that it will be interesting to see how this will be resolved. We can expect to see sobbing about government workers and others caused by the shutdown. They better pray that there will not be a major border incident in the near future.

The media has cooperated by fact checking the President even before his speech, Their bias and hate for Trump is so deeply rooted that it is just oozing out of every broadcast. Does anyone in these media companies ever review or question their direction?

One thing for sure, Trump is overwhelming the media as he has for three years. Is it planned or is it just the consequences of his positions? It is mostly all negative commentary that I am sure they believe will drive Trump's numbers down. They may yet be successful, but so far his numbers have been steady.

They better come up with a candidate soon who can be a spokesmen for the party. If they allow Nancy and Chuck to continue in this role it is likely to be a disaster.

Anyway, so far, Trump is controlling the subject of the debate. We will have to wait and see what or who can  take the lead away from Trump.

Democrat's presidential priorities, eliminate white male candidates.

BERNIE SANDERS, FIRST TO BE ATTACKED

BIDEN AND BOOKER BETTER GET READY

Elizabeth Warren is the first Democrat to announce a run for the presidency.  In the next few weeks we can expect an avalanche of new candidates. We can also expect to see the beginning of the warfare between the factions that make up the Democratic party.

The first shots were fired by the Vagina faction against old Bernie Sanders, who they claim has not controlled sexual harassment and discrimination against women in his 2016 campaign. They have not yet claimed that poor Bernie groped, propositioned or  assaulted women in the campaign or elsewhere. At least not yet, it will all change if he becomes competitive. 

Joe Biden is so vulnerable to sexual assault allegations, that he might as well forget about a run for the white house. There are miles of video of shoulder rubbing, sexual  innuendo and other now very inappropriate behavior by Biden.

Same with Booker, there has been many allegations of  inappropriate behavior by Booker, he may be granted a reprieve being that he is a racial minority. 

It is no secret that the Democrat's believe their dream candidate should be a black or Hispanic women. If necessary white women may be able to allege that they have some minority genetics in their background.  They may need to do that to qualify as a candidate for the Democratic nomination.

It seems there is consensus by the Democrats that Hillary Clinton should move on. She is now toxic and many hope she would just go away. It is no secret that Hillary would still like to come to the rescue of a self destructing party. Don't be surprised if she and her associates help to stir the democratic pot. She can hope to be their savior, if they succumb to the possible infighting soon to erupt.

There are many overlapping factions, most of the new democrats are Marxist's at heart, many never earning a living in the private sector and believing that government is the only path to success.

Then there is the Vagina faction who of course are socialists who want the government to take care of them, but their major focus is animosity toward men and anything that men are associated with. It is unlikely they could even support a married women as she is undoubtedly a traitor to the cause. They could very likely be the most vicious campaigners in the party. They will be able to summon up many of their members to accuse and destroy anyone not acceptable to them.

Then of course there is the racial identity party. If the candidates are not brown, they will go down.

Then there is the LGBTQ faction which also has overlap with other factions. I don't see any of their faction running as yet, so they will have to be content with promises of furthering their latest cause.

It is no wonder that the democrats would like to force Donald Trump out before a general election. He is a master at identifying conflicts and insecurities in his opponents and the opposing party. You can expect that he will boldly and relentlessly attempt to expose it to the voters. 

Is it time to up the Ante?

DECLARE A STATE OF EMERGENCY AND ENFORCE THE PRESENT LAWS VIGOROUSLY

COUNTRY IS SUFFERING AN UNARMED INVASION

It is obvious that the Democratic congress will not allocate any money for border security. Much of their strategy for becoming a one party country rests on the influx of new voters who will gladly vote for more government benefits with no regard for the long term survival of the country.

Some hope to overwhelm our healthcare system so they can implement national healthcare controlled by the federal government. The strains brought onto our social system brought about by unrestrained illegal immigrants will cripple the country.

This may be the last chance to preserve the integrity of our country. We have observed the consequences of similar unrestricted immigration in Europe. They are now attempting to deal with this problem that may be just too late.

The President should declare a state of emergency due to an unarmed invasion of the country. He should call out the troops to fortify the border. 

There should be zero tolerance policy at all crossings that would examine every vehicle and every person entering the country. This could be done for some time and then relaxed and then reinstated without notice sporadically. 

There should also be an effort to round up all visa overstays, including students, immigrant workers etc. They have broken the law. The point is to enforce the existing laws vigorously. 

Since the Department of Homeland security is not now being funded, much of their duties will need to supplemented by the military.

Since E-Verify is not working due to the shut down, all hiring requiring E-Verify should be suspended. Just enforce the law.

Forget about compromising with the Democrat house. They are not out for the best interest of the country, they are out to win control of the country in 2020. 

The president should go about the business that he has the authority to accomplish. Appoint judges, deal with foreign affairs and all other functions that do not require approval from the house.

If this policy is damaging to the president or the party that is the cost of doing the right thing. It is time for all politicians to make a choice. If the Senate Republicans want unlimited immigration they can vote to override the presidents veto.We will see how such a policy will work out. The voters will ultimately decide who is on the right side of this debate.

If this policy should cost the republicans and the president in the next election, then the voters have decided that they no longer want the form of government that we now have.

Syria pullout not a compulsive decision.

SYRIA PEACE PLAN HAS BEEN NEGOTIATED FOR MONTHS

DETAILS TO REMAIN UNDISCLOSED UNTIL ACCOMPLISHED

Much is being speculated that the Trump administration has decided to pull out of Syria without any thought of the consequences. This is not true, in fact this process has been going on since the Trump/Putin meeting earlier in 2018. The number one object of discussion was a resolution of the Syrian civil war.

Many in the U.S. government, particularly those who aided in the attempted overthrow of the Syrian government, do not want any change of direction in Syria. They would like to accomplish a removal of Assad from power. This same policy has been a failure in Egypt and Libya and has contributed to the destabilization of not only the middle east but also Europe. There is a plan being worked out, but many of the leaking bureaucrats in the U.S. government have been cut out of the process.

Most of this plan is being orchestrated by Russia and Turkey, with discussions with the U.S., Israel, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Jordan. It seems those counties have less leakers than the U.S.

In the last few days,Turkey and Russia have released a press statement that they have agreed to preserve the territorial integrity of Syria. That they are going to cooperate in the elimination of ISIS and other terrorist groups in Syria. They have not as yet agreed on a plan to protect the Kurds. They have not as yet determined what kind of government is the long term objective for Syria. 

The Trump administration has chosen to let Putin and Erdogan take the lead in this matter, at least for now. It is a change of direction for U.S. policy for Syria. The possibility of a peaceful and stable Syria may be worth the risk of it not working out. 

Much is made of the fear of Russia gaining influence in the Middle East. The U.S. with many times the power and wealth of Russia has been struggling with this problem for years with only negligible results. Who really believes that Russia can now become the dominate player by playing a role in ending the Syrian civil war. There now is much more at stake for both Russia and Turkey to be successful while all the world is watching.

The goal is a safe Syria, where refugees can be returned home from Turkey, Jordan and possibly Europe. The elimination of all foreign troops from the country, including Iran. Hopefully there can be a long range plan for a more democratic Syria, but this has to be a one step at a time process. 

It is assumed that Putin has considerable power and leverage over Assad and Iran. The U.S. does have considerable leverage with NATO member Turkey. 

Trump has given them the chance to prove they have honorable intentions, we will have to wait and see. While many are opposed to this plan, no one has been able to come up with a plan that does not keep U.S. troops stationed in Syria for the next 30 or 40 years.