This column is extremely timely as we decide who will be our next president.
One party is determined to gut the 1st and 2nd amendments while eviscerating the Supreme Court. (Though to be fair, both parties were complicit in the emasculating of the 4th, 5th, and 6th Amendments.)
Chavez came to rely on decrees, our presidents are starting to appreciate Executive Orders to circumvent Congress - see student loan forgiveness.
Franco's comment about the military resonates. Our military used to be supremely competent; look at the woke ideology permeating its top ranks, the failure of Afghanistan, and the Gaza pier. We had better vote for a candidate who will restore professionalism to our military.
American business used to be the envy of the world (look at how Deming's practices were adopted around the world). Now the government gives Intel almost $20MM while it lays off 15,000 workers. Let's not talk about the failed billions of "investments" in green energy.
But what really struck home was Franco's commentary on the absence of professionalism in the government bureaucracies. Look at the empty federal offices in Washington (though it has done wonders for traffic). Look at how our Department of Transportation is focused on ensuring that families sit together when they fly, but ignores train disasters.
Bottom line, we have allowed incompetence and political agendas to degrade our country. Just look at our borders.
Venezuelans come to the US for a better life. The days of draining Venezuela of talent are over. Now we get manual laborers and crooks (my Venezuelan friends tell me that the cities feel safer with so many criminals gone).
One note about the Cuban medical services in Venezuela. They are the poorest quality of medicine available. Venezuelans say that they only go to a Cuban medical facility if nothing else (not even their veterinarian) is available. It was great propaganda to send the doctors; having those doctors on the ground undermines Cuban influence.
Venezuelans de facto use the dollar as their currency - many prices (such as rents) are quoted in dollars.
What will we use as both parties degrade our currency through inflation?
Now this is why I subscribe to Claire's Substack. The column by Franco provides a clearer and deeper look at how Venezuela became a failed to state. I would have never read this unless Claire cross-posted it to her site. The road to hell is paved with good intentions, and the recent history of that country proved that saying to be true. It also shows the importance of voting for principled people with integrity. Unfortunately that's not who chooses to run for public office.
He wrote it for us in 2021, and I completely agree that it's the best short essay about Venezuela you'll find anywhere. I really hope I can persuade him to write for us again.
This is a very illuminating analysis of the devolution of Venezuela, albeit with a cautionary note. Obviously what has happened in the People's Republic of Hugo is not at all applicable to the United States—except in the most general and hence the most useless of terms. America is too large and too diverse to stomp the odious Hugo into the ground.
I engaged in a fairly long Twitter debate today over the legacy of Altiero Spinelli whom the European Parliament building in Brussels is named after and who once served as a member of the European Parliament among many notable achievements. Spinelli while not well known outside of Europe is perhaps most famous for the Ventotene Manifesto written in 1941 while Spinelli was imprisoned on the island of Ventotene by Mussolini's fascist government. The Ventotene Manifesto while not as real known as the UN Charter or the Atlantic Charter probably has to be considered one of the key foundational documents of the post 1945 order. The other thing you should know about Spinelli was that he was a self described Italian Communist(not "just" a socialist) yet one that did break with Stalin and Stalinism in 1937.
Now most of the history I have read of Spinelli is quite strong in showing that Spinelli after 1945 or really even 1937 while perhaps even calling himself a "Communist" was not as a political matter a Communist as the term was understood East of the Iron Curtain nor in Castro's Cuba(Spinelli's version of Communism was something that did have a certain following in France and Italy). Yet if we are talking about words like Socialism and Communism and whether or not they should be even used it all I do think one must broach Spinelli's legacy.
A couple of more things to note is that Spinelli was not at all seen as a "real" Communist or even a "real" Socialist in the UK by the likes of Tony Benn, Michael Foot, and Arthur Scargill. I don't know if he even had much to say about them in reverse but as a matter of political philosophy my impression is Spinelli despised what Arthur Scargill stood for. The real issue is Spinelli of course was a European Federalist while Tony Benn and Michael Foot were certainly not.
Anyways here is a link below to the Ventotene Manifesto if you are not familiar with it.
El Caracazo was the first (?) indicator that there were profound problems in Venezuelan society. The litany of disasters that followed hinges on those problems being left to fester for so long, perhaps even with unconcern so long as they didn’t inconvenience PLU. I guess it is a cautionary tale when it comes to that.
Wrt growing support for socialism - for a lot of people that is about social programs, no matter how inaccurately they’re using the word. Making an argument against State control of the economy in response is semantically sound (and normally I applaud this) but it doesn’t address the issue of social programs, why have them, which ones, for whom, etc.
It will probably take multiple comments on my part to highlight what I think are some of key points of the Venezuela story. One is that Venezuela always had strong elements of socialism. For example all the way back to the 1960s gasoline was sold and subsidized to local Venezuela consumers at prices far below markets. Not only that this below market pricing of gasoline was viewed as almost a universal birthright by Venezuelan consumers not just then but even right up to the present day. To further expound upon the point in the 1970s it was common in "consuming" nations like the UK and US to control(but not subsidize) the price of gasoline too. In fact I would say only a few countries like Germany and Switzerland remained truly market based in the 1970s.
My second point I will make after thinking about this for a little bit is the real moment in which socialism however defined started to become a "thing" in the US was in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis in the US. The reason particularly I bring up this event is that quite a few liberal democracies like Canada like Australia came through the 2008 crisis quite well based on there existing govt policies without resorting to far-left or far-right populism. Now I could write a whole book on why the US "failed" in 2008 relative to Canada in 2008 but if you want to know why "socialism" has suddenly become vogue in the US I think you have to go back to this moment in time.
This column is extremely timely as we decide who will be our next president.
One party is determined to gut the 1st and 2nd amendments while eviscerating the Supreme Court. (Though to be fair, both parties were complicit in the emasculating of the 4th, 5th, and 6th Amendments.)
Chavez came to rely on decrees, our presidents are starting to appreciate Executive Orders to circumvent Congress - see student loan forgiveness.
Franco's comment about the military resonates. Our military used to be supremely competent; look at the woke ideology permeating its top ranks, the failure of Afghanistan, and the Gaza pier. We had better vote for a candidate who will restore professionalism to our military.
American business used to be the envy of the world (look at how Deming's practices were adopted around the world). Now the government gives Intel almost $20MM while it lays off 15,000 workers. Let's not talk about the failed billions of "investments" in green energy.
But what really struck home was Franco's commentary on the absence of professionalism in the government bureaucracies. Look at the empty federal offices in Washington (though it has done wonders for traffic). Look at how our Department of Transportation is focused on ensuring that families sit together when they fly, but ignores train disasters.
Bottom line, we have allowed incompetence and political agendas to degrade our country. Just look at our borders.
Venezuelans come to the US for a better life. The days of draining Venezuela of talent are over. Now we get manual laborers and crooks (my Venezuelan friends tell me that the cities feel safer with so many criminals gone).
One note about the Cuban medical services in Venezuela. They are the poorest quality of medicine available. Venezuelans say that they only go to a Cuban medical facility if nothing else (not even their veterinarian) is available. It was great propaganda to send the doctors; having those doctors on the ground undermines Cuban influence.
Venezuelans de facto use the dollar as their currency - many prices (such as rents) are quoted in dollars.
What will we use as both parties degrade our currency through inflation?
Very well said. Thank you.
Sorry, Intel got $20 Billion.
Inflation gets us all.
I can't see this article in Subsrack for some reason
But you're here, so how are you seeing it?
I am able to open it from the email I receive from Cosmopolitan Globalist, but when I try to access it via my Substack app, it does not appear.
I'm absolutely stumped. Is anyone else experiencing this? Does anyone have any idea why Julie might be or what to do about it?
Now this is why I subscribe to Claire's Substack. The column by Franco provides a clearer and deeper look at how Venezuela became a failed to state. I would have never read this unless Claire cross-posted it to her site. The road to hell is paved with good intentions, and the recent history of that country proved that saying to be true. It also shows the importance of voting for principled people with integrity. Unfortunately that's not who chooses to run for public office.
He wrote it for us in 2021, and I completely agree that it's the best short essay about Venezuela you'll find anywhere. I really hope I can persuade him to write for us again.
This is a very illuminating analysis of the devolution of Venezuela, albeit with a cautionary note. Obviously what has happened in the People's Republic of Hugo is not at all applicable to the United States—except in the most general and hence the most useless of terms. America is too large and too diverse to stomp the odious Hugo into the ground.
I engaged in a fairly long Twitter debate today over the legacy of Altiero Spinelli whom the European Parliament building in Brussels is named after and who once served as a member of the European Parliament among many notable achievements. Spinelli while not well known outside of Europe is perhaps most famous for the Ventotene Manifesto written in 1941 while Spinelli was imprisoned on the island of Ventotene by Mussolini's fascist government. The Ventotene Manifesto while not as real known as the UN Charter or the Atlantic Charter probably has to be considered one of the key foundational documents of the post 1945 order. The other thing you should know about Spinelli was that he was a self described Italian Communist(not "just" a socialist) yet one that did break with Stalin and Stalinism in 1937.
Now most of the history I have read of Spinelli is quite strong in showing that Spinelli after 1945 or really even 1937 while perhaps even calling himself a "Communist" was not as a political matter a Communist as the term was understood East of the Iron Curtain nor in Castro's Cuba(Spinelli's version of Communism was something that did have a certain following in France and Italy). Yet if we are talking about words like Socialism and Communism and whether or not they should be even used it all I do think one must broach Spinelli's legacy.
A couple of more things to note is that Spinelli was not at all seen as a "real" Communist or even a "real" Socialist in the UK by the likes of Tony Benn, Michael Foot, and Arthur Scargill. I don't know if he even had much to say about them in reverse but as a matter of political philosophy my impression is Spinelli despised what Arthur Scargill stood for. The real issue is Spinelli of course was a European Federalist while Tony Benn and Michael Foot were certainly not.
Anyways here is a link below to the Ventotene Manifesto if you are not familiar with it.
https://www.cvce.eu/content/publication/1997/10/13/316aa96c-e7ff-4b9e-b43a-958e96afbecc/publishable_en.pdf
El Caracazo was the first (?) indicator that there were profound problems in Venezuelan society. The litany of disasters that followed hinges on those problems being left to fester for so long, perhaps even with unconcern so long as they didn’t inconvenience PLU. I guess it is a cautionary tale when it comes to that.
Wrt growing support for socialism - for a lot of people that is about social programs, no matter how inaccurately they’re using the word. Making an argument against State control of the economy in response is semantically sound (and normally I applaud this) but it doesn’t address the issue of social programs, why have them, which ones, for whom, etc.
It will probably take multiple comments on my part to highlight what I think are some of key points of the Venezuela story. One is that Venezuela always had strong elements of socialism. For example all the way back to the 1960s gasoline was sold and subsidized to local Venezuela consumers at prices far below markets. Not only that this below market pricing of gasoline was viewed as almost a universal birthright by Venezuelan consumers not just then but even right up to the present day. To further expound upon the point in the 1970s it was common in "consuming" nations like the UK and US to control(but not subsidize) the price of gasoline too. In fact I would say only a few countries like Germany and Switzerland remained truly market based in the 1970s.
My second point I will make after thinking about this for a little bit is the real moment in which socialism however defined started to become a "thing" in the US was in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis in the US. The reason particularly I bring up this event is that quite a few liberal democracies like Canada like Australia came through the 2008 crisis quite well based on there existing govt policies without resorting to far-left or far-right populism. Now I could write a whole book on why the US "failed" in 2008 relative to Canada in 2008 but if you want to know why "socialism" has suddenly become vogue in the US I think you have to go back to this moment in time.