Really boring at the dump tonite. Found this though... seems the dump is even turning on Venezuala now.
The link:
Venezuela's government seizes US-owned oil rigsThe OP:
Zorro (4,391 posts)
Venezuela's government seizes US-owned oil rigs
Source: AP
Venezuela has quietly seized control of two oil rigs owned by a unit of Houston-based Superior Energy Services after the company shut them down because the state oil monopoly was months behind on payments.
The seizure took place Thursday after a judge in the state of Anzoategui, accompanied by four members of the local police and national guard, entered a Superior depot and ordered it to hand over control of two specialized rigs to an affiliate of PDVSA, the state-owned oil producer.
PDVSA justified the equipment's expropriation, calling it essential to the South American nation's development and welfare, according to a court order obtained by The Associated Press. Company workers were instructed to load the rigs, known as snubbing units and used to repair damaged casing, onto trucks to be deployed at "critical wells" elsewhere, according to the document.
"It was like a thief breaking into your house, asking for the keys to the safe and then expecting you to help carry it away," Jesus Centeno, local operations manager for Superior in the city of Anaco, said by phone. "Their argument was that we were practically sabotaging national production."
Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/venezuelas-government-seizes-us-owned-oil-rigs-234447904--finance.html
So let us see what we got...
Archae (27,850 posts)
1. I'm not surprised...
(Maduro groupies incoming in 3-2-1...)
He ain't Chavez!!!
MADem (93,263 posts)
12. Ha ha ha! Wouldn't surprise me at all...
All hail the bloviating Bolivarian bozo that is Maduro! I'm amazed that moron remembers to breathe!
Let's see how long it takes before they break the frigging things--they're like the gang that couldn't shoot straight, or pump oil, or keep toilet paper on the shelves, or frozen chickens, or arepa flour...
The Chinese will buy up still more of their assets to keep the wheels turning for a while longer, I'm sure. Pretty soon, Maduro won't even own those silk skivvies he's farting through, if he keeps this up. And if he tries to stiff or rip off the Chinese, I doubt they'll react quite so calmly.
MADem... educates the dump. My mole? You decide.
Rain Mcloud (781 posts)
3. How does it feel?
I got the world's smallest violin playing for you,two world wars countless Bush wars,untold millions dead and billions of tax payer dollars frittered away on subsidies? **** all of you parasites!
A dummies true feeling come thru.
Zorro (4,391 posts)
8. So you approve of Venezuela confiscating these rigs?
Cat fight coming?
EX500rider (498 posts)
47. two world wars countless Bush wars,untold millions dead....
I got the world's smallest violin playing for you,two world wars countless Bush wars,untold millions dead and billions of tax payer dollars frittered away on subsidies?
**** all of you parasites!
How does any of that have anything to do with Ven. seizing a companies specialized equipment to repair damaged casings?
How are they responsible for anything you wrote?
Yep!!!!
7962 (861 posts)
6. Maybe NOW Venezuela can afford toilet paper for their citizens!!
Since they've managed to wreck the rest of the economy there, they gotta start somewhere
Troll!!!!
Snake Plissken (683 posts)
9. Some of the comments in that Yahoo thread are so stupid they are physically painful to read
they have to be some right wing sock puppets like foxnews was using to pollute conversations.
I can't stand the truuuuuuth!!!!!
Archae (27,850 posts)
10. Just as I thought...
"Maduro and his cronies can do NOOOO wrong, while the companies they steal from are just EEEEEE-VIL!"
Face it, Maduro IS a corrupt bastard.
But, here we have a reversal of the old Cold War foreign policy, "Sure he's a Nazi corrupt bastard, but he's OUR Nazi corrupt bastard!"
And Chavez wasn't?
dharmamarx (48 posts)
13. "Corruption" is the use of public office for private gain.
Fighting for the "nation's development and welfare" is the exact opposite of corruption. If you wanted to make a case that this action was contrary to Venezuela's "development and welfare" you could go ahead and try, but it would be a difficult case to make as the Chavista policies now have a very well documented track record of dramatically reducing inequality in Venezuela (and broader South America). See, for instance, here. By contrast, the Washington Consensus policies that Venezuela was following prior to Chavez (and that nearly the entire third world has been coerced into following since the end of the cold war) have been a complete disaster for poor people throughout the global south.
My newest mole trying for dump cred.
7962 (861 posts)
16. Yes, it reduced inequality all right; now EVERYBODY is hurting!
It actually worked out just as they had planned. That country, rich with oil, has been on a downward slide ever since Chavez took over. When you cannot keep the basic everyday items in supply, you have failed. To deny THAT is simply ignoring the truth.
But you're right, inequality WAS reduced. More people have been drug down into poverty or have fled the country for the US. More and more of the middle class and upper class have just left; taking their business resources with them.
The grand revolution is a failure.
Moling poorly...
ronnie624 (3,915 posts)
23. How unfortunate for you that the statistics don't support your conclusions. n/t
LALALALALALALALA!!!!! Can't hear you!!!!
7962 (861 posts)
35. Ha! Let.s see...40% inflation, little to no growth, capital fleeing the country
basic necessities scarce or non existent, about half the number of private businesses in just a few years, murder rate nearly doubled since Chavez took office, etc etc. Meanwhile the ruling class live like our Wall Streeters.
You may point out that the poverty rate has dropped, but it has similarly dropped all over Latin America.
Let's see how the NEXT 10 yrs go for the citizens.
Cat fight part two?
stevenleser (16,128 posts)
43. Even harder to understand considering the amount of petroleum resources they have.
You would expect a country that rich in oil that has a government that is supposedly determined to be egalitarian would have wiped out poverty and crime and would have a vibrant economy that is the envy of Latin America.
Here we go!!!! The truth from the lesser Steve.
7962 (861 posts)
45. I agree. If they just did something like what happens in Alaska
Every citizen gets a check every year of some sort
Free money!!!!
Ranchemp. (561 posts)
21. If you consider being poor and destitute as equality,
as most of the citizens are, then you're right, of course the elite, (Maduro and cronies) don't suffer from "equality", they've got theirs.
Funny how they just cannot seem to equate what is happening down there to what is happening here.
dharmamarx (48 posts)
11. Good
Now I hope they seize some more things for the Venezuelan people. Those rigs were owned by capitalists, not American workers; there is thus no reason why any American progressive should be upset by this. Instead, we should be trying to understand how the Venezuelan people created a government that actually fights for the people's interest so that we can build a functioning Left in this country. There are a lot of things that we too should be taking away from the capitalists.
Building Dump cred.
ReRe (4,400 posts)
14. Hear! Hear!
And welcome to DU!
Thank you.
COLGATE4 (4,969 posts)
15. What you fail to grasp in your cheerleading for
expropriation is that Venezuela's economy is totally dependent on its petroleum sector. And its petroleum sector has been, is now and will for the forseeable future be dependent on foreign capital investment in order to keep the oil flowing and the dollars coming in. What effect on foreign investment do you imagine will occur when a government not only fails to pay its bills but then adds insult to injury by instead expropriating the assets of the company to which it owes money?
I thought taking other people money was OK?
7962 (861 posts)
17. You make too much sense! Very well said. Some here will not appreciate that!
Even a citizen would have second thoughts about trying to build a business or any kind. I the back of their mind they know the govt could just take it away from them if it desired.
Another dummie too blind too see the same thing happening here.
socialist_n_TN (9,187 posts)
25. Well in this case, Maduro had the cajones that Chavez didn't have......
My problem with Chavez was always that he didn't go far enough to nationalize and expropriate the "commanding heights of the economy" to throw a little Marx in there. He left the capitalists in place and of course, being capitalists, they attempted to undermine him every way they could, overtly and covertly, economically and militarily, with the enthusiastic support of the USA.
This should have been done a decade or more ago. **** a bunch of oil companies. I wonder how many taxes this particular privately owned oil company paid to ANYBODY, either Venezuela or the USA. Probably about as much as Exxon paid, that is ZERO.
Ooops. Someone disses Chavez, albeit indirectly. Will he get put in his place?
COLGATE4 (4,969 posts)
28. Chavez started nationalizing foreign businesses
within 2 years of taking office. One of the first was the nationalization of the Electric Generation and Distribution for Margarita Island, one of the first privatizations in that sector carried out the year before Chavez was elected. Maduro is just trying to copy Chavez.
Yep.
stevenleser (16,128 posts)
42. Or Russia. If they had done this to Russia...
Voyska spetsialnogo naznacheniya also known as Spetsnaz troops would have already retaken the two rigs by force.
I wonder what the reactions of some here would have been to all of that.
But, but, but the eeevil USA took over... oh wait.
ronnie624 (3,915 posts)
19. Biased commentary with no details.
I get the impression someone is trying to lead me to certain conclusions about Venezuela, without providing any real information.
Comrade Grumpy (5,451 posts)
27. Did I just tune in to the Fox Business Network?
Most of this thread sounds like a Fox roundtable.
Zorra (21,059 posts)
30. I look forward to the day when we nationalize our resources in the US. nt
The collective speaks.
That is it for now. The dump has officially turned on Venezuala.
