Via: POLITICO
‘He is not going to be the nominee’:
Dems slam Sanders over Maduro stance
And no, this is not going to be a "they better nominate Bernie or else" post. I am a Sanders fan, but I am not a "Bernie or bust" guy at all. Especially this time around with him pushing 80. I may go for Elizabeth Warren this year, or maybe someone whose hat has yet to be thrown into the ring. I don't know. I still think he has the best platform, but. . .anyway, let's not get sidetracked. Back to the problem with today's Dem Party:
‘He is not going to be the nominee’: Dems slam Sanders over Maduro stance
The just-announced 2020 contender declines to say whether the socialist Venezuelan dictator should go.
Updated
Florida Democrats are denouncing Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders for refusing to call Venezuelan strongman Nicolas Maduro a dictator
So. . . Florida Democrats are angry that Sanders won't repeat the lie coming from the right? Nicolas Maduro is NOT a dictator. I don't know whether he's a good presidente' or a bad presidente'. Maybe he's the worst presidente' south of D.C. I don't know and itdoesn't matter, because Nicolas Maduro was duly elected by the citizens of Venezuela. in 2013.A lot of people like to claim that there was something shady about that election, but as the Guardian newspaper reported at the time:
No proof of the supposed irregularities has been offered. Outside observers have previously declared Venezuela's voting system, which incorporates both an electronic ballot and a hard copy, to be among the best in the world.
Taking the oppositon's claims of fraud seriously is tantamount to believing Trump's claims of 6 million illegal votes cast in 2016.
Maduro was re-elected just last year in an election boycotted by the opposition party who then claimed, again, electoral fraud. It's b.s. They boycotted because they knew they were going to lose.
And the Democrats like Donna Shalala
are angry at Bernie Sanders - and openly promising that he will not be the nominee which seems pretty shady in and of itself - because why, exactly?
Both of Sanders’ positions play into the hands of President Trump and the GOP, say Democrats. The president just held a rally in Miami on Monday to denounce Maduro and socialism, an appeal to the state’s growing block of Venezuelan-American voters.
Oh, of course! Because they're afraid they might offend the voters who attend Trump ralliies! Oh, you definitely wouldn't want to alienate the MAGAts! This time around, they're sure to vote for whomever the Democratic nominee is going to be, as long as we make nice with them and play to their biases and prejudices and general ignorance of the world around them!
Sanders also would not say whether he considered Venezuela’s assembly leader, Juan Guaidó, as the nation’s interim president, which is the position of the United States
Okay, see now here I do have a problem with Sanders, because he should have stated unequivocally that Juan Guaid' is NOT the interim president of Venezuela. He just declared himself to be the new president because he doesn't like the job Maduro is doing. This would be like Nancy Pelosi holding a press conference and saying "look, we all know Trump is lousy at this job, so I'm President now."
And, while we all might go "damn, I WISH Nancy Pelosi was the new president," we would all have to say "no, Ma'am, you're not. We have laws in this country, and people don't just get to declare themselves President."
Now imagine that Pelosi did this and a bunch of other countries started saying "Yup, Pelosi's President now!" and demanding that Trump remove himself from the White House. I mean, we all want Trump to leave the White House, but not like that.
And Pelosi would actually have a better case than Guaido', because a: Trump actually is unpopular, and b: you want to talk about election "irregularities?" Hoo boy!
Nicolas Maduro is not as unpopular a presidente' as they have tried to lead us to believe.
How many western news outlets showed the massive marches in Venezuela protesting the US-backed coup today? #HandsOffVenezuela pic.twitter.com/YBQpqbdEfl— Abby Martin (@AbbyMartin) February 2, 2019
I don't know how popular he actually is. I don't know where you would find any reliable polling. From what I understand, he is extremely unpopular amongst the upper class white Venezuelans and very popular amongst Los Indios y Los Negros. Much like Hugo Chavez. And remember when the military coup briefly overthrew Chavez and the US immediately recognized the "new government" nad acted like a dictator had been overthrown? And then the people from the countryside poured into Caracas and DEMANDED that Chavez be re-nstated? Any time the US government refers to a foreign leader as a "dictator" or "strongman," take that with many grains of salt. It generally means he's too far left for their tastes and is sitting on oil.
Sanders did not embrace Maduro in his Tuesday interview with Univision’s Jorge Ramos, who quickly touched on Guaidó being declared the interim president of Venezuela by the nation’s National Assembly following Maduro’s questionable election.
But when he was asked whether he recognized Guaidó as the legitimate leader of the country, Sanders answered, “No.”
Oh. So he did say no. Why were they just saying that he " would not say" whether her recognized Guaido'?
Forget it,Jake. It's Politico!
Aaaaaanyway. . .
Is Maduro a good or bad president? It's none of our business.
Is Venezuela's economy a mess?
Yeah, kind of. Mainly because the price of oil dropped and then the US put economic sanctions on Venezuela, holding millions of $ owed to Citgo and the Venezuelan oil company in frozen accounts. But no matter how their economy is doing, We. Have. No. Right. To . Interfere. In. The. Affairs. Of. State. Of. Another. Country. I guess Sanders is the only candidate who realizes this, so of course the DNC/DLC types are angry at him! Because the mainstream Democrats' foreign policy philosophy is generally indistinguishable from the right-wing hawks, except they cloak US Empire-building in "humanitarian" terms.
If you've got 20 minutes, here's a pretty good report on the reality of the situation in Venezuela. If you don't have time, a couple of key points:
1: Opposition media is alive and well in Venezuela, there are plenty of anti-Maduro newspapers sold openly at newsstands in Caracas.
2: People are not starving, not eating their pets, not eating rats. The supermarket shelves are full of food. There are shortages of certain specific items, like flour, but there is plenty of food available.
