And racist? I have never heard of any stereotype of Hispanic men that they have sex with goats or any other animals. There is a stereotype that soldiers visit prostitutes more than the general population so I apologize to any servicemen or former servicemen who were offended by this poor joke.

Sadly, my first thought was to post and say how did they know it wasn't eloping?

Any post involving goats + men that can be mocked leads to the same sort of post.

tries to run itself without paying tribute to the big guys on the earth.

Actually, Chavez was an egomaniac who built up himself but not democracy or democratic institutions in his country.

I think it is a little of both.

When I was in college, I babysat for a Venezuelan couple's little boy. What a couple of aloof, self-centered, heartless and haughty pair that couple was. If they were typical of the upper class in Venezuela, I feel very sorry for the rest of the country.

It is very hard to build a democracy in a country with an extremely self-satisfied upper class. And Chavez was not the man to do it. He was too full of himself.

policies were wrong. It was all about him and not about building democratic structures that would outlive him.

income (oil) is squandered left and right in pursuit of Fearless Leader's own grandiose schemes to be the 'Lider' of Latin American socialist countries. Untold billions of dollars which could otherwise have been used to provide actual benefits to all Venezuelan citizens were lavishly showered upon 'brother countries', in return for their support of whatever Hugo was pushing at that given moment. So bad that the country's only source of revenue - petroleum - was totally disregarded in terms of investment and even routine maintenance to the point that Venezuela now produces much less petroleum than before. Chavez (and Maduro's) 'management' of the Venezuelan economy must truly be the gold standard when talking about sheer, gross and unrelenting incompetence. I guess that's what you're referring to with "paying tribute to the big guys on the earth".

Sounds like you're ready to be Secretary of State in a Bernie administration.

snooty folks. (I got along with them fine.) It was just obvious that Chavez was not building truly flexible, democratic institutions.

The people loved him, but he was too much the military commander and did not understand what makes democracy workable.

the Sanders hate is oozing all over.

time there won't be a goat in all of Venezuela.

A reporter in Iraq might just have the story of a lifetime when he meets Lyn Cassady, a guy who claims to be a former member of the U.S. Army's New Earth Army, a unit that employs paranormal powers in their missions.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1234548/

I'm not sure what happens when an industrialized nation with 30 million people collapses, but I'm quite sure it's not pretty.

It's true, it doesn't work.

Universal public education, universal public health care, universal public pensions, unemployment insurance, aid for the disabled - all of those help the poor and make for a better society. That's been the experience in most countries, even the U.S..

n/t

Isn't social security a "hardcore pledge"? In Canada, public health care is certainly a hard core pledge. Some very successful coutnries even have these guarantees written into their constitutions. Helping the poor helps everyone, if you let it.

It's the places where nobody helps the poor where it doesn't work great. Those are called "failed states".