Air Canada suspends flights to Venezuela

[7962]

Source: CNN

(CNN) -- Canada's largest airline announced Monday it has suspended flights to and from Venezuela capital Caracas as violent protests continue in the country.

"Due to ongoing civil unrest in Venezuela, Air Canada can no longer ensure the safety of its operation and has suspended flights to Caracas until further notice," said the airline in a statement.

Read more: http://www.cnn.com/2014/03/18/travel/air-canada-venezuela-flights/

---

Another plot by outsiders I guess.

[Comrade Grumpy]

1. Are they rioting on the runways or what?

Did Air Canada stop its flights to Bangkok, Kiev, Cairo or wherever else there is civil disorder?

No? Then why Venezuela?

[cstanleytech]

4. Well it could be they used it as an excuse if they are also one of the airlines the country owes

money to and isn't paying.
After all its hard to run a passenger airline service as a company if your customers wont atleast pay for the cost of fuel and the need to pay the airlines employees.

[geek tragedy]

6. VN government is confiscating the airlines' revenue from ticket sales in VN.

n a sign of Venezuela’s deepening economic problems, the International Air Transport Assn. this week accused the Maduro government of failing to “repatriate” $3.7 billion in air ticket revenue owed to foreign carriers. IATA director Tony Tyler said he had written to Maduro to complain.

“It is a major sum of money. And it is unacceptable that the Venezuelan government is not playing by the rules to which it is treaty-bound,” Tyler said in a statement Wednesday.

The Venezuelan government acts as intermediary in all foreign financial transactions and is holding up payments to a broad spectrum of foreign vendors, which economists say illustrates its dire cash shortage.

Half a dozen airlines have suspended ticket sales in Venezuela, and Colombia’s Avianca on Wednesday announced it was scaling back scheduled flights. Its highly popular Bogota-Caracas route will drop from the current 21 flights a week to seven as of Sunday, the carrier said.

Avianca Chief Executive Fabio Villegas said in a statement March 3 that at that point, Venezuela owed the airline $300 million.

In a statement Thursday, German airline Lufthansa said its financial results were being affected by the “dozens of millions of euros” owed it by the Venezuelan government.

http://www.latimes.com/world/worldnow/la-fg-wn-venezuela-maduro-airlines-protests-20140313,0,2650064.story#axzz2wN4yfzUY

Another stunning victory for Maduronomics.

[Comrade Grumpy]

8. Air Canada doesn't mention that as a reason, just "civil disorder."

[geek tragedy]

9. well, they're full of shit, but they're saving the VN government some embarrassment

by not stating that the real reason is that VN government is stealing from them and making it financially impossible for them to continue operations.

Viva Maduronomics.

I guess he can threaten to throw their CEO in prison. Or maybe he can order the planes to fly themselves.

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

21. I have a better idea, Bolivarian Airlines!

It probably won't be too long before Aeropostal won't even fly to Venezuela, or their planes all get impounded.

[geek tragedy]

29. Maduro will just order the planes to fly without any fuel, and if they don't

he'll throw them in jail.

[happyslug]

49. They are people who would buy that plane...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basler_BT-67

Remember the old quip about the best plane to replace a DC-3, another DC-3.

The DC-3 has been awarded the ability to fly for ever by the Federal Aviation Agency (it does not have a pressurized cabin, so much less stress on the plane then later planes that adopted pressurized cabins so they could fly higher with more comfort for passengers). Thus the DC-3 may be flying, long after the planes and jets that replaced it have all been scrapped, including many entering service today. Basic maintenance, replacement of worn out engines etc is all that is needed to keep these planes flying.

[Travelman]

43. I don't know for certain about Air Canada

but most airlines did indeed suspend service to Egypt when things were going bad there. This is hardly unusual. MOST airlines have had an un-stated, but de facto suspension of service to Venezuela for months already. American, Delta, United, and British Airways have been not selling seats to Caracas for months. I know, because I've been trying to book seats on all of these airlines since at least last August for travel this May.

Whether anyone likes it or not, it's been well-known and certainly commonly-perceived by the rest of the world for quite a few months now that there is and has been some severe instability in Venezuela. Now they're shooting at one another down there. Not a good place to take passengers when you can be held legally liable for their deaths, at the minimum, if not lose your own airplane.

[MADem]

48. Maduro owes the airlines billions. He's not paying, so they aren't flying.

It's not just Air Canada, either, as you note:

...In a sign of Venezuela’s deepening economic problems, the International Air Transport Assn. this week accused the Maduro government of failing to “repatriate” $3.7 billion in air ticket revenue owed to foreign carriers. IATA director Tony Tyler said he had written to Maduro to complain.

“It is a major sum of money. And it is unacceptable that the Venezuelan government is not playing by the rules to which it is treaty-bound,” Tyler said in a statement Wednesday.

The Venezuelan government acts as intermediary in all foreign financial transactions and is holding up payments to a broad spectrum of foreign vendors, which economists say illustrates its dire cash shortage....

[sabbat hunter]

76. Does air canada fly to

Bangkok, kiev or Cario? Answer? No they do not. They have code sharing with other airlines that will fly you there, but Air Canada does not fly in to those cities. It does however fly directly to Venezuela.


I do not know if other airlines suspended travel to those cities, but I would not be surprised if they did.


as for why Caracas, probably because it cannot guarantee the safety of its crew members to stay somewhere safely between flights.

[blkmusclmachine]

2. Harper has an agenda.

[delrem]

5. Harper is the quintessential Canadian "tea-hadist".

He's straight out of extreme right-wing Western Canadian (Alberta) "Reform Party" lineage, and there isn't any perversion that he wouldn't commit for money.

Those who have a gooey-eyed leftist vision of Canada the land of Universal Health Care and the Peace Corp's, etc., haven't accounted for the fact that Stephen Harper won an election and is now Canada's PM.

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

10. Harper is to the left of most elected Democrats

[delrem]

12. Harper is very smart.

He may be to the left of most elected Democrats, but that's only because Canada as a whole is to the left of the US. That background gives the picture a certain patina.

The big problem with most patinas is that they can be very shallow, yet equally convincing.

Acting as a perfect corrosive, Harper stands against everything that gives Canada that leftward pull. Harper is Mr. OilSands, a slave of the masters Koch. Since Harper is the Canadian PM, this is significant. It's a low point in Canadian politics and it's also to be expected, since Canada elected in a "Reform Party" (aka "Tea Party&quot leader.

Understand?

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

22. Harper won the world's tallest leprechaun contest

He rose to the top of a completely dysfunctional Conservative party and triumphed over a slightly more dysfunctional Liberal party with the enthusiastic collaboration of a Naderite fifth column in the NDP.

His politics are regional alienation politics, he has no particularly strong philosophy.

[delrem]

28. He's from Alberta Reform Party stock - he has a very right-wing philosophy.

He won a majority mandate to lead the Canadian federal gov't.

Now I'll let you have the last word to say how it somehow doesn't matter, much, because the US is more right-wing.

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

36. He won a majority because of the hipster dipshits who voted NDP

And this is an American website made up mostly of Americans, so for our purposes Harper is not particularly conservative. He is just a power hungry mook.

[delrem]

37. Ah, it's the NDP's fault. And this is an American website therefore...(insert non sequitur here)

jhc on a pogostick...

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

38. It's an American website, therefore our frame of reference will be US-centric

"tea-hadist" means something to us, and I doubt you could find very many Canadians who aren't neo-nazis who subscribe to similar beliefs. The closest Canada has ever had to a "far right" was the Liberals in the 1950's (under the spell of American party boss C.D. Howe) and Duplessis is Quebec. Reform and the Canadian Alliance were cut from the same cloth as Social Credit before it. An eccentric regional protest party that enjoyed some electoral success. The re-amalgamated Conservative Party is as ruthless at staying on-message with their intensely centrist platform as I have ever seen.

And the NDP can go to hell. I have been in Canada for almost a decade and I haven't met a single one of them who wasn't a walking hipster stereotype who as Americans would be the insufferable third-party apologists.

[delrem]

39. What does "tea-hadist" mean to you, Sen. Walter Sobchak?

(why do I bother asking ....)

Have you ever heard of Tommy Douglas? Even if you have, I doubt it'd make an impression. Do you know what a minority gov't is? Even if you do, I doubt it'd make an impression. Why do I say that? Because you're just slanging. No substance. Not even able to understand that "third-party (bleeps)" doesn't have the sense, in Canada with our parliamentary system, that you'd like to impute.

Do you even know where the tar-sands are located? The oil-patch? nah - didn't think so.

g'day.

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

41. In the Parliamentary system...

The official opposition is supposed to be both an effective opposition and potentially capable of forming a government if called upon, the NDP is neither an effective opposition, they're if anything invisible, they will never form a majority government and couldn't effectively lead a minority one with the Liberals or anyone else.

And I know exactly where the tar sands are, I have been there and think they're just fucking swell.

I live near Calgary and previously worked in Ottawa.

[delrem]

42. I figured as much.

[NickB79]

69. "I know exactly where the tar sands are"

"I have been there and think they're just fucking swell. "

[Ken Burch]

83. Bullshit.

Harper is pushing through voter suppression legislation(the misnamed "Fair Elections Act&quot

He's a hardliner for Keystone.

He's a massive hawk on Afghanistan(he'd have sent Canadian troops to Iraq if he'd been in power at the time).

He's gutted social spending and made it all but impossible to enforce Canadian environmental regulations.

He has worked to make it easier to open land held by First Nations(Canadian indigenous)peoples for(white corporate) environmental exploitation.

He's even MORE unquestioningly Likudnik on Israel/Palestine issues than Dubya was.

He's rabidly anti-labor.

Harper is no John Diefenbaker or Joe Clark...Conservative prime ministers of Canada who WERE to the left of most Democrats(Diefenbaker was forced to resign because he wouldn't accept U.S. missiles on Canadian soil in 1963, at the height of the Cold War-the so-called "Liberals" caved in to the U.S. and took missiles when they came to power).

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

11. Air Canada was privatized a quarter century ago

[delrem]

13. Right. There's a "capital strike" against Vz at the moment. Air Canada would be part of that.

[geek tragedy]

15. There is no capital strike, just rational behavior. If VN is going to steal the money

paid to the airlines for tickets, of course they're not going to operate there. How many airlines do you know of that don't charge for tickets?

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

20. Why is a company any more obligated to do business with Venezuela than they are Zimbabwe?

I mean they can't repatriate their funds, presumably demand is way down...

[delrem]

3. Why do you think that? nt

[7962]

7. I dont. See post #6

The bad joke that is Maduro continues. Unfortunately the people of VZ will suffer for it.

[delrem]

14. Unfortunately, above, you get onto some private rant about Maduro ...

OK, you have big heartfelt feelings contra Maduro but that doesn't explain anything except ... that you have heavy duty emotions.

[7962]

16. I said see post #6. That explains more about whats going on. Airlines arent getting paid. Simple.

[geek tragedy]

18. they are getting paid, but the VN government is stealing the money out of the till. nt

[freshwest]

65. HUH? If they are getting paid, they aren't being robbed. Disclaimer, not a financial whiz... n/t

[hack89]

67. They can't get the money out of VZ

They have a pile of useless Bolivars they cannot convert to dollars.

[delrem]

19. I see: it's that fucking Maduro, who ought to be ousted already.

The SOB doesn't play the proper capitalist games.

So a capitalist strike against the SOB: why not?
Certainly 7962 could go for that.

[Adrahil]

24. Lol.... The Maduro government doesn't pay it's bills...

....and it's all the fault of those nasty capitalists. Amiright?

You know, simply being a leftist doesn't mean you'll be any good at running an economy. Just say in'....

[7962]

26. Of course not, screw the people, onward with the "revolution"! To hell with the law!

Let VZ take over all the flying of passengers in and out of the country. That will fix everything, right? Then there will be no capitalism involved and no one makes any obscene profit. I hope they try that. Lets nationalize everything in VZ and get it over with. After all, they have more oil than anyone else, so they should be swimming in cash for everyone! It just takes time. Its only been 15 years......

[Yo_Mama]

31. No system functions if bills aren't paid

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2014/02/13/venezuela-toyota-car-industry/5433735/

This is not a capital strike, but a "no money" enforced shutdown. See the link.

It's not socialism or capitalism that is the problem here - it's the unwillingness to deal with reality, and then when reality sticks up its ugly head, the consistent fabrication of excuses to pretend that reality doesn't exist.

Socialism as an economic system can work fine, but not if those running the system are profoundly unrealistic as the Maduro regime has been and continues to be.

Toyota, for example, has willing buyers in Venezuela, but it can't run its factories any more. This constitutes an economic injury to Toyota, which by the way has been trying to protect its workers and continue operations:
http://venezuelanalysis.com/news/10371

So now a recession impends, along with increasing shortages. It's hard to see how this can end well or easily.

[delrem]

32. Neocons/neolibs don't have a monopoly on economic brilliance.

Did the big banks "pay their bills" after the '08 disaster, or were they bailed? All gain, zero pain. Nice that the big banks, at any rate, were taken care of. What is the current US debt? and does anyone reasonably expect the US will ever pay it off? Or is "the debt" just a buzzword to bludgeon the (you guessed it) less advantaged, as usual? So far the juggler is managing to keep all the objects in the air or is able to discreetly sweep collateral damage out of sight, but .... in the meantime slogans like "No system functions if bills aren't paid" can be targeted at the less worthy.

Perhaps this capital/opposition strike against Maduro will be more successful than the one in 2003, when capital/opposition also led a nationwide strike against Chavez (as mentioned in your link). You do realize that it's simply false to assert that capital, their economic organizations, don't mount capital strikes against leftist gov'ts (and organize/astroturf demonstrations)? You do realize that capital is a capitalist's weapon, in politics - and that it is a bludgeon? Capitalist complaints against Venezuela have been going on for awhile (and wow, were they loud back in the early 2000's, and yet Maduro recently won, the party he represents recently won *again* and is at year one of a six year mandate. That rankles a lot of DUers who take a proprietary interest over Venezuela's natural wealth. And at least claim to care about the disadvantaged. Nevertheless, if they or anyone wants to undo the Bolivarian revolution, so they can in that way help out the poor and disadvantaged, it's best they do that through community level political action just like other less wealthy folk who favor democracy.

[Yo_Mama]

33. We agree on some things

Capitalist countries have cooked up the same wicked brew for themselves many times. It's not encouraging that with the long track record of failure that this keeps happening, but it does.

I totally, absolutely agree that only Venezuela can solve its own problems. Eventually, it will, because this is turning into a very severe problem with rapidly accelerating damage. I doubt that the world can do anything to help - elections are the best cure for this sort of problem. Therefore I am watching warily the increasing influence the military is getting in the government. This could shift to fascism if there isn't a course correction soon.

I do not agree that Venezuela's current problem is a capital strike. It's a monetary system mismanagement problem.

A lot of the goods shortages have arisen not from "capitalist" actions, but from the actions of ordinary people who are buying subsidized goods off the shelves in Venezuela and selling them over the border in Columbia for cold, hard cash. The oddity of the current Venezuelan government is that it is their own most ardent supporters who are doing a lot of this, and the government is responding by trying to ration their purchases in practice, while using rhetoric to blame the problem on those "other" capitalists.

Hopefully the new dollar market measures will ease things. If not, this tips rather severely rather quickly, because the common people have exited the currency. That's what was doomed to happen. And when it happens, it is very hard to reverse, because more and more people have to do the same thing, so it is a self-reinforcing trend.

[delrem]

35. Repeating it... that Maduro just won an election.

Are you worried that the US might turn to fascism, since the Pres. is the CiC of the US armed forces? That's a fairly tight bond/influence... well, it's an identity.
The Venezuelan opposition, who *are* in fact for a large part (like, their *leaders*) fascists, enacted an aborted coup in 2003. *That's* how fascist they are: demonstratively so. Is that worrisome? At least worrisome enough to take into account that this group of coup plotting fascists are still getting up to their antics? At least worrisome enough to take into account the strategy of the aborted coup, and the strategy that successfully countered it.

The opposition, including those who chime in for that opposition on DU, have for years portrayed Chavez as a "dictator", in spite of the elections Chavez won. The fact of those elections was *inconvenient*, so their language flat out denied it. It's interesting how the further to the extreme the right goes, the greater the distortion of language that they're allowed to get away with. By "get away with" I mean without negative consequences or any memory of the transgressions whatsoever, so the current crop of Venezuelan fascists are presented as somehow new, pristine figures with no history whatsoever. And that sure does oil the tongue for right-wing propaganda.

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

44. How many times has Robert Mugabe been re-elected?

Does that vindicate his economic philosophy or otherwise discredit his critics? Oil has consistently been above $100 for how many years? Venezuela should be making the OPEC Arabs in their heyday look like the picture of piety. Instead it is looking like a potential humanitarian crisis in the making.

[delrem]

45. Who's talking "vindication"?

You're a fellow who blames the Canadian NDP for Harper's Conservative/Reform victory, who doesn't think Harper is very right-wing, who likes the Alberta tar-sands, who doesn't understand the power dynamic of the Canadian parliamentary system and so expounds on how the NDP is a a yada-yada-yada (no doubt because the NDP is democratic socialist with strong labor ties), and so on.

So I'm going to leave you to your inadequate devices, Sen. Walter Sobchak, because in too short a time it's gotten way past predictable.

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

46. I also collected McDonalds 101 Dalmation Christmas ornaments

and am a Disneyland annual passport holder.

But that is beside the point, you're arguing that Maduro is legitimate and his detractors are fascists. Okay, lets run with that.

Precisely what impact will that have on the economic outcomes of the glorious Bolivarian Revolution?

[delrem]

47. You're trolling. You make disassociated assertions

the sum of which make no sense whatsoever.

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

52. I just want to know what your assertion is,

Is it your argument that there is some positive outcome to come from the policies of Chavez/Maduro?

[dreamstst]

55. Mugabe's "elections" were rigged.

The elections in Venezuela were honest. As Former President Jimmy Carter, said, 'As a matter of fact, of the 92 elections that we’ve monitored, I would say the election process in Venezuela is the best in the world."

http://venezuelanalysis.com/news/7272

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

57. But what does that have to do with the economic outcomes?

How does the fact these gentlemen were elected, by whatever means, change the economic outcomes of their policies.

[dreamstst]

58. It doesn't.

I was just pointing out that Venezuela's government has a democratic basis that cannot be claimed for Mugabe government in Zimbabwe.

I don't think their economic policies are the same, either. Just my opinion.

[EX500rider]

60. The Venezuelan opposition, who *are* in fact for a large part (like, their *leaders*) fascists,...

.......enacted an aborted coup in 2003. *That's* how fascist they are: demonstratively so.

Really, that's how fascist they are? How about Chavez's attempted coup? Was he a "fascist" too?

You really might want to look up what the word actually means.

Fascists seek to unify their nation through a totalitarian state that promotes the mass mobilization of the national community.

So you actually think ALL these other parties in Venezuela are "fascist"? lol, what are you smoking?

Democratic Action
Acción Democrática Social democracy

A New Era
Un Nuevo Tiempo UNT Reformism

Independent Electoral Political Organization Committee
Comité de Organización Política Electoral Independiente COPEI Christian democracy

Justice First
Primero Justicia PJ Humanism

For Social Democracy
Por la Democracia Social PODEMOS Social democracy

Project Venezuela
Proyecto Venezuela PV Christian democracy

Communist Party of Venezuela
Partido Comunista de Venezuela PCV Communism

The Radical Cause
La Causa Radical LCR Labourism

Popular Will
Voluntad Popular VP Progressivism

Movement for Socialism
Movimiento al Socialismo MAS Socialism

Fearless People's Alliance
Alianza Bravo Pueblo ABP Social democracy

National Convergence
Convergencia Nacional CN Conservatism
Convergencia Nacional

[delrem]

62. "How about Chavez's attempted coup? Was he a "fascist" too?"

He was certainly wrong, where 'wrong' = 'anti-democratic', considering that there was at the very least a nominal democracy operating in Venezuela at the time.

He was wrong in all kinds of ways on that front.

On the other hand, he *did* win plenty of well monitored elections, and in that sense: no.
He seems to have learned.

Does that make him a fascist? Already in his earliest career Chavez had proven himself to be indisputably on the side of enhancing the power of the poor and disadvantaged Venezuelans, wherever he met with them. That is fact.
I do think that one is remiss if one doesn't take the rich/poor balance in mind, when discussing these matters.

On my part, I associate the term 'fascist' with the dictatorial gov'ts that the 1% bring into power, who use their power to disempower all others, to gerrymander and rig elections, to eliminate regulatory laws, to privatize all natural resources, and so on. Perhaps I'm not using the term 'fascist' in a way that pleases you.

[EX500rider]

63. "Perhaps I'm not using the term 'fascist' in a way that pleases you."

Not so much pleasing me as sticking to the actual definition of the word. Fascists for example do not at all favor privatizing natural resources, they are all about the state. You are talking about a capitalist dictatorship, not the same thing at all.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fascism

"Fascists advocate a mixed economy, with the principal goal of achieving autarky to secure national self-sufficiency and independence through protectionist and interventionist economic policies"

[EX500rider]

64. So all of those parties I listed are "fascist"? Including the Communist Party? n/t

[delrem]

70. Did I say that?

Y'know, conversations proceed more smoothly when words aren't put in another's mouth. Esp. when those words are in response to someone who's already taken the trouble to respond to your loaded questioning re. semantics.

In this case, and in your other reply, you play games with semantics, choosing to promote one part of an abstract "definition".
I could play that game too, e.g. google "fascism definition" and quote the first hit:
"fas·cism
ˈfaSHˌizəm
noun
1.
an authoritarian and nationalistic right-wing system of government and social organization.
synonyms: authoritarianism, totalitarianism, dictatorship, despotism, autocracy;..."

But I'm happy with my initial response to your loaded questioning. My response was honest and gave my best answer.

After responding to you last night I succumbed to a stray thought "I wonder how different discussion threads are on Venezuela at F*** R*******?" so googled "F*** R******* Venezuela". Without the asterisks, of course. Checking through the first 4 or 5 threads I noticed the talking points were *identical* in all ways with those of DU anti-Maduro posts. The photos were the same, the seemingly naive acceptance of the photo captions as veridical justification for all their anti-Maduro/Chavez/Bolivarian hate, again identical. There was one difference: every anti-Maduro thread at F*** R******* was supplemented by anti-Obama/Biden/Kerry/Hillary/Dems talk. Talk that suggested Obama/Biden/Kerry/Hillary/Dems were the cause of these purported evils (so colorfully portrayed) as well as all others. And that is, of course, the opposite of anti-Maduro talk on DU.

[EX500rider]

71. No, you didn't answer at all...simple question, which of those political parties are the "fascist"?

[delrem]

72. I gave you all the answer the situation merits.

Have a good day.

[EX500rider]

73. Nice duck...don't blame you since you got nothing. n/t

[delrem]

74. Nothing that you'd understand, at any rate.

Have a nice day.

[EX500rider]

75. So basically none of those other parties are "fascist" ......?

[delrem]

77. You aren't paying attention.

Have a nice day.

[EX500rider]

78. Oh I am paying attention to you tap dancing around the question....

Every Maduro/Chavez fan claims the opposition are ALL fascists....OK, I provided a list of the other major parties in Venz., should be a easy thing to educate me as to which of those other parties are the CIA backed fascists ones...right?

Here they are are again:

Democratic Action
Acción Democrática Social democracy

A New Era
Un Nuevo Tiempo UNT Reformism

Independent Electoral Political Organization Committee
Comité de Organización Política Electoral Independiente COPEI Christian democracy

Justice First
Primero Justicia PJ Humanism

For Social Democracy
Por la Democracia Social PODEMOS Social democracy

Project Venezuela
Proyecto Venezuela PV Christian democracy

Communist Party of Venezuela
Partido Comunista de Venezuela PCV Communism

The Radical Cause
La Causa Radical LCR Labourism

Popular Will
Voluntad Popular VP Progressivism

Movement for Socialism
Movimiento al Socialismo MAS Socialism

Fearless People's Alliance
Alianza Bravo Pueblo ABP Social democracy

National Convergence
Convergencia Nacional CN Conservatism
Convergencia Nacional

[delrem]

80. You aren't paying attention.

Have a nice day.

[Judi Lynn]

79. Thanks for confirming a deep suspicion! I had always imagined that to be true.

One of those guys came here years ago to attack Venezuela, and ended up loudly supporting Pinochet for a period, before leaving. He was caught by an outstanding DU poster here who located him boasting at that place about his exploits here before he succumbed to pizza poisoning.

These racists and terminally anal bigots can't pry themselves away once they get the fever to harness themselves to DU for the duration. It's a fatal and odd obsession.

What drives them, I ask. Oddness? Perversion? A lack of meaning? Who knows?

Everything which afflicts any overly hateful, alienated, power-worshipping, cowardly, racist xenophobe arrives with each one of them. They are uniformly diseased. Some only pretend to have their hostility more under their control.
In the end, they all reveal themselves in their full glory!

[delrem]

81. The denizens of F*** R******* don't hide their "thoughts" and feelings about Maduro!

FR truly is a cesspit. It is way sad.

I couldn't read more of it than I could glean from a very momentary gloss (as much as I thought I could..., more than I could take), but even at that I noticed how it (the anti-Maduro rhetoric) lacked depth. Any depth whatsoever.

As here, none were championing biographies of their chosen Venezuelan leaders, of the poetically alliterative Leopoldo Lopez, or of the man whose name says "cashin' in", the most recently failed candidate Henrique Capriles, or of Maria Corina Machado, whose "fact on the ground" isn't altogether compatible with democracy and democratic institutions in those cases where they come between her money and potential profit. Those are quite some pretty people, fascists all, dancin' across the stage.

They don't really want to explain what these leaders are about and who can blame them?

They don't like the term 'fascist' to denote the likes of their leaders, Lopez, Capriles, Machado. They don't like any mention of how their leaders are associated with the "1%". At FR it is as explicit as can be, that they are cheer-leading for a violent overthrow of the Maduro gov't. Naturally, they call the Maduro gov't, like the Chavez gov't before it, a "dictatorship".

[dreamstst]

53. Good post.

[Judi Lynn]

56. Outstanding and accurate comments. Thanks. n/t

[reddread]

61. well said

pearls in the pig pen, Im afraid.

[Zorro]

17. Venezuela cuts commercial ties to Air Canada

The Venezuelan government said Tuesday it is severing commercial relations with Air Canada after it suspended flights to the country for security reasons.

"We are putting an end to this commercial relationship with Air Canada until President Nicolas Maduro decides otherwise," Venezuela Transportation Minister Herbert Garcia said.

Air Canada said Monday on its website it was suspending its flights to Venezuela for security reasons at a time when anti-government unrest has left 29 dead.

Garcia said the Venezuelan government was "surprised" by Air Canada's decision to suspend the flights, which was taken without consulting it.

http://news.yahoo.com/venezuela-cuts-commercial-ties-air-canada-191231683.html

Looks like Air Canada is joining the "ain't getting paid by the Venezuelan government" club along with Panama.

[Recursion]

23. Well, Air Canada will never see that money now

Sometimes you have to cut your losses.

[Adrahil]

25. Yeah, they weren't ever going to see it.... NT

[COLGATE4]

27. Ding! Ding! Ding! We have a winner! nt

[christx30]

30. True.

Better to just lose the money than have the planes nationalized (stolen) too.
They should get their people and property out of there.

[COLGATE4]

34. Very good advice. nt

[South_Street]

51. Agreed...

[freshwest]

66. But they said 'security' as if they think the other shoe is about to drop. No mention of money...

Even though the other airlines explained it that way. Will any other airlines take up the slack?

[hack89]

68. Any foreign company would be foolish to do business in VZ

Until they resolve their currency problem. Global business runs on dollars - VZ has no dollars.

[Pterodactyl]

40. The security situation in Venezuela is deteriorating.

Good move on the airline's part.

[ripcord]

50. Obviously Air Canada needs to turn this over to a collection agency

"Hello Mr. Maduro I am calling about the oustanding debt you owe Air Canada. Mr. Maduro does it make you feel good when you ignore your financial obligations? We really need you to work with us on this problem Mr. Maduro, we don't want to have take action against you that would show up on your credit report. Perhaps we could set up a payment plan for you Mr. Maduro."

[quadrature]

59. Fly now, pay never?

can the VZ gov't,
or any other gov't.


any govt will have a standing deal with
commercial airlines in their jurisdiction,
that they can put people on airline flights
as the airplane is boarding,
and settle the $$ later.
or not.

[DeSwiss]

82. ....