"The Game Changed in Venezuela"

just saw and thought this was at least worth a mention, http://caracaschronicles.com/2014/02/20/the-game-changed/

"People continue to be arrested merely for protesting, and a long established local Human Rights NGO makes an urgent plea for an investigation into widespread reports of torture of detainees. There are now dozens of serious human right abuses: National Guardsmen shooting tear gas canisters directly into residential buildings. We have videos of soldiers shooting civilians on the street.

And that’s just what came out in real time, over Twitter and YouTube, before any real investigation is carried out. Online media is next, a city of 645,000 inhabitants has been taken off the internet amid mounting repression, and this blog itself has been the object of a Facebook “block” campaign."

Comments

meanwhile in Ukraine

On the other side of the world,
http://m.imgur.com/a/3ksac
Ukrainian President humble home, complete with petting zoo, gold-fixtured toilets, hot-tub / koi pond, and a vehicle museum.

So is this the government

So is this the government owned presidential residence? If so, I wonder if Tymoshenko is going to move back into it? Perhaps she was the one who installed the gold fittings.

The car museum looks like exactly that. The line of black cars look like previous presidential cars going back decades. I doubt very much that they are personally owned by Yanukovych.

All this is being brought to us by whom? smiling The usual chosen suspects?

"Yanukovych, who

"Yanukovych, who OpenDemocracy.net reported earned less than $25,000 per year for most of his political career, is believed to have owned several homes around the economically-strapped nation, but none symbolized his greed and corruption more than the $75 million mansion he completed in Mezhyhirya in 2012."
"Each of the mansion’s Lebanese cedar doors cost $64,000.
Three sets of wooden paneling for staircases cost $200,000.
Cladding for a neoclassical column and parapet for a flight of steps cost $430,000.
In just 18 months, Yanukovych spent nearly $9.5 million on imported fittings for the home.
“In a country where 35 percent of the population lives under the poverty line, spending $100,000 on each individual chandelier seems excessive, to say the least,” wrote Sergii Leshchenko."

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2014/02/24/monument-to-corruption-ukraine-m...

wow indeed

it makes my vehicle museum look kinda puny by comparison!

McJ's picture

Hi guys. Apologies for being

Hi guys. hello or goodbye Apologies for being away for so long but unfortunately life threw me another curve ball. I imagine you all can relate. Anyways, I have been following along. smiling

When I looked at those pictures I was strangely reminded of a news clip I watched where a MSM reporter was going through Gaddafi's official residence (after he fled) and pointing out the opulence. I was also struck by the picture of the 'opposition' guys hoisting that flag - a bit Imo Jima-esque smiling
http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Global/content/icons/2010/8/14/12817...
The boat pictured is a gallleon used primarily by European states from the 16th to 18th centuries. It doesn't seem a likely choice for a personal boat.

I am with James on this one. Methinks this is some too familiar propaganda meant to illicit our support for the cause of 'freeDumb and demoKrazy. laughing out loud

propaganda

Well I agree with you and James that the motives are always questionable and we are probably dealing with usual suspects, but at the same time I'm not thinking Yanukovych was some blameless patsy. It seems that this is the way government works, whether they are socialist, democratic, fascist, no matter. It's a sad state of human affairs.

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