To The Devil's Excrement Blog (and other Venezuelan purveyors of raw fertilizer).

I sometimes drop by Devil's Excrement blog to read what the hysterical Venezuelan oppositionists are trying to convince citizens of The United States of America to believe and at times I drop off a comment (or two or three). Here is one that might not have actually posted (I sometimes get "forbidden" responses but find the post active later).
In one post I wa accused of trying to tell Venezuelans what they ought to do and here is my response>


I don't specialize in telling Venezuelans what they ought to do, but I do notice what they are doing, at least to the extent of what I read in the media, and learn from people I know who live there. And even here (in the Devil's Excrement blog) there is this cry that the oppositionists need to get off their ummm chairs and "do something."

Well, maybe they are enjoying life too much to bother. I think that's a very strong possibility.

I never called myself a "Chavista." I do not and do not need to believe that everything Hugo Chavez says or does is marvelous to believe that my country, the United States of America (aka North America, which also disrespects Canada and Mexico) olught not to meddle and interfere in the internal affairs of another country.

As coming from the left and being a more or less rehabilitated atheist (I know that there is a God) I have said elsewhere that it is clear that human beings are actually "hard wired" to believe in a diety or dieties (that's certainly not my original idea) and that a big problem with the old "Socialist Bloc" was that they thought they got rid of God but ended up deifying individuals - and that God ought to be deified, not men.

I hope Venezuela avoids this fault. You could say I even advise that they do. That does not change the facts that overall things are getting better for the majority, that the people duly voted this government in, and that my country ought not to meddle there.

A country embracing socialism is a country making a revolutionary break with the past, in that way similar to those movements once led by Bolivar, Washington and Lincoln. So yes the country's institutions will have to be a part of that for the process to be successful. And yes, there does need to be a leader, just not a mangod.

English language media that is consistently against the elected government of Venezuela, and that consistently make outrageous claims of living under a dictatorship are not engaging in the political porcess in Venezuela. They are engaging in the political process here in the United States. They are lobbying for US intervention. That is what this website (devil's excrement) is for.