Venezuela to ration power four hours a day for 40 days

This is how the citizens "feel the Bern" imposed on them by the United Socialist Party of Venezuela.

Oh...and no beer for you either.

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© Provided by AFP A woman walks in front of electricity pylons in Caracas, Venezuela on April 10, 2011

Recession-hit Venezuela will turn off the electricity supply in its 10 most populous states for four hours a day for 40 days to deal with a severe power shortage, the government said Thursday.

It is the latest drastic measure to alleviate a severe electricity crisis which President Nicolas Maduro and his government blame on a drought caused by the El Nino weather phenomenon.

Critics say it is the result of years of economic mismanagement.

"Each user will have a temporary suspension of four hours a day. The plan will last approximately 40 days" to ease pressure on the country's largest hydroelectric dam, said Electricity Minister Luis Motta.

Maduro is under growing pressure from the center-right opposition, which vowed to oust him when it took control of the legislature in January after winning a landslide election victory, blaming him for the crippling economic crisis.

Venezuela's economy has plunged along with the price of the oil which it relies on for foreign revenues. Shortages of medicines and goods such as toilet paper and cooking oil are widespread.

Maduro blames the collapse on an "economic war" by capitalists. 

Last week, his government said it was shifting its time zone forward by 30 minutes to save power.

Other measures include giving government workers an extra day off each week for the next two months, and Maduro has urged Venezuelan women to stop using their hair dryers.

Motta had warned Wednesday that mandatory power cuts were imminent as he toured the Guri hydroelectric plant, where officials say the water level is approaching the critical limit.

The dam supplies 70 percent of the country's electricity. Seventeen other hydroelectric dams are also near critical levels, and citizens regularly suffer blackouts and water rationing.

Venezuela has the world's largest proven oil reserves, but the government has resisted using crude to generate electricity, calling it inefficient.

- Beer cuts, too -

Maduro's other measures to cut electricity use include reducing the workday to six hours for ministries and state companies and ordering them to lower their electricity consumption by 20 percent.

He has also ordered shops and hotels to ration electricity, obliging them to generate their own power for several hours a day.

Shopping centers have cut back their hours since that plan was introduced.

Analysts, however, warn the measures will further damage productivity.

© Provided by AFP People walk past closed shops in a street of Caracas on March 22, 2016

Maduro reached the halfway point of his six-year term this week. Under Venezuela's constitution, he can now be removed from office in a recall referendum -- one of the options the opposition has vowed to pursue to oust him.

He has vowed to hold on to power and press on with the socialist "revolution" launched by his late predecessor Hugo Chavez.

In another bit of bad economic news, the country's largest brewery said it will stop producing beer because of a barley shortage.

Cerveceria Polar, maker of the country's best-known brands of beer, said it will run out of the key ingredient on April 29 and is unable to get more because it can not access dollars to pay importers under Maduro's tight currency controls.

The brewery is part of Venezuela's largest corporation, Empresas Polar, whose chief executive, Lorenzo Mendoza, has repeatedly clashed with Maduro as the economy has veered into a deep recession.

Maduro accuses the billionaire businessman of sabotaging the economy by slowing production, which the leftist leader blames for crippling shortages of food and basic goods.

But Polar said Thursday the government's policies left it no choice but to stop making beer.

"We have warned the country about the grave situation we are facing and we have exhausted all options to run debts with our international suppliers, all the while waiting for the government to address the debt problem."

Venezuela's cash-strapped government is unable to meet business demand for the dollars they need to buy goods and materials abroad.

The import-dependent economy contracted 5.7 percent last year, its second year of recession, and inflation came in at more than 180 percent.

Venezuela to ration power four hours a day for 40 days

Ben Carson: Keep Jackson where he is, put Tubman on the $2 bill

Everyone and their brother knows this is pure political horse shit. Does anyone believe for a second had Mt McKinley been Mt Tubman it would now be called Mt Denali?

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"I love Harriet Tubman," the former GOP White House hopeful told Fox Business Network's Neil Cavuto. "I love what she did, but we can find another way to honor her. Maybe a $2 bill." 

Tubman, the African-American suffragist, and abolitionist who brought slaves to safety on the Underground Railroad, will begin appearing on a forthcoming version of the $20 bill, bumping former President Andrew Jackson to the back, Treasury Secretary Jack Lew announced Wednesday. 

Carson insisted he had nothing against Tubman, but said Jackson deserved to stay where he is.

"Andrew Jackson ... was a tremendous president," Carson told Cavuto. "I mean, Andrew Jackson was the last president who actually balanced the federal budget, where we had no national debt."

Thomas Jefferson currently resides on the $2 bill, which is seldom used in circulation. Carson didn't discuss what should be done with the existing design of the $2 bill.

Democrats widely embraced the announcement on Wednesday. Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton tweeted, "A woman, a leader, and a freedom fighter. I can't think of a better choice for the $20 bill than Harriet Tubman."

Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders also voiced his support for Tubman. "I cannot think of an American hero more deserving of this honor than Harriet Tubman," he tweeted.

In making his announcement, Lew also said Alexander Hamilton, the nation's first treasury secretary, will remain on the front of the $10 bill. Lew also announced plans for the reverse side of each bill. A montage of women involved in the American suffrage movement -- Lucretia Mott, Sojourner Truth, Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Alice Paul -- will be on the back of the Hamilton-led $10.

Ben Carson: Keep Jackson where he is, put Tubman on the $2 bill

Family of Benghazi victim to receive $400G after CIA expands benefit program

This story kills me.

This woman must get her advice from Cindy Sheehan. Romney "used her son for political advantage"?

 What a dope. Probably still believes it was the video!

Her son died at the hands of Barry and Killary to serve their own political agenda fashioned by negligence and indifference to those being slaughtered! 

Surprised to hear she sued the CIA and the State Dept instead of Romney.

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The family of a CIA contractor killed in the Sept. 11, 2012 attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya will receive $400,000 after the agency expanded survivor benefits for employees and contractors killed in the line of duty overseas in acts of terrorism.

Glen Doherty, a former Navy SEAL who was working for the CIA's Global Response staff in Libya at the time of Benghazi, held a standard federal insurance policy that pays a survivor benefit only to spouses and dependents. Doherty, 42, was divorced and had no children, rendering his family ineligible for compensation under the 1941 Defense Base Act, which still requires all overseas contractors including CIA employees to carry disability and life insurance.

According to the San Diego Union-Tribune, the CIA informed lawyers for Doherty's mother, Barbara, Wednesday that the agency's policy change had been finalized.

Barbara Doherty told WFXT that she was relieved that the expanded benefit had approved. She also called on Congress to repeal the Defense Base Act. 

"It gives me solace that the CIA has done the right thing,” Doherty said. “Now it’s up to Congress to see if they can step up to the plate."

Legislation introduced last year by Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass. and Rep. Stephen Lynch, D-Mass., would expand the death benefit to include families of all defense employees killed in terror attacks since Sept. 11, 2001, even if they don't have spouses or dependents.

"It is entirely disrespectful to make [the families] fight through a long bureaucratic process to get the benefits that that heroism has earned," Lynch told WFXT.

The CIA policy change is retroactive to April 18, 1983, the date a suicide attacker crashed a truck into the front of the U.S. Embassy in Beirut, killing 63 people, including 17 Americans, some of whom were CIA officers.

"It wasn’t about the money, at all," Doherty told WFXT. “It was a fight for [all families] because they didn’t have a voice and we did …that’s what kept us going on, knowing that they would eventually be recognized."

"I am glad the [CIA] made this decision so the Doherty family and others who have lost loved ones in service to and sacrifice for our country will finally receive the recognition and honor they deserve," Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., the chair of the House Select Committee on Benghazi, said in a statement. 

Doherty's family filed a $1 million damages claim against the CIA and the State Department in September 2014. The Union-Tribune reported that the family will drop all claims against the federal government in the wake of the expanded death benefit.

Family of Benghazi victim to receive $400G after CIA expands benefit program

The world is upside down!

Target: Use the bathroom of your 'gender identity'

I remember a time a man caught in a women's bathroom got arrested.

Just think:

Before                                    After

Next time you're in Target using the "Men's Room" this could be standing next to you.

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Target said its policy is not new, but is a restatement of corporate policy. (target.com)

Visit a Target and use whichever bathroom you'd like.

That's the message the retail giant appears to be sending with a new statement on its website that ostensibly takes aim at so-called "bathroom laws" seeking to restrict men's and women's bathrooms to the sex listed on a person's birth certificate.

"In our stores, we demonstrate our commitment to an inclusive experience in many ways," the statement said. "Most relevant for the conversations currently under way, we welcome transgender team members and guests to use the restroom or fitting room facility that corresponds with their gender identity."

Target's policy is not new, but is simply a more pronounced "restatement" of an existing corporate rule, Target spokeswoman Molly Snyder told the Minneapolis Star Tribune.

The bathroom question turned into a national debate after North Carolina enacted legislation in March to restrict who could and could not use men's and women's bathrooms. Proponents of the law believe it's needed to keep potential sexual predators out of the bathroom of the opposite sex. Opponents say it's insensitive to transgender people, who don't identify with the gender on their birth certificate.

The law gained even more notoriety after several music acts, such as Pearl Jam, Bruce Springsteen and Ringo Starr, canceled concerts in the state in response to the legislation.

"Given the specific questions these legislative proposals raised about how we manage our fitting rooms and restrooms, we felt it was important to state our position," Target's statement said.

"Everyone deserves to feel like they belong. And you'll always be accepted, respected and welcomed at Target."

The world is upside down!

The Vicious Snake

On a tip from Ed Kilbane

Love him or hate him he's dead right on this issue!

Video 232

The Vicious Snake