Venezuelan leader says racism in U.S. worse under Obama

[Bacchus4.0]

Source: Reuters

CARACAS (Reuters) - Racism in the United States appears to have worsened during the administration of its first black leader, Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro said on Saturday.

Maduro, who has come under fire from President Barack Obama's government in recent weeks for his treatment of domestic political foes, said he was appalled by recent cases of police killings of blacks in the United States.

"It's really dramatic," he told TV network Telesur, highlighting the death of Eric Garner, who was caught on video gasping for breath in a policeman's stranglehold, as particularly "brutal."

"It's as if racism has been exacerbated in the United States with the arrival of Obama himself," said Maduro, the socialist leader who succeeded Hugo Chavez last year.



Read more: https://www.yahoo.com/news/venezuelan-leader-says-racism-u-worse-under-obama-015358771.html

[kelliekat44]

1. It's not worse under Obama. Just more visible. With the SCOTUS, House, and soon the Senate

firmly in the hands of the GOP the racists just feel more comfortable with taking on off their hoods, brandishing their badges, and shooting blacks with virtually no consequences. lJust wait until we get our first Hispanic President who will be able to speak in two languages. FOX will come out with a "War on English."

[bemildred]

4. No, I think it's worse, it's like they are all outraged and incoherent since he got in office.

And the dumbassery escalated as soon as he won. Before he won they thought they would win. Then they got mad and they've been throwing tantrums ever since.

[Enthusiast]

16. It's worse.

The Knuckle Draggers® see the election of Obama as an insult to the memory of the Confederate States of America, or something. Tantrums is the perfect word. They have lost their fucking minds.

[riversedge]

5. Yes, they are crawling out of the workwork--but have always been there

ready to do damage. The election just gave them the opportunity--helped with vile Religious nuts and the media.--and the expanding social media.

[7962]

12. Well, W was pretty fluent in Spanish. Gave speeches in Spanish

Jeb is even more fluent. And i wouldnt doubt a hispanic in the mix for the gop in '16. Of course, that doesnt mean it wont piss off some folks

[Judi Lynn]

26. A DU'er who lived in S America for years said W's Spanish is no more "fluent" than his English. n/t

[Enrique]

27. Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio

and don't forget, Mitt Romney is Mexican

[7962]

29. Forgot about them, but if Cruz gets the nod, the Dem wont even have to campaign.

Thats how bad he'll get smoked.
I would think Rubio would be less of a whackjob.

[Major Hogwash]

31. A lot of us here, and many more who already quit posting here, thought the same was true in 2000.

"Who the fuck would vote for a douchebag like Bush anyway?" we thought.
The choice was obvious to most of us, but then, from under a slimy rock somewhere here came Ralph Nader, and well, the rest is history.

[7962]

33. True, but Bush ran as a compassionate conservative. Cruz makes no attempt to.

Cruz would NEVER do a Medicare addition or a No Child Left Behind.
I just wonder what the RW excuse would be if the nominee WERE a Cruz. They finally have the "true conservative" they always lament not having. Then when he gets beaten handily, what will be their excuse? The only think they could go to is the old "they stole the election"
Otherwise they'd have to admit you need a candidate that appeals to more than the base to win.

[Android3.14]

14. That's what it means for racism to be worse

What you said is like saying the flu season isn't worse; there's just more sick people with flu symptoms..

[TreasonousBastard]

2. Anything to try to take the heat off of his own miserable administration...

and racist policing in the US has been around for over a hundred years but it's under Obama that it's being dealt with.

[okaawhatever]

22. +100 nt

[Archae]

3. Maduro would say this.

Last edited Sun Dec 7, 2014, 09:04 AM - Edit history (1)

Reminds me of how Soviet commentators during the Cold War would desperately try to deflect criticism of their brutal policies by pointing at blacks in the South.

[riversedge]

6. umm.. Interesting to know that bit of history...

thanks. In solidarity

[bemildred]

7. The problem is it's a good argument, we richly deserve the criticism for our racist policies.

Just because Putin or Maduro are using it for their own purposes doesn't mean they are wrong. The best propaganda is true. Some (like me) think we should clean up our act so as to highlight the difference, to make evident our true, innate superiority, and to show leadership, but no, instead we have racist cops running amok in our streets every day.

[Archae]

8. The problem is when it's used in lame attempts at deflection.

Like if one of us is talking to a Teabagger about how corrupt and uncaring the GOP has become, they bring up Anthony Weiner's and Bill Clinton's sex scandals.

[bemildred]

9. That is inevitable, until we clean up our act.

All this whining about foreign leaders isn't worth a bucket of warm spit as propaganda unless we clean up our act. We don't have the credibility we had after WWII, we've thrown that away. We abuse people. It looks tacky. All governments claim righteousness, the question is does anybody else believe?

[PDittie]

10. Maduro is right...

But it's not Obama's fault.

The post-Civil War period, Brown v. Board of Education, the Civil Rights and Voting Rights Acts of the 1960s, the ascension of Barack Obama to the presidency. Everyone thought this nation would improve after those things happened, but they didn't; things got worse instead. And everybody knows why that is.

Even Maduro, I suspect.

[Scuba]

13. Eggzaklee!

[heaven05]

18. white, racist reactionaries

who started pushing back at civil and human rights for minorities is the problem, you are right. Nixon using the "southern strategy' started the ball rolling in this generation, and in spite of BO being POTUS, that 'strategy', extrapolated nationwide, culminating in a RW reactionary racist victory on Nov. 4, 2014. The other two, post civil war white angst at black emancipation from literal slavery and equal education for all, Brown v. Board of Education, especially, helped to solidify racist whites in their hate of equality for minorities who threatened 'white privilege' among other perceived threats to "white superiority" and benefits gained from a racially skewed system. The only good thing I can say is, the victories won by the reactionaries represent victories for a battle in a long fought WAR, and the WAR ain't won by them yet. Period.

[7962]

11. But we're still able to wipe our asses with TP!!

[okaawhatever]

23. LOL. Good one nt

[butterfly77]

15. It is not worse..

It is more evident because the hate for black people is so strong that they can't control themselves because they never thought there would be a black president.

They are the great pretenders.

[Enrique]

17. a more interesting quote is further down

imho

"I'm sorry because to some extent, I respect Obama personally. But I think he's a hostage of the real powers in the United States, and he decided not to fight. He's tired, exhausted," Maduro said.

[albino65]

19. I'm not sure it's worse

Racism has become more institutionalized, overt and a plank in the Republican platform. We should be ashamed.

[jwirr]

20. I think I agree with him. When Congress is obstructing the business of America simply because the

President is black that is something that has never happened before.

The whole world is watching.

[roamer65]

21. The flying monkey right can't stand a black president.

They are willing to destroy the republic to ruin him.

There is only one other person they hate almost as much as Obama...Hillary Clinton.

If she gets the nomination, I will vote for her just to piss them off for another eight years. I think of it as 16 years of punishment for Il Dunce.

[jaysunb]

24. He is correct. n/t

[sadoldgirl]

25. Yes,Maduro is correct

it has become far more violent than before 2009.
It is not just the fact that our President is black, but
that he is far more intelligent than the one before him.

What impudence!(sarc)

[Marrah_G]

28. Its just more visable

[Tarheel_Dem]

30. The age of the internet and social media has shone a brighter light on it, but it's not new.

Sorry Maduro. Thanks for the concern, but talking about us, won't solve your own problems.

Will low oil prices push Venezuela toward default?
By Leslie Shaffer

Falling oil prices have side-swiped Venezuela's government finances, spurring concerns of a sovereign default, but it isn't clear whether contagion effects will emerge.

"Both the government's willingness and ability to service its foreign currency debt is in serious question," Capital Economics said in a note last week, citing declining oil prices.

Read More Venezuela's future? 'Barbarity and people looting'

"Given that the government has nothing in the way of savings from the oil price boom of the past decade, the loss of oil revenues will wipe out whatever foreign currency that the government has," it said. "With the bolivar (Exchange:VEF00H=) collapsing in the black market, capital flight is only likely to increase putting even more pressure on the supply of hard currency."

It expects a default is "more likely than not" within two years, although there may not be a "flashpoint" until September or October of next year, when $5 billion of debt payments come due.

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/low-oil-prices-push-venezuela-225321877.html

[Major Hogwash]

32. Maduro is flailing in the wind.

Trying to criticize President Obama because his own time in office is going to end rather abruptly.

[Tarheel_Dem]

35. Exactly!

[Elmer S. E. Dump]

34. "It's as if racism has been exacerbated in the United States with the arrival of Obama himself"

Duh!!!! I never noticed! Did they just let this guy out of a cave?

[brooklynite]

36. Somehow, I don't think Maduro is attributing racism to the same causes people here are...