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Disgruntled customers, empty store shelves, long supermarket lines. These are the images that mainstream U.S. media typically feature in their coverage of Venezuelas ongoing food crisis.

U.S. media outlets publish stories blaming Venezuelas food crisis on the socialist government almost daily. Today isnt any different.These images are usually accompanied by sarcastic headlines like Forbes Venezuela Discovers the Perfect Weight Loss Diet and the Cato Institutes Hunger Is in Retreat, But Not in Socialist Venezuela.

A new study released by researchers from three Venezuelan universities reported that nearly 75 percent of the population lost an average of 19 pounds in 2016 for lack of food. The report, titled, 2016 Living Conditions Survey, added that about 32.5 percent of Venezuelans eat only once or twice a day, compared to 11.3 percent last year.

Moreover, 93.3 percent told the researchers that their income was not enough to cover their food needs.

The facts are clear Venezuela does have a food crisis. Mainstream U.S. media, however, blames the socialist government that has radically improved the countrys standard of living instead of right-wing U.S.-backed opposition forces intentionally sabotaging the economy.

Since the early 2000s, supermarket owners affiliated with Venezuelas opposition have been purposefully hoarding food products so they can resell them at higher prices and make large profits. Food importing companies owned by the countrys wealthy right-wing elite are also manipulating import figures to raise prices.

In 2013, former Venezuelan Central Bank chief Edmee Betancourt reported that the country lost between US$15 and $20 billion dollars the previous year through such fraudulent import deals.

It doesnt stop there.

Last year, over 750 opposition-controlled offshore companies linked to the Panama Papers scandal were accused of purposely redirecting Venezuelan imports of raw food materials from the government to the private sector. Many of these companies sell their products to private companies in Colombia, which resell them to Venezuelans living close to Colombia.

Reuters admitted in 2014 that Venezuelan opposition members living in border states are shipping low-cost foodstuffs provided by the Venezuelan government into Colombia for profit.Selling contraband is a serious problem. People here are taking large quantities of products meant for Venezuelans and selling them in Colombia, Valencia resident Francisco Luzon told Al Jazeera in a 2014 interview.

Overall, Venezuelas millionaire opposition are profiting handsomely from the countrys food crisis while blaming it on the socialist government thats trying to eliminate it.

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Blaming Socialism, US Media Distorts Venezuela's Food Crisis - Venezuelanalysis.com

Forbes

Congratulations To Bolivarian Socialism - Venezuela's Breakfast Now Costs More Than A Day's Work Forbes Again, we should extend our congratulations to President Maduro and the Chavistas who have done so much to improve Venezuela's economy in recent years. They've managed to get the cost of a day's breakfast up over the amount earned by a full day's ...

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Congratulations To Bolivarian Socialism - Venezuela's Breakfast Now Costs More Than A Day's Work - Forbes

Just before she launched a panel discussion titled From the Bund to Bernies Campaign, moderator Elaine Leeder laid a little joke on the audience: Its only in a place like Berkeley, she said, that you could get a hundred Jews on a Saturday to talk about socialism.

Given that the panel was part of a conference called From the Bund to the Bern: Yiddish Socialism for the 21st Century, its no surprise the joke drew laughs.

Leeders panel came at the end of a day exploring the history of Jewish involvement in 20th-century socialist politics, and how that history sheds light on the modern progressive movement.

Held at Berkeley City College, the event was co-sponsored by the Workmens Circle/Arbeter Ring and Lehrhaus Judaica. Leeder and Diana Scott, who has chaired the Northern California branch of the Workmens Circle for nine years, organized the agenda.

The Workmens Circle/Arbeter Ring was founded in 1900 to promote social justice and a secular Jewish identity rooted in community engagement, with the Northern California branch founded in 1948. Although nearly 70 people had preregistered for the Feb. 25 event, around 100 showed up, Leeder estimated a big number for the venerable left-leaning Jewish organization.

The conference included talks on topics such as the Jewish Labor Bund in interwar Poland and divides in the Yiddish-speaking socialist movement. Scott led a breakout session on socialism and Jewish cultural autonomy. For presenters, the conference gave them a chance to illuminate details of a progressive Jewish past most people today know little about.

Today those legacies are still with us, if we realize it or not, said Tony Michels, professor of American Jewish history at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, whose keynote address explored how the Russian Revolution shaped American Jewish politics.

Apparently, many conference attendees were still feeling the Bern, as in Bernie Sanders.

Running like a current through the days discussions was how the 2016 Democratic presidential candidate impacted todays progressive Jewish left. Sanders even sent a letter to the Workmens Circle that was read aloud during the conference, noting he was delighted that you are gathering to discuss the relevance of democratic socialism.

The message Bernie has is so relevant, and comes from a legacy of Jewish activism.

Barbara Epstein, professor emerita in the History of Consciousness Department at UC Santa Cruz and an expert on the history of social movements, gave a talk on the early left and Zionism in Europe. She drew a line connecting the long tradition of Jewish socialist humanism and the Sanders campaign. It seems to me that thats what Bernie was representing, she said.

The message Bernie has is so relevant, and comes from a legacy of Jewish activism, said attendee Deborah Israel of Oakland.

Carol Sanders, first cousin of the Vermont senator, also attended the event. Like others there, the Berkeley resident said she learned a lot about a topic she previously had been aware of only in broad outlines. Its something I didnt know much about, but it was part of the zeitgeist, she said of the gathering.

Audience members agreed on the strength of a politically progressive element in their Jewish identity. Its in our DNA, said attendee Clara Davis of Oakland.

As the day wound down, talk turned to practical measures, such as finding out which congressional representatives to target and how to talk to generations younger than the decidedly older cohort at the conference.

Josh Kob, a union representative for the California Teachers Association, was one of the younger people in the room. He had driven from Fresno to be there.

For Jews, understanding where we came from is a huge motivator, he said.

Although much of the day dealt with history, the most-discussed topic among attendees was the urgency of todays political climate under the Trump administration and ways in which the legacy of Jewish socialism could be relevant more than 100 years after the founding of the Workmens Circle.

Its really how we build who we are, going forward, on progressive Jewish values, Scott said.

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Big crowd still feeling the Bern at Jewish socialism confab - Jweekly.com

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By Aidan Mattis

Speaking to the Penn StateStudent run, and independent media siteThe Underground,Jesse RyanthePresident of the Young Democratic Socialists chapter, had harsh words about the pro-freedom organization. Citing a Twitter dispute with PSU TPUSA President Kylie Thomas, Ryan said that when seeking new members, they would preferably [stay] away from the Turning Point USA table. Ryans group also called the capitalist, small government organization LGBT-phobic due to a tweet from the Ohio State chapter of TPUSA. Despite the fact that Thomas herself is bisexual, and the chapter in question is not at Penn. State, notOhio State, Ryan persisted in calling the chapter of TPUSA homophobic.

Speaking about a picture tweeted by OSUs chapter of TPUSA, in which a student wears a T-shirt with an image of Che Guevara with the text Socialism is for F*gs, Ryan said that the comment was just not anything productive. It was filled with homophobia.

TPUSA at OSU responded, saying We apologize to those who found the T-Shirt offensive. The actual saying on the shirt is Socialism is for Figs, but it is challenging to read in the picture.

Penn. States Turning Point USA has been pursuing an opportunity to debate YDS on the merits of capitalism versus socialism, yet has been continuously frustrated by the leftist groups refusal to do so. Ryan cited concerns in dealing with the libertarian-leaning nonpartisan TPUSA, stating that When you have a very sensitive title like us, you have to have a very logical, analytical approach when youre talking to people like that [TPUSA]. Ryan was referencing TPUSAs executive board, who have a table set up in the campus HUB every Tuesday. People might just come up and start ripping up signs, Ryan finished.

Ironically, PSUs TPUSA chapter has struggled with peopleripping up signs and having their materials unceremoniously dispersed, as a leftist leaning journalist named Terri Thomas (of no relation to the former Thomas)did exactly that to the groups table in early February.

At anothermeeting, Ryan told hisclub about a back and forth with Kylie Thomas on Twitter. Citing what he believed to be a more of a screaming match than an actual debate, he remarked that [He] just really think[s] its a testament to what would actually happen if [YDS] actually debated [Turning Point USA]. Ryans excuses have frustrated members of the Turning Point chapter.

Further excusing his club from participating in debate, Ryan explained that Debates are really about who screams the loudest and who talks the fastest Ryan made no effort to reach out to other members of the Turning Point USA chapter at the school, and has yet to speak with Kylie Thomas, relying solely on the YDS chapter Twitter to communicate. Ryans comments about TPUSA at PSU being homophobic have yet to see any official response from the pro-capitalism group.

This incident at Penn State represents a growing trend in millennial politics, in which the left would rather shy away from debate and discussion than face the opposing side. By claiming that any interaction with the opposing ideology would be an uncivil screaming match, YDS has excused itself from the challenge of defending their ideas. To quote the infamous Milo Yiannopoulos, If you dont show up to defend your ideas, you lose. Thus, in this microcosm, this bout of political battle, Young Democratic Socialists has lost the skirmish.

debateohio statePenn. StateTPUSATurning Point USAYDSYoung Democratic Socialists

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Are the Penn. State Young Democratic Socialists Afraid to Debate TPUSA? - The Libertarian Republic

Forbes

South America's Last Bastion Of Socialism Is Falling To Pieces Forbes The currency is worth a dime, though probably not even that much. The brain drain is immense. People are starving. Unemployment is in the double digits. Inflation is triple digits. And its president, Nicholas Maduro of the disastrous United Socialist ... and more »

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South America's Last Bastion Of Socialism Is Falling To Pieces - Forbes