Tipsheet

CITGObama

A "somewhat modest proposal" from Townhall friend Mac Johnson at Energy Tribune.

[Venezuelan strongman Hugo] Chavez’s regime recently announced that it will nationalize a fleet of 11 drilling rigs belonging to Tulsa-based Helmerich & Payne, an evil capitalist corporation that threatened Chavez’s revolution with the totally unreasonable and anti-social act of asking to be paid $49 million owed to it by PDVSA, Venezuela’s state-owned energy company.

Asking to be paid for one’s work is clearly not in the best interest of socialism, an obligate parasite that depends for its survival on a subset of people working like brainless milk cows without full and fair pay, so Chavez decided to slaughter the obstinate cow for beef.

In a normal world, in which the US had a president and Congress that saw themselves as defenders of American-based businesses in the international arena, such blatantly unjust nationalization would provoke a vigorous response – or at least a strongly-worded press statement. But that sort of thinking is so pre-globalization. And besides, the feds are much too busy mobilizing against Arizona to take on Venezuela.

But since we don’t live in a normal world, I would like to make a modest proposal: seeing as Obama likes to nationalize businesses so much, why not nationalize one that’s already nationalized (by another government)? Obama should nationalize CITGO, the US arm of PDVSA. Perhaps two leftists can make a right.
Read the whole thing here.