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Blessed Virgin, Mother of Coromoto, heavenly Patron of Venezuela, free our country from the claws of communism and socialism, the CEV posted on Twitter this Sunday, complete with an image of Santa Maria and a Venezuelan flag.

On Sunday, Venezuelan President Nicols Maduro convened the members of the Constituent Assembly for a vote to replace Venezuelas National Assembly with a new National Constituent Assembly, an attempt to further concentrate his power and eliminate the legislative body that has an opposition majority.

Maduro declared a sweeping victory for himself, which will give him near absolute power over the crisis-torn nation.

The unpopular socialist president is a former bus driver who worked his way up to become a member of the inner circle of former President Hugo Chvez. Chvez eventually made Maduro his vice-president and recommended him as successor to the presidency.

Maduros calling of the Constituent Assembly was harshly criticized by the Venezuelan bishops, who in a communiqu issued on July 27 called the measure unconstitutional, as well as unnecessary, inopportune and harmful for the Venezuelan people.

The Treasury Department has reacted to the power grab by imposing sanctions on Maduro, sending a clear signal of the Trump administrations opposition to his regime.

Yesterdays illegitimate elections confirm that Maduro is a dictator who disregards the will of the Venezuelan people, said Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin in a statement announcing the sanctions.

As of Monday, all of the Venezuelan presidents assets that are subject to U.S. jurisdiction were frozen, and all U.S. citizens have been barred from dealing with him.

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Venezuelan Bishops Pray to Virgin Mary to Free the Country from the 'Claws of Communism' - Breitbart News

Venezuela is a woeful reminder that no country is so rich that it cant be driven into the ground by revolutionary socialism.

People are now literally starving about three-quarters of the population lost weight last year in what once was the fourth-richest country in the world on a per-capita basis. A country that has more oil reserves than Saudi Arabia is suffering shortages of basic supplies. Venezuela now totters on the brink of bankruptcy and civil war, in the national catastrophe known as the Bolivarian Revolution.

The phrase is the coinage of the late Venezuelan strongman Hugo Chavez, succeeded by the current Venezuelan strongman Nicolas Maduro. The Western Hemispheres answer to Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey, Maduro has instituted an ongoing self-coup to make his country a one-party state.

The Chavistas have worked from the typical Communist playbook of romanticizing the masses while immiserating them. Runaway spending, price controls, nationalization of companies, corruption and the end of the rule of law its been a master class in how to destroy an economy.

The result is a sharp, yearslong recession, runaway inflation and unsustainable debt. The suffering of ordinary people is staggering, while the thieves and killers who are Chavista officials have made off with hundreds of billions of dollars. At this rate The Economist calls the countrys economic decline the steepest in modern Latin American history there will be nothing left to steal.

Any government in a democratic country that failed this spectacularly would have been relegated to the dustbin of history long ago. Maduro is getting around this problem by ending Venezuelas democracy.

The Chvistas slipped up a year or two by allowing real elections for the countrys National Assembly, which were swept by the opposition. They then undertook a war against the assembly, stripping it of its powers and culminating in a rigged vote this week to elect a constituent assembly to rewrite the constitution. The opposition boycotted the vote, and outside observers estimate less than 20 percent of the electorate participated.

The goal of Maduros alleged constitutional reforms is to no longer have a constitution worthy of the name. Immediately after the vote, his forces arrested two leading opposition figures in the dead of night. Video shows one of them, Antonio Ledezma, being taken away in his pajamas and another, Leopoldo Lpez, bundled into the back of a car.

It looks like what it truly was a pair of kidnappings.

Denied the ordinary means of dissent via the press and elections, the opposition has taken to the streets. Already more than 100 people have been killed in clashes over the past several months.

Worse is yet to come. Lacking legitimacy and representing only a fraction of the populace, the Maduro regime will rely on the final backstop of violent suppression. It is now the worst crisis in a major country in the Western Hemisphere since the heights of the Colombian civil war in the 1990s and 2000s.

There is no easy remedy to Venezuelas agony. If mediation were the solution, the country never would have gotten to this pass. Endless negotiations between the government and the opposition have gone nowhere the organized-crime syndicate that has seized power under the banner of revolution knows it has no option but to retain its hold on power by any means necessary.

The US needs to use every economic and diplomatic lever to undermine the regime and build an international coalition against it. We should impose more sanctions on specific officials and on the state-run oil company; we should advertise what we know about the details of how Chavistas park their ill-gotten gains abroad; we should nudge our allies to further isolate the Venezuelan government by pulling ambassadors and breaking diplomatic relations.

The hope is that with enough pressure, the regime will crack and high-level officials will break with Maduro, weakening his position and making a negotiated restoration of democratic rule possible.

In the meantime, the Bolivarian Revolution is proceeding according to its sick logic and there will be blood.

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Venezuela: a nation devoured by socialism - New York Post

Payton Walker , WCNC 10:24 AM. EDT August 02, 2017

Photo courtesy of Cindi Williams Photography in Coppell, TX

COPPELL, TX --Cops are usually the ones to shut a party down, butDeputy Constable Mark Diebold came to start one up.

The Texas officer had a tea party with little Evelyn Hall to celebrate the anniversary of her entrance into the world, something Dieboldplayed a big part in just one year ago.

"She loved clinking her little tea cup with him. They had a bonding moment there for sure," mother Destiny Halltold ABC News.

"Mark Diebold, without a doubt, is one of the most genuine, loving, thoughtful and caring [people] we have ever met. He is quick to think of others, and we are so blessed to call him friend and family."

In the early morning hours of July 18, 2016, Destiny went into labor. As her husband Caleb Hall raced to the hospital, they were pulled over by Diebold.

Learning the situation, Diebolddid his part in helping the Halls get there. He turned on his sirens and escorted the couple, but Destiny realized she wasn't going to make it.

"She said 'Pull over, I'm having the baby!' and I said, 'No!'" Caleb told ABC News."When she told me that it was happening, we were behind Officer Diebold, and he had his lights and sirens going. I kind of had a small glimpse of hope that maybe we would make it."

But baby Evelyn wasn't waiting any longer. The couple pulled over to a gas station where Diebold helped deliver their little girl. She was thenphotographed with Diebold's badge in honor of the role he played.

"It was amazing," Diebold told ABC News. "It was heartfelt, and it was a big deal. That photo shoot reminded me that [police work] is what I need to keep doing until it's my time to stop."

And Evelyn's latest photo shoot with Dieboldis now having that same heartwarming effect on people across the country.

"Evelyn's birth has blessed us in countless ways, but our friendship with the Diebolds is one of the biggest ones," Destiny said.

2017 WCNC.COM

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Cop attends tea party to celebrate first birthday of girl he helped deliver - WCNC

MARIETTA Georgias newly elected Congresswoman Karen Handel said there is frustration among her House colleagues over a dearth of media coverage regarding the good work they have accomplished with President Donald Trump.

Its unfortunate in the world of the media right now. Many outlets now, their compensation package is based on clicks to an article, and that puts intense pressure to have the most salacious things that you can cover, Handel said. And I dont necessarily put that in the lap of the individual reporter as much as I do with the management at a particular media outlet.

The Roswell Republican made her remarks during a special meeting of the Marietta-based Georgia Tea Party. The Monday evening event, held at the Cobb GOP headquarters, was by invitation only and saw a turnout of about 70. Yet Handel said she prefers speaking to constituents through such town hall-style formats rather than through the media, anyway.

Because I frankly think you are a much better messenger out in the community than some of the news outlets, she said.

Her comments were spurred by an attendee who said the good things that were being accomplished by Republicans were being overshadowed by the presidents Twitter messages.

What are your colleagues trying to say or do or tell him that hey, you need to let this good news come out and then tweet or something later? the man asked her, noting that just when a large company announces 10,000 new jobs, the news is consumed by the presidents tweet banning transgender people from military service.

What are your colleagues saying? Because it is a real problem, he said.

Handel said shed addressed the issue before.

I think I was pretty clear in the campaign that I was really interested in a new Twitter policy, but I dont know, I dont run the com shop, she said.

THE CAMPAIGN

On issues closer to home, the congresswoman gave a shoutout to Cobb Commissioners JoAnn Birrell and Bob Ott, both of whom were present, not just for their support, but for voting down a proposed county property tax increase last week.

They went to bat for Cobb County, Handel said to applause.

When all the money in the race for the 6th Congressional District seat was tallied, it amounted to about $60 million, an amount Handel called obscene. Of that sum, Democrats spent $40 million, Handel said. Her Democratic opponent in the runoff, Jon Ossoff, raised about $30 million with the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee giving him an additional $10 million infusion, she said.

Handel said she raised and spent $6 million with about $10 million from outside groups. The remaining $4 million came from the other Republicans in the race.

In terms of the keys to winning, first, just a little suggestion: you ought to live in your district in which you are asking the people to let you represent. So I think that at the end of the day ended up being a pretty pivotal issue, Handel said, referring to how Ossoff didnt live in the 6th District.

Handel introduced some of the staff shes hired to date, which includes her district director, Ashley Jenkins of east Cobb, a former member of the Sandy Springs City Council; her deputy director, Donovan Head, who is also from Cobb and formerly with U.S. Rep. Austin Scotts office; her Washington, D.C. scheduler, Ashley Dalton; and her chief of staff, Muffy Day.

DIVING IN

One big milestone was hit last week, Handel said. I managed to get everywhere I needed to go the entire week, and I did not get lost once.

Handels committee assignments include the Judiciary Committee and Education and the Workforce.

Handel said something curious shes found in the House is the enormous number of bills shes been asked to cosign.

Call me crazy, but I really like to read the bills that Im going to put my name onto. And its kind of interesting to me. Youre sitting on the floor during votes and randomly people just walk up, and they have a little card about this big (saying), Here, can you cosign this bill? Well, no, not right now.

Handel said she is busy reading the bills first.

One she has cosigned, sponsored by U.S. Rep. Ann Wagner, a Missouri Republican, allows for states and victims to fight the advancement of online sex trafficking. Since January, the U.S. House has been one of the most active House chambers in history, she said, passing over 270 bills, many of them bipartisan.

Handel mentioned the National Defense Authorization Act, which included the largest pay raise in eight years for service members 2.4 percent.

Commissioner Birrells husband, Dave Birrell, commented on this, saying he hoped Handel realized that was not enough for the military, something Handel agreed with.

A SLUGGISH SENATE?

Handel also spoke of the historic regulatory relief that came with the Houses passage of the REINS Act, or Regulations from the Executive in Need of Scrutiny Act. When an agency issues rules, the act allows ample opportunity for those affected by those rules to have input, something that wasnt there before, Handel said.

One audience member asked where the REINS Act was now.

Its in the Senate, Handel said.

Congress has a technical procedure called a Congressional Review Act where it allows Congress to roll back what is considered overreach on the regulatory front. The House has acted on 15 Congressional Review Acts, of which 14 have been signed by Trump, she said.

And while the press was focused on other things, Handel said the Main Street Relief Act was passed to replace Dodd-Frank.

What is the status of that act, another attendee wanted to know, prompting a momentary pause from Handel.

There are a lot of bills awaiting the Senates attention, she said.

Indeed, Senate inaction seemed to be a theme of the evening.

Georgia Tea Party has talked about this for years, said Jim Jess, the groups vice chairman, noting the Senates use of the filibuster grinds business to a halt.

The institutional filibuster that they have in the Senate, basically they can say I filibuster and not even talk and everything stops. Thats wrong. That needs to be fixed, Jess said.

BORDER SECURITY, TAX REFORM

Last week, Handel said, the House passed an appropriations package that included the largest investment in border infrastructure and technology upgrades in a decade.

The president, with the help of the House, is moving forward on the promises he made, she said, noting Kates Law calls for stiffer penalties on deported felons who return and commit crimes while the No Sanctuary for Criminals Act will provide more resources to fight sanctuary policies and punish rogue cities.

Increasing funds for border security technologies and infrastructure improvements is key to reducing illegal immigration and stopping the flow of drugs, she said.

On the health care front, Handel expressed extreme disappointment with the Senate for failing to pass a health care bill.

Im hopeful that the Senate has a couple of procedural options that they can pursue to bring the issue back up, she said. Open enrollment is going to begin either in mid-October or first week in November, and folks, premiums are still going up at an astronomical rate, while doctor choice continues to decline because of the number of insurance companies not participating in the exchanges. This is unacceptable.

The next step in the House is tax reform. A task force composed of members of the House, Senate and White House is meeting, united in a framework of what the reform will look like.

The goal is to get the rates as low as we can possibly get them while still maintaining what we can do on the revenue side, she said. On the rate side, first and foremost its not just going to be corporate tax cuts, there will be individual tax cuts, including tax cuts for the middle class because we have got to have that. Its going to be tax cuts for small businesses so that small businesses can compete with large companies and tax reductions for large companies so they can be competitive on the global front. And permanent repeal of the death tax, she said to applause.

Jess is a fan.

Karens a solid person. She has solid values. And I think shes going to make a great member of Congress to represent the 6th District, he said after the meeting. If you think back, this district has been represented by some stellar individuals, and I would say we have another one.

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Karen Handel on the media, the campaign and the road ahead - MDJOnline.com

Sen. Jeff Flake is among the most endangered Republicans running for reelection next year. But he's not exactly acting like it.

The senator from Arizona unleashed a searing criticism Tuesday of President Trump and, more significantly, the GOP's unwillingness to confront the chaos at the White House.

Republicans, he writes in his new book, are in "denial."

"Too often, we observe the unfolding drama along with the rest of the country, passively, all but saying, Someone should do something! without seeming to realize that that someone is us," Flake writes in "Conscience of a Conservative."

"And so, that unnerving silence in the face of an erratic executive branch is an abdication, and those in positions of leadership bear particular responsibility."

Such frank criticism of ones own party is an unusual approach in Washington, and some are heralding Flake as a voice of reason in a Congress where most Republicans have been hesitant to confront Trump, especially in states the president won.

But its actually not surprising coming from the first-term senator, who was never a Trump fan. Flake has always been a bit of an outlier in his more than 16 years in Congress.

Flake is channeling his state's rich tradition as Western outsiders, a mash-up of Barry Goldwater's conservative legacy and, more recently, the dramatic return of Sen. John McCain to cast the deciding Republican no vote last week that doomed the GOP's Obamacare overhaul. Flake voted for the plan.

Second only to Nevada's Sen. Dean Heller as the most at-risk Republican in the 2018 midterm election, Flake certainly risks alienating Trump voters he will need next year to win reelection.

But Flake also appears to be calculating that Arizonas independent streak and its shift toward becoming a swing state will reward his McCain-like straight talk or that at least he will be defeated having had his say.

Certainly it's not the easiest path to reelection, Flake told PBS Charlie Rose, acknowledging his low net approval ratings in polls. It makes some people upset, but I felt it was important enough to do.

Flake said, "We politicians have to recognize that there are some things that are more important than reelection.

First elected to the House in 2000 and a strict fiscal conservative, Flake was tea-party-minded long before the rise of the tea party, railing against government spending and waste as a leading budget cutter in the House.

But he also comes from a Mormon tradition of missionary service, having worked for years in Africa. He has adopted a more welcoming attitude to immigrants than many in his party, and was part of the so-called Gang of Eight senators who drafted the 2013 immigration overhaul.

During the early days of Trump's fiery campaign trail rhetoric, Flake delivered a speech during Friday prayers at an Arizona mosque. He traveled to Cuba during the Obama administration, favoring more open relations.

Flake was among just a few Republicans in Congress who didn't vote for Trump, and has been more willing to speak out against White House policies.

In his book, excerpted first in Politico, he lambastes colleagues who were quick to attack President Obama in hopes of making him a one-term president but who today have "maintained an unnerving silence as instability has ensued."

"To carry on in the spring of 2017 as if what was happening was anything approaching normalcy required a determined suspension of critical faculties. And tremendous powers of denial," he writes.

Those sentences are a not-so-subtle swipe at party leaders, including Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), who orchestrated that strategy, which Flake indirectly argues left Republicans bereft of their own policy ideas.

McConnell dismissed questions Tuesday, saying he had not yet read the book.

Ill get around to it at some point, McConnell said.

Flake acknowledges he shares blame, accepting some responsibility for his own willingness to duck the hard questions over Trump.

"Ive been sympathetic to this impulse to denial, as one doesnt ever want to believe that the government of the United States has been made dysfunctional at the highest levels, especially by the actions of ones own party," he writes.

"But it was also a monumental dodge. It would be like Noah saying, 'If I spent all my time obsessing about the coming flood, there would be little time for anything else.' At a certain point, if one is being honest, the flood becomes the thing that is most worthy of attention. At a certain point, it might be time to build an ark."

What remains unclear, though, is how many fellow Republicans might follow his lead.

Republicans in recent weeks have shown some willingness to chart their own course or confront the White House, including passing a Russia sanctions bill, though the package also sanctioned Iran and North Korea.

Flakes colleague McCain and two other Republicans resisted Trumps insistence that they pass the healthcare bill, and many have also warned Trump against firing Atty. Gen. Jeff Sessions.

Another Trump critic, fellow Republican Sen. Ben Sasse of Nebraska, also declined to back the president, but he prefers to troll Trump on Twitter rather than in public debate.

For now, that leaves Flake among the few GOP lawmakers who openly have spoken so critically about Trump and the situation in the White House.

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Sen. Jeff Flake is one Republican willing to take on President Trump and his party's 'denial' - Los Angeles Times