Maduro Sees Options Narrow; Western Nations Line Up Behind Trump in Battle Against South American Thug; With Updates on Ron Wyatt and Maryland in NCAA Basketball Tournament

BALTIMORE, Maryland Tuesday, March 19, 2019 - In Venezuela, a real true thug, not just some fool who acts like a thug, but a real dyed-in-the-wool evil thug, bounces into absolute control.  Now the 'good guys' running the Western World have banded together trying to figure out how to put him - 'him' being Nicolas Maduro - out to pasture.  And by 'out to pasture,' well, think about the way the French put Napolean out to pasture.

It's not that getting Maduro off the world stage is a problem for rocket scientists.  The challenge for the west is getting rid of the sadistic nut without seeming to be as bad as Maduro is.

Already, nice and civilized solutions have been suggested.  More than one nation has stepped forward and volunteered to take Maduro as a refugee of sorts; in other words allowing him to live there in a reasonably protected status, so long as he agrees to stay off of the world stage.  Predictably, a nut like Maduro turned this down.

[Not to change the subject, but some years back Bernie Sanders said nice things about Maduro and the socialist revolution he was running down there in Venezuela.  It was typical goofiness coming out of the mind and mouth of the USA's very own Anti-American.  As the years passed and the Maduro regime was knocking off its citizens by the truckload, people got back in touch with the Bernster and asked him if he was ready to walk that bit of pro-Maduro insanity back.  Bernie has refused.  He doesn't want to hear anything negative about the good socialist Maduro, not matter how many Venezuelans are slaughtered.  And this is the mindset Bernie wants to bring to the USA.  As the immortal Vin Scully once said, "socialism just doesn't work."

More recently, Bernie said a shower door jumped in front of him without giving fair warning.  The result, for the Socialist, was a black eye and other facial reminders.  The shower door said it doesn't even know Bernie and wants to keep it that way.]

Most of the Western World has declared that the far-more-respected and decent Juan Guaidó, the Venezuelan opposition leader,  is the real and recognized leader of the oil-rich South American nation.  Guaidó took the personally risky step of returning to Venezuela last week despite not-to-subtle threats from Maduro and his operatives to arrest his opponent and his family.  When Guaidó refused to be intimidated, Maduro backed down on his threat, at least for now.  In the meantime, however, Maduro has refused to allow shipments of humanitarian supplies, sent to thousands of starving Venezuelan citizens by President Trump, the French and other western nations, to enter the country.  Military types, deployed to border entry points in Venezuela by Maduro, have prevented the aid vehicles from entering Venezuela. 

Maduro gets his dwindling international support from those freedom-loving folk in Russia, China and Cuba.  

Guaidó took the personally risky step of returning to Venezuela last week despite not-to-subtle threats from Maduro and his operatives to arrest his opponent and his family.  When Guaidó refused to be intimidated, Maduro backed down on the threat, at least for now.  

There is no apparent end to this stand-off, at least not a peaceful one.  Thugs like Maduro don't have a history of going quietly into the night.

I am still a few days away from our report on Ron Wyatt.  If you are too curious to wait, there is plenty of material out there.  Unlike secular folk at places like Wikipedia - which does a real hatchet job on Wyatt - our report will be positive and an endorsement of his work.

And a word on the NCAA Tournament:  it is apparent that the Selection Committee did a fine job in picking and seeding the field.  Some choices are open to debate, of course.  I don't know that Maryland deserved so high a seed.  The Committee gave the Terps a sixth seed in the East, meaning that Maryland's first game will be against the winner of a play-in game tonight between Belmont and Temple.  It worries me that TV types have tapped Belmont as a Tournament Darling.  If Belmont gets by Temple - I think I'm the only pundit taking the Owls in tonight's game - that 'darling' tag will get totally out of control by Maryland's Thursday afternoon, 3:10 pm, tip-off. Tru TV will have the TV coverage of the game.

I hope, against hope, that Maryland Coach Mark Turgeon begins to put down those criticisms about his ability to prepare a team for the postseason.  Under Turgeon, the Terps have never gotten past the round of 16.  His record in the Big Ten Tournament is worse. There is a path for that to happen this year, but a lot of brackets will be shot down in the process.