Maduro is a fascist idiot, the worst kind because they are cruel by sport

Lorenzo Mendoza promoting his competition?
Harina PAN all alone in the middle....

So tonight finally I checked out a few headlines and sure enough there is just too many idiocies that I cannot go to bed until I vent a little bit with you guys.

Apparently Maduro has been making a total ass of himself. I mean, TOTAL, as in without possible redemption, total enough that we truly must wonder why in hell Chavez named him his heir. Heck!  Even Ramirez starts looking good in comparison.  However I must also say that the idiotic presentations of Maduro seem at least to come in big part from his totally inadequate staff. What we see this week is the result of what happens when dumb instructs idiot.

The Waldoniel bad weather trip

Bad weather requires comfort foods and this is on one is at one of my most hallowed joints, never missed.

The second picture cannot be nicer because I have not seen the sun in three days.  Still, you get the idea of the wilderness in Spring.

Announcement and open thread

Blogging will be very erratic for the next three weeks, thus....

Will the Venezuelan regime dare to put Polar on the scaffold? (or gallows, depending you local lingo)

I was on the road today and only tonight did I get the latest idiocies of the regime. This one must feel quite a lot of heat to consider taking over Polar, the largest private company in Venezuela, which today may represent about 4% of the GNP of Venezuela, a high number not because of any monopolistic intentions from Polar but because in a sea of bankruptcies and expropriations the Polar ship is somehow still afloat.

But first a little bit of background.

Catastrophic news for the regime: Inflation at 4.3% and RCTV revenge

The regime got two major knockdowns today.

Massive shortages of corn flour in Venezuela

Line at a La32, a Chinese everything joint

This week we have seen dramatic shortages of the Venezuelan basic staple, at least outside of Caracas and in low income social classes: corn flour.  Newspapers in Caracas are strangely silent about it but other papers like El Impulso of Barquisimeto are more vocal.  Yesterday and today driving around San Felipe I saw long lines of people. But today was top: in a single short errand I saw three, 3, long lines of people waiting for a single thing: Harina P.A.N., the most basic, well known staple of the Venezuelan kitchen, now available world wide except in Venezuela. I managed to take two pics for you, but that is not all.

El Impulso earlier this week was showing front page the ridiculous long line in a Barquisimeto location, but also, way more damming, how people were branded for their turn in line!!!  I am also putting these pictures at the end of this entry.

Maduro is looking for food.... A primer on food crisis in Venezuela

I am not making this up: Maduro, the pseudo-president of Venezuela has justified his trip to Uruguay with this excuse among others:

“Parte clave de la gira que yo arranco mañana (...) es para garantizar fortalecer nuevamente la reserva alimentaria de productos básicos de nuestro país a tres meses"
A key part of the tour I am starting tomorrow (...) is to guarantee to strengthen [sic] again the food reserve of basic products of our country for three months. (I am sorry, I cannot translate it any better, the guy cannot speak properly).

So many things wrong already there, not to mention that he also accused the private agricultural sector of hoarding and sabotaging the transition to socialism. Thus I suppose that I need to write a primer on food shortages in Venezuela as the one I did a few days ago for media.

The opposition challenges 2,320,490 votes of April 14 (15.4% votes cast, margin of victory 1.49% votes cast)

A few days ago Capriles challenged the whole election.

Today, there were quite a few voting centers which results of April 14 where directly challenged. In short, what the opposition demands is that the vote is repeated in those centers which are enough to not only reverse the result of last April but could give Capriles a better margin of victory than what Maduro claims (amen of the voters loss the regime has experienced in two weeks).

The brave new opposition leadership

On Sunday night it was mandatory for all who could watch it, the interview of Maria Corina Machado on Globovision, with Nitu Perez. Globovision knows when it has a hit, as it has already the 4 segments posted.

But what Maria Corina made me think of, beyond her obvious physical pain, her courage, and confirming the admiration I have for her since the 2012 primaries, is that she is just one more. Sure, right now after surgery and a swollen face she is number 1.  But she is not the lone hero (1)

Who minds the Realm?

The decomposition of the regime goes apace. These last couple of days we peeled off yet another myth: that Maduro had an inkling on diplomacy. After all, he had been Chavez foreign secretary for more than half a decade before been anointed. Surely he must have learned something. But after having clashed, unnecessarily  with Spain, he clashed with even less reason and potentially more damage with Peru, ending today with a special cadena trying to clash with Obama and linking him to the Devil. (1)

For foreign non-illustrated media and chavista supporters: chavismo media lock up

Since there is right now a cadena that silences a Capriles press conference that I was planning to live tweet, I decided that I might as well write the current situation of the media in Venezuela. Two reasons motivate me to do so.

The first one is that there are still idiotic (sorry, no other word applies) chavismo supporters overseas that repeat the old cliche that private media oppress the people and hide the news in Venezuela. Saddest part is that many journalists who should know better, who would never accept such a thing as a cadena at home, not only fail to report on the power abuse that cadenas are, but actually repeat the idiotic cliches over private control of media in Venezuela.

The other reason is that since so many people are working to denounce the current Venezuelan dictatorship, I thought I offer them a primer they can link too whenever convenient. So here it goes in clear, simple definitions.

The Maduro "election" is officially challenged (impugnada), and so is the electoral system

As promised we just read that the Henrique Capriles has officially challenged/impugnado the election of April 14. he did that by sending the Comando Simon Bolivar, his electoral organization, to the high court of Venezuela, TSJ, electoral hall, with a 180 pages document. The evidence will be introduced later, as the High court proceeds with the hearings.

But that is not all. The challenge is not only on the mere result: the opposition has challenged ALL the electoral process, from weeks before the election to the following days. what is on trial is not only the result of April 14, it is all the Venezuelan Electoral system. At long last.

What can we expect?