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-UE
Comments
Glenn, about your earlier question, opposition mayors govern over only 33.6% of the population, while officialist mayors govern 64.6% of the population. That's not counting the Metropolitan Mayorship (or its parallel institution), as I think it's the sensible decision, but counting it makes it so that about 6.6% of the population is under mayors of both tendencies (and about 4.4% with two opposition mayors), making it 40.2% vs. 64.6%.
(Also, reading my post with the macro above, I see that it can be taken the wrong way. Gaceck, if you felt that macro was directed towards you and not your chavist persona, sorry!)
Don't worry, I know it couldn't have been me, there were like four words that I failed to misspell.
Yeah, but it could also be taken in a "he actually thought that was a good post" kind of way.
I was in a terrible mood when I wrote most of this so this entry will be more virulent than usual.
The extraofficial inflation for November (usually reliable) sets it at 4%. Counting since December, this means Maduro's non-government has almost been the one with the highest average annualized inflation in Venezuela's history (fudged numbers aside), runner up to that of President Rafael Caldera's (1994-1999), an administration that saw rock bottom oil prices and an economic reform (and its record high annual inflation) due to circumstances that would make it much more punishing now, that by some accounts would in one year surpass all from Caldera's administration (composite).
Standards & Poor reduced Venezuela's qualification from B to B-, or one step above junk bond. Moody's reduced it to Caa-, or junk bond.
Governor Aristóbulo: "To any mayor who who says that they don't recognise Maduro as president, I'll mount a parallel government on that municipality."
Also, Capriles' insistence on dialogue with the regime is getting on my nerves. I hope it's just another electoral maneouver of them and not some backhanded MUD move. Anyhow, the dialogue between oppostion mayors and Maduro is happening right now, and he wasn't invited. It's left a sour taste on many oppositors who saw it as legitimization. Whatever, I see it as pretending he's not a hateful bastard bent on imposing his totalitarist dogma, an image he'll need for the incoming economic fuckup his ideology caused. He also used the opportunity to justify the sudden raise in gasoline prices. Whatever, they're not to negotiate with. I'll note that some mayors (and governor Henry Falcón) were very firm in that this dialogue is not some gift granted to them but his responsibility as someone who pretends to govern the country, and denouncing other bullshit like the parallel institutions, and good to see many of them dance around the word "president", and of course, they also talked about local issues that will amount to nothing. And Goddamnit Eveling. I'll post further notes later, they aren't interesting but I want them for future reference.
Vice President Arreaza also told "usurers" to get off the country.
My own brother tried to pull that shit on me one once.
And then there's Henry Ramos Allup (political dinosaur, general secretary of Democratic Action, another major party) criticizing oppositors who stood up for those merchants, plus other bullshit. As if there weren't enough reasons to hate him.
Reading some negative stuff foreign leftists have to say about nowadays Venezuela, I'd like to remind the world that Chávez and the PSUV were the international left's protegees and as such the PSUV and Maduro are worthy representatives of the international left and the values they espouse, that is: socialism, totalitarism, corruption, poverty, militarism, servilism, imperialism, sectarism, confrontation, polarization, demagogy, populism and a long etc. That's what they've had in store for us since the 60s, that is what they stand for, even though they may deny it, the same way they deny having supported Robert Mugabe, the USSR, and miscellaneous world filth.
Also, it sometimes comes to my mind that not all far-leftists and their collaborationists are evil, naïve or just plain filth, but then I remember the early Great Patriotic Pole and the Constituent Assembly and figure that exceptions are negligible.
And finally, I will confess that I've been thinking about Presidents Rómulo Betancourt's (1959-1964) and Raúl Leoni's (1964-1969) policy of having socialists dropped off of helicopters (for being enemies of democracy). Controversial, but they knew what they had to do, and that's why they were great presidents
(I will admit, though, Betancourt is a fine example of a socialist who can rectify.)
On second thought, I think I'll keep those notes to myself, those I talked about in that post above. I've never felt so anti-MUD as now, and I've had my episodes. I mean, it's one (expectable) thing to try to avoid confrontation, but it's another to suck up to Maduro.
Credit where credit is due: Antonio Ledezma, Henry Falcón, David Smolansky, Daniel Ceballos and Gerardo Blyde were firm on where the central government's authority ends, and Carlos Ocariz, Alfredo Ramos and some others who stood up for their electorate without standing against their country.
At the very least Eveling accidentally called Maduro the devil.
I'm sure just like last elections this will find its way to be interpreted in dozens of different ways.
Ahhh, I truly let my radical side show up on that post above, didn't I? (And my Betancourt gushing?) Consider it to be an outburst of seven years of pent-up frustration fueled by fifteen years of political abuse, treachery and verbal violence in an historical background of permisibility for their excesses since the 70s. As you've probably guessed, I haven't taken it well, to say the least.
Anyhow, the infighting (outfighting?) within the Democratic Unity Roundtable is kind of impressive. Oh well. At the very least it seems that what I wished about greater integration with civil society is a generalized opinion in and out of it.
The usual criticism about the opposition's Country Project has been brought up more often recently (the criticism comes in many forms: that it doesn't have any, that the one it portrays is too similar to the reds ("We can do better!") or that what they present is inconsistent between its different sectors (after all, it's a coalition of dozens of parties).
Hopefully the MUD (or whatever it'll be called) will come out stronger after the dust settles.
I should probably add that a society-wide-oppository-organization actually did exist once, back when opposition parties might as well not have existed and the rest of the opposition was kind of crazy. Well, it's a different world now, so...
Edit: Oh yeah, and the Central Bank still refuses to reveal inflation numbers. Are they that terrible?
And that's it for news. I don't know how much the lack of news has to do with not much happening and how much it has to do with me not paying as much attention to national on-goings, which I think has been doing me good, and that's because it's been a really crazy year, crazy even for Venezuela's standards, short but stressful nonetheless. In a nutshell this is what's happened, consider this a Year's End post:
* That weird feel of not knowing what's up with the president's health.
* The "constitutional coup" by Maduro's swearing in as acting president, accentuating he above.
* The exacerbation of our scarcity problems, including the then-recent currency scarcity.
* Chávez burning in communist hell.
* The exacerbation of Chávez' personality cult.
* A really bizarre campaign with birdies, socialist sanitary napkins, cancer innoculation, etc. And shall I say, it felt historical.
* After nine years of controversies, opposition parties finally aknowledge fake voters openly.
* Huge protests over it, nasty repression, and Capriles' controversial call off of it.
* Zig-zagging radicalization-deradicalization of the revolution.
* Silencing opposition deputees, then literally beating them up (with a couple fighting back).
* Mario Silva's audio, or how much of a sea of shit socialism is, by one of its greatest exponents. If you're wondering, that same day during his program Mario explained that the audio was a montage by the Mossad using a spy plane to gather recordings then rearranging them to make the audio, and that he had to get a spleen operation and would be back next week thirty weeks ago. Whatever they innoculated on him must've been nasty.
* Globovisión's buyout.
* Wilmer Ruperti's and Heliodoro Quintero's audio (protobolibourgeois and treacherous oppositor respectively), or how to make socialism profitable. If you're wondering, the only thing that came out of it was that Heliodoro Quintero was kicked out of A New Era.
* The exacerbation of our galloping inflation.
* María Corina's audio, or an "unelectoral way out" for Maduro and how ununited the Democratic Unity Roundtable really is. If you're wondering, later that day she came out to back up her statements.
* Toilet paper scarcity.
* The exacerbation of "homeland" ("patria") as a sarcastic oppository counterpart to officialist rethoric using it, specially after "What do you want? Homeland? Or toilet paper?" by Elias Jaua (the Kerry fanboy I've posted a couple times.)
* The exacerbation of socialist cynism.
* The exacerbation of socialist scapegoating and how socialists don't, have never, will never, at any point in history, anywhere, aknowledge socialism's faults.
* Economic war, electrical war, cybernetic war, major states, revolutionary offensives, worker militias, and all in all exacerbation of socialist military rethoric. If you're wondering, nothing came out of worker militias except some ads, and much mockery since they look ridiculous. I guess as many were saying, the Armed Forces had issues with it.
* The Vice-Ministry of Supreme Social Happiness.
* The quest for Deputee 99.
* The most serious-business municipal elections campaign ever.
* Political violence, including disappearings and trying to burn Capriles' bus of progress while he was inside.
* "Don't leave anything on storeshelves" and subsequent lootings.
* The meeting with Maduro and a bunch of MUD's newly elected mayors.
* Whatever else I'm forgetting.
* A bunch of pending questions for 2014, the only certainties being that it will be much more stressful, with the accentuation of our economic woes, radicalization, and of course, more repression, and it will also be the year that'll decide the nation's fate in the long term.
Image version
(He won't be back!)
(Note how much theirs don't look like victory faces.)
(Image precedes the actual silencing, but still gives you a picture of more or less what happened.)
Warning: Blood.
(Note: The ones with shirts are the parasitic bourgeoisie, the ones with suits are the revolutionary socialists.)
So like I said, I haven't been paying as much attention lately, and I intend to keep it that way, for reals this time. It's good for my mental health, ya know?
Heh heh heh, I threw "communist hell" into Google, and look whom I got (BTW communist hell would be bad, but there are constant shortages of fire and brimstone, and the devils are slacking off on the prodding).
(edit: you know what, I've cut the bile.)
What does cutting a roll of toilet tissue mean? Is it supposed to mean poverty?
Also, does Venezuela do the "paint your little finger" thing to mark whether you've voted?
And -_- @ ambulance taking down (or putting up?) voting signs.
Cutting a roll of toilet tissue is, seems like, a "better laugh than weep" kind of joke about these shortages he mentions. I found it pretty funny myself.
Yeah, I totally know what you mean by that. And yeah, I figured it was something about poverty or food shortages in general.
It's about toilet paper scarcity in particular. Although I should mention that toilet paper is not that scarce (it's not under price controls). On the other hand, I miss milk.
Yes. Why? Isn't that the same mostly everywhere?
Putting up ads, yeah.
Edit: Huh, apparently election ink isn't that common. You learn something new every day.
Edit edit: Also, if you're wondering about reds wearing tricoloured caps too, the ones with a red-and-black "4F" on the blue part are officialist caps.
Yeah, election ink is not really a thing here in the US; I've mostly only seen it on TV when people talked about, say, the Iraqi and Egyptian elections.
That's crazy. Without it you can't show off your purple pinky finger around or post photos of it on the internet.
I also did that search and also got him but better because it's in his M. Bison outfit.
So it was January 23rd a couple days ago, anniversary of the downfall of General Marcos Pérez Jiménez' militaristic regime after a mass revolt, and unofficial democracy day. Fun fact: The MUD was conceived exactly 50 years after that.
So a small update:
Also I made this:
Explanations:
So, it's February 4th, anniversary of the day the supersupreme hypergalactic commander betrayed the nation, killed dozens of Venezuelans and tried to disrupt constitutional order and destroy democracy, failing "for now", all under the cheers from the far-left (but what else is new) and from many not-far-leftists, misguided by the economical/political situation of the era and looking for a quick solution.
(Actually, the coup began the day before, but whatever.)
Pics (Trigger Warning: casualties) and couple historical videos even though you can't understand: Chávez' surrender announcement and first public appearance (tl;dw: he accepts responsibility over something for the first and only time ever) and the relevant part of President Rafael Caldera's speech that day that relaunched his political career (tl;dw: the coup happened for a (now amplified) reason, or at least with a pretext, and rectification is needed).
Small confession: President Caldera's incoming second government (as Caldera) was terrible and he in many important ways indirectly contributed to this whole revolution mess, including that speech, but he's the only one for whom I have first-hand memories of having been our president pre-Chávez, and as such I can't bring myself to hate him or even dislike him, not one bit.
As for actual news (I've started reading them again, I'll try to fix that):
Can I ask a sincere question?
How do I come off when I go on one of those little rants? You know, like the "spiteful hatred" one above, plus others. Do I come off as too irrational?
In light of recent events I've been thinking...
You're giving it the appropriate amount of vitriol while still lampshading the absurdity. It's a good read.
Oh, I'm sure it's a blast watching me lash out at stuff, that's not what I mean. I mean if it seems like I'm letting my visceral hatred cloud my judgment of things, or if it seems as if I'm harboring an unhealthy amount of resentment over all this.
Sometimes, briefly, it feels that way.
I'm going to take from that silence that it's a question only I can answer.
Oh well. Meanwhile, I'll keep using this thread to put my thoughts in perspective, it's easier when writting them down. There's also some stuff I'm waiting for the right time to let out, but, well, I'm waiting for the right time to let out.
Today (12th) is Youth Day. For some reason I've taken the habit of updating on anniversaries:
Welp, today's marches were pretty huge, and things seemed to have been going fine (mine had concluded, even), then thugs and violence and shootings. One confirmed dead plus various wounded. On-going.
Maaaan, it's pretty damn hard to tell what's going on. Twitter is confusing, I can't access internet TV channels, and national TV... well, for all intents and purposes I'm considering "neutral" TV channels to be complicitly silent.
I know that one officialist (the guy above) and one student have been killed, and the General Republic's Prosecutory's office has been damaged.
Assuming eutv.net is as reliable as its newspaper, the officialist who got killed was a policeman and member of one of those officialist thug gangs ("collectives") who died in a confusing situation of conflict between said gang and the student group.
I've also heard a lot that another student was killed, though unconfirmed.
The government had cable operators cut off NTN24's signal, a Colombian news channel that did what no Venezuelan channel did, cover these events throughly.
It's going to be long days ahead.
Another confirmed dead. There's been scattered protests throughout the day with lots of burning tires and gunshots and shit.
Also, this was Bassil da Costa's last facebook comment (the murdered student):
Translation:
There's a captivity order for Leopoldo.
Esto es triste y preocupante.
Sí que lo es.
I feel kind of lost, I can't tell for sure if there's going to be another protest today nearby, and if so, where and when, so I just kinda followed up on the only featured convoking message on Twitter I found and wasted time and energy at it. This is one of those times I regret being new at this active opposition thing. The only thing I can tell is that beyond lots of people talking about what's going on, this looks like just a normal day. I wonder if the government succeeded at dissuading protests...
Also, as with many things, I can't tell from a truly reliable source how true this is, but there's been lots of claims of missing students, you know, just like during the Night of Pencils.
Night of what?
Pencils. tl;dr: Jorge Videla's militaristic regime in Argentina kidnaps, tortures and in most cases, murders protesting students.
Holy mother of god.