We’ll get to Down The Rabbit Hole, “It’s A Wrap” in just a minute but first, the moment we’ve all been waiting for…well, not really but anyway…CNE (electoral council) has announced that campaigning can officially begin for the November elections. There are a lot of stories swirling around but maybe the most important one is what’s not happening. Since Chavismo threw it’s temper tantrum over the extradition of Alex Saab and walked away from the Mexico talks with the opposition, where one of the key points of contention was holding free and fair elections, where does that leave us? As usual the Chavistas are putting mixed messages out there. Maduro assured us there would be no “Puntos Rojos”, his parties ubiquitous red tents of intimidation, that are located outside each polling location. And yet in the trial run a couple of weeks ago they were there, right outside 85% of the voting centers.

 Does anybody remember the Carter Center telling us they would be monitoring those electoral drills? Well, we’ve had no word from them on the “puntos rojos” or the other obvious obstructions to free and fair elections and yet they have announced they will deploy a six person team to observe the elections consisting of four experts and two carter Center staffers. They went on to explain in great detail what they would and wouldn’t be doing and what they would have for us after the elections were over. If it’s anywhere near as comprehensive as their monitoring of the drills already held, well, I can hardly wait.

 And just to make sure everyone knows that “big brother” will be paying attention, Maduro’s Communications Minister warned they are looking at creating a surveillance team for social media for the November elections. Did he really even have to say that?

 Oh, and I can’t wait to see how things are handled with the observation mission being sent by the EU. Especially after it came out that Borrell’s staffers advised him against sending a mission since the minimum requirements for such a mission had not been met. Each statement welcoming the “independent” observers, and reiterating Chavismo’s commitment to transparency is followed by something like this: CNE board member Tania D’Amelio says that observers of the election must “respect the process of sovereignty.”  I’m not sure exactly what that means but they’ve come out with a lot of similar statements that seem to lay the groundwork for showing the observers what they want them to see.

 Somewhat lost in all this is that,as we’ve previously covered, most of the election fraud by the Chavistas has already occurred with the barring of candidates etc. Not lost in all this is CNE board member telling us that any documents to activate a Maduro recall must be presented after January 10, 2022. Would that be after all the Chavistas have been fraudulently elected and can effectively quash it?

 And what would a news day be without at least something about one of the extraditees. (my spell check tells me extraditee isn’t a word but I kinda’ like it) WLRN reports that Alex Saab was also involved in Venezuela government housing fraud to the tune of billions of dollars. It describes him as ” a wizard at financial fraud – embezzlement,bribery,currency manipulation,and then hiding the ill-gotten proceeds all over the world.”

 On that note, let’s head Down The Rabbit Hole….

 …So what is 21st Century Bolivarian Socialism today? Functionally it is a bloated, inefficient,corrupt,bureaucratic nightmare, over burdened throughout with people in their positions due to ideological loyalty rather than ability.Bit by bit all the rights of the Venezuelan people have been stripped away until they now live under an authoritarian dictatorship that bears no resemblance to a democratic form of government. Much like the Cuban form of government, it’s sole purpose, as it has been from the beginning,is self-perpetuation and serves only itself and not the people it claims to serve. It is a kleptocratic, narco-mafia state that is replete in every area with criminals and thugs who all richly deserve to be in jail.

 It is a far cry from how 21st Century Bolivarian Socialism was supposed to be and how it was represented both to it’s people and the world. It was supposed to be “the new model of government” that really could deliver everything to everyone including total equality and freedom from the oppressors, the oligarchs,the elitists. It was embraced and endorsed by people and governments all over the world. As the people of Venezuela would learn over the two decades of Chavismo, what we saw in the quote from “The International” was exactly how things would unfold. They were told what they wanted to hear. When it became clear that wasn’t going to work out they were told what they wanted to (were willing to) believe. When it became clear that wasn’t going to work out they were told everything else. When it became clear that none of this was going to work out they finally learned the truth…and, unfortunately for them, it was too late to do anything about it.

 Venezuela is a manifestation of what happens when we forget things we all used to accept as fundamental truths. You know,all those things you hate to hear growing up then later found them all to be true.Things like “There is no free lunch”, “If something seems too good to be true it probably is”, “Don’t believe everything you hear” and so on. The reality is, when they say “the old rules don’t apply”, they do. If you’re thinking ” That could never happen here”, think again.You would be well served to remember that insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results and more importantly DON’T DRINK THE KOOL-AID!

So there you have it. And it only took us five months to get through it. We’ll be back Monday but until then…Have A Great Weekend Everybody!!