Before we get to our Down The Rabbit Hole Segment we have a few news items, the first couple we will view through our BS Translator.

First up we have Telesur (government media) reporting that Venezuela’s Energy Minister says there has been another incident of electric sabotage claiming they are victims of an “electric war.”

 BS Translator – Through our neglect and mismanagement the electric grid has been so degraded that these blackouts will continue…well… forever.

 Telesur also had something from the Foreign Affairs Minister. He asked CELAC (An organization of Latin American and Caribbean states formed by Hugo Chavez in 2010 to counter the OAS, without US influence) for support against US sanctions. “These coercive measures are incomprehensible amid the economic recession prompted by the Covid-19 pandemic.”

 BS Translator – We know that nobody is buying our claim of being a victim of ‘economic war’ anymore so we’re playing the humanitarian “Covid-19 card.” note : Venezuela has been in recession every year since Maduro took power in 2013. He managed to get in a little “economic war” reference mentioning they were victims of ‘commercial and financial persecution’.

 His sentiment was echoed by the president of Maduro’s National Assembly (fraudulently elected), Jorge Rodriguez, brother of VP Delcy Rodriguez. (One thing the Chavistas are particularly good at is nepotism) We’re not sure who he is addressing or if it’s just “Rage against the machine”. “Enough hypocricy.If you want dialogue,release Alex Saab. If you want dialogue return our assets abroad and our gold (withheld  by Bank of England) which you stole.”

 BS Translator – We can’t have the architect of Maduro’s financial fraud talking to US authorities so just let him go. We also want our gold and other assets back since we’ve already stolen everything else. And don’t listen to those people that compare us to meth addicts ripping the wiring out of a house to get the copper to sell after selling everything else and burning the furniture for heat.

 Moving on, we have France 24 reporting that Jorge Arreaza, the PSUV (Chavista) candidate has been campaigning fervently in Barinas for the governor’s seat. You know, the one they stole from the opposition candidate after he surprisingly won. The Chavistas have held that seat since 1998 with Chavez’s father and two brothers holding office. One of Chavez’s relatives in Barinas said this,” Perhaps we were beaten by our own triumphalism.”

 We’ll have the results for you tomorrow although it’s hard to imagine the Chavistas will allow the opposition to win the same election twice.

 Now, Down The Rabbit Hole we go…

 Chapter 2 – Setting The Record Straight

 There’s a lot of talk these days about sanctions.North Korea,Iran,Russia,China,Cuba ….Before addressing the Venezuela sanctions I want to issue my disclaimer,the same one of which I always remind my family.For the most part, I’m not a fan of most politicians, hence, I was never really a Trump guy nor was I an Obama guy and so on. As a lifetime fan of history it seems most of “my guys” are dead. History is best served when you take the time to read what really happened,in as much as it’s possible,whether you like it or not,agree with it or not.

 That said, there has been a lot of misinformation (I’m burned out on the term “Fake News”) floating around that is being parroted by members of congress, the UN, and at least one or two prominent economists.The claim is that US sanctions are responsible for the deaths of over 40,000 Venezuelans.

 The first thing that strikes me about that statement is the number 40,000.If we’re talking about the number of Venezuelans that have died from malnutrition/starvation,lack of medicine/healthcare, suicide (yes,suicide),and other related issues in recent years I would have to say that number is way low.From what I’ve read the number is more like north of 300,000 and that’s not counting the 28,000 to 29,000 murders that occur every year.

 The next thing about that statement is it’s simplicity.All sanctions are not created equal and in order to understand the impact of the sanctions you have to know what they are and how long they have been in effect,right?

 The sanctions were initiated by Barack Obama in 2015. I guess most of the progressive crowd either don’t know or choose to overlook this fact.At that time the Venezuelan people were already dying from shortages of food and medicine. Food shortages were the most prevalent at the time and caused massive demonstrations in 2014 in which 40 people were killed, hundreds wounded, and thousands imprisoned as the government repressed the dissent.

 The Guarimba,as it was called, was exemplified by protesters carrying signs “Maduro, we’re hungry!” and some as simple as “Starvation!”.It was typically barricaded streets and burning tires, the common manifestation in Venezuela. The repression by the Maduro regime was brutal.

 More tomorrow….