Three left-wing dudes, chillin’…

/ June 9, 2015
cap_Fidel_FGonzalez

“Have the interior decorator shot…”

Look, I get it: Picking out any one bit of insanity appearing on Venezuelan State Propaganda and singling it out for special opprobium is kind of an artificial exercise. Yet I can’t help but feel that even by the deranged, psychopath-on-ketamine editorial standards of SiBCI, the campaign of character assassination unleashed against former Spanish Prime Minister Felipe González these last few days has been nothing short of obscene.

Day after day, on one propaganda broadcast after another, one of the elder statesmen of European Social Democracy has been slammed everything from privatizing utilities to running death squads. We’re talking about a guy who was with friendly terms with Chávez. A guy who cut his diplomatic teeth interceding with Augusto friggin’ Pinochet for the freeing of leftist political prisoners in Chile. That’s who SiBCI is branding an “ultrarightist”.

The scale of the Orwellian nonsense on display is breathtaking. These people don’t even have the presence of mind to realize perhaps it’s not a good idea to label one of the last few remaining actual anti-fascist resistance fighters, a guy who really did risk his life as leader of an outlawed political party in a clandestine struggle against a real fascist dictator as…what else?…a fascist.

The derp is strong with this one.

But the Cherry on Top, the final, insane curlicue of rhetorical nonsense in this entire festival of unhinged slander, was seeing Miguel Angel Pérez Pirela – of all the goddamn people – try to convince us that Felipe González is…wait for it…a drug kingpin!

To quote Michel Platini: enough is enough and too much is too much.

To see the coked up standard bearer of the regime Diosdado friggin’ Cabello runs slam anyone – least of all a guy like Felipe González – of drug trafficking is like seeing Pastor Maldonado round up three dozen little-old-ladies-who-only-ever-drove-their-car-to-the-store and marching them off to jail for reckless driving. It’s like seeing Rona del Valle Gómez demand that Columbia University posthumously strip Stephen Jay Gould of his PhD for rampant scientific illiteracy.

It’s like…actually, you know what, I’m not even going to finish that sentence. There’s no point. No simile I could possibly think up, no matter how far-fetched and overegged, could come anywhere near the scale of ridiculousness of hearing Pérez fucking Pirela acuse Felipe González of drug-running.

We’re beyond the realm of political propaganda here and onto a kind of zany plane of sheer dadaist communicational lunacy. The idea can’t be to manipulate public opinion, either domestic nor, heavin forbid, international, because no one with the slightest notion of how the world works could fail to see the lunacy in it all. In fact, what’s hard is trying to figure out what exactly chavismo thinks it could gain by acting this way.

It’s like having your propaganda served up by a Frankenstein’s monster stitched up out of Hunter S. Thompson and the Iraqi Minister of Information. It could almost be funny – and, at times, it still is. As long as you don’t actually think. Because when you do, you realize it’s not. It’s deeply, desperately unfunny.

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62 thoughts on “Three left-wing dudes, chillin’…”

    • The fallacy is that people mistakenly apply logic to this equation. The bottom line is you are dealing with people who think they are smarter than everyone else which is a horrendous trait in the leadership of a country (case in point – Obama). As a result they think they can say or do anything and have a explanation that they actually think will fool the great unwashed masses, yeah that’s the ticket! We are so smart that we can tell the country that night is day and day is night and they will believe us because of our superior intellect (LOL). History shows that only works for awhile because in relatively good times the people really don’t spend a whole lot of time thinking about what their leaders are saying and doing because their opinion of those great intelligent leader’s is quantum levels lower. The more these corrupt greedy politicians they think they can fool the people the more ridiculous they look. The only thing missing now is the clown suits. Coupled with their unbridled greed and you have a toxic combination that will ultimately destroy the country. The only consolation is that the more ridiculous their lies, the closer to their end they are.

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  2. Reblogged this on cautivadulce and commented:
    ¡Cuántos años de esta foto!
    Aunque no soy de Felipe González, pero creo que le queda algo carisma por esas tierras.

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  3. How about dubbing LL “el monstruo de Ramo Verde” as some one did this morning. Probably no worse than planting acetaminophen, though.

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  4. If you are not with me then you are against me.You are the worst enemy of the human kind and the reason for not having el relampago del catatumbo all year long.

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  6. ” The idea can’t be to manipulate public opinion, either domestic nor, heavin forbid, international, because no one with the slightest notion of how the world works could fail to see the lunacy in it all. In fact, what’s hard is trying to figure out what exactly chavismo thinks it could gain by acting this way.”

    The only reasons I can offer for this type of aberrant, beyond ridiculous propaganda are as follow:

    1/ It is not directed at you, or any half-educated, minimally informed human being on the planet.

    The audience for these other-worldly Lies, or “Super-Mojones del Mas Alla”, if you prefer plain Criollo verbiage clearly is the under-educated, minimally informed Venezuelan populace. Not the few clase-media alta left. Certainly not 90% of the people overseas who know exactly what Castro is, or Obama, or Felipe.

    Not even the poor, yet somewhat informed people left in Vzla, who are already obviously against Masburrismo, if nor against Chavismo yet. These people can read and write, some even have the Internet. Many can still read other opinions on large Papers like the Nacional or El Tiempo. They are not stupid, or completely brainwashed.

    No, the intended audience for “la Guerra de Las Galaxias de Ultra-Derecha contra el Pueblo Bolibanana” is a minority segment of the remaining Chavistas, enchufados, corrupt, employed directly by the Dictatorship (5 Million +) and the very poor, also bribed to some extent, very under-educated and ill-informed.

    THAT’s the audience for Masburrismos Lies from Outer Space. Say, for example, 10 Million, not more.

    They couldn’t care less about what the rest of the civilized world thinks and already knows. It’s the Revolucion Bullshit and Lies against all. Their fat multi-million dollar accounts, or perhaps years jail.

    They use any opportunity they get, or create any lies, to desperately bombard this particular audience.

    Right now it’s Felipe. Last week the Colombian connection..Before that the Obama list, etc.. Magnicidio attempts,, Anything to divert the news, and drill their message of “injerencia”, ultra-derecha, “imperialismo, ” guerra-economica..”

    To THAT specific, smaller audience.

    After all, all they need is minimum support: the 5 million they employ directly, plus 5 million under-educated and bribed too. A bogus “election”, manipulation of the seats, fire a few diputados, bribe some other ones, and wait for the Oil prices to hit 90$ again in a few years.

    That, repression, and the Military on their side. We’ll see.

    So don’t go nut trying to comprehend these Projectile Turds from Distant Galaxies (PTDG’s).

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  7. But just think what we missed. Had Maduro not gone down with an ear infection, it would be Pope Francis the drug-trafficker running fascist death squads.

    A propos of Felipe, though, I have a cherished memory of him addressing the masses in the Plaza de la Revolución in Managua on the first anniversary of the Sandinista revolution (oops, dropped the cédula). He was wearing a red-and-black revolutionary bandanna and his fellow speakers included Fidel Castro, Maurice Bishop and some Venezuelan dude .. Carlos Andrés something.

    I suppose it must have been at some later point that he took up fascism.

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  8. I was laughing as I read the whole article because of “Have the interior decorator shot…” Seriedad por favor :D

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      • I don’t know…the couch is so ugly that it is like art.

        On a serious note: haven’t you read the comments in El País on Gonzalez’s engagement in Venezuela?
        Some of the guys are Venezuelans but many are not. More than just the Podemos crowd really has this kind of chavista thinking and absolute ignorance or lack of perspective on their own Spanish affairs. I rdckon it is good enough for the chavista propaganda machine to address these people.

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        • And when contrasted with the dynamic rug, it is almost as if some indigenous artisan vomited Christmas throughout the weaving of those patterns.

          Odd that Fidel, in the military uniform, is the least camouflaged-capable person there.

          I wonder what is in the gift baskets (is that two, or three?) behind the couch. A signed edition of Open Veins? (Perfect for regifting at a later date)

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      • My wife had a dress with that pattern…………………

        Had as in 5 minutes ago.

        I just burned it.

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  9. I’m not sure this kind of character assassination propaganda ever exists to really convince individuals of any specific factual claims as much as it is to say “This guy is officially persona non grata. Don’t speak in favorable terms about him to your neighbors, and don’t even attempt a reasoned discussion with us about it. We’re not in the mood, so get lost if you don’t agree.”

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  10. I feel that Perez Pirela, the genius of “The Crossword Plot”, may not have you or me as the target audience. Maybe it’s either the powerfully ignorant or they’re preaching to the choir. Mental masturbation.

    I did see Jorge Rodríguez this morning calling Felipe a “murderer”. Made me think that, wow, these dudes are taking their guns at ANYONE who dares to criticise them. What do make of it, though? What does it means? Some say they’re nervous, I think it could be just, you know, they’re used to the attitude.

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  11. Because it serves their purpose to muddy waters and because that is what they are left to do and because they currently can…won’t always be the case though. “The Ministry of Peace concerns itself with war, the Ministry of Truth with lies, the Ministry of Love with torture and the Ministry of Plenty with starvation. These contradictions are not accidental , nor do they result from ordinary hypocrisy: they are deliberate exercises in doublethink”

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  12. I wonder if the reaction has a connection with clinical narcissism. Narcissists construct an elaborate and intricate construct of reality, a reality in which they have no fault or blame. If something/someone threatens even the smallest mote of this façade, it must be discredited or destroyed. Maybe this is group narcissism rather than political ploy. If I’ve actually discovered something here could we name it the TOR syndrome?

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    • It’s obviously a ploy, a deliberate propaganda plan. And let’s not credit Chavismo or Masburrismo too much: It’s the Cuban Script. 50+ years of Communist Propaganda Experience, over 5000 Cuban Mercenaries are Cubazuela’s Media advisors.

      As outlandish as this propaganda seems, it has worked for half a century in another under-educated country.

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  13. But it works, man. That’s the really sad part. Ask any red in Venezuela about Félipe González or any other person who has been targeted by the propaganda team, and they’ll give you the complete gibberish story exactly as it was broadcasted by the government. That it bears no relation to reality is besides the point. This is a tool to align the minds of the government’s supporters, and it works like a charm.

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    • It works only when people are Bribed, on the Dictatorship’s payroll, opressed, intimidated and especially, under-educated.

      This kind of propaganda would not work for a Week in Chile, or even Colombia, Costa Rica, etc.

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  14. I guess they think Gonzalez will go back to Spain and tell everyone how balanced the media are in Venezuela. You know, to help Podemos.

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    • Actually one of the very few good legacies of Chavismo has been to help countries like Spain and Brazil. Podemos is screwed thanks to its Chavista ties.Cubazuela has become the Worldwide Example of what NOT to do.

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      • I have long been pulling for Greece’s Syriza to make a total mess and have to leave the Euro. That should make it clear to Spaniards that bringing idiots like Podemos to power would be a disaster.

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    • Ooh, naughty naughty, Gonzalez has just left Venezuela for Bogota on a Colombian Presidential plane (without being allowed to see LL, of course), provoking a Maduro TV broadcast condemning this manner of exit, plus a calling on the carpet of the Colombian Venezuelan Ambassador for “explanations”. Of course, Colombia, in true mercantilistic fashion, will roll over once again to their heavy Venezuelan debts/trade, and Venezuela will continue not finding enough ways to make themselves an international pariah/laughingstock.

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  15. I think that to attribute to all who benefit from the govts largesse (or who depend on it for a job) being duped by all the regimes idiotic misinformation is to miss the mark. Lots of people inside the whale or exploiting their govt connections may be morally opportunistic but not stupid . They know the score as well as anybody but are carefully not to show it just to get by or continue receiving the rewards of a mostly venal relationship.

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  17. pana, if only to make you keep up these amazing rants, I hope pérez-fucking-pirela (as nauseating as he is) keeps up his deranged attacks against mr felipe gonzález

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  18. If you pay close attention, you will see that Chavismo always accuses its enemies of exactly the crimes of which they themselves are most guilty.

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    • Nice accurate observation , There is a saying is spanish : ‘Cada ladron juzga segun su condicion” , ‘each thieve judges others as he sees himself. , even Proust had a phrase which gave the same message although speaking of women of loose morals . They cant help but project who they are in the way they choose to insult others !!

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  19. Heh, now Mr. González’s a drug kingpin too? Only in pérez pirela’s world!

    Seriously, the guy’s such a bag of bullshit that not even his family could trust him when they ask what time of the day it is.

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  20. It’s important to notice that just a couple years ago personalities of the same caliber of Felipe González would go to Venezuela to assess the situation on the ground, and the regime would just shrug and go on with life as usual; Mario Vargas Llosa went to Venezuela not that long ago to speak about human rights there (I think it was last year), and the regime couldn’t bother less about his presence. The same Gonzáles went to Venezuela a couple times in the last years too, always without any issue… What makes me think that even though the Chavista ruling elite has always been lunatic, psycopathic and totally unpredictable, they would still manage to keep their composure and prefer some level of diplomacy toward influential and well-respected international figures. After all, they wanted to be seen as a normal country, they didn’t choose to become the hermit kingdom of Latin America. But now things seem to have changed drastically.

    Feeling the heat of Rome burning on their faces, they probably won’t spare even the pope if the circumstances call for that! Their despair may be a sign that they are reaching a dead end.

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  21. “has been slammed everything from privatizing utilities”

    That’s rich, really rich.

    Quico, you seem to be channeling Dennis Miller by throwing out obscure trivia. Is Stephen Jay Gould actually a household name?

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    • Yes and no. He has been gone for over a decade, so his luster has faded somewhat. He was the paleontologist’s equivalent of Bill Nye. Granted, most people who would know him would have a slight, if not pronounced, nerdy bent.

      To get an idea as to the extent of his touch on popular culture: He was featured on The Simpsons while it was still good.

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    • Stephen Jay Gould, like his friend Carl Sagan, was one of the most important popularizers of serious science in the U.S. He was a main witness at the various trials which involved exclusion of Darwin from the curriculum on religious grounds. He toured extensively, wrote a monthly column in an important magazine, and, according to his wiki article, is still one of the most-cited scientists in the English language in scientific journals.

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      • *I* know who the fellow was (RIP) but I didn’t realize his “fame” was that widespread. Being on The Simpsons does suggest you’ve embedded yourself in the popular culture, but flogging the horse, that might be a fluke. Afaik he had a column in Natural History mag which, with all due respect, I would not call “an important magazine” except for its readers which probably numbered in the 100k’s (not googled this).

        This reminds me of the Jay Leno show’s regular piece “jaywalking”. Some people don’t even know which country borders south of the USA. Most don’t know who Keynes is (or more importantly what economic principles he promulgated), or what Dutch disease means (is that contagious?). And here we are discussing SJG as a popular scientific figure.

        Pitiyanqui – as for Bill Nye, I wish he’d lose the stupid tie, in my opinion it gives a bad impression of what science is about.

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        • Stephen Jay Gould was for years a very widely read and well known author of articles and books on different aspects of evolutionary theory while simultaneously pursuing highly aclaimed academic work mostly published in cientific journals and university presses. Of course the latter were not easily accesible to the general public but the former gained a very large following ( myself included) , I can vouch for them to have been very lucid expositions of where evolutionary studies stood on many different subjects . He was so good many of his books rose to best sellers status . ( I have some eight volumes penned by him in my library).

          There are quite a few academically respectable writers who also engage themselves in the role of public intellectuals , Lord Russell comes to mind as one of them .!!

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          • His theory of punctuated equilibrium should give us hope: from the ashes left by that cataclysmic mass extinction called chavismo-madurismo perhaps a great civilization will emerge.

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  22. Look… the problem is that is very easy to discredit Felipe González. He has done much to discredit himself.

    I dont know, and frankly dont want to look, at the neurotic-paranoid bullshit the chavistas are spewing now, but some of the stuff you are mentioning is… well, either documented or very well suspected.

    His status as left-wing statist is very much tarnished since… well, since forever, but accumulating more and more stuff over the years.

    Running death-squads, for example, is … well, it is documented that his government was running the GAL. Hell, Barrionuevo, his Ministro de Interior, was judged, found guilty, and got 10 years of prison (of which he got to serve like 3 months) and 12 years of complete disqualification precisely for running the GAL. The shadow of doubt that Felipe was actually aware and approved has been there for decades.

    Same with a lot of measures, like campaigning to get Spain out of the OTAN then changing his mind. That really didnt end up being something to endear him with a lot of left-leaning people.

    And well, his trajectory after leaving power as a constant pain in the ass of any Socialist party secretary by running out his mouth, and his cushy positions on the boards of companies he favored with privatization deals… all of that is true, and facts, and has done a lot to discredit his status over the years.

    Again, in this case, I’m sure the Chavistas will go crazy with bullshit, and it is sad that the focus is on the many defects of González vs the fucking big deal of the actual political prisoners, but all in all, I very much wish somebody else was doing this, somebody with a bit less skeletons in his closet. Precisely for this. Precisely at this point that the Spanish Transición system in which he played such a big role is starting to crack and show some of the foundations were a bit shaky, to say the least.

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  23. I liked the way Gonzalez left Cubazuela: swiftly on a Colombian Jet, to be welcomed by “Two Faces Santos”.
    Well done. As if saying, “Well fock this shit. Let’em simmer in their own Guisos a bit more, what can you do”

    Internationally, what’s really appalling is that we see only EX-Presidents voicing their support for Democracy in Cubazuela. It shows everyday how fake, duplicitous and even complicit Governments and Politicians worldwide really are.

    Many Governments worldwide have obviously been BRIBED by Corruptzuela’s oil, but others, even in Europe hardly care about that, and still do nothing about Vzla, or ISIS, or entire Genocides in Africa for that matter. Freaking politics STINK.

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    • Not so , there are several heads of states and parliaments which have one way or the other voiced their concerns over the Regimes persecution or imprisonments of their political opponents . Colombia , Spain and US beign three which come to mind , but there are others, including also UN officials , EU officials , German Govt etc . The Guiana actions in the territorial seas are squarely intended to make it difficult for the Regime to adopt a patriotic stance ( as demanded by public opinion) and not get into trouble with the CARICOM countries which numbers have certain weight in the OAS.

      It is standard diplomatic practice to use ex presidents as proxies to express what the official govt position is , that way the other govt can save face , but the world ( except for some outcast countries or those which have an ax to gring against the US for other reasons) has turned against the regime in on no uncertain ways.

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      • All current presidents are awfully quiet and silent. The “standard diplomatic practice” you mentioned is just what I said: Stinking Politics. Why have EX-presidents talk for you? Turned against the Regime in no uncertain ways? VERY uncertain. It’s freaking politics as usual. Europe especially, does NOTHING and says as little as possible about Dictatorships or even Genocides. Politicians only care about their short term elections, and their own bank accounts, nothing new.

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        • You havent been keeping tabs on the pronouncements of world heads of states or of official spoke persons of the governments they head on the messy/sinister/worrisome Venezuela situation . Presidents speak not personally but institutionally as the representatives of the State they represent , its only doodle headed vulgarians like Maduro who in their ignorance and crassness speak as if they owned the govt . Thats why we think him a clown and a fool , thats not the way its done in the civilized world. !! Other presidents have a sense of dignity and decorum which is totally absent in the circus like buffonic speech style Chavez and his succesors have cultivated.

          Im certain that there is a lot going on behind the diplomatic fachades than the world suspects , the ex presidents represent just the tip of an iceberg moving to crush the regime thru a dozen diffferent scalating pressure points below the surface of official pronouncements.

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          • Wake up, Sir. Suffice it to say that Everybody is in Love with Cuba now. Even the mighty USA, Crusaders of Freedom and Capitalism, huh? Politics is Crap, and no, International Presidents have been Total Weasels about Cubazuela.

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    • Great, here’s el cocoloco Giordani’s 9 step planned descent to hell:

      * Asumir la crisis como lo hizo el Comandante Chávez en el 2009, hablándole claro al país y al pueblo venezolano.
      * Nacionalización del sector financiero y del comercio exterior.
      * Reestructuración inmediata del aparato del Estado en cuanto a las empresas del Estado como PDVSA, las empresas básicas de Guayana, la Empresa de Electricidad, las Telecomunicaciones, y las dedicadas a la alimentación.
      * Unificar la política cambiaria.
      * Decretar una reforma fiscal progresiva.
      * Congelar el aparato burocrático del Estado haciéndolo eficaz y eficiente.
      * Estimular la producción nacional de alimentos a través de la protección de los pequeños y medianos productores del campo y la ciudad.
      * Construir un equipo económico de emergencia que le rinda cuentas al país de manera permanente.
      * Iniciar un período especial de ajuste de la economía salvaguardando los avances de la revolución en el campo social y estimulando la creación de empleos productivos.

      I can’t stop laughing….

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      • I think we can safely say that his proposed remedy would be worse than our current disease.

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    • If there is a problem which a narcostate should be able to solve with ease it’s to provide drugs to its citizens. Seriously, if it is easy to move illicit drugs through Venezuela, how much harder can it be to “smuggle” in acetaminophen.

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      • Actually, thanks to the price regulations, the legal drugs and first-need products have become more profitable to smuggle than actual illegal stuff.

        A single acetaminophen box with 20 pills that costs about 5 Bs, got sold by about 50 Bs EACH PILL (20000% profit, Or even at most critical times, it could get sold by double of that amount), and, add to that that the fevers caused by the chikungunya breakout rose all the way up to 43-44ºC, you have to take the damn stuff every 6 hours, which means an easy cost of 200 Bs/day, and the fever won’t back off until about a week, so that’s an easy 1400-1600 Bs spent in just one week due to the regime’s incompetence to keep the mosquito numbers on control.

        The buhonero just had to sit outside the pharmacy and show the box to the people to sell his bounty in plain sight.

        Yep, only in zoocialism.

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  27. It just sounds like application of Gramsci theories on establishing and controlling “common sense”.

    —

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  28. Quico, I can tell you what was probably brokered in that picture. I am good friends with someone who was in that room when that picture was taken and who was subsequently tasked with handling the ETA file which he destroyed when HCF came into power. Fidel and CAP met regularly in secret. Margarita was a favorite meeting place. CAP harbored ETAs under new identities. Of course they could not do then what they do today in the Vth republic.

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