Banana Republic Newsflash

[geonuc]

Huh. So it really is all the US's fault. Who knew?

[Sigma_Orionis]

Huh. So it really is all the US's fault. Who knew?

I'll say one thing about yer wannabe Commies: they're as much self-righteous assholes as Trump Suporters.

Now this is just funny. This week two members of your Congress showed up around here.

US Democratic Senador Dirk Durbin (I almost typed "Turpin" ) came here to try to get Maduro to free a Mormon Missionary called Joshua Holt, who had the misfortune of marrying a Venezuelan, was arrested here under some trumped up charges of espionage and what-have-you, and, as usual in this habeas-corpus loving nation has been kept in jail without a trial for about two years.

The funny part was the other trip. This one by a Republican Congressman from Texas called Pete Sessions, who came here in a PRIVATE trip at the invitation of Maduro's Government and now has to explain what hell he has been doing here.

Apparently Marco Rubio wasn't pleased. Of course when he complained, he sort of neglected to say that the trip made by the Congressman of his own party was the shadier one.

Your Trump Supporters and your Wannabe Commies are a lot more similar than they're different.

[SciFiFisher]

I'll say one thing about yer wannabe Commies: they're as much self-righteous assholes as Trump Suporters.

Your Trump Supporters and your Wannabe Commies are a lot more similar than they're different.

Of course, they would fight to the death denying that.

[Sigma_Orionis]

Of course, they would fight to the death denying that.

And if they did just that in one of your incorporated territories in the Pacific (and a small nuclear device just happened to be "accidentally" detonated there ) the world WOULD be a better place for it.

[Sigma_Orionis]

Well, it's the middle of April, have we collapsed?

Well, so far, accumulated inflation (from unofficial figures, the government stopped publicizing inflation figures two years ago) has since January been 453,3% and year-to-year (March 2017 to March 2018) has been over 8000%. We're in arrears for over US$ 2 Billion in interest payments for our foreign debt and the only foreign debt holder being paid is Goldman Sachs ( appropriate isn't it?)

Power outages continue (particularly on the western side of the country) and if we're to believe the rumors, the government is increasingly unable to provide its base with subsidized food. Protests happen almost daily but haven't turned into full scale riots (yet).

My sister works for a government office. Unlike in years before, the commies at the office are keeping their head down. And while last year they literally forced anyone working for the government to show up to vote. They're keeping quiet now. This tells me that they're scared shitless.

Several foreign governments have stated that they won't recognize the results of the upcoming elections. So, while we haven't really "collapsed", we seem well on our way there.

[SciFiFisher]

It's sort of like a slow motion train wreck. You know it's terrible. You know it's getting worse. And yet you still can't stop looking. And it's even worse when you are on the train.

[Sigma_Orionis]

It's sort of like a slow motion train wreck. You know it's terrible. You know it's getting worse. And yet you still can't stop looking. And it's even worse when you are on the train.

We never seem to hit bottom. It's like falling into a black hole.

[SciFiFisher]

Well, this is an interesting development. Chevron is evacuating Venezuelan executives

(Reuters) - U.S. oil major Chevron Corp has evacuated executives from Venezuela after two of its workers were imprisoned over a contract dispute with state-owned oil company PDVSA, according to four sources familiar with the matter.

Chevron asked other employees to avoid the facilities of its joint venture with the OPEC nation’s oil firm, the sources said.

The arrests, in a raid by national intelligence officers, were the first at a foreign oil firm since Venezuela’s government launched a purge last fall that has resulted in detentions of more than 80 executives at PDVSA and business partners accused of corruption.

The Chevron workers may face charges of treason for refusing to sign a supply contract for furnace parts drawn up by PDVSA executives, Reuters reported earlier this week. The workers balked at the high costs of the parts and a lack of competitive bids.

The Venezuelan government claims they arrested the Chevron workers for corruption.

[Sigma_Orionis]

You might find This commentary on that "incident", interesting. Such as:

There’s a heavy dose of Undercook/Overcook, Parks & Rec black comedy here (sign the procurement deal, jail; don’t sign the procurement deal, jail right away), but the broader strategic aspect is, not to put too fine a point on it, simply baffling. PDVSA needs Chevron. I mean, PDVSA NEEEEEEEEEEDS Chevron. With the bottom falling out of its own production capacity, PDVSA has never had a weaker negotiating hand vis-à-vis its foreign partners.

It’s never a good time to bite the hand that feeds you, but this is a step beyond. This is chomping on the hand that feeds you when you’re emaciated, delirious from acute malnutrition, on the verge of quite literal starvation, then severing the hand, dousing it in gasoline, setting it on fire and shitting on the ashes. We’re in a space beyond corruption here, beyond ideological turpitude and moral abasement beyond garden variety self-harm into the realm of spiteful, sadomasochistic national self-immolation.

In the meantime we have a PDVSA bond coupon payment due today. The government has 30 day grace period for it. Apparently, if we fail to pay this one, we lose control of Citgo, in which case it's game over

While this hasn't made the international news, the has government decided to do a "currency reconversion" and make a new currency that s worth a 1000 times more than the old. While this has been sorely needed (because most financial systems can't handle the amounts) If the underlying hyper-inflation problem is not solved, it will be a worthless move. To make it worse, the last time they did this (2007) it took almost a year to do the conversion. They pretend to do it in a month and they still haven't worked out how this is supposed to work. The way things are going, they might very well paralyze all commercial activity of any kind, because there will be no way to comply with the law.

Since our refineries are in shambles and our oil is extremely heavy. We need to mix it light oil to be able to sell it abroad. And guess who we buy that oil from? THE US!. Rumor has it that US Oil companies (like for example Chevron) will only sell us that light oil in cash and prepaid. If that is so, it doesn't really matter if we lose Citgo, or a US Oil embargo actually happens, we won't be able to sell that muddy oil of ours to anyone.


Finally, I'm including this link for your edification....

‘El Pueblo’ Gets to Miraflores in Anger, Demanding Water

I am of the opinion that we're going to wake up one morning and find out that Maduro all of a sudden hopped on a plane and left the country on his own. It's the best it could happen to this country.

[Swift]

John Oliver's take on this
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IYfgvS0FA7U

[Rommie]

Good luck Sigma. Is there anything we can do to help you?

[Sigma_Orionis]

John Oliver's take on this
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IYfgvS0FA7U

Fairly accurate except for a few things.

1) Chavez, Maduro and his clique are COMMUNISTS, the "Socialist" moniker is convenient both to them, to libertarians and people like your Republicans. "Socialist" Governments (or with similar sounding monikers) exist all over Europe and they're still Market Economies. those countries NEVER had the level of government intervention we've had. Even in the 70s.

2) Chavez did fire a huge number of Oil workers from PDVSA, it was during the stupid General Strike of 2002 which also allowed him to the currency exchange controls that are one of the biggest drivers of inflation we have. I think that saying that the Oil workers were striking because he wanted to turn PDVSA into his cash cow is inaccurate, They probably didn't like the people he put in charge of PDVSA, but they went on strike in support of a General Strike. Maybe it's pedantic. But that particular strike is IMHO the second biggest fumble made by the opposition.

3) From what I've seen they're not trying to sell the new currency (dropping the three last zeroes) as a measure against inflation (he might be doing that in the slums, but I've not seen it). It's a measure that he should have taken LAST YEAR because most Financial systems can't cope with the amounts. And he refused to do it (because he'd have to admit that our inflation problem was all too real) until the last possible minute (and now of course it won't help much because the inflation rate is accelerating to hyper-speed).

This Guy didn't like it too much.

The segment is uncomfortable to watch at times. Oliver’s brand of humor feels tone-deaf when it has to deal with a humanitarian crisis instead of, say, the latest gaffe of the Trump administration. It also suffers from the usual generalizations — not talking about the weakened private sector during the Chávez years, for instance — which fail to provide a proper understanding of the causes and inevitability of the current crisis.

He does have a point. Among Chavez's/Maduro's massive mismanagement is the fact that they've been hollowing out the private sector. HOWEVER, that really started to happen after the 2007 FInancial Crisis when oil prices went down to US$ 100.

And regarding the lastest and greatest


The government actually made the April 30 payment. Which of course must have pissed off all the other bondholders ("why them and not us?") rumor has it that they're going to gang up and trigger the acceleration clauses in the bonds, demanding full and immediate payment. Which will be much more crippling than any US sanction.

In the meantime a lawsuit Conoco Phillips had against us was ruled in their favor (they only got awarded US$ 2 Billion instead of the U$ 20 Billion the suit was originally for). Yet even with the reduced award it places us in major trouble. Apparently, Conoco Phillips has taken over our shipping facilities and refineries in Aruba and Curaçao. So, we just moved a couple of steps closer to total collapse.

Oh yeah, Kellogs just closed shop, Masburro said that it was "unconstitutional" and he threatened to sue Kellogs' executives.

Good luck Sigma. Is there anything we can do to help you?

Thanks, As much as I hate to say it, my savings are starting to get thin.

[Sigma_Orionis]

Gee, what a surprise, Masburro won

[SciFiFisher]

Gee, what a surprise, Masburro won

I was totally shocked to hear that. yeah. totally.

[Sigma_Orionis]

A couple of months ago I mentioned that there were a lot of arrests within the Military.

According to Bloomberg it was part of an attempted coup. At this point, Who knows.

[SciFiFisher]

Crap. Lately military coups just aren't what they used to be.

[Sigma_Orionis]

Yeah, really.

And in unrelated news, I have just been the subject of a public poll for the first time of my life. As you can imagine I had nothing but praise for Maduro and the Chavistas....

[SciFiFisher]

Yeah, really.

And in unrelated news, I have just been the subject of a public poll for the first time of my life. As you can imagine I had nothing but praise for Maduro and the Chavistas....

Frankly, I am glad to hear you have not lost all sense of self preservation.

[Sigma_Orionis]

Yeah, really.

And in unrelated news, I have just been the subject of a public poll for the first time of my life. As you can imagine I had nothing but praise for Maduro and the Chavistas....

Frankly, I am glad to hear you have not lost all sense of self preservation.

Riiiiiiiiiighht

[Sigma_Orionis]

Not much to say after this, except that oil production continues to go down and its set to be below 1 million bpd by December. Oh, yeah, inflation by the end of the year is slated to reach 1000000%.

Opinion: Venezuela on the verge of imploding

[Thumper]

A drone assassination attack?

[Sigma_Orionis]

A drone assassination attack?

Yeah. I find it hard to believe. The only thing that doesn't make me dismiss it outright is this dude Oscar Perez who stole a helicopter and dumped a couple of grenades on the General Assembly building during the riots last year (and later was caught and killed) he looked also pretty amateurish.

[SciFiFisher]

From what our news outlets are reporting here Maduro is blaming the opposition and a few others. Almost like a general sweep of all the "usual suspects".

[Sigma_Orionis]

From what our news outlets are reporting here Maduro is blaming the opposition and a few others. Almost like a general sweep of all the "usual suspects".

He's blaming Colombia mostly. Colombians basically told him to go screw himself.

[Sigma_Orionis]

Ok, Game Over. We lost Citgo.

I thought it would happen in May, It happened in August.