I am fairly certain Maduro will walk from these charges. I am also fairly certain the play is to keep him detained for as long as the trial takes, and probably ship him off to The Hague later on.

/snark At least AI doesn't answer with "have you tried reframing the problem?" or "your fundamentals are wrong"

Number of current political prisoners held hostage by the Chavista regime. NGO Foro Penal

I know that as a Venezuelan im alone in this website but here it is probably the place that needs more info on Venezuela.

100% this.

Their messaging is so fucking incoherent. Maduro was an illegitimate leader who lost in 2024, which is why we're replacing him with his VP instead of the person who won in 2024. We did this to stop fentanyl, which is why he's indicted for cocaine. We're also occupying Venezuela via Zoom call.

Also, fml, it's Edmundo González (been a long day)

Errrrrrrr.... could we get some more detail on that? We know it'll take some time to get things back into order, but we *do* have an elected president, Eduardo González so the sooner he's sworn in, the better.

Diosdado Cabello taking over would be extremely bad news, worse than Maduro.

Where was the international community when Maduro had people shot in the streets during demonstrations? Where was the international community in January 2025 when Maduro clung to power despite losing elections? *Now* you're being loud?

People celebrating in Caracas

This is the truth.

Judging by my feed, not many people have asked an actual Venezuelan about this whole situation....

Please be true, please be true

I will repeat this ad nauseam or ad infinitum, whichever comes first, but I will keep repeating this. We Venezuelans did *everything* to remove Maduro, and he kept his ass on his chair.

Maduro is a brutal and oppressive dictator of Venezuela. Trump has no legitimate legal basis for military action against Venezuela under United States or international law. Both of those facts are simultaneously true.

Let 2026 be the year that Maduro and his ilk fuck right off. #vivavenezuelalibre

ICYMI Have you ever wanted to watch a film from 1930 but couldn’t find it? They’re now in the public domain, so I put together a database of every feature film released that year and where to find them. Enjoy! pre-code.com/how-to-find-...

... and he has a small army of children who will get started in life with *billions* to do as they please for *decades*

It seems like anathema to speak ill of Italian food, but most Italians will agree with me: Tuscan bread is the most insipid, uninspired stomach filler ever created in the whole continent.

About 10 years ago, walking along Haymarket in London I spotted Charles Dance sitting at an outdoor table of a restaurant. We made eye contact. He tilted down his sunglasses and gave me that very "oui, c'est moi" look. I gave him a nod and smile, and went on my way.

I've just written my family in Venezuela who are just as confused.

Remember: When Tylenol was poisoned *by an outsider* and killed people, the company recalled all their products & redesigned them. When Intel’s Pentium had a bug so obscure it affected 1 in _9 billion_ long division calculations, they recalled their chips. ChatGPT was made deadly *by its team*.

Soren Narnia has uploaded a new recording of my favorite story of his - "An Oral History of Hell" This is a story I have listened to probably a couple hundred times, and it never fails to break me a little. It's a triumph, and *bleak*

Holiday (and general life) tip: Set expectations with family ahead of. time on what's allowed with photos re. posts and publishing. Had an unpleasant situation where a Boomer family member uploaded a photo of us & toddlers on ChatGPT for a stupid "cartoonify" thing.

Mohammed bin Salman be like "Name your price"

My partner's grandma is this 91yo Italian lady and she is about as close to a saint as could be possible. The first thing she does *every morning* is pray for good health and happiness of her loved ones, and children. No matter what, that's how she starts each morning: wishing good.

it's crazy that 500 years ago, you would see the ruler of your country maybe once in your life and hear whispers that they're the Sun God, but now with social media, you get to see on a daily basis that they're the most unhinged, idiotic, and unhappy person you know

I often think the world was incredibly lucky that the saxophone was invented in 1840 and was thus unavailable to Bach, Vivaldi, Handel, Mozart, and Beethoven.

I’m allowed to be disappointed by a party I voted for. I’m allowed to feel politically homeless when a party I supported no longer represents my values. And I’m allowed to change my mind when the evidence, the rhetoric, and the direction of travel demand it.

As a Venezuelan, I'm hoping on a swift resolution* *(that ends up with Maduro and his cronies fucking off to anywhere else)

Today, we make further steps in our renewed EU-UK strategic partnership. We have concluded the negotiations for the UK’s association to Erasmus+ in 2027. Bringing back Erasmus+ for our young people, opening the door to new shared experiences and lasting friendships.

Oh fuck, that's a good one.

Trump's comment about Rob Reiner, a beloved American, really demonstrates the rottenness of his character.

Hey! I get it, you don't like Trump...

“It's easy to cling to principles when it's someone else’s freedom at stake. From safe distance, many expect Venezuela’s democratic leaders to pursue their goals with a moral purity their adversaries never show. This is unrealistic, unfair, and reveals an ignorance of history.” tinyurl.com/3uhvwsbr

Dear BSky, as a Venezuelan who still has family and friends there, I beg you to avoid comparisons to Iraq, Lybia, et al. Very different social, geographic, cultural, and historic contexts. This below a good website to follow. Good sources over on X I can refer. www.caracaschronicles.com

Every org has a couple of old heads in nondescript positions that functions as the organisation's memory. "Susan will know". Until Susan retires or is replaced with a generative AI...

The rule is: you have to investigate all your processes, and if any of them ends with "Well, Susan knows", you know you have a weak point in your institutional knowledge

This might be a good list (I see "Lady Bird", which was incredible), but the top film of the century so far for me remains "Your Name" It's coming-of-age, it's romance, it's disaster, it's action, it's sci-fi, and it has a plot twist that is as elegant as it's heartbreaking.

I'll be keeping the people of Hachinohe in my thoughts for the days to come. It was a city I was blessed to visit, and which the missus and I were talking about only a couple of days ago as somewhere we'd want to take our kid one day.

Random thought: I strongly feel as though @jonnelledge.bsky.social would have published some seriously educational and hilarious articles on Cracked back in its heyday under @jasonkpargin.bsky.social .

I fucking love memes you can understand through the language barrier, holy shit

no one has ever gotten the spirit of our country as right as paul verhoeven making robocop

🔴 BREAKING: Our fake Chinese AI investor bought access to 10+ Labour MPs and minister Brand new investigation by Democracy for Sale and Led By Donkeys. democracyforsale.substack.com/p/breaking-o...

This is actually quite brilliant, up to and including the final sentence 🔥

What makes me furious is how many institutions and elites bowed down to Trump like he was an unstoppable god-king when they only needed to hold out for a few months

I’m still thinking about “quiet, piggy.” No president should be able to speak to a member of the press that way and remain president. That moment encapsulates how vile, misogynistic, and horrible that man is.

Look, for fuck’s sake, humans have been migrating continuously for our entire existence. Every single human in the world is the product of migration. It’s what humans do. There is nothing *more* human. That’s never going to change. Just grow up, get the fuck over it and plan accordingly.