LATE-STAGE SOCIALISM: Venezuela warns businesses not to halt payments amid currency overhaul.

Socialist President Nicolas Maduro said in March the bolivar currency would be redenominated on June 4, and the central bank has been tweeting pictures of the new banknotes emblazoned with Venezuelan historical figures.

But the banks have not received the new bills and have not had a chance to adjust cash machines for them, according to two finance industry sources.

Opposition critics say Maduro is at risk of repeating the chaos of late 2016, when the government withdrew the largest bill from circulation, sparking long lines, looting and protests that led to at least three deaths.

Maduro is knocking three zeroes off the bolivar in an effort to hide the country’s estimated 14,000% inflation rate. Of course, playing games with the currency only adds to the economic uncertainty which helps cause… inflation.

Meanwhile: EU to ‘swiftly’ hit Venezuela with sanctions over election.

Why bother? And why give Maduro another scapegoat?

#JOURNALISM: Media Double Down After New York Times Gets Busted Peddling Fake News: “There may have been a real White House briefing with real White House officials, but The New York Times couldn’t be trusted to accurately summarize what the White House official said. And it wasn’t on a minor point.”

THE REVOLT AGAINST THE MASSES: Italy’s Establishment Vetoes the Populists.

BLUE WAVE? Dem money floods Calif. primaries to avert electoral disaster.

The total outside spending in those June 5 primary races had eclipsed more than $8 million as of Friday, according to an analysis of Federal Election Commission filings by The Hill. The high-dollar spending is in the three GOP-held seats represented by Rep. Dana Rohrabacher and retiring Reps. Darrell Issa and Ed Royce, all of which are viewed as potential pickup opportunities for Democrats.

California’s “jungle” primary system pits all candidates, regardless of party, against one another in a single primary, with the top two vote-getters moving on to the general election. Democrats fear that crowded Democratic fields will split their party’s vote in some races, allowing Republicans to take both election slots.

Now outside groups are spending heavily in the races in an attempt to avert Democratic shutouts.

Given that California Democrats created the jungle primary system in order to further marginalize Republicans, the irony is schadenfreudelicious.

CHANGE: U.S. Leapfrogs Singapore, Hong Kong to Win World’s Most Competitive Economy. “The U.S. dethroned Hong Kong to retake first place among the world’s most competitive economies, thanks to faster economic growth and a supportive atmosphere for scientific and technological innovation, according to annual rankings by the Switzerland-based IMD World Competitiveness Center. . . . The renewed top ranking aligns with the positive U.S. growth narrative over the past year. Growth averaged 2.9 percent in the four quarters through March, versus 2 percent in the prior period.”

Weird. What could account for such a major leap?

Completely, totally, 100% unrelated:

JOURNALISM: Media Fawn Over Teacher Who Incorrectly ‘Corrected’ Letter From Trump. Of course they do.

CHAOS: Brazil Trucker Strike Worsens As Petrobras Workers Plan Walkout.

The protests, triggered by a 50% spike in fuel prices over the last year, resulted in the declaration of a state of emergency across most major cities as shelves run bare and vital supplies dwindle. Airports have reported running out of fuel, hospitals are running out of supplies, and public transport and trash collection have been reduced or halted across the country. Some food prices have also spiked as supplies dwindle. As we noted on Friday, a lack of livestock feed threatens a billion chickens and 20 million pigs who may starve to death.

Now, after deploying the military to physically unblock roads and several last-ditch measures to seek a resolution Sunday night, President Michel Temer has a new problem on his hands; Petrobras workers are about to go on strike starting May 30 – demanding that the company fire CEO Pedro Parente and permanently lower fuel prices. The company said on Friday that they have no plans to remove Parente.

Although oil prices remain on the upswing, the publicly traded shares of Petrobras (which is majority-owned by the Brazilian government) have lost 35% of their value in the last two weeks.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT, THE JOURNOLIST* HAD A MAJOR MALFUNCTION OVER THE WEEKEND: Outraged progressives share images of immigrant children…from 2014.

* Or whatever its 2018 equivalent is called.

RED ON RED: Blankenship Could Capsize GOP Plan to Sink Manchin. “Spurned in the GOP primary, ‘Dark Lord of Coal’ has vowed to run for Senate as a candidate of the Constitution Party this November.”

CREDENTIALED, NOT EDUCATED: An English Teacher’s Incorrect Correction of a Trump Letter Illustrates His Critics’ Reflexive Condescension.

In fact, none of Mason’s corrections is correct, although there are at least two mistakes in the letter that she neglected to note. Mason’s showy but erroneous pedantry illustrates the tendency of Trump’s opponents to cast policy disagreements as questions of competence and to delight in everything that reflects badly on him, even when that thing is not, strictly speaking, true. These tendencies, which mirror Trump’s own fondness for ad hominem attacks and recklessness with facts, alienate potential allies while confirming his supporters’ conviction that he is sticking it to a supercilious elite that holds them in contempt.

How about that?

JOURNOLIST ADRIFT: Obama Official Outraged Over Heartbreaking Pics of Trump Policy In Actio…Oh Wait, Wrong President.

MEMORIAL DAY THOUGHTS FROM SARAH HOYT: Something to Live and Die For. “I was born in the sixties, which means when I was grown up enough to be aware of philosophy and war and the big stuff of that kind, the world was full of very bad ideas.” Amen, sister.

Plus: “The plowshares must always be beaten into swords. The other was a dream of old maiden aunts.”

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21 B.C. RELATIONSHIPS: Five Bizarre Stories of Sexual Perversion from Ancient Rome That Will Blow Your Mind.

BYRON YORK: “The Mueller probe: Let’s squeeze this guy (maybe the Taxi King!), who might squeeze that guy, who might reveal some unspecified, yet-to-be-exposed wrongdoing by Trump.” This is how you proceed when you’ve got nothing.

IT’S COME TO THIS: Forget Blazing Saddles. Could SCTV be made today?

SHOCKINGLY, THIS WORKED: I Doubled How Much Exercise and Protein I Got For a Month to Lose Weight Quick. But weight training would have helped in this mix.

WHY THEY HATE HIM: President Trump at Naval Academy graduation: ‘We are not going to apologize for America.’

UPDATE: “Kick Me” No More.

EZRA LEVANT: Tommy Robinson is in prison — help us challenge the judge’s gag order banning reporting on it.

YOU’LL HAVE TO IMAGINE THE EARTH-SHATTERING KABOOM, THOUGH: Memory card recovered from NASA camera destroyed in launch captures fiery final moments.

PAST PERFORMANCE IS NO GUARANTEE OF FUTURE RESULTS:

● “Does President Donald Trump fit the profile of an authoritarian dictator?”

—Salon.com, Thursday.

● “Hugo Chavez’s economic miracle.”

—Salon.com, March 6, 2013.

● “Let’s nationalize Fox News: Imagining a very different media…Excerpted from ‘Imagine: Living in a Socialist USA.’

—Salon.com, January 18, 2014.

Like [the late communist Pete] Seeger and the FDR cargo cult, Salon also harbors turn-the-clock-back fantasies of their own: Last month, the publication called for the nationalization of the news media because it was uncomfortable with the glut of right-leaning news and opinion led by — you guessed it! — Fox News. (Hmmm — I wonder if someone in the FCC read that article?) Now the Website wishes to turn the clock back on the film industry because of a perceived glut of independent films.

—Easy Riders, Raging Stasists, Ed Driscoll.com, February 22, 2014.

● “Let’s nationalize Amazon and Google: Publicly funded technology built Big Tech. They’re huge and ruthless and define our lives. They’re close to monopolies. Let’s make them public utilities.”

—Salon.com, July 8, 2014.

As Charles C. Cooke asked the left in 2016, “Herewith, an under-asked question for our friends on the progressive left: ‘Has Donald Trump’s remarkable rise done anything to change your mind as to the ideal strength of the State?’”

THE TRUTH ABOUT EATING LOTS OF EGGS.

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JOURNALISM: