Following a short-lived, albeit modest, display of gonadal fortitude, the Obama administration is back to appeasing Hugo Chavez.

Appeasement never works, but the Obama administration keeps trying, and a picture says a thousand words.

First there was that time in Trinidad where Obama, like Ezio Pinza sang in South Pacific, some enchanted evening ran across a crowded room to shake hands with Hugo. Remember?

Hugo seized the opportunity and gifted Obama a book, Las venas abiertas de América Latina(Latin America’s Open Veins) by Uruguayan Marxist writer Eduardo Galeano. Obama got up and shook hands again, and again.

The Obama administration back then “reset” US-Venezuela relations by reinstating the ambassadors: in 2008 Venezuela had expelled Ambassador Patrick Duffy, and Bernardo Alvarez Herrera was consequently expelled from the US.

This time Chavez said that Larry Palmer, the Obama administration’s Ambassador to Venezuela, would not be allowed to take his post, so the US revoked Alvarez Herrera’s visa. Obama supporters who hurl accusations of racism towards anyone who does not agree with Obama’s decisions remain curiously silent.

In the meantime, Venezuelans are bearing the latest currency devaluation.

So in the middle of all this, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton went to the inauguration of former terroristDilma Rousseff as President of Brazil, and of course Hugo managed to take advantage of the opportunity for another photo-op.

Who would have thunk it?

Chavez, Clinton chat at Brazil inauguration

“They talked and smiled, at least for five minutes. It looked like a social conversation, both were smiling,” a Brazilian official who witnessed the encounter told AFP on condition of anonymity.
…
At one point, Chavez extended his hand to Clinton, who shook it, smiling. They chatted for a few minutes before moving on to formally greeting Rousseff.

Five minutes, to be exact.

Here are the photos,

Give me five! 

Love is in the air 

And video,

Hugo even got bragging rights,

“We greeted each other. (Clinton), I think, was entering the room. She had a very spontaneous smile and I greeted her with the same effusiveness. … It was a pleasant moment. We spoke about two or three specific things,” Chavez told VTV.

Whatever the topic was, Hillary had a grand ole time,

That was a humdinger! 

It even looked like it went so well Hugo had Hillary begging for more,

Let us pray Answer from Orly:

this is absolutely surreal. I want to remind the public that I submitted to courts, including the supreme Court of CA information that the most widely used ballot counting software Sequoia was purchased in 2005 bySmartmatic,  a front shell company for the government of Venezuela. Even though, after official investigation, Smartmatic sold Sequoia to US citizens, those citizens were the insiders of the company and smaertmatic retained the intellectual property rights for Sequoia. This is extremely dangerous and you should demand investigations of this matter in the Intelligence committee of Congress. 

A