The crisis in Venezuela

Christmas came early this year in Venezuela. The season officially began October 1, as decreed by the country's authoritarian president, Nicolás Maduro. "I am going to declare the advancement of Christmas to the first of October," he said.

The absurdity would be laughable if this weren't the perfect snapshot of Venezuela's black-is-white, dystopian unreality, an oil-rich country so devastated economically that it can't even keep the lights on … where life is so unlivable that a quarter of its population (nearly 8 million people) has fled.

"He needed a distraction," said former New York Times journalist William Neuman. "It's bread and circuses."