USA attacks Venezuela

This is the real story (the Venezuelan expat community, not Trump owning the libs by kidnapping Maduro). Trump's war against Venezuela has nothing to do with drugs or oil. It is simply a matter of a handful of very wealthy Venezuelans who fled Venezuela when Chavez took power were able to get to Trump through their relationship with Rubio. Their story to Trump is that they were once among the wealthy elite in Venezuela, owning land, various industries, etc. until Chavez came to power and nationalized their companies and took their land. That is the socialist nightmare that every billionaire fears is the natural consequence of even the slightest egalitarian social democratic policy. Trump then agreed to take out Maduro in order to install a right wing government that will basically be a Pinochet 2.0. Violently repress any sort of leftist opposition and sell (or give back) all state owned industries to the expat communities living in south Florida. It is basically make the Venezuelan oligarchs of the 70s and 80s Great Again (MVO7080GA?).

But the big problem is the same as the big problem of the Iraq war, but in a different form. Maria Machado and Edmundo Gonzalez are a bit like the Venezuelan Ahmed Chalabi (for you youngins, he was who the Bush administration presumed would be treated by Iraqis as a hero and quickly become a unifying leader after the fall of Sadam). The opposition in Venezuela is not united behind these figures and for all the harm caused by Chavez and Maduro, there are still very large numbers of very poor Venezuelans who support the Bolivarian revolution and do not want to see a return to the days when all the wealth in Venezuela pooled into the hands of a few connected oligarchs in Caracas. In short, a transition to a government that can implement Pinochet/Chicago Boys style reforms without causing a civil war is a task that Machado's movement is not up to.

The only way to fully see through what the Venezuelan expats want is for a full scale US invasion and occupation on par with the Iraq War. It would probably be a far easier invasion as the Venezuelan armed forces are a joke and would quickly evaporate once US cruise missiles start taking out every military installation in the country. But the next step, occupation and transition to civilian rule, would be hell. There would definitely be a guerilla revolt in the rural areas that would basically be Vietnam-esque jungle combat with heavy casualties for both sides. Worse still, Venezuela imports 80% of its food because of the Bolivarian revolution's mismanagement of the agriculture sector and punishing sanctions. That would mean a very real chance for famine especially in the rural communities. And this could happen even if Trump does nothing further at this point or if a quick transition to a right wing government took place without a shot being fired.

And Trump is just getting started with Venezuela. Cuba is next. Both countries are in such desperate straits economically that the destruction of their governments without immediate Marshal Plan style aid flowing into the country will cause famine, civil war and mass exodus of people who will all try to get to the US.

yes, a mixed economy seems to be the most successful way right now.

that does not make the US or anything in Europe a socialist country.

there are no socialist nations in the rich world.

they are all capitalist countries with a significant public sector and varying levels of safety net.

If you want actual socialism, you look at NK, Cuba or something like that. which are, of course, desperately poor and tyrannical.

What happened to the windfall DOGE money? Did anyone check the tariff shelf?

US Debt under Trump 36 trillion to 38 trillion. An increase of 2.3 trillion. That's 6.3 billion per day. US debt will reach 40 trillion in August.

What are you talking about. US have 38 trillions in debt. Meanwhile Norway with it's 5 million people have a pension fund of 2 trillions in plus. And in Norway education and healthcare is free, people are happier than in the US. Every country needs a combination of socialism and capitalism.

Capitalism works when there is competition. How much competition is there when a few wealthy individuals are getting richer every day? That is just like a large government except that the money doesn't trickle down to hard-working people- so maybe comparable to a corrupt government

You can't possibly be this ill- informed. Please read a book. You have no idea - communism fear on the brain.

ok hoss, you define 'socialism' and tell us where it has worked.

and you describe the big wealthy western nations - are they capitalist? socialist? mixed?

Which book? Be more specific, there's millions of books. Tell us which book we need to read to learn about the wonders of communism.

come on man, the history of post-war europe and especially america is one of ever-greater wealth all up and down the wealth/income ladder.

saying otherwise is closing your eyes to the obvious.

Pinochet was a great leader for Chile and a great man.

If the US was geographically much smaller and had the same relative amount of oil, it would resemble Norway with respect to wealth.

to answer your silly question, mixed economies have worked in roughly the same countries where trump is willing to allow people to migrate from.

Dumb. If the US was much smaller and had oil, it would resemble Venezuela rather than Norway.

to me part of the problem is there is no overarching foreign policy concept that explains our general goals or this thing in particular. this is ok but the right likes orban and putin. threatens canada and greenland. doesn't like NATO.

there is no theme. there is no alliance with friends who are not just off limits but protected. he dislikes one problematic country. he's ok with others like it.

this is very personalized. it's who does this one man not like.

this what a great nation looks like without a national legislature.

just one man running everything.

anathema to the Constitution and spirit of the republic.

what you're missing is for all the chatter about "running" the place, we have zero boots on the ground and basically let the regime's succession process replace maduro. unless the regime made a deal, we have no uncontested access to the country and only as much control as they are willing to concede. they still have the steering wheel.

hence the threats.

bullsh*t. it's one of those things like traffic laws where it's like, "i don't have to obey that, really."

until things turn chaotic or someone tags you in a wreck. then you want the rules back.

we have the rules because we had 2 highly deadly world wars within 30 years.

you're confusing mixed economy socialism with state-dominated communism. free health care and education and housing vs. a police state.

your own president wants people from norway. he tells his own people don't worry about college then wants migrants from a college educated socialist country.

it's a conundrum for the opposition:

you want the world to fall apart so the idiots learn a lesson about their stupid, stupid, stupid decisions.

but

you don't want the world to fall apart.

Are you aware that the American people elected him? lol.....So unlike the unelected Democrat federal judges trying seize control.