What the attacks and killings of Venezuelans in international waters and the Trump coup ousting Maduro have shown is that the US military is prepared to follow illegal orders, since none of these actions have been conducted with Congressional approval, as required, or conform to international law. The US military has crossed a line. It is now his private army. They will fire on Americans if he tells them to.
Rather than supporting Maduro, many people are opposed to a POTUS abducting the president of a sovereign country for the purpose of plundering its oil. Without providing any details, Trump has been hinting about some type of occupation which could be very expensive.
Maduro is a bad guy but that’s not the reason Trump had him captured and thinking he’s a good guy is not the reason people are opposed to Trump’s actions.
i watched a documentary the other day on how trump was ending special treatment of venezuelans, such that they could be deported. your protestors on monday were probably worried about getting deported from here on friday. bunch of fakes.
and while trump is flapping his gums about running the place and making changes, we have zero boots on the ground or power to do anything. like al qaeda, we took out the number 1, and they promoted up number 2.
heck, there aren't even deals for the oil he covets.
not a d@mned thing has changed other than we arrested another country's president. the regime is otherwise intact hence you're referencing celebrations "outside venezuela."
the people who live there are still under the yoke.
and the people who live abroad and are celebrating have uncertain migrant status and are probably in no hurry to actually go back.
What the attacks and killings of Venezuelans in international waters and the Trump coup ousting Maduro have shown is that the US military is prepared to follow illegal orders, since none of these actions have been conducted with Congressional approval, as required, or conform to international law. The US military has crossed a line. It is now his private army. They will fire on Americans if he tells them to.
it's all leading up to midterms and then attempted handover to Vance or Trump Jr
everything trump does is leading toward declaring a national emergency, cancelling elections and using the military to run the nation.
they're getting people used to the idea that you call anyone you want a 'terrorist' and then you can do as you wish. Because you know, who supports terrorists? Dems will be called 'terrorists' and be dealt with by military.
And John f'in Thune just sits in his office twiddling his thumbs.
Speaking of clueless - many Iraqis celebrated the fall of Hussein, too. But that worked out really well, didn't it?
people have the mass equation physics of open war -- i am bigger than you and have better weapons -- confused with assymetric warfare -- where i don't take on your army head on -- or politics -- where your figurehead has to be electable more than the next guy. we have a good army to win a conventional war. but the closer this gets to hearts and minds, we don't run things at all.
we may in fact make things worse. our iraqi takeover unleashed competing forces within iraq. the shiites had always outnumbered sunnis and kurds. in an election, the shiites win. and this benefitted iran in the short term.
and in recent years we seem disinterested in the image of america abroad, which doesn't help us push for pro-american candidates. trump is outright willing to come off as an @$$. when you topple their government, if we come off nasty, why should regime change result in a pro-american outcome?
to be real, i am sure plenty of venezuelans and cubans "get it" and support us, but i am also sure most of them already left, came here, and got a "trump thank you" for doing so -- ie threats of deporting them right back.
i was reading an interesting article saying this is really part of a shift towards spheres of influence, which then explains a lot of our choices. that the world would essentially be divided among the powers as spheres they dominate. we control the americas, china asia, russia eastern europe. this explains pretty well our treatment of greenland, canada, mexico, venezuela, and others. "it's our hemisphere." it explains our treatment of ukraine. "that's russia's sphere." it explains any softening on taiwan independence. "that's china's sphere." it explains our weakening relations with EU and NATO. he's decided that's outside our sphere. they can form their own sphere. they can give into russia.
he sold it as "america first" but we might get more active in the americas.
it then is also somewhat telling we are willing to involve ourself in israel-iran, if everything else is spheres.
i was reading an interesting article saying this is really part of a shift towards spheres of influence, which then explains a lot of our choices. that the world would essentially be divided among the powers as spheres they dominate. we control the americas, china asia, russia eastern europe. this explains pretty well our treatment of greenland, canada, mexico, venezuela, and others. "it's our hemisphere." it explains our treatment of ukraine. "that's russia's sphere." it explains any softening on taiwan independence. "that's china's sphere." it explains our weakening relations with EU and NATO. he's decided that's outside our sphere. they can form their own sphere. they can give into russia.
he sold it as "america first" but we might get more active in the americas.
it then is also somewhat telling we are willing to involve ourself in israel-iran, if everything else is spheres.
accurate, and dumbest thing ever.
we built a system post WW2 that benefitted everyone, especially the USA, and now we are ending it because a dumb ignorant man has different views.
What the attacks and killings of Venezuelans in international waters and the Trump coup ousting Maduro have shown is that the US military is prepared to follow illegal orders, since none of these actions have been conducted with Congressional approval, as required, or conform to international law. The US military has crossed a line. It is now his private army. They will fire on Americans if he tells them to.
it's all leading up to midterms and then attempted handover to Vance or Trump Jr
everything trump does is leading toward declaring a national emergency, cancelling elections and using the military to run the nation.
they're getting people used to the idea that you call anyone you want a 'terrorist' and then you can do as you wish. Because you know, who supports terrorists? Dems will be called 'terrorists' and be dealt with by military.
And John f'in Thune just sits in his office twiddling his thumbs.
I keep reminding myself to never assume Trump has any master strategy or long term goals. As we get more details it appears Trumps main motivation is because Maduro mocked Trump and did his little jerk off dance. Trump is always guided by the same emotions as your kindergarten age child.
So we shouldn’t be surprised that everyone is scratching their heads today wondering how Trump plans to get the oil and get the VZ government to obey him with no boots or anything else.
🇺🇸🇻🇪 Sixteen oil tankers from BRICS nations including Brazil, Russia, China, India, along with Mexico and other countries, are bypassing the US blockade to load Venezuelan oil, according to Reuters.
There are two. One is in custody and the other is in the WH.
You haven't been awake for the last year. A "dictator from day one" who hasn't given up on that ambition.
We have re-entered the Thirties. Trump is Hitler or Mussolini - take your pick of those two strutting fascists - Congress is the Weimar Republic, and appeasement is now the norm in Europe. The collapse of the world order is the collapse of the League of Nations.
So we shouldn’t be surprised that everyone is scratching their heads today wondering how Trump plans to get the oil and get the VZ government to obey him with no boots or anything else.
Prediction: Sometime in the next month, Maria Machado will make a pilgrimage to Washington D.C. or Mar a Largo to hand over her Nobel peace prize to the MORE DESERVING recipient, Donald J. Trump, in a sad, public ceremony. She will then be installed as the new (puppet) president of Venezuela with the full backing of the US military.
Oh looks it Gary from Caracas who KNOWS what is happening.
Nicolás Maduro Guerra, Deputy in Venezuela's National Assembly and son of President Nicolás Maduro, calls for national unity in the face of US aggression. pic.twitter.com/DMw47hOV77
"Donald Trump has suggested US taxpayers could reimburse energy companies for repairing Venezuelan infrastructure for extracting and shipping oil....suggested his government could pay oil companies to do the work."
