Trump Says Maduro Captured After US Airstrikes Hit Venezuela
Non paywalled version https://apnews.com/article/venezuela-us-explosions-caracas-ca712a67aaefc30b1831f5bf0b50665e
(Thanks to @[email protected] )
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Comments242https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-01-03/trump-says-venezuela-s-maduro-captured-and-flown-out-of-country-mjy3kzivOpen linkView original on sh.itjust.works
We just casually out here kidnapping heads of state now?
It’s an open act of war. But at least no one is talking about how he fucked kids.
I don't know if we can wag the dog any harder, he's starting to come apart....
Yeah… we’re definitely pushing the upper limits of dog-wagging.
It's definitely still be posted as a respond from the left.
The right is showing they don't care about kids getting diddle just like back in the day. Maga after all means back to a time when it's the victims fault.
If a country bombed Argentina and kidnapped Milei the US would retaliate immediately. But when the US pull this heinous shit it's fine. Always has been.
When you have the US military on your side, you can do anything you want.
Why so many people are missing this obvious threat is beyond me. All nations should be shoring up their military defense, and fast.
Maduro is not a good person. But that's not what matters here. Plenty of countries have evil people at the helm.
What matters here is MAGA, with by far the world's most powerful military, is imposing its will on the United States and the world. If you think this kind of successful operation is ever followed up by "ok guys we got everything we wanted, let's stop now", give your head a shake.
We will know Russia traded Venezuela for Ukraine in the next few days. I bet the EU is in pure panic mode now. Would not surprise me to see a move on Taiwan too.
When you entertain the notion that the religious nutjobs who whisper to Trump's ear actually wants Earth to become a nuclear wasteland your disposition is bound not to be sunny anymore
Well then, what's there left to lose?
And many world leaders will defend it because they know US bastards could do the same to them.
An old man with everything to lose if he ever steps down from power, the political and diplomatic literacy of a temper-throwing child with the nuclear launch codes.
I like how you mentioned nuclear launch codes.
Any nation without nuclear capabilities should see this as a sign to develop them ASAP.
I don't want more nukes in the world, but the US doesn't pull this shit on nuke capable nations
If putin kills zelensky next week then trump won't be able to whine.
It's not like Putin hasn't tried that…
I bet he's thinking about trying it again. After the attack in Kherson they have the perfect excuse.
Never mind Zelensky, if I were Taiwan's president I'd be looking at the US creating a big naval distraction for itself at the same time as affirming that heads of state are fair game with more than a little trepidation...
First time the united snakes did it?
Well no, they did the same in Panama with Noriega
And Hawaii.
Again, Noriega surrendered after 2 weeks, he wasn't kidnapped the same night as the invasion started.
You don't believe this is anything new, right?
Imperialism and general fuckery, no.....but to my knowledge this is the first time the US has opened a conflict by just straight up taking the head of the foreign government.
Unless, of course, you've got something that says different.
gonna hand wave in Hawaii
Honestly, idk, but they've done worse/adjacent things so it's not shocking. 🤷 Just depressing.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_invasion_of_Panama
Noriega didn't surrender until 2 weeks of conflict had passed.
Again, has the US ever opened a conflict by kidnapping a head of state?
There’s also the US-backed coup in Hawaii where they put the queen under house arrest first thing.
You know what, you got me on that one. I had forgotten about Hawaii. We definitely did those people dirty.
the only technicality was it wasn’t the ‘US government’ doing this, they just okayed it after
completely unrelated rogue gunboat guys, we promise
you beat me by 7min lol but this was my immediate thought
So the 60+ boats bombed were just a bit of pre-war?
Are you saying air strikes are the same level of military involvement as the Invasion of Panama?
i am. it’s manufactured consent at the minimum and a fucking act of war at the maximum. see what the us did in the gulf of tonkin for instance. the us does not care as it is a terrorist state.
i bet the new guy is … oddly friendly with oil corporations
Have you heard about the expression "moving the goalposts"?
I suppose that depends on whether or not you consider the wars against the indigenous people here in North America actual wars.
Maduro took a deal, this wasn't a kidnapping.
The clue is Trump says he was captured, and he always lies.
Edit. Someone got a deal lol
......okay.
How about, instead of presupposing what he's lying about and why, we try and actually find out the truth? Reality still does matter, y'know.
It's all over the news, this was an agreed deal.
Edit lol. Deal done.
Link, please.
"Everybody's saying it!"
i'm surprised to see yall so convinced of the opposite but i understand if you just not wanting to sensationalise without data. is the US military really so infinitely far ahead that snatching a head of state is a guaranteed operation?
i suppose i haven't see any independent verification that they have maduro at all so could be a bluff
For me personally, it's the statement of fact without sources. This is the era of AI and social disinformation. "Trust me, bro!" carries even less weight now than ever.
Don't get me wrong, even though Venezuela doesn't deserve US aggression, Maduro is still a shady conman and I wouldn't put it past him to sell out his country.
But I won't believe it just because someone said it was true.
Let's appreciate what this means for the global order.
Russia has proactively attacked Ukraine. Now the US has attacked Venezuela. If China ever needed a permissive international environment to attack Taiwan, this attack was a major step in this direction.
We are quickly sliding back to a world of great powers, where might makes right and hence smaller countries will be bullied into submission without any concerted opposition by what remains of the 'international community'.
If the US gets away with this, the same is going to happen to Panama in the not too distant futute and to Greenland soon after.
Unless Russia is burned out after the Uktain war, they might try their hand at the Baltics.
Should Russia collapse, China might integrate some of the Siberian regions.
And so on.
I wonder how this all will end.
It will end like it always does. Like the Roman and Byzantine empires ended, like the USSR ended, like Alexander the great's empire ended, like England's empire ended.
At some point great powers become too great to be stable, so they fracture into provinces that become separate countries and the cycle starts over.
Only this time there are nuclear weapons involved, so we'll see how that goes
Personally, I'm quite ready for an independent New England. We only get back 80% of what we contribute in taxes and manufacturing.
yes because everything will remain the same in this scenario…
honestly it's this level of analysis that got the usa to elect a pedophile for president
Oh so sorry. I guess I'll just sit quietly in front of my propaganda box and not try to leave the fascist hellscape my country has turned into.
All political movements start with local activism. If I want New England to be free, it starts with me at the town level.
Have fun doing nothing. I'm sure that engenders a real feeling of hope deep down in your jibblies.
i'm not telling *ou not to act… I'm telling you to give in an ounce of thought before you act
ah yes, the famous opening line of The Romance of the Three Kingdoms
I wonder if AI and it's possibilities for mass surveillance and mass manipulation will make a difference and allow empires to sustain themselves and control it's people.
Maybe wait for anyone to develop something even remotely AI before wondering about that?
Mass surveillance is happening right now, by companies and goverments. The data this generates can be analyzed using AI tools to find anything out of the ordinary, anyone trying to resist the empire. LLMs can be used to generate content to manipulate people, en masse or by microtargeting based on the surveillance data. This is not distant future, this is the near future, if not present.
You have identified what I also see as the only "use" for LLMs. Still doesn't make it "AI" though, which is what my jab was directed at. However, maybe I should have pointed out that I do not dispute it can be used to mass-manipulate people :/ Sadly, that is entirely realistic.
Westerners don't have a clear perception of this since they have lived in either the great power (US) or one of its vassal states (NATO) for the last 30 years.
They're not used to a world of multiple great powers / poles, even though that has been the case for most of human history.
Most adult voters are too young to remember it firsthand, hence the perception. Basically anyone under the age of 50 likely won't have a clear picture. For a better understanding:
If you were born in 1980, you would've witnessed the fall of the Berlin Wall when you were 9 years old.
Countries with nukes and power will eat all other countries, up to the point that one of the countries with nukes is confident that they can attack another country with nukes while preventing a retaliatory strike to happen. Shit will probably slide sideways when that decision happens.
Might make right has always and will always be the de facto. It takes those with. Might choosing to not have it make right for anything else to exist.
That's the reality of history and anyone who has even a grade school understanding of the history of humanity knows it.
We can all want better, and we all know the cost of the fall out of might makes right. But that doesn't change reality, it only makes it more painful to watch history repeat.
Yes and no.
As a last resort, the threat of violence (or enforced consequences more generally) is ultimately behind the authority of any institution.
But legal and institutional frameworks can persist if power to inflict consequences is distributed and governed by rules, the incompliance with which is again sanctioned, and so on. The system is then kept stable by preventing consolidation of power with few actors and not tolerating arbitrariness in how it is welded. The fact that any authority is ultimately rooted in the threat of violence does not mean that we as social and reasonable animals cannot find reasonable and stable arrangement that should prevent us from actually having to resort to violence all too often.
And we have absolutely slipped up in this regard. Relying on one party (the USA) as the primary locus is power in NATO and the world to keep peace. Allowing big social media platforms to consolidate and grow beyond any reason. Turning a blind eye to violations of international law
I'm sorry but if you think this wasn't already the case I have a West Bank village to sell you.
Did I say that hasn't already been happening? Please don't assume what I think. Obviously, letting Israel get away with bombing Gaza and other Palestinian areas is part of that trend.
What I mean is:
After WW2 many agreed that something like this must never happen again. The UN security council was founded in 1945. European Convention of Human Rights 1950. Treaty of Rome which established the EEC in 1957, and so on, and so on. Despite the cold war, international affairs in the latter half of the 20s century were not a free-for-all. This was a strong era of international law and legal regimes were added and became increasingly more binding, not the other way around. When the USSR collapsed and Germany was unified 1989-1991 many started to envision an 'end of history' as the world would converge into a global liberal order etc. The mood in 2000 was generally one of great optimism; a new millennium for humanity, a new chance after the difficulties and horrors of the 20th century had been overcome. For the first time, the world set overarching development goals, the millennium goals, to be reached by 2015.
This general trend towards and joint vision of more international cooperation, universal free trade and a rules based order has slowly been dying since...? I'm not sure when exactly, probably 2010ish. But what has been a subtle turn for the longest time has accelerated noticeably since ca. 2020.
That was my point.
My point is that it's not a "trend;" Israel has been committing atrocities against Palestinians since before day 1 and it didn't affect their international recognition one iota. Then they committed more atrocities and were rewarded with international trade, investment and arms. Even after they recognized the State of Palestine they kept encroaching on its territory. There is no time in history when Israel didn't get away with bombing Palestinians, and this trend holds elsewhere. International law has never applied to great powers in any meaningful sense; it's always been a cudgel for beating smaller powers when they get out of line.
Clearly the US and its allies never felt the need to follow these legal regimes, if their behavior during and after the Cold War was any indication. See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_involvement_in_regime_change#1945%E2%80%931991:_Cold_War. This optimism you're talking about was nothing more than naivety that never reflected the real world, is my point. When did international law ever restrict American imperialism? Soviet? French? British? The only real difference now is that Westerners can't ignore this stuff any more; as someone from the third world I can tell you nobody I never felt like I or anyone else were protected by international law. Iraq alone is conclusive proof that the rules based order was a farce. What you're describing is the West losing faith in the farce they created; nobody else had any faith in this shit in the first place.
If there was ever such a thing (there wasn't), there's no way it can be argued to have survived the War on Terror, so it has to be before 2001.
This is what Putin wants. Putin's puppet is doing exactly what it's master commands. A world where great powers disregard everyone's sovereignty.
Which is really weird give how decentralized and hard to control the world is right now. This empire strategy is a failing one for everyone involved.
So this is how 2026 starts.
Oh boy.
This is going to be a decade of a year, isn't it?
A decade?
I see an optimist.
I expect the wars just to escalate. First countries are running out of water, that's gonna accelerate soon.
None of this will end well. And we knew it would happen decades ago.
Oh well.
Yeah, this is watching the Limits to Growth charts. You know they're will be resource conflicts and problems, just not in what form they'll manifest first.
Yep. For real.
That's some good 1984 right there
Kamala would have done the same as Trump because these things are decided by the 3 letter organisations, the politicians are just some face to show to the public.
Oh yeah, I'm totes sure Kamala would also be trying to annex Greenland /s
Obama bombed 8 countries in a year in 2016. Democrats and Republicans are the same in bombing countries for oil and donating money to Israel.
Democrats are a little gay, that is the only difference.
So this is where the Amarican people no longer accept this president and rovolt in an unprecedented rage, amiright?
Like, finally take an example of the French and other counties and finally unite in a massive violent protest, right?
Please learn from history, it's the only way.
We're patiently waiting and watch eagerly from the sideline here in Europe, come on, act!
I've been in the US two months ago, in a very Democratic city, socialising with only very anti-Trump people. Not a single one cared what happened outside US borders. They were upset about the inflation, cost of living, loss of privacy and civil liberties, etc. There may be some who do care about the US foreign policy, but unless thousands of Americans start returning in body bags, there won't be enough critical mass to stage any revolt or even protests worthy of Trump's attention.
I've lived in the US my entire life. I wish I could tell you your wrong.
I can't.
Some of my earliest memories revolve around watching the evening news, listening to them say that "X amount of American lives were lost" and wondering why "American" lives were substantially different or worthy of note. A life lost is a life lost. And that's a tragedy no matter how you slice it. Where that life started or where it lived has no bearing whatsoever on it's value.
At least... that's what I believe. The current state of things has me thinking I might be in the minority on that one.
As to revolution, protest, anything that could even prove an inconvenience to the status quo... I'll believe it when I see it. Not to make excuses, but I think forces in the American culture have been working to defang popular protest since at least the civil rights movement, or perhaps even earlier. Even if it's demostriably wrong... I can't begin to tell you how demoralized I feel. My government just... went and did this. It's illegal. The very shape of our government is supposed to prevent this kind of thing from happening. And yet... here we are. One illegal invasion and (apparently) kidnapping of a sovereign head of state later.
...I wish it were otherwise, but it feels like there's very little that can be done about it. Americans just... don't seem equal to the task of holding their government to account. The one thing we are supposed to be good at.
I can't even begin to tell you how many outrages there were up to this point. Too many. Far too many for concence to allow. This... feels different. Is different. Has to be different, then the way we've been allowing things to ride.
But... I've been disappointed before. I'm certain I'll be disappointed again. I hope this will be different, but...
...I can point to plenty of times it should have been different before. Times that would have prevented this from happening. It's... hard to maintain hope in the face of that.
I mean, philosophically all lives are equal.
But you value people you love, your family (I assume) more than your neighbors. And you care about what happens in your town more than in another city in your country, and you care more about your country than others...
USA had a pretty bad plane crash a couple months ago in Louisville; about a dozen people died. I care, it was a tragedy, but I guarantee you that the people in Louisville care a lot more than I do.
And it's the same reason a nation will care more about its citizens vs the citizens of other nations. Kind of obtuse to pretend that's not how people work, no?
That's fair, I was quite tired when I wrote what I wrote so let me expand on that a little bit.
That is of course true in most situations. I should have clarified this more but primarily when I said "I grew up watching the evening news" I was talking about war on terror coverage.
I'm not pretending that's not how people work, it absolutely is and that's the reason this was exploited. But... there's this kind of... preformative agony to the whole ordeal that, speaking as an American, does feel uniquely American.
Empathizing with the death of people you're close with is natural. But when, as in Iraq or Afghanistan, they are active participants in why people are dying, and then they're deaths are used to justify sending more people over there to kill and be killed...
...It kinda just soured me on the whole affair to be honest. And, given the events of last night? It's something I could easily see happening again. We seem to have dusted off everything else from the Iraq playbook, why not that too?
Anyways, we're not disagreeing. There was just more to my point that didn't quite make it into my post.
fuck outta here with "philosophically"
They are yes, as opposed to subjectively on varying levels of personal familiarity. You'd care far more about your spouse or mother dying than a random person in a different country you had no idea existed.
That doesn't mean that a random person's life has more intrinsic value than your mother's, but TO YOU they will have less. Hence, lives are equal in a philosophical sense but pragmatically that's not how the world works, ever, or we'd be in a constant state of unending grief at the loss of our fellow humans 24/7.
Maybe he wants to describe the reader’s wrong doings?
/s
that happened during the invasion of Iraq, and nothing happened anyway… most Muricans are just chicken hawks
Unfortunately that' just human nature, tribalism, nature is cruel and the life that evolved out of it is the product of this cruelty
There are many social circles. The most immediate is Family, then extended relatives, close friends, then neighbors, then your village/towm/city, then region, then nation, then its the planet.
Humans aren't really capable of really caring about thing happeneing far away.
This isn't unique to the US. I think every country is like that, especially those struggling.
It's not like people consciously choose to be evil, this is just biology, they can't help it.
When your family is struggling, its hard to care about neighors, and especially harder to care about someone in another town/city.
Nationalism just extend the circle a bit, people care about their own country's suffering more than others. Don't even have the time to catch a break and think when your role in this system is just a wage slave.
People become more tribal under scarcity conditions and the scarcity is largely artificial.
This is a lie. This reeks of someone looking to claim they're the only person who cares about Gaza
well given how many of y’all like to throw "just another distraction from the epstein files!" at everything, i’m enclined to believe it
Right because if someone says that then that means they themselves also value nothing outside the us. It DEFINITELY doesn't indicate what they think Trump's thought process is.
What do you mean? I don't understand your sentence.
It may be time for the rest of the world to stop waiting patiently for Americans to mobilize. When non-US states commit atrocities, the civilized world does sanctions to erode public support for the regime. It's time for sanctions on the US. Russia can't be the only nation that condemns us.
Like most countries in all of history with remotely any amount of power. The avg citizen doesn't give a fuck about foreign policy.
If your country isn't militaristically weak or at risk and your people are't coming home in body bags. You will be hard pressed to find a country with a population that doesn't care about it self first and foremost with foreign policy a distant thought.
They want that. It's a sad truth, but we need to accept it. America is lost, the people of america are lost. This is a failed state. And globally, the quicker this state goes down, the better the world becomes for everyone else.
no, they'll keep on waiting and seeing… turns out the home of the brave was just full of feckless sheep
The fact that Maduro got captured so quickly will increase his support if anything.
They might not care for Maduro that much
US is far to spread out, and not enough people will care because Mudaro wasn't a very good guy and that's about as far as nearly half the US will look.
... Why? America voted this, 2/3 Americans either actively or passively support a pedo king who kidnaps other countries leaders
Fat complacent Americans aren’t going to do anything. They love the military industrial complex including so-called “left” Americans.
Guys, it's fine. Remember? Trump has the FIFA peace price.
This should get him the coveted NHL and WNBA peace prizes too!
See, it's all the Europeans' fault. They offended him by not handing him the actual Nobel Peace Prize. What's a dictator to do, then, but to invade and bomb yet another country.
Those europeens countries that keep licking the US boots? They are so happy to see Maduro abducted
Kaya Kallas on Elon Musks Twitter/X:
source
Does not sound like boot licking to me, but looking out for your own interest!
The strongest countries of the EU are just a bunch of hypocrites . Just like they publicly opposed Iraq war but was involved in supporting the US military. Europe participated directly in destroying Libya and most welcomed the Nobel Peace Prize for Machado which we all know is just a Puppet for Trump
russian bot detected.
Russia is illegally occupying Ukraine and should withdraw unconditionally. When you hypocrisy get exposed you start to deflecting with unrelated things. Europe major power are still scummy neo colonial powers who only care about their own benefits.
Capturing another countries leader just to hide the fact that you are a pedophile is ludicrous. C'mon internal america. Only you can stop this (for now).
How do I stop it? Half of my family is still delusional thinking this is a good idea. It feels helpless when his cult is still stuck on him.
You don’t stop it (on your own), you work with other people who are trying to stop it.
You figure out what you’re good at and have time for and do that. In a group. Collectively. No-one is saying ’why doesn’t traxex fix this’.
If you want to take on deprogramming cult members yourself there are resources available to anyone to get you started.
Thanks for the reply, I’ll try that as a start.
There's also oil, our perennial reason for invading and making war (sorry I mean conflict).
This is ONLY about oil. Trump doesn't give a rats ass about people dying from drugs. He only wants control of the largest oil reserves on the planet. That's 100% what this is about.
We don't know he's a pedophile. And even if he is, that's not a crime. You mean child molester.
We don't know that the sun will come up tomorrow, but it's a safe bet.
It’s also to steal the oil for shareholder profits
Trump is friends with the Saudis. The Saudi's oil brings in billions of dollars a day. Trump covets that treasure, and wants the same thing for himself.
Venezuela sits on the largest oil reserve on the planet. Whoever controls Venezuela, controls the oil, and Trump has already announced this morning, even before his official announcement that the operation even happened, that they will be taking control of the oil.
Follow the money: This is all about stealing Venezuela's oil for Trump's personal financial benefit. Our military has become the muscle for the Trump Crime Family.
Bottom Line: This certainly isn't about drugs. He just PARDONED the ex-prez of Honduras, who had been convicted of Narcoterrorism in an America court, and was serving decades in an American prison, for doing the exact same thing that he is claiming for Maduro. So save me the breathless rationalization about flooding our cities with drugs.
Again, Follow the money: Trump will pardon Maduro once he pays the proper bribe, and he is in full control of the Oil.
It's chemically the same as Canadian oil. I do worry this dovetails with his earlier expansion plans and ability to economically coerce.
So much for not following illegal orders. US army is the world's largest terrorist organization.
Well, it's an order by the president, so it has to be legal... it is legal right? RIGHT?
FEEL THE WRATH OF OUR FREEDOM
This Futurama bit has passed the test of time
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=rFiutKZjRW8&pp=0gcJCR4Bo7VqN5tD
When the president does it, that means that it is not illegal.
What the fuck... What timeline are we on???
The timeline where the US Pearl Harbors a country.
Now, that’s a verb☝️
He verbed it.
We're on the Beta Seikaisen (Wordline)
What is happening is called Daisanji sekai taisen (Third World War)
Operation Vega has failed... WW3 broke out...
This is the work of The Organization
Stop with this shit. This isnt some Marvel movie. It's reality. You are living in the rising age of American fascism, as you have been for the last year.
Its also somewhat witty way of saying that what is happening right now seems so unbelievable it must be somekind of mistake.
Dark times make dark humour and jokes are often easiest way for people to start process things and it does not equal inaction.
If you dont want to see remarks like that, you should maybe stay of internet.
Eek barba durkle…
I'm flabbergasted, this is insane. Why wouldn't China invade Taiwan now ?
Why wouldn't China invade Taiwan yesterday? Cheap justifications are a dime a dozen, allied fleets of over a hundred ships next door ready to respond to an invasion on a dime are not.
The allied fleets moved from China to Venezuela already.
China isn't AS imperial as the US or Russia. They're focused on domestic issues and spiking the price of consumer electronics by bombing fabs and spiking the price of everything else through western sanctions is not good for the domestic economy.
Eastasia has always been at war with Eurasia
Not sure if China can actually send many families' only children into an offensive war... could be a lot of backlash...
If they die, the family's bloodline end.
Do people care about that bullshit any less than they used to?
I'm Chinese American, my entire family was born in China including myself.
My parents really want me to have children. And I mean now I kinda do too, but like I actually want to create life that have the positive childhood I had... but minus the bad parts (my parents were sometimes emotionally abusive, I certainly will not do that if I ever have children). But like when I was a teen, before I really thought about it, but my mom really pushed for it. She really want grandchildren. I mean she probably will have grandchildren, but I'll have to limit their exposure to my mom... she could get toxic (sometimes, not always)... I know my maternal grandmother said awful things to me, I wouldn't want my parents to do that to my kids.
I can't speak for every Chinese person, idk about mainland China nowadays, but my mother really want bloodline to go on. I mean... she literally violated the One Child Policy to have me... she said she wanted my older brother to have someone to play with... (lol our relationship is kinda hostile now, cold-war like), and I feel like its the bloodline thing... if my brother dies, I could still carry on the blood, so its 2x more likely she'd have grandchildren basically, I'm sort of a "backup" in her eyes (she didn't say it, but this is how I feel tbh). I had an experience when I ran away from home when I was like 6, and later I asked my mom how she'd feel if I got kidnapped, she said she'd just move on and focus on my older brother... like... bruh...
Cuz she'd still have a chance to continue the bloodline so she didn't care if one of her kids went missing (she didn't say this part, but I'm just assuming from what she said)
She tells me she loves me very often... but honestly idk, I'm kinda skeptical.
So TLDR: Many Chinese people do care. I was born around the 2000s and my parents certainly cares. I'm like military age now, those in the PLA were probably born around the same era as I did, I'm pretty sure the parents of the soldiers in the PLA would have the same mindset as my parents, they're same generation I mean, but again, I'm not there anymore so I can't say for certain.
Edit: Oh yea btw apparantly, my older brother is planning to go back to China for marriage and then bring them over here in the US. Because my mom is constantly urging him to get married and she used WeChat to contact her network of people to help find a potential match... so... yea... there's that... arranged marriage sort of stuff.
That's so awful your own parent said that to you, that's so fucked up. No kid deserves that.
I'm sorry you went through that, it's not right.
Porcupine, plus too many other countries depend on its chips.
The United States has negotiated "Pax Silica" so that it doesn't need Taiwan for chips....
You can't magically mass produce a significant fraction of the 2nm chips you will need in two years just by "negotiating". These things take decades to plan, build, train.
Because US needs chips.
Why would China need to invade Taiwan? They assert that Taiwan is already a part of China. That would be like the US invading Kentucky. Right? Or is Taiwan a different country from China?
Two differences in your analogy.
Kentucky agrees that it is part of the US. Taiwan does not believe they are part of China.
The rest of the world agrees with the US that Kentucky is part of the US. The rest of the world does not agree that Taiwan is part of China.
Also, the US has been invading its own cities.
That's exactly why he is invading Venezuela.
The courts have been holding him back from deploying national guard - let alone active-duty troops - domestically. He's got ICE, but he wants more. He wants to declare martial law. He wants troops in the cities. Active-duty, Federal troops, not weekend warriors. The courts say he can't do that without the Alien Enemies act, and they say he can't invoke that act without a war.
So we have a war.
Taiwan does consider itself China. In fact, declaring they're not might verywellbe the trigger for the invasion. I get that they're de facto two separate countries, but de jure, PRC and ROC are two sides of the world's longest and coldest civil war.
Yea, that is actually not a good analogy...
Also the US already has deployed the national guard to its own states?
Because Taiwan is where the only opposition to the ruling Chinese party lives.
I guess they would just kidnap, I mean "capture", the president of Taiwan to be charged in their courts. No need to invade, it's just "law enforcement" without a warrant like what Trump is doing now.
Yes, the PRC claims that there is one country and Taiwan is a part of it. They also know that a seperatist group maintains control of Taiwan. If the confederacy lost all but Kentucky in the civil war, the US would still need to regsin control by military means. I'm not sure it would be called an invasion though.
You have got it backwards. The correct analogy would be if the Confederacy won the Civil War by conquering all of the states in the Union except for Rhode Island, but then later claimed that it was actually Rhode Island that was the separatist group and demanded that everyone in the world agree with this.
Maduro seemed like a dictator to me, but I don't know if unilaterally removing him from Venezuela by force is the best option. Ideally Venezuelans would decide for themselves who they want their leader to be.
They tried, but the last two elections were massively fraudulent, and it's hard to have a revolution when the army is behind the regime.
But this isn't the solution. As my Venezuelan friend said:
There’s also a massive fraud behind the fraud: there was a huge fake polling and disinformation campaign designed to make it look like there’s more support for the capitalists and right wingers than there is. Like…yes…the election was fake…but where the fuck are these 80% support for his opponent numbers coming from? None of these numbers match what’s on the street.
If you dig through the bullshit…elections would be close…far from the landslides either side promise.
All that we’ve learned here is that in Latin America the USA really really doesn’t like losing its investments. A lesson we already learned 20 times. Soon most of it will just be Puero Rico with less influence.
Now it's going to be a Civil War, and we will back whichever side will allow Trump to take control of the oil.
He's draining the swamp with a soda straw.
I drink your milkshake! I drink it up!
trump is gonna install an even worse dictator
You can read history to know without a doubt it is a terrible idea for Venezuelans
This isn't about what is best for them, it's what's is best for the few USA private interests.
Venezuelans wouldn't choose hard USA dictated capitalism (even if they purged all politicians and start completely anew) and this war is there to change that.
The ONLY thing this is about is Trump taking control of the Vemzuelan oil fields, the largest oil reserves on the planet. He wants to be the equal of the Saudi Royal Family, and stealing the planets largest oil reserves will do that for him.
He doesn't care about drugs, he just PARDONED the ex-prez of Honduras, who was convicted in an American court, and was serving decades in an American prison, for doing the exact same thing of which he is accusing Maduro.
This about Oil. Nothing else.
Always has been.
That or the first stage of colonising the rest of Americas (Cuba, Colombia, Mexico, .... Canada?, etc).
Or just all the things of 'why not', it's not like morals are keeping anyone awake.
Well, he did invoke the Monroe Doctrine in his speech today, even though he has no idea who Monroe is, or what the Monroe Doctrine is. It was supposed to claim America from coast to coast, but Trump is going claim the entire Western Hemisphere.
I also saw him get excited when Rubio mentioned the $50 million reward for Maduro. I give it 24 hours before Trump claims he should get the $50 million reward because he ordered the operation.
Are you 8 years old?
The US will install an 80s style military government. I would be more worried about being able to decide your leader in 2028.
This is a disgusting lawless action by a convicted felon who deserves to face trial for war crimes.
LOL. Sure, right after Bush and Blair.
3rd fucking day of 2026!…
I've said it before and I'll say it again: Every country pretty much needs to have a nuke now.
That seems to be the lesson Ukraine has taught.
Even before that, look at what Obama did to Libya not too long after they voluntary dismantled their nuclear program.
Except that those with nukes will never allow any country to develop one.
Taiwan tried to in the 80s and got immediately shut down when a scientist defected to the US and revealed the nuke facilities and that's shut down by allies. And look at them now on the brink of being invaded - bet the scientists feels real fucking stupid.
Eventually it seems like developing nukes will be easy enough i secret that everyone will have them. Apparently it would take many countries like Japan only a year or so to develop nukes in an emergecy so I imagine in 20 years that number will be few months for most countries.
North Korea seems to be doing pretty well in creating their nukes.
The collective WTF said as both nations wake up to hearing about all of this will be heard around the world. We need anti war protests ASAP to show the world we as the citizens do not condone this invasion by our government, march on DC would be better obviously but we need people to at least start speaking out instead of it just being a scroll on their phone til it hits us in higher prices and shortages of products from South America and China
People are too busy slowly dying under capitalism to protest.
It’s this. Europeans don’t understand this part of being American because they have healthcare and worker protections. They will understand soon if they keep voting for facists though
😐
Yeah Russia is very incompetent compared to the delta forces, elite U.S. units deployable to any country on earth. Perfect for hostage extraction and rescue operations in dictatorship countries.
The US is the largest rogue state on Earth
Post-Trump, I fear that's the truth.
Ngl this is a crazy move. Now the opposition will be utterly confused. Maduro is an evil man but also wtf.
Literally why
Oil, rare earth, land with beach property and cheap labor for economic developments. Also democracy.
Now that's what I call distraction from the Epstein files.bmp
Because he raped kids
WTF
Non paywall?
https://apnews.com/article/venezuela-us-explosions-caracas-ca712a67aaefc30b1831f5bf0b50665e
Doing the lord’s work my friend, thank you.
Knowing our US legislators, unless the people uncharacteristically push through the primaries & elect in the midterms enough representatives who aren't spineless losers, they'll argue an impeachment is a losing proposition and "the nation needs to put this behind them to move on & heal" or some other feckless, self-serving bullshit.
I have no Idea of how this was setup. But I can guess. Guess how the security and military of Maduro was persuaded. With bribes. Guess who paid the bribes? Not the US government. Guess who will have favor in the US government at the cost of common US citizens.
Who do you think did the bribing? Oil companies?
Assuming he is saying what the military has confirmed to him...
...well, this gives hope that full-scale war won't follow. It seems likely that Maduro had his system running on personal loyalty. If that is so, with him gone, the house of cards is likely to collapse.
A few words about Venezuela's air defense. Or the lack of it - the total lack of it was impressive. And in considerable contrast with Maduro's boastings of how many thousand MANPADS they supposedly had.
A convoy of helicopters which civilians could film slowly proceeded above Caracas and - not a missile, not a quickfire gun, seemingly not a shot was fired at it - unfathomably lucky b******s. A few guys on the wrong randomly picked rooftop could have ruined their day or life, but there were none.
As for what this means politically: Trump should now get a free apartment in the Hague (preferably next to Maduro's and Putin's apartments). But alas, he won't.
Meanwhile, South American countries have good reason to check if they actually have air defense, because with such a president in the US, maybe they will need it.
I thought Maduro was just the frontman and Diosdado was the guy really in charge...he already made a statement saying the fight is still on...
link:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LbgY2oBJRjk
PS: the tramp-clown part of this successful-looking operation seems to have been that he kidnapped the wrong people, lol, maduro had no real power.
That would be bad news, because then a US-Venezuela war (as opposed to a series on one-sided strikes) would still be on the cards.
I don't know enough about Venezuela to make a good guess.
There's also the question of how quickly (if quickly at all) they could organize reasonably un-manipulated elections. An armed attack has likely triggered special circumstances in Venezuela, and nobody can demand elections right now.
If Maduro's allies try holding on to power, it could end with faction A ruling one province and faction B ruling another...
I don't think this is a Lybia scenario, but it may happen is that
manyall SA leaderships get spooked by this and start hiking military investment and cooperation...At this point I want a war in the usa. The us should get some taste of it's own medicine
I think you underestimate Maduros support, this was not an Assad style house of cards with no civilian support. Maduro may have not won the last election but he definitely didn't lose by the margins the opposition was saying either, the fact that he allowed for elections in the first place shows he thought he could win, so he probably has 30-40% support. Combine that with the opposition being backed by the US and being forced to accept oil privatization which will anger the poor Venezuelans who rely on oil revenues for what's left of the Chavez welfare state, and the opposition to whatever US regime is put in will probably be greater than 50% which combined with the landscape of Venezuela is a recipe for Vietnam 2.
If Russian Spetznats swooped in and kidnapped Zelensky, the West would be up in arms about this rogue terror state. But when American terrorists kidnap the President of a sovereign country, liberals are all "gosh, I'm not sure if this is a good thing"
I'm an American liberal and this is absolutely terrorism at the highest order. Blatant disregard of international law and any US president would be just as culpable and evil as this particular "President".
Europe dithered for days before they found out whether Ukraine would fight back or not...turns out Zelensky and Ukraine stood firm and decided to fight (and the russians were stupidly overconfident and misinformed). For 3 days nobody knew if Kiev would fall, Spetznats did try to kidnap Zelensky. Nobody wanted to stick their necks out for Ukraine if it was a lost cause...but it turned out there really was strong support against russia.
Now let's see for Venezuela...
So the fuck what. Now what? A 20 year partisan or civil war? I wonder what the Mexicans are thinking.
He said he's ready to put boots on the ground and that the country will be controlled by USA for now. So I'm going with complete annexation of Venezuela. Next stop: Greenland, then Canada.
Greenland is part of Denmark which is part of NATO
Canada is part of NATO
What happens when a NATO member attacks another NATO member?
🤔
He said not long ago today that "something should be done with mexico" so...
I hope for Maduro he died a quick painless death. Because the alternative is the US torturing him into submission until the trail where he should then justify their attack. Its some fucked up shit.
Nah, he needs to be preserved for the big show trial, then sentenced to decades in prison, as Trump takes personal control of the oil. Eventually Maduro will access his offshore account and pay Trump a billion dollar bribe, and he'll be pardoned.
That was something
Cuba is likely done too.
That’s sad
Blessed be the liberator of narcozuela.
Maduro and Trump are friends
Maduro gets to escape his country and save face instead of being assassinated or executed.
Trump gets to manufacture a conflict so he can start martial law and become a dictator
Can anyone confirm, if this photograph of Maduro getting escorted of a plane by DEA officers is real?
Same as the dem president - us voters.
War hungry pedophiles rule your countries and all you do is consume their state sponsored slop and leave no crumbs. A leader is only as evil as the sheep that obey him.
No need to bring Jewish people into this. "Slop" would do just fine.
I didnt knew its meaning, sorry
All good
Ah yes let's blame the majority who have opposed this rapist for a decade
He literally won the popular vote
Go cry somewhere else
He literally didn't. Is it too much to look up a basic verifiable fact before you post dumb shit?
Edit: You might mean a he won a plurality which is just as stupid a thing to say. "More people didn't want Trump than wanted him, go cry somewhere else"
He is leader of a free nation in a free country
Not my fault how voting system works in that hell of a place.
How free can it be if his actions don't represent the will of the people and we have no legal mechanism to remove him? Why don't you spew this "evil sheep" rhetoric about other tin pot dictatorships? If a foreign country isn't your fault then how is 200 years of entrenched political decay my fault?
What have you done to reverse the march of fascism aside from look down your nose at everyone else? Are you out in the streets calling for US sanctions? Gonna stand by your inaction by telling yourself "it can't happen here"?
Doesn't mean a majority of people support him. But go ahead and be a fucking bigot.
Oh then how does one show support to their leader in a "free" country?
Imagine if russia kidnapped zelensky, you guys would be at throats of every single russian.
Imagine if china takes taiwan? Lol
Stop coping and maybe go and protest outside the military industrial complex. Half of your country is celebrating this
You're too far gone to talk to, bigot
👍
Props to the American elite delta special forces. To go in and extract the president of a nation without a single casualty is a huge feat. Especially since russian made air defense was aimed at their helicopters. They easily destroyed it with combined strike capabilities (naval- and air-force).
This is what a real good special military operation looks like. American W. Lets wait and see how this plays out.
Are you going to lead the charge when the partisan war erupts?
Just saying the US has some highly competent, well trained, badass special forces making impossible feats possible. Delta Forces