Lu Zwei wrote: Mon Jan 05, 2026 11:47 am

losthighway wrote: Mon Jan 05, 2026 8:06 am
But Venezuela has been a conduit for Colombian cocaine and it's not a stretch to think that Maduro has some of that in his financial portfolio.

And there you have it. It only took us two days, and this is a fairly progressive closed off space on internets.

You people are beyond saving. There isn't a critical self reflection brain cell in your bodies. NONE.

I'm sorry. I don't understand your frustration. Don't be a tankie here, two things can be true: A ruthless dictator can be involved in the drug trade, *and* US involvement in their country let alone the invasion we've seen can also be unethical and illegal.

Maduro doesn't need to be a good guy for the US to be very wrong here. He's not at all, and yet our government clearly is wrong.

I think the scariest thing is the only proper guard against these actions is the United Nations, and the US has trampled over international law for decades.

The concern about future coups and takeovers is very legitimate. Trump tweaked the neo-liberal Reagan/Bush formula slightly and it could be applied to just about any country with a rascal in charge.

1. Establish a leader's actions are illegal under U.S. law
2. Use the military as an extension of law enforcement
3. Prosecute them domestically, and U.S. court doesn't take on the international implications of the arrest, only the violation of our laws
4. Brandish these powers to keep whoever is next (Venezuela's VP in this case) in line
5. Collect all the $

At least looking at the similar Noriega story- this is potentially legal in the US. Until the UN can hold people accountable, he can basically topple any country he wants every month and not get bogged down with all the lofty nation building hearts and minds shit that Bush Jr and Obama were dealing with.

losthighway wrote: Mon Jan 05, 2026 12:38 pm

Lu Zwei wrote: Mon Jan 05, 2026 11:47 am

losthighway wrote: Mon Jan 05, 2026 8:06 am
But Venezuela has been a conduit for Colombian cocaine and it's not a stretch to think that Maduro has some of that in his financial portfolio.

And there you have it. It only took us two days, and this is a fairly progressive closed off space on internets.

You people are beyond saving. There isn't a critical self reflection brain cell in your bodies. NONE.

I'm sorry. I don't understand your frustration. Don't be a tankie here, two things can be true: A ruthless dictator can be involved in the drug trade, *and* US involvement in their country let alone the invasion we've seen can also be unethical and illegal.

Maduro doesn't need to be a good guy for the US to be very wrong here. He's not at all, and yet our government clearly is wrong.

There is and never will be a way to justify policing any country in the world by your will or way-power. Venezuela is and never should be any interest to you 20 years ago or now.

What is true is that you have a broken capitalist system that is rigged against your own people, and that should be your only *and* sustainable position regarding everything your country does now and in close future.

Even if you’re only talking about extradition, the Noriega thing was way different. He was a CIA asset actually involved with smuggling and drugs that the US was well aware of and not part of a fictitious cartel. He also wasn‘t sitting on top of a huge oil reserve that that been expropriated by the state. He was a right wing fuckwad that was revealed to be a part of an even bigger scandal and was an embarrassment that had ran afoul of his protectors.

I think that when we look at this stuff we should fight when we feel ourselves falling back on hollywood caricatures of latin american drug lords just because that’s how we’re taught to look at this stuff because that is exactly what right wing assholes are counting on you doing. This is part of a bigger war between an ex-colony and a super power that feels entitled to it. To continue harping on drugs - which pales in the face of the actual resources at play - in this context is akin to going on about weapons of mass destruction in the second Iraq war.

WHAT!?

What I mean is...

ARE YOU FUCKING BRAIN DEAD!?

Your dude is already talking about annexing an EU territory!!!

WHAT IN THE ACTUAL FUCK WOULD MAKE YOU TYPE SUCH GIBBERISH THAT HAS NO MEANING WHATSOEVER!?

Lu Zwei wrote: Mon Jan 05, 2026 1:33 pm Your dude is already talking about annexing an EU territory!!!

WHAT IN THE ACTUAL FUCK WOULD MAKE YOU TYPE SUCH GIBBERISH THAT HAS NO MEANING WHATSOEVER!?

Are you fucking drunk? I was responding to the other guy.

Gramsci wrote: Mon Jan 05, 2026 3:59 am

gotdamn wrote: Sun Jan 04, 2026 2:23 pm Yeah, the Nobel peace prize going to that maniacal cunt María Corina Machado was clearly a greenlight to toppling Maduro's regime. That all of the leaders of western powers are "waiting for full details" is your sign that they ain't doing jack shit to support Venezuela, regardless what the next step is gonna be.

Clown show. W. Bush round 2.

Funniest part is how Trump ghosted Machado. I’m pretty sure because she got the Nobel Peace prize and he didn’t.

Pretty sure that was just a well orchestrated part of the good cop/bad cop scenario that they had set up with the Nobel committee. How great is it Trump can do this in the name of peace by the independent arbitrator of what is popularly and unfortunately considered the gold standard of humanitarian causes. I'm not going to bother to go into it, but

Since 2006 the United States has imposed a wide variety of sanctions. The most significant are preventing the Venezuelan government from accessing the U.S. financial system; freezing the bank accounts and other assets of the Nicolás Maduro administration; blocking oil imports from the state oil and gas company, PDVSA

...which all of course trickle down to tangible suffering for the rank-and-file in Venezuela, who we are now going to rescue by privatizing their oil reserves, so they can be run by the wealthy elite of America.
Let's not forget this chestnut, it could be from yesterday, but is already twenty years old, and as many have already hinted, the sentiment goes back much further.