The USA is at war with Venezuela this morning.
It is bombing Caracas.
There are reports that the Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro has been abducted by US forces.
Trump will no doubt claim that this is another war that he has ended, rather than one he has started. He will, of course, be lying.
In reality, we need to look at just two reasons for what is happening
The first is oil.
The second is to provide a distraction from the Epstein files.
There is nothing more to this than that.
A madman who is absurdly powerful, driven by pleonexia and an ego utterly out of control, is seeking to distract the world from who he really is by waging war to capture yet more resources for exploitation by an increasingly tiny number of US billionaires.
He has made my video, published this morning, particularly relevant.
My sympathies lie with all those who will suffer as a consequence of his actions, from wherever they come, because it is not just Venezuelans who will pay the price for this. The reverberations will be felt around the world.
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The third is a distraction from the mid-terms – nothing quite like a “nice little war” to unite a country
(although Panama & Gulf 1 did not quite do the job for Shrub 1).
I doubt if there will be a ground war – just destabilisation & a lesson to Putler – “see …….this is how you snatch heads of state”.
The usual suspects (Congress and Senate) will wring their hands & do… nothing.
I am confident that the UK’s “dear leader” will blather and bullshit just like he did with Gaza.
True
But I do not think that will work
Trump WILL NOT be able to distract form the 2026 mid-term elections and numerous gubernatorial races.
This mess is just more cannon fodder for the Democrats and centrists non-MAGA Republicans against Trump and his zombie-crony followers.
I tend to agree.
Watching his press conference right now. It is very frightening. He is incoherent.
“Watching his press conference right now. It is very frightening. He is incoherent” = normal
Keep in mind, Trump has never ever drunk alcohol & I assume does not take drugs/stimulants – ergo WYSIWYG = normal Trump/normal imbecile.
We have three options, Mr. President. One -bomb, Two-bomb again Three if that doesn’t work , bomb again.
To enforce regime change without local support means boots on the ground. Trump has campaigned against ‘forever wars’ and not deploying American soldiers into a war (hence his stance on Ukraine)
He risks falling into a trap of his own making.
If he doesn’t send in troops, someone else will lead the country and defy him. Much of South America will support that person or group. If he does, they will face all the problems he said he’d avoid.
In my reading of history the US tends to not successfully answer ‘what do we do after intervening ?’
Much to agree with.
Let’s not forget that madman Trump is not his own man, but is managed by even madder man Stephen Miller, his Deputy Chief of Staff, who was key to the development of Project 2025, and has written most of Trump’s speeches over the years, and controlled most of his political decision making. While it is disturbing to think we have a madman in the White House, it is even more disturbing when we see the hidden power behind the madman.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Miller
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_2025
Much to agree with Helen. A couple of other madmen behind the throne are Karp and Thiel, whose relationship with Maurice Glasman of Blue Labour fame is deeply disturbing.
The same applies to Iran, oil and distraction,Israel will only cheer the nut case on.
Former CIA covert intelligence officer, Andrew Bustamante, says:
“Venezuela Is a Decoy… America’s Secret War With China Has Begun”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s3HNNnib8BI
I’m not sure we should shed too many tears over Maduro and his populist and authoritarian government, but it must be up to the people of Venezuela to determine their future and their political leaders. Things have seldom ended well when the US tries to impose its will with “friendly” leaders – from Cuba and Vietnam to Chile and Iraq.
Venezuela is a country of around 30 million people with very significant natural resources, but Trump’s government appears to think it all belongs to him and his mates.
Are we back in world of gunboat diplomacy, where the man (almost always a man) with a big stick calls the shots in his sphere of influence? The leaders of countries such as Russia and China will be watching closely – and indeed any other country with a military advantage over its neighbours.
The only route to peace is collective security. And as things stand the US appears to be a threat to that peace, particularly where Trump may want to escalate a confected dispute. Canada and Greenland may need to look dry quickly to their physical security against someone that until recently was a friend.
Ibm not mourning for Maduro
I am mourning for the rule of law
I fear a domino effect – with Cuba next. Then who? Greenland?
And after that? As you say, Canada?
This collapse of order is what worries me.
It is indeed sort of terrifying – but its almost normalised now – that a mad emperor will surprise us every other day with things that were deemed impossible . It makes 1984 look almost like a romcom. Truth is what the Ministry says it is – climate change is a hoax, vaccines are designed to kill people, we make a desert and call it peace etc etc
It seems that Trump glories in his own internal contradictions – going for the Nobel Peace Prize by bombing or helping to bomb, Gaza, Iran , Venezuela,- and that is what his supporters love. But it does seem to be coming unstuck – his popularity has plunged.
I suppose the best light that can be put on it is that it is the last writhing’s of a superpower coming to terms with having to take second place .
Yes Richard ” The reverberations will be felt around the world” – lets hope the world steps back from catastrophe.
I am also worried about the wider consequences. The world is seeing Putin get away with his invasion of Ukraine. Netanyahu is obliterating Gaza with impunity. The UN is rendered impotent. How long before Xi seizes the moment and invades Taiwan knowing the world will not intervene? And what other conflicts may follow e.g Thailand and Cambodia, India and Pakistan?
The old rules-based system of international law is collapsing before our very eyes allowing tyrants to get away with murder in much the same way as the obsession with “deregulation” is stripping the public of all protection against the corrupting impact of rampant exploitative anti-social neoliberalism.
Maybe Mother Nature will have the last laugh at the expense of the human race?
What is happening is frightening. Its incoherence is staggering. The consequences for law and order are profound. The collapse is off the scale.
Given the crazy times we are living in, it also cannot be discounted that the Nobel Peace Prize which Trump was reported to have coveted earlier in the year figures into the reasoning for this.
If there is to be a new leader in Venezuela, it is reported that the Nobel peace prize winner this year, Maria Corina Machado may be in the running.
If this happens, then Trump can claim next year that he is a shoe in for the Nobel peace prize, and if they don’t give it to him he can claim that he was the backing for bringing the peace prize winner to power so he is the real Nobel prize winner anyway.
Much the same way in which David Brent having lost the pub quiz claimed that throwing a colleagues shoe over the pub roof was the real quiz (in the TV show: The Office).
This sounds like a crazy joke but other crazy stuff happened before this.
For example: the time Trump thought that FIFA had personally gifted him the World Cup trophy. When it was found this was not the case, he was then instead gifted a FIFA Peace Prize which happened to look remarkably similar to the World Cup trophy but shinier and much bigger.
This is what makes me think the peace prize might factor into this (as well as the vast oil).
There is a new leader of Venezuela – the Vice President Delcy Rodriguez, who sounds like a very feisty and intelligent woman. Her father was tortured to death by Venezuelan intelligence services in 1976, which were allegedly backed by the CIA. If correct I wouldn’t expect her to be a poodle for the USA; she’s already issued a call to arms for Venezuelans to defend their country.
The world seems stunned… horrified.. where is this mad man going next and when is it time for the world to stand against him? Unfortunately we demonstrated how tolerant we were for genocide.. now, a mere coup… why worry?
Apparently articles of impeachment have been filed against Hegseth.
Also this years Nobel Peace Prize winner, Venezuelan far right potential opposition leader Machado, until she went into hiding was nominated for the prize by none other than Marco Rubio and several other Republican pols. No doubt she will be brought forward to rule for Trump as she dedicated her prize to him. I don’t know how peaceful she actually was or what if any pressure was used anywhere. There was always doubt about whether Maduro really won the last election in Venezuela and that is the excuse to remove him; however the US also tried to remove Chavez his predecessor (who was properly elected) and mentor in a coup that failed.. so illegality was not an excuse there. Trump has great affection for oligarchs as rulers.. he has bailed out Argentina’s far right leader and presumably looks forward to a similar close relationship with whoever he puts into Venezuela. BTW the desperate state of the economy in Venezuela is at least partly (mostly?) due to US sanctions that has led to mass migration over the last years, many ending up at the southern US border where now they are being picked off and sent to dreadful prisons around the world. So awful. Is the world going to stand up against this or are we going to lie down and let it happen like Gaza?
I condemn the action.
That does not defend the Venezuelan government.
But this is no way to manage international affairs.
I condemn the action, unreservedly. I am pleased to note the LibDems and Greens have.
Also Trump’s actions in Venezuela condemned by Zarah and JC of Your Party, by Richard Burgon on Labour left and by the Morning Star.
Can it become Trump’s Vietnam and his undoing?
Will
Congress act to remove Trump?
I am sleeping on this before writing in the morning.