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🐺The Wise Wolf's avatar

Why is he fixated on Venezuela?

I will give you a hint, it rhymes with 'boil'.

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James Kabala's avatar

I think this can be part of the story, but I have truly come to believe that the whims of Trump are often beyond any coherent motives, even coherent-but-wicked motives.

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Oscar Alx's avatar

Oil for the biillionaire cronies.

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Feral Finster's avatar

So why not attack Saudi Arabia or the Gulfie tyrannies?

Venezuela would be happy to sell all the oil they can pump. Far cheaper than attacking the country, and Libyan oil production has never recovered from 2011.

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🐺The Wise Wolf's avatar

Why not attack Saudi Arabia? Are you serious? They're our allies. We don't need to attack them - they're already integrated into the Western financial system and sell us oil on our terms.

We already invaded Iraq and Libya for this exact playbook. Venezuela is next because they DON'T have a Western-controlled central bank and they WON'T play ball with our financial system.

The speedboat fentanyl smuggling story is complete bullshit. Speedboats can't make 1,200-mile ocean trips to smuggle drugs. Fentanyl comes from China through Mexico and Canada. This is a manufactured excuse - just like WMDs in Iraq.

Venezuela would sell oil, but that misses the entire point. We don't want to just BUY their oil. We want regime change so we can install a government that operates under Western central banking control.

Libya's oil production never recovered because chaos and control were always the goal, not stable production. This is the same exact pattern.

You have a childish understanding of geo-politics.

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Eduardo Coll's avatar

No government has made Venezuela more reliable on the US financial system than the current one. Namely by totally demolishing th currency and forcing a de facto dollarization.

If any, the US assumes Venezuela does not have the ability to revitalize their oil industry by themselves, but they’ve always relied on the US as a buyer.

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Feral Finster's avatar

The same allies that brought us 9/11..

As I pointed out, buying oil is cheaper than seizing it, if there's any oil left to seize. For that matter , "wise wolf" Iraq and Libya also would have been delighted to be able to sell oil freely for dollars. You may recall the "Oil For Food" program was intended to prevent Iraq from doing precisely that.

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🐺The Wise Wolf's avatar

You seriously think 9/11 was orchestrated by Saudi Arabia? Seriously? So the Saudis also destroyed Building 7 which just happened to house the CIA and FBI's digital records? Ya know, the building that a plane didn't even hit? I guess the Saudis also layered thermite all over the buildings so "jet fuel" could melt structural steel. I bet the Saudis also took out the trillion dollar insurance policy a few months before it happened.

And you're STILL missing the point on Venezuela. Yes, buying oil is cheaper than seizing it - IF that's all you want. But we don't just want their oil. We want regime change to install a Western-controlled central banking system. You don't get that by signing trade deals.

Iraq and Libya would have "happily sold oil for dollars" - and they did, until they started trying to sell oil in OTHER currencies and operate outside Western financial control. That's when they got "liberated." Oil for Food wasn't about preventing Iraq from selling oil - it was about controlling HOW and to WHOM they sold it.

Venezuela is the same story. They're selling oil right now to Russia and China. The issue isn't access to oil. It's that they won't submit to Western financial control. The fake speedboat fentanyl story is just the excuse to manufacture consent for invasion.

Take your Fisher Price My First Political Guide mindset somewhere else.

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Feral Finster's avatar

Leaving your conspiracy theories aside, what do you think dollarizing an economy accomplishes?

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🐺The Wise Wolf's avatar

"Dollarizing an economy" - congratulations, you just described installing a Western-controlled central bank in boomer terminology. That's literally what I've been saying this whole time, but apparently you need it translated into your 1968 high school civics class vocabulary to understand it.

Yes, forcing Venezuela into dollar-based trade through regime change is the entire fucking point. That's what happened to Iraq when they tried selling oil in euros. That's what happened to Libya when Gaddafi tried creating a gold-backed currency. And that's what's happening now to Venezuela because they're trading with Russia and China outside the dollar system.

But I'm the "conspiracy theorist" for pointing out the obvious pattern, while you're over here calling me crazy and still can't explain why Building 7 collapsed when no plane hit it.

Wake up.

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Oscar Alx's avatar

It is about giving control of the oil to ones cronies. They then provide some feedback.

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Feral Finster's avatar

As noted, Iraqi and Libyan oil production never recovered. So that doesn't make sense, either.

The point is to demonstrate to the rest of Latin America what happens to governments that think that they are in any wise sovereign. Argentina is obedient and gets carrot. Venezuela is not and gets stick.

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Oscar Alx's avatar

If the government give me half of the previous production I am in and give Trump or Jared his cut.

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Brick's avatar

Is this Henry Kissinger?

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🐺The Wise Wolf's avatar

'allies' as in 'more rothschild controlled freemasonic banker cannibal wizards' not actual allies.

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MikeLitoris's avatar

or it's a diversionary tactic...

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🐺The Wise Wolf's avatar

all i know is you aren’t taking a speed boat 1200 miles to the coast of florida without it being ripped apart by the ocean. those ‘fentanyl smugglers’ are a psy op to excuse a war with venezuela. there’s two possibilities why: 1. oil 2. no rothschild controlled central banking system. likely both.

fentanyl comes from china and mexico not venezuela.

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Billy C's avatar
14hEdited

It's also a criminal war of aggression to attack Venezuela to overthrow its sovereign government. Maybe Michael's too jaded to note that fundamental point, or that such a move, however it's carried out, will likely blow up on the Trump regime if he tries it.This is not Panama. American soldiers will come home horizontally and chaos will ensue. Are Trump and Pistol Petey that stupid? Probably.

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Johann Goergen's avatar

Agreed on calling Trump's actions criminal, bc, they are. Every reporter should report this. MT is trying to play both sides, not easy making a living by writing. Wonder who he votes for in national elections, given that foreign policy is (correctly) his metric. Can't possibly be any of the Mafia State Duoploly sock-puppets, smile.

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Te Reagan's avatar

Trump 2.0 is a complete betrayal of what he ran on.

And the in our face money grift his entire family is engaged in is disgraceful. Hunter Biden had nothing on Don Dr.

I’m betting Trumo gets more than 10 percent.

And Jared? What the F!

Also, Ivanka is back in the whitehouse. Why?

And why is Tiffany’s father in law Trump’s chief adviser? Technically a foreigner..

and why would Amazon pay Melania to produce her own life story about her so called rise in the fashion industry. Will she include Epstein and the underbelly of the world she used to belong to before being rescued by Trump.

And is it legal or normal for the First Lady to have her hand out, demanding millions. Seems like a payoff to me.

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Feral Finster's avatar

Trump is weak, stupid and easily manipulated. He agrees with whatever the last person to talk to him on a given issue says.

In this case, those someones are Rubio, Abrams and crew.

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Johann Goergen's avatar

Makes predictions about the future...hard. Will the Pentagon agree to illegally bomb, invade, etc. Venezuela? My hope is YES. It will turn into disaster and eventually overthow of US fascists, R&D. Trump and most of US Congress are incarcerated, sentenced to life- long community service. Magically NO ONE gets killed or injured, apart from the 80+ already murdered by the US murderous military in boats, so far. Fun stuff.

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Feral Finster's avatar

The Americans will demonstrate their ruthlessness.

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Basil Rathbone's avatar

I guess we can dream.

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Val Crosby's avatar

Spot on about the "regime change" talking points!

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Thomas Scherrer's avatar

Don't kid yourself. I heard the overall wealth of oil (and other minerals) in Venezuela would be in the neighborhood of $19 TRILLION, which is roughly half of our national debt. This might be more of an edict from Brussels than it is Washington. What better way to get yourself out of inconceivable debt than chopping off 50% of it? All you gotta do is go overthrow a sovereign nation, rule of law be damned. Young military men and women in body bags, be damned.

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Basil Rathbone's avatar

Except they won't get away with it.

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Thomas Scherrer's avatar

We can dream to sleep. The closing of Venezuelan airspace gives me the fear of carnage.

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Arthur Lewis's avatar

Well Big Mike, another lousy article, zero context, just some red meat to throw to your rage junkies on a slow rage week. So glad I shitcanned my subscription.

Maybe you may want to examine how good the fishing is off the Venezuelan coast so that the poor fishermen there can afford triple 250 outboard motors to the tune of 150k

Newsflash haters…… the minute those boats cast off, the U S military knows exactly what’s on board , who’s on board, what the cargo is , and who’s bankrolling it.

How about you do a little reporting on how many drug deaths occur in this country due to the drug trade.

How about a mention of the cartels rerouting of drugs thru Venezuelan ports, since Trump shut down the border and semi trucks with “Drugs are Us” plastered on the sides were just waved thru Uncle Joes pretend border.

So to all your readers and Rachel Maddow circle jerkers, maybe someday there will be a Democrat with the balls that Trump has….. but I wouldn’t go to the two dollar window with that bet

Cheers

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Thomas Scherrer's avatar

That's an ice cold take in this space, sir. The drug cartels are most decidedly in Mexico, not Venezuela. The point of MT's article is also about rule of law, which requires a degree of moral courage not seen from any president in my 41 years on Earth (let's root for another 100... cross fingers).

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Brick's avatar

Does it have to be Rachel Maddow in the circle jerk? Seems counter productive.

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Thomas Scherrer's avatar

Hey, even a lez might enjoy a strap-on... let's not discriminate based on sexual preferences.

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Basil Rathbone's avatar

You're a Trump-stroking Nidiot.

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David Ngo's avatar

Wrong NATO shill

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Guven Cagil's avatar

Excellent article. Thanks Michael!

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Ohio Barbarian's avatar

Your journalism is stellar so long as you stay away from discrediting women who fell victim to powerful men. Perhaps you should look into why and when the former Southcom commander announced his retirement, and why exactly CIA Democrats have suddenly rediscovered the unlawful orders clause of the UCMJ.

The Navy is closer to mutiny than it has ever been and I don't see anyone looking into that.

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Kathryn Hennessy's avatar

I am completely repulsed by the idea of regime changing. Your breakdown of this subject is terrific albeit very disturbing. Thank you.

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m droy's avatar

No. He doesn't care about Venezuela (Rubio does).

He wants out of Ukraine because it was lost long ago.

He wants out of Taiwan because he knows there is nothing he can do (carriers are useless in these days of hypersonics).

USA is no longer a Big Bully, it is a small Bully. And anyone who has ever been in a school playground knows why Trump is picking on small countries now.

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SW's avatar

What’s in store for the poor people in Venezuela is horrible. The fact this has not been widely condemned by the international community and Trump called out as a liar says it all about their moral corruption and cowardice. But after Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria, and the worst of all, Gaza and the West Bank, expecting anything resembling the truth is apparently asking too much.

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Panjandrum's avatar

"Trump has now even explicitly endorsed the concept of “nation-building,”.......after first having installed himself as the new supreme ruler of the demolished territory." ===> could be more accurately rephrased to "the diminished demolished territory" as recently israel has proclaimed that anything outside of their unilaterally declared yellow line is now also, israel.

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