>How about Americans pick up some of the 300 000 000 hoarded guns and go fight American government.
The Americans with the hoarded guns still on balance benefit from imperialism, even if they don't consciously realize how exactly in all the details, so they support it
It's true it appears contradictory to say there is no plan, then describe the potential plan with Rodriguez, but I am operating under a kind of cautious skepticism for now simply because the source is a single Western paper.
Even so if it's true, it still appears to indicate a lack of a real operative strategy given the fact that they're forced to now 'threaten' Rodriguez, as Trump did today, saying she will face a fate "worse than Maduro's" if she doesn't comply. It seems to indicate that the "plan" wasn't entirely thought out, or was only half-cocked in some way. But we will see soon whether she does the US's bidding or not.
As to the now popular accusation that China/Russia aren't good allies or throw their "friends" to the wolves I ask: name me a single country in this world you'd consider a "strong ally" who militarily backs all its friends. I'll wait. (It certainly isn't the US who is about to seize its own allies land by force in Greenland, who has backstabbed Ukraine and thrown Europe to the wolves, etc, etc.)
You have no idea what happened in those situations do you?
In 1956 it was a color revolution that quickly turned violent and carried out by the hands of former Nazis in Hungary, which had not been properly purged (Hungary was a genuinely and strongly Nazified place, people forget that; nobody forced them to send all those soldiers to fight on the Eastern front).
Of course the USSR had to go in and stop it, and that was the definition of defending your allies -- the communists in Hungary that is.
Contrast that to e.g. the situations in Syria and Karabakh -- in 1956 Russian soldiers were killed, that USSR then went in with serious force to put an end to it, while in those recent situations Russian soldiers were killed and Putin turned the other cheek because he value business deals with Alyev and Erdogan more than the honor and vital strategic interests of the country.
Glad to see you think that was a successful practice. In case you hadn’t noticed, the USSR is not around any longer. Persistance of the state is irrelevant.
This was a pretty transparant SMO shielded with Trumps slurs and half-lies but made clear by Rubio. It is about Oil and Drugs but mostly to push out socialism and influence from Russia and China in South America.
They removed the snake and put in on display. And as Rubio told us they will wait a couple of days to make Venezuela to act in accordance to US will. Rodriguez is as illegal v.p as Maduro was but if she moves in the right direction - no problemo.
And Trump can celebrate a non-messy ”success”.
Furthermore, he will continue unabated to strenghten the US grip over the Western hemisphere.
What would you expect China and Russia to do? They have provided weaponry, commercial ties and diplomatic support to Venezuela. Do you expect them to send their military forces thousands of miles across an ocean to do battle - see any logistics problems with that? Do you expect them send missiles at the American fleet in defense of Maduro? I wonder what the results of that action would be?
You appear to be a woman….and yet you envy the solution of death. I’m grateful you have no active position in statecraft. Russia and China have been building a new global system in ways that you can t possibly perceive, as they result in death and bloodshed.
What they can do is what they are doing at an ever increasing pace: strengthening military and economic links, dumping US treasuries and cutting trade with the US. Slowly, slowly catchee monkey. At the moment, everyone is "shocked and awed" by Trump's "masterstroke", but the dust is going to settle soon and we will see what's really going on. In the meantime, let the neocons celebrate their "victory"
Agree. China and Russia has not prepared for this new US Empire to rise. They did their own business and abstained of putting up Military bases around the World. They both thought ”we can do business and win this capitalist game”, Russia with Oil&Gas, China with all the other.
They were screwed and didnt react in time (luckily for us).
If Trump/US is in for a partioning of the World in a Western and Eastern hemisphere, letting Russia take Ukraine and China Taiwan, then we could expect calm after the storm. But if US continue this way without leaving South Korea and the occupation of Japan and Phillipines and dont leave NATO we will see a historic catastrophe played up before our eyes.
No, he does not. Therefore we can expect a harsher and harsher climate at the World tribune. Maybe they, US, do these ”peaceful” extortions unabated until something snaps in China. Pearl Harbour 2.0 where sanctions and sabotage against Chinas machinery force them to act. Russia is on a treshold but both act with outmost cautioness right now. Or they have negotiated about the parting of the World…
Trump continues the American “long game” — the packaging of each president is slightly different. The goal remains unchanged. The available means, however, have changed.
Xi and Putin play their own “long game” — which is in direct conflict with the US. This will not (and, necessarily, cannot) be the same as the US.
For boys who played with played with toy soldiers — now men, and especially old ones like Mearsheimer — the “great game” is ultimately a military power exercise.
China and Russia have no intention of falling into the trap of fighting wars a hemisphere away from them. They never have, they never will. In addition, their “weapons” are, in the long run, far more powerful and disruptive.
Some serious anti-ship missiles (but actually used, not just supplied) would have denied the US the possibility of staging close to Venezuela. And their use was fully legal once the blockade (an act of war) was announced.
Meanwhile some fiber optic drones smuggled into Puerto Rico, which would not be difficult at all for Russia/China to arrange, would have destroyed all those F-22s and F-35s on the ground, in a little revenge for June 1st.
And then the kinetic means for doing this are removed from theatre.
Just as Russia has been blocked from getting to Odessa by NATO.
You can't if it's already there, and that is the US superpower.
What you need to do is make sure there is no corruption to be exploited.
It is also why I keep harping on about the ideological problem in all this -- the USSR (before the purges ended and the rot began) was an effective counterweight because it had a coherent alternative ideology.
Russia and China don't and aren't.
It is also why Russia can't find any real allies besides North Korea, and why its intelligence and covert game is so weak. This from a Russian Telegram channel recently:
Well, there's no doubt about American intelligence. They have some truly top-notch specialists working there. There's a lot to learn and adopt. What should we do?
Study and work. Work hard and study. What can we do if, after the collapse of the USSR, we still haven't been able to fully restore our intelligence potential?🤷♂️
In my opinion, Soviet intelligence was strong because it found agents who sympathized with our ideology. In other words, people engaged with our intelligence primarily for ideological reasons. Because the USSR espoused certain values and contrasted itself with Western ideology: social equality, class struggle, a bright future without the super-rich and the poor, which resonated with many people, even in the Western world.
One of the most striking examples is the Soviet intelligence officer Richard Sorge, who was actually German but recruited into Soviet intelligence and spent his entire life working for the USSR solely for ideological reasons.
Now, however, we are an ordinary democratic country without an ideology of our own (it is prohibited by our constitution, by the way). We declare no significant ideas or goals to the world. We cannot offer anyone outside our country any idea for which they would be willing to die, let alone even sympathize. Therefore, there are very few people willing to work with us for ideological reasons. Basically, they're either outright patriots or just doing it for money. But for money, that's a dull story. Mercenaries, for the most part, are completely unreliable people who run and betray first.
The United States, on the other hand, has its own ideology—the so-called "American Dream." An "American Dream" that doesn't actually exist, but is beautifully presented by Hollywood and American propaganda. Many people around the world are willing to do anything for the coveted Permanent Resident Card.
If we want to win back the people's minds, we must give them an idea. Create our own ideology and proclaim it to the masses. Unfortunately, we don't have such an ideology at the moment.
Although both Russia and China are autocratic, not democratic, they have both envied the consumerist western capitalist systems. Russian and chinese tourists has showed us what people actually likes.
In capitalism you either eat yourself fat or are being swallowed. In socialism you eat a little and obey.
In liberalism you chase the inner wishes of you and is free to become whatever deviation there is. In socialism you behave and goes grey.
I am no fan of USSR or the godless Chinese system. I am no fan of the liberal West that has gone mad and historically worked like vampires against other people.
China has succeded in building a modern, capitalistic looking, socialistic controlling system. It will transform those 1.3 billion people over time. Putin has tried to build up what was left of USSR to a capitalistic mirror without the liberal thinking that is destroying the West.
>>China has succeded in building a modern, capitalistic looking, socialistic controlling system.<<
Where can I find this dubious controlling system that China has build? Where can I read about the rules it implies?
Why are only western people talking about that system that no Chinese citizen that I know of have ever heard of?
If you break the law, you are punished. That's nothing to do with democracy or authoritarian.
By the way, this western democracy is a friggin' sham to begin with. You can make an X somewhere and then you have to shut up and have no influence anymore. It's really unbelievable that people still babbling about democracy - what a frigging joke after 80 years of blunt tyranny and mass murdering of capitalism and colonialism after 1945 around the world.
I can't speak for Russian politics, but single party rule has brought a unity in Cambodia, Singapore and China. They don't tolerate political protests aimed at the ruling party, while raising the standard of living of the population. The military and government are united.
Contrast this with Iran where foreign backed protests are underway. Even in Australia these protests would not be permitted, and would have been met with heavy police presence wielding pepper spray, rubber bullets and riding horses.
However, while Russia may not have any stated constitutional ideology this is a good place to start,
"...the purpose of the operation and existence of any government is to create a stable, normal, safe and predictable life for the people and to work towards a better future." ~ V. Putin
As a UK citizen, I assure you I have plenty of sympathy for that alone, and if things continue the way they are we may soon find there are many willing to die for it.
Furthermore, an ideology does not need to be stated but can simply be manifest such that, from my viewpoint, Russia has far more to offer its people and the world than any country in the 'West' under current leadership.
Beyond Russia itself is BRICS which does have a certain ideology that is demonstrated almost daily - sovereignty, mutual respect, co-operation and mutual benefit - and that Russia was fundamental in authoring. One can see the huge appeal/sympathy this has in the global south. I am sure it would have far more in the west, also, if MSM coverage was not so censored and negatively biased.
Sorry, but for a poor person in country X barely surviving under the crushing pressure of neoliberal policies and a rapacious oligarchy, there is littler difference between whether the rapacious oligarchy is enacting neoliberal policies as part of BRICS or not.
But do you see BRICS even mentioning the words "oligarchy" and "neoliberalism" when they run their mouths at yet another pointless meeting? No. Even Xi doesn't do it, and he actually has taken real meaningful steps to reign it in inside China, unlike any of the other members of the talk shop.
This is why Russia is doomed under the current leadership.
When the war started I was ecstatic because it was obvious that Rubicon had been crossed -- once it was started, it would have to be won, and that meant:
1) Ending Ukrainian statehood altogether
2) Drastic internal reorganizations with Russia, along Soviet lines, to withstand the subsequent clash with the West
Either those things were going to happen, or Russia would be defeated, this time for good.
And again, this was so obvious, that it was inconceivable that Russian leadership would take that Rubicon-crossing step without also having firmly made the decisions to follow it up with those other measures I listed.
So imagine my horror when it turned out there was no serious preparation for war and when Putin very quickly went back to his usual mode of negotiating how much exactly treason he would commit, instead of mobilizing for real victory.
100 Russians and 100 Chinese with MANPADS inserted into Caracas covertly could have made this a whole lot more challenging.
But in hindsight saying how this could have been blocked is always easy. Then they probably would have taken a different approach. And that is one of the biggest downsides of defence, you have to cover all vulnerabilities to prevent one from being exploited.
Agree with you completely the problem Russia and China is causing for them selves, the global South is going to see that neither of them will stand with us and could quickly turn to Trump . This also could be exactly how to break up BRICS once and for all.
The US could dismantle the BRICS first with Brazil, the Brazilian people are rubbish their military also not that proper then they can go to South Africa same thing the people are rubbish their military same thing, then India do I even need to explain India they don't even have a tiny bone of a back bone.
It seems you don't like the B, S, or I of BRICS...
You think the US can just take Brazil, then South Africa, and then India? They're large countries with large populations. Didn't India show some backbone by fighting against Pakistan last year?
It is a sort of vendetta but I agree with you that this SMO was not solely to square with Maduro. Trump inposed sanctions early and late in his first presidency against Venezuelas oil industry, so this is only a continuation of the goal to subdue Venezuela.
The speech from Rubio also included the lines that no one should question that US is the sole ruler of the Western hemisphere. And by that US means that North and South-america is theirs including Canada and Greenland.
Under the circumstances, was it not better for Maduro to run around in Venezuela while changing his sleeping quarters twice a week minimum? The whole event there was predictable to a great degree. It was a simple reload of the Panama Affair of 1989 when General Manuel Noriega was dragged away in chains. Even Rush Limbaugh felt sorry for Noriega, affectionately calling him grapefruit face or something like that.
Had I been the Venezuelan Pres, ( this may well be happening soon, keep watching ) I would have sent all those manpads to the coastline to await the arrival of those brave boys in their choppers coming in over the coastline.
The US could easily have been totally humiliated on the world stage.
To avoid bombing Venezuela back to the stone age. They probably sent pictures of Gaddafi. Let's see if there is a reset in Venezuela or not. I'm guessing with no way of knowing. Funny his wife joined the Carribbean cruise ship.
I understand that the judge who blocked Venezuelan gang deportations has just been assigned to preside over the Maduro case in New York - how funny is that?
I read that certan officials, including the head of Maduro's security detail, were bribed (by CIA operatives) to betray Maduro. The traitors did not activate all of the air defense that had been put in place.
It is not that countries are incapable to defend themselves against the US army but they are afraid even to try to defend themselves. They see what happened to Serbia, Iraq, Libya, Syria etc.
In 1998. Russia didn't dare to sell S300 AA system to Serbia.
He also should not have been in Caracas. Venezuela's political geography, just as all other such countries, has that colonial legacy -- the capital is on the coast, often because the territory served the sole function of exporting natural resources from the interior, thus the main port through which that happened became the capital and/or because the interior was only settled much later. There are exceptions like Colombia, but mostly it's like that. The Brazilians eventually moved the capital deep inland, but the others haven't. And it creates that enormous strategic vulnerability. There is plenty of jungle to hide in in the Amazon, and I didn't see any penetration beyond the coast. Inland regions also tend to be less globalized in terms of their politics. But he just stayed there as a sitting duck.
Still, 32 Cubans were killed -- there is national mourning announced there. It wasn't a peaceful surrender.
And it's quite notable he felt he needed Cubans to be his personal guards.
>It was a simple reload of the Panama Affair of 1989
Panama has always been a US colony though, it's how it was created in the first place. Venezuela is supposed to be something very different.
But it looks like a late-Soviet-type betrayal from within by the elites.
"I find it difficult to be too harsh for a man thinking that the US would abide by some principles of international law."
Good grief, need I bring up the fable of the frog and the scorpion again? How many times does the US need to ignore any law that it doesn't like before people get wise?
I guess that's American soft power at work, right there. In spite of a track record that puts Mussolini to shame, they still get the benefit of every doubt.
BTW, Evo Morales broke the taboo and said it on Twitter -- Trump is the new Hitler. Which is exactly how it is.
But it needs to be picked up. Curiously, it was the liberal media in his first term that liked to make such comparisons, but now that they are reality they are completely silent...
Meanwhile Putin is nowhere to be seen or heard for a week now after the assassination attempt, let alone publicly come out and call it as it is, as he should be doing. Even after Trump tried to take him out. Same with Xi.
Cubans and Russians always paying the price. That’s a sad piece of news, it revolts my guts to think of the death of Cubans soldiers at the hands of Americans without these sustaining even a scratch.
They will never admit to American casualties, so I would not be so quick to conclude there were never any, but yeah, the Cubans were betrayed there.
And Cuba itself is next on the menu, in a much more unfavorable position, because it is a small island without strategic depth.
Though it does have the advantage of proximity to the US and thus being able to extract a cost without IRBMs. If it has prepared -- Mar-A-Lago burning down can be very easily arranged from there. But has Cuba prepared?
>Of course, there's still the unknown element, those fifteen unknown, secret specialists who were either brought in or taken away by an unknown Il-76 a couple of months ago. They might be somewhere right now...
I could be completely wrong but, I am getting the feeling Maduro allowed himself to get captured. It is already posing a huge problem that he is captured and the country has not folded. In his ´perp walk´ yesterday he told everybody ´Happy New Year´ and you could detect a smile from him. Has he taken his dancing act to NYC? :P
John, the whole thing is chaotic for now and than they will seal the records for 666 years. Searching for the fix points is a good way to shed light here. Fact is Maduro could have gone to Cuba and from there directly to Russia and he did not do it. WHY?
Another fix point is: Trump will not stop now until he gets control over the oil reserves there one way or another. He might do this via US oil companies but he still has to secure a pro-USA political stability there to support the process. It is also possible that Maduro was surprised by a treasonous inner circle there but going to NYC in chains sounds like bad news for him. The fact that they took his wife with him is likely to blackmail him by using the woman.
The Delcy Rodriguez woman who has replaced him is already giving mixed messages: on the one hand, resistance to the end; on the other, the "we need to work in partnership with the US to help all Venezuelans" BS.
BS is the right word. For now we can can write off Venezuela as an independent nation. The only option they have is hardcore guerilla warfare but I do not believe they will go there. They will throw them a few shekels just to make sure the locals do not sabotage their own oil wells.
A while back, a young Chinese lady in Australia was arrested for DWI after hitting someone. No death, but the pedestrian was hurt badly enough and refused to settle out of court. When policemen examined her phones, they saw photos suggesting tremendous personal wealth. And the fact that the Chinese Embassy inserted itself into the Australian legal process quickly raised eyebrows. The lady refused to show up in court four times after certified notification was delivered. Her lawyer, supposedly one of the most expensive lawyers on criminal law in Australia, showed up only three times.
Before the last (fourth) supposed court appearance, one senior Chinese political leader (one of the seven standing members of the Political Bureau) arrived in Australia without fanfare or any official explanations or public announcement. That expensive lawyer did not even show up in court for the fourth summons. Then the entire theater quieted down, as if the Australian government had put its boot on the collective neck of the Australian news media -- not that Australian news media have really stuck their necks out or have any spine to begin with. The Chinese dissidents have a rumor that a look-alike has been found in China and brought to Australia. If the Australian government cannot resist the pressure and has to send someone to jail, a figurehead has been sitting in that luxury house ever since, waiting to be arrested. In the meantime, China quietly signed contracts to buy some Australian products, lifted some import-bans, and some even claimed that China bought some Australian government debt.
So do we have the real Maduro? Don't you think the guy in the photo does not really match your impression of Maduro you saw in the past? Maybe the US government find a look like from Venezuelans under custody in the US, or gives someone a plastic surgery, or Maduro himself has found a good copy inside Venezuela, and paid his family well upfront. Your imaginations may vary, and the above is not investment advice. I do suspect that we will not see this captured Maduro to say more than a few words in public, if we see any video clips about him at all.
Nah, it was all theater. Looks like a Modus Vivendi was agreed on or else the country does an Iraq rethink. That is devastation for Vz. Maduro, flashing the peace sign (piece of Vz that is) and wishing the DEA goons "happy New year" was a significant "tell". Realpolitik in the early stages. Iran, clearly in their plans, shortly.
colombian vp might be onto something, but by all accounts maduro WAS the moderate in the psuv. removing him emboldens party hardliners: i'd be very shocked if venezuela turned into neoliberal ancapistan with delcy rodriguez as president. but also, a hardcore chavista would never hand over maduro to the yankees. truth maybe this time for once is somewhere in between. realpolitik chess move to give america what they want (an excuse to withdraw the southcom deployment) while preserving venezuelan sovereignty. at least compared to the alternative of full-scale invasion and war.
the democratically elected vice president of maduro's party is not a "puppet" (that would be machado, or guaido) neither is there any proof she is "following us instructions" beyond trump saying so. also comparing this situation to russia-ukraine is pretty absurd. the world seeing something one way doesn't mean it's reality. the world thinks russia was supposed to conquer ukraine in 3 days, whole lot of good that's done for ukraine.
you brought up russia, not me. as for the us, they've only demonstrated that can engineer theatrical displays of force that have pre-arranged outcomes, like the "b-2 bombing of fordow enrichment plant." if they could take her out in a heartbeat there was no reason not to eliminate the entire chavista party and bolivarian military leadership instead of just casually escorting maduro and only maduro out of the country.
did the united states in 2003 simply kidnap saddam hussein while leaving "chemical" ali and the entire arab socialist baath party apparatus in charge of iraq's political and military organs because "they had the trapping of legitimacy already"? of course not haha. let's not stand on ceremony here, we know what us-led regime change looks like and it's not this. this was the regime change being called off because the situation couldn't allow for it. it's not 2003 anymore.
You nailed it Elena. You come along peacefully or maybe we break your country. Some dollars change hands. Move along...nothing to see here. More elegant than what happened to Iran in '53.
Too early to tell if she's a puppet or not, or how strong she'll be under US pressure. I suspect that any resistance to the US coup is going to have to come from the streets or not at all.
Chill a bit, Elena... even the US side has admitted that their favourite puppets (both Guaido and Machado) were nowhere nearby... and can't be installed easily. The Saudis have already agreed to sell their oil in Yuan... so the dollar-bypass systems are all being put into motion and defanging the empire war machine. Lots of other stuff going on, which of course the Russians and Chinese are very quiet on... let the western press create their own fake press and lap it up, while the real work continues apace
"You could be right, but it sounds like wishful thinking to me. "
There is little here other than blatant wishful thinking. I'd love to believe, but I live in the real world and wishful thinking will get me killed or used as a subject of lurid medial experiments....
You missed the point. There will now be a chavista in name only regime in Caracas. They will obey in the things that really count and keep the populace quiet. At least if the 🍊 Don and his misadmnistration have 2 brain cells to rub together, that is what they have set up.
Patrick Henningsen said he observed the entire press conference and Trump was slurring his words a lot... and resorting to usual theatrics and rhetorical flourishes to cover. He came up with a moniker Sloppy Trump... aka like Sleepy Joe. The jab effects are really catching up to the effetes now... however that begs the question - who is really running the show? we know for sure it ain't Biden or Trump all along...
For the moment at least, Rubio has got NOTHING from this. And it has cost the USA a large fortune, and considerable reputation. Rubio wanted something tangible, not the kidnapping of a replaceable leader.
May be why he's looked as sick as a dog behind Trump and cameras since.
So many countries let down by a disloyal, corrupt military, with commanders bought off - Iraq, Syria, Venezuela, and maybe Iran next. Ironically Iran is more tolerant of protest than Australia. The Iraqi military got a shock when they were fired, this plan had been kept from them, and were reduced to insurgents. Does the Syrian military have any regrets watching their country be dismembered?
I get the feeling their political systems would be better emulating Singaporean/Chinese models which provides stability, and do not permit political demonstrations threatening the ruling party. Even Cambodia is more united and stable than these countries.
Yeah well, a big part of the problem is maintaining your military under an economic war. Which includes paying your soldiers enough to sustain a family. In Syria payments for lower ranked soldiers were down to $12 per month. That wasn't even enough to feed one person. This is the main problem the BRICS alliance has to fix. Why defend a system that can't even feed you.
Yup. Funny how we are regularly assured here that the US is collapsing, the dollar is worthless or will be soon, but people around the world accept Yankee dollars.
Those Syrian military have since either switched sides or left.
There are some similarities between Syria 1 year ago and Iran today. In both cases the "mandate of Heaven" as the Chinese used to say, seemed to have moved against the sitting regime. Iran has faced 6 years of extreme drought. For a regime of religious leaders, if God doesn't send rain, it looks like the leaders are not speaking for God after all.
Assad was a better ruler than what replaced him. But, after more than a decade of foreign sponsored civil war, the weakened appearance of the mandate of Heaven meant that it was much easier for American-Israeli forces (ISIS) to oust him in 2024 than had been the case in 2014.
Iran has spent fortunes to constrain Israel's ambitions in Lebanon and Syria. But they did not spend enough money to secure their own water supply. Now in the 6th year of drought, to the point that Tehran may have to be abandoned, the Mullahs appear to have lost the mandate of Heaven. In such a situation even a buffoon like Trump may be able to successfully exploit an attempt to overthrow them.
In these countries, just as in the West, all those in power treat corruption as common practice. I wouldn’t compare the wealth of an African leader to that of a Brussels techno-oligarch, for instance. However, I would sooner look for Ursula than for Assad’s wife.
Professor Marandi spoke of this issue recently saying that the water problem is one for the eastern portion of Iran, a more desert-like region and that the rest of the country does not not suffer the same. I am not familiar enough with Iran to say Yea or Nay on such a thing but I like Marandi, so facts aside, I think I will agree with him. 😉
The north facing Caspian shoreline is humid and receives heavy rain even in the drought years. It is less than 50 miles from Tehran. Tehran is in a dry inland basin. Its population has exploded. If the Iranian regime had spent the money to build an underground aqueduct from the Caspian shoreline to Tehran instead of all their nuclear enrichment caves, they would not be in this situation.
Ghaddafi actually did such a thing in Libya, and the coalition of the willing cynically bombed it to oblivion, when they went in as part of their R2P operation.
So maybe he would have been better doing the opposite to what he did, ie what the Iranians did, which you are criticizing.
It should not have been an either or decision. The country needs to secure both its defenses and its urban food and water supplies. The neglect of either leads to defeat.
If what you assert is true, and I believe it is, cannot the same be said of the Western powers? I see lack of attention to infrastructure maintenance everywhere I look and ordinary citizens, especially young ones, are starting to know suffering (not like the poor victims in Gaza yet). This will not end well for the ordinary working folk in the US and Europe....just saying
You have no idea what’s going on in Iran except through the lens of your CIA and neocon propaganda. Iran hasn’t “exploded”! The small protests were hijacked by small scale riots of less than 3000 individuals, a small number of which were funded and armed by the CIA and Mossad. Nothing will come out of this as it’s a replay of what happened on a larger scale a couple years ago. The desperate CIA and Israelites tribe of genocide are going crazy exhausting their last moves, especially since they know that any external attack on Iran will result in an unprecedented hammer on Israel and US. The rest is a combination of psyops and hubristic propaganda.
The Iranians should ponder the old saw, "Be careful what you wish for, because you may get it."
If the US moves in to Iran, Coca Cola and Nestle will be on its heels, bottling and selling what water remains for the people.
But I liked your reference to the Mandate of Heaven; few know about the religious situation in pre Confucian China, when Shang Di reigned supreme, a clear analogue of the God of Israel.
In fact, those wise men we have recently been commemorating were almost certainly Chinese seers.
Thing is, neither God, nor natural forces have a monopoly on Weather these days, the malign intervention of HAARP or its latest version is well able to wreak either chronic or acute havoc.
It's so hilarious watching starmer try to wiggle out of answering that question "well since we don't know all the facts of every little detail It's impossible to pass any sort of judgment or have even an opinion on what happened" so fucking stupid lol
Her work for Mossad is 99% done and she has already left him, bar the very rare, sour-faced public appearance (see Trump’s last visit) to try to ’normalise’ her weirdo ‘husband’s' image.
She must have known what she was getting into: he was clearly chosen and groomed as a Deep State agent from an early age, and his low IQ (just BCC at A-level), willingness to spout brazen lies without shame or remorse, unquestioning obedience to his Globalist masters, utter lack of principle and vulnerability (as a practising homosexual, see also his impending replacement Wes Streeting) to Mossad/ MI6 Kompromat would have made him the perfect asset.
I doubt he’ll be moving in with his three queers, though. More likely, they’ll get the Epstein treatment before any eventual trial (they’re being held in solitary, high security, like Julian Assange was, 'awaiting trial’, it could be years - so much for habeas corpus, this is the Soviet Yookay); or charges will be quietly dropped and they’ll be deported into the arms of a waiting Ukrainian Army press gang, to vanish in obscure circumstances on the Russian Front.
A red cloud? Of liquidised mist from their brains as they are shot in the back of the head, at a bomb-scarred rural roadside somewhere 20 miles outside Kramatorsk, perhaps. Or just suffocated or forcibly drowned and then, thrown in the Dniepr for the fishes to do the rest. Two million dead already: Mossad-CIA-MI6-YookayGov are hardly going to care about another three corpses.
Then again, maybe they are being held alive, as hostages, like a hanging sword, to keep Rubber Stamp Starmer in line and ensure that he does not resign, not matter how badly his wretched party gets battered in May's local elections. From Bibi’s and the Security Services’ point of view, his performance in office has been absolutely flawless.
Not, not the whole thing, just a few seconds. So it WAS a knife, then, and the MSM was just sanitising his gruesome demise?
And the poor fool imagined he could negotiate with the West, have a sincere hug and a photo op with grinning Tony BLiar, make friends and agree a modus vivendi. He even imagined al-Meghrahi, having had nothing to do with the Pan Am bombing, was going to be found Not Guilty of the Pan Am bombing - quite unaware that Scots judges have become, and perhaps have long been, the most politically corrupt this side of Moldova.
Did the US and their vassals Yookania and France want to make an example of Gaddafi? Or was the smashing of Libya into a state of warring chaos the whole point, to destroy any potential future threat to Israel and to clear the way for mass illegal immigration from sub-Saharan Africa, to comprehensively wreck Europe as well?
Yep. His face looks like it is made out of mouldy dough and his physique and posture make Boris Johnson look like an athlete. If you want a laugh, find the clip of that saggy, soggy nonce trying to punch a punchbag. He really is a feeble specimen in every possible respect.
Yoni; That's Laura K from the CIA, (Laura Kuensberg) she's something of a national treasure and what passes for a BBC heavyweight these days since Paxo ( Jeremy Paxman) hung up his gloves some years ago
I don’t find it hilarious, I find it despicable, the hypocrisy hurts. And who believes MI6 had nothing to do?
Scratch any conflict and likely MI6 is involved in one way or another. Britain used pirates (privateers) in the past, they support terrorists group now, they setup other powers against eachother to weaken them with the sole reason to keep world dominance. After WW1 and WW2, the USA, with thr help of the CIA filled up that gap. Too many people die and have died, too many people suffer and have suffered because the criminal Starmer is supporting this evil system.
If you watch his face closely when he answers that, he carefully keeps his face masked, and then you can see the internal relief when he thinks he's gotten away with it.
I didn't know myself, but from that, I'd guess UK services were involved.
Elizabeth I used pirates, for sure, but remember who they were stealing from - the biggest pirates of all, the Spanish.
Britain's decline into total depravity began in the 1640s, when Cromwell accepted money from Amsterdam jews to fund his New Model Army, which - surprise surprise, and exactly like in France and Russia, went on to destroy the monarchy - the US doing the same thing, and with the same funding source, some years later.
Soon after their arrival, we had the Bank of England / Judaea set up in 1694, and so it continues.
Britain is now run from the jewish free territory of the City of London, which the "sovereign" has to ask for permission to enter once per year, when he or she attends for the charity food handout called the Lord Mayor's Banquet - and no, we aren't talking about Sadiq Khan.
Check out who that person is called The Remembrancer who sits, unelected, in Parliament, and ask yourself who he reports back to, as to what the world's oldest elected assembly is doing day by day.
The capture of Maduro was more of a theatrical event than real. There was no actual fighting involved. There's crazy talk on social media that the US defeated Venezuela within a day, while Russia still fights after 4 years. Only a primitive simpleton would think this.
Trump's war on drugs against Venezuela is more of an attempt to control Venezuela's oil reserves and dictate the politics of the region. The biggest drug dealers in the US hold high positions and are untouchable.
The US is taking control of its hemisphere as an attempt to retain the USD's supremacy. Any nation that undermines the USD is a target just as it was in Lybia, Iraq, and several other small countries.
A lot of stunningly ignorant and predictable comments on here about 'the oil'. Standard Left wing moronic thinking. It's about CHINA who have been working hard and quietly in Venezuela and other South American countries. Maduro was entertaining a Chinese delegation hours before he was snatched. Venezuelan oil is mostly heavy grade, it's fairly crap.
It's a two-for. Two things can occur at once, aka the bonus result. Maybe a 3-for as Cuba should be badly/fatally hurt by changes in the oil exports regime. I predict Cuba is dealt with by Easter. Remember...Narco Rube-eeo is a Miami Cuban. These folks want "THEIR" island back. Bigly-badly!
Your comment duly fits both the ignorant and predictable categories.
Venezuelan oil is not "crap"
It is what's known as "Heavy, Sour", sour meaning it has large amounts of sulphur that needs removal. This is the only downside to the oil, the "Heavy" means the oil contains *all* the components you can find in a crude, including the bituminous part, which is kind of required to make roads with....
As opposed to a "Light, Sweet" which has lots of fuel grade fractions, but little of the parts that make roads or lubricants.
The vast majority of Gulf coast US refineries have been "tuned" (optimised) to refine Venezuelan Heavy, Sour and have had to make do with blended Canadian oil sand feedstock whilst most Venezuelan oil went elsewhere.
The "black eye" to China is a useful "two-fer" but the main game is forcing Venezuelan oil to go to the US at a handy, dandy US dictated discount...
Being able to get gas at a $1 a gallon is both a great mid-terms election selling point AND a way to pull back inflation a bit.
But this has nothing to do with the USA and its people, and everything to do with the Taco family clan and the individuals to whom he is beholden. It’s essential to understand that in the USA, donors are creditors.
The elites (and, I might add, israel) ARE the USA now - the people have little or nothing to do with foreign policy nor the elite with domestic issues (which they avoid, not giving them any priority).
Geller: The Democrats are apoplectic. Democrats screaming over the arrest of the blood-soaked dictator Nicolás Maduro is the perfect hill for them to die on—after defending Barack Obama, who dropped 26,171 bombs in a single year without congressional approval, and Joe Biden, who launched strikes across Syria, Iraq, Yemen, and Somalia the same way—hypocrisy laid bare.
Gee you forgot "the blood-soaked dictator" Orange Utang not to mention his owner in occupied Palestine, the demonic, genocidal animal Nutnyahoo aka Milecocksky aka Mr. Nitay. Only ZionaZi $hit doesn't stink for you abviously.
Proof enough that all Western Governments are no more than puppets of the Trillionaire Parasite Caste and their entirely fraudulent Fiet Money system.
The culling of the worlds dozen most perverse banking crime families and their demonic principalities of power neutralised by little more than the light of day, would however still fail to address the mindlessness of western populations, systematically dumbed down by toxic food, medical tyranny and indoctrination through the fictitious ideology of Socialism and its entirely false association with "social justice".
You mean the "kidnapping" of Maduro by a $lumville gone full Onkel Adolf and like Adolf's caper this shit will end very badly for the bankrupt buZZard nation USSA.. Fixed it fer ya
Yes, you are right, but don't say "There was no actual fighting involved." because actually several cuban guards around Maduro fought the Delta forces hard, and died.
You have no idea how many simpletons are in the US. I just had today a female co-worker gushing about how she was sitting on the plane with "a medic who works in Ukraine and came for vacation, and going back to Ukraine." When I ask her if he is a Ukrainian, and told her that they don't allow Ukrainian men out of the country, she said he was an American" - to her it was SO romantic. I asked if she realizes that to have Ukraine in NATO is akin for the US it were Mexico in the Warsaw Pact - meaning - never gonna happen. Period. No matter how many Ukrainians would be killed for such a "hallucination" sold by the West. She pretended she understood. She did not.
I do, but these people at the very top are part of a club that we are not in. Maybe they already carved out a new world order based on spheres of influence (good luck India) and was we observe is just theatre. It’s a big mess for sure. Either the 8 bilion sheep are right, nothing will happen or those 8 million are in for a rude awakening. I find it all very depressing.
You have to have a scriptural perspective to find the peace which one day will surely come.
Scripture informs us that we do not fight with flesh and blood, but with principalities and powers in high places, and the rulers of darkness in this world.
We have an inkling of what they do because of all the stories about adrenochrome, and the mass kidnapping and murder and abuse of children, and their ceremonies at Bohemian Grove, etc etc.
God is not mocked, and as the Lord Jesus Christ stated, "Blessed are they that do hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled."
The end is coming for these people, but all in God's good time.
Not one will escape, and their end is horrific, as Revelation 14 verses 9 - 11 makes clear.
The major difference between the US and Russia as you have pointed out, is that the US retains massive deterrence - both real and perceived - against any retaliation or even resistance. Russia on the other hand happily receives envoys from nations that are trying to blow up its petroleum industry and killing her men by the thousands
Yes, Trump is acting as an imperialist. But so what? The Iranians didn't resist. Caracas didn't resist - I mean, handing over Maduro I can understand, but doing a deal with the devil; really? I wouldn't be surprised if Trump sends an expeditionary force into Greenland and just parks them there.
When the world is full of 1) corrupt incompetent dictators 2) HR marm disarmed eurocrats, then somone like Trump looking around and saying "I'll take that" is a natural outcome. Not right or wrong - perhaps even needed medicine
And you think US incurs no long term consequences for these actions? Russia and China are civilizational states which have existed many times longer than the US for a reason.
The US is in terminal decline for its very behavior.
You offered a petty criticism, then proceeded to ramble off some old news and borderline platitudes. Did you accidentally omit the part that contained unique and valuable insights?
The amount of complacency here is absolutely astonishing.
Wake up, idiots.
What you are watching is the alternative timeline in which Nazi Germany wins the war and takes over the whole world becoming reality.
Yes, it is exactly that. It isn't so openly stated as an intention, but that is the essence of it. The end game here is what was done to the native population of North America (which is the model Hitler wanted to follow) being extended worldwide.
In "Don't Look Up" type scenario there won't be any economy left and yes, the Yankee Dollar that ain't magical indeed won't be worth shit once the shit actually hits the fan.
And that isn't a situation remotely comparable to the so called "de-dollarisation" we hear about.
Ain't no buying your way out of an extinction event.
Any civilisation is gone once it's gone, without coming back, sure.
But so what?
The current one won't be an exception.
Nothing is forever.
I'd say being able to say that one bad a recent long run in it's time IS the best and perhaps only relevant thing one can say about any civilisation in the end.
The only frame that matters for DC at the moment is whether the empire declines or endures. Their actions, and in fact everything they are doing, are in support of the latter. Whether it works or not is of course up for argument and debate, but this is coherent strategy
Yes, and history will be the final arbiter of whether this plan saved or condemned the US. But many people instinctively feel it is a 'last gasp' act of desperation to save the empire, but is only accelerating its decline.
Well it is a natural consequence of a multipolar world. The U.S. just declared that the Americas are within its sphere of influence, the near abroad if you will. And yes, this means that eventually Russia and China will get what they want.
He's been consistent about the "new" Monroe Doctrine since his second election. He's been consistent about drugs since his first term. I'm not really sure why people are so surprised about all this.
Lol, I think it's something to do with brazenly kidnapping the president of a sovereign country. You think people will just shrug it off and it's business as usual. This is a 911 moment. The world will never be the same.
So when he decides to take Canada because of its oil or whatever 'Trumped' up reason he comes up with in his psychotic mind, that's ok then? That also would not come as a surprise, since he blabbed about it during the Canadian election which was instrumental in getting the Liberals back in power.
I disagree with you. These people, these politicians, couldn't care less about leaving a mark on history or seizing their place in it. Their one and only goal is to ensure their financial prosperity—with the utmost excess—and that of their family clan and inner circle. Their present gain is all that matters. Would this caste, incapable of spending even an hour with their own degenerate offspring, truly be sensitive to the will of doing good for millions of serfs?
What the US 'intends' is not the question here. It is what the consequences of that intent is that matters - and the consequences of its actions will be its loss of the dollar as the world's reserve currency and the destruction of its hegemony and world resistance grows.
I would disagree - there are lots of things happening now perhaps not militarily, but certainly on the political and monetary side of things all across the world - these are consequences already in progress. The USA is in the same position as the Dutch boy putting his finger in the dike, hoping desperately to stop the leak, only this time the leak is turning into more and more leaks which in spite of his actions keep multiplying.
The whole reserve currency stupidity is exactly as you said -- magical thinking.
I keep asking this question -- on what timeline is that going to happen and how is it going to stop the bombing of Russia, Iran and all the other countries on the menu?
Of course nobody can provide a meaningful answer. Because there isn't any.
And nobody wants to understand the fundamental truths:
1) The financial system is imposed through the barrel of a gun, not the other way around.
2) Actual military strength = firepower x positioning x resolve
If the resolve factor is zero, as it is for China and Russia, then you have no military strength, and if you have allowed yourself to be encircled with pre-positioned enemy assets (because there was no resolve to preempt and prevent that), you are in an even worse situation.
Iran fought back at least a little bit, but not enough, and now it will be hit again, much worse, because it refuses to strike pre-emptively. Russia and China aren't doing even that, and once they lose Iran, they will be fully encircled and finished off too.
"In January (2025) the current NATO GenSek told us “When you look what Russia is producing now in three months, it’s what all of NATO is producing from Los Angeles up to Ankara in a full year“. Russia is four-to-one against the whole enemy coalition.
It’s production, not money. You don’t fight wars by firing bundles of dollars at the enemy........
.....There is nothing that money can do to remedy the four-to-one ratio except with a lot of investment in production over a long time.
Thanks to offshoring manufacturing, the Western industrial base mostly has to be built from the ground up. Is that even possible?
If you think about it, an apprentice machinist on an assembly line fifty years ago was being taught how to do it by a master machinist who had been taught by a previous master and so on back to the middle of the 1700s when industrial production was invented.
Each in the series advanced the technique, of course, but it’s still a chain you could trace back, machinist by machinist, for all that time. If that sequence of teacher-learner-teacher is broken, if the teacher has retired or died leaving no apprentices, how long will it take to get it back? Putting a pallet of engraved paper in the floor of an empty building and hoping it will turn into a pallet of artillery rounds [or anything else for that matter] is magic thinking."
All the [checks notes] 'resolve' in the world will get you nowhere if you don't have the firepower wherewithal due to half a century of deindustrialisation which replaced a value producing industrialised economic paradigm with a fiancialised one based on unproductive valueless rent seeking.
Just how did all those [checks notes again] "wonder weapons" fare in terms of firepower efficacy in Ukraine?
One of the key problems which keeps cropping up is that of Western mindset being projected onto the rest of the world on the basis that not only is the way the West thinks the only valid way, but is, by definition, also universal human nature to boot.
This ethnocentric biggest, baddest, bestest approach is no different to that of Borrell's 'Garden/Jungle' metaphor and its mindset. It's simplistic notions have proven to have no real world efficacy. There is more than one way to skin a rabbit as Russia and China are demonstrating for those who can see further than their nose.
In the short term, everyone seems too stunned and scared to resist. However, in the long term - if we have one - more and more countries are going to choose BRICS.
The Empire/DC/the Oligarchs "endure" nothing. They sow chaos, confusion, cruelty and destruction at a dizzying speed and then rape and plunder as the world tries to figure out their so called "strategy." All the while it is reaping staggering profits in weapons, oil and resources and growing billionaires and trillionaires by the day. It is it's victims that endlessly live in fear and suffer and endure. The real question is for how long will the greater world endure this? What we are seeing are indeed acts of desperation and despair.
These actions are in the hopes of saving the empire.
But there are factors that are working against it and these headwinds will ultimately overpower any actions to stave off the collapse of the empire.
You see, unlike during the Cold War, the USD dominance is currently not based on anything other than momentum and US perceived military power. Venezuela is a battle they can win. But let’s be clear here: it wasn’t military might that won this battle, it was the infinite USD they can print and the residual effect of US sanctions on the country.
The cost of blockading Venezuela is enormous compared to the value that is derived from it. This will not work with a cohesive country that has alternatives and ready to fight back.
Here’s what I’m trying to say, once the US picks a fight it can’t win (arguably it already did with Russia) or one that costs it too much in machines and men (not paper dollars) … it’s over. The real state of US power will be clear for everyone to see, and so the only remaining leg is kicked out and the USD will fall. With it, the empire.
I’m pretty comfortable saying this because it is inevitable and knowing it won’t change a thing. Yes, all paths will ultimately lead to it. Put simply, nothing they do can save the empire. It is not a matter of if, but when.
By the way, I actually like Trump. I think he’s doing a fantastic job and I hope he does even more of what he’s doing. Unbeknownst to him, he is being used for the good of the world (and eventually for the US - but not the way he thinks he is).
(This fits perfectly into historical cycles both past and future, and we still have a couple more to go through … but that’s a whole topic for another day).
"And you think US incurs no long term consequences for these actions?"
Nope.
"The US is in terminal decline for its very behavior."
Treasury yields signal no such thing. For that matter, we keep hearing here about how the US achieves its methods through bribery. Apparently the recipients of those bribes didn't get the memo.
It seems the plot is thickening. Iraq, Iran, Russia, Venezuela and Nigeria have major oil reserves so their evil ways had to be corrected. And now President Trump is forced to scrape the bottom of the barrel, Colombia with smaller oil deposits. His only excuse is that the Colombians are the largest producers of White Gold, Cocaine but the American upper classes will pay real gold for that.
If anything Colombia is an even easier target than Venezuela, as the Colombian security services are an American creature, and the Americans have doubtless maintained ties.
Qatar? How can you believe it? Most likely maduro was captured while US was negotiating with dela Cruz ( after giving assurance that we won't attack till negotiations are over blah blah)
Fortunately there are a lot of vassals between us and them . Japan and the Philippines , and South Korea if it isn't demolished by the north . China will only fight if it has to - they know the price that they will have to pay and would rather trade for anything that they need . Much cheaper in blood and treasure .
Well, since the British Empire (by any other name) seems to still be in power via it's bankers and its mercenary proxy the USA (the Revolution being another outstanding performance), Australia might well be considered the Empire's natural possession.
It's possibly little known that the Brits stayed in North America for eight years after their supposed military defeat - one has to wonder why, therefore.
( Was this their first iteration of the plan they are yet again rolling out in Venezuela; ie "You step down, and we will install another puppet exactly the same as you but with a different face"? )
Presumably, so a franchise operation could be set up, speaking yanqui rather than yiddish.
Note that Mr Elder Bush went to London whilst president of the Yoonited States of Amerikka and knelt before the Queen to receive a knighthood for services rendered - an act of High Treason if y'all swallow the accepted narrative.
History never repeats but it rhymes. WW 2 established the USSR as a major military force to counter balance the US. Though both nations fought as allies during the conflict. What followed was the Korean war, with Korea supported by the USSR and a weakened China. Then the Vietnam war again with the same support. It must be considered with all the speculation the US does not militarily control Venuzuela. The similarities between Venuzuela and Vietnam are glaring but much bigger and with Colombia and Brazil being much bigger and more powerful than Cambodia and Laos. At the end of WW2 US could claim victory, at the end of the Ukraine conflict can they claim the same? China is not weak as they are not coming out of a civil war or Japanese invasion. Interesting days ahead as the US attempts to pacify a region that is not eager for their return.
>How about Americans pick up some of the 300 000 000 hoarded guns and go fight American government.
The Americans with the hoarded guns still on balance benefit from imperialism, even if they don't consciously realize how exactly in all the details, so they support it
You right it's a pity the Russian and Chinese doesn't read Mr Simply.
"How do you know China and Russia are doing nothing?"
Another argument from ignorance.
It's true it appears contradictory to say there is no plan, then describe the potential plan with Rodriguez, but I am operating under a kind of cautious skepticism for now simply because the source is a single Western paper.
Even so if it's true, it still appears to indicate a lack of a real operative strategy given the fact that they're forced to now 'threaten' Rodriguez, as Trump did today, saying she will face a fate "worse than Maduro's" if she doesn't comply. It seems to indicate that the "plan" wasn't entirely thought out, or was only half-cocked in some way. But we will see soon whether she does the US's bidding or not.
As to the now popular accusation that China/Russia aren't good allies or throw their "friends" to the wolves I ask: name me a single country in this world you'd consider a "strong ally" who militarily backs all its friends. I'll wait. (It certainly isn't the US who is about to seize its own allies land by force in Greenland, who has backstabbed Ukraine and thrown Europe to the wolves, etc, etc.)
Kissinger would likely disagree.
Ditto
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal," Henry Kissinger
A very ignorant comment indeed, one of the most excruciating I’ve read on this substack.
>name me a single country in this world you'd consider a "strong ally" who militarily backs all its friends.
The USSR did back its allies, and they generally survived as long as the USSR did.
You have no idea what happened in those situations do you?
In 1956 it was a color revolution that quickly turned violent and carried out by the hands of former Nazis in Hungary, which had not been properly purged (Hungary was a genuinely and strongly Nazified place, people forget that; nobody forced them to send all those soldiers to fight on the Eastern front).
Of course the USSR had to go in and stop it, and that was the definition of defending your allies -- the communists in Hungary that is.
Contrast that to e.g. the situations in Syria and Karabakh -- in 1956 Russian soldiers were killed, that USSR then went in with serious force to put an end to it, while in those recent situations Russian soldiers were killed and Putin turned the other cheek because he value business deals with Alyev and Erdogan more than the honor and vital strategic interests of the country.
Glad to see you think that was a successful practice. In case you hadn’t noticed, the USSR is not around any longer. Persistance of the state is irrelevant.
Sometimes you see to much conspiracy, Simplicius.
This was a pretty transparant SMO shielded with Trumps slurs and half-lies but made clear by Rubio. It is about Oil and Drugs but mostly to push out socialism and influence from Russia and China in South America.
They removed the snake and put in on display. And as Rubio told us they will wait a couple of days to make Venezuela to act in accordance to US will. Rodriguez is as illegal v.p as Maduro was but if she moves in the right direction - no problemo.
And Trump can celebrate a non-messy ”success”.
Furthermore, he will continue unabated to strenghten the US grip over the Western hemisphere.
What would you expect China and Russia to do? They have provided weaponry, commercial ties and diplomatic support to Venezuela. Do you expect them to send their military forces thousands of miles across an ocean to do battle - see any logistics problems with that? Do you expect them send missiles at the American fleet in defense of Maduro? I wonder what the results of that action would be?
What do you propose they should have done?
You admit there was nothing they could do, but yet you chastise them for doing nothing.
There are many ways to act.
On top of that we don't know what is happen behind the curtains, who's calling who, what steps are coordinated etc.
Fighting with weapons is not always the solution.
I for my part think it's always dangerous to jump to conclusions and declare assumptions to facts.
The whole thing reminds me of 'he had a gun' as Bill Hicks back in the day painted the picture of the US already very correctly.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tRI-iK1p5hg
So an argument from ignorance? Reminds me of the "spiritual rain" dialogue from Brideshead Revisited.
You appear to be a woman….and yet you envy the solution of death. I’m grateful you have no active position in statecraft. Russia and China have been building a new global system in ways that you can t possibly perceive, as they result in death and bloodshed.
What they can do is what they are doing at an ever increasing pace: strengthening military and economic links, dumping US treasuries and cutting trade with the US. Slowly, slowly catchee monkey. At the moment, everyone is "shocked and awed" by Trump's "masterstroke", but the dust is going to settle soon and we will see what's really going on. In the meantime, let the neocons celebrate their "victory"
Agree. China and Russia has not prepared for this new US Empire to rise. They did their own business and abstained of putting up Military bases around the World. They both thought ”we can do business and win this capitalist game”, Russia with Oil&Gas, China with all the other.
They were screwed and didnt react in time (luckily for us).
If Trump/US is in for a partioning of the World in a Western and Eastern hemisphere, letting Russia take Ukraine and China Taiwan, then we could expect calm after the storm. But if US continue this way without leaving South Korea and the occupation of Japan and Phillipines and dont leave NATO we will see a historic catastrophe played up before our eyes.
No, he does not. Therefore we can expect a harsher and harsher climate at the World tribune. Maybe they, US, do these ”peaceful” extortions unabated until something snaps in China. Pearl Harbour 2.0 where sanctions and sabotage against Chinas machinery force them to act. Russia is on a treshold but both act with outmost cautioness right now. Or they have negotiated about the parting of the World…
Trump continues the American “long game” — the packaging of each president is slightly different. The goal remains unchanged. The available means, however, have changed.
Xi and Putin play their own “long game” — which is in direct conflict with the US. This will not (and, necessarily, cannot) be the same as the US.
For boys who played with played with toy soldiers — now men, and especially old ones like Mearsheimer — the “great game” is ultimately a military power exercise.
China and Russia have no intention of falling into the trap of fighting wars a hemisphere away from them. They never have, they never will. In addition, their “weapons” are, in the long run, far more powerful and disruptive.
The Chinese simply hope that the crocodile will eat them last.
>What do you propose they should have done?
Some serious anti-ship missiles (but actually used, not just supplied) would have denied the US the possibility of staging close to Venezuela. And their use was fully legal once the blockade (an act of war) was announced.
Meanwhile some fiber optic drones smuggled into Puerto Rico, which would not be difficult at all for Russia/China to arrange, would have destroyed all those F-22s and F-35s on the ground, in a little revenge for June 1st.
And then the kinetic means for doing this are removed from theatre.
Just as Russia has been blocked from getting to Odessa by NATO.
Venezuela had the weapons to shoot down 10 helicopters and defeat 100s of soldiers. How do you guard against corruption and betrayal?
You can't if it's already there, and that is the US superpower.
What you need to do is make sure there is no corruption to be exploited.
It is also why I keep harping on about the ideological problem in all this -- the USSR (before the purges ended and the rot began) was an effective counterweight because it had a coherent alternative ideology.
Russia and China don't and aren't.
It is also why Russia can't find any real allies besides North Korea, and why its intelligence and covert game is so weak. This from a Russian Telegram channel recently:
========
https://t.me/notes_veterans/26473
Well, there's no doubt about American intelligence. They have some truly top-notch specialists working there. There's a lot to learn and adopt. What should we do?
Study and work. Work hard and study. What can we do if, after the collapse of the USSR, we still haven't been able to fully restore our intelligence potential?🤷♂️
In my opinion, Soviet intelligence was strong because it found agents who sympathized with our ideology. In other words, people engaged with our intelligence primarily for ideological reasons. Because the USSR espoused certain values and contrasted itself with Western ideology: social equality, class struggle, a bright future without the super-rich and the poor, which resonated with many people, even in the Western world.
One of the most striking examples is the Soviet intelligence officer Richard Sorge, who was actually German but recruited into Soviet intelligence and spent his entire life working for the USSR solely for ideological reasons.
Now, however, we are an ordinary democratic country without an ideology of our own (it is prohibited by our constitution, by the way). We declare no significant ideas or goals to the world. We cannot offer anyone outside our country any idea for which they would be willing to die, let alone even sympathize. Therefore, there are very few people willing to work with us for ideological reasons. Basically, they're either outright patriots or just doing it for money. But for money, that's a dull story. Mercenaries, for the most part, are completely unreliable people who run and betray first.
The United States, on the other hand, has its own ideology—the so-called "American Dream." An "American Dream" that doesn't actually exist, but is beautifully presented by Hollywood and American propaganda. Many people around the world are willing to do anything for the coveted Permanent Resident Card.
If we want to win back the people's minds, we must give them an idea. Create our own ideology and proclaim it to the masses. Unfortunately, we don't have such an ideology at the moment.
We need to work on it.
Excellent thinking in Telegram.
Although both Russia and China are autocratic, not democratic, they have both envied the consumerist western capitalist systems. Russian and chinese tourists has showed us what people actually likes.
In capitalism you either eat yourself fat or are being swallowed. In socialism you eat a little and obey.
In liberalism you chase the inner wishes of you and is free to become whatever deviation there is. In socialism you behave and goes grey.
I am no fan of USSR or the godless Chinese system. I am no fan of the liberal West that has gone mad and historically worked like vampires against other people.
China has succeded in building a modern, capitalistic looking, socialistic controlling system. It will transform those 1.3 billion people over time. Putin has tried to build up what was left of USSR to a capitalistic mirror without the liberal thinking that is destroying the West.
>>China has succeded in building a modern, capitalistic looking, socialistic controlling system.<<
Where can I find this dubious controlling system that China has build? Where can I read about the rules it implies?
Why are only western people talking about that system that no Chinese citizen that I know of have ever heard of?
If you break the law, you are punished. That's nothing to do with democracy or authoritarian.
By the way, this western democracy is a friggin' sham to begin with. You can make an X somewhere and then you have to shut up and have no influence anymore. It's really unbelievable that people still babbling about democracy - what a frigging joke after 80 years of blunt tyranny and mass murdering of capitalism and colonialism after 1945 around the world.
I can't speak for Russian politics, but single party rule has brought a unity in Cambodia, Singapore and China. They don't tolerate political protests aimed at the ruling party, while raising the standard of living of the population. The military and government are united.
Contrast this with Iran where foreign backed protests are underway. Even in Australia these protests would not be permitted, and would have been met with heavy police presence wielding pepper spray, rubber bullets and riding horses.
I agree it is a political problem.
A bit too much Slavic pessimism for my taste.
However, while Russia may not have any stated constitutional ideology this is a good place to start,
"...the purpose of the operation and existence of any government is to create a stable, normal, safe and predictable life for the people and to work towards a better future." ~ V. Putin
As a UK citizen, I assure you I have plenty of sympathy for that alone, and if things continue the way they are we may soon find there are many willing to die for it.
Furthermore, an ideology does not need to be stated but can simply be manifest such that, from my viewpoint, Russia has far more to offer its people and the world than any country in the 'West' under current leadership.
Beyond Russia itself is BRICS which does have a certain ideology that is demonstrated almost daily - sovereignty, mutual respect, co-operation and mutual benefit - and that Russia was fundamental in authoring. One can see the huge appeal/sympathy this has in the global south. I am sure it would have far more in the west, also, if MSM coverage was not so censored and negatively biased.
Sorry, but for a poor person in country X barely surviving under the crushing pressure of neoliberal policies and a rapacious oligarchy, there is littler difference between whether the rapacious oligarchy is enacting neoliberal policies as part of BRICS or not.
But do you see BRICS even mentioning the words "oligarchy" and "neoliberalism" when they run their mouths at yet another pointless meeting? No. Even Xi doesn't do it, and he actually has taken real meaningful steps to reign it in inside China, unlike any of the other members of the talk shop.
This is why Russia is doomed under the current leadership.
When the war started I was ecstatic because it was obvious that Rubicon had been crossed -- once it was started, it would have to be won, and that meant:
1) Ending Ukrainian statehood altogether
2) Drastic internal reorganizations with Russia, along Soviet lines, to withstand the subsequent clash with the West
Either those things were going to happen, or Russia would be defeated, this time for good.
And again, this was so obvious, that it was inconceivable that Russian leadership would take that Rubicon-crossing step without also having firmly made the decisions to follow it up with those other measures I listed.
So imagine my horror when it turned out there was no serious preparation for war and when Putin very quickly went back to his usual mode of negotiating how much exactly treason he would commit, instead of mobilizing for real victory.
A good question. I would start by being proactive and not waiting for the Americans to attack. You hit them fitst.
"And their use was fully legal once the blockade (an act of war) was announced."
Law is meaningless. Enforcement is the only thing that matters.
Yes, of course, I was just pointing this out for those still stuck on that BS.
100 Russians and 100 Chinese with MANPADS inserted into Caracas covertly could have made this a whole lot more challenging.
But in hindsight saying how this could have been blocked is always easy. Then they probably would have taken a different approach. And that is one of the biggest downsides of defence, you have to cover all vulnerabilities to prevent one from being exploited.
Indeed.
It is also why it is so important in modern warfare, with strategic deph practically non-existent, to strike first.
A lesson the Russian, Chinese, Iranians, and their supposed allies refuse to learn.
Agree with you completely the problem Russia and China is causing for them selves, the global South is going to see that neither of them will stand with us and could quickly turn to Trump . This also could be exactly how to break up BRICS once and for all.
The US could dismantle the BRICS first with Brazil, the Brazilian people are rubbish their military also not that proper then they can go to South Africa same thing the people are rubbish their military same thing, then India do I even need to explain India they don't even have a tiny bone of a back bone.
I do believe you are right. Not saying they would with the BRICS just saying the is actually a hodge podge except the Russia and China.
It seems you don't like the B, S, or I of BRICS...
You think the US can just take Brazil, then South Africa, and then India? They're large countries with large populations. Didn't India show some backbone by fighting against Pakistan last year?
It's got nothing to do with territory, more to do with the psychic of the people . The USA understands this the most.
Sure.
But the global south isn't blameless either.
It is a sort of vendetta but I agree with you that this SMO was not solely to square with Maduro. Trump inposed sanctions early and late in his first presidency against Venezuelas oil industry, so this is only a continuation of the goal to subdue Venezuela.
The speech from Rubio also included the lines that no one should question that US is the sole ruler of the Western hemisphere. And by that US means that North and South-america is theirs including Canada and Greenland.
Agree. Greenland, Colombia, Cuba
Cuba has suffered for more than 60 years. A thorn in the side of US mafia.
There are some interesting alternative views of what happened there.
Under the circumstances, was it not better for Maduro to run around in Venezuela while changing his sleeping quarters twice a week minimum? The whole event there was predictable to a great degree. It was a simple reload of the Panama Affair of 1989 when General Manuel Noriega was dragged away in chains. Even Rush Limbaugh felt sorry for Noriega, affectionately calling him grapefruit face or something like that.
It doesn't make much sense, for sure.
Had I been the Venezuelan Pres, ( this may well be happening soon, keep watching ) I would have sent all those manpads to the coastline to await the arrival of those brave boys in their choppers coming in over the coastline.
The US could easily have been totally humiliated on the world stage.
An excellent checkmate move scorned.
It was obvious that a deal had been cut as the military stood down - not even one missile fired.
My guess is Maduro gave himself up. We'll see what happens with the trial.
To avoid bombing Venezuela back to the stone age. They probably sent pictures of Gaddafi. Let's see if there is a reset in Venezuela or not. I'm guessing with no way of knowing. Funny his wife joined the Carribbean cruise ship.
I understand that the judge who blocked Venezuelan gang deportations has just been assigned to preside over the Maduro case in New York - how funny is that?
There is no case to begin with - it's a farce.
have they made a final decision where to hear the trial, because I also heard Miami and a couple of other places.
If he gets only half the years in prison they handed down to Noriega that is a life term for him.
But Noriega did the dirty on the CIA. Maduro just danced and sold oil for Yuan.
40 dead soldiers and civilians on the Venezuelan sides says that both happened. Some bribery and a lot of killing at Maduros base.
No way, he turned himself in. It would have been better to flee the country if he felt the game was over.
80+
I just read a story at antiwar.com that reported the Venezuelan death toll is 80--civilians and military personnel.
I read that certan officials, including the head of Maduro's security detail, were bribed (by CIA operatives) to betray Maduro. The traitors did not activate all of the air defense that had been put in place.
That is another likely scenario.
same as Iraqi generals
Yep. He wasn't captured or even kidnapped. He was delivered up like a pizza.
extracted
and sold out by the pound...
If true, it worked. More to the point, it's not like now Yankee dollars can no longer buy friends or favors.
It is not that countries are incapable to defend themselves against the US army but they are afraid even to try to defend themselves. They see what happened to Serbia, Iraq, Libya, Syria etc.
In 1998. Russia didn't dare to sell S300 AA system to Serbia.
He also should not have been in Caracas. Venezuela's political geography, just as all other such countries, has that colonial legacy -- the capital is on the coast, often because the territory served the sole function of exporting natural resources from the interior, thus the main port through which that happened became the capital and/or because the interior was only settled much later. There are exceptions like Colombia, but mostly it's like that. The Brazilians eventually moved the capital deep inland, but the others haven't. And it creates that enormous strategic vulnerability. There is plenty of jungle to hide in in the Amazon, and I didn't see any penetration beyond the coast. Inland regions also tend to be less globalized in terms of their politics. But he just stayed there as a sitting duck.
Still, 32 Cubans were killed -- there is national mourning announced there. It wasn't a peaceful surrender.
And it's quite notable he felt he needed Cubans to be his personal guards.
>It was a simple reload of the Panama Affair of 1989
Panama has always been a US colony though, it's how it was created in the first place. Venezuela is supposed to be something very different.
But it looks like a late-Soviet-type betrayal from within by the elites.
"I find it difficult to be too harsh for a man thinking that the US would abide by some principles of international law."
Good grief, need I bring up the fable of the frog and the scorpion again? How many times does the US need to ignore any law that it doesn't like before people get wise?
I guess that's American soft power at work, right there. In spite of a track record that puts Mussolini to shame, they still get the benefit of every doubt.
Humans are masters of rationalization.
BTW, Evo Morales broke the taboo and said it on Twitter -- Trump is the new Hitler. Which is exactly how it is.
But it needs to be picked up. Curiously, it was the liberal media in his first term that liked to make such comparisons, but now that they are reality they are completely silent...
Meanwhile Putin is nowhere to be seen or heard for a week now after the assassination attempt, let alone publicly come out and call it as it is, as he should be doing. Even after Trump tried to take him out. Same with Xi.
Cubans and Russians always paying the price. That’s a sad piece of news, it revolts my guts to think of the death of Cubans soldiers at the hands of Americans without these sustaining even a scratch.
They will never admit to American casualties, so I would not be so quick to conclude there were never any, but yeah, the Cubans were betrayed there.
And Cuba itself is next on the menu, in a much more unfavorable position, because it is a small island without strategic depth.
Though it does have the advantage of proximity to the US and thus being able to extract a cost without IRBMs. If it has prepared -- Mar-A-Lago burning down can be very easily arranged from there. But has Cuba prepared?
I wouldn't worry about Florida, AG Barbie is there to protect them.
Wasnt there a contingent of Russians protecting Maduro also ? Where are they now ?
https://t.me/bomber_fighter/23839
>Of course, there's still the unknown element, those fifteen unknown, secret specialists who were either brought in or taken away by an unknown Il-76 a couple of months ago. They might be somewhere right now...
I could be completely wrong but, I am getting the feeling Maduro allowed himself to get captured. It is already posing a huge problem that he is captured and the country has not folded. In his ´perp walk´ yesterday he told everybody ´Happy New Year´ and you could detect a smile from him. Has he taken his dancing act to NYC? :P
Best wishes to you Kennewick.
John, the whole thing is chaotic for now and than they will seal the records for 666 years. Searching for the fix points is a good way to shed light here. Fact is Maduro could have gone to Cuba and from there directly to Russia and he did not do it. WHY?
Another fix point is: Trump will not stop now until he gets control over the oil reserves there one way or another. He might do this via US oil companies but he still has to secure a pro-USA political stability there to support the process. It is also possible that Maduro was surprised by a treasonous inner circle there but going to NYC in chains sounds like bad news for him. The fact that they took his wife with him is likely to blackmail him by using the woman.
The Delcy Rodriguez woman who has replaced him is already giving mixed messages: on the one hand, resistance to the end; on the other, the "we need to work in partnership with the US to help all Venezuelans" BS.
"we need to work in partnership with the US to help all Venezuelans"
No, good political optics to the world. Someday (in the near future?): "We tried to work with the US as equal partners, but they wanted everything".
when did the US ever "help" anyone? always predatory strings attached, always supporting those who'd be most obedient to its interests.
At the end after the smoke clears this will go down as the Great American Highway Robbery for oil.
Don't kid yourself. She got the message.
BS is the right word. For now we can can write off Venezuela as an independent nation. The only option they have is hardcore guerilla warfare but I do not believe they will go there. They will throw them a few shekels just to make sure the locals do not sabotage their own oil wells.
"we'll resist as paid and agreed upon"
I think Maduro was sold for $50 mil by the insiders.
What we do know from this is that cognitive warfare was more important than the military operation.
He was taken from the Fuerte Tiuna military base, which was the target of attacks.
Please allow me to add one more here.
A while back, a young Chinese lady in Australia was arrested for DWI after hitting someone. No death, but the pedestrian was hurt badly enough and refused to settle out of court. When policemen examined her phones, they saw photos suggesting tremendous personal wealth. And the fact that the Chinese Embassy inserted itself into the Australian legal process quickly raised eyebrows. The lady refused to show up in court four times after certified notification was delivered. Her lawyer, supposedly one of the most expensive lawyers on criminal law in Australia, showed up only three times.
Before the last (fourth) supposed court appearance, one senior Chinese political leader (one of the seven standing members of the Political Bureau) arrived in Australia without fanfare or any official explanations or public announcement. That expensive lawyer did not even show up in court for the fourth summons. Then the entire theater quieted down, as if the Australian government had put its boot on the collective neck of the Australian news media -- not that Australian news media have really stuck their necks out or have any spine to begin with. The Chinese dissidents have a rumor that a look-alike has been found in China and brought to Australia. If the Australian government cannot resist the pressure and has to send someone to jail, a figurehead has been sitting in that luxury house ever since, waiting to be arrested. In the meantime, China quietly signed contracts to buy some Australian products, lifted some import-bans, and some even claimed that China bought some Australian government debt.
So do we have the real Maduro? Don't you think the guy in the photo does not really match your impression of Maduro you saw in the past? Maybe the US government find a look like from Venezuelans under custody in the US, or gives someone a plastic surgery, or Maduro himself has found a good copy inside Venezuela, and paid his family well upfront. Your imaginations may vary, and the above is not investment advice. I do suspect that we will not see this captured Maduro to say more than a few words in public, if we see any video clips about him at all.
Nah, it was all theater. Looks like a Modus Vivendi was agreed on or else the country does an Iraq rethink. That is devastation for Vz. Maduro, flashing the peace sign (piece of Vz that is) and wishing the DEA goons "happy New year" was a significant "tell". Realpolitik in the early stages. Iran, clearly in their plans, shortly.
colombian vp might be onto something, but by all accounts maduro WAS the moderate in the psuv. removing him emboldens party hardliners: i'd be very shocked if venezuela turned into neoliberal ancapistan with delcy rodriguez as president. but also, a hardcore chavista would never hand over maduro to the yankees. truth maybe this time for once is somewhere in between. realpolitik chess move to give america what they want (an excuse to withdraw the southcom deployment) while preserving venezuelan sovereignty. at least compared to the alternative of full-scale invasion and war.
the democratically elected vice president of maduro's party is not a "puppet" (that would be machado, or guaido) neither is there any proof she is "following us instructions" beyond trump saying so. also comparing this situation to russia-ukraine is pretty absurd. the world seeing something one way doesn't mean it's reality. the world thinks russia was supposed to conquer ukraine in 3 days, whole lot of good that's done for ukraine.
you brought up russia, not me. as for the us, they've only demonstrated that can engineer theatrical displays of force that have pre-arranged outcomes, like the "b-2 bombing of fordow enrichment plant." if they could take her out in a heartbeat there was no reason not to eliminate the entire chavista party and bolivarian military leadership instead of just casually escorting maduro and only maduro out of the country.
did the united states in 2003 simply kidnap saddam hussein while leaving "chemical" ali and the entire arab socialist baath party apparatus in charge of iraq's political and military organs because "they had the trapping of legitimacy already"? of course not haha. let's not stand on ceremony here, we know what us-led regime change looks like and it's not this. this was the regime change being called off because the situation couldn't allow for it. it's not 2003 anymore.
You nailed it Elena. You come along peacefully or maybe we break your country. Some dollars change hands. Move along...nothing to see here. More elegant than what happened to Iran in '53.
Too early to tell if she's a puppet or not, or how strong she'll be under US pressure. I suspect that any resistance to the US coup is going to have to come from the streets or not at all.
Chill a bit, Elena... even the US side has admitted that their favourite puppets (both Guaido and Machado) were nowhere nearby... and can't be installed easily. The Saudis have already agreed to sell their oil in Yuan... so the dollar-bypass systems are all being put into motion and defanging the empire war machine. Lots of other stuff going on, which of course the Russians and Chinese are very quiet on... let the western press create their own fake press and lap it up, while the real work continues apace
"You could be right, but it sounds like wishful thinking to me. "
There is little here other than blatant wishful thinking. I'd love to believe, but I live in the real world and wishful thinking will get me killed or used as a subject of lurid medial experiments....
This is a pretty balanced overview of the situation… https://substack.com/home/post/p-183419146
You missed the point. There will now be a chavista in name only regime in Caracas. They will obey in the things that really count and keep the populace quiet. At least if the 🍊 Don and his misadmnistration have 2 brain cells to rub together, that is what they have set up.
Who's running America? Clearly, for the moment, Marco Rubio and the CIA.
Trump has no clue what goes on around him.
JFK issued the warning about them, decades ago.
Ignore it at your peril.
Patrick Henningsen said he observed the entire press conference and Trump was slurring his words a lot... and resorting to usual theatrics and rhetorical flourishes to cover. He came up with a moniker Sloppy Trump... aka like Sleepy Joe. The jab effects are really catching up to the effetes now... however that begs the question - who is really running the show? we know for sure it ain't Biden or Trump all along...
Satanyahoo flies in, and the US sends its forces to prep an attack on Iran.
Fairly big hint.
Bingo
Bad things ALWAYS happen after the demon goes to Washington
I was arguing with a boomer on Boomerbook recently, who is STILL convinced that "Trump is controlled by Putin".
At this point what can you say? TDS really is a brain-eating mental disease.
There are legions of that stripe. Hey, how 'bout them Steelers!? Sportzball!
Why not Slurry Trump?
For the moment at least, Rubio has got NOTHING from this. And it has cost the USA a large fortune, and considerable reputation. Rubio wanted something tangible, not the kidnapping of a replaceable leader.
May be why he's looked as sick as a dog behind Trump and cameras since.
"Morality and decency"? In the NINETIES film 'Patriot Games', that was already called "Boy Scout stuff".
Think it's gotten worse on that score since.
Course, in a just world he'd be behind bars for his connections to mafia and organised crime, but then so would ~80% of successful US politicians. ;)
Narco Rubio dreams of being honorary mayor of Calle Ocho in Miami. Maybe lasso some strange for his efforts.
Holy cow!
So many countries let down by a disloyal, corrupt military, with commanders bought off - Iraq, Syria, Venezuela, and maybe Iran next. Ironically Iran is more tolerant of protest than Australia. The Iraqi military got a shock when they were fired, this plan had been kept from them, and were reduced to insurgents. Does the Syrian military have any regrets watching their country be dismembered?
I get the feeling their political systems would be better emulating Singaporean/Chinese models which provides stability, and do not permit political demonstrations threatening the ruling party. Even Cambodia is more united and stable than these countries.
Yeah well, a big part of the problem is maintaining your military under an economic war. Which includes paying your soldiers enough to sustain a family. In Syria payments for lower ranked soldiers were down to $12 per month. That wasn't even enough to feed one person. This is the main problem the BRICS alliance has to fix. Why defend a system that can't even feed you.
Yup. It works.
Yup. Funny how we are regularly assured here that the US is collapsing, the dollar is worthless or will be soon, but people around the world accept Yankee dollars.
Those Syrian military have since either switched sides or left.
There are some similarities between Syria 1 year ago and Iran today. In both cases the "mandate of Heaven" as the Chinese used to say, seemed to have moved against the sitting regime. Iran has faced 6 years of extreme drought. For a regime of religious leaders, if God doesn't send rain, it looks like the leaders are not speaking for God after all.
Assad was a better ruler than what replaced him. But, after more than a decade of foreign sponsored civil war, the weakened appearance of the mandate of Heaven meant that it was much easier for American-Israeli forces (ISIS) to oust him in 2024 than had been the case in 2014.
Iran has spent fortunes to constrain Israel's ambitions in Lebanon and Syria. But they did not spend enough money to secure their own water supply. Now in the 6th year of drought, to the point that Tehran may have to be abandoned, the Mullahs appear to have lost the mandate of Heaven. In such a situation even a buffoon like Trump may be able to successfully exploit an attempt to overthrow them.
Plus growing internal corruption.
Sanctions, the Caesar Act? Have you heard of either?
I thought it started with the drought. Sound familiar?
From what I heard, Assad fell as much because of the corruption his wife engaged in, than because of anything he did.
"Cherchez la femme," as we say.
In these countries, just as in the West, all those in power treat corruption as common practice. I wouldn’t compare the wealth of an African leader to that of a Brussels techno-oligarch, for instance. However, I would sooner look for Ursula than for Assad’s wife.
Well at least Americans never punish corruption in their political class
I thought she was busy being sick with cancer
Maybe she is.
But it's what she did whilst in Syria that's important.
Hugely corrupt and nepotistic individual.
Water. “It’s Chinatown, Jake!”
Professor Marandi spoke of this issue recently saying that the water problem is one for the eastern portion of Iran, a more desert-like region and that the rest of the country does not not suffer the same. I am not familiar enough with Iran to say Yea or Nay on such a thing but I like Marandi, so facts aside, I think I will agree with him. 😉
The north facing Caspian shoreline is humid and receives heavy rain even in the drought years. It is less than 50 miles from Tehran. Tehran is in a dry inland basin. Its population has exploded. If the Iranian regime had spent the money to build an underground aqueduct from the Caspian shoreline to Tehran instead of all their nuclear enrichment caves, they would not be in this situation.
Some people live up to their principles.
It's a strange or even unimaginable fact to the western spineless populations.
Hypocrisy and double speech seems all that's left for the 'golden billion'.
Do you want to be nice, or do you want to win?
The sociopath always has an advantage over the normie, because the normie is limited by principles, while the sociopath is not.
I'm not disagreeing, I was telling the Iranian govt to build them for the past 20 years. They seemingly took other advice I gave, especially Raisi.
At the same time, the weapons are expensive, and utterly useless to them. They cannot use them.
To drop them on Palestine would kill Israelis, but also Palestinians.
It is a core Islamic precept not to kill civilians (From this it is easy to see which of the Islamic countries are genuinely Islamic).
And then you also have to develop the 'security state', and the paranoia that comes with nukes (See Dr Strangelove, fx).
I can understand WHY they didn't build them. But I agree that might have been a mistake.
But some people would prefer to take the risk of losing and dying rather than losing their principles, and I can 100% admire that.
Ted Postol claims they can easily make them within days in a space no bigger than a garage. Who knows, maybe they have?
Ghaddafi actually did such a thing in Libya, and the coalition of the willing cynically bombed it to oblivion, when they went in as part of their R2P operation.
So maybe he would have been better doing the opposite to what he did, ie what the Iranians did, which you are criticizing.
It should not have been an either or decision. The country needs to secure both its defenses and its urban food and water supplies. The neglect of either leads to defeat.
If what you assert is true, and I believe it is, cannot the same be said of the Western powers? I see lack of attention to infrastructure maintenance everywhere I look and ordinary citizens, especially young ones, are starting to know suffering (not like the poor victims in Gaza yet). This will not end well for the ordinary working folk in the US and Europe....just saying
True, but better yet if they produced nukes as fast they could. Shouldnt be a problem if they removed the fatwah.
You have no idea what’s going on in Iran except through the lens of your CIA and neocon propaganda. Iran hasn’t “exploded”! The small protests were hijacked by small scale riots of less than 3000 individuals, a small number of which were funded and armed by the CIA and Mossad. Nothing will come out of this as it’s a replay of what happened on a larger scale a couple years ago. The desperate CIA and Israelites tribe of genocide are going crazy exhausting their last moves, especially since they know that any external attack on Iran will result in an unprecedented hammer on Israel and US. The rest is a combination of psyops and hubristic propaganda.
Half of Iran is deserts - rocky deserts, sandy deserts, and also huge dune deserts.
They are beautiful to drive through - as long as you have water.
I love Prof Marandi, but his predictions are frequently way off, as we saw in Syria and Lebanon.
The Iranians should ponder the old saw, "Be careful what you wish for, because you may get it."
If the US moves in to Iran, Coca Cola and Nestle will be on its heels, bottling and selling what water remains for the people.
But I liked your reference to the Mandate of Heaven; few know about the religious situation in pre Confucian China, when Shang Di reigned supreme, a clear analogue of the God of Israel.
In fact, those wise men we have recently been commemorating were almost certainly Chinese seers.
climate manipulation technologies are used to defeat countries... I wouldnt be surprised if this was the case of Iran, like it was the case of Syria.
yes the drought and its downstream effects have no doubt been exacerbated intentionally by US and western intelligence
Thing is, neither God, nor natural forces have a monopoly on Weather these days, the malign intervention of HAARP or its latest version is well able to wreak either chronic or acute havoc.
30 yes of increasing drought i have read...
It's so hilarious watching starmer try to wiggle out of answering that question "well since we don't know all the facts of every little detail It's impossible to pass any sort of judgment or have even an opinion on what happened" so fucking stupid lol
Every time Starmer does an interview he looks like a deer trapped in headlights. The UK will be so relieved to see the back of him.
I wonder if the Ukranian rent boys were happy to see the back of him?
After he leaves office, he will likely divorce his Jewish wife and move in with them.
Her work for Mossad is 99% done and she has already left him, bar the very rare, sour-faced public appearance (see Trump’s last visit) to try to ’normalise’ her weirdo ‘husband’s' image.
She must have known what she was getting into: he was clearly chosen and groomed as a Deep State agent from an early age, and his low IQ (just BCC at A-level), willingness to spout brazen lies without shame or remorse, unquestioning obedience to his Globalist masters, utter lack of principle and vulnerability (as a practising homosexual, see also his impending replacement Wes Streeting) to Mossad/ MI6 Kompromat would have made him the perfect asset.
I doubt he’ll be moving in with his three queers, though. More likely, they’ll get the Epstein treatment before any eventual trial (they’re being held in solitary, high security, like Julian Assange was, 'awaiting trial’, it could be years - so much for habeas corpus, this is the Soviet Yookay); or charges will be quietly dropped and they’ll be deported into the arms of a waiting Ukrainian Army press gang, to vanish in obscure circumstances on the Russian Front.
His smarts seem to be about the same as Prince Harry's, who got one art A level.
By "obscure circumstances" I'm assuming you mean a red cloud somewhere.
A red cloud? Of liquidised mist from their brains as they are shot in the back of the head, at a bomb-scarred rural roadside somewhere 20 miles outside Kramatorsk, perhaps. Or just suffocated or forcibly drowned and then, thrown in the Dniepr for the fishes to do the rest. Two million dead already: Mossad-CIA-MI6-YookayGov are hardly going to care about another three corpses.
Then again, maybe they are being held alive, as hostages, like a hanging sword, to keep Rubber Stamp Starmer in line and ensure that he does not resign, not matter how badly his wretched party gets battered in May's local elections. From Bibi’s and the Security Services’ point of view, his performance in office has been absolutely flawless.
Please, not while I’m eating
I'd like to see the front of him, with a rope around his neck.
why not Ghadaffi's end raped with a knife in the ass?
He’d probably enjoy that.
OMG
Because she preferred getting her ass stabbed with a sausage?
OMG. What kind of abyss creatures dwell in Simplicius dungeons?
I read it was a stick - but you can’t believe anything you read in the MSM.
didnt you watch the video?
Not, not the whole thing, just a few seconds. So it WAS a knife, then, and the MSM was just sanitising his gruesome demise?
And the poor fool imagined he could negotiate with the West, have a sincere hug and a photo op with grinning Tony BLiar, make friends and agree a modus vivendi. He even imagined al-Meghrahi, having had nothing to do with the Pan Am bombing, was going to be found Not Guilty of the Pan Am bombing - quite unaware that Scots judges have become, and perhaps have long been, the most politically corrupt this side of Moldova.
Did the US and their vassals Yookania and France want to make an example of Gaddafi? Or was the smashing of Libya into a state of warring chaos the whole point, to destroy any potential future threat to Israel and to clear the way for mass illegal immigration from sub-Saharan Africa, to comprehensively wreck Europe as well?
The other clip that Simp added started with Richard Lice, the 'Reform' kipper leader. F'Rage's bunch.
And you can just imagine what the Tories would be like as well.
So fuck all is going to change, just a revolving door of CIA-Zionazi muppet clowns.
But everyone, and I mean EVERYONE, loathes 'Sir' Kid Starver.
"But everyone, and I mean EVERYONE, loathes 'Sir' Kid Starver."
Starmer is a grown-up version of that kid everyone wanted to punch in the face in school.
His mother probably tried to hide him from the public as long as she could.
"wanted to"? Have you looked at the face? I'm pretty the right phrase is "did", tbh.
He's a younger version of the caretaker at Hogwarts, lol.
Yep. His face looks like it is made out of mouldy dough and his physique and posture make Boris Johnson look like an athlete. If you want a laugh, find the clip of that saggy, soggy nonce trying to punch a punchbag. He really is a feeble specimen in every possible respect.
It's like they practice "stupid look" before filmed
LOL. And realise that they have failed miserably.
Maybe his boyfriend Lord Ali can buy him another pair of those designer glasses, and he will be able to see more clearly.
incredibly hysterical and rude style of the interviewer too. These BBC ass sweepers pretending to be outeaged.
Yoni; That's Laura K from the CIA, (Laura Kuensberg) she's something of a national treasure and what passes for a BBC heavyweight these days since Paxo ( Jeremy Paxman) hung up his gloves some years ago
If Kuntsberg is a "national treasure", then the UK really IS beyond bankruptcy.
It is.
National Treasure haha!
A tory plant.
I don’t find it hilarious, I find it despicable, the hypocrisy hurts. And who believes MI6 had nothing to do?
Scratch any conflict and likely MI6 is involved in one way or another. Britain used pirates (privateers) in the past, they support terrorists group now, they setup other powers against eachother to weaken them with the sole reason to keep world dominance. After WW1 and WW2, the USA, with thr help of the CIA filled up that gap. Too many people die and have died, too many people suffer and have suffered because the criminal Starmer is supporting this evil system.
If you watch his face closely when he answers that, he carefully keeps his face masked, and then you can see the internal relief when he thinks he's gotten away with it.
I didn't know myself, but from that, I'd guess UK services were involved.
Elizabeth I used pirates, for sure, but remember who they were stealing from - the biggest pirates of all, the Spanish.
Britain's decline into total depravity began in the 1640s, when Cromwell accepted money from Amsterdam jews to fund his New Model Army, which - surprise surprise, and exactly like in France and Russia, went on to destroy the monarchy - the US doing the same thing, and with the same funding source, some years later.
Soon after their arrival, we had the Bank of England / Judaea set up in 1694, and so it continues.
Britain is now run from the jewish free territory of the City of London, which the "sovereign" has to ask for permission to enter once per year, when he or she attends for the charity food handout called the Lord Mayor's Banquet - and no, we aren't talking about Sadiq Khan.
Check out who that person is called The Remembrancer who sits, unelected, in Parliament, and ask yourself who he reports back to, as to what the world's oldest elected assembly is doing day by day.
Ever wondered why Liz Truss wilted so suddenly?
Now you know.
He's an empty vessel. No original thought. Clearly out the loop and unable to cope.
Translation: "We won't know if what the US government did was wickedly illegal and immoral until we have asked the US government".
I can just picture this zombie drone of a PM in the House of Commons: ‘… and they have assured us that it was not.'
But they did not need any details to start screaming "russian aggression" or " Putin killed Navalny"
He’s a sanctimonious hypocrite. And a ‘Human Rights lawyer’ to boot….
Starmer has no shame.
Expecting him to have any kind of moral stance on anything is a lost cause
Yeah douchebag charlatan much?
The capture of Maduro was more of a theatrical event than real. There was no actual fighting involved. There's crazy talk on social media that the US defeated Venezuela within a day, while Russia still fights after 4 years. Only a primitive simpleton would think this.
Trump's war on drugs against Venezuela is more of an attempt to control Venezuela's oil reserves and dictate the politics of the region. The biggest drug dealers in the US hold high positions and are untouchable.
The US is taking control of its hemisphere as an attempt to retain the USD's supremacy. Any nation that undermines the USD is a target just as it was in Lybia, Iraq, and several other small countries.
It's always about money ($US) and power (oil) - always.
Indeed, Victor.
A lot of stunningly ignorant and predictable comments on here about 'the oil'. Standard Left wing moronic thinking. It's about CHINA who have been working hard and quietly in Venezuela and other South American countries. Maduro was entertaining a Chinese delegation hours before he was snatched. Venezuelan oil is mostly heavy grade, it's fairly crap.
"Nearly 70% of U.S. refining capacity runs most efficiently with heavier crude. That is why 90% of crude oil imports into the United States are heavier than U.S.-produced shale crude." https://www.afpm.org/newsroom/blog/whats-difference-between-heavy-and-light-crude-oils-and-why-do-american-refineries
And why the connection with China? Oil. 🥴
It's a two-for. Two things can occur at once, aka the bonus result. Maybe a 3-for as Cuba should be badly/fatally hurt by changes in the oil exports regime. I predict Cuba is dealt with by Easter. Remember...Narco Rube-eeo is a Miami Cuban. These folks want "THEIR" island back. Bigly-badly!
Your comment duly fits both the ignorant and predictable categories.
Venezuelan oil is not "crap"
It is what's known as "Heavy, Sour", sour meaning it has large amounts of sulphur that needs removal. This is the only downside to the oil, the "Heavy" means the oil contains *all* the components you can find in a crude, including the bituminous part, which is kind of required to make roads with....
As opposed to a "Light, Sweet" which has lots of fuel grade fractions, but little of the parts that make roads or lubricants.
The vast majority of Gulf coast US refineries have been "tuned" (optimised) to refine Venezuelan Heavy, Sour and have had to make do with blended Canadian oil sand feedstock whilst most Venezuelan oil went elsewhere.
The "black eye" to China is a useful "two-fer" but the main game is forcing Venezuelan oil to go to the US at a handy, dandy US dictated discount...
Being able to get gas at a $1 a gallon is both a great mid-terms election selling point AND a way to pull back inflation a bit.
But this has nothing to do with the USA and its people, and everything to do with the Taco family clan and the individuals to whom he is beholden. It’s essential to understand that in the USA, donors are creditors.
The elites (and, I might add, israel) ARE the USA now - the people have little or nothing to do with foreign policy nor the elite with domestic issues (which they avoid, not giving them any priority).
yep -
https://x.com/VladTheInflator/status/2007834216025973098
It has EVERYTHING to do with the US. The continuity of agenda remains uninterrupted no matter who is allowed in a woman’s bathroom
😂
I understand Paul Singer holds Venezuelan IOUs as Court Orders and he owns Trump
He is beholden to a dozen donors, if not more.
The guy who bought Argentinas debt for cents on the dollar ?
Yes
And got control of Citgo
At least now Maduro's gone, the US will be able to replace all those inefficient drug boats with a proper operation involving C130s and ConAir.
Have you read the article? There were no drug boats. It was about stealing the oil all the way.
Familiarize yourself with the rhetorical gambit called irony, Yoni, and your comments will be more interesting.
Irony is certainly a wonderful rethorical tool, but it must be masterfully used to achieve its goal. Otherwise it can get the opposite effect.
Take the L gracefully Yoni. That was a good use of irony. You just missed it yourself.
maybe
Or maybe you just don't get irony
it was a disgusting comment. As I said. Not everybody is good at irony.
There will be now. The tankers going North can take a few hundred kilos more 🤣🤣🤣
Indeed! As the realists put it, CIA, Cocaine Import Agency and the DEA mutts, Don't Expect Anything. $lumville is fucked thank goodness.
Bring back Barry Seal.
Geller: The Democrats are apoplectic. Democrats screaming over the arrest of the blood-soaked dictator Nicolás Maduro is the perfect hill for them to die on—after defending Barack Obama, who dropped 26,171 bombs in a single year without congressional approval, and Joe Biden, who launched strikes across Syria, Iraq, Yemen, and Somalia the same way—hypocrisy laid bare.
Gee you forgot "the blood-soaked dictator" Orange Utang not to mention his owner in occupied Palestine, the demonic, genocidal animal Nutnyahoo aka Milecocksky aka Mr. Nitay. Only ZionaZi $hit doesn't stink for you abviously.
Don’t bother. Arguing with a hypnotized ideologue is a waste of time.
Proof enough that all Western Governments are no more than puppets of the Trillionaire Parasite Caste and their entirely fraudulent Fiet Money system.
The culling of the worlds dozen most perverse banking crime families and their demonic principalities of power neutralised by little more than the light of day, would however still fail to address the mindlessness of western populations, systematically dumbed down by toxic food, medical tyranny and indoctrination through the fictitious ideology of Socialism and its entirely false association with "social justice".
You mean the "kidnapping" of Maduro by a $lumville gone full Onkel Adolf and like Adolf's caper this shit will end very badly for the bankrupt buZZard nation USSA.. Fixed it fer ya
Well US took 20 years before Taliban kicked them out leaving all the kit behind
USSR lasted 10 years and took its kit home by road
And left a government that lasted 3 years, not 3 days. 😉😅
Wrong eg ...Maduro personal guard all shot.Bombs in other places.
35 Cubans are very dead. 😂
Hear ya, just another "Truman Show"
> Only a primitive simpleton would think this.
Most people the world over are thus.
Yes, you are right, but don't say "There was no actual fighting involved." because actually several cuban guards around Maduro fought the Delta forces hard, and died.
You have no idea how many simpletons are in the US. I just had today a female co-worker gushing about how she was sitting on the plane with "a medic who works in Ukraine and came for vacation, and going back to Ukraine." When I ask her if he is a Ukrainian, and told her that they don't allow Ukrainian men out of the country, she said he was an American" - to her it was SO romantic. I asked if she realizes that to have Ukraine in NATO is akin for the US it were Mexico in the Warsaw Pact - meaning - never gonna happen. Period. No matter how many Ukrainians would be killed for such a "hallucination" sold by the West. She pretended she understood. She did not.
Russia or china should sink the US navy ships and let the Venezuelan navy take credit with their 1 submarine.
I hope they get wiped out in Iran
I think we all do.
I do, but these people at the very top are part of a club that we are not in. Maybe they already carved out a new world order based on spheres of influence (good luck India) and was we observe is just theatre. It’s a big mess for sure. Either the 8 bilion sheep are right, nothing will happen or those 8 million are in for a rude awakening. I find it all very depressing.
You have to have a scriptural perspective to find the peace which one day will surely come.
Scripture informs us that we do not fight with flesh and blood, but with principalities and powers in high places, and the rulers of darkness in this world.
We have an inkling of what they do because of all the stories about adrenochrome, and the mass kidnapping and murder and abuse of children, and their ceremonies at Bohemian Grove, etc etc.
God is not mocked, and as the Lord Jesus Christ stated, "Blessed are they that do hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled."
The end is coming for these people, but all in God's good time.
Not one will escape, and their end is horrific, as Revelation 14 verses 9 - 11 makes clear.
True.
Most intriguing
The major difference between the US and Russia as you have pointed out, is that the US retains massive deterrence - both real and perceived - against any retaliation or even resistance. Russia on the other hand happily receives envoys from nations that are trying to blow up its petroleum industry and killing her men by the thousands
Yes, Trump is acting as an imperialist. But so what? The Iranians didn't resist. Caracas didn't resist - I mean, handing over Maduro I can understand, but doing a deal with the devil; really? I wouldn't be surprised if Trump sends an expeditionary force into Greenland and just parks them there.
When the world is full of 1) corrupt incompetent dictators 2) HR marm disarmed eurocrats, then somone like Trump looking around and saying "I'll take that" is a natural outcome. Not right or wrong - perhaps even needed medicine
And you think US incurs no long term consequences for these actions? Russia and China are civilizational states which have existed many times longer than the US for a reason.
The US is in terminal decline for its very behavior.
Hardly more laughable than the confiscation of Western Rome.
You offered a petty criticism, then proceeded to ramble off some old news and borderline platitudes. Did you accidentally omit the part that contained unique and valuable insights?
The amount of complacency here is absolutely astonishing.
Wake up, idiots.
What you are watching is the alternative timeline in which Nazi Germany wins the war and takes over the whole world becoming reality.
Yes, it is exactly that. It isn't so openly stated as an intention, but that is the essence of it. The end game here is what was done to the native population of North America (which is the model Hitler wanted to follow) being extended worldwide.
And there is no USSR to resist this time...
*Sigh* Pharaonic Egypt existed as a civilizational state longer than any country in europe.
So what? That didn't work out well. This is dwelling on the past, which is for losers with no future.
Being able to crush your adversaries doesn't ensure civilisational longevity.
Certainly not when you render the planet uninhabitable, which is what is happening right now.
Objectively speaking, taking the history of humanity as a whole, pharaonic Egypt will still have had a vastly superior run.
As always, the rich and powerful will buy the choicest spots on the liferaft.
"Don't Look Up!" was most instructive in that regard.
Anyway, whether Pharonic Egypt did or didn't have a better run is irrelevant. It is gone now, never to come back.
That will help them only for so long.
In "Don't Look Up" type scenario there won't be any economy left and yes, the Yankee Dollar that ain't magical indeed won't be worth shit once the shit actually hits the fan.
And that isn't a situation remotely comparable to the so called "de-dollarisation" we hear about.
Ain't no buying your way out of an extinction event.
Any civilisation is gone once it's gone, without coming back, sure.
But so what?
The current one won't be an exception.
Nothing is forever.
I'd say being able to say that one bad a recent long run in it's time IS the best and perhaps only relevant thing one can say about any civilisation in the end.
The only frame that matters for DC at the moment is whether the empire declines or endures. Their actions, and in fact everything they are doing, are in support of the latter. Whether it works or not is of course up for argument and debate, but this is coherent strategy
Yes, and history will be the final arbiter of whether this plan saved or condemned the US. But many people instinctively feel it is a 'last gasp' act of desperation to save the empire, but is only accelerating its decline.
Well it is a natural consequence of a multipolar world. The U.S. just declared that the Americas are within its sphere of influence, the near abroad if you will. And yes, this means that eventually Russia and China will get what they want.
He's been consistent about the "new" Monroe Doctrine since his second election. He's been consistent about drugs since his first term. I'm not really sure why people are so surprised about all this.
Lol, I think it's something to do with brazenly kidnapping the president of a sovereign country. You think people will just shrug it off and it's business as usual. This is a 911 moment. The world will never be the same.
So when he decides to take Canada because of its oil or whatever 'Trumped' up reason he comes up with in his psychotic mind, that's ok then? That also would not come as a surprise, since he blabbed about it during the Canadian election which was instrumental in getting the Liberals back in power.
It’s the immense hypocrisy that hurts my feeling, but at the same time kills and destroys the lives of millions.
And nobody seems to care
I disagree with you. These people, these politicians, couldn't care less about leaving a mark on history or seizing their place in it. Their one and only goal is to ensure their financial prosperity—with the utmost excess—and that of their family clan and inner circle. Their present gain is all that matters. Would this caste, incapable of spending even an hour with their own degenerate offspring, truly be sensitive to the will of doing good for millions of serfs?
What the US 'intends' is not the question here. It is what the consequences of that intent is that matters - and the consequences of its actions will be its loss of the dollar as the world's reserve currency and the destruction of its hegemony and world resistance grows.
I would disagree - there are lots of things happening now perhaps not militarily, but certainly on the political and monetary side of things all across the world - these are consequences already in progress. The USA is in the same position as the Dutch boy putting his finger in the dike, hoping desperately to stop the leak, only this time the leak is turning into more and more leaks which in spite of his actions keep multiplying.
Hans Brinker - https://c8.alamy.com/comp/2N1R06D/netherlands-statue-of-the-fictional-dike-plugging-boy-hans-brinkerthe-dutch-boy-who-saves-his-country-by-putting-his-finger-in-a-leaking-dike-2N1R06D.jpg
Got any concrete examples? Or just far-fetched analogies and more magical thinking.
The whole reserve currency stupidity is exactly as you said -- magical thinking.
I keep asking this question -- on what timeline is that going to happen and how is it going to stop the bombing of Russia, Iran and all the other countries on the menu?
Of course nobody can provide a meaningful answer. Because there isn't any.
And nobody wants to understand the fundamental truths:
1) The financial system is imposed through the barrel of a gun, not the other way around.
2) Actual military strength = firepower x positioning x resolve
If the resolve factor is zero, as it is for China and Russia, then you have no military strength, and if you have allowed yourself to be encircled with pre-positioned enemy assets (because there was no resolve to preempt and prevent that), you are in an even worse situation.
Iran fought back at least a little bit, but not enough, and now it will be hit again, much worse, because it refuses to strike pre-emptively. Russia and China aren't doing even that, and once they lose Iran, they will be fully encircled and finished off too.
On the subject of 'Magical Thinking", to paraphrase; its logistics, stupid!:
https://patrickarmstrong.ca/2025/03/03/an-idiots-guide-to-war/
"In January (2025) the current NATO GenSek told us “When you look what Russia is producing now in three months, it’s what all of NATO is producing from Los Angeles up to Ankara in a full year“. Russia is four-to-one against the whole enemy coalition.
It’s production, not money. You don’t fight wars by firing bundles of dollars at the enemy........
.....There is nothing that money can do to remedy the four-to-one ratio except with a lot of investment in production over a long time.
Thanks to offshoring manufacturing, the Western industrial base mostly has to be built from the ground up. Is that even possible?
If you think about it, an apprentice machinist on an assembly line fifty years ago was being taught how to do it by a master machinist who had been taught by a previous master and so on back to the middle of the 1700s when industrial production was invented.
Each in the series advanced the technique, of course, but it’s still a chain you could trace back, machinist by machinist, for all that time. If that sequence of teacher-learner-teacher is broken, if the teacher has retired or died leaving no apprentices, how long will it take to get it back? Putting a pallet of engraved paper in the floor of an empty building and hoping it will turn into a pallet of artillery rounds [or anything else for that matter] is magic thinking."
All the [checks notes] 'resolve' in the world will get you nowhere if you don't have the firepower wherewithal due to half a century of deindustrialisation which replaced a value producing industrialised economic paradigm with a fiancialised one based on unproductive valueless rent seeking.
Just how did all those [checks notes again] "wonder weapons" fare in terms of firepower efficacy in Ukraine?
One of the key problems which keeps cropping up is that of Western mindset being projected onto the rest of the world on the basis that not only is the way the West thinks the only valid way, but is, by definition, also universal human nature to boot.
This ethnocentric biggest, baddest, bestest approach is no different to that of Borrell's 'Garden/Jungle' metaphor and its mindset. It's simplistic notions have proven to have no real world efficacy. There is more than one way to skin a rabbit as Russia and China are demonstrating for those who can see further than their nose.
Magical = wishful?
In the short term, everyone seems too stunned and scared to resist. However, in the long term - if we have one - more and more countries are going to choose BRICS.
"There's a lot of magical thinking going on. " Most of the commentary here is magical thinking.
Medici cura ti ipsum.
Time for Brazil to stand up. I'm sure Lula vetoing Venezuela's BRICS membership didn't help.
The Empire/DC/the Oligarchs "endure" nothing. They sow chaos, confusion, cruelty and destruction at a dizzying speed and then rape and plunder as the world tries to figure out their so called "strategy." All the while it is reaping staggering profits in weapons, oil and resources and growing billionaires and trillionaires by the day. It is it's victims that endlessly live in fear and suffer and endure. The real question is for how long will the greater world endure this? What we are seeing are indeed acts of desperation and despair.
These actions are in the hopes of saving the empire.
But there are factors that are working against it and these headwinds will ultimately overpower any actions to stave off the collapse of the empire.
You see, unlike during the Cold War, the USD dominance is currently not based on anything other than momentum and US perceived military power. Venezuela is a battle they can win. But let’s be clear here: it wasn’t military might that won this battle, it was the infinite USD they can print and the residual effect of US sanctions on the country.
The cost of blockading Venezuela is enormous compared to the value that is derived from it. This will not work with a cohesive country that has alternatives and ready to fight back.
Here’s what I’m trying to say, once the US picks a fight it can’t win (arguably it already did with Russia) or one that costs it too much in machines and men (not paper dollars) … it’s over. The real state of US power will be clear for everyone to see, and so the only remaining leg is kicked out and the USD will fall. With it, the empire.
I’m pretty comfortable saying this because it is inevitable and knowing it won’t change a thing. Yes, all paths will ultimately lead to it. Put simply, nothing they do can save the empire. It is not a matter of if, but when.
By the way, I actually like Trump. I think he’s doing a fantastic job and I hope he does even more of what he’s doing. Unbeknownst to him, he is being used for the good of the world (and eventually for the US - but not the way he thinks he is).
(This fits perfectly into historical cycles both past and future, and we still have a couple more to go through … but that’s a whole topic for another day).
You are still an optimist.
@Simplicius thank you, both for this comment and for all the work you do.
"And you think US incurs no long term consequences for these actions?"
Nope.
"The US is in terminal decline for its very behavior."
Treasury yields signal no such thing. For that matter, we keep hearing here about how the US achieves its methods through bribery. Apparently the recipients of those bribes didn't get the memo.
It seems the plot is thickening. Iraq, Iran, Russia, Venezuela and Nigeria have major oil reserves so their evil ways had to be corrected. And now President Trump is forced to scrape the bottom of the barrel, Colombia with smaller oil deposits. His only excuse is that the Colombians are the largest producers of White Gold, Cocaine but the American upper classes will pay real gold for that.
No, the point is to remind Colombia that they only have as much sovereignty as the United States allows them.
We will see, said the blind kitten.
If anything Colombia is an even easier target than Venezuela, as the Colombian security services are an American creature, and the Americans have doubtless maintained ties.
If Maduro was illegitimately elected, then Delcy Rodriguez was as well.
Qatar? How can you believe it? Most likely maduro was captured while US was negotiating with dela Cruz ( after giving assurance that we won't attack till negotiations are over blah blah)
Ye Gods...Look out below...next, Trump will be talking about Australia being a natural US possession.....
Pyrrhus,
We don't have enough oil , we already lick the American boot and we are too far away.
But you do have loads of uranium, coal and minerals - a tasty delight for American elites.
And ports and airfields underneath China.
Yes, very important from a geopolitical view.
Isn't Australia the 73rd state?
😂🤣😂
Dunno, I lost count lol
Ports are vital infrastructure for non existent AUKUS submarines.
😂😂
Fortunately there are a lot of vassals between us and them . Japan and the Philippines , and South Korea if it isn't demolished by the north . China will only fight if it has to - they know the price that they will have to pay and would rather trade for anything that they need . Much cheaper in blood and treasure .
So is Japan, South Korea and Phillipines. Far away.
It's well known that Australia stole the US's kangaroo population, so Trump should definitely launch a decapitation raid into Canberra.
Celebratory demonstrations are being organized as we speak.
how funny...
It's what we do.
Tim,
I can see the headlines - Trump demolishes Canberra to erect a new Trump tower and casino .
It will be of purest gold, with a reception area manned day and night by Australia's new Governor General, Jared Kushner, and his lovely wife Ivanka.
Ancillary staff will all be from Palestine.
Well, since the British Empire (by any other name) seems to still be in power via it's bankers and its mercenary proxy the USA (the Revolution being another outstanding performance), Australia might well be considered the Empire's natural possession.
It's possibly little known that the Brits stayed in North America for eight years after their supposed military defeat - one has to wonder why, therefore.
( Was this their first iteration of the plan they are yet again rolling out in Venezuela; ie "You step down, and we will install another puppet exactly the same as you but with a different face"? )
Presumably, so a franchise operation could be set up, speaking yanqui rather than yiddish.
Note that Mr Elder Bush went to London whilst president of the Yoonited States of Amerikka and knelt before the Queen to receive a knighthood for services rendered - an act of High Treason if y'all swallow the accepted narrative.
Oz not being below, of course, but part of our home, the flat earth.
The deceptions run deep and wide.
History never repeats but it rhymes. WW 2 established the USSR as a major military force to counter balance the US. Though both nations fought as allies during the conflict. What followed was the Korean war, with Korea supported by the USSR and a weakened China. Then the Vietnam war again with the same support. It must be considered with all the speculation the US does not militarily control Venuzuela. The similarities between Venuzuela and Vietnam are glaring but much bigger and with Colombia and Brazil being much bigger and more powerful than Cambodia and Laos. At the end of WW2 US could claim victory, at the end of the Ukraine conflict can they claim the same? China is not weak as they are not coming out of a civil war or Japanese invasion. Interesting days ahead as the US attempts to pacify a region that is not eager for their return.
Well consequences don't concern themselves, with excuses justification or narratives based on wishful thinking.