Venezuela

Acknowledging what continent we are on and that we fall if the EU falls would be a start. There have been too many people thinking that if we shove our heads far enough up America’s arse and piss the EU off as much as possible, the US will let us sit on its knee and it will feed and pet us.

All of these power moves are so grim and so anti progressive, so anti democratic. So against basic human rights. It’s seriously affecting all of our futures. Wherever we live.

How can normal everyday people respond to this? I look back at the stability and democracy we’ve enjoyed in the West and see us going backwards into a pre- the two WWs carve up of major global powers and individual states and populations, reducing whole countries to being modern day serfs. I don’t know how we stop it, and if we can’t stop it, how we live with it.?

@Walkaround I agree with you on China having more focussed long term plans. They've 'leased' the pitch lake in Trinidad for 100 years in a secret deal with the corrupt TT government. They have been funding infrastructure and provided loans to several Caribbean/South American nations. They are quietly going about their business - they're the main buyer of oil from Brasil. Meanwhile the US is bringing instability to the region.
Which would people choose to be operating in their country?

😂The triumph of hope over experience. What the US has an excellent track record in is creating or exacerbating instability in a region, creating power vacuums subsequently filled by terrorists, and carving up the oil fields of other countries to share out amongst its own oil companies, to ensure the profits are siphoned off to the US at the expense of the country of origin.

As for backyards - according to the US, Greenland is America’s backyard, not Europe’s; it doesn’t need to be friendly with Europe, because it doesn’t need Europe, just Greenland, which it would frankly rather just take off Europe than have to arse about pretending to be “friends” with the waste of space of a continent; and Ukraine is Russia’s backyard, so it’s only fair to let Russia have it, really, as it’s of no particular use to the US.

When it comes to a choice between the US, Russia and China as choices of undesirable dictators over spheres of influence, Russia and the US are just the mafia, thriving on crime and instability, and on wrong-footing and bullying their victims - not for the benefit if their own populations, but for the self-aggrandisement of their leaders. China has more consistent long-term, ruthless logic and is better run. At this rate, it won’t be long before the US doesn’t actually look much different from the corrupt, crime-ridden South American countries around it. If I were an Asian country with a foot in both camps (China and US), I would not be betting on the US, which apparently no longer feels the need to have any friends in the world to back it up, and can’t be trusted on anything.

And there's this.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/jan/07/caracas-venezuela-paramilitary-groups

Venezuela is a pawn in a US geopolitical game and FDI is not going to happen soon, especially now that Trump has announced that HE will be controlling the revenue from oil, and assuming he gets first dibs on the first 30 to 50 millions barrels produced.
Decisions to commit investment in O&G projects are taken years in advance. As companies have to make annual profits for their investors, they will choose the most cost effective relative to the projected direction of oil prices. It might be better to invest in eg Vietnam or Nigeria rather than risk the political uncertainty in VZ.
This is the beginning of a long hard slog for the people of VZ, only this time under Trump's thumb. ¡Viva la democracia!

https://www.thetimes.com/comment/columnists/article/putin-maduro-loss-venezuela-sv3gld7f0

Who was going to do it? They voted him out twice, he has people disappeared all the time, 7 million people fled the country, people were eating their pets.

I don’t like Trump, I don’t think this is a good way for a country to behave. BUT Venezuelans are celebrating. I read an article in the Times interviewing Venezuelans in the UK feeling like they are being bullied by people who thought they shouldn’t be celebrating. I think it’s ignorant to tell these people they should be protesting against Maduros removal. A lot of them are really confused and upset by the response they are seeing. Someone started a thread explaining that as a Venuzelean and she got sneering responses. They know what Trump is, they aren’t stupid, they just don’t think he’s going to be sending hit squads to their homes. The fact that they are only producing at 20% of capacity and have decript infrastructure means that Venuezual is about it get a massive injection of FDI. For a population that is starving this is good news.

Also what bloody rules, when have any of the great powers played by the rules. China isn’t not invading Taiwan because it doesn’t want to break the rules, it hasn’t done it yet because it fears a response from the USA. Thats it. Putin invaded Georgia 2008, we wrung our hands for a bit, invaded Crimea, now invaded Ukraine. What international rules based order are we talking about!?

USA doesn’t even need this oil, I actually don’t think it’s about oil at all, I think this is about Russia, China and Iran, thats why he started banging on about Greenland immediately after. Evicting those 3 from south america is probably high up on security list. If the Iranian regime collapses hezbollahs south american drug production also collapses.

This could genuinely change everything.

Trump gets Greenland on a plate, or Russia gets Ukraine on a plate. Or both. Choices, choices. The US is Europe’s enemy. It doesn’t want to work with the EU, it wants to take what is useful to it and piss on the rest.

I clipped this from Sky news UK.

So he is taking personal charge of the oil, for the benefit of the people of VZ and the US.

Again, Trump is behaving as if he is in charge of a socialist style command economy, with US industry at his beck and call, for the benefit of the people.

So much for the free market that his Trumpsters bang on about. The GOP, the party of small government and free enterprise, sitting zip lipped, while their dear leader uses their countries military and private industry as his own playthings to use on a socialist style crusade.

Other reports say that it is only Chevron who are interested in VZ oil, because they are already there and already ship it. But hey, Trump is ignoring the free market, he is going to haul the oil execs in and DEMAND they use the oil. For the benefit of the people of course.

In many ways, I reckon, Trump is more like Mao than Uncle Xi is.

Incidentilly, Mao never delivered the healthcare to the people as he promised in the 1930's. Same as how Americans are still waiting for the fantastic plan Trump promised "in 2 weeks", back in 2017 or so.

And remember, when Chavez, an actual socialist, nationalized VZ oil back in 2007, that was also "for the benefit of the people".

Is it worth mentioning that the new Prez of VZ is saying no, while Vance, the obedient upholder of Trumps cult of personality is saying the VZ government mean the exact opposite of what they are saying? That all is great, dear leader will deliver.

US discussing "range of options" to acquire Greenland including use of military, White House says.

BBC Breaking News

I am surprised there hasn't been more of an uproar in the US, Trumps behaviour goes against everything, they stand for. Its time the UK and Europe started moving away from the US. As it stands Europe are powerless, if Trump takes Greenland there is nothing Europe can do, America has the upper hand, we rely on it for technology, military might and economics. The US has troops and weapons positioned across Europe.

Greenland is in NATO. Ukraine isn’t.

I agree we probably should have sent some troops to Ukraine....although starting WW3 with the USA over Greenland seems like madness to me.

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Just curious…we would we save Greenland from the US, when we won’t save Ukraine from Russia?

It’s always annoyed the Americans that Cuba turned their backs on them. They’ve tried to starve them for decades and want to take it back to return to the days when it was America’s playground.

Why does Trump want Cuba? Do they have crude oil too?

It was in praise of Trump!

@dwordle I agree with this post. Tbf the EU has responded to NATO comments from US with 600bn euro bump. They know it’s not been a priority for a while.

I’m no monarchist by any stretch of the imagination but Charles and William have the ear of Trump and all reasonably minded nations want to make use of that. To describe it as a ‘nauseating love-in’ is unfair and inaccurate.

Europe cannot stand up to the USA right now. No chance.

Germany is rebuilding their army. We should rebuild our navy.