Anyone watching Trump talk about invading Venezuela?

[mumofoneAloneandwell]

wow

no words

It doesn't matter whether it's a desire to make Venezuela better than the previous era. The only thing that matters if if it DOES make Venezuela better than the previous era.

🤣Yeah, the US is creating a better era for Venezuela and the entire world. And there goes the flying pig.

Yeah, I'm sure this will make Venezuela better. He's so selfless

PBS News: The Trump administration plans to put money raised from seizure of Venezuelan oil into bank accounts outside the U.S. Treasury -- they told lawmakers today per multiple sources familiar. Sources said they understood these as similar or decidedly "off-shore" accounts.

Ah - personal enrichment for America’s crimelords, Don Trumpeoni and co.

The previous era is a very low bar. Yet I doubt that the new era will surpass it.

https://www.standard.co.uk/news/world/venezuelans-in-london-nicolas-maduro-capture-b1265409.html

@oldtiredcyclist
Feel free to enlighten us where the state oil money goes? The levels of poverty in the country since the regime took over and which countries and whom are benefitting from the national resources?

Up until 2019, Venezuela owned the Citgo gasoline company, which accounted for most of its revenue, then the US sanctioned Venezuela preventing them from taking any profits from Citgo. The Venezuelan economy relies heavily on the export of petroleum, so the sanctions for the past six years have really hurt the Venezuelan economy.

www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world/political-prisoners-are-being-freed-from-a-brutal-jail-in-caracas-this-is-significant/ar-AA1TR33D

https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/businessreview/2026/01/07/venezuelas-economy-under-maduro-and-what-happens-now-he-has-gone/

No one said the bit in brackets other than you. I am not taking the Israeli ex minister's side either. In fact I completely disagree with the Israeli ex minister's wholehearted support of what happened on 3rd January.

You seem very invested and it seems very genuine though. Are you Ukrainian and huge fan of Zelensky?

No, I'm not Ukrainian.

I just happen to disagree with fascist dictators who break international laws. I don't care if those fascist dictators are Russian or American.

You disagree with world leaders who you think act as dictators - i get that - but do you disagree with the business people who put pressure on world leaders to act in a certain way too?

Do you know much about Ukrainian history - for example,what percentage of Ukrainians voted to leave the Soviet Union in the 1989?

You're not arguing in good faith.

I am not arguing at all and everything I say is in good faith, I can assure you. I asked if you knew what percentage of Ukrainians voted to leave Soviet Union. Without looking it up, it was around 80 - 90 percent, is that right? At that time, between 40 - 60 percent were ethnic Russian, or Russian was their first language, they were following Russian culture. And yet at that time they and ethnic Ukrainians voted together in mass in favour of leaving the Soviet Union - yes? So the huge divisions you see today, the hatred, did not exist at that time - otherwise there is no way they would have voted together to leave. Do you agree and if so, do you think that ethnic Russians and Ukrainians will ever live in peace again?

I might be wrong but I think that Citgo was recently bought by Amber Energy, which is owned by Elliot Management ie Paul Singer? Wiki describes Singer as:

Paul Elliott Singer (born August 22, 1944) is an American hedge fund manager, activist investor, and the founder, president, and co-CEO of Elliott Management.As of September 2025, Forbes estimated his net worth at US$6.7 billion. Fortune described Singer as one of the "smartest and toughest money managers" in the hedge fund industry. A number of sources have branded him a vulture capitalist, largely on account of his role at Elliott Management, which is a vulture fund. The Independent has described him as "a pioneer in the business of buying up sovereign bonds on the cheap, and then going after countries for unpaid debts".
Singer's Elliott Management has focused on activist campaigns, in which they take an equity stake in a company and agitate using influence and voting rights to encourage change, and they have also expanded into private equity. Singer's political activities include financial support for LGBTQ rights. He has provided funding to the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research, is a strong opponent of raising taxes for the wealthiest 1 percent of taxpayers, such as himself, and opposes aspects of the Dodd-Frank Act. Singer is active in Republican Party politics, and he and others affiliated with Elliott Management are collectively "the top source of contributions" to the National Republican Senatorial Committee.

According to another source he provides funding to Trump - that would have to be fact checked.

@dottiehens also, Hegseth made an announcement that until Venezuela returns stolen assets to the US, tankers would continue to be hauled in. Do you know much about that?

Do you think that sanctions is a good way to assert strength? Or do they harm too many normal people? Do you think that instead of sanctions and forced regime change, providing assistance to people in poorer countries is a good way to ensure strong independent economic partners while also allowing them autonomy?

People commenting on US actions in the last week or so point out that China is currently the leading global trading partner to Greenland and almost all of south america - and in fact most of the globe - if this is right (I haven't fact checked) then this might also be a reason why the US is taking the stance they are taking, commentators say. What do you think?

Lindsey Graham of the US has been strongly supporting Trump over Venezuela, tankers and Greenland. I remember Lindsey Graham also used to talk about the 13trillion worth of untapped minerals in Ukraine, and he is currently supporting attempting regime change in Iran. He is very active in geopolitics. What do you think?

Netanyahu has also been supportive in relation to Venezuela, comparing Venezuela with Hamas apparently - I can't find the link, but you may have seen this too. You have shown that you have a lot of knowledge about all this, what do you think of these comments from a geopolitical point of view?

Regime change generally doesn't, though, if you think about most examples from the last 50 years or so. I might be being a dunce here, but what regime change were you thinking about in the last 50 years or so which has brought about positive change to the benefitting country and the world?

Wow so many badly worded questions designed to draw people in to rabbit holes.

Have you considered working for one of these bot farms, they might be able to help you hone your attempts?

I would stay away from AI in the meantime.

Perhaps you could start a thread and ask these wide ranging questions as a general intro- chat is a good place for that.

Do you think AI specialises in "badly worded questions designed to draw people into rabbit holes"?

You know that Zelensky is an ethnic Russian? Even those who were fairly pro-Russian before 2014 changed their minds following that invasion.

I did know that - I think I read that he started to learn Ukrainian at the time he ran for President, is that right? Or it might have been before that, but basically he learned Ukrainian as an adult, his first language is Russian?

So are you agreeing with what I said about the end of the 1980s, that at that time the huge issues between pro Russians and pro Ukrainians didn't exist? And you are saying that you think it was 2014 which changed everything?

2014 was the point at which many ethnic Russians went "wait, I thought that I wanted to be part of Russia, but I'd rather be Ukrainian than under Putin's jackboot".

What makes you say that? I have watched the BBC Newsnights reports from the time but I don't remember seeing that. Though I might have missed it, I watched them a while ago. 2014 was when Donbas, which was predominantly ethnic Russian, asked for more autonomy over language and self governance (which went down like a lead balloon) I thought.

The movement away from use of the Russian language was started by the Orange Revolution in around 2004 so ten years earlier? I am not sure if it was funded by the US (or via the US) but at the time there was a LOT of investment into Ukraine generally by the EU and US. They were very keen to be exclusive trading partners with Ukraine. And I think that the EU agreement started being negotiated in 2007 and was then signed in 2014.

Welcome to mnet ayearoflivingamorously.

If you are interested in discussion around Ukraine, there are 59 threads you could read to gain an insight from some very knowledgeable sources.

I suggest you start at thread 1 so you can join in the discussion informed.