Trump makes large strike on Venezuela and captures president

[just-jim]

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Senator Cory Booker's statement on Trump's actions in Venezuela is spot on!

"Today, many leaders will rightly condemn President Donald Trump’s unlawful and unjust actions in Venezuela, and I join them.
But just as glaring, and far more damning, is Congress’ ongoing abdication of its constitutional duty. For almost a year now, the legislative branch has failed to check a president who repeatedly violates his oath, disregards the law, and endangers American interests at home and abroad.
Time and again, Congress, now led by Republicans, has chosen spineless complicity over its sworn responsibilities. From the reckless leaking of classified information that put American troops at risk, to the illegal use of military force destroying vessels and killing people in the Caribbean and the Pacific without congressional authorization, there has been a stunning absence of accountability.
No hearings.
No serious investigations.
No enforcement of checks and balances.
No accountability.
Again and again, the president has exceeded his authority, defied congressional intent, trampled the separation of powers, and broken the law - while Congress looked away in cowardice and submission.
Republicans in Congress own this corrosive collapse of our constitutional order. With only a handful of honorable exceptions, they have bent themselves to the will of Donald Trump, afraid to state in public the feelings they often communicate privately. That submission, this abandonment of independent judgment and constitutional courage, now stands as one of the greatest dangers to our nation and to the global order America claims to defend.
Nicolás Maduro is a brutal dictator who has committed grave abuses. The United States military remains the most capable fighting force on Earth, and our praiseworthy service members carry out their orders with professionalism and excellence.
But none of that suspends the Constitution.
The Constitution is unambiguous: Congress has the power and responsibility to authorize the use of military force and declare war. Congress has a duty of oversight. Congress must serve as a check, not a rubber stamp, to the President. On this count, Congress has failed.
We face an authoritarian-minded president who acts with dangerous growing impunity. He has shown a willingness to defy court orders, violate the law, ignore congressional intent, and shred basic norms of decency and democracy. This pattern will continue unless the Article I branch of government, especially Republican congressional leadership, finds the courage to act.
They must stop behaving as partisan puppets and start acting as patriotic constitutional stewards.
What happened today is wrong. Congressional Republicans would say so immediately if a Democratic president had done the same. Their silence is surrender. And in that surrender lie the seeds of our democratic unraveling.
There are still three years left in this administration. From the pardoning of individuals who violently attacked police officers while attempting to overturn our election to this latest extrajudicial assault on another nation’s sovereignty, the damage will continue unless it is confronted.
Enough is enough."
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[just-jim]

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I spoke today with a friend who has travelled a few times to Venezuela on business.
This morning, he said he called a friend and business contact in Caracas - and asked him ‘So, what do you think about what tRump did last night?’.

His friend said; ‘he should have killed Maduro - you have to cut off the head of the snake’.

My friend’s contact is an educated, upper-middle class professional.

I cant support what GUILTY, FELON donnie did…but I do have to wonder if this view-point is common among Venezuelans?
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[mister_coffee]

There are ninety million people in Venezuela. Hard to imagine that all of them will be okay with what's happened. Even if 90 percent of them are that's ten million pissed off people.

And we've learned that oil-production infrastructure is notoriously hard to secure and easy to vandalize. Their infra is also badly out of date and poorly maintained, so that makes the problem even worse. Even though at the moment Venezuela is a relatively minor player in the world oil market (less than 1 million bpd) a disruption is a disruption, and we've learned that even small production hiccups can lead to huge swings in prices.

In the meantime, Iran looks like it is collapsing and Ukraine continues to plink away at Russia's oil infrastructure.

What could possibly go wrong?

[Rideback]

Rubio seems to think Cuba is up next and Mike Huckabee predicts Iran after that

[mister_coffee]

"A clan of pedophiles wants to destroy our democracy. To keep Epstein’s list from coming out, they send warships to kill fishermen & threaten our neighbor with invasion for their oil." — Colombian President Gustavo Petro

[PAL]

While we're at it, get Putin. Then we can rule Russia and Ukraine too!
Oh, and who was that druggy guy that Trump pardoned that was in charge of a country. The list of indictments on Maduro(who is a bad dude) seems to match the guy who Trump pardoned.
From an article: Not my words.

BREAKING: Attorney General Pam Bondi unveils the "indictments" against Venezuelan President President Nicolás Maduro and they're even more insane than experts predicted.

"Nicolas Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, have been indicted in the Southern District of New York. Nicolas Maduro has been charged with Narco-Terrorism Conspiracy, Cocaine Importation Conspiracy, Possession of Machineguns and Destructive Devices, and Conspiracy to Possess Machineguns and Destructive Devices against the United States," Bondi wrote on X.
"They will soon face the full wrath of American justice on American soil in American courts," she continued. "On behalf of the entire U.S. DOJ, I would like to thank President Trump for having the courage to demand accountability on behalf of the American People, and a huge thank you to our brave military who conducted the incredible and highly successful mission to capture these two alleged international narco traffickers."
To point out the incredibly obvious: it's not illegal for Maduro to possess a machine gun. He's the president of a sovereign nation with a standing military. Him having a weapon on Venezuelan territory is not a violation of U.S. nor Venezuelan law.
And of course, the American special forces operators who captured Maduro were carrying machine guns. Apparently, that's totally fine and legal according to the upside down fascist logic of this White House. Laws only apply to political enemies of MAGA, never to enforcers of the regime.
The absurdity of the machine gun charges underlines just what a farce this entire operation is. The allegations that Maduro was running a narco-trafficking empire are equally fabricated. This is is about seizing Venezuela's oil and rare earth minerals.
America, a country awash in guns that can't seem to make it through a week without another mass shooting, just invaded another country, kidnapped their leader, and is now attempting to try and imprison him for gun charges. Imagine how knuckle-draggingly gullible you'd have to be to buy into any of this.

[Rideback]

"Fox News: "What do you think is next for the Venezuelan people now that you have removed Maduro?"
Trump (via phone): "We can't take a chance of letting someone run it and just take over where he left off...We'll be involved in it very much."

[Rideback]

and his wife and flies them out of the country.
https://apnews.com/live/trump-us-venezu ... 01-03-2026