Not drugs, not oil, not democracy…hello Cuba!

cbbass1 said:

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concordtom said:

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Aunburdened said:

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dajo9 said:

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Cal88 said:

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The MIC is bigger than POTUS.

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lol. Trump is never to blame for his failures that those who opposed him predicted. There was never a chance that a man of Trump's poor character was going to have access to the U.S. military for 8 years and not use it.

The war on Venezuela and the internal war on Americans who oppose Trump - all of which people like Minot voted for - will proceed.

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This is hilarious coming from someone who full-throatily supported Biden's failed proxy war on Russia.

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Giving weapons to a country which seeks only to defend itself from an invading force is NOT a proxy war.

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OK, so what was the purpose of building, arming, and training a fighting force of over 600,000 Ukrainian troops, BEFORE Russia's attack?

Their purpose was to "re-take" the independent oblasts of Donetsk & Luhanks, and to cleanse the Donbass of ethnic Russians.

And once their mission was accomplished, they were going to invade Russia.

I don't see where this Russian aggression is coming from. It's a projection from the real aggressor -- the U.S.

In December, Putin approached the U.S. & NATO to work out a security arrangement between NATO & Russia that would avoid having Ukraine join NATO (which would immediately result in U.S./NATO bases & missile installations on Russia's border). The U.S. & NATO refused to talk, and continued building the Ukrainian army.

In 2022, it was the U.S. & NATO who refused to engage in diplomacy, and insisted on armed conflict.

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Delusional.

cal83dls79 said:

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https://www.foxbusiness.com/politics/trump-may-keep-exxonmobil-out-venezuela-after-ceo-comments-i-didnt-like-response

CEO had audacity to call out risks of doing business in Venezuala and it maddened Trump. CEO's need to fall in line or else.

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The CEO kept himself out of Venezuela. When you tell the president it won't work...you just said "My company can't do business here." Ok, fine, somebody else will.

MinotStateBeav said:

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cal83dls79 said:

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https://www.foxbusiness.com/politics/trump-may-keep-exxonmobil-out-venezuela-after-ceo-comments-i-didnt-like-response

CEO had audacity to call out risks of doing business in Venezuala and it maddened Trump. CEO's need to fall in line or else.

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The CEO kept himself out of Venezuela. When you tell the president it won't work...you just said "My company can't do business here." Ok, fine, somebody else will.

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he's smart for not wanting to lose money and warning the president of the risks.

Bring in the wildcats.

cal83dls79 said:

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MinotStateBeav said:

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cal83dls79 said:

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https://www.foxbusiness.com/politics/trump-may-keep-exxonmobil-out-venezuela-after-ceo-comments-i-didnt-like-response

CEO had audacity to call out risks of doing business in Venezuala and it maddened Trump. CEO's need to fall in line or else.

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The CEO kept himself out of Venezuela. When you tell the president it won't work...you just said "My company can't do business here." Ok, fine, somebody else will.

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he's smart for not wanting to lose money and warning the president of the risks.

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EXACTLY.

No one in their right mind is going to invest $20 Billion just to produce 500,000 barrels of oil per day, and then pay royalties. Especially in a place with no stable government. No one.

Exxon has already tried twice in Venezuela and been burned.
No mas.

They have plenty of less risky and highly profitable properties they can invest in.
Like Guyana.

Trump Oil. They could put a hotel on top of the oil rig w fishing piers.

You can't invest into multibillion infrastructure and multidecade projects in a potential warzone and insecure country. All that the Chavista militants would have to do is capture a couple of American engineers or lob a few drones at the refineries and the whole project would be on the ropes.

cal83dls79 said:

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https://www.foxbusiness.com/politics/trump-may-keep-exxonmobil-out-venezuela-after-ceo-comments-i-didnt-like-response

CEO had audacity to call out risks of doing business in Venezuala and it maddened Trump. CEO's need to fall in line or else.

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State Dept just urged all U.S. citizens to get out of Venezuela. The Colectivos are rounding up the Americans, and will presumably hold them for ransom in USD.

The oil CEOs know that this is a fool's errand. There's no guarantee of security.

cbbass1 said:

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cal83dls79 said:

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https://www.foxbusiness.com/politics/trump-may-keep-exxonmobil-out-venezuela-after-ceo-comments-i-didnt-like-response

CEO had audacity to call out risks of doing business in Venezuala and it maddened Trump. CEO's need to fall in line or else.

---

State Dept just urged all U.S. citizens to get out of Venezuela. The Colectivos are rounding up the Americans, and will presumably hold them for ransom in USD.

The oil CEOs know that this is a fool's errand. There's no guarantee of security.

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It's also a statement of how much they trust Trump

Sorry you can’t afford healthcare we had to spend at least $10 million on the Havana syndrome ray gun https://t.co/Cdpus7LrvE

— Ken Klippenstein (NSPM-7 Compliant) (@kenklippenstein) January 13, 2026

PAC-10-BEAR said:

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sycasey said:

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BearlySane88 said:

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sycasey said:

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MinotStateBeav said:

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They did what they did so there isn't a power vacuum. That doesn't mean the internal issues within the country get instantly fixed. They need to have an election that the people will choose who their leader is. But Trump learned what NOT to do, like we did in Iraq and Afghanistan.

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I'm sure the other members of Maduro's government who were left in charge will get right on it with having a free and fair election.

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After seeing what Trump did to capture Maduro, they would be stupid to think they can get away with not having fair elections.

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I'm not convinced the Trump Administration cares about this.

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Whether the Trump admin "cares" or not, political distrust and instability would only cause the same problems to continue and make Venezuela vulnerable to Russian and Chinese influences.

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IF Trump & Rubio & the U.S. are concerned about the influence of China & Russia in the area, they should start by being a better friend & neighbor. That would include respecting Venezuela's sovereignty, ending the sanctions, ending all efforts to subvert the Maduro regime, and to have the U.S. oil companies commit to complying with any & all Venezuelan environmental laws & labor laws, and to agree to an equitable revenue share (i.e., taxes) with the Maduro regime.

Then have billionaire oligarch Paul Singer give all the U.S. assets of Citgo -- stolen from Venezuela -- back to Venezuela.
https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2026/01/trump-venezuela-oil-maduro-billionaire-paul-singer-citgo-elliot-management-hedge-fund/

License the Chevron & Exxon oil production IP to Citgo, and restore Citgo as Venezuela's national oil company.

And give Venezuela their stolen gold reserves back.


China and Russia respect the sovereignty of their fellow neighbors. The U.S. has ZERO respect for the sovereignty of nations, and feels entitled to change the leaders of other nations like most people change their socks.

The U.S., along with the Brits & all colonial empires before, can't tolerate leaders who want their own people to benefit from their nation's resources, and want their own people to prosper. The U.S. & Brits want their colonies to be poor, and unable to resist the theft of their resources.

China & Russia are shifting to a different model; China's Belt And Road Initiative is designed to invest in developing nations (like Venezuela), while respecting their sovereignty, and developing mutually-beneficial trade relationships (rather than extractive/exploitative). Russia, and the rest of the BRICS nations, are committed to this kind of investment partnership arrangement, as opposed to U.S. bullying.

The U.S. will most likely threaten China & Russia from having a presence in Central & S America -- like a jealous & abusive husband who glares at & charges at any other man who looks at his hot wife, knowing that any of these other men would treat her *infinitely* better than he does!

All of this is to distract us from the collapse of the USD. Watch the silver!

You should post here more often.

sycasey said:

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cbbass1 said:

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concordtom said:

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Aunburdened said:

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dajo9 said:

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Cal88 said:

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The MIC is bigger than POTUS.

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lol. Trump is never to blame for his failures that those who opposed him predicted. There was never a chance that a man of Trump's poor character was going to have access to the U.S. military for 8 years and not use it.

The war on Venezuela and the internal war on Americans who oppose Trump - all of which people like Minot voted for - will proceed.

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This is hilarious coming from someone who full-throatily supported Biden's failed proxy war on Russia.

---

Giving weapons to a country which seeks only to defend itself from an invading force is NOT a proxy war.

---

OK, so what was the purpose of building, arming, and training a fighting force of over 600,000 Ukrainian troops, BEFORE Russia's attack?

Their purpose was to "re-take" the independent oblasts of Donetsk & Luhanks, and to cleanse the Donbass of ethnic Russians.

And once their mission was accomplished, they were going to invade Russia.

I don't see where this Russian aggression is coming from. It's a projection from the real aggressor -- the U.S.

In December, Putin approached the U.S. & NATO to work out a security arrangement between NATO & Russia that would avoid having Ukraine join NATO (which would immediately result in U.S./NATO bases & missile installations on Russia's border). The U.S. & NATO refused to talk, and continued building the Ukrainian army.

In 2022, it was the U.S. & NATO who refused to engage in diplomacy, and insisted on armed conflict.

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Delusional.

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Oh? Wasn't it the U.S. who initiated, managed, & funded the 'regime change' coup to oust Ukraine's democratically-elected President?

When Ukraine & the former Soviet republics were established in 1991, their Constitutions required that they had to be neutral, and not a part of any military alliances (like NATO or the Warsaw Pact).

The U.S. NeoCons were unified in their intention to destroy the old Soviet Union in the early 1990s. They wanted to bring Ukraine & Georgia into NATO, and prevent Russia from creating an empire from the old Soviet republics.

The following quotes are from Zbignew Brzezinski's book, "The Grand Chessboard" (published 1997):

For America, the chief geopolitical prize is Eurasia.

• Chapter 2, The Eurasian Chessboard, p. 30.

Fortunately for America, Eurasia is too big to be politically one. Eurasia is thus the chessboard on which the struggle for global primacy continues to be played.

• Chapter 2, The Eurasian Chessboard, p. 31.

It is also a fact that America is too democratic at home to be autocratic abroad. This limits the use of America's power, especially its capacity for military intimidation. Never before has a populist democracy attained international supremacy. But the pursuit of power is not a goal that commands popular passion, except in conditions of a sudden threat or challenge to the public's sense of domestic well-being. The economic self-denial (that is, defense spending) and the human sacrifice (casualties, even among professional soldiers) required in the effort are uncongenial to democratic instincts. Democracy is inimical to imperial mobilization.

• Chapter 2, The Eurasian Chessboard, p. 35-36.

In brief, for the United States, Eurasian geostrategy involves the purposeful management of geostrategically dynamic states and the careful handling of geopolitically catalytic states, in keeping with the twin interests of America in the short-term: preservation of its unique global power and in the long-run transformation of it into increasingly institutionalized global cooperation. To put it in a terminology that hearkens back to the more brutal age of ancient empires, the three grand imperatives of imperial geostrategy are to prevent collusion and maintain security dependence among the vassals, to keep tributaries pliant and protected, and to keep the barbarians from coming together.

• Chapter 2, The Eurasian Chessboard, p. 40.

4. Somewhere between 2005 and 2010, Ukraine, especially if in the meantime the country has made significant
progress in its domestic reforms and has succeeded in becoming more evidently identified as a Central
European country, should become ready for serious negotiations with both the EU and NATO. [Note: The CIA/NED-sponsored "Orange Revolution" was in 2004, the George W. Bush administration declared its intention to bring Ukraine (& Georgia) into NATO in 2008, and the CIA & NED engineered the Maidan Coup in 2013-14.]

In short, the U.S. has intended to separate Ukraine from Russia -- in order to weaken Russia -- since the 1990s.

cbbass1 said:

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China and Russia respect the sovereignty of their fellow neighbors.

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Um ask Taiwan, Hong Kong, Nepal, Ukraine, Georgia, Moldova if they feel their sovereignty is respected.

cbbass1 said:

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sycasey said:

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cbbass1 said:

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concordtom said:

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Aunburdened said:

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dajo9 said:

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Cal88 said:

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The MIC is bigger than POTUS.

---

lol. Trump is never to blame for his failures that those who opposed him predicted. There was never a chance that a man of Trump's poor character was going to have access to the U.S. military for 8 years and not use it.

The war on Venezuela and the internal war on Americans who oppose Trump - all of which people like Minot voted for - will proceed.

---

This is hilarious coming from someone who full-throatily supported Biden's failed proxy war on Russia.

---

Giving weapons to a country which seeks only to defend itself from an invading force is NOT a proxy war.

---

OK, so what was the purpose of building, arming, and training a fighting force of over 600,000 Ukrainian troops, BEFORE Russia's attack?

Their purpose was to "re-take" the independent oblasts of Donetsk & Luhanks, and to cleanse the Donbass of ethnic Russians.

And once their mission was accomplished, they were going to invade Russia.

I don't see where this Russian aggression is coming from. It's a projection from the real aggressor -- the U.S.

In December, Putin approached the U.S. & NATO to work out a security arrangement between NATO & Russia that would avoid having Ukraine join NATO (which would immediately result in U.S./NATO bases & missile installations on Russia's border). The U.S. & NATO refused to talk, and continued building the Ukrainian army.

In 2022, it was the U.S. & NATO who refused to engage in diplomacy, and insisted on armed conflict.

---

Delusional.

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Oh? Wasn't it the U.S. who initiated, managed, & funded the 'regime change' coup to oust Ukraine's democratically-elected President?

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No, it wasn't.

But what I really find delusional is your claim that anyone was planning to invade Russia. Give me a break.

BearlySane88 said:

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cbbass1 said:

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China and Russia respect the sovereignty of their fellow neighbors.

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Um ask Taiwan, Hong Kong, Nepal, Ukraine, Georgia, Moldova if they feel their sovereignty is respected.

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Ukraine, Georgia and Moldova have been NATO playgrounds in the post-Soviet era, with sham elections in Moldova, coup in Ukraine and tens of thousands of activists on US payroll, and their political leadership practically appointed by NATO countries (look up Salome Zourabichvili for starts).

Are you familiar with the history of Hong Kong (not a rhetorical question)?

It’s shameful that senators in safe seats can’t stand up to the political pressure of this President and his henchmen, even when they know what’s in the best interests of the United States and what their oath to the Constitution requires of them. Ambition is their downfall. https://t.co/VLXzxF6p90

— Thomas Massie (@RepThomasMassie) January 15, 2026

We did it to liberate the Venezuelans.

The Venezuela story everyone missed.

The U.S. just sold $500 million of Venezuelan oil.

But they deposited the money in Qatar.

Not the U.S. Not Venezuela. Qatar.

Here is why that satisfies detail changes everything you think you know about what just happened.

Venezuela owes… pic.twitter.com/pLBN0eq39y

— Shanaka Anslem Perera ⚡ (@shanaka86) January 15, 2026

Maybe buy some American ag product for Venezuela.

Selling stolen oil and putting billions of dollars in a bank in Qatar to be spent without Congressional approval is not Constitutional.

Only Congress can appropriate money.

The President can’t legally create a second Treasury overseas for his own piggy bank.

Wake up Congress.

— Thomas Massie (@RepThomasMassie) January 20, 2026

Thomas should start an investigation. Congressional investigations are all the rage.

This is one of the most extraordinary and illuminating passages in all journalism.

CNN frames Maduro as a paranoid liar for claiming the CIA is trying to overthrow him.

Yet in the very next sentence, it casually notes that the CIA did, in fact, overthrow him.

The level of… pic.twitter.com/Jg16wzf1UA

— Alan MacLeod (@AlanRMacLeod) January 28, 2026