General Politics Thread

I guess to try and combat the rise of those Chinese companies. No doubt the big players will find ways around the custom fees whereas people importing something like a Blu-ray from America will be hit. Not only by customs but no doubt as well by the couriers adding fees.
 
Been a while since anybody posted here but the orange faced baboon bastard is running into quite a few legal walls from the courts as they seek to curtail his idiotic agenda.
 
On balance, the removal of the dictator, Maduro, is an objectively good thing for the people of Venezuela and South America more generally.

They've had their country hijacked by dictators for 20+ years. Maduro crashed the Venezuelan economy (and I mean, really crash it; around 80% of Venezuelan people now live in poverty and 95% of households are below the poverty line since Maduro came to power). Combined with the typical dictator stuff (e.g., corruption, electoral fraud, cronyism, political prisoners, state-funded hit jobs for speaking out against the government, etc) it has led to around 8 million Venezuelans to leave the country since 2014 - causing a massive refugee crisis in South America.

Maduro had also chosen to align with countries like China, Russia, and Iran, whose agents operate freely within the country, looking to increase their control and influence in Venezuela and further in South America. Additionally, Maduro has allowed terrorist groups, drug cartels, human traffickers, and so on, to operate at will within the country (for a slice of the pie to continue running his regime, of course).

Stopping countries like China, Russia, and Iran gaining further footholds Venezuela and South America is a good thing.

Now, what Trump will choose to do next is of crucial importance. We should hope that new, legitimate elections can be run and that the democracy is restored to the country (it's a known secret that Maduro lost the last election in 2024 by a landslide, but refused to hand over power). I'd recommend people checking out Maria Corina Machado (leader of the opposition) who led a peaceful uprising against Maduro's dictatorship - she's a badass person who won the Nobel Peace Prize.

From my understanding and the way I see it, this is less so about Trump making a play for oil, but more so about the stability of a country and continent that is in close proximity to the United States - yes, the US may get some financial and economic benefit from this - but it's my view that the stability and freedom of a nation, and potentially continent, outweighs that.
 
Trump is very open about the fact he wants the oil and American companies to get control over that industry. While also saying that he has zero faith in Maria Corina Machado to actually take power. Additionally he and the secretary of State Marco Rubio have both said they except Maduro's VP to take over and also cooperate with them, or else America will run the country directly. Before then saying they want to 'fix' Mexico and Cuba.

You can be hopeful for a diplomatic change in Venezuela. We'll have to wait and see the international response and also the domestic reaction. But the USA is bluntly telling everyone they aren't interested in diplomatic change in Venezuela right now. They want the exact same government that was there before to continue with closer ties to America or else it's going to be directly controlled by them. Personally I can't see how that is a good formula for a democratic election.
 
I think the right thing to do would be to hold fresh elections, despite Machado winning the last election. They really need to have a legitimate election where the people have faith that it was run legitimately.

The current government of Venezuela is aligned with Russia/China; so I can't see them simply switching and saying we'll toe the line for the US now - which is why I think fresh elections will happen.

However, I do agree - US intervention and their toppling of dictatorships hasn't led to great results historically (see Iraq). But I also think something had to be done - given that the country is literally on its knees, riddled/controlled by Russian, Chinese, and Iranian agents, and its people actively oppressed by the Maduro regime, who is/was an illegitimate leader.
 
I know international diplomacy runs on hypocrisy and expedience at the best of times... But Trump taking Venezuela basically shuts everyone up when it comes to Russia's invasion of Ukraine, or if China ever waltzs into Taiwan. How can the West issue forth moral dictates when the exemplar of Western democracy behaves like this?

And today the UK and France dropped a few bombs in Syria.
 
BrokenPhoenix said:
However, I do agree - US intervention and their toppling of dictatorships hasn't led to great results historically (see Iraq). But I also think something had to be done - given that the country is literally on its knees, riddled/controlled by Russian, Chinese, and Iranian agents, and its people actively oppressed by the Maduro regime, who is/was an illegitimate leader.
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Something may have had to be done, but not by the US, it has to be up to the people of a country to overthrow their oppressive regimes, not for some imperalist super power to decide for them. American led regime change never ends well, so it seems extremely naive to imagine this time, under the Trump regime, everything's going to go ok and we're going to see a responsible, smooth transition to feedom and democracy. Also, as others have already mentioned, there's literally zero reason to believe the American government has even the slightest tiniest morsel of concern for the Venezuelan people. I'd be tempted to say you've been got by the ol American propaganda machine, but have they even bothered with propaganda this time? There hasn't been any flimsy veneer of morality, no attempt made whatsoever to hide their avarice. They are telling you what this is about, it's about stealing oil, and it's about the US having imperial control of Latin America. Venezuela cozying up to China or whoever diplomatically is definitely not even nearly a better justification for this than Ukraine wanting to join NATO was for Russia. This isn't about overthrowing a dictator (the US loves dictators happy to be their puppets), this is about America first might is right. The fact America is so brazen with it now makes Starmer and other European leaders look ridiculously pathetic and mealy mouthed trying to defend it and pretend international laws haven't been broken. But Gaza already revealed the limitless hypocrisy and shamelesness of these people.
 
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The orange faced baboon bastard must think he's Napoleon and he's going to annex central america and Greenland. The average american (of which I'm one) wants nothing to do with world conquest and his gd ego. "The bigger they think they are the harder they fall".
 
I hear your points @Vashdaman, however Venezuela has been a dictatorship for 20+ years. There hasn't been any evidence (as far as I can see) to suggest that the Venezuelan people were making any progress in toppling their illegitimate government - their most recent 'election' in 2024 was literally stolen by Maduro under the threat of force. And now, with China and Russia making further inroads into Venezuela and South America more generally over the last 10 years or so, something had to be done - and the US, is the only country in a position and with the military capabilities to be able to carry out something like this (the UK isn't going to do anything, the EU isn't going to do anything, and Russia/China/Iran certainly aren't going to topple the dictatorship there as they're loving life over there).

Do Western countries simply sit on their hands and wait to see if the Venezuelan people themselves can overthrow their dictator? All the while, drug cartels, human traffickers, and foreign agents (i.e., Russia, Iran, and China) continue to control Venezuela from the inside. The people of Venezuela have no chance against a dictator who directly controls their national military and against a country where government officials and the military themselves are directly involved in these drug cartels and human trafficking operations (which directly fund South American terrorist groups and even groups like Hezbollah, who now have training camps in Venezuela!) - these people are not going to hand over power peacefully, unfortunately.

I'm no Trump fan, but if it's a choice between Trump getting some oil or China, Russia, and Iran continuing to operate there with impunity while, as I said, the people are actively oppressed, imprisoned, and murdered by their 'government' - I'm sorry to say that I am choosing the US. Additionally, the Venezuelan dictatorship "cosying" up to Russia, China, and Iran isn't simply a diplomatic relationship - those countries fund these illegal operations in Venezuela while Russian, Chinese, and Iranian companies are already taking Venezuelan oil. Venezuela is already under control by foreign agents.

Yes, I'm no fool, I know Trump and the US is likely to get economic benefits from this - however, there is more at play here in the game of geopolitics than simply oil (which again, is already being taken by the likes of Russia and China). While the US administration may not truly care about the plight of the ordinary Venezuelan people, what they do care about are hostile terrorist groups, drug cartels, and human traffickers operating within the United States' neighbourhood - some of whom have managed to find their way into the US (which is what Russia and co. want, to destabilise the US, and ultimately the west).

American led regime change never ends well
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For balance, there has been success with US-led regime change in the past. See Panama, 1990 as an example - probably the blueprint for how we'd want the Venezuelan situation to go: US went in, removed a horrible dictator, setup the ground for legitimate democracy and then left. Panama now has stability and is still a free and open democracy today.

If the US, can go in and dispose of Maduro (which they have done so, quite effectively - captured him within hours with no loss of life), then lay the groundwork for legitimate elections to take place, and then leave - it would be a huge win for the people of Venezuela, but also a win geopolitically against the likes of Russia, China, and Iran.
 
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