Yves here. As we document via our Links that are firing very soon, Trump’s bluster about the US developing and selling Venezuela’s oil is already going pear-shaped, with Exxon’s CEO calling Venezuela “uninvestible“. But the US still has its blockade on and has seized a fifth tanker, so the Administration still has the means to squeeze Venezuela.
Douglas Macgregor has forecast that the Administration will realize in a few weeks that in Venezuela that they have bitten off more than they can chew, and will simply stop talking about it and will instead make noise about the target du jour, likely Iran or perhaps Greenland. Since Iran and Greenland were on the menu, let’s hope he’s right and that the US quietly retreats from its “control Venezuela” caper.
By Medea Benjamin, co-founder of Global Exchange and CODEPINK: Women for Peace. and co-author, with Nicolas J.S. Davies, of War in Ukraine: Making Sense of a Senseless Conflict and Nicolas J. S. Davies, an independent journalist and author of Blood On Our Hands: the American Invasion and Destruction of Iraq
As the Senate voted to advance a War Powers Resolution on Venezuela on January 8th, Republican Senator Susan Collins declared that she did not agree with “a sustained engagement ‘running’ Venezuela.”
The world was mystified when President Donald Trump first said that the United States would “run” Venezuela. He has since made it clear that he wants to control Venezuela by imposing a US monopoly on selling its oil to the rest of the world, to trap the Venezuelan government in a subservient relationship with the United States.
The US Energy Department has published a plan to sell Venezuelan oil already seized by the United States and then to use the same system for all future Venezuelan oil exports. The US would dictate how the revenues are divided between the US and Venezuela, and continue this form of control indefinitely. Trump is planning to meet with US oil company executives on Friday, January 9th, to discuss his plan.
Trump’s plan would cut off Venezuela’s trade with China, Russia, Iran and other countries, and force it to spend its oil revenues on goods and services from the United States. This new form of economic colonialism would also prevent Venezuela from continuing to spend the bulk of its oil revenues on its generous system of social spending, which has lifted millions of Venezuelans out of poverty.
However, on January 7th, the New York Times reported that Venezuela has other plans. “Venezuela’s state-run oil company, Petróleos de Venezuela, confirmed for the first time that it was negotiating the ‘sale’ of crude oil to the United States,” the Times reported. “It said in a statement on social media that it was using ‘frameworks similar to those currently in effect with international companies, such as Chevron, and is based on a strictly commercial transaction.’”
Trump has threatened further military action to remove acting president Delcy Rodriguez from office if she does not comply with US plans for Venezuela. But Trump has already bowed to reality in his decision to cooperate with Rodriguez, recognizing that Maria Corina Machado, the previous US favorite, does not have popular support in Venezuela. The very presence of Delcy Rodriguez as acting president exposes the failure of Trump’s regime change operation and his well-grounded reluctance to unleash yet another unwinnable US war.
After the US invasion and abduction of President Maduro on January 3rd, Delcy Rodriguez was sworn in as Acting President, reaffirming her loyalty to President Maduro and taking charge of running the country in his absence. But who is Delcy Rodriguez, and how is she likely to govern Venezuela? As a compliant and coerced US puppet, or as the leader of an undefeated and independent Venezuela?
Delcy Rodriguez was seven years old in 1976, when her father was tortured and beaten to death as a political prisoner in Venezuela. Jorge Antonio Rodriguez was the 34-year-old co-founder of the Socialist League, a leftist political party, whom the government accused of a leading role in the kidnapping of William Niehous, a suspected CIA officer working under cover as an Owens Corning executive.
Jorge Rodríguez was arrested and died in state custody after interrogation by Venezuelan intelligence agents. While the official cause of death was listed as a heart attack, his autopsy found that he had suffered severe injuries consistent with torture, including seven broken ribs, a collapsed chest, and a detached liver.
Delcy studied law in Caracas and Paris and became a labor lawyer, while her older brother Jorge became a psychiatrist. Delcy and her mother, Delcy Gomez, were in London during the failed US-backed coup in Venezuela in 2003, and they denounced the coup from the Venezuelan embassy in interviews with the BBC and CNN.
Delcy and her older brother Jorge soon joined Hugo Chavez’s Bolivarian government, and rose to a series of senior positions under Chavez and then Maduro: Delcy served as Foreign Minister from 2014 to 2017, and Economy and Finance Minister from 2020 to 2024, as well as Oil Minister and Vice President; Jorge was Vice President for a year under Chavez and then Mayor of Caracas for 8 years.
On January 5th 2026, it fell to Jorge, now the president of the National Assembly, to swear in his sister as acting president, after the illegal US invasion and abduction of President Maduro. Delcy Rodriguez told her people and the world,
I come as the executive vice president of the constitutional president of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, Nicolas Maduro Moros, to take the oath of office. I come with pain for the suffering that has been caused to the Venezuelan people after an illegitimate military aggression against our homeland. I come with pain for the kidnapping of two heroes who are being held hostage in the United States of America, President Nicolas Maduro and the first combatant, first lady of our country, Cilia Flores. I come with pain, but I must say that I also come with honor to swear in the name of all Venezuelans. I come to swear by our father, liberator Simon Bolivar.
In other public statements, acting president Rodriguez has struck a fine balance between fierce assertions of Venezuela’s independence and a pragmatic readiness to cooperate peacefully with the United States.
On January 3rd, Delcy Rodriguez declared that Venezuela would “never again be anyone’s colony.” However, after chairing her first cabinet meeting the next day, she said that Venezuela was looking for a “balanced and respectful” relationship with the United States. She went on to say, “We extend an invitation to the government of the US to work jointly on an agenda of cooperation, aimed at shared development, within the framework of international law, and that strengthens lasting peaceful coexistence,”
In a direct message to Trump, Rodriguez wrote, “President Donald Trump: our peoples and our region deserve peace and dialogue, not war. That has always been President Nicolás Maduro’s conviction and it is that of all Venezuela at this moment. This is the Venezuela I believe in and to which I have dedicated my life. My dream is for Venezuela to become a great power where all decent Venezuelans can come together. Venezuela has the right to peace, development, sovereignty and a future.”
Alan McPherson, who chairs the Center for the Study of Force and Diplomacy at Temple University in the US, calls Delcy Rodriguez “a pragmatist who helped stabilize the Venezuelan economy in recent times.” However, speaking to Al Jazeera, he cautioned that any perceived humiliation by the Trump administration or demands seen as excessive could “backfire and end the cooperation,” making the relationship a “difficult balance to achieve.”
After the US invasion on January 3rd, at least a dozen oil tankers set sail from Venezuela with their location transponders turned off, carrying 12 million barrels of oil, mostly to China, effectively breaking the US blockade. But then, on January 7th, US forces boarded and seized two more oil tankers with links to Venezuela, one in the Caribbean and a Russian one in the north Atlantic that they had been tracking for some time, making it clear that Trump is still intent on selectively enforcing the US blockade.
Chevron has recalled American employees to work in Venezuela and resumed normal shipments to US refineries after a four-day pause. But other US oil companies are not eager to charge into Venezuela, where Trump’s actions have so far only increased the political risks for any new US investments, amid a global surplus of oil supplies, low prices, and a world transitioning to cleaner, renewable energy.
Meanwhile, the US Department of Justice is scrambling to make a case against President Maduro, after Trump’s lawless war plan led to Maduro’s illegal arrest as the leader of a non-existent drug cartel in a foreign country where US domestic law does not apply. In his first court appearance in New York, Maduro identified himself as the president of Venezuela and a prisoner of war.
Continuing to seize ships at sea and trying to shake down Venezuela for control of its oil revenues are not the “balanced and respectful” relationship that Delcy Rodriguez and the government of Venezuela are looking for, and the US position is not as strong as Trump and Rubio’s threats suggest. Under the influence of neocons like Marco Rubio and Lindsey Graham, Trump has marched the US to the brink of a war in Latin America that very few Americans support and that most of the world is united against.
Mutual respect and cooperation with Rodriguez and other progressive Latin American leaders, like Lula in Brazil, Gustavo Petro in Colombia, and Mexico’s Claudia Scheinbaum, offer Trump face-saving ways out of the ever-escalating crisis that he and his clueless advisers have blundered into.
Trump has an eminently viable alternative to being manipulated into war by Marco Rubio: what the Chinese like to call “win-win cooperation.” Most Americans would favor that over the zero-sum game of hegemonic imperialism into which Rubio and Trump are draining our hard-earned tax dollars.
The main obstacle to the peaceful cooperation that Trump says he wants is his own blind belief in US militarism and military supremacy. He wants to redirect US imperialism away from Europe, Asia, and Africa toward Latin America, but this is no more winnable or any more legitimate under international law, and it’s just as unpopular with the American people.
If anything, there is greater public opposition to US aggression “in our backyard” than to US wars 10,000 miles away. Cuba, Venezuela, and Colombia are our close neighbors, and the consequences of plunging them into violence and chaos are more obvious to most Americans than the equally appalling human costs of more distant US wars.
Trump understands that endless war is unpopular, but he still seems to believe that he can get away with “one and done” operations like bombing Iran and kidnapping President Maduro and his first lady. These attacks, however, have only solved imaginary problems—Iran’s non-existent nuclear weapons and Maduro’s non-existent drug cartel—while exacerbating long-standing regional crises that US policy is largely responsible for, and which have no military solutions.
Dealing with Trump is a difficult challenge for Delcy Rodriguez and other Latin American leaders, but they should all understand by now that caving to Trump or letting him pick them off one by one is a path to ruin. The world must stand together to deter aggression and defend the basic principles and rules of the UN Charter, under which all countries agree to settle disputes peacefully and not to threaten or use military force against each other. Any chance for a more peaceful world depends on finally starting to take those commitments seriously, as Trump’s predecessors also failed to do.
There is a growing movement organizing nationwide protests to tell Trump that the American people reject his wars and threats of war against our neighbors in Latin America and around the world. This is a critical moment to raise your voice and help to turn the tide against endless war.
Dealing with Trump at all is a path to ruin. The Venezuelan government is attempting a cynical deal, to pretend that Maduros kidnapping is ok, and that their hands are tied into lo and behold a neoliberal trade agreement that will crush Venezuela and it’s population. They are trying to sell quietcompradorism as the proper response to a military attack. The public will retch this back up and further domestic chaos is where this is headed.
Is Rodriguez going to call for a referendum or elections on these issues? Is Venezuela in a state of war? Has a treaty been signed? Don’t expect back room deals to carry the day with an even further impoverished public. Mafioso tactics don’t run countries.
So what’s your proposed alternative given that it is not just Trump but our political establishment in general that Venezuela is up against? Russia has the same problem of a West that refuses to give up on the Cold War when foreign policy Great Gamers were riding high. Take away all the contrived belligerence and these useless eaters would have to find real jobs.
The will to dominate is part of human nature and not easily defeated except through reason–obviously in short supply in the Trump administration–or by practical reality. It sounds like Venezuela, like the often criticized Putin, will be treating the crazies with kid gloves as nemesis does the job for them. In the case of the mentally deteriorating Donald this may not take long.
Would guess that Acting Pres. Rodriguez is playing the medium term game for now banking on the predictable end of Trumpian madness by 2028 and the extreme neocon crazies’ power will somehow be clipped by then.
If one blocks out the stream of stupid emanating from the White House and only listens to what Venezuelan government (and PVDSA) says, it seems that they are offering to sale oil to USA (ref: Chevron, banned from Venezuela by USA in 2025) and even work with the US companies (ref: Halliburton, banned from Venezuela by USA in 2019) – just like Chavez and Maduro were offering.
Bolivarians are not idiots, they know the geography and that relations to USA are a serious matter, as it’s the biggest market and has most power in the region.
As for diplomacy, re-establishing the relations is at the moment the only way Venezuelan government can be part of Maduro’s trial. The Venezuelan Attorney General called the judge presiding over the trial and allegedly said, lawyer to lawyer, that he must know USA has no jurisdiction over Venezuela, but that’s not the same as having a diplomat as part of the defense team.
Meanwhile, Trump has already threatened Columbia with a similar strike and announced invasion of Mexico within a few weeks. It’s almost as he’s already moved on from Venezuela.
Social-political-economic systems that reward domineering behaviors are, I argue, more the problem and these systems are our creation. Many of us, I’d even wager most, have no desire live a life expressing “the will to dominate” in our human nature. But some do and, for reasons I can’t get on board with, we usually give the top jobs to the most psychopathic of these maniacs.
My interpretation of this phenomenon is that it is hard work to reach the top of power hierarchies and for most people of a fundamentally decent nature, the perceived rewards of reaching the top are not worth the effort (and the compromises one may have to make). The ability to dominate others is not that valuable to people who don’t want to dominate others.
I’m sure there is more to it, but this may be part of it.
“Power is always dangerous. It attracts the worst and corrupts the best. Power Is Only Given To Those Who Are Willing To Lower Themselves To Pick It Up.”
Ragnar Lothbrok, in the television series “Vikings”
Turn on the air defenses for a start. The Houthis were able to hold off the entire US Navy just last year. The Gazans have held out against the whole of Nato for over 2 years. There are structural reasons why the old Cold War armies are not the world-dominating forces they once were.
Is having the US pick apart your political system and state slowly over 5 years, ending up like Syria after at most 10, a viable alternative to a military campaign? Really? What’s the worst case of the latter? Iraq, Afghanistan? Are those better or worse off now than Ukraine, Syria, or Libya who tried going along with the US/Nato policy?
I’m not avocating war as a sensible or first option. But neither is rolling over and dying for people with a track record of carving countries up into pieces. Stage managed surrenders are not a viable policy in this day and age, especially to Washington.
Get the “Europeans” to stop their Russophobic “support for Ukraine” which destroys them and Ukraine.
There’s a saying, meant in an anti-colonial context (translated and paraphrased)- “We may not know what they’re planning, but history has taught us what they’re capable of, and nothing should surprise us.” IOW don’t get caught sleeping…
In the almost three decades of their revolution, during and after Chavez, they have demonstrated a commitment to the legal framework of their constitution. Their Bolivarian project is much bigger than any individual, as claimed by Chavez himself. The only seemingly relevant “betrayal” would be to their Bolivarian project. I have not seen any credible evidence, from their leadership, that would indicate anything other than a demonstrated commitment to the sovereignty of their Nation. If their decisions start to contradict or move outside of their constitutional framework, that will certainly raise warning flags and set off alarm bells. Warning flags and alarm bells that were ignored in the U.S. long ago, and we are where we are…
time will tell, if the current acting pres of Venezuela is trying to actually do her best for her people while upholding those Bolivarian principles. I hope she can.
The US needs a Bolivarian revolution too. After all, we are now being introduced to the same jack boot everyone else gets. Every party is run by people. People let us down. We do need a party defined by ideas. Ideas are bullet-proof.
Regime change begins at home
It seems that Trump proposes and Rodriguez disposes. Kidnapping Maduro and his wife changed little as the entire Maduro government is still in place and the US has no way to change that equation. Machado is probably widely disliked as it was her that called for US intervention in Venezuela and she has made no secret of wanting to turn that country into fire sale Venezuela – everything must go. On Trump’s part he may want to keep that naval task force in this area for a very long time but the Pentagon will not be happy about that as those crews need rest and the ships themselves need maintenance. And is there even a point in keeping a super carrier on station there? And if Trump wants to launch another attack, this time the anti-air will likely be turned on and there will be no helicopter procession flying over downtown Caracas. What should happen is negotiations for a win-win deal but I really believe that Trump as his team are way beyond that as they will demand a total win for them and a hard loss for Venezuela which could turn ugly in that country.
This, “Trump understands that endless war is unpopular…” is not true. The US President doesn’t understand anything, his head being occupied only by thoughts of his own greatness and bestness and self-love. This mistake is constantly repeated by the ruling class the planet over: they assume that Trump is a thoughtful, reasonable, contemplative man. He is not. He is a malignant narcissist far too deep into his mental disorder to consider anything but admiration for himself. For the world to save itself from destruction, it needs to treat him as if he had escaped from a prison for the criminally insane.
Agree fully with this. It seems many have not completely reconciled themselves to the fact that Trump is a disabled person, incapable of rational moves, long term strategic thought or sustained analysis of anything beyond watching himself on television. Given all the damage that he is doing (is this what the ultra-wealthy really want??): threatening every country, people being rounded up or gunned down in US streets by heavily armed, legally protected, masked thugs, living costs through the roof, AI imploding, academic research in tatters, MSM a parody no one trusts, … I can easily see that the 2028 election will “fail”. What a terrible time.
A friend of mine in Germany has remarked, “you know, there’s no difference between ICE and the Stasi: it’s the same people”.
Was Stasi as tactless and openly reckless as ICE has become?
I think it’s important to stress that come April 2026 Trump has a state visit with Xi in China. And in Trump speak it’s likely he wants to have plenty of cards to play leading up to this important encounter.
With the Venezuela abduction, a potential war with Iran, and a Greenland heist, it’s not a coincidence that China, which imports most of its oil, imports oil from Venezuela, Iran and other ME countries, and has been active in the arctic for more than a decade.
“Xi Jinping launched China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) in 2013. Since then, the project has expanded to other areas of the globe, including the Arctic region. The Arctic region was officially made a part of the Belt and Road Initiative via the Maritime Cooperation Vision statement.” “Later, China established the Polar Silk Road in its 2018 Arctic Policy White Paper connecting Asia and Europe through the Arctic Ocean.”
“The current U.S. attitude towards Chinese Arctic activities is colored by great power rivalry, culminating in Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s rebuttal of Chinese Arctic ambitions at the 2019 Arctic Council Ministerial meeting in Rovaniemi. The Biden administration continued to warn against increasing Chinese interest in the Arctic in the U.S. National Strategy for the Arctic Region.”
See an interesting read, “Cutting Through Narratives on Chinese Arctic Investments” Harvard Kennedy School – June 23, 2025.
https://www.belfercenter.org/research-analysis/china-arctic-investments#:~:text=The current U.S. attitude towards,Council Ministerial meeting in Rovaniemi.
But Trump wants to own Greenland rather than merely install military bases which the US already has a right to do. Unlike leasing a house where it must be maintained in the same condition, Trump the real estate guy, wants ownership to renovate whatever he wants.
As to Venezuela, Trump is not a strategic thinker and who knows what happens next but it seems, for the moment, that actions in Venezuela, Iran, and Greenland are connected to great power competition with China. Imo, Delcy Rodriguez realizes the game she needs to play to manage Trump and protect Venezuela as much as possible.
Glenn Diesen yesterday had a sit-down with Grayzone’s Max Blumenthal; Blumenthal’s general view was that a) the Maduro raid was more likely to have been the result of “massive” internal failures of the Venezuelan military rather than a betrayal; and b) if that is the case, then Rodriguez and the rest of the Venezuelan government, while not wishing to bow down to the US, certainly prefers to make some kind of a deal with the White House to further military escalation. [This dovetails with the view expressed by some major Russian bloggers like Rybar regarding the “incompetence” of the Venezuelan military – sourced allegedly from Russian military advisors on the ground.]
But by the way, Blumenthal notes, Maduro was also seeking to make the same sort of deal rather than escalate, so essentially nothing has changed other than the specific individual in the presidential palace. Which leads one to suspect that the White House, once again, was all tactics and no strategy on this one. Meanwhile, Caracas will likely try to walk a very fine line, trying to give the Americans just enough to go away…
Anyhow, that’s another view of what’s happening.
Parenthetically, having now read up a bit on the oil in the Orinoco basin – its characteristics (specific gravity, etc.) is very much like Canada oil sands in Alberta, which is something I know a thing or two about! Basically, if we’re not talking open strip mining, which we’re probably not, a) you need very specific extraction processes (e.g. SAGD, which means sticking a gas cogeneration plant next to every field to produce steam and electricity), and b) you either need to stick a specialized refinery on site, or to run a two-way pipeline of “light” oil to it to blend with the local “heavy” oil. The latter is the more common scheme, which means the economics are (making up numbers) – buy 1 unit of light at $60, sell two units of blend at $45 each, net $30 minus local royalties and transport fees, so really like $20-$25. This is before extraction costs, so compare with a regular light field that sells 1 unit of light at $60 minus the same royalties for >$50 net per barrel.
Now, those numbers above are made up. In Alberta the breakeven cost in the 2000s was in the mid-$30s per barrel, somewhat depending on the field. I imagine today it is more like in the $40s or $50s, unless we’re talking on-site refining. Orinoco adds logistics costs of just getting there, and I believe has a higher sulfur content than Alberta (which does not help prices), but the royalty to the local government may be less, as US companies usually pay a lot less outside of the “Western world”. But then the start-up costs are higher in Orinoco than for a new field, including as you have to build new cogen plants and run gas lines to them. So net-net, I can completely see an Exxon CEO saying – even with oil at $70 I’ll end up making a much lower IRR from this over 10 years than from other fields elsewhere…whereas CNOOC (China) might say screw it, as long as it is slightly profitable having the oil itself is what I care about.
So we shall see.
I saw that as well. Blumenthal also suggested the revenue for the stolen tankers and oil could be used for an offshore slush fund for the Trump crony crime family. As time goes by, it looks more like DT is angling for a personal cut of the plunder. The Emperor has also suggested subsidizing the oil companies to create incentives to invest in the country. That smacks of more kleptocracy.
That would be quite convenient and lucrative for the DT2 crime syndicate. More ways than one to steal billions and fleece the US Treasury. The looting is at home as well as abroad. The klepto-tyranny of oligarchy sure look like they are asset-stripping everything they can get their hands on.
10% for the big guy?
Nonsense. All the air defences failed, all the radars and warning systems failed, all communications failed, all the on-site security procedures failed, right at the moment the Americans launched an air attack after months of open military buildup? A dozen sleepy gang-banger muscle crews would have put up a stancher defense if the US military suddenly descended on their drug HQ.
How many stereotypes of latino incompetence and US military omnipotence can we be expected to swallow when Houthi and Taliban rebels have prevailed against more? Why hasn’t Putin or Lukashenko or Khomeini been snatched up in such a raid yet? Honestly it is frustrating to see how many people are prepared to swallow this preposterous Tom Clancy scenario with no scrutiny whatsoever. Where was Maduro even “snatched” from? Is there a single smartphone or security video of gunfire yet? Eyewitness interviews? Where has people’s skepticism gone?!
skepticism is on its way out because folks are no longer believing their lying eyes. you could have smoking gun evidence of maduro doing cartwheels onto a JSOC chopper and folks wouldn’t buy it. we’re living in a post-truth world.
You don’t send troops into the breach based on hopes and dreams of “massive” internal failures of the enemy, unless you are into Black Hawk Down stuff. I doubt those guys would be getting into da chopper without proper reassurance that it would be cakewalk, but what do I know.
Larry Johnson makes the point about the operation taking place in full moonlit night, making the choppers extremely vulnerable if anyone shot back. Ergo, they knew no one would shoot back, ie it’s basically an inside job.
For the Venezuelans and their allies, that it’s an inside job is the bigger problem (esp when coupled with the way Cuban advisors seem to have been massacred.) You don’t know whom to trust. Coordination and cooperation in opposition to US are difficult. Better to play along for now and see what happens. This gives Trump a good deal of leeway, for now.
I’m with you Balan. I find this preposterus. The most strenuous argument among Truthers is always: Was it let to happen on purpose, or was it made to happen on purpose.
How many were in The Need To Know? This was planned months in advance, with many likely scenarios. Anything is possible, but you can denounce any “official” explanation. Let’s see how many times it changes.
Seizing all those tankers goes over well politically because the US is being tough and taking direct action – at least initially. The trick is what happens to the oil once it is seized and is just sitting around in tankers. Venezuela is going to need money in order for their economy to keep functioning. If the US lets the country go hungry, there will be increased unrest and anger – aimed at you know who. If the US government buys the oil and gives the money to Venezuela, that isn’t going to go over well with the MAGA crowd. Maybe Trump can sell it to an oil-thirsty country in Asia? What a way to circle that square.
As always, interesting feed, interesting comments. Thank you.
“There is a growing movement organizing nationwide protests to tell Trump that the American people reject his wars and threats of war against our neighbors in Latin America and around the world. This is a critical moment to raise your voice and help to turn the tide against endless war.”
Wait just a second… seems a lot on NC deride the No Kings and other attendant protests as not worth the time.
For those not in the , “why bother?!??” camp, there is a general strike and protest scheduled for January 20.
Attend
Bring several signs and share
Do not work or spend a penny that day
Commit to using cash going forward.
Do little, with less.
Whistles, not guns, participate, observe. Words appear to matter… put them on placards, don’t provoke a trigger -happy numbskull who feels cornered in the clear bright light of open discourse.
Help source and promote candidates for the 2026 election cycle.
Verify your own voting status mid-summer.
VOTE.
Peace!
We approved of Black Lives Matter and pointed out that when it was getting traction (die-ins with more non-blacks than blacks) was when Team Dem successfully captured it (buying off and installing “leaders”).
No Kings had no demands and no follow on, much like the Pink Pussy Hats protests.
Anti-ICE/anti jackbootery is more specific and might be sustained.
Yes, especially when the jackbootery is being applied to White necks and not just Black and Browns’. Most White folks have little contact with the ‘bootery’ or the justice system. Soon enough they will find out the ‘law’ is a charade. There is no access to justice; just access to incompetence and misrule. USA! USA!
Yes. A point that I was making the other day, apparently not very well, was that if the “serious” people believe that the govt abuse of power only affects the “wrong kind of people” and that they themselves are protected by “white privilege” of some kind, they become umserious, condescending, and superficial, even when they claim that they oppose the misbehavior–in fact, this is exactly what the Dem andor liberal establishment does. Only when the abuse falls on everyone–including the “serious” people–in a “nonracist,” nondiscriminatory manner can their opposition become “serious.”
While I agree that protest and civil disobedience are in order, the No Kings appears little more than furthering the D/R status-quo and re-mobilizing the disgruntled D faithful after the Genocide Joe regime. I observed some of these protests, and talked to many in the crowds. Most were woefully misinformed about Ukraine/Russia, Palestine, and electoral politics. Most simply thought that “voting” for the D and getting rid of the bad old DT and Rs will solve the problem. The same old story for decades and look where we are.
The only diff between the JB and DT regimes is that the DT2 regime is more honest and the Ugly American is now on full display with no pretense of human rights, democracy or the law. There is no such thing as the Lesser Genocide, and as they say, the “lesser” evil is still evil. So vote for Evil in 2026!
I simply don’t believe that electoral politics is the answer. Like the bumper sticker says: “I would vote if there were somebody to vote for”. Our elections are a farce. Political change almost always comes from organized resistance with a list of specific demands.
Let’s not forget what Joe Biden was actually like. Remember the rally with all of the red and the flags and it looked like something straight out of a Hitler movie? Remember how aggressive he was when he talked? Remember those aviator sunglasses? It’s not a difference of kind, it’s just a difference of empowerment. Joe Biden would have loved to behave the way Trump does, in my opinion
There is the idea that you should vote for what you want,even if you don’t get it, rather than vote for something you do not want.
Might’ve be Debs or Long.
“Trump’s actions have so far only increased the political risks for any new US investments, amid a global surplus of oil supplies, low prices, and a world transitioning to cleaner, renewable energy.”
Are we “transitioning?”
Something I don’t understand is how we can talk about all of these clean energy transitions and need for copper and other metals when we are heading for world war III. War everywhere. Supply lines disrupted. No freedom of navigation.
It seems to me that a lot of metals are going to remain in the ground without a sustainment of peace.
And I understand that there’s such a thing as war production, but given that only one side of the two factions has industrial production and refining capability, I’m still stumped at how people can think that this can all keep going
We sure are transitioning into something, but it won’t be exactly what it was promised in the brochure.
LOL
A deep-seated hatred of communism persists in the United States. Social media is flooded with posts like “Trump is a hero who liberated Venezuela from a communist dictator. Venezuelans are delighted to see Maduro ousted.” Therefore, I predict that protests against Trump will not gain widespread support.
Couple things:
Remember, it’s not just the oil, it’s the proceeds from its sale. Will the US give control over Venezuela’s FX account at the Fed back to Delcy Rodriguez and her administration. I haven’t see anyone ask this.
“Running Venezuela” serves as euphemism for “running the oil industry” and/or “controlling access to Venezuelan USD FX”. If we had a journalism corps that wasn’t a bunch of freaking numpties, these questions would have had answers. The administration made no secret of the fact, for example, that it turned over partial control of Fed accounts to Juan Guaido (via Al Jazeera).
America has zero control over any of Venezuela’s other FX holdings with other countries.
This confirms my suspicion (and great hope) that the US establishment will never go to war with China or Russia.
They might lose, or end up with less.
Trump is not interesting anymore. Marco Rubio is.
The glove puppet is essential to these times
I wonder if the DJT will be allowed to retire, there is noone to replace him.