Venezuela

Trump slurring his way through nonsense about Venezhwailer. What a spectacle. Now he’s talking about Monroe’s doctrines (plural) and the Donroe Doctrine. Despite the confused delivery I think we get the drift.

Apparently, “a mental institution isn’t as tough as an insane asylum”. He’s not a random drunk from the Seventies but he sure sounds like one.

Re EU response to this event. Does this explain things a bit?

https://twitter.com/DanMulhall/status/2007536923024470476

There is no doubt that this move by the US creates a difficult dilemma for the EU. Yes, they had the option of outright condemnation, but it would have been difficult to get buy-in from member States for that. The danger is that condemnation would have sundered EU-US ties with potentially dire consequences for the war in Ukraine which takes priority for the EU over the fate of Venezuela.

Is this an interesting point? Anyone know more about this?

I dont think China is going to attempt to invade Taiwan in this generation- America under Trump has been way more unpredictable than China have ever been. America have always had the military might to engineer regime change, they just suck at managing the events after.

Remember the film called The Revolution will not be televised. About capture of Chavez.?

It's possible that it's not over yet but I don't think it will turn out that this lad will be back in power.

American citizens get what they deserve.

And if you think some don't deserve it because they didnt vote for him, then those do deserve it for not fighting hard enough to prevent him being elected, especially the second time.

America should have been paralysed by protest and resistance in 2024, and it wasn't.

What use is a 'No Kings' protest when the fat f**ker has already been on the throne for 6 or 7 months.

Completely agree, Starmer is a vile creature, his time is limited too.

Agree too about North Korea or why not that bastion of democracy and human rights, Saudi Arabia!!

While this my embolden China wrt Taiwan, there is two major factors to consider

1. AI is the new arms race and Taiwan is key in terms of advanced chips for AI.
2. An invasion of Taiwan is really difficult for lots of reasons including difficult sea conditions for most of the year, Taiwan coastal terrain and scarcity of landing zones.

While China has being using Russia to study and test drone warfare as a defender I've no doubt Taiwan has being learning valuable lessons to. Appropriate use of modern drones would make an invasion really really risky.

Given China's dependency on oil imports to run it's economy locking up the seas for months or years around Taiwan isn't something China wants to risk i would think.

Dropping in and stealing prime minister would be child's play in comparison

One US grocery item is increasingly available and affordable these days:

Sources familiar with the operations of CJNG told The Wall Street Journal that record amounts of cocaine are currently being produced in Colombia, driving the volume in the U.S. up and the price down.

Morgan Godvin, a researcher with the community organization Drug Checking Los Angeles, told the outlet that pure cocaine prices have “plummeted” to an average of $60 to $75 a gram, a decrease of around half compared with five years ago.

Given that Venezuela is a relatively minor component of that supply chain, the situation looks set to continue.

What planet are you on?

how confident are you?