Venezuela

Yes. Anyone being absolutist about Trump not going after Greenland next is misguided. While i do see it as unlikely, i would put nothing past Donnie given his loathing for Europe and how emboldened he will feel after this kidnapping. The EU really needs to grow a pair and tell him going after Greenland is not on, but will they?

just trying to figure out the VP Rodríguez is president now. She presumably supported everything Maduro was doings. She will need to hold the country together and follow Washingtons orders regarding oil. If they had to jail and brutalise opposition before this that will surely have to continue probably even more severely. Also when oil companies move in won’t there be paramilitary groups, attacking and sabotaging them. Those celebrating might be in for a rude awakening if things end up much worse. Looks like another quagmire in the making. Hope I’m wrong but what ye think?

I’m sticking to the big picture Nacho, I don’t tend to go down rabbit holes or claim to know the Donald’s innermost machinations.

Time maybe will reveal all Mr N

No they won't.

What is the bigger picture, Brendan. Might makes right? With this in mind would you be ok with Xi kidnapping the leader of Taiwan. Or is it that you believe in might makes right selectively- if the Americans do it, then it's justifiable, but not if others do so?

Yea🤣🤣, the usual response.

The aftermath of all these interventions follow the same pattern - civil wars, human rights abuses, mass migration, often military dictatorships.

This one is different, as it had almost all these before US intervention. Different times also (no more of those far left paramilitaries), and different means (not CIA covert but open). You can't judge this one based on events in the 70s and 80s.

Romania.

Romania was Romanians. Not Americans intervening.

I understand where your figuratively coming from now. I wanted Maduro gone but ideally by his own people or the U.N. I'd be happy for Putin for Xi to spend the rest of their lives in a freezing cold gulag.

That doesn't mean approval of what happened here though. The U.S. and many other countries rejected the result of the 2024 elections. If they don't install Edmundo Gonzalez as president, then they are working with a government whose legitimacy they question and it could be considered a bloodless coup.

If they run Venezuela directly they just performed an invasion. That's way more important IMO than holding the figurehead and family to justice.

I was waiting for you :)

He was serious at the time but he bottled out when he was put in his place by other countries, mainly because he is a coward. He was and is serious about Canada and Greenland and Panama, he just has more resistance with them, and he is terrified of the actual repercussions.

As I’ve said, Venezuela is different, and even at that, he hasn’t done anything other than arrest the leader. No government has been overthrown.

Stephen Milers wife just posted today that Greenland is next for feck sake, so they want it, but they won’t get it.

First step is to remove the head, what happens next we will discuss when it happens, so far it's just a tyrant removed.

These kind of regime changes are almost never free from foreign interference.

A UK cabinet minister getting a good grilling on Lbc this morning while explaining how the rules based order works.

Sounds like they are waiting on the US to lay out what they did before any condemnation. Obviously he never saw the footage of missiles flying into Caraccus, big explosions, helicopters flying in and then Maduro turns up in the Us handcuffed after Trump announced to the world on social media him and his missus had been kidnapped.

It's a feature, not a bug.

MAGA, as a whole, will eschew the US constitution with pleasure as and when it gets in their way. That they have no regard for protocol and precedent was really apparent from early on in Trump's 2016 campaign.

As for them being stupid, I don't think this is true. In fact, I think this is a dangerous thing to believe and something that has constantly worked to Trump's advantage in the last decade. Trump is a massive ignoramus, yes, but he's been nudged and controlled by a college of schemers on the far-right, like Stephen Miller, Steve Bannon, Roger Stone, Sebastian Gorka, et al These are not stupid men. Evil? Yes, but not stupid. They're currently and merrily gutting the machinery of US government and remoulding it in Trump's image in such a way that will not be put back together again by a succeeding Democratic administration. While we look at the latest shiny headline, this work continues unabated. In fact, like everything else, it's become quite normalised.