You don’t have to support Maduro (I sure as fuck don’t) to know that the Trump administration is definitely in the wrong to play world police, invade Venezuela, and kidnap a foreign leader. Originally they claimed operations in Venezuela were in defense of democracy, and now some vague accusation about drugs are supposed to explain why all of this is necessary. Both excuses are complete bullshit, but it’s especially hypocritical (although not surprising in the least) for Trump to threaten to cancel U.S. midterms days after kidnapping Maduro and pretending to be protecting the U.S. or some kind of global defender of free speech and the democratic process.

Yeah most of that is right I think. I’d caveat that the attack was more about the naked imperialism in Trump’s publicly articulated “Donroe Doctrine” than drugs or oil specifically.

I don’t really think the Chevron stuff Trump did is odd. Chevron has a longer history operating in Venezuela than any of the other companies. Bad, certainly. I have no love for Trump or Chevron. but not odd.

I kinda miss Chevron deference. As an aside, it is ironic that the namesake for a legal theory providing more administrative authority to the federal government was a private oil company, instead of, like, “administrative deference.”

I wrote this in a different thread, but there’s something vaguely slimy about framing Chevron as the first beneficiary of Trump’s actions when it has been operating for profit in Venezuela for decades with the agreement of Venezuelas government under Maduro. Neither of them are really pro-Palestine if the line being drawn is anti-Chevron.

Obviously Palestinians deserve way better than the hand dealt to them, no question there.

Edit; and to spell out why this felt kinda slimy to me at first: if:

(1) Chevron was operating in Venezuela with Maduro in charge for years without any real issue with Maduro,

(2) Chevron supports Israel, and

(3) the fight is against those enabling Chevron,

it follows that fighting for Maduro is not directly fighting for Palestine.

Fighting for Maduro would qualify as fighting US imperialism for sure, and therein lies that pesky question about the utility of fighting for someone who had every opportunity to shutdown the imperialist problem (Chevron) on his own by virtue of his political power, and did not.

I fall on the side that it’s fine after thinking it through, but I’m also someone who thinks Democrats are broadly good even if they mostly make for small victories for left-liberal ideologies. Ymmv.

Even from a dictatorship standpoint, Trump manages to be stuck in the early 20th century. Coal and oil are no longer the most important national security resources, the former since 2010, the latter since 2020.

Just look at Ukraine. Drone warfare is the name of the game, and it is extremely electric tech stack: renewable energy, batteries, and smart device components.

Just wait until you discover I can have multiple and even contradictory reasons for doing any single action. It’s really gonna blow you away

Yeah but France is my favorite South American country

I see through this charade! He just wants to have closer relations with the French!

It can make sense in other ways too imo.

If you told me ten days ago the US would capture Maduro, bomb the shit out of a variety of military sites, and kill a bunch of civilians in the process, I would ask which American navy vessel was attacked to start the war.

But, uh.

Venezuelan oil MUST remain off of the world markets by and large in order for the current glut of oil production not to be an economic dead end for oil production companies in the US and elsewhere who overcommitted in a world where EV vehicles are proliferating at a rapid pace.

Iirc Venezuelas production is down because it’s facilities can’t process as much oil as at peak without multi-billion dollar updates and repairs.

I think it’s more likely the Trump admin gives US oil companies subsidies to take the oil out despite it being anti-capital and anti-competitive; those two things are his whole MO whenever he thinks capitalism isn’t beneficial for him personally.

But this whole incident strikes me more as a case of projecting US power than seeking petrol dollars specifically. Like, that’s part of it, and not all of it.

I wonder how much rooftop space in Vienna could be cannibalized for solar panels.