For countries like Spain, Portugal, Ireland, et al… what’s the motivation to remain in NATO in the first place? I know it’s a joke to call it a purely “defensive” alliance but those countries do not face a credible military threat from anyone. Meanwhile they are rules falling into place that will require members to really pay up and increase military budgets at the expense of social programs.

The DPRK is showing that, despite global condemnation, they were 1,000% correct to pursue a nuclear programme.

I think the whole “we’re taking over Venezuela” is just your typical Trump bravado. I believe user xiaohongshu on Hexbear has the correct angle:

I think everyone is too fixated on the empire getting into a long war but I don’t think that’s the goal here.

Just like Trump’s B-2 stunt on Iran’s Fordow back in June, the US operation was a quick in, quick out operation. Nothing seems to have significantly changed on the surface, but the message has been sent. The US is sowing political instability in the region, and it scares away foreign investments especially China’s.

Just look at China-Iran trade numbers, it’s plunging by 20% this year. Chinese investors are pulling away because they cannot see profitable return in Iran and the surrounding regions. This worsens the economic condition in Iran, and months later, we see the Iranians protesting as a result.

The same play is being replicated in Venezuela here against Latin America. The US has no interest in getting dragged into a long war. It wants to demonstrate how easily it can upset the political balance in Latin America. Do you seriously think that Chinese investors will still want to invest billions on Venezuela seeing how easily the leadership can be kidnapped?

The investment’s gone, and the US simply has to sit back and wait for the situation to deteriorate even further, and the regime change opportunity will present itself. But it’s not even about Venezuela, it’s about the US dominance over Latin America.

I will be honest, I was expecting the US to do IOF / Palantir type actions and try to take out government and civilian leadership several levels deep. While taking out a single leader rarely does anything, removing an entire leadership structure in an already unstable situation can be devastating. The fact that, for now, the US is stopping at “just” Maduro encourages me that the Bolivarian Revolution will continue on, now with even more support from the people.

I think now it will be a battle of how much the Trump admin can do in the face of international condemnation (outside of US vassal states, that is) and likely increased support of Venezuela from its neighbors. Trump will almost certainly dig in on sanctions until Venezuela hands over their oil. But I don’t see that happening, so I don’t know what happens.

America is truly an evil country.