Venezuela's Navy Begins Escorting Ships as U.s. Threatens Blockade

> getting the peace prize

Maybe if they can pinpoint its whereabouts at a specific time when it's not heavily guarded, they can send a team to snatch it with minimal casualties.

How financing ruSSia with oil money helping with peace?

He already got the very prestigious FIFA peace prize.

Putin seems intent on keeping up his threats, he might just use a "low yield" nuke to shake out the weak hands in Europe - - which it appears there are plenty of - - the question is how EU NATO would respond. I doubt they would then match him, nuke for nuke.

Could it be Trump is leaning towards just letting Putin and the EU settle their own differences by themselves - - while Trump concentrates on his side of the world, which Venezuela is a too easy prize to win. The old playbook: Find a US leaning Venezuelan leader who can be bought off with CIA money, get rid of Maduro, by force if needed, then the huge discoveries in the oilfields of Guyana next door that Exxon, Hess Corporation, CNOOC and others have their hands deep in are secured.

If they go bankrupt, then they start using russian missiles to blow up US aircraft carriers. This is a war that neither side wants to win.

Could the buyers just send their own ships to retrieve oil from Venezuela? Say, China sends a oil tanker, I imagine it would be trickier for US to sink or steal it.

Isn't it completely standard for international shipping to fly random flags? Ive never understood exactly why but I think its common?

> technically speaking the ship was flying a false flag

You seem to know very little about oil tankers and flags. What flag do most oil tankers from the Persian Gulf heading to the US fly? Rarely a US flag or flag from a Oersian Gulf state. Often a Liberian flag. So the seas are filled with oil tankers headed to the US under what you call a "false flag".

The POTUS declared a blockade yesterday on social media.

https://trumpstruth.org/statuses/34245

There is a poor track record on war against jungle covered countries whose names start with V.

This is what astounds me. Why waste all the money and blood on a frankly failed state like Venezuela that was always a basket case. What's next Haiti?

> That the US cannot win a war is silly. The US could erase every population center within a few minutes.

Although the U.S. ruling class often likes to pretend it can operate with no regard for its domestic perceptions of legitimacy, the stunning amounts they expend on relentless psychological operations suggest otherwise. Killing millions in an aggressive nuclear strike would do nothing but reveal to many people (who are desperately trying to pretend otherwise) that they are controlled by a klatch of relentless psychopaths.

What's silly is thinking that winning a war means killing everybody.

[delayed]

Hard to comprehend the stunning levels of cope required to still view what happened in Iraq as some kind of decisive victory for anyone except Blackwater and Halliburton.

The US would bomb a bunch of brown people, declare victory, get the hell out and leave it to a decades long civil war. Like they did with Mexico.

Like seriously not even Trump can be stupid enough to actually want to GOVERN it. Can he?

If your assumed goal is regime change from autocratic to democratic, they lost. If it was for stability in the middle east, the lost. If it was for oil and pressure on OPEC, I'd say they lost, but I would hear and understand an opposite argument (and change my mind).

That ship has sailed.

Don’t need to source it. I lived under the regime and still have many relatives there. I know exactly what I am saying by my own experience not by reading a journalist from the NYT. The drug business is very real and has deep roots in the military since the early 2000s so this is not new. Even the presidential plane has been used to transport drugs, that’s well documented. Chavez himself didn’t like it once his son got involved, but he died and Venezuela became the Wild West. There are two factions controlling the country, the ideological one and the “business” one. Both are involved in drug trafficking but the ideological branch supports Cuba and other communist regimes with free oil. Cuba hasn’t paid one dime for oil in more than 25 years. In fact many of the ships leaving Venezuela are bound to Cuba’s “customers” directly. The non ideological branch of the regime hates this “deal”, and many senior military are actually anti-Cuba, they have never been there, reason why the Cuban regime keeps Maduro in power. All of Maduro’s security ring is Cuban for that reason. The non ideological branch made a deal to stay out of oil in exchange for illegal mining. There’s a human and environmental catastrophe happening in the Amazonas state, with natives being displaced or killed and one of the most beautiful naturals reserves in the planet being destroyed. This is also well documented. Most of the gold is sold to Russia and Iran. There’s also some mining for uranium which Iran needs for their nuclear program. And that’s it, there’s really no other economy in the country. Don’t be naive believing Maduro is selling oil and keeping the country funded. As I said the economy is largely supported by “remesas” from the exodus and by the informal economy which is completely dollar based, no one takes local currency there.

Thanks for this. The warrant claims this ship was involved, basically, in financing Hezbollah and the Iranian regime. So kind of bad things.

I think we need to be wary of the pattern where:

- some bad things happen but are ignored / uncontested by the "good" side

- the "bad" side comes in and does a lot of genuinely bad things of their own

- but also, perhaps selectively, contests other "bad" things that were left hanging by the "good" side, where it fits their narrative

- the "good" side is up in arms against the "bad" side following the law

Clearly this argument hinges on recognising Trump as a baddie and the Democrats, somewhat, as baddies. As a non-American, this is roughly how I see it, but I can't stir up outrage against Trump for enforcing sanctions according to his country's own laws. Bullying Venezuela, sure, but not this particular fragment.

I remember how defensive Democrats were of illegal immigration during the last election. I'll agree with anyone who wants to treat people fairly and humanely, but the Democrats were almost making out that illegal immigrants are some kind of modern day martyrs. If you think the immigration laws are not right, change them, but don't sit on and praise a system perpetuated by illegality.

It's just a hypocritical, massive own goal, and I detracts from all the genuinely bad things done by the "bad" side.

USA can't issue a proper seizure warrant for a foreign country. It's just a declarative judgement; you can seek later to negotiate a legal transfer under that country's sovereignty, but courts which are supposed to be bound by the USC have no jurisdiction. It's legitimate within the context of the USC, but it's not valid. Very much like how Trump makes orders to the executive but pretends they're legislative fiats. USA courts can declare Trump owns the World if they wish, doesn't mean he has any more actual right to grab it by the pussy.

Sadly, your senate and congress chose to end the rule of law and application of the constitution and so no longer acts to curtail the president from being a de facto dictator. So he continues to act against international law and against basic morality: in this case in having foreign sailors kidnapped at sea and in supporting piracy.

My understanding is that it would only be unconstitutional, anti-democratic, and immoral if it was within USA's waters; so you could argue then it would be valid.