US strikes Venezuela and says its leader, Maduro, has been captured and flown out of the country
Amazing what can be accomplished when you have no F’s to give, aren’t worried about appeasing various political views, aren’t worried about what the media will say, and unwilling to committee every decision into indecision and inaction.
All the folks claiming these actions are “illegal” or “act of war”, etc may want to ask for refunds on their law degrees, or at the very least do a little research on the laws they claim are being broken.
This morning I awoke after sleeping soundly in my bed because of rough men who stood ready in the night to visit violence on those who would do us harm.
God bless the USA, our President, and our military.
Anyone rooting or hoping for DJT to fail is rooting for America to fail.
What part of "...Shall not be infringed" don't you understand???
January 03, 2026, 11:22 AM
FenderBender
Boy supporting Trump and Cruz in 2015 really was the right call.
Very exciting for the region, Venezuela is arguably the most beautiful country on earth the Eco-tourism and the oil money is going to lead to some truly phenomenal situations.
_____________________________________________ Proverbs 3:31 "Envy thou not the oppressor, and choose none of his ways."
January 03, 2026, 11:23 AM
Leemur
quote:
Originally posted by xd45man: I hope it was one of those situations where this asshat was gently awoken by a soft good morning from one of our tier one badasses. Wakes up like WTF?
January 03, 2026, 12:19 PM
Balzé Halzé
Guess the joke about Rubio being the next President of Venezuela isn't far off. Haha.
****************
Hegseth and Rubio Will Work As 'A Team' With People Of Venezuela, Trump Says
Trump shared that Secretary of War Pete Hegseth and Secretary of State Marco Rubio will work as a team with the people of Venezuela to "make sure" that the country is headed towards a peaceful transition.
If Some is Good, and More is Better.....then Too Much, is Just Enough !! Trump 47....Making America Great Again! "May Almighty God bless the United States of America" - parabellum 7/26/20 Live Free or Die!
"The Almighty, He put some livin' things on this earth so a man can eat." - Festus Haggen, Gunsmoke
January 03, 2026, 12:30 PM
Gustofer
^^^^^^^ Ain't that the truth.
________________________________________________________ It is long past time for a Convention of States. The Founding Fathers gave us this tool to fix an out of control government and we need to use it.
January 03, 2026, 12:31 PM
2BobTanner
quote:
Originally posted by Carpentermaass84: Occupying Venezuela gives us an opportunity to stand up a strong Democracy that will counter Chinese influence in the region. A lot of the costs (military occupation, building infrastructure, etc) can be offset by seizing oil and gas assets. Hopefully we perform the same operation in Colimbia too.
Kurt Schlichter’s latest Kelly Turnbull book “Red Panama” has a close parallel to what just occurred in Columbia, even identifying Somali invested Minneapolis which has been renamed to Mogadishu, MN. I’m not trying to boost his sales, he does that well enough, but damn if he isn’t prescient in some actions, kinda like Tom Clancy and his Jack Ryan novels.
--------------------- DJT-45/47 MAGA !!!!!
“Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum videtur.”
"Sometimes I wonder whether the world is being run by smart people who are putting us on, or by imbeciles who really mean it." — Mark Twain
“Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard.” — H. L. Mencken
If Some is Good, and More is Better.....then Too Much, is Just Enough !! Trump 47....Making America Great Again! "May Almighty God bless the United States of America" - parabellum 7/26/20 Live Free or Die!
January 03, 2026, 01:22 PM
corsair
quote:
Originally posted by Sig2340: Maduro should rat everyone involved out.
Very likely. Noriega did the same once it became clear to him that his party was over.
quote:
Originally posted by CPD SIG:
quote:
Originally posted by smlsig:
quote:
Originally posted by Calif Phil: Marco Rubio has been nothing short of fantastic, he is setting himself up to make a great President. This operation will also put the squeeze on Cuba.
And hopefully Mexico.
Won't put the squeeze on Mexico that much. Way too much coming from Columbia, Peru, Ecuador.
The Colombians voted in a left-winger for the first time in Petro 3 years ago and, things aren't going so good there; their border regions have been swelling with Venezuelan refugees so the next 30-days will be interesting. Petro's gums have been flapping quite a bit since his last NYC visit to the UN, elections are later this year, Colombia may be up for a change. The success that most S.American's are seeing in Argentina with Milei has a lot of people seeing possibilities of a different way forward.
Peru is a pretty violent place, they also have a presidential election this year. Ecuador swings wildly between left & right for its presidents, we (the US) used to operate out of one of their bases for awhile, that got squashed about a decade ago and since then drug shipments continue to rise. Presidential elections later this Fall for them. As for Cuba...taking out Maduro blunts their 'revolutionary activities' which they so fondly enjoy exporting. They'll likely continue to reorient themselves to undermining Brazil and the hollowing out of Mexico. While most Mexicans are quite proud and nationalistic, the reality is they've been a cozy asylum shelter for far-left political exiles for a very long time. If anything happens to Mexico I predict it'll be a collapse of their own doing, the people are getting tired of the narcos running things along with the politicos giving them top-cover.
...let him who has no sword sell his robe and buy one. Luke 22:35-36 NAV
"Behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves; so be shrewd as serpents and innocent as doves." Matthew 10:16 NASV
January 03, 2026, 02:02 PM
steve495
The original U.S. federal indictment of Maduro was in March 2020. That was public, and it's been sitting there for almost six years with no action taken.
There is a NEW indictment following up on the first. It was unsealed today, but has not been posted yet. Supposedly, it includes quite a bit of detail.
Evil exists. You can not negotiate with, bribe or placate evil. You're not going to be able to have it sit down with Dr. Phil for an anger management session either.
January 03, 2026, 02:31 PM
cas
Alright Don, now send them to NYC!
January 03, 2026, 02:41 PM
parabellum
Some are saying she was already in Russia. You can't flee to where you are, so...
“The most senior member of the United States military has offered a grippingly detailed account of how Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro was captured. …”
Venezuela currently has 303 billion barrels of crude oil reserves, which Trump says the US now controls.
Oil prices are trading at ~$57/barrel, making Venezuela's total reserves worth $17.3 TRILLION.
Even if the US sells this oil for HALF of the market rate, that's still $8.7 TRILLION.
In other words, in 12 hours, the US has gained control of oil reserves worth more than the entire GDP of ALL countries in the world, aside from the US and China.
That's 4 TIMES larger than the GDP of Japan.
Most people do not realize how much the world just changed.
Oil markets will react to this news for the first time on Sunday at 6 PM ET.
The next few days will be critical."
January 03, 2026, 03:01 PM
nhracecraft
quote:
Originally posted by parabellum: Some are saying she was already in Russia. You can't flee to where you are, so...
During the press conference earlier DTJ had mentioned that he/they had been communicating with her (speaking with via phone?), plus they mentioned that she had been 'sworn in', which would infer that she was in Venezuela at the time. I'm sure 'we' know exactly where she is. Regardless, if she did flee Venezuela, it would've been with the permission of the U.S. as we control the airspace down there right now, and no planes would be 'leaving' for anywhere w/o our blessing.
If Some is Good, and More is Better.....then Too Much, is Just Enough !! Trump 47....Making America Great Again! "May Almighty God bless the United States of America" - parabellum 7/26/20 Live Free or Die!
Venezuela currently has 303 billion barrels of crude oil reserves, which Trump says the US now controls.
Oil prices are trading at ~$57/barrel, making Venezuela's total reserves worth $17.3 TRILLION.
Their crude oil is primarily in the Orinoco Belt, and it's a heavy crude which means 2 things:
It's very difficult to produce. When Chavez demanded 60% ownership of the oilfields, ExxonMobil and Conoco said "see you in court" and were smart enough to have made 1990s contracts with Venezuela having 1st world collateral so they could walk away and fight in World Court. Production in the seized assets has fallen off by 61% without the US major's know how.
Their crude oil is both heavy (good mental picture is closer to tar) and full of sulfur so it sells at a discount compared to a Brent or WTI so the Twitter author made a mistake grabbing the latest NYMEX quote for their calculation. Merey is one of their crudes and it was trading at a $21 discount compared to Brent in Dec '25. It'll be interesting to see the impact of the sanctions on the prices of Merey as they've been around as far back as '05 so I can't remember what the price was like without sanctions.
Ego is the anesthesia that deadens the pain of stupidity
DISCLAIMER: These are the author's own personal views and do not represent the views of the author's employer.
