this post was submitted on 03 Jan 2026
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politics

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top 35 comments
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[–] JasonDJ@lemmy.zip 49 points 3 days ago

Yo we are capturing world leaders now?

Can someone please reciprocate?

[–] Jumbie@lemmy.zip 51 points 3 days ago

We all watch, shocked. This is wrong for so many reasons.

[–] dgdft@lemmy.world 31 points 3 days ago

Anything to deflect from the Epstein files.

[–] A_norny_mousse@feddit.org 29 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (1 children)

You should know that pessimists hate it when they are proven right. Well, at least I do.

[–] WhatAmLemmy@lemmy.world 12 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Don't worry! I've come to accept that the majority of humanity are mentally ill and I'll be told I'm overreacting no matter how rapid this doomed civilization collapses.

I didn't ask to be brought into this reality. Not my monkeys. Not my circus. I'm here for a good time. Not a long time. Rest in piss everyone.

[–] Onyxonblack@lemmy.zip 1 points 3 days ago

Fuck me that's beautiful! Here I am, a self-proclaimed Misanthropic Anti-Natalist, going on about hating humanity and wishing for our extinction.. And then you just let out this succinct and elequent paragraph.. I'm envious lol. Anyways yeah, fuck this reality, what a horrific shit-show.

[–] j_elgato@leminal.space 20 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Guys, I think we all need to be worried about an invasion of Greenland and fucking Canada actually happening..

[–] shiroininja@lemmy.world 4 points 3 days ago

Katie Miller posted this today.

[–] sol6_vi@lemmy.makearmy.io 19 points 3 days ago (3 children)

what the fuck is happening right now

[–] ynthrepic@lemmy.world 36 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (2 children)

The anti-war FIFA peace prize winner just started a war to liberate Venezuela from imaginary drug lords, whose imaginary drug traffickers were systematically murdered as a pretense, for what is actually a ploy to avoid having to negotiate a deal with China for rare earth minerals because they're too expensive now thanks to tarrifs he imposed.

I don't think this is real life anymore. It's more absurd than any media storyline I'm aware of outside of drug trip movies.

[–] cyberpunk007@lemmy.ca 9 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (1 children)

Is this not about oil?

https://archive.is/UGEmT

It just feels like doublespeak to me

"The Maduros have been charged with conspiracy to commit narco-terrorism, cocaine importation conspiracy, possession of weapons and destructive devices, and conspiracy to possess machineguns and destructive devices against the U.S., according to Bondi’s post."

But then...

"Venezuelan state-run energy company PDVSA’s oil production and refining were normal, and its key facilities had suffered no damage, according to an initial assessment, two sources with knowledge of the company’s operations told Reuters.

The port of La Guaira near Caracas, one of the country’s largest but is not used for oil operations, was reported to have suffered severe damage, Reuters reported.

Trump has repeatedly threatened action against Maduro. On Dec. 23, 2025, he said it would be “smart” for Maduro to leave power.

Trump last month announced a blockade of sanctioned oil tankers moving in and out of Venezuelan waters, saying the country was “completely surrounded by the largest Armada ever assembled in the History of South America."

[–] Washedupcynic@lemmy.ca 4 points 3 days ago (1 children)

It's about oil, but it's about so much more than oil. (Let's not forget ExxonMobil's history in Venezuela involves deep roots from Standard Oil (1920s) to its 2007 expropriation by Hugo Chávez, sparking a lengthy international legal battle over compensation for seized heavy oil assets, culminating in arbitration awards (around $1.6 billion) that Venezuela initially resisted paying but eventually settled partly, though the long-term deal structure remained complex amidst political shifts and declining production.

Lots of trading for oil is done with US currency. This increases the demand for US currency and inflates it. Other countries are getting tired of America's bullshit and switching to the petroyuan, which is form of the official Chinese currency, the yuan intended at least initially for oil trading. One of the reasons the petroyuan was created was that Russia, Venezuela and Iran may be able to avoid the United States' sanctions, so nations such as Saudi Arabia, one of the main oil producers and extractors could avoid dollar hegemony and U.S. pressure. If enough countries switch to the petroyuan it will fuck the economy and the US dollar the way trump rapes little girls.

What we are seeing here directly mirrors what happened in Iran in the 1950's through 1980's. The Anglo-Iranian Oil Company (AIOC) (now known as BP) played a central role in the events leading to the 1953 coup d'état that deposed Iran's democratically elected Prime Minister, Mohammad Mosaddegh. Mosaddegh's push to nationalize Iran's oil industry, previously controlled by the British-owned AIOC, directly motivated the British and American governments to orchestrate his overthrow (known as Operation Ajax or Operation Boot).

[–] ynthrepic@lemmy.world 2 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

Thanks for the additional context.

It is of course about all supposed benefits to the US of economic colonisation.

The rare earth component seems less known. Articles like this may shed some light.

[–] sol6_vi@lemmy.makearmy.io 1 points 3 days ago

Thanks for the recap. South America is kind of a blind spot for me on geopolitics.

[–] billwashere@lemmy.world 10 points 3 days ago (2 children)
[–] Doomsider@lemmy.world 1 points 3 days ago

Always is. Always was.

[–] PlaidBaron@lemmy.world 2 points 3 days ago

Americans havent done shit to stop the current government overeach and they know no one will stop them. Thats what.

[–] Dadifer@lemmy.world 13 points 3 days ago
[–] ZombieCyborgFromOuterSpace@piefed.ca 12 points 3 days ago (1 children)

I've asked the same question in another thread, but was this war approved by congress? Isn't this illegal? 

[–] ShellMonkey@piefed.socdojo.com 32 points 3 days ago (2 children)

Congress functionally ceded it's war authority with the war powers act after 9/11. Anything that can be tagged as 'terrorism' lets the president act unilaterally. If I'm not mistaken though we haven't had a proper declared war since WW2.

[–] TheBeardmancer@lemmy.dbzer0.com 21 points 3 days ago (1 children)

This. There's a reason they've suddenly coined and repeatedly abused the term "narco-terrorist" because they get a free pass with no oversight.

[–] CharlesDarwin@lemmy.world 2 points 3 days ago

That term has been abused for decades now. These guys didn't coin anything, they are just bringing back a rather nonsense trope.

[–] ZombieCyborgFromOuterSpace@piefed.ca 2 points 3 days ago (1 children)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Declaration_of_war_by_the_United_States

Afraid not, that was pursued under the 'Gulf of Tonkin Resolution'

[–] pachrist@lemmy.world 4 points 3 days ago

Cool that Maduro is out of power.

Less cool that we've set a precedent for using the military to abduct world leaders.

Very uncool that some Republican sycophant is going to be military governor of Venezuela.

[–] FreshParsnip@lemmy.ca 3 points 3 days ago

Are the people who didn't vote happy now?

[–] Zamboni_Driver@lemmy.ca 4 points 3 days ago (1 children)

I found some good background info on this "stolen oil" situation at snopes of all places.

https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/trump-venezuela-us-oil/

[–] cyberpunk007@lemmy.ca 2 points 3 days ago (2 children)

It was easier for me to do this:

https://archive.is/UGEmT

Than to log into my firewall and disable ad blocking.

[–] A_norny_mousse@feddit.org 2 points 3 days ago

FWIW Snopes shows perfectly here with uBlock Origin at full blast, no third party content coming through.

[–] Zamboni_Driver@lemmy.ca 0 points 3 days ago (1 children)

ok.... thanks for letting me know. It was easier for me to just read the text of the article. I didn't even pay attention to the ads because I was trying to read the information on the website.

Do you not feel that snopes should be supported financially for this type of journalism?

[–] cyberpunk007@lemmy.ca 0 points 3 days ago (1 children)

I'm not getting into the ins and outs of ad support models, laziness prevails.

[–] Zamboni_Driver@lemmy.ca 0 points 3 days ago (1 children)

But you did get into it, lol. Why even make that comment.

[–] cyberpunk007@lemmy.ca 1 points 3 days ago

I'm open to hearing how saying not getting into the ins and outs of ad supported models counts as "getting into it"

[–] DylanMc6@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 3 days ago

Maduro just fled to the US, and all Trump had to say is "yep, we've got him". Venezuela is gonna fight back, aren't they?