Grenada? OK. Panama? Hunky Dory. Bin Laden Raid. Great. Kidnapping a narco-communist dictator a stone's throw from the US? REE! INTERNATIONAL LAW!
Sorry, but if you spent the last few years clapping along to censorship, blatant anti-white racism, anti-male feminist girlboss incompetence (and the illegal discrimination that went along with the two priors), mandatory jabs mandates from OSHA from a med that doesn't work, a president with dementia with someone illegally operating an autopen, and now multi-billion dollar Somali vote buying fraud operation, the only answer to pearl clutching is "fuck you. we can, and we will".
However, also amazingly hypocritical of Rubio to say "they are not going to come from outside our hemisphere, destabilize our region in our own backyard and have us pay the price for it." Um, you mean like the U.S. has done constantly in Europe, Asia, the Middle East and Africa? By this logic Rubio is justifying Russia invading Ukraine, Iran invading Israel, and China invading Taiwan!
Or maybe, given that we can't really do anything about Russia and China having free reign in their own backyard, we're shoring up our defense of our own backyard.
Yes, all of that. And to think that we've really only had a glimpse of the corruption, incompetence and outright malice within these systems, the 'tip of the iceberg'. The resurgence of the guillotine industry cannot be far off.
Maybe (and fuck the civilization-destroying left in all their evil).
But we're supposed to just swallow all the administration talking points about an evil dictator and support the US just capturing a foreign leader in his home?
Iraq/Saddam, Libya, Ukraine, covid - the list of things we've been lied to about is endless. But this time it's different?
I've seen rumors that some of the electronic voting irregularities are connected to Venezuela, which might change the story a bit. But I'm skeptical of words/justifications from a US government.
Ill just say this, what's scarier than Congress's never ending quest in abdicating their duties is that half our country and the EU identifies more with the ethos of dictatorships than the founding principles of liberal democracy.
The belief that humans can consciously design and control complex societies, especially economies, rather than relying on the spontaneous order that emerges from individual actions, particularly the price system in markets, leading to the errors of socialism and central planning. It's the hubris that a central mind or group can possess enough knowledge to direct society better than millions of decentralized actors.
it's supposed to be tough for libertarians. that's why our systems and social contracts are so robust and resilient and slow to defend themselves.
there is real commitment to systems of rights.
it's also why, once "the social contract goes to war" there is no more organized, effective, or more implacable foe than "the men who just wanted to be left alone."
i do not think one can build a regime in a place like venezeula or iraq by foreign fiat. but i do think one can kick out those bending it to tyranny to its people and threat to the US. war is hell. it's the moment you stop caring about "morals" and go impose your will.
the west has done this before. it's how much of the global slave trade, especially in africa, by africans, was finally stopped. it's an interesting ethical quandary: at what point is the libertarian solution to violate sovereignty and depose governments and orders?
and you cannot just depose and leave. those power vacuums rarely go well. venezeuala has some history of being a pretty reasonable, free, and prosperous place. the belief that its people could, especially possessed of the lessons of the recent past, manage this again seems plausible in a manner that a place like iraq is not. they seem to have some viable and sane political movements.
but honestly, was leaving russia, china, and iran there to prop up a socialist dictator really an option? where is the "libertarian" in that?
Grumpy old GenX an-cap was losing argument to my spritely and bright eyed GenZ ancap son the other day on the Somali-flavored ravaging of our state and the country, and then I pointed out that, within the framework of the territorial monopoly of force, the maintenance of order *within* that territory, and defense of the walls, is *the only agreed-upon job* that the state gets to do.
And we now have an anarcho-tyranny, which means that you have to pick a team and get your gangleader to the top of the pile.
But the transitional solution is the devolve power to the states that are more favorable to your culture and your guns, stay strapped, and demand, *once you are, indeed, strapped,* that the state start defending its productive populace. Give up on the areas of lost cause (of which I am in one) because Becky from Vassar has to go somewhere so encourage her to go where she can enjoy the fruits of her ideology. *Do not let her immigrate to your state from her shithole state without a naturalization process and a moratorium on political influence.*
Free movement within the country is fine. The right to move is important. *But you cannot participate in the politics until you’ve proven yourself.* Full stop.
Yes, this is what I would like to see change. We need to return power to the states and the states need to be able to enforce stricter enfranchisement rules.
These types of power quandaries always flummox libertarians...of which I am loosely one (or have been in the past). However, libertarian is more of a general philosophy rather than a political persuasion since they would not know what to do with power if they were given a city council...perhaps argue as to whether mandatory trash pick-up is too authoritarian. In the real world, whatever constitutes American libertarianism perpetually falls back to Enlightenment ideals at the precise moment when the application of power and common sense are required. I think you have threaded the needle here. Agree or disagree, either we were going to flex or the China/Russia alliance was going to continue to do so.
1. libertarians do, indeed, know what to do with power. limit it for the state and devolve it to the individuals who live within the social contract. they certainly knew what to do with it when they founded the united states of america.
2. where libertarians struggle is in dealing with "outlaws." one contract violator is easy, but huge gangs of them that capture the institutions that the libertarians made become a serious problem. they take a government instanciated to defend the individual and turn it into a collectivist mechanism for suppressing him.
and it takes libertarians a long time to see enough evil in them that they attack their own systems as themselves having exited the social contract.
but eventually you have to.
turning the rugged individualism republic into a coercive democracy is the civilizational equivalent of hiding an insurgency weapons dump under the schools and hospitals of the society it seeks to overthrow,
One of the goals of libertarianism is ensuring that all authority is fully accountable, whether by an accountable minimalist government or a free market, or both.
Of course, this breaks down when there is nobody powerful enough, except perhaps God in His time, to impose accountability in certain arenas.
I'm curious how many billions were spent to bribe their military and security services to stand down. The oil industry should payback the US taxpayers.
There were many attempted coups against Chavez, and one or two against Maduro. Each one gave Chavez/Maduro the ability to see and root out all who were not ideologically and personally (corruption) loyal to them. The military was "purified," courts, police, businesses, etc. Those with status and power, influence were those who could be relied on to oppose future coups. To imagine those institutions will snap into place under a more free, less corrupt system requires a whole lot of imagination. A new leader with old loyalties will get nowhere.
This isn't an impossible task, but it won't be easy. Few can be trusted to move Venezuela away from the system that they embraced, supported every previous time an opportunity came to oust the Chavez/Maduro regime. It wasn't just fear or loyalty to status. It was support for the Marxist revolution and the accompanying corruption they were enriched by. They don't want to work for what came easy to them by virtue of legalized theft.
That was exactly what the hubs and I were just speaking about… It’s not just Maduro… It was everyone that agreed with him or was put in place by him. They ALL need to be routed out.
I think you overlook how Chavez came to power in the first place. Although Venezuela had oil money it was not going to help the poor. Thus he was able to campaign on Venezuela first.
I visted the country numerous times in the early 1990s and crime was rampant. No one even stopped at red lights at night nor dared to walk the streets. Chavez offered a change.
Trump's initial comments indicate that yet again US oil companies will benefit and the locals will only suffer yet again.
No doubt that is true. But it's missing context. While income disparity was high, visible, exponentially more Venezuelan's had a higher standard of living in that highly stratified system than they do since Chavez came to power; the poor got poorer, the middle class became poor.
And perhaps the most important context your comment overlooks is that Chavez came to power due to the division of his opposition. He absolutely did not have majority support. The "conservatives" for lack of a better catch-all word opposed each other more than they opposed Chavez. Chavez never had majority support - until he developed the election rigging vote machine system he eventually exported to the US and world. And even as those rigged machines were being brought online the opposition to his socialist regime remained fractured, refused to unify behind a single opponent. Chavez knew his unpopularity was unstable, he would lose power unless he rigged future elections when his opponents finally decided he was the bigger threat.
So while what you said is true, he never had enough support among the poor, crime-infested streets to come to power without divided opponents. Many suspect many of his opponents were intentionally placed in order to give him a plurality of the vote.
And fwiw, Hitler rose to power the exact same way, he didn't win a majority in any free and fair election - even in the snap election declared after the Reichstag fire! Pluralities are how socialists initially come to power - yes, Hitler was a socialist. Then they change the rules, constitutions to ensure they never lose. A cautionary lesson for us.
No to Canada, a puppet state/colony/satellite (along with Australia) of England. You can count on the UK to subvert everything they touch, and will continue to punish the US colonies for having the audacity to declare independence. And the UK/EU at this point suffers from self inflicted wounds (the better to control the individual countries). They are a greater threat simply because we have been conditioned to regard them as allies, and therefore do not maintain proper skepticism and vigilance.
Vivek touched on this on why he went from being a libertarian to a conservative. The reality is that China is putting its tentacles everywhere. Years ago, I heard a man from an African nation asking for the US to come in as he felt at least they give something back in value where the Chinese only took.
The US never gives something back in value - I wonder what he means. The Chinese on the other hand actually build infrastructure yet more importantly they live among the locals.
It is when national sovereignty is predicated on the notion of individual sovereignty. If the ideals represented that you and not the state should be the determinant of your life, then that does align with libertarian thought.
The last thing we want is a true democracy. Toqueville saw this as he warned of "democratic despotism." Is the illegal immigrant invasion plan B?
What appears to be plan A was getting people to a point where they were willing to forego self-governance, and it is an attractive thing. I think Covid was a huge push in that direction.
Yeah, but it is occasionally, because if you allow tyranny (as in Biden and the planned illegal invasion) you may not have the option to practice libertarianism because both the individual and our nations sovereignty is compromised.
It's a lot easier for things to go right when "reverting to the mean" is an improvement rather then a detriment.
Venezuela needs only revert to the mean of "mediocre Latin American country" to be a big win compared to the status quo.
By contrast Iraq and Afghanistan reverted to the mean of "cousin fucking low IQ shitholes" rather then modern high IQ democracies, who could have guessed.
It’s even worse than that. Government is unlimited power and thus attracts the kind of people who are drawn to unlimited power. Its not just that a bureaucracy entirely staffed by those with pure intentions couldn’t manage something this large and steer it to good results. Its that those steering the ship are more likely to be sociopaths then people of good intent.
Sociopaths coming to the DC area is what I saw during 30 years of living there. Maybe it will change?
My son, a NH resident, is entertaining a DOGE job offer. He'll be required to meet in person once a month with the rest remote work.
Will it work out to live a libertarian lifestyle while working for the federal government? It could, with DataRepublican in UT as an example, though she isn't an employee AFAIK.
For more than 2,500 years, western man has been trying to devise a stable, rational, fair, honest form of government / commonwealth. Our founding fathers did a bang up job of doing so about 250 years ago, but now I fear something new, an update so to speak, is urgently needed. Good people need to take a hard look at what the US government has evolved into over time; millions of man-hours (by some very clever people) have gone into warping original intents, gaming the system, and self-enrichment. The size and scope of the government has put us on a glide path to decline. The enormous size and complexity, combined with unaccountability, has created enormous problems that cannot be solved without restructuring, simplification, and people of integrity (which excludes political parties and most current politicians).
Founders predicted most of this- particularly the fraud and largesse. They didn’t predict the moral decay of the people to its current extent but were aware it would be an issue as John Adams pointed out in his quote about this government being only designed for a moral and religious people.
De Tocqueville predicted it in Democracy in America. If there's loot to be had, someone's going to show up to loot it. Both the moochers and the fraudsters. And look where we are now, a $40 trillion fiat hole with tens of billions or more shunted to sociopaths. And the socialist "solution" presented is actually just more of the same, on steroids, with less liberty and no justice. Ugh.
Some have called for a Constitutional Convention...I worry about what the dimwits in charge would do with such power. But can we call a Convention where the only things on the table are the original words and intent of the Constitution?
If we could somehow do that and have as a result a return to much more limited Federal government, devolving most of what they have taken back to the States, Counties, and Cities, that would help a lot as there would be more accountability.
If government left the stage so to speak, I also worry about what the 1000 richest men in the world might do, what could they do then that they can't do now? How much of that would be in the interest of the average guy?
And what would the Putins and Xis of the world do if the US Central government were very much weakened?
My ideal: the USG should only have one Department, the Department of War. Diplomacy would be an agency within that Dept with the top diplomat reporting to the Sec of War and POTUS. Fund all that at about $1trillion.
End Social Security...but, pay what's owed to current Social Security recipients and adjust what's paid to future recipients (those who have paid in but have not retired yet) to reflect their now cancelled "contributions".
End all welfare. For those who in the future would require something like Social Security to survive in old age, leave that to the States to decide and provide.
The problem few seem to see yet are the controlling overlays in place.
The options you bring up are valid but there is a big exception in place that was never there before- a controlling system of population control which can be amped up at any time to more rapidly destroy and disable people (and every living thing).
Chemical sky dumps, emf microwave radiation from massive network of"cell" towers (which work also with directed energy in many cases), and unrestricted placement of AI data centers and towers, dishes, and antennas nationwide CHANGE EVERYTHING.
Like a kidnapper who has strung up the victim with explosive devices if they try to run or be rescued, the family might come to rescue but is helpless against the safeguards in place. One move the kidnappers don't like and the kidnapped victim is still toast, even if ransom is paid.
These networks have been slowly ramped up without any permission from the people it affects to the point where hospitals are overflowing with neurological issues, people are exhausted, in pain, crippled, unable to think, or disabled gradually over time and they think it is just normal aging.
At any time these systems of destruction can be ramped up to control people and force compliance when it comes right down to it.
To truly have freedom, these networks need to be redone to insure safety to people first and provide simple service- not the widespread nightmare it has become.
I think you may have left out one important point regarding the motivation of the Progressives in constructing their “New World Order”. You’ve made the assumption that they are sincere about their rhetoric, that they really believe in their centrally planned Utopia. On the contrary, I think most of them know it’s a scam aimed at the naive and ignorant, but they also know that they can steal with impunity at the nodes of the confiscatory system. And, it’s why they must defend the system at all costs, not just to preserve the gravy train but to hide the crimes.
First of all, I appreciate the drop. I've been disheartened by either reading/watching the rah rah of why this is great or, as the Glenn Greenwald commentators screech, it's the JEWS, it's the JEWS. Here, I feel like I am in a room with adults.
That said, the operations makes me uneasy. The carnage from the Iraq War and the invasion of Afghanistan is still in the rearview mirror. General Smedley Butler's "War is a Racket" should be read by everyone, as well as the decision Schenck v. US. In Schenck, a guy was persecuted under a war time statute criminalizing any effort to undermine the war effort. He was handing out flyers against the WWI draft, arguing pretty much what General Butler would later write. Butler got accolades while Schenck went to prison. And don't forget Bush's You are either with us or against us rhetoric, with its updated version deployed during Covid.
That said, I remember when Venezuela was the emerging star in the 1980s. When a Venezuelan exile (a teacher) told me of the danger Chavez posed and that the US needed to depose him, I thought she was crazy. The last thing I wanted was for the US to meddle in South America and Central America after the bloodbaths of the 70s and 80s. Obviously, she was right. And China and Russia are there just as they are in Africa. Pretending that the International Court can upend reality is like pretending men wearing skirts are women. Lies weaken us.
Yes, but... What makes me uneasy about the U.S. having covertly destabilized those past leftist regimes in Latin America are the right-wing horrors who then subsequently gained power.
Overt exercises of strength generally cause unease among some.
Question is why they don't react similarly SQUICK to the covert exercises even as those are laid out for public attention by people laboring to drag them into the light.
The US govt has lied to us nonstop for decades, but this time is different?
I see supposedly red-pilled people just repeating the administration talking points. I might have missed something, but I don't see any reason to believe the US govt on this one.
I hear you and used to be a libertarian too. But, I'm reminded of the meme showing the person about to be executed by fiat of a tyrant, decrying the use of government power to stop them.
When faced with a choice to prioritize respect for the individual over serving the common good, if you still choose respect for the individual you are in my book a libertarian.
I have long been sympathetic to the general concepts behind libertarian politics (my first vote, in 1976, was for the Libertarian candidate). The problem with it, or so it seems to me, is that “everyone go do his own thing” doesn’t really provide anything concrete around which to rally. It’s possibly a useful adjunct to a more tangible animating principle, but experience has shown, at least over the 50 years I have been watching, that it isn’t really viable as a stand-alone.
Trump Makes 'Might Makes Right' Great Again. (In my GenX schooling we got a noseful of the odiousness of that philosophy.) In a single, classic Art of the Deal move, Trump has established strategic leverage with respect to many parties - the axis of China, Russia, and Iran that was circling Venezuela. In addition to signaling "what can happen to you", and removing a safe haven for miscreants, the newly gained control of oil assets more importantly is a pressure point that resets the framework for other negotiations. Brilliant? Master stroke? It is doubtful that the affected powers will not respond, but it remains to be seen the extent to which they are willing and capable of responding. There are calls for Brasil next. Will this lead to further actions that help stem the flow of drugs into our country? That may be among the motivations and justifications, but the fruits also remain to be seen. Perhaps this is also an occasion to gain a closer look at Smartmatic. So many threads that intersect!
My measure of the President is to watch and see what he accomplishes. So far I believe he has accomplished far more than any other prez since I first voted in 1968!
There is no spontaneous order that emerges from individual actions. That premise is false. Societal order emerges from co-operation and compromise, and lasts as long as the agreements upon which it is founded are respected.
It's tough for me to think that emulating Thomas Woodrow Wilson is where we are, but that's where we are. "I am going to teach the South American republics to elect good men." Didn't that guy also oversee the 16th, 17th, 18th, and 19th Amendments, and the creation of the FBI?
In the past, I was always sympathetic to libertarian ideals. Not wholly comfortable with them but sympathetic certainly.
But no longer. The world is a rough and tumble place. Turning the other cheek, giving ground, rationalizing bad behavoir- all are traits of the libertarian. And they lead to disaster.
Libertarianism exists only in a cocoon made possible by stronger, more committed men who are prone to take action- violent action if needed. Got that? Your ideals exist solely within a cocoon, a protected space. Much like the woke left.
“it’s why they did it like this, it’s a form of asymmetric warfare where you box queensbury rules and they keep kicking you in the nuts and cold cocking you in the back of the head with a pipe wrench while the ref the bribed pretends not to see.”
This explains our problem in terms we all can understand!
Real life has been true since, you know, forever: If you don't win, you lose. If you're not strong, you're weak.
We've been fed an awful lot of bullshit for a very long time. You ever notice that them famous champions of "bipartisanship" in Congress have always been the very worst people just congratulating each other on their thievery?
The guys who worked together long enough to craft and ratify our Constitution went back to hating each other as soon as the work was done. We should remember that just as much as we celebrate their extraordinary achievement.
Anyway--can we send Abrego Garcia to Venezuela now?
Someone said on X last night that we can get Maduro out of his country but we can't get Abrego Garcia out of ours (I paraphrase) and I ain't stopped thinking about it since.
There's a very real chance our judicial system will also let Maduro go. That's the intersection of those things I'm most concerned about.
Trump 2.0's modus operandi has been to precisely follow the rules. It's gotten him a string of successes in court (sometimes requiring appeals, but still ultimately victories). We even are allowing Maduro's vice president to become president, because that's what their constitution says. But I think we're rapidly approaching the point where the rules set us up to fail right into the clutches of the Marxists. And it remains to be seen if Trump is ready to do what's necessary then.
But I think Trump Redux is wise to follow the rules. All the rest of it is on us. As I keep saying here, it's been many decades of the GOP being the party of flabby losers unfit to counter a Democratic Party of deranged vicious toddlers.
The GOP as a national party has never given me one candidate I could support, and not least of the reasons I finally voted for Trump for the first and presumably last time is because I hope he'll prove to be the destruction of both parties as they are presently constituted.
It's always been with the complicity of Republicans in Congress that we get morons like our girls Ketanji and Sonia on the Supreme Court; that every once-decent university became the domains of shits like Chomsky and all his wretched spiritual children; that public education everywhere became unfit to even teach our little kids to read and write on the most basic level.
Every fool who thought and continues to think that Reagan was a great President helped to bring us here. At least I've repented of voting for Obama twice. But he was just the culmination of all that conservative dereliction of duty. Not even the culmination considering that Biden was George W. Bush's fifth term.
I agree with your complaint about Republicans, except for some who have done really nice work on legislative committees: Ron Johnson platforming the dissident doctors during Covid, Elyse Stefanic on antisemitism. My governer, DeSantis, did a really fine job of protecting us from the over reach of the federal gov't during Covid, while also getting medicine that worked and platforming dissident doctors. Personally, though, the Republican I like best all around for running for president in '28 is Ted Cruz; he's experienced and he's been correct on my issues for a long time. If Republican pols would just drop their antiabortion absolutism, the way Trump did, there's a chance the ticket could carry the Independents.
I remember when Alan Dershowitz said Ted Cruz had been the most brilliant student he'd ever had and I was truly absolutely shocked. I have always, always thought Ted is one of the biggest morons around politics.
Who knew, right?
For me, I'm out of it henceforward. Voting for Trump and a straight Republican ticket in 2024--for the first time in my life--shall have been the only votes of my lifetime I will never regret and the universe never gonna line up that way again. I did my part; I whored out my integrity for the sake of the nation and my dainties continue to feel all sparkly but Trump is a unique force. All I can see is most Republicans hoping to outlast him and go back to the usual as soon as they can.
I appreciate your remarks here though. In my view one of the most sensible political comments I've read here.
On a side note, the democrat cabal willfully gave up any claim concerning the legality of things when it to chose to mercilessly persecute Trump and his supporters for ten solid years.
If some neutral, intelligent, experienced party wants to discuss the legality of what Trump has done, I will listen. On the other hand, the democrat cabal can kiss my ass.
I've been saying for years, that "you need to deal with the reasonable men, because you don't want to have to deal with me." And for years, I've been laughed at. I'm going to call once more, for "Please, for the love our our nation, Lefties, back down. At least throw the most obvious crooks and would be dictators to the wolves, and maybe we'll let your sled escape with that. If you continue to run the way you are, the wolves will hamstring your horses, and you'll all perish. And with you will perish a wonderful and beautiful nation. What ever comes out the other side will not look like what Jefferson, Washington, Franklin and the boys envisioned and designed."
And despite what the MSM says, that one side with most of the firearms is being joined by people who were for a long time the left's strongest voting bases.
Bukele is admittedly rather more brutal than I would care for. Which is not to say that he was not needed. I suspect gato is wishcasting that we manage to fix things before we get to that point here.
The left doesn't understand that Trump is the *polite* attempt to restore the country.
As someone I follow on X has said for over a decade, "The Tea Party was the polite ask. Trump is the firm request. They won't like what comes next if he's stopped".
Who? Trump? If that is what you mean referring to lockdowns, he turned the original intent of the slime behind the lockdown plan already in place from iron fist imprisonment to soft rules that could be creatively disobeyed without mortal consequences if one had the guts to do so.
Arresting a Communist dictator and flying him to Mamdami's back yard is absolutely a message being sent about that. (As was flying him slowly in a helicopter past the Statue of Liberty).
I guess our domestic problems have been fixed, so no worries. A third world dictator can be arrested using half the naval fleet, but Fauci, Baric, and Daszac are still living large. Awesome.
One does not waste energy on toppling by force that which is already teetering toward collapse
> t., suburbanizing rural hinterlands of Pugetopolis...where half the California carpetbatter retirees I and my darling knew, who came here in the '00s with plump public pensions to escape Down There, and live out their lives (they thought) happily golfing, boating, cruising, etc....they have already fled, because their presence fed this beast that's devouring everything. They came in, inflated real estate prices--and taxation--by 100 or more percent, and now move on like the "Republican" locusts they always were.
Did I see the people of VENEZUELA dancing in the streets? Or was that stock film from a New Year Eve celebration? Hard to say what is true from where I sit ((Communist Canada, lead by DEAR LEADER MARX CARNEY).
I can't speak for the videos out of Venezuela, but I know the Venezuelan community in Miami was poppin' all yesterday (and no pun intended, I mean they started celebrating as soon as the news got out).
X is full of people from Venezuela telling whiney US/Euro/Canadian leftists to kill themselves, and there are real verified videos of celebrations there.
Completely agree, El Gato! This is time for action and it requires somebody with testicles.. like Trump.. America has got to reign in the lefty loonies defending the criminals, the illegal immigrants..
Completely fed up with these Marxist/civilization destroyers.. time to round them up and ship them out..
that includes anyone interfering with ICE …
Trump like him or not is on the right track.. we need to impeach some of these judges that continuously interfere with his cleaning up our nation… sick, and tired of these politicized hacks facilitating Lawfare against Trump..
Congressional Republicans are captured; that's why they elected the leaders they did. So you can forget about their impeaching judges. John McCain tried to get campaign finance reform done and he couldn't. Maybe that reform should be the priority now. Otherwise, we force our legislators to sell themselves to whoever's buying.
History is full of our "cleansing" of our sphere of influence within the Americas.
Maduro, like Zelensky, is an unauthorized government that was removed by Venezuelan votes.
This action will reverberate throughout Central and South America.
The Transnational gangsters, some of them with American names, got the message. They will spend untold millions to remove and revile the current administration. They will not succeed.
Pretty sure the Venezuela control of election software is well known to Trump. He knows it cost him the 2020. It may not be the main reason to go in, but it had to be dealt with. Must be dealt with
Fascinating. Thanks for the link. This action should have been taken a while ago. But I fear that if nothing is done about vote fraud, we will be in the hands of the Uniparty again inside of a year.
Venezuela increasingly looks the single stick holding up the entire Jenga of modern Marxism. And that's just on the parts we have firm proof of. The more nebulous stuff like the voting machine software and the cartel payments to US Congressmen remains unproven but not unlikely.
This is long, 2 hours, but is all about the voting fraud that began with Hugo Chavez and continues on a broader scale today. Chavez got Obama beating Hilary through these machines. A shorter version is Elizabeth Nickson’s substack Absurdistan from late November that mentions these two CIA men.
... "ideas like “the US is only there for the oil!” fall kind of flat when one returts 'and what, russia, china, and iran were there for the arepas and salsa dancing?'”
Is there any difference between negotiating to buy the oil vs invading with the intention of stealing the oil?
They may or may not have "stolen" it from some large corporations. If (when) these corporations make windfall profits do you believe you will get your cut? Would it have been more appropriate to wait for the pending court decisions regarding these oil claims?
> Would it have been more appropriate to wait for the pending court decisions regarding these oil claims?
The Venezuelan court ruled that Venezuela was completely in the right in taking the infrastructure for Venezuela. The government investigated itself and determined that it had done nothing wrong.
Why would we get a cut of corporate profits? Most people don't work for or hold stock in any of those companies.
"Wait for pending court decisions" lol it was a dictatorship, the cases would never come to court and if they did they would be decided in favor of the (illegitimate) state.
They overtook the drilling sites. I’m not worried about “my cut.” I don’t own the company and am not entitled to someone else’s profits, but I will go to whoever sells gasoline the cheapest, which gives the companies an incentive to “share.” No, it would not be appropriate to wait. The government would drag court cases to infinity and spend millions on licensed thieves, aka lawyers.
I am trying to think of the last war Congress really authorized. The Korean War was a "Police Action" Vietnam similar. If we need to wait for congress to debate and decide to authorize anything = hold breath turn blue. Waiting for the balanced budget all of my 75 years. Still waiting for the end of the temporary income tax that would only be for the rich and would never be more than 3%. and would end after WWI. Must still be going on, huh.
I always like Dr. Steve Turley's back porch videos. I also enjoyed the reference to John Wick 1 "You will do nothing because you can do nothing".
Basically articulated my exact thoughts on the matter.
Access it’s been clear for a while now something was coming in Venezuela, what could have been better? If action was for sure going to happen, what could be better than the surgical strike that was completed quickly with no American casualties?
You can go back even longer to defend the president’s use of power. The first 6 ships in the navy where under direct control of President Thomas Jefferson, Congress had not declared war, but that didn’t stop the President from finding a loophole to fight the Barbary pirates instead of continuing to pay tribute.
And people argue that “drug trafficking isn’t an act of war” but go ahead and tell that to the Chinese, look into what Britain did to them with the east India company. Do people really think China wouldn’t participate in the same actions against their enemies if the opportunity was afforded them? Of course drug running on a large scale is an act of war! In much the same way as rampant “immigration” of people so intend to come and not assimilate and hate our people are invaders.
I like the idea of the board being oveturned, but spend a few hours on reddit or bluesky, and you have to be more than a little concerned about what will replace it.
Unserious sure, but unserious people are numerous enough that they keep electing their unserious clones to congress. What these unserious people want has a real constituency, and when you overturn the board in an all on all fight for supremacy unserious people can and do sometimes win.
Let’s just not get too complacent in believing the arc of history could not bend towards batshit crazy.
I guess I’d say anything can spring out of chaos just look at early 20th century Russia. I do think its a mistake to underestimate 22 year old idiots on reddit if things go very south. There is an element of unpredictability to how movements go viral.
That said I am cautiously optimistic, and I’m on record as saying if you believe in the fourth turning it may be more likely it is the authoritarian left that is discredited and ejected from power. After all they have been running this dumpster fire for the last 100 years.
I do appreciate your work btw, and prefer to think you are right here.
I see your point but caution you not to assume those are all actual individuals rather than algo-driven bot replies/accounts. Demoralization operations are very real. And effective.
Spot on.
Grenada? OK. Panama? Hunky Dory. Bin Laden Raid. Great. Kidnapping a narco-communist dictator a stone's throw from the US? REE! INTERNATIONAL LAW!
Sorry, but if you spent the last few years clapping along to censorship, blatant anti-white racism, anti-male feminist girlboss incompetence (and the illegal discrimination that went along with the two priors), mandatory jabs mandates from OSHA from a med that doesn't work, a president with dementia with someone illegally operating an autopen, and now multi-billion dollar Somali vote buying fraud operation, the only answer to pearl clutching is "fuck you. we can, and we will".
Right?! The hypocrisy has no ceiling
However, also amazingly hypocritical of Rubio to say "they are not going to come from outside our hemisphere, destabilize our region in our own backyard and have us pay the price for it." Um, you mean like the U.S. has done constantly in Europe, Asia, the Middle East and Africa? By this logic Rubio is justifying Russia invading Ukraine, Iran invading Israel, and China invading Taiwan!
You miss the point. America has been the color revolutionist dba nefarious catalyst precisely because of the bad actors
Justifying Russia invading Ukraine and green lighting China invading Taiwan, may be part of the plan.
Or maybe, given that we can't really do anything about Russia and China having free reign in their own backyard, we're shoring up our defense of our own backyard.
Don't forget Gaddafi. Cackler v1 and Obama ruined Libya and executed him. Look up his proposal of gold backed dinars.
Yes, all of that. And to think that we've really only had a glimpse of the corruption, incompetence and outright malice within these systems, the 'tip of the iceberg'. The resurgence of the guillotine industry cannot be far off.
Not to mention the voting machines.
Great summation and yes, we are tired and they can FO. We demand arrests and jail time.
Maybe (and fuck the civilization-destroying left in all their evil).
But we're supposed to just swallow all the administration talking points about an evil dictator and support the US just capturing a foreign leader in his home?
Iraq/Saddam, Libya, Ukraine, covid - the list of things we've been lied to about is endless. But this time it's different?
I've seen rumors that some of the electronic voting irregularities are connected to Venezuela, which might change the story a bit. But I'm skeptical of words/justifications from a US government.
This is a tough one for me as a libertarian.
Ill just say this, what's scarier than Congress's never ending quest in abdicating their duties is that half our country and the EU identifies more with the ethos of dictatorships than the founding principles of liberal democracy.
The belief that humans can consciously design and control complex societies, especially economies, rather than relying on the spontaneous order that emerges from individual actions, particularly the price system in markets, leading to the errors of socialism and central planning. It's the hubris that a central mind or group can possess enough knowledge to direct society better than millions of decentralized actors.
That's the real issue. Maduro is just noise.
it's supposed to be tough for libertarians. that's why our systems and social contracts are so robust and resilient and slow to defend themselves.
there is real commitment to systems of rights.
it's also why, once "the social contract goes to war" there is no more organized, effective, or more implacable foe than "the men who just wanted to be left alone."
i do not think one can build a regime in a place like venezeula or iraq by foreign fiat. but i do think one can kick out those bending it to tyranny to its people and threat to the US. war is hell. it's the moment you stop caring about "morals" and go impose your will.
the west has done this before. it's how much of the global slave trade, especially in africa, by africans, was finally stopped. it's an interesting ethical quandary: at what point is the libertarian solution to violate sovereignty and depose governments and orders?
and you cannot just depose and leave. those power vacuums rarely go well. venezeuala has some history of being a pretty reasonable, free, and prosperous place. the belief that its people could, especially possessed of the lessons of the recent past, manage this again seems plausible in a manner that a place like iraq is not. they seem to have some viable and sane political movements.
but honestly, was leaving russia, china, and iran there to prop up a socialist dictator really an option? where is the "libertarian" in that?
Grumpy old GenX an-cap was losing argument to my spritely and bright eyed GenZ ancap son the other day on the Somali-flavored ravaging of our state and the country, and then I pointed out that, within the framework of the territorial monopoly of force, the maintenance of order *within* that territory, and defense of the walls, is *the only agreed-upon job* that the state gets to do.
And we now have an anarcho-tyranny, which means that you have to pick a team and get your gangleader to the top of the pile.
But the transitional solution is the devolve power to the states that are more favorable to your culture and your guns, stay strapped, and demand, *once you are, indeed, strapped,* that the state start defending its productive populace. Give up on the areas of lost cause (of which I am in one) because Becky from Vassar has to go somewhere so encourage her to go where she can enjoy the fruits of her ideology. *Do not let her immigrate to your state from her shithole state without a naturalization process and a moratorium on political influence.*
Free movement within the country is fine. The right to move is important. *But you cannot participate in the politics until you’ve proven yourself.* Full stop.
> *Do not let her immigrate to your state from her shithole state without a naturalization process and a moratorium on political influence.*
Man, if only this were actually legal. 😕
Yes, this is what I would like to see change. We need to return power to the states and the states need to be able to enforce stricter enfranchisement rules.
❤️
Wow, sounds so much like the original vision of the Republic. Fingers crossed. This would fix so much.
These types of power quandaries always flummox libertarians...of which I am loosely one (or have been in the past). However, libertarian is more of a general philosophy rather than a political persuasion since they would not know what to do with power if they were given a city council...perhaps argue as to whether mandatory trash pick-up is too authoritarian. In the real world, whatever constitutes American libertarianism perpetually falls back to Enlightenment ideals at the precise moment when the application of power and common sense are required. I think you have threaded the needle here. Agree or disagree, either we were going to flex or the China/Russia alliance was going to continue to do so.
i would quibble with this in a couple of ways:
1. libertarians do, indeed, know what to do with power. limit it for the state and devolve it to the individuals who live within the social contract. they certainly knew what to do with it when they founded the united states of america.
2. where libertarians struggle is in dealing with "outlaws." one contract violator is easy, but huge gangs of them that capture the institutions that the libertarians made become a serious problem. they take a government instanciated to defend the individual and turn it into a collectivist mechanism for suppressing him.
and it takes libertarians a long time to see enough evil in them that they attack their own systems as themselves having exited the social contract.
but eventually you have to.
turning the rugged individualism republic into a coercive democracy is the civilizational equivalent of hiding an insurgency weapons dump under the schools and hospitals of the society it seeks to overthrow,
Sometimes rugged individualism requires the warmth of tyranny. Sometimes intolerance can only be abated by intolerance.
One of the goals of libertarianism is ensuring that all authority is fully accountable, whether by an accountable minimalist government or a free market, or both.
Of course, this breaks down when there is nobody powerful enough, except perhaps God in His time, to impose accountability in certain arenas.
A libertarian quibbling? What is this strange madness:?
..and now I will rest the urge to quibble back:) Cheers.
Exactly. #Hamas!
Well said
exactly.
I'm curious how many billions were spent to bribe their military and security services to stand down. The oil industry should payback the US taxpayers.
I'm curious how motivated they were to defend their tin-pot dictator?
There were many attempted coups against Chavez, and one or two against Maduro. Each one gave Chavez/Maduro the ability to see and root out all who were not ideologically and personally (corruption) loyal to them. The military was "purified," courts, police, businesses, etc. Those with status and power, influence were those who could be relied on to oppose future coups. To imagine those institutions will snap into place under a more free, less corrupt system requires a whole lot of imagination. A new leader with old loyalties will get nowhere.
This isn't an impossible task, but it won't be easy. Few can be trusted to move Venezuela away from the system that they embraced, supported every previous time an opportunity came to oust the Chavez/Maduro regime. It wasn't just fear or loyalty to status. It was support for the Marxist revolution and the accompanying corruption they were enriched by. They don't want to work for what came easy to them by virtue of legalized theft.
That was exactly what the hubs and I were just speaking about… It’s not just Maduro… It was everyone that agreed with him or was put in place by him. They ALL need to be routed out.
I think you overlook how Chavez came to power in the first place. Although Venezuela had oil money it was not going to help the poor. Thus he was able to campaign on Venezuela first.
I visted the country numerous times in the early 1990s and crime was rampant. No one even stopped at red lights at night nor dared to walk the streets. Chavez offered a change.
Trump's initial comments indicate that yet again US oil companies will benefit and the locals will only suffer yet again.
No doubt that is true. But it's missing context. While income disparity was high, visible, exponentially more Venezuelan's had a higher standard of living in that highly stratified system than they do since Chavez came to power; the poor got poorer, the middle class became poor.
And perhaps the most important context your comment overlooks is that Chavez came to power due to the division of his opposition. He absolutely did not have majority support. The "conservatives" for lack of a better catch-all word opposed each other more than they opposed Chavez. Chavez never had majority support - until he developed the election rigging vote machine system he eventually exported to the US and world. And even as those rigged machines were being brought online the opposition to his socialist regime remained fractured, refused to unify behind a single opponent. Chavez knew his unpopularity was unstable, he would lose power unless he rigged future elections when his opponents finally decided he was the bigger threat.
So while what you said is true, he never had enough support among the poor, crime-infested streets to come to power without divided opponents. Many suspect many of his opponents were intentionally placed in order to give him a plurality of the vote.
And fwiw, Hitler rose to power the exact same way, he didn't win a majority in any free and fair election - even in the snap election declared after the Reichstag fire! Pluralities are how socialists initially come to power - yes, Hitler was a socialist. Then they change the rules, constitutions to ensure they never lose. A cautionary lesson for us.
Venezuela = the 52nd state?
After Puerto Rico? Oh! Canada.
One more guess.....
Greenland!
🤣 Dear me, we need to make this simpler for dimwits like me. Make them ALL states.
Only if they will not be Democrat… 🥴
No to Canada, a puppet state/colony/satellite (along with Australia) of England. You can count on the UK to subvert everything they touch, and will continue to punish the US colonies for having the audacity to declare independence. And the UK/EU at this point suffers from self inflicted wounds (the better to control the individual countries). They are a greater threat simply because we have been conditioned to regard them as allies, and therefore do not maintain proper skepticism and vigilance.
Lolol. That was funny Skenny!
Vivek touched on this on why he went from being a libertarian to a conservative. The reality is that China is putting its tentacles everywhere. Years ago, I heard a man from an African nation asking for the US to come in as he felt at least they give something back in value where the Chinese only took.
The US never gives something back in value - I wonder what he means. The Chinese on the other hand actually build infrastructure yet more importantly they live among the locals.
Just more China Bad! talking points fed to the American people.
China/Russia develop relationships among countries.
The US only seeks to benefit itself.
I don't see "sovereignty" (national) as libertarian.
It is when national sovereignty is predicated on the notion of individual sovereignty. If the ideals represented that you and not the state should be the determinant of your life, then that does align with libertarian thought.
Yup. Plus if your individual sovereignty is at stake because our countries sovereignty is a stake you may not have the choice to be a libertarian.
That's partly what the invasion of illegals was about:
One party rule.
They would've eventually hunted down anyone who did not bow down to the new Democrat communist hegemony.
I would argue we already have one party rule.
The last thing we want is a true democracy. Toqueville saw this as he warned of "democratic despotism." Is the illegal immigrant invasion plan B?
What appears to be plan A was getting people to a point where they were willing to forego self-governance, and it is an attractive thing. I think Covid was a huge push in that direction.
completely agree
Yeah, but it is occasionally, because if you allow tyranny (as in Biden and the planned illegal invasion) you may not have the option to practice libertarianism because both the individual and our nations sovereignty is compromised.
It's a lot easier for things to go right when "reverting to the mean" is an improvement rather then a detriment.
Venezuela needs only revert to the mean of "mediocre Latin American country" to be a big win compared to the status quo.
By contrast Iraq and Afghanistan reverted to the mean of "cousin fucking low IQ shitholes" rather then modern high IQ democracies, who could have guessed.
It’s even worse than that. Government is unlimited power and thus attracts the kind of people who are drawn to unlimited power. Its not just that a bureaucracy entirely staffed by those with pure intentions couldn’t manage something this large and steer it to good results. Its that those steering the ship are more likely to be sociopaths then people of good intent.
Sociopaths coming to the DC area is what I saw during 30 years of living there. Maybe it will change?
My son, a NH resident, is entertaining a DOGE job offer. He'll be required to meet in person once a month with the rest remote work.
Will it work out to live a libertarian lifestyle while working for the federal government? It could, with DataRepublican in UT as an example, though she isn't an employee AFAIK.
Amen, we're on the same page
An ignorant and greedy electorate will vote in.......
A socialist bartender/only fans top earner who thinks unemployment is low because everyone has 2 jobs?
For more than 2,500 years, western man has been trying to devise a stable, rational, fair, honest form of government / commonwealth. Our founding fathers did a bang up job of doing so about 250 years ago, but now I fear something new, an update so to speak, is urgently needed. Good people need to take a hard look at what the US government has evolved into over time; millions of man-hours (by some very clever people) have gone into warping original intents, gaming the system, and self-enrichment. The size and scope of the government has put us on a glide path to decline. The enormous size and complexity, combined with unaccountability, has created enormous problems that cannot be solved without restructuring, simplification, and people of integrity (which excludes political parties and most current politicians).
Founders predicted most of this- particularly the fraud and largesse. They didn’t predict the moral decay of the people to its current extent but were aware it would be an issue as John Adams pointed out in his quote about this government being only designed for a moral and religious people.
De Tocqueville predicted it in Democracy in America. If there's loot to be had, someone's going to show up to loot it. Both the moochers and the fraudsters. And look where we are now, a $40 trillion fiat hole with tens of billions or more shunted to sociopaths. And the socialist "solution" presented is actually just more of the same, on steroids, with less liberty and no justice. Ugh.
🎯
Almost completely my feelings too.
Given human nature, I think the "people of integrity" part will be the most difficult.
Some have called for a Constitutional Convention...I worry about what the dimwits in charge would do with such power. But can we call a Convention where the only things on the table are the original words and intent of the Constitution?
If we could somehow do that and have as a result a return to much more limited Federal government, devolving most of what they have taken back to the States, Counties, and Cities, that would help a lot as there would be more accountability.
If government left the stage so to speak, I also worry about what the 1000 richest men in the world might do, what could they do then that they can't do now? How much of that would be in the interest of the average guy?
And what would the Putins and Xis of the world do if the US Central government were very much weakened?
My ideal: the USG should only have one Department, the Department of War. Diplomacy would be an agency within that Dept with the top diplomat reporting to the Sec of War and POTUS. Fund all that at about $1trillion.
End Social Security...but, pay what's owed to current Social Security recipients and adjust what's paid to future recipients (those who have paid in but have not retired yet) to reflect their now cancelled "contributions".
End all welfare. For those who in the future would require something like Social Security to survive in old age, leave that to the States to decide and provide.
This all seems simple to me, obvious.
The problem few seem to see yet are the controlling overlays in place.
The options you bring up are valid but there is a big exception in place that was never there before- a controlling system of population control which can be amped up at any time to more rapidly destroy and disable people (and every living thing).
Chemical sky dumps, emf microwave radiation from massive network of"cell" towers (which work also with directed energy in many cases), and unrestricted placement of AI data centers and towers, dishes, and antennas nationwide CHANGE EVERYTHING.
Like a kidnapper who has strung up the victim with explosive devices if they try to run or be rescued, the family might come to rescue but is helpless against the safeguards in place. One move the kidnappers don't like and the kidnapped victim is still toast, even if ransom is paid.
These networks have been slowly ramped up without any permission from the people it affects to the point where hospitals are overflowing with neurological issues, people are exhausted, in pain, crippled, unable to think, or disabled gradually over time and they think it is just normal aging.
At any time these systems of destruction can be ramped up to control people and force compliance when it comes right down to it.
To truly have freedom, these networks need to be redone to insure safety to people first and provide simple service- not the widespread nightmare it has become.
Wow - very astute observation. Am sharing. Thanks
I think you may have left out one important point regarding the motivation of the Progressives in constructing their “New World Order”. You’ve made the assumption that they are sincere about their rhetoric, that they really believe in their centrally planned Utopia. On the contrary, I think most of them know it’s a scam aimed at the naive and ignorant, but they also know that they can steal with impunity at the nodes of the confiscatory system. And, it’s why they must defend the system at all costs, not just to preserve the gravy train but to hide the crimes.
🎯. They know exactly what they’re doing… 😖
First of all, I appreciate the drop. I've been disheartened by either reading/watching the rah rah of why this is great or, as the Glenn Greenwald commentators screech, it's the JEWS, it's the JEWS. Here, I feel like I am in a room with adults.
That said, the operations makes me uneasy. The carnage from the Iraq War and the invasion of Afghanistan is still in the rearview mirror. General Smedley Butler's "War is a Racket" should be read by everyone, as well as the decision Schenck v. US. In Schenck, a guy was persecuted under a war time statute criminalizing any effort to undermine the war effort. He was handing out flyers against the WWI draft, arguing pretty much what General Butler would later write. Butler got accolades while Schenck went to prison. And don't forget Bush's You are either with us or against us rhetoric, with its updated version deployed during Covid.
That said, I remember when Venezuela was the emerging star in the 1980s. When a Venezuelan exile (a teacher) told me of the danger Chavez posed and that the US needed to depose him, I thought she was crazy. The last thing I wanted was for the US to meddle in South America and Central America after the bloodbaths of the 70s and 80s. Obviously, she was right. And China and Russia are there just as they are in Africa. Pretending that the International Court can upend reality is like pretending men wearing skirts are women. Lies weaken us.
Yes, but... What makes me uneasy about the U.S. having covertly destabilized those past leftist regimes in Latin America are the right-wing horrors who then subsequently gained power.
> the operations makes me uneasy.
Overt exercises of strength generally cause unease among some.
Question is why they don't react similarly SQUICK to the covert exercises even as those are laid out for public attention by people laboring to drag them into the light.
100%
The US govt has lied to us nonstop for decades, but this time is different?
I see supposedly red-pilled people just repeating the administration talking points. I might have missed something, but I don't see any reason to believe the US govt on this one.
I used to be a libertarian. That ended in 2012.
Well you know my problems with the libertarian party after chatting online for 5 years.
But I still believe in its ideals. And try to live my life that way.
I hear you and used to be a libertarian too. But, I'm reminded of the meme showing the person about to be executed by fiat of a tyrant, decrying the use of government power to stop them.
When faced with a choice to prioritize respect for the individual over serving the common good, if you still choose respect for the individual you are in my book a libertarian.
I have long been sympathetic to the general concepts behind libertarian politics (my first vote, in 1976, was for the Libertarian candidate). The problem with it, or so it seems to me, is that “everyone go do his own thing” doesn’t really provide anything concrete around which to rally. It’s possibly a useful adjunct to a more tangible animating principle, but experience has shown, at least over the 50 years I have been watching, that it isn’t really viable as a stand-alone.
Spot on. That is my exact beef(s) with the libertarian party.
Well met, Lon!
I absolutely believe in libertarian ideals, and I try to live like that as much as possible. It’s no longer possible.
Same Ryan
Same RG
Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.
John Adams
He said it all.
Yup 🎯
Trump Makes 'Might Makes Right' Great Again. (In my GenX schooling we got a noseful of the odiousness of that philosophy.) In a single, classic Art of the Deal move, Trump has established strategic leverage with respect to many parties - the axis of China, Russia, and Iran that was circling Venezuela. In addition to signaling "what can happen to you", and removing a safe haven for miscreants, the newly gained control of oil assets more importantly is a pressure point that resets the framework for other negotiations. Brilliant? Master stroke? It is doubtful that the affected powers will not respond, but it remains to be seen the extent to which they are willing and capable of responding. There are calls for Brasil next. Will this lead to further actions that help stem the flow of drugs into our country? That may be among the motivations and justifications, but the fruits also remain to be seen. Perhaps this is also an occasion to gain a closer look at Smartmatic. So many threads that intersect!
Smartmatic / Dominions role in stealing elections is of interest I’m sure, along with following the money laundering trail.
Why isn’t Trump higher in the polls? Which polls do we trust to be accurate?
Can all the good that Trump has done be hamstrung if Congress is lost this November and Dem’s just roll out impeachment proceedings??
I trust no polls!!!
My measure of the President is to watch and see what he accomplishes. So far I believe he has accomplished far more than any other prez since I first voted in 1968!
Yes, it can. Specifically, they can and they will.
Very true, Toad.
That'll be when the shit actually makes contact with the fan blades.
Straight up, Ryan. I'm in the same boat.
Sadly, as libertarians, we're forbidden from rowing in the same direction. 🤣
There is no spontaneous order that emerges from individual actions. That premise is false. Societal order emerges from co-operation and compromise, and lasts as long as the agreements upon which it is founded are respected.
And has Overton opened on voting fraud mechanics and the connection to Venezuela?
I see Lara Logan had a recent show on this, I’m sure there have been more exposing this?
I believe Emerald Robinson said some thing about this as well… 🤔
Ryan, just relax and, as Comrade Mamdani said, bask in the warmth of collectivism. 🔥🔥😈
It's tough for me to think that emulating Thomas Woodrow Wilson is where we are, but that's where we are. "I am going to teach the South American republics to elect good men." Didn't that guy also oversee the 16th, 17th, 18th, and 19th Amendments, and the creation of the FBI?
In the past, I was always sympathetic to libertarian ideals. Not wholly comfortable with them but sympathetic certainly.
But no longer. The world is a rough and tumble place. Turning the other cheek, giving ground, rationalizing bad behavoir- all are traits of the libertarian. And they lead to disaster.
Libertarianism exists only in a cocoon made possible by stronger, more committed men who are prone to take action- violent action if needed. Got that? Your ideals exist solely within a cocoon, a protected space. Much like the woke left.
I understand what you're saying. I can appreciate it for sure.
Democracy is dead. Has been for some time. We’re just waiting now for the other shoe to drop and see where it goes.
The greatest paragraph ever written.
“it’s why they did it like this, it’s a form of asymmetric warfare where you box queensbury rules and they keep kicking you in the nuts and cold cocking you in the back of the head with a pipe wrench while the ref the bribed pretends not to see.”
This explains our problem in terms we all can understand!
The whole piece is nicely done. Explains in detail why I've been such a cynical bastard for the last 30 years (late bloomer).
I agree. That sentence is a banger.
Real life has been true since, you know, forever: If you don't win, you lose. If you're not strong, you're weak.
We've been fed an awful lot of bullshit for a very long time. You ever notice that them famous champions of "bipartisanship" in Congress have always been the very worst people just congratulating each other on their thievery?
The guys who worked together long enough to craft and ratify our Constitution went back to hating each other as soon as the work was done. We should remember that just as much as we celebrate their extraordinary achievement.
Anyway--can we send Abrego Garcia to Venezuela now?
Abrego Garcia will be Venezuela's new president if the Dems get there way.
Someone said on X last night that we can get Maduro out of his country but we can't get Abrego Garcia out of ours (I paraphrase) and I ain't stopped thinking about it since.
wow, hadn't thought about that.
There's a very real chance our judicial system will also let Maduro go. That's the intersection of those things I'm most concerned about.
Trump 2.0's modus operandi has been to precisely follow the rules. It's gotten him a string of successes in court (sometimes requiring appeals, but still ultimately victories). We even are allowing Maduro's vice president to become president, because that's what their constitution says. But I think we're rapidly approaching the point where the rules set us up to fail right into the clutches of the Marxists. And it remains to be seen if Trump is ready to do what's necessary then.
I've thought about the charms of the SDNY too.
But I think Trump Redux is wise to follow the rules. All the rest of it is on us. As I keep saying here, it's been many decades of the GOP being the party of flabby losers unfit to counter a Democratic Party of deranged vicious toddlers.
The GOP as a national party has never given me one candidate I could support, and not least of the reasons I finally voted for Trump for the first and presumably last time is because I hope he'll prove to be the destruction of both parties as they are presently constituted.
It's always been with the complicity of Republicans in Congress that we get morons like our girls Ketanji and Sonia on the Supreme Court; that every once-decent university became the domains of shits like Chomsky and all his wretched spiritual children; that public education everywhere became unfit to even teach our little kids to read and write on the most basic level.
Every fool who thought and continues to think that Reagan was a great President helped to bring us here. At least I've repented of voting for Obama twice. But he was just the culmination of all that conservative dereliction of duty. Not even the culmination considering that Biden was George W. Bush's fifth term.
I agree with your complaint about Republicans, except for some who have done really nice work on legislative committees: Ron Johnson platforming the dissident doctors during Covid, Elyse Stefanic on antisemitism. My governer, DeSantis, did a really fine job of protecting us from the over reach of the federal gov't during Covid, while also getting medicine that worked and platforming dissident doctors. Personally, though, the Republican I like best all around for running for president in '28 is Ted Cruz; he's experienced and he's been correct on my issues for a long time. If Republican pols would just drop their antiabortion absolutism, the way Trump did, there's a chance the ticket could carry the Independents.
I remember when Alan Dershowitz said Ted Cruz had been the most brilliant student he'd ever had and I was truly absolutely shocked. I have always, always thought Ted is one of the biggest morons around politics.
Who knew, right?
For me, I'm out of it henceforward. Voting for Trump and a straight Republican ticket in 2024--for the first time in my life--shall have been the only votes of my lifetime I will never regret and the universe never gonna line up that way again. I did my part; I whored out my integrity for the sake of the nation and my dainties continue to feel all sparkly but Trump is a unique force. All I can see is most Republicans hoping to outlast him and go back to the usual as soon as they can.
I appreciate your remarks here though. In my view one of the most sensible political comments I've read here.
You mean the Ted Cruz who has never seen a war or weapons system he didn't like? That Ted Cruz?
On a side note, the democrat cabal willfully gave up any claim concerning the legality of things when it to chose to mercilessly persecute Trump and his supporters for ten solid years.
If some neutral, intelligent, experienced party wants to discuss the legality of what Trump has done, I will listen. On the other hand, the democrat cabal can kiss my ass.
I've been saying for years, that "you need to deal with the reasonable men, because you don't want to have to deal with me." And for years, I've been laughed at. I'm going to call once more, for "Please, for the love our our nation, Lefties, back down. At least throw the most obvious crooks and would be dictators to the wolves, and maybe we'll let your sled escape with that. If you continue to run the way you are, the wolves will hamstring your horses, and you'll all perish. And with you will perish a wonderful and beautiful nation. What ever comes out the other side will not look like what Jefferson, Washington, Franklin and the boys envisioned and designed."
The 400M privately owned firearms are overwhelmingly owned by one side…
And despite what the MSM says, that one side with most of the firearms is being joined by people who were for a long time the left's strongest voting bases.
But they have trantifa..
Good one!
You mention Bukele a few times as if he was a bad dude?
He is the FIRST to implement this FaFO attitude. And his entire country is light years better for it
His approach is the BLUEPRINT
Bukele is admittedly rather more brutal than I would care for. Which is not to say that he was not needed. I suspect gato is wishcasting that we manage to fix things before we get to that point here.
The left doesn't understand that Trump is the *polite* attempt to restore the country.
As someone I follow on X has said for over a decade, "The Tea Party was the polite ask. Trump is the firm request. They won't like what comes next if he's stopped".
Does the term, " extreme prejudice " enter the discussion?
and both Franco and Pinochet went out peacefully allowing both Spain and Chile to return to a functioning democracy.
As a rule, right-wing dictatorships end peacefully with elections; left-wing dictatorships end with civil war.
And then democracy slowly but inexorably dragged them back to the collectivist left.
Post Franco Spain turned into a liberal drug den filled with street urchin thieves.
Source: lived and studied there
Have you forgotten, or were you simply not aware, what sort of lock-down tyrant he was five years ago?
Who? Trump? If that is what you mean referring to lockdowns, he turned the original intent of the slime behind the lockdown plan already in place from iron fist imprisonment to soft rules that could be creatively disobeyed without mortal consequences if one had the guts to do so.
No, Bukele, not Trump.
Okay, makes more sense-thanks.
Took over Granada….
OK - so can Trump take over NYC, MN, OR, CA, WA and topple THEIR Marxist Governments while he’s at it?
Thanks, Gato. Happy New Year.
Arresting a Communist dictator and flying him to Mamdami's back yard is absolutely a message being sent about that. (As was flying him slowly in a helicopter past the Statue of Liberty).
I guess our domestic problems have been fixed, so no worries. A third world dictator can be arrested using half the naval fleet, but Fauci, Baric, and Daszac are still living large. Awesome.
Can we get the Kovid Killer Klan to tempt T45 with some:
“Come get me, bro!” memes?
Luigi points the way...
Take into account what the President can do within the law; Trump does.
He probably can...but it would take a long time.
One does not waste energy on toppling by force that which is already teetering toward collapse
> t., suburbanizing rural hinterlands of Pugetopolis...where half the California carpetbatter retirees I and my darling knew, who came here in the '00s with plump public pensions to escape Down There, and live out their lives (they thought) happily golfing, boating, cruising, etc....they have already fled, because their presence fed this beast that's devouring everything. They came in, inflated real estate prices--and taxation--by 100 or more percent, and now move on like the "Republican" locusts they always were.
Money goes to where it is treated best.
- Richard Russell (deceased)
But not necessarily, kinsman, where it treats civilization the best.
t., 12th generation, Salem County
Did I see the people of VENEZUELA dancing in the streets? Or was that stock film from a New Year Eve celebration? Hard to say what is true from where I sit ((Communist Canada, lead by DEAR LEADER MARX CARNEY).
I can't speak for the videos out of Venezuela, but I know the Venezuelan community in Miami was poppin' all yesterday (and no pun intended, I mean they started celebrating as soon as the news got out).
Can't believe anything you can't reach out and touch these days.
WEF pawn Marx Carney
X is full of people from Venezuela telling whiney US/Euro/Canadian leftists to kill themselves, and there are real verified videos of celebrations there.
Completely agree, El Gato! This is time for action and it requires somebody with testicles.. like Trump.. America has got to reign in the lefty loonies defending the criminals, the illegal immigrants..
Completely fed up with these Marxist/civilization destroyers.. time to round them up and ship them out..
that includes anyone interfering with ICE …
Trump like him or not is on the right track.. we need to impeach some of these judges that continuously interfere with his cleaning up our nation… sick, and tired of these politicized hacks facilitating Lawfare against Trump..
Congressional Republicans are captured; that's why they elected the leaders they did. So you can forget about their impeaching judges. John McCain tried to get campaign finance reform done and he couldn't. Maybe that reform should be the priority now. Otherwise, we force our legislators to sell themselves to whoever's buying.
History is full of our "cleansing" of our sphere of influence within the Americas.
Maduro, like Zelensky, is an unauthorized government that was removed by Venezuelan votes.
This action will reverberate throughout Central and South America.
The Transnational gangsters, some of them with American names, got the message. They will spend untold millions to remove and revile the current administration. They will not succeed.
Extra sardines for you....you wicked cat.
I've been hearing rumors that this is about the rigged voting systems of Dominion and Smartmatic. Does anyone have information they believe?
I've noticed some extreme hostility to the mention of this idea from certain areas.
i suspect there are some shoes to drop there.
I sure hope so! It's the violence of the denials that give me hope.
Pretty sure the Venezuela control of election software is well known to Trump. He knows it cost him the 2020. It may not be the main reason to go in, but it had to be dealt with. Must be dealt with
Read this, excellent post
https://open.substack.com/pub/tracyshuchart/p/the-venezuelan-oil-narative-is-pure?utm_campaign=post-expanded-share&utm_medium=web
Fascinating. Thanks for the link. This action should have been taken a while ago. But I fear that if nothing is done about vote fraud, we will be in the hands of the Uniparty again inside of a year.
Venezuela increasingly looks the single stick holding up the entire Jenga of modern Marxism. And that's just on the parts we have firm proof of. The more nebulous stuff like the voting machine software and the cartel payments to US Congressmen remains unproven but not unlikely.
This is long, 2 hours, but is all about the voting fraud that began with Hugo Chavez and continues on a broader scale today. Chavez got Obama beating Hilary through these machines. A shorter version is Elizabeth Nickson’s substack Absurdistan from late November that mentions these two CIA men.
https://youtu.be/gA9OCusr64A
Search on two words
venezuela smartmatic
Discovery on this bribery case is likely to be interesting.
Miami Herald has been following the issue. See also
https://miamiindependent.com/politics/2025/10/17/miami-grand-jury-indicts-smartmatic-noose-on-venezuela-tightens/
Thanks for the link! Getting interesting!
Just came back up, No--forgot this one:
https://www.2ndsmartestguyintheworld.com/p/operation-absolute-resolve-the-venezuelan
I'm going to have a couple beers and go to bed tonite believing it's really happening.
Thanks again!
... "ideas like “the US is only there for the oil!” fall kind of flat when one returts 'and what, russia, china, and iran were there for the arepas and salsa dancing?'”
Is there any difference between negotiating to buy the oil vs invading with the intention of stealing the oil?
They stole it from us first.
They may or may not have "stolen" it from some large corporations. If (when) these corporations make windfall profits do you believe you will get your cut? Would it have been more appropriate to wait for the pending court decisions regarding these oil claims?
> Would it have been more appropriate to wait for the pending court decisions regarding these oil claims?
The Venezuelan court ruled that Venezuela was completely in the right in taking the infrastructure for Venezuela. The government investigated itself and determined that it had done nothing wrong.
Why would we get a cut of corporate profits? Most people don't work for or hold stock in any of those companies.
"Wait for pending court decisions" lol it was a dictatorship, the cases would never come to court and if they did they would be decided in favor of the (illegitimate) state.
"Windfall profits" is an unserious Marxist concept.
They overtook the drilling sites. I’m not worried about “my cut.” I don’t own the company and am not entitled to someone else’s profits, but I will go to whoever sells gasoline the cheapest, which gives the companies an incentive to “share.” No, it would not be appropriate to wait. The government would drag court cases to infinity and spend millions on licensed thieves, aka lawyers.
An impressive essay!
I am trying to think of the last war Congress really authorized. The Korean War was a "Police Action" Vietnam similar. If we need to wait for congress to debate and decide to authorize anything = hold breath turn blue. Waiting for the balanced budget all of my 75 years. Still waiting for the end of the temporary income tax that would only be for the rich and would never be more than 3%. and would end after WWI. Must still be going on, huh.
I always like Dr. Steve Turley's back porch videos. I also enjoyed the reference to John Wick 1 "You will do nothing because you can do nothing".
Basically articulated my exact thoughts on the matter.
Access it’s been clear for a while now something was coming in Venezuela, what could have been better? If action was for sure going to happen, what could be better than the surgical strike that was completed quickly with no American casualties?
You can go back even longer to defend the president’s use of power. The first 6 ships in the navy where under direct control of President Thomas Jefferson, Congress had not declared war, but that didn’t stop the President from finding a loophole to fight the Barbary pirates instead of continuing to pay tribute.
And people argue that “drug trafficking isn’t an act of war” but go ahead and tell that to the Chinese, look into what Britain did to them with the east India company. Do people really think China wouldn’t participate in the same actions against their enemies if the opportunity was afforded them? Of course drug running on a large scale is an act of war! In much the same way as rampant “immigration” of people so intend to come and not assimilate and hate our people are invaders.
I like the idea of the board being oveturned, but spend a few hours on reddit or bluesky, and you have to be more than a little concerned about what will replace it.
those are unserious people, all bark, no bite.
they are the ones who think they can hide behind "the system" because it will restrain the others.
once that stops, so too does their bluster.
Unserious sure, but unserious people are numerous enough that they keep electing their unserious clones to congress. What these unserious people want has a real constituency, and when you overturn the board in an all on all fight for supremacy unserious people can and do sometimes win.
Let’s just not get too complacent in believing the arc of history could not bend towards batshit crazy.
but again, this only works from inside one particular system.
I guess I’d say anything can spring out of chaos just look at early 20th century Russia. I do think its a mistake to underestimate 22 year old idiots on reddit if things go very south. There is an element of unpredictability to how movements go viral.
That said I am cautiously optimistic, and I’m on record as saying if you believe in the fourth turning it may be more likely it is the authoritarian left that is discredited and ejected from power. After all they have been running this dumpster fire for the last 100 years.
I do appreciate your work btw, and prefer to think you are right here.
Do your brain a favor and don't. Your IQ will drop considerably.
I see your point but caution you not to assume those are all actual individuals rather than algo-driven bot replies/accounts. Demoralization operations are very real. And effective.
Agree they aren’t all real, but I’ve met enough of them in real life to know there are plenty who are.
Agree as well. I lack a reliable mechanism to assess their Paper Tiger Quotient. :^>