U.S. launches military strikes on Venezuela, Trump says Maduro captured and flow

[Jeff]

[beej]

I'm going to say this.

1) Operation Absolute Resolve? Man that is a lame name. I'm sure it's a big beautiful name! very beautiful actually! Maybe the most beautiful operation name in history!

2) somebody should give Trump a hard time after promising to deport  criminal aliens back to their own countries he actually goes and grabs a couple off the street and brings them here? Dude!

 

[Bucky Cornstarch]

Hi Jeffy! It looks like you've found a picture! It's sure is a good one; maybe you can find more! If you do, please share them with us, okay?

Also, you should check out the J6 thread! Your buddy Smit made sure to include lots of pictures there, too, just so you'd be able to follow along!

Happy J6!

 

[beej]

Mornin' Bucky. You've got toothpaste on your ear.

[Jeff]

Mornin' Bucky. You've got toothpaste on your ear.

That's probably not toothpaste.

[Newbeeee™]

That's probably not toothpaste.

There's certainly some shit dribbling from his chin....

[Jeff]

"The Swiss Federal Council announced a freeze on all assets held by Maduro and his associates in Switzerland, effective immediately, for up to four years.
If proven to be illicitly acquired, these funds will be redistributed directly to benefit the long-suffering Venezuelan people—not the corrupt regime."

[MIL-TFP-41]

"The Swiss Federal Council announced a freeze on all assets held by Maduro and his associates in Switzerland, effective immediately, for up to four years.
If proven to be illicitly acquired, these funds will be redistributed directly to benefit the long-suffering Venezuelan people—not the corrupt regime."

And the odds of an average Venezuelan seeing a benefit? 0.00001%. By the time everyone gets their hands on it, distributing the wealth means covering things like administration costs and attorney fees and whatever other term you can think of to transfer money, there will be nothing left over. Maybe a statue of Trump or something.

[gcode]

Post on X

This post lines up with my father's experiences working for the Venezuelan government oil company in the min 90's
He told me that if he needed 10K feet of drill steel from the states, he'd have to order 40K feet because
30K would vanish to theft and bribes before it got to the drill site.

My Venezuela experience as head of trading in the region for Cargill.   

Cargill was/is the leading producer of critical staple ingredients such as flour, pasta, vegetable oil, and rice in VZ.   I am not saying I agree with grabbing the dictator, but I did have a front row seat to the damage a kleptocracy did to innocent people. 
1.   The government took over our "minute rice" facility at gunpoint because we were "gouging"   the nation's poor.   The government was never able to run the plant.  It never ran again.   It was returned years later with no equipment inside
2.  There are 1000's of generals in the army.   They are each given a slice of the economy to loot.    The large number of generals made it difficult to organize a coup against the regime.
3.  The government opened grocery stores and sold staples below the cost we sold them to the government.  In theory they used petro oil money to lower grocery prices.   Our regular grocery outlets were forced out of business.  When the government demanded we sell them products below cost we simply had to shut down.   The populous became ever more dependent on the government handouts.   (PS this is the mayor of New York City's proposal.
4.  Dollars- We needed dollars to go buy raw materials like wheat from places like the US and Canada.   The government would periodically allocate us some dollars that could only be spent for raw materials and freight.  Eventually only the local companies that can and would pay bribes got dollar allocations.   We had several facilities closed for lack of raw material
5.  My employees liked working for Cargill.  The office was an armed compound with access to a gym, high speed internet, global communications, and a weekly box of basic staples.  Cargill provided a safe and secure environment if only for the working hours.
6.  Employees became very close to others inside the apartment building.   Going out on the street with a desperate population was not advisable.
7.  I needed wood pallets for feed.   We tried to export wood pallets to swap for grain.   We refused to pay the bribes it would take to export the pallets
8.   I once tried to set up a closed loop wheat planting to flour mill supply chain.  A.   They came and stole all the seed wheat for food.   When we tried to ship in seed wheat in containers via US donors there was no way to get it out of the port without it being stolen
9.  Livestock- Our feed business completely collapsed.   Even if you could raise a pig, you couldn't defend it from being stolen.   People with guns were hungry.
10.  Employees- In the end my highly skilled team alone with other highly educated people chose to leave.   Cargill often found jobs for them in other Latin countries.    The regime was more than happy to see the well-educated leave the country.  Setting these employees up with high quality stable jobs after fleeing remains one of the best things I ever did in my career.   No one remembers millions in trading earnings.

This is a short list.  In my opinion the first money spent needs to happen now and it needs to be food.   The US is already on the clock.   The current regime does not care if it starves the population.   The orgy of theft will actually accelerate if they believe their days are numbered.     VZ should be an outstanding customer of US grown ag products.   Rice, bread wheat, veg oil ect.    Feed the people first.

Jeff Kazin
Former head trading Cargill

[gcode]

They seized two sanctioned Russian tankers in the mid Atlantic last night.

[TylerBeer]

They seized to sanctioned Russian tankers in the mid Atlantic last night.

"Tankers"

Things might be heating up

[beej]

the left is admitting that the charges against Maduro are solid. This from the Atlantic

https://www.msn.com/en-us/politics/international-relations/the-maduro-indictment-appears-legally-solid/ar-AA1TPwA4

The indictment is relatively straightforward—especially when compared with Maduro's rendition—and appears legally sound. Although Maduro has a number of options for challenging his prosecution, none of them is a sure bet. Critics of President Donald Trump who have grown used to federal courts checking his worst impulses may find themselves disappointed as the case against Maduro proceeds.

The Justice Department has made a few tweaks since 2020, providing more detail on Maduro's seizure of power after he lost Venezuela's 2018 election and adding his wife and son to the list of defendants. Whereas the 2020 indictment focuses on Maduro's alleged collaboration with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, the Colombian guerrilla group known as FARC, the 2025 version adds a handful of other cartels and drug-trafficking groups to the mix. Newly woven into the indictment is the alleged role of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua, whose supposed presence in the U.S. the administration has previously used as a paper-thin excuse to ship Venezuelan migrants to a nightmarish prison in El Salvador.

The government's claims about Tren de Aragua are probably the most eyebrow-raising aspect of the indictment. "I don't think of them as major transnational drug trafficker," Will Freeman, a fellow for Latin American studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, told me. "It seems a bit surprising." A critical reader could find other quirks—such as the absence of any mention of fentanyl trafficking, despite the administration's previous insistence on blaming Maduro for the drug's abuse by Americans. (Illicit fentanyl largely arrives in the U.S. from China.) But that is a problem for the administration's public rhetoric, not the viability of the indictment.

[beej]

from the NYtimes

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/10/world/americas/biden-bounty-nicolas-maduro.html

John Kirby, a spokesman for the National Security Council, said the decision to raise the bounty on Mr. Maduro was part of "a concerted message of solidarity with the Venezuelan people," meant "to further elevate international efforts to maintain pressure on Mr. Maduro and his representatives."

Such rewards are widely considered more symbolic than a serious effort to effect an arrest. The $25 million bounty is an increase from a $15 million reward set by the Trump administration in 2020.

But that measure did nothing to sway Mr. Maduro from taking a third six-year term. And some critics have even argued that this reward strategy has further entrenched Mr. Maduro by making it harder for him to leave power.

If he leaves the presidency, he would be extremely vulnerable to arrest.

am I the only one who gets tired of symbolic gestures with no real world application in politics?
this should really make all of us pause and wonder what is merely symbolic and what is real world application that our elected officials are doing.

I know on the right, I've felt like an awful lot of politicians were only doing symbolic gestures towards Christians to keep their vote. I think on the left, that Democrats do the same thing to black people. this might very well be why populism is on the rise today.

[Jeff]

I think on the left, that Democrats white liberal women do the same thing to black people

Fixed for accuracy