DC_Draino on X - "The Nobel Peace Prize Committee awarded it to a Venezuelan peace activist today, and you know what she did? Dedicated it to President Trump She knows freedom for the Venezuelan people from narcoterrorism will be due to the efforts of the Trump administration"
Rob Schmitt on X - "So they claim the Nobel Peace Prize decision is made in January? That means they chose Obama 10 days into his first term 😂. There’s no way for @NobelPrize to escape this with its credibility intact."
Meme - "Maria Corina dedicates her Nobel prize for peace to Trump also a proud Zionist."
*Reddit*
"This is the weird moment when Americans realize that being the opposition in Venezuela means being aligned to the right of Chavismo politics. We tend to naturally assume that replacing an authoritarian autocrat with democratic rule means a left turn."
""She is receiving the Nobel Peace Prize for her tireless work promoting democratic rights for the people of Venezuela and for her struggle to achieve a just and peaceful transition from dictatorship to democracy." -per the award committee. So... following that, she... ummm... dedicated it to the guy turning democracy into a dictatorship?!?!?!"
"Maybe just stop giving out the peace prize."
"Yes, please. Stop ruining the other true Nobel prizes reputation. This peace price needs to just go away."
"I think perhaps the Nobel peace price can be retired it's obviously mismanaged and lost all value."
"What the fuck?"
"She's a Trumper. Seriously, she's been singing his praises since his reelection."
"How did she earn this award. The awarding committee had to know she was a fan of his. So they had the nerve to not award him yet they award someone who then dedicates her award to him and her country. This committee confuses me"
"Did the committee have no one better to give the prize to? Like, seriously? What a fucking timeline this is."
"What the ever living fuck"
Panama says Venezuela-related tanker intercepted by US did not follow maritime rules - "Panama's foreign minister said on Monday that a tanker recently intercepted by the U.S. that was under Panama's flag did not respect the country's maritime rules and had disconnected its transponder while navigating out of Venezuelan waters carrying a crude cargo. Foreign minister Javier Martinez-Acha added in a TV interview that Panama would take measures accordingly. He did not elaborate further."
Come to me, coward: Maduro dares Trump over $50 million bounty - "Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro has challenged US President Donald Trump to arrest him after Washington announced it was doubling a bounty to $50 million for any information leading to his arrest. The reward is part of longstanding US charges against Maduro and other senior Venezuelan officials, accusing them of narcotics trafficking, corruption, and human rights abuses. Maduro has repeatedly rejected the allegations, describing them as politically motivated. “Come for me, I will wait here in Miraflores, don’t be late, coward,” Maduro said in a fiery speech on Monday, days after the new US announcement. Venezuelan Foreign Minister Yvan Gil has also dismissed the bounty as “pathetic” and “political propaganda.”"
From August. This didn't age well.
AG on X - "Good time to remind people that the Biden admin also recognized Maduro was not legitimate and a threat to U.S. interests, but took a very different approach. One that failed. Their answer was to offer sanctions relief in exchange for promises to hold a real election. This appeasement effort emboldened Maduro. Maduro then banned his main opposition from running and stole the election. The Biden admin eventually reversed the sanctions relief without accomplishing anything. Now Maduro sits in a prison cell."
Joe Biden on X - "Trump talks tough on Venezuela, but admires thugs and dictators like Nicolas Maduro. As President, I will stand with the Venezuelan people and for democracy."
From 2020. Of course, left wingers were claiming this was fake.
Colin Wright on X - "According to the left, you're allowed to tweet endlessly about horrific dictatorships that rig elections, crush democracy, and immiserate their citizens, but you're never allowed to do anything about it. The Venezuelan people, apparently, must simply suffer indefinitely."
'Long Live Nuclear Weapons': Russia's Medvedev Drops Big Warning To U.S. After Maduro Capture - "Russia’s reaction to the U.S. strike on Venezuela has taken a dramatic turn. Dmitry Medvedev, a senior Russian security official and close ally of President Vladimir Putin, issued a blistering statement condemning Washington’s actions and accusing the United States of abducting a legally elected leader. But it was Medvedev’s final message that sent shockwaves globally. Arguing that diplomacy has failed and international law is ignored, he claimed that only maximum military strength — including nuclear weapons — can protect a nation from foreign intervention. His closing words, “Long live nuclear weapons,” are now being interpreted as a veiled warning to the United States and its allies."
Weird. I thought Trump was Putin's lapdog
Tara Servatius on X - "Exhibit A of how full of crap Democrats are with their fake Venezuela outrage: Here's the MSM/Democrats in 2019 claiming that Trump NOT taking out Maduro is proof Trump is Putin's puppet. They claimed Trump wouldn't touch Maduro because Putin backed him."
MAZE on X - "During Trump's first term Maduro stayed in power after an illegitimate election. The MSM/Democrats repeatedly claimed that Maduro remaining in power was proof that Trump was "Putin's puppet." Everyone in this video will now be condemning Trump. It's so pathetic."
Zack Polanski on X - "The PM and Foreign Secretary should be condemning this illegal strike and breach of international human rights law. After years of arming a genocide and worshipping the “special relationship”, Trump now believes he can act with impunity."
Mike Jones on X - "Polanski, without even realising it, has laid bare the fraud and absurdity of so-called “human rights law.” Maduro starved, murdered, and tortured his own people while suppressing democracy. Yet when the deeply unpopular Maduro is captured by the U.S., Polanski cries “human rights.”"
Nervana Mahmoud on X - "If “international law” is being used to protect regimes that wreck their countries—like Maduro’s Venezuela or Iran’s mullahs—then it’s law without justice. The Western elite should stop using rules as a fig leaf and start treating survival strategies for nefarious regimes as the problem. Viva Venezuela LIBRE"
Eric Levitz on X - "In my day, critics denounced U.S. wars of choice as imperialist schemes to seize foreign oil - while the president insisted they were really attempts to spread democracy Now, critics denounce such wars as attempts to spread democracy - while the president insists they are really imperialist schemes to seize foreign oil"
Daniel Friedman on X - "The Democrats are in complete disarray. Maduro is “an illegitimate leader” but his Venezuela is “a sovereign foreign nation”? Delta Force went in, captured him and got out in two hours, but they were “without a defined objective”? This will “destabilize the region”? So the region was stable before he was deposed? Then why did Biden let in 600,000 Venezuelan “asylum seekers,” as well as millions more from Honduras, Nicaragua and Guatemala?"
Dotty Gale on X - "How can they accept refugees from Venezuela while at the same time saying the regime shouldn't be changed?"
signüll on X - "the most interesting part about trump is that he forces liberals into impossible binds where their stated values collide with their tribal reflexes. they can’t celebrate this without laundering trump. they can’t condemn it without implicitly defending maduro. it exposes a thing liberals hate admitting which is that their moral framework is often downstream of identity & not outcomes. incredible fun to witness."
SOVEREIGN BRAH 🇺🇸🏛️⚡️ on X - "You really have to hand it to Trump on how he uses the military. The retards who came before him spent decades and trillions of dollars on their military excursions. Trump just pops in, smokes fools, and leaves. It's over as quickly as it started. He then publicly slaps his nuts on the table and he's like "deal with it." Soleimani, Baghdadi, the Iranian nuclear facilities, Venezuela –– same pattern every time. Regardless of the intent behind the actions, it's just incredible usage of our military.
Contrast it with Biden's Afghanistan withdrawal... people were getting blown up, Afghans were falling out of the sky, $85 billion in equipment was captured... you can see how vast of a difference proper leadership makes."
Bad Hombre on X - "In January 2024, 14 Democrats signed a letter urging Antony Blinken to intervene in El Salvador to undermine @nayibbukele’s legitimate, democratically elected government. Fast forward to January 2026: these same people are in severe psychological distress because the U.S. intervened to remove from power an illegitimate criminal causing tangible harm to Americans."
Visegrád 24 on X - "Venezuelan man: “Those who say that the U.S. is only interested in our oil, I ask you: What do you think the Russians and the Chinese wanted here? The recipe for arepas?""
Drew Pavlou 🇦🇺🇺🇸🇺🇦🇹🇼 on X - "I’ve seen so many American liberals deploy this clown Reddit tier argument over the past 24 hours. “If we overthrow Maduro, we forfeit the moral right to tell China not to invade Taiwan!” It’s so fucking funny that they think Reddit arguments about moral hypocrisy are the only thing holding the Chinese Communists back from invading Taiwan, as though Xi Jinping waits on the edge of his seat to hear what George Clooney’s human rights lawyer wife Amal Clooney thinks before he decides to act in the world. I live in the real world, and in the real world, the Chinese Communists are a fearsome enemy steeped in fire and blood. They laugh in the face of all conventional Western liberal notions of political morality; they view politics solely through the lens of Carl Schmitt’s friend-enemy distinction. Consider two famous quotes by senior Chinese Communists. Describing his country’s foreign policy, China’s Ambassador to Sweden Gui Congyou declared: “We have fine wine for our friends and shotguns for our enemies.” Clear enough. Xi Jinping share’s this exact same world view. Here is a man who saw the Chinese Communist Party almost torture his entire family to death during the Cultural Revolution, yet still immediately joined the Party the second he could. Speaking about his bleak view of human nature and politics, Xi said: “I look past the superficial things: the power and the flowers and the glory and the applause. I see the detention houses, the fickleness of human relationships.” This guy watched the Chinese Communist Party literally hound and torture his half-sister to death and almost kill his father, yet still decided to set his face to the howling wind and join the Party - climbing its ranks to total power, mercilessly destroying his enemies and probably killing tens of thousands of people in the course of his efforts to climb to the top of the heap. You think he decides whether to invade Taiwan or not based on whether Mehdi Hasan gets Reddit upboats about Le Big Bad West’s moral hypocrisy? These people only respect fire, strength and steel. They only respect the friend-enemy distinction. So it’s simply enough for America to declare to China: “We have the same policy: Fine wine for our friends, shot guns for our enemies.” The United States of America can just apply their own logic back onto them, objecting to their attempts to invade Taiwan on the grounds that they are an enemy communist state. This is how politics works in the real world, away from Reddit."
Thread by @Brad_Setser on Thread Reader App – Thread Reader App - "There is a lot of talk -- not the least from the US Administration -- about the windfall from Venezuela's oil. It is worth doing a bit of (boring) quantification. Bottom line: it isn't going to pay for everything ...
Venezuela's oil is heavy and sour, so it trades at a discount to sweet light. 2024 production was 0.9 mbd. Domestic consumption isn't zero. To generous, assume 0.75 mbd at day at $50 a barrel -- that generates $14 billion a year in exports. Industry experts (@Big_Orrin ) think the upper bound on how much additional production could be generated if the international oil service giants came in to revitalize the fields is ~ 1 mbd, or a ~$18b. So an export revenue stream of over $30b (barring big swings in price) in a few years ... A decent flow, but not a huge sum (the long run maximum with a TON of new investment is perhaps 4 mbd, or Canada/ Iraq ... not Russia/ Saudi)
But also consider all that has to be paid out of the oil revenue stream -- First, the oil majors and the oil service companies on their current production. They don't produce the oil for free ...
Second, most of Venezuela's imports, as its other (legitimate) exports are tiny -- and Venezuela's people will have higher expectations from US backed leader than from Maduro ... Trump says he wants Venezuela to pay compensation (the ICSID awards? something more) for Venezuela's past nationalization of US assets -- that could eat up a lot of current export proceeds ... It wouldn't be a total surprise if Trump wants Venezuela to pay for the cost of any new US bases in the area (speculating here ... ); it presumably doesn't want a new US presence to be a new drain on the US taxpayer (not very America first ...) And of course Venezuela has a huge stock of unpaid debt -- GoV bonds, PDVSA bonds, Chinese claims etc. The principal value of obvious claims is at least $100b, and there supplier credits outstanding + lots of past due interest. The chart comes from a paper from Richard Cooper and Mark Walker (two distinguished lawyers with sovereign debt experience) from a few years ago -- am sure there there will be updates and new estimates
Point being that there isn't a near term oil revenue stream big enough to pay for current imports (which will go up if the US wants stability), past claims (expropriation compensation, unpaid debt) and the new investment needed to raise production substantially ... As Mark Sobel has noted, the normal practice would be to have the IMF go in and start to sort out the external debts and put out a few numbers on near term imports to set out the fx available to pay off old claims (in a world where the IMF returns to thinking in BoP terms) But the IMF is an international organization and it wouldn't (easily) embrace a rigged process where US oil companies get paid first and get preferential access to new oil concessions ... So let's see how the Trump Administration proceeds when it discovers the limits on Venezuela's oil export proceeds -- and the reality that Venezuela will be cash constrained."
Luis Garicano 🇪🇺🇺🇦 on X - "In the past, many used to say "the US is saying it is democracy but it is oil". This time, it is the opposite. Trump says it is oil, but it is not. (Probably Rubio told him this to convince him.) In the best case, $30bn in gross revenue a year for Venezuela (see thread-need to pay debt, interest, imports from that). Even if the US were to steal it all (impossible) it is a trivial sum of money for the US, 0.1% of GDP, more or less what NVIDIA generates in one quarter. This could never justify the huge political risk involved. You need to add that the US is now a net exporter, so it benefits from higher prices, not lower ones.
Daniel Hannan on X - "Thoughts on the liberation of Venezuela.
1. There is a world of difference between replacing a democratic regime with a Russian puppet (as Putin wants in Ukraine) and replacing a Russian puppet with a democracy.
2. Maduro’s election was comically fraudulent, and the only states to recognise it were the usual delinquents (Russia, Belarus, China, North Korea, Cuba, Nicaragua).
3. For the rest of the world, Maduro was never president. The man now in US custody is a criminal, not a head of state.
4. The idea that foreign autocrats might be emboldened by this action is risible. China has always made clear that it sees Taiwan as an internal question, not one for international law. And what is Putin going to do, for Heaven’s sake? Invade Ukraine?
5. The democratisation of Venezuela will have benign consequences for the entire hemisphere. More than seven million Venezuelans were exiled by the socialist dictatorship, generally the more enterprising portion of the population. If even half of them go home, the weakest economy in the region will become one of the strongest. Oil will flow again and global energy prices will fall.
6. The overthrow of the dictatorship is a triumph for @MariaCorinaYA, whose courage and patriotism never wavered. At huge personal cost, separated from her children, she remained in the country as the autocracy tightened its grip, leading the democratic opposition from a series of safe-houses. This is her victory.
7. When Trump talks of running Venezuela, I hope he means managing a speedy transition and holding fresh elections. The idea of establishing a standing US presence would be at odds with everything he has campaigned for.
8. Plainly María Corina would win such elections, and the country would then be sovereign, democratic and free.
9. ¡Viva Venezuela libre! #VenezuelaLibre #ConVzla"
Bernie Sanders on X - "President Trump does not have the constitutional authority to attack another country. When 60% of Americans are living paycheck to paycheck, he should focus on the crises at home, end his illegal military adventurism and stop trying to “run” Venezuela for Big Oil."
Michael 🇺🇸 on X - "Also never approved by congress. But this was Trump so we pretend to be upset.
• Korea (1950–53)
• Grenada (1983)
• Panama (1989)
• Somalia (1992–94)
• Bosnia (1995)
• Kosovo / Yugoslavia (1999)
• Libya (2011)
• Syria (2014)"
Elica Le Bon الیکا ل بن on X - "The hardest thing to explain to people is that demagoguery and political propaganda exist on both sides. On the right, it’s easy to see because it doesn’t disguise itself. On the left, you have to expose it because it’s hidden behind carefully constructed language. Here, Bernie describes the overthrow of Maduro as “attacking another country.” When Hamas attacked Israel (specifically innocent civilians, not a state apparatus), it wasn’t “attacking another country,” but confronting an “illegal occupation with no right to defend itself.” But Maduro—a lone dictator—is repackaged as a “sovereign nation” with no business being violated. Do you see how language manipulation is used to distort your perception of right and wrong? Next, the use of demagoguery, which means manipulation to appeal to people’s emotions. After framing it an “attack on another country”—which would be fine if applied consistently—he jumps to the hardships of Americans to create the illusion that this act equates to their betrayal. It doesn’t. A percentage of our tax dollars goes to the military budget, regardless of how that’s spent. I don’t think Bernie Sanders is evil, nor do I think he’s even aware of what he’s doing. I think most people in the political field are blissfully unaware of their own propaganda, which isn’t because of malice necessarily, but a deeply polluted moral operating system with no ability to see itself."
T. Becket Adams on X - "My favorite tweets today have been from the people who’ve asked: What’s to stop Iran or China or Russia now from flouting the international order?? First, ha ha ha. Please read about Iran and China and Russia. Second, the answer is: the United States, generally. Been this way since the end of WWII. Are these people really naive and childish enough as to believe that international opinion is what keeps things in check? No country actually gives a shit about downvotes at the UN. It’s the threat of the full weight of the United States armed forces that dictates behavior (it’s part of the reason why Europe has a crippling inferiority complex). Post-Cold War Russia only ever moves when it’s reasonably sure the full USAF won’t get involved. The looming threat of a visit from the modern equivalent of the Roman Imperial Army is also why Taiwan still has its own flag."
Tim Murtaugh on X - "Chris Murphy is the greatest example how Democrats are completely full of shit in their criticism of Trump on Venezuela. Here he was during the first Trump term with Maduro in power, versus what he says now that Maduro has been removed."
Chris Murphy 🟧 on X - "If Trump cared about consistency, he would make the realist case for intervention in Venezuela (getting rid of Maduro is good for the United States) rather than trying to pretend his Administration all of the sudden cares about toppling anti-democratic regimes."
Chris Murphy 🟧 on X - "The invasion of Venezuela has nothing to do with American security. Venezuela is not a security threat to the U.S.. This is about making Trump's oil industry and Wall Street friends rich. Trump's foreign policy - the Middle East, Russia, Venezuela - is fundamentally corrupt."
Kamala Harris on X - "Donald Trump’s actions in Venezuela do not make America safer, stronger, or more affordable. That Maduro is a brutal, illegitimate dictator does not change the fact that this action was both unlawful and unwise. We’ve seen this movie before. Wars for regime change or oil that are sold as strength but turn into chaos, and American families pay the price. The American people do not want this, and they are tired of being lied to. This is not about drugs or democracy. It is about oil and Donald Trump’s desire to play the regional strongman. If he cared about either, he wouldn’t pardon a convicted drug trafficker or sideline Venezuela’s legitimate opposition while pursuing deals with Maduro’s cronies. The President is putting troops at risk, spending billions, destabilizing a region, and offering no legal authority, no exit plan, and no benefit at home. America needs leadership whose priorities are lowering costs for working families, enforcing the rule of law, strengthening alliances, and — most importantly — putting the American people first."
Will Chamberlain on X - "The Biden-Harris administration made available a $25,000,000 reward for information that would have lead to the arrest of Nicolas Maduro. Now you're saying capturing him was unlawful? Did you just entirely forget your administration's policy?"
Eric Daugherty on X - "🚨 BREAKING: In an epic sight, REAL Venezuelans are STORMING NYC to counteract the white liberals protesting against Trump's Maduro capture and strikes The white Democrat is clueless. Actual Venezuelans are ecstatic right now! 🇺🇸🇻🇪"
Hailey on X - "📍LIVE: Venezuelan Protest in Portland, OR Portlanders chant “FREE MADURO FREE HIM NOW” Meanwhile, Venezuelans in their home nation cheer for their new found freedom. MAKE IT MAKE SENSE"
vittorio on X - "most political issues nowadays can be explained by understanding that american leftists dont have positions, they have oppositions. their entire belief system is defined by negation of whatever the right supports. this is why portland chants “free maduro” while actual venezuelans celebrate in the streets. they’re not pro-venezuelan or pro democracies, or pro tyrant, or pro maduro, they’re simply anti-american-right. they’ve outsourced their worldview to institutional narratives for so long that genuine self-reflection would require questioning everything. for them it’s much easier to just oppose. the beliefs arent coherent because they were never meant to be coherent. they only need to signal tribal membership, and leftist membership is gained by opposing the right. trump does X? the left screams and cries because they wanted Y trump does Y? the left screams and cries and riots because even if they said they wanted Y, what they meant is that X was the way to go trump cures cancer? they’ll argue that the cancer cells are alive have a right of free determination trump saves lives? they’ll protest because somehow those lives didn’t matter and should have been ended no coherent word model. no logic. pure opposition at some point you just have to stop engaging with it as if it’s a real political position. it’s not. it’s aesthetic opposition wearing the costume of ideology"
This is like how left wingers went from saying the Trump covid vaccine was unsafe to forcing people to take it
