Mike Netter on X - "Sentiments of Venezuelans
I’m going to say this once, and I don’t care if it makes people uncomfortable. If you have never lived in Venezuela If you did not grow up there If you did not watch your country collapse in real time If you did not stand in food lines If you did not watch your parents lose everything they built If you did not have to leave your home with nothing Then shut the fuck up. You do not have an opinion. Your opinion does not matter. And you don’t get to lecture anyone about what’s happening there. I’m Venezuelan. I lived there most of my life until my early twenties. I watched my country go from a functioning democracy to full blown socialism right in front of my eyes. This is not politics to me. This is trauma. Before socialism, Venezuela was not perfect, but it worked. There was trade. There was money coming in. There was investment from the US. There were jobs. There was food. There was medicine. My family had five businesses. We had our home We had investments. We had a future. Then the government started nationalizing everything. Private companies were taken. Foreign investors were pushed out. Imports were blocked. Price controls destroyed production. Corruption exploded. And everything died. Not slowly. Violently. People didn’t suddenly become poor because of “capitalism” or “the US” or whatever bullshit slogan people like to repeat online. They became poor because socialism destroyed incentives, destroyed production, destroyed trust, and destroyed hope. People today in Venezuela are not debating ideology. They are trying to survive. They are trying to find food. Trying to find medication. Trying to keep their families alive. So when I see people in the West posting from comfortable homes, full fridges, stable currencies, and safe streets talking about “imperialism” or “US bad” or “Trump this or that” No. It’s not complicated. You’re just ignorant. China is not rebuilding Venezuela. Russia is not rebuilding Venezuela. Cartels are not rebuilding Venezuela. They are stealing. They are extracting. They are draining what’s left. If the US comes in and reinvests If refineries get rebuilt If infrastructure gets restored If imports open back up If food, water, and medicine become accessible again If people can work and earn with dignity Then yes. Let them take all the oil they want. Because at least something gets built instead of destroyed. This is something to celebrate. Not because it’s perfect. But because for the first time in a long time, there is hope. Hope that families can eat. Hope that people don’t have to flee their country. Hope that Venezuela can function again. If you’ve never lived through a country collapsing If you’ve never watched socialism destroy everything around you If you’ve never had to leave your home because staying meant starvation Then again Shut the fuck up. This isn’t theory. This isn’t politics. This is lived experience.
By Stephen Subero"
Meme - Trump on phone: "Look, Vlad, for it to be considered a "special military operation" it's got to be fast and decisive, not a 4-year trench war"
*Monkey Putin with bananaphone*
Defiant L’s on X - "Venezuelan woman: “In 25 years, nobody has done anything about us except for Trump”"
Is Doug Ford next on Trump’s capture list? (aka "After Donald Trump’s capture of Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro, does Doug Ford need to watch his back?")
Left wingers are crazy
The ‘International Law’ Illusion in Venezuela - WSJ - "Has international law become a tyrant’s best friend? Democrats and foreign leaders are claiming that President Trump’s arrest of Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro is illegal—at least as international law is interpreted by the reigning complex of professors, NGOs and multilateral bureaucrats... Our favorite is Hamas’s statement condemning the Maduro arrest as a “grave violation of international law” and “assault on the sovereignty of an independent state.” It would be nice to think we live in a Wilsonian garden where law governs relations among nations. We don’t. The closest we’ve come was in the aftermath of the Cold War, when the U.S. was dominant globally and rallied coalitions to enforce international norms in the first Gulf War and the Balkans. Today rogue regimes are on the march, and international law and the institutions that supposedly uphold it end up protecting the lawbreakers... The rogues of the world break all the rules, only to deploy them against law-abiding democracies as a way to continue in their lawlessness. The frequent citation concerning Venezuela is Article 2(4) of the U.N. Charter: “All Members shall refrain in their international relations from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any State.” But go a little deeper and the analysis becomes muddy. First, is the U.S. intervention a violation of Venezuelan sovereignty when the country’s legitimate authority consents to it? Edmundo González, elected by the Venezuelan people in 2024, has spoken in support of the operation. The Maduro regime, which stole that election, objects. The bipartisan U.S. position is that Mr. Maduro wasn’t the legitimate President. Mr. Maduro welcomed Hezbollah and used Cuban troops to impose his rule on Venezuela. The regime in Havana says 32 Cubans died defending Mr. Maduro. As our contributor Eugene Kontorovich writes, “It would be odd to read [Article] 2(4) as allowing foreign powers to use troops to prop up an illegitimate, unelected dictator, but not to remove him.” Second, does this qualify as U.S. self-defense against the Venezuelan regime’s drug smuggling and use of migration as a weapon? The U.S. also claimed self-defense as grounds to arrest Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega in 1989... The herd of instant analysts also claim the U.S. operation will give Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping license in Ukraine and Taiwan. “Think of what Russia and China just learned,” Rep. Jim Himes, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, said Sunday on CBS’s “Face the Nation.” As if Moscow and Beijing don’t already trample international law when it gets in their way. President Xi isn’t waiting on a new legal interpretation to seize Taiwan; that’s what his military buildup is for. China has ignored the international ruling against its island grabs in the South China Sea. Vetoes by China and Russia have neutered the U.N. Security Council. The International Criminal Court has become a weapon against the U.S. and Israel when they fight terrorism. The only defense against global rogues is the deterrent of Western military force. That force was on display with flawless precision in snatching Mr. Maduro. And the demonstration of U.S. nerve and military prowess will do more than a thousand U.N. resolutions to protect the free world and make Russia, China and Iran think twice. Liberal internationalism is a moral and political failure if it can’t distinguish between the aggression of Russia and China to swallow neighboring democracies and a U.S. military action to arrest a lawless dictator in league with the world’s worst actors."
Thread by @JewishSpaceLazr on Thread Reader App – Thread Reader App - "To understand Venezuela, you must understand that the Liberal International Rules-Based Order established after WWII no longer exists. It was based on historically unique circumstances that haven't obtained for 30 years. Here's why that happened and how the world works now 🧵
Post-WWII the world was bi-polar, tense but essentially stable. The US established extraordinary institutions and diplomatic mores: The UN, World Bank, IMF, GATT, etc. But they only existed in the West-dominated world. The Soviet sphere was separate, mostly outside the system. What we called The Third World was weak and dependent. None of that obtains today. The Communist Empire collapsed, Europe is weak, and there are new world powers with little or no stake in the vestigial Rules Based Order: China, the Muslim world, & other BRIC nations. The old Cold war structures fell along with the USSR, the rise of China & Islam, and the economic/military decline of Europe. This new world is disordered. It is a world defined not by ‘international law’ but by something much more traditional - multipolar power dynamics. As leader of the Old Order, the US was slow to adapt. We thought we could withdraw from global activist leadership and the world would still play by our rules. WRONG. China, Russia, Iran, the Gulf powers, etc have all filled the vacuum of global power while we stood idly by. But as the strongest economic and military power on the planet, America is uniquely able to dominate the new system just as we dominated the old. That's what the capture of Maduro means. It’s the US announcing we understand the new global power structure and we intend to lead."
✨️ 𝐃𝐚𝐯𝐢𝐝 𝐋𝐞𝐞 ✨️ on X - "My smile as I tell a liberal, "We didn't "Invade" Venezuela... ... we were "Undocumented" visitors.""
Jesús Enrique Rosas - The Body Language Guy on X - "OPEN LETTER TO LIBERALS, DEMOCRATS, LIBTARDS AND THE GENERAL WOKE MOB
I see too many fuckers in here gripping their ethically sourced oat milk latte so hard the cardboard sleeve is whimpering, staring at footage of us, actual Venezuelan human beings who have spent the last decade eating sleep for dinner, cheering for the Orange Man. HOW DARE WE, RIGHT!? And it hurts, doesn’t it? It feels like your brain is trying to divide by zero while some asshole kicks your junk with Delta Force boots. Since I know you ain't gonna read all this, this is the summary: FUCK YOU and your "ACKSHUALLY..." gag reflex. Too bad your squirrel mind can't fathom a guy in Caracas, who has lost 40 pounds because of a collapsing economy and whose local currency is less valuable than a used napkin, is weeping with joy because he thinks 47th is his ticket out of a socialist fever dream. And yes, we have been waiting for this moment for literal DECADES. But your immediate, lizard-brain reaction is to push up your glasses, scoff and say, "Um, ACKSHUALLY, do these Venezuelans realize that Trump’s stance on globalism is intellectually inconsistent with the neoliberal framework required for true South American stability?" No, you absolute dipshit. We don't. Because we’re too busy being excited about the possibility of living in a country where Maduro's colectivos won't shoot us in the face with a sawed off shotgun, JUST FOR WALKING DOWN THE STREET. You're more worried about the optics of a right-wing populist getting a win than you are about the fact that Maduro’s government has been running a nationwide "Hunger Games" reality for years, and nobody, not you, not the 'international community' has cared one bit about us through all this. You: "But Trump is a threat to our institutions! He's literally HITLER!!1" Gonna tell you a personal anecdote, you liberal POS. I personally know a guy who was snatched off the street just for BEING IN THE WRONG WHATSAPP GROUP. The guy was disappeared for almost a year. His family didn't know if he was dead or alive, or where he was detained. Nothing. AND HE DIDN'T EVEN REALIZE HE WAS IN THAT WHATSAPP GROUP. A FUCKING WHATSAPP GROUP. And yes, that's the reason I'm Venezuelan, I'm living in EUROPE (shocking, right? how do Venezuelans exist outside Venezuela, you might ask!?) and I can't enter the country anymore. Or at least, not yet. Because I would disappear without a trace. Just like your abroadian-lifestyle-funding tax money in the liberal blue shithole you live right now. Any Venezuelan would literally vote for a sentient head of lettuce if it promised to stop these motherfuckers from torturing and raping our families. I WISH I WAS JOKING, YOU PIECE OF SHIT. Your very own problem is that you view the world through a lens of virtue-cosplay. To you, supporting the "wrong" person is a social death sentence. You can't fathom that for us, politics isn't about "identity" or "discourse". For us, politics have become a matter of SURVIVAL. And we have been betrayed SO MANY TIMES by the so-called political opposition, we're tired of all this shit. We've grown too old and too weary to listen to your whining about 'International Law'. If a guy saves you from a bear attack, you don't stand over your bleeding shins and lectursplain to him about his shitty tweets from 2016. You say "Thank you." And I'm PROUD to THANK Donald Fucking J. Trump for this. But to you, modern liberal, rot of all societies, our "Thank You" is the real tragedy here, because it means the "Bad Man" got a nice gold star. Utter narrative fuckery that rains diarrhea on your carefully curated, elitist worldview. So, while you're busy writing a 14-part thread about how our celebrations are "uninformed" or "dangerous for the global narrative," we are celebrating because we see a light at the end of a very long, very dark, very hungry tunnel. We don't give a SINGLE FLYING FUCK about being tweetshamed by some prick in a Brooklyn loft. We're worried about not dying in the bowels of El Helicoide. Google that, coño e' tu madre. So take your "nuance", put it inside a pineapple and shove the whole thing up your ass. We are allowed to be happy that our dictator is going to wear an orange jumpsuit, even if the guy helping us do it makes your therapist rich."
Leo Kearse - on YouTube & touring on X - "See how slyly they "fact check" the claim that the Venezuelan socialist regime stole American oil investments, assets and infrastructure. First they rephrase the claim as just being about oil itself. Then you've got to look past the big blaring "FALSE" symbol to see that yes, the Venezuelan socialists did "seize assets and land from US companies". 92% of fact-checking is socialist propaganda. Don't fact-check me on that."
Snopes lying again
Meme - "TO ALL THE *** WORRIED ABOUT VENEZUELA'S OIL: STOP THE HYPOCRISY. YOU DIDN'T CARE FOR 20 YEARS WHILE THAT OIL WAS STOLEN - NOT FOR THE VENEZUELAN PEOPLE, BUT FOR MADURO HIMSELF, FOR RUSSIA, CHINA, CUBA, AND IRAN - WHILE VENEZUELANS WERE LEFT IN EXTREME POVERTY AND FORCED INTO EXILE. THESE PEOPLE ARE CRIMINALS. AND NOW SUDDENLY YOU CARE MORE ABOUT VENEZUELANS' OIL THAN ABOUT VENEZUELANS THEMSELVES. VENEZUELANS ARE GRATEFUL TO PRESIDENT Donald Trump, AND IF THE PRICE OF FREEDOM IS VENEZUELA'S OIL, WE PAY IT GLADLY - BECAUSE WE DON'T CARE ABOUT THE OIL. WE HAVE THOUSANDS OF OTHER RESOURCES TO SURVIVE. FOR US, FREEDOM IS WORTH MORE THAN ALL THE OIL IN THE WORLD. SO STOP THE HYPOCRISY. SUCK A WHOLE CARAVAN OF EGGS AND SHUT THE FUCK UP."
Meme - Misheru Katorin @Mkatorin: "The third worldists bitching about imperialism while the Maduro regime claimed half the land of its neighbour which actually was just to get more oil."
"TRINIDAD & TOBAGO"
"Claimed by Venezuela"
"Guyana's Exclusive Economic Zone"
"SURINAME"
"Claimed by Venezuela"
"Guyana"
Meme - Trump: "Hey, we captured Maduro."
Tradwife (Venezuela): "OMG!! YAY!!"
Fat woman (Democrats): "She's not interested."
Meme - John Paviovitz @johnpavlovitz: "The grandparents and great grandparents off MAGAs would be sickened of the way they're now on the side of the very authoritarians and dictators they died protecting us from"
John Pavlovitz @johnpavlovitz: "I stand with Venezuela. Impeach Trump Now."
Meme - Joe Biden @JoeBiden: "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."
Joe Biden @JoeBiden: "Venezuela's election to the UN Human Rights Council is a travesty. Nicolas Maduro is a dictator, plain and simple. His regime's human rights violations and extrajudicial killings have been documented by the UNHRC."
Joe Biden @JoeBiden: "As Juan Guaido speaks about the Venezuelan humanitarian crisis and the crimes against humanity perpetrated by Maduro, I reaffirm my commitment to stand with the Venezuelan people. A Biden-Harris administration will always champion democracy and human rights around the world."
Joe Biden @JoeBiden: "On the anniversary of a hopeful moment, it's clear Trump's Venezuela policy is a dead end. Millions are suffering with the Maduro regime still in power."
Joe Biden @JoeBiden: "Only a tyrant would prevent the delivery of food and medicine to people he claims to lead. The international community must support Juan Guaido and the National Assembly. It is time for Maduro to step aside and allow a democratic transition. The Venezuelan people deserve better."
Joe Biden @JoeBiden: "On this Venezuelan Independence Day, my thoughts are with Venezuelans who continue to work tirelessly for the cause of democracy. It's time for free and fair elections so that the Venezuelan people can turn the page on the corrupt and repressive Maduro regime."
Joe Biden @JoeBiden: "Nicolas Maduro is a dictator. I strongly condemn his regime's violent takeover of the Venezuelan National Assembly, the country's sole remaining democratic institution."
Meme - Morgan J. Freeman @mjfree: "Maduro's security forces opened fire on unarmed protesters. He needs to go."
Morgan J. Freeman @mjfree: "TRUMP IS A WAR CRIMINAL TRUMP IS A WAR CRIMINAL TRUMP IS A WAR CRIMINAL TRUMP IS A WAR CRIMINAL TRUMP IS A WAR CRIMINAL"
Meme - "Luigi Mangione should be allowed to execute American civilians with zero consequences but Trump removing Maduro is Le "War Crime" The left is a joke. Nobody cares what you idiots think anymore."
evan loves worf @esjesjesj: "Luigi Mangione acted in self defense"
evan loves worf @esjesjesj: "This is a war crime btw"
Top economist says Trump may have 'outsmarted all of us' on tariffs - "A prominent Wall Street economist who had slammed President Trump’s tariffs earlier this year now says that the president may have “outsmarted all of us” with his controversial trade policies. Torsten Sløk, chief economist at investment giant Apollo Global Management, said that while the uncertainty surrounding trade policy has already started to weigh on the economy, Trump could lower tariffs on most of the US trading partners while using the levies to boost federal revenue. Sløk suggested in a recently posted analysis that the administration’s approach may be more strategic than previously thought... In April, Sløk warned that Trump’s tariffs could trigger a recession by summer, particularly harming American small businesses and potentially halting the flow of goods from China to the US, leading to layoffs and a broader economic slowdown."
Scotiabank’s CEO is a Trumper, Boycott ScotiaBank : r/Scotiabank - " While everyone is entitled to their own political beliefs, the recent comments by Scotiabank’s CEO about U.S. political developments are deeply troubling. At the Royal Bank of Canada’s annual Canadian bank CEO conference, Scotiabank CEO Scott Thomson described what he called a “bit of a lost decade” for regional growth, and said U.S. President Donald Trump’s renewed push for Western Hemisphere dominance would be a “longer-term positive” for the Western Hemisphere, the U.S. and Scotiabank. He cited shifts toward right-of-center governments in countries like Chile, Colombia and Peru, and a “very business-friendly administration” in Mexico as supportive of stronger growth trends he believes should benefit the bank over the next several years. What is happening in the United States right now is dangerous for everyone, and embracing or celebrating that direction, especially from the leadership of a major Canadian bank, is unacceptable. Because of this, we can no longer support Scotiabank."
"“Everyone is entitled to their own opinions”
“Boycott the bank because the CEO may not be a leftist and lightly criticized Canadian economic policy”
Lol"
Meme - "Chuck Schumer voted 'Yes' for the Maritime Drug Law Enforcement Act of 1986 authorizing the military to fire on drug-smuggling boats. The House approved it 392-16 and the Senate approved it 97-2. All current Democrats voted serving back then voted YES"
Meme - John Pavlovitz @johnpavlovitz: "The Right has generated so many conspiracies that they no longer know why they're lying- but that doesn't stop them."
John Pavlovitz @johnpavlovitz: "There are people who believe the moon landing was staged but this wasn't. *Trump assassination attempt*"
Caryma Sa'd - Lawyer + Political Satirist on X - "In a city of over one million people, quoting Deana Sherif is a bizarre choice. The Globe and Mail presents the perpetual protester merely as “a property manager of housing co-ops,” ignoring her documented pattern of violent and antisocial behaviour. Sherif has already been found guilty in relation to protest-related incidents and faces another trial later this month on serious charges, including assault, assault with a weapon, intimidation, and hate-motivated harassment. How are readers meant to understand her perspective without any context? 📸 Jan 4, 2026 #Ottawa #ProtestMania"
Meme - JJ McCullough: "Canada has not recognized Maduro as a "head of state" since 2018 because we do not recognize the validity of any of the elections he claimed to have won. Avi should be asked if he believes Maduro was legitimately elected and if he believes Venezuela was a democracy under him."
Avi Lewis @avilewis: "The US has attacked a country, kidnapped its head of state, and is seizing its oil. Trump has invoked the Monroe Doctrine. This is a moment for Canada to stand up: condemn this act of imperialism. Reject impunity and the politics of brute force. ..."
Readers added context: "The Government of Canada has not recognized Maduro as the legitimate "head of state" of Venezuela since 2019 because it does not believe he was legitimately chosen in a free and fair election."
Pete North on X - "The age of empires never ended. Multilateralism was always a facade. The "international rules based order" was essentially America's soft power empire until it was captured by liberal internationalists, and then America woke up to the fact that it's carrying the weight of this entire system which enables despots and parasites while being lectured by Europeans who lean on America for security. The whale is scraping the barnacles of its back."
Collingwood 🇬🇧 on X - "I love how they treat this as if it is a unique Trump novelty, target than standard practice for the last 27 years. Just the examples of two countries Clinton bombed Serbia and then occupied part of it after redrawing the borders (of a sovereign European country, no less) against its will. Bush II led an illegal and unprovoked invasion of Iraq Obama (egged on by Cameroon and Sarkozy and his state department) bombed Libya, turning one of the richest African countries into a hellhole run by warlords and where cities have open air slave markets. Obama and Biden bombed Syria and funded and trained Al Qaeda there to take down the sovereign government (not conspiracy: well documented fact). Putin invaded Ukraine. Yet somehow this is all Trump's doing. These people have the memories of fish. Or the intellect of fish."
Richard Hanania on X - "*New polling among Venezuelans* The Economist finds that over half of Venezuelans support the raid against Maduro. Only 13% oppose it. 70% believe that their economic situation will be better in a year. About half support some form of US governance, only 18% oppose. Trump, Rubio, and Machado all have approval ratings over 50%. Major figures in the regime are all under 15%. If elections were held, Machado would beat Rodriguez in a landslide. There were a lot of assumptions made about how this would discredit the US abroad. No. People want to be free from socialist dictators. They care about that more than abstract concepts of international law. America is in the right here. We should keep going until Venezuela is free. It's what the people of that country want. It's ok to be proud of your country, and stand on the side of freedom against tyranny."
Labour MP ‘goes Caracas’ with praise for Venezuela ‘heroes’ - "During Mr Maduro’s 13 years at the helm in Venezuela, eight million people – a quarter of the population – fled their homeland. Those who opposed the regime risked jail and torture at the hands of the security forces, while the country’s economy shrank by at least 75 per cent."