Regime change in Venezuela

That is a grand idea! Let him be king of sandcastles!

I'd love to see your imagined image ArchaeC , a bit of seaweed round his leg in mine.

You are so right! If the situation wasn’t so serious it would be comical. I have a vision of a comedic representation of Trump collecting seashells … if I could draw I would have great fun with what my brain is seeing right now. 

Apparently the rationale for the bombing was to eliminate anti-aircraft installations which might have endangered the forces tasked with capturing Maduro. Mind you, they don't exactly have a good reputation when it comes to precision bombing. 

Given that we assisted  America to board and control an oil tanker today, I don't think we're nearly distanced enough. The ship is allegded to be part of a shadow fleet that runs oil between Venezeula, Iran and Russia, whilst I agree that something needs to be done these ships I'm not sure what amounts to piracy is it. From the photo's of the ship it looks a ropey old thing and I wondered if it's seaworthy? I wonder what will happen to the crew?

I am glad that Britain is distancing itself a bit from America at the moment. It concerns me greatly with what Trump is doing. 

Concerning Venezuela, I didn't understand why bombing was necessary to capture someone he considered to be a criminal. The damage done affected innocent people.

Maybe we need to start one then?, Divert him into something different that allows him to play at being king.

TheCatWoman said:

I don't think he's quite up there with Caligula yet, ordering his troops to collect seashells to show his "victory" against Posiedon

You know, I think if there was a conspiracy theory on his silly platform that involved collecting seashells, he would do it.

I think power went to Trump’s head a long time ago. He wants to be God himself/herself (as opposed to anyone else’s self). 

Not all of us are Christians either! Trump has said before that he's not a Christian, but that he likes them and refers to them as 'my Christians'.

I think we need to remember what he is at heart, a real estate (property) dealer. I don't think he see's any of his actions in Venezeula or his potential actions in Greenland as being about anything other than land transactions and the exploitation of that land. He dosen't think of people, or traditions or any of the other things that give people a sense of belonging or nationality.

I also think the power is going to his head, he's starting to behave like one of the crazier Roman Emporors, I don't think he's quite up there with Caligula yet, ordering his troops to collect seashells to show his "victory" against Posiedon. But I think he's more like a Domitian or a Commodus, vain, self centred, paranoid and a meglomaniac.

RachelO said:

Perhaps this is a bit of End times and he thinks we may be approaching it

I don’t give any credibility to what Donald Trump may or may not think of Christian faith. With regard to an approaching of end times, it is only one way of interpreting specific verses in the Bible and not all Christians would see things that way.

I have found it a bit unsettling with what Trump has done in Venezuela. Before this he launched missiles in Nigeria as they have had religious terrorism and was backed by evangelicals in America. He didn’t go through UN and he was backed by the Nigerian president. It may have been good, but he went without the UN backing I think.

This case with Venezuela he too went in without UN veto. The opposition backed him who wished to be president. A former criminal Trump with two years’ post conviction went to seize another criminal Nicolás Maduro. May be he didn’t wish to be only criminal or may be wanted to do good. However, this seems against the UN and due process of veto. I think may be the UN should look into this and call him in. He is not a law unto himself. That is corruption.

Also, he met with the Russian prime minister and although they forged for peace-it is history they have been rivals and now he may be on side. He likely won’t get involved and be jumpy that Trump could invade his country.

He is a bit of character and didn’t seem to have political training or climb the ladder up for training-America backed him though and it is up to them and the UN.

Perhaps this is a bit of End times and he thinks we may be approaching it and he wants to be in good standing and his country to.

That’s dreadful. I don’t have adequate words to describe what I think about ‘that man’ and those in his party who do such things. 

profdanger said:

my parents and other older family members eat this stuff up like it’s all good news

I imagine that must be difficult, I would have to avoid talking about it. I can imagine it's like when Brexit happened overhere, it could make rifts in families and end relationships if you have different opinions.

Somewhat unrelated but the government just cut billions of dollars of funding for social services in five Democrat states due to potential fraud. Definitely doesn’t smell like Republicans sacrificing tons of innocent lives to make Democrats look bad. (that was sarcasm)

The news is absolutely terrifying over here, and my parents and other older family members eat this stuff up like it’s all good news. They have ZERO concern about any of this.

That wouldn't surprise me, I think Trump likes the idea of him, Putin and Xi basically running the world, it makes him look like the Russian asset so many have claimed him to be.

I wish our government would speak out, although I understand the tightrope they're walking, what with Ukraine and all.

It’s very concerning. 

In the meantime I am going to imagine Europe, the UK and other allies coming together and having the resources to hold Trump and his tariffs, threats and illegal actions to account. Together with Canada, Australia and others we would call the shots again.

It doesn’t surprise me as Russia’s outdated technology couldn’t prevent Venezuela crude oils production declining so it could be good for Putin. I don’t think there is evidence that a deal was struck but goodness knows what Trump thinks about it now. 

Europe is stuck between these two depraved leaders and their military operations.

Wordsmith said:

Putin had informally suggested a kind of swap: the Americans could have Venezuela if the Russians could have Ukraine.

When you look at the precedent this is now setting - wait for China to make moves on Taiwan and Korea and sieze lots of the islands in the hundreds of miles from their coast.

Who is going to stop them? They can claim America needs to be held accountable before them and that is never going to happen.

Imagine what would happen if someone would do to the US what the US did to Venezuela.

We were discussing this at home, that it's very bad for the world. It probably does mean the deal you speak of, and then he'll occupy Greenland in much the same way. And that could end Nato, which in turn opens up Russia doing a grab of other countries around them further. 

This is hypothetical of course, don't quote me! I looked up about Russia grabbing chunks of Norway previously which spurred them joing Nato, but if Nato doesn't mean anything anymore...

Just came across an interesting titbit from 2019. When Fiona Hill gave her testimony to the Trump impeachment enquiry, she mentioned that Putin had informally suggested a kind of swap: the Americans could have Venezuela if the Russians could have Ukraine.