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Maybe they should buy $100 billion worth of weapons so we look the other way on their human rights violations and absurdly undeomcratic government.

They can't afford $100 billion or that'd be a good plan.

Also note the kid thinks he would do this AFTER the U.S. hit them and that the White House is in New York. So hooray for socialist education I guess?

Bullshit election held to re-elect socialist.

Venezuela continues to circle the drain thanks to socialism. Still no word from Sean Penn.

The result continues two decades of rule by the late socialist president Hugo Chavez and Maduro, his hand-picked successor. Over that time, what had been one of Latin America’s wealthiest democracies has fallen into strongman rule. The economy has deteriorated to the point that electricity and running water are luxuries and malnutrition is rampant. Neighbor countries and international aid agencies are struggling to care for thousands of Venezuelans who have fled the nation.

Good work, there, socialists.

Venezuela suffering massive black outs and people are dying.

The government is blaming U.S. sabotage.

The opposition is claiming the government is murdering people.

The far left continues to claim Venezuela, while everyone else, including Venezuela, continues to claim they are socialist.

How accurate is this?

This, more in-depth articles, states that the seed of all that were sown much earlier. Basically, imagine if the Democrats + Republicans decided to share the power of running the US.

At democracy’s founding, in 1958, the country’s three leading parties, later narrowed to two, agreed to share power among themselves and oil revenue among their constituents. Their pact, meant to preserve democracy, came to dominate it. Party elites picked candidates and blocked outsiders, making politics less responsive. The agreement to share wealth fostered corruption.

Economic shocks in the 1980s led many Venezuelans to conclude the system was rigged against them. In 1992, leftist military officers, led by Lt Col Hugo Chavez, attempted a coup. They failed and were imprisoned, but their anti-establishment message resonated, catapulting Chavez to stardom.

Honestly, being Latin America's richest country in 1992 was a super lower bar.

Wikipedia says it was strong until the oil shocks on the 1980s

rom the 1950s to the early 1980s, the Venezuelan economy experienced a steady growth that attracted many immigrants, with the nation enjoying the highest standard of living in Latin America. During the collapse of oil prices in the 1980s, the economy contracted, the currency commenced a progressive devaluation and inflation skyrocketed to reach peaks of 84% in 1989...

Basically, oil made them rich, and they never leveraged that into further success.

Thank you for the research.

So long story short, you can have all the money in the world, but if you have incompetent leaders, you're still fucked.

"Forced disappearances"

They'd better call Sean Penn for another photo op.

Cultists protesting the U.S. removing Maduro in Venezuela overnight: 1. There's no war you ignorant cunts.
2. Maybe think without bigotry long enough to actually listen to Venezuelans?
3. This is proof that Trump could indeed cure cancer and people would protest.

Here's a fuckton of Venezuelans celebrating, and there are hundreds more posted on X:

Weird how the first tweet says "Democrats" but all the signs says "Socialists"

One of my Democratic friends is against it, since it's illegal and all. And it probably is. But I also can't say that Madero deserves anything except jail/death.

TheCatt wrote: ↑Sat Jan 03, 2026 8:14 pm Weird how the first tweet says "Democrats" but all the signs says "Socialists"

Joke aside, the party of openly socialist people like Sanders, AOC, Mamdani, etc. are, whether anyone likes it or not, socialists.

Same as how Rs are technically all MAGA right now even though most Rs aren't actually MAGA.

This is a great read. Unfortunately, some 20-something white girl who hasn't ever left her state will completely disagree because TikTok makes her know better.

I'm not sure how much is going to change, guess we'll see. US has frozen out the resistance and the dude who really won the election. Leaving the corruption in place and hoping it changes?

It was definitely a win to end Russia, China, and their cronies' influence in Venezuela.

But yeah, it'll be interesting to see what happens now. Perhaps the guy who won wasn't a US guy? Seems like they could hold a new election and any candidate that framed themselves as wanting to work with the US would probably win.

All the credit in the world to Trump for removing Maduro, but I'm not convinced he knows how to pull off this next part. There's a way to do this where Venezuela becomes a staunch US ally forever in the hearts and minds of its people. There's also a way to completely botch this and make the people hate us.

I'm surprised Trump hasn't sold Venezuela to private equity yet...

Fetterman continues to be the only adult in our government.