Venezuela troubles (currency, economy and potential FAFO)

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U.S. Military Makes ‘Precision Strike’ Against Suspected Drug Vessel as Warships Gather in the Caribbean​

THE PENTAGON – U.S. forces performed a “precision strike” on a suspected transnational drug boat, the Defense Department confirmed on Tuesday.

First announced by President Donald Trump during a press event at the White House, a senior defense official confirmed the strike in a statement.

“As the President announced today, we can confirm the U.S. military conducted a precision strike against a drug vessel operated by a designated narco-terrorist organization. More information will be made available at a later time,” reads the statement.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio acknowledged the strike on social media website X. “[T]oday the U.S. military conducted a lethal strike in the southern Caribbean against a drug vessel which had departed from Venezuela and was being operated by a designated narco-terrorist organization.”

More:

 

US Military Strikes Venezuelan Terror Group​

Sep 2, 2025
This is a major move in the drug war
The US just carried out a military strike against the Venezuelan Tren de Aragua cartel, a group recently designated by President Trump as a Foreign Terror Organization. Here's what we know so far, how we got here and what to watch for in coming days.

12:06
 
Fatrat said:
I'll stay with murdered, extrajudicial killings leave me cold... https://www.google.com/search?q=ext...ng-rvo1&sourceid=chrome-mobile&ie=UTF-8#ebo=0
Click to expand...
Warfare is not murder.

What troubles me here is not, that we're killing people in war settings. It's how FRIVIOLOUSLY we now enter war activities. We don't declare it. We aggressively SEEK OUT the chance to wage war - we don't work to avoid it.

War is failure - the failure of the rules of civilization. War is a bar brawl writ large - and with most of the combatants, and virtually all the casualties, not even involved except that they accept subordinate roles, and a lower status, and they obey orders.

There are times when war is necessary. Those times are seldom, and for us, NOW IS NOT ONE OF THEM.

For THIS reason, I'd submit this is an immoral act.
 
Calling it murder is like writing speeding tickets at the Daytona 500.
 
Then we might as well lead by example and stop calling murder, murder....
 
I prefer targeted assassination to warfare. Quick, clean, in, out, send the drone and fire off the ginzu missiles and chop them good. Dont kid yourselves, most who oppose whacking these scumbag tyrants getting rich off the the deaths of our kids simply oppose the actions because they oppose Trump and this is simply an extension of their own selfish personal politics.

If it was Black Jesus firing off the ginzus they'd be clapping loudly. "Remember?"The guy who bombed more countries then any President in History"? Seven all told and I dont remember any of these Democrats expressing their concern by stealing flat screens and Air Jordans then. Black Jesus destabilized all of North Africa by bombing Libya to protect Europe's oil interests. And the reason he gave with a straight face ? "I do this for the freedom of Libyan's". Hahahahahahaaa, as if the Libyans would know what to do with freedom if it bit them in their asses. Black Jesus and Black Moses ? What a pair!

At heart they are still the bunch of savage tribal groups who screw their first cousins and ride bare assed across the desert. Always have been ; Always will be. But Black Jesus was going to save them and their freedom ? I'm sure the fact that many decades of Euro-colonialism and billions of dollars toward the pumping of the worlds sweetest and most valuable crude oil had nothing to do with it said the schmuck who crowed "no blood for oil" when we actually, stupidly really did go to war to remove a tyrant "Saddam" and really did try and en-free a bunch of tribal savages "Iraqi's".

But Jesse "Moses" Jackson was silent when he came down from the mountain in Libya with his stone tablets and 40 oz'ers of Old English malt liquor. Maybe he figured out that Libya sweet crude could be cheaply refined right across the Med for the highest quality petro products while avoiding the $650K Suez canal fee for the oil tankers as well as the half mad Hooties with their I-ranian missiles.

More probably they just paid into the "Free Jessie jr" fund used for golf junkets and private Jets. After all there have never been no shortage of suckers to shake down. A new one is born every minute.
 
Targeted assassination and terrorism....same thing.
 
I'm not up for Targeted A$$@$$ination for a more-strategic reason.

It doesn't work. Often it has the opposite of desired effect. The victim is beatified; often becoming a cult icon that new leaders try to seize. Look at how King's death turned a tax-cheating, womanizing preacher into a saint and now a stealth conservative. Look at how George Wallace's failed murder revitalized his career.

John Kennedy was in trouble in polls, in 1963 - which was why he was campaigning early.

Robert Kennedy's death turned into a sympathy play for the family - including the reprobate lush younger brother, the drunk-driving-drowner of his campaign-staffer, and probably that night's planned private entertainer.

In world history, the death of the Archduke Ferdinand didn't end feudalism or promote anarchy - it launched the chaos of world war, essentially for 30 years (WWII was just a continuation of WWI after regrouping). The hit on Lenin may or may not have advanced the stealth assasin - who may or may not have been Stalin - but it did nothing to reform the Bolshevik movement. And likewise, the hit on Stalin (if it was a hit, it was done by his personal attendants) did nothing to end his excesses. That took the removal, the more-or-less legal removal, of Khruschev by the Politburo. And then, 25 years more of time.

So IMHO it appears that targeted snuffings don't seem to make a lot of strategic sense. Perhaps SCARING leaders does.
 

GOP Sen. Threatens Maduro: 'You Have To Make a Call: Leave Venezuela Alive Or Dead'​

Republican Sen. Bernie Moreno made a threat to Venezuela's authoritarian President Nicolas Maduro as the U.S. continues deploying assets off its coast: "You have to make a call: leave Venezuela alive or dead"

Speaking to La Voz, Moreno also claimed Maduro has been using cocaine: "Drug traffickers don't have to use the substances they sell. Maduro is using a lot of cocaine rather than selling it. He's a crazy man. I never sent him a message but I do it now," the senator said before making the threat.

More:

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/worl...la-alive-or-dead/ar-AA1M0MIu?ocid=socialshare
 
The Venezuelans have a pretty good assassination squad themselves, this good get interesting, though they might just hire the Mexican cartel killers since they are active in America already...
 
Hell, George and Jeb Bush got caught flying it in, it was all quickly hushed up though...it was on the radio in the morning and disappeared by noon.
 
Trump learned from Gaza, murder the fisherman and starvation will set in...
 

Related to the above post

Tensions between Guyana and Venezuela flared again in 2015, when Exxon Mobil Corporation discovered significant oil reserves in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Essequibo in waters that are claimed by both Guyana and Venezuela. Estimates by Guyana’s government indicated that these deposits could hold more than 700 million barrels of oil, worth some $40 billion. The find promised considerable economic potential for Guyana, to that point one of the poorest countries in South America. The oil reserves also represented high economic potential for Venezuela, which, despite possessing its own large oil reserves, was in the midst of an economic collapse resulting from mismanagement of its state-owned oil industry and international sanctions imposed upon it in response to the increasingly authoritarian rule of Pres. Nicolás Maduro. In the wake of Exxon Mobil’s discovery, Maduro revived Venezuela’s claims to the Essequibo region, which beyond its potential oil riches offered possible economic benefits to be derived from hydroelectric power generation, fishing, and tourism.

Essequibo | History, Oil, Contested Territory, & Map | Britannica

A region along the northeastern coast of South America, Essequibo comprises roughly the western two-thirds of Guyana but is also claimed by Venezuela. It is bordered to the west by Venezuela, to the south and west by Brazil, and to the north by the Atlantic Ocean.
www.britannica.com

Today:

ExxonMobil greenlights seventh project off Guyana - Splash247

US supermajor ExxonMobil has made a final investment decision for the seventh project in Guyana’s prolific Stabroek block, after receiving the required regulatory approvals. Hammerhead, the seventh project in the block, will utilise an FPSO with a capacity to produce approximately 150,000...
splash247.com
 

Hegseth announces another US attack on alleged drug boat off Venezuelan coast​

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced Friday that the U.S. ordered a strike on another alleged drug boat that left Venezuela.

"Four male narco-terrorists aboard the vessel were killed in the strike, and no U.S. forces were harmed in the operation. The strike was conducted in international waters just off the coast of Venezuela while the vessel was transporting substantial amounts of narcotics - headed to America to poison our people," Hegseth said in an X post, which included footage of the attack.

The defense secretary didn't give more details about the attack, and only claimed that intelligence "confirmed that this vessel was trafficking narcotics, the people onboard were narco-terrorists, and they were operating on a known narco-trafficking transit route.

More:

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/worl...venezuelan-coast/ar-AA1NONwZ?ocid=socialshare
 
Can't speak as to the veracity of this one.

Status Of Venezuela’s Air Defense Capabilities

Growing tensions in the Caribbean could lead to a confrontation between U.S. combat aircraft and Venezuela’s hodgepodge of air defense systems. Growing tensions in the Caribbean could lead to a confrontation between U.S. combat aircraft and Venezuela’s hodgepodge of air defense systems.
www.twz.com
 
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