International At least 7 explosions and low-flying aircraft are heard in Venezuela’s Caracas - Maduro captured

[nhbfan8080]

I haven't gone through the thread yet, but how did Maduro get captured so easily and quickly?

Did he lack support from the Venezuelan military? Did they step aside and allow US soldiers to capture him easily?
Not sure whats going on because his VP says she has support from the military.

 

[aerius]

I haven't gone through the thread yet, but how did Maduro get captured so easily and quickly?

Did he lack support from the Venezuelan military? Did they step aside and allow US soldiers to capture him easily?
Not sure whats going on because his VP says she has support from the military.

There's a lot of contradictory reports but so far it looks like there was inside help of some sort. How much was pre-arranged and with who is still unknown, I think more clues will leak out in the next few weeks and we'll just have to wait & see what happens next.

 

[Sinister]

The average person is an idiot, so I shouldn't be surprised to see many defending this. Humanity is doomed to be duped, manipulated, and enslaved by the elites because most people are and always have been morons. Nothing will ever change.

We're consumers:

 

[nhbfan8080]

...................
...................but his implementation of US trained technocrats and US led involvement of foreign capital (including rejoining the IMF and World Bank) really did lead to economic development (industrialisation, education, infrastructure and healthcare) it otherwise would have been unlikely to achieve..........

I keep reading about how Indonesia did so well under the technocrats but the country still resembles a basket case. Another view is that the technocrats made free market reforms which opened up the country and allowed western companies to write their own rules which turned Indonesia into dog crap. There must be a better way gauge economic progress instead of lauding raw gdp growth when there is still so much unemployment and low wages. Its not a coincidence that the Asian countries which did well ignored western advice and were more nationalistic.

Remember the time when sherdog conservatives were posting about Hayek and Friedman and quoting that Adam Smith and his invisible hand of god? Now its like no one wants to talk about the free market enterprise anymore.

 

[KAZSoliloquy]

I haven't gone through the thread yet, but how did Maduro get captured so easily and quickly?

Did he lack support from the Venezuelan military? Did they step aside and allow US soldiers to capture him easily?
Not sure whats going on because his VP says she has support from the military.

it's amazing what money can do.

 

[MMA IAN]

Thread cliffs:
1. @Jeffy37 Nobody died.
2. @isa Several people died.
3. @Jeffy37 Not Americans.
4. @isa so brown people don’t count?
5. @Jeffy37 I didn’t say that! I said nobody died!

I mean isnt that normal when its your boys going in?

If aussies went and snatched Xi and no aussies died but some of his bodyguards did I don't see the problem saying 'yeah sweet nice job fellas noone died'

Idgaf about some dictator's mercenary bodyguards

 

[Squarechoke]

Well they do just have a military exercise where the encircled Taiwan and told no other country to interfere. I am sure if they could, they would.

Taiwan isn’t a socialist or communist shithole tho and China isn’t the USA.

China can bluff, but we have the trump card

The Trump card you have is now only hypocrisy if the US condemns China moving on an area that the US doesn't even consider to be a sovereign nation. The "socialist or communist shithole" is a pointless argument since it's just a point of view/opinion and China will naturally have a different one than the US. A more aggressively moving US isn't likely to make China less eager to get control over Taiwan and "protect their interests" either.

That's the problem with someone like Trump that doesn't seem to be fully able to grasp how world politics work. Very few are sad that Maduro got arrested in particular, but a lot more understand the consequences the general action can have in both short and long term. Not that this is an entirely new thing for the US of course (although the aggressive rhetoric towards its allies is), and not many are surprised that Trump didn't end up the 100% peaceful and focused on America candidate that his fans said he was going to be.

 

[deviake]

Communism requires an authoritarian dictator to ensure collectivism warmly embraces everyone to force them to do their part.

Because hard working people love that they have support lazy degenerates while they have to deal with food shortages

It doesn't. Authoritarianism is authoritarianism regardless of the economic system. Russia was ruled by the communist party but was never communist (communism being a classless, stateless, cashless society), nor is China, closer to state capitalist though they call it "socialist with Chinese characteristics". And yes, people - particularly certain leftists like Marxist-Leninists - do make excuses for these regimes, as others do for capitalist countries ("crony capitalism"), no true Scotsman and all that.

Another thing a lotta people don't get is that capitalism can, has been, and is centrally planned too. Even "free" markets to some degree are, it's just a matter of who and what kind of planning and the extent of it. Centrally planned economies aren't unique to socialism contrary to popular belief.

 

[Scerpi]

I haven't gone through the thread yet, but how did Maduro get captured so easily and quickly?

Did he lack support from the Venezuelan military? Did they step aside and allow US soldiers to capture him easily?
Not sure whats going on because his VP says she has support from the military.

Well... if the early reports are shown to be true. The Chinese and Russia supplied radars and air defense were proven to be complete shit.

 

[lsa]

hmmm...
Interesting.

"Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodríguez has been officially sworn in as interim president following the US capture of Nicolás Maduro, news agencies report.

“I mourn the suffering inflicted on the Venezuelan people by the illegitimate military aggression against our homeland. I mourn the kidnapping of two heroes,” she said.

She was sworn in by her brother Jorge Rodríguez, who was appointed speaker of the National Assembly earlier on Monday. Maduro’s son Nicolás Maduro Guerra also made an appearance there during the day.

His message was that no country is safe “if we normalize the kidnapping of heads of state,” writes the AP.

“Today it is Venezuela. Tomorrow it could be any other country that refuses to submit.”

 

[lsa]

for fuck sake...

 

[Alpha_T83]

for fuck sake...

This is exactly what Putin wants Trump doing. Playing the 1984 imperialist "Great Powers" spheres of influence game. Undermining the international rules based order and encouraging Trump to become isolationist is exactly what Russia and China want.

 

[MetalMilitia]

for fuck sake...

Still waiting on the long-format breakdown of "neck pussy orange twat" vs "drug lord" logic

Someone gotta entertain me.

 

[lsa]

This is exactly what Putin wants Trump doing. Playing the 1984 imperialist "Great Powers" spheres of influence game. Undermining the international rules based order and encouraging Trump to become isolationist is exactly what Russia and China want.

I like how they just admit it now...
I am sure Trumps fans will love it.

 

[LangfordBarrow]

for fuck sake...

But at least it's not war if the countries we attack can't defend themselves...

 

[LangfordBarrow]

This is exactly what Putin wants Trump doing. Playing the 1984 imperialist "Great Powers" spheres of influence game. Undermining the international rules based order and encouraging Trump to become isolationist is exactly what Russia and China want.

It's like offering candy to a baby considering it seems Trump would love nothing more than to emulate the permanent control they wield over their countries.

 

[sickc0d3r]

— <=- this thing doesn't exist on a human typed keyboard or sentence -- unless run through some kinda filter. If ya got a special skill that shows ya adding that to human thought post and discussion (in yer no so sinister words) -- please fuckin' point it out.

Am i missing something on this keyboard? Ya take the time to specifically add it in?

Why bother to use such a thing? I'm fuckin' dyin' to know more -- just an avid key-bored dude.

You’re missing something alright…

 

[MetalMilitia]

You’re missing something alright…

Sorry -- show me lol. It don't exist unless ya run yer shit though AI/filter/editor.

I still can't find the fuckin' thing on my keyboard to respond to you with... Did ya wanna show me how you huamn-write this into yer conversation?

 

[sickc0d3r]

Not Always.

Breaking: Mike Lee's Public Land Sale Plan Is Dead

Sources in Washington D.C. say the public-land provision in the Senate reconciliation bill is officially dead thanks to pressure from hunters and conservationists.

www.outdoorlife.com

Facing overwhelming opposition from all Democrats and a growing number in his own party, Utah Republican Senator Mike Lee tonight withdrew his proposal to sell millions of acres of public land.

The language in those pages, sponsored and revised over the last two weeks by Lee, would have created the largest disposal of public land since the Homestead Act. Tens of thousands of hunters, anglers, hikers, and public land recreationists have pummeled the offices of their congressional delegations with increasingly strident demands to kill Lee’s bill.

That continued pressure from a broad and vocal coalition of rural hunters, suburban hikers, livestock producers, main street business owners, anglers, dirtbag climbers, and whitewater rafters made the difference, says Montanan Randy Newberg, host of Fresh Tracks and a vocal public-land advocate.

“Mike Lee did something that we’ve not been able to do, to have all Americans become focused on one issue, no partisanship, no Rs, no Ds, and in the process I hope they have sent a message that public lands are that third rail of American politics.”

They really need to get this through their fucking head before they get it through their fucking head, y'know. They should've already known.

After a massive backlash, a Republican yanks his bill to sell off public lands

He didn’t count on pissing off hunters.

www.vox.com

In January, Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) introduced a bill in the House that would direct the Bureau of Land Management to sell off 3.3 million acres of federally owned lands — an area the size of Connecticut. But this week, Chaffetz decided to yank the bill after a fierce backlash from hunters, sportsmen, and conservationists on both the left and the right. Privatizing public land, it turns out, is a lot harder than it sounds.

A backlash to Chaffetz’s bill quickly formed, as Alex Robinson of Outdoor Life detailed. Conservationists and hunting groups noted that selling off even small parcels of land to private interests could cut off public access into national forests for hunters or campers. But perhaps more relevant, many groups seemed to see this as a gateway to a much bigger fire sale of federal lands down the road. The precise lands in play here were less important than the larger principles at stake.

One group, Backcountry Hunters & Anglers, raised a particular fuss. “For Mr. Chaffetz, you’ve kicked the hornet’s nest, and the army is amassing,” said its CEO, Land Tawney, on a widely shared Facebook video. “And I will put my money on the people every single time. The only thing you can do to make this right is to pull those bills back.”

Fuck. Yeah. Please stop taking hiatus’s from this place or whatever you keep doing, homie.

 

[sickc0d3r]

Sorry -- show me lol. It don't exist unless ya run yer shit though AI/filter/editor.

I still can't find the fuckin' thing on my keyboard to respond to you with... Did ya wanna show me how you huamn-write this into yer conversation?

Show you what? It’s two dashes, that’s it — . Maybe you should buy—or have your mom buy—a device that isn’t made of potatoes?