Venezuela thrust to forefront of U.S.-Russia clashes

Another failure for Trump and the neo-cons he's got doing his bidding for the masters of oil and war.

Russia and Venezuela have a political, military and economic alliance that was cemented between Putin and the late President Hugo Chavez. 

Curious that Chavez, a putative left wing 'socialist', and Putin, the leader heading the farthest right system in the world, are/were united. What they have/had in common is both (Chavez in the past) lead totalitarian regimes that need control of oil to maintain their power.

Let's all focus on who wants oil and just ignore the protestors being run over by Maduro's military armored vehicles in the streets.

Now I wonder how the usual suspects can twist and contort Venezuela’s problems into somehow being Trump’s fault, I always thought socialism was a Democrats thing. AOC and Bernie will show the way.

Russia wins wars, America loses them. Civilians are left with the mess.

Smile while your starving citizens are eating dogs, rats, and zoo animals.

JoeTokyo .S. followed the international rule of law

Is this 'rule of law' the one Putin said existed at some time? Can you describe which rule of law you're referring to, and more importantly which organization is responsible for upholding it?

Given it would need to be a globally recognized organization, and given Putin's historical anti-globalist stance, I find it difficult to actually believe Putin no longer believes that it's a nation's military power (unfortunately) that settles international issues.

BTW I am NOT defending US/Western military interference. I am opposed to any empire's or any nation's interferences in the affairs of sovereign nations.

A tale of two Presidents.

One, who crowned himself, appears surrounded by a small group of armed guys wearing uniforms to call for the people to take to the streets in protest.

One, who the people crowned, appears at the head of a literal army of unarmed, uniformed soldiers, and leads them on a walk through the streets.

Now, which one do you think is unafraid of the population?

If you're still having trouble making up your mind, the self crowned one recently did try to visit the streets without machine gun toting escorts, and ended up needing the 'regime loyal' police to rescue him from the masses who gathered to protest against his surprise visit to their streets.

"Pompeo phoned, called for us to refuse to support Maduro, called for Cuba and us not to interfere in the internal affairs of Venezuela,"

So Russia &Cuba are not to interfere in Venezuela's internal affairs but almighty warmongering US can.

zichi : "Maduro has failed on that. Recently moved more than $1 billion of gold to Russia. The people are dying from the lack of medication and healthcare. The stores are empty of food." The gold was moved to stop the US sequestering it. The people are dying from lack of medication etc. because of US sanctions in which the US and its lapdogs refuse to supply necessary pharmaceuticals. Venezuela purchased medicines but the US did not allow supply and froze the money that was paid.    This is normal US procedure when a nations refused to be dominated by them, when a nation refused to be dictated to by the US: starve the population, cause chaos and public discourse and use it as a reason to invade and commandeer their resources.  Venezuela should determine its own system of government without US domination. If the US is so interested in peoples rights and welfare why do the not intervene in the conditions of the Palestinians or Rohingyas.

I find it amusing that whenever the US involve themselves in the affairs of another country the whole place goes to hell in a hand basket.

Also note, these countries tend to have some type of resource which the Americans want, mainly oil.

If a country doesn't have a worthwhile resource then the American government leaves it well alone as they aren't considered worth the effort.

This is interesting:

Ilhan Omar blames U.S. for Venezuela crisis

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wHAZuHTWEzo

This is also interesting:

Pompeo on Omar’s Venezuela remarks: ‘Unbelievable ignorance’

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8I2RXmn07xs&t=15s

Funny thing about the oft repeated meme that the conditions in Venezuela are 'entirely', or 'mostly' due to the 'incompetence', 'corruption', or 'failed policies' of the Venezuelan government.

It ignores what actual economists say, based on the data.

Before the US sabotage of the Venezuelan economy began, the 'failed policies' had made the Venezuelan economy (which had been a disaster of epic proportions, with the vast majority of the population experiencing conditions much worse than the present ones, under the governments the US had approved of) the fastest growing economy in the region. But that is no surprise, because wherever those policies have been followed (including the US itself) they have produced economic growth, upward mobility, and improved quality of life for the entire population, weighted towards the poorest, before sabotage by the rich created a 'crisis' that ushers in an era of economic policies where upward mobility dwindles away, the quality of life for everyone but the rich deteriorates, and what economic growth occurs is looted by the rich.

And after the sabotage? A close look at the numbers shows that the responsibility for the declines is almost entirely the direct result of the sabotage efforts, with the 'incompetence/corruption' playing about as big a role in it as the tide did in the disaster in Fukushima.

Russia wins wars, America loses them. Civilians are left with the mess

America has a huge economy, Russia doesn’t and many of their citizens are moving to the US. Look, I not a guy who cares cod war or thinks we should be involved in every conflict, but let’s get one thing straight, socialism sucks, doesn’t work, Chavez thankfully is not around anymore and Maduro is living on borrowed time. He may be there for a little while, but he’s just a DMW at this point. The people have the absolute right to eat, the blame goes with those two idiots, no one told them to imprison or starve their people to the point where they have to eat trash and their pets, it’s mind boggling and then you have nutjobs like Sanders trying to sell a failed system that will never work? Give me a break. The more the people rise up and the more they are willing to risk their lives in order to get this guy out, at the very least we should help them in every way possible, military options should be the absolute last resort.

You mean those " peaceful protestors" wearing masks, throwing Molotov cocktails and attacking the said military vehicles before one of the vehicles turned on them in response?

Oh, so it’s ok for a military to enforce law by running over protesters in Venezuela. We’ve had violent protests here in Seattle. Would you accept the Seattle PD running over violent May Day protestors with their armored cars?

I didn’t think so.

Maduro is a violent thug ruling by force. Regardless of who wants him out, he needs to go.

So the US military / law enforcement would stand by idly with folded hands and allow themselves be attacked by Molotov cocktails and other projectors by masked gangs ( not protesting against economic equality or such herea ) that openly declared an attempt of an armed coup against a sitting US president ? Dont think so....

Ok got it. You’re ok with protestors being crushed by armored vehicles. I mean, no one in that crowd could have hurt the occupants of said armored vehicles but they decided to crush them anyway.

Any way you slice it, it is insane that it is happening and you are actually defending it.