Thanks Charles. I always appreciate the time and thought you put into your writings. As well as your ongoing (sometimes implied) beseechment for everyone to think critically about what they hear, read, or learn. As an aside, or maybe as a side...I've been watching the monk's Walk for Peace and it soothes my heart when I need a break from the world and unkindness. When I need to believe that a more beautiful world is possible. Keep writing and speaking Charles. Your voice matters and you are important. Your talks have gotten me through some incredibly difficult times. Your way of thinking and how your present your thoughts is very often the balm my deeply wounded soul needs. I don't need you to be perfect. I don't need you to be right. I don't need you to have all (or any?) of the answers. I DO need to keep hearing you...and if I do, then so do many, many others. Please come back and read this post after you read the cruel remarks below.
Thank you for this, Heather. I second this sentiment. Sometimes I feel that I am part of the “apathy” of the public that Charles describes in his essay, even though in the past I have marched in the streets and called reps. I feel that because these days I am relatively unplugged from current events in order to preserve my sanity. In fact I learned of the abduction only from this essay. And I came to the comments to hear more perspectives like yours, more perspectives like the one Charles just offered in this essay, and instead feel sick to my stomach from some comments. Comments on “both sides” (using this somewhat ironically) that are dehumanizing and unkind. Anyway. I hope both you and Charles can take heart that your words have given me a glimpse, a remembrance, of the more beautiful world my heart knows is possible. Thank you Heather. Thank you Charles. Prayers for peace
Thank you Kelsey and Heather for these heart-felt comments. I feel the same. Yes, it does seem like the mossad/hasbara bots are out in force today. They really descended on this post. Tribalist anti-unity people who have no relation to Charles and stand for the exact opposite of everything he stands for, are out in full force commenting on this post, in order to shift public opinion. And they do it in the usual way that israelis do things, abusively, arrogantly, and with intense hatred to those they disagree with. Creates such bad energy in tne comment section. The kind of extremely toxic hate-filled war-like energy you usually find on twitter/X.
It seems like this attack on venezuela was strategically very important to the zionist oligarchs (probably in preparation for a coming attack on Iran that they're pushing for, to install their puppet shah), so important that they sent so many of their aggressive shills all across the social medias to flood the airwaves and sway public opinion. I saw it happening also on other posts that mentioned venezuela.
Hi Kelsey, I appreciate your words so very much! Do you know the sentiment of feeling "seen"? I feel seen by you. It's an exquisitely beautiful feeling...it helps me feel connected to you...a feeling I miss in my life. <3
Thank you Charles. Thank you Heather, your comment is exactly what I wanted to write. I have been re-reading Ozymandias by Shelley and finding an odd solace in it. All things pass…the Piscean Oceans in their final 29th degree wash away the cliffs themselves. This too shall pass. We go forth together as human beings and we are forgiven, as Professor Jiang reminds us on his helpful YT channel and substack.
I met a traveller from an antique land,
Who said—“Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. . . . Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed;
Venezuelan here. This piece couldn’t be more distant from the truth, showing clear ignorance on the matter.
Next time, please do your research on who it is they “abducted”. How many crimes (torture, killings, trafficking…) him and his government have done, the damage goes way beyond the economy. They destroyed an entire nation and its people.
Regardless of Maduro's crimes, it does not give our country the right to invade another and install our own leaders so that we can control their resources. If you are looking for saviors in the US, I am sad to inform you that you should look elsewhere.
Our country simply wants your oil and more influence in the region. Multinational orporations will come in and continue to siphon wealth away from the Venezuelan people. Only instead of that going to Maduro and his cronies, it will fall into the hands of the billionaires that make sure the US empire and its military serve their addiction to wealth, power, and control of the world's resources.
Yes it does. This ignorance to policy, history and law has illegitimized you so fast we don’t care what you say anymore. Look at all the comments and how distant they are from the agreeable love you used to get. You’re a classic case of “I’m smarter and better than everyone else” and you’re no longer humble to the fact you’re actually bad for everyone else rather than good. Sit and pray with that for a while and come back when you’re able speak in good conscience that supports the safety of Americans. Until you’ve lost a wife to fentanyl sent here by Maduro STFU and keep it that way.
I want to clarify that the comment you responded to (mine) was not written by Charles. But your comment is written as if addressed to him.
I am deeply sorry that you lost a wife to overdose. I have lost many as well, including my brother, to drug-related crime. I am no stranger to addiction myself. Sadly, I don't believe imperialism, militarism, and further killing is the answer you believe it is.
The war on drugs has been the biggest policy failure of all time. No matter how much we've tried, using violence to stop the flow of drugs has not succeeded and has only made the problem worse. We have to stop it at the source, and the source is not any one country or producer, it is the demand that originates from deep suffering and the desire to numb it. As long as the demand is there and there is money to be made, someone will step in to fulfill the supply. It's too profitable not to.
We need a healing revolution that recognizes the roots of addiction: suffering largely stemming from trauma, poverty (material and spiritual), and disconnection (from one another, from the planet, from meaning, from the divine). At the same time, harm reduction and sensible policies that place the lives and safety of addicts first are the best way to lower overdose deaths. We need to build a society composed of communities that people don't long to escape, ones where they feel belonging, purpose, and respect.
Ah, thanks for the clarification. The war on drugs has been a policy failure, yes. The action strategy up to this point is why. Finally, we have a new, decisive, multi faceted approach (tariffs, boarder control, use of force, etc) to the issue that’s never been done or seen before and it’s worth seeing through to learn if it’s viable. Drugs aren’t necessarily bad or the problem, I agree there’s a deeper issue. Regardless, it’s necessary and good to remove evil players who terrorize and ruin lives of innocent others. God bless.
Jeez, I’m sorry to hear about your wife. That’s tragic. I know what it feels like to lose someone. And it’s even sadder that this isn’t really about the fentanyl narrative any more than Iraq was about “WMDs.”
I was in Iraq flying ISR missions over Saddam’s execution and subsequent weeks‑long funeral, incidentally — but that’s neither here nor there.
It’s not even political. It’s about power, abstraction, and insanity. Saddam and Maduro were both guilty of a much worse crime, just like Castro, Hồ, Kim, or Qaddafi — all leaders whose actions were perceived as threatening to U.S. strategic, economic, or ideological interests, especially when they controlled key resources or aligned with rivals. You find out quickly why America accounts for nearly 40% of total global military spending. It’s not because we need to spend that much to keep our borders secure.
I’m no apologist for communism or socialism, nor am I anti‑capitalist, but America has been functionally anti‑capitalist for a long time. We hijacked and manipulated scarcity — the defining feature of capitalism’s operative logic — long ago.
And not even because of morality.
Not because of human‑rights rhetoric Not because of political ideologies.
Nor even because of the public‑facing justification of the moment.
But because longstanding structural incentives naturally produce pathological outcomes and disease, including even why we are now susceptible to choosing fentanyl to begin with.
Fentanyl is terrible; it truly is – but to claim it is the reason we are in Venezuela, or have been harassing them for more than 50 years before Maduro, is disingenuous, and an intentional abstraction of the truth by those with power. One might consider this as an operative definition of evil: to abstract the truth, intentionally to hide the true nature of terrible action.
We might all be better served, taking an honest look in the mirror before blaming others for our pathology. We might at least get better results. We all feel it, but it is especially difficult to impossible these days yeah even to understand what is in our best interest and welfare.
Fentanyl is merely a symptom, but it is hardly the cause. More sadly, I am afraid it will only get much worse.
There is just no limit to how gullible and stupid conservatives are. You really actually truly believe that the greedy psychopath murderers and pedophiles in tne american elite give a shit about the well-being of ordinary venezuelans or ordinary americans. You really actually truly believe that the global american billionaires' militarized empire exists in order to "bring freedom and prosperity to humanity"
HOW CAN YOU BE SO GULLIBLE AND STUPID, CONSERVATIVES?!
I could understand if someone gullibly believed the empire's lies in 1950, but today.. after so many decades of nonstop lies and in-your-face crimes by the elite predators, you still believe that they care about your well-being? How can you be so dumb!?
Let me spell it out for you, gullible conservatives (becasue you have been so profoundly brainwashed inside your echo-chamber that you can't see the obvious) -
The ONLY reason that the elite murderers and thieves in the ruling class attacked venezula is in order to steal the oil and enrich themselves!!
And secondly, in order to eliminate someone who was not aligned with the zionist billionaires and their invasive dispossesion and annihilation project in palestine.
That's it!!!
That's the ONLY reason why these anti-life billionaire scum attacked venezuela.
They do NOT give a shit about you or about the well-being of ordinary venezuelans or ordinary americans.
WAKE UP GULLIBLE CONSERVATIVES!! The only reason that those predatory elite monsters are able to continue with their crimes, their global theft, their mass-murder, their domination over humanity and enslavement of the 99% is becasue of how gullible you are and how you blindly cheer for them when your influencers tell you to.
WAKE UP!!!! THEY DON'T GIVE A SHIT ABOUT YOU OR ABOUT ANY ORDINARY PERSON IN VENEZUELA OR AMERICA.
WAKE UP!!!
You don't need to choose between the republican scum or the democrat scum, throw them both in the trash!!!
They keep you trapped and loyal to one or the other wing of the elite by telling you that obama is evil therefore trump is good (and they tell the same thing to liberals only in reverse). NO!!! They're both evil!!! You don't need to cheer for one or the other wing of the elite. THROW THEM BOTH IN THE TRASH!!!
WAKE UP!!!
THEY DON'T GIVE A SHIT ABOUT YOU!!
They want the oil. That's it!! And they invent stories to tell you why they must invade and install their puppet to take it. And you are so gullible and stupid that you believe them.
Hi Katherine, i would ask you to rewind a bit here!
1.) This is not a left v right argument - both “sides” have and will do the same thing…. (Obama, Biden and McCain in Ukraine or Bush and Blair with WMD) so your “wake up” line applies to anyone who wants to pick sides or, frankly, go along with any of their “brainwashing “ or arguments. I appreciate that you point this out towards the end but by haranguing “Conservatives” so upfront and central belies the point.
2.) It’s never “one thing” … oil, the example in this instance, nor drugs (i think there is enough information out there to see who runs that “war”) … nor “protecting democracy”.
Voting machines, trafficking of “unfriendly aliens”, a hatful of actual or perceived negatives. It lies beneath these levels; it’s centered around money, global financial systems and who is running them, how and through whom the money is routed.
it goes deeper still (ie even money is not the “one thing” but that’s another chat.
The global elite still scrap among themselves … not that their end game / objectives aren’t similar (closer to identical) but each clique wants to be holding the reins - it’s a power play and this recent one has opened a can of worms … “Good” says I. Perhaps the belly of the beast will be seen more clearly by those whose eyes are not wide shut.
Well she clearly said, in the second half of the comment, that this applies to both conservatives and liberals. However i do agree with her that the ones the empire relies on now for support are conservatives and i do agree with her that they are gullible, blind and dumb. Liberlas are too, but liberals aren't in power and are NOT the ones that the empire relies on for support rigjt now.
Therefore - despite the fact that this applies to both conservatives and liberals - i agree with her that the emphasis right now should be mostly on waking up conservatives from their gullibilty and stupidity, becasue blind conservative belief, obediance amd support is what the criminal empire is currently running on and depends on.
If conservatives woke up and stopped blindly giving their suppprt to the criminal elite predators in power then the entire anti-life empire would collapse. Therefore, i agree with her that the key piece of the puzzle right now, the key fuel for the elite, is conservative gullibility and stupidity. Therefore i think she is right in focusing on that right now.
If a liberal was in power then she'd be right to focus on how liberals are being deceived but that isn't the case right now and isn't the most urgent thing at the moment. Conservatives waking up is the most urgent and crucial thing right now that can stop the hell that the elite are leading us into becasue the elite currently depend on their gullibility and blind support.
Except it's not just conservatives that are gullible. During the plandemic it seemed the liberals were pretty gullible too. I think it's safe to say that the majority of people who still believe we have two independent parties are those over 60, with exception, of course.
They want the oil and the Rothschild want a central bank in Venezuela. Done and done.
Absolutely. I clarified that towards that end of the comment. The corporate-banking empire operates through BOTH its wings, both conservatives and liberals. But as i said in more detail in the original comment, right now the main focus of the empire's propaganda is on conservatives and they are the ones most responsive to it and most supportive of the empire and its politicians. Its existence depends on their gullibility and blind belief in the slogans taught to them inside their echo-chamber. That's why i focus on that right now.
I have a lot to say about liberal gullibility as well, but they seem to be completely out of circulation right now. All the power and cultural space is taken up by conservatives right now.
I strongly object against the age-categorization. I feel and observe that about 20-25% of the global population is wide awake, representing all age groups, and at least half of them since childhood, no matter how long ago that was.
Yes, very well said. I also find it truly truly mind boggling how clueless and gullible conservatives are and so eager to believe whatever the Wall St vultures tell them (through their reps in govt and through their propaganda media and their conservative influencers on their privately-owned social medias).
Zero critical thinking!! Just blind belief in the stories that the billionaires' empire feeds them. They believe it was an action to "liberate the venezuelan people". Hard to believe that anyome can be this gullible and dumb. Do you think the Exxon executives (who will take the oil in venezuela) and their reps in the gov't give a rat's ass about 'the freedom of the venezuelan people'!? Of course not!!! If there was no oil in venezuela do you think they would give a shit about so-called 'corruption'!? Of course not!!! If there was no oil in venezuela do you think that they would bother inventing the 'venezurlan drugs' story (to justify their invasion and installing their corruot puopet to take the oil, more on that later)!? Of course not!!!
Well-intentioned but gullible conservatives are exactly the kind of clueless fools that the Wall St predators and their gov't rely on for uncritically and obediently cheering for their global militarized empire of plunder, mass-murder, greed, domination, bullying and theft whenever they tell you that it is 'for national interests' and 'to protect you from the evil enemy over there who is coming to get you' and 'god bless america' etc
You think the profits from the oil are going to anyone other than the richest 0.01%? Are you really this clueless? Why don't you ask the iraqi people how it worked out for them. Becasue america "liberated" them from the evil dictotor too, remember? America brought "freedom" to iraq too, remember? (With the full support of the same stupid gullible dumb conservatives who are now cheering for the billionaire predators once again) . Do you think anyome in iraq saw a cent from the oil that american billionaires stole!? It has been all downhill since the anti-life american billionaires oligarchy and their militatized empire took control over iraq and plundered it to the last drop. And you gullible dumb conservatives are cheering for once again. Blindly believing their oligarchs' stories without a second thought.
DUMB GULLIBLE IDIOT FOOLS!!!
Wall St executives must be thanking their good luck that the crowd they need to convince to support their global militarized empire are such dumb idiots who fall for anything you tell them.
What's happeing now is the exact same strategy that the Wall St predators have done in iraq and numerous other places. It works like this: The Wall St vultures want the oil. Their bought representitives in the american govt and their privately-owned media (including their algorithms on their social medias) deliver the story to gullible americans to justify invading, installing their pro-empire fascist puppet to privitize everything into Wall St's hands and steal the oil.
The story taught to the heavily-propagandized and gullible american public (conservatives are especially susceptibte to uncritically believeing anything the empire tells them about 'national security') involves both the invented "evil crimes" of the target (Simply replace 'Weapons of Mass Destruction' with 'Narco Terrorism' this time) as well as presenting the target that the Wall St predators want to take down to the hypnotized dumb conservatives as an evil monster (simply replace the "saddam dictator monster" slogan with the "maduro dictator monster" slogan, they even look very similar which is convenient, so lindsey graham - and other servants for Wall St - simply needs to change one word in his spiel aboit 'this evil terroriat is tne enemy of america' and it works just the same like it did in 2003).
Narco Terrorism = Weapons of Mass Destruction. That's the new slogan the Wall St vultures and their govt are going with this time to deceive well-intentioned but gullible conservatives into cheering for the empire once again. Exactly like the empire hypnotized them during the iraq theft and every time Wall St wants them on board their attack plans (Since 2016 democrats have also been propagandized into being also as war-mongering, right-wing, blood thirsty and pro-Wall St as republicans are, and democrats were the main propaganda target during the ukraine war - they have monster putin at the ready to rile up the democrat half for the empire - but the Wall St propaganda target right now is clearly conservatives,
The same script every time that Wall St gets ready to attack (slightly different players and excuses/slogans are given every time to deceive americans into cheering for the plans of the corporate-banking empire's but the principle/structure is the same)
And BTW, speaking of "narco terrorism", here's a brief history of American NarcoTerrorism as told through Marco Rubio's family cocaine trafficking enterprise and the ACTUAL narco-terrorist elite
Regarding so-called "venezuela drugs" please see here this in-depth investigation to learn how thoroughly you've been deceived and emotionally-manipulated (to unwittingly side with 0.1% billionaire predators who rule over the 99.9%)
Everything conservatives are taught to believe by the empire and its influencers is a complete inversion of reality
The way the Wall St predators and their govt install these slogans in americans' minds is that they employ the technique thst Herman Goering perfected (the right-wing propaganda minister for the german third reich) - you simply repeat it again and again and again and again. Constantly. Relentlessly. Over and over again. What the nazis discovered (and the american govt perfected) is that the human brain will believe anything (no matter true or not) if it hears it repeated constantly and sees other people around repeating it too. That is why the billionaire vultures own all the media and social medias and have thousands of influencers flooding the airwaves, repeating ad nauseam the slogans that the Wall St vultures and their govt want installed in the american psyche, so that when you hear for example 'osama bin laden' or 'isis' you automatically think 'evil terrorists. Threat to america. Must invade' or when you hear 'maduro' you automatically think 'evil narco-terrorist. Threat to america. Must be removed'. They just keep repeating the slogans over and over and over and over again and dumb gullibke conservatives
Here is a quick description (with examples) of this BOGEYMAN ENEMY PRINCIPLE. A well-documented strategy for elite control that is constantly employed by the Wall St vultures and their american govt to deceive the people in cheering for the empire's politicians (as our supposed "protectors" from the "evil enemy over there who is coming to get you") https://www.pdrboston.org/oppressors-need-bogeyman-enemies
Well if ever there was a strawman argument, conservatives are gullible and stupid because clearly those that support this action to liberate Venezuelan people from Madoro are somehow completely blind to the real motive, the predatory, financial interest in gaining access to the oil, rare earth and other resources there. I would submit that it is precisely those resources that will fund Venezuela’s return to prosperity, democracy and a free society, requiring the expertise and capital of those companies and a US president you find so evil. You perhaps can’t imagine that both objectives are complementary and beneficial, with the added benefit of subverting the vast network of geopolitical state and criminal actors who are really the ones who have run the country for decades and who care nothing for the people of Venezuela. Your argument is clearly driven by the belief that capitalism is evil and somehow the world should work some other way. All the while being completely comfortable with the Maduro’s of the world who use collectivism and social control ‘for the greater good”, to hide its real objectives. Something very similar happened in the USA in 2020, a pandemic of lies that crippled the country, individual freedoms, and gave absolute power to a criminal medical cartel, drug lords of another stripe. Somehow this is the world liberals long for. Who are gullible ones?
My goodness, your reply is the perfect example of exactly what the OP pointed out, of how gullible and dumb are conservatives who uncritically take at face value everything that the Wall St predators and their govt tells them (they tell you this through the elite-promoted influencers in your HIGHLY MANIPULATIVE conservative echo-chamber).
You wrote "..action to liberate the venezuelan people" Are you fucking serious!? Hard to believe that anyome can be this gullible and dumb. Do you think the Exxon executives (who will take the oil in venezuela) and their reps in the american gov't give a rat's ass about 'the freedom of the venezuelan people'!? Of course not!!! If there was no oil in venezuela do you think they would give a shit about so-called 'corruption'!? Of course not!!! If there was no oil in venezuela do you think that they would bother inventing the 'venezurlan drugs' story (to justify their invasion and installing their corruot puopet to take the oil, more on tnat later)!? Of course not!!!
It is beyond mind boggling how clueless and gullible conservatives are and so eager to believe whatever the Wall St vultures tell them (through their reps in govt and through their propaganda media and their conservatove influencers on their privately-owned social medias)
Well-intentioned but gullible conservatives are exactly the kind of clueless fools that the Wall St predators and their gov't rely on for uncritically and obediently cheering for their global militarized empire of plunder, mass-murder, greed, domination, bullying and theft whenever they tell you that it is 'for national interests' and 'to protect you from the evil enemy over there who is coming to get you' and 'god bless america' etc
You think the profits from the oil are going to anyone other than the richest 0.01%? Are you really this clueless? Why don't you ask the iraqi people how it worked out for them. Becasue america "liberated" them from the evil dictotor too, remember? America brought "freedom" to iraq too, remember? (With the full support of the same stupid gullible dumb conservatives who are now cheering for the billionaire predators once again) . Do you think anyome in iraq saw a cent from the oil that american billionaires stole!? It has been all downhill since the anti-life american billionaires oligarchy and their militatized empire took control over iraq and plundered it to the last drop. And you gullible dumb conservatives are cheering for once again. Blindly believing their oligarchs' stories without a second thought.
DUMB GULLIBLE IDIOT FOOLS!!!
Wall St executives must be thanking their good luck that the crowd they need to convince to support their global militarized empire are such dumb idiots who fall for anything you tell them.
What's happeing now is the exact same strategy that the Wall St predators have done in iraq and numerous other places. It works like this: The Wall St vultures want the oil. Their bought representitives in the american govt and their privately-owned media (including their algorithms on their social medias) deliver the story to gullible americans to justify invading, installing their pro-empire fascist puppet to privitize everything into Wall St's hands and steal the oil.
The story taught to the heavily-propagandized and gullible american public (conservatives are especially susceptibte to uncritically believeing anything the empire tells them about 'national security') involves both the invented "evil crimes" of the target (Simply replace 'Weapons of Mass Destruction' with 'Narco Terrorism' this time) as well as presenting the target that the Wall St predators want to take down to the hypnotized dumb conservatives as an evil monster (simply replace the "saddam dictator monster" slogan with the "maduro dictator monster" slogan, they even look very similar which is convenient, so lindsey graham - and other servants for Wall St - simply needs to change one word in his spiel aboit 'this evil terroriat is tne enemy of america' and it works just the same like it did in 2003).
Narco Terrorism = Weapons of Mass Destruction. That's the new slogan the Wall St vultures and their govt are going with this time to deceive well-intentioned but gullible conservatives into cheering for the empire once again. Exactly like the empire hypnotized them during the iraq theft and every time Wall St wants them on board their attack plans (Since 2016 democrats have also been propagandized into being also as war-mongering, right-wing, blood thirsty and pro-Wall St as republicans are, and democrats were the main propaganda target during the ukraine war - they have monster putin at the ready to rile up the democrat half for the empire - but the Wall St propaganda target right now is clearly conservatives,
The same script every time that Wall St gets ready to attack (slightly different players and excuses/slogans are given every time to deceive americans into cheering for the plans of the corporate-banking empire's but the principle/structure is the same)
And BTW, speaking of "narco terrorism", here's a brief history of American NarcoTerrorism as told through Marco Rubio's family cocaine trafficking enterprise and the ACTUAL narco-terrorist elite
Regarding so-called "venezuela drugs" please see here this in-depth investigation to learn how thoroughly you've been deceived and emotionally-manipulated (to unwittingly side with 0.1% billionaire predators who rule over the 99.9%)
Everything conservatives are taught to believe by the empire and its influencers is a complete inversion of reality
The way the Wall St predators and their govt install these slogans in americans' minds is that they employ the technique thst Herman Goering perfected (the right-wing propaganda minister for the german third reich) - you simply repeat it again and again and again and again. Constantly. Relentlessly. Over and over again. What the nazis discovered (and the american govt perfected) is that the human brain will believe anything (no matter true or not) if it hears it repeated constantly and sees other people around repeating it too. That is why the billionaire vultures own all the media and social medias and have thousands of influencers flooding the airwaves, repeating ad nauseam the slogans that the Wall St vultures and their govt want installed in the american psyche, so that when you hear for example 'osama bin laden' or 'isis' you automatically think 'evil terrorists. Threat to america. Must invade' or when you hear 'maduro' you automatically think 'evil narco-terrorist. Threat to america. Must be removed'. They just keep repeating the slogans over and over and over and over again and dumb gullibke conservatives
Here is a quick description (with examples) of this BOGEYMAN ENEMY PRINCIPLE. A well-documented strategy for elite control that is constantly employed by the Wall St vultures and their american govt to deceive the people in cheering for the empire's politicians (as our supposed "protectors" from the "evil enemy over there who is coming to get you") https://www.pdrboston.org/oppressors-need-bogeyman-enemies
Bull's eye!!! I wanted to reply to him but you said it even better than i could. There's really nothing more to add.
And yes, i am also not pro maduro. That seems hard for conservatives to compute. The only option they give us is "you're either with the billionaire's empire or you're with the evil enemy'. The binary shallowness and stupidity of american political discourse is tragic and life-destroying. And it's by design.
Wow! Katherine, pretty dark heart. There is much more to this move than drugs and the people of Venezuela and money and power are always involved. I am not sure why you think conservatives do not understand this aspect. You however seem very uneducated about evil and control.
I hope you are not an American because despite that life is not perfect, we as a nation do so much to provide protection to the world and the seas that help other countries prosper.
Katherine please check if the side of your Face is drooping, or does your Arm feel weak, check your Speech for slurring, it’s Time to call for help. Your either suffering from a TIA or TDS!
What a strange reply. Did you actually read my comment in full, Marvin? I didn't mention trump at all, and didn't even think about him. and i even went out of my way to explain that this applies to both conservatives and liberals.
I don't see trump as more evil than the rest of the elite, he is just as evil as the rest of the scumbags (and that includes both republicans and democarts, both are pro-billionaire pro-empire pro-Wall St pro-war pro-zionist anti-human right-wing parties by the elite for the elite).
This (accusation of TDS) seems to be the standard and automatic reply of conservatives these days whenever they hear something that isn't the same as the slogans they are used to hearing Inside their echo-chamber. It is a derangement indeed, but in the exact opposite way then what you mean.
Did it occur to you Marvin that perhaps it is YOU who is obssesed with trump!!! Did it occur to you Marvin that it is perhaps YOU who lives inside an insulated information bubble (or even a cult, you might say).
Did it occur to you Marvin that it is perhaps YOU who suffers from TAS (trump adulation syndrome) and therefore attack whoever you percieve as not supporting your messiah?
Please WAKE UP Marvin and see your anti-life conservative propaganda bubble for what it is (representitive of Wall St oligarchs thieves and their global militarized empire) and how thoroughly it has distorted your perception, emotionally-manipulated you and deceived you into supporting the greatest evil on the planet (mass murder and plunder for the ultra-rich, domimation of the few over the many, treating human beings like dirt for enrichement and domination of the 0.01%) while telling you that your politicians stand for good.
Please see my reply to Marvin above. He made the same vile hateful and unintelligent comment as you did with the exact same idiotic accusation of TDS (seems to be the automatic knee-jerk reaction from the cult members these days). So my reply to him would be the same as to you, please see above. Thank you.
One thing I found difficult to ignore, reading through the responses to this piece, was how many of them were written from deep inside the comforts the imperial order provides. Warm houses. Reliable electricity. Endless bandwidth. Laptops assembled from global supply chains secured by the very power being denounced. There is a peculiar safety in condemning empire while living entirely inside its protections, a safety that allows moral absolutism to flourish without confronting its costs. I don’t exempt myself from this. I write from within the same shelter. But it does make me wary of critiques that speak as if power were optional, or as if the material conditions enabling our reflection would somehow persist once power had been wished away.
Sorry for the late reply, i just saw your comment now. You make two unexamined false assumptions in your condescending gaslighting comment. Both of them are wrong.
First, you wrongly and patronizingly assumed - without asking me first to verify if your assumption was correct - that I live "entirely inside the empire's protections." I do not!!
I despise with all my heart every aspect of the anti-Golden-Rule Wall Street predators' empire and its militarized global murder machine, which exists for the DOMINATION of the ultra-rich. I do NOT live "entirely inside" it, neither geographically, economically, politically, psychologically, nor spiritually.
In fact, I am severely persecuted by the abusive billionaires' empire you seem to defend, and it does everything in its power to destroy me.
I hope this clears up your misconception.
I will give everything I have to see the end of this anti-life billionaires' empire and the abusive, exploitative murderers at the top who benefit from it. I could write for hours about why that is, but I don't have time for that. So instead I will give a small example that I just came across - https://johnspritzler.substack.com/p/the-iran-war-is-the-latest-reason (explore the links leading out from that piece for more in-depth understanding)
Your second wrong assumption is that all the things you mentioned, such as electricity, bandwidth, laptops etc, would not be possible for humans to create or generate if it weren't for the benevolent billionaires' murderous empire that provides us with these things. Again, I could write for hours about why that is a wrong assumption, but instead I will leave you with two small parables that illustrate why that assumption is wrong.
It illustrates the wrong assumption that we need the rich to give us jobs. But it applies equally to your assumption that we need the rich to give us electricity, bandwidth, laptops etc, and that we wouldn't have those things without them.
I mentioned above the anti-Golden-Rule nature of the abusive billionaire murderers and their global militarized empire of DOMINATION of the few over the many. Here is why this empire is anti-Golden-Rule and why that means it destroys life. See here https://www.pdrboston.org/the-golden-rule
The Golden Rule, in its simplest form, asks us to treat others as we would like to be treated. It is a principle of mutual respect, recognizing shared essence, and reciprocity. The empire of the billionaire predator class operates on the exact opposite principle. It is built on treating others as a means to an end, as tools for extracting wealth, as obstacles to be removed, or as subjects to be controlled. The rich must inevitably treat the lower class like dirt, here is why https://www.pdrboston.org/why-no-rich-no-poor
This anti-Golden-Rule logic is not a bug in the system, it is the fundamental operating system.
To extract billions while others lack the very basics for living requires a profoundly psychopathic system designed to transfer resources upward. It requires treating human beings and the living world not as ends in themselves, but as inputs for profit.
Besides what was mentioned in tne link above, this anti-Golden-Rule foundation of the billionaires' empire inevitably destroys life in three more way -
First, it destroys human life directly. When access to survival depends on a paycheck, and the paycheck depends on submitting to tyranny and exploitation for at least 8 hours a day (usually much more) people are trapped in a cage just in order to survive. The empire treats our need to live as leverage. If someone cannot pay for food or shelter or medicine, we die. This is not a failure of the empire. It is its feature. It is the consequence of organizing the empire around the principle of DOMINATION and hegemony, around the principle of 'you either submit and prostitute or you die..'. Domination and submission are the fundamental building blocks of this anti-life pro-billionaire empire.
Second, it destroys the conditions for human life to flourish. It replaces community with competition. It replaces cooperation with commodification. It teaches people to see each other as rivals for scarce resources, rather than as partners in creating abundance. It isolates us, turns us against each other, and convinces us that our suffering is our own fault. This is social & psychological destruction and ruin.
Third, it destroys the living planet that we depend on for our existence. The empire's drive for endless growth, for more extraction, for more consumption (absolutely required or the anti-life empire would collapse) treats the Earth as a resource to be used. Forests are cut, oceans are poisoned, all to generate profit for the abusive scumbags at the topnand to ensure the domination of tbe few over the many.
So when I say the empire is anti-Golden-Rule and that it destroys life, I mean it literally. It destroys bodies, communities, and the habitat we depend on for life. It does so not by accident, but by its inherent socioopathic anti-Golden-Rule logic.
PS. If you’d like to reply, please keep in mind that I’m rarely online, and even more rarely on Substack, so it may be a long time before I respond, if i respond at all. If you do choose to write back, I’d appreciate it if you could approach the conversation with maturity, curiosity, and basic human decency. Please avoid the same condescension and a know-it-all tone, and refrain from making assumptions about how I live, what I like, or what I want without asking first. If your tone continues to be patronizing (talking down from above) or dismissive, you will be muted
One thing I found difficult to ignore, reading through the responses to this piece, was how many of them were written from deep inside the comforts the imperial order provides. Warm houses. Reliable electricity. Endless bandwidth. Laptops assembled from global supply chains secured by the very power being denounced. There is a peculiar safety in condemning empire while living entirely inside its protections, a safety that allows moral absolutism to flourish without confronting its costs. I don’t exempt myself from this. I write from within the same shelter. But it does make me wary of critiques that speak as if power were optional, or as if the material conditions enabling our reflection would somehow persist once power had been wished away.
Look for the US digital currency to be backed by Venezuelan resources. Iran's will be next. This IS how this beast plans on surviving its imminent and colossal debt.
I have to admit, getting comments like this sometimes makes me feel like I must be doing something right. I genuinely believe people can all evolve and grow, even those who leave one word insulting responses to perspectives that upset them. It's not that I'm aiming to antagonize, but some part of you felt the need to dismiss me, which means something about my words was threatening to you. Why is that?
If you would like to discuss the content of what I said and explore specifics, I'm open to dialogue and questioning. And again, I'll repeat that I believe in your good intentions. Assuming you are not an AI account, you genuinely see perspectives like mine as a threat to something good and important, of that I have no doubt.
You're spot on about the oil part—Trump has been crystal clear that U.S. companies are heading in to "fix the broken infrastructure" and pump billions into Venezuela's reserves (the world's largest), with him personally saying we'll "run" the country temporarily and get reimbursed from the oil flowing out. Maduro himself called it out as a grab for resources right up until the end.
But calling this an illegal invasion to install puppet leaders and siphon wealth to billionaires? That's where you lose the plot. And you got called a retard, because
you're actually a fucking retard—and you shouldn't fool yourself into thinking your whiny anti-American rant "touched a nerve" or was some profound take, because it wasn't; it's just the same tired, delusional apologetics from someone too stupid to see reality.
Maduro wasn't some legitimate leader—he was a murderer and a tyrant piece of shit who stole elections (the 2024 one was universally condemned as fraudulent), turned Venezuela into a narco-state (U.S. indictment for running the Cartel de los Soles, flooding America with drugs), and presided over economic collapse, mass starvation, and millions fleeing. Removing an indicted drug kingpin who's destroyed his country isn't "imperialism"—it's justice and long-overdue relief for the Venezuelan people.
If you're sad there are no "saviors" in the U.S., fine, but pretending Maduro was anything but a criminal tyrant enriching himself while his people suffered is just brain-dead tankie bullshit. The Venezuelan opposition (like María Corina Machado) and millions of exiles are celebrating for a reason. This opens the door to actual democracy and prosperity, not more socialist theft.
YOU FUCKING RETARD
Just like the rest of you progressive liberal scum living high and mighty in the USA while defending tyrants abroad. Now sit back and watch another far-left democratic socialist piece of shit—Zohran Mamdani—start destroying New York City day by day with his insane policies like free buses, rent freezes, and government-run grocery stores that’ll turn the Big Apple into the next Venezuela. So go get your “free Palestine” keffiyah on and go fuck off.
He's an israeli soldier posting under false identity to decieve americans and push their agenda. I've had the misfortune of interacting with quite a few of them online.. They all post under false identities and all restack the roy ben-zvi guy, probably the head of their mossad unit. This is how they think, talk and behave. This is the israeli energy signature. Their heart is poisoned with extremely intense burning hatred and they are always abusive. Truly abhorrent people.
I couldn't care less if you find my language vulgar or offensive—truth demands bluntness, not politeness.
In my considered view, the entire progressive liberal left movement represents the most detestable and insidious evil that Western civilization has ever confronted: a relentless, corrosive ideology that systematically erodes the bedrock of reason, individual liberty, and cultural cohesion.
Until we decisively dismantle your suffocating groupthink and ideological monopoly, this nation—and every hard-won freedom that sustains your comfortable, fulfilling existence—hangs in mortal peril, poised on the precipice of irreversible collapse.
So take your sanctimonious outrage elsewhere. And the same goes for your fellow progressive ideologues in Ireland, who are busily dismantling your own nation's sovereignty, heritage, and stability at breakneck speed—mirroring the destructive frenzy of their counterparts across the West.
Why so much rage and hatred? As I said, I genuinely believe you have good intentions beneath it all, but I truly don't understand the need for the vitriole. Could you be defending something, perhaps? Again, I think I was accurate that you see me (and others with views like mine, although you've inaccurately lumped me in with some kind of imagined monolith) as a threat, no?
Let's talk about why I think this invasion is chiefly about siphoning more wealth to billionaires. I came of age during the Iraq war, which was very clearly a power grab in the region that had nothing to do with Saddam's evils or supposed threat to the US, and our government lied to its people to garner support. It's self-evident to me that the people that obtain great power in our world are largely sociopaths addicted to wealth and control. And again, Trump is strangely honest on this point: he has said we will run the country and take its oil. Do you actually think he and his billionaire friends are planning on sharing that wealth with the American people struggling to afford rent? C'mon... That would be socialism anyway, wouldn't it? And we can't have that.
The biggest misunderstanding you have of me though, is that you believe I am a supporter of Maduro and other so-called socialist regimes. This couldn't be further from the truth. I don't support any forms of domination or concentrated power, and I pretty clearly acknowledged the corruption that existed in Venezuela in the comment you responded to.
Instead of making assumptions about what I believe, why not just ask me? Why the need for the antagonizing and insults? It's honestly just sad to me, because again, I believe in your good intentions. I believe that you have people you care about that you think you are protecting by engaging in this verbal warfare.
But I don't believe it will achieve your desired ends. I fear you will continue to see enemies everywhere, even when there are people trying to engage with you as a friend despite your hostility. I genuinely wish to understand how things came to be this way for you. The distrust, the hatred, the anger. Who did you lose? I don't suspect you'll be willing to share since you've already flagged me as an enemy and a, well, I won't repeat it. But if you would like to share, I would be happy to listen.
I hope you'll surprise me. But if you wish to share more anger and hatred instead, then bless you. Truly: may you be well, may you have peace.
I dont think you read the piece he wrote too clearly. He didn’t say any of that isn’t true, or that it’s not good for Venezuela. He’s saying something deeper - does America just go around violating national sovereignty and literally kidnapping their leaders? It’s crazy and unprecedented and unwarranted by any stretch of law more than simply the power to do something means you can do whatever you want. This is lawless. Do we want to be lawless? And where does it end? Let the whole planet tremble in fear? America is prowling? Is that who we want to be? It has nothing to do with Venezuela.
It's pure evil and tyrannical but it's not unprecedented for the american billionaires' empire to to commit such crimes against humanity. The anti-Golden-Rule american elite predators (with the support of their vile conservative influencers) have been assasinating dozens of leaders who stood in the way of their profits for many decades now. Also kidnapping a leader is not unprecedented for these anti-life criminals. If i recall, the american capitalist elite scum have also kidnapped the leader of panama before, when he refused to put profits for american corporations over the well-being of the people of panama.
There is no greater evil on this planet and no one more murderous, anti-human and tyrannical than the terrorist mafia that rules america (and the dumb ignorant conservatives who blindly believe and cheer for them whenever the ruling billionaire predators and their politicians wave the flag and tell them "we love america" and "we are fighting evil and bringing freedom and prosperity to the world" and "we are righteous, they are evil monsters". Gullible unintelligent conservatives fully buy into the predators' propaganda slogans and uncritically believe whatever the oligarchs' influemcers tell them inside the conservative echo-chamber)
“Evil” I think is simply labeling something terrible as something good. Criticism is constructive except when it simply obstructs for example. It’s not a moral dilemma, it’s a structural one. The system rewards narcissism, sociopathy, and burnout. It’s simple programming. Operatively GIGO at civilizational scale. It **still** sucks eggs and hard.
Thank you Marvin. It's hard to know your tone of voice from just a few words on a screen so i am not sure if you are being serious and really can't recognize the typo (the word is 'predators') or if you are trying to shame and humiliate me because of a typo (and because you don't like to hear what i said and try to shut it down through an attempt at humiliation).
If it's the latter (attempt to shame and humiliate) then please grow up Marvin and return to the heart instead of being abusive towards others , and if it's the former (you couldn't recognize that the word is 'predators') then i will respectfully explain to you Marvin that the word 'predators' in my comment was NOT referring to conservatives but to the corporate-banking oligarchy and its political representitives, to the richest 0.1% elite predators, oppressors, thieves, abusers and exploiters of the people, and their global militarized empire of greed, mass-murder, plunder and bullying that exists solely in order to enrich the ultra-rich, to cement the domination of a few elite families over the humanity, to steal from the poor and give to the rich, to transfer society's produced wealth upwards to the ultra-rich in the conservative welfare state for billionaires, to enforce the AI-powered technocratic state for the domination of the elite over the people.
Conservatives are not themselves the predators, they are the well-intentioned but heavily-propagandizd, gullible, hypnotized fools that the billionaire predators rely on for enthusiastic support. All it takes for the Godless corporate-banking elite predators and their puppet politicians to garner the uncritical support of well-intentioned but gullible conservatives is to wave the flag and tell you "we love america, and these other people in the other party hate america", and "our global militarized mass-murdering empire brings freedom and prosperity to the world" and "we came to fight the deep state for the little guy" and "Jesus is with us, we are righteous and moral, they are evil and immoral" and "its US against THEM" and "watch out, the evil monstrous scary BOGEYMAN ENEMY over there is coming to get you. But don't you worry, we - the ruling billionaires and our "patriotic" puppets in govt - really really love you and we really really want to protect you from that evil monstrous scary bogeyman enemy over there who is coming to get you. You just need to rally around the flag and unite behind your great 'patriotic' leader who really really loves you and really really wants to protect you from that evil enemy over there who is coming to get ya. All you need to do is just to be sure to keep us in power over you and never question our authority over you and never question our fleecing you to enrich the ultra-rich and cement the control of the few over the people"
Here is a profoundly important piece Marvin that explains to you exactly how the elite's BOGEYMAN ENEMY control tactic works, including numerous examples
This is how the Godless elite predators and their conservative influencers are deceiving you Marvin into unwittingly supporting the billionaire elite and their empire to enrich the 0.1%, the very billionaires that view you and your family as no more than dirt. The elite's political puppets is what you are propagandized to support inside your manipulative conservative echo-chamber (under the heart-warming slogans of Jesus and morality and 'we love america' and protection from the BOGEYMAN ENEMY and the rest of the slogans pointed out to you above that the elite and their influencers use to decieve you into supporting their politicians).
And Marvin, just because i point out how conservstives are emotionally-manipulated into supporting the elite, does NOT mean that i am a liberal. I am not. I reject BOTH wings of the empire.
So now that you know what the word 'predators' referes to, i invite you to read my comment again Marvin and see if you can understand it better now.
And i also invite you Marvin to take a step outside your insulated information bubble and have the courage to listen to things outside the manipulative echo-chamber you live in. I know it might be uncomfortable and unfamiliar to step out of one's familiar bubble (deceptive as your bubble may be). If you don't know where to start then you're welcome to view what's shared on my profile page and from there follow wherever your inspiration and interest takes you.
And finally, i guess i can take consolation in the fact that at least you didn't tell me that i suffer from TDS, which is the immediate automatic knee-jerk reaction that gullible conservatives are taught inside their echo-chamber to immediately say to anyone who mentions anything that they don't like to hear, anything that isn't aligned with the interests of the 0.1% and their empire for the enrichment of the ultra-rich, for the domination of the few over the many. The interests thst well-intentioned but gullible conservstive have unfortunately been propagandized to align with (propagandized by the billionaire-sponsored influencers that brainwash conservatives to cheer for the billionaire mafia and their global militarized empire).
This TDS accusation, that conservatives learn inside their insulted echo-chamber to immediately say to anything that don't like hearing, is one of the ways that the billionaire-sponsored influencers keep you trapped inside the bubble, this is how they teach you to shut out and ignore anything that isn't aligned with the propaganda they teach you inside your echo-chamber, anything that isn't aligned with the empire's interests.
So thank you for not immediately employing this TDS slogan on me like most conservatives are taught to do. I appreciate it.
It's selective outrage and hypocrisy at its finest. When Obama did things like this—unilaterally authorizing military strikes, extrajudicial killings, and regime pressures without congressional approval—it was hailed as "smart power" or simply ignored by his partisans. But now, under a different president, it's suddenly an impeachable offense or "authoritarianism run amok."
Either you're a useful idiot, or you're willfully erasing recent history. Democratic presidents, especially Obama, have a long track record of so-called "illegal" or unconstitutional actions that bent or broke the rules, often justified as executive prerogative. Here are some prime examples, straight from the record:
- Killing American Citizens Without Due Process: Obama personally approved the drone strike that killed U.S. citizen Anwar al-Awlaki in Yemen in 2011, without trial or judicial oversight, under the guise of counterterrorism. The ACLU sued, arguing it violated the Constitution's Fifth Amendment, but the administration claimed "unreviewable authority" to execute Americans deemed threats. Weeks later, a separate strike accidentally killed al-Awlaki's 16-year-old American son, Abdulrahman—collateral damage in a program that expanded to hundreds of strikes, killing thousands, including civilians.
- Unauthorized War in Libya: In 2011, Obama launched airstrikes against Muammar Gaddafi's regime without congressional approval, contributing to his ouster and the country's chaos. This violated the War Powers Resolution and was deemed unconstitutional by critics, including some in Congress, who called it an "illegal war. The administration twisted definitions to claim it wasn't "hostilities," bypassing the 60-day limit on undeclared actions.
- Immigration "Amnesties" via Executive Fiat: Obama's DACA (2012) and DAPA (2014) programs granted work permits and deportation relief to millions of undocumented immigrants, effectively rewriting immigration law without Congress. Courts ruled DAPA unconstitutional for violating the Take Care Clause and the Administrative Procedure Act, with a federal appeals court blocking it as an overreach that made "lawful what Congress has declared unlawful.
- Bailouts and Corporate Overreach: Extending Bush-era tactics, Obama illegally used TARP funds to bail out the auto industry in 2009, bullying creditors and restructuring GM and Chrysler in bankruptcy under special rules that favored unions over shareholders—costing taxpayers $23 billion. This was slammed as an "illegal reorganization" facilitated by White House threats.
- Other Scandals with Legal Shadows: The Fast and Furious operation let guns flow to Mexican cartels, leading to deaths (including a U.S. agent); IRS targeting of conservative groups prompted lawsuits over First Amendment violations; and the Iran nuclear deal was pushed without Senate ratification as a treaty, dodging constitutional requirements.
Just to name a few.
So spare us the partisan amnesia. These weren't just "policy choices"—they were executive overreaches that set precedents for ignoring Congress, the courts, and the Constitution. If it's fascism now, it was fascism then. Your selective fury isn't about the rule of law; it's about who holds the power.
I deliberately left it off the list, but don't think I've forgotten about it. The fact that he hasn't uttered a single word about those events in this entire piece proves he truly didn't care when they happened under Obama—zero outrage, zero complaints, just silence.
If he were genuinely upset about the principle involved, he'd have spoken up back then, just as he should be consistent now. His total lack of mention here, combined with his quiet compliance at the time, exposes his selective outrage for exactly what it is: rank hypocrisy and pure partisanship.
I like whenever someone manages to dial in on a broader human tendency.
(It’s good when “we” do it, and it’s crazy when you do.)
Perspective hinges on personal pre-selected identity rather than objective reality. Implications of deconstructing (or perhaps more accurately ‘constructing’ everything through a narrow political lens.
It’s premium cognitive behavioral sink that emerges from perceiving everything around us from self-assigned political identity.
It is identity‑driven cognition overriding reality in real time — the same mechanism that makes arbitrary team colors feel morally significant (Tajfel, 1970) and that turns randomly assigned guard–prisoner roles into fully inhabited psychological worlds (Zimbardo, 1971). It would almost be comedy if not so destructive. Maybe ‘dark comedy?’ 🙃
Ironically, all you’ve mentioned is incredibly useful for analysis and diagnosis from a systems perspective if we consider it collective accruing natural patterns of systemic pathology and subsequent civilizational disease.
It's a disease is correct—a profound, collective pathology afflicting the left, manifesting as unhinged mental fragility and sociopathic tribalism. Twenty years ago, at a friend's wedding, some of my wife's acquaintances were gossiping about a mutual girlfriend who'd started dating a Republican. The outrage was immediate and visceral: these thirty-something, single Democratic "cat ladies" declared they could no longer be friends with her—and they actually followed through, cutting her off completely, treating her like a traitor to the cause. That's the kind of toxic, reality-distorting disease we're up against.
For years, I lived among these sociopaths, biting my tongue to keep the peace. But then COVID hit, and that was my line in the sand—I could no longer stay silent while they peddled authoritarian nonsense and shredded civil liberties in the name of "safety." I won't apologize for blasting these progressive-liberal scum; they deserve every ounce of scorn until they fully repent, confront their own sociopathic delusions, and dismantle the echo chambers that breed them. Fuck them and their performative virtue.
That said, I'll continue to maintain civility in public interactions—polite nods, measured words, no needless escalations in public face to face interactions. But make no mistake: I will no longer hold back from calling out their diseased ideology whenever it rears its head. Silence is complicity, and I'm done enabling the rot. It’s time for the truth to be heard everywhere and always.
I’m attempting to diagnose a deeper structural systemic foundation that gives rise to higher level programmed pathology —> disease generating political and ideological confusion and energetic factional polarization, and the fact of your inability to recognize your compulsion to reframe this as tribal partisan rationale is a perfect analog to my systems analysis. We can’t even perceive how insane we are all devolved into behaving. What I’m suggesting is deeper and structural. You’ve demonstrated my logic and diagnosis precisely. Your compulsion to reframe this as a partisan argument completely missed any of my points. Nothing I said anywhere here supports your conclusions or rationales. This perfectly supports my thesis however. It’s not all bad.
Are you (or any of us) capable of honest self appraisal enough to ask yourself, “am I (we)able to consider anything more deeply than political arguing?” The whole us vs others logic sink isn’t informative in an environment so pathological that it’s captured us so completely and short circuited our brains to such an extent that it’s left us all crazy so dysfunctionally literally unable to differentiate between right and wrong or what is even genuinely in our individual or collective best interest.
Do you ever wonder why every public forum on the internet seems to have devolved into political bickering? Do you imagine that every civilizational issue deconstructs essentially to shallow politics? Imagine a reality where no “side” can see how they’re thinking irrationally. Would it possibly look exactly like everything we see? What if you were correct about your diagnosis of “the left” but unable to see that it is equally irrational as the philosophy of “the right?”
A deeper pathological systemic programming that naturally produced these outcomes—whether intentionally so or simply as an incidental undocumented feature would explain this. It’s a difficult problem for sure. Who among us is behaving rationally anymore?
Don’t we all intuitively feel the weight of it the same? We share this in common, and it disrupts us equally. Worse is that we fight about causes so far downstream and out of sight of the occurring pollution. What good can *that* accomplish? Since when has a house so deeply divided against each other been stable?
Your "deeper structural systemic" diagnosis is just the classic progressive dodge: vague, lofty relativism that pretends both sides are equally insane so you don't have to confront the left's specific, glaring derangements.
The left literally can't define what a woman is, yet lectures everyone on "science."
They romanticize Hamas terrorists as "resistance" while ignoring October 7th atrocities.
They demand open borders for millions of unvetted migrants, including cartel criminals and gang members dumped here deliberately.
They pushed experimental vaccines on healthy kids for a virus that barely touched them, while fighting voter ID but requiring papers for everything else.
These aren't symmetric "both sides" failures—they're overwhelmingly progressive positions that directly harm society. Claiming some mysterious "systemic programming" makes everyone equally irrational is just a coward's way to avoid admitting one side has lost touch with basic reality.
If everything looks "equally crazy," it's because the left's rot has dragged discourse into the mud. Pretending otherwise isn't profound—it's enabling.
You are right, but he did call Maduro “Venezuelas president”. And he is a murderous dictator. Might seem like something minor, but for us Venezuelans is a huge thing, because it seems like people are legitimizing him.
If i may say so, your comment completely ignores everything Charles pointed out in the post and gives a strong impression that this is a pre-prepared script (identical to the script i've seen in several comment threads on other posts by users who also claim to be "venezuelan", and all repeating the exact same script as you, literally word for word, which raises the strong impression that you're all copy-pasting from the same ready-made script and that this is a coordinated narrative to coincide with the empire's attack), but if we'll grant you the benefit of the doubt that you are indeed venezuelan as you claim (probably from the rich expat community in miami, and not in venezuela, right?), even if we grant you that, i just have to say that i am just standing in awe at the profound level of GULLIBILITY of conservatives who really truly believe the slogans hammered into their head nonstop inside their partisan information bubble, as if the american billionaire predators and their military attacked venezuela (including murdering several civilians and maiming several more) becasue they really really care about the well-being of ordinary venezuelans and really really want to bring "freedom & democracy" (TM) to the world..
It's honestly hard to know if to laugh or cry with this level conservative gullibility, blindness and stupidity (and devotion to the storyline of the oligarchs' empire) of well-intentioned but clueless conservatives who seem to be blind to the obvious fact that the ONLY reason that the anti-Golden-Rule elite billionaire predators have any interest in venezuela at all is because of its OIL (and derived from that, the chance it gives them to enforce the petro-dollar as the world's reserve currency for a few more years), NOT becasue of any care that they have for the well-being of the venezuelan people!!!
Do you think that if venezuela didn't have any oil that american elite would care about supposed 'corruption' or 'dictatorship' or about the well-being of venezuelans? Of course they won't!!!
Do you think they would bother inventing the "venezuela drugs" lie (more on tnat later) to justify their attack and theft, if venezuela didn't have any oil? Of course they won't!! And yet, these stupid fake stories/excuses are what conservatives constabtly talk about as if this is what drove their beloved oligarchs' attack on venezuela. GULLIBLE, IGNORANT, CLUELESS!!
Your beloved mafia thieves want the oil and so they invent stories that they sell you of why they must invade and install their pro-empire puppet to rule over venezuela (telling you that it is becasue lf "corruption" or "narco-terrorism" which is total nonsense as i'll show in a moment, or becasue they really really care about "freedom of the venzeluelan people" yeah, sure they do) and unfortunately conservative are so incredibly gullible,clueless and unintelligent that you uncritically believe the reasons that your beloved oligarch predators give for why they must invade and install their puppet.
Amazing that i need to say such an obvious thing, but here we are, this is the level of intense emotionally-manipulative propaganda that conservatives are under inside their partisan echo-chamber (liberals are also brainwashed by the liberal half of the elite, but right now the conservative half of the elite is in power so i am focusing on them, becasue the mass-murdering global billionaires' empire currently relies for its existence on the support of well-intentioned but gullible and deceived conservatives, so waking up from conservative braimwashing currently holds the key for freedom from the elite's lies, theft and control agenda, that is why i am focusing specifically on that)
To say it differently, this is the Orwellian world that the mafia oligarch tyrants and their influencers have created for us.
War is "Peace"
Triliions transferred from tbe people to 0.1% ruling class Billionaires is "Prosperity"
The largest and most murderous global militarized empire in the history of mankind, that exists solely for the enrichment control and domination of the american ultra-rich over humanity and the planet is "Freedom & Liberation"
Mass Murder, torture, land-theft, erasure and GENOCIDE is "Love and moral judeo-christian values"
Religious tribalism and supremacy is "Honoring God's Will"
Strangling, murdering and starving anyone (including children) who deviates from the american corporate-capitalist model of Profits-over-People is "Bringing prosperity to the world"
Waving the bible and attacking the billionaire empire's targets is "The Battle of Good vs Evil" and "Moral Judeo-Christian Values"
The Qanon conservative GREAT INVERSION/FALSE AWAKENING would be funny if it wasn't so monstrous and tragic how many people fall for it...
PS. Above i mentioned the "narco-terrorism" excuse that the criminal elite sell to conservatives to justify their attacks. Please see this in-depth investigation that shows you why this is a LIE and exactly how you are being emotionally-manipulated with regard to that by the mafia oligarchs and their deceptive conservative influencers https://open.substack.com/pub/justinpodur/p/the-invention-of-venezuela-drugs
And here you can see a brief history of ACTUAL american NarcoTerrorism as told through the vast cocaine trafficking enterprise of Marco Rubio's family. Please read this eye-opening piece to see the facts about who are the ACTUAL narco-terrorist elite
And i didn't even touch here on the conservative israeli Sackler family, who made 14billion in profits from oxycontin and the opioid crisis, and are directly linked for the death of at least 550 thousand americans. But don't expect tje american empire to attack declare israel a narco-state and attack it any time soon..
it's amazing how everything conservatives are taught to believe inside their manipulative information bubble/echo-chamber is a total inversion of reality. The very ones accusing of drug trafficking are the biggeat traffickers..
PPS. Anoter reason that i didn't mention above for why the billionaires predators attacked venezuela (besides oil), is that venezuela is one of only four countries on the planet without a central bank (the other three are iran, cuba and north korea, who will probably be attacked next by the empire. Previously also libya, syria and sudan didn't have a rothschild central bank, but now the empire took over them and installed it). Once the freeloading billionaires thieves take over venezuela, it will undoubtedly have a rothschild central bank imposed on it.
Last reason i didn't mention for the empire's attack is that maduro dared to mention that palestinians are human beings and deserve equal human and civil rights as jews. This is a major no-no for the billionaire's oligarchy and pretty much sealed maduro's fate..
Seems quite clear to me that what's happeing now is the exact same strategy that the Wall St predators have done in iraq and numerous other places. It works like this: The Wall St vultures want the oil. Their bought representitives in the american govt and their privately-owned media (including their algorithms on their social medias) deliver the story to gullible americans to justify invading, installing their pro-empire fascist puppet to privitize everything into Wall St's hands and stealing the oil.
The story taught to the heavily-propagandized and gullible american public (conservatives seem to be especially susceptibte to uncritically believeing anything the empire tells them about 'national security') involves both the invented evil crimes of the target (Simply replace 'Weapons of Mass Destruction' with 'Narco Terrorism' this time) as well as presenting the target to the hypnotized american public as an evil monster (simlly replace the "saddam dictator monster" slogan with the "maduro dictator monster" slogan, they even look very similar which is convenient, so lindsey graham - and other servants for Wall St - simply needs to change one word in his war spiel and it works just the same like it did in 2003).
Narco Terrorism = Weapons of Mass Destruction. That's the new slogan the Wall St vultures and their govt are going with this time to deceive well-intentioned but gullible conservatives into cheering for the empire once again. Exactly like the empire hypnotized them during the iraq theft and every time Wall St wants them on board their attack plans (Since 2016 democrats have also been propagandized into being also as war-mongering, right-wing, blood thirsty and pro-Wall St as republicans are, and democrats were the main propaganda target during the ukraine war - they have monster putin at the ready to rile up the democrat half for the empire - but the Wall St propaganda target right now is clearly conservatives,
The same script every time that Wall St gets ready to attack (slightly different players and excuses/slogans are given every time to deceive americans into cheering for the plans of the corporate-banking empire's but the principle/structure is the same)
And BTW, speaking of "narco terrorism", here's a brief history of American NarcoTerrorism as told through Marco Rubio's family cocaine trafficking enterprise and the ACTUAL narco-terrorist elite
Regarding so-called "venezuela drugs" please see here this in-depth investigation to learn how thoroughly you've been deceived and emotionally-manipulated (to unwittingly side with 0.1% billionaire predators who rule over the 99.9%)
Everything americans are taught to believe by the empire and its influencers is a complete inversion of reality
The way the Wall St predators and their govt install these slogans in americans' minds is that they employ the technique thst Herman Goering perfected (the right-wing propaganda minister for the german third reich and the nazi party) - you simply repeat it again and again and again and again. Constantly. Relentlessly. Over and over again. What the nazi discovered (and the smerican govt perfected) is that the human brain will believe anything (no matter true or not) if it hears it repeated c9nstantly and sees other people around it repeating it too. That is why the billionaire vultures own all the media and social medias have thousands of influencers flooding the airwaves, repeating ad nauseam the slogans that the Wall St vultures and their govt want installed in the american psyche, so that when you hear for example 'osama bin laden' or 'isis' you automatically think 'evil terrorists. Threat to america. Must be destroyed' or when you hear 'maduro' you automatically think 'evil narco-terrorist. Threat to america. Must be removed'
Here is a quick description (with examples) of this BOGEYMAN ENEMY PRINCIPLE. A well-documented strategy for elite control that is constantly employed by the Wall St vultures and their american govt to deceive the people in cheering for the empire's politicians (as our supposed "protectors" from the "evil enemy over there who is coming to get you") https://www.pdrboston.org/oppressors-need-bogeyman-enemies
Or...the OP is actually Venezuelan and is legitimately happy with this outcome. Step out of your self-righteous algorithm influenced bubble for a little bit and you can understand that there are others who don't have the same opinion as you, and that their opinions are just a valid as your own. Touch grass, as they say.
You might be interested to learn that almost all the videos flooding social media of so-called "celebrations" and "jubilation" of venezuelans of the kidnapping of maduro are AI-generated DeepFake videos
In addition, there are also old or unrelated footage of celebrations from years ago that are manipulatively re‑captioned as reactions to the kidnapping. See above
There are also numerous evidence of americans in venezuela (almost certainly related to the intelligence agencies) paying venezuelans to say on camera how happy they are with the invasion and kidnapping and thanking america for "freeing" them (exactly like they did in iraq, by the way)
And all of these lies and manipulations and DeepFake videos are being intensely promoted to the absolute max by the algorithms of the oligarchs on their privately-owned social medias, while ACTUAL REAL footage (see above) of mass protests in venezuela against the Wall St invasion of their country, killing of citizens, and kidnapping of president, are being literally buried and eliminated from view by the billionaires' manipulative algorithms.
Unfortunately vast majority of well-intentioned but gullible trump fans seem to lack the awareness of how propaganda works, of how the billionaires' empire functions and of the tools to manipulate public opinion, and therefore blindly and uncritically believe whatever the video caption or tweet says about what they are supposedly seeing, as long as it fits the narrative they want to hear. Very little critical thinking, very little questioning and very little awareness of the deluge of propaganda and information warfare directed at us.
It is major problem. Many americans don't seem to be aware of how profoundly controlled and manipulated is the information ecosystem that americans live in. A few anti-Golden-Rule mafia oligarchs who own the flow of information (and the platforms for human communication) literally have the power to make americans believe a narrative or to bury a narrative. They literally get to decide what is real and what is eliminated from existence. It is a monstrous dystopian reality beyond words and it doesn't seem like many well-intentioned but gullible trump fans are aware of this.
Now, i think it's important to mention here that there are of course SOME people in venezuela who are genuinely happy with the Wall St invasion and kidnapping. From a poll that i've seen in late December (roughly a week before the Oligarchs' attack) 23% of people in venezuela were in favor of an american invasion and 55% were against it. 23% of the population of venezuela is more than 7 million people. That's a lot of people, so yes, of course there will be SOME people in venezuela happy about the invasion, kidnapping and Wall St takeover. But are they the MAJORITY of people in venezuela? All indications i've seen - from polls, and from in depth interviews with people in venezuela (not a quick DeepFake clip but actual serious in-depth discussions with real human beings) and from the mass protests in caracas and other cities against the invasion and kidnapping (protests which americans never get to hear about becasue of the complete information blackout and the highly restrictive propagandized and manipulated information environment that people live under in america), from all of these varied and confirmed sources (not DeepFake clips and billionaire propaganda), my tentative conclusion is that the majority (70-80% of people in venezuela) are not in favor of the Wall St invasion and takeover of their country
Here's one in-depth interview with a local venezuelan who drove all across the country, including in small rural towns, to get a feel for the people's sentiment and to see if there is anything special going on https://www.youtube.com/live/BPHeoMRsrUw?si=728OtM2iM-NXZoIK (ignore the video title, it is meant to attract viewers and is not descriptive of the actual content).
And here's an in-depth discussion with a very knowledgable american analyst who lived in venezuela for many years and his wise venezuelan wife, describing their understanding of events and of the current mood in venezuela (listen to the end for full breakdown) https://www.youtube.com/live/iTgkGSeJfhg?si=meq8jAZfftxXah1j
PS. To be clear, i am not pro maduro. And i'm also not pro the Wall St mafia predators and their american govt. I am pro people. See here pdrboston.org
Now, even though SOME people in venezuela might be happy about the invasion, kidnapping and Wall St takeover (and there are undoubtedly some who do) please don't forget tye reality of iraq (where some people were also very happy at first about the american invasion and Wall St takeover). Remember the "liberation" of iraq? The wall st empire also kidnapped the "evil dictator" there, and brought so-called "freedom & democracy" to iraq, remember? (With the full support of the same gullible conservatives who are now cheering for the billionaire predators once again). There were many many people in iraq who were celebrating when this happened. Within less than a year of the Wall St takeover of their country they were all crying, including those who celebrated at first. You think the profits from the oil are going to anyone other than the richest 0.01%? Why don't you ask the iraqi people how this Wall St takeover worked out for them. Do you think anyone in iraq saw a cent from the oil that american billionaires stole!? It has been all downhill since the freeloading billionaire thieves and their militarized empire took control over iraq and plundered it to the last drop (in addition creating, funding and arming terrorist groups and drug-running cartels, as the american empire ALWAYS does). And yet gullible conservatives are cheering for takeover by the Wall St mafia once again. Blindly believing their beloved oligarchs' stories without a second thought. Exactly like 20 years ago.
So this is just to point out that the fact that some people might be happy about the invasion, kidnapping amd takeover, is not necessarily an indication that they are going to have a good or even reasonable life after the Wall St predators (and their american govt) take over. I would say they are very likely going to have an awful life, as has happened every single time the american Wall St empire has so-called "liberated" a country and brought it so-called "freedom". Iraq being just one example (in fact, the starvation sanctions and strangulation blockade by the american regime on venezuela have already made the life of ordinary venezuelans miserable, killing 40 thousand citizens annually according to a UN investigative report, impoverishing & traumatizing millions more and displacing millions)
In addition, i also recommend this fascinating 16 minute video of geopolitical and economic analysis showing exactly why the Wall St vultures and their us gov't attacked Venezuela https://youtu.be/ZMnLnRkcikw as you see, the Wall St mafia's invasion, kindnapping and takeover is all about oil and the petrodollar. It has nothing whatsoever to do with the lies that well-intentioned but gullible trump fans are told inside their information bubble as if it is about so-called "drugs" or "corruption" or "liberating venezuelans" (as if the billionaire predators give a shit about the well-being of ordinary venezuelans or americans). I don't think anyone actually believes the elite's lies except maybe a few diehard trump fans.
And here you can see a brief history of ACTUAL american NarcoTerrorism as told through the vast cocaine trafficking enterprise of Marco Rubio's family. Please read this eye-opening piece to see the facts about who are the ACTUAL narco-terrorist elite
And that's not even beginning to go into the israeli Sackler family, who made 14billion in profits from oxycontin and generated the opioid crisis, and are directly linked for the death of at least 670 thousand americans (i can't go here into the weeds of this vast monstrosity and the crimes committed). But don't expect the mafia billionaire predators to declare israel a narco-terrorist state and attack it any time soon.. it's responsible for infinitely more drug deaths than anything venezuela could ever cause, but this doesn't fit the narrative that the corporate-banking empire is selling you and emotionally-manipulating you with (i was born and raised in israel, btw. If interested, see my perspective on this here https://open.substack.com/pub/headandheart1/p/my-perspective-on-the-conflict-in )
It's amazing how everything americans (and especially trump fans) are taught to believe inside the manipulative and highly distorted information bubbles is a COMPLETE INVERSION of reality. The very ones accusing others of drug trafficking are the biggest traffickers and the ones profitting the most from drugging americans. But i can't go into this vast subject matter here..
terrorism: the calculated use of violence to create a general climate of fear in a population and thereby to bring about a particular political objective. The Maduro regimen fits this descrition to a T. People relieved we venezuelans might get a break from a murderous regime is not necesarely supporting terrorism.
Josh, watch this brilliant 16 minute video of economic analysis showing you exactly why Wall St attacked. https://youtu.be/ZMnLnRkcikw?si=s0dqvNBdXdq0L-8h Conservstive are gullible fools to believe Wall St and its govt invaded for the sake of "freedom" or "human rights" or "drugs" You'd have to be a complete braindead moron to believe their story. I don't think anyone believes their lies except maybe a few diehard trump fans
Secondly, remember the "liberation" of iraq? The wall st empire also kidnapped the "evil dictator" there (and then killed him), and brought so-called "freedom & democracy" to iraq, remember? (With the full support of the same stupid gullible conservatives who are now cheering for the billionaire predators once again). There were many many people in iraq who were celebrating when this happened. A colleague of mine who migrated from iraq told me that within less than a year of the Wall St takeover of their country they were all crying, including those who celebrated at first (and this is corroborated by other reports i've investigated). You think the profits from the oil are going to anyone other than the richest 0.01%? Why don't you ask the iraqi people how this Wall St takeover worked out for them. Do you think anyone in iraq saw a cent from the oil that american billionaires stole!? It has been all downhill since the freeloading billionaire thieves and their militarized empire took control over iraq and plundered it to the last drop (in addition creating, funding and arming terrorist groups and drug-running cartels, as the american empire ALWAYS does, but i won't go into tjat here since that's a whole can of worms in itself. If you want mlre details on tjat then let me know). And yet gullible hypnotized conservatives are stupidly cheering for takeover by the Wall St mafia once again. Blindly believing their beloved oligarchs' stories without a second thought. Exactly like 20 years ago.
So this is just to point out that the fact that some people are celebrating is not necessarily an indication that they are going to have a good or even reasonable life after the Wall St predators (and their political puppets) take over. I would say they are very likely going to have an awful life, as has happened every single time the american Wall St empire has so-called "liberated" a country and brought it so-called "freedom". Iraq being just one example.
Lastly, regarding your claim that "many venezuelans" are happy, i'd like to ask you jist a technical thing - Are the majority happy and want the Wall St takeover of their country (through the imposition of the billionaires' puppet to rule over venezuelans and who will immediately privatize everything into Wall St hands)? How would you know? How did you measure? I have seen polls from late december (about a week before the Wall St attack) that 23% of the people in venezuela were in favor of american invasion and 55% were against. 23% of the venezuelan population are more than 7 million people, so of course you will see many people happy. 7 million people are a lot of people. But how would you know that this is what MOST people in venezuela want? What do you rely on?
I hope you are aware that the american Wall St-owned media (the same Wall St that was behind the attack and is going to steal the oil) is not the place to find facts or truth about anything. It is a big nonstop lie machine and propaganda machine for the oligarchs' empire. So again, how will you know that this is what MOST people in venezuela want? Becasue Wall St's media told you so? Becasue trump told you so? Becasue netanyahu told you so? Because an influemcer in your echo-chamber showed a video of a guy saying that he is happy? (Or of a hundred people celebrating). Does that prove the majority want Wall St to take over their country?
lolol again...anyone who has a perspective that doesn't align with your own has to be a "fake shill". The real issue is that the fact that there are many Venezuelans who are incredibly happy about this outcome is a threat to your own narrative and algorithm influenced reality.
Sorry, but i don't see what does this canned response have to do with my detailed comment?
This seems to be the standard automatic response that you receive from conservatives these days whenever i say anything that isn't aligned with the slogans fed to them in their echo-chamber.
Yes, it is absolutely okay to have a different view (and i very much welcome it) but maybe actually engage with and relate to what i wrote..
Fuck you. This is your side. You fucking lefty pieces of shit aren't just okay with this—you fund it, you cheer it on, and you absolutely love the twisted message it sends.
And I do not know what these people arrested. I want more Americans to hear what the left really thinks.
Thanks brother. Please read till the end (even if you diagree or dislike what you read) since i touch on several different points here. I could reply to your message from different angles, both in terms of factual content (see for example section 6 under chapter 3 here https://johnspritzler.substack.com/p/i-found-it-the-misplaced-owners-manual as well as this extremely important post https://johnspritzler.substack.com/p/illegal-immigration-to-the-us-myth for the fuller factual picture of what is happening), and i could also reply in terms of your very childish assumptions about "sides" and which "side" i am supposedly on and what i supposedly "love" (your ridiculous assumption that "if he criticizes trump then that must mean he is a democrat and loves obama". Did it ever occur to you that it is possible to reject BOTH wings of the elite, republican and democrat!? If you took even a cursory glance at my profile you'd have seen that's the case. But then i wouldn't fit into your neat little box of an enemy to hate, and that's a problem for the immature ego.. ).
But even before we get into any of that, it seems to me that there is a much deeper issue at play here (and btw, i am writing this assuming that you are an genuine human being, and not another one of the numerous mossad/hasbara agents flooding social media who are paid to agitate and incite as much hatred and division as possible. Even though everything about your intensely hateful, arrogant, abusive, violent, immature, dehumanizing behavior and energy has all the hallmarks of israeli hasbara, but I'll give you the benefit of the doubt for the slight chance that you are not and will reply to you sincerely).
So I could reply from these different angles mentioned above, but no matter what i say, it is clear as day that your nervous-system has been wired for (is stuck in a state of) hostility, attack and subjugation (which is a protection from being hurt, but i'll get to that later), wired into a state for righteous rage and war (through the implanted belief of 'US against THEM' and all the stories the unaware ego generates about "those evil monsters").
It's clear as day that the unconsciousness and wounding - and protection mechanism - is so deep that nothing i could say would enter the extremely thick impenetrable fortified walls of certainty, of righteousness, of the image in the head of the EVIL ENEMY to be destroyed, and the intense burning righteous rage & hatred that these stories and images generate (Like Don Quixote fighting the windmills..)
Walls that the UNCONSCIOUS wounded ego has built around your heart as a protection mechanism, to aggresively attack and subjugate before being hurt, to inflate the scared ego with a feeling of "i am right and you are wrong, i am good and you are evil".
And yes, i know that this wounded, unconscious, immature ego has no clue what i am talking about and dismisses it off hand..
I know that your ego is shouting right now "who cares, i want to drag you into a fight with me, into a screaming match, so that i can hate hate HATE you as my enemy and crush you. I want you to admit that i am right and you are wrong, to admit that i am superior, to inflate my scared ego. I want to crush you, to destroy you, to rub your face in the dirt, i want to do to you everything that i wish i could do to those who've hurt me. I'm not fully aware of it but you represent the people who have hurt me and I hate you hate you hate you hate you..."
IN TERMS OF SELF-AWARENESS YOU ARE LIKE A TODDLER, FRIEND. YOU DIDN'T EVEN BEGIN TO WALK YET.
PROFOUNDLY UNAWARE OF WHAT DRIVES YOU AND YOUR INTENSE RAGE AND YOUR BELIEF THAT YOU ARE "PROTECTING THE GOOD AND FIGHTING EVIL".
COMPLETELY IDENTIFIED WITH THE STORIES IN YOUR HEAD.
TOTALLY UNCONSCIOUS OF WHAT IT IS IN YOU THAT GENERATES THE STORIES IN YOUR HEAD OF SELF-RIGHTEOUSNESS AND EVIL ENEMIES THAT YOU NEED TO FIGHT AND DESTROY.
And yes, i know that the AUTOMATIC reaction of such an childish unconacious ego when he hears that will be ridicule, belittling and abuse.
My only prayer is that the light of self-awareness (know thyself, which is the light of God) finds you.
You have A LOT of inner work (self-discovery) to do, friend. You didn't even start yet. A lot of growing up to do. You're like a toddler in that regard. A very young immature soul.
Your entire attention has been hijacked (by the addictive echo-chamber you live in, which is inhabited by psychologically-undeveloped UNAWARE immature souls like you, all of you directing your attention outward, all patting each other on the back and confirming each other's stories), your attention has been hijacked and directed to the wrong place. Outward instead of inward. Fighting supposed "evil enemies" out there instead of looking inside, inquiring and finding out what is ACTUALLY driving you.
IMHO, you have some serious reckoning and re-orientation to do, friend. Your entire focus seems to be currently oriented to distract you away from self-awareness of what is really going on inside you, of which you are COMPLETELY unconscious of, and therefore completely a SLAVE to.
Driven by forces you are completely unaware of..
Wishing you the best..
PS. If you are looking for a place to start, i can sincerely recommend Dan McLintock and Scott Kiloby, who do very skillful repression inquiry, and help unconscious people like you become aware of what REALLY drives them, so that you may be FREE, free from the compulsion/slavery that very clearly drives you currently (compulsion which everyone can see, except the one driven by the unconscious compulsion).
You can feel that compulsive rage in you right now, if you'll slow down for a moment, waaaaaaaay down, even slower, slower still, and notice the sensations in your body. Notice the warm/cold sensations. The tingly sensations, the burning sensations, the throbbing sensations, the painful sensations, notice tne place where your feet touch the ground, notice the touch of the clothes on the skin, notice what it feels like to have hands, to have legs, to have a face (not the concept of hands, legs and face, but the actual feeling of them). Notice the tongue, is it relaxed or tense?, notice the jaw.
And notice the thoughts/stories running through the space of your awareness. Like birds or clouds passing through the sky. The appear, stay for a while and then disappear, right? Notice that when they disappear, YOU don't disappear with them. You remain. You are not the passing birds/clouds. You are the sky in which they appear and disappear.
The immature frightened brain says 'this is nonsense' (which is simply another thought. Another bird passing through the sky) and wants to quickly return to its addictions in the newsfeed and into the familiar sensation of rage and hating those evil leftists, the enemies of the good (or whatever story/bird is passing though your sky).
You can see this compulsion in the mind and you can let it be, let it do its usual thing, but you (the one aware of the mind) don't have to be dragged along with its stories to where it wants to take you, back to the familiar realm of bodily agitation and rage fuelled by a story (passing bird in the sky) of "i am righteous and he is evil". You - the one aware - don't have to jump into every passing car (thought) and let it take you for a ride. You don't have to identify with every passing thought. Just see those thoughts/stories come and go, appear and disappear in the sky, the space of your awareness
Once you notice this (not as a concept but as an actual reality) on a consistant basis, then you have the foundation to start doing some real inquiry of what is truly inside you and driving you to react like an automatin.
PPS. Yes, i know that your ego will dismiss this off hand and immediately go back to his drug of choice, your addictive feed that takes your attention away from the drivers inside you and instead teaches you to rage and hate hate hate "those people" because of how right you are and how evil they are (another bird passing through the sky of your awareness).
I fully expect the pain-filled ego to stay hooked on your drugs (that wire your nervous system for rage and attack which soothes the pain inside) and continue to act out of automatic drivers/compulsions (that you are not aware of) and to react to this with yet more ABUSE, BELITTLING, HUMILIATING, righteous rage, focusing exclusively on the stories "out there", and insisting on "c'mon lets fight and scream at each other about who are the good ones and who are the evil ones. i am right and you are wrong, i am the good side and you are the evil side", which is the only reaction and story that such a psychologically-undeveloped God-disconnected and unconscious ego is familiar with.
I knks that this how the immature ego (who is not conscious of what drives him) is going to automatically react, so i'm going to mute you becasue i don't trust that you have the maturity, care and capacity to show basic human decency and to value the existence of other human beings. Everything about you suggests profound poverty of spirit and disconnection from God. So please know that you are muted, so don't even bother hurling childish abuse at me, i will not receive it. You are muted.
Wishing you the very best on your waking up journey back to God/the Heart and to freedom from compulsively playing out the inner drivers.
I get it—you and folks like John Spritzler see the real game: the billionaire "globalists" (or ruling elite) pull the strings on **both** sides, using the left/right divide, immigration chaos, and culture wars as divide-and-rule tools to keep us fighting each other instead of them. The left gets weaponized for open borders/multiculturalism, the right for anti-immigrant rage, all while cheap labor flows in and wages get crushed.
I understand what they want: total control, no united working class, endless distraction.
But here's the hard reality—if we don't first stop the brain-dead left and the destructive policies they're pushing right now (mass unchecked migration, cultural erosion, economic sabotage of the country), there won't be a country left to fight the elites over. The nation has to survive intact for any real class awakening or revolution to happen.
We can see through the scam **and** still defend the basics that keep us from collapse. Ignoring the immediate threat just plays into their hands too.
Wishing you clarity too, little guy!
And by the way none of your insults hurt at all. I come from a generation of parents that taught me sticks and stones can break my bones but words can never hurt me.
The progressive liberal mindset often exhibits a profound resistance to self-doubt, rendering its adherents incapable of entertaining the possibility of error. Critical thinking gives way to conformity, where beliefs are adopted not through rigorous examination but via the echo chamber of like-minded peers—fellow travelers in intellectual stagnation. Any challenge to this shared dogma is swiftly branded as bigotry or malevolence, stifling discourse under the guise of moral superiority.
In essence, they resemble a flock of blind sheep perched upon a hillside—all gazing uniformly in one direction, oblivious to the vast landscape beyond their shared, narrow vista, and mistaking their collective stare for enlightened vision.
You write very beautifully about resistance to self-doubt, echo chambers, and a lack of critical thinking. Truly, it's wonderful prose. But have you ever considered that you might be susceptible to group think and echo chambers yourself? Or do you lack any doubts?
Brian, look in the mirror. This article nails exactly who you and your fellow progressive-liberal ideologues are: delusional, emotionally fragile authoritarians masquerading as compassionate truth-seekers.
The timing of this article couldn’t have been better.
The fundamental difference between us is this: I wake up every day acknowledging that much—if not most—of what I believe could be wrong. I then actively seek out as much new information and diverse perspectives as I can, without sacrificing my productivity or daily responsibilities.
The progressive mindset, however, rarely engages in this kind of self-reflection or intellectual humility. This closed-off approach explains the glaring contradiction at the heart of much left-wing activism: proudly waving LGBTQ+ flags alongside "Free Palestine" banners.
It's baffling because the incompatibility is stark and undeniable. Traditional Islamic teachings—widely influential in Palestinian society and explicitly enforced by groups like Hamas in Gaza—view homosexuality as a grave sin and transgender identities as contrary to divine order. In Gaza, same-sex acts can carry severe penalties (up to imprisonment or worse in practice), and queer Palestinians face persecution, social ostracism, or violence. Yet many progressives enthusiastically support Palestinian causes, often framing resistance groups as heroic victims of oppression.
This isn't genuine solidarity with human rights; it's selective outrage driven by an "enemy of my enemy" mentality. Israel, whatever its flaws, is the only country in the region where LGBTQ+ people enjoy full legal protections, open pride events, and societal acceptance. Aligning uncritically with forces that would eradicate those rights reveals a deeper inconsistency: principles abandoned when they conflict with anti-Western or anti-Israel narratives.
True intellectual rigor demands confronting these contradictions head-on, not ignoring them for ideological convenience.
Ahh, yes, the true intellectual rigor of insulting people and spewing your anger and hatred. I am glad you find time to weave that in between your daily responsibilities and remain... productive. I was playing nice, because I genuinely hoped to build a bridge of some kind despite my first interaction with you being insulted, and then insulted again after extending an offer of respectful dialogue.
But you seemingly refuse to see anyone who disagrees with you as thoughtful people who reflect on their beliefs and actions every bit as much as you do. So yes, I'm pointing out, not as nicely, that you too seem to have some issues with accurate self-reflection. Especially given you've apparently reframed name-calling to be some high intellectual pursuit you make room for in your busy schedule.
We are all susceptible to cognitive biases. The people who see themselves as completely beyond them are the ones we have to be most worried about. The rant about Palestine and LGBTQ issues? So what? Why can't people support a colonized country's sovereignty while disagreeing with aspects of their culture? Also, you are painting with a very broad brush, there. I personally am close with multiple Islamic folks who are vehemently pro-LGBTQ. Despite their religion, not because of it. People are complex, not nearly as one-dimensional as you like to believe (you see yourself as above it all, looking down on us simpletons, don't you?). Kinda like how a seemingly hateful, thoughtless troll actually has some writing ability. People are complex: yourself included.
So yeah, I'm giving you a bit of a verbal check here, one you'll hopefully respect and actually take into consideration, if you're actually willing to entertain the notion that most of what you believe is wrong (something I can greatly respect, although my relatively open access to the full palate of my humanity and the treasures we carry in our hearts, something you may have become temporarily disconnected from as a result of pain, offers a bit more certainty in some quarters, like the right way to treat others, even those you see as less intelligent). Ya know, with dignity, curiosity, and care. You might not see it, but I'm offering you care and dignity, too. And I'll once again repeat that I believe in your good intentions, though that doesn't mean I don't think you're being a massive asshole in this thread, despite them.
100%. And the fact that there are huge number of Venezuelans who are happy with this action is an existential threat to people whose algorithm influenced reality has them wrapped up in their own self righteousness.
I don’t think it’s any of these crazy conspiracies - it’s simple system logic on a massive all-capturing scale.
Maybe that’s worse even, but more clear. Reform chance is still slim but non-zero at least with clarity.
All the “stuff” you cite, however variously at play or not much, are natural outcomes of system programming—whether intentionally-so, or as undocumented features—it doesn’t really matter.
It is vital to get 'boots on the ground' perspectives among others. This is why I appreciate Douglas Murray, who intentionally travels to 'dangerous' countries to gauge perspectives (political leanings aside). I want to hear from as many Venezuelans as possible.
I believe the nearly 8 million displaced Venezuelans are speaking volumes. Those still living there aren't yet sure it's truly safe to express their opinions freely.
I understood what Charles said here to endorse what you are saying. One of the takeaways that I got was that by doing this, Trump is setting precedence for this type of lawlessness to flourish. I'm so sorry for what is happening in your country. If Trump takes over it will certainly continue, or (hopefully not) get worse.
I see Trump as a symptom. He didn’t write the Monroe Doctrine. As an exercise, can we all try to imagine a planet where the US because operative neutral (like the Swiss)? It wouldn’t save the world, but we’d certainly make less enemies and save a lot of money. Eisenhower warned us in 1961 about the rise of the Military Industrial Complex — a fact I find more interesting that he served at the highest levels of military command during WWII—but I don’t think he understood how to prevent it. Trends are easier to see than causes.
He didn't miss it. We Iranians are also facing an army of these type of commenters, when anyone slightly and even politely criticises Imperialistic behavior they jump in and say: but we Iranians hate Mulla's etc... they use almost the same verbal structures, so I also doubt if these kind of comments are mass-manufactured somewhere...
Like anotner commenter said before, he is almost certainly a cia or mossad asset. They don't even bother to read the post they're commenting to, they just catch the general vibe of it (is it aligned with the empire's narrative or different from tne empire's narrative) and immediately launch into copy-pasting their pre-prepared talking points that have nothing to do with the post.
There's a flood of them alll over social medias. They make these comments and then the other assets boost it with likes.. The american billionaires' empire doesn't engage in any big attack operation without also having a massive propaganda blitz of influencers and commenters on their privately-owned social medias to flood the airwaves with the empires's talking points. It's extremely depressing how they can buy everything with their endless money, both the social medias themselves and what's promoted on tjem, as well as an army of commentors and influencers to flood tje airwaves. Their control over the narrative, tje public mood and the flow of information is almost total...
please, please, for your own good - take a break from the internet, touch grass. Seriously, think about why you have the need to dehumanize others who have different opinions from your own by calling them agents or bots or whatever...Regardless of how you feel about this action by the administration, there are many Venezuelans who are incredibly happy about this. Stop and think about why that is so threatening to your narrative reality and sense of self that you need to dehumanize these people by saying they must be agents or bots. I understand that there are many who are unhappy or disturbed by this, but there are many who are happy with it.
Only progressive liberal scum who despise Trump are upset about this.
Rational people understand that, while it was a high-risk move, if we can continue protecting the Venezuelans still in the country and ultimately hand them a safe, secure, and free nation, this will go down as an extraordinary moment in history. There is still much work that needs to be done.
Good to have this perspective, which might perhaps enlighten Charles about the reality of the Maduro regime. This holier-than-thou diatribe is an embarrassment, Charles. You want to treat a monster like Maduro with " respect, humanity, and dignity”? You refer to drug smugglers as “passengers and crew” and mourn their demise? And worry about what conditions might have led poor Maduro to dictatorship? Seriously? Is he the victim here from cruel circumstances that sadly turned him to a life of crime? You sound like an ICE protestor, decrying the “abduction” and deportation of rapists, murderers and drug dealers. Talk to Venezuelans, Charles. They are celebrating and thankful that their nightmare may soon be over.
It’s not the job of the US to step in. The US is not the policeman of the world & has no right to act like it is. You think Trump cares about the average Venezuelan on the street? You think this was the act of a saviour?
The US is not 'stepping in', it is the opposite. We have been under assault by Maduro with his drug smuggling, gang members and traffickers slipping through Biden open borders, harboring criminal cartels and foreign actors that act to destabilize the entire region. Maduro is not the legitimate leader of Venezuela but a mafia style boss who refused to leave when a democratic elections ousted him. The Venezuelans do not want him, and he is under indictment here for his crimes. This was not an action against Venezuela but a perfectly executed surgical law enforcement action to capture a criminal.
You might be interested to learn that almost all the videos flooding social media of so-called "celebrations" and "jubilation" of venezuelans of the kidnapping of maduro are AI-generated DeepFake videos
In addition, there are also old or unrelated footage of celebrations from years ago that are manipulatively re‑captioned as reactions to the kidnapping. See above
There are also numerous evidence of americans in venezuela (almost certainly related to the intelligence agencies) paying venezuelans to say on camera how happy they are with the invasion and kidnapping and thanking america for "freeing" them (exactly like they did in iraq, by the way)
And all of these lies and manipulations and DeepFake videos are being intensely promoted to the absolute max by the algorithms of the oligarchs on their privately-owned social medias, while ACTUAL REAL footage (see above) of mass protests in venezuela against the Wall St invasion of their country, killing of citizens, and kidnapping of president, are being literally buried and eliminated from view by the billionaires' manipulative algorithms.
Unfortunately vast majority of well-intentioned but gullible trump fans seem to lack the awareness of how propaganda works, of how the billionaires' empire functions and of the tools to manipulate public opinion, and therefore blindly and uncritically believe whatever the video caption or tweet says about what they are supposedly seeing, as long as it fits the narrative they want to hear. Very little critical thinking, very little questioning and very little awareness of the deluge of propaganda and information warfare directed at us.
It is major problem. Many americans don't seem to be aware of how profoundly controlled and manipulated is the information ecosystem that americans live in. A few anti-Golden-Rule mafia oligarchs who own the flow of information (and the platforms for human communication) literally have the power to make americans believe a narrative or to bury a narrative. They literally get to decide what is real and what is eliminated from existence. It is a monstrous dystopian reality beyond words and it doesn't seem like many well-intentioned but gullible trump fans are aware of this.
Now, i think it's important to mention here that there are of course SOME people in venezuela who are genuinely happy with the Wall St invasion and kidnapping. From a poll that i've seen in late December (roughly a week before the Oligarchs' attack) 23% of people in venezuela were in favor of an american invasion and 55% were against it. 23% of the population of venezuela is more than 7 million people. That's a lot of people, so yes, of course there will be SOME people in venezuela happy about the invasion, kidnapping and Wall St takeover. But are they the MAJORITY of people in venezuela? All indications i've seen - from polls, and from in depth interviews with people in venezuela (not a quick DeepFake clip but actual serious in-depth discussions with real human beings) and from the mass protests in caracas and other cities against the invasion and kidnapping (protests which americans never get to hear about becasue of the complete information blackout and the highly restrictive propagandized and manipulated information environment that people live under in america), from all of these varied and confirmed sources (not DeepFake clips and billionaire propaganda), my tentative conclusion is that the majority (70-80% of people in venezuela) are not in favor of the Wall St invasion and takeover of their country
Here's one in-depth interview with a local venezuelan who drove all across the country, including in small rural towns, to get a feel for the people's sentiment and to see if there is anything special going on https://www.youtube.com/live/BPHeoMRsrUw?si=728OtM2iM-NXZoIK (ignore the video title, it is meant to attract viewers and is not descriptive of the actual content).
And here's an in-depth discussion with a very knowledgable american analyst who lived in venezuela for many years and his wise venezuelan wife, describing their understanding of events and of the current mood in venezuela (listen to the end for full breakdown) https://www.youtube.com/live/iTgkGSeJfhg?si=meq8jAZfftxXah1j
PS. To be clear, i am not pro maduro. And i'm also not pro the Wall St mafia predators and their american govt. I am pro people. See here pdrboston.org
Now, even though SOME people in venezuela might be happy about the invasion, kidnapping and Wall St takeover (and there are undoubtedly some who do) please don't forget tye reality of iraq (where some people were also very happy at first about the american invasion and Wall St takeover). Remember the "liberation" of iraq? The wall st empire also kidnapped the "evil dictator" there, and brought so-called "freedom & democracy" to iraq, remember? (With the full support of the same gullible conservatives who are now cheering for the billionaire predators once again). There were many many people in iraq who were celebrating when this happened. Within less than a year of the Wall St takeover of their country they were all crying, including those who celebrated at first. You think the profits from the oil are going to anyone other than the richest 0.01%? Why don't you ask the iraqi people how this Wall St takeover worked out for them. Do you think anyone in iraq saw a cent from the oil that american billionaires stole!? It has been all downhill since the freeloading billionaire thieves and their militarized empire took control over iraq and plundered it to the last drop (in addition creating, funding and arming terrorist groups and drug-running cartels, as the american empire ALWAYS does). And yet gullible conservatives are cheering for takeover by the Wall St mafia once again. Blindly believing their beloved oligarchs' stories without a second thought. Exactly like 20 years ago.
So this is just to point out that the fact that some people might be happy about the invasion, kidnapping amd takeover, is not necessarily an indication that they are going to have a good or even reasonable life after the Wall St predators (and their american govt) take over. I would say they are very likely going to have an awful life, as has happened every single time the american Wall St empire has so-called "liberated" a country and brought it so-called "freedom". Iraq being just one example (in fact, the starvation sanctions and strangulation blockade by the american regime on venezuela have already made the life of ordinary venezuelans miserable, killing 40 thousand citizens annually according to a UN investigative report, impoverishing & traumatizing millions more and displacing millions)
In addition, i also recommend this fascinating 16 minute video of geopolitical and economic analysis showing exactly why the Wall St vultures and their us gov't attacked Venezuela https://youtu.be/ZMnLnRkcikw as you see, the Wall St mafia's invasion, kindnapping and takeover is all about oil and the petrodollar. It has nothing whatsoever to do with the lies that well-intentioned but gullible trump fans are told inside their information bubble as if it is about so-called "drugs" or "corruption" or "liberating venezuelans" (as if the billionaire predators give a shit about the well-being of ordinary venezuelans or americans). I don't think anyone actually believes the elite's lies except maybe a few diehard trump fans.
And here you can see a brief history of ACTUAL american NarcoTerrorism as told through the vast cocaine trafficking enterprise of Marco Rubio's family. Please read this eye-opening piece to see the facts about who are the ACTUAL narco-terrorist elite
And that's not even beginning to go into the israeli Sackler family, who made 14billion in profits from oxycontin and generated the opioid crisis, and are directly linked for the death of at least 670 thousand americans (i can't go here into the weeds of this vast monstrosity and the crimes committed). But don't expect the mafia billionaire predators to declare israel a narco-terrorist state and attack it any time soon.. it's responsible for infinitely more drug deaths than anything venezuela could ever cause, but this doesn't fit the narrative that the corporate-banking empire is selling you and emotionally-manipulating you with (i was born and raised in israel, btw. If interested, see my perspective on this here https://open.substack.com/pub/headandheart1/p/my-perspective-on-the-conflict-in )
It's amazing how everything americans (and especially trump fans) are taught to believe inside the manipulative and highly distorted information bubbles is a COMPLETE INVERSION of reality. The very ones accusing others of drug trafficking are the biggest traffickers and the ones profitting the most from drugging americans. But i can't go into this vast subject matter here..
I was about to accuse Ardi of being a bot, but a bot wouldn't have been so blatant or dismissive of the well-constructed points in Charles's piece. At least try to engage with the content rather than coming in guns blazing with irrelevant arguments.
Thank you for your comment. I read the email thinking it was a baby who was pointing a finger at everything they believe is wrong with a topic they know nothing about. I’m sure if Biden would have done this on the other hand they would be holding hands with Venezuelans. AMUSING
You are quite mistaken about that. There are many with principles who oppose violence and domination no matter who gives the order. And most people my age have seen how the wars have continued no matter which "side" was in office. It's almost like there's a military industrial complex that's actually calling the shots and both mainstream parties are in cahoots with the billionaires and a system built on extraction and domination.
The forest for the trees is that we are all deranged. The first step to 12 step recovery is to realize it and admit it. It’s a fitting analog. Maybe the bottom we each have to hit for some of us doesn’t have to be complete annihilation? How much time and energy are we wasting fighting each other and pointing fingers that we might otherwise be applying to the problem that equally affects us all? Is that a fair question to ask ourselves?
Whether by hook or by crook, human civilization all stand equally captured. We all benefit if the dollar effectively tethers itself to ecological reality. All going on 9 billion of us equally consume more than 1.7 earths’ capacity to keep up — mainly because abstract symbolic monetization has literally fried our collective brains. Let any in the world who doubt it try to eat their money. At some point, soon it may be likely that this will be the only option for most of us. It’s no single faction’s fault.
Whether we like it or not, if the dollar goes down, we all do — simple as that. It’s not even the dollar. None of our abstract symbolic money is tethered directly to ecological reality. It’s literal insanity that no other species of life on earth pays more than a brief curious sniff for.
Humanity has lost our way, abandoned any real feedback signaling we ever selectively evolved over millions of years to ground us. Blaming one country or currency for common ground civilization scale folly might be entertaining, but it’s hardly useful.
Any pre-monotized subset of human civilization that has lived or try to live sanely tethered with healthy respect to the environment that sustains us, the rest of us have actively hunted down and destroyed. Post monetized society is going to be a living nightmare and there are literally no alternatives available for any of us to escape to. I empathize for how horrible this news is.
We’ve managed to maintain an operative rationalized level of denial to feel somewhat ‘okay’ until now in whatever constructed delusion we manage our stress with, but Mother Nature isn’t fooled. She merely operates her ledgers on such a scale far beyond our comparatively tiny life spans. If we collectively can find any meaning, it seems inevitable that we’ll eventually need to find it in reality. Delusion abstracts reality as much as the money system that has brought us to the brink of civilizational collapse. The systemic problem has been progressing for far longer than any country has existed.
I love this take: Venezuela's economy is in shambles not because socialism 'works'—it spectacularly doesn't—but because mean old U.S. sanctions kept their glorious communist paradise from thriving.
Never mind that the collapse started long before serious sanctions kicked in: nationalizing industries, expropriating private businesses, price controls that emptied shelves, currency manipulation that fueled hyperinflation, and squandering oil windfalls on corruption and cronies instead of reinvesting in production. Venezuela went from one of Latin America's richest nations—with the world's largest oil reserves—to an 80% economic contraction, mass starvation, and 8 million refugees fleeing the 'workers' paradise,' all thanks to textbook socialist policies.
Sanctions? Sure, they hurt—but they were a response to the regime's authoritarianism and theft, not the cause. The real culprit was always the system itself: central planning that turned abundance into scarcity. And now, after the U.S. finally stepped in to remove the dictator, watch the excuses shift again. Socialism didn't fail Venezuela; reality just refused to cooperate.
Not at all Democratic, they are equally as evil as Cuba and controlled by the dictators in Cuba, including intelligence and protection services from Cuba. They have to defend their supply of free oil.
I know what you mean, and, I have since yesterday come across many Venezuelans speaking like he does. Which points to citizens being fed up with the way things have been, hence all the celebrations in the streets. I was born in Bogota Colombia (European parents) and I am familiar with how governments in South America are oppressive. I know several Venezuelans here who came here to escape Maduro.
Still learning about this whole Venezuelan situation, esp. about the crude oil. For example, a friend who has worked in the financial sector of the oil industry informed me that the crude oil in Ven. is the same as that in Canada, and that if the US will rely in future primarily on the oil from Ven., Canada's economy will tank (pun intended). I have lived in Canada most of my life so this does not bode well here. In general though, Canada has been on a downward spiral- not the country I loved and spent most of my life in!
You might be interested to learn that almost all the videos flooding social media of so-called "celebrations" and "jubilation" of venezuelans of the kidnapping of maduro are AI-generated DeepFake videos
In addition, there are also old or unrelated footage of celebrations from years ago that are manipulatively re‑captioned as reactions to the kidnapping. See above
There are also numerous evidence of americans in venezuela (almost certainly related to the intelligence agencies) paying venezuelans to say on camera how happy they are with the invasion and kidnapping and thanking america for "freeing" them (exactly like they did in iraq, by the way)
And all of these lies and manipulations and DeepFake videos are being intensely promoted to the absolute max by the algorithms of the oligarchs on their privately-owned social medias, while ACTUAL REAL footage (see above) of mass protests in venezuela against the Wall St invasion of their country, killing of citizens, and kidnapping of president, are being literally buried and eliminated from view by the billionaires' manipulative algorithms.
Unfortunately vast majority of well-intentioned but gullible trump fans seem to lack the awareness of how propaganda works, of how the billionaires' empire functions and of the tools to manipulate public opinion, and therefore blindly and uncritically believe whatever the video caption or tweet says about what they are supposedly seeing, as long as it fits the narrative they want to hear. Very little critical thinking, very little questioning and very little awareness of the deluge of propaganda and information warfare directed at us.
It is major problem. Many americans don't seem to be aware of how profoundly controlled and manipulated is the information ecosystem that americans live in. A few anti-Golden-Rule mafia oligarchs who own the flow of information (and the platforms for human communication) literally have the power to make americans believe a narrative or to bury a narrative. They literally get to decide what is real and what is eliminated from existence. It is a monstrous dystopian reality beyond words and it doesn't seem like many well-intentioned but gullible trump fans are aware of this.
Now, i think it's important to mention here that there are of course SOME people in venezuela who are genuinely happy with the Wall St invasion and kidnapping. From a poll that i've seen in late December (roughly a week before the Oligarchs' attack) 23% of people in venezuela were in favor of an american invasion and 55% were against it. 23% of the population of venezuela is more than 7 million people. That's a lot of people, so yes, of course there will be SOME people in venezuela happy about the invasion, kidnapping and Wall St takeover. But are they the MAJORITY of people in venezuela? All indications i've seen - from polls, and from in depth interviews with people in venezuela (not a quick DeepFake clip but actual serious in-depth discussions with real human beings) and from the mass protests in caracas and other cities against the invasion and kidnapping (protests which americans never get to hear about becasue of the complete information blackout and the highly restrictive propagandized and manipulated information environment that people live under in america), from all of these varied and confirmed sources (not DeepFake clips and billionaire propaganda), my tentative conclusion is that the majority (70-80% of people in venezuela) are not in favor of the Wall St invasion and takeover of their country
Here's one in-depth interview with a local venezuelan who drove all across the country, including in small rural towns, to get a feel for the people's sentiment and to see if there is anything special going on https://www.youtube.com/live/BPHeoMRsrUw?si=728OtM2iM-NXZoIK (ignore the video title, it is meant to attract viewers and is not descriptive of the actual content).
And here's an in-depth discussion with a very knowledgable american analyst who lived in venezuela for many years and his wise venezuelan wife, describing their understanding of events and of the current mood in venezuela (listen to the end for full breakdown) https://www.youtube.com/live/iTgkGSeJfhg?si=meq8jAZfftxXah1j
PS. To be clear, i am not pro maduro. And i'm also not pro the Wall St mafia predators and their american govt. I am pro people. See here pdrboston.org
Now, even though SOME people in venezuela might be happy about the invasion, kidnapping and Wall St takeover (and there are undoubtedly some who do) please don't forget tye reality of iraq (where some people were also very happy at first about the american invasion and Wall St takeover). Remember the "liberation" of iraq? The wall st empire also kidnapped the "evil dictator" there, and brought so-called "freedom & democracy" to iraq, remember? (With the full support of the same gullible conservatives who are now cheering for the billionaire predators once again). There were many many people in iraq who were celebrating when this happened. Within less than a year of the Wall St takeover of their country they were all crying, including those who celebrated at first. You think the profits from the oil are going to anyone other than the richest 0.01%? Why don't you ask the iraqi people how this Wall St takeover worked out for them. Do you think anyone in iraq saw a cent from the oil that american billionaires stole!? It has been all downhill since the freeloading billionaire thieves and their militarized empire took control over iraq and plundered it to the last drop (in addition creating, funding and arming terrorist groups and drug-running cartels, as the american empire ALWAYS does). And yet gullible conservatives are cheering for takeover by the Wall St mafia once again. Blindly believing their beloved oligarchs' stories without a second thought. Exactly like 20 years ago.
So this is just to point out that the fact that some people might be happy about the invasion, kidnapping amd takeover, is not necessarily an indication that they are going to have a good or even reasonable life after the Wall St predators (and their american govt) take over. I would say they are very likely going to have an awful life, as has happened every single time the american Wall St empire has so-called "liberated" a country and brought it so-called "freedom". Iraq being just one example (in fact, the starvation sanctions and strangulation blockade by the american regime on venezuela have already made the life of ordinary venezuelans miserable, killing 40 thousand citizens annually according to a UN investigative report, impoverishing & traumatizing millions more and displacing millions)
In addition, i also recommend this fascinating 16 minute video of geopolitical and economic analysis showing exactly why the Wall St vultures and their us gov't attacked Venezuela https://youtu.be/ZMnLnRkcikw as you see, the Wall St mafia's invasion, kindnapping and takeover is all about oil and the petrodollar. It has nothing whatsoever to do with the lies that well-intentioned but gullible trump fans are told inside their information bubble as if it is about so-called "drugs" or "corruption" or "liberating venezuelans" (as if the billionaire predators give a shit about the well-being of ordinary venezuelans or americans). I don't think anyone actually believes the elite's lies except maybe a few diehard trump fans.
And here you can see a brief history of ACTUAL american NarcoTerrorism as told through the vast cocaine trafficking enterprise of Marco Rubio's family. Please read this eye-opening piece to see the facts about who are the ACTUAL narco-terrorist elite
And that's not even beginning to go into the israeli Sackler family, who made 14billion in profits from oxycontin and generated the opioid crisis, and are directly linked for the death of at least 670 thousand americans (i can't go here into the weeds of this vast monstrosity and the crimes committed). But don't expect the mafia billionaire predators to declare israel a narco-terrorist state and attack it any time soon.. it's responsible for infinitely more drug deaths than anything venezuela could ever cause, but this doesn't fit the narrative that the corporate-banking empire is selling you and emotionally-manipulating you with (i was born and raised in israel, btw. If interested, see my perspective on this here https://open.substack.com/pub/headandheart1/p/my-perspective-on-the-conflict-in )
It's amazing how everything americans (and especially trump fans) are taught to believe inside the manipulative and highly distorted information bubbles is a COMPLETE INVERSION of reality. The very ones accusing others of drug trafficking are the biggest traffickers and the ones profitting the most from drugging americans. But i can't go into this vast subject matter here..
Thank you for posting this one. I would not have seen it otherwise. What it reminds me, as does charles' post, is that we no longer learn from MSM. We learn from social media. Elon musk was right...allow the people to speak.
You might be interested to learn that almost all the videos flooding social media of so-called "celebrations" and "jubilation" of venezuelans of the kidnapping of maduro are AI-generated DeepFake videos
In addition, there are also old or unrelated footage of celebrations from years ago that are manipulatively re‑captioned as reactions to the kidnapping. See above
There are also numerous evidence of americans in venezuela (almost certainly related to the intelligence agencies) paying venezuelans to say on camera how happy they are with the invasion and kidnapping and thanking america for "freeing" them (exactly like they did in iraq, by the way)
And all of these lies and manipulations and DeepFake videos are being intensely promoted to the absolute max by the algorithms of the oligarchs on their privately-owned social medias, while ACTUAL REAL footage (see above) of mass protests in venezuela against the Wall St invasion of their country, killing of citizens, and kidnapping of president, are being literally buried and eliminated from view by the billionaires' manipulative algorithms.
Unfortunately vast majority of well-intentioned but gullible trump fans seem to lack the awareness of how propaganda works, of how the billionaires' empire functions and of the tools to manipulate public opinion, and therefore blindly and uncritically believe whatever the video caption or tweet says about what they are supposedly seeing, as long as it fits the narrative they want to hear. Very little critical thinking, very little questioning and very little awareness of the deluge of propaganda and information warfare directed at us.
It is major problem. Many americans don't seem to be aware of how profoundly controlled and manipulated is the information ecosystem that americans live in. A few anti-Golden-Rule mafia oligarchs who own the flow of information (and the platforms for human communication) literally have the power to make americans believe a narrative or to bury a narrative. They literally get to decide what is real and what is eliminated from existence. It is a monstrous dystopian reality beyond words and it doesn't seem like many well-intentioned but gullible trump fans are aware of this.
Now, i think it's important to mention here that there are of course SOME people in venezuela who are genuinely happy with the Wall St invasion and kidnapping. From a poll that i've seen in late December (roughly a week before the Oligarchs' attack) 23% of people in venezuela were in favor of an american invasion and 55% were against it. 23% of the population of venezuela is more than 7 million people. That's a lot of people, so yes, of course there will be SOME people in venezuela happy about the invasion, kidnapping and Wall St takeover. But are they the MAJORITY of people in venezuela? All indications i've seen - from polls, and from in depth interviews with people in venezuela (not a quick DeepFake clip but actual serious in-depth discussions with real human beings) and from the mass protests in caracas and other cities against the invasion and kidnapping (protests which americans never get to hear about becasue of the complete information blackout and the highly restrictive propagandized and manipulated information environment that people live under in america), from all of these varied and confirmed sources (not DeepFake clips and billionaire propaganda), my tentative conclusion is that the majority (70-80% of people in venezuela) are not in favor of the Wall St invasion and takeover of their country
Here's one in-depth interview with a local venezuelan who drove all across the country, including in small rural towns, to get a feel for the people's sentiment and to see if there is anything special going on https://www.youtube.com/live/BPHeoMRsrUw?si=728OtM2iM-NXZoIK (ignore the video title, it is meant to attract viewers and is not descriptive of the actual content).
And here's an in-depth discussion with a very knowledgable american analyst who lived in venezuela for many years and his wise venezuelan wife, describing their understanding of events and of the current mood in venezuela (listen to the end for full breakdown) https://www.youtube.com/live/iTgkGSeJfhg?si=meq8jAZfftxXah1j
PS. To be clear, i am not pro maduro. And i'm also not pro the Wall St mafia predators and their american govt. I am pro people. See here pdrboston.org
Now, even though SOME people in venezuela might be happy about the invasion, kidnapping and Wall St takeover (and there are undoubtedly some who do) please don't forget tye reality of iraq (where some people were also very happy at first about the american invasion and Wall St takeover). Remember the "liberation" of iraq? The wall st empire also kidnapped the "evil dictator" there, and brought so-called "freedom & democracy" to iraq, remember? (With the full support of the same gullible conservatives who are now cheering for the billionaire predators once again). There were many many people in iraq who were celebrating when this happened. Within less than a year of the Wall St takeover of their country they were all crying, including those who celebrated at first. You think the profits from the oil are going to anyone other than the richest 0.01%? Why don't you ask the iraqi people how this Wall St takeover worked out for them. Do you think anyone in iraq saw a cent from the oil that american billionaires stole!? It has been all downhill since the freeloading billionaire thieves and their militarized empire took control over iraq and plundered it to the last drop (in addition creating, funding and arming terrorist groups and drug-running cartels, as the american empire ALWAYS does). And yet gullible conservatives are cheering for takeover by the Wall St mafia once again. Blindly believing their beloved oligarchs' stories without a second thought. Exactly like 20 years ago.
So this is just to point out that the fact that some people might be happy about the invasion, kidnapping amd takeover, is not necessarily an indication that they are going to have a good or even reasonable life after the Wall St predators (and their american govt) take over. I would say they are very likely going to have an awful life, as has happened every single time the american Wall St empire has so-called "liberated" a country and brought it so-called "freedom". Iraq being just one example (in fact, the starvation sanctions and strangulation blockade by the american regime on venezuela have already made the life of ordinary venezuelans miserable, killing 40 thousand citizens annually according to a UN investigative report, impoverishing & traumatizing millions more and displacing millions)
In addition, i also recommend this fascinating 16 minute video of geopolitical and economic analysis showing exactly why the Wall St vultures and their us gov't attacked Venezuela https://youtu.be/ZMnLnRkcikw as you see, the Wall St mafia's invasion, kindnapping and takeover is all about oil and the petrodollar. It has nothing whatsoever to do with the lies that well-intentioned but gullible trump fans are told inside their information bubble as if it is about so-called "drugs" or "corruption" or "liberating venezuelans" (as if the billionaire predators give a shit about the well-being of ordinary venezuelans or americans). I don't think anyone actually believes the elite's lies except maybe a few diehard trump fans.
And here you can see a brief history of ACTUAL american NarcoTerrorism as told through the vast cocaine trafficking enterprise of Marco Rubio's family. Please read this eye-opening piece to see the facts about who are the ACTUAL narco-terrorist elite
And that's not even beginning to go into the israeli Sackler family, who made 14billion in profits from oxycontin and generated the opioid crisis, and are directly linked for the death of at least 670 thousand americans (i can't go here into the weeds of this vast monstrosity and the crimes committed). But don't expect the mafia billionaire predators to declare israel a narco-terrorist state and attack it any time soon.. it's responsible for infinitely more drug deaths than anything venezuela could ever cause, but this doesn't fit the narrative that the corporate-banking empire is selling you and emotionally-manipulating you with (i was born and raised in israel, btw. If interested, see my perspective on this here https://open.substack.com/pub/headandheart1/p/my-perspective-on-the-conflict-in )
It's amazing how everything americans (and especially trump fans) are taught to believe inside the manipulative and highly distorted information bubbles is a COMPLETE INVERSION of reality. The very ones accusing others of drug trafficking are the biggest traffickers and the ones profitting the most from drugging americans. But i can't go into this vast subject matter here..
As a Venezuelan, your input is helpful, but limited just like anyone's. I'm sure people all around Venezuela have many feelings about what happened as it will change the course of thier lives for good or bad. This situation has implications for all international relations. So whether Maduro was bad or not is not the question. Obviously he was corrupt. The question is, can Trump do whatever he wants to whomever, whenever? And apparently yes is the answer. Sound familiar? Do you think that the plan for Venezuela is in better hands now? Someone who will take what rhey want when they want is still in charge.
This is a measured comment. The long range implications of this are still very much up in the air, yet people have extremely strong reactions one way or the other.
Thos is exactly what my gut told me to be true as soon as I heard the news. Then I saw the "Venezualan abroad" media hype of celebration that this is a great thing, which felt completely off. This is the start of the final battle for the consciousness of humanity. Which side will be chosen - fear or love? And even saying that creates duality. Our language needs reprogramming too. Hold your ground people. Stay in a higher frequency and know that love has already won, despite what is being fed to you. Sending love to all the courageous souls in the middle of this. Thank you Charles
Thank you for this comment. It brought me to tears. The last few sentences in particular were much needed by me right now. I’m having trouble remembering how to get out of the “us-them” “fight of good vs evil” mindset, and reading this felt very helpful. Thank you
Oh I'm so glad it helped Kelsey. It is difficult as we have been programmed for a VERY long time to take sides. Time up on that now. Im holding a live substack meditation on it later if it helps further? 3pm EST/ 8pm Ireland 🙏💚
the reason the celebrations felt "completely off" to you is because your "gut" is aligned with the narrative that this action is immoral and wrong. I agree with the rest of your comment. There is a higher frequency of love, and that includes the understanding of non-duality in which this action was actually a good move for many people and many Venezuelans are legitimately happy about it. The long term implications are still very much up in the air.
You might be interested to learn that almost all the videos flooding social media of so-called "celebrations" and "jubilation" of venezuelans of the kidnapping of maduro are AI-generated DeepFake videos
In addition, there are also old or unrelated footage of celebrations from years ago that are manipulatively re‑captioned as reactions to the kidnapping. See above
There are also numerous evidence of americans in venezuela (almost certainly related to the intelligence agencies) paying venezuelans to say on camera how happy they are with the invasion and kidnapping and thanking america for "freeing" them (exactly like they did in iraq, by the way)
And all of these lies and manipulations and DeepFake videos are being intensely promoted to the absolute max by the algorithms of the oligarchs on their privately-owned social medias, while ACTUAL REAL footage (see above) of mass protests in venezuela against the Wall St invasion of their country, killing of citizens, and kidnapping of president, are being literally buried and eliminated from view by the billionaires' manipulative algorithms.
Unfortunately vast majority of well-intentioned but gullible trump fans seem to lack the awareness of how propaganda works, of how the billionaires' empire functions and of the tools to manipulate public opinion, and therefore blindly and uncritically believe whatever the video caption or tweet says about what they are supposedly seeing, as long as it fits the narrative they want to hear. Very little critical thinking, very little questioning and very little awareness of the deluge of propaganda and information warfare directed at us.
It is major problem. Many americans don't seem to be aware of how profoundly controlled and manipulated is the information ecosystem that americans live in. A few anti-Golden-Rule mafia oligarchs who own the flow of information (and the platforms for human communication) literally have the power to make americans believe a narrative or to bury a narrative. They literally get to decide what is real and what is eliminated from existence. It is a monstrous dystopian reality beyond words and it doesn't seem like many well-intentioned but gullible trump fans are aware of this.
Now, i think it's important to mention here that there are of course SOME people in venezuela who are genuinely happy with the Wall St invasion and kidnapping. From a poll that i've seen in late December (roughly a week before the Oligarchs' attack) 23% of people in venezuela were in favor of an american invasion and 55% were against it. 23% of the population of venezuela is more than 7 million people. That's a lot of people, so yes, of course there will be SOME people in venezuela happy about the invasion, kidnapping and Wall St takeover. But are they the MAJORITY of people in venezuela? All indications i've seen - from polls, and from in depth interviews with people in venezuela (not a quick DeepFake clip but actual serious in-depth discussions with real human beings) and from the mass protests in caracas and other cities against the invasion and kidnapping (protests which americans never get to hear about becasue of the complete information blackout and the highly restrictive propagandized and manipulated information environment that people live under in america), from all of these varied and confirmed sources (not DeepFake clips and billionaire propaganda), my tentative conclusion is that the majority (70-80% of people in venezuela) are not in favor of the Wall St invasion and takeover of their country
Here's one in-depth interview with a local venezuelan who drove all across the country, including in small rural towns, to get a feel for the people's sentiment and to see if there is anything special going on https://www.youtube.com/live/BPHeoMRsrUw?si=728OtM2iM-NXZoIK (ignore the video title, it is meant to attract viewers and is not descriptive of the actual content).
And here's an in-depth discussion with a very knowledgable american analyst who lived in venezuela for many years and his wise venezuelan wife, describing their understanding of events and of the current mood in venezuela (listen to the end for full breakdown) https://www.youtube.com/live/iTgkGSeJfhg?si=meq8jAZfftxXah1j
PS. To be clear, i am not pro maduro. And i'm also not pro the Wall St mafia predators and their american govt. I am pro people. See here pdrboston.org
Now, even though SOME people in venezuela might be happy about the invasion, kidnapping and Wall St takeover (and there are undoubtedly some who do) please don't forget tye reality of iraq (where some people were also very happy at first about the american invasion and Wall St takeover). Remember the "liberation" of iraq? The wall st empire also kidnapped the "evil dictator" there, and brought so-called "freedom & democracy" to iraq, remember? (With the full support of the same gullible conservatives who are now cheering for the billionaire predators once again). There were many many people in iraq who were celebrating when this happened. Within less than a year of the Wall St takeover of their country they were all crying, including those who celebrated at first. You think the profits from the oil are going to anyone other than the richest 0.01%? Why don't you ask the iraqi people how this Wall St takeover worked out for them. Do you think anyone in iraq saw a cent from the oil that american billionaires stole!? It has been all downhill since the freeloading billionaire thieves and their militarized empire took control over iraq and plundered it to the last drop (in addition creating, funding and arming terrorist groups and drug-running cartels, as the american empire ALWAYS does). And yet gullible conservatives are cheering for takeover by the Wall St mafia once again. Blindly believing their beloved oligarchs' stories without a second thought. Exactly like 20 years ago.
So this is just to point out that the fact that some people might be happy about the invasion, kidnapping amd takeover, is not necessarily an indication that they are going to have a good or even reasonable life after the Wall St predators (and their american govt) take over. I would say they are very likely going to have an awful life, as has happened every single time the american Wall St empire has so-called "liberated" a country and brought it so-called "freedom". Iraq being just one example (in fact, the starvation sanctions and strangulation blockade by the american regime on venezuela have already made the life of ordinary venezuelans miserable, killing 40 thousand citizens annually according to a UN investigative report, impoverishing & traumatizing millions more and displacing millions)
In addition, i also recommend this fascinating 16 minute video of geopolitical and economic analysis showing exactly why the Wall St vultures and their us gov't attacked Venezuela https://youtu.be/ZMnLnRkcikw as you see, the Wall St mafia's invasion, kindnapping and takeover is all about oil and the petrodollar. It has nothing whatsoever to do with the lies that well-intentioned but gullible trump fans are told inside their information bubble as if it is about so-called "drugs" or "corruption" or "liberating venezuelans" (as if the billionaire predators give a shit about the well-being of ordinary venezuelans or americans). I don't think anyone actually believes the elite's lies except maybe a few diehard trump fans.
And here you can see a brief history of ACTUAL american NarcoTerrorism as told through the vast cocaine trafficking enterprise of Marco Rubio's family. Please read this eye-opening piece to see the facts about who are the ACTUAL narco-terrorist elite
And that's not even beginning to go into the israeli Sackler family, who made 14billion in profits from oxycontin and generated the opioid crisis, and are directly linked for the death of at least 670 thousand americans (i can't go here into the weeds of this vast monstrosity and the crimes committed). But don't expect the mafia billionaire predators to declare israel a narco-terrorist state and attack it any time soon.. it's responsible for infinitely more drug deaths than anything venezuela could ever cause, but this doesn't fit the narrative that the corporate-banking empire is selling you and emotionally-manipulating you with (i was born and raised in israel, btw. If interested, see my perspective on this here https://open.substack.com/pub/headandheart1/p/my-perspective-on-the-conflict-in )
It's amazing how everything americans (and especially trump fans) are taught to believe inside the manipulative and highly distorted information bubbles is a COMPLETE INVERSION of reality. The very ones accusing others of drug trafficking are the biggest traffickers and the ones profitting the most from drugging americans. But i can't go into this vast subject matter here for space constraints..
Yes, Venezuelans are finally thrilled and thanking the United States as a nation, not President Trump like a "God" or "King" as the left did with Obama and Biden.
You might be interested to learn that almost all the videos flooding social media of so-called "celebrations" and "jubilation" of venezuelans of the kidnapping of maduro are AI-generated DeepFake videos
In addition, there are also old or unrelated footage of celebrations from years ago that are manipulatively re‑captioned as reactions to the kidnapping. See above
There are also numerous evidence of americans in venezuela (almost certainly related to the intelligence agencies) paying venezuelans to say on camera how happy they are with the invasion and kidnapping and thanking america for "freeing" them (exactly like they did in iraq, by the way)
And all of these lies and manipulations and DeepFake videos are being intensely promoted to the absolute max by the algorithms of the oligarchs on their privately-owned social medias, while ACTUAL REAL footage (see above) of mass protests in venezuela against the Wall St invasion of their country, killing of citizens, and kidnapping of president, are being literally buried and eliminated from view by the billionaires' manipulative algorithms.
Unfortunately vast majority of well-intentioned but gullible trump fans seem to lack the awareness of how propaganda works, of how the billionaires' empire functions and of the tools to manipulate public opinion, and therefore blindly and uncritically believe whatever the video caption or tweet says about what they are supposedly seeing, as long as it fits the narrative they want to hear. Very little critical thinking, very little questioning and very little awareness of the deluge of propaganda and information warfare directed at us.
It is major problem. Many americans don't seem to be aware of how profoundly controlled and manipulated is the information ecosystem that americans live in. A few anti-Golden-Rule mafia oligarchs who own the flow of information (and the platforms for human communication) literally have the power to make americans believe a narrative or to bury a narrative. They literally get to decide what is real and what is eliminated from existence. It is a monstrous dystopian reality beyond words and it doesn't seem like many well-intentioned but gullible trump fans are aware of this.
Now, i think it's important to mention here that there are of course SOME people in venezuela who are genuinely happy with the Wall St invasion and kidnapping. From a poll that i've seen in late December (roughly a week before the Oligarchs' attack) 23% of people in venezuela were in favor of an american invasion and 55% were against it. 23% of the population of venezuela is more than 7 million people. That's a lot of people, so yes, of course there will be SOME people in venezuela happy about the invasion, kidnapping and Wall St takeover. But are they the MAJORITY of people in venezuela? All indications i've seen - from polls, and from in depth interviews with people in venezuela (not a quick DeepFake clip but actual serious in-depth discussions with real human beings) and from the mass protests in caracas and other cities against the invasion and kidnapping (protests which americans never get to hear about becasue of the complete information blackout and the highly restrictive propagandized and manipulated information environment that people live under in america), from all of these varied and confirmed sources (not DeepFake clips and billionaire propaganda), my tentative conclusion is that the majority (70-80% of people in venezuela) are not in favor of the Wall St invasion and takeover of their country
Here's one in-depth interview with a local venezuelan who drove all across the country, including in small rural towns, to get a feel for the people's sentiment and to see if there is anything special going on https://www.youtube.com/live/BPHeoMRsrUw?si=728OtM2iM-NXZoIK (ignore the video title, it is meant to attract viewers and is not descriptive of the actual content).
And here's an in-depth discussion with a very knowledgable american analyst who lived in venezuela for many years and his wise venezuelan wife, describing their understanding of events and of the current mood in venezuela (listen to the end for full breakdown) https://www.youtube.com/live/iTgkGSeJfhg?si=meq8jAZfftxXah1j
PS. To be clear, i am not pro maduro. And i'm also not pro the Wall St mafia predators and their american govt. I am pro people. See here pdrboston.org
Now, even though SOME people in venezuela might be happy about the invasion, kidnapping and Wall St takeover (and there are undoubtedly some who do) please don't forget tye reality of iraq (where some people were also very happy at first about the american invasion and Wall St takeover). Remember the "liberation" of iraq? The wall st empire also kidnapped the "evil dictator" there, and brought so-called "freedom & democracy" to iraq, remember? (With the full support of the same gullible conservatives who are now cheering for the billionaire predators once again). There were many many people in iraq who were celebrating when this happened. Within less than a year of the Wall St takeover of their country they were all crying, including those who celebrated at first. You think the profits from the oil are going to anyone other than the richest 0.01%? Why don't you ask the iraqi people how this Wall St takeover worked out for them. Do you think anyone in iraq saw a cent from the oil that american billionaires stole!? It has been all downhill since the freeloading billionaire thieves and their militarized empire took control over iraq and plundered it to the last drop (in addition creating, funding and arming terrorist groups and drug-running cartels, as the american empire ALWAYS does). And yet gullible conservatives are cheering for takeover by the Wall St mafia once again. Blindly believing their beloved oligarchs' stories without a second thought. Exactly like 20 years ago.
So this is just to point out that the fact that some people might be happy about the invasion, kidnapping amd takeover, is not necessarily an indication that they are going to have a good or even reasonable life after the Wall St predators (and their american govt) take over. I would say they are very likely going to have an awful life, as has happened every single time the american Wall St empire has so-called "liberated" a country and brought it so-called "freedom". Iraq being just one example (in fact, the starvation sanctions and strangulation blockade by the american regime on venezuela have already made the life of ordinary venezuelans miserable, killing 40 thousand citizens annually according to a UN investigative report, impoverishing & traumatizing millions more and displacing millions)
In addition, i also recommend this fascinating 16 minute video of geopolitical and economic analysis showing exactly why the Wall St vultures and their us gov't attacked Venezuela https://youtu.be/ZMnLnRkcikw as you see, the Wall St mafia's invasion, kindnapping and takeover is all about oil and the petrodollar. It has nothing whatsoever to do with the lies that well-intentioned but gullible trump fans are told inside their information bubble as if it is about so-called "drugs" or "corruption" or "liberating venezuelans" (as if the billionaire predators give a shit about the well-being of ordinary venezuelans or americans). I don't think anyone actually believes the elite's lies except maybe a few diehard trump fans.
And here you can see a brief history of ACTUAL american NarcoTerrorism as told through the vast cocaine trafficking enterprise of Marco Rubio's family. Please read this eye-opening piece to see the facts about who are the ACTUAL narco-terrorist elite
And that's not even beginning to go into the israeli Sackler family, who made 14billion in profits from oxycontin and generated the opioid crisis, and are directly linked for the death of at least 670 thousand americans (i can't go here into the weeds of this vast monstrosity and the crimes committed). But don't expect the mafia billionaire predators to declare israel a narco-terrorist state and attack it any time soon.. it's responsible for infinitely more drug deaths than anything venezuela could ever cause, but this doesn't fit the narrative that the corporate-banking empire is selling you and emotionally-manipulating you with (i was born and raised in israel, btw. If interested, see my perspective on this here https://open.substack.com/pub/headandheart1/p/my-perspective-on-the-conflict-in )
It's amazing how everything americans (and especially trump fans) are taught to believe inside the manipulative and highly distorted information bubbles is a COMPLETE INVERSION of reality. The very ones accusing others of drug trafficking are the biggest traffickers and the ones profitting the most from drugging americans. But i can't go into this vast subject matter here for space constraints..
Thank you for writing this. I would like to echo Heather Ripley's comment. Many people appreciate you and hold you near to their hearts from afar.
I read through so many of these comments with a heavy heart. It saddens me beyond belief to see the unspeakable horrors of our world, and then read some of the words that are spewn from people's keyboards and touchscreen phones. I recognize that this is just yet another symptom of the place we find ourselves these days. Even though we all seem to have agreed to accept these types of comments as the norm now, to say it is disheartening nonetheless would be an understatement. Prayers to you, your country, and its victims.
What I find sick to my stomach about is how “liberals” are fully standing with Radical Islam and Narco Terrorists as standard fare now. The people of Venezuela are thrilled even if you aren’t.
Rather than blindly believing and uncritically parroting emotionally charged slogans that circulate within the one‑sided echo chamber that you seem to be locked in, I invite you to examine these four factual notes that directly address those slogans that you repeated here so uncritically. By reviewing the factual evidence, i think you might be able form a clearer, more independent perspective, and wake up out of the trance you've been put into.
Regarding "radical islam", please see here who ACTUALLY creates, funds, arms and directs the terror operations under the false flag of 'islamic terror' and who ACTUALLY creates, funds, arms and directs terrorist groups (for the purpose mentioned in the note)
Specifically how this is done in israel by the zionist-conservative billionaire predators (i was born and raised in israel and was in the israeli military) see here
And regarding the LIES that the Zionist billionaire and their conservative influencers teach you about islam to induce as much RELIGIOUS DIVISION & HATRED as possible (which is the lifeblood of Godless zionist nazism and precisely how the zionist billionaire predators keep us under their control, explained below) hear it directly from this jewish man that i interviewed in jerusalem, telling you directly what it was like to live together with muslims in palestine BEFORE the invasive zionist dispossesion and extermination project began
Regarding so-called "venezuela drugs" please see here this in-depth investigation to learn how thoroughly you've been deceived and emotionally-manipulated (to unwittingly side with 0.1% Wall St predators who rule over the 99.9) https://substack.com/@justinpodur/note/p-173552990
Please do read all these FACTUAL and fully-referenced notes in order to understand how you have been deceived by the corporate-banking empire and their conservative influencers (while meaning well, but not knowing any better)
PS. Yes, liberals have also been deceived by the other half of the oligarchy, and i point this out to liberals when i interact with them, but i am not going into that here becasue here i am interacting with you, someone who has been deceived by the conservative half of the oligarchy.
Seems quite clear to me that what's happeing now is the exact same strategy that the Wall St predators have done in iraq and numerous other places. It works like this: The Wall St vultures want the oil. Their bought representitives in the american govt and their privately-owned media (including their algorithms on their social medias) deliver the story to gullible americans to justify invading, installing their pro-empire fascist puppet to privitize everything into Wall St's hands and stealing the oil.
The story taught to the heavily-propagandized and gullible american public (conservatives seem to be especially susceptibte to uncritically believeing anything the empire tells them about 'national security') involves both the invented evil crimes of the target (Simply replace 'Weapons of Mass Destruction' with 'Narco Terrorism' this time) as well as presenting the target to the hypnotized american public as an evil monster (simlly replace the "saddam dictator monster" slogan with the "maduro dictator monster" slogan, they even look very similar which is convenient, so lindsey graham - and other servants for Wall St - simply needs to change one word in his war spiel and it works just the same like it did in 2003).
Narco Terrorism = Weapons of Mass Destruction. That's the new slogan the Wall St vultures and their govt are going with this time to deceive well-intentioned but gullible conservatives into cheering for the empire once again. Exactly like the empire hypnotized them during the iraq theft and every time Wall St wants them on board their attack plans (Since 2016 democrats have also been propagandized into being also as war-mongering, right-wing, blood thirsty and pro-Wall St as republicans are, and democrats were the main propaganda target during the ukraine war - they have monster putin at the ready to rile up the democrat half for the empire - but the Wall St propaganda target right now is clearly conservatives,
The same script every time that Wall St gets ready to attack (slightly different players and excuses/slogans are given every time to deceive americans into cheering for the plans of the corporate-banking empire's but the principle/structure is the same)
And BTW, speaking of "narco terrorism", here's a brief history of American NarcoTerrorism as told through Marco Rubio's family cocaine trafficking enterprise and the ACTUAL narco-terrorist elite
Everything americans are taught to believe by the empire and its influencers is a complete inversion of reality
The way the Wall St predators and their govt install these slogans in americans' minds is that they employ the technique thst Herman Goering perfected (the right-wing propaganda minister for the german third reich and the nazi party) - you simply repeat it again and again and again and again. Constantly. Relentlessly. Over and over again. What the nazi discovered (and the smerican govt perfected) is that the human brain will believe anything (no matter true or not) if it hears it repeated c9nstantly and sees other people around it repeating it too. That is why the billionaire vultures own all the media and social medias have thousands of influencers flooding the airwaves, repeating ad nauseam the slogans that the Wall St vultures and their govt want installed in the american psyche, so that when you hear for example 'osama bin laden' or 'isis' you automatically think 'evil terrorists. Threat to america. Must be destroyed' or when you hear 'maduro' you automatically think 'evil narco-terrorist. Threat to america. Must be removed'
You are living in an inverted reality and you clearly no NOTHING about the history of Venezuela, its people (who are ALL CELEBRATING) or what’s been going on inside the Narco Terrorist regime that took their country.
The mafia billionaire predators, murderers, abusers and their global militarized empire of greed, mass-murdered, plunder and bullying are delighted to know that conservatives haven't changed one bit since the days of the fake WMD and the empire's iraq invasion, that conservatives are still as gullible, heavily-propagandized and hypnotized as they've been back then, still as ready to blindly believe and uncritically repeat whatever slogans the mafia's global militarized empire and its influencers tell them inside their partisan echo-chamber, and to obediently salute the oligarchs and their global empire of greed, mass-murder, plunder, and theft for the 0.01%, as long as the oligarchs wave the flag and tell them that they "love america" and that they are "fighting evil" and "bringing freedom to the world" and "fighting the deep state for the little guy"..
Yes, conservatives are still this gullible and dumb. Nothing has changed since 2003. Just wave the flag and tell them to rally behind "your great patriotic leader who really really loves you and really really wants to protect you from that evil enemy over there who is coming to get you". That's all it takes to emotionally-manipulate gullible conservatives into cheering for the elite murderers and their global militarized empire to enrich the ultra-rich and cement the control of the few over the many.
As i mentioned in my more detailed reply to you below i highly recommend stepping out of your one-sided partisan echo-chamber/bubble (bubble which you think is reality). You're not only incredibly ignorant and heavily-propagandized, you're also profoundly arrogant (becasue you're not aware that you're living inside an information bubble but think that your bubble is actual reality)
In the other reply, i gave you several FACTUAL notes that directly address the FALSE emotionally-manipulative slogans that you repeated here so uncritically and so gullibly (yet so arrogantly). Please do read them and educate yourself so that you may wake up out the trance you've been put into and step out of the manipulative partisan bubble (which you think is reality).
PS. Yes, liberals are also deceived by the liberal half of the oligarchy, and i point this out to liberals when i interact with them. But right now i am not focusing on that becasue right now i am interacting with someone deceived by the conservative half of the elite.
the global corporate-banking oligarchy operates through BOTH its wings, both the fake "left" and the fake right (both are actually pro-empire right-wing). Both through the liberal democrat leadership (who act in very iliberal and anti-democratic ways) who use inauthentic slogans of love and caring (which they don't mean) to advance billionaire profiteering & domination, as well as through the oligarchy's other wing- the fake "populist" billionaires right (who are sold to their propagandized worshippers as "anti-elite" and "pro-freedom" while IN REALITY are tyrant elite oligarchs who work diligently to concentrate the planet's wealth in the hands of the 0.01%, who incite their worshippers to HATE HATE HATE anyone who isn’t aligned with the DOMINATION their global corporate empire, and to build the digital technocratic prison of humanity for the sole purpose of the domination of the few over the many.
In terms of the psychology that drives the two wings of the empire - unlike the inauthentic love slogans of the fake "left" democrats (who are really right wing through and through), the other empire's wing - the fake "populist" billionaire right - are inciting their half of the population through a childish trauma-driven anti-sensitive conservative mentality that views "greatness" as DOMINATION, power over, force, subjugation, profiteering by crushing others to benefit oneself, that celebrates traumatizing others and "toughness" (emotional suppression) as a show of power and "greatness", and that thrives on hating bogeyman enemies in the "US vs THEM" sectarian tribalist mentality
The tragedy, IMHO, is that most american have been corralled (using the oligarchs' manipulative algorithms) into partisan enclosures/echo-chambers, where we are taught to cheer for one or the other wing of the global oligarchy and to view the other half as 'the evil ones'. Very few seem to recognize BOTH halves of the elite, and very few seem to want real freedom from oligarch control and dignity for all humans, but most seem to just want that the empire be under the right management, the management of "our billionaires" (not “their billionaires”), seem to just want the domination of the one wing of the oligarchy that we were taught to identify with
You are funny that you think you are that smart and I don’t understand what’s going on.
I fully understand that the same Oligarchs are funding both sides and I see through the disgusting level of leftist privilege because I was a leftist for my who life until the things they started to support during Covid and now the left literally simps for Islamic Terrorists and the Cartel.
You and I are NOT on the same side of anything. The thing that you can’t seem to grasp is that I consciously know what is going on and I SUPPORT us taking Maduro out. It was True to do.
The people of Venezuela have tried many avenues to remove him and this is an answer to their prayers, regardless of the HOW.
So while you sit here on some privileged academic ideological pedestal you have put yourself on, and you think you are smarter than me? Haha sit the fuck down.
You are just a powerless ideologue.
PS Iran is next. 💋
Imagine being such an insufferable twat that you think your opinions about how the wheels turn matters 😆
Honestly we should forget all this left/right crap, this is just a distraction at this point.
The loudest of them generalize each other, cherrypick extreme positions from few and attribute them to anyone which "seems to" fit into said homogeneous group.
If there is one thing that really should be addressed is this retarded polarization, those in power keep the people divided so that they don't unite, it is about whether you really care about humanity or your prefered ideology.
I’m not sure where the Congressional Permission talking point came from but im pretty sure you losers had ZERO issue when Obama did the same:
“President Obama authorized thousands of bombing strikes without direct, specific Congressional authorization for each action, most notably during the 2011 Libya intervention, which lasted months without direct approval. His administration relied on the 2001 Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF) for various actions, including563 drone strikes in Pakistan, Somalia, and Yemen. “
How wildly uneducated and ignorant are you? The left has become the most necrotizing, cannibalistic of corrosive values of the United States of America the founders of this country would be rolling in their graves at the disgrace you people have become.
If you want to discuss the expansion of Executive Branch war power… you can thank Dick Cheney and Obama. You don’t actually know anything about the law do you? You are just a little parrot with talking points and no real knowledge to back it up.
I was born and raised in israel and lived with muslims my entire life so with your permission i would like address what you brought up here. Rather than blindly believing and uncritically parroting emotionally-charged slogans that are hammered into you nonstop within the sectarian and emotionally-manipulative echo chamber that you seem to be locked in, I invite you to examine these three factual notes that directly address the slogans that you repeated here so uncritically. By reviewing the factual evidence, i think you might be able form a clearer, more independent perspective, and wake up out of the trance you've been put into.
Regarding "those evil muslims" that you are emotionally-manipulated by the billionaire predators and their nationalist politicians into hating (for reasons which are explained in the notes below) , please see here who ACTUALLY creates, funds, arms and directs the terror operations under the false flag of 'islamic terror' and who ACTUALLY creates, funds, arms and directs terrorist groups (for the purpose mentioned in the note). You'll be very surprised when you learn the truth. You're never told this truth inside the HIGHLY MANIPULATIVE information bubble that you seem to be living in.
And here is specifically how this is done in israel by the zionist-conservative billionaire predators and their politicians. Including a full breakdown of exactly how the zionist billionaires' lie works and precisely how they are emotionally-manipulating (and as you'll see, the zionist elite are anti-ordinary-jews in the extreme)
And regarding the LIES that the Zionist billionaire and their conservative influencers teach you about islam to induce as much RELIGIOUS DIVISION & HATRED as possible (which is the lifeblood of Godless Zionist Nazism and precisely how the zionist billionaire predators keep us under their control, explained in detail in the note) hear it directly from this jewish man that i interviewed in jerusalem, telling you directly what it was like to live together with muslims in palestine BEFORE the invasive zionist colonization, dispossesion and extermination project began
And finally, to learn about my perspective on the conflict and what do i view as the way out of the horror, please see here https://substack.com/@headandheart1
PS. To explain why I - along with many jewish holocaust survivors - call zionism a Nazi ideology and practice, thst is because it teaches us from birth that the life and safety of those human being who were taught to identify with the label 'jew' is supremely more valuable and important than the life and safety of those who were taught to invest their identity into the label 'jew'. And definitely infinitely more valuable than the life and safety of the local children, mothers, fathers and elderly in palestine, whom we israelis are taught to not even view as relevant human beings, but more like pests to be eradicated, debris to be cleared out of the land, so that the land can be taken by the superior chosen ones, the most important people in the universe. See more details on the post above.
Trump's "press incoherence" after his bragging about violating our Constitution, our post-WW II system of promoting democracy, and any consistent rationale for this kidnapping, brings to mind Putin's long-held delusion of resurrection the Great Russian Empire. Trump, too, believes he can regain our imperialist past in the Americas when we basically were the landlords of those countries. If they didn't pay their debts to the US companies laying waste to their people or natural resources, our armed forces invaded and took what we wanted. His idiotic mention of the "Donroe Doctrine" also is a "blast from our past". The Monroe Doctrine sought to protect our "sphere of influence" while empire-seeking nations were picking up weaker nations as if they were Lego pieces. Our own empire had yet to be sought externally, but would arise after Manifest Destiny pieced together the 48/50 states, and we too began engaging in collecting subsidiary national holdings. This is an old, tired, decrepit, unworkable rehash of the 18th and 19th Centuries' ways of enriching national companies and pillaging weaker peoples' resources. There has never been, within Trump 1.0 or 2.0, any coherent strategy for governing "for the people." He admitted we're in this for the oil, and the stock market can't wait til tomorrow to march into Venezuela and take over its resources. It's also a green light for every dictator to march into wherever they wish. Anyone who applauds this move will reap the whirlwind. At its worst, our world is as far from safe as anytime in the 19th or 20th Centuries.
I cannot believe how many people are choosing abrasive sides after Charles expressed his opinion regarding Venezuela. All governments are corrupt, playing by the same deceitful controlling oligarchical rules--do what we say, not what we do. Rules for thee but not for me mentality...
In a natural law world, it is not the right of one country to impose its rules to control another country. No country, especially the U.S. at this point, has the right to control another country when it doesn't even take care of any of its own people. 38 trillion dollars in debt and nothing positive to show for it. Extorting citizens who only want peace and to be able to take care of their families.
I appreciate what you wrote, Charles, and am grateful for your insights.
Thanks so much Charles - this really says it all. May it be widely heard and understood.
As to the fundamental dynamics, it always seems to tie back to wealth (money) and power -- one begets the other until it becomes critical mass runaway chain reaction.
When a voice such as this is viciously attacked it means that voice has power. When such effort is made to silence you, it means your words have effect. When you hear the ugliness loudest remember there are those that see and hear without the fog of confusion, personal grievance, hidden agendas or mistaken belief.
You have to be a brave soul to speak through the hate and try to be heard. I hear you Charles, many others do too. We hear you through the noise and we won’t let you and other voices like yours become silenced.
You wrote: "Of course, the difference between President Maduro and the leader of a more powerful country is that the former is vulnerable to abduction and the latter is not." Actually, you're missing the most important difference. Two actually. 1. Maduro was not the legally elected President. Even MSM in the US admitted his election was rigged. Venezuelans are dancing in the streets, PRAISING the US for delivering them from this tyrant. So, explain to me why your opinion is more important than what the citizens of that country want, what they have yearned for over so many years of murder and oppression? Presidents of other countries are joining in the celebration. And 2. He was directly attacking the US with drugs. So, maybe rethink your position in light of reality.
Praise him now, but if you think Maduro was a tyrant, welcome to the big leagues. At least Maduro wasn’t kidnapping the leaders of sovereign countries on their sovereign soil and stealing their strategic national resources because he wanted them.
Did we literally kidnap his wife too? Come on people. How is this any different than Iraq invading Kuwait — besides possibly being much much worse? I ask as an American patriot here.
You might be interested to learn that almost all the videos flooding social media of so-called "celebrations" and "jubilation" of venezuelans of the kidnapping of maduro are AI-generated DeepFake videos
In addition, there are also old or unrelated footage of celebrations from years ago that are manipulatively re‑captioned as reactions to the kidnapping. See above
There are also numerous evidence of americans in venezuela (almost certainly related to the intelligence agencies) paying venezuelans to say on camera how happy they are with the invasion and kidnapping and thanking america for "freeing" them (exactly like they did in iraq, by the way)
And all of these lies and manipulations and DeepFake videos are being intensely promoted to the absolute max by the algorithms of the oligarchs on their privately-owned social medias, while ACTUAL REAL footage (see above) of mass protests in venezuela against the Wall St invasion of their country, killing of citizens, and kidnapping of president, are being literally buried and eliminated from view by the billionaires' manipulative algorithms.
Unfortunately vast majority of well-intentioned but gullible trump fans seem to lack the awareness of how propaganda works, of how the billionaires' empire functions and of the tools to manipulate public opinion, and therefore blindly and uncritically believe whatever the video caption or tweet says about what they are supposedly seeing, as long as it fits the narrative they want to hear. Very little critical thinking, very little questioning and very little awareness of the deluge of propaganda and information warfare directed at us.
It is major problem. Many americans don't seem to be aware of how profoundly controlled and manipulated is the information ecosystem that americans live in. A few anti-Golden-Rule mafia oligarchs who own the flow of information (and the platforms for human communication) literally have the power to make americans believe a narrative or to bury a narrative. They literally get to decide what is real and what is eliminated from existence. It is a monstrous dystopian reality beyond words and it doesn't seem like many well-intentioned but gullible trump fans are aware of this.
Now, i think it's important to mention here that there are of course SOME people in venezuela who are genuinely happy with the Wall St invasion and kidnapping. From a poll that i've seen in late December (roughly a week before the Oligarchs' attack) 23% of people in venezuela were in favor of an american invasion and 55% were against it. 23% of the population of venezuela is more than 7 million people. That's a lot of people, so yes, of course there will be SOME people in venezuela happy about the invasion, kidnapping and Wall St takeover. But are they the MAJORITY of people in venezuela? All indications i've seen - from polls, and from in depth interviews with people in venezuela (not a quick DeepFake clip but actual serious in-depth discussions with real human beings) and from the mass protests in caracas and other cities against the invasion and kidnapping (protests which americans never get to hear about becasue of the complete information blackout and the highly restrictive propagandized and manipulated information environment that people live under in america), from all of these varied and confirmed sources (not DeepFake clips and billionaire propaganda), my tentative conclusion is that the majority (70-80% of people in venezuela) are not in favor of the Wall St invasion and takeover of their country
Here's one in-depth interview with a local venezuelan who drove all across the country, including in small rural towns, to get a feel for the people's sentiment and to see if there is anything special going on https://www.youtube.com/live/BPHeoMRsrUw?si=728OtM2iM-NXZoIK (ignore the video title, it is meant to attract viewers and is not descriptive of the actual content).
And here's an in-depth discussion with a very knowledgable american analyst who lived in venezuela for many years and his wise venezuelan wife, describing their understanding of events and of the current mood in venezuela (listen to the end for full breakdown) https://www.youtube.com/live/iTgkGSeJfhg?si=meq8jAZfftxXah1j
PS. To be clear, i am not pro maduro. And i'm also not pro the Wall St mafia predators and their american govt. I am pro people. See here pdrboston.org
Now, even though SOME people in venezuela might be happy about the invasion, kidnapping and Wall St takeover (and there are undoubtedly some who do) please don't forget tye reality of iraq (where some people were also very happy at first about the american invasion and Wall St takeover). Remember the "liberation" of iraq? The wall st empire also kidnapped the "evil dictator" there, and brought so-called "freedom & democracy" to iraq, remember? (With the full support of the same gullible conservatives who are now cheering for the billionaire predators once again). There were many many people in iraq who were celebrating when this happened. Within less than a year of the Wall St takeover of their country they were all crying, including those who celebrated at first. You think the profits from the oil are going to anyone other than the richest 0.01%? Why don't you ask the iraqi people how this Wall St takeover worked out for them. Do you think anyone in iraq saw a cent from the oil that american billionaires stole!? It has been all downhill since the freeloading billionaire thieves and their militarized empire took control over iraq and plundered it to the last drop (in addition creating, funding and arming terrorist groups and drug-running cartels, as the american empire ALWAYS does). And yet gullible conservatives are cheering for takeover by the Wall St mafia once again. Blindly believing their beloved oligarchs' stories without a second thought. Exactly like 20 years ago.
So this is just to point out that the fact that some people might be happy about the invasion, kidnapping amd takeover, is not necessarily an indication that they are going to have a good or even reasonable life after the Wall St predators (and their american govt) take over. I would say they are very likely going to have an awful life, as has happened every single time the american Wall St empire has so-called "liberated" a country and brought it so-called "freedom". Iraq being just one example (in fact, the starvation sanctions and strangulation blockade by the american regime on venezuela have already made the life of ordinary venezuelans miserable, killing 40 thousand citizens annually according to a UN investigative report, impoverishing & traumatizing millions more and displacing millions)
In addition, i also recommend this fascinating 16 minute video of geopolitical and economic analysis showing exactly why the Wall St vultures and their us gov't attacked Venezuela https://youtu.be/ZMnLnRkcikw as you see, the Wall St mafia's invasion, kindnapping and takeover is all about oil and the petrodollar. It has nothing whatsoever to do with the lies that well-intentioned but gullible trump fans are told inside their information bubble as if it is about so-called "drugs" or "corruption" or "liberating venezuelans" (as if the billionaire predators give a shit about the well-being of ordinary venezuelans or americans). I don't think anyone actually believes the elite's lies except maybe a few diehard trump fans.
And here you can see a brief history of ACTUAL american NarcoTerrorism as told through the vast cocaine trafficking enterprise of Marco Rubio's family. Please read this eye-opening piece to see the facts about who are the ACTUAL narco-terrorist elite
And that's not even beginning to go into the israeli Sackler family, who made 14billion in profits from oxycontin and generated the opioid crisis, and are directly linked for the death of at least 670 thousand americans (i can't go here into the weeds of this vast monstrosity and the crimes committed). But don't expect the mafia billionaire predators to declare israel a narco-terrorist state and attack it any time soon.. it's responsible for infinitely more drug deaths than anything venezuela could ever cause, but this doesn't fit the narrative that the corporate-banking empire is selling you and emotionally-manipulating you with (i was born and raised in israel, btw. If interested, see my perspective on this here https://open.substack.com/pub/headandheart1/p/my-perspective-on-the-conflict-in )
It's amazing how everything americans (and especially trump fans) are taught to believe inside the emotionally-manipulative information bubbles is a COMPLETE INVERSION of reality. The very ones accusing others of drug trafficking are the biggest traffickers and the ones profitting the most from drugging americans. But i can't go into this vast subject matter here for space constraints..
I hear that Venezuelans are ecstatic. I only hope against everything DJT does and says that they continue to be glad about their liberation, which I hope continues without the heavy hand of the current regime here. I hope your rightfully elected leader prevails and brings you peace and prosperity.
I know. It would be an absolute miracle if this goes the way they anticipate. I am a former military dependent/daughter whose father taught military history, trained allied officers and saw through a lot of political deceptions. I lived in former war zones during the cold war. And I have a very thrilled Venezuelan in law at the moment. I feel sad for what is likely coming and very tender.
You might be interested to learn that almost all the videos flooding social media of so-called "celebrations" and "jubilation" of venezuelans of the kidnapping of maduro are AI-generated DeepFake videos
In addition, there are also old or unrelated footage of celebrations from years ago that are manipulatively re‑captioned as reactions to the kidnapping. See above
There are also numerous evidence of americans in venezuela (almost certainly related to the intelligence agencies) paying venezuelans to say on camera how happy they are with the invasion and kidnapping and thanking america for "freeing" them (exactly like they did in iraq, by the way)
And all of these lies and manipulations and DeepFake videos are being intensely promoted to the absolute max by the algorithms of the oligarchs on their privately-owned social medias, while ACTUAL REAL footage (see above) of mass protests in venezuela against the Wall St invasion of their country, killing of citizens, and kidnapping of president, are being literally buried and eliminated from view by the billionaires' manipulative algorithms.
Unfortunately vast majority of well-intentioned but gullible trump fans seem to lack the awareness of how propaganda works, of how the billionaires' empire functions and of the tools to manipulate public opinion, and therefore blindly and uncritically believe whatever the video caption or tweet says about what they are supposedly seeing, as long as it fits the narrative they want to hear. Very little critical thinking, very little questioning and very little awareness of the deluge of propaganda and information warfare directed at us.
It is major problem. Many americans don't seem to be aware of how profoundly controlled and manipulated is the information ecosystem that americans live in. A few anti-Golden-Rule mafia oligarchs who own the flow of information (and the platforms for human communication) literally have the power to make americans believe a narrative or to bury a narrative. They literally get to decide what is real and what is eliminated from existence. It is a monstrous dystopian reality beyond words and it doesn't seem like many well-intentioned but gullible trump fans are aware of this.
Now, i think it's important to mention here that there are of course SOME people in venezuela who are genuinely happy with the Wall St invasion and kidnapping. From a poll that i've seen in late December (roughly a week before the Oligarchs' attack) 23% of people in venezuela were in favor of an american invasion and 55% were against it. 23% of the population of venezuela is more than 7 million people. That's a lot of people, so yes, of course there will be SOME people in venezuela happy about the invasion, kidnapping and Wall St takeover. But are they the MAJORITY of people in venezuela? All indications i've seen - from polls, and from in depth interviews with people in venezuela (not a quick DeepFake clip but actual serious in-depth discussions with real human beings) and from the mass protests in caracas and other cities against the invasion and kidnapping (protests which americans never get to hear about becasue of the complete information blackout and the highly restrictive propagandized and manipulated information environment that people live under in america), from all of these varied and confirmed sources (not DeepFake clips and billionaire propaganda), my tentative conclusion is that the majority (70-80% of people in venezuela) are not in favor of the Wall St invasion and takeover of their country
Here's one in-depth interview with a local venezuelan who drove all across the country, including in small rural towns, to get a feel for the people's sentiment and to see if there is anything special going on https://www.youtube.com/live/BPHeoMRsrUw?si=728OtM2iM-NXZoIK (ignore the video title, it is meant to attract viewers and is not descriptive of the actual content).
And here's an in-depth discussion with a very knowledgable american analyst who lived in venezuela for many years and his wise venezuelan wife, describing their understanding of events and of the current mood in venezuela (listen to the end for full breakdown) https://www.youtube.com/live/iTgkGSeJfhg?si=meq8jAZfftxXah1j
PS. To be clear, i am not pro maduro. And i'm also not pro the Wall St mafia predators and their american govt. I am pro people. See here pdrboston.org
Now, even though SOME people in venezuela might be happy about the invasion, kidnapping and Wall St takeover (and there are undoubtedly some who do) please don't forget tye reality of iraq (where some people were also very happy at first about the american invasion and Wall St takeover). Remember the "liberation" of iraq? The wall st empire also kidnapped the "evil dictator" there, and brought so-called "freedom & democracy" to iraq, remember? (With the full support of the same gullible conservatives who are now cheering for the billionaire predators once again). There were many many people in iraq who were celebrating when this happened. Within less than a year of the Wall St takeover of their country they were all crying, including those who celebrated at first. You think the profits from the oil are going to anyone other than the richest 0.01%? Why don't you ask the iraqi people how this Wall St takeover worked out for them. Do you think anyone in iraq saw a cent from the oil that american billionaires stole!? It has been all downhill since the freeloading billionaire thieves and their militarized empire took control over iraq and plundered it to the last drop (in addition creating, funding and arming terrorist groups and drug-running cartels, as the american empire ALWAYS does). And yet gullible conservatives are cheering for takeover by the Wall St mafia once again. Blindly believing their beloved oligarchs' stories without a second thought. Exactly like 20 years ago.
So this is just to point out that the fact that some people might be happy about the invasion, kidnapping amd takeover, is not necessarily an indication that they are going to have a good or even reasonable life after the Wall St predators (and their american govt) take over. I would say they are very likely going to have an awful life, as has happened every single time the american Wall St empire has so-called "liberated" a country and brought it so-called "freedom". Iraq being just one example (in fact, the starvation sanctions and strangulation blockade by the american regime on venezuela have already made the life of ordinary venezuelans miserable, killing 40 thousand citizens annually according to a UN investigative report, impoverishing & traumatizing millions more and displacing millions)
In addition, i also recommend this fascinating 16 minute video of geopolitical and economic analysis showing exactly why the Wall St vultures and their us gov't attacked Venezuela https://youtu.be/ZMnLnRkcikw as you see, the Wall St mafia's invasion, kindnapping and takeover is all about oil and the petrodollar. It has nothing whatsoever to do with the lies that well-intentioned but gullible trump fans are told inside their information bubble as if it is about so-called "drugs" or "corruption" or "liberating venezuelans" (as if the billionaire predators give a shit about the well-being of ordinary venezuelans or americans). I don't think anyone actually believes the elite's lies except maybe a few diehard trump fans.
And here you can see a brief history of ACTUAL american NarcoTerrorism as told through the vast cocaine trafficking enterprise of Marco Rubio's family. Please read this eye-opening piece to see the facts about who are the ACTUAL narco-terrorist elite
And that's not even beginning to go into the israeli Sackler family, who made 14billion in profits from oxycontin and generated the opioid crisis, and are directly linked for the death of at least 670 thousand americans (i can't go here into the weeds of this vast monstrosity and the crimes committed). But don't expect the mafia billionaire predators to declare israel a narco-terrorist state and attack it any time soon.. it's responsible for infinitely more drug deaths than anything venezuela could ever cause, but this doesn't fit the narrative that the corporate-banking empire is selling you and emotionally-manipulating you with (i was born and raised in israel, btw. If interested, see my perspective on this here https://open.substack.com/pub/headandheart1/p/my-perspective-on-the-conflict-in )
It's amazing how everything americans (and especially trump fans) are taught to believe inside the emotionally-manipulative information bubbles is a COMPLETE INVERSION of reality. The very ones accusing others of drug trafficking are the biggest traffickers and the ones profitting the most from drugging americans. But i can't go into this vast subject matter here for space constraints..
With around 195ish countries, human capacity for that kind of nuance notwithstanding, one can be both happy with whatever happy Venezuelans in the moment and shocked about their own country’s behavior at the same time.
The emperor has no clothes.
Albeit, our emotional substrate is more suited to plasticity-limited black and white polarized thought, while the universe is a spectrum of gradient variety.
Do you think the US is not complicit in the importation of drugs? It’s a gazillion dollar market place. And they’ve addicted to money. And they don’t care about US citizens. You do the maths.
How Venezuelan citizens feel is irrelevant. We are talking about a level far below that. I realize you’re captured by the same system I am, and I empathize, but how do you feel about being completely captured and enslaved by the almighty dollar? How will you feel with the whole system shocks and collapses and you’re left with empty shelves to eat your money? This is the underlying issue. As long as we can buy groceries though, and what alternative do we have to escape to?
Venezuela is finding out as they have been for more than 50 years, and they’re massively happy about things now—maybe. It’s hard to see past your nose though and nearly impossible when captured in darkness where it’s impossible to know what trips you. At least Venezuela had oil. America had oil once, but we drank most of it.
N Korea and Cuba know the score. Libya and Gaddafi found out. Vietnam found out. Pre-monetized American indigenous found out for sure. Who’s next?
I’m not suggesting these people and places are good or that the US is evil. This is deeper. It’s the system programming. These are all natural pathological products of that programming. It’s short circuited our brains, and every system it touches.
It’s degraded the environment that sustains us. By any definition, it’s turn-key operative insanity. We operate untethered from ecological reality, and abstract symbolic money is the Trojan horse.
This is a different level of conversation, and feelings change with the weather.
Do you even realize I’m not arguing with you?
We are not evil or even greedy. We’re simply misguided (very literally). There is a way that we genuinely think is right that leads to destruction. This is what we are talking about.
But there is a better way.
Maybe after we collapse on a civilizational scale, if any of us survive, maybe we can discover the mind and the will to consider it.
I received the History of the Peloponnesian War as an eight year old, and it was not long before I saw the principles elucidated within the Melian Dialogue playing out upon the world stage frequently. The key line is "You know as well as we do that right, as the world goes, is only in question between equals in power, while the strong do what they can and the weak suffer what they must." This is a cornerstone of the study of Western philosophy, something we see all the time, most of us unaware that we were cautioned about this more than 25 hundred years ago. One thing is for certain - none of this would be happening if Venezuela had no oil. It is fairly likely most of the supporting comments and assertations by supposed native Venezuelans here are coming straight from from troll/shill farms, if not AI. Does nobody remember that the US used Noriega to finesse cocaine trafficking in their bid to destabilise the Afro-American inner city communities (and subsequently fill the new private prisons)? And that when they were done with him, they abducted him. Remember that? Nothing changes because the people who run the US are not the people that are voted in, regardless whether left or right is the puppet du jour.
Did you read the History of the Peloponnesian War in the original Greek? You received the book at 8 years of age? You must be one of them there geniuses! Did you ever reside in an inner city community? Where is your proof professor regarding the destabilization of our neighborhoods by the US government. On the ground we disagree with your opinion.
As completely unprecedented as this recent action of Trump‘s has been, I think it opens a Pandora’s box to leaders from other countries that are perhaps more crazy than he is. Trump clearly has no boundaries for what he thinks he can and cannot do. And yes to your question I do think that someone from China or elsewhere could come over here and kidnap Trump with some insane legitimacy. The expression “turnabouts fair play”“ is certainly on the table now.
You raise fair points, Charles. However, as you mention we cannot fall into binary thinking, and there are deeper considerations here. Notably, you did not address the contention that Maduro assumed power illegitimately, and the US has not formerly recognized him as Venezuela’s rightful leader for some years now. Even according to The NY Times, the opposition won in Venezuela’s latest election by over 30 percentage points.
So is it also fair for an illegitimate dictator to stay in power? One who was already indicted for narco-terrorism in 2020 (something that has killed Americans)? Before Biden left office, his admin raised the bounty on his arrest to $25 million. Many millions of Venezuelans are celebrating, so it is also hard to ignore the perspectives of those who have lived through this. You seem to be coming from a place of immediate anger or moral indignation; often it’s wiser to take a step back and see how things play out first, because anyone who thinks they know the bigger picture from what the news is telling us is kidding themselves…
Your comment doesn’t address the reality that Maduro’s legitimacy and behavior is completely irrelevant to Charles’ piece. This is about what country we want to be. I am a veteran, a son of the American Revolution (sure, I acknowledge the ways that also makes me a dick with regard to the indigenous) and an independent voter. I think this is deplorable behavior. Legal or not is also irrelevant. The system is programmed for pathology and disease. No one can say we weren’t warned when the whole thing comes crashing down as a logical conclusion of the unnatural systems we constructed.
You might be interested to learn that almost all the videos flooding social media of so-called "celebrations" and "jubilation" of venezuelans of the kidnapping of maduro are AI-generated DeepFake videos
In addition, there are also old or unrelated footage of celebrations from years ago that are manipulatively re‑captioned as reactions to the kidnapping. See above
There are also numerous evidence of americans in venezuela (almost certainly related to the intelligence agencies) paying venezuelans to say on camera how happy they are with the invasion and kidnapping and thanking america for "freeing" them (exactly like they did in iraq, by the way)
And all of these lies and manipulations and DeepFake videos are being intensely promoted to the absolute max by the algorithms of the oligarchs on their privately-owned social medias, while ACTUAL REAL footage (see above) of mass protests in venezuela against the Wall St invasion of their country, killing of citizens, and kidnapping of president, are being literally buried and eliminated from view by the billionaires' manipulative algorithms.
Unfortunately vast majority of well-intentioned but gullible trump fans seem to lack the awareness of how propaganda works, of how the billionaires' empire functions and of the tools to manipulate public opinion, and therefore blindly and uncritically believe whatever the video caption or tweet says about what they are supposedly seeing, as long as it fits the narrative they want to hear. Very little critical thinking, very little questioning and very little awareness of the deluge of propaganda and information warfare directed at us.
It is major problem. Many americans don't seem to be aware of how profoundly controlled and manipulated is the information ecosystem that americans live in. A few anti-Golden-Rule mafia oligarchs who own the flow of information (and the platforms for human communication) literally have the power to make americans believe a narrative or to bury a narrative. They literally get to decide what is real and what is eliminated from existence. It is a monstrous dystopian reality beyond words and it doesn't seem like many well-intentioned but gullible trump fans are aware of this.
Now, i think it's important to mention here that there are of course SOME people in venezuela who are genuinely happy with the Wall St invasion and kidnapping. From a poll that i've seen in late December (roughly a week before the Oligarchs' attack) 23% of people in venezuela were in favor of an american invasion and 55% were against it. 23% of the population of venezuela is more than 7 million people. That's a lot of people, so yes, of course there will be SOME people in venezuela happy about the invasion, kidnapping and Wall St takeover. But are they the MAJORITY of people in venezuela? All indications i've seen - from polls, and from in depth interviews with people in venezuela (not a quick DeepFake clip but actual serious in-depth discussions with real human beings) and from the mass protests in caracas and other cities against the invasion and kidnapping (protests which americans never get to hear about becasue of the complete information blackout and the highly restrictive propagandized and manipulated information environment that people live under in america), from all of these varied and confirmed sources (not DeepFake clips and billionaire propaganda), my tentative conclusion is that the majority (70-80% of people in venezuela) are not in favor of the Wall St invasion and takeover of their country
Here's one in-depth interview with a local venezuelan who drove all across the country, including in small rural towns, to get a feel for the people's sentiment and to see if there is anything special going on https://www.youtube.com/live/BPHeoMRsrUw?si=728OtM2iM-NXZoIK (ignore the video title, it is meant to attract viewers and is not descriptive of the actual content).
And here's an in-depth discussion with a very knowledgable american analyst who lived in venezuela for many years and his wise venezuelan wife, describing their understanding of events and of the current mood in venezuela (listen to the end for full breakdown) https://www.youtube.com/live/iTgkGSeJfhg?si=meq8jAZfftxXah1j
PS. To be clear, i am not pro maduro. And i'm also not pro the Wall St mafia predators and their american govt. I am pro people. See here pdrboston.org
Now, even though SOME people in venezuela might be happy about the invasion, kidnapping and Wall St takeover (and there are undoubtedly some who do) please don't forget tye reality of iraq (where some people were also very happy at first about the american invasion and Wall St takeover). Remember the "liberation" of iraq? The wall st empire also kidnapped the "evil dictator" there, and brought so-called "freedom & democracy" to iraq, remember? (With the full support of the same gullible conservatives who are now cheering for the billionaire predators once again). There were many many people in iraq who were celebrating when this happened. Within less than a year of the Wall St takeover of their country they were all crying, including those who celebrated at first. You think the profits from the oil are going to anyone other than the richest 0.01%? Why don't you ask the iraqi people how this Wall St takeover worked out for them. Do you think anyone in iraq saw a cent from the oil that american billionaires stole!? It has been all downhill since the freeloading billionaire thieves and their militarized empire took control over iraq and plundered it to the last drop (in addition creating, funding and arming terrorist groups and drug-running cartels, as the american empire ALWAYS does). And yet gullible conservatives are cheering for takeover by the Wall St mafia once again. Blindly believing their beloved oligarchs' stories without a second thought. Exactly like 20 years ago.
So this is just to point out that the fact that some people might be happy about the invasion, kidnapping amd takeover, is not necessarily an indication that they are going to have a good or even reasonable life after the Wall St predators (and their american govt) take over. I would say they are very likely going to have an awful life, as has happened every single time the american Wall St empire has so-called "liberated" a country and brought it so-called "freedom". Iraq being just one example (in fact, the starvation sanctions and strangulation blockade by the american regime on venezuela have already made the life of ordinary venezuelans miserable, killing 40 thousand citizens annually according to a UN investigative report, impoverishing & traumatizing millions more and displacing millions)
In addition, i also recommend this fascinating 16 minute video of geopolitical and economic analysis showing exactly why the Wall St vultures and their us gov't attacked Venezuela https://youtu.be/ZMnLnRkcikw as you see, the Wall St mafia's invasion, kindnapping and takeover is all about oil and the petrodollar. It has nothing whatsoever to do with the lies that well-intentioned but gullible trump fans are told inside their information bubble as if it is about so-called "drugs" or "corruption" or "liberating venezuelans" (as if the billionaire predators give a shit about the well-being of ordinary venezuelans or americans). I don't think anyone actually believes the elite's lies except maybe a few diehard trump fans.
And here you can see a brief history of ACTUAL american NarcoTerrorism as told through the vast cocaine trafficking enterprise of Marco Rubio's family. Please read this eye-opening piece to see the facts about who are the ACTUAL narco-terrorist elite
And that's not even beginning to go into the israeli Sackler family, who made 14billion in profits from oxycontin and generated the opioid crisis, and are directly linked for the death of at least 670 thousand americans (i can't go here into the weeds of this vast monstrosity and the crimes committed). But don't expect the mafia billionaire predators to declare israel a narco-terrorist state and attack it any time soon.. it's responsible for infinitely more drug deaths than anything venezuela could ever cause, but this doesn't fit the narrative that the corporate-banking empire is selling you and emotionally-manipulating you with (i was born and raised in israel, btw. If interested, see my perspective on this here https://open.substack.com/pub/headandheart1/p/my-perspective-on-the-conflict-in )
It's amazing how everything americans (and especially trump fans) are taught to believe inside the emotionally-manipulative information bubbles is a COMPLETE INVERSION of reality. The very ones accusing others of drug trafficking are the biggest traffickers and the ones profitting the most from drugging americans. But i can't go into this vast subject matter here for space constraints..
Thanks Charles. I always appreciate the time and thought you put into your writings. As well as your ongoing (sometimes implied) beseechment for everyone to think critically about what they hear, read, or learn. As an aside, or maybe as a side...I've been watching the monk's Walk for Peace and it soothes my heart when I need a break from the world and unkindness. When I need to believe that a more beautiful world is possible. Keep writing and speaking Charles. Your voice matters and you are important. Your talks have gotten me through some incredibly difficult times. Your way of thinking and how your present your thoughts is very often the balm my deeply wounded soul needs. I don't need you to be perfect. I don't need you to be right. I don't need you to have all (or any?) of the answers. I DO need to keep hearing you...and if I do, then so do many, many others. Please come back and read this post after you read the cruel remarks below.
Thank you for this, Heather. I second this sentiment. Sometimes I feel that I am part of the “apathy” of the public that Charles describes in his essay, even though in the past I have marched in the streets and called reps. I feel that because these days I am relatively unplugged from current events in order to preserve my sanity. In fact I learned of the abduction only from this essay. And I came to the comments to hear more perspectives like yours, more perspectives like the one Charles just offered in this essay, and instead feel sick to my stomach from some comments. Comments on “both sides” (using this somewhat ironically) that are dehumanizing and unkind. Anyway. I hope both you and Charles can take heart that your words have given me a glimpse, a remembrance, of the more beautiful world my heart knows is possible. Thank you Heather. Thank you Charles. Prayers for peace
Thank you Kelsey and Heather for these heart-felt comments. I feel the same. Yes, it does seem like the mossad/hasbara bots are out in force today. They really descended on this post. Tribalist anti-unity people who have no relation to Charles and stand for the exact opposite of everything he stands for, are out in full force commenting on this post, in order to shift public opinion. And they do it in the usual way that israelis do things, abusively, arrogantly, and with intense hatred to those they disagree with. Creates such bad energy in tne comment section. The kind of extremely toxic hate-filled war-like energy you usually find on twitter/X.
It seems like this attack on venezuela was strategically very important to the zionist oligarchs (probably in preparation for a coming attack on Iran that they're pushing for, to install their puppet shah), so important that they sent so many of their aggressive shills all across the social medias to flood the airwaves and sway public opinion. I saw it happening also on other posts that mentioned venezuela.
Agree with pretty much everything you said here.
Hi Kelsey, I appreciate your words so very much! Do you know the sentiment of feeling "seen"? I feel seen by you. It's an exquisitely beautiful feeling...it helps me feel connected to you...a feeling I miss in my life. <3
My sentiments exactly 💯
I appreciate this letter and I feel the same.
So nice🙂
Thank you Charles. Thank you Heather, your comment is exactly what I wanted to write. I have been re-reading Ozymandias by Shelley and finding an odd solace in it. All things pass…the Piscean Oceans in their final 29th degree wash away the cliffs themselves. This too shall pass. We go forth together as human beings and we are forgiven, as Professor Jiang reminds us on his helpful YT channel and substack.
I met a traveller from an antique land,
Who said—“Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. . . . Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed;
And on the pedestal, these words appear:
My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;
Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!"
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.
My sentiments as well
Venezuelan here. This piece couldn’t be more distant from the truth, showing clear ignorance on the matter.
Next time, please do your research on who it is they “abducted”. How many crimes (torture, killings, trafficking…) him and his government have done, the damage goes way beyond the economy. They destroyed an entire nation and its people.
Regardless of Maduro's crimes, it does not give our country the right to invade another and install our own leaders so that we can control their resources. If you are looking for saviors in the US, I am sad to inform you that you should look elsewhere.
Our country simply wants your oil and more influence in the region. Multinational orporations will come in and continue to siphon wealth away from the Venezuelan people. Only instead of that going to Maduro and his cronies, it will fall into the hands of the billionaires that make sure the US empire and its military serve their addiction to wealth, power, and control of the world's resources.
Yes it does. This ignorance to policy, history and law has illegitimized you so fast we don’t care what you say anymore. Look at all the comments and how distant they are from the agreeable love you used to get. You’re a classic case of “I’m smarter and better than everyone else” and you’re no longer humble to the fact you’re actually bad for everyone else rather than good. Sit and pray with that for a while and come back when you’re able speak in good conscience that supports the safety of Americans. Until you’ve lost a wife to fentanyl sent here by Maduro STFU and keep it that way.
I want to clarify that the comment you responded to (mine) was not written by Charles. But your comment is written as if addressed to him.
I am deeply sorry that you lost a wife to overdose. I have lost many as well, including my brother, to drug-related crime. I am no stranger to addiction myself. Sadly, I don't believe imperialism, militarism, and further killing is the answer you believe it is.
The war on drugs has been the biggest policy failure of all time. No matter how much we've tried, using violence to stop the flow of drugs has not succeeded and has only made the problem worse. We have to stop it at the source, and the source is not any one country or producer, it is the demand that originates from deep suffering and the desire to numb it. As long as the demand is there and there is money to be made, someone will step in to fulfill the supply. It's too profitable not to.
We need a healing revolution that recognizes the roots of addiction: suffering largely stemming from trauma, poverty (material and spiritual), and disconnection (from one another, from the planet, from meaning, from the divine). At the same time, harm reduction and sensible policies that place the lives and safety of addicts first are the best way to lower overdose deaths. We need to build a society composed of communities that people don't long to escape, ones where they feel belonging, purpose, and respect.
Ah, thanks for the clarification. The war on drugs has been a policy failure, yes. The action strategy up to this point is why. Finally, we have a new, decisive, multi faceted approach (tariffs, boarder control, use of force, etc) to the issue that’s never been done or seen before and it’s worth seeing through to learn if it’s viable. Drugs aren’t necessarily bad or the problem, I agree there’s a deeper issue. Regardless, it’s necessary and good to remove evil players who terrorize and ruin lives of innocent others. God bless.
This so true - every word of it. Thank you for this clarion call.
Jeez, I’m sorry to hear about your wife. That’s tragic. I know what it feels like to lose someone. And it’s even sadder that this isn’t really about the fentanyl narrative any more than Iraq was about “WMDs.”
I was in Iraq flying ISR missions over Saddam’s execution and subsequent weeks‑long funeral, incidentally — but that’s neither here nor there.
It’s not even political. It’s about power, abstraction, and insanity. Saddam and Maduro were both guilty of a much worse crime, just like Castro, Hồ, Kim, or Qaddafi — all leaders whose actions were perceived as threatening to U.S. strategic, economic, or ideological interests, especially when they controlled key resources or aligned with rivals. You find out quickly why America accounts for nearly 40% of total global military spending. It’s not because we need to spend that much to keep our borders secure.
I’m no apologist for communism or socialism, nor am I anti‑capitalist, but America has been functionally anti‑capitalist for a long time. We hijacked and manipulated scarcity — the defining feature of capitalism’s operative logic — long ago.
And not even because of morality.
Not because of human‑rights rhetoric Not because of political ideologies.
Nor even because of the public‑facing justification of the moment.
But because longstanding structural incentives naturally produce pathological outcomes and disease, including even why we are now susceptible to choosing fentanyl to begin with.
Fentanyl is terrible; it truly is – but to claim it is the reason we are in Venezuela, or have been harassing them for more than 50 years before Maduro, is disingenuous, and an intentional abstraction of the truth by those with power. One might consider this as an operative definition of evil: to abstract the truth, intentionally to hide the true nature of terrible action.
We might all be better served, taking an honest look in the mirror before blaming others for our pathology. We might at least get better results. We all feel it, but it is especially difficult to impossible these days yeah even to understand what is in our best interest and welfare.
Fentanyl is merely a symptom, but it is hardly the cause. More sadly, I am afraid it will only get much worse.
There is just no limit to how gullible and stupid conservatives are. You really actually truly believe that the greedy psychopath murderers and pedophiles in tne american elite give a shit about the well-being of ordinary venezuelans or ordinary americans. You really actually truly believe that the global american billionaires' militarized empire exists in order to "bring freedom and prosperity to humanity"
HOW CAN YOU BE SO GULLIBLE AND STUPID, CONSERVATIVES?!
I could understand if someone gullibly believed the empire's lies in 1950, but today.. after so many decades of nonstop lies and in-your-face crimes by the elite predators, you still believe that they care about your well-being? How can you be so dumb!?
Let me spell it out for you, gullible conservatives (becasue you have been so profoundly brainwashed inside your echo-chamber that you can't see the obvious) -
The ONLY reason that the elite murderers and thieves in the ruling class attacked venezula is in order to steal the oil and enrich themselves!!
And secondly, in order to eliminate someone who was not aligned with the zionist billionaires and their invasive dispossesion and annihilation project in palestine.
That's it!!!
That's the ONLY reason why these anti-life billionaire scum attacked venezuela.
They do NOT give a shit about you or about the well-being of ordinary venezuelans or ordinary americans.
WAKE UP GULLIBLE CONSERVATIVES!! The only reason that those predatory elite monsters are able to continue with their crimes, their global theft, their mass-murder, their domination over humanity and enslavement of the 99% is becasue of how gullible you are and how you blindly cheer for them when your influencers tell you to.
WAKE UP!!!! THEY DON'T GIVE A SHIT ABOUT YOU OR ABOUT ANY ORDINARY PERSON IN VENEZUELA OR AMERICA.
WAKE UP!!!
You don't need to choose between the republican scum or the democrat scum, throw them both in the trash!!!
They keep you trapped and loyal to one or the other wing of the elite by telling you that obama is evil therefore trump is good (and they tell the same thing to liberals only in reverse). NO!!! They're both evil!!! You don't need to cheer for one or the other wing of the elite. THROW THEM BOTH IN THE TRASH!!!
WAKE UP!!!
THEY DON'T GIVE A SHIT ABOUT YOU!!
They want the oil. That's it!! And they invent stories to tell you why they must invade and install their puppet to take it. And you are so gullible and stupid that you believe them.
WAKE UP!!!
Hi Katherine, i would ask you to rewind a bit here!
1.) This is not a left v right argument - both “sides” have and will do the same thing…. (Obama, Biden and McCain in Ukraine or Bush and Blair with WMD) so your “wake up” line applies to anyone who wants to pick sides or, frankly, go along with any of their “brainwashing “ or arguments. I appreciate that you point this out towards the end but by haranguing “Conservatives” so upfront and central belies the point.
2.) It’s never “one thing” … oil, the example in this instance, nor drugs (i think there is enough information out there to see who runs that “war”) … nor “protecting democracy”.
Voting machines, trafficking of “unfriendly aliens”, a hatful of actual or perceived negatives. It lies beneath these levels; it’s centered around money, global financial systems and who is running them, how and through whom the money is routed.
it goes deeper still (ie even money is not the “one thing” but that’s another chat.
The global elite still scrap among themselves … not that their end game / objectives aren’t similar (closer to identical) but each clique wants to be holding the reins - it’s a power play and this recent one has opened a can of worms … “Good” says I. Perhaps the belly of the beast will be seen more clearly by those whose eyes are not wide shut.
Godspeed
Well she clearly said, in the second half of the comment, that this applies to both conservatives and liberals. However i do agree with her that the ones the empire relies on now for support are conservatives and i do agree with her that they are gullible, blind and dumb. Liberlas are too, but liberals aren't in power and are NOT the ones that the empire relies on for support rigjt now.
Therefore - despite the fact that this applies to both conservatives and liberals - i agree with her that the emphasis right now should be mostly on waking up conservatives from their gullibilty and stupidity, becasue blind conservative belief, obediance amd support is what the criminal empire is currently running on and depends on.
If conservatives woke up and stopped blindly giving their suppprt to the criminal elite predators in power then the entire anti-life empire would collapse. Therefore, i agree with her that the key piece of the puzzle right now, the key fuel for the elite, is conservative gullibility and stupidity. Therefore i think she is right in focusing on that right now.
If a liberal was in power then she'd be right to focus on how liberals are being deceived but that isn't the case right now and isn't the most urgent thing at the moment. Conservatives waking up is the most urgent and crucial thing right now that can stop the hell that the elite are leading us into becasue the elite currently depend on their gullibility and blind support.
Hey genius, what’s a “liberlas”? You must be one of those dumb conservalas.
Jay, are you calling our American System of Government Criminal?
Well said.
Except it's not just conservatives that are gullible. During the plandemic it seemed the liberals were pretty gullible too. I think it's safe to say that the majority of people who still believe we have two independent parties are those over 60, with exception, of course.
They want the oil and the Rothschild want a central bank in Venezuela. Done and done.
Absolutely. I clarified that towards that end of the comment. The corporate-banking empire operates through BOTH its wings, both conservatives and liberals. But as i said in more detail in the original comment, right now the main focus of the empire's propaganda is on conservatives and they are the ones most responsive to it and most supportive of the empire and its politicians. Its existence depends on their gullibility and blind belief in the slogans taught to them inside their echo-chamber. That's why i focus on that right now.
I have a lot to say about liberal gullibility as well, but they seem to be completely out of circulation right now. All the power and cultural space is taken up by conservatives right now.
I strongly object against the age-categorization. I feel and observe that about 20-25% of the global population is wide awake, representing all age groups, and at least half of them since childhood, no matter how long ago that was.
Yes, very well said. I also find it truly truly mind boggling how clueless and gullible conservatives are and so eager to believe whatever the Wall St vultures tell them (through their reps in govt and through their propaganda media and their conservative influencers on their privately-owned social medias).
Zero critical thinking!! Just blind belief in the stories that the billionaires' empire feeds them. They believe it was an action to "liberate the venezuelan people". Hard to believe that anyome can be this gullible and dumb. Do you think the Exxon executives (who will take the oil in venezuela) and their reps in the gov't give a rat's ass about 'the freedom of the venezuelan people'!? Of course not!!! If there was no oil in venezuela do you think they would give a shit about so-called 'corruption'!? Of course not!!! If there was no oil in venezuela do you think that they would bother inventing the 'venezurlan drugs' story (to justify their invasion and installing their corruot puopet to take the oil, more on that later)!? Of course not!!!
Well-intentioned but gullible conservatives are exactly the kind of clueless fools that the Wall St predators and their gov't rely on for uncritically and obediently cheering for their global militarized empire of plunder, mass-murder, greed, domination, bullying and theft whenever they tell you that it is 'for national interests' and 'to protect you from the evil enemy over there who is coming to get you' and 'god bless america' etc
You think the profits from the oil are going to anyone other than the richest 0.01%? Are you really this clueless? Why don't you ask the iraqi people how it worked out for them. Becasue america "liberated" them from the evil dictotor too, remember? America brought "freedom" to iraq too, remember? (With the full support of the same stupid gullible dumb conservatives who are now cheering for the billionaire predators once again) . Do you think anyome in iraq saw a cent from the oil that american billionaires stole!? It has been all downhill since the anti-life american billionaires oligarchy and their militatized empire took control over iraq and plundered it to the last drop. And you gullible dumb conservatives are cheering for once again. Blindly believing their oligarchs' stories without a second thought.
DUMB GULLIBLE IDIOT FOOLS!!!
Wall St executives must be thanking their good luck that the crowd they need to convince to support their global militarized empire are such dumb idiots who fall for anything you tell them.
What's happeing now is the exact same strategy that the Wall St predators have done in iraq and numerous other places. It works like this: The Wall St vultures want the oil. Their bought representitives in the american govt and their privately-owned media (including their algorithms on their social medias) deliver the story to gullible americans to justify invading, installing their pro-empire fascist puppet to privitize everything into Wall St's hands and steal the oil.
The story taught to the heavily-propagandized and gullible american public (conservatives are especially susceptibte to uncritically believeing anything the empire tells them about 'national security') involves both the invented "evil crimes" of the target (Simply replace 'Weapons of Mass Destruction' with 'Narco Terrorism' this time) as well as presenting the target that the Wall St predators want to take down to the hypnotized dumb conservatives as an evil monster (simply replace the "saddam dictator monster" slogan with the "maduro dictator monster" slogan, they even look very similar which is convenient, so lindsey graham - and other servants for Wall St - simply needs to change one word in his spiel aboit 'this evil terroriat is tne enemy of america' and it works just the same like it did in 2003).
Narco Terrorism = Weapons of Mass Destruction. That's the new slogan the Wall St vultures and their govt are going with this time to deceive well-intentioned but gullible conservatives into cheering for the empire once again. Exactly like the empire hypnotized them during the iraq theft and every time Wall St wants them on board their attack plans (Since 2016 democrats have also been propagandized into being also as war-mongering, right-wing, blood thirsty and pro-Wall St as republicans are, and democrats were the main propaganda target during the ukraine war - they have monster putin at the ready to rile up the democrat half for the empire - but the Wall St propaganda target right now is clearly conservatives,
The same script every time that Wall St gets ready to attack (slightly different players and excuses/slogans are given every time to deceive americans into cheering for the plans of the corporate-banking empire's but the principle/structure is the same)
And BTW, speaking of "narco terrorism", here's a brief history of American NarcoTerrorism as told through Marco Rubio's family cocaine trafficking enterprise and the ACTUAL narco-terrorist elite
https://prospect.org/2025/12/23/narco-terrorist-elite-rubio-south-america-iran-contra/
Regarding so-called "venezuela drugs" please see here this in-depth investigation to learn how thoroughly you've been deceived and emotionally-manipulated (to unwittingly side with 0.1% billionaire predators who rule over the 99.9%)
https://substack.com/@justinpodur/note/p-173552990
Everything conservatives are taught to believe by the empire and its influencers is a complete inversion of reality
The way the Wall St predators and their govt install these slogans in americans' minds is that they employ the technique thst Herman Goering perfected (the right-wing propaganda minister for the german third reich) - you simply repeat it again and again and again and again. Constantly. Relentlessly. Over and over again. What the nazis discovered (and the american govt perfected) is that the human brain will believe anything (no matter true or not) if it hears it repeated constantly and sees other people around repeating it too. That is why the billionaire vultures own all the media and social medias and have thousands of influencers flooding the airwaves, repeating ad nauseam the slogans that the Wall St vultures and their govt want installed in the american psyche, so that when you hear for example 'osama bin laden' or 'isis' you automatically think 'evil terrorists. Threat to america. Must invade' or when you hear 'maduro' you automatically think 'evil narco-terrorist. Threat to america. Must be removed'. They just keep repeating the slogans over and over and over and over again and dumb gullibke conservatives
Here is a quick description (with examples) of this BOGEYMAN ENEMY PRINCIPLE. A well-documented strategy for elite control that is constantly employed by the Wall St vultures and their american govt to deceive the people in cheering for the empire's politicians (as our supposed "protectors" from the "evil enemy over there who is coming to get you") https://www.pdrboston.org/oppressors-need-bogeyman-enemies
PS. To be clear, i am not pro maduro
Well if ever there was a strawman argument, conservatives are gullible and stupid because clearly those that support this action to liberate Venezuelan people from Madoro are somehow completely blind to the real motive, the predatory, financial interest in gaining access to the oil, rare earth and other resources there. I would submit that it is precisely those resources that will fund Venezuela’s return to prosperity, democracy and a free society, requiring the expertise and capital of those companies and a US president you find so evil. You perhaps can’t imagine that both objectives are complementary and beneficial, with the added benefit of subverting the vast network of geopolitical state and criminal actors who are really the ones who have run the country for decades and who care nothing for the people of Venezuela. Your argument is clearly driven by the belief that capitalism is evil and somehow the world should work some other way. All the while being completely comfortable with the Maduro’s of the world who use collectivism and social control ‘for the greater good”, to hide its real objectives. Something very similar happened in the USA in 2020, a pandemic of lies that crippled the country, individual freedoms, and gave absolute power to a criminal medical cartel, drug lords of another stripe. Somehow this is the world liberals long for. Who are gullible ones?
My goodness, your reply is the perfect example of exactly what the OP pointed out, of how gullible and dumb are conservatives who uncritically take at face value everything that the Wall St predators and their govt tells them (they tell you this through the elite-promoted influencers in your HIGHLY MANIPULATIVE conservative echo-chamber).
You wrote "..action to liberate the venezuelan people" Are you fucking serious!? Hard to believe that anyome can be this gullible and dumb. Do you think the Exxon executives (who will take the oil in venezuela) and their reps in the american gov't give a rat's ass about 'the freedom of the venezuelan people'!? Of course not!!! If there was no oil in venezuela do you think they would give a shit about so-called 'corruption'!? Of course not!!! If there was no oil in venezuela do you think that they would bother inventing the 'venezurlan drugs' story (to justify their invasion and installing their corruot puopet to take the oil, more on tnat later)!? Of course not!!!
It is beyond mind boggling how clueless and gullible conservatives are and so eager to believe whatever the Wall St vultures tell them (through their reps in govt and through their propaganda media and their conservatove influencers on their privately-owned social medias)
Well-intentioned but gullible conservatives are exactly the kind of clueless fools that the Wall St predators and their gov't rely on for uncritically and obediently cheering for their global militarized empire of plunder, mass-murder, greed, domination, bullying and theft whenever they tell you that it is 'for national interests' and 'to protect you from the evil enemy over there who is coming to get you' and 'god bless america' etc
You think the profits from the oil are going to anyone other than the richest 0.01%? Are you really this clueless? Why don't you ask the iraqi people how it worked out for them. Becasue america "liberated" them from the evil dictotor too, remember? America brought "freedom" to iraq too, remember? (With the full support of the same stupid gullible dumb conservatives who are now cheering for the billionaire predators once again) . Do you think anyome in iraq saw a cent from the oil that american billionaires stole!? It has been all downhill since the anti-life american billionaires oligarchy and their militatized empire took control over iraq and plundered it to the last drop. And you gullible dumb conservatives are cheering for once again. Blindly believing their oligarchs' stories without a second thought.
DUMB GULLIBLE IDIOT FOOLS!!!
Wall St executives must be thanking their good luck that the crowd they need to convince to support their global militarized empire are such dumb idiots who fall for anything you tell them.
What's happeing now is the exact same strategy that the Wall St predators have done in iraq and numerous other places. It works like this: The Wall St vultures want the oil. Their bought representitives in the american govt and their privately-owned media (including their algorithms on their social medias) deliver the story to gullible americans to justify invading, installing their pro-empire fascist puppet to privitize everything into Wall St's hands and steal the oil.
The story taught to the heavily-propagandized and gullible american public (conservatives are especially susceptibte to uncritically believeing anything the empire tells them about 'national security') involves both the invented "evil crimes" of the target (Simply replace 'Weapons of Mass Destruction' with 'Narco Terrorism' this time) as well as presenting the target that the Wall St predators want to take down to the hypnotized dumb conservatives as an evil monster (simply replace the "saddam dictator monster" slogan with the "maduro dictator monster" slogan, they even look very similar which is convenient, so lindsey graham - and other servants for Wall St - simply needs to change one word in his spiel aboit 'this evil terroriat is tne enemy of america' and it works just the same like it did in 2003).
Narco Terrorism = Weapons of Mass Destruction. That's the new slogan the Wall St vultures and their govt are going with this time to deceive well-intentioned but gullible conservatives into cheering for the empire once again. Exactly like the empire hypnotized them during the iraq theft and every time Wall St wants them on board their attack plans (Since 2016 democrats have also been propagandized into being also as war-mongering, right-wing, blood thirsty and pro-Wall St as republicans are, and democrats were the main propaganda target during the ukraine war - they have monster putin at the ready to rile up the democrat half for the empire - but the Wall St propaganda target right now is clearly conservatives,
The same script every time that Wall St gets ready to attack (slightly different players and excuses/slogans are given every time to deceive americans into cheering for the plans of the corporate-banking empire's but the principle/structure is the same)
And BTW, speaking of "narco terrorism", here's a brief history of American NarcoTerrorism as told through Marco Rubio's family cocaine trafficking enterprise and the ACTUAL narco-terrorist elite
https://prospect.org/2025/12/23/narco-terrorist-elite-rubio-south-america-iran-contra/
Regarding so-called "venezuela drugs" please see here this in-depth investigation to learn how thoroughly you've been deceived and emotionally-manipulated (to unwittingly side with 0.1% billionaire predators who rule over the 99.9%)
https://substack.com/@justinpodur/note/p-173552990
Everything conservatives are taught to believe by the empire and its influencers is a complete inversion of reality
The way the Wall St predators and their govt install these slogans in americans' minds is that they employ the technique thst Herman Goering perfected (the right-wing propaganda minister for the german third reich) - you simply repeat it again and again and again and again. Constantly. Relentlessly. Over and over again. What the nazis discovered (and the american govt perfected) is that the human brain will believe anything (no matter true or not) if it hears it repeated constantly and sees other people around repeating it too. That is why the billionaire vultures own all the media and social medias and have thousands of influencers flooding the airwaves, repeating ad nauseam the slogans that the Wall St vultures and their govt want installed in the american psyche, so that when you hear for example 'osama bin laden' or 'isis' you automatically think 'evil terrorists. Threat to america. Must invade' or when you hear 'maduro' you automatically think 'evil narco-terrorist. Threat to america. Must be removed'. They just keep repeating the slogans over and over and over and over again and dumb gullibke conservatives
Here is a quick description (with examples) of this BOGEYMAN ENEMY PRINCIPLE. A well-documented strategy for elite control that is constantly employed by the Wall St vultures and their american govt to deceive the people in cheering for the empire's politicians (as our supposed "protectors" from the "evil enemy over there who is coming to get you") https://www.pdrboston.org/oppressors-need-bogeyman-enemies
PS. To be clear, i am not pro maduro
Bull's eye!!! I wanted to reply to him but you said it even better than i could. There's really nothing more to add.
And yes, i am also not pro maduro. That seems hard for conservatives to compute. The only option they give us is "you're either with the billionaire's empire or you're with the evil enemy'. The binary shallowness and stupidity of american political discourse is tragic and life-destroying. And it's by design.
Wow! Katherine, pretty dark heart. There is much more to this move than drugs and the people of Venezuela and money and power are always involved. I am not sure why you think conservatives do not understand this aspect. You however seem very uneducated about evil and control.
I hope you are not an American because despite that life is not perfect, we as a nation do so much to provide protection to the world and the seas that help other countries prosper.
Katherine please check if the side of your Face is drooping, or does your Arm feel weak, check your Speech for slurring, it’s Time to call for help. Your either suffering from a TIA or TDS!
What a strange reply. Did you actually read my comment in full, Marvin? I didn't mention trump at all, and didn't even think about him. and i even went out of my way to explain that this applies to both conservatives and liberals.
I don't see trump as more evil than the rest of the elite, he is just as evil as the rest of the scumbags (and that includes both republicans and democarts, both are pro-billionaire pro-empire pro-Wall St pro-war pro-zionist anti-human right-wing parties by the elite for the elite).
This (accusation of TDS) seems to be the standard and automatic reply of conservatives these days whenever they hear something that isn't the same as the slogans they are used to hearing Inside their echo-chamber. It is a derangement indeed, but in the exact opposite way then what you mean.
Did it occur to you Marvin that perhaps it is YOU who is obssesed with trump!!! Did it occur to you Marvin that it is perhaps YOU who lives inside an insulated information bubble (or even a cult, you might say).
Did it occur to you Marvin that it is perhaps YOU who suffers from TAS (trump adulation syndrome) and therefore attack whoever you percieve as not supporting your messiah?
Please WAKE UP Marvin and see your anti-life conservative propaganda bubble for what it is (representitive of Wall St oligarchs thieves and their global militarized empire) and how thoroughly it has distorted your perception, emotionally-manipulated you and deceived you into supporting the greatest evil on the planet (mass murder and plunder for the ultra-rich, domimation of the few over the many, treating human beings like dirt for enrichement and domination of the 0.01%) while telling you that your politicians stand for good.
Keep whining. Is has worked out so well for you so far! Your TDS is off the charts and you ought to seek help.
Please see my reply to Marvin above. He made the same vile hateful and unintelligent comment as you did with the exact same idiotic accusation of TDS (seems to be the automatic knee-jerk reaction from the cult members these days). So my reply to him would be the same as to you, please see above. Thank you.
One thing I found difficult to ignore, reading through the responses to this piece, was how many of them were written from deep inside the comforts the imperial order provides. Warm houses. Reliable electricity. Endless bandwidth. Laptops assembled from global supply chains secured by the very power being denounced. There is a peculiar safety in condemning empire while living entirely inside its protections, a safety that allows moral absolutism to flourish without confronting its costs. I don’t exempt myself from this. I write from within the same shelter. But it does make me wary of critiques that speak as if power were optional, or as if the material conditions enabling our reflection would somehow persist once power had been wished away.
Sorry for the late reply, i just saw your comment now. You make two unexamined false assumptions in your condescending gaslighting comment. Both of them are wrong.
First, you wrongly and patronizingly assumed - without asking me first to verify if your assumption was correct - that I live "entirely inside the empire's protections." I do not!!
I despise with all my heart every aspect of the anti-Golden-Rule Wall Street predators' empire and its militarized global murder machine, which exists for the DOMINATION of the ultra-rich. I do NOT live "entirely inside" it, neither geographically, economically, politically, psychologically, nor spiritually.
In fact, I am severely persecuted by the abusive billionaires' empire you seem to defend, and it does everything in its power to destroy me.
I hope this clears up your misconception.
I will give everything I have to see the end of this anti-life billionaires' empire and the abusive, exploitative murderers at the top who benefit from it. I could write for hours about why that is, but I don't have time for that. So instead I will give a small example that I just came across - https://johnspritzler.substack.com/p/the-iran-war-is-the-latest-reason (explore the links leading out from that piece for more in-depth understanding)
Your second wrong assumption is that all the things you mentioned, such as electricity, bandwidth, laptops etc, would not be possible for humans to create or generate if it weren't for the benevolent billionaires' murderous empire that provides us with these things. Again, I could write for hours about why that is a wrong assumption, but instead I will leave you with two small parables that illustrate why that assumption is wrong.
The first parable: https://www.pdrboston.org/island
It illustrates the wrong assumption that we need the rich to give us jobs. But it applies equally to your assumption that we need the rich to give us electricity, bandwidth, laptops etc, and that we wouldn't have those things without them.
Second parable https://www.pdrboston.org/libertaria-libertarian-paradise
I mentioned above the anti-Golden-Rule nature of the abusive billionaire murderers and their global militarized empire of DOMINATION of the few over the many. Here is why this empire is anti-Golden-Rule and why that means it destroys life. See here https://www.pdrboston.org/the-golden-rule
The Golden Rule, in its simplest form, asks us to treat others as we would like to be treated. It is a principle of mutual respect, recognizing shared essence, and reciprocity. The empire of the billionaire predator class operates on the exact opposite principle. It is built on treating others as a means to an end, as tools for extracting wealth, as obstacles to be removed, or as subjects to be controlled. The rich must inevitably treat the lower class like dirt, here is why https://www.pdrboston.org/why-no-rich-no-poor
This anti-Golden-Rule logic is not a bug in the system, it is the fundamental operating system.
To extract billions while others lack the very basics for living requires a profoundly psychopathic system designed to transfer resources upward. It requires treating human beings and the living world not as ends in themselves, but as inputs for profit.
Besides what was mentioned in tne link above, this anti-Golden-Rule foundation of the billionaires' empire inevitably destroys life in three more way -
First, it destroys human life directly. When access to survival depends on a paycheck, and the paycheck depends on submitting to tyranny and exploitation for at least 8 hours a day (usually much more) people are trapped in a cage just in order to survive. The empire treats our need to live as leverage. If someone cannot pay for food or shelter or medicine, we die. This is not a failure of the empire. It is its feature. It is the consequence of organizing the empire around the principle of DOMINATION and hegemony, around the principle of 'you either submit and prostitute or you die..'. Domination and submission are the fundamental building blocks of this anti-life pro-billionaire empire.
Second, it destroys the conditions for human life to flourish. It replaces community with competition. It replaces cooperation with commodification. It teaches people to see each other as rivals for scarce resources, rather than as partners in creating abundance. It isolates us, turns us against each other, and convinces us that our suffering is our own fault. This is social & psychological destruction and ruin.
Third, it destroys the living planet that we depend on for our existence. The empire's drive for endless growth, for more extraction, for more consumption (absolutely required or the anti-life empire would collapse) treats the Earth as a resource to be used. Forests are cut, oceans are poisoned, all to generate profit for the abusive scumbags at the topnand to ensure the domination of tbe few over the many.
So when I say the empire is anti-Golden-Rule and that it destroys life, I mean it literally. It destroys bodies, communities, and the habitat we depend on for life. It does so not by accident, but by its inherent socioopathic anti-Golden-Rule logic.
Lastly, you might also be intetested in the inherent contradiction at the heart of the global capitalist empire built by abusive billionaires https://peterjoseph.substack.com/p/freedom-to-dominate
PS. If you’d like to reply, please keep in mind that I’m rarely online, and even more rarely on Substack, so it may be a long time before I respond, if i respond at all. If you do choose to write back, I’d appreciate it if you could approach the conversation with maturity, curiosity, and basic human decency. Please avoid the same condescension and a know-it-all tone, and refrain from making assumptions about how I live, what I like, or what I want without asking first. If your tone continues to be patronizing (talking down from above) or dismissive, you will be muted
Sorry for your loss. Fentanyl is a terrible scourge. Take care.
One thing I found difficult to ignore, reading through the responses to this piece, was how many of them were written from deep inside the comforts the imperial order provides. Warm houses. Reliable electricity. Endless bandwidth. Laptops assembled from global supply chains secured by the very power being denounced. There is a peculiar safety in condemning empire while living entirely inside its protections, a safety that allows moral absolutism to flourish without confronting its costs. I don’t exempt myself from this. I write from within the same shelter. But it does make me wary of critiques that speak as if power were optional, or as if the material conditions enabling our reflection would somehow persist once power had been wished away.
Look for the US digital currency to be backed by Venezuelan resources. Iran's will be next. This IS how this beast plans on surviving its imminent and colossal debt.
I have to admit, getting comments like this sometimes makes me feel like I must be doing something right. I genuinely believe people can all evolve and grow, even those who leave one word insulting responses to perspectives that upset them. It's not that I'm aiming to antagonize, but some part of you felt the need to dismiss me, which means something about my words was threatening to you. Why is that?
If you would like to discuss the content of what I said and explore specifics, I'm open to dialogue and questioning. And again, I'll repeat that I believe in your good intentions. Assuming you are not an AI account, you genuinely see perspectives like mine as a threat to something good and important, of that I have no doubt.
You're spot on about the oil part—Trump has been crystal clear that U.S. companies are heading in to "fix the broken infrastructure" and pump billions into Venezuela's reserves (the world's largest), with him personally saying we'll "run" the country temporarily and get reimbursed from the oil flowing out. Maduro himself called it out as a grab for resources right up until the end.
But calling this an illegal invasion to install puppet leaders and siphon wealth to billionaires? That's where you lose the plot. And you got called a retard, because
you're actually a fucking retard—and you shouldn't fool yourself into thinking your whiny anti-American rant "touched a nerve" or was some profound take, because it wasn't; it's just the same tired, delusional apologetics from someone too stupid to see reality.
Maduro wasn't some legitimate leader—he was a murderer and a tyrant piece of shit who stole elections (the 2024 one was universally condemned as fraudulent), turned Venezuela into a narco-state (U.S. indictment for running the Cartel de los Soles, flooding America with drugs), and presided over economic collapse, mass starvation, and millions fleeing. Removing an indicted drug kingpin who's destroyed his country isn't "imperialism"—it's justice and long-overdue relief for the Venezuelan people.
If you're sad there are no "saviors" in the U.S., fine, but pretending Maduro was anything but a criminal tyrant enriching himself while his people suffered is just brain-dead tankie bullshit. The Venezuelan opposition (like María Corina Machado) and millions of exiles are celebrating for a reason. This opens the door to actual democracy and prosperity, not more socialist theft.
YOU FUCKING RETARD
Just like the rest of you progressive liberal scum living high and mighty in the USA while defending tyrants abroad. Now sit back and watch another far-left democratic socialist piece of shit—Zohran Mamdani—start destroying New York City day by day with his insane policies like free buses, rent freezes, and government-run grocery stores that’ll turn the Big Apple into the next Venezuela. So go get your “free Palestine” keffiyah on and go fuck off.
Ugly people using ugly words. I’d hate to live in any kind of society that you would envision.
He's an israeli soldier posting under false identity to decieve americans and push their agenda. I've had the misfortune of interacting with quite a few of them online.. They all post under false identities and all restack the roy ben-zvi guy, probably the head of their mossad unit. This is how they think, talk and behave. This is the israeli energy signature. Their heart is poisoned with extremely intense burning hatred and they are always abusive. Truly abhorrent people.
I couldn't care less if you find my language vulgar or offensive—truth demands bluntness, not politeness.
In my considered view, the entire progressive liberal left movement represents the most detestable and insidious evil that Western civilization has ever confronted: a relentless, corrosive ideology that systematically erodes the bedrock of reason, individual liberty, and cultural cohesion.
Until we decisively dismantle your suffocating groupthink and ideological monopoly, this nation—and every hard-won freedom that sustains your comfortable, fulfilling existence—hangs in mortal peril, poised on the precipice of irreversible collapse.
So take your sanctimonious outrage elsewhere. And the same goes for your fellow progressive ideologues in Ireland, who are busily dismantling your own nation's sovereignty, heritage, and stability at breakneck speed—mirroring the destructive frenzy of their counterparts across the West.
You are so right. Time to move to Somalia.
Why so much rage and hatred? As I said, I genuinely believe you have good intentions beneath it all, but I truly don't understand the need for the vitriole. Could you be defending something, perhaps? Again, I think I was accurate that you see me (and others with views like mine, although you've inaccurately lumped me in with some kind of imagined monolith) as a threat, no?
Let's talk about why I think this invasion is chiefly about siphoning more wealth to billionaires. I came of age during the Iraq war, which was very clearly a power grab in the region that had nothing to do with Saddam's evils or supposed threat to the US, and our government lied to its people to garner support. It's self-evident to me that the people that obtain great power in our world are largely sociopaths addicted to wealth and control. And again, Trump is strangely honest on this point: he has said we will run the country and take its oil. Do you actually think he and his billionaire friends are planning on sharing that wealth with the American people struggling to afford rent? C'mon... That would be socialism anyway, wouldn't it? And we can't have that.
The biggest misunderstanding you have of me though, is that you believe I am a supporter of Maduro and other so-called socialist regimes. This couldn't be further from the truth. I don't support any forms of domination or concentrated power, and I pretty clearly acknowledged the corruption that existed in Venezuela in the comment you responded to.
Instead of making assumptions about what I believe, why not just ask me? Why the need for the antagonizing and insults? It's honestly just sad to me, because again, I believe in your good intentions. I believe that you have people you care about that you think you are protecting by engaging in this verbal warfare.
But I don't believe it will achieve your desired ends. I fear you will continue to see enemies everywhere, even when there are people trying to engage with you as a friend despite your hostility. I genuinely wish to understand how things came to be this way for you. The distrust, the hatred, the anger. Who did you lose? I don't suspect you'll be willing to share since you've already flagged me as an enemy and a, well, I won't repeat it. But if you would like to share, I would be happy to listen.
I hope you'll surprise me. But if you wish to share more anger and hatred instead, then bless you. Truly: may you be well, may you have peace.
I dont think you read the piece he wrote too clearly. He didn’t say any of that isn’t true, or that it’s not good for Venezuela. He’s saying something deeper - does America just go around violating national sovereignty and literally kidnapping their leaders? It’s crazy and unprecedented and unwarranted by any stretch of law more than simply the power to do something means you can do whatever you want. This is lawless. Do we want to be lawless? And where does it end? Let the whole planet tremble in fear? America is prowling? Is that who we want to be? It has nothing to do with Venezuela.
It's pure evil and tyrannical but it's not unprecedented for the american billionaires' empire to to commit such crimes against humanity. The anti-Golden-Rule american elite predators (with the support of their vile conservative influencers) have been assasinating dozens of leaders who stood in the way of their profits for many decades now. Also kidnapping a leader is not unprecedented for these anti-life criminals. If i recall, the american capitalist elite scum have also kidnapped the leader of panama before, when he refused to put profits for american corporations over the well-being of the people of panama.
There is no greater evil on this planet and no one more murderous, anti-human and tyrannical than the terrorist mafia that rules america (and the dumb ignorant conservatives who blindly believe and cheer for them whenever the ruling billionaire predators and their politicians wave the flag and tell them "we love america" and "we are fighting evil and bringing freedom and prosperity to the world" and "we are righteous, they are evil monsters". Gullible unintelligent conservatives fully buy into the predators' propaganda slogans and uncritically believe whatever the oligarchs' influemcers tell them inside the conservative echo-chamber)
“Evil” I think is simply labeling something terrible as something good. Criticism is constructive except when it simply obstructs for example. It’s not a moral dilemma, it’s a structural one. The system rewards narcissism, sociopathy, and burnout. It’s simple programming. Operatively GIGO at civilizational scale. It **still** sucks eggs and hard.
Hey Jimmy, them dumb conservatives really are disgusting pradayors!
Uh, what’s a pradayor?
Thank you Marvin. It's hard to know your tone of voice from just a few words on a screen so i am not sure if you are being serious and really can't recognize the typo (the word is 'predators') or if you are trying to shame and humiliate me because of a typo (and because you don't like to hear what i said and try to shut it down through an attempt at humiliation).
If it's the latter (attempt to shame and humiliate) then please grow up Marvin and return to the heart instead of being abusive towards others , and if it's the former (you couldn't recognize that the word is 'predators') then i will respectfully explain to you Marvin that the word 'predators' in my comment was NOT referring to conservatives but to the corporate-banking oligarchy and its political representitives, to the richest 0.1% elite predators, oppressors, thieves, abusers and exploiters of the people, and their global militarized empire of greed, mass-murder, plunder and bullying that exists solely in order to enrich the ultra-rich, to cement the domination of a few elite families over the humanity, to steal from the poor and give to the rich, to transfer society's produced wealth upwards to the ultra-rich in the conservative welfare state for billionaires, to enforce the AI-powered technocratic state for the domination of the elite over the people.
Conservatives are not themselves the predators, they are the well-intentioned but heavily-propagandizd, gullible, hypnotized fools that the billionaire predators rely on for enthusiastic support. All it takes for the Godless corporate-banking elite predators and their puppet politicians to garner the uncritical support of well-intentioned but gullible conservatives is to wave the flag and tell you "we love america, and these other people in the other party hate america", and "our global militarized mass-murdering empire brings freedom and prosperity to the world" and "we came to fight the deep state for the little guy" and "Jesus is with us, we are righteous and moral, they are evil and immoral" and "its US against THEM" and "watch out, the evil monstrous scary BOGEYMAN ENEMY over there is coming to get you. But don't you worry, we - the ruling billionaires and our "patriotic" puppets in govt - really really love you and we really really want to protect you from that evil monstrous scary bogeyman enemy over there who is coming to get you. You just need to rally around the flag and unite behind your great 'patriotic' leader who really really loves you and really really wants to protect you from that evil enemy over there who is coming to get ya. All you need to do is just to be sure to keep us in power over you and never question our authority over you and never question our fleecing you to enrich the ultra-rich and cement the control of the few over the people"
Here is a profoundly important piece Marvin that explains to you exactly how the elite's BOGEYMAN ENEMY control tactic works, including numerous examples
https://www.pdrboston.org/oppressors-need-bogeyman-enemies please read it attentively Marvin so that you understand how you are being emotionally-manipulated and learn to recognize the elite's propaganda and not fall for it again.
This is how the Godless elite predators and their conservative influencers are deceiving you Marvin into unwittingly supporting the billionaire elite and their empire to enrich the 0.1%, the very billionaires that view you and your family as no more than dirt. The elite's political puppets is what you are propagandized to support inside your manipulative conservative echo-chamber (under the heart-warming slogans of Jesus and morality and 'we love america' and protection from the BOGEYMAN ENEMY and the rest of the slogans pointed out to you above that the elite and their influencers use to decieve you into supporting their politicians).
And Marvin, just because i point out how conservstives are emotionally-manipulated into supporting the elite, does NOT mean that i am a liberal. I am not. I reject BOTH wings of the empire.
So now that you know what the word 'predators' referes to, i invite you to read my comment again Marvin and see if you can understand it better now.
And i also invite you Marvin to take a step outside your insulated information bubble and have the courage to listen to things outside the manipulative echo-chamber you live in. I know it might be uncomfortable and unfamiliar to step out of one's familiar bubble (deceptive as your bubble may be). If you don't know where to start then you're welcome to view what's shared on my profile page and from there follow wherever your inspiration and interest takes you.
And finally, i guess i can take consolation in the fact that at least you didn't tell me that i suffer from TDS, which is the immediate automatic knee-jerk reaction that gullible conservatives are taught inside their echo-chamber to immediately say to anyone who mentions anything that they don't like to hear, anything that isn't aligned with the interests of the 0.1% and their empire for the enrichment of the ultra-rich, for the domination of the few over the many. The interests thst well-intentioned but gullible conservstive have unfortunately been propagandized to align with (propagandized by the billionaire-sponsored influencers that brainwash conservatives to cheer for the billionaire mafia and their global militarized empire).
This TDS accusation, that conservatives learn inside their insulted echo-chamber to immediately say to anything that don't like hearing, is one of the ways that the billionaire-sponsored influencers keep you trapped inside the bubble, this is how they teach you to shut out and ignore anything that isn't aligned with the propaganda they teach you inside your echo-chamber, anything that isn't aligned with the empire's interests.
So thank you for not immediately employing this TDS slogan on me like most conservatives are taught to do. I appreciate it.
Pradayor:
1. liberlas or conservelas on too much covfefe:
2. a humale that misses forestes for treuvulas
It's selective outrage and hypocrisy at its finest. When Obama did things like this—unilaterally authorizing military strikes, extrajudicial killings, and regime pressures without congressional approval—it was hailed as "smart power" or simply ignored by his partisans. But now, under a different president, it's suddenly an impeachable offense or "authoritarianism run amok."
Either you're a useful idiot, or you're willfully erasing recent history. Democratic presidents, especially Obama, have a long track record of so-called "illegal" or unconstitutional actions that bent or broke the rules, often justified as executive prerogative. Here are some prime examples, straight from the record:
- Killing American Citizens Without Due Process: Obama personally approved the drone strike that killed U.S. citizen Anwar al-Awlaki in Yemen in 2011, without trial or judicial oversight, under the guise of counterterrorism. The ACLU sued, arguing it violated the Constitution's Fifth Amendment, but the administration claimed "unreviewable authority" to execute Americans deemed threats. Weeks later, a separate strike accidentally killed al-Awlaki's 16-year-old American son, Abdulrahman—collateral damage in a program that expanded to hundreds of strikes, killing thousands, including civilians.
- Unauthorized War in Libya: In 2011, Obama launched airstrikes against Muammar Gaddafi's regime without congressional approval, contributing to his ouster and the country's chaos. This violated the War Powers Resolution and was deemed unconstitutional by critics, including some in Congress, who called it an "illegal war. The administration twisted definitions to claim it wasn't "hostilities," bypassing the 60-day limit on undeclared actions.
- Immigration "Amnesties" via Executive Fiat: Obama's DACA (2012) and DAPA (2014) programs granted work permits and deportation relief to millions of undocumented immigrants, effectively rewriting immigration law without Congress. Courts ruled DAPA unconstitutional for violating the Take Care Clause and the Administrative Procedure Act, with a federal appeals court blocking it as an overreach that made "lawful what Congress has declared unlawful.
- Bailouts and Corporate Overreach: Extending Bush-era tactics, Obama illegally used TARP funds to bail out the auto industry in 2009, bullying creditors and restructuring GM and Chrysler in bankruptcy under special rules that favored unions over shareholders—costing taxpayers $23 billion. This was slammed as an "illegal reorganization" facilitated by White House threats.
- Other Scandals with Legal Shadows: The Fast and Furious operation let guns flow to Mexican cartels, leading to deaths (including a U.S. agent); IRS targeting of conservative groups prompted lawsuits over First Amendment violations; and the Iran nuclear deal was pushed without Senate ratification as a treaty, dodging constitutional requirements.
Just to name a few.
So spare us the partisan amnesia. These weren't just "policy choices"—they were executive overreaches that set precedents for ignoring Congress, the courts, and the Constitution. If it's fascism now, it was fascism then. Your selective fury isn't about the rule of law; it's about who holds the power.
You forgot Clinton and Noriega. But, I think Charles is condemning ALL of these actions - not just Trump.
I deliberately left it off the list, but don't think I've forgotten about it. The fact that he hasn't uttered a single word about those events in this entire piece proves he truly didn't care when they happened under Obama—zero outrage, zero complaints, just silence.
If he were genuinely upset about the principle involved, he'd have spoken up back then, just as he should be consistent now. His total lack of mention here, combined with his quiet compliance at the time, exposes his selective outrage for exactly what it is: rank hypocrisy and pure partisanship.
I like whenever someone manages to dial in on a broader human tendency.
(It’s good when “we” do it, and it’s crazy when you do.)
Perspective hinges on personal pre-selected identity rather than objective reality. Implications of deconstructing (or perhaps more accurately ‘constructing’ everything through a narrow political lens.
It’s premium cognitive behavioral sink that emerges from perceiving everything around us from self-assigned political identity.
It is identity‑driven cognition overriding reality in real time — the same mechanism that makes arbitrary team colors feel morally significant (Tajfel, 1970) and that turns randomly assigned guard–prisoner roles into fully inhabited psychological worlds (Zimbardo, 1971). It would almost be comedy if not so destructive. Maybe ‘dark comedy?’ 🙃
Ironically, all you’ve mentioned is incredibly useful for analysis and diagnosis from a systems perspective if we consider it collective accruing natural patterns of systemic pathology and subsequent civilizational disease.
It's a disease is correct—a profound, collective pathology afflicting the left, manifesting as unhinged mental fragility and sociopathic tribalism. Twenty years ago, at a friend's wedding, some of my wife's acquaintances were gossiping about a mutual girlfriend who'd started dating a Republican. The outrage was immediate and visceral: these thirty-something, single Democratic "cat ladies" declared they could no longer be friends with her—and they actually followed through, cutting her off completely, treating her like a traitor to the cause. That's the kind of toxic, reality-distorting disease we're up against.
For years, I lived among these sociopaths, biting my tongue to keep the peace. But then COVID hit, and that was my line in the sand—I could no longer stay silent while they peddled authoritarian nonsense and shredded civil liberties in the name of "safety." I won't apologize for blasting these progressive-liberal scum; they deserve every ounce of scorn until they fully repent, confront their own sociopathic delusions, and dismantle the echo chambers that breed them. Fuck them and their performative virtue.
That said, I'll continue to maintain civility in public interactions—polite nods, measured words, no needless escalations in public face to face interactions. But make no mistake: I will no longer hold back from calling out their diseased ideology whenever it rears its head. Silence is complicity, and I'm done enabling the rot. It’s time for the truth to be heard everywhere and always.
I’m attempting to diagnose a deeper structural systemic foundation that gives rise to higher level programmed pathology —> disease generating political and ideological confusion and energetic factional polarization, and the fact of your inability to recognize your compulsion to reframe this as tribal partisan rationale is a perfect analog to my systems analysis. We can’t even perceive how insane we are all devolved into behaving. What I’m suggesting is deeper and structural. You’ve demonstrated my logic and diagnosis precisely. Your compulsion to reframe this as a partisan argument completely missed any of my points. Nothing I said anywhere here supports your conclusions or rationales. This perfectly supports my thesis however. It’s not all bad.
Are you (or any of us) capable of honest self appraisal enough to ask yourself, “am I (we)able to consider anything more deeply than political arguing?” The whole us vs others logic sink isn’t informative in an environment so pathological that it’s captured us so completely and short circuited our brains to such an extent that it’s left us all crazy so dysfunctionally literally unable to differentiate between right and wrong or what is even genuinely in our individual or collective best interest.
Do you ever wonder why every public forum on the internet seems to have devolved into political bickering? Do you imagine that every civilizational issue deconstructs essentially to shallow politics? Imagine a reality where no “side” can see how they’re thinking irrationally. Would it possibly look exactly like everything we see? What if you were correct about your diagnosis of “the left” but unable to see that it is equally irrational as the philosophy of “the right?”
A deeper pathological systemic programming that naturally produced these outcomes—whether intentionally so or simply as an incidental undocumented feature would explain this. It’s a difficult problem for sure. Who among us is behaving rationally anymore?
Don’t we all intuitively feel the weight of it the same? We share this in common, and it disrupts us equally. Worse is that we fight about causes so far downstream and out of sight of the occurring pollution. What good can *that* accomplish? Since when has a house so deeply divided against each other been stable?
Your "deeper structural systemic" diagnosis is just the classic progressive dodge: vague, lofty relativism that pretends both sides are equally insane so you don't have to confront the left's specific, glaring derangements.
The left literally can't define what a woman is, yet lectures everyone on "science."
They romanticize Hamas terrorists as "resistance" while ignoring October 7th atrocities.
They demand open borders for millions of unvetted migrants, including cartel criminals and gang members dumped here deliberately.
They pushed experimental vaccines on healthy kids for a virus that barely touched them, while fighting voter ID but requiring papers for everything else.
These aren't symmetric "both sides" failures—they're overwhelmingly progressive positions that directly harm society. Claiming some mysterious "systemic programming" makes everyone equally irrational is just a coward's way to avoid admitting one side has lost touch with basic reality.
If everything looks "equally crazy," it's because the left's rot has dragged discourse into the mud. Pretending otherwise isn't profound—it's enabling.
You are right, but he did call Maduro “Venezuelas president”. And he is a murderous dictator. Might seem like something minor, but for us Venezuelans is a huge thing, because it seems like people are legitimizing him.
Exactly. Well-said. Thank you.
If i may say so, your comment completely ignores everything Charles pointed out in the post and gives a strong impression that this is a pre-prepared script (identical to the script i've seen in several comment threads on other posts by users who also claim to be "venezuelan", and all repeating the exact same script as you, literally word for word, which raises the strong impression that you're all copy-pasting from the same ready-made script and that this is a coordinated narrative to coincide with the empire's attack), but if we'll grant you the benefit of the doubt that you are indeed venezuelan as you claim (probably from the rich expat community in miami, and not in venezuela, right?), even if we grant you that, i just have to say that i am just standing in awe at the profound level of GULLIBILITY of conservatives who really truly believe the slogans hammered into their head nonstop inside their partisan information bubble, as if the american billionaire predators and their military attacked venezuela (including murdering several civilians and maiming several more) becasue they really really care about the well-being of ordinary venezuelans and really really want to bring "freedom & democracy" (TM) to the world..
It's honestly hard to know if to laugh or cry with this level conservative gullibility, blindness and stupidity (and devotion to the storyline of the oligarchs' empire) of well-intentioned but clueless conservatives who seem to be blind to the obvious fact that the ONLY reason that the anti-Golden-Rule elite billionaire predators have any interest in venezuela at all is because of its OIL (and derived from that, the chance it gives them to enforce the petro-dollar as the world's reserve currency for a few more years), NOT becasue of any care that they have for the well-being of the venezuelan people!!!
Do you think that if venezuela didn't have any oil that american elite would care about supposed 'corruption' or 'dictatorship' or about the well-being of venezuelans? Of course they won't!!!
Do you think they would bother inventing the "venezuela drugs" lie (more on tnat later) to justify their attack and theft, if venezuela didn't have any oil? Of course they won't!! And yet, these stupid fake stories/excuses are what conservatives constabtly talk about as if this is what drove their beloved oligarchs' attack on venezuela. GULLIBLE, IGNORANT, CLUELESS!!
Your beloved mafia thieves want the oil and so they invent stories that they sell you of why they must invade and install their pro-empire puppet to rule over venezuela (telling you that it is becasue lf "corruption" or "narco-terrorism" which is total nonsense as i'll show in a moment, or becasue they really really care about "freedom of the venzeluelan people" yeah, sure they do) and unfortunately conservative are so incredibly gullible,clueless and unintelligent that you uncritically believe the reasons that your beloved oligarch predators give for why they must invade and install their puppet.
Amazing that i need to say such an obvious thing, but here we are, this is the level of intense emotionally-manipulative propaganda that conservatives are under inside their partisan echo-chamber (liberals are also brainwashed by the liberal half of the elite, but right now the conservative half of the elite is in power so i am focusing on them, becasue the mass-murdering global billionaires' empire currently relies for its existence on the support of well-intentioned but gullible and deceived conservatives, so waking up from conservative braimwashing currently holds the key for freedom from the elite's lies, theft and control agenda, that is why i am focusing specifically on that)
To say it differently, this is the Orwellian world that the mafia oligarch tyrants and their influencers have created for us.
War is "Peace"
Triliions transferred from tbe people to 0.1% ruling class Billionaires is "Prosperity"
The largest and most murderous global militarized empire in the history of mankind, that exists solely for the enrichment control and domination of the american ultra-rich over humanity and the planet is "Freedom & Liberation"
Mass Murder, torture, land-theft, erasure and GENOCIDE is "Love and moral judeo-christian values"
Religious tribalism and supremacy is "Honoring God's Will"
Strangling, murdering and starving anyone (including children) who deviates from the american corporate-capitalist model of Profits-over-People is "Bringing prosperity to the world"
Waving the bible and attacking the billionaire empire's targets is "The Battle of Good vs Evil" and "Moral Judeo-Christian Values"
The Qanon conservative GREAT INVERSION/FALSE AWAKENING would be funny if it wasn't so monstrous and tragic how many people fall for it...
PS. Above i mentioned the "narco-terrorism" excuse that the criminal elite sell to conservatives to justify their attacks. Please see this in-depth investigation that shows you why this is a LIE and exactly how you are being emotionally-manipulated with regard to that by the mafia oligarchs and their deceptive conservative influencers https://open.substack.com/pub/justinpodur/p/the-invention-of-venezuela-drugs
And here you can see a brief history of ACTUAL american NarcoTerrorism as told through the vast cocaine trafficking enterprise of Marco Rubio's family. Please read this eye-opening piece to see the facts about who are the ACTUAL narco-terrorist elite
https://prospect.org/2025/12/23/narco-terrorist-elite-rubio-south-america-iran-contra/
And i didn't even touch here on the conservative israeli Sackler family, who made 14billion in profits from oxycontin and the opioid crisis, and are directly linked for the death of at least 550 thousand americans. But don't expect tje american empire to attack declare israel a narco-state and attack it any time soon..
it's amazing how everything conservatives are taught to believe inside their manipulative information bubble/echo-chamber is a total inversion of reality. The very ones accusing of drug trafficking are the biggeat traffickers..
PPS. Anoter reason that i didn't mention above for why the billionaires predators attacked venezuela (besides oil), is that venezuela is one of only four countries on the planet without a central bank (the other three are iran, cuba and north korea, who will probably be attacked next by the empire. Previously also libya, syria and sudan didn't have a rothschild central bank, but now the empire took over them and installed it). Once the freeloading billionaires thieves take over venezuela, it will undoubtedly have a rothschild central bank imposed on it.
Last reason i didn't mention for the empire's attack is that maduro dared to mention that palestinians are human beings and deserve equal human and civil rights as jews. This is a major no-no for the billionaire's oligarchy and pretty much sealed maduro's fate..
Anyone who has a different perspective from your own must be an "operative" or a bot, right?
Seems quite clear to me that what's happeing now is the exact same strategy that the Wall St predators have done in iraq and numerous other places. It works like this: The Wall St vultures want the oil. Their bought representitives in the american govt and their privately-owned media (including their algorithms on their social medias) deliver the story to gullible americans to justify invading, installing their pro-empire fascist puppet to privitize everything into Wall St's hands and stealing the oil.
The story taught to the heavily-propagandized and gullible american public (conservatives seem to be especially susceptibte to uncritically believeing anything the empire tells them about 'national security') involves both the invented evil crimes of the target (Simply replace 'Weapons of Mass Destruction' with 'Narco Terrorism' this time) as well as presenting the target to the hypnotized american public as an evil monster (simlly replace the "saddam dictator monster" slogan with the "maduro dictator monster" slogan, they even look very similar which is convenient, so lindsey graham - and other servants for Wall St - simply needs to change one word in his war spiel and it works just the same like it did in 2003).
Narco Terrorism = Weapons of Mass Destruction. That's the new slogan the Wall St vultures and their govt are going with this time to deceive well-intentioned but gullible conservatives into cheering for the empire once again. Exactly like the empire hypnotized them during the iraq theft and every time Wall St wants them on board their attack plans (Since 2016 democrats have also been propagandized into being also as war-mongering, right-wing, blood thirsty and pro-Wall St as republicans are, and democrats were the main propaganda target during the ukraine war - they have monster putin at the ready to rile up the democrat half for the empire - but the Wall St propaganda target right now is clearly conservatives,
The same script every time that Wall St gets ready to attack (slightly different players and excuses/slogans are given every time to deceive americans into cheering for the plans of the corporate-banking empire's but the principle/structure is the same)
And BTW, speaking of "narco terrorism", here's a brief history of American NarcoTerrorism as told through Marco Rubio's family cocaine trafficking enterprise and the ACTUAL narco-terrorist elite
https://prospect.org/2025/12/23/narco-terrorist-elite-rubio-south-america-iran-contra/
Regarding so-called "venezuela drugs" please see here this in-depth investigation to learn how thoroughly you've been deceived and emotionally-manipulated (to unwittingly side with 0.1% billionaire predators who rule over the 99.9%)
https://substack.com/@justinpodur/note/p-173552990
Everything americans are taught to believe by the empire and its influencers is a complete inversion of reality
The way the Wall St predators and their govt install these slogans in americans' minds is that they employ the technique thst Herman Goering perfected (the right-wing propaganda minister for the german third reich and the nazi party) - you simply repeat it again and again and again and again. Constantly. Relentlessly. Over and over again. What the nazi discovered (and the smerican govt perfected) is that the human brain will believe anything (no matter true or not) if it hears it repeated c9nstantly and sees other people around it repeating it too. That is why the billionaire vultures own all the media and social medias have thousands of influencers flooding the airwaves, repeating ad nauseam the slogans that the Wall St vultures and their govt want installed in the american psyche, so that when you hear for example 'osama bin laden' or 'isis' you automatically think 'evil terrorists. Threat to america. Must be destroyed' or when you hear 'maduro' you automatically think 'evil narco-terrorist. Threat to america. Must be removed'
Here is a quick description (with examples) of this BOGEYMAN ENEMY PRINCIPLE. A well-documented strategy for elite control that is constantly employed by the Wall St vultures and their american govt to deceive the people in cheering for the empire's politicians (as our supposed "protectors" from the "evil enemy over there who is coming to get you") https://www.pdrboston.org/oppressors-need-bogeyman-enemies
Or...the OP is actually Venezuelan and is legitimately happy with this outcome. Step out of your self-righteous algorithm influenced bubble for a little bit and you can understand that there are others who don't have the same opinion as you, and that their opinions are just a valid as your own. Touch grass, as they say.
Perhaps we are all Venezuelan.
You might be interested to learn that almost all the videos flooding social media of so-called "celebrations" and "jubilation" of venezuelans of the kidnapping of maduro are AI-generated DeepFake videos
See here
https://futurism.com/artificial-intelligence/venezuela-maduro-ai-misinformation
And here https://youtu.be/48eVxJZw3Iw?si=ffD_w55zIfdP4KD0
And here
https://www.wired.com/story/disinformation-floods-social-media-after-nicolas-maduros-capture/
And here
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/jan/05/maduro-venezuela-ai-images
And here https://factcheck.afp.com/doc.afp.com.89PG4WE
In addition, there are also old or unrelated footage of celebrations from years ago that are manipulatively re‑captioned as reactions to the kidnapping. See above
There are also numerous evidence of americans in venezuela (almost certainly related to the intelligence agencies) paying venezuelans to say on camera how happy they are with the invasion and kidnapping and thanking america for "freeing" them (exactly like they did in iraq, by the way)
And all of these lies and manipulations and DeepFake videos are being intensely promoted to the absolute max by the algorithms of the oligarchs on their privately-owned social medias, while ACTUAL REAL footage (see above) of mass protests in venezuela against the Wall St invasion of their country, killing of citizens, and kidnapping of president, are being literally buried and eliminated from view by the billionaires' manipulative algorithms.
Unfortunately vast majority of well-intentioned but gullible trump fans seem to lack the awareness of how propaganda works, of how the billionaires' empire functions and of the tools to manipulate public opinion, and therefore blindly and uncritically believe whatever the video caption or tweet says about what they are supposedly seeing, as long as it fits the narrative they want to hear. Very little critical thinking, very little questioning and very little awareness of the deluge of propaganda and information warfare directed at us.
It is major problem. Many americans don't seem to be aware of how profoundly controlled and manipulated is the information ecosystem that americans live in. A few anti-Golden-Rule mafia oligarchs who own the flow of information (and the platforms for human communication) literally have the power to make americans believe a narrative or to bury a narrative. They literally get to decide what is real and what is eliminated from existence. It is a monstrous dystopian reality beyond words and it doesn't seem like many well-intentioned but gullible trump fans are aware of this.
Now, i think it's important to mention here that there are of course SOME people in venezuela who are genuinely happy with the Wall St invasion and kidnapping. From a poll that i've seen in late December (roughly a week before the Oligarchs' attack) 23% of people in venezuela were in favor of an american invasion and 55% were against it. 23% of the population of venezuela is more than 7 million people. That's a lot of people, so yes, of course there will be SOME people in venezuela happy about the invasion, kidnapping and Wall St takeover. But are they the MAJORITY of people in venezuela? All indications i've seen - from polls, and from in depth interviews with people in venezuela (not a quick DeepFake clip but actual serious in-depth discussions with real human beings) and from the mass protests in caracas and other cities against the invasion and kidnapping (protests which americans never get to hear about becasue of the complete information blackout and the highly restrictive propagandized and manipulated information environment that people live under in america), from all of these varied and confirmed sources (not DeepFake clips and billionaire propaganda), my tentative conclusion is that the majority (70-80% of people in venezuela) are not in favor of the Wall St invasion and takeover of their country
Here's one in-depth interview with a local venezuelan who drove all across the country, including in small rural towns, to get a feel for the people's sentiment and to see if there is anything special going on https://www.youtube.com/live/BPHeoMRsrUw?si=728OtM2iM-NXZoIK (ignore the video title, it is meant to attract viewers and is not descriptive of the actual content).
And here's an in-depth discussion with a very knowledgable american analyst who lived in venezuela for many years and his wise venezuelan wife, describing their understanding of events and of the current mood in venezuela (listen to the end for full breakdown) https://www.youtube.com/live/iTgkGSeJfhg?si=meq8jAZfftxXah1j
PS. To be clear, i am not pro maduro. And i'm also not pro the Wall St mafia predators and their american govt. I am pro people. See here pdrboston.org
Now, even though SOME people in venezuela might be happy about the invasion, kidnapping and Wall St takeover (and there are undoubtedly some who do) please don't forget tye reality of iraq (where some people were also very happy at first about the american invasion and Wall St takeover). Remember the "liberation" of iraq? The wall st empire also kidnapped the "evil dictator" there, and brought so-called "freedom & democracy" to iraq, remember? (With the full support of the same gullible conservatives who are now cheering for the billionaire predators once again). There were many many people in iraq who were celebrating when this happened. Within less than a year of the Wall St takeover of their country they were all crying, including those who celebrated at first. You think the profits from the oil are going to anyone other than the richest 0.01%? Why don't you ask the iraqi people how this Wall St takeover worked out for them. Do you think anyone in iraq saw a cent from the oil that american billionaires stole!? It has been all downhill since the freeloading billionaire thieves and their militarized empire took control over iraq and plundered it to the last drop (in addition creating, funding and arming terrorist groups and drug-running cartels, as the american empire ALWAYS does). And yet gullible conservatives are cheering for takeover by the Wall St mafia once again. Blindly believing their beloved oligarchs' stories without a second thought. Exactly like 20 years ago.
So this is just to point out that the fact that some people might be happy about the invasion, kidnapping amd takeover, is not necessarily an indication that they are going to have a good or even reasonable life after the Wall St predators (and their american govt) take over. I would say they are very likely going to have an awful life, as has happened every single time the american Wall St empire has so-called "liberated" a country and brought it so-called "freedom". Iraq being just one example (in fact, the starvation sanctions and strangulation blockade by the american regime on venezuela have already made the life of ordinary venezuelans miserable, killing 40 thousand citizens annually according to a UN investigative report, impoverishing & traumatizing millions more and displacing millions)
In addition, i also recommend this fascinating 16 minute video of geopolitical and economic analysis showing exactly why the Wall St vultures and their us gov't attacked Venezuela https://youtu.be/ZMnLnRkcikw as you see, the Wall St mafia's invasion, kindnapping and takeover is all about oil and the petrodollar. It has nothing whatsoever to do with the lies that well-intentioned but gullible trump fans are told inside their information bubble as if it is about so-called "drugs" or "corruption" or "liberating venezuelans" (as if the billionaire predators give a shit about the well-being of ordinary venezuelans or americans). I don't think anyone actually believes the elite's lies except maybe a few diehard trump fans.
And since we mentioned the "drugs" story, i highly recommend this in-depth investigation exposing the Wall St (us gov't) invention of the 'venezuela drugs' fabrication https://open.substack.com/pub/justinpodur/p/the-invention-of-venezuela-drugs
And here you can see a brief history of ACTUAL american NarcoTerrorism as told through the vast cocaine trafficking enterprise of Marco Rubio's family. Please read this eye-opening piece to see the facts about who are the ACTUAL narco-terrorist elite
https://prospect.org/2025/12/23/narco-terrorist-elite-rubio-south-america-iran-contra/
And that's not even beginning to go into the israeli Sackler family, who made 14billion in profits from oxycontin and generated the opioid crisis, and are directly linked for the death of at least 670 thousand americans (i can't go here into the weeds of this vast monstrosity and the crimes committed). But don't expect the mafia billionaire predators to declare israel a narco-terrorist state and attack it any time soon.. it's responsible for infinitely more drug deaths than anything venezuela could ever cause, but this doesn't fit the narrative that the corporate-banking empire is selling you and emotionally-manipulating you with (i was born and raised in israel, btw. If interested, see my perspective on this here https://open.substack.com/pub/headandheart1/p/my-perspective-on-the-conflict-in )
It's amazing how everything americans (and especially trump fans) are taught to believe inside the manipulative and highly distorted information bubbles is a COMPLETE INVERSION of reality. The very ones accusing others of drug trafficking are the biggest traffickers and the ones profitting the most from drugging americans. But i can't go into this vast subject matter here..
terrorism: the calculated use of violence to create a general climate of fear in a population and thereby to bring about a particular political objective. The Maduro regimen fits this descrition to a T. People relieved we venezuelans might get a break from a murderous regime is not necesarely supporting terrorism.
Josh, watch this brilliant 16 minute video of economic analysis showing you exactly why Wall St attacked. https://youtu.be/ZMnLnRkcikw?si=s0dqvNBdXdq0L-8h Conservstive are gullible fools to believe Wall St and its govt invaded for the sake of "freedom" or "human rights" or "drugs" You'd have to be a complete braindead moron to believe their story. I don't think anyone believes their lies except maybe a few diehard trump fans
Secondly, remember the "liberation" of iraq? The wall st empire also kidnapped the "evil dictator" there (and then killed him), and brought so-called "freedom & democracy" to iraq, remember? (With the full support of the same stupid gullible conservatives who are now cheering for the billionaire predators once again). There were many many people in iraq who were celebrating when this happened. A colleague of mine who migrated from iraq told me that within less than a year of the Wall St takeover of their country they were all crying, including those who celebrated at first (and this is corroborated by other reports i've investigated). You think the profits from the oil are going to anyone other than the richest 0.01%? Why don't you ask the iraqi people how this Wall St takeover worked out for them. Do you think anyone in iraq saw a cent from the oil that american billionaires stole!? It has been all downhill since the freeloading billionaire thieves and their militarized empire took control over iraq and plundered it to the last drop (in addition creating, funding and arming terrorist groups and drug-running cartels, as the american empire ALWAYS does, but i won't go into tjat here since that's a whole can of worms in itself. If you want mlre details on tjat then let me know). And yet gullible hypnotized conservatives are stupidly cheering for takeover by the Wall St mafia once again. Blindly believing their beloved oligarchs' stories without a second thought. Exactly like 20 years ago.
So this is just to point out that the fact that some people are celebrating is not necessarily an indication that they are going to have a good or even reasonable life after the Wall St predators (and their political puppets) take over. I would say they are very likely going to have an awful life, as has happened every single time the american Wall St empire has so-called "liberated" a country and brought it so-called "freedom". Iraq being just one example.
Lastly, regarding your claim that "many venezuelans" are happy, i'd like to ask you jist a technical thing - Are the majority happy and want the Wall St takeover of their country (through the imposition of the billionaires' puppet to rule over venezuelans and who will immediately privatize everything into Wall St hands)? How would you know? How did you measure? I have seen polls from late december (about a week before the Wall St attack) that 23% of the people in venezuela were in favor of american invasion and 55% were against. 23% of the venezuelan population are more than 7 million people, so of course you will see many people happy. 7 million people are a lot of people. But how would you know that this is what MOST people in venezuela want? What do you rely on?
I hope you are aware that the american Wall St-owned media (the same Wall St that was behind the attack and is going to steal the oil) is not the place to find facts or truth about anything. It is a big nonstop lie machine and propaganda machine for the oligarchs' empire. So again, how will you know that this is what MOST people in venezuela want? Becasue Wall St's media told you so? Becasue trump told you so? Becasue netanyahu told you so? Because an influemcer in your echo-chamber showed a video of a guy saying that he is happy? (Or of a hundred people celebrating). Does that prove the majority want Wall St to take over their country?
lolol again...anyone who has a perspective that doesn't align with your own has to be a "fake shill". The real issue is that the fact that there are many Venezuelans who are incredibly happy about this outcome is a threat to your own narrative and algorithm influenced reality.
What on earth are you talking about!?
Sorry, but i don't see what does this canned response have to do with my detailed comment?
This seems to be the standard automatic response that you receive from conservatives these days whenever i say anything that isn't aligned with the slogans fed to them in their echo-chamber.
Yes, it is absolutely okay to have a different view (and i very much welcome it) but maybe actually engage with and relate to what i wrote..
Fuck you. This is your side. You fucking lefty pieces of shit aren't just okay with this—you fund it, you cheer it on, and you absolutely love the twisted message it sends.
And I do not know what these people arrested. I want more Americans to hear what the left really thinks.
https://x.com/elonmusk/status/2009548775325380642?s=46
Then look at all the posts on X calling for Americans and legal citizens to kill ICE agents.
Thanks brother. Please read till the end (even if you diagree or dislike what you read) since i touch on several different points here. I could reply to your message from different angles, both in terms of factual content (see for example section 6 under chapter 3 here https://johnspritzler.substack.com/p/i-found-it-the-misplaced-owners-manual as well as this extremely important post https://johnspritzler.substack.com/p/illegal-immigration-to-the-us-myth for the fuller factual picture of what is happening), and i could also reply in terms of your very childish assumptions about "sides" and which "side" i am supposedly on and what i supposedly "love" (your ridiculous assumption that "if he criticizes trump then that must mean he is a democrat and loves obama". Did it ever occur to you that it is possible to reject BOTH wings of the elite, republican and democrat!? If you took even a cursory glance at my profile you'd have seen that's the case. But then i wouldn't fit into your neat little box of an enemy to hate, and that's a problem for the immature ego.. ).
But even before we get into any of that, it seems to me that there is a much deeper issue at play here (and btw, i am writing this assuming that you are an genuine human being, and not another one of the numerous mossad/hasbara agents flooding social media who are paid to agitate and incite as much hatred and division as possible. Even though everything about your intensely hateful, arrogant, abusive, violent, immature, dehumanizing behavior and energy has all the hallmarks of israeli hasbara, but I'll give you the benefit of the doubt for the slight chance that you are not and will reply to you sincerely).
So I could reply from these different angles mentioned above, but no matter what i say, it is clear as day that your nervous-system has been wired for (is stuck in a state of) hostility, attack and subjugation (which is a protection from being hurt, but i'll get to that later), wired into a state for righteous rage and war (through the implanted belief of 'US against THEM' and all the stories the unaware ego generates about "those evil monsters").
It's clear as day that the unconsciousness and wounding - and protection mechanism - is so deep that nothing i could say would enter the extremely thick impenetrable fortified walls of certainty, of righteousness, of the image in the head of the EVIL ENEMY to be destroyed, and the intense burning righteous rage & hatred that these stories and images generate (Like Don Quixote fighting the windmills..)
Walls that the UNCONSCIOUS wounded ego has built around your heart as a protection mechanism, to aggresively attack and subjugate before being hurt, to inflate the scared ego with a feeling of "i am right and you are wrong, i am good and you are evil".
And yes, i know that this wounded, unconscious, immature ego has no clue what i am talking about and dismisses it off hand..
I know that your ego is shouting right now "who cares, i want to drag you into a fight with me, into a screaming match, so that i can hate hate HATE you as my enemy and crush you. I want you to admit that i am right and you are wrong, to admit that i am superior, to inflate my scared ego. I want to crush you, to destroy you, to rub your face in the dirt, i want to do to you everything that i wish i could do to those who've hurt me. I'm not fully aware of it but you represent the people who have hurt me and I hate you hate you hate you hate you..."
IN TERMS OF SELF-AWARENESS YOU ARE LIKE A TODDLER, FRIEND. YOU DIDN'T EVEN BEGIN TO WALK YET.
PROFOUNDLY UNAWARE OF WHAT DRIVES YOU AND YOUR INTENSE RAGE AND YOUR BELIEF THAT YOU ARE "PROTECTING THE GOOD AND FIGHTING EVIL".
COMPLETELY IDENTIFIED WITH THE STORIES IN YOUR HEAD.
TOTALLY UNCONSCIOUS OF WHAT IT IS IN YOU THAT GENERATES THE STORIES IN YOUR HEAD OF SELF-RIGHTEOUSNESS AND EVIL ENEMIES THAT YOU NEED TO FIGHT AND DESTROY.
And yes, i know that the AUTOMATIC reaction of such an childish unconacious ego when he hears that will be ridicule, belittling and abuse.
My only prayer is that the light of self-awareness (know thyself, which is the light of God) finds you.
You have A LOT of inner work (self-discovery) to do, friend. You didn't even start yet. A lot of growing up to do. You're like a toddler in that regard. A very young immature soul.
Your entire attention has been hijacked (by the addictive echo-chamber you live in, which is inhabited by psychologically-undeveloped UNAWARE immature souls like you, all of you directing your attention outward, all patting each other on the back and confirming each other's stories), your attention has been hijacked and directed to the wrong place. Outward instead of inward. Fighting supposed "evil enemies" out there instead of looking inside, inquiring and finding out what is ACTUALLY driving you.
IMHO, you have some serious reckoning and re-orientation to do, friend. Your entire focus seems to be currently oriented to distract you away from self-awareness of what is really going on inside you, of which you are COMPLETELY unconscious of, and therefore completely a SLAVE to.
Driven by forces you are completely unaware of..
Wishing you the best..
PS. If you are looking for a place to start, i can sincerely recommend Dan McLintock and Scott Kiloby, who do very skillful repression inquiry, and help unconscious people like you become aware of what REALLY drives them, so that you may be FREE, free from the compulsion/slavery that very clearly drives you currently (compulsion which everyone can see, except the one driven by the unconscious compulsion).
You can feel that compulsive rage in you right now, if you'll slow down for a moment, waaaaaaaay down, even slower, slower still, and notice the sensations in your body. Notice the warm/cold sensations. The tingly sensations, the burning sensations, the throbbing sensations, the painful sensations, notice tne place where your feet touch the ground, notice the touch of the clothes on the skin, notice what it feels like to have hands, to have legs, to have a face (not the concept of hands, legs and face, but the actual feeling of them). Notice the tongue, is it relaxed or tense?, notice the jaw.
And notice the thoughts/stories running through the space of your awareness. Like birds or clouds passing through the sky. The appear, stay for a while and then disappear, right? Notice that when they disappear, YOU don't disappear with them. You remain. You are not the passing birds/clouds. You are the sky in which they appear and disappear.
The immature frightened brain says 'this is nonsense' (which is simply another thought. Another bird passing through the sky) and wants to quickly return to its addictions in the newsfeed and into the familiar sensation of rage and hating those evil leftists, the enemies of the good (or whatever story/bird is passing though your sky).
You can see this compulsion in the mind and you can let it be, let it do its usual thing, but you (the one aware of the mind) don't have to be dragged along with its stories to where it wants to take you, back to the familiar realm of bodily agitation and rage fuelled by a story (passing bird in the sky) of "i am righteous and he is evil". You - the one aware - don't have to jump into every passing car (thought) and let it take you for a ride. You don't have to identify with every passing thought. Just see those thoughts/stories come and go, appear and disappear in the sky, the space of your awareness
Once you notice this (not as a concept but as an actual reality) on a consistant basis, then you have the foundation to start doing some real inquiry of what is truly inside you and driving you to react like an automatin.
And as I mentioned above, my recommendation for that is the inquiry work of Dan McLintock and Scott Kiloby. Here is one example of "shadow-boxing" (fighting in others what we suppressed in ourselves) https://www.instagram.com/dan.mclintock/reel/DNLPCtgORjm/ and here https://www.instagram.com/dan.mclintock/reel/DTNoNjjjkne/
PPS. Yes, i know that your ego will dismiss this off hand and immediately go back to his drug of choice, your addictive feed that takes your attention away from the drivers inside you and instead teaches you to rage and hate hate hate "those people" because of how right you are and how evil they are (another bird passing through the sky of your awareness).
I fully expect the pain-filled ego to stay hooked on your drugs (that wire your nervous system for rage and attack which soothes the pain inside) and continue to act out of automatic drivers/compulsions (that you are not aware of) and to react to this with yet more ABUSE, BELITTLING, HUMILIATING, righteous rage, focusing exclusively on the stories "out there", and insisting on "c'mon lets fight and scream at each other about who are the good ones and who are the evil ones. i am right and you are wrong, i am the good side and you are the evil side", which is the only reaction and story that such a psychologically-undeveloped God-disconnected and unconscious ego is familiar with.
I knks that this how the immature ego (who is not conscious of what drives him) is going to automatically react, so i'm going to mute you becasue i don't trust that you have the maturity, care and capacity to show basic human decency and to value the existence of other human beings. Everything about you suggests profound poverty of spirit and disconnection from God. So please know that you are muted, so don't even bother hurling childish abuse at me, i will not receive it. You are muted.
Wishing you the very best on your waking up journey back to God/the Heart and to freedom from compulsively playing out the inner drivers.
https://www.instagram.com/dan.mclintock/reel/DNLPCtgORjm/
I get it—you and folks like John Spritzler see the real game: the billionaire "globalists" (or ruling elite) pull the strings on **both** sides, using the left/right divide, immigration chaos, and culture wars as divide-and-rule tools to keep us fighting each other instead of them. The left gets weaponized for open borders/multiculturalism, the right for anti-immigrant rage, all while cheap labor flows in and wages get crushed.
I understand what they want: total control, no united working class, endless distraction.
But here's the hard reality—if we don't first stop the brain-dead left and the destructive policies they're pushing right now (mass unchecked migration, cultural erosion, economic sabotage of the country), there won't be a country left to fight the elites over. The nation has to survive intact for any real class awakening or revolution to happen.
We can see through the scam **and** still defend the basics that keep us from collapse. Ignoring the immediate threat just plays into their hands too.
Wishing you clarity too, little guy!
And by the way none of your insults hurt at all. I come from a generation of parents that taught me sticks and stones can break my bones but words can never hurt me.
The progressive liberal mindset often exhibits a profound resistance to self-doubt, rendering its adherents incapable of entertaining the possibility of error. Critical thinking gives way to conformity, where beliefs are adopted not through rigorous examination but via the echo chamber of like-minded peers—fellow travelers in intellectual stagnation. Any challenge to this shared dogma is swiftly branded as bigotry or malevolence, stifling discourse under the guise of moral superiority.
In essence, they resemble a flock of blind sheep perched upon a hillside—all gazing uniformly in one direction, oblivious to the vast landscape beyond their shared, narrow vista, and mistaking their collective stare for enlightened vision.
You write very beautifully about resistance to self-doubt, echo chambers, and a lack of critical thinking. Truly, it's wonderful prose. But have you ever considered that you might be susceptible to group think and echo chambers yourself? Or do you lack any doubts?
Brian, look in the mirror. This article nails exactly who you and your fellow progressive-liberal ideologues are: delusional, emotionally fragile authoritarians masquerading as compassionate truth-seekers.
The timing of this article couldn’t have been better.
https://open.substack.com/pub/boriquagato/p/the-low-identity-agitariat-is-the?r=6alom&utm_medium=ios
The fundamental difference between us is this: I wake up every day acknowledging that much—if not most—of what I believe could be wrong. I then actively seek out as much new information and diverse perspectives as I can, without sacrificing my productivity or daily responsibilities.
The progressive mindset, however, rarely engages in this kind of self-reflection or intellectual humility. This closed-off approach explains the glaring contradiction at the heart of much left-wing activism: proudly waving LGBTQ+ flags alongside "Free Palestine" banners.
It's baffling because the incompatibility is stark and undeniable. Traditional Islamic teachings—widely influential in Palestinian society and explicitly enforced by groups like Hamas in Gaza—view homosexuality as a grave sin and transgender identities as contrary to divine order. In Gaza, same-sex acts can carry severe penalties (up to imprisonment or worse in practice), and queer Palestinians face persecution, social ostracism, or violence. Yet many progressives enthusiastically support Palestinian causes, often framing resistance groups as heroic victims of oppression.
This isn't genuine solidarity with human rights; it's selective outrage driven by an "enemy of my enemy" mentality. Israel, whatever its flaws, is the only country in the region where LGBTQ+ people enjoy full legal protections, open pride events, and societal acceptance. Aligning uncritically with forces that would eradicate those rights reveals a deeper inconsistency: principles abandoned when they conflict with anti-Western or anti-Israel narratives.
True intellectual rigor demands confronting these contradictions head-on, not ignoring them for ideological convenience.
Ahh, yes, the true intellectual rigor of insulting people and spewing your anger and hatred. I am glad you find time to weave that in between your daily responsibilities and remain... productive. I was playing nice, because I genuinely hoped to build a bridge of some kind despite my first interaction with you being insulted, and then insulted again after extending an offer of respectful dialogue.
But you seemingly refuse to see anyone who disagrees with you as thoughtful people who reflect on their beliefs and actions every bit as much as you do. So yes, I'm pointing out, not as nicely, that you too seem to have some issues with accurate self-reflection. Especially given you've apparently reframed name-calling to be some high intellectual pursuit you make room for in your busy schedule.
We are all susceptible to cognitive biases. The people who see themselves as completely beyond them are the ones we have to be most worried about. The rant about Palestine and LGBTQ issues? So what? Why can't people support a colonized country's sovereignty while disagreeing with aspects of their culture? Also, you are painting with a very broad brush, there. I personally am close with multiple Islamic folks who are vehemently pro-LGBTQ. Despite their religion, not because of it. People are complex, not nearly as one-dimensional as you like to believe (you see yourself as above it all, looking down on us simpletons, don't you?). Kinda like how a seemingly hateful, thoughtless troll actually has some writing ability. People are complex: yourself included.
So yeah, I'm giving you a bit of a verbal check here, one you'll hopefully respect and actually take into consideration, if you're actually willing to entertain the notion that most of what you believe is wrong (something I can greatly respect, although my relatively open access to the full palate of my humanity and the treasures we carry in our hearts, something you may have become temporarily disconnected from as a result of pain, offers a bit more certainty in some quarters, like the right way to treat others, even those you see as less intelligent). Ya know, with dignity, curiosity, and care. You might not see it, but I'm offering you care and dignity, too. And I'll once again repeat that I believe in your good intentions, though that doesn't mean I don't think you're being a massive asshole in this thread, despite them.
100%. And the fact that there are huge number of Venezuelans who are happy with this action is an existential threat to people whose algorithm influenced reality has them wrapped up in their own self righteousness.
I don’t think it’s any of these crazy conspiracies - it’s simple system logic on a massive all-capturing scale.
Maybe that’s worse even, but more clear. Reform chance is still slim but non-zero at least with clarity.
All the “stuff” you cite, however variously at play or not much, are natural outcomes of system programming—whether intentionally-so, or as undocumented features—it doesn’t really matter.
It is vital to get 'boots on the ground' perspectives among others. This is why I appreciate Douglas Murray, who intentionally travels to 'dangerous' countries to gauge perspectives (political leanings aside). I want to hear from as many Venezuelans as possible.
I believe the nearly 8 million displaced Venezuelans are speaking volumes. Those still living there aren't yet sure it's truly safe to express their opinions freely.
I understood what Charles said here to endorse what you are saying. One of the takeaways that I got was that by doing this, Trump is setting precedence for this type of lawlessness to flourish. I'm so sorry for what is happening in your country. If Trump takes over it will certainly continue, or (hopefully not) get worse.
I see Trump as a symptom. He didn’t write the Monroe Doctrine. As an exercise, can we all try to imagine a planet where the US because operative neutral (like the Swiss)? It wouldn’t save the world, but we’d certainly make less enemies and save a lot of money. Eisenhower warned us in 1961 about the rise of the Military Industrial Complex — a fact I find more interesting that he served at the highest levels of military command during WWII—but I don’t think he understood how to prevent it. Trends are easier to see than causes.
I think you missed the whole point of this essay
He didn't miss it. We Iranians are also facing an army of these type of commenters, when anyone slightly and even politely criticises Imperialistic behavior they jump in and say: but we Iranians hate Mulla's etc... they use almost the same verbal structures, so I also doubt if these kind of comments are mass-manufactured somewhere...
Like anotner commenter said before, he is almost certainly a cia or mossad asset. They don't even bother to read the post they're commenting to, they just catch the general vibe of it (is it aligned with the empire's narrative or different from tne empire's narrative) and immediately launch into copy-pasting their pre-prepared talking points that have nothing to do with the post.
There's a flood of them alll over social medias. They make these comments and then the other assets boost it with likes.. The american billionaires' empire doesn't engage in any big attack operation without also having a massive propaganda blitz of influencers and commenters on their privately-owned social medias to flood the airwaves with the empires's talking points. It's extremely depressing how they can buy everything with their endless money, both the social medias themselves and what's promoted on tjem, as well as an army of commentors and influencers to flood tje airwaves. Their control over the narrative, tje public mood and the flow of information is almost total...
please, please, for your own good - take a break from the internet, touch grass. Seriously, think about why you have the need to dehumanize others who have different opinions from your own by calling them agents or bots or whatever...Regardless of how you feel about this action by the administration, there are many Venezuelans who are incredibly happy about this. Stop and think about why that is so threatening to your narrative reality and sense of self that you need to dehumanize these people by saying they must be agents or bots. I understand that there are many who are unhappy or disturbed by this, but there are many who are happy with it.
Only progressive liberal scum who despise Trump are upset about this.
Rational people understand that, while it was a high-risk move, if we can continue protecting the Venezuelans still in the country and ultimately hand them a safe, secure, and free nation, this will go down as an extraordinary moment in history. There is still much work that needs to be done.
you sound like one yourself
Good to have this perspective, which might perhaps enlighten Charles about the reality of the Maduro regime. This holier-than-thou diatribe is an embarrassment, Charles. You want to treat a monster like Maduro with " respect, humanity, and dignity”? You refer to drug smugglers as “passengers and crew” and mourn their demise? And worry about what conditions might have led poor Maduro to dictatorship? Seriously? Is he the victim here from cruel circumstances that sadly turned him to a life of crime? You sound like an ICE protestor, decrying the “abduction” and deportation of rapists, murderers and drug dealers. Talk to Venezuelans, Charles. They are celebrating and thankful that their nightmare may soon be over.
Smh
Well said. Maduro is a thug he’s lucky he’s alive.
Obviously Einstein is suffering from severe TDS. He’s clueless. What a shame. Thank you for your post. God bless.
It’s not the job of the US to step in. The US is not the policeman of the world & has no right to act like it is. You think Trump cares about the average Venezuelan on the street? You think this was the act of a saviour?
The US is not 'stepping in', it is the opposite. We have been under assault by Maduro with his drug smuggling, gang members and traffickers slipping through Biden open borders, harboring criminal cartels and foreign actors that act to destabilize the entire region. Maduro is not the legitimate leader of Venezuela but a mafia style boss who refused to leave when a democratic elections ousted him. The Venezuelans do not want him, and he is under indictment here for his crimes. This was not an action against Venezuela but a perfectly executed surgical law enforcement action to capture a criminal.
You might be interested to learn that almost all the videos flooding social media of so-called "celebrations" and "jubilation" of venezuelans of the kidnapping of maduro are AI-generated DeepFake videos
See here
https://futurism.com/artificial-intelligence/venezuela-maduro-ai-misinformation
And here https://youtu.be/48eVxJZw3Iw?si=ffD_w55zIfdP4KD0
And here
https://www.wired.com/story/disinformation-floods-social-media-after-nicolas-maduros-capture/
And here
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/jan/05/maduro-venezuela-ai-images
And here https://factcheck.afp.com/doc.afp.com.89PG4WE
In addition, there are also old or unrelated footage of celebrations from years ago that are manipulatively re‑captioned as reactions to the kidnapping. See above
There are also numerous evidence of americans in venezuela (almost certainly related to the intelligence agencies) paying venezuelans to say on camera how happy they are with the invasion and kidnapping and thanking america for "freeing" them (exactly like they did in iraq, by the way)
And all of these lies and manipulations and DeepFake videos are being intensely promoted to the absolute max by the algorithms of the oligarchs on their privately-owned social medias, while ACTUAL REAL footage (see above) of mass protests in venezuela against the Wall St invasion of their country, killing of citizens, and kidnapping of president, are being literally buried and eliminated from view by the billionaires' manipulative algorithms.
Unfortunately vast majority of well-intentioned but gullible trump fans seem to lack the awareness of how propaganda works, of how the billionaires' empire functions and of the tools to manipulate public opinion, and therefore blindly and uncritically believe whatever the video caption or tweet says about what they are supposedly seeing, as long as it fits the narrative they want to hear. Very little critical thinking, very little questioning and very little awareness of the deluge of propaganda and information warfare directed at us.
It is major problem. Many americans don't seem to be aware of how profoundly controlled and manipulated is the information ecosystem that americans live in. A few anti-Golden-Rule mafia oligarchs who own the flow of information (and the platforms for human communication) literally have the power to make americans believe a narrative or to bury a narrative. They literally get to decide what is real and what is eliminated from existence. It is a monstrous dystopian reality beyond words and it doesn't seem like many well-intentioned but gullible trump fans are aware of this.
Now, i think it's important to mention here that there are of course SOME people in venezuela who are genuinely happy with the Wall St invasion and kidnapping. From a poll that i've seen in late December (roughly a week before the Oligarchs' attack) 23% of people in venezuela were in favor of an american invasion and 55% were against it. 23% of the population of venezuela is more than 7 million people. That's a lot of people, so yes, of course there will be SOME people in venezuela happy about the invasion, kidnapping and Wall St takeover. But are they the MAJORITY of people in venezuela? All indications i've seen - from polls, and from in depth interviews with people in venezuela (not a quick DeepFake clip but actual serious in-depth discussions with real human beings) and from the mass protests in caracas and other cities against the invasion and kidnapping (protests which americans never get to hear about becasue of the complete information blackout and the highly restrictive propagandized and manipulated information environment that people live under in america), from all of these varied and confirmed sources (not DeepFake clips and billionaire propaganda), my tentative conclusion is that the majority (70-80% of people in venezuela) are not in favor of the Wall St invasion and takeover of their country
Here's one in-depth interview with a local venezuelan who drove all across the country, including in small rural towns, to get a feel for the people's sentiment and to see if there is anything special going on https://www.youtube.com/live/BPHeoMRsrUw?si=728OtM2iM-NXZoIK (ignore the video title, it is meant to attract viewers and is not descriptive of the actual content).
And here's an in-depth discussion with a very knowledgable american analyst who lived in venezuela for many years and his wise venezuelan wife, describing their understanding of events and of the current mood in venezuela (listen to the end for full breakdown) https://www.youtube.com/live/iTgkGSeJfhg?si=meq8jAZfftxXah1j
PS. To be clear, i am not pro maduro. And i'm also not pro the Wall St mafia predators and their american govt. I am pro people. See here pdrboston.org
Now, even though SOME people in venezuela might be happy about the invasion, kidnapping and Wall St takeover (and there are undoubtedly some who do) please don't forget tye reality of iraq (where some people were also very happy at first about the american invasion and Wall St takeover). Remember the "liberation" of iraq? The wall st empire also kidnapped the "evil dictator" there, and brought so-called "freedom & democracy" to iraq, remember? (With the full support of the same gullible conservatives who are now cheering for the billionaire predators once again). There were many many people in iraq who were celebrating when this happened. Within less than a year of the Wall St takeover of their country they were all crying, including those who celebrated at first. You think the profits from the oil are going to anyone other than the richest 0.01%? Why don't you ask the iraqi people how this Wall St takeover worked out for them. Do you think anyone in iraq saw a cent from the oil that american billionaires stole!? It has been all downhill since the freeloading billionaire thieves and their militarized empire took control over iraq and plundered it to the last drop (in addition creating, funding and arming terrorist groups and drug-running cartels, as the american empire ALWAYS does). And yet gullible conservatives are cheering for takeover by the Wall St mafia once again. Blindly believing their beloved oligarchs' stories without a second thought. Exactly like 20 years ago.
So this is just to point out that the fact that some people might be happy about the invasion, kidnapping amd takeover, is not necessarily an indication that they are going to have a good or even reasonable life after the Wall St predators (and their american govt) take over. I would say they are very likely going to have an awful life, as has happened every single time the american Wall St empire has so-called "liberated" a country and brought it so-called "freedom". Iraq being just one example (in fact, the starvation sanctions and strangulation blockade by the american regime on venezuela have already made the life of ordinary venezuelans miserable, killing 40 thousand citizens annually according to a UN investigative report, impoverishing & traumatizing millions more and displacing millions)
In addition, i also recommend this fascinating 16 minute video of geopolitical and economic analysis showing exactly why the Wall St vultures and their us gov't attacked Venezuela https://youtu.be/ZMnLnRkcikw as you see, the Wall St mafia's invasion, kindnapping and takeover is all about oil and the petrodollar. It has nothing whatsoever to do with the lies that well-intentioned but gullible trump fans are told inside their information bubble as if it is about so-called "drugs" or "corruption" or "liberating venezuelans" (as if the billionaire predators give a shit about the well-being of ordinary venezuelans or americans). I don't think anyone actually believes the elite's lies except maybe a few diehard trump fans.
And since we mentioned the "drugs" story, i highly recommend this in-depth investigation exposing the Wall St (us gov't) invention of the 'venezuela drugs' fabrication https://open.substack.com/pub/justinpodur/p/the-invention-of-venezuela-drugs
And here you can see a brief history of ACTUAL american NarcoTerrorism as told through the vast cocaine trafficking enterprise of Marco Rubio's family. Please read this eye-opening piece to see the facts about who are the ACTUAL narco-terrorist elite
https://prospect.org/2025/12/23/narco-terrorist-elite-rubio-south-america-iran-contra/
And that's not even beginning to go into the israeli Sackler family, who made 14billion in profits from oxycontin and generated the opioid crisis, and are directly linked for the death of at least 670 thousand americans (i can't go here into the weeds of this vast monstrosity and the crimes committed). But don't expect the mafia billionaire predators to declare israel a narco-terrorist state and attack it any time soon.. it's responsible for infinitely more drug deaths than anything venezuela could ever cause, but this doesn't fit the narrative that the corporate-banking empire is selling you and emotionally-manipulating you with (i was born and raised in israel, btw. If interested, see my perspective on this here https://open.substack.com/pub/headandheart1/p/my-perspective-on-the-conflict-in )
It's amazing how everything americans (and especially trump fans) are taught to believe inside the manipulative and highly distorted information bubbles is a COMPLETE INVERSION of reality. The very ones accusing others of drug trafficking are the biggest traffickers and the ones profitting the most from drugging americans. But i can't go into this vast subject matter here..
Finally, with regard illegal immigration, here are facts you're never told https://johnspritzler.substack.com/p/illegal-immigration-to-the-us-myth
I was about to accuse Ardi of being a bot, but a bot wouldn't have been so blatant or dismissive of the well-constructed points in Charles's piece. At least try to engage with the content rather than coming in guns blazing with irrelevant arguments.
Thank you for your comment. I read the email thinking it was a baby who was pointing a finger at everything they believe is wrong with a topic they know nothing about. I’m sure if Biden would have done this on the other hand they would be holding hands with Venezuelans. AMUSING
Exactly they would be kissing Biden’s feet. The left is deranged.
You are quite mistaken about that. There are many with principles who oppose violence and domination no matter who gives the order. And most people my age have seen how the wars have continued no matter which "side" was in office. It's almost like there's a military industrial complex that's actually calling the shots and both mainstream parties are in cahoots with the billionaires and a system built on extraction and domination.
The forest for the trees is that we are all deranged. The first step to 12 step recovery is to realize it and admit it. It’s a fitting analog. Maybe the bottom we each have to hit for some of us doesn’t have to be complete annihilation? How much time and energy are we wasting fighting each other and pointing fingers that we might otherwise be applying to the problem that equally affects us all? Is that a fair question to ask ourselves?
Whether by hook or by crook, human civilization all stand equally captured. We all benefit if the dollar effectively tethers itself to ecological reality. All going on 9 billion of us equally consume more than 1.7 earths’ capacity to keep up — mainly because abstract symbolic monetization has literally fried our collective brains. Let any in the world who doubt it try to eat their money. At some point, soon it may be likely that this will be the only option for most of us. It’s no single faction’s fault.
Whether we like it or not, if the dollar goes down, we all do — simple as that. It’s not even the dollar. None of our abstract symbolic money is tethered directly to ecological reality. It’s literal insanity that no other species of life on earth pays more than a brief curious sniff for.
Humanity has lost our way, abandoned any real feedback signaling we ever selectively evolved over millions of years to ground us. Blaming one country or currency for common ground civilization scale folly might be entertaining, but it’s hardly useful.
Any pre-monotized subset of human civilization that has lived or try to live sanely tethered with healthy respect to the environment that sustains us, the rest of us have actively hunted down and destroyed. Post monetized society is going to be a living nightmare and there are literally no alternatives available for any of us to escape to. I empathize for how horrible this news is.
We’ve managed to maintain an operative rationalized level of denial to feel somewhat ‘okay’ until now in whatever constructed delusion we manage our stress with, but Mother Nature isn’t fooled. She merely operates her ledgers on such a scale far beyond our comparatively tiny life spans. If we collectively can find any meaning, it seems inevitable that we’ll eventually need to find it in reality. Delusion abstracts reality as much as the money system that has brought us to the brink of civilizational collapse. The systemic problem has been progressing for far longer than any country has existed.
The economy has been shattered since the US tried a coup on Chavez and put swinging sanctions on a democratic country
I love this take: Venezuela's economy is in shambles not because socialism 'works'—it spectacularly doesn't—but because mean old U.S. sanctions kept their glorious communist paradise from thriving.
Never mind that the collapse started long before serious sanctions kicked in: nationalizing industries, expropriating private businesses, price controls that emptied shelves, currency manipulation that fueled hyperinflation, and squandering oil windfalls on corruption and cronies instead of reinvesting in production. Venezuela went from one of Latin America's richest nations—with the world's largest oil reserves—to an 80% economic contraction, mass starvation, and 8 million refugees fleeing the 'workers' paradise,' all thanks to textbook socialist policies.
Sanctions? Sure, they hurt—but they were a response to the regime's authoritarianism and theft, not the cause. The real culprit was always the system itself: central planning that turned abundance into scarcity. And now, after the U.S. finally stepped in to remove the dictator, watch the excuses shift again. Socialism didn't fail Venezuela; reality just refused to cooperate.
The left is delusional.
Not at all Democratic, they are equally as evil as Cuba and controlled by the dictators in Cuba, including intelligence and protection services from Cuba. They have to defend their supply of free oil.
The details of the facts are not the point of the article. I'm thinking about government policies that really work and inspire people.
I am wanting to learn about this critical situation. What are your opinions about this Venezuelan's comments? Thank-you. https://x.com/TheRightMelissa/status/2007408531939717580?s=20
He’s praising a woman who supports the genocide and displacement of another people. I’m confused.
I know what you mean, and, I have since yesterday come across many Venezuelans speaking like he does. Which points to citizens being fed up with the way things have been, hence all the celebrations in the streets. I was born in Bogota Colombia (European parents) and I am familiar with how governments in South America are oppressive. I know several Venezuelans here who came here to escape Maduro.
Still learning about this whole Venezuelan situation, esp. about the crude oil. For example, a friend who has worked in the financial sector of the oil industry informed me that the crude oil in Ven. is the same as that in Canada, and that if the US will rely in future primarily on the oil from Ven., Canada's economy will tank (pun intended). I have lived in Canada most of my life so this does not bode well here. In general though, Canada has been on a downward spiral- not the country I loved and spent most of my life in!
You might be interested to learn that almost all the videos flooding social media of so-called "celebrations" and "jubilation" of venezuelans of the kidnapping of maduro are AI-generated DeepFake videos
See here
https://futurism.com/artificial-intelligence/venezuela-maduro-ai-misinformation
And here https://youtu.be/48eVxJZw3Iw?si=ffD_w55zIfdP4KD0
And here
https://www.wired.com/story/disinformation-floods-social-media-after-nicolas-maduros-capture/
And here
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/jan/05/maduro-venezuela-ai-images
And here https://factcheck.afp.com/doc.afp.com.89PG4WE
In addition, there are also old or unrelated footage of celebrations from years ago that are manipulatively re‑captioned as reactions to the kidnapping. See above
There are also numerous evidence of americans in venezuela (almost certainly related to the intelligence agencies) paying venezuelans to say on camera how happy they are with the invasion and kidnapping and thanking america for "freeing" them (exactly like they did in iraq, by the way)
And all of these lies and manipulations and DeepFake videos are being intensely promoted to the absolute max by the algorithms of the oligarchs on their privately-owned social medias, while ACTUAL REAL footage (see above) of mass protests in venezuela against the Wall St invasion of their country, killing of citizens, and kidnapping of president, are being literally buried and eliminated from view by the billionaires' manipulative algorithms.
Unfortunately vast majority of well-intentioned but gullible trump fans seem to lack the awareness of how propaganda works, of how the billionaires' empire functions and of the tools to manipulate public opinion, and therefore blindly and uncritically believe whatever the video caption or tweet says about what they are supposedly seeing, as long as it fits the narrative they want to hear. Very little critical thinking, very little questioning and very little awareness of the deluge of propaganda and information warfare directed at us.
It is major problem. Many americans don't seem to be aware of how profoundly controlled and manipulated is the information ecosystem that americans live in. A few anti-Golden-Rule mafia oligarchs who own the flow of information (and the platforms for human communication) literally have the power to make americans believe a narrative or to bury a narrative. They literally get to decide what is real and what is eliminated from existence. It is a monstrous dystopian reality beyond words and it doesn't seem like many well-intentioned but gullible trump fans are aware of this.
Now, i think it's important to mention here that there are of course SOME people in venezuela who are genuinely happy with the Wall St invasion and kidnapping. From a poll that i've seen in late December (roughly a week before the Oligarchs' attack) 23% of people in venezuela were in favor of an american invasion and 55% were against it. 23% of the population of venezuela is more than 7 million people. That's a lot of people, so yes, of course there will be SOME people in venezuela happy about the invasion, kidnapping and Wall St takeover. But are they the MAJORITY of people in venezuela? All indications i've seen - from polls, and from in depth interviews with people in venezuela (not a quick DeepFake clip but actual serious in-depth discussions with real human beings) and from the mass protests in caracas and other cities against the invasion and kidnapping (protests which americans never get to hear about becasue of the complete information blackout and the highly restrictive propagandized and manipulated information environment that people live under in america), from all of these varied and confirmed sources (not DeepFake clips and billionaire propaganda), my tentative conclusion is that the majority (70-80% of people in venezuela) are not in favor of the Wall St invasion and takeover of their country
Here's one in-depth interview with a local venezuelan who drove all across the country, including in small rural towns, to get a feel for the people's sentiment and to see if there is anything special going on https://www.youtube.com/live/BPHeoMRsrUw?si=728OtM2iM-NXZoIK (ignore the video title, it is meant to attract viewers and is not descriptive of the actual content).
And here's an in-depth discussion with a very knowledgable american analyst who lived in venezuela for many years and his wise venezuelan wife, describing their understanding of events and of the current mood in venezuela (listen to the end for full breakdown) https://www.youtube.com/live/iTgkGSeJfhg?si=meq8jAZfftxXah1j
PS. To be clear, i am not pro maduro. And i'm also not pro the Wall St mafia predators and their american govt. I am pro people. See here pdrboston.org
Now, even though SOME people in venezuela might be happy about the invasion, kidnapping and Wall St takeover (and there are undoubtedly some who do) please don't forget tye reality of iraq (where some people were also very happy at first about the american invasion and Wall St takeover). Remember the "liberation" of iraq? The wall st empire also kidnapped the "evil dictator" there, and brought so-called "freedom & democracy" to iraq, remember? (With the full support of the same gullible conservatives who are now cheering for the billionaire predators once again). There were many many people in iraq who were celebrating when this happened. Within less than a year of the Wall St takeover of their country they were all crying, including those who celebrated at first. You think the profits from the oil are going to anyone other than the richest 0.01%? Why don't you ask the iraqi people how this Wall St takeover worked out for them. Do you think anyone in iraq saw a cent from the oil that american billionaires stole!? It has been all downhill since the freeloading billionaire thieves and their militarized empire took control over iraq and plundered it to the last drop (in addition creating, funding and arming terrorist groups and drug-running cartels, as the american empire ALWAYS does). And yet gullible conservatives are cheering for takeover by the Wall St mafia once again. Blindly believing their beloved oligarchs' stories without a second thought. Exactly like 20 years ago.
So this is just to point out that the fact that some people might be happy about the invasion, kidnapping amd takeover, is not necessarily an indication that they are going to have a good or even reasonable life after the Wall St predators (and their american govt) take over. I would say they are very likely going to have an awful life, as has happened every single time the american Wall St empire has so-called "liberated" a country and brought it so-called "freedom". Iraq being just one example (in fact, the starvation sanctions and strangulation blockade by the american regime on venezuela have already made the life of ordinary venezuelans miserable, killing 40 thousand citizens annually according to a UN investigative report, impoverishing & traumatizing millions more and displacing millions)
In addition, i also recommend this fascinating 16 minute video of geopolitical and economic analysis showing exactly why the Wall St vultures and their us gov't attacked Venezuela https://youtu.be/ZMnLnRkcikw as you see, the Wall St mafia's invasion, kindnapping and takeover is all about oil and the petrodollar. It has nothing whatsoever to do with the lies that well-intentioned but gullible trump fans are told inside their information bubble as if it is about so-called "drugs" or "corruption" or "liberating venezuelans" (as if the billionaire predators give a shit about the well-being of ordinary venezuelans or americans). I don't think anyone actually believes the elite's lies except maybe a few diehard trump fans.
And since we mentioned the "drugs" story, i highly recommend this in-depth investigation exposing the Wall St (us gov't) invention of the 'venezuela drugs' fabrication https://open.substack.com/pub/justinpodur/p/the-invention-of-venezuela-drugs
And here you can see a brief history of ACTUAL american NarcoTerrorism as told through the vast cocaine trafficking enterprise of Marco Rubio's family. Please read this eye-opening piece to see the facts about who are the ACTUAL narco-terrorist elite
https://prospect.org/2025/12/23/narco-terrorist-elite-rubio-south-america-iran-contra/
And that's not even beginning to go into the israeli Sackler family, who made 14billion in profits from oxycontin and generated the opioid crisis, and are directly linked for the death of at least 670 thousand americans (i can't go here into the weeds of this vast monstrosity and the crimes committed). But don't expect the mafia billionaire predators to declare israel a narco-terrorist state and attack it any time soon.. it's responsible for infinitely more drug deaths than anything venezuela could ever cause, but this doesn't fit the narrative that the corporate-banking empire is selling you and emotionally-manipulating you with (i was born and raised in israel, btw. If interested, see my perspective on this here https://open.substack.com/pub/headandheart1/p/my-perspective-on-the-conflict-in )
It's amazing how everything americans (and especially trump fans) are taught to believe inside the manipulative and highly distorted information bubbles is a COMPLETE INVERSION of reality. The very ones accusing others of drug trafficking are the biggest traffickers and the ones profitting the most from drugging americans. But i can't go into this vast subject matter here..
Finally, i just want to share this profoundly important piece which is really the cornerstone of how the elite emotionally-manipulate us and control us. https://www.pdrboston.org/oppressors-need-bogeyman-enemies
thanks for sharing this.
Thank you for posting this one. I would not have seen it otherwise. What it reminds me, as does charles' post, is that we no longer learn from MSM. We learn from social media. Elon musk was right...allow the people to speak.
You might be interested to learn that almost all the videos flooding social media of so-called "celebrations" and "jubilation" of venezuelans of the kidnapping of maduro are AI-generated DeepFake videos
See here
https://futurism.com/artificial-intelligence/venezuela-maduro-ai-misinformation
And here https://youtu.be/48eVxJZw3Iw?si=ffD_w55zIfdP4KD0
And here
https://www.wired.com/story/disinformation-floods-social-media-after-nicolas-maduros-capture/
And here
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/jan/05/maduro-venezuela-ai-images
And here https://factcheck.afp.com/doc.afp.com.89PG4WE
In addition, there are also old or unrelated footage of celebrations from years ago that are manipulatively re‑captioned as reactions to the kidnapping. See above
There are also numerous evidence of americans in venezuela (almost certainly related to the intelligence agencies) paying venezuelans to say on camera how happy they are with the invasion and kidnapping and thanking america for "freeing" them (exactly like they did in iraq, by the way)
And all of these lies and manipulations and DeepFake videos are being intensely promoted to the absolute max by the algorithms of the oligarchs on their privately-owned social medias, while ACTUAL REAL footage (see above) of mass protests in venezuela against the Wall St invasion of their country, killing of citizens, and kidnapping of president, are being literally buried and eliminated from view by the billionaires' manipulative algorithms.
Unfortunately vast majority of well-intentioned but gullible trump fans seem to lack the awareness of how propaganda works, of how the billionaires' empire functions and of the tools to manipulate public opinion, and therefore blindly and uncritically believe whatever the video caption or tweet says about what they are supposedly seeing, as long as it fits the narrative they want to hear. Very little critical thinking, very little questioning and very little awareness of the deluge of propaganda and information warfare directed at us.
It is major problem. Many americans don't seem to be aware of how profoundly controlled and manipulated is the information ecosystem that americans live in. A few anti-Golden-Rule mafia oligarchs who own the flow of information (and the platforms for human communication) literally have the power to make americans believe a narrative or to bury a narrative. They literally get to decide what is real and what is eliminated from existence. It is a monstrous dystopian reality beyond words and it doesn't seem like many well-intentioned but gullible trump fans are aware of this.
Now, i think it's important to mention here that there are of course SOME people in venezuela who are genuinely happy with the Wall St invasion and kidnapping. From a poll that i've seen in late December (roughly a week before the Oligarchs' attack) 23% of people in venezuela were in favor of an american invasion and 55% were against it. 23% of the population of venezuela is more than 7 million people. That's a lot of people, so yes, of course there will be SOME people in venezuela happy about the invasion, kidnapping and Wall St takeover. But are they the MAJORITY of people in venezuela? All indications i've seen - from polls, and from in depth interviews with people in venezuela (not a quick DeepFake clip but actual serious in-depth discussions with real human beings) and from the mass protests in caracas and other cities against the invasion and kidnapping (protests which americans never get to hear about becasue of the complete information blackout and the highly restrictive propagandized and manipulated information environment that people live under in america), from all of these varied and confirmed sources (not DeepFake clips and billionaire propaganda), my tentative conclusion is that the majority (70-80% of people in venezuela) are not in favor of the Wall St invasion and takeover of their country
Here's one in-depth interview with a local venezuelan who drove all across the country, including in small rural towns, to get a feel for the people's sentiment and to see if there is anything special going on https://www.youtube.com/live/BPHeoMRsrUw?si=728OtM2iM-NXZoIK (ignore the video title, it is meant to attract viewers and is not descriptive of the actual content).
And here's an in-depth discussion with a very knowledgable american analyst who lived in venezuela for many years and his wise venezuelan wife, describing their understanding of events and of the current mood in venezuela (listen to the end for full breakdown) https://www.youtube.com/live/iTgkGSeJfhg?si=meq8jAZfftxXah1j
PS. To be clear, i am not pro maduro. And i'm also not pro the Wall St mafia predators and their american govt. I am pro people. See here pdrboston.org
Now, even though SOME people in venezuela might be happy about the invasion, kidnapping and Wall St takeover (and there are undoubtedly some who do) please don't forget tye reality of iraq (where some people were also very happy at first about the american invasion and Wall St takeover). Remember the "liberation" of iraq? The wall st empire also kidnapped the "evil dictator" there, and brought so-called "freedom & democracy" to iraq, remember? (With the full support of the same gullible conservatives who are now cheering for the billionaire predators once again). There were many many people in iraq who were celebrating when this happened. Within less than a year of the Wall St takeover of their country they were all crying, including those who celebrated at first. You think the profits from the oil are going to anyone other than the richest 0.01%? Why don't you ask the iraqi people how this Wall St takeover worked out for them. Do you think anyone in iraq saw a cent from the oil that american billionaires stole!? It has been all downhill since the freeloading billionaire thieves and their militarized empire took control over iraq and plundered it to the last drop (in addition creating, funding and arming terrorist groups and drug-running cartels, as the american empire ALWAYS does). And yet gullible conservatives are cheering for takeover by the Wall St mafia once again. Blindly believing their beloved oligarchs' stories without a second thought. Exactly like 20 years ago.
So this is just to point out that the fact that some people might be happy about the invasion, kidnapping amd takeover, is not necessarily an indication that they are going to have a good or even reasonable life after the Wall St predators (and their american govt) take over. I would say they are very likely going to have an awful life, as has happened every single time the american Wall St empire has so-called "liberated" a country and brought it so-called "freedom". Iraq being just one example (in fact, the starvation sanctions and strangulation blockade by the american regime on venezuela have already made the life of ordinary venezuelans miserable, killing 40 thousand citizens annually according to a UN investigative report, impoverishing & traumatizing millions more and displacing millions)
In addition, i also recommend this fascinating 16 minute video of geopolitical and economic analysis showing exactly why the Wall St vultures and their us gov't attacked Venezuela https://youtu.be/ZMnLnRkcikw as you see, the Wall St mafia's invasion, kindnapping and takeover is all about oil and the petrodollar. It has nothing whatsoever to do with the lies that well-intentioned but gullible trump fans are told inside their information bubble as if it is about so-called "drugs" or "corruption" or "liberating venezuelans" (as if the billionaire predators give a shit about the well-being of ordinary venezuelans or americans). I don't think anyone actually believes the elite's lies except maybe a few diehard trump fans.
And since we mentioned the "drugs" story, i highly recommend this in-depth investigation exposing the Wall St (us gov't) invention of the 'venezuela drugs' fabrication https://open.substack.com/pub/justinpodur/p/the-invention-of-venezuela-drugs
And here you can see a brief history of ACTUAL american NarcoTerrorism as told through the vast cocaine trafficking enterprise of Marco Rubio's family. Please read this eye-opening piece to see the facts about who are the ACTUAL narco-terrorist elite
https://prospect.org/2025/12/23/narco-terrorist-elite-rubio-south-america-iran-contra/
And that's not even beginning to go into the israeli Sackler family, who made 14billion in profits from oxycontin and generated the opioid crisis, and are directly linked for the death of at least 670 thousand americans (i can't go here into the weeds of this vast monstrosity and the crimes committed). But don't expect the mafia billionaire predators to declare israel a narco-terrorist state and attack it any time soon.. it's responsible for infinitely more drug deaths than anything venezuela could ever cause, but this doesn't fit the narrative that the corporate-banking empire is selling you and emotionally-manipulating you with (i was born and raised in israel, btw. If interested, see my perspective on this here https://open.substack.com/pub/headandheart1/p/my-perspective-on-the-conflict-in )
It's amazing how everything americans (and especially trump fans) are taught to believe inside the manipulative and highly distorted information bubbles is a COMPLETE INVERSION of reality. The very ones accusing others of drug trafficking are the biggest traffickers and the ones profitting the most from drugging americans. But i can't go into this vast subject matter here..
Finally, i just want to share this profoundly important piece which is really the cornerstone of how the elite emotionally-manipulate us and control us. https://www.pdrboston.org/oppressors-need-bogeyman-enemies
wiresouth.com/jj879u
As a Venezuelan, your input is helpful, but limited just like anyone's. I'm sure people all around Venezuela have many feelings about what happened as it will change the course of thier lives for good or bad. This situation has implications for all international relations. So whether Maduro was bad or not is not the question. Obviously he was corrupt. The question is, can Trump do whatever he wants to whomever, whenever? And apparently yes is the answer. Sound familiar? Do you think that the plan for Venezuela is in better hands now? Someone who will take what rhey want when they want is still in charge.
This is a measured comment. The long range implications of this are still very much up in the air, yet people have extremely strong reactions one way or the other.
Thos is exactly what my gut told me to be true as soon as I heard the news. Then I saw the "Venezualan abroad" media hype of celebration that this is a great thing, which felt completely off. This is the start of the final battle for the consciousness of humanity. Which side will be chosen - fear or love? And even saying that creates duality. Our language needs reprogramming too. Hold your ground people. Stay in a higher frequency and know that love has already won, despite what is being fed to you. Sending love to all the courageous souls in the middle of this. Thank you Charles
Thank you for this comment. It brought me to tears. The last few sentences in particular were much needed by me right now. I’m having trouble remembering how to get out of the “us-them” “fight of good vs evil” mindset, and reading this felt very helpful. Thank you
Oh I'm so glad it helped Kelsey. It is difficult as we have been programmed for a VERY long time to take sides. Time up on that now. Im holding a live substack meditation on it later if it helps further? 3pm EST/ 8pm Ireland 🙏💚
the reason the celebrations felt "completely off" to you is because your "gut" is aligned with the narrative that this action is immoral and wrong. I agree with the rest of your comment. There is a higher frequency of love, and that includes the understanding of non-duality in which this action was actually a good move for many people and many Venezuelans are legitimately happy about it. The long term implications are still very much up in the air.
You might be interested to learn that almost all the videos flooding social media of so-called "celebrations" and "jubilation" of venezuelans of the kidnapping of maduro are AI-generated DeepFake videos
See here
https://futurism.com/artificial-intelligence/venezuela-maduro-ai-misinformation
And here https://youtu.be/48eVxJZw3Iw?si=ffD_w55zIfdP4KD0
And here
https://www.wired.com/story/disinformation-floods-social-media-after-nicolas-maduros-capture/
And here
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/jan/05/maduro-venezuela-ai-images
And here https://factcheck.afp.com/doc.afp.com.89PG4WE
In addition, there are also old or unrelated footage of celebrations from years ago that are manipulatively re‑captioned as reactions to the kidnapping. See above
There are also numerous evidence of americans in venezuela (almost certainly related to the intelligence agencies) paying venezuelans to say on camera how happy they are with the invasion and kidnapping and thanking america for "freeing" them (exactly like they did in iraq, by the way)
And all of these lies and manipulations and DeepFake videos are being intensely promoted to the absolute max by the algorithms of the oligarchs on their privately-owned social medias, while ACTUAL REAL footage (see above) of mass protests in venezuela against the Wall St invasion of their country, killing of citizens, and kidnapping of president, are being literally buried and eliminated from view by the billionaires' manipulative algorithms.
Unfortunately vast majority of well-intentioned but gullible trump fans seem to lack the awareness of how propaganda works, of how the billionaires' empire functions and of the tools to manipulate public opinion, and therefore blindly and uncritically believe whatever the video caption or tweet says about what they are supposedly seeing, as long as it fits the narrative they want to hear. Very little critical thinking, very little questioning and very little awareness of the deluge of propaganda and information warfare directed at us.
It is major problem. Many americans don't seem to be aware of how profoundly controlled and manipulated is the information ecosystem that americans live in. A few anti-Golden-Rule mafia oligarchs who own the flow of information (and the platforms for human communication) literally have the power to make americans believe a narrative or to bury a narrative. They literally get to decide what is real and what is eliminated from existence. It is a monstrous dystopian reality beyond words and it doesn't seem like many well-intentioned but gullible trump fans are aware of this.
Now, i think it's important to mention here that there are of course SOME people in venezuela who are genuinely happy with the Wall St invasion and kidnapping. From a poll that i've seen in late December (roughly a week before the Oligarchs' attack) 23% of people in venezuela were in favor of an american invasion and 55% were against it. 23% of the population of venezuela is more than 7 million people. That's a lot of people, so yes, of course there will be SOME people in venezuela happy about the invasion, kidnapping and Wall St takeover. But are they the MAJORITY of people in venezuela? All indications i've seen - from polls, and from in depth interviews with people in venezuela (not a quick DeepFake clip but actual serious in-depth discussions with real human beings) and from the mass protests in caracas and other cities against the invasion and kidnapping (protests which americans never get to hear about becasue of the complete information blackout and the highly restrictive propagandized and manipulated information environment that people live under in america), from all of these varied and confirmed sources (not DeepFake clips and billionaire propaganda), my tentative conclusion is that the majority (70-80% of people in venezuela) are not in favor of the Wall St invasion and takeover of their country
Here's one in-depth interview with a local venezuelan who drove all across the country, including in small rural towns, to get a feel for the people's sentiment and to see if there is anything special going on https://www.youtube.com/live/BPHeoMRsrUw?si=728OtM2iM-NXZoIK (ignore the video title, it is meant to attract viewers and is not descriptive of the actual content).
And here's an in-depth discussion with a very knowledgable american analyst who lived in venezuela for many years and his wise venezuelan wife, describing their understanding of events and of the current mood in venezuela (listen to the end for full breakdown) https://www.youtube.com/live/iTgkGSeJfhg?si=meq8jAZfftxXah1j
PS. To be clear, i am not pro maduro. And i'm also not pro the Wall St mafia predators and their american govt. I am pro people. See here pdrboston.org
Now, even though SOME people in venezuela might be happy about the invasion, kidnapping and Wall St takeover (and there are undoubtedly some who do) please don't forget tye reality of iraq (where some people were also very happy at first about the american invasion and Wall St takeover). Remember the "liberation" of iraq? The wall st empire also kidnapped the "evil dictator" there, and brought so-called "freedom & democracy" to iraq, remember? (With the full support of the same gullible conservatives who are now cheering for the billionaire predators once again). There were many many people in iraq who were celebrating when this happened. Within less than a year of the Wall St takeover of their country they were all crying, including those who celebrated at first. You think the profits from the oil are going to anyone other than the richest 0.01%? Why don't you ask the iraqi people how this Wall St takeover worked out for them. Do you think anyone in iraq saw a cent from the oil that american billionaires stole!? It has been all downhill since the freeloading billionaire thieves and their militarized empire took control over iraq and plundered it to the last drop (in addition creating, funding and arming terrorist groups and drug-running cartels, as the american empire ALWAYS does). And yet gullible conservatives are cheering for takeover by the Wall St mafia once again. Blindly believing their beloved oligarchs' stories without a second thought. Exactly like 20 years ago.
So this is just to point out that the fact that some people might be happy about the invasion, kidnapping amd takeover, is not necessarily an indication that they are going to have a good or even reasonable life after the Wall St predators (and their american govt) take over. I would say they are very likely going to have an awful life, as has happened every single time the american Wall St empire has so-called "liberated" a country and brought it so-called "freedom". Iraq being just one example (in fact, the starvation sanctions and strangulation blockade by the american regime on venezuela have already made the life of ordinary venezuelans miserable, killing 40 thousand citizens annually according to a UN investigative report, impoverishing & traumatizing millions more and displacing millions)
In addition, i also recommend this fascinating 16 minute video of geopolitical and economic analysis showing exactly why the Wall St vultures and their us gov't attacked Venezuela https://youtu.be/ZMnLnRkcikw as you see, the Wall St mafia's invasion, kindnapping and takeover is all about oil and the petrodollar. It has nothing whatsoever to do with the lies that well-intentioned but gullible trump fans are told inside their information bubble as if it is about so-called "drugs" or "corruption" or "liberating venezuelans" (as if the billionaire predators give a shit about the well-being of ordinary venezuelans or americans). I don't think anyone actually believes the elite's lies except maybe a few diehard trump fans.
And since we mentioned the "drugs" story, i highly recommend this in-depth investigation exposing the Wall St (us gov't) invention of the 'venezuela drugs' fabrication https://open.substack.com/pub/justinpodur/p/the-invention-of-venezuela-drugs
And here you can see a brief history of ACTUAL american NarcoTerrorism as told through the vast cocaine trafficking enterprise of Marco Rubio's family. Please read this eye-opening piece to see the facts about who are the ACTUAL narco-terrorist elite
https://prospect.org/2025/12/23/narco-terrorist-elite-rubio-south-america-iran-contra/
And that's not even beginning to go into the israeli Sackler family, who made 14billion in profits from oxycontin and generated the opioid crisis, and are directly linked for the death of at least 670 thousand americans (i can't go here into the weeds of this vast monstrosity and the crimes committed). But don't expect the mafia billionaire predators to declare israel a narco-terrorist state and attack it any time soon.. it's responsible for infinitely more drug deaths than anything venezuela could ever cause, but this doesn't fit the narrative that the corporate-banking empire is selling you and emotionally-manipulating you with (i was born and raised in israel, btw. If interested, see my perspective on this here https://open.substack.com/pub/headandheart1/p/my-perspective-on-the-conflict-in )
It's amazing how everything americans (and especially trump fans) are taught to believe inside the manipulative and highly distorted information bubbles is a COMPLETE INVERSION of reality. The very ones accusing others of drug trafficking are the biggest traffickers and the ones profitting the most from drugging americans. But i can't go into this vast subject matter here for space constraints..
Finally, i just want to share this profoundly important piece which is really the cornerstone of how the elite emotionally-manipulate us and control us. https://www.pdrboston.org/oppressors-need-bogeyman-enemies
There must be some way to evolve beyond our murderous and domineering ways. God help us.
There is a better way for sure. Imagine being loved and respected at the same time
Imagine if loving and respecting were priorities.
Yes, Venezuelans are finally thrilled and thanking the United States as a nation, not President Trump like a "God" or "King" as the left did with Obama and Biden.
You might be interested to learn that almost all the videos flooding social media of so-called "celebrations" and "jubilation" of venezuelans of the kidnapping of maduro are AI-generated DeepFake videos
See here
https://futurism.com/artificial-intelligence/venezuela-maduro-ai-misinformation
And here https://youtu.be/48eVxJZw3Iw?si=ffD_w55zIfdP4KD0
And here
https://www.wired.com/story/disinformation-floods-social-media-after-nicolas-maduros-capture/
And here
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/jan/05/maduro-venezuela-ai-images
And here https://factcheck.afp.com/doc.afp.com.89PG4WE
In addition, there are also old or unrelated footage of celebrations from years ago that are manipulatively re‑captioned as reactions to the kidnapping. See above
There are also numerous evidence of americans in venezuela (almost certainly related to the intelligence agencies) paying venezuelans to say on camera how happy they are with the invasion and kidnapping and thanking america for "freeing" them (exactly like they did in iraq, by the way)
And all of these lies and manipulations and DeepFake videos are being intensely promoted to the absolute max by the algorithms of the oligarchs on their privately-owned social medias, while ACTUAL REAL footage (see above) of mass protests in venezuela against the Wall St invasion of their country, killing of citizens, and kidnapping of president, are being literally buried and eliminated from view by the billionaires' manipulative algorithms.
Unfortunately vast majority of well-intentioned but gullible trump fans seem to lack the awareness of how propaganda works, of how the billionaires' empire functions and of the tools to manipulate public opinion, and therefore blindly and uncritically believe whatever the video caption or tweet says about what they are supposedly seeing, as long as it fits the narrative they want to hear. Very little critical thinking, very little questioning and very little awareness of the deluge of propaganda and information warfare directed at us.
It is major problem. Many americans don't seem to be aware of how profoundly controlled and manipulated is the information ecosystem that americans live in. A few anti-Golden-Rule mafia oligarchs who own the flow of information (and the platforms for human communication) literally have the power to make americans believe a narrative or to bury a narrative. They literally get to decide what is real and what is eliminated from existence. It is a monstrous dystopian reality beyond words and it doesn't seem like many well-intentioned but gullible trump fans are aware of this.
Now, i think it's important to mention here that there are of course SOME people in venezuela who are genuinely happy with the Wall St invasion and kidnapping. From a poll that i've seen in late December (roughly a week before the Oligarchs' attack) 23% of people in venezuela were in favor of an american invasion and 55% were against it. 23% of the population of venezuela is more than 7 million people. That's a lot of people, so yes, of course there will be SOME people in venezuela happy about the invasion, kidnapping and Wall St takeover. But are they the MAJORITY of people in venezuela? All indications i've seen - from polls, and from in depth interviews with people in venezuela (not a quick DeepFake clip but actual serious in-depth discussions with real human beings) and from the mass protests in caracas and other cities against the invasion and kidnapping (protests which americans never get to hear about becasue of the complete information blackout and the highly restrictive propagandized and manipulated information environment that people live under in america), from all of these varied and confirmed sources (not DeepFake clips and billionaire propaganda), my tentative conclusion is that the majority (70-80% of people in venezuela) are not in favor of the Wall St invasion and takeover of their country
Here's one in-depth interview with a local venezuelan who drove all across the country, including in small rural towns, to get a feel for the people's sentiment and to see if there is anything special going on https://www.youtube.com/live/BPHeoMRsrUw?si=728OtM2iM-NXZoIK (ignore the video title, it is meant to attract viewers and is not descriptive of the actual content).
And here's an in-depth discussion with a very knowledgable american analyst who lived in venezuela for many years and his wise venezuelan wife, describing their understanding of events and of the current mood in venezuela (listen to the end for full breakdown) https://www.youtube.com/live/iTgkGSeJfhg?si=meq8jAZfftxXah1j
PS. To be clear, i am not pro maduro. And i'm also not pro the Wall St mafia predators and their american govt. I am pro people. See here pdrboston.org
Now, even though SOME people in venezuela might be happy about the invasion, kidnapping and Wall St takeover (and there are undoubtedly some who do) please don't forget tye reality of iraq (where some people were also very happy at first about the american invasion and Wall St takeover). Remember the "liberation" of iraq? The wall st empire also kidnapped the "evil dictator" there, and brought so-called "freedom & democracy" to iraq, remember? (With the full support of the same gullible conservatives who are now cheering for the billionaire predators once again). There were many many people in iraq who were celebrating when this happened. Within less than a year of the Wall St takeover of their country they were all crying, including those who celebrated at first. You think the profits from the oil are going to anyone other than the richest 0.01%? Why don't you ask the iraqi people how this Wall St takeover worked out for them. Do you think anyone in iraq saw a cent from the oil that american billionaires stole!? It has been all downhill since the freeloading billionaire thieves and their militarized empire took control over iraq and plundered it to the last drop (in addition creating, funding and arming terrorist groups and drug-running cartels, as the american empire ALWAYS does). And yet gullible conservatives are cheering for takeover by the Wall St mafia once again. Blindly believing their beloved oligarchs' stories without a second thought. Exactly like 20 years ago.
So this is just to point out that the fact that some people might be happy about the invasion, kidnapping amd takeover, is not necessarily an indication that they are going to have a good or even reasonable life after the Wall St predators (and their american govt) take over. I would say they are very likely going to have an awful life, as has happened every single time the american Wall St empire has so-called "liberated" a country and brought it so-called "freedom". Iraq being just one example (in fact, the starvation sanctions and strangulation blockade by the american regime on venezuela have already made the life of ordinary venezuelans miserable, killing 40 thousand citizens annually according to a UN investigative report, impoverishing & traumatizing millions more and displacing millions)
In addition, i also recommend this fascinating 16 minute video of geopolitical and economic analysis showing exactly why the Wall St vultures and their us gov't attacked Venezuela https://youtu.be/ZMnLnRkcikw as you see, the Wall St mafia's invasion, kindnapping and takeover is all about oil and the petrodollar. It has nothing whatsoever to do with the lies that well-intentioned but gullible trump fans are told inside their information bubble as if it is about so-called "drugs" or "corruption" or "liberating venezuelans" (as if the billionaire predators give a shit about the well-being of ordinary venezuelans or americans). I don't think anyone actually believes the elite's lies except maybe a few diehard trump fans.
And since we mentioned the "drugs" story, i highly recommend this in-depth investigation exposing the Wall St (us gov't) invention of the 'venezuela drugs' fabrication https://open.substack.com/pub/justinpodur/p/the-invention-of-venezuela-drugs
And here you can see a brief history of ACTUAL american NarcoTerrorism as told through the vast cocaine trafficking enterprise of Marco Rubio's family. Please read this eye-opening piece to see the facts about who are the ACTUAL narco-terrorist elite
https://prospect.org/2025/12/23/narco-terrorist-elite-rubio-south-america-iran-contra/
And that's not even beginning to go into the israeli Sackler family, who made 14billion in profits from oxycontin and generated the opioid crisis, and are directly linked for the death of at least 670 thousand americans (i can't go here into the weeds of this vast monstrosity and the crimes committed). But don't expect the mafia billionaire predators to declare israel a narco-terrorist state and attack it any time soon.. it's responsible for infinitely more drug deaths than anything venezuela could ever cause, but this doesn't fit the narrative that the corporate-banking empire is selling you and emotionally-manipulating you with (i was born and raised in israel, btw. If interested, see my perspective on this here https://open.substack.com/pub/headandheart1/p/my-perspective-on-the-conflict-in )
It's amazing how everything americans (and especially trump fans) are taught to believe inside the manipulative and highly distorted information bubbles is a COMPLETE INVERSION of reality. The very ones accusing others of drug trafficking are the biggest traffickers and the ones profitting the most from drugging americans. But i can't go into this vast subject matter here for space constraints..
Finally, i just want to share this profoundly important piece which is really the cornerstone of how the elite emotionally-manipulate us and control us. https://www.pdrboston.org/oppressors-need-bogeyman-enemies
Charles,
Thank you for writing this. I would like to echo Heather Ripley's comment. Many people appreciate you and hold you near to their hearts from afar.
I read through so many of these comments with a heavy heart. It saddens me beyond belief to see the unspeakable horrors of our world, and then read some of the words that are spewn from people's keyboards and touchscreen phones. I recognize that this is just yet another symptom of the place we find ourselves these days. Even though we all seem to have agreed to accept these types of comments as the norm now, to say it is disheartening nonetheless would be an understatement. Prayers to you, your country, and its victims.
What I find sick to my stomach about is how “liberals” are fully standing with Radical Islam and Narco Terrorists as standard fare now. The people of Venezuela are thrilled even if you aren’t.
Rather than blindly believing and uncritically parroting emotionally charged slogans that circulate within the one‑sided echo chamber that you seem to be locked in, I invite you to examine these four factual notes that directly address those slogans that you repeated here so uncritically. By reviewing the factual evidence, i think you might be able form a clearer, more independent perspective, and wake up out of the trance you've been put into.
Regarding "radical islam", please see here who ACTUALLY creates, funds, arms and directs the terror operations under the false flag of 'islamic terror' and who ACTUALLY creates, funds, arms and directs terrorist groups (for the purpose mentioned in the note)
https://substack.com/@headandheart1/note/c-187793354?r=4tua5v
Specifically how this is done in israel by the zionist-conservative billionaire predators (i was born and raised in israel and was in the israeli military) see here
https://substack.com/@headandheart1/note/c-109156403?r=4tua5v
And regarding the LIES that the Zionist billionaire and their conservative influencers teach you about islam to induce as much RELIGIOUS DIVISION & HATRED as possible (which is the lifeblood of Godless zionist nazism and precisely how the zionist billionaire predators keep us under their control, explained below) hear it directly from this jewish man that i interviewed in jerusalem, telling you directly what it was like to live together with muslims in palestine BEFORE the invasive zionist dispossesion and extermination project began
https://substack.com/@headandheart1/note/c-148990304?r=4tua5v
Regarding so-called "venezuela drugs" please see here this in-depth investigation to learn how thoroughly you've been deceived and emotionally-manipulated (to unwittingly side with 0.1% Wall St predators who rule over the 99.9) https://substack.com/@justinpodur/note/p-173552990
As well as here https://prospect.org/2025/12/23/narco-terrorist-elite-rubio-south-america-iran-contra/
Please do read all these FACTUAL and fully-referenced notes in order to understand how you have been deceived by the corporate-banking empire and their conservative influencers (while meaning well, but not knowing any better)
PS. Yes, liberals have also been deceived by the other half of the oligarchy, and i point this out to liberals when i interact with them, but i am not going into that here becasue here i am interacting with you, someone who has been deceived by the conservative half of the oligarchy.
Seems quite clear to me that what's happeing now is the exact same strategy that the Wall St predators have done in iraq and numerous other places. It works like this: The Wall St vultures want the oil. Their bought representitives in the american govt and their privately-owned media (including their algorithms on their social medias) deliver the story to gullible americans to justify invading, installing their pro-empire fascist puppet to privitize everything into Wall St's hands and stealing the oil.
The story taught to the heavily-propagandized and gullible american public (conservatives seem to be especially susceptibte to uncritically believeing anything the empire tells them about 'national security') involves both the invented evil crimes of the target (Simply replace 'Weapons of Mass Destruction' with 'Narco Terrorism' this time) as well as presenting the target to the hypnotized american public as an evil monster (simlly replace the "saddam dictator monster" slogan with the "maduro dictator monster" slogan, they even look very similar which is convenient, so lindsey graham - and other servants for Wall St - simply needs to change one word in his war spiel and it works just the same like it did in 2003).
Narco Terrorism = Weapons of Mass Destruction. That's the new slogan the Wall St vultures and their govt are going with this time to deceive well-intentioned but gullible conservatives into cheering for the empire once again. Exactly like the empire hypnotized them during the iraq theft and every time Wall St wants them on board their attack plans (Since 2016 democrats have also been propagandized into being also as war-mongering, right-wing, blood thirsty and pro-Wall St as republicans are, and democrats were the main propaganda target during the ukraine war - they have monster putin at the ready to rile up the democrat half for the empire - but the Wall St propaganda target right now is clearly conservatives,
The same script every time that Wall St gets ready to attack (slightly different players and excuses/slogans are given every time to deceive americans into cheering for the plans of the corporate-banking empire's but the principle/structure is the same)
And BTW, speaking of "narco terrorism", here's a brief history of American NarcoTerrorism as told through Marco Rubio's family cocaine trafficking enterprise and the ACTUAL narco-terrorist elite
https://prospect.org/2025/12/23/narco-terrorist-elite-rubio-south-america-iran-contra/
Everything americans are taught to believe by the empire and its influencers is a complete inversion of reality
The way the Wall St predators and their govt install these slogans in americans' minds is that they employ the technique thst Herman Goering perfected (the right-wing propaganda minister for the german third reich and the nazi party) - you simply repeat it again and again and again and again. Constantly. Relentlessly. Over and over again. What the nazi discovered (and the smerican govt perfected) is that the human brain will believe anything (no matter true or not) if it hears it repeated c9nstantly and sees other people around it repeating it too. That is why the billionaire vultures own all the media and social medias have thousands of influencers flooding the airwaves, repeating ad nauseam the slogans that the Wall St vultures and their govt want installed in the american psyche, so that when you hear for example 'osama bin laden' or 'isis' you automatically think 'evil terrorists. Threat to america. Must be destroyed' or when you hear 'maduro' you automatically think 'evil narco-terrorist. Threat to america. Must be removed'
Here is a quick description (with examples) of this BOGEYMAN ENEMY PRINCIPLE. A well-documented strategy for elite control https://www.pdrboston.org/oppressors-need-bogeyman-enemies
You are living in an inverted reality and you clearly no NOTHING about the history of Venezuela, its people (who are ALL CELEBRATING) or what’s been going on inside the Narco Terrorist regime that took their country.
You sir are WRONG. Factually and Morally.
The mafia billionaire predators, murderers, abusers and their global militarized empire of greed, mass-murdered, plunder and bullying are delighted to know that conservatives haven't changed one bit since the days of the fake WMD and the empire's iraq invasion, that conservatives are still as gullible, heavily-propagandized and hypnotized as they've been back then, still as ready to blindly believe and uncritically repeat whatever slogans the mafia's global militarized empire and its influencers tell them inside their partisan echo-chamber, and to obediently salute the oligarchs and their global empire of greed, mass-murder, plunder, and theft for the 0.01%, as long as the oligarchs wave the flag and tell them that they "love america" and that they are "fighting evil" and "bringing freedom to the world" and "fighting the deep state for the little guy"..
Yes, conservatives are still this gullible and dumb. Nothing has changed since 2003. Just wave the flag and tell them to rally behind "your great patriotic leader who really really loves you and really really wants to protect you from that evil enemy over there who is coming to get you". That's all it takes to emotionally-manipulate gullible conservatives into cheering for the elite murderers and their global militarized empire to enrich the ultra-rich and cement the control of the few over the many.
As i mentioned in my more detailed reply to you below i highly recommend stepping out of your one-sided partisan echo-chamber/bubble (bubble which you think is reality). You're not only incredibly ignorant and heavily-propagandized, you're also profoundly arrogant (becasue you're not aware that you're living inside an information bubble but think that your bubble is actual reality)
In the other reply, i gave you several FACTUAL notes that directly address the FALSE emotionally-manipulative slogans that you repeated here so uncritically and so gullibly (yet so arrogantly). Please do read them and educate yourself so that you may wake up out the trance you've been put into and step out of the manipulative partisan bubble (which you think is reality).
PS. Yes, liberals are also deceived by the liberal half of the oligarchy, and i point this out to liberals when i interact with them. But right now i am not focusing on that becasue right now i am interacting with someone deceived by the conservative half of the elite.
the global corporate-banking oligarchy operates through BOTH its wings, both the fake "left" and the fake right (both are actually pro-empire right-wing). Both through the liberal democrat leadership (who act in very iliberal and anti-democratic ways) who use inauthentic slogans of love and caring (which they don't mean) to advance billionaire profiteering & domination, as well as through the oligarchy's other wing- the fake "populist" billionaires right (who are sold to their propagandized worshippers as "anti-elite" and "pro-freedom" while IN REALITY are tyrant elite oligarchs who work diligently to concentrate the planet's wealth in the hands of the 0.01%, who incite their worshippers to HATE HATE HATE anyone who isn’t aligned with the DOMINATION their global corporate empire, and to build the digital technocratic prison of humanity for the sole purpose of the domination of the few over the many.
In terms of the psychology that drives the two wings of the empire - unlike the inauthentic love slogans of the fake "left" democrats (who are really right wing through and through), the other empire's wing - the fake "populist" billionaire right - are inciting their half of the population through a childish trauma-driven anti-sensitive conservative mentality that views "greatness" as DOMINATION, power over, force, subjugation, profiteering by crushing others to benefit oneself, that celebrates traumatizing others and "toughness" (emotional suppression) as a show of power and "greatness", and that thrives on hating bogeyman enemies in the "US vs THEM" sectarian tribalist mentality
The tragedy, IMHO, is that most american have been corralled (using the oligarchs' manipulative algorithms) into partisan enclosures/echo-chambers, where we are taught to cheer for one or the other wing of the global oligarchy and to view the other half as 'the evil ones'. Very few seem to recognize BOTH halves of the elite, and very few seem to want real freedom from oligarch control and dignity for all humans, but most seem to just want that the empire be under the right management, the management of "our billionaires" (not “their billionaires”), seem to just want the domination of the one wing of the oligarchy that we were taught to identify with
PS. To be clear, i am not pro maduro.
You are funny that you think you are that smart and I don’t understand what’s going on.
I fully understand that the same Oligarchs are funding both sides and I see through the disgusting level of leftist privilege because I was a leftist for my who life until the things they started to support during Covid and now the left literally simps for Islamic Terrorists and the Cartel.
You and I are NOT on the same side of anything. The thing that you can’t seem to grasp is that I consciously know what is going on and I SUPPORT us taking Maduro out. It was True to do.
The people of Venezuela have tried many avenues to remove him and this is an answer to their prayers, regardless of the HOW.
So while you sit here on some privileged academic ideological pedestal you have put yourself on, and you think you are smarter than me? Haha sit the fuck down.
You are just a powerless ideologue.
PS Iran is next. 💋
Imagine being such an insufferable twat that you think your opinions about how the wheels turn matters 😆
Honestly we should forget all this left/right crap, this is just a distraction at this point.
The loudest of them generalize each other, cherrypick extreme positions from few and attribute them to anyone which "seems to" fit into said homogeneous group.
If there is one thing that really should be addressed is this retarded polarization, those in power keep the people divided so that they don't unite, it is about whether you really care about humanity or your prefered ideology.
100%
lol
I’m not sure where the Congressional Permission talking point came from but im pretty sure you losers had ZERO issue when Obama did the same:
“President Obama authorized thousands of bombing strikes without direct, specific Congressional authorization for each action, most notably during the 2011 Libya intervention, which lasted months without direct approval. His administration relied on the 2001 Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF) for various actions, including563 drone strikes in Pakistan, Somalia, and Yemen. “
yes indeed
I guess you put other things above our laws 🤷🏻♀️
How wildly uneducated and ignorant are you? The left has become the most necrotizing, cannibalistic of corrosive values of the United States of America the founders of this country would be rolling in their graves at the disgrace you people have become.
If you want to discuss the expansion of Executive Branch war power… you can thank Dick Cheney and Obama. You don’t actually know anything about the law do you? You are just a little parrot with talking points and no real knowledge to back it up.
Throw in “Minor Attracted Persons” too. It’s crazy to think they condone these belief systems and practices.
the Netherlands and France are okay with Islamic invasions.
I was born and raised in israel and lived with muslims my entire life so with your permission i would like address what you brought up here. Rather than blindly believing and uncritically parroting emotionally-charged slogans that are hammered into you nonstop within the sectarian and emotionally-manipulative echo chamber that you seem to be locked in, I invite you to examine these three factual notes that directly address the slogans that you repeated here so uncritically. By reviewing the factual evidence, i think you might be able form a clearer, more independent perspective, and wake up out of the trance you've been put into.
Regarding "those evil muslims" that you are emotionally-manipulated by the billionaire predators and their nationalist politicians into hating (for reasons which are explained in the notes below) , please see here who ACTUALLY creates, funds, arms and directs the terror operations under the false flag of 'islamic terror' and who ACTUALLY creates, funds, arms and directs terrorist groups (for the purpose mentioned in the note). You'll be very surprised when you learn the truth. You're never told this truth inside the HIGHLY MANIPULATIVE information bubble that you seem to be living in.
https://substack.com/@headandheart1/note/c-187793354?r=4tua5v
And here is specifically how this is done in israel by the zionist-conservative billionaire predators and their politicians. Including a full breakdown of exactly how the zionist billionaires' lie works and precisely how they are emotionally-manipulating (and as you'll see, the zionist elite are anti-ordinary-jews in the extreme)
https://substack.com/@headandheart1/note/c-109156403?r=4tua5v
And regarding the LIES that the Zionist billionaire and their conservative influencers teach you about islam to induce as much RELIGIOUS DIVISION & HATRED as possible (which is the lifeblood of Godless Zionist Nazism and precisely how the zionist billionaire predators keep us under their control, explained in detail in the note) hear it directly from this jewish man that i interviewed in jerusalem, telling you directly what it was like to live together with muslims in palestine BEFORE the invasive zionist colonization, dispossesion and extermination project began
https://substack.com/@headandheart1/note/c-148990304?r=4tua5v
And finally, to learn about my perspective on the conflict and what do i view as the way out of the horror, please see here https://substack.com/@headandheart1
PS. To explain why I - along with many jewish holocaust survivors - call zionism a Nazi ideology and practice, thst is because it teaches us from birth that the life and safety of those human being who were taught to identify with the label 'jew' is supremely more valuable and important than the life and safety of those who were taught to invest their identity into the label 'jew'. And definitely infinitely more valuable than the life and safety of the local children, mothers, fathers and elderly in palestine, whom we israelis are taught to not even view as relevant human beings, but more like pests to be eradicated, debris to be cleared out of the land, so that the land can be taken by the superior chosen ones, the most important people in the universe. See more details on the post above.
you are replying to the wrong person.
lol that is going so well for them 🥴
Trump's "press incoherence" after his bragging about violating our Constitution, our post-WW II system of promoting democracy, and any consistent rationale for this kidnapping, brings to mind Putin's long-held delusion of resurrection the Great Russian Empire. Trump, too, believes he can regain our imperialist past in the Americas when we basically were the landlords of those countries. If they didn't pay their debts to the US companies laying waste to their people or natural resources, our armed forces invaded and took what we wanted. His idiotic mention of the "Donroe Doctrine" also is a "blast from our past". The Monroe Doctrine sought to protect our "sphere of influence" while empire-seeking nations were picking up weaker nations as if they were Lego pieces. Our own empire had yet to be sought externally, but would arise after Manifest Destiny pieced together the 48/50 states, and we too began engaging in collecting subsidiary national holdings. This is an old, tired, decrepit, unworkable rehash of the 18th and 19th Centuries' ways of enriching national companies and pillaging weaker peoples' resources. There has never been, within Trump 1.0 or 2.0, any coherent strategy for governing "for the people." He admitted we're in this for the oil, and the stock market can't wait til tomorrow to march into Venezuela and take over its resources. It's also a green light for every dictator to march into wherever they wish. Anyone who applauds this move will reap the whirlwind. At its worst, our world is as far from safe as anytime in the 19th or 20th Centuries.
I cannot believe how many people are choosing abrasive sides after Charles expressed his opinion regarding Venezuela. All governments are corrupt, playing by the same deceitful controlling oligarchical rules--do what we say, not what we do. Rules for thee but not for me mentality...
In a natural law world, it is not the right of one country to impose its rules to control another country. No country, especially the U.S. at this point, has the right to control another country when it doesn't even take care of any of its own people. 38 trillion dollars in debt and nothing positive to show for it. Extorting citizens who only want peace and to be able to take care of their families.
I appreciate what you wrote, Charles, and am grateful for your insights.
Thanks so much Charles - this really says it all. May it be widely heard and understood.
As to the fundamental dynamics, it always seems to tie back to wealth (money) and power -- one begets the other until it becomes critical mass runaway chain reaction.
When a voice such as this is viciously attacked it means that voice has power. When such effort is made to silence you, it means your words have effect. When you hear the ugliness loudest remember there are those that see and hear without the fog of confusion, personal grievance, hidden agendas or mistaken belief.
You have to be a brave soul to speak through the hate and try to be heard. I hear you Charles, many others do too. We hear you through the noise and we won’t let you and other voices like yours become silenced.
We need balance, without it we become poisoned.
Thank you Charles. Thank you
You wrote: "Of course, the difference between President Maduro and the leader of a more powerful country is that the former is vulnerable to abduction and the latter is not." Actually, you're missing the most important difference. Two actually. 1. Maduro was not the legally elected President. Even MSM in the US admitted his election was rigged. Venezuelans are dancing in the streets, PRAISING the US for delivering them from this tyrant. So, explain to me why your opinion is more important than what the citizens of that country want, what they have yearned for over so many years of murder and oppression? Presidents of other countries are joining in the celebration. And 2. He was directly attacking the US with drugs. So, maybe rethink your position in light of reality.
Praise him now, but if you think Maduro was a tyrant, welcome to the big leagues. At least Maduro wasn’t kidnapping the leaders of sovereign countries on their sovereign soil and stealing their strategic national resources because he wanted them.
Did we literally kidnap his wife too? Come on people. How is this any different than Iraq invading Kuwait — besides possibly being much much worse? I ask as an American patriot here.
Well, maybe ask Venezuelan citizens how they feel.
You might be interested to learn that almost all the videos flooding social media of so-called "celebrations" and "jubilation" of venezuelans of the kidnapping of maduro are AI-generated DeepFake videos
See here
https://futurism.com/artificial-intelligence/venezuela-maduro-ai-misinformation
And here https://youtu.be/48eVxJZw3Iw?si=ffD_w55zIfdP4KD0
And here
https://www.wired.com/story/disinformation-floods-social-media-after-nicolas-maduros-capture/
And here
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/jan/05/maduro-venezuela-ai-images
And here https://factcheck.afp.com/doc.afp.com.89PG4WE
In addition, there are also old or unrelated footage of celebrations from years ago that are manipulatively re‑captioned as reactions to the kidnapping. See above
There are also numerous evidence of americans in venezuela (almost certainly related to the intelligence agencies) paying venezuelans to say on camera how happy they are with the invasion and kidnapping and thanking america for "freeing" them (exactly like they did in iraq, by the way)
And all of these lies and manipulations and DeepFake videos are being intensely promoted to the absolute max by the algorithms of the oligarchs on their privately-owned social medias, while ACTUAL REAL footage (see above) of mass protests in venezuela against the Wall St invasion of their country, killing of citizens, and kidnapping of president, are being literally buried and eliminated from view by the billionaires' manipulative algorithms.
Unfortunately vast majority of well-intentioned but gullible trump fans seem to lack the awareness of how propaganda works, of how the billionaires' empire functions and of the tools to manipulate public opinion, and therefore blindly and uncritically believe whatever the video caption or tweet says about what they are supposedly seeing, as long as it fits the narrative they want to hear. Very little critical thinking, very little questioning and very little awareness of the deluge of propaganda and information warfare directed at us.
It is major problem. Many americans don't seem to be aware of how profoundly controlled and manipulated is the information ecosystem that americans live in. A few anti-Golden-Rule mafia oligarchs who own the flow of information (and the platforms for human communication) literally have the power to make americans believe a narrative or to bury a narrative. They literally get to decide what is real and what is eliminated from existence. It is a monstrous dystopian reality beyond words and it doesn't seem like many well-intentioned but gullible trump fans are aware of this.
Now, i think it's important to mention here that there are of course SOME people in venezuela who are genuinely happy with the Wall St invasion and kidnapping. From a poll that i've seen in late December (roughly a week before the Oligarchs' attack) 23% of people in venezuela were in favor of an american invasion and 55% were against it. 23% of the population of venezuela is more than 7 million people. That's a lot of people, so yes, of course there will be SOME people in venezuela happy about the invasion, kidnapping and Wall St takeover. But are they the MAJORITY of people in venezuela? All indications i've seen - from polls, and from in depth interviews with people in venezuela (not a quick DeepFake clip but actual serious in-depth discussions with real human beings) and from the mass protests in caracas and other cities against the invasion and kidnapping (protests which americans never get to hear about becasue of the complete information blackout and the highly restrictive propagandized and manipulated information environment that people live under in america), from all of these varied and confirmed sources (not DeepFake clips and billionaire propaganda), my tentative conclusion is that the majority (70-80% of people in venezuela) are not in favor of the Wall St invasion and takeover of their country
Here's one in-depth interview with a local venezuelan who drove all across the country, including in small rural towns, to get a feel for the people's sentiment and to see if there is anything special going on https://www.youtube.com/live/BPHeoMRsrUw?si=728OtM2iM-NXZoIK (ignore the video title, it is meant to attract viewers and is not descriptive of the actual content).
And here's an in-depth discussion with a very knowledgable american analyst who lived in venezuela for many years and his wise venezuelan wife, describing their understanding of events and of the current mood in venezuela (listen to the end for full breakdown) https://www.youtube.com/live/iTgkGSeJfhg?si=meq8jAZfftxXah1j
PS. To be clear, i am not pro maduro. And i'm also not pro the Wall St mafia predators and their american govt. I am pro people. See here pdrboston.org
Now, even though SOME people in venezuela might be happy about the invasion, kidnapping and Wall St takeover (and there are undoubtedly some who do) please don't forget tye reality of iraq (where some people were also very happy at first about the american invasion and Wall St takeover). Remember the "liberation" of iraq? The wall st empire also kidnapped the "evil dictator" there, and brought so-called "freedom & democracy" to iraq, remember? (With the full support of the same gullible conservatives who are now cheering for the billionaire predators once again). There were many many people in iraq who were celebrating when this happened. Within less than a year of the Wall St takeover of their country they were all crying, including those who celebrated at first. You think the profits from the oil are going to anyone other than the richest 0.01%? Why don't you ask the iraqi people how this Wall St takeover worked out for them. Do you think anyone in iraq saw a cent from the oil that american billionaires stole!? It has been all downhill since the freeloading billionaire thieves and their militarized empire took control over iraq and plundered it to the last drop (in addition creating, funding and arming terrorist groups and drug-running cartels, as the american empire ALWAYS does). And yet gullible conservatives are cheering for takeover by the Wall St mafia once again. Blindly believing their beloved oligarchs' stories without a second thought. Exactly like 20 years ago.
So this is just to point out that the fact that some people might be happy about the invasion, kidnapping amd takeover, is not necessarily an indication that they are going to have a good or even reasonable life after the Wall St predators (and their american govt) take over. I would say they are very likely going to have an awful life, as has happened every single time the american Wall St empire has so-called "liberated" a country and brought it so-called "freedom". Iraq being just one example (in fact, the starvation sanctions and strangulation blockade by the american regime on venezuela have already made the life of ordinary venezuelans miserable, killing 40 thousand citizens annually according to a UN investigative report, impoverishing & traumatizing millions more and displacing millions)
In addition, i also recommend this fascinating 16 minute video of geopolitical and economic analysis showing exactly why the Wall St vultures and their us gov't attacked Venezuela https://youtu.be/ZMnLnRkcikw as you see, the Wall St mafia's invasion, kindnapping and takeover is all about oil and the petrodollar. It has nothing whatsoever to do with the lies that well-intentioned but gullible trump fans are told inside their information bubble as if it is about so-called "drugs" or "corruption" or "liberating venezuelans" (as if the billionaire predators give a shit about the well-being of ordinary venezuelans or americans). I don't think anyone actually believes the elite's lies except maybe a few diehard trump fans.
And since we mentioned the "drugs" story, i highly recommend this in-depth investigation exposing the Wall St (us gov't) invention of the 'venezuela drugs' fabrication https://open.substack.com/pub/justinpodur/p/the-invention-of-venezuela-drugs
And here you can see a brief history of ACTUAL american NarcoTerrorism as told through the vast cocaine trafficking enterprise of Marco Rubio's family. Please read this eye-opening piece to see the facts about who are the ACTUAL narco-terrorist elite
https://prospect.org/2025/12/23/narco-terrorist-elite-rubio-south-america-iran-contra/
And that's not even beginning to go into the israeli Sackler family, who made 14billion in profits from oxycontin and generated the opioid crisis, and are directly linked for the death of at least 670 thousand americans (i can't go here into the weeds of this vast monstrosity and the crimes committed). But don't expect the mafia billionaire predators to declare israel a narco-terrorist state and attack it any time soon.. it's responsible for infinitely more drug deaths than anything venezuela could ever cause, but this doesn't fit the narrative that the corporate-banking empire is selling you and emotionally-manipulating you with (i was born and raised in israel, btw. If interested, see my perspective on this here https://open.substack.com/pub/headandheart1/p/my-perspective-on-the-conflict-in )
It's amazing how everything americans (and especially trump fans) are taught to believe inside the emotionally-manipulative information bubbles is a COMPLETE INVERSION of reality. The very ones accusing others of drug trafficking are the biggest traffickers and the ones profitting the most from drugging americans. But i can't go into this vast subject matter here for space constraints..
Finally, i just want to share this profoundly important piece which is really the cornerstone of how the elite emotionally-manipulate us and control us. https://www.pdrboston.org/oppressors-need-bogeyman-enemies
I hear that Venezuelans are ecstatic. I only hope against everything DJT does and says that they continue to be glad about their liberation, which I hope continues without the heavy hand of the current regime here. I hope your rightfully elected leader prevails and brings you peace and prosperity.
The Iraqi people were ecstatic the first time we showed up too, not so much the second time we came back. That might be something to consider.
I know. It would be an absolute miracle if this goes the way they anticipate. I am a former military dependent/daughter whose father taught military history, trained allied officers and saw through a lot of political deceptions. I lived in former war zones during the cold war. And I have a very thrilled Venezuelan in law at the moment. I feel sad for what is likely coming and very tender.
You might be interested to learn that almost all the videos flooding social media of so-called "celebrations" and "jubilation" of venezuelans of the kidnapping of maduro are AI-generated DeepFake videos
See here
https://futurism.com/artificial-intelligence/venezuela-maduro-ai-misinformation
And here https://youtu.be/48eVxJZw3Iw?si=ffD_w55zIfdP4KD0
And here
https://www.wired.com/story/disinformation-floods-social-media-after-nicolas-maduros-capture/
And here
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/jan/05/maduro-venezuela-ai-images
And here https://factcheck.afp.com/doc.afp.com.89PG4WE
In addition, there are also old or unrelated footage of celebrations from years ago that are manipulatively re‑captioned as reactions to the kidnapping. See above
There are also numerous evidence of americans in venezuela (almost certainly related to the intelligence agencies) paying venezuelans to say on camera how happy they are with the invasion and kidnapping and thanking america for "freeing" them (exactly like they did in iraq, by the way)
And all of these lies and manipulations and DeepFake videos are being intensely promoted to the absolute max by the algorithms of the oligarchs on their privately-owned social medias, while ACTUAL REAL footage (see above) of mass protests in venezuela against the Wall St invasion of their country, killing of citizens, and kidnapping of president, are being literally buried and eliminated from view by the billionaires' manipulative algorithms.
Unfortunately vast majority of well-intentioned but gullible trump fans seem to lack the awareness of how propaganda works, of how the billionaires' empire functions and of the tools to manipulate public opinion, and therefore blindly and uncritically believe whatever the video caption or tweet says about what they are supposedly seeing, as long as it fits the narrative they want to hear. Very little critical thinking, very little questioning and very little awareness of the deluge of propaganda and information warfare directed at us.
It is major problem. Many americans don't seem to be aware of how profoundly controlled and manipulated is the information ecosystem that americans live in. A few anti-Golden-Rule mafia oligarchs who own the flow of information (and the platforms for human communication) literally have the power to make americans believe a narrative or to bury a narrative. They literally get to decide what is real and what is eliminated from existence. It is a monstrous dystopian reality beyond words and it doesn't seem like many well-intentioned but gullible trump fans are aware of this.
Now, i think it's important to mention here that there are of course SOME people in venezuela who are genuinely happy with the Wall St invasion and kidnapping. From a poll that i've seen in late December (roughly a week before the Oligarchs' attack) 23% of people in venezuela were in favor of an american invasion and 55% were against it. 23% of the population of venezuela is more than 7 million people. That's a lot of people, so yes, of course there will be SOME people in venezuela happy about the invasion, kidnapping and Wall St takeover. But are they the MAJORITY of people in venezuela? All indications i've seen - from polls, and from in depth interviews with people in venezuela (not a quick DeepFake clip but actual serious in-depth discussions with real human beings) and from the mass protests in caracas and other cities against the invasion and kidnapping (protests which americans never get to hear about becasue of the complete information blackout and the highly restrictive propagandized and manipulated information environment that people live under in america), from all of these varied and confirmed sources (not DeepFake clips and billionaire propaganda), my tentative conclusion is that the majority (70-80% of people in venezuela) are not in favor of the Wall St invasion and takeover of their country
Here's one in-depth interview with a local venezuelan who drove all across the country, including in small rural towns, to get a feel for the people's sentiment and to see if there is anything special going on https://www.youtube.com/live/BPHeoMRsrUw?si=728OtM2iM-NXZoIK (ignore the video title, it is meant to attract viewers and is not descriptive of the actual content).
And here's an in-depth discussion with a very knowledgable american analyst who lived in venezuela for many years and his wise venezuelan wife, describing their understanding of events and of the current mood in venezuela (listen to the end for full breakdown) https://www.youtube.com/live/iTgkGSeJfhg?si=meq8jAZfftxXah1j
PS. To be clear, i am not pro maduro. And i'm also not pro the Wall St mafia predators and their american govt. I am pro people. See here pdrboston.org
Now, even though SOME people in venezuela might be happy about the invasion, kidnapping and Wall St takeover (and there are undoubtedly some who do) please don't forget tye reality of iraq (where some people were also very happy at first about the american invasion and Wall St takeover). Remember the "liberation" of iraq? The wall st empire also kidnapped the "evil dictator" there, and brought so-called "freedom & democracy" to iraq, remember? (With the full support of the same gullible conservatives who are now cheering for the billionaire predators once again). There were many many people in iraq who were celebrating when this happened. Within less than a year of the Wall St takeover of their country they were all crying, including those who celebrated at first. You think the profits from the oil are going to anyone other than the richest 0.01%? Why don't you ask the iraqi people how this Wall St takeover worked out for them. Do you think anyone in iraq saw a cent from the oil that american billionaires stole!? It has been all downhill since the freeloading billionaire thieves and their militarized empire took control over iraq and plundered it to the last drop (in addition creating, funding and arming terrorist groups and drug-running cartels, as the american empire ALWAYS does). And yet gullible conservatives are cheering for takeover by the Wall St mafia once again. Blindly believing their beloved oligarchs' stories without a second thought. Exactly like 20 years ago.
So this is just to point out that the fact that some people might be happy about the invasion, kidnapping amd takeover, is not necessarily an indication that they are going to have a good or even reasonable life after the Wall St predators (and their american govt) take over. I would say they are very likely going to have an awful life, as has happened every single time the american Wall St empire has so-called "liberated" a country and brought it so-called "freedom". Iraq being just one example (in fact, the starvation sanctions and strangulation blockade by the american regime on venezuela have already made the life of ordinary venezuelans miserable, killing 40 thousand citizens annually according to a UN investigative report, impoverishing & traumatizing millions more and displacing millions)
In addition, i also recommend this fascinating 16 minute video of geopolitical and economic analysis showing exactly why the Wall St vultures and their us gov't attacked Venezuela https://youtu.be/ZMnLnRkcikw as you see, the Wall St mafia's invasion, kindnapping and takeover is all about oil and the petrodollar. It has nothing whatsoever to do with the lies that well-intentioned but gullible trump fans are told inside their information bubble as if it is about so-called "drugs" or "corruption" or "liberating venezuelans" (as if the billionaire predators give a shit about the well-being of ordinary venezuelans or americans). I don't think anyone actually believes the elite's lies except maybe a few diehard trump fans.
And since we mentioned the "drugs" story, i highly recommend this in-depth investigation exposing the Wall St (us gov't) invention of the 'venezuela drugs' fabrication https://open.substack.com/pub/justinpodur/p/the-invention-of-venezuela-drugs
And here you can see a brief history of ACTUAL american NarcoTerrorism as told through the vast cocaine trafficking enterprise of Marco Rubio's family. Please read this eye-opening piece to see the facts about who are the ACTUAL narco-terrorist elite
https://prospect.org/2025/12/23/narco-terrorist-elite-rubio-south-america-iran-contra/
And that's not even beginning to go into the israeli Sackler family, who made 14billion in profits from oxycontin and generated the opioid crisis, and are directly linked for the death of at least 670 thousand americans (i can't go here into the weeds of this vast monstrosity and the crimes committed). But don't expect the mafia billionaire predators to declare israel a narco-terrorist state and attack it any time soon.. it's responsible for infinitely more drug deaths than anything venezuela could ever cause, but this doesn't fit the narrative that the corporate-banking empire is selling you and emotionally-manipulating you with (i was born and raised in israel, btw. If interested, see my perspective on this here https://open.substack.com/pub/headandheart1/p/my-perspective-on-the-conflict-in )
It's amazing how everything americans (and especially trump fans) are taught to believe inside the emotionally-manipulative information bubbles is a COMPLETE INVERSION of reality. The very ones accusing others of drug trafficking are the biggest traffickers and the ones profitting the most from drugging americans. But i can't go into this vast subject matter here for space constraints..
Finally, i just want to share this profoundly important piece which is really the cornerstone of how the elite emotionally-manipulate us and control us. https://www.pdrboston.org/oppressors-need-bogeyman-enemies
With around 195ish countries, human capacity for that kind of nuance notwithstanding, one can be both happy with whatever happy Venezuelans in the moment and shocked about their own country’s behavior at the same time.
The emperor has no clothes.
Albeit, our emotional substrate is more suited to plasticity-limited black and white polarized thought, while the universe is a spectrum of gradient variety.
Do you think the US is not complicit in the importation of drugs? It’s a gazillion dollar market place. And they’ve addicted to money. And they don’t care about US citizens. You do the maths.
How Venezuelan citizens feel is irrelevant. We are talking about a level far below that. I realize you’re captured by the same system I am, and I empathize, but how do you feel about being completely captured and enslaved by the almighty dollar? How will you feel with the whole system shocks and collapses and you’re left with empty shelves to eat your money? This is the underlying issue. As long as we can buy groceries though, and what alternative do we have to escape to?
Venezuela is finding out as they have been for more than 50 years, and they’re massively happy about things now—maybe. It’s hard to see past your nose though and nearly impossible when captured in darkness where it’s impossible to know what trips you. At least Venezuela had oil. America had oil once, but we drank most of it.
N Korea and Cuba know the score. Libya and Gaddafi found out. Vietnam found out. Pre-monetized American indigenous found out for sure. Who’s next?
I’m not suggesting these people and places are good or that the US is evil. This is deeper. It’s the system programming. These are all natural pathological products of that programming. It’s short circuited our brains, and every system it touches.
It’s degraded the environment that sustains us. By any definition, it’s turn-key operative insanity. We operate untethered from ecological reality, and abstract symbolic money is the Trojan horse.
This is a different level of conversation, and feelings change with the weather.
Do you even realize I’m not arguing with you?
We are not evil or even greedy. We’re simply misguided (very literally). There is a way that we genuinely think is right that leads to destruction. This is what we are talking about.
But there is a better way.
Maybe after we collapse on a civilizational scale, if any of us survive, maybe we can discover the mind and the will to consider it.
I received the History of the Peloponnesian War as an eight year old, and it was not long before I saw the principles elucidated within the Melian Dialogue playing out upon the world stage frequently. The key line is "You know as well as we do that right, as the world goes, is only in question between equals in power, while the strong do what they can and the weak suffer what they must." This is a cornerstone of the study of Western philosophy, something we see all the time, most of us unaware that we were cautioned about this more than 25 hundred years ago. One thing is for certain - none of this would be happening if Venezuela had no oil. It is fairly likely most of the supporting comments and assertations by supposed native Venezuelans here are coming straight from from troll/shill farms, if not AI. Does nobody remember that the US used Noriega to finesse cocaine trafficking in their bid to destabilise the Afro-American inner city communities (and subsequently fill the new private prisons)? And that when they were done with him, they abducted him. Remember that? Nothing changes because the people who run the US are not the people that are voted in, regardless whether left or right is the puppet du jour.
Bravo! One of the few here with a capacity to see reality, to not get lost in the reeds of senseless distractions.
Did you read the History of the Peloponnesian War in the original Greek? You received the book at 8 years of age? You must be one of them there geniuses! Did you ever reside in an inner city community? Where is your proof professor regarding the destabilization of our neighborhoods by the US government. On the ground we disagree with your opinion.
As completely unprecedented as this recent action of Trump‘s has been, I think it opens a Pandora’s box to leaders from other countries that are perhaps more crazy than he is. Trump clearly has no boundaries for what he thinks he can and cannot do. And yes to your question I do think that someone from China or elsewhere could come over here and kidnap Trump with some insane legitimacy. The expression “turnabouts fair play”“ is certainly on the table now.
You raise fair points, Charles. However, as you mention we cannot fall into binary thinking, and there are deeper considerations here. Notably, you did not address the contention that Maduro assumed power illegitimately, and the US has not formerly recognized him as Venezuela’s rightful leader for some years now. Even according to The NY Times, the opposition won in Venezuela’s latest election by over 30 percentage points.
So is it also fair for an illegitimate dictator to stay in power? One who was already indicted for narco-terrorism in 2020 (something that has killed Americans)? Before Biden left office, his admin raised the bounty on his arrest to $25 million. Many millions of Venezuelans are celebrating, so it is also hard to ignore the perspectives of those who have lived through this. You seem to be coming from a place of immediate anger or moral indignation; often it’s wiser to take a step back and see how things play out first, because anyone who thinks they know the bigger picture from what the news is telling us is kidding themselves…
Your comment doesn’t address the reality that Maduro’s legitimacy and behavior is completely irrelevant to Charles’ piece. This is about what country we want to be. I am a veteran, a son of the American Revolution (sure, I acknowledge the ways that also makes me a dick with regard to the indigenous) and an independent voter. I think this is deplorable behavior. Legal or not is also irrelevant. The system is programmed for pathology and disease. No one can say we weren’t warned when the whole thing comes crashing down as a logical conclusion of the unnatural systems we constructed.
Thanks for adding perspective.
You might be interested to learn that almost all the videos flooding social media of so-called "celebrations" and "jubilation" of venezuelans of the kidnapping of maduro are AI-generated DeepFake videos
See here
https://futurism.com/artificial-intelligence/venezuela-maduro-ai-misinformation
And here https://youtu.be/48eVxJZw3Iw?si=ffD_w55zIfdP4KD0
And here
https://www.wired.com/story/disinformation-floods-social-media-after-nicolas-maduros-capture/
And here
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/jan/05/maduro-venezuela-ai-images
And here https://factcheck.afp.com/doc.afp.com.89PG4WE
In addition, there are also old or unrelated footage of celebrations from years ago that are manipulatively re‑captioned as reactions to the kidnapping. See above
There are also numerous evidence of americans in venezuela (almost certainly related to the intelligence agencies) paying venezuelans to say on camera how happy they are with the invasion and kidnapping and thanking america for "freeing" them (exactly like they did in iraq, by the way)
And all of these lies and manipulations and DeepFake videos are being intensely promoted to the absolute max by the algorithms of the oligarchs on their privately-owned social medias, while ACTUAL REAL footage (see above) of mass protests in venezuela against the Wall St invasion of their country, killing of citizens, and kidnapping of president, are being literally buried and eliminated from view by the billionaires' manipulative algorithms.
Unfortunately vast majority of well-intentioned but gullible trump fans seem to lack the awareness of how propaganda works, of how the billionaires' empire functions and of the tools to manipulate public opinion, and therefore blindly and uncritically believe whatever the video caption or tweet says about what they are supposedly seeing, as long as it fits the narrative they want to hear. Very little critical thinking, very little questioning and very little awareness of the deluge of propaganda and information warfare directed at us.
It is major problem. Many americans don't seem to be aware of how profoundly controlled and manipulated is the information ecosystem that americans live in. A few anti-Golden-Rule mafia oligarchs who own the flow of information (and the platforms for human communication) literally have the power to make americans believe a narrative or to bury a narrative. They literally get to decide what is real and what is eliminated from existence. It is a monstrous dystopian reality beyond words and it doesn't seem like many well-intentioned but gullible trump fans are aware of this.
Now, i think it's important to mention here that there are of course SOME people in venezuela who are genuinely happy with the Wall St invasion and kidnapping. From a poll that i've seen in late December (roughly a week before the Oligarchs' attack) 23% of people in venezuela were in favor of an american invasion and 55% were against it. 23% of the population of venezuela is more than 7 million people. That's a lot of people, so yes, of course there will be SOME people in venezuela happy about the invasion, kidnapping and Wall St takeover. But are they the MAJORITY of people in venezuela? All indications i've seen - from polls, and from in depth interviews with people in venezuela (not a quick DeepFake clip but actual serious in-depth discussions with real human beings) and from the mass protests in caracas and other cities against the invasion and kidnapping (protests which americans never get to hear about becasue of the complete information blackout and the highly restrictive propagandized and manipulated information environment that people live under in america), from all of these varied and confirmed sources (not DeepFake clips and billionaire propaganda), my tentative conclusion is that the majority (70-80% of people in venezuela) are not in favor of the Wall St invasion and takeover of their country
Here's one in-depth interview with a local venezuelan who drove all across the country, including in small rural towns, to get a feel for the people's sentiment and to see if there is anything special going on https://www.youtube.com/live/BPHeoMRsrUw?si=728OtM2iM-NXZoIK (ignore the video title, it is meant to attract viewers and is not descriptive of the actual content).
And here's an in-depth discussion with a very knowledgable american analyst who lived in venezuela for many years and his wise venezuelan wife, describing their understanding of events and of the current mood in venezuela (listen to the end for full breakdown) https://www.youtube.com/live/iTgkGSeJfhg?si=meq8jAZfftxXah1j
PS. To be clear, i am not pro maduro. And i'm also not pro the Wall St mafia predators and their american govt. I am pro people. See here pdrboston.org
Now, even though SOME people in venezuela might be happy about the invasion, kidnapping and Wall St takeover (and there are undoubtedly some who do) please don't forget tye reality of iraq (where some people were also very happy at first about the american invasion and Wall St takeover). Remember the "liberation" of iraq? The wall st empire also kidnapped the "evil dictator" there, and brought so-called "freedom & democracy" to iraq, remember? (With the full support of the same gullible conservatives who are now cheering for the billionaire predators once again). There were many many people in iraq who were celebrating when this happened. Within less than a year of the Wall St takeover of their country they were all crying, including those who celebrated at first. You think the profits from the oil are going to anyone other than the richest 0.01%? Why don't you ask the iraqi people how this Wall St takeover worked out for them. Do you think anyone in iraq saw a cent from the oil that american billionaires stole!? It has been all downhill since the freeloading billionaire thieves and their militarized empire took control over iraq and plundered it to the last drop (in addition creating, funding and arming terrorist groups and drug-running cartels, as the american empire ALWAYS does). And yet gullible conservatives are cheering for takeover by the Wall St mafia once again. Blindly believing their beloved oligarchs' stories without a second thought. Exactly like 20 years ago.
So this is just to point out that the fact that some people might be happy about the invasion, kidnapping amd takeover, is not necessarily an indication that they are going to have a good or even reasonable life after the Wall St predators (and their american govt) take over. I would say they are very likely going to have an awful life, as has happened every single time the american Wall St empire has so-called "liberated" a country and brought it so-called "freedom". Iraq being just one example (in fact, the starvation sanctions and strangulation blockade by the american regime on venezuela have already made the life of ordinary venezuelans miserable, killing 40 thousand citizens annually according to a UN investigative report, impoverishing & traumatizing millions more and displacing millions)
In addition, i also recommend this fascinating 16 minute video of geopolitical and economic analysis showing exactly why the Wall St vultures and their us gov't attacked Venezuela https://youtu.be/ZMnLnRkcikw as you see, the Wall St mafia's invasion, kindnapping and takeover is all about oil and the petrodollar. It has nothing whatsoever to do with the lies that well-intentioned but gullible trump fans are told inside their information bubble as if it is about so-called "drugs" or "corruption" or "liberating venezuelans" (as if the billionaire predators give a shit about the well-being of ordinary venezuelans or americans). I don't think anyone actually believes the elite's lies except maybe a few diehard trump fans.
And since we mentioned the "drugs" story, i highly recommend this in-depth investigation exposing the Wall St (us gov't) invention of the 'venezuela drugs' fabrication https://open.substack.com/pub/justinpodur/p/the-invention-of-venezuela-drugs
And here you can see a brief history of ACTUAL american NarcoTerrorism as told through the vast cocaine trafficking enterprise of Marco Rubio's family. Please read this eye-opening piece to see the facts about who are the ACTUAL narco-terrorist elite
https://prospect.org/2025/12/23/narco-terrorist-elite-rubio-south-america-iran-contra/
And that's not even beginning to go into the israeli Sackler family, who made 14billion in profits from oxycontin and generated the opioid crisis, and are directly linked for the death of at least 670 thousand americans (i can't go here into the weeds of this vast monstrosity and the crimes committed). But don't expect the mafia billionaire predators to declare israel a narco-terrorist state and attack it any time soon.. it's responsible for infinitely more drug deaths than anything venezuela could ever cause, but this doesn't fit the narrative that the corporate-banking empire is selling you and emotionally-manipulating you with (i was born and raised in israel, btw. If interested, see my perspective on this here https://open.substack.com/pub/headandheart1/p/my-perspective-on-the-conflict-in )
It's amazing how everything americans (and especially trump fans) are taught to believe inside the emotionally-manipulative information bubbles is a COMPLETE INVERSION of reality. The very ones accusing others of drug trafficking are the biggest traffickers and the ones profitting the most from drugging americans. But i can't go into this vast subject matter here for space constraints..
Finally, i just want to share this profoundly important piece which is really the cornerstone of how the elite emotionally-manipulate us and control us. https://www.pdrboston.org/oppressors-need-bogeyman-enemies