Maybe the Venezuelan government remains intact, and now we have the embarrassing situation of a sovereign country asking for its head of state back.
My honest guess? Cuba.
(If I were in charge from this minute on, I’d offer Maduro a pardon, asylum and a mountain of cash to (a) assist with a regime change and (b) tell us all of Cuba, Iran, Russia and China’s nasty business.)
Without might makes right (US puppet) or some recognition of legitimacy, any leader is little more than a loudspeaker in a pretty house.
It all went to shit the year they killed Harambe.
Unitary executive theory = plenary powers, e.g., they're a king in all but name surrounded by political loyalists with their hands on every lever of power that matters.
Apparently modern old farts in power can only reanact things they've seen in their 'youth'.
Rubios reasons are:
1. He is a Cuban American and his base is the Cuban exile community. They have been wanting to overthrow the Communist regime since JFK. As Cuba is utterly dependent on Venezuelan oil, this might be what finally does it.
2. He is setting himself to run for the Republican presidential nomination in 2028. Despite the isolationist tendencies of MAGA, there are still many Republican voters for whom kicking foreign commie ass is an impressive resume item.
3. Maduro is really horrible. All the “No Kings” types wringing their hands about Fascism should be happy that an actual authoritarian dictator has met his end.
But mostly the first two.
It seems like the neocons have successfully managed a takeover behind the scenes using Trump as their idiot puppet. Gottu get the War+Oil Industry stock prices moving - the C-suite billionaires needs their bonuses for their next luxury yacht.
The caveat is what happens next. If a stable government emerges, that's okay. If a stable government emerges that holds free and fair elections, that's brilliant. If, on the other hand, the power vacuum prompts a civil war and refugee crisis because nobody–again–planned for what happens after regime decapitation, well fuck.
(We really need to repeal the War Powers Act [1].)
At this moment in time, the President has bombed Caracas (presumably under the War Powers Act [1]) and claims to have captured Maduro.
From here, there are paths that wind up marginally good and many that end up somewhat catastrophically. Few wind up great. Few wind up as total shitshows (the risk in this being a Venezuelan civil war).
Seeing that there are positive possible outcomes isn't an expression of naive hope. It's identifying possible futures. I have no clue, personally, how to prevent a civil war in Venezuela–I'm neither hopeful nor on the edge of my seat.
And again, none of this justifies the actions. A gambler may win big betting his house. That doesn’t make it a good call, even if we can recognise that the outcome wound up favourably.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_Powers_Resolution#Provisio...
Never said that. I said this could wind up being net good if that's the outcome. Doesn't make the way we would have gotten there okay. And it doesn't mean that was a primary or even proximate goal for the people who called the shots.
(Adding my comment since there's a good amount of pushback, most of which I roughly agree with, but I think it's important to say thanks for maintaining a civil dialogue and discussion where we don't see 100% eye-to-eye. This also goes for all those who are replying to you as well. It's great to have civil discourse.)
[1] https://www.theatlantic.com/international/2026/01/maybe-russ...
Poland, Taiwan and Ukraine should try to get nuclear weapons. Unfortunately, so should Saudi Arabia, the U.A.E. and Iran.
They can't have free and fair elections when the US is literally holding their president hostage. And dictatorships like Saudi Arabia are just fine apparently.
You are ok with Trump invading a neighbour country, kidnapping a person while accepting some civilian casualties?
I wonder what you would think if Canada would invade the USA and kidnapping Trump and other criminals.
This strike was not sanctioned by Venezuela. They are sovereign and they have the right to deal with their affairs in their own way. The USA -- as so often in history -- are playing judge, jury and executioner in foreign countries. They violated international law. The fact that you want to celebrate this says a lot about your attitude towards sovereignty , due process and human life.
Nope. But I’m saying this could potentially turn out okay.
Probably not. We probably get a civil war or like Cuba moonshotting for nukes. But there are avenues from this point on where it could wind up okay. (I would not have expected we’d have nabbed Maduro so quickly twelve hours ago.)
> They violated international law
I mean, this is dead. China, Russia and America have explicitly called it dead. Iran, Israel, India and France, too. It’s basically Brussels and Brazil still respecting it, and neither is a military power.
