It’s a shower thought, ain’t that deep.

Yeah that’s a very fair analysis.

Also, being a selfish prick is nothing to be proud of.

Tell me you didn’t read past the title without telling me 😭😭😭

I take any political win by anyone in our system as a both/and story - both the politician(s) have the skills to meet the moment for public appeal and private industries have preference(s).

Obviously winning without money is ridiculous, but it’s also clear from the historical record that money is not all that’s needed to win; iirc Trump and co spent less than Clinton and co in 2016 & Biden and co spent less than Trump and co in 2020.

I do not really subscribe to the “it’s all about the oil industry” theory, mostly because of the Trump admin announcing a renewal of the Monroe doctrine. Like, oil is part of it because it is a resource, but determination to do imperialism in south america and north America to the point of announcement outright (the “donroe doctrine”) does not solely on oil depend.

There’s something vaguely slimy about framing Chevron as the first beneficiary of Trump’s actions when it has been operating for profit in Venezuela for decades with the agreement of Venezuelas government under Maduro. Neither of them are really pro-Palestine if the line being drawn is anti-Chevron.

Obviously Palestinians deserve way better than the hand dealt to them, no question there.

Edit; and to spell out why this felt kinda slimy to me at first: if:

(1) Chevron was operating in Venezuela with Maduro in charge for years without any real issue with Maduro,

(2) Chevron supports Israel, and

(3) the fight is against those enabling Chevron,

it follows that fighting for Maduro is not directly fighting for Palestine.

Fighting for Maduro would qualify as fighting US imperialism for sure, and therein lies that pesky question about the utility of fighting for someone who had every opportunity to shutdown the imperialist problem (Chevron) on his own by virtue of his political power, and did not.

I fall on the side that it’s fine after thinking it through, but I’m also someone who thinks Democrats are broadly good even if they mostly make for small victories for left-liberal ideologies. Ymmv.

Terrible headline, it’s honestly kind of impressive that the chronological order of just two events could be screwed up in a single sentence fragment meant to convey information in an entertaining way.

Just wait until you discover I can have multiple and even contradictory reasons for doing any single action. It’s really gonna blow you away

Yeah but France is my favorite South American country

Now there’s a guy who missed his nominative determinism calling, he would have been much better at that job too.

I see through this charade! He just wants to have closer relations with the French!

Calling it an “immigration operation” is a fascinating example of doublespeak? DHS wants deportations not immigrations.

Although, the world would be a lot happier and sillier place if the DHS underlings took that language at face value and brought in an extra 2000 immigrants.

It can make sense in other ways too imo.

If you told me ten days ago the US would capture Maduro, bomb the shit out of a variety of military sites, and kill a bunch of civilians in the process, I would ask which American navy vessel was attacked to start the war.

But, uh.

Venezuelan oil MUST remain off of the world markets by and large in order for the current glut of oil production not to be an economic dead end for oil production companies in the US and elsewhere who overcommitted in a world where EV vehicles are proliferating at a rapid pace.

Iirc Venezuelas production is down because it’s facilities can’t process as much oil as at peak without multi-billion dollar updates and repairs.

I think it’s more likely the Trump admin gives US oil companies subsidies to take the oil out despite it being anti-capital and anti-competitive; those two things are his whole MO whenever he thinks capitalism isn’t beneficial for him personally.

But this whole incident strikes me more as a case of projecting US power than seeking petrol dollars specifically. Like, that’s part of it, and not all of it.

I wonder how much rooftop space in Vienna could be cannibalized for solar panels.