Discussion Board (Corporates)
 Board
Write new posting
Read old postings (archive)
Read your postings
Last 50 Postings | Last 100 Postings
12-07-25 leopardo
https://x.com/santiagorafa11/status/1997709182771036605?s=48
Maduro out by XMas
Rick Scott |
|
12-07-25 spal
The moment one has to deal with the administration all pleasures go.
===
Yes the "mentality" seems to be changing here. Worth trying to understand why. But yes London remains a real world standard beauty still, nonetheless. |
|
12-07-25 victor
|
12-07-25 savo
victor.. I solemnly declare that I am not friend of Mr Spinetto
Maduro Knows That Trump Is Bluffing
December 5, 2025 at 7:30 AM GMT-3
By Juan Pablo Spinetto
JP Spinetto is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering Latin American business, economic affairs and politics. He was previously Bloomberg News’ managing editor for economics and government in the region.
The Pentagon's largest warship, the USS Gerald R. Ford, has been in Latin American waters for nearly a month with no signs of a US military offensive.
President Donald Trump's goal of frightening Nicolás Maduro into fleeing is not working, and Maduro understands that Trump needs more to topple him, such as a land invasion and reconstruction effort.
Trump's lack of an endgame for Venezuela reinforces Maduro's belief that he can ride out the pressure, and uprooting Chavismo will require a blend of brute force, domestic insurgency, and political negotiation.
It’s been nearly a month since the Pentagon’s largest warship entered Latin American waters — and still no signs of a US military offensive.
The silence surrounding the massive USS Gerald R. Ford — burning through millions of taxpayer dollars each day — underscores the trap President Donald Trump has set for himself. If the goal of this unprecedented military buildup, combined with a narco-terrorist label, a $50 million bounty, an ultimatum and even a no-fly-zone threat, was to frighten Nicolás Maduro into finally fleeing, it isn’t working.
Paranoid as he must be at this pivotal moment in his bloody, 12-year rule, Maduro understands that Trump needs far more to topple him. The White House would ultimately have to launch some kind of land invasion and bankroll a costly reconstruction effort — precisely the sort of nation-building that Trump has derided for decades and that his MAGA movement viscerally rejects. Chavismo still controls every lever of hard power, from the armed forces to the coercive apparatus that suppresses social unrest. And even if Venezuela’s powerful allies Russia and China remain muted and Maduro can no longer count on the golden exile once enjoyed by fellow despots — as the Wall Street Journal’s José de Córdoba aptly noted — his movement remains internally cohesive enough to resist handing power to what it sees as an existential enemy. Make no mistake: this is a political movement that has morphed into a gangster enterprise.
Could Trump still surprise us? Of course. He has authorized covert operations and hinted at imminent strikes against targets inside the country. But this is also the same Trump who spoke to Maduro on the phone and quietly resumed repatriation flights days after declaring Venezuela’s airspace was shut. The same Trump whose envoy for special missions, Richard Grenell, flew to Caracas at the start of his second administration to negotiate the release of six Americans detained in Venezuela — producing the unforgettable image of Grenell smiling alongside the Bolivarian strongman.
None of this means Trump would never attempt Maduro’s forcible removal; unpredictability is his governing brand, and a Noriega-style operation like the US carried out in Panama during the Christmas season of 1989 is never fully off the table. He could certainly bomb specific targets in the country, doubling down on the strategy of scaring off Maduro and his henchmen. But if there’s also a leader capable of a sudden U-turn and a last-minute deal that let the Gerald R. Ford quietly steam back to safer waters, it is Donald J. Trump. Brazil’s Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, among many others,can vouch for that.
This ambiguity highlights Trump’s lack of an endgame for Venezuela, which reinforces Maduro’s belief that he can ride out the pressure again rather than shop for a mansion in Moscow or Brasília. After all, he already survived Trump’s first attempt to oust him in 2019, when the opposition mounted an uprising and more than 50 governments recognized Juan Guaidó as Venezuela’s “rightful” president. Seen that way, you can understand why Maduro fancies his chances once again.
All this should worry an opposition now fully banking on Uncle Sam to finally end Venezuela’s nightmare. As much as every decent person on the planet would like to see this regime of terror gone, the hard reality is that uprooting Chavismo will require a blend of brute force, domestic insurgency, oil crackdown, political negotiation and uncomfortable compromise. The proportions of each element are debatable, but consultant James Bosworth sketched four scenarios for Venezuela’s future this week and concluded that “chaos is a likely outcome once the Chavistas fall.”
Some might argue that chaos is still preferable to tolerating a violent and destabilizing dictatorship indefinitely — and they may be right. But the notion of simply airlifting the democratic government that won last year’s election through force, even with the popular legitimacy it enjoys, is unrealistic. With Maduro refusing to go voluntarily, the only way to achieve that outcome — a full-scale invasion to excise the regime by military force — is far too costly for this White House, which currently seems more focused on the legal fallout of its boat-bombing strategy in the region than on articulating any coherent vision for a post-Maduro Venezuela.
|
|
12-07-25 savo
| thanks spal.. interesting.. our personal experience with Camden Council is atrocious. London is beautiful, although rapidly becoming the Islamabad of the west, as long as one is a tourist. The moment one has to deal with the administration all pleasures go. |
|
12-07-25 spal
Savo - yes, apparently. Although my son migrated from the US to the UK and has lived there 3 years, found the love of his life there and does not seem to be bothered by any of this. He is in computer science (computer and data security and deep web research).
We visit once or twice every year and also love it. We see zero of anything that hits a headline and always have a great time.
My son looks like being a longer term resident there (he has citizenship through me) and just bought a house. BTW I did think that the home purchasing setup over there (in the UK) was about as Dickensian as you could make it (all sorts of stupidities came up and the process itself was almost incoherent). Took him seven months - within that time I bought and sold (using sophisticated tax procedures) 2 duplexes and one 4 plex. The US process is light years ahead whereas the UK experience could have been Greek or some other "third world" system ... at least for the average person. |
|
12-06-25 savo
spal... horrible what is going on i the UK
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/just-how-dystopian-could-starmers-britain-become |
|
12-06-25 savo
i would add two things to that article...
1) BTC was already not going anywhere in 2024.. until Trump, whose campaign was financed by the crypto industry declared the US crupto capital of the world... and passed legislation to that effect...quid pro quo.
2) the amount of capital, human and otherwise, that is being wasted in this fraud... particularly young people who have made a full time job out of crypto trading. I have nephews 3 years out of university who never had a real job other than crypto from home. |
|
12-06-25 pillz
Bitcoin Is Starting to Look Like a Digital Tulip
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/newsletters/2025-12-06/is-bitcoin-the-digital-version-of-tulips-merryn-talks-money |
|
12-06-25 victor
Trump revives Monroe Doctrine, vows to reassert U.S. dominance in the Americas
December 5, 2025 2:56 PM
The Trump administration has unveiled a sweeping national security directive that revives — and significantly expands — the 1820s Monroe Doctrine for the 21st Century, signaling a more assertive U.S. approach in the Western Hemisphere aimed at curbing foreign influence, boosting military presence and strengthening economic ties with regional partners. Experts said the document released Friday amounts to one of the most forceful U.S. policy statements on hemispheric influence in decades, echoing Cold War-era language and signaling a long-term geopolitical repositioning. Implementation is expected to draw scrutiny — and likely pushback — from global rivals already deeply invested in Latin America. The strategy, outlined in a newly released section of the National Security Strategy and billed as the “Trump Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine,” pledges to “reassert and enforce” U.S. leadership in the Americas to “restore American preeminence” and block “non-Hemispheric competitors” from gaining military footholds or control over strategic assets in the region. “After years of neglect, the United States is reaffirming with this document that it will enforce the Monroe Doctrine in order to restore U.S. preeminence in the Western Hemisphere,” said Carlos Sánchez Berzaín, executive director of the Miami-based Inter-American Institute for Democracy. “In other words, it is telling other global actors: ‘Keep off — America belongs to the United States.’”
https://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/americas/article313434418.html
|
|
|
