Post #4316733

2026-08-01 07:56 UTC

Trump has publicly claimed that the US has seized even more than that from Venezuela, and that the US is simply “taking” money from another country, and that this money has financed the invasion in January with much more left over. This might, of course, simply be Trump’s normal bullshitting and confabulation, made worse by his advancing dementia. But I’ve found that he’s rarely only ever truthful when he’s admitting having done something awful about which he’s proud. https://www.cnbc.com/amp/2026/07/27/trump-says-us-has-sold-more-than-13-billion-of-venezuela-oil-.html

Replies (2)

@HeavenlyPossum@kolektiva.social 2026-08-01 08:06

So, without much fanfare, the US appears to have resumed a practice that went out of favor among most states more than a century ago, and globally since the defeat of Nazi Germany: naked aggression to seize resources for the benefit of the aggressor and direct personal enrichment of the aggressor’s ruler. The US has spent the decades since 1945 enjoying immense benefits from a global system it established that transfers wealth and resources, but usually through indirect, institutional means. From Bretton Woods to the WTO and IMF to the dollar’s global reserve currency status to intellectual property regimes, US elites have redirected global wealth to themselves, but they have done so through formal institutions, processes, and international agreements.

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@jwcph@helvede.net 2026-08-01 08:58

@HeavenlyPossum@kolektiva.social It isn't just American institutions - the world community is letting him get away with anything, too. Considering the international (lack of) response to all this, I really can't see any reason why he would even consider not committing these enormous, overt crimes; for someone with his mentality, it's a no-brainer. It's what the's always been doing.

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