So to my understanding, Maduro stole more than one election. There’s information online about elections in 2018 and earlier, and then 2020, and again in 2024. This most recent one was won by the opposition leader, supported by Maria Machado (who couldn’t run, don’t know why, didn’t bother looking it up). Maduro ignored the win and claimed the presidency anyhow.
Sometime in Trump 1.0, we put a $15mil target on Maduro’s head. Biden’s people upped that to $25mil. Both sides of the aisle wanted this guy gone, very obviously. And why shouldn’t they? Venezuela has good oil reserves, and we’re set up to refine them. They have stuff we want, and we have stuff they need. Seems like a good connection. We also want to stop cocaine from coming to America from Venezuela, and since it seems that Maduro and his cronies were in on that, it just feels like a win all over.
Having the crazy Left standing up and protesting the capture (not murder, not assassination, not maiming, but *capture*) of a wanted fugitive that has a price on his head put there by both a Republican AND a Democratic President is just… bizarre. I don’t understand it at all. As several people have pointed out, the Left has been crying “no kings” for some time now, but when we removed an honest to goodness dictator, they get their panties in a wad.
Of course, the anger is all because “orange man bad.” It’s TDS run amok. I hate saying that, but it’s true. Most people have no idea what they’re talking about. And frankly, I’m not the idiot whisperer. I am not interested in educating most of the people who are Left of me. It’s exhausting even to talk to them. I have to prove every point and they get to “feel” I’m wrong. There’s no point.
All of this brings me to talking about socialism. I originally hail from Canada, having moved to the States some 25 years ago. I am American now. I have assimilated (with the possible exception of my continuing love of Tim Horton’s coffee and my occasional mispronunciation of “roof” lol). I now teach American history to people at living history museums. I love my chosen country, and I will defend her to my last breath.
Having grown up in Canada, however, I can tell you that socialism is not a good thing. Canada isn’t entirely socialist, but it’s very democratic (mob rule) and that’s not far from socialism on the political spectrum. The health care system is definitely socialist, and it’s dismal. The insurance is much less complex than America’s, certainly, but the CARE is horrendous. Here, insurance is a shit maze, but the care you get is phenomenal. I’ll pick door #2 every time, thank you.
In Canada, you are disarmed. When I was a young woman, I went to live with my very elderly grandparents, to help take care of them. At the point when they had to go to a home (they had dementia and alzheimers and were starting to hurt themselves and others), I started cleaning out their house. At the time, my parents had told me I would inherit the house, and so I was doing my best to keep it clean and tidy. In cleaning out some of the basement areas, I discovered a gun.
A GUN, guys.
A freakin’ gun. I was TERRIFIED.
I was 26 or so, and that was the closest to a real gun I’d ever been. It was a .22, I now know. At the time, it was just a BIG EVIL GUN. I now know that it was packed solidly in cosmoline, hidden in the walls of the basement. My grandfather must have stored it there, hidden away, decades earlier. Just in case. Because he was from Hungary, where they were disarmed by the Communist controllers. He knew. So he prepared.
I didn’t know anything about guns. My boyfriend thought I was being ridiculous (and in hindsight, I was… I should have quietly stashed it away and kept it). But I called the police, unwilling to even touch the bag it was in. They came and removed the BIG EVIL GUN (which was probably an antique in perfect working order *facepalm*) for me. They took it away, at my urging. I felt so relieved. After all, I had a child in the house. She could have died!
Yes, I really believed that stuff. It’s the pap we were fed as children. Only criminals and police had guns. Guns could randomly go off and kill people. Guns killed people and had no other purpose. Guns were harmful. And while I know guns don’t just shoot people by being in a room, that’s literally how we were conditioned to believe they acted. The act of having a gun meant you were a criminal.
That’s socialism, folks. It’s a mental disease. It’s gaslighting. It’s conditioning your children into believing that a tool (ANY tool, be it gun, knife, axe, whatever) can kill all on its own.
When I first moved to the United States, I was absolutely terrified that I would get sick. I knew, without a doubt, that if I got sick I would die. I had no insurance when I first arrived, of course. And of course I got sick eventually. I had a really bad flu. I was wheezing, hacking, my sinuses were full… it was bad. At one point, I actually asked Chris to call my parents and my daughter and let them know I loved them, because I “knew” I was going to die. Instead, Chris drove me to the doctor, I got meds, and I got better.
The total expense out of pocket was something like $125.00. Did it seem like a lot? Yes… but then I started learning just how much of my money was given to health care in Canada. So damn much. Right now, Canadians are paying about 40% of their annual income in taxes. On top of that, they also pay toward health care (yes, 70% of health care is paid from the money removed by taxes, but other money is also taken by one’s employer, and the amount varies depending on the province). Then there’s also private health care, offered through employers, just as it is here in the States, and that has to be paid for as well. And of course Canadian health care doesn’t cover dental, prescriptions, optical… I won’t get into the 30+ WEEK wait to see specialists, or the MAID bull that’s going on.
Let’s talk about MAID, actually. MAID stands for Medical Aid In Dying. Originally, it was offered only to people who were undeniably terminal with things like cancer, where the remainder of their lives would be painful, short, and expensive (both monetarily and emotionally). The idea was to allow people dignity in dying. Anyone wanting to use MAID had to talk to a therapist, then have their request run through a tribunal. It was difficult, as it should be. It was rare, again, as it should be. And then it changed, because when socialism is in charge, you do what’s cheapest.
Right now, there’s a lady in one of the northern central provinces who has a rare form of a disease. It’s not curable but it is treatable by surgery. But she can’t get seen by anyone because her hospital doesn’t have a specialist. She isn’t allowed to go see one because there isn’t one in her province. She can’t pay out of pocket, because that isn’t allowed. She can’t travel to another province because the insurance doesn’t cover that. She can’t have someone brought in because that isn’t covered. After some three or four years of fighting, she’s finally just applied to MAID and received her positive reply for it. Why? Because she can’t get the help that would literally save her life and allow her to function again. It’s easier for her to die. So that’s what they’re “letting” her do. And that’s what will happen if we allow it here.
I don’t object to helping terminal folks pass peacefully, I really don’t. But I won’t allow laws like that to be put into place unless they have incredibly strict rules that can never, EVER be stretched like they have been in Canada. I don’t want us providing medical “excuses” for people to kill themselves.
Socialism is a disease. It fixes nothing. It encourages bad things to happen. In Venezuela, it led to people eating zoo animals out of desperation. I don’t want to see that happen here. I’m watching Mamdani in NYC, talking about how property should be a socially owned rather than privately owned thing. That’s how it starts. I don’t want the enemy lines to be IN my country.
“Having the crazy Left standing up and protesting the capture “
Proof that the First Axiom of Politics is ALWAYS in play.
It is not the action taken by the person that causes offense, it is the political affiliation of the person taking action that causes the offense.”
And, that is doubled/tripled if Trump is the one taking the action.
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Socialism/communism sounds great in theory. Everyone works together for the betterment of society as a whole. The Star Fleet in the Star Trek universe is literally based on that concept. But, enter reality and human nature. Ask yourself this: “Would you deny your child entry to a top university, in order to fund a total stranger’s child’s education at a mediocre university?” Essentially ensuring your child will be at the same level of school. Hmmm… let me think. No. You will ensure your child’s needs are taken care of before a stranger’s.
But, socialism requires you to care more about strangers, and ensure they get a minimum, at the detriment of your own family. And, if you do not like it, too bad, the government will take from you by force, and give it to someone else against your will.
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The only people who benefit are those politically connected, and highly placed in the party. This is true of any collective form of government/economy. It replaces the number of units of currency you control with political influence as a measure of your wealth. Being rich is no longer they way to live a good life, being well connected is.
And, do you think that may lead to a small amount of corruption? Yeah, it will.
Sorry, this is long. I didn’t write it but I think it an important view by a non-American about why we went after Maduro when we did. It wasn’t drugs, drugs were the predicate to stay out of impeachment hearings. It wasn’t oil, they needed something millions of simpletons could understand. A national security line was crossed and it became untenable once Hezbollah and Hamas entered the stage.
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@carorestrepocan
Jan 6
Translated from Spanish
It wasn’t for oil. It was for something much more strategic
On January 3, 2026, the United States executed the largest military operation in Latin America since Panama in 1989.
As expected, the public narrative focused on oil and drug trafficking. But that explanation, as familiar as it is convenient, doesn’t withstand the slightest strategic analysis.
The truth is more uncomfortable, more complex… and much more dangerous.
It’s worth starting with a key point: this type of decision isn’t made by the White House, but by the Pentagon. The Pentagon decides, the president signs.
When the military apparatus concludes that a threat has crossed the tolerable risk threshold, the decision is already made. The president doesn’t direct: he simply authorizes. Then he goes out to publicly justify what was already determined behind closed doors.
Trump talked about oil because oil sells. But the operation wasn’t for oil.
What triggered the intervention wasn’t crude, but the operational convergence of the three main adversaries of the U.S., China, Iran, and Russia, in the same territory: Venezuela.
– China had taken control of the extraction of strategic minerals (tantalum, cobalt, rare earths) directly in the mines of the Orinoco Mining Arc. These minerals feed the Pentagon’s own weapons production chain. China’s presence wasn’t commercial: it was operational.
– Iran had installed military drone factories with offensive capabilities to reach Florida from the Caribbean. These weren’t arms sales: it was permanent military industry 1,200 miles from the U.S. continental territory.
– Russia had deployed military advisors, anti-aircraft systems, radars, and intelligence training. An electronic warfare ecosystem right around the corner from Miami.
This wasn’t coincidental. It was a coordinated strategy. Each actor reinforced the presence of the other.
It wasn’t oil. It was control
Comparing this operation to Iraq 2003 is a superficial trap. In Iraq, oil represented control of global flows, maintenance of the petrodollar, and geopolitical dominance in the Middle East.
Venezuela meets none of those conditions: its production is collapsed, the infrastructure destroyed, and its geographic weight is marginal. If the intervention had been for oil, it would have happened in 2019, when Guaidó had international backing and PDVSA was still breathing.
But they waited. Until the real threat consolidated: Chinese control of minerals, Iranian drone factories, and Russian military directing training.
The threshold was broken
The Pentagon crossed its red line when it understood that missiles that could threaten its territory were being manufactured with minerals extracted under Chinese control, in Venezuela, with Russian intelligence protection. That’s not sovereignty. It’s a hostile platform integrated less than 2,000 kilometers from the Southern Command.
That’s why the attacks didn’t touch wells or refineries. They hit bases, telecommunications, radars, and the heart of the regime. They didn’t want to control resources. They wanted to dismantle threats.
The real war is for minerals
In April 2025, China restricted rare earth exports in retaliation for U.S. tariffs. With that, it demonstrated its willingness to use the supply chain as a geopolitical weapon.
Venezuela became a key piece. Not for its oil. Not for its government. For its minerals.
The Pentagon doesn’t operate with speeches. It operates with risk maps. And Venezuela, in 2026, was an intersection point between strategic resources, adversarial military infrastructure, and uncontrollable logistics networks.
Trump talked about oil because that narrative is understandable. But the Pentagon doesn’t plan based on speeches. It does so based on threats.
Venezuela wasn’t intervened for crude. It was intervened for its role in the new architecture of global power: minerals, weapons, and combined hostile presence. Oil is the excuse. Geostrategy, the true script.
[ADDITIONAL INFO FROM A LATER POST – thanks for reading this far. The OP added info about Hezbollah/Hamas in later explanations.]
Venezuela was deliberately turned into a geopolitical enclave.
And not by Chávez. Not even by Maduro.
By those, from the outside, who understood that this territory was the perfect piece to project influence, destabilize the region, and openly challenge the United States from its own backyard.
First came the Cubans. Then the Russians. Later the Chinese. After that, the Iranians.
And finally, Hezbollah and Hamas.
Yes, the same terrorist groups that have trained militias, financed attacks, kidnapped civilians, and declared their outright hatred for the West.
They are not a distant threat.
They are operating from Venezuelan territory. Just three hours’ flight from Miami.
And they are not there by mistake.
They are there because Venezuela offers three things that all the powers challenging the Western liberal order seek:
1.Uncontrolled territory to operate without international oversight.
2.A compliant regime that not only tolerates, but facilitates, their presence.
3.Strategic proximity to the United States and the Panama Canal.
This is not an ideological war.
It is a power architecture.
It’s not about oil. Nor about sanctions.
It’s about control.
Territorial control.
Logistical control.
Symbolic control.
Hezbollah and Hamas are not ideological actors.
They are armed actors, trained and fanaticized.
The United States does not forget September 11. It did not forget Osama Bin Laden.
And it will not ignore those who provide them with refuge, logistics, or territory.
Venezuela is not just a Venezuelan problem.
It is a global breaking point.
And those who do not see it are choosing to look the other way.
I guess a one sentence summary would be “it is all about enforcing the Monroe Doctrine”.
Interesting and far more plausible.
Re MAID: it makes me think of some related topics. In Holland two or three decades ago there was a great deal of unemployment, which worried the parties in power because it made them look bad. As a solution, people were encouraged to sign up as permanently disabled, so they would be counted under medical disabled protection rather than as unemployed, which is what they actually were. It’s rather scary to consider how MAID could be applied in such situations.
Another one, for similar purposes: I’m not sure if Holland has a legally enforced retirement age across the board, but again a couple of decades ago there was a big push for people to take early retirement, and the retirement system was changed to make that financially attractive. My father used this to retire at 64, a year before the standard retirement age and I think as a University professor he actually could have stayed around until 70. In his case there was a very good reason: my mother was seriously ill and it made sense to him to be with her rather than at work. But I distinctly recall that at the time various arguments were flying around to the effect that people had a duty to do this early retirement thing “to make room for the next generation”. That isn’t all that far from “you’re no longer wanted, you’re too old”. Come to think of it, did Biden health weenie “Doctor” Zeke Emanuel not make such a comment supporting MAID after retirement? I think he spoke of applying it to himself, but (a) I’ll believe that when I see it and (b) for socialists it isn’t a big step at all to apply it generally. Glenn Beck wrote a novel that uses this notion in the plot, “Agenda 21”.
I think this is my favorite piece from you Ally, and the clear Madura analysis in the comments is just the icing on the cake.
I just finished reading “The Bridge at Andau”. It helped me understand your point about how a Hungarian immigrant might rejoice in his new country – but set aside the kernel of an anti-tyranny kit hidden in the basement.
Thanks again for this post – proving once again that the road to hell is paved with good intentions – including “free” healthcare and “dignity” in MAID.