Dictators around the world are getting too comfortable. They're seeing too many examples of other dictators getting away with war crimes, illegal invasions, and other atrocities.

Putin emboldened Netanyahu, Netanyahu emboldened trump, and I don't even want to think about who's going to feel emboldened by trump.

Rules based order, multilateralism, and international law seem to be crumbling with no enforcement. Arguably the greatest achievements of the twentieth century, disappearing like vapor...

Nah. Just a targeted police action to arrest the rogue elements who purport to be the lawfully elected government.

They'd be justified in sanctions, but I don't think that it would actually accomplish anything. The people doing this shit don't give a flying fuck about them because it would hurt you and me, not them.

As an American, I believe that we need to come together ASAP and form a police task force to remove the regime by legitimate, democratic means. It's called its shots: The regime has said that it intends to eliminate 100 million Americans.

By deportation for now. Let's not wait for its final solution.

It’s impossible for any western country to sanction the US, we are 100% dependent on US payment processing, trade in USD and US security guarantees (which even if questionable are better than nothing).

Fine. What do YOU, as a citizen of a rogue state, do to stop all this?

If they don't, Greenland will be next.

This is starting to smell like appeasement real fast.

Say you're living in a house with a shitty landlord. The local mobster turns up at his house, beats him up, and steals the keys to his tenants' houses. The tenants cheer! The mobster then proceeds to turn up at your house, open the doors with they keys, and steals all your shit.

The mobster is not on your side and never was.

Maduro's leadership is a helluva lot more legitimate than the orange pedophile.

It’s unclear that they’re illegitimate.

Yes, they certainly manipulated an election.

…but “the west” was manipulating the same election.

It's really easy to change your positions when there were never any principles behind it either way.

This is what I'm so desperate for people to understand: these are empty people. In terms of politics, they don't have beliefs in the way you and I do. They have hollowed out that part of themselves. This is why debate or the introduction of new facts never changes their minds, because it never made up their mind in the first place. Such a change requires your positions to be propped up by genuine belief in what you think is the right thing, where that prop can be knocked over.

These people belong to a team, a clan, a cult, however you want to phrase it. The only thing that matters is that their side is in power and uses that power to act against those who aren't. Any means to that end is valid to them. They'll happily switch to whichever position is most convenient for them without missing a beat. They're only justifying it to you to keep you busy and distracted, they never really believed a word they said. They just chose the words they thought would be most effective to win.

I've seen comments saying "my friend is venezuelan and they are celebrating this in the streets".

Seems that Venezuelans in Venezuela are protesting, and Venezuelans abroad are celebrating: https://apnews.com/photo-gallery/venezuela-us-explosions-caracas-25a01a23e7b936b430901428ab0d0907

Have you seen modern US military engagements? Those motherfuckers dont learn from their mistakes.

Well actually, they do. Theyve learned starting conflicts makes weapons manufacturers and military contractors big dollars. Especially when the economy is cooling off.

I mean, do you remember W Bush’s post war Iraq plans? The party hasn’t gotten any less myopic since then.

What do you mean allowed? There isn't actually a world police force that's going to arrest Trump or anything like that.

International Law is just a bunch of treaties that countries have agreed to follow. Countries don't agree to treaties that prevent them from doing what they want to do. The reason why this kind of thing doesn't happen more often is because political stability is preferable for capitalist systems. Trump only cares about the money he makes personally, so he takes bribes and now he's prioritizing the interests of only the companies that pay him bribes over the economy in general. Global stability is good for the economy, but Trump only cares about personal profit.