Red Mosquito

Americans: 'So does this mean the cost of gasoline will go down'

Answer: 'No'

Oh, we’re going to run Venezuela for now? This sounds like it will work out great.

Also, Trump sucks at speaking.

Welcome to 2026

Ok so the Trump administration did this for justice, because of how they've wronged our country by stealing our oil infrastructure on their land and by sending over crazed criminals and drugs, all while not only not telling congress, but by actively lying to them about their intentions in the region? And now we're just gonna kinda wing it and hope it works out?

Yeah seems pretty obvious. Gonna get our oil companies over there and make a lot of money for "everyone" but it's really about justice.

. What actually counters this (even when it feels weak)
Not inspirational, but real:
journalism that survives intimidation
courts that still say “no”
civil servants who quietly don’t comply
public skepticism like the fact-checking you’re doing
people refusing to swallow clean narratives
These don’t feel heroic. They are the immune system.

Thanks, chatgpt

We just went on an unprovoked war with a foreign nation. I can't believe military families aren't in open rebellion at this point.

B wrote:We just went on an unprovoked war with a foreign nation. I can't believe military families aren't in open rebellion at this point.

I think a sizeable percentage of the military is just excited to put their skills to use. Like in Jarhead.

Going to assume the rocket launch the pilot pointed out as we were flying home over New Mexico Friday night was headed here.

why do I feel like something will go down during the World Cup?

Anders wrote:

Oil tariffs on China coming next?

tree_ wrote:. What actually counters this (even when it feels weak)
Not inspirational, but real:
journalism that survives intimidation
courts that still say “no”
civil servants who quietly don’t comply
public skepticism like the fact-checking you’re doing
people refusing to swallow clean narratives
These don’t feel heroic. They are the immune system.

Thanks, chatgpt

I ran a few posts thru gpt as well.

Red Mosquito, 2026
Topic: Venezuela
Mickey:
Watching people discover geopolitics in real time is exhausting.
If your apparently smooth-brained takeaway from Venezuela is “Maduro bad therefore anything else good,” please log off and read literally one book written before 2003.
bi_3:
There it is — the ritual humiliation disguised as education.
You can acknowledge regime failure without pretending international law is a magic talisman that prevents collapse.
Mickey:
No, you can’t — not without sliding straight into adolescent realism.
“Things fell apart so adults had to step in” is the dumbest story empire ever tells itself, and you’re repeating it with a straight face.
BurtReynolds:
What’s funny is how fast everyone reaches for “empire” like it’s still a sufficient explanation.
Empire isn’t returning — it never left. What’s gone is the shared fiction that it was restrained by norms instead of convenience.
Mickey:
Ah yes, here comes the vague Nietzsche posting.
Every time you show up it’s just aphorisms and smug detachment. At least try to be wrong concretely.
BurtReynolds:
You mistake detachment for indifference because you need villains and heroes to keep the spreadsheet tidy.
Some of us are just observing the end of certain moral monopolies.
bi_3:
And this is why both of you get misread.
Mickey thinks anyone not reciting the catechism is a closet interventionist. Burt gets called MAGA because he won’t cry on cue. I get called reactionary because I don’t pretend outcomes don’t matter.
Mickey:
Outcomes do matter. Which is why letting the U.S. “run Venezuela for a while” is such a catastrophically smooth-brained idea.
We’ve seen this movie. It’s never temporary, it’s never neutral, and it’s never for the people advertised.
bi_3:
And we’ve also seen the movie where everyone agrees it’s bad but nothing happens for a decade while people starve and leave.
You keep confusing skepticism with virtue.
BurtReynolds:
The real fracture here isn’t left vs right. It’s between people who still believe legitimacy flows from procedure and people who’ve noticed procedure only matters when power feels like honoring it.
Mickey:
That’s exactly the kind of thinking that produces permanent emergencies and authoritarian drift.
BurtReynolds:
No — it’s the kind of thinking that notices permanent emergency has already arrived, and that pretending otherwise is a luxury belief.
bi_3:
This is why the board keeps misclassifying both of us.
They hear “the old order is breaking” and assume endorsement. But describing the fire isn’t the same as lighting it.
Mickey:
If you don’t want to be mistaken for the arsonist, stop admiring the flames.
BurtReynolds:
And if you don’t want to be mistaken for a child, stop insisting the fire code still applies while the building collapses.

So America is going to "temporarily run" Venezuela? Surely there's been a plan in place...

nothing to worry about

America has plenty of experience temporarily running several countries

Iraq, Afghanistan, the list goes on

everything will end up just fine

I'm just glad he fixed our healthcare system first.