Trump says Venezuela’s Maduro captured after strikes • Hacker News Board

Re: Trump says Venezuela’s Maduro captured after strikes

#331

Post by resters » Sat, Jan 03, 2026, 1:29 PM UTC

it's truly incredible the harm that the psychological need for "strong man" leaders has on the world. What's even more strange, in my opinion, is that the bumbling and incoherent stuff Trump says is actually viewed by anyone as tough or strong. In my view it shows tremendous fear of directness and accountability. To call it womanish would be an insult to women.

Similarly, how does picking on much weaker countries (some of whom are allies) seem tough to anyone? In my view it's ugly and shows weakness rather than strength.

Re: Trump says Venezuela’s Maduro captured after strikes

#332

Post by filldorns » Sat, Jan 03, 2026, 1:31 PM UTC

It's time for you Americans to wake up. You're supporting the wrong things!

National sovereignty is a fundamental principle of international law and cannot be selectively applied according to the interests of global powers. Donald Trump’s threats and aggressive rhetoric toward Venezuela undermine this principle by treating a nation’s self-determination as negotiable. Criticizing this stance does not mean endorsing the Venezuelan government, but acknowledging that sanctions, intimidation, and external pressure rarely affect political elites and instead harm ordinary people, deepening humanitarian crises.

Latin American history reveals a recurring pattern of foreign interference framed as the defense of democracy. From a moral standpoint, collective punishment and imposed solutions are indefensible. If such actions would be unacceptable when directed at the United States, they cannot be justified against Venezuela. A responsible international approach requires multilateral dialogue, international mediation, and genuine respect for the sovereignty of nations.

Re: Trump says Venezuela’s Maduro captured after strikes

#333

Post by [deleted] » Sat, Jan 03, 2026, 1:32 PM UTC

aqme28 wrote: post #115

A lot of talk about how the administration didn't even try to justify this, but I think that the administration actually believes they did justify it. They exist in some bubble completely un-tethered from reality. I don't know what that means for the future but it's terrifying.

[deleted]

Re: Trump says Venezuela’s Maduro captured after strikes

#334

Post by bogdan » Sat, Jan 03, 2026, 1:32 PM UTC

thinkpad1000 wrote: post #308

Hmm, think about that if China does the same thing to Taiwan tonight as well. Capture the current pretendent and install a new pro-China government.

Do as the priest says not as the priest does.

Re: Trump says Venezuela’s Maduro captured after strikes

#335

Post by humanlity » Sat, Jan 03, 2026, 1:32 PM UTC

thinkpad1000 wrote: post #308

Hmm, think about that if China does the same thing to Taiwan tonight as well. Capture the current pretendent and install a new pro-China government.

headline: The wicked CCP that openly flouts human rights

Re: Trump says Venezuela’s Maduro captured after strikes

#336

Post by elektrontamer » Sat, Jan 03, 2026, 1:33 PM UTC

How on earth was this allowed?

Neither the republican nor democrat base wanted this. There wasn't even an attempt at justification, the drugs argument was a complete and utter joke. They could at least do a little false flag attack.

If voting does it solve it what does?

Re: Trump says Venezuela’s Maduro captured after strikes

#337

Post by DrBazza » Sat, Jan 03, 2026, 1:33 PM UTC

SchwKatze wrote: post #282

As a Latino and friend of several people that scaped from Maduro's regime I can easily say that people in South America are happy as ever. Also, some people seems to miss the fact that South America military power is very weak, and we, culturally, are way less proned to fight and die than people in middle east. Yeah, we know this is all about oil, and I'm interested to know what kind of democracy will emerge. But the…

Publicly, it's about oil, privately, it's also about China getting a foothold in South America, on the USA's doorstep and denying them a source of cheap oil from the world's largest proven reserve. It's the modern version of the Great Game.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Game

Re: Trump says Venezuela’s Maduro captured after strikes

#338

Post by DecoySalamander » Sat, Jan 03, 2026, 1:33 PM UTC

runtimepanic wrote: post #136

If you’re tracking signals around geopolitical events, there’s a quirky one a few folks like to watch: the Pentagon Pizza Index. It’s a real-time dashboard that monitors pizza shop activity near the Pentagon as an informal indicator of unusual late-night activity. Historically people have pointed to spikes in food orders before major operations as a sort of low-tech OSINT signal. https://www.pizzint.watch/ Obviously…

Why bother monitoring junk food purchases when we can watch videos of helicopters flying over Caracas being uploaded almost in real time?

Re: Trump says Venezuela’s Maduro captured after strikes

#339

Post by int_19h » Sat, Jan 03, 2026, 1:36 PM UTC

GardenLetter27 wrote: post #176

Let freedom ring. Every Venezuelan I know is happy for the regime to fall. Let's hope Iran, Cuba, North Korea and Russia follow soon.

I can't speak for other countries, but the regime in Russia has popular support.

And if "every Venezuelan you know" is someone who immigrated because of Chavez and/or Maduro, then you have an extremely biased sample to gauge the overall mood of their populace.

Re: Trump says Venezuela’s Maduro captured after strikes

#340

Post by humanlity » Sat, Jan 03, 2026, 1:36 PM UTC

Somehow, I'm starting to agree with Russia's reason for launching the war because Ukraine wanted to join NATO.