Elliott Abrams continues to drive administration allegations against Venezuela, and this week that seems to be centering on ties to Iran, where he is accusing Iran of helping them upgrade their oil sector in the face of US sanctions.
Abrams speculated in comments that Iran was being paid in gold to avoid US banking sanctions. He offered no evidence for this, nor would it be illegal in any way for Iran and Venezuela to make trades this way.
This is mostly just complaining about what Venezuela is doing, and what Iran is doing, and how this is contrary to US goals to prevent both of them from selling oil internationally. No specific US response was suggested in the comments.
But as the US continues to make permanent pariahs of nations like Iran and Venezuela, those nations are finding common cause in trade, providing services to one another to keep things going. To the extent that the US intends to keep trying to enforce sanctions on both, this relationship will doubtless continue.
So what the hell is that to Trump?
Absolutely nothing. Other than the Adelson’s millions.
He thinks he is king of the world and has the right to tell every other country what it can and can’t do. And previous presidents did the same thing, they just weren’t as blatant about it.
The narcissistic bully just hates to see victims helping each other.
Our entire foreign policy and “intelligence” is but scenarios n a cheap Hollywood script. So what if they are trading? They are not conniving to take over our Government and run our most powerful corporations.
venezuela has a lot of oil. but has proved to be the most costly to get at and refine. we had our eye on it but with the current glut due to oversupply we, along with china and russia are thumbing our noses at nicky “pockets” maduro’s pleas and offers to move it. we have temporarily given up on our regime change effort there and decided to let venezuela just disintegrate on it’s own and the citizens will take care of nicky.
If the US left Venezuela alone and lifted the sanctions, the country would most probably start to recover.
we need to ratchet up the sanctions and implement some new ones. it will be better if the people tar and feather maduro than if we do it. the oil was his trump card and now it is worthless. when they get rid of nicky and let us put in the leader we want in there then we will lift the sanctions.
People tar and feather Maduro? First this custom is part of Western heritage, Venezuelans have their ways.
Why are you promoting pure racism, or better put why is our Government and the entire woke crowd so enamored with racism. Native Venezuelans, a majority, got voting rights under Chavez and have bern exercising those rights ever since to use oil to develop their country and not give ir away to foreign corporations leaving them with “jobs”.
Who did not like it? Privileged urban classes, descendants of former colonists. Thus US oligarchy and Guaido, representing the “European” superiors in Venezuela — found a common cause.
Trump is guilty as charged, but what about the Democrats and their epic battle with Trump? Not a sound to be heard from woke crowd? Not a peep.
Maduro is all Guaidos of Venezuela have between them and calamity. Venezuela saw what happened in Bolivia and how natives got back under the rule of racists with our help and continued blessing.
I really do not want to hear any more about Trump and his racism and cowering at every whim coming from Israel. His “opponents” are every bit the same.
maduro’s thugs coerced the venezula voters to vote for him or else. he sent them out into every caracus neighborhoods to strongly suggest that he had better win. even if you voted for him and he lost there would be ramifications. so they did.
So what does that have to do with us or you?
so it is ok for him to do that according to you. it makes your voting worthless and that socialist bus driver that is in there now must be replaced since he rigged the election. we run things in our hemisphere and do not like him.
He did not rig the elections. He won by a comfortable margin. You are lying.
they were counted correctly but were coerced with threats by maduro’s henchmen. you had to be there to experience the fright and fear imposed on the good people of venezuela during the pre election.
Bootin Buddin You and your fascist ilk don’t run shit!. Yeah your School for the Americas will wreak havok by training paramilitaries to murder innocent nuns priests and farmworkers in poor indigenous communities but then what. Having had their thousands year old way of life rendered uninhabitable by the generation of gangs left behind they must now seek refuge in the country that facilitated their demise. Then who pays? Ill tell you who pays avg working class Americans like you and I who see their wage shriveled up by war torn desperate refugees who will work for literally nothing to survive. In the end it’s you I who are at the whipping post
Sarcasm detection isn’t your strong suit, is it?
he’s a little slow.
Well it’s pretty hard to tell on here who is being sarcastic and who is just plain crazy.
Yes it is with your own BS…
So you are a sarcastic troll?
no i was a clerk in the regime change division in washington. to kill time there we threw darts at a world map to choose the next country to begin the regime change process in order to be prepared for one if it needed to be done. proud to say i was instrumental in the romanian regime change. nicolae and elena ceausescu are no longer terrorizing their people thanks to our efforts there and my well thrown dart.
How did you miss Cheney’s mug?
Uh huh – and I just saw an Investigation Discovery episode yesterday in which the murderer was writing back to his girlfriend about how he was changing the world, and part of a highly compartmentalized Marine Assassination unit when in fact he was a clerk typist in the Orderly Room. I ran into all kinds of those imaginary minds while in the Air Force, among other Airmen who claimed they were SECRET CIA AGENTS.
So you’re a funny sarcastic troll?
we need to set examples and sometimes to get our message across some unpleasant things happen. so be it.
So you would agree to let China run things in THEIR Hemisphere then?
as long as they comply with our stringent decrees and methods. yes, but they don’t usually and that is where the problem lies. we should have nuked them after japan like macarthur wanted to.
Your posts are either sarcasm or else you are completely nuts.
They were our allies against Japan, maybe we should have nuked England too?
macarthur sensed they would be trouble down the road. the correct thing to do would have been to have nuked their 12 largest cities back then to set them back a couple of centuries. harry the traitor truman said no.
You are confusing WWII with the Korean War.
you know, i could be. a little blurry about when macarthur wanted to do that but it is a fact. well documented.
That was in the Korean War when China entered after we went north of the 38th parallel in Korea.
we just used china then like we used isis in the ME.
You better study history.
always had trouble with that 1946-1953 era. was told that korea was just a police action. whatever that meant and everyone accepted it as gospel.
Oh sure Maduro forced millions of voters to support his reelection by more than a 10% winning margin.so a runoff under Venezuelan law wasn’t necessary. Why don’t you accept reality? Guaido has support of 3% of the people.
Every Caracas neighborhood? Let us say Guaido won all of Caracas, still there us no way for him to win.
Millions of native Venezuelans know he is supported by foreign governments because he would turn over Venezuela’s oil and other resources, to gain personal wealth for his clique. .
What makes you think that native Venezuelans have no rights? They are majority and they have every right to vote the way THEY want.
You are avoiding the key issue here — racism, blatant racism, pure and simple.
In Colombia natives were pushed into the hinterland of jungles to fight rebellion from there. In Bolivia, a coup by colonists descendants ousted elected leader and took over power by horrendous violence — only shyly reported in the West.
But native Venezuelans have more power and are self-organized throughout the countryside. They are in the military rank and file, and in positions of command, making it harder to organize a coup.
Try to deal with the real issue here, the troubled colonial heritage that we are sticking our noses into. We are taking sides — for pecuniary interest, making it harder for them to settle their historic grievances.
All of our human rights rhetoric thrown aside — left and right are buddies when it comes to the most alluring smell of all — smell of money.
“We get to put in the leader we want”? Who is we? And what gives you the right to violate international law and install who you fascists want as president of Venezuela?
we never respond to or even acknowledge international law. we enforce it if necessary but do not have to actually abide by it. we know what is best for venezuela and it is not nicky “pockets” maduro.
And all this attention is worth Abrams’ salary and the expense of the whole bureaucracy dedicated to checking up what Venezuela is doing? And this is our concern — how?
we didn’t want russia and china coming over to get that oil which is in our hemisphere and we have dibs on it. so we tried to implement a regime change and it hasn’t gone that well. turns out the oil is now worthless since there is a worldwide glut so all parties have lost interest in it.
We have dibs on Venezuelan oil? Again who is we? You are a wealthy pig and have no internal support in Venezuela.
that’s why we put guaido in there. but no one warmed up to him. we should have taken maduro out first to pave the way. now with a bunch of worthless oil as your only commodity you are in deep deep trouble.
Actually, he’s a sarcastic troll and you are feeding him.
I think you’re half right.
We have dibs. Aha. How can Russia and China trade in OUR hemisphere? How can anyone trade anywhere, without touching somebody else’s hemisphere. I did not know we divided them.
Since we are still harping at Venezuela, it must not be oil.
You must be having a grand old time explaining the views of the intellectually superior elite to the uninitiated.
we are considering a full naval blockade next. nothing or no one will get in or out without clearing it with us first.
I’m beginning to think that your comments have got to be sarcasm.
How does it feel to be so thoroughly brainwashed by anti-Iran and anti-Venezuela propaganda? Why exactly does the US “have dibs” on any other country’s oil?
we needed guaido to pave the way. russia and china would not dare cross guaido and would pull out with only enough oil to run their vessels and crawl back to their ports with their tails between their legs.
Business conducted between Iran and Venezuela is none of our business.
not so sure. we’ve got them both sanctioned into the next decade. they both have had many chances to readjust their policies toward our way of doing things. they think they know better than us how to run their affairs. both have failed miserably.
Why is it up to us to demand they readjust their policies to our way of doing things?
Even if they “failed miserably” it’s not the US’s business to tell them how they should be doing things. The US should butt out of other countries’ affairs and start looking after their own citizens, millions of whom are about to become hungry, homeless and without healthcare due to failed US assistance for people out of work because of COVID-19.
This is the fantastic Catch 22 of America’s Imperial Embargo Regime. The more countries we throw out of the Dollar Market, the more choices these pariah states have for an alternative. We can only sanction so many countries before we create viable ecosystem for counter-capitalism among the sanctioned nations, like a prison economy with oil and gold instead of hooch and cigarettes.
It’s not counter-capitalism; it’s counter the almighty US-dollar. China’s economic system is one-party capitalism and that’s why they have attained parity or superiority over us economically.
The 40 nations currently being subjected to Washington Sanction are developing a trading block, that seems to me to be predictable.
I am so sick of the US trying to tell every other country in the world what it can and can’t do. They’re the world’s biggest bully. I eagerly await the day when there is a group of countries powerful enough to give the US a taste of its own medicine.
While you all line up and whine for help when there is a national disaster… Get life… and a job.