From what I heard Russia spent a ton of money helping Venezuela and they are laundering money for them right now and helping them ship oil to try to get their money back. Both countries are under sanction and both have their own shadow fleets. If anyone is mixing oil, it's Venezuela mixing their shitty oil in with Russia's and Russia is taking a cut.
China also invested in Venezuela and they don't care who they get their oil from, not so long as it's cheap. The last I heard they were both pissed at Maduro because they weren't getting paid back fast enough. I don't think either of them planned any big investments in the future because Venezuela can't get their act together.
Despite having tons of oil it's not the cleanest in the world and because of that it's selling for next to nothing. It's extra dirty because they can't get the chemicals they need to clean it. They can't get the chemicals thanks to sanctions.
It didn't help that Chavez fired all the qualified technicians and engineers when the commies took over, he put in place a bunch of dumb asses who destroyed everything they touched. In the process they created the biggest environmental disaster in the Americas. If allowed to continue they will destroy the Orinoco Basin, it's a wetland that is one and half times the size of Texas.
They made a movie about it, songs have been written, etc. Honestly, the people who did that should all be lined up and shot, after a fair trial of course. I'm not an environmental nut or anything but seriously, it's that fucked up.
Trump would be smart to say he's going to clean that shit up, it really is horrible and it's because the commies took over, they did not have that problem when we ran it.
What do you think the Green Party types would say to capitalists cleaning up, after the commies created a massive environmental wasteland out of a pristine wetland bigger than Texas?
On a side note.
Citco is the only Venezuelans oil company to play ball with the international courts and agree to the settlements. After the commies stole the oil, the oil companies and various governments involved took them to court. The commies lost and haven't paid up, Citco has been making their payments, but they don't sell nearly as much as they once did, so they still owe a ton too.
At one time Venezuela sold 96% of it's oil to the US and it was a high quality product for less money than the Arabs. It was a win win, they got rich, we got cheap oil and weren't as dependent on Bone Saw Dictators.
As for this raid.
Tons of people think that we were allowed to go in and get him and that most of their military was told to stand down. This is why Maduro had Cubans as guards, he didn't trust his own men to do it.
I think it makes sense that we had a whole lot of inside help, that or it went about ten thousand times better than Operation Just Cause, which was SNAFU from top to bottom.
Compare it with Panama.
Seals were going to take over a small airport, they got ambushed, four dead and a whole bunch were wounded. My platoon took over security of that place sometime around Christmas, I remember calling my wife from the office in the hanger, right next to Noriega's jet that had a big old burnt hole in the side of it. Snipers were still around and they were still launching an occasional mortar or two at us then.
Delta Force had a mission too, they had to rescue a guy named Kurt Muse, they crashed their helicopter and only got him out safely because the Panamanians didn't choose to kill him.
The Stealth fighter was used for the first time in support of an elite Ranger Battalion, who were jumping in to take out Panama's most highly trained special forces at Rio Hato. The Stealth bombers missed, one of my friends died there and so did three other Rangers, including their medic. A bunch of them were wounded, broken backs and knees from having to jump in from 350 feet instead of the planned 500. When their billion dollar babies missed, they woke up the defenders who opened up with anti-aircraft guns.
My Squad went to Rio Hato to take over security and to clean out the barracks two days later. The day before we had an air assault into the jungle, where we hit another barracks. On the way to Rio Hato my blackhawk got hit, we had a "hard landing". Another way of saying we bounced when we hit the ground. A Chinook came and carried it away the next day.
The Marines did an amphibious assault that ended with Panamanian Civilians rescuing the Marines.
My unit four lost men to bad weather, blackhawk down in the jungle, some of the men lived for a while, but they couldn't get to them for a couple of days.
I once watched a Chinook take off and fly right smack into a tree, totaled the bird, everyone lived.
In training I heard a very loud boom followed by a couple more, two blackhawks had collided, everyone died.
They once dropped a bunch of us from too high into the Ocean and broke guys backs.
Let me put it this way, either we got one fuck of a lot better, or we had a whole lot of inside help.
The military I served in could not have pulled this raid off, not without fucking it up somehow and I think Trump would have known that. So why would he take such a gamble, unless he knew there were stand down orders? I'm not saying that everyone stood down, but enough of them did. How sure am I? Lets say 75% that someone in their military was in on it and we knew there would be very little resistance.
I've watched a ton of battle footage from this raid, it seems incredibly tame compared with Just Cause, at least as far as "death from above" is concerned, they didn't fire that much ordinance. I don't know what all these jets were supposed to be doing but it wasn't hitting targets.
I'd love for Venezuela to return to Capitalism, it's not our job to make it happen and I doubt it will happen until their people are ready for it. If we have to do it by force, it's going to be a mess and we will probably at best create a new Columbia situation were the puppet government controls the city and the natives control everything else and run it like one big cartel would.
Empty tankers pull into the exporting port. Laden tankers leave the exporting port. A tanker laden with oil from Russia pulling into Venezuela in order to launder that oil would be plainly apparent to anyone looking.
Russia helps Venezuela get their oil to market and helps them launder the money from the sales, they take a cut, this is done to pay back the billions in loans that Venezuela owes to Russia.
You are right that it would be obvious, it also makes no sense logistically for Russia to send their oil to Venezuela and then have Venezuela take it to market, not when Venezuela is also sanctioned and has to run a shadow fleet. Both nations are basically in the same boat.
How this will hurt Russia is that they won't be getting back the billions that Venezuela owes them anytime soon. It's hard to say how much Venezuela owes these two countries, their total debt is 160 billion give or take. Both Russia and China have reduced their exposure though so I don't think it's more than a few billion owed directly to Russia.
From what I heard Russia spent a ton of money helping Venezuela and they are laundering money for them right now and helping them ship oil to try to get their money back. Both countries are under sanction and both have their own shadow fleets. If anyone is mixing oil, it's Venezuela mixing their shitty oil in with Russia's and Russia is taking a cut.
China also invested in Venezuela and they don't care who they get their oil from, not so long as it's cheap. The last I heard they were both pissed at Maduro because they weren't getting paid back fast enough. I don't think either of them planned any big investments in the future because Venezuela can't get their act together.
Despite having tons of oil it's not the cleanest in the world and because of that it's selling for next to nothing. It's extra dirty because they can't get the chemicals they need to clean it. They can't get the chemicals thanks to sanctions.
It didn't help that Chavez fired all the qualified technicians and engineers when the commies took over, he put in place a bunch of dumb asses who destroyed everything they touched. In the process they created the biggest environmental disaster in the Americas. If allowed to continue they will destroy the Orinoco Basin, it's a wetland that is one and half times the size of Texas.
They made a movie about it, songs have been written, etc. Honestly, the people who did that should all be lined up and shot, after a fair trial of course. I'm not an environmental nut or anything but seriously, it's that fucked up.
Trump would be smart to say he's going to clean that shit up, it really is horrible and it's because the commies took over, they did not have that problem when we ran it.
What do you think the Green Party types would say to capitalists cleaning up, after the commies created a massive environmental wasteland out of a pristine wetland bigger than Texas?
On a side note.
Citco is the only Venezuelans oil company to play ball with the international courts and agree to the settlements. After the commies stole the oil, the oil companies and various governments involved took them to court. The commies lost and haven't paid up, Citco has been making their payments, but they don't sell nearly as much as they once did, so they still owe a ton too.
At one time Venezuela sold 96% of it's oil to the US and it was a high quality product for less money than the Arabs. It was a win win, they got rich, we got cheap oil and weren't as dependent on Bone Saw Dictators.
As for this raid.
Tons of people think that we were allowed to go in and get him and that most of their military was told to stand down. This is why Maduro had Cubans as guards, he didn't trust his own men to do it.
I think it makes sense that we had a whole lot of inside help, that or it went about ten thousand times better than Operation Just Cause, which was SNAFU from top to bottom.
Compare it with Panama.
Seals were going to take over a small airport, they got ambushed, four dead and a whole bunch were wounded. My platoon took over security of that place sometime around Christmas, I remember calling my wife from the office in the hanger, right next to Noriega's jet that had a big old burnt hole in the side of it. Snipers were still around and they were still launching an occasional mortar or two at us then.
Delta Force had a mission too, they had to rescue a guy named Kurt Muse, they crashed their helicopter and only got him out safely because the Panamanians didn't choose to kill him.
The Stealth fighter was used for the first time in support of an elite Ranger Battalion, who were jumping in to take out Panama's most highly trained special forces at Rio Hato. The Stealth bombers missed, one of my friends died there and so did three other Rangers, including their medic. A bunch of them were wounded, broken backs and knees from having to jump in from 350 feet instead of the planned 500. When their billion dollar babies missed, they woke up the defenders who opened up with anti-aircraft guns.
My Squad went to Rio Hato to take over security and to clean out the barracks two days later. The day before we had an air assault into the jungle, where we hit another barracks. On the way to Rio Hato my blackhawk got hit, we had a "hard landing". Another way of saying we bounced when we hit the ground. A Chinook came and carried it away the next day.
The Marines did an amphibious assault that ended with Panamanian Civilians rescuing the Marines.
My unit four lost men to bad weather, blackhawk down in the jungle, some of the men lived for a while, but they couldn't get to them for a couple of days.
I once watched a Chinook take off and fly right smack into a tree, totaled the bird, everyone lived.
In training I heard a very loud boom followed by a couple more, two blackhawks had collided, everyone died.
They once dropped a bunch of us from too high into the Ocean and broke guys backs.
Let me put it this way, either we got one fuck of a lot better, or we had a whole lot of inside help.
The military I served in could not have pulled this raid off, not without fucking it up somehow and I think Trump would have known that. So why would he take such a gamble, unless he knew there were stand down orders? I'm not saying that everyone stood down, but enough of them did. How sure am I? Lets say 75% that someone in their military was in on it and we knew there would be very little resistance.
I've watched a ton of battle footage from this raid, it seems incredibly tame compared with Just Cause, at least as far as "death from above" is concerned, they didn't fire that much ordinance. I don't know what all these jets were supposed to be doing but it wasn't hitting targets.
I'd love for Venezuela to return to Capitalism, it's not our job to make it happen and I doubt it will happen until their people are ready for it. If we have to do it by force, it's going to be a mess and we will probably at best create a new Columbia situation were the puppet government controls the city and the natives control everything else and run it like one big cartel would.
Empty tankers pull into the exporting port. Laden tankers leave the exporting port. A tanker laden with oil from Russia pulling into Venezuela in order to launder that oil would be plainly apparent to anyone looking.
Russia helps Venezuela get their oil to market and helps them launder the money from the sales, they take a cut, this is done to pay back the billions in loans that Venezuela owes to Russia.
You are right that it would be obvious, it also makes no sense logistically for Russia to send their oil to Venezuela and then have Venezuela take it to market, not when Venezuela is also sanctioned and has to run a shadow fleet. Both nations are basically in the same boat.
How this will hurt Russia is that they won't be getting back the billions that Venezuela owes them anytime soon. It's hard to say how much Venezuela owes these two countries, their total debt is 160 billion give or take. Both Russia and China have reduced their exposure though so I don't think it's more than a few billion owed directly to Russia.
That's a great show to follow.