• SnarkoPolo@lemmy.world
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    4 hours ago

    I hope he seriously overextends the military, and needs a draft. We will get to see how big and tough the MAGAs really are.

    • eletes@sh.itjust.works
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      3 hours ago

      I think it’d be a while before they did a draft. Money would be pumped into Palantir/Oracle/Lockheed/Raytheon first

  • Fedizen@lemmy.world
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    12 hours ago

    Imo Maduro should cut a security deal with china and fuck up trump’s whole game. I’m tired of this forever war bullshit over oil.

    • 0_o7@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      6 hours ago

      Many yankistanis are already gushing over this, if china gets involved, they would be signing up in droves to kill “communists” escalating things even more.

      The rest of the west should be putting pressure against this, but they are proving themselves to be spineless once again.

  • Puddinghelmet@lemmy.world
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    6 hours ago

    Trump has been hinting for several weeks at carrying out attacks in Venezuela. In October, he acknowledged that he had given the foreign intelligence agency, the CIA, secret orders to plan attacks in the country.

    And for months, the United States has been attacking boats it claims are linked to drug trafficking from Venezuela, but it has not provided evidence that these “narcoterrorists” actually pose a direct threat to the U.S. The government argues that this threat justifies military force. However, many critics and legal experts point out that there is no proof of a direct threat to the US, thus no formal armed conflict, meaning these operations amount to illegally killings in international waters. At least 105 people have already been killed.

    In fact, relatively few drugs come from Venezuela into the U.S. The synthetic opioid fentanyl causes the most fatalities in the US, but is mainly produced by Mexican cartels from Chinese raw materials, NOT Venezuelan cartels. The US seems to want to see leftist authoritarian leader Nicolás Maduro leave. Wth? So Trump is just like Putin attacking Ukraine?

      • zebidiah@lemmy.ca
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        5 hours ago

        The only reason trump hasn’t attacked Canada is because we are demographically uncooperative with standard US bombing campaigns…

      • Puddinghelmet@lemmy.world
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        5 hours ago

        Putins wants Ukraine for resources and to have Zelensky out and is bombing them, America wants to bully Maduro out AND for the largest oil reservoir in the world in Venezuela so they also bomb them… Ok?

    • Petr Janda@gonzo.markets
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      14 hours ago

      It seems the whole point is to provoke Maduro to respond in order to escalate into a full blown conflict. Maduro needs to go but let’s not forget about Cuba, the immoral embargo on the poor Carribbean country and what did it achieve ? Nothing, the regime hasn’t changed. The reason is not drugs, the reason is oil. The trump administration thinks it owns Venezuelan oil and oil is all that Trump can think about.

      • Puddinghelmet@lemmy.world
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        8 hours ago

        So America ensures ‘peace by enforcing it’ (from the national security strategy) on Venezuela, why even have a democracy?

      • Krono@lemmy.today
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        3 hours ago

        There have been many studies on this subject (none in the US, since we are under strict prohibition). They calculate both harm to user and harm to society.

        Almost all these studies are in agreement that there are three classes of ‘hard’ drugs that are significantly worse than the rest- opioids, amphetamines, and alcohol. Many rate alcohol as slightly more destructive than the other two.

        Tobacco is rated significantly less harmful, mostly because of the amount of tobacco it takes to do harm. No one dies from a single night of heavy smoking; many people die from a single night of alcohol, amphetamines, or opiates. Second-hand smoke is dangerous, but not nearly as dangerous as a drunk driver.

        Personally I think these studies underrate benzodiazipines, they should be considered the fourth class of hard drugs imo.

      • Puddinghelmet@lemmy.world
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        9 hours ago

        Also “relatively few drugs come from Venezuela into the U.S. The synthetic opioid fentanyl causes the most fatalities in the US, but is mainly produced by Mexican cartels from Chinese raw materials.”

      • MML@sh.itjust.works
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        14 hours ago

        Uh there’s Krokodil (actually it turns out most of what you read is the production not the literal chemical desomorphine causing most of the issues you hear about)

        • chunes@lemmy.world
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          17 hours ago

          In terms of mortality it’s not even close. Alcohol alone kills nearly twice as many people as all other drugs combined.

          Tobacco, 5x as many.

          • nyctre@piefed.social
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            12 hours ago

            Sure, but isn’t that just because anyone can buy them in the supermarket? Start selling opioids in the same way and I’m pretty sure those stats would change.

            Is the AK-47 the worst weapon we’ve created just because it’s killed the most people? I don’t think that’s how those stats are supposed to be used, imo.

            • ctrl_alt_esc@lemmy.ml
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              4 hours ago

              There are several countries that basically did this and no, the stats don’t change. In fact, de-criminalizing those drugs has lead to a decrease in usage and associated deaths in all cases I’m aware of.

              • CmdrShepard49@sh.itjust.works
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                3 hours ago

                Decriminalization isn’t anywhere near the same as legalization. One means you wont go to jail when you get caught with it despite it being illegal to sell, while the other means it’s legal to possess, buy, and sell.

                I’m also curious about the rates of users to deaths and not just total number of deaths as most adults use alcohol at some point while only a tiny percent use stuff like meth or heroin.

                • Krono@lemmy.today
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                  3 hours ago

                  Studies in the UK show that there are three classes of ‘hard’ drugs - alcohol, amphetamines, and opioids.

                  All three roughly follow the ‘10% rule’: 10% of people who try these drugs become addicted, and 10% of addicts die from their addiction.

                  Meth, heroin, and alcohol each kill about 1% of the people who try them.

                  Drug harms in the UK: a multicriteria decision analysis

    • frongt@lemmy.zip
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      18 hours ago

      ABC isn’t a government mouthpiece. I would trust the right-wing Telegraph even less.

    • Insekticus@aussie.zone
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      18 hours ago

      This regime is leaving a massive steaming pile of shit in its wake that it won’t care about if it wins next election, or know the repercussions will absolutely savage the next democratic government into really hard positions to make reparations.

      • n0respect@lemmy.world
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        14 hours ago

        I think they do know. They want it, because they want the US government to fail. If not from direct takeover, by the method you suggest

  • Xanthobilly@lemmy.world
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    22 hours ago

    A dock? Such a rapey “just the tip,” approach. “Hey Venezuela, if you don’t fight back, it’ll hurt less.”