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“The USA is nothing but an oil company with an army.’’ George Carlin
by Kevin Ellis
Or is it an army with an oil company? I wish the late great comedian was around to riff about it. But we are left to ourselves.
After Trump’s invasion/kidnapping/takeover in Venezuela, those two statements are more true than ever.
You are going to hear and see a lot in the coming days about the precision military operation where American commandos went into Caracas and took the corrupt thug/dictator Maduro and his wife. The right-wing media will be full of it. Selected video clips bragging about our military might and “kinetic’’ attacks will be led by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. The conservative echo chamber media, which now includes CBS News, will be all about it. Its new anchorman Tony Dokoupil is already leading the way.
So we will NOT be discussing the implications of an imperialist invasion of another country on the false premise that they were bringing drugs into our country (not true) or flooding our borders with terrorists (not true).
This dictator snatching was about two things.
- Returning American oil companies to the country they once controlled to take the oil and sell it so the United States can control that wealth and resource in this hemisphere and around the world.
- Turn the hemisphere into an American-controlled region. That gives us a secure oil supply for the long-term and sends a message to other countries to stay out of our backyard.
First the oil … At an hour-long press conference, Trump made it clear that the US will run the country. Secretary of State Marco Rubio tried to walk it back the next day. But get ready for a team of American officials like Rubio and Hegseth on Zoom calls with the remnants of the Maduro regime telling them how to run the country and how to welcome back American oil companies. Let’s remember that Hegseth couldn’t even run a small non-profit before this job without being accused of spousal abuse and drunkeness. So the odds of success here – not to mention our own history with Latin America – are slim. (I’ll write about our CIA-led disasters in the area another time)
Trump said the U.S. oil companies will move into the country and rebuild the oil infrastructure.
“The oil companies will be reimbursed,’’ Trump said. “We are going to take a lot of money out.’’
For the best mainstream explanation of the invasion, try this breakdown of different kinds of oil around the world. (Hint: Venezuela has more oil beneath its ground than any country in the world.
If like me you are looking for the journalists who are going to find out what secret deals were made with oil companies, keep your eye on Jane Mayer at the New Yorker and the great Anne Applebaum. She nails it.
Or maybe I’m overthinking it. We all know Trump doesn’t plan beyond the present moment. And whenever he strays from prepared remarks – which he can now barely read – you get what he is really thinking. Trump doesn’t try to hide it. He told a gathering of oil executives during the campaign that in exchange for $1 billion in campaign contributions he would deliver on their wish list. You used to go to prison for such comments. Now it’s a handshake deal.
It is tough to trust anything Trump says. And he looked half asleep at the press conference. But I do take him at his word that U.S. oil companies will now be in charge of the oil business there. And they will make a handsome profit while doing so. Correction: Trump will be in charge of the oil business there. And you can bet that a slice of oil profits will go directly to companies controlled by the Trump family.
Second – The Region.
Control of the region means a message has been sent to China and Russia to stay out. And here is where this gets sticky, complicated and dangerous. By telling everyone we are in charge of the region, Trump is sending a message to Putin and China that they can have their regions. Putin can have Ukraine. China they can have Taiwan.
“We wanna surround ourselves with good neighbors,’’ Trump. If I were in the Cuban government, I would be fleeing that country. Because they are next.
I have to hand it to Trump on this score. He is really good at identifying an issue that plays to his strength – old school, bully language with no plan – and forcing the hapless Democrats to respond. And respond they did – with feigned outrage and staff-prepared talking points while behind the scenes telling reporters they feel OK about Maduro in handcuffs.
As usual, the only voice out there articulating why this was such a bad idea is Bernie Sanders, who called the operation illegal and stupid.
He is right.
But as usual, an enfeebled Congress is unwilling to check the president. (Trump didn’t bother consulting any member of Congress)
The media is playing along. The NY Times and Washington Post BOTH knew about the operation ahead of time and granted the administration’s demand not to publish. CBS anchor Dokoupil – practically an employee of the administration – played along with Hegseth as he refused to answer questions.
Donald Trump has reinvented truth. He has reshaped the American government in his name. He has subjugated the American media into a cowering corner. And he has now remade this country into the dark bully that a majority of us have always resisted. We are now an oil-rich country that places wealth and power over any pretense to morality, democracy and human rights. Our allies – who helped us rebuild Europe after World War II – are left to ponder their future, alone.
We voted for this. And until the Democrats or someone else can articulate a better vision for the country, this is what we have.
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Categories: Commentary, National/International News
Another useless article from John Bossange Jr. Commiecrats will never understand that the world runs on oil. And for all the ranting and raving about Trump acting illegally, it was the Biden-Harris administration that put a 25-million-dollar bounty on Maduro’s head. Maybe Trump should get the reward.
Lol! Yeah…..he SHOULD reap the reward!!! I never thought of that. And then promptly distribute it amongst all the military personnel who were involved in the raid & arrest.
Brilliant, James!
Thank You! but I’m only brilliant part time.
Oil, Drugs and Terrorism, yes oil was involved, that is why Venezuela nationalized their oil and confiscated the resources of our oil companies, Maduro issued Diplomatic Passports to cartels so they can by pass having their bags inspected by customs when moving between Countries and exempts them from prosecution for crimes committed in other Countries, 1/3 of Venezuela’s population had moved out of the Country, he supported on Venezuelan islands ISIS training camps run by Chinese Military. So our security was involved. Remember who was POTUS in 2021? That is when the DOJ Southern District of NY indicted Maduro.
A person who is an American citizen Mr Ellis, acts as a propagandist for the enemy The left Dems commies, is typically seen as betraying their country, as they disseminate information that supports opposing interests or undermines national security. This behavior can be considered treasonous, depending on the context and the nature of the propaganda. Mr. Ellis and a whole host of other propagandist that by definition write propaganda for profit, should be aware of the consequences of their actions. Yes, we have freedom of speech, but these zealots are way over the line.
Cowards post anonymously.
Why must we be subjected to these types of pathologies on a regular basis? Again, are there not yet enough Communistic, socialist, propagandist, radical rags chomping at the bit for one-of-their-own’s fantastical versions of revisionist history and denial of reality able to publish this?
Please don’t continue to push the notion of VDC providing an “equal” & unbiased forum in order to support freedom of speech whilst the leftist fanatics have control over virtually every other publication & media format & public schools not only in VT but across much of this country. Truth has long been outmatched!
This is indeed a war! Hence, Trump’s offensive!
It is a war against rapidly rising overseas tyranny.
It is a war against Godlessness and the obliteration of human rights globally.
It is a war against drugs that have nearly destroyed the USA.
My God, even Senator JOHN FETTERMAN is in full support of this initiative!
Just from a snippet of his: “WE ARE THE GOOD GUYS IN THIS.”
Get a grip, Mr. Ellis.
You & yours have run this state and this country into the ground…as was apparently the objective, as there is no other logical explanation.
Go take a hike.
And not in one of Vermont’s National or State parks.
WELL, WELL, Mr Ellis you put one out there in left field someplace but some of us just do not believe for a minute that you guys on the left are in the right take, here. It just is not so. Venezualia has been a thorn in the side of Americans for way too long, and it is so obvious that hating Trump to you and your followers, overcomes and obliviates anything he does. That is your goal.I can understand how you feel, but Trump God willing, will be around for another 3 years, and will all but extinguish any remebrance of the Democratic Party as we know it. My next point is: No one is perfect
in the human lot, that is agiven. So Trump, according to you, is so imperfect, can’t do anything right raises a question with me? Trump being what he is and does, where does that put Biden, where is he on the scale of perfection?
Thanks Vermont Daily Cronicle for printing this commentary with a different point of view. It shows a willingness to present a different point of view; something that many liberal platforms are unwilling to do.
Unfortunately, the Trump Administration is now threatening Greenland and Cuba, as well as pushing the oft stateed desire to make Canada the 51st state. There may be more truth in this commentary than we would like to admit about the plans to carve up the world into spheres of influence. There must be a good deal of dismay in the republics of Tiawan, South Korea and Ukraine.
One has to wonder what our freedom loving founding fathers would make of the direction we are headed in this 250th anniversary year of our decalring our own independence from a foreign power.
The fledgling USA didn’t simply “declare” our “independence” from Great Britain. It involved at least two major wars resulting in numerous casualties and ongoing, long-term hardships in order to prevail.
Perhaps if the people of Cuba & Venezuela et al were able to somehow able to divest themselves from the horrific conditions they endure/endured daily such as lack of modern medicine & hospitals, murder at the very hand of their brutal dictators, denial of basic human rights such as food, abject poverty, drug cartel executions & chronic violence that imperiled the world, etc., they too might have had the ability to rise.
Insofar as VDC attempting to impress insofar as how “tolerant” they are by publishing the exact same propaganda that the vast majority of radical, Communistic media platforms already spew, how exactly does that entice the trash heaps of “news” sites to publish my alternate viewpoints on political & social issues? It doesn’t. They won’t. It merely adds to the “disinformation” democrats are supposedly so against. In Vermont, VDC has become recognized for affording alternate perspective in publishing conservative/traditional/fact-based articles (in conjunction with commentary from ANYONE – something the leftist competitors disallow) – not by being seemingly complicit in also publishing complete crap and lies via omission as well.
Third, as James states above – it was the democrat party under the sock-puppet presidency of Biden who imposed the 25-million-dollar bounty for this brutal dictator’s capture (obviously under the mistaken impression such would never be achieved) and it was only through Trump and the magnificent performance of our newly organized & retained military that made it possible to implement that order.
This was decidedly not an “unlawful” offensive or “attack” on that country or its people nor one disallowed by federal statutes – see Article 2; US Constitution as yet another example in addition to others I’ve already posted in other threads. Yet interestingly enough, and certainly merely by coincidence, those US “representatives” who are squealing the loudest just happen to socialists themselves: Mamdani, AOC, and Sanders!
Again, just mere coincidence, I’m sure.
Kathleen J. Gaffney,
So how does Trump’s desire to take over Greenland and make Canada fit into your reasoning? These republics bear no relation to Venezuela or Cuba. Something more might be going on worthy of our consideration.
Trump was elected in large part to correct what many felt were extreme policies of the Biden Administraton and affordability issues. Certainly, destroying our relationship with Canada, taking over Greenland and military overthrow of the government of Venezuela and then running that country and nation building of this failed state were not policies that Trump ran on in 2024.
There is not much I agree with Mr Ellis on but he is right about this one. It is about the oil. If it was about drugs then why did he issue this pardon?
“On November 28, 2025, President Donald Trump announced on social media that he intended to issue a “full and complete pardon” to former Honduran president Juan Orlando Hernández. President Trump formally granted the pardon on December 1, 2025, and Hernández was released from prison on the same day, according to the Federal Bureau of Prisons. Hernández had been sentenced to 45 years in prison in June 2024 after a U.S. federal jury convicted him of conspiring to import cocaine into the United States and related firearms offenses. According to the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), Hernández and his co-conspirators trafficked more than 400 tons of U.S.-bound cocaine through Honduras between 2004 and 2022. In his pardon announcement, President Trump asserted that Hernández had been treated “unfairly.”
https://www.congress.gov/crs-product/IN12621
That is over 400 tons of cocaine
400 tons? That should last Hunter Biden at least three months. Maybe he could share with Zelenskyy, Starmer and Macron.
Dan thanks for putting a lot of thought into that response.
“false premise that they were bringing drugs into our country (not true) or flooding our borders with terrorists (not true).” This is an absurd statement, ever heard of Tren de Aragua?
“The right-wing media will be full of it. ” And the left wing media, will they also be “full of it” ?
The only thing I can say about this article is……………….?
I’ll finish your thought for you if you don’t mind……..
“How the Hell did I wind up on VTDigger”???! “News In Pursuit of the Naive.”
Kathleen, that is funny. Thanks.
The mafia of Epstein is alive and well. Remember who sent our jobs to China and who now has bankrupted the mid west farmers on the soy bean contracts with China. Every action creates another reaction. 2026 is going to be a very interesting year.
Good ole NAFTA.
Where was the software for Smartmatic/Dominion voting machines developed? Venezuela.
There’s a lot more here than meets the eye. Look for Maduro to get a deal in exchange for exposure of election fraud infrastructure.
Mike Lindell, whose maxim is the the voting machines should be melted down and turned into prison bars for election thieves, is running for governor in Minnesota.
Are you happy now, JB?
Here, here……and walz was going to be our vp? Vtdigger doesn’t allow commenting on their website, for a specific reason, they are propaganda, where bossange can speak freely without open rebuttal.
These two events may be a serious thread that unravels much corruption within our political system.
We could use some unraveling of corruption here in Vermont too!
John Frietag – Canada is far more reliant on the USA than vice-versa in so many respects – primarily economically and militarily (i.e.: security-wise), though they can sure flex their muscles well in order to impress the leftist cohort countries they need to impress as they steal private citizen’s firearms from them & squelch their intrinsic rights to free speech. And I guess Americans just should have zipped it as Canada and China and all the rest continued to place import taxes on goods/services coming in but we were “evil” to impose similarly. Wait. I thought equality and “equity” were hallmarks of the democrat party.
Guess not……especially when their M.O. is very obviously “America Last”.
And though I don’t fully agree with Trump’s usual phraseology nor the Greenland issue, (nor the reclassification of Marijuana, to be honest) I certainly was much more nauseated & affected by the puppet regime of Biden, the galling federal violation of opening our sovereign borders, the fact that sock-puppet’s failing health (cancer too!!??) was continually lied about by the regime & the corrupted China-owned lamestream media, and the blatant erosion of civil liberties in this country while those scheming socialists were in office. Oh, and let’s not forget bumbling Biden’s anti-constitutional rantings & ravings bathed in a backdrop of a revolutionary blood-red glow highlighting the outlines of soldiers as he wantonly condemned any & all Americans who supported Donald Trump’s (the next POTUS) political positions & perspectives.
As John Fetterman just stated this morning: “We are the good guys in this.”
Sorry. Not sorry.
This analysis seems fairly on-point to me, regardless of those screaming “Left commies” and the like. MAGA seems to forget that this president built his first campaign on scathing criticisms of the Iraq war and our reasons for going there. MAGA seems to forget this president promised no new wars for regime changes in other countries, that we would focus on our affairs at home–rebuilding infrastructure, bringing back manufacturing jobs, cutting waste (instead of padding the military budget even more), and in general minding our own business.
It’s hilarious that all heads nod when Trump calls Maduro illegitimate, but have no problem with Trump inviting a former Al-Qaeda commander to the White House, or that he continues to recognize Ukraine’s “leader” as legitimate when that guy hasn’t officially been president for nearly two years (since his term ran out and he cancelled further elections). Nor does MAGA seem to notice how MAGA’s staunchest defenders (namely Marjorie Taylor Green and Thomas Massie) have also been the ones under the harshest criticism from a president they defended against all the Democrat shenanigans to put him in jail or impeach him.
But as always, once one side’s guy gets in office, people turn off their critical thinking and do nothing to hold him accountable for promises made. So goes the country.
Thanks John for a very rational response. Nice to see. BTW, I agree with you.
Always good of Guy to publish something I’ve written and then watch the ensuing brawl. I do wish those who don’t use their real names would do so. Not signing your name to comments strikes me as less than honest. Several commenters suggested I go back and understand the role Biden played in all this. I assure you I have. I write a Substack newsletter almost every week. And I have been sharply critical of Biden, his staff and the Democratic party many may times. The Democrats are the only outfit I can think of less popular than Trump right now. You can subscribe to the Substack here. Thanks for reading. https://open.substack.com/pub/kevinkellis52/p/dont-know-muchbut-i-do-know-this?utm_campaign=post-expanded-share&utm_medium=web
“Venezuela’s Oil Industry Is Formally Nationalized”
“the Exxon Corporation, the Shell Oil Company, the Gulf Oil Corporation and the Mobil Oil Corporations, which have invested more than $5 billion in facilities. They are to receive just over $1 billion in compensation in the form of cash (about 10 percent) and Five‐year government bonds”
https://www.nytimes.com/1976/01/02/archives/venezuelas-oil-industry-is-formally-nationalized-venezuelan-oil-is.html
Does 10% in compensation seem fair Mr Ellis?
The Swiss government announced this morning that they had frozen Maduro’s accounts. Will be interesting to see who received transfers from those. Also worthy of note is that the former head of Venezuelan military intelligence is being held in the same facility as Maduro, and is expected to be a key witness for the prosecution.
Looks like everyone missed the destruction of the petrodollar in Venezuela with China using their own money system to buy oil. China may have a large investment in this country and will not give it up. Now let see what kind of deal Trump will come up with to save the dollar.
Lord Jesus, thank you bringing the book of Esther to us in real time, may this version be more fun than the last version, may you continue to display your glory and might for all to see and witness. Thank you Lord Jesus.