America’s thirst for Venezuelan oil is Trump’s Orange Fascism at his worst

US seizes Venezuela-linked Russian oil tanker

The US special forces commandeered a Russian-flagged oil tanker with links to Venezuela in the North Atlantic after a weeks-long pursuit, drawing a sharp rebuke from Moscow.

The US military’s European Command said the Marinera oil tanker, originally known as the Bella-1, was seized on Wednesday “for violations of US sanctions”.

In his book, The Room where it happened, Neoliberal Hawk John Bolton goes into detail at the attempted coup 2019 by Trump against Venezuela and as Trump ratchets up an enormous fleet off the coast.

It’s a fascinating insight into how deeply involved Trump’s first term was in the attempted coup against Maduro and provides some insight into Trump’s current thinking.

Trump’s concerns as outlined by Bolton were Venezuela empowering China, Cuba and Russia. It was also to appease the Venezuelan-American community who strategically had all moved to Florida to provide a powerful Republican voting block.

Trump’s desire in 2019 was for military action which bewildered even a war monger like Bolton…

“Trump insisted he wanted military option for Venezuela and then keep it because “it’s really part of the United States”.

…Bolton said this aggression surprised him, but it would get worse…

“Trump, as usual, was having trouble distinguishing responsible measures to protect legitimate American interests from what amounted to vast overreaching of the sort no other government, especially a democratic one, would even consider.

…when Bolton is the voice of reason, you are in deep trouble.

Trump’s lust for Venezuelan oil…

US will control Venezuela oil sales ‘indefinitely’, official says

The US will control sales of sanctioned Venezuelan oil “indefinitely” as it prepares to roll back restrictions on the country’s crude in global markets, the White House said.

Officials said sales were expected to start with 30 million to 50 million barrels of oil and the revenue would be controlled by the US government in order to maintain clout over the Venezuelan government.

“We need to have that leverage and control of those oil sales to drive the changes that simply must happen in Venezuela,” Energy Secretary Chris Wright said.

It is not clear what portion of the revenues from the sale – which analysts expect to raise about $2.8bn (£2.1bn) – would be shared with Venezuela.

…and his desire to force Venezuela to use those oil revenues to buy American products…

Trumps says Venezuela will ‘only’ buy US goods with proceeds from oil sale under new deal

Donald Trump has said in a post on his Truth Social platform that Venezuelawill be purchasing American-made products with the money they receive from the new deal arranged with his administration.

I have just been informed that Venezuela is going to be purchasing ONLY American Made Products, with the money they receive from our new Oil Deal. These purchases will include, among other things, American Agricultural Products, and American Made Medicines, Medical Devices, and Equipment to improve Venezuela’s Electric Grid and Energy Facilities.

In other words, Venezuela is committing to doing business with the United States of America as their principal partner — A wise choice, and a very good thing for the people of Venezuela, and the United States.

…is as gangsta as his drive to steal Ukrainian rare earth minerals!

Trump blackmailing Ukraine for rare earth minerals would be funny if it weren’t so venal and evil.

The truth is that the rare earth minerals the Ukraine claim to have was an ill advised ruse used by the Ukrainians to try and tempt Trump, unfortunately he was tempted but in a bad way.

This is a case of the Zelensky who cried  rare earth mineral.

Gordon Campbell, the most underrated blogger in NZ breaks it down…

One of the odder aspects of Donald Trump’s transactional approach to Ukraine – give us access to your reserves of rare earth minerals, as payback for what we’ve spent in your defence – is that most media coverage has assumed that yeah, that sounds like Trump. Follow the money. The more significant point, as Javier Blas pointed out in a Bloomberg News column, is that Ukraine doesn’t actually have much in the way of rare earth minerals.

This isn’t the first time this sort of thing has happened. As Blas says, the Pentagon had claimed that there were US $1Trillion worth of lithium deposits in Afghanistan, which the Pentagon claimed had the potential to make Afghanistan “the Saudi Arabia of lithium.” This was a fantasy. Similarly, the authoritative US Geological Survey shows no rare earth listings for Ukraine, either as reserves, or as mined production figures. China, Vietnam, Burma, Australia, Brazil, Canada – and Greenland ! – do figure prominently.

Ukraine got itself into this fix:

The hype about the Ukrainian rare earths began with Ukrainians themselves. Desperate to find a way to engage Trump, they miscalculated presenting the then-incoming president a “victory plan” in November that talked up — way, way up — the potential of the country’s mineral resources. Soon, they lost control of the narrative.

On Feb. 3, Trump emphatically said the Ukrainians had “very valuable rare earths.” Always keen to be perceived as a dealmaker, he added: “We’re looking to do a deal with Ukraine where they’re going to secure what we’re giving them with their rare earths and other things.” He doubled down a few days later, telling Fox News on Feb. 11 about his talks with Ukrainian officials: “I told them that I want the equivalent like $500 billion worth of rare earth.”

$500 billion? Reportedly, the world’s entire annual production of the 17 rare earth minerals is worth only about $15 billion a year. Ukraine does have some mineral deposits of scandium, and it also earns some money from its mining for titanium and gallium but these mines tend to be located in eastern regions now controlled by Russia. There are tiny rare earth deposits at the Novopoltavske deposit, discovered by the Soviets in 1970 – but as Blas explains, because these cannot be extracted at a commercially viable rate of return, they remain undeveloped today, 50 years after being discovered.

Finally, a document produced in Lithuania and bearing a NATO imprint has been cited – online – as vindicating Trump’s repeated arguments that Ukraine is laden with rare earth minerals. With good reason, Bloomberg News is deeply sceptical:

Although affiliated with the military alliance, bearing its name and logo, the entity [in Lithuania that produced the report] and its counterparts are autonomous bodies outside the command chain. The document is provocative: “Ukraine emerges as a key potential supplier of rare earth metals such as titanium, lithium, beryllium, manganese, gallium, uranium…” The list should ring every alarm. Anyone with a passing knowledge of chemistry knows none of those minerals are rare earths.

Why NATO’s imprint is attached to the report, which appears devoid of basic fact-checking, is beyond comprehension. A spokesperson told me the views reflected those of the author rather than NATO — something the document doesn’t say. The report, uncorrected, is still available online.

But this only highlights the basic problem with fact checking Donald Trump, and his assertions. He’s not much interested in facts and policy details and assumes most of his audience feels likewise. That doesn’t make him stupid. It means he’s really engaged in shifting the American public’s attitudes to Ukraine.

In this case, rather than having the US being seen to be throwing Ukraine to the wolves, he has chosen to portray Ukraine as a greedy ingrate that is hoarding its own wealth while sponging off everyone else. There will always be an audience for that kind of message. It is the foreign policy equivalent of “people on welfare are driving around in Cadillacs” on your tax dollar, friend. In Trumpworld, Ukraine is the welfare queen of geo-politics.

…the whole thing was a bullshit spin that Trump took seriously.

That Trump is forcing the Ukraine to hand over are earth minerals in return for security agreements and he will steal Venezuelan oil to pay for his illegal kidnapping highlights that Trump no longer wants to be a Global SuperPower and now wants to be a Regional Superpower.

Everyone is scrambling to understand what the ‘DonRoe’ doctrine actually means as we stand aghast that he would force Ukraine to surrender, then charge them $500billion in rare earth minerals to protect them while walking away from NATO.

I think there are a couple of things all in play that demand attention to comprehend the enormity of what is going to happen to the global order.

Putin, Evangelical Rapture, and Mar-a-Lago as the 4th Rome:

The difference between a war crime and a genocide tends to be the self belief of the person committing violence that God is on their side.

In 988AD, Vladimir the Great, whom Putin takes his name from, mass baptised 1000 Russians at the River Nee-Proh in what has become the founding spiritual moment in Orthodox Russian Christianity as the moment Russia became Christian and led to a cultural narrative structure that Moscow is the third Rome and was a homeland for Christianity.

What isn’t widely known is that Putin himself is a very staunch Russian Orthodox Christianand that he has used the Russian Orthodox Church as an enormous control mechanism over the Russian people.

Putin has spent billions rebuilding the Churches smashed down by Communism and uses his relationship with the Church for political advantage. It was the Orthodox Church who first praised Putin for annexing Crimea, a region with much religious importance for the Church.

in 2022 the Ukrainian branch of the Orthodox Church severed ties with the Russian branch because they felt Putin was having too much influence over it.

If Moscow is the third Rome, Kyiv is the second Jerusalem.

Trump on the other hand is a cynical tyrant who has understood the political power of resentment better than anyone since Hitler.

He has used the Undermensch to empower the ubermensch with his brand of wounded masculinity.

His surviving an assassins bullet has created a belief within Trump that God has saved him for a special purpose.

Both Putin and Trump now believe they are on a mission from God and terrifyingly so do Trumps evangelical MAGA fanatics who believe in a literal interpretation of the Book of Revelations whereby if they trigger Armageddon they will start the Rapture which is why the Evangelical Movement in America has donated hundreds of millions to extremist zionists.

I think Trump sees Putin and Russia as part of the 3 Romes and believes Mar-a-Lago is the 4th Rome as some sort of new Christofascist Regional Super Power Old Word Order.

Alexander Dugin and Trump’s New Christofascist Regional Super Power Old Word Order:

Alexander Dugin is one of the most influential Russian philosophers when it comes to influencing Putin AND Trump. He argues Russia needs to own the Ukraine to protect Russia and his multipolar arguments that Marco Rubio himself repeated in his Munich speech last year tells us everything we need to know about how Trump is reverting back to the Old World Order.

Trump sees the cost of being a Global Super power is wasteful and sees the funding of global institutions as a waste of American money. He wants to make America a Regional Super Power, adopting Dugin’s philosophy of multipolar interests…

Trump signs proclamation withdrawing from international organizations, White House says

Donald Trump has also signed a proclamation withdrawing the United States from 35 non-United Nations organizations and 31 UN entities that “operate contrary to US national interests”, the White House said in a statement.

It did not list the organizations, but said they promote “radical climate policies, global governance, and ideological programs that conflict with US sovereignty and economic strength”.

It said the move was the result of a review of all international intergovernmental organizations, conventions and treaties that the US is a member of or party to, per Reuters.

“These withdrawals will end American taxpayer funding and involvement in entities that advance globalist agendas over US priorities, or that address important issues inefficiently or ineffectively such that US taxpayer dollars are best allocated in other ways to support the relevant missions,” the White House said.

Since beginning his second term a year ago, Trump has sought to slash US funding for the UN, ended US engagement with the UN Human Rights Council, extended a halt to funding for the Palestinian relief agency UNRWA and quit the UN cultural agency UNESCO. He has also announced plans to quit the World Health Organization and the Paris climate agreement.

…This means Trump is more focused on forcing Canada to join America, taking Greenland and the Panama Canal. That’s being a Regional Super Power.

He is inviting Putin to have his own Regional Super Power status by gifting him 20% of the Ukraine and making Europe pay more for his largesse to protect them, because ultimately Trump wants to make Putin an ally.

Why? Because in Trump’s warped view of God saving him for a special purpose, he is reuniting the old 3 Romes, including Mar-a-largo as the 4th Rome, taking back Gaza and will join forces with Russia to take out the godless Chinese.

Because that’s really why Trump is buttering up Putin, he believes there is more in common binding them culturally and Religion wise than binds Russia and China.

America & Russia vs China:

The end game of Trump smashing the global status quo by unfunding Americas global obligations for Regional dominance and inviting Russia to do the same is ultimately about Trump making Putin an ally to jointly deal to China.

While America will take Canada, Greenland and Panama as Putin takes 20% of Ukraine, Trump may either shrug if Xi does the same and invades Taiwan or he could make Taiwan the redline and demand Taiwan pay more for their defence.

Trump is no defender of peace and democracy, he is a corrupt Orange Fascist where ‘America First’  really means ‘Trump First’.

The American Midnight is upon us.

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