Strange Happenings

~ Clarissa

The airspace over… Venezuela??

Erm, what?

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Published by Clarissa

54 thoughts on “Strange Happenings”

  1. After this last week, I’m looking at all such actions as:

    The Trump resistance (both D and R) is substantially funded by Cartels.

    In that light, so many things make sense.

    Prove me wrong.

    -ethyl

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    1. Yes, I know, you can’t prove a negative. I’ve been surprised by the public responses to blowing up drug boats is all. Very popular with the majority of proles. There is no confusion down here, about who the bad guys are in that exchange.

      I used to think that maybe the elite’s opposite response was either that they’re all ON drugs, and are afraid for their supply, but then… they have enough money they’ll be able to get their fix no matter what is happening to drug boats in the Caribbean.

      Then I thought, maybe, it’s one of those reflexive everything-Trump-does-must-be-bad responses.

      But this week, all the “ex” CIA pols came out on the side of the drug boats. They should know better. This has to be more than simple TDS.

      It does make sense, though, if cartels are buying federal pols, AND the CIA is *still* funding its black ops programs with drug money.

      I don’t know anything. I just read the news. If you’ve got reliable info that I’m missing, that makes this look false, I’m listening.

      Or in prole-speak: “prove me wrong”.

      -ethyl

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      1. I’m very supportive of blowing up the cartel boats. But the idea of “closing the sky” makes no sense unless you are willing actually to take down planes. This is a whole other level of engagement.

        In stopping the flow of drugs into the country, we should be going after Mexico, too. I’m in favor of taxing remittances at 50%. Scott Bessent made some noises regarding remittances yesterday but it’s all very nebulous. Let’s good it is just the opening salvo with more to follow.

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        1. Unless and until we start shooting stuff in Venezuela, it’s just an empty threat.

          So far, it’s the responses– what responses, and from what quarters– that are interesting to me.

          Yes, absolutely, Mexico should be on the list. I hope it is in the works and hasn’t happened because technical reasons or something, but who knows?

          -ethyl

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        2. “taxing remittances at 50%. Scott Bessent “

          I’m dumb enough to no know how remittances to Mexico work… IINM they used to use Western Union or something like it.

          One would assume that if they start being taxes then some kind of hawala system should arise but I don’t think Mexicans have the social capital needed for that (the temptation for intermediaries to disappear with money will be too strong).

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          1. Do you know Carlos Sim? He built his fortune on remittances. And then he purchased shares in the NY times to push open-border propaganda because he needs the remittances to keep flowing. Taxing remittances means taking on Sim, the cartels, and President Sheinbaum who is owned by the Sinaloa cartel. So it’s tricky.

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      2. If you really want to know and that was not a rhetorical question…

        Inhaling the first line of Venezualan coke…

        It is not as simple as “everything Trump is doing is wrong by definition”. It is “he and his team have done enough suspicious things to not trust what they say just because they say so”.

        The question is not even “is it a right thing to blow up drugs-carrying boats in international waters?”, the question is “are the boats they are blowing up actually carrying any drugs and/or cartel mebers, or is this just a propaganda justification to eventually attacking Venezuela”. The latter version is not fundamentally different from the Russian justification for attacking Ukraine, that Ukrainians are Nazis… coke-snoring Nazis, by the way.

        Acually capturing the traffickers in the act (instead of blowing them up) would add credibility to the claims that they are transporting drugs.

        Second line…

        This site is not my only window into MAGA. My theory about why the majority of MAGA are so anti-Ukrainian is that they literally identify with the Russians and their imaginary “right” to mess with their neighbors… Superpower to superpower, so to speak… Proles rejoicing with strongman leader blowing up foreigners actually is in line with this theory.

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        1. Sorry, I forgot the acknowledgment. The authors than Venezuelan revolutionary Bolivarean cartels and personally Honorable Mr. Maduro for their support.

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        2. I’m not MAGA.

          Seriously have you watched the boat videos? Have you ever seen a fishing boat? Are you familiar with the term “square grouper”?

          I can’t figure out if all this ignorance is feigned, or just… people who didn’t grow up in Florida where this crap washes up on the beaches.

          -ethyl

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          1. I’m a very urban person. Never fished. Never boated. But those are fishing boats like I’m an Aleut. (No shade on the Aleut who are fascinating people).

            It’s very easy to tell the difference by the engine, the shape, the speed of movement.

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            1. IKR?

              A boat that size, with four outboard motors, full of plastic 50-gallon barrels, or plastic-wrapped squareish bundles, is not a fishing boat. It’s a drug-smuggling boat.

              If you’ve lived in Iowa all your life, you can be forgiven for not knowing this. Please get on the google, and look up one of the hundreds of local FL news items about “man finds $100k in cocaine/heroin/marijuana/cash on beach” Study the photos. It’ll be enlightening, I promise.

              If you’re a federal employee or a politician, and you do not know this, you are either LYING ABOUT THAT, or you need to fire your entire staff for not telling you, and letting you look stupid in public. Repeatedly.

              Floridians, watching journos and pols pearl clutching “OMG what if it was fisherman”: “Are they retarded? Brain damaged? Are they high on coke right now?”

              for comparison:

              https://www.hindustantimes.com/world-news/us-news/cocaine-worth-2-million-washes-ashore-on-us-beaches-101751230419795.html

              now here’s one of the boat strike vids:

              https://x.com/nicksortor/status/1962991854087016569

              Look close: see all those little bundles?

              Yeah, not a fishing boat.

              -ethyl

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            2. Well, I know a little about boats, those are designed to rapidly transport a relatively small and very expensive product. They are smugglers, criminals, and nasty ones at that. I won’t loses any sleep over sinking them, but am not completely blood-thirsty ;-D

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          2. I am not disputing that Venezuela is the source of some drugs reaching the US. I find it suspicious that Venezuela is singled out and artificially made bigger than for example Mexico or Columbia for the purpose of this new war on drugs.

            I did not mention any “fishermen”. But I do find “your boat had a wrong aspect ratio and was too fast” an insufficient justification for killing people. I am not suggesting we look the other way. Board them. Yes, if they have stuff, they may throw the stuff into the water. If you can make nice videos of blowing them up, you can make nice videos of boarding them and them throwing stuff into the water.

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            1. Venezuela is a Russian proxy while Mexico and Colombia are not. It’s also a socialist country while the other two are not. Finally, Venezuela is a dictatorship while the other two are democracies.

              Venezuela is one of the two remaining dictatorships in Latin America after half a century where almost every country was a dictatorship. It makes Venezuela such an enormous outlier that I wouldn’t compare it with Latin American countries which, in spite of all their problems, are democracies.

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              1. Clarissa, you’re still missing the biggest picture. You gotta start thinking like an oligarch to really understand the biggest reason Trump is taking aim at Venezuela.

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              4. I don’t know, this reminds me of the “Bush invaded Iraq over oil” narrative.

                “It’s oil” doesn’t explain anything. The Venezuelan oil industry is destroyed. Venezuela exists because China sends tankers of oil. How does blowing up a few cartel boats give anybody access to Venezuelan oil?

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              5. US oil interests have been in Venezuela since oil was discovered there. They lost out access during Chavez and Maduro, now they have an opportunity to gain access back. Seems pretty simple to me.

                The infrastructure is bad, but the oil is still there. It hasn’t disappeared.

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              6. For what purpose, though? There’s enough domestic oil. Why invest enormous amounts to bring back industry in a country with no qualified workers and lots of instability? To achieve what?

                First, you’ve got to fight a war. Then install a new regime. Then rebuild the industry. Then maybe there will be some profit but it’s a very long-term plan.

                I’m honestly not seeing it.

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              7. Because more oil = more money? More global market share, more oil to sell to other countries, etc. The oil people will never be satisfied. There is always room for more.

                Why else do you think Trump and his buddies are salivating at a prospective peace deal with Russia where they get large concessions to extract oil out of Russia? This is the exact same underlying issue, get more oil, get more money, get more wealthy and powerful. I think it helps to see Trump as an oligarch to start seeing the angle.

                If it was a more stable country like Brazil, I would agree with you. However, Maduro is so extremely weak and incompetent, that kicking him out might actually be pretty easy. He’s also hated by many people, probably most Venezuelans. So it would not necessarily be an unpopular “invasion.” The equation that I see: weak regime + unpopular regime + lots of oil = appetite for war.

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              8. This is only possible in a situation where the US conquers Venezuela and takes over its economy which is not likely.

                The idea that Trump will somehow take ownership of Russian oil industry is even more far-fetched.

                I think we should live in reality. None of this is realistic.

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            2. No, dammit. It’s that the boat is full of plastic-wrapped bundles, that the crew starts chucking overboard when coast guard approaches.

              You don’t have to be ignorant here. You’re choosing to be.

              -ethyl

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              2. Here’s a handy picture of said bundles after they’ve been positively identified as drugs (yes “lethal doses of cocaine” is stupid).

                https://x.com/DJ_Davs/status/1963033055054201064/photo/1

                That’s what they look like. There are even some people in the photo for scale.

                That is not what fish or fishing equipment look like, and nobody throws fish and fishing equipment overboard when another boat approaches.

                See also:

                https://x.com/Andreafreedom76/status/1960163726939615593

                https://x.com/DataRepublican/status/1964808392553398351/photo/1 –note in particular both the square bundles *and* the 50-gallon barrels of extra fuel in the back, next to the motors. Classic.

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              3. “risks to one’s personal stash can be a great motivator for feigned ignorance.”

                Cliff, I’m trying so hard not to assume that everybody saying disingenuous things about this is a druggie getting defensive about his access. So hard.

                Don’t take away my last shred of humanity here.

                -ethyl

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              5. —I promise that reader v07, at least, is the most clean living person you can imagine.

                Nah, I once tried an edible. It was… interesting. Sorry, Clarissa.

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        3. I once again have to inject into the conversation the question of why the MAGA were so angry about the bombing of Iran. They are still not over it. Turn on any far-right podcaster, and they are still enraged about Iran. I’d say the number of mentions of Russia vs Iran are in about 1:200 proportion.

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            1. “. Paid propaganda?”

              Well the “woke right” are largely hucksters up for the highest bidder, where do you think their recent devotion to Qatar came from?

              Also, they within a day or two of each other were publicising a sports betting outfit, a surge of interest that looked about as organic as a concrete block.

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              1. Makes sense.

                There are a lot of political/cultural “far-right” branded issues that I hear “far right” people discussing IRL (“far right” in quotes because I think it’s a dumb lable: it’s normal wage-class people until five minutes ago).

                Those include, in order of frequency: things that affect family formation (divorce, family courts, welfare, housing, mobility), things that affect jobs/wages (immigration, tariffs), things that affect the military (DEI, DEI, the covid purge, deploying the guard, DEI) (skewed because I know a lot of current and former military), and things that affect everyday life (crime).

                And zilch about Iran, Ukraine, whatever dumb thing Trump said yesterday, or Jews. I don’t think those things are organic, when they are talked about obsessively on the internet.

                Wherever that space is, that category of things “far-right” people talk about IRL vs. things “far right” accounts and celebrities talk about online, things in that space are probably propaganda: something that somebody with a lot of money *wants* talked about whether it is relevant to normal Americans or not.

                -ethyl

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              2. I’m trying to find these MAGAs who I keep hearing want more wars and I’m very sincerely not seeing that. The narrative of “MAGAs want Trump to start a war” is not something for which I observe even a shred of evidence.

                And I completely agree that people care much MUCH more about domestic issues, many of which are dire. Foreign policy is being blown up as massively important in the MSM but for regular voters domestic issues are enormously more important. People are starting to prepare for Christmas and, prices being what we are, will not make anybody very happy with the current economy. It’s just a fact.

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      3. “prole-speak: “prove me wrong””

        Or prole-speak for: “I have a hypothesis that can be disproven should sufficient counter evidence appear”.

        The idea that the “deep state” is hip deep in the drug trade is a perfectly reasonable hypothesis. They’re hip deep in every other scam and con, why not that too?

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    2. I see comments in an app. They appear outside of threads and in the order starting from the most recent.

      So this looked like a random accusation directed to me personally. 😂😂

      It’s ok, I figured it out.

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  4. Some of you are falling for it hook, line, and sinker if you think Trump really cares about drugs. This is just a a show, a facade that he correctly identified as something he could use to justify extra judicial killings and violation of sovereignty of another country. Replace drugs with “weapons of mass destruction” and you get basically the same fear mongering.

    Trump also just pardoned a former Honduran president convicted of drug trafficking:
    https://www.foxnews.com/politics/trump-plans-full-complete-pardon-former-honduran-president-convicted-drug-trafficking.amp

    How the hell does that align with him being tough on drugs and drug traffickers? He’s approaching Putin levels of irrationality.

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    1. I once again suggest that we remove the word “care” from our discussions of politicians’ motives. Trump wants to be popular with voters. Strikes on cartels are very popular among his base. He’s delivering what the base requested.

      The situation in Honduras is complicated. This is a play to support the candidate who is running against a Putin puppet. Trump is trying to prevent the Russian takeover of Honduras. It’s a very sensitive situation.

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    2. I once again suggest that we remove the word “care” from our discussions of politicians’ motives. Trump wants to be popular with voters. Strikes on cartels are very popular among his base. He’s delivering what the base requested.

      The situation in Honduras is complicated. This is a play to support the candidate who is running against a Putin puppet. Trump is trying to prevent the Russian takeover of Honduras. It’s a very sensitive situation.

      Venezuela doesn’t have sovereignty in any meaningful way. Maduro is a Russian puppet regime.

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    3. I don’t think Trump cares about drugs. I think the narco boat op is one piece with culling USAID and the recent designation of antifa as terrorists: cutting off funding and recruiting for a lot of deep state hanky panky that is directly opposed to him.

      As long as that also benefits normal Americans, I’m in.

      -ethyl

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      1. fyi, when I typed out a longer version of that comment with dates and specifics, it failed to post. I’m going to stick the receipts in this box and try again, because now I’m curious if that was an organic glitch or a censorbot.

        September 2025: first narco boat strikes, antifa designated a terrorist org.

        Oct 29 2025: Senator Slotkin gives speech to Brookings, clearly foreshadowing the infamous “don’t give up the ship” video, where she specifically brings up the narco boats, suggesting they’re illegal actions

        (crickets on Obama extrajudicial killings, which are totes OK and definitely not comparable because not performed by Trump admin)

        “Don’t give up the ship” video: this is not, IMO, a serious attempt to solicit defection from the military. Literally everybody I know who is current military, former military, or even just contracting for the military, frigging LOVES Hegseth.

        No, I think this vid is a tacit threat: “if you *do* follow Trump’s orders, we will prosecute you for it when we’re back in power, ala Nuremburg, just fyi”

        Now: why are people who have no problem with extrajudicial killings so flustered about drug boats?

        I think it’s a funding source for them, and just like with USAID, they’re seeing their funding threatened, and for good reason: Trump may or may not care about drugs, but he cares a lot about the illicit funding network supporting his enemies.

        -ethyl

        (I am btw in favor of stomping anybody who is operating on covert funding whether that’s NGO fraud schemes or taking payoffs from cartels– none of that is good for regular people)

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          1. I really wonder what connections Ochs-Sulzbergers have to the cartels. They are really freaking out about these boats. I’d only freak out like that if my stuff was destroyed.

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            1. No question the “ship” video, the Kelly interview, and the NYT piece are all part of the same coordinated effort.

              -ethyl

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              1. It clearly looks that way. What are the chances that dirty money isn’t behind it, honestly? How do you get that level of coordination without money?

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          1. I don’t watch mainstream news, so I was genuinely shocked by this video. The guy is promising to prosecute everybody who followed Trump’s and Hegseth’s orders once Democrats come to power. He’s openly saying it.

            Wow. This is… Wow.

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            2. There’s a lot more out there, on X, by various people, looking at some documents and details:

              https://x.com/pepesgrandma/status/1995585435247022133

              https://x.com/CynicalPublius/status/1995513587272671497

              https://x.com/DataRepublican/status/1994433510527103337

              Just out there doing their regular thing: claiming that the current duly elected government is a threat to democracy that needs to be undermined, removed, etc. and setting up for a color revolution push in the US, just like they’ve done numerous times in other countries.

              -ethyl

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        3. I asked a fellow parishioner whose husband serves and is deployed how the Marines feel about Hegseth. And yes, she says they absolutely love him.

          I also agree that these boats are nothing compared to Obama’s elimination of an actual US citizen with a drone strike. Yet the people who are raging against the boats had nothing to say about that.

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