Venezuela and Drug Cartels.

Response to a Friend’s Facebook page/post. 

THE drug that is primarily trafficked through Venezuela is cocaine, which is produced in Colombia (coca farms or coca cultivation areas). Venezuela is a "transit country," that is run by the Cartel de los Soles, whose membership include military officers and government officials. Like typical trading/business groups, cartels hook up with each other in re production from raw produce to product packaging–all the way to transport/shipments to the distribution network. 

       Clan del Golfo has taken over from Medellin (Pablo Escobar) and Cali (Rodriguez-Orejuela brothers); Tren de Aragua also operates in the region. Mexico's Claudia Sheinbaum essentially concurred with President Trump to block the usual routes of Mexican cartels (Sinaloa, Jalisco, Juarez, Los Zetas etcetera--Darien Pass, Rio Grande, Gulf of Mexico, Sonoran and Chihuahuan deserts) to U.S. borders. So cartels have to find alternatives; they earn around $70 billion in the U.S. market alone (modest estimate). 

       Fentanyl mostly comes from Mexico with precursor chemicals coming from China, which along with Myanmar, also supply poppies for opium (heroin). Triad or the Golden Triangle crime group run the Asia wing. Note that China buys 80+ percent of Venezuela's oil. Cartels or narcopolitics somehow got into PDVDA shipments so China was also concerned. 

       Meanwhile, Colombia is the top recipient of U.S. military aid in all of Latin America. Mr Trump is pissed with President Gustavo Petro, of course. Like in Venezuela, nothing has been done to curb drug trafficking in the Colombia/Venezuela corridor. Also drug corporations are popularly suspected of doing side business with cartels for drug ingredients, but that is essentially bereft of hard evidence. 

       Afghanistan used to produce the most opium or poppy flowers but since the Taliban took over, those farms somehow are legalized for (legal) trade dealings. Part of The D's Doha Accords (2020) “end of war” deal with the Taliban, expectedly included legal imports of poppies to the U.S. 

       Meanwhile, APIs or pertinent ingredients to many major medicines or pharmaceuticals are produced outside of the U.S. or Europe yet Western drug companies dominate the global market. Cartels somehow sink their hands in the export of these APIs, in connivance with corrupt government officials. Note: Ex Mexican prez Enrique Nieto received $100 million in bribes from El Chapo in just 1 year. Etc etcetera. You see, the U.S./Central America program that pursued drug cartels was the Merida Initiative, which was abolished by Biden in 2021, and replaced by a "holistic" program. Uh huh. “Holistic” means a record number of cartel-facilitated border crossings took place from 2021 to 2024? 🇺🇸☮️🇻🇪

THE United States and Venezuela’s oil. 

       It is common knowledge that Venezuela has the most oil deposits in the world, followed by Saudi Arabia, Iran and Canada--but the U.S. is #1 producer since 2018. Saudi Arabia and Russia are #1 and #2 in exports; China is #1 in imports (China is #6 in production but it essentially doesn't export.) Note that the U.S. and China are currently doing fine the moment Donald Trump sat in White House again in January last year, trade truce and all. 

       Regardless of Venezuela’s massive oil (mostly run by the state-owned PDVSA) it was grossly mismanaged, esp. when Hugo Chavez sat (Nicanor Maduro as veep) beginning in 1999. As in other cases (think Middle East), the U.S. (and one or 2 European companies) help run the oil business elsewhere. But the Chavez/Maduro tandem kicked all U.S. corporations out of the country in 2007 and moved to nationalize industries. By 2013 (also the year Mr Chavez died), the economy crashed, hit harder the following year; Mr Maduro couldn’t keep up. Crimes spiked; Venezuela is ranked in the top 5 of countries with most violence or crimes/homicides. Tempest blew up in 2019 after a contested election that, of course, had Nic “winning.” Streets burned. That was also Trump I year. 

       Instead of regime-changing Nicanor Maduro in 2019, Mr Trump negotiated the return of Chevron to Caracas. Chevron easily participated in the management of PDVSA, which then targeted China as the main buyer. To date, China buys 80+ percent of Venezuela’s oil exports. Imagine how Chevron got in with Cartel de los Soles lurking in the wings. 

       Joe Biden took over Washington from 2021. So figure that one out, leading to the laxity in U.S. borders. Go back to my post above.) Note as well that part of Trump’s talk with Maduro in 2019 was about the Cartel de los Soles etcetera. But since Trump was out of power in the ensuing years, that deal was voided naturally. So Trump’s back to pursue the same deal but Maduro is defiant, with help of course from America’s eerie divide. It was like the Left views Maduro as the Hero and Trump as the Villain, of course.

       Meanwhile, Venezuela and/or PDVSA owes U.S. companies that Maduro kicked out in 2007. The country’s external debt stands at $170 billion and counting. Pragmatically speaking, the U.S. and Europe essentially managed oil in the Middle East from discovery in the 1930s, which then gave birth to Saudi Arabia’s Aramco. Aramco was a U.S.-Saudi partnership until 1980, when SA took full ownership. Discussion of U.S. presence in oil-rich ME is long though. Good and bad and somewhere in the middle, depending on which side of the Left/Right spectrum one is aligned with. 

       For the meantime let’s just say Saudi Arabia et al got super rich as the 21st century strode in. Now SA, UAE, Qatar et al are powerful global influencers. 🇺🇸☮️🇻🇪

Venezuela’s Oil! And the takedown of Nic Maduro by Don Trump.

Response to a Friend’s Facebook page/post. 

Friend’s Post: “America needs heavy crude oil to keep its refineries running. Venezuela produces it. Do the math.” 

THESE facts: The U.S. is the world's top oil producer. Yet 60+ percent of Canada's oil exports go to the U.S. The #2 and #3 importers are Mexico and Saudi Arabia. Add 83 more countries that import oil to the U.S. America is the #3 top oil exporter, behind Saudi Arabia and Russia. Meanwhile, 80+ percent of Venezuelan oil is shipped to China.   

       Mr Trump would have regime-changed Maduro in 2019 when the tempest was hot in Caracas. China wasn't buying oil from state-owned PDVSA that much then. Instead, Nic and Don negotiated to bring U.S. oil giants back to Venezuela that Chavez/Maduro kicked out. From that point, Chevron et al were back out there. But it is China that bought the most oil, which allowed the country's economy to recover a bit. Note that Chavez/Maduro sank Venezuela's economy to a record low then. 

       Meanwhile, Trump wants the head honchos of Tren de Aragua and Cartel de los Soles. But the prolonged drama has started to worry China, especially after Trump stopped an oil tanker, days before the “capture” of Mr Maduro. So China (with Russia) mediated days ago. News two or three days before the “grab” was that Nicanor seemed poised to talk with U.S. emissaries about drug trafficking. But obviously it failed. So! 

       But I repeat: China was concerned with the delay of oil shipments. I don't think The D will take the Venezuelan strongman without China's approval. Trump would have easily erased Maduro in 2019. 🇺🇸☮️🇻🇪

Legal or illegal?

LET me be pragmatic-old rather than legal-cool. This: The U.S. Constitution requires Congress authorization to declare war etcetera but POTUSes have historically used their power as commander-in-chief to initiate military actions and interventions without explicit, formal congressional approval. Ergo: <>Congress has the power to declare war and authorize the use of military action. <>The President or Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces has the authority to order and direct troops. <>The War Powers Resolution of 1973 requires the prez to notify Congress within 48 hours; forces cannot remain for more than 60 days; potential 30-day withdrawal period. Refer to the "Banana Wars" era and Cold War years. 

       Examples: 1953 coup in Iran and 1954 coup in Guatemala. In recent decades, refer to post-9/11 hits (many!) Must we go back to the pre-1800s? Or during U.S. expansionism years (onto 1912). Must we debate all invasions, regime changes, sponsored coups etcetera? What about CIA black-ops that aren't even "reported." 

       Here's a popular one: Black Hawk Down in Somalia (Operation Gothic Serpent) meant to take out Mohamed Farrah Aidid, or the Battle of Mogadishu in 1993? No Congress okay. The official death number is over 300 but human rights organizations say over 1,000 (in just one day, as famously depicted in the 2001 movie). I can cite more. 

       Let's cut to the chase: Majority of U.S. military operations abroad are illegal. Or to me, all wars are illegal. All U.S. interventions or meddling are illegal. But since this is Donald Trump, everything is simply illegal. LOL! 🇺🇸☮️🇻🇪

China’s Trade Expansionism.

Response to a Facebook post. 

THE Belt and Road Initiative (a.k.a. New Silk Road) is a global project per China's trade expansionism. This brainstorm was actually first drafted right after Mao's death (1976) as Deng Xiaoping took over. Through the years, China has been buying lands and giving out loans and handing out FDIs all over the globe, except in the U.S. A game-changing review of Deng's playbook took place after the Tiananmen shudder in 1989, and the subsequent erasure of the hardliner Gang of Four. 

        But the real pump happened when Bill Clinton and Jiang Zemin signed a trade pact in 2000 to signal the U.S. liberal brainchild "globalization." That's the CCP's long-awaited signal. The following year, China entered the WTO with a "most favored nation" status. 

        Maybe America’s 1 Percent didn't really mind because they obviously racked up gargantuan profits by moving factories to China and elsewhere + easy access to the dragon's pertinent minerals or raw materials. But China isn't dumb. As the U.S. and Europe got into eerie internal schisms, China took advantage. Beijing's 4 giant state-owned banks wobbled the monopoly of the IMF and World Bank, then BRICS was born in 2009 (still expanding). Then Asia/Pacific’s RCEP in 2020 (China as ad hoc chief), the largest trade bloc so far. Etc etcetera. 

        While America still wrestles with itself. 🇨🇳🇨🇳🇨🇳

Mr Trump’s Gung-ho Mouth. The Reiners. Deaths in the world. And how the media cherry-picks for the click-bait.

From my responses to friends’ Facebook posts and my response to comments to my FB posts about the subject.

JOURNALISM has a professional (and moral) responsibility to report/write only those that would aid the people and community, narrow the divide, and not to project the contrary. Presidents and you and I say stuff but since heads of state and politicians' words affect public perception, it is a journalist's common sense to only type up what the people require towards a better coexistence with society. Sounds ideal-bullshit but that's my belief.

       We judge a leader by their overall leadership, not what comes out of their mouth; and as sane people, it is primal reflex to take in only the good and reject the bad. I mean, politicians are not gods and goddesses. I once worked (as media liaison) for senators and presidential bets in Asia. If I wrote everything that I heard or told me, I'd be a non-thinking tape recorder. Not a journalist.

WORDS matter. But "words," whether they are said truthfully/honestly or in jest or in sarcasm or even in anger, have to be processed (by the media) for the greater public good. 

       In the context of current America, the divide is eerily self-destructing (regardless of where, Left or Right, we are holding fort) and I blame the media a lot for these cracks. Mr Trump as he is, says it as he feels it. And many times, that'd be careless or the words are cherry-picked as click baits. This side of the divide is so alert for those quotes, of course. They're always ready to capture the grim highlights of Trump's mouth. 

       That's how the media covers Donald Trump. Accentuating his bad mouth and downplaying his POTUS work. As conventional journalism ups the mockery grade and Social Media picks up the dirt, late night TV raises the insult measure, afterwards. 

LEADERS say stuff. Amidst all the drama, I don't think a head of state maintains poise as though they are robots. No cuss words, no bad retorts, no "unfriendly" comment–when the tape recorder or camera isn't there? Nah ah. They are human and you and me. Yet many personalities and celebrities simply say things.

       But as a reporter/editor I must know what is "off the record" even if the speaker couldn't stop yapping. That differentiates the tabloid writer from the earnest beat reporter. At least that's what I learned in journalism school. I think, I don't just hear. 

       I repeat, reporters are not tape recorders; reporters think before they write. But since today's media is more hot on pulling the man down, so WTF, accentuate the quote, I guess? That is not my journalism.

DONALD Trump isn't really criticized for his POTUS work per se, instead he is being criticized for every word that comes out of his gung-ho mouth? 

       I never liked Mr Trump, pre-2017. Never. But I closely followed his POTUS work, policy per policy (especially his foreign affairs playbook), after his MOAB drop in April 2017. From that point, he suddenly became more dovish. I rate his performance better than most but I concur that his public speaking mojo is the worst ever by a POTUS. 

       But we are talking about the President of the world's most powerful nation. While the popular hate for him is obviously the reason for all the anti-Trump bombast, I can't judge a POTUS by his crass character. Mr Trump is a lot more than that.

       There is no way I could discuss a person's language or overall personality but I am always set and ready to debate the person. In the case of The D, his individual policies. In a parallel line, Barack Obama could be the coolest POTUS dude ever, saying only the nicest words. But I can rant anytime about all the lies that he said. The policies that sucked. (He is the last POTUS that I actually covered before I quit my journalism life.)

FROM what I pointed out somewhere here, we say words beyond normal perception of cool. You and me and POTUS. But someone's death somehow quiets us down. That's how I see death, let them RIP. I don't wish death to anyone, including my perceived enemies. 

       But then there's media that is only after public consumption of the product that they toss than anything else. The media should simply ignore "words" that don't make sense, let `em go. But they pick them up for obvious reasons--not per media's job to foster unity or narrow the cracks or optimism amidst all the hate but per media's clear intent to widen the divide by accentuating Trump's mouth over his POTUS work in its entirety. 

       They know Mr Trump will say something that amounts to controversy. Yet I don't think it is only Mr Trump who wields such a no-filter mojo among heads of state. But these are the times when quotes matter more to the media than information dissemination, in general, esp. because it's hate-Trump that rules the ink. Ergo, the Left-wing media is more interested in the dirt in his words than the output in his leadership. 🏛🗽🏛

DONALD TRUMP: The Great American Scapegoat.

Reacting on a commondreams.org article: “How Corporate Democrats Made Trump Possible: A 10-Year Timeline.” Posted on Facebook. 

I SAY, 25-year timeline. From 2000, Bill Clinton and Jiang Zemin's game-changing trade pact that paved the way for China's entry to the WTO the following year. The Democratic Party called it "globalization." Next, the U.S. 1 Percent got magnificently richer but (probably) they didn't foresee that that Washington template would make China's global trade expansionism more real. 

       Looking back, China quietly started its “new journey” right after Mao Zedong died (1976). Deng Xiaoping took over. The CCP’s “open door” policy snuck off the Great Wall, late-1970s. At that point, China started buying lands all over the globe (not in the U.S. where they own only below 1 percent of foreign-owned land). 

And then in 2009, BRIC(S) was born to challenge G7; already, China's 4 state-owned banks "balanced" the loans scale that the IMF and World Bank used to monopolize. Etc etcetera. 

       The Dems (politics or corporate) didn't make Donald Trump. The “new” Left of America failed to see China's ascent but it is Mr Trump who knows how to keep the swing to favor the U.S. How? By playing China's trade game, not "counter-playing" Beijing's very fluid playbook. All this as Europe insists on a stubborn hawkish agenda via NATO expansion, which is clearly countered by BRICS' trade expansion. The narrative says The D weakens America yet he only took over and had to improvise from the Democratic Party's blunder in miscalculating the Chinese. 🏛🗽🏛

Compilation of my short MORNING THOUGHTS.

Previously posted on my Facebook Page.

Political/economic memes are angled at influencing the narrative. Yet we need to dig up the veracity of data. Truths and facts. Example: Unemployment at 3.6 percent or recent addition of 7.9 million jobs, which could be a 1st year record. Check as well that at least 4 million workers resigned each month in the second half of 2021. They are returning to work due to the obvious 8.6 percent inflation rate. Hence the spike in job numbers. Still, the economy is in crisis. ⚒🧰🛠

Avid watcher of sports, me. Knew the #1s. These days, due to politics, #1 is “Who?!?” Tennis: Ex #1 Novak Djokovic was barred from the Australian Open. So #1 is Daniil Medvedev. Novak just won Wimbledon but may be banned again for the U.S. Open. Unvaxxed. Russian Daniil wasn’t in Wimby. Without the best from the world, why call it world’s #1? But MLB is called the World Series. The only “other people” that I see there are Japanese, Koreans, and South Americans? 🎾🥇🎾

The algorithm doesn’t analyze “facts.” Such as two massively shared memes that deal with gasoline prices in the U.S. and Europe, and another that talks about U.S. GDP etcetera—to justify that President Biden is doing fine managing the economy. Nope. For starters: Inflation rate at 8.6 percent is the largest 12-month increase since 1981. Public debt is $30.49 trillion, up from last year's $2.3 trillion. Foreign debt: $7.7 trillion, up by $1.5 trillion from last year. 🇺🇸👀🗽

A “globalized” universe means economics has been balanced between West and East. Political affairs and trade leverages aren't the exclusive power base of Europe and the U.S. anymore. Higher education has been spread out. Asians and Arabs don’t need to leave their comfort zone to study Western capitalism. What I learned in Manila’s schools are no different from what is taught in New York. Interfaces between cultures have blurred the “supreme race” narcissism.☮️💝☯️

First Amendment: Speak up against those who spoke on the contrary. But things don’t end with Social Media disparagement. People lose jobs, stripped of achievements, outed forever. Words that they said/wrote 10 years or 100 years ago are “recalled” to shame their memory. This is a New Morality that far exceeds the boundaries of any religious good or bad, political bad or good. Shinzo Abe, ex PM of “gun-less” Japan, wasn’t killed by a gun; he was assassinated by hate.☮️💝☯️

Only when you are a years-long BFF, I talk and talk and talk. But I am not a talker per se. I don’t dig talking at all. I’d rather write all my thoughts down. Always. While in a family/kin gathering or friends in a crowd, I am the quiet clam in a corner. Watching, listening. Not a good responder unless it is one on one conversation, in person. Not a telephone guy either. I don’t stop on the street to talk stuff like you got awesome hair or how’s your Brandon? Nope. 🗣👥👀

President Biden refuses to play China’s trade game. Yet he engages Russia via Vladimir Putin’ arena, military. Yet as Russia controls armed hostilities in Ukraine, Putin wins globally on economics. Kremlin’s Elvira Nabiullina pummels White House economic team. Meanwhile, Xi Jinping keeps on beating Joe Biden: RCEP/Asia Pacific, Nov 2020; Iran $400 oil deal, March 2021; Solomon Islands pact, May 2022. Etcetera. Joe needs to redo his foreign policy playbook. 

       Already, the American public is paying too much for the costly war. Almost $50 billion in aid to Kyiv, mostly military, since Feb this year. Etcetera. Fantastic gas pump prices + 8.6 percent inflation. War as rationale for economic ruin--so 1 Percent corporations assure profit margins--ain't gonna fool the world this long. 🇺🇸🇷🇺🇨🇳

Fascinating that many (in America) are so protective of their dogs from fireworks or thunder. I understand. The manner in which dogs are petted here is similar to how children are guarded. In the Pacific islands where I emanated from, dogs are also integral members of the family—although they mostly stay outdoors, inside a gated house, as guard dogs. They warn of intruders and strangers, and since they could “feel” a coming storm—they remind us to prepare. 🌬🐕💨

Happy July 4th to Americans who love their country! A week or so before today, the majority of what I read on my Homepage are scorn, displeasure, and hate of America. Which I fail to find sense. I grew up or evolved as a Leftist activist back home in the Philippines because I love my country. So I protested leadership corruption and foreign intervention. Hence I don’t get it that Americans who disapprove of how the United States is governed by politicians also hate the country.☮️🇺🇸🗽

Superpower #1 is all geopolitical narcissism. Already, the United States of America is the world’s #1 corporation. Number 1 economy, #1 consumer market, #1 oil producer/consumer, #1 prescription drug taker, #1 in military spending, #1 in drug industry, #1 in kickass sports shoes, and many others at #1. America loves being #1, so any perceived #1 threat from China or Russia is taken seriously. Fact is, Beijing and Moscow just want to stay #1 in noodles and vodka. 🇺🇸🥇🇺🇸

The Venezuela Drama Thriller.

Response to a Facebook post. 

<>Venezuela, clearly not a U.S. ally, offers alternative transit routes for drug cartel shipments–after the usual route at Darien Pass and Rio Grande (and Gulf of Mexico) are now blocked by both Mexican and U.S.  troops. I believe that. 

       Venezuela's territory includes major bodies of water such as the Orinoco River, Lake Maracaibo, the Gulf of Venezuela, and access to the Caribbean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean. It also contains numerous smaller rivers, lakes, and islands, including Laguna de la Restinga, Laguna de Mucubaji, and the Apure and Arauca rivers. 

       Meanwhile, cartel hook-ups always happen. Not so hard to believe this: Mexican and Colombian drug cartels “arrangement” with Venezuela's Cartel De Los Soles ("cartel of the suns") and Tren de Aragua. ELN and FARC remnants took over the vacuum that Medellin (Escobar) and the Cali (Rodriguez Orejuela bros) cartels in Colombia as well and now they collectively ply the route on Venezuela/Colombia pass. Eastern European human traffickers and the Asian Triad hooked up as well. 

       Fact: The U.S. is the undisputed top destination for drug contraband and smuggled human market in the world. <>If the U.S. or President Trump wants to “regime-change” (verb) Nicolas Maduro or Venezuela, he could have done it in 2019. Why didn't he? Nic agreed to let U.S. oil refineries and oil companies back in after the Chavez/Maduro tandem kicked them out (the last that was sent out was Helmerich & Payne around 2010). And so Chevron is back in Caracas as Valero and Citgo's shipment partnership with the US was restored. 

       <>The other important matter: China is Venezuela's top oil buyer. Ergo, Mr Trump's first trade pact with China took place in 2020. Current life: 2025. Trump's trade talks with China is doing fine so far as POTUS relaxed tariffs and buys Chinese rare earths as China did the same with tariffs and resumes buying U.S. soybeans + there is that Nvidia silicon deal with China, which the U.S. per Trump's brokering gets a cut (from Nvidia profit). And after The D shook hands with Japan, SoftBank and Nvidia talked business. 

       Ergo: Donald Trump's trade playbook will suffer if he negates Venezuela's oil as he lures FDIs to the US. Regardless of the fact that the U.S. is the world’s top oil producer, Trump needs more oil for obvious reasons. But he is also intent on weeding cartel power in America. Note that cartels took advantage of the laxity in border controls in the Biden years (record number of illegal crossings in 4 years, some instances, 4,000 to 6,000 a day!) No way these massive breaches would happen without cartel facilitation and narcopolitics in Mexico (before Claudia Sheinbaum sat). Also, Biden abolished the US/Mexico et al anti-smuggling coop Merida Initiative in 2021. Hey, cartels operate like how a corporate giant does. 

       <>The media isn't giving the people the lowdown for obvious reasons. 🇺🇸☮️🇻🇪