What're We Fightin' For? Don't Ask Me, I Don't Give a Damn Next Stop is Venezuela!

https://bsky.app/profile/atrupar.com/post/3m7kn2vewdf2u

In addition to which, once a target is identified, our military is more than capable of tracking it to its final destination, and if that destination turns out to be an American port or anywhere else on U.S. territory, intercepting the craft, and arresting everyone aboard.

The fact that Hegseth is so reluctant to use this approach indicates one of two things:

1) He does not actually have evidence that all these boats are drug traffickers.

2) He does have evidence and could have them tracked and arrested, but being able to order the military to blow them up at sea makes him feel like a Big Strong Man, which means U.S. military policy is now being determined not by the national interest, but by a need to compensate for Pete Hegseth's psychological issues and insecurity about his own manhood.

I’m wondering what would have happened if one of the survivors swam away from the boat. Would it then become a triple tap strike? I think that’s where we’re at.

A four star general who was both SACEUR (Supreme Allied Commander Europe) who has not just served under multiple administrations has said things aren’t going right.

I don’t like all the decent generals retiring. This seems bad..

Congressionally speaking (once you start getting stars you are required to show up to Congress - it is what it is, you show up) and while we don’t know if it is constitutional every general and admiral has to sign a letter saying that they will show up before the Congress and give their honest opinion of the state of affairs in the military OR they will activate their letter and retire.

Most are giving presentations to the committees and then retiring but now we are kicking it to the MAGAts and I am not a fan. I AM STRONGLY NOT A FAN.

Jesus Christ.

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-bulwark-podcast/id1447684472?i=1000740474860

I forgot to post the link, sorry.

Truly the world has gone mad when the two most rational Republican electeds are - for the moment - Rand Paul and Thomas Massie


(well, and maybe Don Bacon but I don't want to water down the point)

Three charged after 3,715-pound cocaine bust off Miami Beach | Miami Herald

No attacks but we are now flying F/A-18s in Venezuelan airspace.

This seems a pressure move to me. We have F-35s in Puerto Rico which couldn’t be tracked (and thus also shot down).

So sending 18s means we want them to see us.

Or Trump wants them shot down for cassus belli.

The US has seized a Venezuelan oil tanker.

Which was probably enroute to the US anyway as we’re one of the few countries that can refine Venezuelan crude.

At what point does this thread get renamed?

Seems it isn’t just about droning boats anymore.

Venezuela… that’s some mean bush.

That’s what I’ve always found funny about this song and dance.

Our gulf wells both produce heavy (high sulfuric) crude and so need special refineries. Which the US has. So the entire time we have been at odds since Chavez they have still sent their crude to us and we refine it.

The flip side of this is that we could quickly rehab their failing oil production (as it is literally the same as ours just on the other side of some water) which is down 60% due to lack of investment/expertise.

That’s probably what Rubio* is feeding Trump along with that there is totally a popularly supported opposition who can just step in and take over so now Trump thinks he can both be a macho War President AND a gas price driver downer all while distracting from the Epstein Files.

Jesus Christ that was a run on sentence.

*Have I said before that no South Floridian should ever have any power? If not then register this statement.

Random sidebar.

I’m not a geologist or a historian but someday I would like to corner them and find out why our hydrocarbons are ‘dirty’.

Not sure if it is still the case but back twenty years ago and I was interning at the Alabama State Port Authority Office of International Trade the Port of Mobile handled the largest tonnage of coal in the world.

Because it was both ways.

Alabama Power (a Southern Company) had a shitton of coal power plants* but our coal was too dirty for the new regulations so we sold it to China and imported ‘clean’ coal.

*there is a reason our state’s largest city is named Birmingham

Not heavy, sour. It might also be heavy, I don’t remember, but high sulfur definitely means sour, not heavy.

You are very likely correct.

I forget which adjective means what.

Light Sweet Crude is the most easiest kind to refine. And also what you get when you stick a straw in the sand in the Persian Gulf states.

But yeah, you caught the Tater as I honestly can’t remember what light/heavy and sweet/sour refer to.

Maybe I was half right and should have said sour instead of heavy.

Ah, we're adding piracy to the list, I see.

Trump: Hates Somalis, does Somali pirate shit.

Well, he doesn't hate 'em for doing the pirate shit.

Don't worry, folks, congress has made sure Trump can't do much of anything without the funding to... hold on, I'm being informed that the House has just passed a $900 billion military spending bill.

115 Democrats voted in favor of that.

We're doing great. We're doing just great.

https://thehill.com/homenews/house/5643293-house-passes-ndaa-defense-bill/

Rightforge during the reign of Tamar- Oh!Oh!! Here's another video of a gas station attendant killing a stickup guy!! Ohhhhh!!!!

*Trump sticks up an oil ship*

Rightforge now-

So of course this was never about drugs.

About 1 AM CST this morning.

And next stop after that? Colombia, so sayeth the Pirate in Chief:

https://www.politico.com/news/2025/12/10/trump-threatens-colombian-president-00685742

As The Bulwark pointed out in its morning newsletter today, seizing that tanker without killing anybody proves that blowing up the "drug boats" was unnecessary bullshit.

In fairness, there's a difference between trying to land on a huge, slow-moving tanker and on a speedboat at full throttle.

Also, the expectations for resistance once on board are different.

And yet the Coast Guard manages to do it regularly.

https://www.local10.com/news/local/...h-in-what-officials-call-record-setting-haul/

Your link says "sport fisher" (65 foot, very slow) not speedboat. Different animals.

Do you know what a sport fisher is?

Anyway here is a story from five days ago where a Coast Guard sniper disabled the engines of a speed boat:

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/worl...-boat-operation/ar-AA1RPWoj?ocid=BingNewsSerp