Trump's Venezuela Vendetta

[Syt]

He has a long career in the Senate ahead of him.

[crazy canuck]

There is a lot of evidence of cognitive decline after the age of 75. I am not sure if it is a coincidence, but that is the age Canadian judges must retire.

[Duque de Bragança]

Half of the US Senate is above retirement age. It's a gerontocracy.

Etymogically, Senate comes from senatus (council of elders) itself of senex i.e (old) man, as in elder. So WAD.

As for the Trump régime, it is best described as a plutocracy, with him notifying oil companies before the Congress.

[The Minsky Moment]

So, I saw that the judge on the Maduro case is 92 years old.

Is it forbidden in the US to retire if you hold an office?

No.  But federal judge appointments are for life and judges can be removed only by voluntary retirement, impeachment or death.

The laws setting up the federal court system allow judges to assume "senior status" when they reach a certain age.  Senior status judges can maintain a much-reduced case load, but they maintain their full salary, with COLA adjustment, an office, and a complement of law clerks and staff.  So it is a very attractive option.

Moreover, because busy districts like SDNY are chronically understaffed, they rely on their complement of senior status judges to keep up with workload.

I had a case in front of Judge Hellerstein in 2008-2010. Around the same time he was still handling a lot of the 9-11 related litigation.  He was very much on the ball.  Of course there is a difference between mid-70s and 92.

[Syt]

https://x.com/StateDept/status/2008221563888292207



https://www.whitehouse.gov/articles/2026/01/rubio-this-is-our-hemisphere-and-president-trump-will-not-allow-our-security-to-be-threatened/

This morning, Secretary of State Marco Rubio joined multiple news programs to discuss the Trump Administration's decisive operation that successfully apprehended indicted narcoterrorist and illegitimate former Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro. Secretary Rubio underscored President Donald J. Trump's ironclad commitment to preventing the Western Hemisphere from becoming a safe haven for drug traffickers, Iranian proxies, or hostile regimes that endanger our national security — declaring the days of weakness are over and the U.S. will deploy every tool to eradicate these threats from our backyard.

• "There's not a war. We are at war against drug trafficking organizations — not a war against Venezuela." (Watch)
• "We don't have U.S. forces on the ground in Venezuela. They were on the ground for about two hours when they went to capture Maduro... What the President is saying is very simple — and that is as President of the United States, he is not going to go around telling people what he's not going to do." (Watch)
• "This is the Western Hemisphere. This is where we live — and we're not going to allow the Western Hemisphere to be a base of operation for adversaries, competitors, and rivals of the United States." (Watch)
• "The first steps are securing what's in the national interest of the United States and also beneficial to the people of Venezuela, and those are the things that we're focused on right now. No more drug trafficking. No more Iran, Hezbollah presence there. No more using the oil industry to enrich all our adversaries around the world." (Watch)
• "This was not an action that required congressional approval. In fact, it couldn't require congressional approval because this was not an invasion. This is not an extended military operation... We will seek congressional approval for actions that require congressional approval. Otherwise, they'll get congressional notification." (Watch)
• "The whole foreign policy apparatus thinks everything is Libya, everything is Iraq, everything is Afghanistan. This is not the Middle East, and our mission here is very different. This is the Western Hemisphere." (Watch)
• "The most immediate changes are the ones that are in the national interests of the United States. That's why we're involved here — because of how it applies and has a direct impact on the United States." (Watch)
• "We've seen how our adversaries all over the world are exploiting and extracting resources from Africa, from every other country. They're not going to do it in the Western Hemisphere. That is not going to happen under President Trump. Read our national security strategy. He is serious about it." (Watch)
• "What we are going to react to is very simple: what do you do? Not what you're saying publicly, what happens... Do the drugs stop coming? Are the changes made? Is Iran expelled? Is Hezbollah and Iran no longer able to operate against our interests from Venezuela?" (Watch)
• "It's running policy — the policy with regards to this. We want Venezuela to move in a certain direction because not only do we think it's good for the people of Venezuela, it's in our national interest." (Watch)
• "We retain all the options we had before this raid and this capture and this arrest... until such time as changes are made." (Watch)
• "In the Biden Administration, they had a $25 million reward for [Maduro's] capture — so we have a reward for his capture but we're not going to enforce it? That's the difference between President Trump and everybody else... President Trump did something about it." (Watch)
• "Until they address [the problems], they will continue to face this oil quarantine. They will continue to face pressure from the United States. We will continue to target drug boats if they try to run towards the United States. We will continue to seize the boats that are sanctioned with court orders. We will continue to do that and potentially other things until the things we need to see addressed are addressed... The number one thing we care about is the safety, security, wellbeing, and prosperity of the United States." (Watch)
• "Maduro is not just an indicted drug trafficker; he was an illegitimate president. He was not the head of state. I continue to see these media reports referring to him as 'President Maduro' and the 'head of state.' He was not the head of state." (Watch)

[Crazy_Ivan80]

Posts by the US government need to be accompanied by more 'Sieg Heils' to make it really snazzy.
In all caps of course

[PRC]

So, I saw that the judge on the Maduro case is 92 years old.

Is it forbidden in the US to retire if you hold an office?

WTF 

He is still paying off his student loans.

[Razgovory]

I would like to know what are government is actually planning to do with Venezuela.

[Jacob]

I would like to know what are government is actually planning to do with Venezuela.

From what Syt posted above:

"What we are going to react to is very simple: what do you do? Not what you're saying publicly, what happens... Do the drugs stop coming? Are the changes made? Is Iran expelled? Is Hezbollah and Iran no longer able to operate against our interests from Venezuela?" (Watch)
"It's running policy — the policy with regards to this. We want Venezuela to move in a certain direction because not only do we think it's good for the people of Venezuela, it's in our national interest."

... it sounds like "nothing". The US doesn't in fact have Venezuela, so they (you) are not going to do anything with it.

It sounds to me like they expected Venezuela to suddenly take direction from the US because Maduro was abducted. And, I suppose, they'll potentially take other similar (non-Congressional-approval-requiring) short limited actions to look strong and attempt to intimidate Venezuela's leadership if the leadership doesn't improve in that "certain direction".

Which I expect Venezuela won't.

Maybe they'll abduct the VP next?

[frunk]

Over the next year the US will abduct every Venezuelan, before panicking over the massive immigration from South America and deporting all of them back to Venezuela to start the process over again.

[Zanza]

Posts by the US government need to be accompanied by more 'Sieg Heils' to make it really snazzy.
In all caps of course

I feel the proper comparison is Wilhelm II, not the Nazis. This is old school imperialism, not genocidal warfare for Lebensraum.

[Admiral Yi]

So, I saw that the judge on the Maduro case is 92 years old.

Is it forbidden in the US to retire if you hold an office?

WTF 

He is still paying off his student loans.

Or maybe his 2nd and 3rd wives.

[Sheilbh]

I would like to know what are government is actually planning to do with Venezuela.

Who knows?

I'd say that I have read about quite a lot of contacts between the US and both the Venezuelan VP but also others in the regime. I wouldn't dismiss that at this stage - I think it's too soon to tell if there's soemthing there or not - any change of position from within the regime will take time politically, need to be managed etc. I suspect an early sign in the next few months might be if the new Venezuelan readers keep the Cuban security detail or not. I think the first sign to moving towards basically falling into "line" with the US would be removing the men with guns around you provided by a regime absolutely hostile to that.

My understanding is that of the 40 killed in Venezuela, 32 were Cuban security for Maduro.

[Baron von Schtinkenbutt]

I feel the proper comparison is Wilhelm II, not the Nazis. This is old school imperialism, not genocidal warfare for Lebensraum.

Leopold II may be a better fit.  Fits the personal enrichment and corporate cronyism aspects better.

[Tonitrus]

So far, vis-a-vis Venezuela, it is just glorified gunboat diplomacy.