Okay let me get this straight. The same people who cried about 'Russian collusion' for four years are clutching pearls over Trump actually doing something about a real dictator? Venezuela actually interestingly enough America finally stopped pretending socialism wasn't collapsing next door.

So here's the tea. This week Trump ordered a blockade against sanctioned oil tankers bound for Venezuela. I'm no naval strategist but even I know Maduro's been funding his dictatorship by smuggling oil to China since like forever. Look I remember when gas hit $4 a gallon in 2012. We were all side eyeing leaders who swore off drilling while Venezuela gave China sweetheart deals. Now suddenly blocking those tankers is 'reckless'?

Let me hit pause. The New York Times started hyperventilating about international law violations. Most of those writers couldn't find Venezuela on a map before Tuesday. But Trump didn't invent blockades. Roosevelt deployed 16 battleships against Colombia in 1903 to protect Panama's independence. FDR blockaded Japan's oil in 1941. Where was the outcry then? Oh right history class is hard when you're busy memorizing hashtags.

Meanwhile Maduro made crimes against humanity into government policy. Ask Maria Corina Machado the Venezuelan opposition leader who survived six assassination attempts before escaping in 2023 with help from US veterans. Got a whole book about it. Didn't top the NYT bestseller list oddly.

Heres what corporate media won't tell you. Chevron handles legal Venezuelan oil imports under waivers protected by Trump's deals. Those tankers get through just fine. The blockade targets ghost ships smuggling oil off books to China. Since 2017 sanctions started PDVSA Venezuela's oil company started playing shell games. Unflagged tankers trade crude for Chinese digital yuan bypassing sanctions. No wonder Maduro still wears Rolexes while his people eat zoo animals.

Francisco Monaldi from Rice University tracks this mess. Current production hit one million barrels daily. 80% sneaks to China, 15% legally via Chevron, scraps to Cuba. China pays without SWIFT system tracers, fundamentally funding prison camps disguised as government. So when Maduro's puppet parliament cries about stolen assets, Google how many opposition leaders they jailed last month alone.

Trump slapped this blockade right after seizure of one smuggle tanker. Pentagon moved warships into place quietly. Now suddenly it's a shock that America protects its interests?

I interviewed veterans who served at Guantanamo last year. They told me about Venezuelan gang boats bribed with oil to flood Miami streets with fentanyl. One sailor laughed saying leftists called their drug interdiction missions racist. Like China gives a hoot about Venezuela beyond discounted crude? Look up the 100 Belt and Road debt traps globally and tell me Beijing's the humanitarian.

White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles actually spilled the beans in Vanity Fair. Said Trump plans to keep blowing up boats until Maduro folds. I appreciate the honesty. El Presidente apparently offered soil rights and mineral assets last October if America eased up. Oops.

Frankly seeing DC swamp creatures suddenly pretend Venezuela was some democratic darling makes me wish someone would blockade CNN's green room. Hillary Clinton called Hugo Chavez her BFF. Democrats moaned about Cuba travel bans while ignoring political prisoners. But Trump pulls out the big guns - literally - and wall to wall coverage screams about ICC jurisdiction. Remember when Obama bombed Libya without Congressional approval?

America's energy independence became our superpower under Trump's playbook. Made OPEC nervous. Saudi Arabia cut deals, Russia got nervous. Venezuela's never played fair. I went to school with kids whose families fled the gutted hospitals of Caracas. Their truth doesn't get prime time specials.

Stop pretending international law was ever more than sharp elbows in nice suits. China ignores every UN resolution about Taiwan, Russia annexed Crimea in 2014, France bombed Libya in 2011 on 'humanitarian' grounds. But a President finally takes Maduro's oil kleptocracy seriously and Karen from Vermont writes angry Medium posts.

Whatever, the real shocker remains simple economics. Venezuela holds the largest proven oil reserves globally. But Saudi Arabia sells barrels at 14% extraction cost, Texas shale at 20%, while Venezuela's poor tech mean 50% overhead. Maduro tried confiscating rigs from Exxon and Chevron back when Obama was president. They walked, production crashed, hyperinflation hit 10 million percent. No, that's not a spicy Twitter exaggeration.

Our current blockade cuts off China's bargain basement oil source. Maybe that explains Beijing's sudden silence after years of 'anti imperialism' lectures. Now Maduro must either dump oil for pennies domestically or give Trump real concessions. My bet? Start taking opposition leaders off torture watch lists before the Navy shows more muscle.

Let's be clear, Trump framing this blockade as reclaiming American oil lands was blunt. Miss me with historians wailing. Alaska's Prudhoe Bay oil field comes from a 1867 treaty buying Russian claims. Gulf of Mexico drilling operates through deals with Mexico and Cuba as partners. Not colonization but negotiation.

I predict weeping from Davos elites and applause from Miami grocery stores stocking actual food again when Venezuelan socialism collapses. The great unspoken truth? Media scolds hate Trump's policies because they work too well without their help. Wake me when the next Nobel nominee explains how starving dissidents strengthens democracy.

Final thought, my buddy Frank at the VA hospital loves reminding me how people protested the Gulf War as Bush being a cowboy. Then everyone used Kuwait's freedom footage for campaign ads. If Trump's blockade removes Maduro without ground troops, future talking heads will call Biden brave for continuing it. Bookmark this take.