Must Watch / Might Watch / Petrodollars

VENEZUELA, GREENLAND, CANADA, UKRAINE

It’s gratifying to see our military, the CIA, and FBI execute a mission so flawlessly.

It’s exciting to think we may force the existing regime to hold free and fair elections that would almost guarantee a María Corina Machado win and make restoration of democracy possible.

Heidi F.: “Do you think for one second that Trump will install someone he can’t control and who won the Nobel Peace Prize as president?”

→ Fair point.

A Nigerian commodities trader writes a friend of mine:

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The real reason behind the U.S. invasion of Venezuela goes back to an agreement Henry Kissinger struck with Saudi Arabia in 1974.

And I’m going to explain why this is actually about the SURVIVAL of the U.S. dollar itself.

Not drugs.

Not terrorism.

Not “democracy.”

This is about the petrodollar system, which has allowed the United States to remain the dominant economic power for 50 years.

And Venezuela has just threatened to put an end to it.

Here’s what really happened:

Venezuela holds 303 billion barrels of proven oil reserves.  The largest in the world.  More than Saudi Arabia.  20% of global oil reserves.

But here is what matters:

Venezuela was actively selling this oil in Chinese yuan, not U.S. dollars.

In 2018, Venezuela announced its intention to “free itself from the dollar.”

They began accepting yuan, euros, rubles—everything except dollars—for oil.

They applied to join the BRICS.

They set up direct payment channels with China, completely bypassing the SWIFT system.

And they had enough oil to finance de-dollarization for decades.

Why does this matter?

Because the entire U.S. financial system rests on one thing: The petrodollar.

Kissinger’s deal with Saudi Arabia:  All oil sold worldwide would be priced in U.S. dollars.  In return, America would guarantee Saudi military protection. This single agreement created artificial global demand for dollars.  Every country in the world needs dollars to buy oil.  That allows the United States to print money at will while other countries have to work for it.  It finances the military, the welfare state, and deficit spending.

The petrodollar matters more to U.S. hegemony than aircraft carriers.

And there is a recurring pattern in what happens to leaders who challenge it:

2000: Saddam Hussein announces that Iraq will sell oil in euros instead of dollars.

2003: Invasion. Regime change. Iraqi oil is immediately switched back to dollars. Saddam Hussein is captured and killed.

The weapons of mass destruction were never found—because they never existed.

2009: Muammar Gaddafi proposes an African gold-backed currency, the “gold dinar,” for oil trade.

2011: NATO bombs Libya. Gaddafi is killed. Libya now hosts open-air slave markets.

And now Maduro.

With FIVE TIMES more oil than Saddam and Gaddafi combined.  Actively selling in yuan.  Creating payment systems outside dollar control.  Applying to join the BRICS.  Partnering with China, Russia, and Iran — the three countries at the forefront of global de-dollarization.

This is not a coincidence.

Challenge the petrodollar.

Regime change.

Every. Single. Time.

Stephen Miller (U.S. Homeland Security adviser) said it out loud just two weeks ago:

“The Venezuelan oil industry was created through the sweat, ingenuity, and labor of Americans. Its tyrannical expropriation constitutes the largest theft of American wealth and property ever recorded.”

He isn’t hiding it.

They claim Venezuelan oil belongs to America because U.S. companies exploited it 100 years ago.

By that logic, every nationalized resource in history was a “theft.”

But here is the DEEPER problem:

The petrodollar is already dying.

Russia has been selling oil in rubles and yuan since Ukraine.

Saudi Arabia is openly discussing settlements in yuan.

Iran has traded in non-dollar currencies for years.

China created CIPS, its own SWIFT alternative, with 4,800 banks in 185 countries.

The BRICS are actively developing payment systems that completely bypass the dollar.

The mBridge project allows central banks to settle transactions instantly in local currencies.

Venezuela joining the BRICS with its 303 billion barrels of oil would accelerate this process.

That is the real stake of this invasion.

This is not about drug trafficking. Venezuela accounts for less than 1% of the cocaine consumed in the United States.

This is not about terrorism. There is absolutely no evidence that Maduro runs a “terrorist organization.”

This is not about democracy. The United States supports Saudi Arabia, which holds no elections.

This is about maintaining a 50-year-old deal that lets America print money while the world works for it.

And the consequences are terrifying:

Every country considering de-dollarization has just received the message:

Defy the dollar and we will bomb you.

But here is the question no one is asking:

What happens when you can no longer dominate the dollar with bombs?

When will China have enough economic leverage to retaliate?

When the BRICS control 40% of global GDP and say “no more dollars”?

This invasion is an admission that the dollar can no longer compete on its own merits.

When you have to bomb countries to keep them using your currency, that currency is already dying.

Venezuela is not the beginning.

It is the desperate end.

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