As standard to the neocon Uniparty, this comes only a week or two after DNI Tulsi Gabbard somewhat surreally boasted that this administration heralds the end of “regime change” operations:

---

 

How absurd can the mounting hypocrisies of the terminally-mad empire get before they runneth over?

Bloomberg reports that ‘Russian tankers’ have been forced to ‘idle’ near Venezuelan waters by American warships.

 

The Russian vessel, the Seahorse, was en route to Venezuela to deliver a fuel cargo on Nov. 13 when a US destroyer, the USS Stockdale, positioned itself in its path. The Russian vessel changed course, heading toward Cuba, and the warship sailed near Venezuelan territorial waters toward Puerto Rico. The Seahorse has since tried to approach Venezuela twice, but turned back both times, and remains idling in the Caribbean.

Other OSINT operators have taken it further, and believe a full naval blockade of Venezuela’s economic corridor is in effect:

No one is reporting this, but the AIS data overwhelmingly shows tankers of Chinese or Russian origin are stopped or are not transiting in and out of Venezuelan waters over the past 24 hours.

 

This naturally comes only days after Venezuela’s national assembly approved a 15-year extension of Russia’s PDVSA and Roszarubezhneft to operate two oil fields in the country’s south:

 

Upon further digging, though, one finds that the US’s actions may not be quite as severe as the above blockade rumors suggest, but the overtures are clearly being put in place for major intensification:

They are still doing business as usual, the Seahorse was not intercepted it was warned from land and stopped but it’s back on course.

This account tracks the movements in the area, and reports that the Russian ships ended up successfully offloading their oil and sailed back to Russia.

 

As stated, the early stages of economic pressure terror on Venezuela have begun, particularly with the news that a major oil plant in the country has suddenly gone up in flames two days ago, just as US warships had begun to hector incoming Russian and Chinese oil tankers—presented below in juxtaposition with the obviously ‘coincidental’ Trump announcement just a couple weeks prior:

 

Despite the obvious links to the CIA, a US congressman absurdly essayed to pin the plant explosion on Maduro himself, as part of the manifest information campaign meant to destabilize Venezuela by sabotaging the president’s public mandate:

 

The overall plan is clear. Trump intends to use ‘strategic ambiguity’ to put massive psychological pressure on Maduro’s administration, by weakening public support via a regime of uncertainty about the country’s economic future, general prosperity, and stability.

The reason is, as ‘rumored’ reports last week had indicated, Trump is uncertain about the success of any major military action against Venezuela; in short, Trump is afraid to walk into a giant blunder and face humiliation at the hands of one of South America’s largest military forces.

That means Trump may be leaning towards simply using the large American buildup in conjunction with various instruments of economic terror as a lever to bring down Maduro; these, of course, would also be used in conjunction with CIA and potential special forces covert ops to ‘trigger’ certain events in the country at convenient moments, particularly when the economic terror campaign has reached a certain needed culminating point.

Case in point:

Multiple airlines have cancelled their flights to Venezuela after the FAA warned of a “potentially hazardous situation” when flying over the country, according to Reuters.

Per DW, six airlines have cancelled their flights.

Cancelled flights, rerouted maritime and economic supply lines, mass-psychological and political pressure, etc. In essence, a slow strangulation campaign in conjunction with the sabotage of key energy infrastructure nodes throughout the country. That’s not to mention strikes on what are alleged to be narco-boats, which even US JAG lawyers contend to be illegal:

 

This entire campaign is strongly coordinated around the ‘thematic’ messaging of Maduro’s clearly specious ties to what appears to be an entirely fictitious “drug cartel”. Several journalists have now expressed that the ‘Cartel de los Soles’, comically claimed by Rubio to be led by Maduro himself, in fact does not even exist:

 

Enlargement of the above from CNN and The Guardian:

 

So, we have a fictitious cartel with Maduro as the ‘grand mafioso leader’, and for this the country must endure economic sabotage—a fairly trite script, used in various iterations in the past by the ‘Rules Based Order’; see: Libya.

Now, as of this very writing Reuters reports that the US stands poised to heavily escalate its terror campaign against Venezuela into a ‘new phase’ “in the coming days”:

 

WASHINGTON, Nov 22 (Reuters) – The United States is poised to launch a new phase of Venezuela-related operations in the coming days, four U.S. officials told Reuters, as the Trump administration escalates pressure on President Nicolas Maduro’s government.

The “options” being weighed by the US, according to ‘anonymous officials’ who’ve spoken to Reuters, naturally include the direct overthrow of Nicolas Maduro:

Two U.S. officials told Reuters the options under consideration included attempting to overthrow Maduro.

At the same time, WaPo reports that Trump intends to drop propaganda leaflets over Caracas itself:

 

The Trump administration has proposed a psychological operation to demoralize the Venezuelan leader and encourage him to flee the country,according to people familiar with planning.

The leaflets are intended to rouse disorder amongst the populace in the hopes they do Trump’s dirty work for him in ousting Maduro, before the US is forced to lay a ‘heavier hand’.

According to WaPo:

The leaflets were expected to contain information on a $50 million reward for assistance leading to Maduro’s arrest and conviction, the people said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive planning for a potential operation. In August, U.S. officials increased the reward from $25 million, citing his 2020 indictment for corruption, narcoterrorism and drug trafficking.

Maduro’s 63rd birthday is this Sunday the 23rd, so this plan—if decided upon—could be launched literally within hours.

But as always with Trump, there appears to possibly be some hidden motives beneath the Monroe-doctrine machismo and faux-Americana bravado. It seems ever-wily Trump could be angling to make some ultimate deal with Maduro, as several reports have indicated that the naval buildup is merely meant to bring leverage for just that:

Maduro privately offered the U.S. access to a large share of Venezuela’s massive oil reserves—about 300 billion barrels—to avoid a military confrontation.

Trump initially rejected the deal, but a senior official now says those talks may still be alive, and the deployment of the aircraft carrier is partly meant to pressure Maduro for more leverage in the negotiations.

Source: NYT

#BREAKING Trump said that he will soon speak with Nicolás Maduro, and that he has “something very specific to say.”

In the meantime, Maduro aptly summarizes to his people precisely the plan outlined earlier in this piece:

Russia—yesterday through Lavrov and Peskov—continues to maintain that no real plan has been presented to the Russian side yet, and that all military objectives of the SMO must be achieved. So what is the point, exactly, of this loony back-and-forth, which is crescendoing to hysterical levels?

Each side has its own axe to grind: for the Europeans it’s not only to save Ukraine and the cabal’s war against Russia, but to save their own hides, political careers, etc. The entire EU is now riding on Ukraine as the sole predominant issue—if a catastrophic failure here takes place, a firestorm could sweep away virtually every hated sock-puppet like Macron, Merz, Starmer, et al.

In short, it’s a mad dash to salvage the disintegrating nearly 100-year-old Ukrainian-Western project. For Ukrainian political elites, the purpose now is to stuff their pockets before the collapse while ensuring protection for themselves in the ensuing storm.

Here’s WSJ explaining how Ukraine changed the so-called “28-point plan” to give its elites total amnesty for their wanton corruption after the war’s end:

 

Now, Bloomberg has leaked what is claimed to be a transcript of Steve Witkoff’s conversation with top Putin advisor Ushakov. It is a desperate last minute hail mary with zero attribution—not even the usual lazy ‘anonymous sources’ sop. The motivation is clear: to quickly throw a spanner in the works and throw off the Trump team’s plans to turn Ukraine into a sacrificial lamb for the purpose of rapprochement with Russia. If the leak is real, the far bigger scandal is that it happened at all, as pointed out by Greenwald:

 

Key cog Kirill, for his part, was adamant it’s a total fake:

 

In the meantime, Putin has continued to transmit the same stalwart messaging.

Putin says the US hasn’t shown Moscow the full text of the new plan because Washington ‘can’t secure Ukraine’s approval’

Kiev and the EU STILL cling to fantasies of a ‘strategic defeat for Russia’

Warns these delusions will lead to consequences they don’t even grasp

 

Putin’s much more direct statement was that Russia is already achieving all of its military goals, implying peace talks are not a necessity, though Russia remains open to them under the strict condition that detailed discussions on all major demands be carried out:

“Russian goals are already BEING ACHIEVED on the battlefield but we are ready for peace talks.

Resolving the conflict peacefully requires detailed discussions.”

 

 

The message, as always, is clear: Russia has all the cards and will not be strong-armed or brow-beaten into cessations of the hostilities merely “for the sake of”. Everyone already knows precisely what this would bring, as Macron spelled out just earlier today—listen at the 0:35 second mark:

 

“We must put French and British troops in Kiev and Odessa…”

In short, the Euro-cabal is desperate to force Russia into an unfavorable ceasefire to immediately inject NATO troops and “freeze” the conflict for however long it takes to re-arm and re-generate the AFU for round two of this existential clash of civilizations.

The corporate press is not optimistic:

 

As a last note, this post by Trump is a true masterclass in the hysterical post-imperialism political-degeneracy waning phase of the US Empire:

 

“THE USA CONTINUES TO SELL MASSIVE $AMOUNTS (sic) OF WEAPONS TO NATO, FOR DISTRIBUTION TO UKRAINE….GOD BLESS ALL THE [millions of] LIVES THAT HAVE BEEN LOST IN THE HUMAN CATASTROPHE!”

Yes, god bless the millions lost, but god bless the MIC even more.

 

The collapse of the Ukrainian front continues to accelerate.

In the Gulyaipole direction, Russian troops have steamrolled up to the Haichur river—after having cleared everything on the Yanchur earlier—capturing multiple settlements there:

 

Most notably, not only has Gulyaipole come under partial encirclement, but Russian troops have even broke through and already begun fighting inside the town itself, marking the possibility that Gulyaipole may become one of the fastest fallen major strongholds of the entire war:

 

From a top Ukrainian outlet—complaints that lack of communications devices has imperiled the front:

 

Maksim Zhorin, deputy commander of the Azov Corps, complains bitterly about the state of the frontlines:

 

Meanwhile, Pokrovsk has been completely captured, and Mirnograd—according to our best cartographers—has had its cauldron fully closed, as opposed to ‘gray zones’ or mere drone ‘fire-control’ over the last supply routes, etc. The map is self-explanatory:

 

Footage even emerged of what was claimed to be prisoners being marched from the Mirnograd area, as viewed by passing Russian army motorcyclists:

 

A gallery from RIA Novosti of what the Russian supply routes into the agglomeration look like:

From a Ukrainian analyst:

Now is one of the hardest moments of our history. Now the pressure on Ukraine is one of the hardest. Now Ukraine may find itself facing a very difficult choice – either loss of dignity, or the risk of losing a key partner. Either the difficult 28 points, or an extremely hard winter, the hardest, and further risks. Life without freedom, without dignity, without justice, and for us to believe in the one who has already attacked twice. They will expect a response from us.

And another, describing the intensification of Russian operations:

At the same time, there is systematic destruction of our ammunition depots, supply points, and accumulation sites—to isolate the maneuver and make every move costly. This is not chaotic work but a clear scheme: first jam, break logistics, then press with infantry. There is nothing top secret here, we understand it, the enemy understands it, and it is all visible in the footage.

☠️Overall, combat operations across the entire sector continue without pause. It’s not getting better; on the contrary, the pressure, density of strikes, and pace of enemy attempts to slip into our seams increase daily!

By the way, yesterday Zelensky made an urgent address which was the first time ever that the Ukrainian leader has come close to admitting the war is nearly lost—it’s a fitting must-listen to close out the show:

 

“They are waiting for a response from us, but I gave it on May 20, 2019, when I promised to defend the sovereignty and independence of Ukraine.”

“We did not betray Ukraine on February 24, and we will not betray it now.”

“I am addressing everyone — people and politicians — to gather and stop this mess.”

“We are of steel, but even the strongest metal can at some point break.”

Lastly, we leave off on this colorfully apt reduction of the “settlement” process and its many absurd ‘guarantees’, from Russian war correspondent Vlad Zizdok:

“The fox promises not to be cunning. The neighbor promises not to make noise. The dog swears not to steal food in the owner’s presence. The elephant promises to behave carefully in the china shop. The thief promises not to take the wallet. The wolf swears not to wear sheep’s skin. The official promises to act. The cat vows not to eat fish. The river plans not to overflow. The persimmon definitely does not astringe. And I promise never to drink again.

The agreement is legally binding.

Violations – sanctions.”

---

Your support is invaluable. If you enjoyed the read, I would greatly appreciate if you subscribed to a monthly/yearly pledge to support my work, so that I may continue providing you with detailed, incisive reports like this one.

Alternatively, you can tip here: buymeacoffee.com/Simplicius