Yup, saw it myself, a gallon of sunflower oil now $15, as such I wonder why President Trump is panicking? Any grocer has it, so why settle for Venezuelan oil? OK, he has the bankrupt stigma over his head, but that is on the administration. And in that regard the BBC piece (at https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c205dx61x76o) giving us the headline ‘Trump seeks $100bn for Venezuela oil, but Exxon boss says country ‘uninvestable’’ might not help him much. You know, I would have thought he would have investigated that BEFORE he put the lives of American soldiers in jeopardy. So when we are told “US President Donald Trump has asked for at least $100bn (£75bn) in oil industry spending for Venezuela, but received a lukewarm response at the White House as one executive warned the South American country was currently “uninvestable”.
Bosses of the biggest US oil firms who attended the meeting acknowledged that Venezuela, sitting on vast energy reserves, represented an enticing opportunity.” As such what did Chevron had to say? They were the one that were their in the first place. As such I reckon that the peaceful webcam of Nuuk might not be so peaceful for much longer. In that regard, was there really just one executive stating the uninvestable ploy? And one response was “Exxon’s chief executive Darren Woods said: “We have had our assets seized there twice and so you can imagine to re-enter a third time would require some pretty significant changes from what we’ve historically seen and what is currently the state.”” In all this I am a little surprised. I would have had that meeting beforehand. It kinda makes me wonder of the belle at the ball meeting a well hung man stating ‘What am I supposed to do with that?’ That is one of those moments when ‘hoping for the best’ will come across as having a cold shower as the first dish of the ‘entertainment of the evening’ it might come across as a little cold, but that is what it looks like. Everything over the last 2 weeks looks like an exercise of how not to do things in any corporate setting. Especially when you start eyeing 300 billion barrels. In my mind the first question I had was why didn’t Venezuela set that in motion? And for that matter where were these tankers going to? What solutions do they have to process that much oil? Those are the first questions I had two weeks ago, as such that oil meeting was like a marketing cold call. And there is a setting for off shore processing in this case even if America will buy the oil, it is a simple setting to adding a taximeter to that processing plant. As such this entire setting is one of bad preparation. It’s like the man expecting a smooth ride at a brothel asking the question ‘What exactly is herpes?’ Which gets us the comical setting that the lady of the house asks ‘You don’t have herpes, do you? I don’t want to get that again’ You might smile but the reactions that President Trump is invoking with reaction views that the Venezuelan oil industry is looking like a dud more and more at present.
Then there is the setting that ABC is leaving us with ‘Donald Trump says oil executives will have ‘total safety’ if they invest in Venezuela’ Can they really? As far as I can tell, these places tend to react flammable to any RPG thrown their way and President Maduro has a large following that are still roaming the streets of Caracas. As such ill-prepared and reacting in the stage of ‘total safety’ whilst that would require over 100,000 boots on the ground in Caracas and that is likely to set a different tone to that equation. So as America is heading towards at least two fronts (Greenland and Venezuela), I wonder if he read the papers on Napoleon making the very same mistake in 1814. He should look at the works of Ridley Scott, especially his movie Napoleon (2023), he might learn something. I know it is much better to read ‘1812: Napoleon’s Fatal March on Moscow’ by Adam Zamoyski, but that might be seemingly too dry for him.
These are a few insights one might need to reassess the insights that President Trump had last week as he was going to ‘fix oil infrastructure’, it seems that this meeting with the oil executives was one he needed to have before he made the claim to ‘fix oil infrastructure’. You know little things like that might fix his viewpoint in a more correct way beforehand. And I feel stupid for having to say this, but, no wait, I don’t have to the American Administration had to do this BEFORE they went in and stated that they were going against drugmakers. So how many drug houses were captured (call it freed) from Venezuela? And the ‘word’ is “Venezuela remains a major transit country for cocaine shipments via aerial, terrestrial, and maritime routes.” You see, in 1974 I learned (at the merchant navy academy) that transit means “conveyance of persons or things from one place to another. usually local transportation especially of people by public conveyance. a system engaged in such transportation.” So for the kiddies in the American administration, it means that merchant A ships goods B through Location C to Customers in location D. As such Venezuela is Location C, so the drugs are optimally only found in some ware house. So how many warehouses were captured with drugs? I failed to see that news. And when we get to the nasty setting that it was always about the oil. And as such that meeting the BBC raves on about should have been had at least 4 weeks ago and in all this the one who was there before (Chevron) is seemingly overlooked by all. What were their observation of Venezuelan oil processing? Little things like that. So are we getting the same failed narrative for Greenland and if it was about national security, what discussion were held over placing a base and a port in Greenland (or enlarge the port of Nuuk for Navy ships and perhaps a airfield for refueling options. So what ‘enlargements’ were planned for Pituffik Space Base? All questions that national security would have in the initial first instance and I see no reporting on that. But I reckon the news would have linked these settings like media coverage (e.g., Defense News), and internal DoD reports, all detailing military posture, strategy, budget, and operations, with the Secretary of Defense reporting to the President and Congress, and various agencies like the DIA and services providing intelligence and status updates. Perhaps the DoD was not entirely forthcoming on that, but they needed to have all the paperwork ready for this and I never saw anything on that. As such I get the feeling that Greenland is a simple resource grab to enlarge their credit portfolio. Nothing more and I reckon the this will anger Denmark, the EU, NATO and optionally Canada too. Most likely not in the order, but these elements are involved. All settings that the media would have been able to ask instead of getting the usual quotes (like) “Canada should become our Cherished 51st State” or my favourite, President Trump apparently said these words a week ago: “One Day, I Realized Nobody Was Coming to Save Me—So I Saved Myself” and it will become my favourite as he utters those words in the International Criminal Court in The Hague when he faces them, because there is 0% chance he will avoid that setting after the coming 1105 days. Whomever takes over the office will have such a mess to clean that they will hand him over in an instant act to relieve some of the pressures that successor faces on the global markets. In 1105 days he either find the correct amount to increase the Credit Card of the United States or Wall Street hands him over to anyone asking for him. This is of course massively speculative, but do you think I am wrong? The numbers don’t lie (they actually do, it is the interpretation that tends to be finicky) “Trump’s term low is 41% approval, which he first reached on Nov. 12. His disapproval also notched up to 56% on Nov. 19, a high for this term per the aggregator. As of Jan. 9, 2026, 43% approve and 55% disapprove, per the Times.” (Source: USA Today) As I see it, Wall Street will giftware him and Warren Buffet is likely to make the bow for the wrapping himself. And in all this he has ignored international law, just like Napoleon did and they gave him a hotel on Elba to relax. I don’t think President Trump is going to get that lucky. Too many are after him now and that list is getting more impressive by the day Venezuela, Greenland, Canada, Netherlands, Belgium (EU HQ, NATO HQ), Germany and a few more. To my knowledge Adolf Hitler was the last person to get this much personal attention of governments, not even Stalin pulled the one off. It might not be academic but it feels correct.
Does it feel over emotional? No, I have merely attaching optionally non-related issues, because the Trump administration is making knee jerk corrections on something that should have been thought through BEFORE we had to watch the arrant pr President Maduro. Don’t get me wrong, as the details go he was seemingly a bad man, I have no doubt. But at what stage did that warrant America to go in and arrest him on the spot with a fleet of ships? When did America send the army into Iran and arrest Ali Khamenei, Supreme leader of Iran. Or perhaps Gustavo Francisco Petro Urrego, President of Columbia where the drugs seemingly come from. Where is that media snippet of reality? No, Venezuela was about oil and now it seems that it is seemingly as useful as horsepiss. (Quote from King Kong 1976, where the Petrox Corporation went in for oil too). As such it didn’t turn out that way and this example makes me wonder why the Trump Administration wasn’t ready for this. As such my idea for off shore processing and getting all oil tankers to go to an (optional) American location to process that oil might have been a better solution. I have no expertise in the Petrochemical industry, so I am going on a limb here, but to not explore that option on day one seems folly to me. So what shortcomings will we see when Greenland is up for ‘auction’?
Just my 2 cents of the matter and now it is time for brekkie, Have a great day all.
Lawrence van Rijn - Law Lord to be 