Let's take it over and make it a new home to all our socialists, but they have to do it on their dime, not ours. Put Pelosi and Cortez in charge, and they will scratch each other's eyes otu, while they inadvertently prove socialism will never work.Meanwhile the US will be greatly improved by their absence. Put Joy of the View in charge of media, and Madonna in charge of entertainment. Gaia will be the state religion. Let's prove it once and for all that these folks have no idea what socialism in reality is like. Let's see what the citizens think, mayb they will kick them all out and take over their own country, instead of coming ot ours.

Yes....lets invade and shoulder the cost of rehabilitating that socialist hellhole. The harder we try to help them the more they will hate us. Let them stew in the socialist hellhole their proletariat created. Yes....American blood and treasure....only to be spent on unicorn hunts to make the libs happy....temporarily until it doesn't go perfectly and they will blame anyone who isn't a Democrat.

Because it is just like when we invaded Iraq - its all about the oil! /sarcasm.

Seriously, though. I do hope we learned something from the Iraq debacle: mainly that people have to want to fight for their own freedom before we should lift a finger. While we should absolutely support the establishment of freedom, we shouldn't perform more than an advisory role and certainly not a nation-building one.

No one wants to risk our soldiers' lives in such a great example of why we don't want socialism here.

Why?
There is the mass media claim that the US wants to control oil, eg Iraq and Venzuela.
To make that claim is to be ignorant of production statistics. Since large scale fracking became economic there is no global oil shortage and the US is close to (net) self-sufficiency, there are imports as well as exports.

Remember the warning from Eisenhower - beware of the industrial military complex. We have been down this path too many times.

It would be stupid to invade. Over 3 million have left Venezuela but probably only those who live near the border or the wealthy could do that. The poor do not have the resources to make the trek. Do what we have been doing, provide resources and healthcare to the people who left. Help the neighboring countries who are accepting the immigrants. Keep the economic sanctions in place and try to keep Maduro from plundering the country. It used to be a Gem of South America, now it is a Socialistic hell-hole. I feel sorry for the people, not the political elite. That seems to way we are heading, political elite think we need a nanny government, but we need individual liberty. We need to get government out of our lives. The shutdown hurt 80,000 or so, well, the rest us are 300 million or so who are suffering under regulations and laws that affect us but not those who make the laws (healthcare and pensions for example). Term limits and I believe in 1 and done principle, 1 term and never hold office again, go get a real life. Wonks would do no more than 5 years in government service, except for law enforcement. There are many other points, but are we going to stand by and let the Big Government Party ruin our country and our lives?

The simplistic reason to want to invade Venezuela is to stop the bad guys. It's just like if someone were keeping hostages in a building down the street. I would want to police to arrest the criminals and free the hostages. But it's not that simple with a country. US has a checkered past interfering with Latin American politics and mixed results from even well-intentioned efforts to free other countries.

Instead of invading, I suspect they're doing something like making contact with top generals, gauging their loyalty to Maduro, and possibly offering ensure army salary and benefits are maintained if Maduro leaves office.

I can understand the impulse to invade, but I think it's wrong.

Just read an article by John Stossel called Slum By the Bay. He talked about the street people. He was told by a "private cop".....
We followed one private cop, who asked street people, "Do you need any type of homeless outreach services?"
Most say no. "They love the freedom of not having to follow the rules," said the cop.
And San Francisco is generous. It offers street people food stamps, free shelter, train tickets and $70 a month in cash.
"They're always offering resources," one man dressed as Santa told us. "San Francisco's just a good place to hang out."
So every week, new people arrive.
After reading this I wonder....is this a microcosm of the overall immigrant invasion here in this country? Lets be generous and say only half of the immigrants feel this way. That is still enough to cause the MASSIVE problems we are having.
The more we give, the more is DEMANDED. Seems like a classic common liberal affliction.

More likely, given the usual CIA strategy, is a plan to supply weapons and supplies to "rebel" forces that need support to overthrow the Maduro regime. Influencing some key Venezuelan generals to switch sides is ongoing, I'm sure, as one air force general has turned his back on Maduro. The only rationale for US military force would be if the Maduro regime begins a mass slaughter of opposition.

I think I've said it here before, but the lesson of history is that people are largely not interested in the lessons of history. Each generation must reinvent its own wheel. So don't expect any new restraint on human emotions and actions here - or anywhere else. But what do I know; I'm just an optimist who talks too much.

That story of Fake news has been floated for seven months or so .it will never happen.

Perfect place for our Gulch.

Seems to me that the opposite is happening.