Let me say upfront that I am only modestly informed on the topic of Venezuela. I have not really dug into it much, and it's just not as important to me as so many other things that are closer to home.

From what I *do* know, however, I must say I am pretty skeptical of the mainstream narrative here, and simply cannot trust what the media is pushing. Venezuela has democratic elections, and from what I have seen, it looks like a more structurally sound process than ours. This guy declaring himself president -- no doubt knowing he'd get US legitimacy -- is madness. It's also a cold, hard fact that fascists are marching in the streets and even lynching Chavismos. Not to mention this naked economic warfare, in the form of various businesses artificially inflating the price of goods (namely: toilet paper (hence this talking-point)).

Bernie might know better than I do on this, but I really get the sense he's toeing the line here, knowing that he has nobody will accurately report what's going on there, thus the optics of being an "apologist" (god I hate that word) on Venezuela are bad.

This really has an Iraq 2.0 feel to it. Venezuela is sitting on one of the world's largest oil reserves. The capitalist class, especially the energy industry, want a more business-friendly government there. I have 0 faith in western capitalist media to give a remotely balanced (much less accurate) account of what's going on there.

Would you feel better if I suggested he was doing this to distract us from Roger Stone’s trial or Michael Cohen’s testimony?

Nationalizing your natural resources is a great way to troll foreign extraction corporations.

The whole “economic warfare” line is just the Venezuelan’s government’s framing of their mismanagement of their own economy. If people knew how incompetent the people in charge are, they would be thrown out on their asses.