Explosions reported in Venezuelan capital Caracas

Re:Explosions reported in Venezuelan capital Caracas by throwawaysleep on Saturday January 03, 2026 @04:11AM (#46474395)

> not supported by the vast majority of the country

Votes suggest otherwise.

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Re:Explosions reported in Venezuelan capital Caracas by asmor on Saturday January 03, 2026 @04:14AM (#46474421)

We both know this is an imperfect statement without getting into a lecture about representative democracy or voting modalities.

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Re:Explosions reported in Venezuelan capital Caracas by throwawaysleep on Saturday January 03, 2026 @04:17AM (#46474437)

Americans have been all for this the last couple of rounds as well.

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Re:Explosions reported in Venezuelan capital Caracas by KingOfCoders on Saturday January 03, 2026 @04:26AM (#46474529)

Trump won the electoral vote [edit: and the popular vote]

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Re:Explosions reported in Venezuelan capital Caracas by sokoloff on Saturday January 03, 2026 @04:32AM (#46474577)

That’s the one that governs, but in 2024 he also won the popular vote.

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Re:Explosions reported in Venezuelan capital Caracas by asmor on Sunday January 04, 2026 @08:34AM (#46487803)

I guess we'll forever wonder how much of the lack of turnout was due to backing the wrong party outside a swing state.

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Re:Explosions reported in Venezuelan capital Caracas by squidbeak on Saturday January 03, 2026 @05:07AM (#46474841)

This is muddying with jargon. You're insisting on nuance where there is none: Trump won emphatically, and the campaign couldn't have been clearer about what MAGA intended to do in power.

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Re:Explosions reported in Venezuelan capital Caracas by int_19h on Saturday January 03, 2026 @08:38AM (#46476460)

As I recall, Trump specifically campaign on the promise of no more wars.

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Re:Explosions reported in Venezuelan capital Caracas by asmor on Sunday January 04, 2026 @08:32AM (#46487784)

Nope, I will not get myself dragged into this mud, except maybe to say that by the numbers, "not voting" won.

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Re:Explosions reported in Venezuelan capital Caracas by maxerickson on Sunday January 04, 2026 @08:41AM (#46487862)

The combined margin in Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania (which could combine to flip the election) was about 250,000 votes. That's not all that emphatic.

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Re:Explosions reported in Venezuelan capital Caracas by swiftcoder on Saturday January 03, 2026 @04:17AM (#46474435)

The polls[0] on the war do not necessarily fall along party lines

[0]: https://usapolling.substack.com/p/america-marches-into-anoth...

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Re:Explosions reported in Venezuelan capital Caracas by throwawaysleep on Saturday January 03, 2026 @04:19AM (#46474461)

> 60% of Americans oppose sending US troops into Venezuela to remove Maduro from power. Support is heavily concentrated among Republicans, with 58% in favor, compared to just 21% of independents and 14% of Democrats.

But they do.

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Re:Explosions reported in Venezuelan capital Caracas by Synaesthesia on Saturday January 03, 2026 @04:24AM (#46474505)

So there we see that the vast majority of the country opposes this war.

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Re:Explosions reported in Venezuelan capital Caracas by throwawaysleep on Saturday January 03, 2026 @04:25AM (#46474514)

60% is far from vast and the party in power is all for it.

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Re:Explosions reported in Venezuelan capital Caracas by swiftcoder on Saturday January 03, 2026 @11:18AM (#46478360)

60% represents a considerably greater margin than any presidential election in recent memory

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Re:Explosions reported in Venezuelan capital Caracas by flyinglizard on Saturday January 03, 2026 @04:27AM (#46474531)

Now that Trump has reported that Maduro was removed from power, it will be interesting to run this poll again and see the support given the success of the operation.

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Re:Explosions reported in Venezuelan capital Caracas by wesleywt on Saturday January 03, 2026 @04:19AM (#46474462)

He promised his voters no new wars. So your statement is completely wrong.

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Re:Explosions reported in Venezuelan capital Caracas by lb1lf on Saturday January 03, 2026 @05:33AM (#46475031)

Perhaps it is just a Special Military Operation?

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Re:Explosions reported in Venezuelan capital Caracas by KingOfCoders on Saturday January 03, 2026 @04:28AM (#46474545)

He asked why he can't use nukes in 2016. Trump is pro raw power, pro war, always was, always will be. "We didn't vote for this" - all Germans 1945. SPOILER ALERT: They did, it was all in "Mein Kampf".

I hate it when everyone says "Nazi Germany" instead of just "Germany".

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Re:Explosions reported in Venezuelan capital Caracas by flyinglizard on Saturday January 03, 2026 @04:13AM (#46474406)

I'd avoid speaking in absolute terms, especially when you're wrong.

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Re:Explosions reported in Venezuelan capital Caracas by jmward01 on Saturday January 03, 2026 @04:25AM (#46474516)

At this very moment I am likely a lot of things, but at the top of the list is mad. Very, very mad. I don't have words for this anymore or the patience to debate the intricacies of the broken system that has gotten us here. I am just viscerally, exceptionally, mad. Something will change.

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Re:Explosions reported in Venezuelan capital Caracas by simianparrot on Saturday January 03, 2026 @04:58AM (#46474766)

You’ve been emotionally played by the media if you are genuinely mad about this. Only surface level emotional manipulation makes sense to explain such a reaction.

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Re:Explosions reported in Venezuelan capital Caracas by flyinglizard on Saturday January 03, 2026 @04:32AM (#46474567)

A hostile dictator that caused lots of suffering to his people was removed from power. I don't think mad is the right sentiment but to each his own.

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Re:Explosions reported in Venezuelan capital Caracas by tossandthrow on Saturday January 03, 2026 @04:43AM (#46474650)

Oof - imagine if the rest of the world decided to abduct the US president using the same argument - and oh yeah, Americans better be grateful.

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Re:Explosions reported in Venezuelan capital Caracas by valleyer on Saturday January 03, 2026 @05:14AM (#46474892)

Don't threaten me with a good time.

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Re:Explosions reported in Venezuelan capital Caracas by lynndotpy on Saturday January 03, 2026 @10:13AM (#46477575)

To be analogous, hundreds of US civilians would be murdered leading up to the events and the US itself would be bombed to aid the abduction.

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Re:Explosions reported in Venezuelan capital Caracas by KingOfCoders on Saturday January 03, 2026 @04:26AM (#46474524)

The majority of the country voted for this.

Trump won the electoral vote.

Trump asked why the US can't nuke other countries when it has so many nukes. Trump loves war ("department of war") loves bombing other countries - always has. That he is so eager to use nukes should frighten everyone.

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Re:Explosions reported in Venezuelan capital Caracas by 420official on Saturday January 03, 2026 @04:40AM (#46474628)

I agree with the rest of your point but I dont think its factual to say the majority of the country voted for trump. 77m/343m or ~20% of the country voted for trump, though I'm sure this is what you meant to say.

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Re:Explosions reported in Venezuelan capital Caracas by KingOfCoders on Saturday January 03, 2026 @04:47AM (#46474684)

1. The majority of voters voted for Trump 2. People who don't vote are like fine with whoever wins like "What pizza? I'm fine with every pizza you bring"

Yes, 5 year olds didn't vote for Trump.

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Re:Explosions reported in Venezuelan capital Caracas by treetalker on Saturday January 03, 2026 @07:51AM (#46475985)

False. Comment demonstrates ignorance of the electoral college and disregard for fact. Even among eligible voters who did vote, Trump got less than 50% of votes.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2024_United_States_presidentia...

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Re:Explosions reported in Venezuelan capital Caracas by justinator on Sunday January 04, 2026 @02:03AM (#46485670)

You don't need > 50% of the votes to make a majority when you're pool is more than 2, which it was. Weird thing to hang your hat on.

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Re:Explosions reported in Venezuelan capital Caracas by treetalker on Sunday January 04, 2026 @09:49AM (#46488470)

Majority means > 50%. Perhaps you meant plurality.

Regardless, US presidential elections do not depend on getting a majority or even a plurality of popular votes, but rather on a majority of electoral votes. And Trump did not get a majority of popular votes as claimed.

This being HN, the fact-check seemed appropriate and I stand by it.

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Re:Explosions reported in Venezuelan capital Caracas by justinator on Sunday January 04, 2026 @12:39PM (#46490211)

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/majority

Of the definitions, seems like the third is correct for this context:

3 : the group or political party having the greater number of votes (as in a legislature)

>And Trump did not get a majority of popular votes as claimed.

I would think that he did.

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Re:Explosions reported in Venezuelan capital Caracas by tdeck on Saturday January 03, 2026 @07:49AM (#46475968)

Trump won less than 50% of the popular vote.

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Re:Explosions reported in Venezuelan capital Caracas by tossandthrow on Saturday January 03, 2026 @04:33AM (#46474585)

Especially in the US, this is a strawman. There is simply not enough granularity of choice that you can make voters accountable for every action Trump does.

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Re:Explosions reported in Venezuelan capital Caracas by stouset on Saturday January 03, 2026 @04:43AM (#46474653)

Trump was wildly transparent about what kind of person he is. In this case, you can and should.

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Re:Explosions reported in Venezuelan capital Caracas by KingOfCoders on Saturday January 03, 2026 @04:44AM (#46474660)

Guy: "Why do we have nukes if we don't use them?"

Same Guy: "If Europe doesn't buy more weapons from us, Russia should invade Europe, torture, plunder and kill people and do their worst."

People: "I guess I vote for that guy!"

Guy randomly bombs Iran, Yemen, Nigeria, Venezuela, Iraq, Somalia and Syria - people "Huh? I didn't vote for this".

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Re:Explosions reported in Venezuelan capital Caracas by tossandthrow on Saturday January 03, 2026 @04:49AM (#46474693)

The US only has two parties and decisions are decoupled from the wishes of the people.

It is already a stretch to call it a democracy - which is required to insist on democratic reasoning.

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Re:Explosions reported in Venezuelan capital Caracas by KingOfCoders on Saturday January 03, 2026 @04:54AM (#46474738)

The US only has two parties because people only want two parties. The "our team vs. other team" is so ingrained in US all thinking, people can't stop. Football is not played with three teams. The election system doesn't help, but there is nothing in the constitution that says "Only two parties".

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Re:Explosions reported in Venezuelan capital Caracas by trymas on Saturday January 03, 2026 @06:32AM (#46475412)

It’s because of first past the post voting system.

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Re:Explosions reported in Venezuelan capital Caracas by roenxi on Saturday January 03, 2026 @05:29AM (#46475000)

The polling indicates that the US is desperate for an alternative for something other than the two incumbent parties. They're wildly unpopular and there actually seems to be a political consensus that the US is sliding into ruin which reflects badly on the mainstream policy consensus the majors have been pushing over last few decades.

Just a post ago you identified that Mr. "Why do we have nukes if we don't use them?" was the best available option. That doesn't mean he's a good option, it means there were two choices and the other one was generally seen as the same or worse than Trump. Which given all the stuff that got thrown at Trump is an impressive level of failure.

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Re:Explosions reported in Venezuelan capital Caracas by tossandthrow on Saturday January 03, 2026 @05:11AM (#46474877)

The two party nature is a part of it - historically it might have worked. I currently it seems like oligarchic structures are what's ruining the democracy.

Regardless, If allowed intellectual hoolahop, then most systems of governance can be argued to be democratic.

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Re:Explosions reported in Venezuelan capital Caracas by m4nu3l on Saturday January 03, 2026 @08:50AM (#46476595)

I believe the problem with democracy is that it's affected by various problems analogous to the ones of markets, but often amplified.

In this case, to me, it really seems a matter of extreme information asymmetry as you'd never see in a regular market.

Does he actually mean those things, or is that some sort of joke? How do you even know? BTW, he didn't actually use Nukes, and I don't believe he will. On the other hand, he said he wanted to end wars and sounded like he was against starting new ones.

I've seen people regretting voting for Trump because of tariffs, even though they supported tariffs in the first place. They had no idea that Trump's "tariff" would mean some blanket tariffs at those rates. They thought it was some small tariffs on "key industries".

A further confirmation of the information asymmetry is that after a year, support for Trump is far below what would be needed to elect him.

I'm not sure what the solution is.

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Re:Explosions reported in Venezuelan capital Caracas by lawn on Saturday January 03, 2026 @04:45AM (#46474665)

> The majority of the country

He did not win the popular vote.

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Re:Explosions reported in Venezuelan capital Caracas by rawling on Saturday January 03, 2026 @04:49AM (#46474692)

He won the popular vote, but not a majority of it.

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Re:Explosions reported in Venezuelan capital Caracas by KingOfCoders on Saturday January 03, 2026 @04:49AM (#46474694)

Trump won the popular vote. Those who didn't vote, were "Nah can't be bothered, I'm fine with whoever wins"

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Re:Explosions reported in Venezuelan capital Caracas by stouset on Saturday January 03, 2026 @04:41AM (#46474636)

The majority of the country voted for this. Don’t let them off the hook so easily.

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Re:Explosions reported in Venezuelan capital Caracas by Brybry on Saturday January 03, 2026 @04:57AM (#46474758)

Technically ~49.8% of voters, ~31.6% of eligible voters, or ~22.7% of the US population. Or at least those were the numbers when I looked it up 10 months ago.

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Re:Explosions reported in Venezuelan capital Caracas by jutter on Saturday January 03, 2026 @05:10AM (#46474863)

It's disgraceful! I don't see how this benefits Israel at all!

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Re:Explosions reported in Venezuelan capital Caracas by conradfr on Saturday January 03, 2026 @08:11AM (#46476195)

Not the supported by the people of the USA or the people of Venezuela?

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