The word ‘indefinite’ is a beautiful thing in the mouth of a bureaucrat. It is the linguistic equivalent of a black hole—it absorbs all hope of an exit strategy while emitting a faint, sickly glow of ‘due process.’ In the latest installment of Empire: The Home Game, the United States has announced that it will control Venezuela’s oil sales indefinitely. Not just for a week, not until the next election cycle, but until the heat death of the universe or until the last drop of Venezuelan crude is squeezed from the earth, whichever comes first. Officials have confirmed that the initial sales, expected to range between 30 million and 50 million barrels, will be managed by the U.S. government, with the revenue held in accounts that the Maduro regime can look at, but certainly cannot touch.

It is a masterstroke of geopolitical condescension. The United States, a nation that currently treats its own national debt like a high-score in a video game it has no intention of winning, has decided to act as the world’s most heavily armed escrow agent. The logic is as transparent as it is insulting: the Venezuelans are far too incompetent to manage their own resources, so the benevolent overlords in Washington will do it for them. This isn't diplomacy; it's a garnishment of wages on a planetary scale. It’s the equivalent of the neighborhood bully taking your lunch money, putting it in a high-yield savings account in his own name, and telling you it’s for your own protection because you’re likely to spend it on candy.

Of course, the performative outrage from the Left will be deafening. They will scream about 'sovereignty' and 'imperialism,' conveniently ignoring the fact that the Maduro regime has turned a nation sitting on the world’s largest oil reserves into a tragic theme park of hyperinflation and empty shelves. Maduro’s brand of 'socialism' is nothing more than a slow-motion car crash fueled by ego and incompetence, a system where the only thing that trickles down is the misery. To the Left, sovereignty is a sacred shield that protects even the most pathetic dictators from the consequences of their own stupidity. They would rather see a nation starve in 'independence' than admit that their ideological poster child is a failure who couldn't manage a lemonade stand, let alone a nationalized oil industry.

On the other side of the aisle, the Right will preen and posture about 'democracy' and 'containing the socialist threat.' They will speak in hushed, reverent tones about the rule of law while salivating over the logistics of controlling 50 million barrels of someone else’s oil. For the hawks in Washington, 'democracy' has always been a convenient euphemism for 'favorable trade terms.' They don't care about the Venezuelan people; they care about the leverage. To the Right, this is a brilliant tactical maneuver to starve a rival of cash, ignoring the breathtaking hypocrisy of a nation that decries 'government overreach' while literally reaching across a continent to seize another country’s primary source of income. They claim to love the free market, yet here they are, centrally planning the revenue of a foreign state with the kind of bureaucratic zeal that would make a Soviet commissar blush.

Let’s look at the numbers, because the numbers are the only things that don't lie in this circus. Thirty to fifty million barrels. That is not a 'test run.' That is a wholesale takeover of an industry. The revenue will be 'controlled' by the U.S. government, which is a delightful way of saying it will be trapped in the amber of American litigation and administrative fees. We are told this is a temporary measure, yet the word 'indefinite' hangs over the proceedings like a guillotine. In Washington, 'temporary' is usually measured in decades, and 'indefinite' means 'forever, or until we find something more profitable to do.'

There is a profound, soul-crushing irony in watching two failing systems collide. On one hand, you have the Venezuelan state, a crumbling monument to the failures of authoritarian populism. On the other, you have the American administrative state, a bloated, sanctimonious machine that believes its own press releases about being the 'leader of the free world' while it treats the rest of the hemisphere like a collection of unruly colonies. Neither side has the moral high ground; they are just two different flavors of greed fighting over the same pile of black gold. The people of Venezuela are, as always, the uncredited extras in this blockbuster production, promised 'humanitarian aid' from the very funds that were stolen from them in the first place. It is a closed loop of absurdity. The U.S. controls the oil, takes the money, and then perhaps—if the mood is right and the paperwork is filed in triplicate—allows some of that money to be used to buy bread for the people the sanctions were supposedly helping. It is a masterpiece of modern cruelty, dressed up in the boring grey suit of international policy. Humanity, in its infinite wisdom, has managed to turn a natural resource into a permanent reason for theft, and we have the audacity to call it 'progress.'