Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado told reporters she presented the medal for her Nobel Peace Prize to President Donald Trump at a private White House meeting on Thursday, but did not say if he accepted it.

“I think today is a historic day for us Venezuelans,” she said after the meeting with Trump, the first time the two have met in-person.

    • cannedtuna@lemmy.world
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      20 天前

      I mean, what does a trophy matter in the long run if it means her country and people might be left alone by a madman? She still was the one who was awarded the Nobel and Trump can’t take that away from her.

      • elbucho@lemmy.world
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        20 天前

        She’s not doing it in the interest of Venezuela. She’s doing it so that he’ll make her the puppet leader of Venezuela. She’s not Gandhi; she’s Vidkun Quisling.

  • Kokesh@lemmy.world
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    20 天前

    What a dumb bitch. I think after this the Nobel committee should retrospectively take it away from her, so that orange fuck can’t claim that he got it.

    • nialv7@lemmy.world
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      20 天前

      She got the Nobel Peace prize. Do you know who else got the Peace prize?

      Henry Kissinger.

          • butwhyishischinabook@piefed.social
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            20 天前

            Don’t be campist. Kissinger was obviously worlds worse, but Obama killed an insane amount of civilians with drones and claimed that because they were military aged males they were actually combatants. He double tapped to kill first responders and assassinated a US citizen with a drone strike and no due process. Just because the Republicans are far more evil doesn’t make Obama’s rampant war crimes any less awful.

          • Zorque@lemmy.world
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            20 天前

            Hey, there’s multiple options. They could be a “stay at home and not bother” voter instead. They are the largest electoral demographic in the US after all.

        • MyMindIsLikeAnOcean@piefed.world
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          20 天前

          Yes…”before” is a pretty important qualifier.

          The Obama prize can be viewed as an aspirational prize: rewarding rhetoric that was a drastic change from the typical US hawkish rhetoric and policy that had been increasing since Reagan. They ultimately got it wrong…very very wrong…but at least it was based on something.

          Kissinger, on the other hand, was tantamount to a war criminal and everybody knew it.

          Giving it to Machado just tells us that the prize is fully corrupted, considering her violent rhetoric. Not just that - but the notion that she was promoting democracy is laughable, given her statements about installing a regime that would be resistant or immune to leftist political victories.

          • Boiglenoight@lemmy.world
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            20 天前

            If I recall correctly, it was awarded before he actually did anything. It felt like wishful thinking, and then he proceeded to authorize strikes somewhere.

            • MyMindIsLikeAnOcean@piefed.world
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              19 天前

              Yeah…it was based mostly on rhetoric but also early policy…which isn’t nothing. Close to…but still. He did things like sign an executive order to close Guantanamo and laid out a plan to stop the Iraq war. We know what actually happened…but we also know that it wasn’t solely his decision to reneg.

              It made sense because of how hawkish everything had been up until then. There wasn’t a sense that he’d essentially become a lame duck in the first midterms…and that he’d do so much for the hawks and get nothing in return.

              • Boiglenoight@lemmy.world
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                19 天前

                I didn’t have any problems with what Obama did at that time. I just thought it was premature to give him the award. It made it seem meaningless.

                • MyMindIsLikeAnOcean@piefed.world
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                  19 天前

                  Yeah…I agree…but both things are true, IMO. It made sense at the time, and in hindsight it was a mistake.

                  Some folks act like he was awarded the prize after the drone strike escalation…which isn’t strictly true.

    • Cyclist@lemmy.world
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      20 天前

      I wish they would, but they have publicly stated that it can’t be transferred, shared, or revoked.

    • Serinus@lemmy.world
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      20 天前

      She’s giving up a piece of metal in the hopes that it’ll help her country. The country that she’s the rightful president of.

  • hperrin@lemmy.ca
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    20 天前

    That’s like buying your boss a “best boss” mug to try to get a raise. It means nothing and your boss is an idiot.

  • Wispy2891@lemmy.world
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    20 天前

    Before: bribes done in secret, big scandal if journalists found out

    Now: bribes are given in front of hundreds of journalists and photographers and the receiver is smiling like a toddler getting a box of Lego Duplo

    • Phoenixz@lemmy.ca
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      19 天前

      The Nobel institute was already kind of an embarrassment with what they’ve been doing for the past decade.

      The Nobel peace prize is just a sad affair

      • 46_and_2@lemmy.world
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        19 天前

        They gave Obama a Nobel Peace Prize based on vibes alone, in the beginning of his term. Even he was surprised, what a joke.

        • Formfiller@lemmy.world
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          19 天前

          This is actually understandable when you consider him a symbol of a new era of race relations in the United States. Unfortunately, this turned out to not be the case but there was a beautiful moment of hope at the time. It seems that the powers that be want to burn the country to the ground to erase that spark of hope. That’s my interpretation of that anyway

  • rarsamx@lemmy.ca
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    20 天前

    The committee should re-award it given that the recipient doesn’t value it.

    • elbucho@lemmy.world
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      20 天前

      Given that the Nobel Prize is basically the moral equivalent of a cracker jack prize at this point, and given that it’s guaranteed to make the Toddler in Chief choke on a McDonald’s cheeseburger, they should give it to Obama. I mean, what the fuck - after giving Kissinger one, it’s not like the committee assigning them can be said to stand for anything approaching morality. Might as well do it for the memes.

  • Treczoks@lemmy.world
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    20 天前

    If it makes him shut up on one issue, fine. Pacifier for the big baby.

    Does not change the fact that the Nobel Prize is not transferrable.

    • B-TR3E@feddit.org
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      20 天前

      Doesn’t matter, because Trump doesn’t know. Even if he did it wouldn’t keep him from claiming it was “his” Nobel Prize. “It was given to me, so it’s mine., see? All mine.”

  • DarkFuture@lemmy.world
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    19 天前

    I get that she probably realizes he’s a simpleton and you can get a simpleton to do what you want if you give them gifts.

    But still. Have some self respect.

    • jj4211@lemmy.world
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      19 天前

      From my talking with someone who grew up under a nation with a corrupt regime, self respect is a luxury that people under such a regime cannot afford when dealing with the government.

      Small, petty, corrupt government personnel are a way of life and people just accept this sort of stuff as mundane fact of life.

      So such folks are uniquely emotionally prepared for this sort of interaction.

  • culprit@lemmy.ml
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    19 天前

    Thank you Trump for attacking the brave people of Venezuela like I’ve been asking the US and Israel to do for years before I got this Peace Prize. Socialism is the work of the devil, and I claim to be a progressive!

    If anyone still thinks the “opposition” is not entirely subservient to western interests at this point, they will never learn otherwise.

  • banazir@lemmy.ml
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    20 天前

    This is just naked manipulation. I would be ashamed if someone tried it on me, but what do you know, Trump completely laps it up. She’s a sly and calculating operator, I will give her that.

    We truly do live in a clown world.

      • banazir@lemmy.ml
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        19 天前

        Certainly true, but being willing to debase yourself like this can’t be easy. Or maybe she’s just trash and it’s super easy for her, I don’t know.

        • jj4211@lemmy.world
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          19 天前

          So I heard an interview with one of her associates and they seemed pretty pragmatic about whatever sucking up they need to do to make Trump change things the way they think needs to be changed. And it didn’t sound like they were disappointed or shocked or anything, just that’s the way things go.

          Reminds me of speaking with a colleague that was an immigrant from a country with a well known corrupt government. He just couldn’t get as shocked as the rest of us over Trump’s behavior. He recognized it as bad, but as far as he was concerned, that was just life and he was used to it. Disappointed for things to start feeling a bit too much like his home country to be sure, but overt corruption was just the way things were. I could imagine being in the thick of such a government and just being boringly normal about this level of petty corruption.