Trump's officials are talking to Maduro

One wonders what the Trump administration has to say to Nicolas Maduro, the much-despised dictator of Venezuela, a country which hasn't enjoyed democracy for decades. It could be a one-way conversation: Maduro told to go and live in exile with his corrupt family and regime hierarchy, and let the country have a better future, or else the US guns will start firing. I don't know how legal that would be under internatinal law. But Maduro, I guess, might just be scared at the prospect of having tens of thousands of US troops invading Venezuela, or seeing Tomahahawk cruise missiles flying towards his palace in Caracas. It all depends on whether Donald Trump really wants to put boots on the ground in Venezeula, and Maduro might calculate that actually the US president is bluffing. He won't know, nor does anyone else. That's the beauty of Trumpian-style brinkmanship. He is so open and yet so secretive about his true intentions on anything that it's near-impossible to judge what he is going to do next. But the fact is, the US now has a very impressive armada in the Carribean Sea which Maduro might be able to see from his top-floor presidential suite. It must be truly unnerving and who knows, perhaps he will consider hopping off and going to live in Cuba. But somehow I doubt it. I think he will hold off and hope that Trump at the last moment will chicken out and send the mighty carrier strike group somewhere else. BUY FOR CHRISTMAS MY NEW SPY THRILLER AGENT REDRUTH, SEQUEL TO SHADOW LIVES, STARRING THE MAZAING SPY HERIONE REBECCA STRONG.