Where to start?
Trump’s defenses of the assault on Venezuela have been as incoherent as most of his actions. Granted, Maduro was a very bad man–but if being a very bad man justified his kidnapping by a foreign power, leaders of other countries might justifiably kidnap Trump.
More to the point, if there were sound reasons to take these actions, those reasons should have been shared with Congress, and Congress–not our would-be king–should have authorized them. Instead, as several members of that body have attested, the administration did not consult them. Worse, it out-and-out lied, assuring the appropriate committees that the administration’s previous actions (including bombings of small boats) were not in pursuit of regime change.
Indeed, the administration defended those illegal bombings, which were clearly war crimes, as part of an effort to halt drug shipments and deter “narco-terrorists.” Trump’s pardon of a major narcotics kingpin–who had been tried and found guilty of transporting massive amounts of drugs into the U.S. and sentenced to 45 years for those crimes–illustrated the extent to which that excuse was a hypocritical lie.
Call me naive, but I see very little difference between Trump’s invasion of Venezuela and Putin’s invasion of Ukraine–especially in light of Trump’s announcement that America will now “run” Venezuela, a country that (I’m sure co-incidentally) has the world’s largest reserves of oil. (That “coincidentally” was snark…) Trump is on record saying America should have appropriated Iraq’s oil when we launched an unjustified war on that country (you will recall that it was Saudis who brought down the twin towers). On Saturday, NBC reported that the U.S. will tap Venezuela’s oil reserves, and The Hill reported Trump’s assertion that we will be “very strongly involved’ in Venezuelan oil. A video posted to Instagram showed Trump announcing that he is sending American oil companies to Venezuela to “help them” upgrade their facilities…
The announcement that America will be “managing” Venezuela smacks of colonialism, which fits MAGA’s clear preference for returning us to the 18th Century. Colonial powers claimed a right—and duty—to govern others because those others were less competent–or “civilized” (i.e. White).
The international implications of this Wag the Dog effort are likely to be profound. The administration has arguably violated the United Nations Charter, which prohibits the use of force against sovereign states without Security Council authorization or a clear self-defense rationale. The Secretary-General of the U.N., António Guterres, has warned that the action sets a “dangerous precedent” for future use of force, and further weakens important post-World War II norms. Rather obviously, if the U.S. can act with impunity and without any obvious justification, other major powers like China or Russia become more likely to cite those actions to justify their own uses of force (e.g., around Taiwan or Eastern Europe), further undermining the already tenuous international legal order.
It is highly unlikely that the incompetents in Trump’s government understand–or are prepared for– potential negative consequences of this lawless act–including escalation of civil unrest by loyalists within Venezuela and/or regional destabilization due to spillover into neighboring countries. Renewed fighting could also spur another surge in migration from Venezuela, exacerbating humanitarian and border pressures on neighboring states like Colombia and Brazil.
Needless to say, this latest example of Trump’s erratic, impulsive and unilateral behavior–not to mention the corresponding lack of legislative restraints– has deepened the already well-founded concerns of our allies, whose confidence in America’s stability and reliability has taken a huge hit since Trump’s election. That loss of confidence and respect have demonstrably weakened our ability to rely on diplomatic cooperation.
In an embarrassing speech on Saturday (I mention the day so that you will know which speech I’m citing, because all Trump’s speeches are embarrassing), Trump stuck for once to the teleprompter, engaging in a halting, low-energy reading of words he clearly had neither written nor reviewed, and several of which he obviously didn’t understand. Among those was his invocation of the Monroe Doctrine, which he’s evidently been told justifies American dominance of Latin America. Trump evidently believes the doctrine is sufficient to turn intervention into “stewardship” and colonialism into security policy.
It will be interesting to see how this latest dangerous buffoonery plays with the public. A quick-and-dirty poll found 17% approving of the invasion (but only 11% agreeing that Trump could take this action without Congressional approval). MAGA folks who had been attracted by his promises of isolationism and “taking America out of wars” are furious.
That said, the political strategy was transparent–for the past couple of days, no one’s been talking about the Epstein files…
It is obvious to me that the mental state of President Donald Trump is a clear and present danger to not only the people of the United States, but also the peoples of the world. One minute he is bombing small boats in the Caribbean, then he bombs a desert in some African country, then he rescinds a deal to sell microchips to China, then he caravans off to pick out marble and tile for his ballroom before he bombs Venezuela that night and kidnap that nation’s leader and his wife. Since then he has declared that his administration will run that country, threatened its interim leader, and threatened Cuba and Greenland…again. Oh, and the OIL! This is not government; it is insanity.
Thanks, Theresa, for using the word “KIDNAP,” because that’s precisely what it was with Maduro. Maduro was absolutely no different than Trump.
This comment from Sheila, “Trump announcing that he is sending American oil companies to Venezuela to “help them” upgrade their facilities…”
The idiots in Washington do realize that they kidnapped Maduro and his wife, but didn’t overthrow the government, right? Venezuela’s high court immediately moved its vice president to the presidency, so the government will continue to function.
Now, what we don’t know is whether Venezuela’s deep state made a deal with the US behind the scenes (the CIA sent into Venezuela earlier to bring about the kidnapping), to sell out Maduro in exchange for the US increasing oil production and lifting sanctions.
The ignorant ones who claim socialism caused the economic decline in Venezuela are the same ones who watch Fox News. However, most Americans have been trained to cringe when they hear the word “socialism,” even though it benefits them directly. My college-educated classmate made the same ignorant claim about Venezuela’s socialism – “that’s why people do anything to escape it.”
I don’t see anyone fleeing from Scandinavia or Canada, or most of Europe. LOL
The reason why Venezuela suffered was due to the US’s economic warfare of sanctions, stealing their gold, and freezing assets. The US declared that Venezuela could not sell its oil to other nations, leading to the piracy of oil tankers.
As I’ve mentioned numerous times, this was always done covertly. We did the same thing in Ukraine, Libya, Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, and now we are going to impose our rule over Central and South America, starting with countries led by socialist governments. Our oligarchy HATES socialism because they can’t steal (extract) their resources.
“Indeed, the administration defended those illegal bombings, which were clearly war crimes, as part of an effort to halt drug shipments and deter “narco-terrorists.”
I will start at this point; drug dealers around the world have successfully carried out their business deals highly successfully using stealthy means and working under cover of darkness. Why did Trump’s targets repeatedly, for weeks, continue sending their drug shipments out knowing Trump was going to bomb the boats and kill the dealers and destroying their products? If that is the case; we have finally found people dumber than Donald Trump carrying out their business deals with loss of product, profit and staff members.
Maduro was and is a very bad man but he wasn’t our problem till Trump sent our military to bring him here to make him our bad man and our problem to deal with. How are “we” going to “run” Venezuela when “we” can no longer “run” America? He has placed the elite of our own military in the position of possible criminal charges of committing War Crimes before a Tribunal Court with their only defense “We were following orders.”
No one is talking about the Epstein Files or the fact that Donald and Elon are back together, dining at Mar-A-Lago, to carry out further plans of destruction of America and Americans. How much of the information used to carry out War Crimes came from AI? How and why did “Truth, Social” and “X” manage to report the war activities before our own government authorities were aware of the actions till after the facts?
Small, third-world countries have managed to depose their Dictatorship leaders to aid citizens to attain democracy; of course they had the aid of U.S. to accomplish that feat. We are now a nation in need of aid to depose Trump and his MAGA White Nationalists and our allies are standing back and primarily staying quiet. We can no longer be counted on to fight the enemy because WE are now the enemy to be fought.
Two Popes, leaders in Russia, China, Iran and North Korea are speaking out against the United States acts of war against Venezuela. Who may be making plans to take the same action here to remove our “bad guy” Trump? He isn’t afraid of “boots on the ground” here but he should be…and so should each of us.
Please excuse the misspelling of my own name on yesterday’s comment; evidence of my mental state after waking each morning in this foreign country.
When I was a child, we were taught that stealing is wrong. These folks do not believe that. They just take whatever they want. This is NOT setting a good example. This is all so awful.
Epstein Epstein Epstein, oh and oil oil oil. Nothing else that this administration has tried to justify the illegal – domestically and internationally – actions in Venezuela pass the sniff test beyond those two objectives: distraction from his obvious involvement with Epstein and a thirst for power and money, this time in the form of the prospect of illegally making another fortune for himself and his cronies with Venezuelan oil. He really is a simple man, obsessed with his own importance and unfortunately occupying the most powerful office in the world. Bad combination. No. it is more of a horrific situation, and until the Dems take back the House and Senate this fall we can only hope that it isn’t fatal to our beautiful country.
And Greenland is being mentioned again, quietly and behind the scenes, and we must be prepared for Trump’s decision whether to use his “prepared for a second attack on Venezuela” to head south or north to Greenland.
I keep reading things like “MAGA folks who had been attracted by his promises of isolationism and “taking America out of wars” are furious” in reaction to whatever outrage / crime he’s committed that day – yet they still defend him. His cabinet (Miller, omigod) and MAGA are the domestic terrorists we ALL should fear. How do we stop them? I really don’t think taking back the house will do it – too far away. And from the actions in Venezuela, appears our military will follow der leader, so much for a promise to uphold the constitution.
“That said, the political strategy was transparent–for the past couple of days, no one’s been talking about the Epstein files…” And THAT is really what all this is about, while Americans struggle and complain, still appears no one is even trying to stop him and his band of thieves. Ugh. I want to move to Sweden.
Representative Ted Lieu (California ) summed up Trump’s attack on Venezuela perfectly!
If this illegal attack doesn’t draw outrage from the majority of all Congress Members (which it won’t), we must admit that Trump has killed Democracy and has succeeded in making America a Dictatorship no different than Maduro’s.
Trump is extremely mentally unqualified to responsibly manage the power he holds as the US President. However, I believe he is very aware that he would be an inmate at some prison if he had not agreed to be the dutiful puppet for Project 2025’s corporate leaders’ demands. Ensuring his 2024 election is the gift that keeps on giving to those corporations and it will continue for another three years. The daily onslaught of this administration’s illegal actions is exhausting.
And the nightmare will continue to worsen until the source of MAGA is silenced forever and the oligarchs wagging the dog are banned from influencing foreign policy in this way without the Congress as it should be. So, patriots, how do we rid ourselves of this malignant madness? How many of our men and women will have to be put in harm’s way before somebody steps up to correct the ship of state – with prejudice, I’m guessing?
We’re still trying to use historical and societal norms to analyze the Trump horror show. Clearly, those norms don’t matter to these m******f****ers. They’re going to grab and grab and grab until they are made unable to grab anymore.
Meanwhile, our good sons and daughters will be the tip of the spear that’s been dipped in sewage.
Well done, voters.
“only 11% agreeing that Trump could take this action without Congressional approval” And civic literacy is not a problem, right? How about a root cause?
Venezuela has the world’s largest proven oil reserves, currently being exploited poorly. And those reserves produce heavy crude oil, which our oil industry needs. And remember the “deal” struck with the oil executives from whom The Rump extracted millions (? billions) for his campaign? “”It’s just business, right?”
And our fearsome leader announces that “Cuba is next.” Then Greenland? Canada? Mexico? Brazil? Where the Mad King will lead us next is anyone’s guess; the only certainty is that it won’t be to Valhalla.
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Copied and pasted from Politico article by Sophia Cai: “President Donald Trump on Sunday predicted Cuba’s government could soon collapse and threatened Colombia’s president, a stark warning that underscored his administration’s increasingly aggressive posture toward leftist governments across Latin America.
For good measure, he reiterated his desire to annex Greenland, as well.”
I received the headline from Politico on my cell phone; Googled the article and copied and pasted it to add here to the Venezuelan insanity. The article included a picture of Trump responding to a reporter’s question from the doorway of his plane with Lindsey Graham laughing, standing next to him.
We truly are living in this asylum being run by the inmates. And, yes, I have been in two insane asylums to visit my brother and I do recognize the inmates in charge. My first visit to my 15 year old brother was to Norman Beaty Memorial Hospital for the Criminally Insane and Central State Hospital when he was older. Visiting was frightening, sitting among patients in their cafeteria, but not nearly as it is terrifying to be living with the insane leaders of this asylum today. All visitors were warned NOT to react if inmates got out of control; that staff would quickly remove them. Today, staff is supporting the out of control inmates here.
I agree with most of it all the concerns and yet I also would like a financial accounting and accountability to this effort and the overall effort for presence and the actions taken including now their legal and judicial aspects. Where does this overall budget cost for the specific
Action and ongoing presence and follow up compare to other priorities?
It is good to see that this self-selected group of people can see what is going on; it is sad to see that so many others are, apparently, blind to it.
I wonder where “Betsy” is, as she’s not yet pronounced how marvelous it is that Herr Trump is doing so much to improve life in these United States, and the world.
I believe that the MAGA folk who are still in his corner will remain there regardless of whatever he does, because they still think he cares about them, and will return them to some fantasied highest perch in our “Pure White Xtian”: culture.
theres a congress who is a liar. and trump remains its flack value. im far from singling out trump. though his person would say diffrent. you dont take over a nation like America and use it like a stick to do as you please. this whole scenerio is being done from behind the curtan in DC. billionaires,congress and probably most of it is sitting and wondering how much we the majority will take. but after seeing the ice goons,internment camps,and the judges being locked out of conversation, all in all says were looking at a authoritarian takeover here in America and we are now witnessing the jumping off point. killing people preceieved to be drug smugglers? while you can capture a tanker,you cant caprture a drug boat. you can kidnap a pres and his side kick by invading thier capital, you cant sieze a drug boat. the fact is intimidation. and were now in this fold. media blitz after the military kidnapping of maduro,was nuts. NPR couldnt even say no? the direct in our face of this press confrence said enough. we as the people either get in line with this style of a so called goevernment or were next. 100 million to deport. im sure the data centers will have enough to single out who we are..
I see this morning that the stock market is going through the roof. Nothing like the smell of war profits to get the week going.
Lester asked about the root cause. The answer is GREED.
Monroe Doctrine:
back in the late 70s early 80s, there was a war we couldnt stay out of in central America. we didnt per se support it, we just allowed untold drugs to finance it. allowing it by cash buys to be bought into the U.S. for sale. it financed the mercinaries who taught and faught against otregas regiem. theres plenty to document this. the Monroe Doctrine did not support this in reagans time,and hense his filtering thru king geo the 1st,(bush). the drugs to support it. if you kept abreast of the time line,and the party line of this flow of drugs, you wouldnt worry about iran/contra. no one admitted to where the money came from. i personally watched the drug flow,and knew what was on the streets in L.A.Ca,during this time. high times magazine also kept a monthly list of what was where. though i dont expect anyone here to relize the back channel that was never bought into this past war. it happened with the help of bush,casey,secord and many more to buy mercinaries to fight some sort of democracy for everyone,to be a fail agenda. it did nothing but allow further authoritarian achivements,distruction and hate,thru the sale of drugs. ortega still lives,and so does the politics of it in central America.
We have a madman in the White House intent on using the U.S. Military as his personal tool to wreck havoc at home an abroad.
trump and cabinet members were in a “situation room” at Mar Lago watching when the military operation in Venezuela was carried out. Seems trump is shedding the duties and constraints of Potus while he assumes and solidifies his image of a dictator. Pete Hegseth stated that trump would “dictate” what the next move would be for US in Venezuela.
Correction from previous post, Sinclair Lewis wrote “It Can’t Happen Here”. I’m finding I need to double check facts from memory. That book was a tough read, and US is on track to end up like that.
China is Venezuela’s biggest customer and has a long term agreement to keep buying oil.
dump initiated all of this from Mar-a-Lago, not in the WH, not in D.C. where the Pentagon and Langley are based. No Dems in the House or Senate were briefed beforehand, only sycophants of his own party and then they are hedging their bets by saying they did not approve of the kidnapping.
Dementia patients are much more manageable in familiar surroundings. dump was almost incoherent in the way he delivered his remarks, slurring words, repeating whole phrases over and over, clearly struggling with reading what was written for him. He looks drained, ill, weak and is clearly delusional.
As he becomes more combative and verbally abusive, threatening anyone who dares to challenge him, his decline is obvious to anyone who has any experience with someone in mental decline.
We are all in mortal danger as the likelihood of a world war edges closer. The weapons available to destroy the world are already in hands that will not hesitate to use them without checks to stop it. Think North Korea.
Last night I stepped back and saw that the life my partner and I built with lots of help from community and hard work is disappearing quickly, with no apparent resistance from anyone with the power to do so. In fact many of those are actively involved in the destruction, doing so with malice and cruelty, joyously celebrating their dominance over the vulnerable all while claiming righteous sanctimony.
It makes me wonder if the vulnerable in Italy and Germany felt the same as their lives were being slowly destroyed all in the name of vainglorious nationalism and racial superiority.
RESIST. It is all we have.
Now those of us remaining in the United States must look at the situation of no more Other Country Allies for the US.
David beat Goliath so the story goes. Pethaps other countries will assume the role of David as President(?) Trump is acting as Goliath inside and outside The United States.
Where are All Those who have the positions of power to stop this insanity?
Is there a “Dark Web” of actors working to undermine this President and Administration which is swiftly working at upsetting any World Order which might have been in place before?
Thank you Sheila and Others who help me feel less insane.
JD, I’ve shared your thoughts for a long time. In Rebecca Costa’s disturbing book, “The Watchman’s Rattle” she points out how our “technical” brains have outstripped our primitive community brains to the point where we will be more than willing – maybe even eager – to blow up humans civilization for the sake of expression of power. THAT is like the chief of the tribe wearing warpaint to display his dominance, but with the modern technologies being “controlled” by the most primitive of minds, destruction is inevitable unless ….
Teresa, your comment about drumpf being a clear and present danger to us and the world is spot on. But the biggest danger to everyone is the complicit collaborators in the “GOP congress” who not only allow the orange buffoon to blunder on into international nihilism, but in essence encourage him.
Drumpf may have been rendered by SCOTUS to be immune from future criminal charges, but Gestapo Steve, Hungover Hegseth, Markie Marco, blondie Bondi, et al, and all the congressional enablers are not.
I hope I live long enough to witness the (hopefully) inevitable shitstorm that will rain down upon them.
Fear just ratcheted up 2 notches,
China, now going to check what they have to say.
Peg, do you mean “follow der Führer”?
Chevron stock up 5.1% today. Anybody see a connection?
I listened to Trumps speech (or parts of it) and then distracted myself by watching an episode of “Poker Face”, where the premise is that the main character is a human lie detector, who responds by saying “bullshit”. That word appears multiple times in each episode. I thought of what it would be like to have two TVs and run that show and Trump’s speech side by side — then I realized, the main character doesn’t say BS enough to match Trump’s lies.
I see this as simple –
One – Trump wants the oil, even though the oil industry doesn’t want to make the investment, and long term, the future is not coal or oil
Two – Trump (of the bone spurs) likes to play Macho Man – Hegseth, even more so
Three – Most important – distraction, distraction, distraction – not only the Epstein files, but Jack Smith’s damning testimony
The lack of thought and planning (except perhaps for the military aspect), as well as not understanding nor caring about the consequences is obvious.