Will the administration’s obvious war crimes finally motivate Congressional pushback? We can only hope.
As I write this, the media is filled with stories about the attacks on fishing boats ordered by Trump and Hegseth, and evidence of their illegality. Trump has been ordering these vessels blown out of the water, and Hegseth has reportedly ordered survivors murdered, in clear violation of the Geneva Conventions and the laws of war.
These actions are being investigated by Congress, and we can only hope that partisanship will not distort that investigation, because the purported reason for these attacks is patently phony.
Trump insists that the attacks are efforts to stop drug trafficking–that the boats that have been blown out of the water aren’t really fishing vessels. Of course, as is typical for this administration, the boats have been attacked and their occupants killed with absolutely no evidence offered or due process occuring. We’re supposed to take Trump’s word for it (despite ample evidence that when Trump’s lips are moving, he’s lying.)
What makes these allegations even more suspect than other Trump lies is the enormous hypocrisy of Trump’s claim to be against the importation of drugs. As Charlie Sykes–among others–has pointed out, his attacks on these fishing boats and his threats to invade Venezuela come at the same time as his pardon of Juan Orlando Hernández, a Honduran ex-president convicted of cocaine trafficking who has boasted about stuffing drugs “up the gringos’ noses.”
The American public is evidently supposed to believe that Trump blew up fishing boats and is threatening a military campaign in an effort to deter drug trafficking–at the same time he is ordering the release of a man convicted of taking “cocaine-fueled bribes” from cartels–a man convicted of using the full power and strength of his state — military, police and justice system–to protect drug traffickers, a man who–as prosecutors convincingly demonstrated– allowed “bricks of cocaine from Venezuela to flow through Honduras en route to the United States.”
As Sykes summed it up:
- Trump declares war on drug kingpins.
- Trump’s uses the war on drugs as the justification for extrajudicial murders on the high seas; and calls for the execution of six Democratic members of Congress who tell members of the military they do not need to follow illegal orders.
- As part of Trump’s war against drug kingpins, SecDef Pete Hegseth orders Seal Team 6 to “kill everybody,” including unarmed survivors.
- We are inching toward the invasion of Venezuela, because its president is allegedly a drug kingpin.
- Trump pardons notorious drug kingpin.
Paul Krugman also addressed the obvious hypocrisy,
At first glance, the juxtaposition seems bizarre – Trump is either murdering or committing war crimes against people who are at worst small-time drug smugglers, and may be innocent fishermen, while pardoning a drug lord who was responsible for thousands of American deaths while savaging his own country, Honduras. But there is a pattern to this murderous madness, once one connects the dots between Trump’s mob-boss persona and the billionaire crypto/tech broligarchy.
According to Krugman, Trump’s vendetta against purported penny-ante drug smugglers is intended to set the stage for an invasion of Venezuela. And he reminds us that Trump “positively revels in his association with big-time criminals, whether it’s Putin or Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman” or Ross Ulbricht, whose underground e-marketplace is known for drug trafficking, and whom Trump pardoned immediately after assuming office.
Still, why would Trump, whose poll numbers are cratering, generate even more negative headlines by pardoning Hernández, who was duly convicted of conspiring to send more than 400 tons (!) of cocaine to America?
The answer is the influence of the crypto/tech broligarchy. In fact, many of Trump’s pardons of the most egregious criminals are closely linked to their influence.
Krugman points out that Peter Thiel was a supporter of Ulbrict and that the ex-president of Honduras is also connected to the titans of crypto-currency. Those ‘crypto-bros” were also behind Trump’s pardon of Changpeng Zhao, formerly the CEO of cryptocurrency exchange Binance. Zhao pled guilty to charges of violating U.S. laws against money-laundering and was personally fined $50 million, in addition to Binance’s fine of $4.3 billion.
The revelations of wrongdoing go on. And on.
In one of the recently disclosed emails from Jeffrey Epstein, the predator wrote “I have met some very bad people … none as bad as Trump.” In several others, he referred to Trump as insane–and a danger to America.
Believe the predator.
Clearly, Trump doesn’t care about the hypocrisy or the crimes he and his people are committing. Add that to the immunity given him by the fundamentally corrupt SCOTUS and the Heritage Foundation millions that support them and their families and you have the scenario Todd and I worry about: “Elections? We don’t need no stinkin’ elections.”
Trump fills the Caribbean with the US war machine claiming it’s all about stopping drugs coming out of Venezuela. Nearly eighty people traveling in boats he claims are transporting those drugs to the US are killed. He does this without the authorization of the Congress. People mostly do not protest this unlawful military action because drugs are bad and this seems so far away. Enter two new policy statements just this week.
First, the government will no longer support the switch from gasoline operated cars to electric cars. Second, the new foreign policy position of the United States will now be focused on the Western Hemisphere as we withdraw our support for NATO and our European allies. The entire purpose of the US foreign policy will hereafter be used to further US business interests.
This morning the NYT published a map showing the staggering large amount of oil still to be pumped out of Venezuela…. 330 billion barrels!
Can we all say “The oil oligarchy returns”?
p.s. What kind of oil business deals are being made by the Trump boys in Saudi Arabia?
Knowing and believing all of this information as we watch it as it happens and escalates and the body count rises isn’t worth any more than a fart in the wind from the gas bag president, his ruling congress with full support of the Supreme Court providing Trump’s immunity to his include his followers. Donald Trump is arresting officer, prosecutor, defense attorney, judge and the jury meting out the death sentences with no trial. How soon will he pardon Maxwell and the convicted police officer the world watched murder George Floyd who has requested a new trial?
This nation has become a metaphor for the Hindenburg; filled with lethal gas and is in the process of crashing and burning and we are like the three monkeys, blindfolded, gagged and have lost freedom of speech. SCOTUS will whip the federal court system into shape to fit their current ignoring all democracy, Rule of Law and destroying the Constitution and its Amendments as its playground.
I am ashamed of America and being an American; being glad I am old isn’t enough for me and Google provides no suicide assistance in its vast collection of knowledge. I have tried. I had to struggle through three what used to be simple actions to carry out my day-to-day life; grocery shopping, banking and picking up a prescription with problems at every stop. After 4 1/2 hours I finally returned home to haul in and store groceries to put away and was too sick and in far too much pain to eat. Trump’s insanity has infected all areas of our lives as he declares wars, not only on his imaginary drug boats but on all American businesses to overfill his billionaire owner’s coffers.
I’m wondering if drugs might help me work my way through my days and my sleepless nights??? Ya’ think!!!
Great post, Sheila!
Although I am not a big fan of Krugman, he at least connected the Broligarchy from Silicon Valley. One crucial sidenote is that Honduras, under the corrupt Drug Overlord Presidente, who just got pardoned, sold a large track of land to Prospera, one of Silicon Valley’s (Peter Thiel) Network States. The current leftist administration cut off the deal, and now there is a $15 billion lawsuit between the two. Because of Trump’s election interference in Honduras, a fascist administration has entered the picture again and will most likely cancel the lawsuit.
Also, back in July or August, it was all over the news that Trump turned over the Venezuelan drug boat operation to the Nazi Stephen Miller. That’s why earlier in the week, Trump slipped and said, “I had nothing to do with the double-tap.”
I had an interesting conversation with Google Gemini AI yesterday about Venezuela. At first, it gave me the typical US media response, which was lame and plain vanilla, so I asked additional probing questions. We finance the opposition party in Venezuela and, most likely, in Honduras. In fact, this has been the MO for many decades (like Ukraine). To file charges against Maduro, the US government “claimed” the last election was rigged and declared the opposition party, Guaido, as president. Now, it’s Nobel Peace Prize winner Machado who has already announced a multi-trillion-dollar privatization project. By not recognizing Maduro as president, it removes his state immunity so they can file charges against him, so he’s technically wanted by the US government as a narco-terrorist.
The US doesn’t spread democracy; it spreads capitalism that our Oligarchy operates. It doesn’t matter who’s in charge. If you let the performances fool you, you’re a sucker or the mark.
p.s. Why do you think Putin refuses to meet with Ukrainian or European leaders? Specifically, Zelenskyy. He’s telling the world the proxy war in Ukraine was started by the US and NATO, run by the US.
p.s.s. China needs the oil in Venezuela, and Russia is friendly with Venezuela. Could this be another proxy war, but this time with China and Russia? I am sure the leftwing BRICS nations are asking for help, so we shall see.
And the Epstein files? Do not forget that Trump wants us all to forget them.
I have little doubt about the “crypto/tech broligarchy,” connection, but this is also all one piece with Trump’s playback to the fossil fuel bonus who helped fund his damned campaign.
Hypocrisy is not in his teeny, tiny vocabulary, neither is it in the GOPIGGIE one.
Tom Cotton said that he saw the 2 survivors of the boat bombing working to reload the “drugs” onto the destroyed boat, in order to bring them here. These clowns have less “decency” than Joe McCarthy!!!!!!
Trump understands that he will never be elected for anything ever again, and he cares nothing about any of those who have suffered because of this Presidency. Once that is understood, the path of his expanded NYC con game becomes clearer. I don’t know how and when this farce will end, but clearly the average American needs to both protect and defend their obligations and become part of the offense to make sure the end comes as quickly as possible.
Todd, you give too much deference to Putin. He is the aggressor in Ukraine. In fact, he was a party to the deal to get Ukraine to give up its nuclear weapons. The deal was that, if Ukraine gave up its nukes, both the US and Russia would come to their defense, if they were invaded. Then, he took the Crimean Peninsula. We made the mistake of letting that go. Putin took that as a sign of weakness. He thought he could take Ukraine in a few weeks and we wouldn’t get involved. The Ukrainians proved to be a much tougher opponent than he thought they could be. Believe what you want, but understand that the Ukrainians are fighting for their country and we should be supporting them, like we promised when we signed the no nukes agreement.
Putin is not popular in Russia, but he is still finding ways to keep the shelves full in GUM. (That’s the store that so impressed Tucker Carlson.) People I spoke to in Russia said they would tolerate him as long as those shelves stayed full.