I sincerely pray that Congress will pass measures to prevent this regime from invading Cuba, Greenland, Colombia and/or Mexico and will actually take action if it makes aggressive moves on any of those countries.
Mark my word: Congress -- now self-rendered as impotent as the Duma under Nicholas II or the Reichstag under Hitler -- will do nothing more than voice protests rendered not only meaningless but deliberately deceptive by its members' absolute lack of any means of enforcement. And thanks to the traitorous military turned oath-breaking Christonazi subversive -- and now proving itself willing to do whatever is necessary to enforce the will of der neu Führer (whomever he may be) -- the nullification of Congress (and thus of our Constitution) is probably permanent...that is, until Trump invades Greenland, starts World War III, discovers he's about to share Hitler's fate and vindictively triggers the extermination of all sentient life in fulfillment of the Hitler-originated "Better Dead than Red" policy. (For the very first time in my 85 years I am literally overwhelmed by dread -- not personal fear, as I expect to soon be dead of terminal CHF -- but some bottomless combination of horror and grief for our Mother Earth and all her inhabitants that is so far beyond "dread" I am truly rendered speechless.)
I am only 58 but share your dread. I know the country I grew up in - flawed but workable and progressive, flawed but ideally fair under a constitution like no other. I didn’t want to like your comment because your terminal diagnosis is nothing to like and your words demand respect beyond liking. Thank you for your perspective. Peace.
Thank you. I am sorry to be so negative, but I feel this is infinitely worse than the Cuban Missile Crisis (at the secret beginning of which I was on a troopship, the USNS Sultan, coming home from Korea with about 3500 other GIs, all of us wondering why we were being shadowed by a Soviet submarine, we waving at its crew and they waving back when they surfaced to recharge their batteries) -- which mutually friendly spontaneous greeting I long ago took as a proof that we humans, at least those of us who are still capable of empathy, are not naturally hateful unless we are forced to be -- or not, like white supremacists and other sorts of nazis -- specifically bred to be hateful. But that is an aside, a distraction, an emotional avoidance; the unspeakable horrible truth in the difference between the Cuban Missile Crisis and now is that from August to October 1962, rationality still ruled our planetary motherland. Now -- with the Christonazis intent on either conquering the entire Western Hemisphere or destroying the world (and bringing about their Rapture) -- we are ruled by madness, ecogenocidal madness, and the world's first deliberately Failed Nation has become our planet's greatest malignancy ever. (My apology for the difficulty I had clarifying this prose -- evidence of how damn distraught I am.)
Thank you for your honorable and commendable service. Also, yes, worse than the Cuban Missile Crisis. I would add worst than 9/11. This time the enemy is from within. He is within the White House which he is also attacking.
Having in my youth been a student of the Bible, although an unbeliever, I'm reminded of Matthew 23:27-32 (King James version, I like Shakespearean English):
Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men's bones, and of all uncleanness. Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity.
Well, he's working diligently at unbeautifying the White House, first inside and now out. Not, it is very sure, from conscience.
Excellent biblical quote. This should be shared to all Christian’s White Nationalists with examples of Trump’s betrayal to God, Jesus and everyone and everything else.
I'm not much of a Bible reader; although, I'd like to have the time to read it once in a while. The point for me revolves around the fact that none of the administration is even close to being "beautiful outward." One can take any of the administration's sycophants and look at them with a critical eye and never see anything attractive about them. Kristi Noem? Nope! Donald trump or Stephen Miller? Nope!!! PaMS Bondi? Nope! Russell Vought? Nope!! JD Vance?? Definitely Not!! We can go on and on and on.... However, going with "...are within full of dead men's bones, and of all uncleanness. Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity." Ya.... I can go with that with no trouble at all.
If you read the Bible that well, you know that there will be an end to this world. God is creating a new human race to replace the current one. Be sure to be in that new group.
You're a smart guy, Worse than the Cuban Missile Crisis? Really?
Were you around for that?
We were literally on the brink of nuclear war. We were practicing and drilling for the apocalypse, wondering if we weren't killed by the blasts if we could survive the fallout and for how long.
Yes, this is bad, but worse than the Cuban Missile Crisis?
Well, Gary, I was there during that time as well and being a student of history, this is worse because the rule of law has been destroyed. Back then we had people in the government that respected the rule of law, now we have people there that are ruling the law. They set aside what they do not like, follow what they want and make new law (without Congress) knowing that courts will eventually turn it down, but in the meantime they destroy more order. Yes, I see this as worse because of what it means. As it stands right now, look at who our friends are and who this administration now considers not friendly. Yes, it is worse and getting more so.
I grew up during the 50’s and 60’s. I know what you are talking about. That was the time when most Americans trusted that the government would generally try to do the right thing.
That trust is gone. Vietnam and Nixon put the lid on that. The right wing intelligentsia has worked feverishly ever since to destroy our democratic underpinnings by convincing a majority that our government is the enemy. And it has culminated in this disastrous regime which is trying so hard to replace the Constitution with Project 2025.
A president with complete immunity for his criminal actions is bad enough. Add in pardons to secure the loyalty of his minions to keep him in office and do his bidding, and we have created a Frankenstein. A totally amoral and immoral sociopath with unfettered power and the nuclear codes.
So I would agree that we are in very dangerous territory that is almost a sequel to “1984”, the novel not the year. Spheres of influence by major powers and endless wars keeping the masses in check.
I don’t think we are at the tipping point…yet. The deterioration of the president is proceeding faster than the destruction of the Constitution and its remaining freedoms. A hiccup in the Project 2025 plan perhaps. Trump seems to have gone rogue before Vaught and company can seal the deal for an American theocracy.
Darth Vader Republicans -- Chaney, Rumsfeld, et al -- were threatening same against Chavez in 2007 when he nationalized most of the Venezuelan oil industry.
We were preoccupied, working on regime change after attacking Iraq and Afghanistan. Of course we did have Congressional authorization -- based on fake assetions that Sadaam Hussain had nuclear weapons.
Gary, the missile crisis was indeed a potentially existential crisis of its time, especially in the height of the Cold War. Every generation knows only what horrific—or potentially horrific—world events it must endure. No one then could foresee a megalomaniacal madman as president as we now have. Please don’t minimize the 13 days of total fear it brought.
Comparing the two is a bit like that old adage about comparing apples and oranges. There are only two real differences. We came much closer to war then than we are now, indeed closer than many realize. But what we could have done to ourselves then pales beside what we can do now.
The central issue is simple - the existence of nuclear weapons themselves.
You are not negative. You are a truth teller. You call them Christonazis, I call them something similar - Christofascists. Either way, I am a Christian, a follower of Jesus, and their powers of self empretzelment at the least embarrass me, and at the worst, scare the hell out of me. Deliberately failed nation - spot on description - our house was not maintained and now falls apart from rot. You are not being negative, you are a truth teller. Thank you.
These have all been good and valid points. Lots of emotions have been conjured up for me. I'll try to spare all of you by keeping this short. I would say that at least in the 60's there were very strong words shared between Russia and the US. Evidently diplomacy prevailed and no nukes were fired? What makes this crisis so heinous to me is the absolute lawlessness of this regime. Republicans have zero national pride in what this country has achieved in the last 250 years or so, and only party loyalty. That's what scares me. Call them Christonazis or Christofsacists but regardless of what they are called they hav nothing to do with Jesus Christ. Nothing.
There is much evidence in the Bible of God's saving grace and yet it appears those in authority who moan and groan about 47's evil have given no apparent call to the Holy Spirit, our helper, comforter, and advocate. Let us pray.
Eleanor, you seem to be a person who takes comfort and refuge in your religious beliefs and the practice of prayer. Both are deeply personal to you and not necessarily embraced or practiced by others. Evangelizing is not helpful. Prayer is not a substitute for a functioning Congress. Donald Trump and his sycophants are evil. They must be stopped and held accountable for their actions, not in the great hereafter but now. Pray incessantly if that's what works for you. As for me, I prefer a more direct approach. No one is going to save us but ourselves.
Eleanor, the problem with your "advice" is it's premised on an encyclopedia of Jewish literature, two-thirds of which is utter fiction written by men. The remaining third is a collection of writings of men deemed by a group of men to be worthy of inclusion in the canon by men. The provenance of the whole collection is sketchy at best.
In any case, the compendium pays homage to a fictional deity imagined by old Jewish men sitting around their campfires, trying to come up with answers to unanswerable questions. Failing, they invented a deity who could be blamed or credited for all the things they couldn't explain.
This fantasy led to a religious system, again, invented by men, whose main goal is perpetuation of the system. Wars have been fought and millions murdered in the interest of protecting and perpetuating the Judeo-Christian religion.
Others, such as yourself, have engaged in proselytizing, hoping to gain "stars in their crown" by "witnessing to unbelievers."
If mumbling words to an imaginary deity give you comfort, you should do that. But recommending that practice as a substitute for actually taking action and being useful is not helpful for the crisis at hand.
I was seventeen during those thirteen terrible days in 1962. The memory of waiting then for resolution or Armageddon is a bit cloudy now. My army service was still nearly five years in the future, and would be spent in an army and a country being torn apart even more violently than now.
Oddly, the moment that had triggered the worst fear I have ever experienced was when Eisenhower sent Marines into Lebanon when I was eleven or twelve. It was an inexpressibly lovely summer day at my grandparents house high above the Connecticutt River in Essex. I was outside on the patio and I heard drifting out of the kitchen window some commentator saying that we were uncertain if the Russians would react with an attack. At that age, of course, I had no idea of the reality of the situation, but I had recently finished reading Philip Wylie’s Tomorrow with its terrifying description of a nuclear missile attack on an American city as seen through the eyes of the inhabitants, and I can still remember spending the next hour utterly frozen in fear that I would see a missile or a red-starred bomber coming over the trees to the north (the great circle route over the North Pole that they would take).
Since then, nothing that has happened has equalled that hour, not even the Cuban crisis. Now, as I watch this demented old man and his cohort of sycophants playing with our world as if it was some sort of computer game, I feel only a deep sorrow.
We of a certain age, the children of the Cold War, the plank owners of the first human generation to grow up knowing that we held in our flawed hands the power to destroy ourselves, who perhaps felt, as I did, the utter absurdity of MAD (Mutually Assured Destruction) being discussed at the highest level as if it were something entirely normal are an odd lot. So many of us are Trumpists, a stance I cannot for the life of me understand. We watched our country twice slide from being the Arsenal of Democracy down into this abyss of bitter division, and now half of us have re-elected to the Presidency this despicable human being who has proven to be the most corrupt, vengeful, amoral, misogynistic, malicious, mendacious huckster and con man.
In the end, my worst fear is not nuclear destruction, but rather the loss of a country whose history I taught with increasingly desperate pride for over 40 years; the most extraordinary, the most crucial, the riskiest, and the most complex ongoing experiment in human society and government ever attempted. I am about a year older than Donald Trump. To think that a man who grew up in this same country, and with nearly all the advantages it could grant anyone could have turned out to have such a distorted view of us is far more incomprehensible and frightening to me than all the missiles of October and beyond.
"And you, of tender years, can't know the fears that your elders grew by." Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young
I'm in my sixties and we spent an entire semester in Junior High on what to do before, during and after a nuclear attack. I still remember learning and being tested on the textbook protocol (written for children) of how to isolate an entry to mitigate radiation (ha ha), which foods in decay were safest to eat and the potential radiation shielding of common materials. I suppose the school board thought it was more hopeful than telling us to bend over and kiss our asses goodbye but it formed a deep, deep fear in me and, I believe, a generational trauma.
I often ponder that this generation doesn’t seem to have anything like the songs we did, those of hope (Light One Candle), sorrow (For Dead in Ohio), anger (You Masters of War), questions (Blowin in the Wind), and all the rest.
Perhaps they do in their own way, but I’m not aware of them. Perhaps it has something to do with so many of today’s youth’s cynicism about democracy.
Yes, we knew the absurdity of those drills, and we knew which neighbors were building and stocking shelters in their backyards and buying guns with which to defend them against those of us who were not so well prepared. Not that anyone wanted to emerge into the world of The Day After.
What a wonderful, and wonderfully appropriate, quote! Just yesterday, I was listening to that beautiful song after a Sunday prompt from Dan Rather's Substack.
Seeing how far down our country has slid since we were growing up, truly is scary. I think that trump shows that having lots of advantages, clearly shows that being advantaged does not make one a better person. All the people I've respected - and do respect - did not grow up with lots of advantages. They are the ones who have fought for civil rights, freedom from corporate greed, social equality, environmental justice, etc.
No, being advantaged does not guarantee a principled character, but I’d caution against a mass indictment. We can all think of terrifically advantaged individuals who have fully earned what Tom Paine called, “the love of man and woman” all during our history. Two who come immediately to mind are two of our ‘initial’ presidents - FDR and JFK. Yes, both were flawed human beings, as we all are, and neither truly showed the best of themselves until they faced the awesome responsibilities of the presidency. But when the moment came, both in different ways became what we truly needed at that moment.
Perhaps we need to remember the percentages. Very few in comparison have had the advantages they did, so it is not strange that so few of them have come to stand out. After all, the number of those without such advantages who have been anything but standout characters is legion.
I loved your story of Soviet and US troops waving at each other. The Russians are a warm, friendly people - funny how they are always so dominated by their ruler. Catherine the Great had the secret - she was a tyrant, but a beautiful, highly-cultivated one, who took very able commanders as her lovers and propagandists. You know the story of the Potemkin villages? Back in the sixties the great Red Army Male Choir were touring and I went to a (packed) concert in the Royal Albert Hall. They sang in their magnificent voices, danced athletic Cossack dances. One song, in English, "Do the Russian people want war? NO!" Propaganda, maybe, but that was the year of the Cuban Missile Crisis and we applauded them with all our hearts.
And now the Russian people are muzzled, starving and freezing to death. It is beyond deplorable that Trump, Putin, Bibi, Un and many other Fascist despots are using starvation and freezing conditions as weapons.
Exactly. A few testicularly insane MEN harming so many and destabilizing the entire world and I just can not comprehend why we cannot take these deranged tiny men OUT.
Ms. Luccarini...Thanks to my father's politics -- an invaluable education for which I am ever more grateful -- the Red Army Chorus was a core part of my childhood music and will always remain on my listening list. Here are four favorites:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ILOIVOqJrkg&list=RDILOIVOqJrkg&start_radio=1 (Sorry I could not find a YouTube offering of this powerful classic that offered both acceptable sound-quality and translation of the lyrics, which are Tolstoy's words. Their most relevant part -- the shout that begins at 1:38 -- translates as "Stand fast for the truth/The truth of the people!")
I know your dread. I am in Germany and people who are normally jumping to go to a rally or organize one, are telling me they are burnt out. One is saving energy for when she is in the US in the spring through summer. So that is good. She is budgeting her energies. I am doing the same. I was out of commission and in the US in the late summer and early fall because I had to take care of family business, then returned in time for a No Kings Rally here. I see people burning out from all that is happening. It is important not to. I am all about getting out the Vote.
Linda, there is strength in numbers and I believe those numbers are growing. Just like the geese flying above, when the leader tires, it drops back and another moves forward to let the leader recharge.
I keep a quote from Marjorie Stoneman Douglas on my facebook. I share it often and read it every time I think about giving up. I have friends who are protecting their mental health, aka saving their energy. For what?!?
Linda, with this latest bad news, a lot of us are sitting with feelings of dread & not really sure what to do next. There is a gathering in Des Moines WA tomorrow as a reminder of 1/6 riot on the US Capitol. Another protest slated for 1/20 as a walk- out of jobs, buy nothing, stay home day. Waiting for the next chance to vote seem eons away.
Cindy, it is awful! It is exhausting. That is another reason Trump is doing this. It is not just about what he wants from Venezuela, but also what doing this to them does to us. He wants to demoralize us. He wants to punish us for caring about Epstein and Jack Smiths testimony and the cost of things, and the rise in health care premiums. We are supposed to be immune to any tragedies wrought on us by his actions and blindly adoring.
Tuesday is January 6. There are “Paperclip the Nation” protests planned on that day.
Tomorrow I am meeting with some friends by a statue that symbolizes the German city in which we live and we are going to be wearing large paperclips and take pictures to add to the paperclip movement tomorrow in protest of January 6, 2021 and the War on Venezuela, and the many awful actions of Trump and Putin and the AfD.
I am also trying to get everyone I know abroad to register to vote since those of us who live abroad need to do that every year in order to vote.
U.S. citizens living, serving, or studying abroad—you can vote from wherever you are! 🌍 Visit https://votefromabroad.org to register and request your overseas ballot.
It’s quick, free, and valid for all elections in 2026. Need help? Write to help@votefromabroad.org.
Vote from Abroad volunteers are ready to assist you with any questions about requesting or returning your ballot. Don’t wait! Request your ballot today and make your voice heard! 🗳️ Please help to spread this message.
Loren, IMO you are not being negative, just realistic. I have been reading a lot by Native Americans lately, which confirms your description of ecogenocidal madness. I hate that you have CHF - it's one of the things I'm terrified of ending up with. I hope that you can somehow find peace for the rest of your life. It would be well deserved.
Rubio is all in on this because Venezuela and Cuba are friends; Rubio is Cuban, so he is exercising some personal vendetta. This is no way to run a country....
Loren, if you ever saw a USAF Albatross in the area, the odds are even that it was my father-in-law; he flew 82 solo infiltration/exfiltration and recon missions during the CMC.
Many of us in our fears and disbeliefs that people didn’t see this madman rising to power and destruction of our once beautiful country, the flaws were minor before the nazi (djt) arrived. 💩🤬
first, thank you for your service. Next, thank you for your ongoing words - both comforting and alarming. The Rapture of which you speak would be a grand solution IMO. At this point where the lunatics are running and destroying the asylum, Rapture and destruction seems to me to be a viable, nay desirable, solution.
Agreed. I clearly remember the terror of the Cuban missile crisis. This is worse, if not as an immediate threat. This unlawful invasion and kidnapping of a leader of a sovereign country has distanced us from our allies and diminished our global status.
Loren, what you have said is as clear as a bell and I agree. I was in the dining room at Kalamazoo College when we heard about the Cuban Missile Crisis and we were full of fear, but somehow not like this because now we have a madman in charge.
No need to apologize Loren, and a most excellent analysis and cri de couer you present.
I am not sure that this barbaric and bullying action by Trump and his Gang of Grifters presents a worse scenario of dread than that posed by the Soviet nuclear arming of Cuba precipitating the Cuban Missile Crisis. Yet, I see your point.
Not only were JFK, his cabinet and advisors all far more intelligent and mature than the aforementioned Gang of Grifters, but they were also possessed of basic principles and common sense as well as battle tested experience. JFK nearly died in the shark infested waters of the Pacific serving his Country in WWII, as opposed to President "Daddy, I have bone spurs", to list just one glaring contrast.
Another obvious one is that while the US in the early 60s was far too enamored of the siren song of nuclear weapons, we did not precipitate the Cuban Missile Crisis, whereas the US under Despicable Don fully initiated the war on Venezuela from wholly false pretenses and wholly absent justifications, save for raw gangster-esque demonstration of power.
Yet still, the imminent specter of nuclear war is perhaps the most sobering prospect to contemplate.
An as yet unnoted item on the long list of terribles that the attack on Venezuela and the kidnapping of the Maduros produced, is the greater threat of nuclear conflict in the future. Once the strongest military power in the world jettisons all principles, legal obligations and decency to invade countries and kidnap their leaders just because they can, then everything everywhere is fair game.
The Congress needs to act urgently to wholly defund any and all funding for the incipient war crime in Venezuela, and We the People need to be out in the streets, taking all necessary actions to stop this madness right about now
Fun fact: when President Obama took out Osama bin Laden, only 4 other people were killed in that operation, and none of our military personnel were hurt.
Let's do our best to remind Trump that once again, Obama did it better.
I am so distraught. The US has devolved into a place of murderers and thieves, thuggery and violence. It takes a certain kind of crazed ruler to take out people. trump wins by maximum intimidation. One (Congress?) has to be nice to trump not because it's good to be nice, but because he is in command of nuclear weapons. There is no trace of mercy or kindness in Congress or the administration only a grandiose attitude toward empire building and an imperial rulership. No matter how much we dislike bureaucracy and rules and regulations, that is how governments provide for its citizens, otherwise the alternative is anarchy......
Well stated summery of the State of the Union. I understand that felling also, "literally overwhelmed by dread," I once knew a WWII veteran who had several photos of himself on the front limes in Germany at an age before he could vote. His words were only, "We had a job to do." The greatest generation; patriotism plus a strong work ethic. He has been on my mind.
Bottom line. Everything Trump does is lawlessness. Trump misused our military to commit an act of War upon a sovereign nation, killing it’s people and kidnapping it’s leader and his spouse. This is not only Trump. This is the combined thinking of the think tanks of the American, maybe even the global, poorly regulated free enterprise system; a corporatist fascist takeover of the West. No doubt this international lawlessness will harm trade but they are banking on a future of no cartels. You would think they being business minded they might consider supply is the result of a demand thus the problem is here at home. But no, these R.I.N.O.s actually believe it is the producer who is the "job creator." They are using our military risking their lives, and our tax dollars, so maybe they can invest more and more down south later. Trump is doing the same against Iran (Bombs away) so he and his billionaire crew can invest over there too. All these people see is hotel$, ca$ino$ and golf cour$e$. Oh, and don’t forget those getaways like the Epstein Island. By the way, where are those files? Public protesting in large numbers sends a message and we must do that. But we can send a bigger message to those board members of the free enterprise system. The System depends on peace. Bottom line, if 10% of those who march in the next No Kings protest buy or order an assault rifle that day with several extra magazines, or better yet, capable of accepting high-capacity drums, the Roberts 6 might pull their heads out but for sure it would divide board members and allow us to conquer and regulate Trump and his greedy Nazi bastards. If we only have signs and chanting, well, how’s that working out for yeh? From my favorite film, "A Bug's Life": Hopper's famous quote , "You let one ant stand up to us, then they all might stand up! Those puny little ants outnumber us a hundred to one, and if they ever figure that out, there goes our way of life!"
My father, at 38 with four children, volunteered to serve in the Marines and went to the Philippines. He served with a lot of other guys his age and many did not come home. They saw it as a job to do, led steadily by their president and their government.
I agreed with you right up to the point of you suggesting that any civilian purchase an assault rifle. We may yet be forced to go down that rabbit hole, but if it gets to that point, you can count me out.
I understand. That is your right too. I also understand that We the Citizens of the United Sates must urgently unite in order to save our republic by amending our Constitution as we are under Attack by the same forces which impelled us to our duty to declare our Independence from the State of Great Britain; the unbridled greed of major corporations. Every major problem we face today including environmental harm, social inequality, instability of our economy, and corrupt political and judicial branches of government are all driven by the poorly regulated corporate business model of the free enterprise system. Likewise, those three tea ships docked in Boston Harbor in 1773, were owned by the British East India Company which began with a royal charter by Queen Elizabeth I, and became the first multinational corporation. It is good that you unite in that effort to resolve this problem we have.
When the British Regulars marched on Concord they were searching for a small mountain of gun powder and a small cannon or two. At the Battle of Concord's North Bridge Major it was John Buttrick, the commander of the Concord militia, who gave the order “Fire, fellow soldiers! For God's sake, fire!”
The military and by extension the veterans are losing the goodwill we’ve repaired after Vietnam.
Hegseth, Rubio and Trump have single handedly thrown away the public goodwill and a necessity for a continued functional military with public backing. It is our family members being ordered to do these things and we may know they’re taking orders, the use of the military in unjust ways destroys necessary public sentiment.
My heart is breaking after many years of working in the VSO community to reintegrate positive public support for our military and veterans. Who will want to join the military except jingoistic nationalists with ICE like violence in their veins.
Yes Bill, that the military is being used to invade other countries and seem to be ok to assault our own citizens as Trump would like is a full breakdown of the military. Like Senator Kelly and others said , they must not follow illegal orders.
Your service and your families service in the military, as well as my fathers, all uncles and aunt’s service and millions of other Americans, is being stomped on and destroyed by Trump and his regime. The leaders in the military must not follow illegal orders . Congress, led by the Democrats and independents must stand up and take action. Maybe they can convince a few of the GOP can go along .
I saw a picture of Trump apparently talking to someone with Hegseth standing beside him. It looked like Trump might fall forward of his own weight and Hegseth looked like the bully who’d gotten the smaller kid’s lunch money, rubbing his hands together and grinning. Just what his sad ego needed…for today.
If your assessment is correct, we'll be forced to witness Schumer fulfill his assignment from the DNC, oligarchs, and Israel to screw over any representative governance and say by American citizens---AGAIN.
The operatives running the party on behalf of oligarchs and the Netanyahu government are doing everything in their power to put the American rank and file under ruling class authoritarian government.
Funny comment about the duma (not really) because I have written my federal elected reps and told them that the republican dominated Congress behaves just like the current Russian Duma - whatever the leader wants, he gets. I especially stressed that during the filling of these cabinet positions with their incompetence being their weakness. Their silence, I kept repeating, was approval, as was their refusal to push for accountability for J6, a full accounting of the Butler staged assassination attempt and their refusal to defend the Constitution.,
I understand your frustration. I read comments from people who don’t seem to understand that the Democrats are the minority and have been frozen out by Republicans. But it’s Schumer’s public persona and his mind that is wedded to the Congress of Tip O’Neill’s day that inspires no one. When Obama was elected, I told friends that he needed to kneecap the Republicans. He didn’t and they still framed the narrative of a hyper partisan president. After Gingrich in the early ‘90’s, the game had changed. We are now in a 300 Spartans mode. Once DHS becomes a thoroughly institutionalized SA, SS, SD, Gestapo, we may be done. They are already characterizing anti-ICE protests terrorist actions as being committed by antifa cells and investigating groups like the Socialist Rifle Club as such. Dread does not capture my feeling.
Socialist Rifle Club—as opposed to the multitude of neo-Nazi militias that abound? Seriously? Who is ICE/DHS recruiting with their new found wealth? Maybe the Socialist Rifle Club is more interested in self-defense, not unlike black self-defense groups. Aside from the Weather Underground and I guess you can include the SLA, a half century and more ago, what other left-wing terrorist group has run amuck in this country? We had anti-colonial actions, anarchist bombings, and the old IWW, who were so violent about free speech that they were beaten, shot down, jailed, . . . So what does “considering the history of socialist movements” imply? The history of this country is rife with state terror and right-wing violence.
We're almost in agreement. Yes, let's keep on eye on the Nazis.
Yet, Two wrongs don't make a right.
Why, because it's neither a zero sum game nor a contest. We tend to look at violence from the extremes as acts committed by individuals unrepresentative of the adherents of given philosophy whether it's right or left wing. That gives us cover.
Yes, the left is behind the right but it is increasing exponentially. Interestingly, one of reasons the left is behind is that they simply aren't as good at it as the right. They verge on the farcical at times. And those Antifa clowns are a joke. Black clothing and umbrellas, seriously?
Here's how the CSIS is rated for bias, a bit left of center,
So, yes if I were in charge I'd look at any political group that has advocated for the overthrow of the government that has a "Rifle Club". I'm assuming you know the ISO and other socialist organizations have advocated for the overthrow of the government. You knew this right?
The there's this, One need only remember what NAZI is an acronym for. That guy used socialism to open the door for fascism, the same as Lenin did for communism.
"The goal of socialism is communism." ~Vladimir Lenin
How can I reply "like" to your post? I agree with you. Maybe we need another category, "Agree". My heart goes out to you. It is horrible to see our individual hopes, dreams, efforts at harmony, world peace, caring for each other and the earth just disregarded like so much trash. However, hope, love, harmony, and peace are still important and they exist, no matter what our government says or does. I wish for you wellness, ease, love from friends and family, peace and comfort, which can overcome dread. We just have to look for the evidence of their presence in our everyday lives.
Jake Broe is predicting that without pushback Trump will be invading Greenland after the winter is over. Jake Broe is a military analyst and YouTube commentator focused on the war in Ukraine. He is a veteran who previously served as a Nuclear and Missile Operations Officer in the United States Air Force. Here he talks about Russia, Venezuela, Cuba and Greenland.
Mike Johnson, Speaker of the House, literally said, a few months ago, that he sees it as the job of Congress to "codify the executive orders signed by the president".
This is a neofascist GOP trying to install fascism in the US and in the entire Western hemisphere, while hoping that Putin will do the same in Europe.
Loren, dread is worse than death! But I fear the same thing. All this is beyond crazy and I think our democratic Congress is frozen in shock! We need action from our leaders!
His niece Mary Trump says if he thinks he's going down, he'll try to take everyone else with him. I believe her. I'm afraid "everything" might be Humanity.
Loren, I offer the following words (spoken by Abraham Lincoln in 1858, but they also apply in 2026) to render you speech-full:
"In this age, in this country, public sentiment is everything. With it, nothing can fail; against it, nothing can succeed. Whoever molds public sentiment goes deeper than he who enacts statutes or pronounces judicial decisions. "
I, too, Loren am filled with emotions and you helped me put a name to them. Seems like we have a lot of lemmings running DC. I can foresee the actions to come & the only solution will have to be dragging those who gave T the go- ahead or didn't stop him, out of chambers & into lockup. NYC federal facility?
Congress won’t stop him because the November NSS already provides the doctrinal framework. The “Trump Corollary” explicitly authorizes military force to deny Chinese/Russian influence over “strategically vital assets” in our hemisphere. Venezuela was proof the doctrine works…no congressional pushback, mission accomplished.
I just published analysis showing this wasn’t improvisation. The NSS elevates threats to bypass war powers, reframes regime change as “law enforcement,” and treats congressional oversight as optional. Trump literally said “we’re going to run the country” about Venezuela. That’s the template for Cuba, Greenland, Mexico…anywhere the doctrine applies.
Your prayers need backup.
Congress has already been tested on Venezuela and failed. They accepted the “just executing an arrest warrant” excuse. That precedent now applies hemisphere-wide.
Unless there’s a massive institutional response right now, the invasion list you’re describing isn’t hypothetical…it’s operational doctrine waiting for the next “strategic asset” worth seizing.
The U.S. has effectively signaled that China could move on Taiwan and Russia could push further into other sovereign nations—without facing decisive consequences.
I believe you. So tell me what I as an individual should do now. It feels futile to call my congressional reps, though I will, because they are all in on Trump, whatever he does.
The hard truth: Institutional guardrails have already failed. Congress knew and did nothing. Courts gave immunity. The NSS documented the playbook and nobody stopped it.
What’s left:
Immediate: Pressure Congress on the privileged war powers resolution this week. Make it politically toxic to rubber-stamp hemisphere-wide regime change. Flood Senate offices.
Strategic: Build international coalitions that raise the cost. Latin American unity against intervention, European condemnation that threatens trade/alliances. Those 26 EU nations that signed the declaration need to escalate beyond symbolic condemnation. Begin to Declare U.S. diplomats will be treated as persona non grata, threaten embassy closures, impose real diplomatic costs. Otherwise the condemnation just becomes cover while the doctrine spreads.
Isolation works when enforced.
Long-term: The 2026 midterms will be too late.
Brutal reality: Once spheres-of-influence politics are normalized and documented as official strategy, only counter-power stops them. Either institutional (Congress with spine), international (coalitions that impose costs), or electoral (removing enablers).
Venezuela proved the doctrine works without pushback.
The window to stop the next one is closing fast. Activism, organizing, and making this politically unsustainable are the only tools left when constitutional constraints fail.
The operatives running the party on behalf of oligarchs and the Netanyahu government are doing everything in their power to put the American rank and file under ruling class authoritarian government. These are the same Cuomocrats who spared no expense to defeat the will of the people in NYC.
How about Acute Psychotic Break? Delirium? No, wait, this is Trump, General Paresis. Memory problems
Language problems, such as saying or writing words incorrectly
Decreased mental function, such as problems thinking and with judgment
Mood changes
Personality changes, such as delusions, hallucinations, irritability, inappropriate behavior. Begins about 10 to 30 years after the initial syphilis infection. https://medlineplus.gov/ency/article/000748.htm
Hmm. I'm not a medical person, but I've had relatives and friends who are. Trump sounds like a classic case of terminal phalo-cerebral reversal: the smaller brain replacing the larger and acquiring terminal illness. Ergo: Donald the Poxed.
Hmm. Albert, I had cared for late- stage syphilis patients. All the symptoms you speak of. Can be cured with appropriate antibiotics BUT, damage cannot be undone.
The only "aggressive" action will come from our Failed Nation's former allies -- that is, those nations that remain the allies and defenders of our constitutional principles and of those of us who, as We the Empathetic People," remain the Constitution's defiant supporters. Most likely -- in an ultimate irony of human history -- that action will probably be led by Germany: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f6_k76R5JnU
An attack on any NATO territory is an attack on all and will trigger a response to defend. No one outside USA is laughing right now - other than Putin and Xi of course.
The statement is correct in accordance with the treaty. No one ever foresaw USA attacking another NATO sovereign nation. The reality would be an irreversible dismantling of NATO and a return to global wars and oppression not seen since 1945. USA retreats from a global power (having lost the majority of its allies) to a regional one dependant on military threatening. Russia and China move to fill the power gap left behind.
That does not sound good. I can see that trump and whiskey Pete are enjoying the might of the military. Does anyone think that America could be attacked? trump seems to think he's invincible. Does he think we are the only country who can stage stealth military invasions? I am not educated on any of this and am learning as I go, thanks to the many comments of people who are much smarter than I. Thanks to all of you.
Apropos stealth military invasions, the British --responding to U.S. back-stabbing at Suez in 1956 -- snuck RAF bombers under the radar into the skies above many major U.S. cities the following autumn. (I saw the roundel-marked Canberra that buzzed Knoxville and McGhee-Tyson AFB, which was headquarters for Oak Ridge air defense.) The incident was later explained away as a drill. Whether the Brits have retained their legendary ability for pulling off "impossible" military feats -- for example, the 1942 St. Nazaire raid or the 1980 Iranian Embassy hostage rescue -- remains to be seen.
USA spends twice the amount on ‘defense’ than the rest of NATO combined and is sole provider of critical capabilities such as satellite intelligence, ballistic missile defense and strategic airlift. Other than that NATO would remain.
Now that T**** has decided it is permissible to go after criminal presidents in their own countries (and killing both innocent civilians and military in the process), it would be justifiable for the Canadians (or any other peace-loving democratic nation) to mount the same kind of operation to bring the criminal in the White House to justice. The only problem is that, if accomplices also need to be picked up, they'd need a large fleet of transports to take them all away. Most of Congress, the entire cabinet: the list is long.
The half of us Americans with a shred of integrity will be supporting this proposed effort 'strongly'....so quite likely those cowardly accomplices won't pose much of a problem for us, armies of 'ants'.
I was actually imagining the laughter confined to Mar a Lago, or wherever the unelected inner circle and cohorts hang out. Restraint isn't a feature of theirs.
If USA attacks and occupies Greenland, Denmark and NATO allies will be focused there, giving Putin the opportunity to attack Moldova, the Baltics or Poland. The world is in such danger now.
I sincerely doubt that. The US has already invaded one Country and is saber rattling towards theirs. This is signaling. I hope we are not seeing the beginnings of WW3.
Vance does not enjoy the cult of personality, nor does he have the dirt on everyone else that Trump seems to have. Vance's ambition is naked and even the most ardent trumpets I know see his hypocrisy.
Upon conviction of impeachment the VP would be sworn into the executive Office. Vance would be no Trump. His tome would be very different, friendly almost, as he would be a first term President wanting a second bite at the apple.
You are drinking too much kool-aid sir! Vance is Peter Thiel's puppet. If Vance comes to power, you might get 15 minutes of a "friendly" Vance but within 30 days you will be crying to have Trump back again.
No, impeaching a President for treason does not automatically remove the entire cabinet. Article II, Section 4 of the Constitution states that "The President, Vice President and all civil Officers of the United States, shall be removed from Office on Impeachment for, and Conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors," applying individually to each official.
Absolutely NOT true. According to the Constitution Impeachment ONLY removes the person impeached and convicted. Of course if the President is removed by impeachment conviction the new president takes over and can do whatever they want including removing all the cabinet as cabinet officers serve at the pleasure of the President.
Of course this has never happened in real life because of the four impeachments of Presidents (Andrew Johnson in 1867, Clinton in 1998 and both Trump impeachments ) none have ever resulted in a conviction in the Senate.
JD is supported by the right-wing, Thiel, the Federalist Society, etc. He is as evil as djt, but does not have the same loyal support because djt is an entertainer and outright bully, two characteristics that JD does not have. JD is a true white supremacist who wants to remove a woman's right to vote or participate in social and political affairs. Hello, 1750.
Djt needs to be indicted for Treason which will remove his entire Cabinet as well. Impeachment relies upon the politicians in his party, instead of a Judicial system that will weigh the multiple actions of treason.
No. Even PT is not stupid. If Vance became Pres under Trump's conviction he would have less than 3 years in office until Nov. 28. This is Kindergarten arithmetic; foundational number sense. "OK, which is the bigger number class? 7 years or 3 years?" To get that bigger number kids, we need swing voters. But that is high school.
Congress already took such action. It is called the War Powers Resolution Act. Trump's administration has already violated its requirements, which ought to be case for impeachment and conviction. Our problem is a Congress that has abdicated its Constitutional and statutory responsibilities.
Why do you think that Congress will take ANY action? If Mike Johnson gets any whiff that there would be a majority to vote against Trump 's unhinged, crazy actions Johnson will send the House home.
To expect that John Thune grows a spine is very optimistic.
U.S. citizens living, serving, or studying abroad—you can vote from wherever you are! 🌍 Visit https://votefromabroad.org to register and request your overseas ballot.
It’s quick, free, and valid for all elections in 2026. Need help? Write to help@votefromabroad.org.
Vote from Abroad volunteers are ready to assist you with any questions about requesting or returning your ballot. Don’t wait! Request your ballot today and make your voice heard! 🗳️
We need to be protesting against Trump's actions like people have been doing. Trump needs pushback.
We need to be loud right now about Venezuela and what this invasion truly means: “If this is about reshaping energy alignment in the Western Hemisphere in the name of U.S. economic or strategic interests, then that argument should be made openly—to Congress and to the American people. What concerns me is not healthy skepticism or disagreement, but the risk of minimizing what was openly described in the past few days as something far more than a simple law-enforcement action.
Bypassing congressional oversight of such a mission strips Americans of their voice and undermines the checks designed to prevent misuse of military power.
If the United States is going to commit military force in Venezuela—deploying roughly 15,000 troops, reshaping a sovereign government, and tying that action to control over energy infrastructure—then Congress must be involved, publicly and immediately. Bypassing congressional authorization does not merely sidestep procedure; it silences the people whose lives, resources, and moral standing are placed at risk by these decisions.
The U.S. never formally declared war in Iraq, yet tens of thousands of troops were sent into years of sustained combat under justifications that kept changing. I had family and friends who served there. Many veterans still carry the weight of realizing the mission they were sold did not match the reality on the ground.
If this administration believes Venezuela warrants military intervention, it should make that case openly, under oath, and subject to debate—not through memes, executive assertions, or retroactive narratives. Congress exists precisely to prevent wars from being sold as something smaller than they are. If it abdicates that role now, the consequences will not be abstract—and history suggests they will not be short-lived.”
I agree with being loud! I post this all over every day -
Let Congress hear you! Be extremely loud!
Use/share this spreadsheet (bit.ly/Nokings) as a resource to contact members of Congress, the Cabinet and news organizations. Call. Write. Email. Protest. Unrelentingly.
Reach out (beyond your own) to as many in the Senate and House as you can. All of this is bigger than “I only represent my constituents” issues.
I've been doing that almost daily with my congress critters (all Dems), admonishing them that if they can't do the job, we'll just have to do it for them. And their speeches are getting us nowhere.
You can organize your neighborhood to protest. This is about ALL OF US who hope to celebrate our 250th anniversary. As long as the current mafia and their enablers are in power, we have less and less chance of that.
Since last February, my wife and I have participated in our community protests, which are quite robust, and when I was out of town I found the local one in the city I happened to be staying. That was not the thrust of my question. I have a fairly progressive representative and then the two California senators. I have made calls and sent emails. But we are in unprecedented territory, where soon even a grandpa like myself will be pulled off the street, handcuffed, and perhaps be sent off to Venezuela. Who knows?
Susan Collins quit responding to my emails during Trump 1. She works for McConnell and Thune and is only pretending she gives a damn about her constituents because she is up for reelection this year.
Just as this entire Venezuela debacle has ALWAYS been about oil and extracting any and all wealth from Venezuela, Greenland, Canada, etc. we also need to recognize that Trump is only interested in becoming the richest person in the world. He delights when people suffer, even if they are Republicans and especially if they are poor and people of color.
Megan, as a lifelong Illinois Democrat, I disagree with MTG about, well, nearly everything. I know she leaves office today, but I left a parting message to her: GO SCORCHED EARTH AS YOU LEAVE.
In addition to contacting our Congressional Representatives,we need to plan a nationwide strike. The basis for the takeover of our government is the money that is flowing into the pockets of a few greedy men. Read Jud Legum this morning about the benefit that this invasion of Venezuela brings to Paul Singer. This is another pay back from Trump to one of his donors. It is all about the oil.
I particularly appreciate that you have notation next to the names of those who will be facing reelection in midterms. I am MAKING SURE to mention that fact!
THANK YOU
And honestly, I think I've called over a dozen so far this morning and it's only taken a half hour.
Megan, I am using your targeted approach today. I am not getting through to most of the Indiana GOP DC offices (good on everyone calling!!) so I AM using their local numbers. THANK YOU FOR THAT!
be allowed but before you’re allowed, Megan be correct because if not, you’re causing the opposite reaction. Thank goodness Trump is our president. He has just liberated Venezuela and given the citizens there a chance to regain the wealth and prosperity and happiness they had before Chavez and Maduro took over. You people here pretend like you know more than the Venezuelan the 8 million that left and the 3 million that Phil the squares today celebrating their independence. That’s the ignorance so you go ahead and yell about it with mud on your face
If L'il Mikey is re-elected as Speaker of the House on Friday (which is not a done deal, though I can't think of any other MAGAt who would want the job), the first order of business for Democrats ought to be to present articles for his impeachment. Not for treason, of which both he and his party are guilty by reason of giving aid and comfort to an enemy regime, but for dereliction of duty. Failure to brief the House (the "Gang of Eight") prevented that body from providing advice or consent to Trump's military intervention in Venezuela, which was unquestionably NOT a police/law enforcement action.
First I was unaware that the Speaker of the house had to stand for election again mid session. Are you sure of that?
Second, you can't impeach a Congress critter (house or senate). The house or senate can remove their own members by a majority vote but impeachment is only for executive and judicial officers of the United States.
Thank you for the clarification, Mr. Rosen. I was under the impression that the Speaker had to be renominated when Congress reconvenes. And you are correct about impeachment.
No problem. I do my best trying to keep things pointed in the right direction here. Most of us here agree on fundamentals even if the details vary. Best of luck to you!
Lol... I couldn't quite figure out which comment you were responding to... then it occurred to me that these days just about ANY comment deserves this one word response!
Treason has been their intent, if you look at the destruction that gives our adversaries a strategic advantage and leaves us with no means to defend ourselves but that is much harder to prove. What you describe is more directly admissable evidence. We could go on and on about the intent to carry out treasonous activities since 2016.
Thom Hartman and Timothy Snyder go into great detail in which the actions taken by this regime over this past year alone leave us vulnerable to cyber attack and domestic terrorism by virtue of dismantling the agencies that monitor such attacks. Pardoning the Jan. 6 attack on Congress terrorists is an invitation to carry out more against t-Rumps "enemies".
L'll Mikey is a direct participant in the planning of the Jan 6 attack.
Getting out bodies out there Tuesday the 6th and the upcomming No Kings marches will let the weak kneed corporate media know that these fraudsters are heavely outnumbered and we can overrun them too.
I have an idea for you actually two ideas number one. Make sure your brain is engaged before you put your mouth in gear. Because everything you said is absolutely upside down and backwards, but no surprise from you haters.
And secondly, when you post a point of sanity and righteousness, it makes it much more interesting for the reader
Lol! I was amused by the term "Oat of office" as I can absolutely see the GOP masses sitting around on their butts eating Oats... after all they are clearly "horses' asses" right?
Speaking of horse..., I like the vision of the economist John Kenneth Galbraith in his criticism of supply-side (Trickle-down) economics, "If you feed the horse enough oats, some will pass through to the road for the sparrows."
Johnson does not need to be elected again. If he resigns there can be an election or now if there is a motion to vacate by 9 republicans according to the House Rules or if the house flipped because of special elections or death of members when there is a narrow majority.
Thank you, Ms. Fisanick. Jon Rosen made a similar correction to my mistaken observation above. You added further useful detail. The heart got ahead of the head on this one 😝
Yikes. I have never seen Heather so lost in my entire life. She’s actually lost it. In my opinion. She’s actually cross the river to insanity and really needs help.
Nor do you deserve them based on your backwards thinking Trump just liberated Venezuela and 20 million. People are excited those who left Venezuela for the United States and those who are living. There are celebrating the victory, but we think we know more than the Venezuelan people themselves bunch of freaking idiots here
Again you can't impeach Congress folk. That remedy is reserved for executive officers (President, VP, cabinet members) and judges. Congress can expel its members by their own rules but that is not the same as impeachment.
Thank you. You are correct. I have been re-reading the Constitution a few times over the last few months and still read into it what is not there. Moreover, it was written so the average person might read it and grasp it. My problem may well be I read it burning midnight oil.
Yeah, and impeachment is nothing but a red herring. Even if it were successful (which btw is impossible under current realities), it is too slow for the required impact.
no I think it’s time for you to increase your meds or dial them down.
And change the channel, so you get the record straight would you please it’s embarrassing to see you use the verbiage that you’re using right now literally embarrassing. I have to laugh when I read a sentence that you just wrote above.
You have no clue what’s going on outside of your little bubble thing universe right here. We just took Venezuela out of the reach of Russia and out of the reach of China and now Iran is naming streets after Donald Trump and Cuba might be the next to go and then we have democracy throughout the western hemisphere. WTFU
Congress passed “specific authorization for use of military force” in 1991 (Kuwait War) and 2002 (Iraq war) granting President George Bush the authority to use force against Saddam Hussain‘s government which passed with strong by partisan votes, therefore no formal declaration of war was required. My question is, could this be used again to bypass a formal declaration of war and if so would congress authorize it.
It doesn’t matter what Congress did in 2002: unlike the 1991 Kuweit and the 2001 Afghanistan actions, which had UN support, the 2003 Iraq war was illegal. It broke international law and the US’s own treaty commitments.
This Venezuela action likewise is illegal in international law.
Thank you, Sophie. My thoughts always go the illegal Vietnam War, listening to Walter Cronkite every evening, holding truth to power. And here we are again.
Those were the days my friend. Not that I want to go backward, but "Deregulation" meant "No Accountability" for power. Did not the US fight a war over that? In my youth I believed that the mainstream news, while not always noticing or telling the whole truth, was allied with the public, afflicting the overly comfortable and comforting the afflicted. Now its a lot more sales pitch, and compared the Woodward and Bernstein era, a lot more foxed up.
You became an empire the minute the first pilgrims from England settled not as immigrants accepting the rule and law of the tribes whose land they occupied, but as conquerors. The US was born as a part of the British Empire and when it achieved independence, that imperialism just continued under a new regime.
Empire and, with the American revolution, a democratic Republic. With the assassination of JFK the focus of our federal government shifted from democratic Republic to the lobby of the military-industrial complex which created the Tonkin Gulf Resolution and other subsequent military fabrications–empire.
So many refer to the Vietnam "War," but our government formed from two parties never declared any "War." It was perpetuated by calling it a "Police Action." It started as a lie, was waged as a lie, and ended with a war monument getting built for those killed (actually, "used") to wage an undeclared war on a people who posed less threat to this country that even the people of Venezuela. The nation of Vietnam soon after became a source of cheap labor for American corporations as they moved the manufacturing from America and progressively destroyed the economy for the American workers, the very class of people whose names appear on that monument.
By 2025 the Congress run by the same two parties had been militarizing local police with weapons of war for decades finally bypassed the Founding Fathers' Constitutional safeguard of forbidding employment of the federal army used for war to police Americans in their homes, towns, and neighborhoods by creating its own massive standing army== "ICE"[[ and calling it "police" (that word again) rationalizing doing this to "protect" American citizens and "democracy," this time "protecting" them from immigrants.
It seems to me that a nation can only be "democratic" when its government remains un-corrupted. Can corrupt parties that form governments maintain democratic governments? Are there any historical examples of corrupt parties run by an aeitocratic wealthy ruling class that have EVER maintained a functional "democracy?" The history expert who maintains this blog can educate us on this question, but it needed to be asked.
Hmm. Back then, MSM was largely supportive (but people back home saw their soldiers zipped up in body bags) until Tet and Cronkite’s removal of his objective hat. That led LBJ to bow out. But how many GI’s and Vietamese, Cambodians, Laotians died after that until ‘75?
Yes, thank you both. Not only illegal but we would be starting a war with NATO nations and would then be in a war with other NATO nations who came to the aid of those we attack. We would start WW3, all on our own.
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.
@HeatherCoxRichardson What are your thoughts on the DOJ’s use of “Cartel del los Soles” to indict Maduro when it is not an actual crime entity but only a term of speech used to refer to the corruption of Venezuelan military brass? Like “antifa” here is US? This NY Times article details that this original indictment was by Emil Bove in SDNY in 2020!
Thank you for sharing that article- with all the domestic stuff to pay attention to, this history of “Cartel de Los Soles” helps to clarify just how (I’m grasping for a word here) f**ked up the US government is.
Rubio Explains Empire, With a Whiteboard and Vibes
How “We’re Not Running Venezuela” Became “Please Stop Asking If We’re Running Venezuela”
There is a special tone a government official uses when reality has wandered off script and refuses to come back. It is part sigh, part scolding, part improv. That tone made a full guest appearance this weekend as Secretary of State Marco Rubio toured the Sunday shows like a man trying to explain to airport security why his suitcase is vibrating.
The question was simple. Who is running Venezuela?
Most people know what needs to happen and what should happen legally. I cannot understand why Tdump is not being impeached, convicted, and removed. NOW
When did the US last fight a war that did more then keep the military in some kind of combat readiness and support the arms industry? Meaningful strategy has, to use a French expression, more often than not shone by its absence... involving allies in ill-thought-out and counterproductive actions for which the world is now paying a price.
We probably have to go back to the Korean war in the fifties to find US participation in a war that made any real sense beyond feeding the military-industrial complex. And to WW2 for military action both heroic and deeply meaningful. (If I am mistaken in this assertion, please correct me. If you can...)
Intervention against Serbia was more than anything else a mark of Europe's failure to get its own act together -- "Europe" here including Russia... (No comment on that notion, so unacceptable to myopic and died-in-the-wool hubristic neoCons...) Faced with a violent brawl, the correct police action is to surround and menace the brawlers until they calm down. Instead, European powers took sides, basically the same sides as during WW2... For their failure to tackle Europe's problems, instead relying on Uncle Sam, America's Secretary of State, James Baker III, roundly and rightly berated them. His words fell on deaf ears.
Strangely, the only European statesman to get the full measure of the situation was Margaret Thatcher, who had by then been sidelined...
Her scathing remark to Douglas Hurd, the UK's then Foreign Secretary, sticks in my mind:
"Douglas, Douglas, you would make Neville Chamberlain look like a warmonger."
Trump doesn’t care about our lives, resources or moral standing and that’s why he put them “at risk”. Anyone who thought otherwise who was awake these last 10 years is an idiot.
"Simon Rosenberg of The Hopium Chronicles articulated the extraordinary smallness of the Trump administration’s vision when he wrote: “We must also marvel at the titanic idiocy of our new ‘Donroe Doctrine’ for it turns America from a global power into a regional one by choice. I still can’t really believe they are going through with this for it is so batsh*t f-ing crazy, and does so much lasting harm to our interests.”
The USA has been a GLOBAL POWER since the end of WWII. Trump is destroying all that in favor of the USA becoming a REGIONAL POWER.
Who the F wants the USA to only be a regional power? Vladimir Putin! That's who!!!
As this astonishing idiocy unfolded over New Years, my first fear was for Ukraine -- followed by Taiwan. But it's actually far broader. For anyone in East Central Europe, or the South China Sea region (the Philippines), the dominant reality now is fear that the entire international security order itself is collapsing, not just because the dominant power in the globe won't enforce it, but has actively sabotaged it -- perhaps fatally, we don't yet know.
Had you asked me 2-3 years ago would the United States have gone from being the Indispensable Power (in the words of former Swedish Prime Minister Carl Bildt) in the modern world to the pre-World War I world of President McKinley, 'gunboat diplomacy', 'beggar-thy-neighbor' trade and tariff wars, whites-only social Darwinism and doing exactly as Russia wants it to do -- I would never have believed you.
We have but one chance to render these people useless --- the mid-terms in November, which will be marked by attempts to fuck with the voting or counting or both. Nevertheless, in the meantime, it's up to us to make sure 2026 will be the very worst year in the lives of Republican Congressional Flatworms. Show up at their damn offices with Bibles and prepare to swear that right in front of them should they doubt your resolve. Watch as more of them start mumbling nonsense about the need to spend more precious time with their families. Make it so...
Such talk is not only self-defeating, but pointless. Hold that opinion and pay $5 and it will get you a mediocre cup of coffee somewhere. They'll even throw in a swizzle stick for free. What else that gets you, I don't know.
I am a74 year old white widow in a blue state. Nothing that Trump has done affects me personally. But as an educated American, I am incensed by the lack of guardrails that have allowed this Administration to destroy what my father fought for on Omaha beach. I don’t really care how we stop Trump and company, just that we do!
Yes, and I think filing articles of impeachment contributes to making "sure 2026 will be the very worst year in the lives of Republican Congressional Flatworms."
Being a regional power gives you free rein in your sphere for graft and corruption. Trump just wants more opportunities to enrich himself and his golfing partners.
Malignant narcissists. How many millions have died in the service of a handful of malignant egos and the dupes in their thrall? History has played it out many times. Why do we not take the lesson?
Trump want's all the power and the glory for everything, and not one whit of responsibility.
As their Profit Spake:
"The only corporate social responsibility a company has is to maximize its profits."
Not "wants" to control it all - "Has" to. It's part of trump's terribly damaged psyche, he has to micro manage EVERYTHING. He's planning war with Venezuela - and choosing the marble for the ballroom. He's "negotiating (!!!) "peace in Ukraine" - and "designing" battleships. I don't think anyone in trump's administration can scratch their arse without trump inserting a finger to help.
It seems clear that Stephen Miller and Russell Vought are the Donny Whisperers. They can see he is mentally marginal and easier than ever to manipulate, to their own devious ends. They whisper the Project 2025/NSS playbook in his ears and ply him with Happy Meals so he goes along. I don't really think any of this is his idea as he's too addled to have ideas, only whims and impulses; he's the puppet and has multiple puppeteers (Putin included).
This is just the latest move to turn the world into a gigantic grift run by various kleptocrats. No one in the Trump administration can see beyond the grift, but maintaining it is the true reason behind every EO, "police action" deal, and law breaking they've done. The idea seems to be to make it simpler for Trump, Putin, and Xi to run their respective grifts. That is the pattern. It is small (breathtakingly?) in it's vision, profoundly stupid, and does not seem to be reality based. The world (both our environment and that of humans) will not go away simply because we decide to cut our sand box down by 2/3.
I love Heather's recitation of the contradictions, inconsistencies, and overall eff-up amid this crew of incompetents.
I love seeing especially her reporting of polls showing Americans deeply uninterested in this Venezuelan eff-up.
Trouble is, the dementia has gone full bore. And combines with Donald's greatest fantasy now of all -- that for pinnacle of his life he's become the play-theater mob boss he's always coveted above all being.
So many degrees of criminality, David, in this hate-filled grifter.
Lawlessness all his life in the U.S. And now the world sees him eager to invade, commit murder in, and damage how many countries?
I love Heather's quoting Ted Lieu in her conclusion. Donald is totally uninterested in dealing with the problems Americans face: "Health care costs and food prices are surging. Trump’s response is we’re going to run another country."
Drama. Sensationalism. More layers of hatred and anger. And Donald's worst criminality, hidden alongside the more-than-1,000 girls raped by his rich pals?
I never wilt in the presence of cussing, and often do in response to petty frustrations, but I think it loses its effect and becomes clutter when overdone. Still, this is Republicans we are talking about, so a sane person's gotta do what a sane person's gotta do, including HCR. I think that sometimes an inserted ""fig leaf" can serve to intensify the point, that the object is utterly execrable.
I was just gifted a t-shirt. It has a bass clef staff, with a half note on the 4th line of the staff; it reads "What the" with the staff at the bottom. In bass clef notation, that line is the F below middle C. A viola playing friend has a shirt that reads WTF with a similar notation in tenor clef with the words "what tenors fear" below the staff.
His obsession with oil and fossil fuel goes back to day 1 of his Presidency in 2017. His treatment of any country with large known oil reserves is telling. Canada, Venezuela, Greenland (unknown oil and other rare-earth metals), Iran, Russia and Saudi Arabia.
If they have large oil reserves he is all in on taking their oil or making deals with them to have access to their oil.
Rex Tillerson saw this early on as Secretary of State and called Trump a "FUCKING MORON." Of course, he is but he Is also a hateful demented thug that MUST be dealt with swiftly.
Ds need to stop the Donroe Doctrine now! I’d be ecstatic if the Ds replaced Schumer with Cory Booker as minority leader. The Ds need to take back the House before the midterms. Schumer and Jeffries are obviously not up to the task. Marc Elias at Democracy Docket has done an excellent job documenting the hundreds of ways the Rs plan to steal the midterms, keep Rs in power and enshrine the minority rule of white men.
PS If you haven't watched Professor Richardson's YouTube about Venezuela here's the link: https://youtu.be/wu9QSeAI22I
The video portion is just Professor Richardson talking so this can be listened to like a podcast as you drive, walk or meditate.
The Ds should help Professor R add some cool graphics and book this on all major networks at 10pm EST. Unfortunately, the Baileys have told Chuck that all will be well after the midterms and he should just object forcefully.
How would you suggest "taking back the House" BEFORE the mid-terms? Are you going to "disappear" some GOP Congress critters? Last time I counted the GOP had the majority which makes "taking it back" before an election rather difficult. If there is actually a plan you have, you should reveal it to the rest of us.
Jon - Margins are close in the House and the Senate. The fact that the Ds cannot convince enough Rs to go Independent and caucus with them to stop the attack on the Constitution tells me that the Ds need new leadership.
I am willing to give Jeffries a chance in the House, but Booker as Leader in the Senate sounds great. If Jeffries does not step up, there are plenty of good Dem House members who can. The House really needs someone who can compromise without giving too much away, and to wield the power like Pelosi did when necessary. Jeffries is good on the compromise part. We will see if he can wield the power.
For the life of me, I do not understand this Democratic Circular Firing Squad mentality.
What, exactly, do you expect the Senate MINORITY Leader to do with an arithmetical minority? He may come across as plodding, but that does not make him a villain. In February, he faced the ugly reality that once closed, Republicans (guided by Elon Musk on fentanyl or whatever he was on) wouldn't bother re-opening government. And held out as long as he could as the fiscal year came to close at the end of September. Republicans were only too happy to see the suffering continue -- Democrats were not.
The whole thing is scheduled to start again in 2 weeks or so. What, precisely, is your recommendation for Democratic strategy then?
I couldn't agree more and become incensed by the stupidity of those who recklessly place blame on the Democrats instead of where it belongs: the cowards in the republican party.
This isn't some biblical myth of David and Goliath. We have no power unless the republicans find their spine and rise up to put an end to this madness. And that is never going to happen. The cowards who are not running for re-election have the power to end this now yet they will continue to vote in lockstep support of this madness and ultimate destruction. republicans hold all the cards. This is the reality.
Not that it's easy but some Democrats are managing to be more visible than others in Trump's cross-fire hurricane, and that matters at lot right now, I believe.
Thank you ICTT for a very lucid delineation of why Schumer is not the enemy. I'm not in love with the guy but he has done a decent job most of the time under very difficult circumstances.
Dem strategy: At least appear to care. If I don't see some shouting pretty soon I'll have to admit that the Dems are in it for the perks of office, not for the people. Yes, there are a few Dems making waves. Not enough.
In September, every House Democrat voted as a single bloc NOT to approve the GOP’s Big Ugly Bill of cruelty and stupidity. Is it possible you were asleep when this happened?
There are plenty of Fascist Republicans in the WH, Congress and the Supreme Court to go after without defanging Schumer. Nancy Pelosi handled Schumer very well. The rest of the Dems need to step up.
Stressed Sue, Professor Richardson has said (in this case, specific to ACO in the House) that there need to be (my words here) movers and shakers in NON leadership roles where they have the freedom to be firebrands and not too tied to any other collateral duties. I love Cory Booker and his fire and spirit; lets not tie him (just yet, anyway) to a more managerial position.
They can't even keep their story straight. We need to keep up the pressure. Oh, and also keep demanding the release of the unredacted Epstein files, Ts medical files, and Jack Smith's full testimony. Shine a light on all of that.
Inconsistency, fuckupery and grubbing for bribes is truly their only policy. We have never had a government so consistently inconsistent, buffoonishly incompetent and out-of-control -- all at the same time. Chimpanzees throwing poo would be less destructive.
PBS has already published Jack Smith's entire testimony -- all nearly 8 hours of it. I'm not certain why Jockstrap Jordan's Committee of the Absurd released it, because it shows a buffoonish Jordan flailing against one of the most distinguished, competent and patriotic of civil servants in recent years. Perhaps the distinguished pissant from Ohio thought he'd landed a few and wanted to brag about it. Still, it's there.
Theatrical pissants like to remove their jackets and roll up their sleeves to show the world what serious little bantamweight pricks they really are..... 😜
To "fail" Congress had to actively try, which requires action. Finger-pointing and posturing with snarky comments doesn't count as trying or doing governance.
Thank you. An uncomfortable, but extremely necessary pair of articles.
What they are about is the loss of integrity in the Democratic Party. The story is about slippage away from their mission to support working people. Lots of broken promises and a failure to be inclusive.
I think when the political environment is flooded with toxic rhetoric and unethical behavior, the guardrails weaken for everyone in every party. It’s going to be a massive task to clean up after this insanity.
A party committed to massive cleanup is a party that requires holding its own accountable. I see massive resistance in the DNC to doing that, and they seek to avoid change by encouraging their stooges to savage anyone who advocates for that by using every label from "antisemite" to "MAGA" to "both sides false equivalency" on those who dare to advocate for accountability.
Thank you, as always Professor Richardson! And thanks for posting on Facebook before my 10:30 school bedtime…but then I stayed awake to post here 🤣 bedtime now, goodbye winter break 😢
And my normal -
Let Congress hear you! Be extremely loud!
Use/share this spreadsheet (bit.ly/Nokings) as a resource to contact members of Congress, the Cabinet and news organizations. Call. Write. Email. Protest. Unrelentingly.
Reach out (beyond your own) to as many in the Senate and House as you can. All of this is bigger than “I only represent my constituents” issues.
Add a comment to help keep this bumped ✊ New eyes seeing this means new ripples for change! 🤞
The distraction from, and ongoing destruction of, Ukraine by Team Treason makes me ashamed to be an estadounidense. BELOW: response to the vid. linked below.
The European Union and Organization of American States (O.A.S.) should sanction the United States and ban Trump and his senior officers from their territories.
Perhaps the two polities should petition the International Criminal Court or the International Court of Justice to indict Trump et al. and issue arrest warrants.
N.A.T.O. and the O.A.S. should make very clear that any aggression by the United States against Greenland and / or Mexico as well as any other member *will *be *an Article-5(N.A.T.O.) and Article-3 (O.A.S.) event that will trigger a collective response, notwithstanding the U.S. being the largest yet rogue member of each alliance.
N.A.T.O. ought to send troops to Greenland and conduct training exercises there. The O.A.S. should do the same in Mexico and Colombia, provided, of course, that each entity (including Denmark) consents to such exercises.
The trip-wire will not be a deterrent militarily but may empower forces or reason and calm within the United States to resist this "addiction", typical of bullies, mentioned by Mr Sullivan.
Trump is going to walk away from Ukraine, saying neither side wanted peace. The only reason why Ukraine won't be blamed totally is that Putin humiliated Trump with the bogus drone attack on his estate,
Unfortunately, Trump and Hegseth will want to keep all their war toys at home, so the PURL, which has been Ukraine's lifeline for high-tech, irreplaceable US arms, will go belly up. Hegseth will say that US strategic stockpiles are depleted so that nothing can be shipped to Ukraine.
The US has apparently canceled its commitment to attend this week's meetings on the 20-point peace plan, and there is no "next date" set for Ukraine-US negotiations at any level, according to a press release from Zelenskyy's office.
Meanwhile, the Coalition of the Willing is working feverishly on bilateral security agreements to replace the never-existent US one.
Anybody have a paid subscription to Dean Blundell?. He has a sensationalized post out on Ukraine but there are NO supporting links to legit sources that I can find unless something is broken. I can't comment and ask because I am not a paid subscriber.
Prime Minister Carney is a great man. The E.U. and others can finish Putin off. Glad to see that Prime Minister Carney is seeking to isolate the United States. That will empower the resistance.
This is a big deal, that Prime Minister Carney might be the leader who lights a fire under the EU's ass to stand up to their evil enemy. Canada already has a military force deployed in Latvia.
Blundell was correct--the source article was from the Kyiv Independent-- which, for some reason, did not show up in my feed until 12 hours later. But he still didn't have any live links to sources.
If what is being stated in the sub-stack is true -- and I surely hope it is -- Prime Minister Carney is shaking Europe out of her stasis and basically signalling: time to ignore Trump's mixed signals that keep the 'we' in the WEst stymied; they are camouflaged cover for Putrid to decimate Ukraine as much as he can, while he can.
I have that link for the post, but I don't see any live links that are recent (like in the last week) in the post. I agree it sounds like a big deal about Carney but he is saying that Zelenskyy said it directly as well. I rely on Zelenskyy's official site and I haven't seen anything like this there.
PURL refers to NATO's Prioritised Ukraine Requirements List (also called Priority Acquisition List Required for the Defense of Ukraine), a 2025 initiative where allies fund purchases of U.S.-sourced military equipment and munitions for Ukraine, coordinated via NATO's NSATU hub.
Basically the coalition of the Willing is putting in $1 Billion a month to buy Ukraine the arms it most needs. It can either come from US stockpiles or from US manufacturers. US government is puts in nothing—zero matching funds.
Actual aid to Ukraine in the National Defense authorization Act is only $400 million a YEAR.
For reasons that aren't clear, the EU has chosen mostly to be quiet about this, with heads of government timidly making disapproving noises while their Foreign Secretaries diverge by issuing more more forceful condemnations, trying to have it both ways or something.
Remember that we are not signatories to the International Court of Justice and don't recognize its authority (hence, Putin was allowed to land in Alaska -- had he come to France, he would have been arrested as the plane landed). Their fear of Russia (and of American abandonment of them is a very real thing.
Most of the world is in a state of shock with regard to Trump. It's hard for them (let alone for us) to wrap their (our) heads around the absurdity and idiocy of this moment in time. Nobody in Copenhagen thought they would one day be facing an out-of-control United States bent on seizing its sovereign territory. Nobody else in NATO did either.
The EU states are looking at developments. Will there be a democratic transition? That’s what we support. Remember that Maduro is sanctioned in the EU, so we’re no friends of his. Since Venezuela’s June 2024 stolen election (it was won by the opposition but Maduro refused to leave), his regime has not been recognised by our governments nor the EU commission.
Nevertheless, the US action in Venezuela is worrying Europe because of its knock-on effect on Ukraine and the possible implications for Greenland, one of the three countries that constitutes the Kingdom of Denmark. I don’t see that loud protests would accomplish anything at the moment as nobody knows what the actual situation or plan is. Maduro’s regime is still in place and Trump is already rejecting the opposition leader, and his Secretary of State is saying something completely different too. Reviving the Monroe doctrine in a completely different context from the 19th Century is impossible, I suspect, and it very much depends what the Trump government means by it.
What is certain is that Europe as a whole has enough on its hands without going on a crusade for a Maduro regime it doesn’t recognise. Spain is, as expected, supporting the protests of its fellow Hispanic countries, but it does so as part of Hispanidad, not as a European.
What's likely to transpire in Venezuela is murkiness at best -- a prolonged guerrilla insurgency at worst. If that rings any bells, it should -- it may well be something like Iraq 3.0 -- the void that happens when 'we'll be greeted as liberators' dwindles to the reality of a headless government and vacuum occupied by ISIS, terrorist attacks against our soldiers and outposts, and void in a place where all the regular institutions of power and authority are broken anyway.
From the perspective of social psychology, in the words of a political scientist in Caracas:
"Whatever is to come, the system that Maduro has overseen can't be dismantled overnight. His followers -- longstanding Chavistas, or armed opportunists, could very well mount a prolonged insurgency -- the type of war where the population is held hostage, regardless of political preferences. It is very easy to create chaos and make a country ungovernable when the formal institutions are already broken...."
Dr. Colette Capriles, Professor of Social Psychology and Political Science, Simón Bolívar University, Caracas.
The precedents are more to be found in previous US actions in South and Central America and the Carribean. In fact, this reminds me of the capture and indictment of Noriega.
I encourage you to look more deeply at more recent global developments where void follows the confusion of apparent victory. There are far more dangerous examples of what is likely to ensue.
Yes, there are, although it's too soon to say what path it will take. Venezuela isn't Lybia - very different culture - but it is already an unstable country, in a historically unstable part of the world and not made more stable by historic and current US actions. All I can say is that I hope it won't slide into and insurgency and counter-insurgency situation for years like nearby Colombia did; nor that it will become a narco-state as Colombia and Ecuador did. Its state structures have been weakened over time by Chavistas then by the Maduro kleptocratic regime. If the US doesn't commit to helping fill the void, it could indeed go badly wrong.
You hit the bull's-eye on that observation, Sophie. I am interested in your outside view Sophie. ¿Whence do you come in Euroland? I am in the Benighted States of America, in Maryland. The United States has been doing *these *interventions since the late 19th century, especially under Presidents Teddy Bear, Taft, Wilson. ✍️
The Roosevelt Corollary to the (resurrected) Monroe Doctrine of 1904 would permit this attack as U.S. policy. Presidents Hoover and, then (emphatically), F.D. Roosevelt repudiated that imperialist policy -- now resurrected as the 'Donroe Doctrine' -- a generation later. 🗽
The difference between the original corollary and this application of it is its timing in the arc of history. Back in the early part of the twentieth century, the United States was ascending rapidly to great power status and wanted to flap her wings, flush with confidence. 🥳
These days, however, the United States is no longer the king of the mountain and many of us (e.g., the rogue trumpanzee) can not manage that. So. it is from geo-political insecurity and greed that the current U.S. leadership is grabbing all she can while she can. 🤢
*Deem it *as flapping wings morphing into flailing wings . . . also partly due to Trump's severe case of L.D.S. and bone spurs migrating to the head thereby precipitating trumper tantrums. Worst of it? Vance is likely to be worse as a latter-day Reinhardt Heydrich.🙄
Thanks for the background! I live in France near the Swiss border, and am a dual national (other nationality is Brit). I've worked in international and humanitarian roles around the world, but never in Latin America (I have travelled there for my own enjoyment). My experience of your country is very mixed - its actions are superb when it comes to USAID and PEPFAR, and not-so-superb when it comes to the Iraq War and more generally, the wars of 2001-2021 or giving tech and oil giants too much support to strong-arm sovereign countries and economic zones, including the EU.
I'm a supporter of the EU, but I acknowledge that it has been slow in responding, as a group, to the changing geopolitical reality brought about by Xi, Putin and Trump. I'm hoping it will pass that test, because it's the only way Europe can be a player.
You and I are on the same page. I supported the invasion of Iraq and, no, I was not deceived. So, I may well burn in Hell for that support. I will be damned if drink the Kool-Ade again.
Thank y'all for your sympathetic responses. Gregg, it is not that I supported the invasion that injured my soul. It is why. I wrote an essay that ended up in the right hands and shipped me off to Iraq in 2004. The essay was tightly reasoned and meticulously researched. ✍️
Many of the points were plausible. Nevertheless, all *that that sophisticated prose really *amounted to was scratch-&-sniff vengeance for 9-11, when I knew that Iraq had nothing to do with it. It is that manual over-ride of reason in favor of dark feelings that troubles me, and always will.💔
Michael, as to your original sin: everyone I knew in my grade school or their parents felt the same way. I remember hearing about the Watergate break-in on the television news. I simply shrugged my shoulders; ¿so what? It took Hunter Thompson, of all people, to enlighten me about Senator McGovern. 😥
Sophie, you make a number of good points. I still believe that President G.W. Bush is a good man who faced a moral dilemma. The sanctions brought Iraq to the edge of famine; Iraq was the first modern state to experience stunting and stultification. Time was up. The sanctions were vile and had to go. ¿But how? 😯
I am sure that, were President Bush here with us now, he would admit to his catastrophic error of judgement. But, thankfully in my country, there were plenty of people like Michael who took to the streets to keep the wrong-headed policies fresh in the popular conscience. 🫱🏻🫲🏽
I want to add that just because a law is legally declared (e.g. the US & NATO allies in Afghanistan) doesn't mean it's entirely conducted in a legal manner. The so-called "war against terrorism" was rife with illegal or grey-area actions (black ops, hidden detention centres, torture, extraordinary rendition, etc.). I can't think of a single war that has been conducted in a wholly or even mostly legal manner. It's good that we react against such overreach, and we must keep holding our armed forces to high standards, but realistically, the law of armed conflict is an imperfect instrument.
I know many who did support it and who aren't bad or stupid people. It was a difficult time. I didn't (despite Tony Blair involving Britain in it), because I believe in a rules-based order and it was an illegal war, but I do understand those that did in February-March 2003. I supported it even less when I saw (I was working there) - from April 2003 - just how clueless and unserious the post-invasion plans were. Truly terrible and they laid the foundations for the rise of ISIS a decade later.
My original sin was voting for Nixon in 1972, at the age of 19. I even attended a rally at the San Diego airport and probably chanted, “4 more years” with others. And I remember protester surrounding our bus. Ten years later as a husband, father, and graduate school student, I was helping to organize a campus chapter of DSA. Twenty years later, I was in the streets protesting the impending invasion of Iraq (and I had a son who would do two tours there). Back in grad school, some of us were discussing the likelihood of fascism (and there was Bertram Gross’ “Friendly Fascism”) on the eve of 1984. Been doing penance for decades.
The most immediate threat is from Russia in Ukraine and the Baltic. Dividing and splitting one's resources away from that threat might be considered foolish.
The rub is that "justice is served" but, with Team Treason, 'justice served' is serving an oil grab, a deflection away from the Jack Smith testimony, and distraction from Epstein and G-D knows what else.
Some reaction has to come; this scheiße makes the made-in-the-U-S-A madman punch-drunk. Like Hitler in his early days, the more Trump gets away with, the more he thinks he can get away with. Many people (e.g., me) keep making the mistake that, "This is it." That Trump will surely be sated. To an evil man with an extinguished soul, ever more is never enough.
Your are correct about our not recognizing the I.C.C. But most of the world does. So nations would have the right to ban not just Trump but key players in Team Treason as persona non-grata. Make us pariahs.
That can force Trump's hand as people resist en masse. With all of the birth ties to many countries, people would be less likely to tell the rest of the world to go to Hell.
I once made up a word while I was in Mexico that aptly applies to Trump: estadostúpidense for Americans with the peculiar mix of stupidity and arrogance.
The US is not a member of the ICC, but Venezuela is, meaning that any action by the US in Venezuela does fall under its jurisdiction. I still don't think any prosecutor will touch this with a bargepole.
It is a combo of estúpido and estadounidense, a word used in Latin America for someone from the U.S. But, alas dear Ally, you are far more than quick enough to get it without my help. 🫱🏻🫲🏽💡✌🏼
I believe Russia is also not a signatory to the International Court of Justice. That did not prevent the ICJ from finding Putin had violated international treaties. Could they not do the same to DJT?
That is true about Russia. The Court can make a point to the world by showing the evidence of wrong-doing. Putin is down to a binary end-state: a grudging victory or a body bag. Make these dastards visible in their evil. No Court can enforce the verdict whether a rogue country is a signatory or not.
Trump, Hegseth and Rubio should be indicted by the ICC for their part in the Venezuela attack. But the ICC should also indict Maduro. The illegal US action does not efface the crimes of the Venezuelan regime.
Thank you, Sophie. A real eye-opener on the incredible pettiness of Trump, and the minutiae he will involve himself in to be cruel.
Unfortunately, it also exposes loopholes in systems that assume people of integrity wield power. From now on, every law must be examined to see how it could be used to harm an innocent person by a corrupt official.
Baron Montesquieu, President Jefferson, John Locke, and the rest understood that republics rely upon some measure of virtue on the part of the citizenry. Back in their day, most pro-republican partisans were property owners and educated. Virtue came easily, too often off the sweat of others' brows.
The universal suffrage may have diluted the language so it can be accessible to less educated people and non-property owners, but that is NOT the problem. The great majority of people are fundamentally decent at least to each other, day to day. the challenges of structural violence would tax any constitutional system.
The difficulty comes when people vote for corrupt candidates promising one thing (e.g., to y'all in rusted steel towns in Ohio or farm-towns in Indiana) and deliver another (i.e., the current kleptocracy). The heart-break for me is that I grew up in Pittsburgh and worked in integrated mills during my college summers.
Ironically, one of the most hated men in American history may have foreseen the current travails of the United States going on two centuries ago: “The [500-year] Republic had in reality ceased to exist long before the establishment of the [Roman] Empire. The interval was filled by ferocious, corrupt, and bloody factions. There was, indeed, a small but patriotic body of eminent individuals who struggled in vain to correct abuses and to restore the government to its . . . purity, and who sacrificed their lives in their endeavors to accomplish and object so virtuous and noble.” --John C. Calhoun, ‘A Disquisition on Government’; 1848.
Where is the more immediate threat for Denmark? From Russia or the U.S.? Would it be wise for Denmark to split it's manpower and naval resources between Greenland or the Baltic? Dividing one's forces is risky at best and catastrophic at worst.
Greenland is a part of Denmark, so obviously it's Denmark's job first; but it would ask aid from allies if there was an invasion. I don't see why there should be, as from a defence perspective, Greenland is already a NATO member, and there is a US base there. If it's just for Trump to add some territory on a map, that would be absurd (I know, I know...). Who thinks that way anymore? Russia is the biggest country on earth (more than twice as big as Canada, the second largest), but has barely more than 40% of the US population, and its GDP is somewhere between Spain's and Italy's (it's the 5th GDP in Europe) and its GDP per capita about that of Turkey and Brazil (officially...)
Greenland does have some interesting minerals, but US companies (and European ones for that matter, post-colonisation) have not needed a nation to belong to their country of incorporation in order to make deals for their raw materials.
I just found out from a really fine book on how Latin America fits into the international system that Greenland is under the protection of the Rio Treaty (of 1948) though neither it nor Denmark are signatories to that founding document of the Organization of American States. 😯
So, go after Greenland and Trump triggers Article-5 of the N.A.T.O. and Article-3 of the O.A.S. *treaties, notwithstanding the United States being a rogue ally. Jeez, three continents arrayed against the U.S. That spells isolation. Maybe not a military response.🖕
But a full blown embargo and banning U.S. citizens from travelling to sixty-four countries, some in which Americans own properties. That would teach us.😱
Having lived through the folly of Brexit and observed its disastrous fallout in Britain (a 5-6% drop in GDP for the UK over the past 6 years), I wouldn’t put it past about half of US citizens to shoot themselves in the foot in the same way by supporting such a policy with the same predictable outcome. Done in a US way, of course, which is louder and more obnoxiously dramatic than what we see these days in Western Europe (our own history is full of such hubris). Whatever is said publicly, many European leaders are preparing for an increasing post-American world. That includes Sir Keir Starmer, the leader of Britain, who is looking for a rapprochement with the EU; and the far-right leader of Italy, Giorgia Meloni, who although she shares some philosophical and populist traits with MAGA, knows that putting Italy’s interests first (as is her political position) involves a strong EU and not giving Trump everything he wants.
As I said to marvellously bright young people whom I taught in Tunisia, when they asked me about the volatility of Trump's first term, we in the United States are no longer king-of-the mountain and we are finding it very difficult even to acknowledge, let alone accept, that diminished status.😱
What I did not say was that the world is into the Chinese Century, fifteen or twenty years now. That does not mean that American greatness has utterly disappeared. It has not. It does *mean that our greatness is derivative from, and shared across, our alliances.🫱🏻🫲🏽
Bottom line? The United States needs her allies more than they need her.🙏🏾
That new -- really not new but unrecognized -- fact of life in the Chinese Century is not getting through to us quickly enough. We are lucky, Two great Empires have called it a day for their *respective days in the sun. We have an example to follow. Thank you, Prime Minister Attlee and Secretary Gorbachev.😇
Sure sounds like not only did the administration keep Congress in the dark (by lying to them) and specifically the Gang of Eight, and thereby failed to gain the consent of Congress, they also forgot to tell “Liddle Marco” he was going to be running Venezuela essentially all by himself, without the cooperation or support of any Venezuelans. Easy peasy. To be fair though, when Trump says “run Venezuela” he means use our military assets to steal their oil.
He already has a major donor who will do the job of taking the oil. Paul Singer owns ( or one of his holding companies owns) Citgo. This invasion will add billions in Singer’s already obscenely replete pockets. Payback to one of those who were blessed by SCOTUS to “ money is speech” takeover of our Government.
"I love that fur coat you have, and our winters are cold. I think I'll take it."
"You have a lot of cash in your briefcase. I could definitely use that, so if you don't hand it over I'm going to take it."
"I'm bigger than you are and have a bigger gun. And I'm coming for your home."
These are the new rules of the game, according to our president. The survival of the fittest. I honestly thought the human race was well beyond that ethos.
Not only is Donold obeisant to Putin, he fawns over him and is imitative of him with illegal actions, invasions and murders of noncombatants/civilians. Trump incessantly threatens to do it to more countries, now boisterously proclaiming he might invade multiple countries at once.
We are a rogue state now because of this Trumpian regime's actions and lawlessness. They really do seem intent on making sure our "country is a disaster in every way"...
The more ominous signal from this invasion is that the US military is now willing to follow illegal orders, and will probably do so if ordered to invade Greenland, Canada, or any other country, and will occupy US cities if told to do so. Trump fired any top brass who would have opposed such orders.
This is of great concern. What about the room full of high ranking officers that Hegseth summoned and dressed down? If Trump invades multiple countries he would need more than just special forces. He would need the support of the whole US Military. Would they all comply ?
Phil, Jamie Kasler has a good parody on Tik Tok that gets rid of the automatic defense of everything Doldemort does: https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZP8ycUq8m/
Whenever this thoroughly insane chapter of history finally gets written, there will be a long chapter in the middle entitled "The Unbearable Pathos of Marco Rubio." A small, wretched, conniving man who *knows* it's all lunacy, but signed away his soul to Beelzebub anyway for....what, I don't even know, really. One shabby little man smearing himself with poo in public while the cameras roll.
I sincerely pray that Congress will pass measures to prevent this regime from invading Cuba, Greenland, Colombia and/or Mexico and will actually take action if it makes aggressive moves on any of those countries.
This is beyond insane and must stop.
Mark my word: Congress -- now self-rendered as impotent as the Duma under Nicholas II or the Reichstag under Hitler -- will do nothing more than voice protests rendered not only meaningless but deliberately deceptive by its members' absolute lack of any means of enforcement. And thanks to the traitorous military turned oath-breaking Christonazi subversive -- and now proving itself willing to do whatever is necessary to enforce the will of der neu Führer (whomever he may be) -- the nullification of Congress (and thus of our Constitution) is probably permanent...that is, until Trump invades Greenland, starts World War III, discovers he's about to share Hitler's fate and vindictively triggers the extermination of all sentient life in fulfillment of the Hitler-originated "Better Dead than Red" policy. (For the very first time in my 85 years I am literally overwhelmed by dread -- not personal fear, as I expect to soon be dead of terminal CHF -- but some bottomless combination of horror and grief for our Mother Earth and all her inhabitants that is so far beyond "dread" I am truly rendered speechless.)
I am only 58 but share your dread. I know the country I grew up in - flawed but workable and progressive, flawed but ideally fair under a constitution like no other. I didn’t want to like your comment because your terminal diagnosis is nothing to like and your words demand respect beyond liking. Thank you for your perspective. Peace.
Thank you. I am sorry to be so negative, but I feel this is infinitely worse than the Cuban Missile Crisis (at the secret beginning of which I was on a troopship, the USNS Sultan, coming home from Korea with about 3500 other GIs, all of us wondering why we were being shadowed by a Soviet submarine, we waving at its crew and they waving back when they surfaced to recharge their batteries) -- which mutually friendly spontaneous greeting I long ago took as a proof that we humans, at least those of us who are still capable of empathy, are not naturally hateful unless we are forced to be -- or not, like white supremacists and other sorts of nazis -- specifically bred to be hateful. But that is an aside, a distraction, an emotional avoidance; the unspeakable horrible truth in the difference between the Cuban Missile Crisis and now is that from August to October 1962, rationality still ruled our planetary motherland. Now -- with the Christonazis intent on either conquering the entire Western Hemisphere or destroying the world (and bringing about their Rapture) -- we are ruled by madness, ecogenocidal madness, and the world's first deliberately Failed Nation has become our planet's greatest malignancy ever. (My apology for the difficulty I had clarifying this prose -- evidence of how damn distraught I am.)
Thank you for your honorable and commendable service. Also, yes, worse than the Cuban Missile Crisis. I would add worst than 9/11. This time the enemy is from within. He is within the White House which he is also attacking.
Having in my youth been a student of the Bible, although an unbeliever, I'm reminded of Matthew 23:27-32 (King James version, I like Shakespearean English):
Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men's bones, and of all uncleanness. Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity.
Well, he's working diligently at unbeautifying the White House, first inside and now out. Not, it is very sure, from conscience.
And let's not forget verse 33, a warning to those in Trump's circle, "Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell?"
There will be a price to be paid.
Excellent biblical quote. This should be shared to all Christian’s White Nationalists with examples of Trump’s betrayal to God, Jesus and everyone and everything else.
Amen! So when do we begin to unload the demon?
I’d suggest another: He that troubleth his own house shall inherit the wind”
I’m a bit of a Greek geek, having taught ancient history for some years, so I actually prefer the vision of Trump being pursued by the Furies.
Anne-Louise. Thank you for this and I also prefer the KJV.
I'm not much of a Bible reader; although, I'd like to have the time to read it once in a while. The point for me revolves around the fact that none of the administration is even close to being "beautiful outward." One can take any of the administration's sycophants and look at them with a critical eye and never see anything attractive about them. Kristi Noem? Nope! Donald trump or Stephen Miller? Nope!!! PaMS Bondi? Nope! Russell Vought? Nope!! JD Vance?? Definitely Not!! We can go on and on and on.... However, going with "...are within full of dead men's bones, and of all uncleanness. Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity." Ya.... I can go with that with no trouble at all.
Yep. Outward a patriotic reality TV show hiding inner corruption and criminal activities.
Amazing to find such value in the clear speech found in the Bible. Thank you, Anne- Louise
If you read the Bible that well, you know that there will be an end to this world. God is creating a new human race to replace the current one. Be sure to be in that new group.
You're a smart guy, Worse than the Cuban Missile Crisis? Really?
Were you around for that?
We were literally on the brink of nuclear war. We were practicing and drilling for the apocalypse, wondering if we weren't killed by the blasts if we could survive the fallout and for how long.
Yes, this is bad, but worse than the Cuban Missile Crisis?
I dunno.
Well, Gary, I was there during that time as well and being a student of history, this is worse because the rule of law has been destroyed. Back then we had people in the government that respected the rule of law, now we have people there that are ruling the law. They set aside what they do not like, follow what they want and make new law (without Congress) knowing that courts will eventually turn it down, but in the meantime they destroy more order. Yes, I see this as worse because of what it means. As it stands right now, look at who our friends are and who this administration now considers not friendly. Yes, it is worse and getting more so.
I grew up during the 50’s and 60’s. I know what you are talking about. That was the time when most Americans trusted that the government would generally try to do the right thing.
That trust is gone. Vietnam and Nixon put the lid on that. The right wing intelligentsia has worked feverishly ever since to destroy our democratic underpinnings by convincing a majority that our government is the enemy. And it has culminated in this disastrous regime which is trying so hard to replace the Constitution with Project 2025.
A president with complete immunity for his criminal actions is bad enough. Add in pardons to secure the loyalty of his minions to keep him in office and do his bidding, and we have created a Frankenstein. A totally amoral and immoral sociopath with unfettered power and the nuclear codes.
So I would agree that we are in very dangerous territory that is almost a sequel to “1984”, the novel not the year. Spheres of influence by major powers and endless wars keeping the masses in check.
I don’t think we are at the tipping point…yet. The deterioration of the president is proceeding faster than the destruction of the Constitution and its remaining freedoms. A hiccup in the Project 2025 plan perhaps. Trump seems to have gone rogue before Vaught and company can seal the deal for an American theocracy.
do you think frump will not use nukes? I think if it benefits him, he will. if he thinks his freedom is in danger, he will light our country up
Deja vu for me. Guatemala. Panama. Bay of Pigs.
Darth Vader Republicans -- Chaney, Rumsfeld, et al -- were threatening same against Chavez in 2007 when he nationalized most of the Venezuelan oil industry.
We were preoccupied, working on regime change after attacking Iraq and Afghanistan. Of course we did have Congressional authorization -- based on fake assetions that Sadaam Hussain had nuclear weapons.
Gary, the missile crisis was indeed a potentially existential crisis of its time, especially in the height of the Cold War. Every generation knows only what horrific—or potentially horrific—world events it must endure. No one then could foresee a megalomaniacal madman as president as we now have. Please don’t minimize the 13 days of total fear it brought.
Comparing the two is a bit like that old adage about comparing apples and oranges. There are only two real differences. We came much closer to war then than we are now, indeed closer than many realize. But what we could have done to ourselves then pales beside what we can do now.
The central issue is simple - the existence of nuclear weapons themselves.
You are not negative. You are a truth teller. You call them Christonazis, I call them something similar - Christofascists. Either way, I am a Christian, a follower of Jesus, and their powers of self empretzelment at the least embarrass me, and at the worst, scare the hell out of me. Deliberately failed nation - spot on description - our house was not maintained and now falls apart from rot. You are not being negative, you are a truth teller. Thank you.
These have all been good and valid points. Lots of emotions have been conjured up for me. I'll try to spare all of you by keeping this short. I would say that at least in the 60's there were very strong words shared between Russia and the US. Evidently diplomacy prevailed and no nukes were fired? What makes this crisis so heinous to me is the absolute lawlessness of this regime. Republicans have zero national pride in what this country has achieved in the last 250 years or so, and only party loyalty. That's what scares me. Call them Christonazis or Christofsacists but regardless of what they are called they hav nothing to do with Jesus Christ. Nothing.
Self-empretzalment — what a great word! Thanks, Sarcastic Prophet. Lovely! Every time I use it I will give you the praise.
Thank you.
There is much evidence in the Bible of God's saving grace and yet it appears those in authority who moan and groan about 47's evil have given no apparent call to the Holy Spirit, our helper, comforter, and advocate. Let us pray.
Sorry Eleanor it's followers of the Bible that have led us here.
Let us use reason and rationality, not appeals to gods, to guide us.
Eleanor, you seem to be a person who takes comfort and refuge in your religious beliefs and the practice of prayer. Both are deeply personal to you and not necessarily embraced or practiced by others. Evangelizing is not helpful. Prayer is not a substitute for a functioning Congress. Donald Trump and his sycophants are evil. They must be stopped and held accountable for their actions, not in the great hereafter but now. Pray incessantly if that's what works for you. As for me, I prefer a more direct approach. No one is going to save us but ourselves.
Trumpettes hear that as Let us prey!
Eleanor, the problem with your "advice" is it's premised on an encyclopedia of Jewish literature, two-thirds of which is utter fiction written by men. The remaining third is a collection of writings of men deemed by a group of men to be worthy of inclusion in the canon by men. The provenance of the whole collection is sketchy at best.
In any case, the compendium pays homage to a fictional deity imagined by old Jewish men sitting around their campfires, trying to come up with answers to unanswerable questions. Failing, they invented a deity who could be blamed or credited for all the things they couldn't explain.
This fantasy led to a religious system, again, invented by men, whose main goal is perpetuation of the system. Wars have been fought and millions murdered in the interest of protecting and perpetuating the Judeo-Christian religion.
Others, such as yourself, have engaged in proselytizing, hoping to gain "stars in their crown" by "witnessing to unbelievers."
If mumbling words to an imaginary deity give you comfort, you should do that. But recommending that practice as a substitute for actually taking action and being useful is not helpful for the crisis at hand.
OK, a new favorite word to join "underbusing" - "self-empretzelment!"
I was seventeen during those thirteen terrible days in 1962. The memory of waiting then for resolution or Armageddon is a bit cloudy now. My army service was still nearly five years in the future, and would be spent in an army and a country being torn apart even more violently than now.
Oddly, the moment that had triggered the worst fear I have ever experienced was when Eisenhower sent Marines into Lebanon when I was eleven or twelve. It was an inexpressibly lovely summer day at my grandparents house high above the Connecticutt River in Essex. I was outside on the patio and I heard drifting out of the kitchen window some commentator saying that we were uncertain if the Russians would react with an attack. At that age, of course, I had no idea of the reality of the situation, but I had recently finished reading Philip Wylie’s Tomorrow with its terrifying description of a nuclear missile attack on an American city as seen through the eyes of the inhabitants, and I can still remember spending the next hour utterly frozen in fear that I would see a missile or a red-starred bomber coming over the trees to the north (the great circle route over the North Pole that they would take).
Since then, nothing that has happened has equalled that hour, not even the Cuban crisis. Now, as I watch this demented old man and his cohort of sycophants playing with our world as if it was some sort of computer game, I feel only a deep sorrow.
We of a certain age, the children of the Cold War, the plank owners of the first human generation to grow up knowing that we held in our flawed hands the power to destroy ourselves, who perhaps felt, as I did, the utter absurdity of MAD (Mutually Assured Destruction) being discussed at the highest level as if it were something entirely normal are an odd lot. So many of us are Trumpists, a stance I cannot for the life of me understand. We watched our country twice slide from being the Arsenal of Democracy down into this abyss of bitter division, and now half of us have re-elected to the Presidency this despicable human being who has proven to be the most corrupt, vengeful, amoral, misogynistic, malicious, mendacious huckster and con man.
In the end, my worst fear is not nuclear destruction, but rather the loss of a country whose history I taught with increasingly desperate pride for over 40 years; the most extraordinary, the most crucial, the riskiest, and the most complex ongoing experiment in human society and government ever attempted. I am about a year older than Donald Trump. To think that a man who grew up in this same country, and with nearly all the advantages it could grant anyone could have turned out to have such a distorted view of us is far more incomprehensible and frightening to me than all the missiles of October and beyond.
"And you, of tender years, can't know the fears that your elders grew by." Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young
I'm in my sixties and we spent an entire semester in Junior High on what to do before, during and after a nuclear attack. I still remember learning and being tested on the textbook protocol (written for children) of how to isolate an entry to mitigate radiation (ha ha), which foods in decay were safest to eat and the potential radiation shielding of common materials. I suppose the school board thought it was more hopeful than telling us to bend over and kiss our asses goodbye but it formed a deep, deep fear in me and, I believe, a generational trauma.
I often ponder that this generation doesn’t seem to have anything like the songs we did, those of hope (Light One Candle), sorrow (For Dead in Ohio), anger (You Masters of War), questions (Blowin in the Wind), and all the rest.
Perhaps they do in their own way, but I’m not aware of them. Perhaps it has something to do with so many of today’s youth’s cynicism about democracy.
Yes, we knew the absurdity of those drills, and we knew which neighbors were building and stocking shelters in their backyards and buying guns with which to defend them against those of us who were not so well prepared. Not that anyone wanted to emerge into the world of The Day After.
What a wonderful, and wonderfully appropriate, quote! Just yesterday, I was listening to that beautiful song after a Sunday prompt from Dan Rather's Substack.
Seeing how far down our country has slid since we were growing up, truly is scary. I think that trump shows that having lots of advantages, clearly shows that being advantaged does not make one a better person. All the people I've respected - and do respect - did not grow up with lots of advantages. They are the ones who have fought for civil rights, freedom from corporate greed, social equality, environmental justice, etc.
No, being advantaged does not guarantee a principled character, but I’d caution against a mass indictment. We can all think of terrifically advantaged individuals who have fully earned what Tom Paine called, “the love of man and woman” all during our history. Two who come immediately to mind are two of our ‘initial’ presidents - FDR and JFK. Yes, both were flawed human beings, as we all are, and neither truly showed the best of themselves until they faced the awesome responsibilities of the presidency. But when the moment came, both in different ways became what we truly needed at that moment.
Perhaps we need to remember the percentages. Very few in comparison have had the advantages they did, so it is not strange that so few of them have come to stand out. After all, the number of those without such advantages who have been anything but standout characters is legion.
Did Trump grow up with advantages? or money? He appears to have been very disadvantaged by lack of discipline and instruction.
I loved your story of Soviet and US troops waving at each other. The Russians are a warm, friendly people - funny how they are always so dominated by their ruler. Catherine the Great had the secret - she was a tyrant, but a beautiful, highly-cultivated one, who took very able commanders as her lovers and propagandists. You know the story of the Potemkin villages? Back in the sixties the great Red Army Male Choir were touring and I went to a (packed) concert in the Royal Albert Hall. They sang in their magnificent voices, danced athletic Cossack dances. One song, in English, "Do the Russian people want war? NO!" Propaganda, maybe, but that was the year of the Cuban Missile Crisis and we applauded them with all our hearts.
And now the Russian people are muzzled, starving and freezing to death. It is beyond deplorable that Trump, Putin, Bibi, Un and many other Fascist despots are using starvation and freezing conditions as weapons.
Exactly. A few testicularly insane MEN harming so many and destabilizing the entire world and I just can not comprehend why we cannot take these deranged tiny men OUT.
And that is exactly what Trump wants for us. Just like his hero, Putin.
Its beyond deplorable that so few evil men run the planet on whim!
I'm blaming Putin for the freezing and starving and muzzling. And the deliberate bombing of power facilities and civilians in apartment buildings.
Ms. Luccarini...Thanks to my father's politics -- an invaluable education for which I am ever more grateful -- the Red Army Chorus was a core part of my childhood music and will always remain on my listening list. Here are four favorites:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YICZkLjCUuw&list=RDYICZkLjCUuw&start_radio=1 (of course)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QSLSrGMaV_M&list=RDQSLSrGMaV_M&start_radio=1
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ILOIVOqJrkg&list=RDILOIVOqJrkg&start_radio=1 (Sorry I could not find a YouTube offering of this powerful classic that offered both acceptable sound-quality and translation of the lyrics, which are Tolstoy's words. Their most relevant part -- the shout that begins at 1:38 -- translates as "Stand fast for the truth/The truth of the people!")
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J7sGPCyXV0U&list=PLNB7VTPWjLJKgPFJqENWyji2eR65L03-3&index=32
The “warm and friendly” Russians you’re talking about are even worse racists than white Americans.
I know your dread. I am in Germany and people who are normally jumping to go to a rally or organize one, are telling me they are burnt out. One is saving energy for when she is in the US in the spring through summer. So that is good. She is budgeting her energies. I am doing the same. I was out of commission and in the US in the late summer and early fall because I had to take care of family business, then returned in time for a No Kings Rally here. I see people burning out from all that is happening. It is important not to. I am all about getting out the Vote.
Linda, there is strength in numbers and I believe those numbers are growing. Just like the geese flying above, when the leader tires, it drops back and another moves forward to let the leader recharge.
Rest and come back stronger!
I am going to organize a Rally. I have been feeling out who is with me, and deciding that I need to get going on it.
I keep a quote from Marjorie Stoneman Douglas on my facebook. I share it often and read it every time I think about giving up. I have friends who are protecting their mental health, aka saving their energy. For what?!?
Linda, with this latest bad news, a lot of us are sitting with feelings of dread & not really sure what to do next. There is a gathering in Des Moines WA tomorrow as a reminder of 1/6 riot on the US Capitol. Another protest slated for 1/20 as a walk- out of jobs, buy nothing, stay home day. Waiting for the next chance to vote seem eons away.
Cindy, it is awful! It is exhausting. That is another reason Trump is doing this. It is not just about what he wants from Venezuela, but also what doing this to them does to us. He wants to demoralize us. He wants to punish us for caring about Epstein and Jack Smiths testimony and the cost of things, and the rise in health care premiums. We are supposed to be immune to any tragedies wrought on us by his actions and blindly adoring.
Tuesday is January 6. There are “Paperclip the Nation” protests planned on that day.
https://thepaperclipresistance.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/Paperclip-The-Nation-Flyer.pdf
Tomorrow I am meeting with some friends by a statue that symbolizes the German city in which we live and we are going to be wearing large paperclips and take pictures to add to the paperclip movement tomorrow in protest of January 6, 2021 and the War on Venezuela, and the many awful actions of Trump and Putin and the AfD.
I am also trying to get everyone I know abroad to register to vote since those of us who live abroad need to do that every year in order to vote.
U.S. citizens living, serving, or studying abroad—you can vote from wherever you are! 🌍 Visit https://votefromabroad.org to register and request your overseas ballot.
It’s quick, free, and valid for all elections in 2026. Need help? Write to help@votefromabroad.org.
Vote from Abroad volunteers are ready to assist you with any questions about requesting or returning your ballot. Don’t wait! Request your ballot today and make your voice heard! 🗳️ Please help to spread this message.
Solidarity! ✌🏽
Loren, IMO you are not being negative, just realistic. I have been reading a lot by Native Americans lately, which confirms your description of ecogenocidal madness. I hate that you have CHF - it's one of the things I'm terrified of ending up with. I hope that you can somehow find peace for the rest of your life. It would be well deserved.
Thank you.
Rubio is all in on this because Venezuela and Cuba are friends; Rubio is Cuban, so he is exercising some personal vendetta. This is no way to run a country....
Of course, nearly everything T does is because he is exercising some personal vendetta.
and/or seizing an opportunity to enrich himself and his family.
You're right. The entire administration hates someone, wants to hurt someone, wants to remove rights from someone, wants to destroy someone........
Loren, if you ever saw a USAF Albatross in the area, the odds are even that it was my father-in-law; he flew 82 solo infiltration/exfiltration and recon missions during the CMC.
Or my ex-father-in-law. He was a "brown shoe" Navy pilot in WWII and Korea, who was called back to active duty for the CMC.
You speak for
Many of us in our fears and disbeliefs that people didn’t see this madman rising to power and destruction of our once beautiful country, the flaws were minor before the nazi (djt) arrived. 💩🤬
Thank you.
You are not being negative. Just telling the truth. These are scary times and I know this: We Dems MUST pick someone who WILL win the presidency.
No more "waiting my turn" or "well, it's time we had a _____ in office."
Nothing matters more than winning.
Thank you.
first, thank you for your service. Next, thank you for your ongoing words - both comforting and alarming. The Rapture of which you speak would be a grand solution IMO. At this point where the lunatics are running and destroying the asylum, Rapture and destruction seems to me to be a viable, nay desirable, solution.
Agreed. I clearly remember the terror of the Cuban missile crisis. This is worse, if not as an immediate threat. This unlawful invasion and kidnapping of a leader of a sovereign country has distanced us from our allies and diminished our global status.
Loren, what you have said is as clear as a bell and I agree. I was in the dining room at Kalamazoo College when we heard about the Cuban Missile Crisis and we were full of fear, but somehow not like this because now we have a madman in charge.
I never thought I would see the day when our Constitution didn't work....
I am trying to deep breathe Loren. It's the only thing keeping me from crying.
No need to apologize Loren, and a most excellent analysis and cri de couer you present.
I am not sure that this barbaric and bullying action by Trump and his Gang of Grifters presents a worse scenario of dread than that posed by the Soviet nuclear arming of Cuba precipitating the Cuban Missile Crisis. Yet, I see your point.
Not only were JFK, his cabinet and advisors all far more intelligent and mature than the aforementioned Gang of Grifters, but they were also possessed of basic principles and common sense as well as battle tested experience. JFK nearly died in the shark infested waters of the Pacific serving his Country in WWII, as opposed to President "Daddy, I have bone spurs", to list just one glaring contrast.
Another obvious one is that while the US in the early 60s was far too enamored of the siren song of nuclear weapons, we did not precipitate the Cuban Missile Crisis, whereas the US under Despicable Don fully initiated the war on Venezuela from wholly false pretenses and wholly absent justifications, save for raw gangster-esque demonstration of power.
Yet still, the imminent specter of nuclear war is perhaps the most sobering prospect to contemplate.
An as yet unnoted item on the long list of terribles that the attack on Venezuela and the kidnapping of the Maduros produced, is the greater threat of nuclear conflict in the future. Once the strongest military power in the world jettisons all principles, legal obligations and decency to invade countries and kidnap their leaders just because they can, then everything everywhere is fair game.
The Congress needs to act urgently to wholly defund any and all funding for the incipient war crime in Venezuela, and We the People need to be out in the streets, taking all necessary actions to stop this madness right about now
Fun fact: when President Obama took out Osama bin Laden, only 4 other people were killed in that operation, and none of our military personnel were hurt.
Let's do our best to remind Trump that once again, Obama did it better.
I am so distraught. The US has devolved into a place of murderers and thieves, thuggery and violence. It takes a certain kind of crazed ruler to take out people. trump wins by maximum intimidation. One (Congress?) has to be nice to trump not because it's good to be nice, but because he is in command of nuclear weapons. There is no trace of mercy or kindness in Congress or the administration only a grandiose attitude toward empire building and an imperial rulership. No matter how much we dislike bureaucracy and rules and regulations, that is how governments provide for its citizens, otherwise the alternative is anarchy......
Well stated summery of the State of the Union. I understand that felling also, "literally overwhelmed by dread," I once knew a WWII veteran who had several photos of himself on the front limes in Germany at an age before he could vote. His words were only, "We had a job to do." The greatest generation; patriotism plus a strong work ethic. He has been on my mind.
Bottom line. Everything Trump does is lawlessness. Trump misused our military to commit an act of War upon a sovereign nation, killing it’s people and kidnapping it’s leader and his spouse. This is not only Trump. This is the combined thinking of the think tanks of the American, maybe even the global, poorly regulated free enterprise system; a corporatist fascist takeover of the West. No doubt this international lawlessness will harm trade but they are banking on a future of no cartels. You would think they being business minded they might consider supply is the result of a demand thus the problem is here at home. But no, these R.I.N.O.s actually believe it is the producer who is the "job creator." They are using our military risking their lives, and our tax dollars, so maybe they can invest more and more down south later. Trump is doing the same against Iran (Bombs away) so he and his billionaire crew can invest over there too. All these people see is hotel$, ca$ino$ and golf cour$e$. Oh, and don’t forget those getaways like the Epstein Island. By the way, where are those files? Public protesting in large numbers sends a message and we must do that. But we can send a bigger message to those board members of the free enterprise system. The System depends on peace. Bottom line, if 10% of those who march in the next No Kings protest buy or order an assault rifle that day with several extra magazines, or better yet, capable of accepting high-capacity drums, the Roberts 6 might pull their heads out but for sure it would divide board members and allow us to conquer and regulate Trump and his greedy Nazi bastards. If we only have signs and chanting, well, how’s that working out for yeh? From my favorite film, "A Bug's Life": Hopper's famous quote , "You let one ant stand up to us, then they all might stand up! Those puny little ants outnumber us a hundred to one, and if they ever figure that out, there goes our way of life!"
My father, at 38 with four children, volunteered to serve in the Marines and went to the Philippines. He served with a lot of other guys his age and many did not come home. They saw it as a job to do, led steadily by their president and their government.
My Dad was the oldest guy in his Army training platoon at 30.
I agreed with you right up to the point of you suggesting that any civilian purchase an assault rifle. We may yet be forced to go down that rabbit hole, but if it gets to that point, you can count me out.
I understand. That is your right too. I also understand that We the Citizens of the United Sates must urgently unite in order to save our republic by amending our Constitution as we are under Attack by the same forces which impelled us to our duty to declare our Independence from the State of Great Britain; the unbridled greed of major corporations. Every major problem we face today including environmental harm, social inequality, instability of our economy, and corrupt political and judicial branches of government are all driven by the poorly regulated corporate business model of the free enterprise system. Likewise, those three tea ships docked in Boston Harbor in 1773, were owned by the British East India Company which began with a royal charter by Queen Elizabeth I, and became the first multinational corporation. It is good that you unite in that effort to resolve this problem we have.
When the British Regulars marched on Concord they were searching for a small mountain of gun powder and a small cannon or two. At the Battle of Concord's North Bridge Major it was John Buttrick, the commander of the Concord militia, who gave the order “Fire, fellow soldiers! For God's sake, fire!”
Whatever works then. Got my plastic out...
You nailed it in the first sentence! The rest rehashes what we know!
The military and by extension the veterans are losing the goodwill we’ve repaired after Vietnam.
Hegseth, Rubio and Trump have single handedly thrown away the public goodwill and a necessity for a continued functional military with public backing. It is our family members being ordered to do these things and we may know they’re taking orders, the use of the military in unjust ways destroys necessary public sentiment.
My heart is breaking after many years of working in the VSO community to reintegrate positive public support for our military and veterans. Who will want to join the military except jingoistic nationalists with ICE like violence in their veins.
USMC Vet.
Yes Bill, that the military is being used to invade other countries and seem to be ok to assault our own citizens as Trump would like is a full breakdown of the military. Like Senator Kelly and others said , they must not follow illegal orders.
Your service and your families service in the military, as well as my fathers, all uncles and aunt’s service and millions of other Americans, is being stomped on and destroyed by Trump and his regime. The leaders in the military must not follow illegal orders . Congress, led by the Democrats and independents must stand up and take action. Maybe they can convince a few of the GOP can go along .
I saw a picture of Trump apparently talking to someone with Hegseth standing beside him. It looked like Trump might fall forward of his own weight and Hegseth looked like the bully who’d gotten the smaller kid’s lunch money, rubbing his hands together and grinning. Just what his sad ego needed…for today.
Well said!
Semper Fi.
If your assessment is correct, we'll be forced to witness Schumer fulfill his assignment from the DNC, oligarchs, and Israel to screw over any representative governance and say by American citizens---AGAIN.
Schumer said he is hoping for action by his Republican colleagues. Leadership at its finest.
He's done more than just hope.
What would you have him do? Please, really tell us what anyone else could do more?
You forgot the '/s'.
Would that I were wrong...
As predictable as the sunrise. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iWs3Fr6vOCs
The operatives running the party on behalf of oligarchs and the Netanyahu government are doing everything in their power to put the American rank and file under ruling class authoritarian government.
Funny comment about the duma (not really) because I have written my federal elected reps and told them that the republican dominated Congress behaves just like the current Russian Duma - whatever the leader wants, he gets. I especially stressed that during the filling of these cabinet positions with their incompetence being their weakness. Their silence, I kept repeating, was approval, as was their refusal to push for accountability for J6, a full accounting of the Butler staged assassination attempt and their refusal to defend the Constitution.,
Do you still hold that the Democrats in Congress are complicit with the Trump regime?
Has this changed your mind at all?
I understand your frustration. I read comments from people who don’t seem to understand that the Democrats are the minority and have been frozen out by Republicans. But it’s Schumer’s public persona and his mind that is wedded to the Congress of Tip O’Neill’s day that inspires no one. When Obama was elected, I told friends that he needed to kneecap the Republicans. He didn’t and they still framed the narrative of a hyper partisan president. After Gingrich in the early ‘90’s, the game had changed. We are now in a 300 Spartans mode. Once DHS becomes a thoroughly institutionalized SA, SS, SD, Gestapo, we may be done. They are already characterizing anti-ICE protests terrorist actions as being committed by antifa cells and investigating groups like the Socialist Rifle Club as such. Dread does not capture my feeling.
I ask seriously and respectfully what more can they do?
What is it about Schumer's public persona that leads us to believe he is stuck in Tip O'Neill's days of bi-partisanship?
If someone can point to an actionable item I'd be happy to do what I can to help see it through.
Yikes, if I were in charge I'd kinda like to know what Socialist Rifle Club is up to considering the history of socialist movements.
Socialist Rifle Club—as opposed to the multitude of neo-Nazi militias that abound? Seriously? Who is ICE/DHS recruiting with their new found wealth? Maybe the Socialist Rifle Club is more interested in self-defense, not unlike black self-defense groups. Aside from the Weather Underground and I guess you can include the SLA, a half century and more ago, what other left-wing terrorist group has run amuck in this country? We had anti-colonial actions, anarchist bombings, and the old IWW, who were so violent about free speech that they were beaten, shot down, jailed, . . . So what does “considering the history of socialist movements” imply? The history of this country is rife with state terror and right-wing violence.
Not opposed to, along with,
We're almost in agreement. Yes, let's keep on eye on the Nazis.
Yet, Two wrongs don't make a right.
Why, because it's neither a zero sum game nor a contest. We tend to look at violence from the extremes as acts committed by individuals unrepresentative of the adherents of given philosophy whether it's right or left wing. That gives us cover.
Here's some facts, https://www.csis.org/analysis/left-wing-terrorism-and-political-violence-united-states-what-data-tells-us
Yes, the left is behind the right but it is increasing exponentially. Interestingly, one of reasons the left is behind is that they simply aren't as good at it as the right. They verge on the farcical at times. And those Antifa clowns are a joke. Black clothing and umbrellas, seriously?
Here's how the CSIS is rated for bias, a bit left of center,
https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/center-for-strategic-and-international-studies/
So, yes if I were in charge I'd look at any political group that has advocated for the overthrow of the government that has a "Rifle Club". I'm assuming you know the ISO and other socialist organizations have advocated for the overthrow of the government. You knew this right?
The there's this, One need only remember what NAZI is an acronym for. That guy used socialism to open the door for fascism, the same as Lenin did for communism.
"The goal of socialism is communism." ~Vladimir Lenin
Thank you for putting into words how so many feel.
Exactly
How can I reply "like" to your post? I agree with you. Maybe we need another category, "Agree". My heart goes out to you. It is horrible to see our individual hopes, dreams, efforts at harmony, world peace, caring for each other and the earth just disregarded like so much trash. However, hope, love, harmony, and peace are still important and they exist, no matter what our government says or does. I wish for you wellness, ease, love from friends and family, peace and comfort, which can overcome dread. We just have to look for the evidence of their presence in our everyday lives.
Thank you.
Jake Broe is predicting that without pushback Trump will be invading Greenland after the winter is over. Jake Broe is a military analyst and YouTube commentator focused on the war in Ukraine. He is a veteran who previously served as a Nuclear and Missile Operations Officer in the United States Air Force. Here he talks about Russia, Venezuela, Cuba and Greenland.
https://youtu.be/4M2eRbA-sTU?si=ZqVh9yLYaNnQL6C7
Terrifying.
Mike Johnson, Speaker of the House, literally said, a few months ago, that he sees it as the job of Congress to "codify the executive orders signed by the president".
This is a neofascist GOP trying to install fascism in the US and in the entire Western hemisphere, while hoping that Putin will do the same in Europe.
It's extremely dangerous.
Loren, dread is worse than death! But I fear the same thing. All this is beyond crazy and I think our democratic Congress is frozen in shock! We need action from our leaders!
I disagree, you have not been rendered speechless, your eloquent post speaks volumes!
Thank you.
His niece Mary Trump says if he thinks he's going down, he'll try to take everyone else with him. I believe her. I'm afraid "everything" might be Humanity.
"I am truly rendered speechless."
Loren, I offer the following words (spoken by Abraham Lincoln in 1858, but they also apply in 2026) to render you speech-full:
"In this age, in this country, public sentiment is everything. With it, nothing can fail; against it, nothing can succeed. Whoever molds public sentiment goes deeper than he who enacts statutes or pronounces judicial decisions. "
I, too, Loren am filled with emotions and you helped me put a name to them. Seems like we have a lot of lemmings running DC. I can foresee the actions to come & the only solution will have to be dragging those who gave T the go- ahead or didn't stop him, out of chambers & into lockup. NYC federal facility?
Congress won’t stop him because the November NSS already provides the doctrinal framework. The “Trump Corollary” explicitly authorizes military force to deny Chinese/Russian influence over “strategically vital assets” in our hemisphere. Venezuela was proof the doctrine works…no congressional pushback, mission accomplished.
I just published analysis showing this wasn’t improvisation. The NSS elevates threats to bypass war powers, reframes regime change as “law enforcement,” and treats congressional oversight as optional. Trump literally said “we’re going to run the country” about Venezuela. That’s the template for Cuba, Greenland, Mexico…anywhere the doctrine applies.
Your prayers need backup.
Congress has already been tested on Venezuela and failed. They accepted the “just executing an arrest warrant” excuse. That precedent now applies hemisphere-wide.
Unless there’s a massive institutional response right now, the invasion list you’re describing isn’t hypothetical…it’s operational doctrine waiting for the next “strategic asset” worth seizing.
—Johan
Former Foreign Service Officer
NSS from an illegal President! Compliments of John Robert’s!
The U.S. has effectively signaled that China could move on Taiwan and Russia could push further into other sovereign nations—without facing decisive consequences.
I believe you. So tell me what I as an individual should do now. It feels futile to call my congressional reps, though I will, because they are all in on Trump, whatever he does.
The hard truth: Institutional guardrails have already failed. Congress knew and did nothing. Courts gave immunity. The NSS documented the playbook and nobody stopped it.
What’s left:
Immediate: Pressure Congress on the privileged war powers resolution this week. Make it politically toxic to rubber-stamp hemisphere-wide regime change. Flood Senate offices.
Strategic: Build international coalitions that raise the cost. Latin American unity against intervention, European condemnation that threatens trade/alliances. Those 26 EU nations that signed the declaration need to escalate beyond symbolic condemnation. Begin to Declare U.S. diplomats will be treated as persona non grata, threaten embassy closures, impose real diplomatic costs. Otherwise the condemnation just becomes cover while the doctrine spreads.
Isolation works when enforced.
Long-term: The 2026 midterms will be too late.
Brutal reality: Once spheres-of-influence politics are normalized and documented as official strategy, only counter-power stops them. Either institutional (Congress with spine), international (coalitions that impose costs), or electoral (removing enablers).
Venezuela proved the doctrine works without pushback.
The window to stop the next one is closing fast. Activism, organizing, and making this politically unsustainable are the only tools left when constitutional constraints fail.
As predictable as the sunrise. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iWs3Fr6vOCs
The operatives running the party on behalf of oligarchs and the Netanyahu government are doing everything in their power to put the American rank and file under ruling class authoritarian government. These are the same Cuomocrats who spared no expense to defeat the will of the people in NYC.
"Beyond" insane? Just plain "insane" is accurate enough.
How about Acute Psychotic Break? Delirium? No, wait, this is Trump, General Paresis. Memory problems
Language problems, such as saying or writing words incorrectly
Decreased mental function, such as problems thinking and with judgment
Mood changes
Personality changes, such as delusions, hallucinations, irritability, inappropriate behavior. Begins about 10 to 30 years after the initial syphilis infection. https://medlineplus.gov/ency/article/000748.htm
Yes- I’ve always said that Trump has all the after behaviors of having had syphillis.
Hmm. I'm not a medical person, but I've had relatives and friends who are. Trump sounds like a classic case of terminal phalo-cerebral reversal: the smaller brain replacing the larger and acquiring terminal illness. Ergo: Donald the Poxed.
Hmm. Albert, I had cared for late- stage syphilis patients. All the symptoms you speak of. Can be cured with appropriate antibiotics BUT, damage cannot be undone.
Just insane its bad enough Betsy.
The only "aggressive" action will come from our Failed Nation's former allies -- that is, those nations that remain the allies and defenders of our constitutional principles and of those of us who, as We the Empathetic People," remain the Constitution's defiant supporters. Most likely -- in an ultimate irony of human history -- that action will probably be led by Germany: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f6_k76R5JnU
Mrs Miller's artwork of Greenland decorated with the stars and stripes and labelled "NEXT" must have been the object of much laughter and admiration.
An attack on any NATO territory is an attack on all and will trigger a response to defend. No one outside USA is laughing right now - other than Putin and Xi of course.
I don’t see how this works when USA runs NATO?
The statement is correct in accordance with the treaty. No one ever foresaw USA attacking another NATO sovereign nation. The reality would be an irreversible dismantling of NATO and a return to global wars and oppression not seen since 1945. USA retreats from a global power (having lost the majority of its allies) to a regional one dependant on military threatening. Russia and China move to fill the power gap left behind.
That does not sound good. I can see that trump and whiskey Pete are enjoying the might of the military. Does anyone think that America could be attacked? trump seems to think he's invincible. Does he think we are the only country who can stage stealth military invasions? I am not educated on any of this and am learning as I go, thanks to the many comments of people who are much smarter than I. Thanks to all of you.
Apropos stealth military invasions, the British --responding to U.S. back-stabbing at Suez in 1956 -- snuck RAF bombers under the radar into the skies above many major U.S. cities the following autumn. (I saw the roundel-marked Canberra that buzzed Knoxville and McGhee-Tyson AFB, which was headquarters for Oak Ridge air defense.) The incident was later explained away as a drill. Whether the Brits have retained their legendary ability for pulling off "impossible" military feats -- for example, the 1942 St. Nazaire raid or the 1980 Iranian Embassy hostage rescue -- remains to be seen.
Oh there would still be a NATO, just without the US.
USA spends twice the amount on ‘defense’ than the rest of NATO combined and is sole provider of critical capabilities such as satellite intelligence, ballistic missile defense and strategic airlift. Other than that NATO would remain.
That of course is not known. The remaining NATO countries may stand united against the US in such a case.
It was so appalling -- they are all acting as if this is a video game. I wish Canada would come in and "capture" Trump and his goons.
Now that T**** has decided it is permissible to go after criminal presidents in their own countries (and killing both innocent civilians and military in the process), it would be justifiable for the Canadians (or any other peace-loving democratic nation) to mount the same kind of operation to bring the criminal in the White House to justice. The only problem is that, if accomplices also need to be picked up, they'd need a large fleet of transports to take them all away. Most of Congress, the entire cabinet: the list is long.
The half of us Americans with a shred of integrity will be supporting this proposed effort 'strongly'....so quite likely those cowardly accomplices won't pose much of a problem for us, armies of 'ants'.
I'm dreaming about an 'abduction' of T & his accomplices. But, where would they be taken?
Siberia?
It appears that Denmark's reaction was restrained irritation, not so much laughter
I was actually imagining the laughter confined to Mar a Lago, or wherever the unelected inner circle and cohorts hang out. Restraint isn't a feature of theirs.
She’s been trying to curry favor with her husband Nosferatu.
🤣
If USA attacks and occupies Greenland, Denmark and NATO allies will be focused there, giving Putin the opportunity to attack Moldova, the Baltics or Poland. The world is in such danger now.
I sincerely doubt that. The US has already invaded one Country and is saber rattling towards theirs. This is signaling. I hope we are not seeing the beginnings of WW3.
Unless passed by a VETO PROOF MAJORITY (two thirds “aye”) Congress can do nothing. Even if it were to override the veto, Trump would ignore it.
What then?
Impeach and convict within 24 hours? Who enforces removal? With what force?
So we get Vance … Does that help?
Vance does not enjoy the cult of personality, nor does he have the dirt on everyone else that Trump seems to have. Vance's ambition is naked and even the most ardent trumpets I know see his hypocrisy.
Behind Vance is one of the nastiest billionaires wanting horrific things for this country.
Pulling Vance's puppet strings, actually. Wonder when he will divorce his wife and marry Kirk's widow.
Right?!
Ooo, now there's a thought Ally!
Upon conviction of impeachment the VP would be sworn into the executive Office. Vance would be no Trump. His tome would be very different, friendly almost, as he would be a first term President wanting a second bite at the apple.
You are drinking too much kool-aid sir! Vance is Peter Thiel's puppet. If Vance comes to power, you might get 15 minutes of a "friendly" Vance but within 30 days you will be crying to have Trump back again.
If a President is convicted of treason and impeached, I believe his entire cabinet is removed and that should include the VP.
How would you know if anyone in the Trump regime could be trusted?
No, impeaching a President for treason does not automatically remove the entire cabinet. Article II, Section 4 of the Constitution states that "The President, Vice President and all civil Officers of the United States, shall be removed from Office on Impeachment for, and Conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors," applying individually to each official.
https://constitution.congress.gov/browse/essay/artII-S4-2/ALDE_00000689/
you're correct, and treason is an overused word. It doesn't fit.
Absolutely NOT true. According to the Constitution Impeachment ONLY removes the person impeached and convicted. Of course if the President is removed by impeachment conviction the new president takes over and can do whatever they want including removing all the cabinet as cabinet officers serve at the pleasure of the President.
Of course this has never happened in real life because of the four impeachments of Presidents (Andrew Johnson in 1867, Clinton in 1998 and both Trump impeachments ) none have ever resulted in a conviction in the Senate.
JD is supported by the right-wing, Thiel, the Federalist Society, etc. He is as evil as djt, but does not have the same loyal support because djt is an entertainer and outright bully, two characteristics that JD does not have. JD is a true white supremacist who wants to remove a woman's right to vote or participate in social and political affairs. Hello, 1750.
Djt needs to be indicted for Treason which will remove his entire Cabinet as well. Impeachment relies upon the politicians in his party, instead of a Judicial system that will weigh the multiple actions of treason.
It is disheartening to see how many people have given up!
No. Even PT is not stupid. If Vance became Pres under Trump's conviction he would have less than 3 years in office until Nov. 28. This is Kindergarten arithmetic; foundational number sense. "OK, which is the bigger number class? 7 years or 3 years?" To get that bigger number kids, we need swing voters. But that is high school.
Oh, Mr. Killackey, I don’t believe you are right. Vance would be as friendly as a viper. He has the eyes of a snake, like Putin. Such a nasty man.
Delusional! Peter Thiel owns Vance, he would rule!
“I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones.” - Albert Einstein
We no longer have a true Congress
Congress already took such action. It is called the War Powers Resolution Act. Trump's administration has already violated its requirements, which ought to be case for impeachment and conviction. Our problem is a Congress that has abdicated its Constitutional and statutory responsibilities.
It's comforting to know Greenland is a member of NATO. We should get our butts kicked for even contemplating invasion. "How Long, O LORD?"
And he is even threatening Canada again. He is insane.
Cuba would be far more difficult to attack.
And Fidel Castro was young and strong.
Why do you think that Congress will take ANY action? If Mike Johnson gets any whiff that there would be a majority to vote against Trump 's unhinged, crazy actions Johnson will send the House home.
To expect that John Thune grows a spine is very optimistic.
True, but then again djt got to a point of frustration where he said go ahead, pass the epstein transparency bill - and then they did!
U.S. citizens living, serving, or studying abroad—you can vote from wherever you are! 🌍 Visit https://votefromabroad.org to register and request your overseas ballot.
It’s quick, free, and valid for all elections in 2026. Need help? Write to help@votefromabroad.org.
Vote from Abroad volunteers are ready to assist you with any questions about requesting or returning your ballot. Don’t wait! Request your ballot today and make your voice heard! 🗳️
We need to be protesting against Trump's actions like people have been doing. Trump needs pushback.
🤣 In your dreams. Congress will do absolutely nothing.
I ask those women voters who chose Trump over Harris. What was your reason for the choice?
We need to be loud right now about Venezuela and what this invasion truly means: “If this is about reshaping energy alignment in the Western Hemisphere in the name of U.S. economic or strategic interests, then that argument should be made openly—to Congress and to the American people. What concerns me is not healthy skepticism or disagreement, but the risk of minimizing what was openly described in the past few days as something far more than a simple law-enforcement action.
Bypassing congressional oversight of such a mission strips Americans of their voice and undermines the checks designed to prevent misuse of military power.
If the United States is going to commit military force in Venezuela—deploying roughly 15,000 troops, reshaping a sovereign government, and tying that action to control over energy infrastructure—then Congress must be involved, publicly and immediately. Bypassing congressional authorization does not merely sidestep procedure; it silences the people whose lives, resources, and moral standing are placed at risk by these decisions.
The U.S. never formally declared war in Iraq, yet tens of thousands of troops were sent into years of sustained combat under justifications that kept changing. I had family and friends who served there. Many veterans still carry the weight of realizing the mission they were sold did not match the reality on the ground.
If this administration believes Venezuela warrants military intervention, it should make that case openly, under oath, and subject to debate—not through memes, executive assertions, or retroactive narratives. Congress exists precisely to prevent wars from being sold as something smaller than they are. If it abdicates that role now, the consequences will not be abstract—and history suggests they will not be short-lived.”
https://open.substack.com/pub/danismart/p/viva-venezuela-but-at-what-cost?r=1c5095&utm_medium=ios
I agree with being loud! I post this all over every day -
Let Congress hear you! Be extremely loud!
Use/share this spreadsheet (bit.ly/Nokings) as a resource to contact members of Congress, the Cabinet and news organizations. Call. Write. Email. Protest. Unrelentingly.
Reach out (beyond your own) to as many in the Senate and House as you can. All of this is bigger than “I only represent my constituents” issues.
This morning I pleaded with my Democratic Congressman to do everything he can to stop the madness.
I've been doing that almost daily with my congress critters (all Dems), admonishing them that if they can't do the job, we'll just have to do it for them. And their speeches are getting us nowhere.
What do you recommend? What can a minority party left out of all process do? Waiting. Rhetorical flourish is about all they have.
You can organize your neighborhood to protest. This is about ALL OF US who hope to celebrate our 250th anniversary. As long as the current mafia and their enablers are in power, we have less and less chance of that.
Since last February, my wife and I have participated in our community protests, which are quite robust, and when I was out of town I found the local one in the city I happened to be staying. That was not the thrust of my question. I have a fairly progressive representative and then the two California senators. I have made calls and sent emails. But we are in unprecedented territory, where soon even a grandpa like myself will be pulled off the street, handcuffed, and perhaps be sent off to Venezuela. Who knows?
Not give up.
What response did you get?
Susan Collins quit responding to my emails during Trump 1. She works for McConnell and Thune and is only pretending she gives a damn about her constituents because she is up for reelection this year.
Thank you, Megan.
The US government is illegal. Man the battle stations. Full speed ahead.
The Lolita Train is waiting to pick up Donny again with the girls. Keep your eyes on the prize.
Just as this entire Venezuela debacle has ALWAYS been about oil and extracting any and all wealth from Venezuela, Greenland, Canada, etc. we also need to recognize that Trump is only interested in becoming the richest person in the world. He delights when people suffer, even if they are Republicans and especially if they are poor and people of color.
Thank You, Megan.
Megan, as a lifelong Illinois Democrat, I disagree with MTG about, well, nearly everything. I know she leaves office today, but I left a parting message to her: GO SCORCHED EARTH AS YOU LEAVE.
She's got some goods on Trump, I'm sure of it.
In addition to contacting our Congressional Representatives,we need to plan a nationwide strike. The basis for the takeover of our government is the money that is flowing into the pockets of a few greedy men. Read Jud Legum this morning about the benefit that this invasion of Venezuela brings to Paul Singer. This is another pay back from Trump to one of his donors. It is all about the oil.
thank you so much!
I particularly appreciate that you have notation next to the names of those who will be facing reelection in midterms. I am MAKING SURE to mention that fact!
THANK YOU
And honestly, I think I've called over a dozen so far this morning and it's only taken a half hour.
Thank you as always Megan.
I can’t even get through to my rep this morning and he’s one of the good guys! I will keep trying but that means they are hearing us!
thank you!
👏
Megan, I am using your targeted approach today. I am not getting through to most of the Indiana GOP DC offices (good on everyone calling!!) so I AM using their local numbers. THANK YOU FOR THAT!
And btw, I reside in Illinois.
Thank you, Megan!
We need your spreadsheet NOW more than ever!!
be allowed but before you’re allowed, Megan be correct because if not, you’re causing the opposite reaction. Thank goodness Trump is our president. He has just liberated Venezuela and given the citizens there a chance to regain the wealth and prosperity and happiness they had before Chavez and Maduro took over. You people here pretend like you know more than the Venezuelan the 8 million that left and the 3 million that Phil the squares today celebrating their independence. That’s the ignorance so you go ahead and yell about it with mud on your face
It is now imeachment time for TREASON. Too bad that the House majority has capitulated to Putin's will.
If L'il Mikey is re-elected as Speaker of the House on Friday (which is not a done deal, though I can't think of any other MAGAt who would want the job), the first order of business for Democrats ought to be to present articles for his impeachment. Not for treason, of which both he and his party are guilty by reason of giving aid and comfort to an enemy regime, but for dereliction of duty. Failure to brief the House (the "Gang of Eight") prevented that body from providing advice or consent to Trump's military intervention in Venezuela, which was unquestionably NOT a police/law enforcement action.
First I was unaware that the Speaker of the house had to stand for election again mid session. Are you sure of that?
Second, you can't impeach a Congress critter (house or senate). The house or senate can remove their own members by a majority vote but impeachment is only for executive and judicial officers of the United States.
Thank you for the clarification, Mr. Rosen. I was under the impression that the Speaker had to be renominated when Congress reconvenes. And you are correct about impeachment.
No problem. I do my best trying to keep things pointed in the right direction here. Most of us here agree on fundamentals even if the details vary. Best of luck to you!
Damn.
Lol... I couldn't quite figure out which comment you were responding to... then it occurred to me that these days just about ANY comment deserves this one word response!
agreed and by definition treason doesn't fit here.
Treason has been their intent, if you look at the destruction that gives our adversaries a strategic advantage and leaves us with no means to defend ourselves but that is much harder to prove. What you describe is more directly admissable evidence. We could go on and on about the intent to carry out treasonous activities since 2016.
Thom Hartman and Timothy Snyder go into great detail in which the actions taken by this regime over this past year alone leave us vulnerable to cyber attack and domestic terrorism by virtue of dismantling the agencies that monitor such attacks. Pardoning the Jan. 6 attack on Congress terrorists is an invitation to carry out more against t-Rumps "enemies".
L'll Mikey is a direct participant in the planning of the Jan 6 attack.
Getting out bodies out there Tuesday the 6th and the upcomming No Kings marches will let the weak kneed corporate media know that these fraudsters are heavely outnumbered and we can overrun them too.
I have an idea for you actually two ideas number one. Make sure your brain is engaged before you put your mouth in gear. Because everything you said is absolutely upside down and backwards, but no surprise from you haters.
And secondly, when you post a point of sanity and righteousness, it makes it much more interesting for the reader
The entire R.I.N.O. Nazi party have committed a breach of public trust in violating their Oat of Office to protect and defend the Constitution.
Lol! I was amused by the term "Oat of office" as I can absolutely see the GOP masses sitting around on their butts eating Oats... after all they are clearly "horses' asses" right?
Speaking of horse..., I like the vision of the economist John Kenneth Galbraith in his criticism of supply-side (Trickle-down) economics, "If you feed the horse enough oats, some will pass through to the road for the sparrows."
"unquestionably NOT a police/law enforcement action." Thanks. In plain language.
Johnson does not need to be elected again. If he resigns there can be an election or now if there is a motion to vacate by 9 republicans according to the House Rules or if the house flipped because of special elections or death of members when there is a narrow majority.
Thank you, Ms. Fisanick. Jon Rosen made a similar correction to my mistaken observation above. You added further useful detail. The heart got ahead of the head on this one 😝
Yikes. I have never seen Heather so lost in my entire life. She’s actually lost it. In my opinion. She’s actually cross the river to insanity and really needs help.
We don’t have the power or the votes.
I believe that is what I said.
Don't be too sure about that. If Trump's approval ratings dip much further, even the Senate will do what they can to save their asses.
Or a party not serving the interests of oligarchs, pedophiles, and Israel first.
Nor do you deserve them based on your backwards thinking Trump just liberated Venezuela and 20 million. People are excited those who left Venezuela for the United States and those who are living. There are celebrating the victory, but we think we know more than the Venezuelan people themselves bunch of freaking idiots here
Give up!
Yeh, the House Republicans also need to be impeached.
Again you can't impeach Congress folk. That remedy is reserved for executive officers (President, VP, cabinet members) and judges. Congress can expel its members by their own rules but that is not the same as impeachment.
Thank you. You are correct. I have been re-reading the Constitution a few times over the last few months and still read into it what is not there. Moreover, it was written so the average person might read it and grasp it. My problem may well be I read it burning midnight oil.
Yeah, and impeachment is nothing but a red herring. Even if it were successful (which btw is impossible under current realities), it is too slow for the required impact.
no I think it’s time for you to increase your meds or dial them down.
And change the channel, so you get the record straight would you please it’s embarrassing to see you use the verbiage that you’re using right now literally embarrassing. I have to laugh when I read a sentence that you just wrote above.
You have no clue what’s going on outside of your little bubble thing universe right here. We just took Venezuela out of the reach of Russia and out of the reach of China and now Iran is naming streets after Donald Trump and Cuba might be the next to go and then we have democracy throughout the western hemisphere. WTFU
Congress passed “specific authorization for use of military force” in 1991 (Kuwait War) and 2002 (Iraq war) granting President George Bush the authority to use force against Saddam Hussain‘s government which passed with strong by partisan votes, therefore no formal declaration of war was required. My question is, could this be used again to bypass a formal declaration of war and if so would congress authorize it.
It doesn’t matter what Congress did in 2002: unlike the 1991 Kuweit and the 2001 Afghanistan actions, which had UN support, the 2003 Iraq war was illegal. It broke international law and the US’s own treaty commitments.
This Venezuela action likewise is illegal in international law.
Thank you, Sophie. My thoughts always go the illegal Vietnam War, listening to Walter Cronkite every evening, holding truth to power. And here we are again.
Those were the days my friend. Not that I want to go backward, but "Deregulation" meant "No Accountability" for power. Did not the US fight a war over that? In my youth I believed that the mainstream news, while not always noticing or telling the whole truth, was allied with the public, afflicting the overly comfortable and comforting the afflicted. Now its a lot more sales pitch, and compared the Woodward and Bernstein era, a lot more foxed up.
That would be when we became an empire.
You became an empire the minute the first pilgrims from England settled not as immigrants accepting the rule and law of the tribes whose land they occupied, but as conquerors. The US was born as a part of the British Empire and when it achieved independence, that imperialism just continued under a new regime.
Empire and, with the American revolution, a democratic Republic. With the assassination of JFK the focus of our federal government shifted from democratic Republic to the lobby of the military-industrial complex which created the Tonkin Gulf Resolution and other subsequent military fabrications–empire.
So many refer to the Vietnam "War," but our government formed from two parties never declared any "War." It was perpetuated by calling it a "Police Action." It started as a lie, was waged as a lie, and ended with a war monument getting built for those killed (actually, "used") to wage an undeclared war on a people who posed less threat to this country that even the people of Venezuela. The nation of Vietnam soon after became a source of cheap labor for American corporations as they moved the manufacturing from America and progressively destroyed the economy for the American workers, the very class of people whose names appear on that monument.
By 2025 the Congress run by the same two parties had been militarizing local police with weapons of war for decades finally bypassed the Founding Fathers' Constitutional safeguard of forbidding employment of the federal army used for war to police Americans in their homes, towns, and neighborhoods by creating its own massive standing army== "ICE"[[ and calling it "police" (that word again) rationalizing doing this to "protect" American citizens and "democracy," this time "protecting" them from immigrants.
It seems to me that a nation can only be "democratic" when its government remains un-corrupted. Can corrupt parties that form governments maintain democratic governments? Are there any historical examples of corrupt parties run by an aeitocratic wealthy ruling class that have EVER maintained a functional "democracy?" The history expert who maintains this blog can educate us on this question, but it needed to be asked.
I have been thinking of the comparisons to the Vietnam War also.
Hmm. Back then, MSM was largely supportive (but people back home saw their soldiers zipped up in body bags) until Tet and Cronkite’s removal of his objective hat. That led LBJ to bow out. But how many GI’s and Vietamese, Cambodians, Laotians died after that until ‘75?
Yes, thank you both. Not only illegal but we would be starting a war with NATO nations and would then be in a war with other NATO nations who came to the aid of those we attack. We would start WW3, all on our own.
The truth will make us free. Lies will not. Lies mislead, which is exactly the point.
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.
Ted Lieu is the best! He's a longtime and highly underrated member of Congress.
@HeatherCoxRichardson What are your thoughts on the DOJ’s use of “Cartel del los Soles” to indict Maduro when it is not an actual crime entity but only a term of speech used to refer to the corruption of Venezuelan military brass? Like “antifa” here is US? This NY Times article details that this original indictment was by Emil Bove in SDNY in 2020!
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/18/us/politics/trump-maduro-drug-cartel.html?unlocked_article_code=1.CFA.JCp0.niJjtZ1-Hdn6&smid=nytcore-ios-share
Thank you for sharing that article- with all the domestic stuff to pay attention to, this history of “Cartel de Los Soles” helps to clarify just how (I’m grasping for a word here) f**ked up the US government is.
SATIRE
Rubio Explains Empire, With a Whiteboard and Vibes
How “We’re Not Running Venezuela” Became “Please Stop Asking If We’re Running Venezuela”
There is a special tone a government official uses when reality has wandered off script and refuses to come back. It is part sigh, part scolding, part improv. That tone made a full guest appearance this weekend as Secretary of State Marco Rubio toured the Sunday shows like a man trying to explain to airport security why his suitcase is vibrating.
The question was simple. Who is running Venezuela?
The answers were not...
https://essayx.substack.com/p/rubio-explains-empire-with-a-whiteboard
Most people know what needs to happen and what should happen legally. I cannot understand why Tdump is not being impeached, convicted, and removed. NOW
When did the US last fight a war that did more then keep the military in some kind of combat readiness and support the arms industry? Meaningful strategy has, to use a French expression, more often than not shone by its absence... involving allies in ill-thought-out and counterproductive actions for which the world is now paying a price.
We probably have to go back to the Korean war in the fifties to find US participation in a war that made any real sense beyond feeding the military-industrial complex. And to WW2 for military action both heroic and deeply meaningful. (If I am mistaken in this assertion, please correct me. If you can...)
Intervention against Serbia was more than anything else a mark of Europe's failure to get its own act together -- "Europe" here including Russia... (No comment on that notion, so unacceptable to myopic and died-in-the-wool hubristic neoCons...) Faced with a violent brawl, the correct police action is to surround and menace the brawlers until they calm down. Instead, European powers took sides, basically the same sides as during WW2... For their failure to tackle Europe's problems, instead relying on Uncle Sam, America's Secretary of State, James Baker III, roundly and rightly berated them. His words fell on deaf ears.
Strangely, the only European statesman to get the full measure of the situation was Margaret Thatcher, who had by then been sidelined...
Her scathing remark to Douglas Hurd, the UK's then Foreign Secretary, sticks in my mind:
"Douglas, Douglas, you would make Neville Chamberlain look like a warmonger."
Loud indeed.
That idiot RS probably the stupidest person on the planet!
Trump doesn’t care about our lives, resources or moral standing and that’s why he put them “at risk”. Anyone who thought otherwise who was awake these last 10 years is an idiot.
This is the money quote for me:
"Simon Rosenberg of The Hopium Chronicles articulated the extraordinary smallness of the Trump administration’s vision when he wrote: “We must also marvel at the titanic idiocy of our new ‘Donroe Doctrine’ for it turns America from a global power into a regional one by choice. I still can’t really believe they are going through with this for it is so batsh*t f-ing crazy, and does so much lasting harm to our interests.”
The USA has been a GLOBAL POWER since the end of WWII. Trump is destroying all that in favor of the USA becoming a REGIONAL POWER.
Who the F wants the USA to only be a regional power? Vladimir Putin! That's who!!!
Can we IMPEACH TRUMP now???
As this astonishing idiocy unfolded over New Years, my first fear was for Ukraine -- followed by Taiwan. But it's actually far broader. For anyone in East Central Europe, or the South China Sea region (the Philippines), the dominant reality now is fear that the entire international security order itself is collapsing, not just because the dominant power in the globe won't enforce it, but has actively sabotaged it -- perhaps fatally, we don't yet know.
Had you asked me 2-3 years ago would the United States have gone from being the Indispensable Power (in the words of former Swedish Prime Minister Carl Bildt) in the modern world to the pre-World War I world of President McKinley, 'gunboat diplomacy', 'beggar-thy-neighbor' trade and tariff wars, whites-only social Darwinism and doing exactly as Russia wants it to do -- I would never have believed you.
We have but one chance to render these people useless --- the mid-terms in November, which will be marked by attempts to fuck with the voting or counting or both. Nevertheless, in the meantime, it's up to us to make sure 2026 will be the very worst year in the lives of Republican Congressional Flatworms. Show up at their damn offices with Bibles and prepare to swear that right in front of them should they doubt your resolve. Watch as more of them start mumbling nonsense about the need to spend more precious time with their families. Make it so...
"Republican Congressional flatworms" - marvelous turn of phrase. Thank you.
We won’t last until November. Trump will declare Martial Law and prevent the elections from happening.
If he’s still vertical by November.
If he’s not president, Vance under the direction of Miller and Vought will do the same thing.
I personally think it way past time for an armed force to take over the presidency.
Such talk is not only self-defeating, but pointless. Hold that opinion and pay $5 and it will get you a mediocre cup of coffee somewhere. They'll even throw in a swizzle stick for free. What else that gets you, I don't know.
I am a74 year old white widow in a blue state. Nothing that Trump has done affects me personally. But as an educated American, I am incensed by the lack of guardrails that have allowed this Administration to destroy what my father fought for on Omaha beach. I don’t really care how we stop Trump and company, just that we do!
Yes, and I think filing articles of impeachment contributes to making "sure 2026 will be the very worst year in the lives of Republican Congressional Flatworms."
Being a regional power gives you free rein in your sphere for graft and corruption. Trump just wants more opportunities to enrich himself and his golfing partners.
This is how gangsters think...not beyond their own self-interest.
Malignant narcissists. How many millions have died in the service of a handful of malignant egos and the dupes in their thrall? History has played it out many times. Why do we not take the lesson?
Trump want's all the power and the glory for everything, and not one whit of responsibility.
As their Profit Spake:
"The only corporate social responsibility a company has is to maximize its profits."
Yet his psychotic base still supports him and insanely believes he cares about them. It boggles the mind that a large minority are so deluded.
Apparently that Koolaid they serve up at Fox Info-tainment is delicious.
It is to them what tuna juice is to my cats....
And lots and lots of Big Beautiful Parties!!! And lot's and lot's of expensive monuments. Look on Trump's works ye mighty and despair!
Today Venezuela, tomorrow the world. He spurns alliances because he wants to control it all.
Not "wants" to control it all - "Has" to. It's part of trump's terribly damaged psyche, he has to micro manage EVERYTHING. He's planning war with Venezuela - and choosing the marble for the ballroom. He's "negotiating (!!!) "peace in Ukraine" - and "designing" battleships. I don't think anyone in trump's administration can scratch their arse without trump inserting a finger to help.
It seems clear that Stephen Miller and Russell Vought are the Donny Whisperers. They can see he is mentally marginal and easier than ever to manipulate, to their own devious ends. They whisper the Project 2025/NSS playbook in his ears and ply him with Happy Meals so he goes along. I don't really think any of this is his idea as he's too addled to have ideas, only whims and impulses; he's the puppet and has multiple puppeteers (Putin included).
The most terrifying words in the English language are: I'm a Republican and I'm here to help.
Not that you often hear it.
It's usually "You're doing it wrong! We can do it better! We'll tell you how - in two weeks!
Your Reaganomic ship is coming in any day now. Just a few more concessions to the ultra, ultra wealthy and it's sure to appear!
He's willing to share Taiwan with XI and Ukraine with Putin.
Trump is a traitor and must be treated as such.
He is willing to share for now.
This is just the latest move to turn the world into a gigantic grift run by various kleptocrats. No one in the Trump administration can see beyond the grift, but maintaining it is the true reason behind every EO, "police action" deal, and law breaking they've done. The idea seems to be to make it simpler for Trump, Putin, and Xi to run their respective grifts. That is the pattern. It is small (breathtakingly?) in it's vision, profoundly stupid, and does not seem to be reality based. The world (both our environment and that of humans) will not go away simply because we decide to cut our sand box down by 2/3.
"Police action"? War is Peace.
At the core of DonRoe is ‘think smaller’.
Yes, "batsh*t crazy."
I love Heather's recitation of the contradictions, inconsistencies, and overall eff-up amid this crew of incompetents.
I love seeing especially her reporting of polls showing Americans deeply uninterested in this Venezuelan eff-up.
Trouble is, the dementia has gone full bore. And combines with Donald's greatest fantasy now of all -- that for pinnacle of his life he's become the play-theater mob boss he's always coveted above all being.
And don’t forget Epstein. That’s the ball Trump ultimately wants America to take its eyes off of.
So many degrees of criminality, David, in this hate-filled grifter.
Lawlessness all his life in the U.S. And now the world sees him eager to invade, commit murder in, and damage how many countries?
I love Heather's quoting Ted Lieu in her conclusion. Donald is totally uninterested in dealing with the problems Americans face: "Health care costs and food prices are surging. Trump’s response is we’re going to run another country."
Drama. Sensationalism. More layers of hatred and anger. And Donald's worst criminality, hidden alongside the more-than-1,000 girls raped by his rich pals?
You can add Jack Smith's testimony...
Oh just say it; Bat Shit Crazy.
Sure, Bill -- but those are Heather's exact words, in the form she chose to put them.
Sometimes it's better to honor others' choices conveying their sensibility. Sometimes.
I never wilt in the presence of cussing, and often do in response to petty frustrations, but I think it loses its effect and becomes clutter when overdone. Still, this is Republicans we are talking about, so a sane person's gotta do what a sane person's gotta do, including HCR. I think that sometimes an inserted ""fig leaf" can serve to intensify the point, that the object is utterly execrable.
". . . utterly execrable," J L, or "effing execrable"?
I was just gifted a t-shirt. It has a bass clef staff, with a half note on the 4th line of the staff; it reads "What the" with the staff at the bottom. In bass clef notation, that line is the F below middle C. A viola playing friend has a shirt that reads WTF with a similar notation in tenor clef with the words "what tenors fear" below the staff.
Some levity for the morning.
All of the above.
His obsession with oil and fossil fuel goes back to day 1 of his Presidency in 2017. His treatment of any country with large known oil reserves is telling. Canada, Venezuela, Greenland (unknown oil and other rare-earth metals), Iran, Russia and Saudi Arabia.
If they have large oil reserves he is all in on taking their oil or making deals with them to have access to their oil.
Rex Tillerson saw this early on as Secretary of State and called Trump a "FUCKING MORON." Of course, he is but he Is also a hateful demented thug that MUST be dealt with swiftly.
Galactic Emperor.
Ds need to stop the Donroe Doctrine now! I’d be ecstatic if the Ds replaced Schumer with Cory Booker as minority leader. The Ds need to take back the House before the midterms. Schumer and Jeffries are obviously not up to the task. Marc Elias at Democracy Docket has done an excellent job documenting the hundreds of ways the Rs plan to steal the midterms, keep Rs in power and enshrine the minority rule of white men.
PS If you haven't watched Professor Richardson's YouTube about Venezuela here's the link: https://youtu.be/wu9QSeAI22I
The video portion is just Professor Richardson talking so this can be listened to like a podcast as you drive, walk or meditate.
The Ds should help Professor R add some cool graphics and book this on all major networks at 10pm EST. Unfortunately, the Baileys have told Chuck that all will be well after the midterms and he should just object forcefully.
Just put it to air as it is, never mind graphics. It's already very graphic.
How would you suggest "taking back the House" BEFORE the mid-terms? Are you going to "disappear" some GOP Congress critters? Last time I counted the GOP had the majority which makes "taking it back" before an election rather difficult. If there is actually a plan you have, you should reveal it to the rest of us.
Jon - Margins are close in the House and the Senate. The fact that the Ds cannot convince enough Rs to go Independent and caucus with them to stop the attack on the Constitution tells me that the Ds need new leadership.
I am willing to give Jeffries a chance in the House, but Booker as Leader in the Senate sounds great. If Jeffries does not step up, there are plenty of good Dem House members who can. The House really needs someone who can compromise without giving too much away, and to wield the power like Pelosi did when necessary. Jeffries is good on the compromise part. We will see if he can wield the power.
For the life of me, I do not understand this Democratic Circular Firing Squad mentality.
What, exactly, do you expect the Senate MINORITY Leader to do with an arithmetical minority? He may come across as plodding, but that does not make him a villain. In February, he faced the ugly reality that once closed, Republicans (guided by Elon Musk on fentanyl or whatever he was on) wouldn't bother re-opening government. And held out as long as he could as the fiscal year came to close at the end of September. Republicans were only too happy to see the suffering continue -- Democrats were not.
The whole thing is scheduled to start again in 2 weeks or so. What, precisely, is your recommendation for Democratic strategy then?
I couldn't agree more and become incensed by the stupidity of those who recklessly place blame on the Democrats instead of where it belongs: the cowards in the republican party.
This isn't some biblical myth of David and Goliath. We have no power unless the republicans find their spine and rise up to put an end to this madness. And that is never going to happen. The cowards who are not running for re-election have the power to end this now yet they will continue to vote in lockstep support of this madness and ultimate destruction. republicans hold all the cards. This is the reality.
Thanks, ICTT.
Not that it's easy but some Democrats are managing to be more visible than others in Trump's cross-fire hurricane, and that matters at lot right now, I believe.
YES!
Thank you ICTT for a very lucid delineation of why Schumer is not the enemy. I'm not in love with the guy but he has done a decent job most of the time under very difficult circumstances.
Dem strategy: At least appear to care. If I don't see some shouting pretty soon I'll have to admit that the Dems are in it for the perks of office, not for the people. Yes, there are a few Dems making waves. Not enough.
In September, every House Democrat voted as a single bloc NOT to approve the GOP’s Big Ugly Bill of cruelty and stupidity. Is it possible you were asleep when this happened?
There are plenty of Fascist Republicans in the WH, Congress and the Supreme Court to go after without defanging Schumer. Nancy Pelosi handled Schumer very well. The rest of the Dems need to step up.
Stressed Sue, Professor Richardson has said (in this case, specific to ACO in the House) that there need to be (my words here) movers and shakers in NON leadership roles where they have the freedom to be firebrands and not too tied to any other collateral duties. I love Cory Booker and his fire and spirit; lets not tie him (just yet, anyway) to a more managerial position.
They can't even keep their story straight. We need to keep up the pressure. Oh, and also keep demanding the release of the unredacted Epstein files, Ts medical files, and Jack Smith's full testimony. Shine a light on all of that.
Inconsistency, fuckupery and grubbing for bribes is truly their only policy. We have never had a government so consistently inconsistent, buffoonishly incompetent and out-of-control -- all at the same time. Chimpanzees throwing poo would be less destructive.
PBS has already published Jack Smith's entire testimony -- all nearly 8 hours of it. I'm not certain why Jockstrap Jordan's Committee of the Absurd released it, because it shows a buffoonish Jordan flailing against one of the most distinguished, competent and patriotic of civil servants in recent years. Perhaps the distinguished pissant from Ohio thought he'd landed a few and wanted to brag about it. Still, it's there.
https://www.lawfaremedia.org/article/the-situation--what-were-house-republicans-thinking
Jordan does nothing but flail. It's easier when you're not wearing a suit coat.
Theatrical pissants like to remove their jackets and roll up their sleeves to show the world what serious little bantamweight pricks they really are..... 😜
Doesn't he wear a tie with his short sleeved shirts? Or is that his summer uniform?
Without leaving any breathing space.
I would hope Senator Booker’s comments about the acquiescence of Congress gathers some attention because he’s dead right.
Link please
https://www.insidernj.com/booker-congress-failed-by-empowering-trump-to-violate-the-constitution/
Cory Booker's indictment of Congress for failing to curb Trump's power is a wakeup call.
https://www.insidernj.com/booker-congress-failed-by-empowering-trump-to-violate-the-constitution/
To "fail" Congress had to actively try, which requires action. Finger-pointing and posturing with snarky comments doesn't count as trying or doing governance.
https://www.democracynow.org/2025/12/31/democratic_party_autopsy_report
https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/corporate-democrats-made-trump-possible-timeline
Thank you. An uncomfortable, but extremely necessary pair of articles.
What they are about is the loss of integrity in the Democratic Party. The story is about slippage away from their mission to support working people. Lots of broken promises and a failure to be inclusive.
I think when the political environment is flooded with toxic rhetoric and unethical behavior, the guardrails weaken for everyone in every party. It’s going to be a massive task to clean up after this insanity.
A party committed to massive cleanup is a party that requires holding its own accountable. I see massive resistance in the DNC to doing that, and they seek to avoid change by encouraging their stooges to savage anyone who advocates for that by using every label from "antisemite" to "MAGA" to "both sides false equivalency" on those who dare to advocate for accountability.
All because we just couldn’t trust an educated black woman. Don’t let him forget the Epstein files.
She won.
or an aged diplomat. We have not only racism and sexism but agism to contend with. Don't let them forget the Epstein files!
Never!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Thank you, as always Professor Richardson! And thanks for posting on Facebook before my 10:30 school bedtime…but then I stayed awake to post here 🤣 bedtime now, goodbye winter break 😢
And my normal -
Let Congress hear you! Be extremely loud!
Use/share this spreadsheet (bit.ly/Nokings) as a resource to contact members of Congress, the Cabinet and news organizations. Call. Write. Email. Protest. Unrelentingly.
Reach out (beyond your own) to as many in the Senate and House as you can. All of this is bigger than “I only represent my constituents” issues.
Add a comment to help keep this bumped ✊ New eyes seeing this means new ripples for change! 🤞
Thank you, Megan!
If people could read chronologically... they'd always see this.
I feel silly asking for likes/comments but it’s the only way to get more eyes on it ❤️🩹
The distraction from, and ongoing destruction of, Ukraine by Team Treason makes me ashamed to be an estadounidense. BELOW: response to the vid. linked below.
https://staytuned.substack.com/p/what-comes-next-in-venezuela-live/ (Joyce Vance with Jake Sullivan and Jon Finer.)
The European Union and Organization of American States (O.A.S.) should sanction the United States and ban Trump and his senior officers from their territories.
Perhaps the two polities should petition the International Criminal Court or the International Court of Justice to indict Trump et al. and issue arrest warrants.
https://www.npr.org/2026/01/04/nx-s1-5665717/trump-says-the-u-s-will-run-venezuela-heres-how-that-might-go (AMB Rick Barton the patron saint of conflict stabilization)
N.A.T.O. and the O.A.S. should make very clear that any aggression by the United States against Greenland and / or Mexico as well as any other member *will *be *an Article-5(N.A.T.O.) and Article-3 (O.A.S.) event that will trigger a collective response, notwithstanding the U.S. being the largest yet rogue member of each alliance.
N.A.T.O. ought to send troops to Greenland and conduct training exercises there. The O.A.S. should do the same in Mexico and Colombia, provided, of course, that each entity (including Denmark) consents to such exercises.
The trip-wire will not be a deterrent militarily but may empower forces or reason and calm within the United States to resist this "addiction", typical of bullies, mentioned by Mr Sullivan.
Trump is going to walk away from Ukraine, saying neither side wanted peace. The only reason why Ukraine won't be blamed totally is that Putin humiliated Trump with the bogus drone attack on his estate,
Unfortunately, Trump and Hegseth will want to keep all their war toys at home, so the PURL, which has been Ukraine's lifeline for high-tech, irreplaceable US arms, will go belly up. Hegseth will say that US strategic stockpiles are depleted so that nothing can be shipped to Ukraine.
The US has apparently canceled its commitment to attend this week's meetings on the 20-point peace plan, and there is no "next date" set for Ukraine-US negotiations at any level, according to a press release from Zelenskyy's office.
Meanwhile, the Coalition of the Willing is working feverishly on bilateral security agreements to replace the never-existent US one.
2026 will be another hard year for Ukraine.
They are heroic.
Anybody have a paid subscription to Dean Blundell?. He has a sensationalized post out on Ukraine but there are NO supporting links to legit sources that I can find unless something is broken. I can't comment and ask because I am not a paid subscriber.
He has been out ahead of his skis before.
Prime Minister Carney is a great man. The E.U. and others can finish Putin off. Glad to see that Prime Minister Carney is seeking to isolate the United States. That will empower the resistance.
Dean Blundell on Ukraine:
https://open.substack.com/pub/deanblundell/p/breaking-carney-heads-to-paris-as?utm_campaign=post-expanded-share&utm_medium=web
This is a big deal, that Prime Minister Carney might be the leader who lights a fire under the EU's ass to stand up to their evil enemy. Canada already has a military force deployed in Latvia.
Blundell was correct--the source article was from the Kyiv Independent-- which, for some reason, did not show up in my feed until 12 hours later. But he still didn't have any live links to sources.
He and his sidekick, Lev Parnas, seem to have some inside sources.
If what is being stated in the sub-stack is true -- and I surely hope it is -- Prime Minister Carney is shaking Europe out of her stasis and basically signalling: time to ignore Trump's mixed signals that keep the 'we' in the WEst stymied; they are camouflaged cover for Putrid to decimate Ukraine as much as he can, while he can.
Thanks for checking for me. I really appreciate it!
I have that link for the post, but I don't see any live links that are recent (like in the last week) in the post. I agree it sounds like a big deal about Carney but he is saying that Zelenskyy said it directly as well. I rely on Zelenskyy's official site and I haven't seen anything like this there.
What i a PURL?
PURL refers to NATO's Prioritised Ukraine Requirements List (also called Priority Acquisition List Required for the Defense of Ukraine), a 2025 initiative where allies fund purchases of U.S.-sourced military equipment and munitions for Ukraine, coordinated via NATO's NSATU hub.
Basically the coalition of the Willing is putting in $1 Billion a month to buy Ukraine the arms it most needs. It can either come from US stockpiles or from US manufacturers. US government is puts in nothing—zero matching funds.
Actual aid to Ukraine in the National Defense authorization Act is only $400 million a YEAR.
Thanks for the information. EDIT P.S., I can not believe that the Team Treason is real and really in power. Must push back, somehow now.
For reasons that aren't clear, the EU has chosen mostly to be quiet about this, with heads of government timidly making disapproving noises while their Foreign Secretaries diverge by issuing more more forceful condemnations, trying to have it both ways or something.
Remember that we are not signatories to the International Court of Justice and don't recognize its authority (hence, Putin was allowed to land in Alaska -- had he come to France, he would have been arrested as the plane landed). Their fear of Russia (and of American abandonment of them is a very real thing.
Most of the world is in a state of shock with regard to Trump. It's hard for them (let alone for us) to wrap their (our) heads around the absurdity and idiocy of this moment in time. Nobody in Copenhagen thought they would one day be facing an out-of-control United States bent on seizing its sovereign territory. Nobody else in NATO did either.
The EU states are looking at developments. Will there be a democratic transition? That’s what we support. Remember that Maduro is sanctioned in the EU, so we’re no friends of his. Since Venezuela’s June 2024 stolen election (it was won by the opposition but Maduro refused to leave), his regime has not been recognised by our governments nor the EU commission.
Nevertheless, the US action in Venezuela is worrying Europe because of its knock-on effect on Ukraine and the possible implications for Greenland, one of the three countries that constitutes the Kingdom of Denmark. I don’t see that loud protests would accomplish anything at the moment as nobody knows what the actual situation or plan is. Maduro’s regime is still in place and Trump is already rejecting the opposition leader, and his Secretary of State is saying something completely different too. Reviving the Monroe doctrine in a completely different context from the 19th Century is impossible, I suspect, and it very much depends what the Trump government means by it.
What is certain is that Europe as a whole has enough on its hands without going on a crusade for a Maduro regime it doesn’t recognise. Spain is, as expected, supporting the protests of its fellow Hispanic countries, but it does so as part of Hispanidad, not as a European.
What's likely to transpire in Venezuela is murkiness at best -- a prolonged guerrilla insurgency at worst. If that rings any bells, it should -- it may well be something like Iraq 3.0 -- the void that happens when 'we'll be greeted as liberators' dwindles to the reality of a headless government and vacuum occupied by ISIS, terrorist attacks against our soldiers and outposts, and void in a place where all the regular institutions of power and authority are broken anyway.
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/04/opinion/venezuela-maduro-trump.html
From the perspective of social psychology, in the words of a political scientist in Caracas:
"Whatever is to come, the system that Maduro has overseen can't be dismantled overnight. His followers -- longstanding Chavistas, or armed opportunists, could very well mount a prolonged insurgency -- the type of war where the population is held hostage, regardless of political preferences. It is very easy to create chaos and make a country ungovernable when the formal institutions are already broken...."
Dr. Colette Capriles, Professor of Social Psychology and Political Science, Simón Bolívar University, Caracas.
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/04/opinion/venezuela-maduro-trump-people.html
The precedents are more to be found in previous US actions in South and Central America and the Carribean. In fact, this reminds me of the capture and indictment of Noriega.
I encourage you to look more deeply at more recent global developments where void follows the confusion of apparent victory. There are far more dangerous examples of what is likely to ensue.
Yes, there are, although it's too soon to say what path it will take. Venezuela isn't Lybia - very different culture - but it is already an unstable country, in a historically unstable part of the world and not made more stable by historic and current US actions. All I can say is that I hope it won't slide into and insurgency and counter-insurgency situation for years like nearby Colombia did; nor that it will become a narco-state as Colombia and Ecuador did. Its state structures have been weakened over time by Chavistas then by the Maduro kleptocratic regime. If the US doesn't commit to helping fill the void, it could indeed go badly wrong.
You hit the bull's-eye on that observation, Sophie. I am interested in your outside view Sophie. ¿Whence do you come in Euroland? I am in the Benighted States of America, in Maryland. The United States has been doing *these *interventions since the late 19th century, especially under Presidents Teddy Bear, Taft, Wilson. ✍️
The Roosevelt Corollary to the (resurrected) Monroe Doctrine of 1904 would permit this attack as U.S. policy. Presidents Hoover and, then (emphatically), F.D. Roosevelt repudiated that imperialist policy -- now resurrected as the 'Donroe Doctrine' -- a generation later. 🗽
The difference between the original corollary and this application of it is its timing in the arc of history. Back in the early part of the twentieth century, the United States was ascending rapidly to great power status and wanted to flap her wings, flush with confidence. 🥳
These days, however, the United States is no longer the king of the mountain and many of us (e.g., the rogue trumpanzee) can not manage that. So. it is from geo-political insecurity and greed that the current U.S. leadership is grabbing all she can while she can. 🤢
*Deem it *as flapping wings morphing into flailing wings . . . also partly due to Trump's severe case of L.D.S. and bone spurs migrating to the head thereby precipitating trumper tantrums. Worst of it? Vance is likely to be worse as a latter-day Reinhardt Heydrich.🙄
EDIT P.S., some helpful links:
Reinhardt Heydrich https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reinhard_Heydrich
Roosevelt Corollary https://history.state.gov/milestones/1899-1913/roosevelt-and-monroe-doctrine
L.D.S. = little 'dork' syndrome; lines 14-3s ("But I . . . and dreams . . . ."), inclusively (https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/56973/speech-now-is-the-winter-of-our-discontent).
Thanks for the background! I live in France near the Swiss border, and am a dual national (other nationality is Brit). I've worked in international and humanitarian roles around the world, but never in Latin America (I have travelled there for my own enjoyment). My experience of your country is very mixed - its actions are superb when it comes to USAID and PEPFAR, and not-so-superb when it comes to the Iraq War and more generally, the wars of 2001-2021 or giving tech and oil giants too much support to strong-arm sovereign countries and economic zones, including the EU.
I'm a supporter of the EU, but I acknowledge that it has been slow in responding, as a group, to the changing geopolitical reality brought about by Xi, Putin and Trump. I'm hoping it will pass that test, because it's the only way Europe can be a player.
You and I are on the same page. I supported the invasion of Iraq and, no, I was not deceived. So, I may well burn in Hell for that support. I will be damned if drink the Kool-Ade again.
Well, we all have lapses in judgement and discernment from time to time......
Gregg, Sophie, and Michael,
Thank y'all for your sympathetic responses. Gregg, it is not that I supported the invasion that injured my soul. It is why. I wrote an essay that ended up in the right hands and shipped me off to Iraq in 2004. The essay was tightly reasoned and meticulously researched. ✍️
Many of the points were plausible. Nevertheless, all *that that sophisticated prose really *amounted to was scratch-&-sniff vengeance for 9-11, when I knew that Iraq had nothing to do with it. It is that manual over-ride of reason in favor of dark feelings that troubles me, and always will.💔
Michael, as to your original sin: everyone I knew in my grade school or their parents felt the same way. I remember hearing about the Watergate break-in on the television news. I simply shrugged my shoulders; ¿so what? It took Hunter Thompson, of all people, to enlighten me about Senator McGovern. 😥
Sophie, you make a number of good points. I still believe that President G.W. Bush is a good man who faced a moral dilemma. The sanctions brought Iraq to the edge of famine; Iraq was the first modern state to experience stunting and stultification. Time was up. The sanctions were vile and had to go. ¿But how? 😯
I am sure that, were President Bush here with us now, he would admit to his catastrophic error of judgement. But, thankfully in my country, there were plenty of people like Michael who took to the streets to keep the wrong-headed policies fresh in the popular conscience. 🫱🏻🫲🏽
I want to add that just because a law is legally declared (e.g. the US & NATO allies in Afghanistan) doesn't mean it's entirely conducted in a legal manner. The so-called "war against terrorism" was rife with illegal or grey-area actions (black ops, hidden detention centres, torture, extraordinary rendition, etc.). I can't think of a single war that has been conducted in a wholly or even mostly legal manner. It's good that we react against such overreach, and we must keep holding our armed forces to high standards, but realistically, the law of armed conflict is an imperfect instrument.
I know many who did support it and who aren't bad or stupid people. It was a difficult time. I didn't (despite Tony Blair involving Britain in it), because I believe in a rules-based order and it was an illegal war, but I do understand those that did in February-March 2003. I supported it even less when I saw (I was working there) - from April 2003 - just how clueless and unserious the post-invasion plans were. Truly terrible and they laid the foundations for the rise of ISIS a decade later.
My original sin was voting for Nixon in 1972, at the age of 19. I even attended a rally at the San Diego airport and probably chanted, “4 more years” with others. And I remember protester surrounding our bus. Ten years later as a husband, father, and graduate school student, I was helping to organize a campus chapter of DSA. Twenty years later, I was in the streets protesting the impending invasion of Iraq (and I had a son who would do two tours there). Back in grad school, some of us were discussing the likelihood of fascism (and there was Bertram Gross’ “Friendly Fascism”) on the eve of 1984. Been doing penance for decades.
Europe is flat out trying to avert war. And support Ukraine wherever possible. (The COTW).
The most immediate threat is from Russia in Ukraine and the Baltic. Dividing and splitting one's resources away from that threat might be considered foolish.
Trump is a traitor. Fabricate this "necessity" to split the resources by pulling America's away. Great point there, Gregg; thank you.
COTW?
The rub is that "justice is served" but, with Team Treason, 'justice served' is serving an oil grab, a deflection away from the Jack Smith testimony, and distraction from Epstein and G-D knows what else.
Some reaction has to come; this scheiße makes the made-in-the-U-S-A madman punch-drunk. Like Hitler in his early days, the more Trump gets away with, the more he thinks he can get away with. Many people (e.g., me) keep making the mistake that, "This is it." That Trump will surely be sated. To an evil man with an extinguished soul, ever more is never enough.
Your are correct about our not recognizing the I.C.C. But most of the world does. So nations would have the right to ban not just Trump but key players in Team Treason as persona non-grata. Make us pariahs.
That can force Trump's hand as people resist en masse. With all of the birth ties to many countries, people would be less likely to tell the rest of the world to go to Hell.
I once made up a word while I was in Mexico that aptly applies to Trump: estadostúpidense for Americans with the peculiar mix of stupidity and arrogance.
They already have a couple words for that: gringo and cabron.
Hah1
The US is not a member of the ICC, but Venezuela is, meaning that any action by the US in Venezuela does fall under its jurisdiction. I still don't think any prosecutor will touch this with a bargepole.
Excellent word, Ned. Even without knowing the exact translation, it is perfectly understandable!
It is a combo of estúpido and estadounidense, a word used in Latin America for someone from the U.S. But, alas dear Ally, you are far more than quick enough to get it without my help. 🫱🏻🫲🏽💡✌🏼
Thank you, kind sir!!
I believe Russia is also not a signatory to the International Court of Justice. That did not prevent the ICJ from finding Putin had violated international treaties. Could they not do the same to DJT?
In theory, yes. But it would likely be an ice-cold day in hell for that to happen. Perhaps we have to wait for boots on the ground in Greenland first.
That is true about Russia. The Court can make a point to the world by showing the evidence of wrong-doing. Putin is down to a binary end-state: a grudging victory or a body bag. Make these dastards visible in their evil. No Court can enforce the verdict whether a rogue country is a signatory or not.
Trump, Hegseth and Rubio should be indicted by the ICC for their part in the Venezuela attack. But the ICC should also indict Maduro. The illegal US action does not efface the crimes of the Venezuelan regime.
However the ICC won’t touch the Trump regime, because the US sanctions individual judges and prosecutors. I don’t know if you realise what that means: they are unable to do any banking or normal kind of payments. Unable to participate in modern life, in other words. https://apnews.com/article/international-court-sanctions-trump-icc-hague-4cdefe4de067432f6cdb9b137908c463
Thank you, Sophie. A real eye-opener on the incredible pettiness of Trump, and the minutiae he will involve himself in to be cruel.
Unfortunately, it also exposes loopholes in systems that assume people of integrity wield power. From now on, every law must be examined to see how it could be used to harm an innocent person by a corrupt official.
That would be every law :-(
Baron Montesquieu, President Jefferson, John Locke, and the rest understood that republics rely upon some measure of virtue on the part of the citizenry. Back in their day, most pro-republican partisans were property owners and educated. Virtue came easily, too often off the sweat of others' brows.
The universal suffrage may have diluted the language so it can be accessible to less educated people and non-property owners, but that is NOT the problem. The great majority of people are fundamentally decent at least to each other, day to day. the challenges of structural violence would tax any constitutional system.
The difficulty comes when people vote for corrupt candidates promising one thing (e.g., to y'all in rusted steel towns in Ohio or farm-towns in Indiana) and deliver another (i.e., the current kleptocracy). The heart-break for me is that I grew up in Pittsburgh and worked in integrated mills during my college summers.
Ironically, one of the most hated men in American history may have foreseen the current travails of the United States going on two centuries ago: “The [500-year] Republic had in reality ceased to exist long before the establishment of the [Roman] Empire. The interval was filled by ferocious, corrupt, and bloody factions. There was, indeed, a small but patriotic body of eminent individuals who struggled in vain to correct abuses and to restore the government to its . . . purity, and who sacrificed their lives in their endeavors to accomplish and object so virtuous and noble.” --John C. Calhoun, ‘A Disquisition on Government’; 1848.
Agree. Hope NATO and OAS have the same good idea.
Where is the more immediate threat for Denmark? From Russia or the U.S.? Would it be wise for Denmark to split it's manpower and naval resources between Greenland or the Baltic? Dividing one's forces is risky at best and catastrophic at worst.
Canada should protect Greenland.
Greenland is a part of Denmark, so obviously it's Denmark's job first; but it would ask aid from allies if there was an invasion. I don't see why there should be, as from a defence perspective, Greenland is already a NATO member, and there is a US base there. If it's just for Trump to add some territory on a map, that would be absurd (I know, I know...). Who thinks that way anymore? Russia is the biggest country on earth (more than twice as big as Canada, the second largest), but has barely more than 40% of the US population, and its GDP is somewhere between Spain's and Italy's (it's the 5th GDP in Europe) and its GDP per capita about that of Turkey and Brazil (officially...)
Greenland does have some interesting minerals, but US companies (and European ones for that matter, post-colonisation) have not needed a nation to belong to their country of incorporation in order to make deals for their raw materials.
I just found out from a really fine book on how Latin America fits into the international system that Greenland is under the protection of the Rio Treaty (of 1948) though neither it nor Denmark are signatories to that founding document of the Organization of American States. 😯
So, go after Greenland and Trump triggers Article-5 of the N.A.T.O. and Article-3 of the O.A.S. *treaties, notwithstanding the United States being a rogue ally. Jeez, three continents arrayed against the U.S. That spells isolation. Maybe not a military response.🖕
But a full blown embargo and banning U.S. citizens from travelling to sixty-four countries, some in which Americans own properties. That would teach us.😱
Having lived through the folly of Brexit and observed its disastrous fallout in Britain (a 5-6% drop in GDP for the UK over the past 6 years), I wouldn’t put it past about half of US citizens to shoot themselves in the foot in the same way by supporting such a policy with the same predictable outcome. Done in a US way, of course, which is louder and more obnoxiously dramatic than what we see these days in Western Europe (our own history is full of such hubris). Whatever is said publicly, many European leaders are preparing for an increasing post-American world. That includes Sir Keir Starmer, the leader of Britain, who is looking for a rapprochement with the EU; and the far-right leader of Italy, Giorgia Meloni, who although she shares some philosophical and populist traits with MAGA, knows that putting Italy’s interests first (as is her political position) involves a strong EU and not giving Trump everything he wants.
As I said to marvellously bright young people whom I taught in Tunisia, when they asked me about the volatility of Trump's first term, we in the United States are no longer king-of-the mountain and we are finding it very difficult even to acknowledge, let alone accept, that diminished status.😱
What I did not say was that the world is into the Chinese Century, fifteen or twenty years now. That does not mean that American greatness has utterly disappeared. It has not. It does *mean that our greatness is derivative from, and shared across, our alliances.🫱🏻🫲🏽
Bottom line? The United States needs her allies more than they need her.🙏🏾
That new -- really not new but unrecognized -- fact of life in the Chinese Century is not getting through to us quickly enough. We are lucky, Two great Empires have called it a day for their *respective days in the sun. We have an example to follow. Thank you, Prime Minister Attlee and Secretary Gorbachev.😇
Sure sounds like not only did the administration keep Congress in the dark (by lying to them) and specifically the Gang of Eight, and thereby failed to gain the consent of Congress, they also forgot to tell “Liddle Marco” he was going to be running Venezuela essentially all by himself, without the cooperation or support of any Venezuelans. Easy peasy. To be fair though, when Trump says “run Venezuela” he means use our military assets to steal their oil.
He means steal the oil while "running Venezuela" into the ground.
He already has a major donor who will do the job of taking the oil. Paul Singer owns ( or one of his holding companies owns) Citgo. This invasion will add billions in Singer’s already obscenely replete pockets. Payback to one of those who were blessed by SCOTUS to “ money is speech” takeover of our Government.
"I love that fur coat you have, and our winters are cold. I think I'll take it."
"You have a lot of cash in your briefcase. I could definitely use that, so if you don't hand it over I'm going to take it."
"I'm bigger than you are and have a bigger gun. And I'm coming for your home."
These are the new rules of the game, according to our president. The survival of the fittest. I honestly thought the human race was well beyond that ethos.
I will have to think about this more but what strikes me clearly is that however this regime frames this attack, two things are clear:
"It’s a failed country. It’s a totally failed country"
.
"It’s a country that’s a disaster in every way.”
Trump could be describing how he is obeying Putin. When he is finished, that is how one will describe our nation. Job well done.
Not only is Donold obeisant to Putin, he fawns over him and is imitative of him with illegal actions, invasions and murders of noncombatants/civilians. Trump incessantly threatens to do it to more countries, now boisterously proclaiming he might invade multiple countries at once.
We are a rogue state now because of this Trumpian regime's actions and lawlessness. They really do seem intent on making sure our "country is a disaster in every way"...
My own thought. Turning the camera on himself. Disaster in every way.
Yup.
The more ominous signal from this invasion is that the US military is now willing to follow illegal orders, and will probably do so if ordered to invade Greenland, Canada, or any other country, and will occupy US cities if told to do so. Trump fired any top brass who would have opposed such orders.
A red line has been crossed. This is frightening.
To end Ukraine War, attack Kremlin, kidnap Putin, drop him off at International Criminal Court in Hague.
This is of great concern. What about the room full of high ranking officers that Hegseth summoned and dressed down? If Trump invades multiple countries he would need more than just special forces. He would need the support of the whole US Military. Would they all comply ?
Our imperial presidency is now an imperialistic presidency.
Watch out Greenland and Denmark, Mexico, and Colombia, Cuba, et. al.
Russia and China, you now could follow our lead. We are only interested in our own hemisphere…
National sovereignty is no longer an obstacle.
The international order is just a play toy.
You left out Canada.
Phil, Jamie Kasler has a good parody on Tik Tok that gets rid of the automatic defense of everything Doldemort does: https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZP8ycUq8m/
To "batshit fucking crazy" add pathetic....
Whenever this thoroughly insane chapter of history finally gets written, there will be a long chapter in the middle entitled "The Unbearable Pathos of Marco Rubio." A small, wretched, conniving man who *knows* it's all lunacy, but signed away his soul to Beelzebub anyway for....what, I don't even know, really. One shabby little man smearing himself with poo in public while the cameras roll.