So, Trump finally did it. Yes, he did the dirty deed. He actually invaded Venezuela. Of course, he didn’t call it an invasion, he does see himself as a peacemaker, after all, so he called it a police action to apprehend a drug criminal. As would be expected, there is a lot of comment on that, but before my non-MAGA friends get all bent out of shape over an attack on Trump’s definition of criminal proceeding, it might be a good idea to look at the reality of what’s happening without the usual political decorations.
Most of those involved in commenting on the situation are aware of the lack of international controls on what we just did. Okay, that’s fine, but now take a look at Trump’s action and how it resonates on the people it most effects. That would be Venezuelans and the people around the rest of the world who will either suffer, or be relieved by, the blundering actions of Trump and the United States military. Yes, I understand this was an extra-legal action and all Trump’s bullshit must be dismissed, but the end result, a least for the time being, was actually a good one and happened only because, as the liar stated, the situation had been ignored by previous American presidents, despite the fact that Maduro had been legally indicted in an American court. This is practically the same argument that has been used against Trump for racing un-judicially past or around congress on many occasions.
What the administration has done here is probably illegal, but it was justified because nothing was ever attempted by a former administration even though they had the ability, not the duty, to get something done.
Does one believe that this entire operation was about illegal drugs? Not bloody likely! Trump, as if to prove this point, has done almost nothing except talk about oil since this operation concluded. Trump sees a way for the U.S. oil barons to make a killing here, which means that so will he. He talks about the Venezuelan people getting paid, but with his pathetic administration running Venezuela, it is almost written in stone that we will see an era of corruption in that country that’s been unparalleled in recent history.
When Trump stood at the podium at his press conference and pointed to the block of corrupt, incompetent fools standing in back of him, announcing that they would be running Venezuela, he was striking a death knell of any chance that nation would have a shot at a clean recovery. His pack of clowns haven’t been able to run this country right; they have absolutely no shot at doing it with a rat’s nest like Venezuela.
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The shooting of Renee Michelle Good in Minneapolis by an ICE agent is exactly the kind of case the Trump administration is guaranteed to screw up. VP Vance has already showed us this incompetence at work as he jumped in and accused the dead woman of causing her own death. Yeah, that’s what we need. And as if that weren’t enough, he tried to excuse the shooter by telling us that he suffered from PTSD, just what we want to hear about a guy to whom we have given a gun and the authority to use it.
I’ve watched the video a half-dozen times now and it’s pretty clear what physically happened. That doesn’t mean we know what people were thinking or why they reacted as they did. In the beginning of the video the car is stopped off camera right. A man, I think the eventual shooter, runs toward the car, arriving at the driver’s door and appears to try to open it. The car jerks backward a few feet, stops and bolts forward and to its right. Other than the universal dictum that a moving car in a tight space is a danger to everyone, there is no indication that the cop in question was in any particular danger. I saw no visible evidence that the driver was trying to hit anyone. She veered to the right and the officer who approached the car was on its left. What Vance blabbered to the press was a definite, “Bullshit, ten dollars, next case.” The FBI taking over the case and shutting out everyone else is an open admission that the administration knows this ICE agent was wrong, but they don’t want the public to know it. They have already screwed it up past an apology and now it’s too late to cover it up. It’s just another example of the incompetence of the Trump administration.
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Tom Homan, the so-called “Border Czar,” spent a great deal of time on Meet the Press defending the ICE officer who shot and killed Renee Good in Minneapolis this week. Among the statements he made was that the officer was defending himself because Good tried to run him down. I’ve seen at least half-dozen versions of the incident and that’s just a lie. Good turned the vehicle away from the officer, not towards him. This is not a matter of debate. It’s clear in all the versions I saw. The officer was on the left of the car, and the car went to the right. I don’t know if Homan doesn’t know the difference between left and right but it’s clear he doesn’t in this case. The same can also be said for the vice president and the head of DHS. Wearing a cowboy hat doesn’t make you a sheriff, just like wearing a MAGA hat doesn’t make you a functioning president.
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President Trump has declared that his own morality is the only limit on his ability to function in making international decisions, including those on war and peace. An interesting POV from a convicted criminal.
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Minneapolis is in flames. If you asked me last year which American city would be ripe for riots, Minneapolis would have been one of the last on my list. But there it is, a creation of Donald Trump, the peacemaker. Trump wanted this to happen in this city. That’s why he let his Gestapo out of the bag. He already had the Somalis, a ready-made, non-white group that ICE could prey on, so he sent a badly trained, PTSD infected, unit into a potential combat zone, and sat back to wait for the inevitable. All it took was time and not much of that. Now we have a murder That caused the outrage, that led to the riots and soon there will be more deaths and then Trump can send in the troops. And if Steven Miller’s plan plays out, we will soon have more deaths, maybe even a few bombings, so Trump can declare his first nationalized city. That will be the start. The finish will be written in blood.