Trump is facing the first big test in office that is not something he brought upon himself. It is what to do about Venezuela. He had already recognized an opposition figure as president of the country. He has urged other countries to do the same somewhat successfully. He has pulled one seriously amatueristic stunt sending John Bolton out who is carrying a yellow pad displaying it openly hoping it will be read upon which the words indicate consideration of sending 5,000 troops to Venezuela’s neighbor Colombia.
That stunt gave me the shivers. I thought if they think that con is the way to approach the crisis in Venezuela then we are in deep trouble. We all know there is no such plan to send American troops there. Why are they trying to pretend that there is? Is that supposed to frighten the thug Maduro. If it is it clearly didn’t. He’s now sending his Special Police Force around the country to murder people who are protesting against his rule.
I can only think of Syria when I see what is happening in Maduro’s country. He is another Assad, a murderous dictator, who cares little for his people. He is abetted in his propensity to murder his opposition by his Cuban infiltrated armed forces, his Russian special advisers and his special thug units. We can only look to Syria to get an idea of what will happen.
You may know that once Trump announced his support for the opposition Russia’s Putin told him to hold his horses. Putin lined up the usual suspect countries run by dictators who oppose democratic America to support him: China, North Korea, Turkey, all run by people who Trump admires.
We hope the opposition leader will bring Venezuela back to a functioning nation. It has the wealth to function well but under the soviet style socialist government where the leaders steal from the people and have no checks on them the food shelves are empty. Without food the people of Venezuela have been fleeing the country in droves because the alternative is to starve. It probably doesn’t occur to Trump that Russia is behind Maduro and its backing has caused Venezuela to become bankrupt because Russia also has to steal from the Venezuela people. China too, is extorting large amounts of interest from the country for loans it has made which have gone into Maduro’s and his buddies pockets.
The United State’s history of interfering in our southern neighbors not for the best of purposes makes it reluctant to get involved there. But Trump who is for “America First” has made an exception to this policy and has, as I mentioned, endorsed the opposition leader to Maduro and Bolton pretends we are considering a military intervention.
We have given the opposition hope. Many people believe the United States will do something for them have put themselves at risk by coming out into the open with their support. They are now marked for eradication by Maduro and his Cuban and Russian allies. This now demands the United States take more firm action to carry out its commitment to those people.
The problem is Trump can only do what Putin will allow him to do. If history teaches us anything Putin will arrange it like what happened in Syria with Assad that Maduro stays in power, the opposition is destroyed, Russia keeps its strong influence in Venezuela, the people continue to starve, and the United State suffer a humiliation.
The other problem is two-fold:
(1) The White House. Trump has the attention span of gnat who will quickly be off to something else; Bolton, as shown by his stunt, is little more than a windbag; and there are few people of gravitas, if any, surrounding Trump.
(2) the United States. We have the biggest and best armed forces in the world but a great inability to use it. Outside our special forces and air forces, the rest of the many hundreds of thousands avoid situations of combat like Trump avoids books. We’ve too many bleeding hearts; few willing to read about bleeding warriors.
I hope I’m very wrong. I hope our talk brings about a regime change or we do something more than talk to help those people in Venezuela. We have to stop holding out a hand of hope to the world and then pulling the rug out whenever someone is naive enough to reach for it.
One can understand why the elites want a police state, but why would the 99% embrace it?
Wa-llahi! Perhaps, Glorious Leader has made a deal with Putin that assigns Venezuela to the US sphere of interest, and, Ukraine to Russia? That agreement would, also, allow for the dispatch of either of the powers’ military forces to quell any disruptions in their respective satellite states.
Would invasions be welcomed by the broad mass of people who inhabit the satellite states? Ukraine? I think not. Maybe, the Venezuelans are equally fond of their independence. How popular would a long, and, grinding, asymmetrical guerilla struggle in Latin America be to the folks back home in the USA? If you divide the Venezuelan population into politically leaning thirds: a pro American bourgeois third, a middle-class third, and, a proletarian third, you can see that any attempt to use physical force against Venezuela would be resisted by at least a third of the population. The middle-class would fracture along economic lines; the little bourgeoisie would scurry to the protection of the wealthy, and, their American patrons, those who joined arms with the proletariat would help form a resistance front to the diablos yanquis.
Iraq was touted as a walk-over. Look how that turned out. Venezuela could prove to be just as tough a nut.
Khalid:
There will be no invasion of Venezuela. Our history forbids it after so many other misadventures in those lands. I’m not so sure Russia will give up on Maduro, I see a situation like that in Syria where they give him enough support to survive and slowly crush the opposition. Much will depend though on what Putin tells Trump. I agree with your analysis of the situation.
Bill :
Freeh would like to get you in on the weekly national conference call of highly intelligent paranoid fed conspiracy theorists .
Trust you have the hard copy .
Matt wrote about THE DEVIL in a previous post. Well, there are Satanic forces and Satanic characters in real life, like Stalin, Hitler, Mao, men responsible for FASCISTIC, LEFTIST states, men responsible for the murders of tens of millions.
There are men in power in America, deep state folks, like the Federal Prosecutors in Boston, who have acted evilly, satanically, stalinistically, by prosecuting and persecuting innocent persons and by persecuting and bullying the marginally guilty like the Swartz boy they drove to suicide. There are higher ups in the DEEP STATE, who are so corrupt they commit evil acts, abuse power. I call them HILLARIANS: some are Hillary’s acoloytes, who view half of Americans hatefully and who are interventionistic and money grubbing and power grubbing; other are Capital Hill Hillarians, elected Senators like Schumer and Congresspersons like Pelosi, who so sell their souls to stay in power they’d do almost anything, like sanction the whole sale butchery and killing of the unborn. So, today, beware the HILLARIANS, wing of the MAFIIAA, I’ve mentioned before:
to understand how even good people can be corrupted see Bernardo Bertolucci’s THE CONFORMIST (especially good is the confessional scene) . . .the Conformist is about Mussolini’s times . . . . .everything Bertolucci does is superb . . .The Conformist is more contemporary, relevant today, than when first produced
OH, as soon as I began talking with the Yahoo Hi Tech expert, he asked me if I knew anyone in Colorado . . . .I said no, why. . . . .he said because someone in Colorado is presently actively accessing your yahoo email….the email I haven’t been able to access since before Thanksgiving
OTHERWISE, celebrate life and the present, concentrate on the good things and good persons in life, and let no one, especially no FED, still your voice or writing fingers.
Go to the Parade! Go Patriots. Up the Republic.
Read Spiritual Glue, Three Billboards Outside Boston (2018) and the FIX (2006) and Paul Walkowski’s From Trial Court to the US SUPREME COURT: ANATOMY OF A FREEE SPEECH CASE (1996) AND his AFFIRMATIVE ACTION/AFFIRMATIVE DISCRIMINATION (circa 1998)
otherwise peace to persons of good will; to those not of good will: Special Forces.
p.s. I USED TO BACK UP ALL MY WORD DOCUMENTS, EMAILS, ETC ON THE CLOUD, BUT AROUND JUNE, THE CREDIT CARD COMPANY CALLED ME AND TOLD ME MY CARD HAD BEEN ATTACKED, AND I SHOULD GET A NEW ONE. I DID. HOWEVER, I FORGET TO NOTIFIY MY ‘CLOUD BACK UP” COMPANY OF THE CHANGED CARD, SO THERE WAS NO AUTOMATIC RENEWAL.
to repeat: I woke up one morning right before Thanksgiving and the Savin Hill Reunion, and found out all my WORD DOCUMENTS (@ 8 years worth of writing) and all my EMAIL (plus I have been unable to access my email since) HAD BEEN DESTROYED . . . .DELIBERATELY TARGETED, THE YAHOO TECH TOLD ME, IN A HIGHLY SOPHISTICATED ATTACK
NOW WHO WOULD WANT TO DESTROY ALL MY WRITINGS (DESTROY AND STEAL THEM, I SUSPECT) AND DESTROY ALL MY EMAILS AND PREVENT ME FROM USING MY EMAIL?
WHO HAS A MOTIVE TO DO THIS? THE FEDS WHOM I’VE BEEN MOST CRITICAL OF, AND THE FEDS ALLIES, THEIR HENCHMEN, THEIR BULLY BOYS
LET’S FINDOUT IF SOMEONE SAID, “DON’T WORRY, FREDDY”. . .”WE’LL TAKE CARE OF THEIR BASTARD WHO’S WRITING BOOKS AND POSTING BLOGS CRITICAL OF THE FEDS AND OTHER GOVERNMENTAL ACTORS”?
Yesterday I read an article in Harper’s showing the Obama Administration had NO PLAN for what to do about Syria. I too hope the same indecision does not affects today’s FEDs. I also advise my country America to stop intervening in every other country’s affairs. I recognize we’ve got a Monroe Doctrine, but elsewhere lets be more Hands Off, less War Mongering, Interventionistic and Know it All.
VERY IMPORTANT: I found out yesterday, having just hired a Yahoo hi-tech expert, that both my home laptop computers had been “DELIBERATELY TARGETED” and all my WORD documents and EMAIL had been DESTROYED. 8 years of writings saved on WORD destroyed the week before THANKSGIVING and not recoverable.
Now who would do this? THE FEDs or the FEDs friends (you know they always want deniability). I’ve been most highly critical of the FEDs, FED prosecutors, and other government actors (Like FED-Deputized State Police under then Major Foley)
Someone doesn’t like my writings, and my ideas, and YAHOO tech told me this was a very SOPHISTICATED ATTACK as I had excellent Norton and other protective software.
It brought to mind last Spring, when I found both the Massachusetts State Police and Mass A.G./D.A. offices had visited my LInked-In pages on the SAME DAY. WHY? TO intimidate. It was right before I published “Three Billboards Outside Boston”
Using FOIA, I asked the STATE Police and AG/DA for any records of their visiting my Linked-In page. Both denied they had any records.. It took me going to the State Secretary of State to get the State Police to even comply with the Public Records Law and respond.
SOMETHING IS VERY ROTTEN IN DENMARK, AND IN THE U.S.A., WHEN THE FEDS/GOV (I SUSPECT STRONGLY) ARE TARGETTING LITTLE OLD RETIRED WRITERS WHO ARE CRITICAL OF THEM.
THE FISH, THE FEDS, ROT FROM THE HEAD DOWNWARD, AND THE DEEP STATE FED PROSECUTORS OFFICIALS AND THEIR BOSSES IN DC LEAD THE LIST OF THE ROTTEN FISH HEADS.
THE YAHOO TECH SECURITY EXPERT TOLD ME THE SOPHISTICATED TARGETTED ATTACK WAS A PHISHING ATTACK . . . .THE PHISH ROT FROM THE HEAD DOWNWARDS