It has been five years since Donald Trump tried to overthrow the government. He failed then, but we did not hold him accountable, and he is back in charge, and fucking things up as bad as ever.
Venezuela? This is naked aggression, serving no good purpose. What does the administration (one hesitates to say "Trump" in this case, because there is no there there anymore, and everyone knows it) think they will get out of this? Oil? I suppose there is a chance, but the chaos created is more likely to make it more expensive than less. The drug running gag was never real. An excuse to deport hispanics? I am sure this is Stephen Miller's dream, but they have been doing that for a year, this isn't likely to help that much. I don't know. All we are doing is risking the creation of a long, ugly, occupation, alienation from even more of the world - for no gain, and without even the flimsy make believe excuses we used to invade Iraq in 2003.
That said - talking about Venezuela means there is less talk about the Epstein files. Less talk about Trump's dementia. Less talk about the sagging economy. Less talk about ICE. Less talk about Jack Smith and January 6, 2021. All this fills up the airwaves with noise about Venezuela, giving the press, especially TV news, the excitement of a war - so, yes, it is a distraction.
But it is not likely to be a very effective distraction. The Epstein files are too big a deal to stop being an issue. Trump's dementia is not getting better, and this just reminds everyone how old and feeble he is. He and his cronies can't help themselves from reminding everyone what idiots they are - using this as an excuse to threaten Cuba and Mexico and Denmark and god knows who else - everything about it reminds us that Trump and his boys are like petty gangsters beating up random citizens to get the rest to pay them off. They might say they are defending Democracy in Venezuela, but they immediately start talking about stealing Greenland - I guess Democracy isn't the issue. None of this can go well - the rest of the world suffers, but Trump's gang won't get any benefits. The economy is not going to get better. The situation in Venezuela is far more likely to descend into chaos and violence than not.
Of course, what it really means, is likely that Madura's check hasn't cleared yet. Trump has pardoned plenty of monsters already, sometimes for ideology, but usually, for ransom. Kidnaping Madura makes most sense on those terms - snatch him, and wait for someone to pay Trump and company off. They probably think they will get the oil out of this, as a bribe to not kidnap anyone else - but this is only going to work as long as people keep paying.
Enough. End by saying that obviously Trump should be impeached over this. At some point, congress is going to have to stop calculating their odds, and just fight against him, any way than can. Trump should have been in prison in 2021; he should have been frog-marched out of the White House on January 6, 2021. When we didn't that, we should have made a point of getting him into stir as quickly as was seemly afterwards. We did not, and are paying for it. This time - we will have to do better, or we are going to have to deal with some scumbag imitator every 4 years for perpetuity. Treat him like the traitor he is.
No comments:
Post a Comment