Just an addendum for the current day’s discussion. ~siab

BULLETIN: TRUMP UNCONSTITUTIONALLY INVADES VENEZUELA, FOR OIL – 1.3.26

Countdown with Keith Olbermann BULLETIN: TRUMP’S ILLEGAL WAR WITH VENEZUELA

Two months ago, in an interview, Trump’s Chief of Staff Susie Wiles “conceded that attacking targets on Venezuela’s mainland would force Trump to get congressional approval. Quote: “If he were to authorize some activity on land, then it’s war, then [we’d need] Congress.’”

She was entirely right. Yet overnight Trump invaded Venezuela and seized its leader Nicolas Maduro. To paraphrase his own chief of staff he DID authorize some activity on land, then it’s war, then [we’d need] Congress.’” AND TRUMP BROKE THE LAW AND BREACHED THE CONSTITUTION.

And this morning he and his hapless Vice President JD Vance confirmed this is as much about seizing oil – as much about increasing the profits of American corporations – as any supposed “narco-terrorism.”

Without any Congressional consent, Trump did this – anyway – from inside his madness, from within his monomaniacal delusional fog – without any legal right to do so – without any legal right THERE and without any legal right HERE. On his own. Without congressional approval. Without the nation’s approval. Without even the flimsiest of the fig leaves of democracy. Without any international consensus. Without any concern for the consequences. Without any consideration of the precedent he provides China in Taiwan and Russia in Poland and any other tyrannical bandit nation anywhere in this world.

And we, thanks to Trump, we – the United States of America – are now that tyrannical bandit nation.

It is important to note that on the simple, theoretical scale of who should remain as the leader of a failed rogue state, there is no defense for Nicolas Maduro. There is overwhelming evidence that he fabricated his latest quote “re-election” after first denuding the opposition and the law within his country. Again, by those tokens Trump has just put us on that identical path. And the idea that a country is suffering under a dictator who has no moral right to continue can be said even more easily of Putin. And of Xi in China. And dozens of others, many of whom Trump considers friends, about whom he makes no distinction. Maduro has no moral right to continue as president of Venezuela, and Trump has no moral right to act upon that by himself.

Edited to add paragraph breaks — sorry about forgetting that part.

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