TRump did not talk to the oil executives before the invasion and kidnapping. He also generously decided We The People could subsidize their renovation of the oil infrastructure.
For sure, the next invasion will cost us and it too will be the actions of a demented maniac. It will be another part of the plan to take over the Western Hemisphere.
He has dementia according to Dr. John Gartner. Here's info from the Mayo Clinic:
If it's a battle with Denmark, I will make sure my bag is packed for the internment camp. I'm a little Danish, and I will be on the side of my ancestors. Till then, see you in the streets.
Do you really believe that the oil companies would admit that they were complicit with Trump in that crime? If I were a CEO of an oil company I would fess up, would you?
All corporations are reliable liars. They lie about climate change, the tobacco companies lied about their product. Watch TV commercials and all you see are lies.
The problem is that unlike POS, the oil companies actually know how oil production, etc. works. POS thinks he can build factories, infrastructure, etc. with his words. And, as the oil folks know, the oil in Venezuela ain't the kind of oil POS is thinking of; it's not used as gasoline, which pretty much what POS is thinking of.
I’m wondering, Thom, how you feel about what the Democratic members of Congress are doing, because it sure looks to me like a lot of performative hand-wringing, and not much else.
And what do you expect the party out of power to do? They're on the media I watch, MSNBC, as well as others. (If you don't see them, blame Fox, etc.), doing media bites, forming committees that have no real power, telling their constituents, etc. AGAIN, they're not in power. If you want them to do something, VOTE for DEMOCRATS in November. Flip the House AND the Senate. Then they CAN do something real, including impeach POS and his insane administration. They lost the conviction of POS by THREE votes because Rs, McConnell, had no balls. And neither did the voters!
Trump said that he had conversations with oil exec's before and after the invasion, but they,of course, denied them, otherwise they would have confessed to be implicated in the crime, and bad PR.
Venezuela oil is called sour oil, because of it's high sulfur content, however Citgo, which was the Venezuela owned oil company, now owned by a billionaire hedge fund sponsor of Trump (Paul singer), has a huge oil refinery in lake Charles, LA built just for that purpose.
Also Chevron, Marathon and other oil companies have special built refineries to handle Venezuela oil.
Ergo it is used as Diesel and gasoline.
Trump had many reasons to capture Maduro
1.Jealousy as he is a better dancer.
2.To give the rest of the hemisphere a lessson, that he was the top dog (he has warned Cuba, Colombia, Mexico, Greenland)
3. To prove that he is the most macho man in the west, the equal of Putin
4. And of course the oil.
He is deeply indebted to the oil cabal, before the election he addressed a group of oil execs and lobbyists, and told them if they gave him a billion dollars, he would give them what they wanted, and part of that is his war on "windmills" and environmental controls.
There is more
By the way, have you ever posted on the defunct Liberty Forum? Does the name Kudzu mean anything, Nuke Buzzcut?
That article should have said: real cuts, real pain, real DEATHS.
Suing the government is one thing, suing THIS government with TRump, Bondi, and SCOTUS? Unfortunately, the federal statute of limitations could be a problem from what I read.
As for Ludwig, crazed for sure but in hindsight he left behind truly impressive architecture (we can discuss aesthetics elsewhere) while Trump will leave behind a bloodied field of absurdist projections of his own very bloated mind.
A consortium of banks lent this crazy Lout $ 400,000,000 in 1988 to buy The Plaza in NYC.
4 years later, they foreclosed on him when he failed to pay even the interest.
3 years later, they sold it for 325 M.
7 years of interest lost.
75 M of principal gone, too.
The guy could not even run a profitable Atlantic City casino and make money without making it go belly-up.
He's a serial kiddie rapist, along with his child rapist twin: Jeff Epstein.
His gramps was a draft dodger (Germany) and a pimp (Alaska), so what do you expect? It's in his genes. Cowardice and (kiddie) whore-mongering.
He's an "A #1" Russian spy who's sold out America. [He loves the uneducated, the hateful morons 77.3 million who reinstalled him.]
He's had people unalived.
He tore out handfuls of his 1st wife's hair.
He then violently raped her as a rabid ape hopped up on XANAX might.
He's planted his 1st wife under some untended golf-course weeds, for a tax break.
He groomed his daughter as a sicko pedo might. And publically Lusted after her.
Three of Donald's casino execs died mysteriously [as had his raped wife]. The 3 died in a suspicious helicopter crash. The rotor came off, which never happens. He promptly blamed them for his Atlantic City failures.
According to multiple accounts — especially from former Trump Plaza president John O’Donnell — Donald Trump did later blame his Atlantic City casino problems on the executives who died in the 1989 helicopter crash, even though the crash happened months before the Taj Mahal opened and long after the core financial issues were already baked in.
NJ.com summarizes O’Donnell’s claim that Trump “routinely blamed deceased executives who had nothing to do with his woes.”
TrumpFile — which compiles historical reporting — states that Trump “later blames his financial struggles on their deaths, even though the casino opens over six months later.”
[What a complete nutty ass.]
But, HEY !!! He hates Blacks and Browns. Hates them so much that he's building an American gulag for them. Oh, yeah, he hates poor Whites, too. You're NEXT !!!
[As quiet as it's been kept . . . This Commie, this Red terrorist has "always" been nuts.]
Answers to rhetorical questions, just in case... "Did he just decide to BS his way through the press conference like he’s done so much of his life?" Yes, indeed. "Didn’t he realize this was a violation of both international law and the US Constitution?" Actually, taking into account he's no legal scholar and he's surrounded himself with obsequious sycophants, this question might not be rhetorical. "Did he think for a moment that he’s the king of the Americas? Or the world?" Sorry, readers. I can't answer this one. I'm afraid of what might happen if I try to put myself inside the mob boss' head.
Perhaps you should decide that the country, and the people in it, matter more than the Democratic Party that you protect. The irony in your diagnosing Trump's dementia when you were literally hanging up on callers who suggested that Biden might be similarly afflicted, and actively minimizing that reality with guests attesting that it was just a stutter, should give your minions pause. If not, then consider your columns hiding Biden's Parkinson's dementia, even to the point of minimizing reports that Parkinson's specialists had visited Biden many times. Biden and the Democrats oversaw a genocide that you and most of your neoliberal followers ignored. Obama and Hillary Clinton destroyed Libya and assassinated Gaddafi in much the same way Trump invaded and kidnapped Maduro. You'll recall that Hillary Clinton thought the whole thing, sending Libya back to the dark ages and all, was hysterical, cackling "We came, we saw, he died." This is no better than Trump. Sociopaths are sociopaths Thom, and the fact that you selectively call out Trump and the Republicans is indeed putting a political party over the welfare of the country. So perhaps you should practice what you preach and tell the Democrats to stop spreading propaganda about Venezuela and Maduro that justifies Trump's actions. And remember that Obama perpetuated the destruction of Venezuela's economy with his sanctions in 2015 further demonizing Maduro while he aided and abetted a genuine dictator Mohammed Bin Salman in his starvation and massacre of the poor people of Yemen. Your selective outrage has enabled the ascent of Trump and exacerbated the crisis of unaccountability that Trump uses to his advantage.
Plus Thom supported Hillary rather than Bernie in 2016. Exit polls in the general election showed people who voted for Trump would have voted for Bernie if he was on the ballot.
Thom has never explained why he supported Hillary rather than Bernie who was supposedly his friend. If Thom had supported Bernie maybe we would never have had Trump.
Agreed, if those "progressive" pundits like Thom and Robert Reich would have rallied behind Bernie and exposed the truth about what the DNC was doing we might not be dealing with Trump today. Incredibly Thom said, and I kid you not, that Hillary and Bernie were "practically identical" presidential candidates, the whole campaign trying to convince his listeners how progressive Hillary was becoming. He's a grifter in his own right.
Fiona Hill testified in 2019 that Trump would allow Putin to take Ukraine if Putin let Trump have Venezuela. At that time Putin was a defender of Maduro and his regime.
The corruption of this government is mind-bottling, the GOP and the Supreme Court are 100% responsible for the mess we are in, but it is also the weakness of most of the Democrats.
The most outspoken Dems are socialists like Bernie, AOC etc
Trump has now successfully deposed of Tim Waltz (most Medicaid fraud is in the Red states) just like he got rid of Al Franken and is going after Adam Schiff, Mark Kelly, Ilhan Omar etc.
The entire GOP defend their own no matter what, the Dems do nothing, strength is in numbers.
This naive idea that the Dems will take control after the next election (I believe) is a pipe dream. .Trump has a huge corrupt movement behind him, from the Heritage Foundation to Stephen Miller ,Russell Vought, Steve Bannon and the billionaires. I am convinced that Trump's minions will "fix" the election, the GOP has interfered with our elections for decades.
Trump has bragged about stealing the last election, he did it with the help of Musk, "True the Vote" Palantir, Trip lite and the Russian bots. The Dems have allowed the extreme
gerry mandering, the take over of the press by the Rightwing, ousting Dems from the electoral college etc. There were a few lawsuits but very little results. Schumer and Jeffries are weak and afraid of Trump, we don't have a functioning government.
OCCUPATION. Thom, remind your readers/listeners about Cheney/Rumsfeld/W invasion of Iraq. The military has a plan outlining steps required for an invasion. It consists of, I think, 4 steps. The first 3 concern the attack and invasion. The fourth is the outline for what comes after the country is successfully occupied. For Iraq the first 3 steps were well planned and outlined. There was no plan for the 4th step. Only the State Department had bothered to create an occupation plan - and it was a PowerPoint slide presentation! We see how well the Iraqi (and Afghanistan) occupations turned out. Feels like history is repeating itself now.
Delusions of grandeur is a symptom of clinical paranoia unless the DSM has changed since I studied mental illness with the DSM IV (Diagnostic & Statistical Manual of Mental Illness, fourth edition). Trump also displays symptoms of narcissism and there is no doubt a crossover between the two in his case. He very likely suffers for DID (Dissociative Identity Disorder) and a few other mental disorders. These are not new and have characterized his extreme behaviors for all of his adult life. They are tolerated and even admired in a society that is sick. And yes, he clearly is degenerating physically and cognitively because of age and health factors. He presents a grave danger. However, this not a place where the 25th Amendment should be suggested as a solution. Much of his recent inexplicable behavior can be explained by the influence of certain people and ideas or ideologies and he has promoted the people and conspired with people such as Putin who are committed to those ideas. As Thom has discussed, the plan to divide the planet up into three spheres of influence is his current obsession. This is clearly the reason for the moves on Venezuela, in my view and the talk of taking over Greenland, Cuba, etc. Putin is likewise suffering from paranoid delusions of grandeur. They have secretly agreed on the strategy of dividing and conquering their respective domains. The Republicans and the entire administration as well as the media are just fine with the plan. Thom wrote,: "Republican members of Congress know that a president can’t unilaterally invade or administer foreign nations on his own whim or impulse. They know that threatening annexation destabilizes the entire world, and Trump’s handed both Putin, Netanyahu, and Xi the rationalizations they all crave to expand their own empires."
I have serious doubts that they do know those things. They watch Fox. If enough of the public will passively accept this concept, they may well stand by and let it happen. We may be totally reliant on poor health and incompetence to ultimately end the nightmare.
"The Republicans and the entire administration as well as the media are just fine with the plan."
Robert, the Western Hemisphere idea just came to light, so give them time to reject it. The independent media are screaming from the rooftops, now that they know. Rogan has dumped him, so have other righties and MAGAs.
It will be splendid if the Republicans and media reject the proposal that we through Trump should dominate and control the entire western hemisphere, but I am not betting that they will, and I don't think we have time to wait for that them to see the light. I haven't followed Rogan but I'm also not betting that he will continue to speak out against Trump or that MAGA will not fall for his next gambit and a new lie to justify the unthinkable. I'm stuck out here on the ledge for the duration.
Loss of impulse control is a typical sign of dementia, as the frontal lobes of all humans shrink with age. In most cases, the symptoms manifest as occasional forgetfulness or making embarrassing statements. In the case of true dementia, patients must be moved into assisted living to ensure their safety. In Trump's case, it is the world's safety, yours and mine, and Trump's power-hungry toady cabinet who should worry.
Trump's repulsive behavior has America on the cusp of being ousted from NATO. He blabs secrets so often, I doubt that any allies are sharing intel with the US anymore. Besides, Trump has stated that he ignores intel briefings anyway.
Neuschwanstein and Ludwigstein are no different than the WH ballroom, the Arc de Trumphe, new federal office buildings popping up across DC, the gilding of the Oval Office, etc. Trump is clearly as mad as Ludwig. But Republican greed for power is stifling any sane Article 25 actions. Is he going to have to nuke Iran or something before America has had enough?
Saving grace with our allies is that they have their own crazies in their parliaments. We are a cautionary tale. They feel sorry for us. I hope they don't toss us out of NATO, because that is what Putin and TRump are after, but they may have to at some stage.
In the 2024 Venezuelan election Edmundo González was the opposition candidate and the opposition claimed he had won with 70% of the vote. The claim of a large percentage win is supported by most observers. Machado had been disqualified by Maduro and wasn't on the ballot. The Tump administration isn't working with González either.
The US has done this before! Aristotle, elected president of Haiti, was kidnapped by US troops and flown somewhere in Africa. The international community hardly noticed because Haiti was just a small and poor country governed by former slaves.
"Bavaria eventually acted, not because it was easy but because delay had become more dangerous than dealing with a psychologically incapacitated and emotionally stunted ruler. The question facing the United States today is whether we’ll learn from that history or insist on repeating it."
Anyone relying on Enlightenment reason already knows the answer: absolutely not. We have centuries of evidence that people don’t listen to history. Painful experience is the only teacher we seem to trust. You know the trajectory we’re on, and still you try to stop it. You’re a minnow in a wave — part of a school — and you’ll be left flopping on the shore when the water finally recedes.
And yet I see you, and others like you, as Odysseus at the end of the epic — the part Homer whispers rather than shows.
The hero who must walk inland until the world no longer knows what an oar is.
The man who must surrender the identity that made him famous.
The wanderer who must become:
- a stranger
- a pilgrim
- a man without a story
- a man without a sea
Only then can he return home as a human being, not a
legend.
Homer ends the Odyssey this way because it isn’t a story about homecoming. It’s a story about the cost of being Odysseus — the price of seeing too much, knowing too much, carrying too much. The final journey teaches that peace requires surrender, identity must be laid down, and even heroes must make amends.
That’s how I see you and the other seers. The effort is vain — history will do what it does — and yet you keep warning anyway. That contradiction leaves me in a state of cognitive dissonance, admiring the heroism even as I doubt the outcome.”
Something else Maddow made a point of last night was that TRump is testing his limits. He wants to be sure the military will do what he wants in foreign countries and domestically.
So does the Supreme Court ruling that grants him unlimited criminality without prosecution still apply if he's batshit crazy? If he's no longer functioning like a President, then. . .
Surprise! He lied.....
TRump did not talk to the oil executives before the invasion and kidnapping. He also generously decided We The People could subsidize their renovation of the oil infrastructure.
For sure, the next invasion will cost us and it too will be the actions of a demented maniac. It will be another part of the plan to take over the Western Hemisphere.
He has dementia according to Dr. John Gartner. Here's info from the Mayo Clinic:
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&opi=89978449&url=https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/frontotemporal-dementia/symptoms-causes/syc-20354737
If it's a battle with Denmark, I will make sure my bag is packed for the internment camp. I'm a little Danish, and I will be on the side of my ancestors. Till then, see you in the streets.
Do you really believe that the oil companies would admit that they were complicit with Trump in that crime? If I were a CEO of an oil company I would fess up, would you?
Sorry---I'm laughing, because I think he is a much more RELIABLE liar.
All corporations are reliable liars. They lie about climate change, the tobacco companies lied about their product. Watch TV commercials and all you see are lies.
The problem is that unlike POS, the oil companies actually know how oil production, etc. works. POS thinks he can build factories, infrastructure, etc. with his words. And, as the oil folks know, the oil in Venezuela ain't the kind of oil POS is thinking of; it's not used as gasoline, which pretty much what POS is thinking of.
I’m wondering, Thom, how you feel about what the Democratic members of Congress are doing, because it sure looks to me like a lot of performative hand-wringing, and not much else.
And what do you expect the party out of power to do? They're on the media I watch, MSNBC, as well as others. (If you don't see them, blame Fox, etc.), doing media bites, forming committees that have no real power, telling their constituents, etc. AGAIN, they're not in power. If you want them to do something, VOTE for DEMOCRATS in November. Flip the House AND the Senate. Then they CAN do something real, including impeach POS and his insane administration. They lost the conviction of POS by THREE votes because Rs, McConnell, had no balls. And neither did the voters!
I love the way you’ve shortened “POTUS” to “POS,” (wink, wink).
:-) It's actually President Orange Snake AKA POS.
Trump said that he had conversations with oil exec's before and after the invasion, but they,of course, denied them, otherwise they would have confessed to be implicated in the crime, and bad PR.
Venezuela oil is called sour oil, because of it's high sulfur content, however Citgo, which was the Venezuela owned oil company, now owned by a billionaire hedge fund sponsor of Trump (Paul singer), has a huge oil refinery in lake Charles, LA built just for that purpose.
Also Chevron, Marathon and other oil companies have special built refineries to handle Venezuela oil.
Ergo it is used as Diesel and gasoline.
Trump had many reasons to capture Maduro
1.Jealousy as he is a better dancer.
2.To give the rest of the hemisphere a lessson, that he was the top dog (he has warned Cuba, Colombia, Mexico, Greenland)
3. To prove that he is the most macho man in the west, the equal of Putin
4. And of course the oil.
He is deeply indebted to the oil cabal, before the election he addressed a group of oil execs and lobbyists, and told them if they gave him a billion dollars, he would give them what they wanted, and part of that is his war on "windmills" and environmental controls.
There is more
By the way, have you ever posted on the defunct Liberty Forum? Does the name Kudzu mean anything, Nuke Buzzcut?
He's probably nutsy koo koo, but so are his enablers.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/dec/24/trump-mental-health-speech-address-2025-review
IMHO he's entitled to due process, but someone has to ask for an evaluation. https://www.congress.gov/crs-product/R47571
So Trump is certifiable and suffering from dementia, what's new Capt Obvious?
Ever the systematic, reasoned judge. I admire that but will not put into print what I think should happen.
Thanks but I still can't get over the fact that none of his litigants seem to have any balls.
When I look at the DOGE carnage, where are the PI lawyers who coulkd take advantage of the insanity? NYT https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/23/us/politics/doge-musk-trump-analysis.html
"In DOGE’s published list of canceled contracts and grants, for instance, the 13 largest were all incorrect."
That article should have said: real cuts, real pain, real DEATHS.
Suing the government is one thing, suing THIS government with TRump, Bondi, and SCOTUS? Unfortunately, the federal statute of limitations could be a problem from what I read.
Is Trump losing his mind ? Is?
As for Ludwig, crazed for sure but in hindsight he left behind truly impressive architecture (we can discuss aesthetics elsewhere) while Trump will leave behind a bloodied field of absurdist projections of his own very bloated mind.
Is he nuts? F**kin' AY !!!
A consortium of banks lent this crazy Lout $ 400,000,000 in 1988 to buy The Plaza in NYC.
4 years later, they foreclosed on him when he failed to pay even the interest.
3 years later, they sold it for 325 M.
7 years of interest lost.
75 M of principal gone, too.
The guy could not even run a profitable Atlantic City casino and make money without making it go belly-up.
He's a serial kiddie rapist, along with his child rapist twin: Jeff Epstein.
His gramps was a draft dodger (Germany) and a pimp (Alaska), so what do you expect? It's in his genes. Cowardice and (kiddie) whore-mongering.
He's an "A #1" Russian spy who's sold out America. [He loves the uneducated, the hateful morons 77.3 million who reinstalled him.]
He's had people unalived.
He tore out handfuls of his 1st wife's hair.
He then violently raped her as a rabid ape hopped up on XANAX might.
He's planted his 1st wife under some untended golf-course weeds, for a tax break.
He groomed his daughter as a sicko pedo might. And publically Lusted after her.
Three of Donald's casino execs died mysteriously [as had his raped wife]. The 3 died in a suspicious helicopter crash. The rotor came off, which never happens. He promptly blamed them for his Atlantic City failures.
According to multiple accounts — especially from former Trump Plaza president John O’Donnell — Donald Trump did later blame his Atlantic City casino problems on the executives who died in the 1989 helicopter crash, even though the crash happened months before the Taj Mahal opened and long after the core financial issues were already baked in.
NJ.com summarizes O’Donnell’s claim that Trump “routinely blamed deceased executives who had nothing to do with his woes.”
TrumpFile — which compiles historical reporting — states that Trump “later blames his financial struggles on their deaths, even though the casino opens over six months later.”
[What a complete nutty ass.]
But, HEY !!! He hates Blacks and Browns. Hates them so much that he's building an American gulag for them. Oh, yeah, he hates poor Whites, too. You're NEXT !!!
[As quiet as it's been kept . . . This Commie, this Red terrorist has "always" been nuts.]
SO? . . . Just VOTE, already !!!
Answers to rhetorical questions, just in case... "Did he just decide to BS his way through the press conference like he’s done so much of his life?" Yes, indeed. "Didn’t he realize this was a violation of both international law and the US Constitution?" Actually, taking into account he's no legal scholar and he's surrounded himself with obsequious sycophants, this question might not be rhetorical. "Did he think for a moment that he’s the king of the Americas? Or the world?" Sorry, readers. I can't answer this one. I'm afraid of what might happen if I try to put myself inside the mob boss' head.
How can Our Mad King Donald the 1st lose something he never had, his sanity?
Perhaps you should decide that the country, and the people in it, matter more than the Democratic Party that you protect. The irony in your diagnosing Trump's dementia when you were literally hanging up on callers who suggested that Biden might be similarly afflicted, and actively minimizing that reality with guests attesting that it was just a stutter, should give your minions pause. If not, then consider your columns hiding Biden's Parkinson's dementia, even to the point of minimizing reports that Parkinson's specialists had visited Biden many times. Biden and the Democrats oversaw a genocide that you and most of your neoliberal followers ignored. Obama and Hillary Clinton destroyed Libya and assassinated Gaddafi in much the same way Trump invaded and kidnapped Maduro. You'll recall that Hillary Clinton thought the whole thing, sending Libya back to the dark ages and all, was hysterical, cackling "We came, we saw, he died." This is no better than Trump. Sociopaths are sociopaths Thom, and the fact that you selectively call out Trump and the Republicans is indeed putting a political party over the welfare of the country. So perhaps you should practice what you preach and tell the Democrats to stop spreading propaganda about Venezuela and Maduro that justifies Trump's actions. And remember that Obama perpetuated the destruction of Venezuela's economy with his sanctions in 2015 further demonizing Maduro while he aided and abetted a genuine dictator Mohammed Bin Salman in his starvation and massacre of the poor people of Yemen. Your selective outrage has enabled the ascent of Trump and exacerbated the crisis of unaccountability that Trump uses to his advantage.
Plus Thom supported Hillary rather than Bernie in 2016. Exit polls in the general election showed people who voted for Trump would have voted for Bernie if he was on the ballot.
Thom has never explained why he supported Hillary rather than Bernie who was supposedly his friend. If Thom had supported Bernie maybe we would never have had Trump.
Agreed, if those "progressive" pundits like Thom and Robert Reich would have rallied behind Bernie and exposed the truth about what the DNC was doing we might not be dealing with Trump today. Incredibly Thom said, and I kid you not, that Hillary and Bernie were "practically identical" presidential candidates, the whole campaign trying to convince his listeners how progressive Hillary was becoming. He's a grifter in his own right.
Fiona Hill testified in 2019 that Trump would allow Putin to take Ukraine if Putin let Trump have Venezuela. At that time Putin was a defender of Maduro and his regime.
The corruption of this government is mind-bottling, the GOP and the Supreme Court are 100% responsible for the mess we are in, but it is also the weakness of most of the Democrats.
The most outspoken Dems are socialists like Bernie, AOC etc
Trump has now successfully deposed of Tim Waltz (most Medicaid fraud is in the Red states) just like he got rid of Al Franken and is going after Adam Schiff, Mark Kelly, Ilhan Omar etc.
The entire GOP defend their own no matter what, the Dems do nothing, strength is in numbers.
This naive idea that the Dems will take control after the next election (I believe) is a pipe dream. .Trump has a huge corrupt movement behind him, from the Heritage Foundation to Stephen Miller ,Russell Vought, Steve Bannon and the billionaires. I am convinced that Trump's minions will "fix" the election, the GOP has interfered with our elections for decades.
Trump has bragged about stealing the last election, he did it with the help of Musk, "True the Vote" Palantir, Trip lite and the Russian bots. The Dems have allowed the extreme
gerry mandering, the take over of the press by the Rightwing, ousting Dems from the electoral college etc. There were a few lawsuits but very little results. Schumer and Jeffries are weak and afraid of Trump, we don't have a functioning government.
OCCUPATION. Thom, remind your readers/listeners about Cheney/Rumsfeld/W invasion of Iraq. The military has a plan outlining steps required for an invasion. It consists of, I think, 4 steps. The first 3 concern the attack and invasion. The fourth is the outline for what comes after the country is successfully occupied. For Iraq the first 3 steps were well planned and outlined. There was no plan for the 4th step. Only the State Department had bothered to create an occupation plan - and it was a PowerPoint slide presentation! We see how well the Iraqi (and Afghanistan) occupations turned out. Feels like history is repeating itself now.
Delusions of grandeur is a symptom of clinical paranoia unless the DSM has changed since I studied mental illness with the DSM IV (Diagnostic & Statistical Manual of Mental Illness, fourth edition). Trump also displays symptoms of narcissism and there is no doubt a crossover between the two in his case. He very likely suffers for DID (Dissociative Identity Disorder) and a few other mental disorders. These are not new and have characterized his extreme behaviors for all of his adult life. They are tolerated and even admired in a society that is sick. And yes, he clearly is degenerating physically and cognitively because of age and health factors. He presents a grave danger. However, this not a place where the 25th Amendment should be suggested as a solution. Much of his recent inexplicable behavior can be explained by the influence of certain people and ideas or ideologies and he has promoted the people and conspired with people such as Putin who are committed to those ideas. As Thom has discussed, the plan to divide the planet up into three spheres of influence is his current obsession. This is clearly the reason for the moves on Venezuela, in my view and the talk of taking over Greenland, Cuba, etc. Putin is likewise suffering from paranoid delusions of grandeur. They have secretly agreed on the strategy of dividing and conquering their respective domains. The Republicans and the entire administration as well as the media are just fine with the plan. Thom wrote,: "Republican members of Congress know that a president can’t unilaterally invade or administer foreign nations on his own whim or impulse. They know that threatening annexation destabilizes the entire world, and Trump’s handed both Putin, Netanyahu, and Xi the rationalizations they all crave to expand their own empires."
I have serious doubts that they do know those things. They watch Fox. If enough of the public will passively accept this concept, they may well stand by and let it happen. We may be totally reliant on poor health and incompetence to ultimately end the nightmare.
"The Republicans and the entire administration as well as the media are just fine with the plan."
Robert, the Western Hemisphere idea just came to light, so give them time to reject it. The independent media are screaming from the rooftops, now that they know. Rogan has dumped him, so have other righties and MAGAs.
It will be splendid if the Republicans and media reject the proposal that we through Trump should dominate and control the entire western hemisphere, but I am not betting that they will, and I don't think we have time to wait for that them to see the light. I haven't followed Rogan but I'm also not betting that he will continue to speak out against Trump or that MAGA will not fall for his next gambit and a new lie to justify the unthinkable. I'm stuck out here on the ledge for the duration.
Loss of impulse control is a typical sign of dementia, as the frontal lobes of all humans shrink with age. In most cases, the symptoms manifest as occasional forgetfulness or making embarrassing statements. In the case of true dementia, patients must be moved into assisted living to ensure their safety. In Trump's case, it is the world's safety, yours and mine, and Trump's power-hungry toady cabinet who should worry.
Trump's repulsive behavior has America on the cusp of being ousted from NATO. He blabs secrets so often, I doubt that any allies are sharing intel with the US anymore. Besides, Trump has stated that he ignores intel briefings anyway.
Neuschwanstein and Ludwigstein are no different than the WH ballroom, the Arc de Trumphe, new federal office buildings popping up across DC, the gilding of the Oval Office, etc. Trump is clearly as mad as Ludwig. But Republican greed for power is stifling any sane Article 25 actions. Is he going to have to nuke Iran or something before America has had enough?
Saving grace with our allies is that they have their own crazies in their parliaments. We are a cautionary tale. They feel sorry for us. I hope they don't toss us out of NATO, because that is what Putin and TRump are after, but they may have to at some stage.
In the 2024 Venezuelan election Edmundo González was the opposition candidate and the opposition claimed he had won with 70% of the vote. The claim of a large percentage win is supported by most observers. Machado had been disqualified by Maduro and wasn't on the ballot. The Tump administration isn't working with González either.
The US has done this before! Aristotle, elected president of Haiti, was kidnapped by US troops and flown somewhere in Africa. The international community hardly noticed because Haiti was just a small and poor country governed by former slaves.
"Bavaria eventually acted, not because it was easy but because delay had become more dangerous than dealing with a psychologically incapacitated and emotionally stunted ruler. The question facing the United States today is whether we’ll learn from that history or insist on repeating it."
Anyone relying on Enlightenment reason already knows the answer: absolutely not. We have centuries of evidence that people don’t listen to history. Painful experience is the only teacher we seem to trust. You know the trajectory we’re on, and still you try to stop it. You’re a minnow in a wave — part of a school — and you’ll be left flopping on the shore when the water finally recedes.
And yet I see you, and others like you, as Odysseus at the end of the epic — the part Homer whispers rather than shows.
The hero who must walk inland until the world no longer knows what an oar is.
The man who must surrender the identity that made him famous.
The wanderer who must become:
- a stranger
- a pilgrim
- a man without a story
- a man without a sea
Only then can he return home as a human being, not a
legend.
Homer ends the Odyssey this way because it isn’t a story about homecoming. It’s a story about the cost of being Odysseus — the price of seeing too much, knowing too much, carrying too much. The final journey teaches that peace requires surrender, identity must be laid down, and even heroes must make amends.
That’s how I see you and the other seers. The effort is vain — history will do what it does — and yet you keep warning anyway. That contradiction leaves me in a state of cognitive dissonance, admiring the heroism even as I doubt the outcome.”
That is profound.
What will Trump do when Xi invades Taiwan?
What will Trump do when Putin invades other countries next to Russia? Estonia, Latvia, etc
Not. A. Damn. Thing.
They want the Western Hemisphere.
Something else Maddow made a point of last night was that TRump is testing his limits. He wants to be sure the military will do what he wants in foreign countries and domestically.
Not only does he test his limits, but as he loses power in Europe, he must exert power elsewhere.
I fear for Zelinsky, now that rump says it's ok to kidnap a president of a country you don't like.
So does the Supreme Court ruling that grants him unlimited criminality without prosecution still apply if he's batshit crazy? If he's no longer functioning like a President, then. . .