Should the increasingly-unlikely opportunity arise, it will be incumbent upon those who treasure the rule of law to prosecute and punish Trump and all of his co-conspirators for each of their many crimes. That will be a costly undertaking, but for the sake of our nation’s future, worth every penny.
This has Nazi Nosferatu's dirty fingerprints all over it; kill them before they even get to the border. These actions will lead into a new and dangerous era of international lawlessness. Trump et. al are criminals against humanity, and I hope to see them judged and punished for their crimes.
I read dozens of news sources. Your insights are the best, thanks. Although it is very scary for the future. Sixty some years ago as a teen, I used to wonder if I would live to see the collapse of the American dream, well maybe it is here.
I am appalled at any comment other than what the fuck are we doing? Christ has left us . God is gone!
How dare a few insane fuckers are allowed to drive a nail into America’s coffin. Kill them…, I have the right to shout with rage against the hate , lies, criminal activity of low lives who think this is not going to get repercussions .
Get the stupid out of supreme and fire 6 criminals, now!!! How we must damn them to hell.
I personally was raised to obey the law, to tell the truth, to be the best I could be if not better, to pay taxes into my country to help everyone enjoy a common good. Stopping at a “red light” gives us all freedom. That is not a reason to make your life unfair…. It is a freedom for your safety. That little example goes for all laws! It means order… not chaos.
We’d better be more than angry. We’d better imprison these immoral bastards who think we are not paying attention.
You’ve got our attention you bastards. I hope you can hide in your own filth because we are coming for you!!!!!
If you agree get your fists up and do not back down
something is missing in our constitution. The 25th amendment is obviously not adequate to protect us against a criminal president. where is the Red Line 4 allowing a group of authorities that can arrest a criminal president? Would that be the group of eight congressional leader plus Secret Service and or select military leaders? we need something like that.
There is no backstop if the people no longer believe in the rule of law. You can write all the words you want in whatever document you want, but if Congress and the Courts refuse to enforce them, and the People accept that, which is where we are at - so far - there is no recourse. The People are the ultimate recourse, and on Nov 4 they abdicated.
If a president dictates how the legislature and ultimately the judiciary act there will be no consequences for such blatant acts. I'm afraid change can not possibly occur unless our blood is spilled, and it can not be guaranteed if the blood does just that.
Any modification of the Constitution requires 2/3rds of both houses of Congress or 2.3/rds of state legislatures. Ratificacqtion requires 3/4ths.
I am with you 100% Muriel, alas Americans, especially liberals, don't have the stomach for anything stronger than marching and holding signs. There might be violence and somebody gets hurt.
Thank you , and blood has already been spilled. It isn’t mine or yours but it is blood of innocent humans who are being picked out by ghouls who should and could be stopped. We must must must demand change. If the only way is to stop paying taxes until there is no salary for police, military or congress and the SC then we withhold in an interest bearing account. Where there is no money there is no power…. Ask the poor!
Here is the thing, while there is kvetching over deaths afar, there is more unnecessary deaths, from guns, disease, neglect and yes starvation in America.
In 2024, more than 44,000 people died from gunshot wounds, a decrease of nearly 5% from 2023. This marks the first time in five years that the annual total of gun deaths has fallen below 45,000.
the USDA reporting that 18.0 million households, or 13.5% of the total, experienced food insecurity in 2023, and recent surveys show a continued upward trend in food insecurity in 2024.
According to provisional data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), an estimated 80,391 people in the U.S. died from a drug overdose in 2024. This marks a decrease of nearly 27% from the 110,037 deaths estimated in 2023.
And now with RFK Jr's Jihad against vaxxing, the numbers, especially of children, dying from disease that were once conquered is going to rise astronomically,
My father, born 1917, contracted Scarlet Fever, it caused a heart murmur which wasn't caught until 1946, he died on the operating table in 1964.
My grandparents had 6 children, two died in childhood, families, especially if the were agrarian, had double the amount of children, because half died in childhood. Smallpox, measles, whooping cough, scarlet fever, polio rubella, they are all coming back.
Sounds like he'd like to kill many birds with one stone. He's been making accusations that the Venezuelan-origin gang Tren de Aragua a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) and alleges it is controlled by the Maduro government. Earlier this year, Trump invoked the 18th century wartime power to help streamline the deportations of Venezuelans alleged to be members of the Tren de Aragua gang. To crack down on immigration, Trump invoked the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, an obscure law that has been used sparingly throughout U.S. history to detain or deport nationals of an enemy nation during wartime or an invasion.
Since then, the use of this power has attracted legal challenges, including two prior Supreme Court decisions. But the high court has yet to directly address the larger question of whether Trump's invocation of the Alien Enemies Act is legal in the first place.
During his first administration, the U.S. Justice Department charged Maduro and other high-ranking officials with a "narco-trafficking" conspiracy and offered a $50 million reward for his arrest and conviction. Recently the U.S. increased its naval presence in the Caribbean and reportedly carried out the strike against the Tren de Aragua gang, resulting in the deaths of 11 people.
The Pentagon said two Venezuelan military aircraft flew near a U.S. Navy vessel on Thursday in international waters in a "highly provocative move." Is this the predicate to war?
War against Venezuela reminds me of the neocon promise of Iraq -- a war that would pay for itself. We've threated war for a long time.
Venezuela has an estimated at 303 billion barrels (Bbbl) as of 2023, Venezuela is home to the largest known reserves of oil. Saudi Arabia ranks second with 267.2 Bbbl, followed by Iran at 208.6 Bbbl and Canada at 163.6 Bbbl. Together, these four countries account for more than half of global oil reserves. The United States, by comparison, holds about 55 Bbbl, placing it ninth globally. This means that Venezuela’s reserves are more than five times larger than those of the US. According to Google: Venezuela's production costs are estimated at $10–$12 per barrel, while the average wellhead price in the U.S. is around $63–$67 per barrel.
Here's a little history. "In October 2014 — when Rafael Ramírez was president of PDVSA, Venezuela’s state-owned oil company — the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID), a body within the World Bank, ruled in favor of Exxon in a lawsuit against the Maduro government. The ruling required the Venezuelan state to pay $1.6 billion in compensation to this corporate giant for having nationalized its assets within the country.
"Emboldened by high oil prices and the multibillion-dollar national revenues during the 2006-2012 term, former Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez — who was elected in 1999 and governed until his death in 2013, when he was succeeded by Maduro — sought to shape his political project. With his United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) — still the ruling party today — he carried out an aggressive wave of nationalizations of the country’s productive structure. These expropriations had serious consequences for the national economy and a significant impact on the energy sector.
"The new legal framework for oil — created by Chávez in 2005 — established the transition of existing operating agreements to the state-controlled joint venture model, guaranteeing PDVSA a majority stake in all activities related to the oil sector."
The renewed dispute between ExxonMobil and Venezuela: The story of a long-standing feud
Here in Baghdad By the Sea, people have been asking for US invasions of Cuba as well as Venezuela. Our MAGA reps are all in.
They're also interfering in Colombia as well as other Latin countries.
E.G. U.S., Colombia withdraw ambassadors amid accusations of coup plotting By Salome Beyer Velez and Jim Glade
"Although Rubio did not elaborate on the alleged “reprehensible” statements, Colombian newspaper El Tiempo on Thursday published a letter allegedly sent to the U.S. House Committee on Ethics calling for an investigation into House Republicans, including Florida lawmakers Rep. Mario Díaz-Balart, Rep. María Elvira Salazar, and Rep. Carlos Antonio Gimenez. The letter was signed by 30 Colombian representatives."
Was it "The Mouse That Roared" where a small country declared war on the U.S? If that happened, there are many other larger countries that would like to join in and help take us down.
Yeh Daniel, apparently reality has set in and Trump realizes he is not going to get his coveted "Noble" prize, So now it is to put us on a war footing, hence the Dept of War, and what better to start a war with for a bully than Venezuela, trouble is it would be a two, three day war at most, unless Trump can use some over eager special ops troops and the 82nd Airborne to drag it out
As you rightfully point out, Venezuela is a problem of our making, the federal government, its legislative and executive have been slavish to the petro chemical cabal. Republican and Democratic administrations have used the CIA and Mercenaries to overthrow Chavez. And he foiled one plot by wrecking a truck on a bridge that the mercenary band couldn't cross.
As the attempts to overthrow him didn't work, the government, at behest of Exxon Mobil has slapped on sanctions, forcing Chavez, now Maduro to find friends and allies elsewheres like with Iran and Putin.
This is a repeat of Iran in 1953, when the CIA and MI6, conspired to overthrow Mossadegh, an elected President, to get control of their oil fields.
France was left out of the deal, Total S.A., didn't get it's share, so fast forward to 1978, the Ayatollah Khomeini was given sanctuary in France, and the French version of the CIA
Directorate-General for External Security (DGSE), protected him and helped him smuggle his cassette tapes into Iran in French diplomatic pouches.
As a reward, until the sanctions in 2018, Iran had contracted with French Total S.A. to run their oil fields, processing and shipping. Now they do it all in house via the National Iran Oil Company (NIOC).
The energy sector has wanted confrontation w/ Venzuela for a long time. Trump can't tell the players without a scorecard, but Rubio can. He's been on it since Chavez. Most Venezuelan money is located on Brickell Avenue, Miami FL 33131.
About a month ago, my music teacher was in Venezuela, visiting a couple of his factories. He said he had no fear. He recently received his US citizenship, is a dual citizen. He's lucky, because there is a travel ban imposed on Venezuelans and he was able to return to Miami.
Ungil this year, tourism was our primary industry. Much of the tourism, from Venezuel and Brazil, as well as Canada, has been lost.
We have roughly 250,000 Venezuelans in this county in jeopardy because they are here on visas cancelled by Trump. These people are in temporary protected status, October 2026, but Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem revoked that policy, leading to litigation. "Despite the Trump administration’s assertion that Venezuela is now safe for migrants to return, substantial evidence indicates that most holders of Temporary Protected Status would face dire consequences if repatriated. Many could be subject to incarceration, torture or even death at the hands of the same regime they once fled." On Septembe
Rubio has depicted Venezuela as a vestige of the communist ideology in the Western Hemisphere for a long time. Rubio has consistently pushed for the ouster of Maduro, advocated for economic sanctions and even argued for American military intervention.
Rubio shared some of the first details about the strike Tuesday despite it being a military operation, posting on social media as Trump briefly announced it in the Oval Office. A day later, he said “it’ll happen again” and said Trump had authority “under exigent circumstances to eliminate imminent threats to the United States.”
“What will stop them is when you blow them up, when you get rid of them,” Rubio said.
I don't know this as a fact, but I'd bet there are more than 250,000 dual US/Venezuelan citizens in South Florida.
I'd also expect that a high proportion are registered Republicans.
Flash: Judge blocks Trump from stripping TPS from over 900,000 Haitians and Venezuelans By Syra Ortiz Blanes September 5, 2025 4:37 PM
In a 68-page decision, Judge Edward Chen of the Northern District of California ruled that Department of Homeland Secretary Kristi Noem had made the decisions in haste and beyond the scope of her authority. He restored Biden-era TPS extensions that run until February 2026 for Haitians and October 2026 for Venezuelans.
“For the first time in the 35-year history of the TPS program, the Trump administration and DHS Secretary Noem took the extraordinary and unusual act of vacating TPS extensions that had already been granted — specifically, extensions given by the prior administration to Venezuela and Haiti,” wrote Chen.
If they are going to call the Democratic Party names, we've got some for the GOP. The only hoax here is that TRump actually claims to care about America.
The murder of the people on the boat is another made for TV stunt by the most vile, corrupt President in the history of our country. His fellow psychopath, Hegseth is having the time of his life. Here is another disgusting thing he said:“I’d say we smoked a drug boat, and there’s 11 narcoterrorists at the bottom of the ocean. And when other people try to do that, they’re gonna meet the same fate.” Did you ever notice that SOD would be the acronym for Secretary of Defense? Fitting.
Our ailing President was busy posting lovely pics for his boyfriend Putin yesterday, when he should have been in a meeting with our allies. That creep Whitkoff blew the meeting off after 20 minutes. Feigned outrage and that too was just to distract.
Here's another possibility on TRump's rumored hospital visit: Donald might have had an IV port put into his chest. That will give docs access to administer meds and do blood draws. The hand bruises will disappear, and he'll go right back to lying to us about being the fittest president EVER. The cover-up by him and the Guardians Of Pedophiles will continue till we nail their asses. It's coming---See you in the streets.
He really, really does care about America. Those who oppose him are obviously not Americans; they/we are what he has repeatedly called "the enemy within". This is pure Nazism.
Robert here is the scary part. I start by recounting the two fire fighters that were caught while fighting a fire in the Olympic Mountains. If you know Washington and the Olympics, you know it is huge and hard to get to, especially fighting fires.
How did ICE know that these two men were in that exact location,? How did they know that they were working for the forestry service.?
I've posted before that the NSA has a humungous data center at Bluffdale, UT and it sniffs every digital packet, including this comment of mine, and it uses AI to filter out people that the government of Trump want to collect.
It is also capable, now because of DOGE, of instantaneously sniffing through all digital documents, including mortgage applications and deeds.
That is the latest tactic, everyone has made a mistake at one time or another, on an application, but just not mortgages, we all have digital trails, all Trumps GESTAPO need do is type in a search parameter and they have a victim.
The meeting yesterday with Trump of all of the Tech Bros should scare the pants off everyone, they will give him all the support he needs to clamp down the iron collar of dictatorship.
William, I lived in Port Angeles for a short time (no jobs there) back in 1969. I went up to Hurricane Ridge a few times (never clear, alas) and to the Hot River valley. Yep, the area is transcendently beautiful. One of my favorite paintings was of Lake Crescent.
I figured a while ago that posting the scurrilous innuendo that we so enjoy was, inn effect, painting targets on our backs. Anybody who posts anywhere on the blogosphere really needs to pay attention to all of the government's shennanigans. Another joy brought to us by Big Brother is their ability to find out which sites we visit. There are no secrets. The ability to know if we wash our hands after shitting comes next.
I have no doubt that I am on a list, but I also old, have health problems and not a threat, except on substack
Have you ever been to Port Townsend. It is where Ft Worden is located, it was the site of an Officer and a Gentleman. I happened to visit it not long after the movie.
My wife was there for a WABO conference.
The Olympics are beautiful, on the west side near the Pacific is Forks, the gloomiest place in the United State, perpetual fog it seems, so it was the perfect siting for the teen thriller series "Twilight", the town capitalized on it by having tours where the heroin supposedly lived, Never did. In fact most of the movie, if any, was shot in Forks.
Like Gray's Anatomy is about the non existent Grey Sloan memorial, the one shot was of Harbor view, which in the 80's was a VA hospital, the show is actually shot in Vancouver Canada because of costs, regulations and taxes.
Practical Magic was shot about a 15 minute drive from my house. My wife was the plans examiner for the house that they built, then tore down. It was shot on a county park, when they wrapped up they tore down the house, restored the grass and left it, almost, as they found it, time did the rest.
The captain of the destroyer that killed those people, is guilty of a crime, international and national, and should be court martialed, but Hegseth fired the Judge Advocate Generals that are the ones actually charged with and responsible for declaring whether an action is Constitutional or not, legal or not.
How much more proof do we need that the old order is dead, and we are in the grips of a fascist regime, OK maybe the word fascist is over used, is there a better word.
William,I think "Neo Nazi" is more appropriate.Stephen Miller has agreed he ikes being called a " Neo Nazi" .There is little doubt we have underestimated what these " Nazis" are capable of.
Miller a Jewish NAZI, Mark Robinson a black NAZI, gay NAZI's (Thiel and Vance), trans NAZI's Robin Westman, There is no end to this insanity. Next stop, I'm getting off this planet.
I have not seen all the photos to know if there was evidence of large bales of material common to small fastboats delivering illicit cargo to ships at sea. Suggesting that the crew were migrants escaping Venezuela is likely a stretch. These overpowered fastboats are not commonly seen in international waters if recreational. But, of course, the boat could have been a recreational vessel joyride. Given the aerial surveillance, it is likely that the boat was monitored from the time it left port. Thus, there might be evidence of an illicit mission.
Why the boat was not just interdicted - normal in cases of suspected smuggling - is most disturbing. It is consistent with putting on a show to scare the bad guys and promote Trump as tough on international crime.
Why the US Navy was involved, if true, is most disturbing. Drug interdiction is not Navy's mission, nor is sinking civilian vessels without cause. This is just one more instance of Trump militarizing illegal deployment for law enforcement against civilians. The event tells us all that is that all honorable Pentagon flag officers have been purged from the ranks, enabling Trump to use them as his personal stormtroopers to impose his will on civilians - not declared enemies.
Maybe it was. Maybe it wasn't. Either way, we just committed an unjustified attack on a foreign ship in international waters. They're supposed to intercept and arrest them.
I knew many naval and Coast Guard officers who were part of the Task Force Against Crime and did interdiction at sea.
South Florida Task Force
In February 1982, President Ronald Reagan formed the South Florida Task Force, a major drug interdiction effort, and designated Vice President George H.W. Bush to lead it.
Purpose: The task force's creation was a direct response to the overwhelming flow of cocaine and marijuana into South Florida, which had become the main point of entry for drug traffickers.
Agencies involved: The operation mobilized federal agencies including the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), U.S. Customs, and the U.S. military.
Interdiction efforts: The task force focused on cutting off supply lines by enhancing surveillance in the air and sea lanes leading to Florida. It was heavily supported by the U.S. Coast Guard and military aircraft, which patrolled the Caribbean.
Outcomes:
By 1986, the task force was credited with over 15,000 arrests and the seizure of millions of pounds of drugs.
However, its overall success was limited. Increased interdiction efforts did not significantly reduce the overall flow of drugs. Traffickers adapted by shifting their routes and viewing seizures as a business expense.
The task force was hailed by the administration as a success, but some officials noted its minimal long-term impact on the overall drug trade.
Of course, the whole point of this murder on the high seas is not about drug interdiction; it is about gaslighting MAGAs into viewing Trump as a ruthless law & order macho man who deserves to be president for life.
You are correct Tom. People leaving Venezuela, get on a plane and fly to Mexico, not on a fast boat, not on any boat, it is a long hazardous trip from Venezuela to the Carribeans.
And the 290,000 Venezuelans Trump was to deport, were not fleeing persecution, they are the same ilk as the Caudillists, the Bautistas, that fled Cuba. The upper and upper middle class that lived high of the sweat and blood of the peon's.
When the vampire runs out of food, he does a geographical.
These folk claimed to have walked through the Jungles of Columbia and the Darien Gap, that is a crock of crap, the Gap is the most dangerous jungle in the world, well almost, full of poisonous snakes, insects,plants, peccaries (javelenas), jaquars, criminal gangs, and hostile natives, and in rainy season, almost impossible to navigate.
No they took money out of the bank, or the mattress bought a ticket to Mexico and a bus to the border arriving in fresh clothes, scrubbed faces, with boys carrying soccer balls and girls dolls, and sappy Americans falling for their sob story.
And nobody, especially the press and heart rendered liberals, took notice of their appearance as the stepped off the buses and airplanes, or the photo's of them gathered at the border.
We surely see what we want or are programmed to see.
Absolutely correct Tom about the purge of real officers, all that is left, are the same ilk, that made up Hitlers supreme military command. Christian Reconstructionists and ass kissing careerists.
But... but... but trump said it was carrying a cargo of drugs. Everything he says, even if it's as banal as the hamberders he had for dinner last night, needs to be prefaced:
The Lusitania was sunk in May of 1915, almost a year after the assassination in Sarajevo.
Miller's question regarding the legality of attacking vessels in international waters probably isn't cruelty or sadism but rather his lack of emotion in the killing of people to further his political aims. This would be identical to the lack of emotion the Nazis felt when they created the "Final Solution" and, I assume, forced several million men, women and children the into gas chambers. This also applies to Trump who not only ordered the hit, he condemned several hundred thousand Americans to early deaths by slashing Medicare and eventually Medicare.
As for the International Criminal Court, we do not recognize it.
Unfortunately, the shooting of protesters on our streets is all too real.
KKK-fan Daddy Fred Trump Sr. told his Dumb boy to be a "Killer." His word, not mine.
Well then, there, now, Donald is officially a killer of men. Agent Double-O Big Mac.
I'm thinkin',' somewhere, his Daddy is smiling.
As is Reinhard Heydrich. One of the most feared and powerful figures in Nazi Germany during World War II. Often referred to by chilling nicknames like “The Butcher of Prague,” “The Blond Beast,” and “Himmler’s Evil Genius,” he was a principal architect of the Holocaust and a master of Nazi terror.
A good nickname = The Blond Turd? The Butcher of Queens? Miller's Evil Dumb-Ass?
Buckle up.
Oh. And the Sec War has bragged about having killed 300 humans w/ more to come. But it's “Off the record, on the QT, and very hush-hush,” to quote Sid Hutchin's catchphrase from "L.A. Confidential."
There will be domestic blood — The Wages of Sin. The sin is voting for a cowardly homicidal maniac just because he's hostile to all out-groups.
This is just the opening salvo as these people think they're invincible. Wait until the first coffins start returning home. What will these American voters do then? Will the Trump people try to white wash this as well, like they're trying to do with the Epstein files? More to come I'm sure.
Trump will do what Bush did. Dubya learned the lesson of Vietnam. Daily coverage on TV of coffins being unloaded at Travis AFB, CA, of military funerals throughout the nation, the public got tired of buryiing their fathers, sons,uncles, cousins, husbands and that is why Nixon started pulling out in 1972, not because of long haired hippies and students marching around with signs.
Bush chose to embed reporters with the troops, thus influencing how they would report, he also forbade any photos or footage of caskets being unloaded at Dover AFB, DE and then forbade the Pentagon to make public notice of funerals.
It was so bad that the only way the media could keep up with the body count of our troops, was to scour every local paper in the nation. They weren't getting any info from the Pentagon, and the complicit media never breathed a word about this type of censorship
I'm afraid you're right. Of course, with the independent media being what it is, the word and videos will get out, no matter how hard they try to cover it up. Which is a good thing.
I remember. The powers that were in charge (Obama, Trump 1.0, Biden) were careful not to make a spectacle about it. The main stream news downplayed the returns at Dover as much as possible. With Trump, it would likely be a near complete news blackout with only reporters like Ken Klippenstein sneaking out snippets whenever possible. Such a shame but this is the new world we find ourselves in.
Sadly so, that is why we don't live for every. Imagine Ben Franklin having lived through all of these changes,cultural, political, technological he would be on serious meds.
I don't want to live in the future that I see coming, politically , culturally or environmentally.
When I was a kid there was no commercial TV, though invented in the 1920's or 30's, commercial TV was not a thing, and only in big cities, until after WWII, that we saw mass market commercial TV. I would walk this girl home from school, carry her books, so I could sit down and watch Howdy Doody, that was 1948.
The first commercial broadcast with an ad was 1941, then came the war. Can you imagine if WWII were televised. We might be speaking German on he East coast and Japanese on the west coast.
Mr. Farrar. The public has been kept in the dark about some of the scariest trends in human history. Our government is the perpetrator.
Lately I have been reading about some of the problems faced by the Manhattan project which for years always vexed me. As a student in physics, when young, I always wondered why the boys at Los Alamos built two entirely different bombs. "Fat Man" and "Little Boy." An "implosion bomb" and a "cannon bomb."
As a student of physics I understood that it was elementary [simple] to build a bomb which used Uranium 235. My friends and I designed one as undergrads at Wayne State University. It was the "Little boy" type. That is, a "cannon bomb." A plutonium bomb on the other hand is much better [more powerful], if admittedly, technically more difficult to design. We were not able to design a plutonium bomb. That is, a"Fat Man" type.
The technical details are not the important topic here; so I will not bore you with them. Besides, my computer does not allow me to produce the math involved. Yes.....you are well justified in being frightened by the fact that a few undergrad students 60 years ago were able to design a weapon which is capable of eliminating all animal life on this planet larger than a cockroach. And, we were not the brilliant scientists hired for the Los Alamos project. We were just a few ordinary, interested guys in a senior undergrad physics course. To be honest, quantum mechanics bored my ass off. I much preferred heat and thermodynamics, and statics and dynamics, generally.
What bothers me here is the almost unimaginable, herculean, national effort our government was willing to put into that satanic project; and kept it as the best held secret in American history. I find it ironic that Klaus Fuchs and probably several others were able to leak the secrets to the Russians anyway. It was the American public who was most successfully kept in the dark about this work of the devil on our own territory, by our own leaders. What the moronic Trump and his sadistic band of lunatics might be up to would not surprise me.
Has it ever occurred to you to ask: why did the government feel as though it needed two different types of bombs?
Did it not occur to Americans to ask why is it that the U235 processing plant built at Oak ridge,Tennessee was the biggest single manufacturing complex in history? And why was another plant of a different sort needed at Hanford, Washington?
The answers to these questions are truly frightening. So frightening that some generals and admirals threatened to resign when they learned about the nature of
America's atom bombs.
I have been talking about fission type bombs.
I have not even discussed the subsequent development of the fusion type bombs which are exponentially more powerful and expensive.
I didn't see my first TV until 1964. Before that, I listened to radio shows. My parents were always too poor for much more than that. I think they had that old B/W TV until long after I ran away from home in 1974 to join the military.
As for the Axis powers invading the U.S, I don't know. Maybe things would have been vastly different, for sure. Like how the televised reporting from Vietnam radically changed how the public viewed what was actually going over there. Perception is the name of the game. He who controls the narrative, controls the masses.
Terrance,did you happen to notice in the Epstein financial transactions that Deutche Bank and our friend Jamie Diamond @JP Morgan Chase have been accused of laundering money from some very important people ,so the identities will be suppressed.
"The Attorney General’s office for the U.S. Virgin Islands has already built a very strong case against the largest bank in the United States, JPMorgan Chase, that its money laundering for Epstein should be a top priority for criminal prosecution by the U.S. Department of Justice. Its civil complaint against the bank, which JPMorgan Chase paid $75 million to settle in 2023 to avoid a public trial, stated this:
“ 'The investigation revealed that JP Morgan knowingly, negligently, and unlawfully provided and pulled the levers through which recruiters and victims were paid and was indispensable to the operation and concealment of the Epstein trafficking enterprise…JP Morgan facilitated and concealed wire and cash transactions that raised suspicion of—and were in fact part of—a criminal enterprise whose currency was the sexual servitude of dozens of women and girls in and beyond the Virgin Islands. Human trafficking was the principal business of the accounts Epstein maintained at JP Morgan.' ”
Daniel,thanks for the info. I think I remember Eliz Warren commented on this several months ago. Jamie Diamond is the ultimate scumbag. If they were laundering money for Epstein,how many were involved in the raping of 15 yrs kids.
Not at all surprising. Those of us who've been following this with half a brain knows that Trump is doing all he can to cover this up for himself and everyone else who partied with Epstein.
This was obviously a test to see how far he could go and the lack of serious blowback opens the door for more acts of violence. There's no way that that small boat was carrying drugs. Would they carry nine extra people that could be replaced by their weight in drugs? As kraznov's ratings continue to slide he will continue to create more and more distractions. The more he slides the more desperate his actions will be.
Our number one problem right now is his enabler- the "Supreme" Court which is also out of control. He knows that he can get away doing almost anything and they will let him off the hook. Not sure that we can wait for the mid-terms.
In addition Chris, there is speculation that they are being blackmailed and threatened at SCOTUS. The criming and corruption never has stopped with just the honey traps.
Not based on anything provable at this time, but look at their spouses careers. They hang out with Harlan Crow, Paul Singer. Kavanaugh had absurd claim about how he paid his debt. Once you take things or represent these rich bastards, there is no saying no and maybe threats to your family are part of it.
We don't know the ins and outs of this, and you can be damn sure that they won't really explain anything. It is a bit like Clinton's Serbian bombing but in some ways worse since it's right out in the open. This time a gruesome video was released, I guess to make the MAGA crowd cheer and scare the rest of us. Incidentally just to be accurate, as was pointed out below, the Lusitania was sunk almost a year after the war started (and the Missile Crisis was in 1962 while the Cambodian invasion was two year before Watergate).
Anyway, I don't know if Trump is crazy enough to invade Venezuela or Greenland or any other place this side of Mars, but the fact we're even talking about it shows how far things have gone. Sadly Americans by and large know very little of other countries and cultures--Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan proved that--and many would cheer such a "show of strength". The results of course would be even worse than the last go-rounds.
At a minimum, based on Rubio's statements, State Department should have to produce an "incident report" in the nature of a criminal complaint.
In February, the administration designated Tren de Aragua, the Sinaloa Cartel, MS-13 and other drug cartels as foreign terrorist organizations. And officials have long blamed Venezuela and its leader Nicolás Maduro for heavy cocaine trafficking to the United States, leading to American deaths from drug use. The Trump administration has put a $50 million bounty on Maduro’s head for his arrest.
"Secretary of State Marco Rubio said last month that designation gave the administration “legal authorities to target them in ways you can’t do if they’re just a bunch of criminals.” The White House echoed that argument in regards to this week’s strike. The strike “was taken in defense of vital U.S. national interests and in the collective self-defense of other nations who have long suffered due to the narcotics trafficking and violent cartel activities of such organizations. The strike was fully consistent with the law of armed conflict,” White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly said in a statement.
"But designating a group a foreign terrorist organization may not be enough to justify an armed military strike. Trump said 11 “terrorists” were killed in the bombing. The 2001 Authorization for Use of Military Force gave then-President George W. Bush the authority to go after groups that aided the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks or to “prevent any future acts of international terrorism against the United States by such nations, organizations or persons.” Drug cartels would not be tied to the 9/11 terrorists. And there was no indication of an imminent threat to the United States, which would have been another justification for the attack.".
U.S. forces could have stopped and boarded the boat but President Trump made the decision to bomb it, according to Rubio. “Instead of interdicting it, on the president’s orders, we blew it up — and it’ll happen again,” Rubio told reporters Wednesday in Mexico City. “The president of the United States is going to wage war on narco-terrorist organizations,” he said, adding that Trump has the right “to eliminate imminent threats to the United States.”
The Pentagon echoed the justification for the strikes. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the administration knew the identities of the people in the vessel. “We knew exactly who was in that boat. We knew exactly what they were doing, and we knew exactly who they represented. And that was Tren de Aragua narcoterrorist organization designated by the United States as trying to poison our country with illicit drugs,” he told Fox News. The vessel was operating in international waters but that added to the murkiness of the legal justification.
“I think they think they can just get away with it and they’re gonna think most people don’t care,” VanLandingham, Southwestern Law School professor, told McClatchy. “But this has profound implications for the entire global world order, the legal order that’s been established since World War II to try to prevent the use of force. Another world war.” She added that the strike was similar to the actions that dictators and authoritarian leaders take against perceived enemies. “They use lethal force to kill people they don’t like outside of any kind of legal framework. And that’s exactly what happened. And that’s an incredibly dangerous precedent.”
“Narcoterrorists”…is that like the post-9/11 “Islamofascist” label? An utterly meaningless mingling of different activities, but it sounds dangerous. When in the early 20th century the U.S. was in the Philippines fighting people who wanted independence, and later those in Central America who were against big corporations running their countries, they were called “bandits”. In the 1950s groups actively opposed to U.S. interests were “Communists”. Eventually their successors became “terrorists”. It’s like Putin calling the Ukrainian government “fascist” as an excuse to invade. That’s a hot button word in Russia. Labels are powerful no matter how untrue they are, and credulous people are moved by them. I’m sure in a week Americans will forget all about this strike, except maybe to vaguely remember a bunch of “bad guys” got what they deserved.
Should the increasingly-unlikely opportunity arise, it will be incumbent upon those who treasure the rule of law to prosecute and punish Trump and all of his co-conspirators for each of their many crimes. That will be a costly undertaking, but for the sake of our nation’s future, worth every penny.
Exactly, Tom. Do the right thing, not what is easy.
This has Nazi Nosferatu's dirty fingerprints all over it; kill them before they even get to the border. These actions will lead into a new and dangerous era of international lawlessness. Trump et. al are criminals against humanity, and I hope to see them judged and punished for their crimes.
After Mariel, we had a "Task Force Against Crime" that was accused of doing the same re Colombians. The head was George Herbert Walker Bush.
Read "Continental Drift" by Russell Banks. Who grieves for drowing Hatians?
Criminals conducting criminal acts under the cloak of a "Task Force Against Crime" borders on the surreal.
I read dozens of news sources. Your insights are the best, thanks. Although it is very scary for the future. Sixty some years ago as a teen, I used to wonder if I would live to see the collapse of the American dream, well maybe it is here.
I am appalled at any comment other than what the fuck are we doing? Christ has left us . God is gone!
How dare a few insane fuckers are allowed to drive a nail into America’s coffin. Kill them…, I have the right to shout with rage against the hate , lies, criminal activity of low lives who think this is not going to get repercussions .
Get the stupid out of supreme and fire 6 criminals, now!!! How we must damn them to hell.
I personally was raised to obey the law, to tell the truth, to be the best I could be if not better, to pay taxes into my country to help everyone enjoy a common good. Stopping at a “red light” gives us all freedom. That is not a reason to make your life unfair…. It is a freedom for your safety. That little example goes for all laws! It means order… not chaos.
We’d better be more than angry. We’d better imprison these immoral bastards who think we are not paying attention.
You’ve got our attention you bastards. I hope you can hide in your own filth because we are coming for you!!!!!
If you agree get your fists up and do not back down
Hartmann has rallied the honest and the furious.
God help us… but only if we help one another.
something is missing in our constitution. The 25th amendment is obviously not adequate to protect us against a criminal president. where is the Red Line 4 allowing a group of authorities that can arrest a criminal president? Would that be the group of eight congressional leader plus Secret Service and or select military leaders? we need something like that.
There is no backstop if the people no longer believe in the rule of law. You can write all the words you want in whatever document you want, but if Congress and the Courts refuse to enforce them, and the People accept that, which is where we are at - so far - there is no recourse. The People are the ultimate recourse, and on Nov 4 they abdicated.
If a president dictates how the legislature and ultimately the judiciary act there will be no consequences for such blatant acts. I'm afraid change can not possibly occur unless our blood is spilled, and it can not be guaranteed if the blood does just that.
Any modification of the Constitution requires 2/3rds of both houses of Congress or 2.3/rds of state legislatures. Ratificacqtion requires 3/4ths.
I am with you 100% Muriel, alas Americans, especially liberals, don't have the stomach for anything stronger than marching and holding signs. There might be violence and somebody gets hurt.
William,
Thank you , and blood has already been spilled. It isn’t mine or yours but it is blood of innocent humans who are being picked out by ghouls who should and could be stopped. We must must must demand change. If the only way is to stop paying taxes until there is no salary for police, military or congress and the SC then we withhold in an interest bearing account. Where there is no money there is no power…. Ask the poor!
Here is the thing, while there is kvetching over deaths afar, there is more unnecessary deaths, from guns, disease, neglect and yes starvation in America.
In 2024, more than 44,000 people died from gunshot wounds, a decrease of nearly 5% from 2023. This marks the first time in five years that the annual total of gun deaths has fallen below 45,000.
the USDA reporting that 18.0 million households, or 13.5% of the total, experienced food insecurity in 2023, and recent surveys show a continued upward trend in food insecurity in 2024.
According to provisional data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), an estimated 80,391 people in the U.S. died from a drug overdose in 2024. This marks a decrease of nearly 27% from the 110,037 deaths estimated in 2023.
And now with RFK Jr's Jihad against vaxxing, the numbers, especially of children, dying from disease that were once conquered is going to rise astronomically,
My father, born 1917, contracted Scarlet Fever, it caused a heart murmur which wasn't caught until 1946, he died on the operating table in 1964.
My grandparents had 6 children, two died in childhood, families, especially if the were agrarian, had double the amount of children, because half died in childhood. Smallpox, measles, whooping cough, scarlet fever, polio rubella, they are all coming back.
Sounds like he'd like to kill many birds with one stone. He's been making accusations that the Venezuelan-origin gang Tren de Aragua a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) and alleges it is controlled by the Maduro government. Earlier this year, Trump invoked the 18th century wartime power to help streamline the deportations of Venezuelans alleged to be members of the Tren de Aragua gang. To crack down on immigration, Trump invoked the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, an obscure law that has been used sparingly throughout U.S. history to detain or deport nationals of an enemy nation during wartime or an invasion.
Since then, the use of this power has attracted legal challenges, including two prior Supreme Court decisions. But the high court has yet to directly address the larger question of whether Trump's invocation of the Alien Enemies Act is legal in the first place.
During his first administration, the U.S. Justice Department charged Maduro and other high-ranking officials with a "narco-trafficking" conspiracy and offered a $50 million reward for his arrest and conviction. Recently the U.S. increased its naval presence in the Caribbean and reportedly carried out the strike against the Tren de Aragua gang, resulting in the deaths of 11 people.
The Pentagon said two Venezuelan military aircraft flew near a U.S. Navy vessel on Thursday in international waters in a "highly provocative move." Is this the predicate to war?
https://abcnews.go.com/International/2-venezuelan-military-aircraft-flew-us-navy-vessel/story?id=125278868
_______
War against Venezuela reminds me of the neocon promise of Iraq -- a war that would pay for itself. We've threated war for a long time.
Venezuela has an estimated at 303 billion barrels (Bbbl) as of 2023, Venezuela is home to the largest known reserves of oil. Saudi Arabia ranks second with 267.2 Bbbl, followed by Iran at 208.6 Bbbl and Canada at 163.6 Bbbl. Together, these four countries account for more than half of global oil reserves. The United States, by comparison, holds about 55 Bbbl, placing it ninth globally. This means that Venezuela’s reserves are more than five times larger than those of the US. According to Google: Venezuela's production costs are estimated at $10–$12 per barrel, while the average wellhead price in the U.S. is around $63–$67 per barrel.
Here's a little history. "In October 2014 — when Rafael Ramírez was president of PDVSA, Venezuela’s state-owned oil company — the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID), a body within the World Bank, ruled in favor of Exxon in a lawsuit against the Maduro government. The ruling required the Venezuelan state to pay $1.6 billion in compensation to this corporate giant for having nationalized its assets within the country.
"Emboldened by high oil prices and the multibillion-dollar national revenues during the 2006-2012 term, former Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez — who was elected in 1999 and governed until his death in 2013, when he was succeeded by Maduro — sought to shape his political project. With his United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) — still the ruling party today — he carried out an aggressive wave of nationalizations of the country’s productive structure. These expropriations had serious consequences for the national economy and a significant impact on the energy sector.
"The new legal framework for oil — created by Chávez in 2005 — established the transition of existing operating agreements to the state-controlled joint venture model, guaranteeing PDVSA a majority stake in all activities related to the oil sector."
The renewed dispute between ExxonMobil and Venezuela: The story of a long-standing feud
The Maduro government is accusing the oil company of lobbying to facilitate competitor Chevron’s departure from Venezuela, while also claiming multi-billion-dollar oil wells in Guyana as its own. https://english.elpais.com/economy-and-business/2025-03-13/the-renewed-dispute-between-exxonmobil-and-venezuela-the-story-of-a-long-standing-feud.html
Besides making money for himself and his donors, it might give Trump the excuse to cancel elections.
Here in Baghdad By the Sea, people have been asking for US invasions of Cuba as well as Venezuela. Our MAGA reps are all in.
They're also interfering in Colombia as well as other Latin countries.
E.G. U.S., Colombia withdraw ambassadors amid accusations of coup plotting By Salome Beyer Velez and Jim Glade
"Although Rubio did not elaborate on the alleged “reprehensible” statements, Colombian newspaper El Tiempo on Thursday published a letter allegedly sent to the U.S. House Committee on Ethics calling for an investigation into House Republicans, including Florida lawmakers Rep. Mario Díaz-Balart, Rep. María Elvira Salazar, and Rep. Carlos Antonio Gimenez. The letter was signed by 30 Colombian representatives."
Read more at: https://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/americas/colombia/article310009550.html#storylink=cpy
We're next.
Was it "The Mouse That Roared" where a small country declared war on the U.S? If that happened, there are many other larger countries that would like to join in and help take us down.
China, Russia, North Korea...
Hate to say it, Richard, but the nukes might deter them. They know he's a psycho that is dying; could he decide to take the world with him?
Yeh Daniel, apparently reality has set in and Trump realizes he is not going to get his coveted "Noble" prize, So now it is to put us on a war footing, hence the Dept of War, and what better to start a war with for a bully than Venezuela, trouble is it would be a two, three day war at most, unless Trump can use some over eager special ops troops and the 82nd Airborne to drag it out
As you rightfully point out, Venezuela is a problem of our making, the federal government, its legislative and executive have been slavish to the petro chemical cabal. Republican and Democratic administrations have used the CIA and Mercenaries to overthrow Chavez. And he foiled one plot by wrecking a truck on a bridge that the mercenary band couldn't cross.
As the attempts to overthrow him didn't work, the government, at behest of Exxon Mobil has slapped on sanctions, forcing Chavez, now Maduro to find friends and allies elsewheres like with Iran and Putin.
This is a repeat of Iran in 1953, when the CIA and MI6, conspired to overthrow Mossadegh, an elected President, to get control of their oil fields.
France was left out of the deal, Total S.A., didn't get it's share, so fast forward to 1978, the Ayatollah Khomeini was given sanctuary in France, and the French version of the CIA
Directorate-General for External Security (DGSE), protected him and helped him smuggle his cassette tapes into Iran in French diplomatic pouches.
As a reward, until the sanctions in 2018, Iran had contracted with French Total S.A. to run their oil fields, processing and shipping. Now they do it all in house via the National Iran Oil Company (NIOC).
The energy sector has wanted confrontation w/ Venzuela for a long time. Trump can't tell the players without a scorecard, but Rubio can. He's been on it since Chavez. Most Venezuelan money is located on Brickell Avenue, Miami FL 33131.
About a month ago, my music teacher was in Venezuela, visiting a couple of his factories. He said he had no fear. He recently received his US citizenship, is a dual citizen. He's lucky, because there is a travel ban imposed on Venezuelans and he was able to return to Miami.
Ungil this year, tourism was our primary industry. Much of the tourism, from Venezuel and Brazil, as well as Canada, has been lost.
We have roughly 250,000 Venezuelans in this county in jeopardy because they are here on visas cancelled by Trump. These people are in temporary protected status, October 2026, but Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem revoked that policy, leading to litigation. "Despite the Trump administration’s assertion that Venezuela is now safe for migrants to return, substantial evidence indicates that most holders of Temporary Protected Status would face dire consequences if repatriated. Many could be subject to incarceration, torture or even death at the hands of the same regime they once fled." On Septembe
Read more at: https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/immigration/article306478321.html#storylink=cpy
Rubio has depicted Venezuela as a vestige of the communist ideology in the Western Hemisphere for a long time. Rubio has consistently pushed for the ouster of Maduro, advocated for economic sanctions and even argued for American military intervention.
Rubio shared some of the first details about the strike Tuesday despite it being a military operation, posting on social media as Trump briefly announced it in the Oval Office. A day later, he said “it’ll happen again” and said Trump had authority “under exigent circumstances to eliminate imminent threats to the United States.”
“What will stop them is when you blow them up, when you get rid of them,” Rubio said.
I don't know this as a fact, but I'd bet there are more than 250,000 dual US/Venezuelan citizens in South Florida.
I'd also expect that a high proportion are registered Republicans.
Flash: Judge blocks Trump from stripping TPS from over 900,000 Haitians and Venezuelans By Syra Ortiz Blanes September 5, 2025 4:37 PM
In a 68-page decision, Judge Edward Chen of the Northern District of California ruled that Department of Homeland Secretary Kristi Noem had made the decisions in haste and beyond the scope of her authority. He restored Biden-era TPS extensions that run until February 2026 for Haitians and October 2026 for Venezuelans.
“For the first time in the 35-year history of the TPS program, the Trump administration and DHS Secretary Noem took the extraordinary and unusual act of vacating TPS extensions that had already been granted — specifically, extensions given by the prior administration to Venezuela and Haiti,” wrote Chen.
Read more at: https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/immigration/article311991824.html#storylink=cpy
Guardians Of Pedophiles
If they are going to call the Democratic Party names, we've got some for the GOP. The only hoax here is that TRump actually claims to care about America.
The murder of the people on the boat is another made for TV stunt by the most vile, corrupt President in the history of our country. His fellow psychopath, Hegseth is having the time of his life. Here is another disgusting thing he said:“I’d say we smoked a drug boat, and there’s 11 narcoterrorists at the bottom of the ocean. And when other people try to do that, they’re gonna meet the same fate.” Did you ever notice that SOD would be the acronym for Secretary of Defense? Fitting.
Our ailing President was busy posting lovely pics for his boyfriend Putin yesterday, when he should have been in a meeting with our allies. That creep Whitkoff blew the meeting off after 20 minutes. Feigned outrage and that too was just to distract.
Here's another possibility on TRump's rumored hospital visit: Donald might have had an IV port put into his chest. That will give docs access to administer meds and do blood draws. The hand bruises will disappear, and he'll go right back to lying to us about being the fittest president EVER. The cover-up by him and the Guardians Of Pedophiles will continue till we nail their asses. It's coming---See you in the streets.
He really, really does care about America. Those who oppose him are obviously not Americans; they/we are what he has repeatedly called "the enemy within". This is pure Nazism.
Robert here is the scary part. I start by recounting the two fire fighters that were caught while fighting a fire in the Olympic Mountains. If you know Washington and the Olympics, you know it is huge and hard to get to, especially fighting fires.
How did ICE know that these two men were in that exact location,? How did they know that they were working for the forestry service.?
I've posted before that the NSA has a humungous data center at Bluffdale, UT and it sniffs every digital packet, including this comment of mine, and it uses AI to filter out people that the government of Trump want to collect.
It is also capable, now because of DOGE, of instantaneously sniffing through all digital documents, including mortgage applications and deeds.
That is the latest tactic, everyone has made a mistake at one time or another, on an application, but just not mortgages, we all have digital trails, all Trumps GESTAPO need do is type in a search parameter and they have a victim.
The meeting yesterday with Trump of all of the Tech Bros should scare the pants off everyone, they will give him all the support he needs to clamp down the iron collar of dictatorship.
This is the realization of a Technocracy, envisioned in the 1930's https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technocracy_movement
And here is what it looks like The Technate of America https://digital.library.cornell.edu/catalog/ss:34227574
William, I lived in Port Angeles for a short time (no jobs there) back in 1969. I went up to Hurricane Ridge a few times (never clear, alas) and to the Hot River valley. Yep, the area is transcendently beautiful. One of my favorite paintings was of Lake Crescent.
I figured a while ago that posting the scurrilous innuendo that we so enjoy was, inn effect, painting targets on our backs. Anybody who posts anywhere on the blogosphere really needs to pay attention to all of the government's shennanigans. Another joy brought to us by Big Brother is their ability to find out which sites we visit. There are no secrets. The ability to know if we wash our hands after shitting comes next.
I have no doubt that I am on a list, but I also old, have health problems and not a threat, except on substack
Have you ever been to Port Townsend. It is where Ft Worden is located, it was the site of an Officer and a Gentleman. I happened to visit it not long after the movie.
My wife was there for a WABO conference.
The Olympics are beautiful, on the west side near the Pacific is Forks, the gloomiest place in the United State, perpetual fog it seems, so it was the perfect siting for the teen thriller series "Twilight", the town capitalized on it by having tours where the heroin supposedly lived, Never did. In fact most of the movie, if any, was shot in Forks.
Like Gray's Anatomy is about the non existent Grey Sloan memorial, the one shot was of Harbor view, which in the 80's was a VA hospital, the show is actually shot in Vancouver Canada because of costs, regulations and taxes.
Practical Magic was shot about a 15 minute drive from my house. My wife was the plans examiner for the house that they built, then tore down. It was shot on a county park, when they wrapped up they tore down the house, restored the grass and left it, almost, as they found it, time did the rest.
This got lost in the shuffle. I applied for a job in Port Townsend back in 1970. Perhaps you were there then as well.
No, I only visited as a tourist, took the ferry over, some time around 1986
The captain of the destroyer that killed those people, is guilty of a crime, international and national, and should be court martialed, but Hegseth fired the Judge Advocate Generals that are the ones actually charged with and responsible for declaring whether an action is Constitutional or not, legal or not.
How much more proof do we need that the old order is dead, and we are in the grips of a fascist regime, OK maybe the word fascist is over used, is there a better word.
William,I think "Neo Nazi" is more appropriate.Stephen Miller has agreed he ikes being called a " Neo Nazi" .There is little doubt we have underestimated what these " Nazis" are capable of.
Miller a Jewish NAZI, Mark Robinson a black NAZI, gay NAZI's (Thiel and Vance), trans NAZI's Robin Westman, There is no end to this insanity. Next stop, I'm getting off this planet.
HaHa!
I have not seen all the photos to know if there was evidence of large bales of material common to small fastboats delivering illicit cargo to ships at sea. Suggesting that the crew were migrants escaping Venezuela is likely a stretch. These overpowered fastboats are not commonly seen in international waters if recreational. But, of course, the boat could have been a recreational vessel joyride. Given the aerial surveillance, it is likely that the boat was monitored from the time it left port. Thus, there might be evidence of an illicit mission.
Why the boat was not just interdicted - normal in cases of suspected smuggling - is most disturbing. It is consistent with putting on a show to scare the bad guys and promote Trump as tough on international crime.
Why the US Navy was involved, if true, is most disturbing. Drug interdiction is not Navy's mission, nor is sinking civilian vessels without cause. This is just one more instance of Trump militarizing illegal deployment for law enforcement against civilians. The event tells us all that is that all honorable Pentagon flag officers have been purged from the ranks, enabling Trump to use them as his personal stormtroopers to impose his will on civilians - not declared enemies.
Maybe it was. Maybe it wasn't. Either way, we just committed an unjustified attack on a foreign ship in international waters. They're supposed to intercept and arrest them.
I knew many naval and Coast Guard officers who were part of the Task Force Against Crime and did interdiction at sea.
South Florida Task Force
In February 1982, President Ronald Reagan formed the South Florida Task Force, a major drug interdiction effort, and designated Vice President George H.W. Bush to lead it.
Purpose: The task force's creation was a direct response to the overwhelming flow of cocaine and marijuana into South Florida, which had become the main point of entry for drug traffickers.
Agencies involved: The operation mobilized federal agencies including the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), U.S. Customs, and the U.S. military.
Interdiction efforts: The task force focused on cutting off supply lines by enhancing surveillance in the air and sea lanes leading to Florida. It was heavily supported by the U.S. Coast Guard and military aircraft, which patrolled the Caribbean.
Outcomes:
By 1986, the task force was credited with over 15,000 arrests and the seizure of millions of pounds of drugs.
However, its overall success was limited. Increased interdiction efforts did not significantly reduce the overall flow of drugs. Traffickers adapted by shifting their routes and viewing seizures as a business expense.
The task force was hailed by the administration as a success, but some officials noted its minimal long-term impact on the overall drug trade.
Of course, the whole point of this murder on the high seas is not about drug interdiction; it is about gaslighting MAGAs into viewing Trump as a ruthless law & order macho man who deserves to be president for life.
You are correct Tom. People leaving Venezuela, get on a plane and fly to Mexico, not on a fast boat, not on any boat, it is a long hazardous trip from Venezuela to the Carribeans.
And the 290,000 Venezuelans Trump was to deport, were not fleeing persecution, they are the same ilk as the Caudillists, the Bautistas, that fled Cuba. The upper and upper middle class that lived high of the sweat and blood of the peon's.
When the vampire runs out of food, he does a geographical.
These folk claimed to have walked through the Jungles of Columbia and the Darien Gap, that is a crock of crap, the Gap is the most dangerous jungle in the world, well almost, full of poisonous snakes, insects,plants, peccaries (javelenas), jaquars, criminal gangs, and hostile natives, and in rainy season, almost impossible to navigate.
No they took money out of the bank, or the mattress bought a ticket to Mexico and a bus to the border arriving in fresh clothes, scrubbed faces, with boys carrying soccer balls and girls dolls, and sappy Americans falling for their sob story.
And nobody, especially the press and heart rendered liberals, took notice of their appearance as the stepped off the buses and airplanes, or the photo's of them gathered at the border.
We surely see what we want or are programmed to see.
Absolutely correct Tom about the purge of real officers, all that is left, are the same ilk, that made up Hitlers supreme military command. Christian Reconstructionists and ass kissing careerists.
But... but... but trump said it was carrying a cargo of drugs. Everything he says, even if it's as banal as the hamberders he had for dinner last night, needs to be prefaced:
"I allege, with no evidence at this time...."
The Lusitania was sunk in May of 1915, almost a year after the assassination in Sarajevo.
Miller's question regarding the legality of attacking vessels in international waters probably isn't cruelty or sadism but rather his lack of emotion in the killing of people to further his political aims. This would be identical to the lack of emotion the Nazis felt when they created the "Final Solution" and, I assume, forced several million men, women and children the into gas chambers. This also applies to Trump who not only ordered the hit, he condemned several hundred thousand Americans to early deaths by slashing Medicare and eventually Medicare.
As for the International Criminal Court, we do not recognize it.
Unfortunately, the shooting of protesters on our streets is all too real.
They think no nation will dare challenge us. Don't count on it.
I guess they've never heard of asymmetrical warfare.
KKK-fan Daddy Fred Trump Sr. told his Dumb boy to be a "Killer." His word, not mine.
Well then, there, now, Donald is officially a killer of men. Agent Double-O Big Mac.
I'm thinkin',' somewhere, his Daddy is smiling.
As is Reinhard Heydrich. One of the most feared and powerful figures in Nazi Germany during World War II. Often referred to by chilling nicknames like “The Butcher of Prague,” “The Blond Beast,” and “Himmler’s Evil Genius,” he was a principal architect of the Holocaust and a master of Nazi terror.
A good nickname = The Blond Turd? The Butcher of Queens? Miller's Evil Dumb-Ass?
Buckle up.
Oh. And the Sec War has bragged about having killed 300 humans w/ more to come. But it's “Off the record, on the QT, and very hush-hush,” to quote Sid Hutchin's catchphrase from "L.A. Confidential."
There will be domestic blood — The Wages of Sin. The sin is voting for a cowardly homicidal maniac just because he's hostile to all out-groups.
This is just the opening salvo as these people think they're invincible. Wait until the first coffins start returning home. What will these American voters do then? Will the Trump people try to white wash this as well, like they're trying to do with the Epstein files? More to come I'm sure.
Trump will do what Bush did. Dubya learned the lesson of Vietnam. Daily coverage on TV of coffins being unloaded at Travis AFB, CA, of military funerals throughout the nation, the public got tired of buryiing their fathers, sons,uncles, cousins, husbands and that is why Nixon started pulling out in 1972, not because of long haired hippies and students marching around with signs.
Bush chose to embed reporters with the troops, thus influencing how they would report, he also forbade any photos or footage of caskets being unloaded at Dover AFB, DE and then forbade the Pentagon to make public notice of funerals.
It was so bad that the only way the media could keep up with the body count of our troops, was to scour every local paper in the nation. They weren't getting any info from the Pentagon, and the complicit media never breathed a word about this type of censorship
I'm afraid you're right. Of course, with the independent media being what it is, the word and videos will get out, no matter how hard they try to cover it up. Which is a good thing.
There word may get out, but only to those interested like ourselves.
There was no mobilization around casualties during the Iraq Afghanistan war
I remember. The powers that were in charge (Obama, Trump 1.0, Biden) were careful not to make a spectacle about it. The main stream news downplayed the returns at Dover as much as possible. With Trump, it would likely be a near complete news blackout with only reporters like Ken Klippenstein sneaking out snippets whenever possible. Such a shame but this is the new world we find ourselves in.
Sadly so, that is why we don't live for every. Imagine Ben Franklin having lived through all of these changes,cultural, political, technological he would be on serious meds.
I don't want to live in the future that I see coming, politically , culturally or environmentally.
When I was a kid there was no commercial TV, though invented in the 1920's or 30's, commercial TV was not a thing, and only in big cities, until after WWII, that we saw mass market commercial TV. I would walk this girl home from school, carry her books, so I could sit down and watch Howdy Doody, that was 1948.
The first commercial broadcast with an ad was 1941, then came the war. Can you imagine if WWII were televised. We might be speaking German on he East coast and Japanese on the west coast.
Mr. Farrar. The public has been kept in the dark about some of the scariest trends in human history. Our government is the perpetrator.
Lately I have been reading about some of the problems faced by the Manhattan project which for years always vexed me. As a student in physics, when young, I always wondered why the boys at Los Alamos built two entirely different bombs. "Fat Man" and "Little Boy." An "implosion bomb" and a "cannon bomb."
As a student of physics I understood that it was elementary [simple] to build a bomb which used Uranium 235. My friends and I designed one as undergrads at Wayne State University. It was the "Little boy" type. That is, a "cannon bomb." A plutonium bomb on the other hand is much better [more powerful], if admittedly, technically more difficult to design. We were not able to design a plutonium bomb. That is, a"Fat Man" type.
The technical details are not the important topic here; so I will not bore you with them. Besides, my computer does not allow me to produce the math involved. Yes.....you are well justified in being frightened by the fact that a few undergrad students 60 years ago were able to design a weapon which is capable of eliminating all animal life on this planet larger than a cockroach. And, we were not the brilliant scientists hired for the Los Alamos project. We were just a few ordinary, interested guys in a senior undergrad physics course. To be honest, quantum mechanics bored my ass off. I much preferred heat and thermodynamics, and statics and dynamics, generally.
What bothers me here is the almost unimaginable, herculean, national effort our government was willing to put into that satanic project; and kept it as the best held secret in American history. I find it ironic that Klaus Fuchs and probably several others were able to leak the secrets to the Russians anyway. It was the American public who was most successfully kept in the dark about this work of the devil on our own territory, by our own leaders. What the moronic Trump and his sadistic band of lunatics might be up to would not surprise me.
Has it ever occurred to you to ask: why did the government feel as though it needed two different types of bombs?
Did it not occur to Americans to ask why is it that the U235 processing plant built at Oak ridge,Tennessee was the biggest single manufacturing complex in history? And why was another plant of a different sort needed at Hanford, Washington?
The answers to these questions are truly frightening. So frightening that some generals and admirals threatened to resign when they learned about the nature of
America's atom bombs.
I have been talking about fission type bombs.
I have not even discussed the subsequent development of the fusion type bombs which are exponentially more powerful and expensive.
I didn't see my first TV until 1964. Before that, I listened to radio shows. My parents were always too poor for much more than that. I think they had that old B/W TV until long after I ran away from home in 1974 to join the military.
As for the Axis powers invading the U.S, I don't know. Maybe things would have been vastly different, for sure. Like how the televised reporting from Vietnam radically changed how the public viewed what was actually going over there. Perception is the name of the game. He who controls the narrative, controls the masses.
Terrance,did you happen to notice in the Epstein financial transactions that Deutche Bank and our friend Jamie Diamond @JP Morgan Chase have been accused of laundering money from some very important people ,so the identities will be suppressed.
Don't know which bank officers might be involved. https://wallstreetonparade.com/2025/09/its-time-to-name-the-wall-street-financiers-in-the-epstein-files/
Excerpt:
"The Attorney General’s office for the U.S. Virgin Islands has already built a very strong case against the largest bank in the United States, JPMorgan Chase, that its money laundering for Epstein should be a top priority for criminal prosecution by the U.S. Department of Justice. Its civil complaint against the bank, which JPMorgan Chase paid $75 million to settle in 2023 to avoid a public trial, stated this:
“ 'The investigation revealed that JP Morgan knowingly, negligently, and unlawfully provided and pulled the levers through which recruiters and victims were paid and was indispensable to the operation and concealment of the Epstein trafficking enterprise…JP Morgan facilitated and concealed wire and cash transactions that raised suspicion of—and were in fact part of—a criminal enterprise whose currency was the sexual servitude of dozens of women and girls in and beyond the Virgin Islands. Human trafficking was the principal business of the accounts Epstein maintained at JP Morgan.' ”
Daniel,thanks for the info. I think I remember Eliz Warren commented on this several months ago. Jamie Diamond is the ultimate scumbag. If they were laundering money for Epstein,how many were involved in the raping of 15 yrs kids.
Not at all surprising. Those of us who've been following this with half a brain knows that Trump is doing all he can to cover this up for himself and everyone else who partied with Epstein.
This was obviously a test to see how far he could go and the lack of serious blowback opens the door for more acts of violence. There's no way that that small boat was carrying drugs. Would they carry nine extra people that could be replaced by their weight in drugs? As kraznov's ratings continue to slide he will continue to create more and more distractions. The more he slides the more desperate his actions will be.
Our number one problem right now is his enabler- the "Supreme" Court which is also out of control. He knows that he can get away doing almost anything and they will let him off the hook. Not sure that we can wait for the mid-terms.
In addition Chris, there is speculation that they are being blackmailed and threatened at SCOTUS. The criming and corruption never has stopped with just the honey traps.
I have a gut wrenching feeling that this is going to take more than voting. Where did you hear about SCOTUS?
Not based on anything provable at this time, but look at their spouses careers. They hang out with Harlan Crow, Paul Singer. Kavanaugh had absurd claim about how he paid his debt. Once you take things or represent these rich bastards, there is no saying no and maybe threats to your family are part of it.
Tis Nothing Chris. The RR made the concentration camp possible
Now it is Trump's turn to mimic the NAZI's
https://www.mind-war.com/p/reichsbahn-where-the-rails-go
POS will start a war all by himself. Why else is he changing the name of the DOD to the Department of War?
Perfect point, Eva.
"... it would violate international law, that “you cannot kill unarmed civilians just because you want to.” "
Yes, a limit to the unlimited greed of his majesty the baby.
We don't know the ins and outs of this, and you can be damn sure that they won't really explain anything. It is a bit like Clinton's Serbian bombing but in some ways worse since it's right out in the open. This time a gruesome video was released, I guess to make the MAGA crowd cheer and scare the rest of us. Incidentally just to be accurate, as was pointed out below, the Lusitania was sunk almost a year after the war started (and the Missile Crisis was in 1962 while the Cambodian invasion was two year before Watergate).
Anyway, I don't know if Trump is crazy enough to invade Venezuela or Greenland or any other place this side of Mars, but the fact we're even talking about it shows how far things have gone. Sadly Americans by and large know very little of other countries and cultures--Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan proved that--and many would cheer such a "show of strength". The results of course would be even worse than the last go-rounds.
At a minimum, based on Rubio's statements, State Department should have to produce an "incident report" in the nature of a criminal complaint.
In February, the administration designated Tren de Aragua, the Sinaloa Cartel, MS-13 and other drug cartels as foreign terrorist organizations. And officials have long blamed Venezuela and its leader Nicolás Maduro for heavy cocaine trafficking to the United States, leading to American deaths from drug use. The Trump administration has put a $50 million bounty on Maduro’s head for his arrest.
"Secretary of State Marco Rubio said last month that designation gave the administration “legal authorities to target them in ways you can’t do if they’re just a bunch of criminals.” The White House echoed that argument in regards to this week’s strike. The strike “was taken in defense of vital U.S. national interests and in the collective self-defense of other nations who have long suffered due to the narcotics trafficking and violent cartel activities of such organizations. The strike was fully consistent with the law of armed conflict,” White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly said in a statement.
"But designating a group a foreign terrorist organization may not be enough to justify an armed military strike. Trump said 11 “terrorists” were killed in the bombing. The 2001 Authorization for Use of Military Force gave then-President George W. Bush the authority to go after groups that aided the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks or to “prevent any future acts of international terrorism against the United States by such nations, organizations or persons.” Drug cartels would not be tied to the 9/11 terrorists. And there was no indication of an imminent threat to the United States, which would have been another justification for the attack.".
U.S. forces could have stopped and boarded the boat but President Trump made the decision to bomb it, according to Rubio. “Instead of interdicting it, on the president’s orders, we blew it up — and it’ll happen again,” Rubio told reporters Wednesday in Mexico City. “The president of the United States is going to wage war on narco-terrorist organizations,” he said, adding that Trump has the right “to eliminate imminent threats to the United States.”
The Pentagon echoed the justification for the strikes. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the administration knew the identities of the people in the vessel. “We knew exactly who was in that boat. We knew exactly what they were doing, and we knew exactly who they represented. And that was Tren de Aragua narcoterrorist organization designated by the United States as trying to poison our country with illicit drugs,” he told Fox News. The vessel was operating in international waters but that added to the murkiness of the legal justification.
“I think they think they can just get away with it and they’re gonna think most people don’t care,” VanLandingham, Southwestern Law School professor, told McClatchy. “But this has profound implications for the entire global world order, the legal order that’s been established since World War II to try to prevent the use of force. Another world war.” She added that the strike was similar to the actions that dictators and authoritarian leaders take against perceived enemies. “They use lethal force to kill people they don’t like outside of any kind of legal framework. And that’s exactly what happened. And that’s an incredibly dangerous precedent.”
Read more at: https://www.miamiherald.com/news/politics-government/article311989852.html#storylink=cpy
“Narcoterrorists”…is that like the post-9/11 “Islamofascist” label? An utterly meaningless mingling of different activities, but it sounds dangerous. When in the early 20th century the U.S. was in the Philippines fighting people who wanted independence, and later those in Central America who were against big corporations running their countries, they were called “bandits”. In the 1950s groups actively opposed to U.S. interests were “Communists”. Eventually their successors became “terrorists”. It’s like Putin calling the Ukrainian government “fascist” as an excuse to invade. That’s a hot button word in Russia. Labels are powerful no matter how untrue they are, and credulous people are moved by them. I’m sure in a week Americans will forget all about this strike, except maybe to vaguely remember a bunch of “bad guys” got what they deserved.