Stephen Miller Has Similar Plans for Colombia and Columbia
Laura Jedeed wonders whether Trump is testing out a new kind of colonialism, where you basically issued orders to the corrupt illegitimate authorities, rather than installing the opposition.
Trump and Rubio’s talking points combine into a message intended not for the people of America, but for the heads of state in Cuba, Columbia, [sic] and worldwide. The message itself is simple, elegant, and ugly: do exactly what we say or America will destroy you—not your country, or your economy, or your people, but you, personally. This strategy doesn’t just let America “run” Venezuela. It allows this administration to “run” any country unable to attack us on our home turf: extract their resources, dictate their domestic policy, force their leaders to resign. All by credibly threatening extreme personal violence against any head of state who pushes back.
Credit where credit is due: it’s an entirely new approach to colonialism. Here’s how it’s worked since Britain perfected the art: you invade the country, then place the opposition party in power. That party requires your support to maintain control (if they had enough force to do it themselves they’d already be in charge). In exchange for military backup, their leader will do anything you ask.
Trump, on the other hand, has endorsed Maduro’s Vice President, Delcy Rodríguez, allegedly because the opposition party “doesn’t have the support within, or the respect within the country.” This assertion is aggressive nonsense. Opposition party weakness is a feature, not a bug, for the reasons stated above. It’s also patently untrue in this case. Election monitors from several countries agree that candidate Edmundo González Urrutia beat Maduro in a landslide two years ago by as much as 51 percent. Trump and his allies know this—they’ve used Maduro’s election theft to justify invasion. It’s kind of perfect: the party doesn’t have the power to gain power by themselves, but they’re popular enough to minimize the danger of revolt. It’s the dream situation—so why isn’t the Trump administration going for it?
Most people seem to think Trump’s endorsement of the unpopular and hostile Rodríguez stems from bitterness towards María Corina Machado, the opposition party leader who received the Nobel Peace Prize that Trump wanted so badly last year. Machado seems to think so too; she’s offered to give the prize to Trump and spent ten minutes abasing herself before the Peace President on Hannity yesterday. It won’t help. Trump is petty to the core, it’s true, but Stephen Miller and the other ghouls actually running this country would never set the entire colonial playbook on fire just to appease some old queen’s ego.
The real reason, I suspect, is this: leaving Rodríguez in charge is the only move that does not require a full-scale invasion.
Unlike Machado, Rodríguez possesses a military and police force capable of holding Venezuela together. Under the old model, that force would have threatened our hegemony, but under Colonialism 2.0, she has a strong incentive to do exactly as she’s told regardless; she is, after all, one surgical strike away from losing her freedom or possibly her life. As long as she doesn’t call Trump’s bluff or get coup’d herself, it’s foolproof.
[snip]
And the administration was right: Rodríguez is already rolling over. “We consider it a priority to move towards a balanced and respectful relationship between the US and Venezuela,” she wrote on Telegram late Sunday. “We extend an invitation to the US government to work together on an agenda for cooperation that is aimed towards shared development.” So far, so good.
That’s certainly what Trump is trying to do.
But it’s wildly premature to assess whether it’ll work.
Before I explain how it may backfire, let me observe that this plan is precisely the same plan Trump (Stephen Miller, really) is attempting with the US.
What Trump plans for Colombia is little different than what he succeeded in doing with Columbia University: Make demands on the elected leader, extract tribute, change the rules to benefit the authoritarian state. Whether it will work long term has yet to be seen, but the lesson of New College in Florida shows where things may head in the medium term: with dramatically increased costs and noticeably decreased utility. Once DeSantis is out of power, the effort is likely to be abandoned, turning New College into a bigger shell than it is already is. Columbia might take longer to collapse, unless Stephen Miller doubles down on his demands.
Now consider what makes Venezuela (or Colombia) different from Columbia, starting with the guns, guns which might come from at least three different places.
First, there are Russia, China, and some other Venezuelan patron states that are under assault as well. Trump has ordered Venezuela to expel them, stop doing business with them, and sell oil only to the US.
The Trump administration has told Venezuela’s interim president Delcy Rodriguez that the regime must meet the White House’s demands before being allowed to pump more oil, according to three people familiar with the administration’s plan.
First, the country must kick out China, Russia, Iran, and Cuba and sever economic ties, the sources said. Second, Venezuela must agree to partner exclusively with the U.S. on oil production and favor America when selling heavy crude oil, they added.
According to one person, Secretary of State Marco Rubio told lawmakers in a private briefing on Monday that he believes the U.S. can force Venezuela’s hand because its existing oil tankers are full. Rubio also told lawmakers that the U.S. estimates that Caracas has only a couple of weeks before it will become financially insolvent without the sale of its oil reserves.
As we speak, the Trump Administration is carrying out a replay of the OJ White Bronco chase, but with an empty oil tanker headed for Russia.
Russia has sent a submarine and other naval assets to escort an empty, rusting oil tanker that has become a new flashpoint in U.S.-Russia relations, according to a U.S. official.
The tanker, formerly known as the Bella 1, has been trying to evade the U.S. blockade of sanctioned oil tankers near Venezuela for more than two weeks. The vessel failed to dock in Venezuela and load with oil. Although the ship is empty, the U.S. Coast Guard has pursued it into the Atlantic in a bid to crack down on a fleet of tankers that ferry illicit oil around the world, including black-market oil sold by Russia.
The vessel’s crew repelled an effort by the U.S. to board the vessel in December and steamed into the Atlantic. As the Coast Guard followed it, the crew sloppily painted a Russian flag on its side, changed its name to the Marinera and switched its registration to Russia.
Russia has been concerned by U.S. seizures of tankers that ferry its illicit oil around the world and power its economy, and it has made the unusual move of allowing the tanker to register in Russia without an inspection or other formalities, experts say.
Update: The US has now seized the tanker.
Will this lead to some kind of direct conflict? I have no fucking clue and neither do you, because both Trump and Putin are fucking nuts. If Trump were rational, he’d retaliate not with direct confrontation in the North Sea, but by arming Ukraine and giving them the green light to up its attacks on Russia, but he’s not rational. Russia’s economy is actually close to collapse, and it wouldn’t take much to get it there. Russia, of course, has other means it might use to retaliate against Trump.
We shall see.
China is another matter though. China not only is rational, but China kicked the shit out of Trump in his last attempt to demand obeisance, the tariffs. Trump thought he could achieve with tariffs what he is trying to achieve with Venezuela: obeisance and personal tribute. Not only have all the tariffs harmed the US, spiking small business bankruptcies and inflation (and in the process making Trump’s political support far weaker), but China used its near-monopoly on rare earths and ability to replace US soybeans to bring Trump to his knees instead.
In fact, the Venezuelan coup might be partly a response to China’s success at wielding the rare earth weapon. While there’s much I disagree with in it, this post argues the Venezuela invasion was not about oil, but about the rare earth China currently extracts.
Investigative reporting documented Chinese buyers operating directly at mining sites in Bolívar state. The Venezuelan government established official collection centers in Los Pijiguaos and Morichalito in 2023 specifically for cassiterite, coltan, nickel, rhodium, and titanium. The Maduro regime designated these as strategic resources for commercialization, meaning state control over extraction and export, with Chinese buyers integrated into official operations from the start.
The supply chain from Venezuelan mines to Chinese refineries operates through both formal and informal channels, with Chinese buyers exercising operational control at the extraction source. Minerals extracted in the Orinoco Arc move by river and air transport to Colombian border towns, then to Bogotá for smelting into refined bars. These materials are relabeled under incorrect tariff codes, transforming raw ore into processed ferro-tantalum or other classifications that obscure origin. Final export occurs through Colombian ports at Santa Marta and Buenaventura, destined for Chinese processing facilities.
Once Venezuelan minerals blend with Colombian or Brazilian ore in these intermediary steps, tracing origin becomes effectively impossible. This laundering mechanism allows Venezuelan minerals to enter legitimate global supply chains, including those feeding US defense contractors. The result is Pentagon weapons systems potentially incorporating materials extracted under Chinese buyer supervision in Venezuelan territory, then processed in Chinese refineries controlled by Beijing.
Chinese buyers do not operate at arm’s length through market transactions. They coordinate directly at the mining sites with both Colombian guerrilla groups (ELN, FARC dissidents) who control physical security and Venezuelan state security (SEBIN) who facilitate transport using official government vehicles. One miner described seeing Chinese operatives and ELN commanders “eating together, buying material together, and getting off the helicopter together.” This is not commercial activity. This is integrated operational control where Chinese buyers work directly with armed groups and state officials to extract strategic minerals.
Trump doesn’t need — indeed, the oil companies probably don’t want — Venezuela’s oil, at least not in the short term.
He does need rare earth deposits (which is also the stated purpose of usurping Greenlands).
It took us some months to understand how China responded to Trump’s threat of tariffs. It took less time to recognize China’s advance preparation for them (based on Trump’s trade war from the first term).
A lot of the coverage of the coup views it as a profound humiliation for China, not least because China’s Latin American envoy met with Nicolás Maduro the day before the coup. That didn’t stop China (and Russia and Iran) from attending Rodríguez’ signing in, so there’s a distinct possibility they’re in at least as close coordination with Rodríguez right now as Marco Rubio.
But the most belligerent thing — the thing people expect — is that China will take Taiwan, as it was practicing to do even as Trump had a fifth of deployed assets in the Caribbean preparing to invade.
With all the attention on Venezuela, there has been too little attention on vacuums created with this extended deployment off the coast of Venezuela (the most immediate of which is probably in the Middle East). But it is clear that Trump keeps launching little wars with resources most of Congress believes should be used to counter China’s expansionary plans.
But as China showed with the tariffs, they likely have ways to respond that are less direct and at least as devastating.
But China and Russia aren’t the only ones who have guns here.
So does, just as one example, Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello, who has been indicted in SDNY alongside Maduro since 2020. Reuters describes that the US already threatened Cabello.
In the meantime, they have communicated to Cabello via intermediaries that if he is defiant, he could face a similar fate to Maduro, the authoritarian leader captured in a U.S. raid on Saturday and whisked away to New York to face prosecution on “narco-terrorism” charges, or could see his life in danger, the source said.
But taking out Cabello could be risky, possibly motivating pro-government motorcycle groups, known as colectivos, to take to the streets, unleashing the chaos Washington wants to avoid. Their reaction may depend on whether they feel protected by other officials, however.
In one of her first decisions as acting president, Rodríguez appointed General Gustavo González López as new head of the Presidential Honor Guard and the Directorate General of Military Counterintelligence (DGCIM), state TV said late on Tuesday.
González López, who has been sanctioned by the U.S. and EU along with at least half a dozen other high-ranking officials for rights violations and corruption, served as Venezuela’s intelligence director until mid-2024, when he was replaced by Maduro in a reshuffle of his cabinet and security team.
Later that year, he began working with Rodríguez as head of strategic affairs and control at state oil company PDVSA.
González López was considered close to Cabello, but it was not immediately clear whether his appointment was a gesture of support from Rodríguez to the man considered the strongman of the ruling party, or, on the contrary, a sign of a rift.
The officer replaces General Javier Marcano, whose performance came under scrutiny after Maduro’s capture, according to analysts.
One thing I’ve seen no coverage of is why the US thinks Rodríguez will be secure within Venezuela now that Trump killed the 40 Cubans who were protecting Maduro. And the militias via which Cabello exercises some of his repression could carry out a deniable kind of violence.
But Cabello isn’t even the only one with guns in question. The purported purpose of this operation is about stopping drug trafficking. But unless Trump is doing what every other caudillo does — manage the trade while extracting tribute — there will, eventually, be a counter response from the cartels, which don’t take kindly to losing their markets and have the ability to exercise violence both on site — in Venezuela — but also closer to home, including in the United States. Stephen Miller has so much of US law enforcement snatching workers at Home Depot that certain kinds of crime are likely far easier to pull off. Update: About which the NYT has another story today.
Finally, there are the Venezuelan people. Maduro only remained in power with a great deal of repression, and Trump is tinkering with that system of repression. Meanwhile, Trump’s plans to expel much of the Chinese may exacerbate already dire economic conditions for Venezuelans, because Trump won’t subsidize soft power in the way China has been willing to (to say nothing of the expulsion of Cubans who were providing medical care). Where Stephen Miller’s authoritarianism has failed most dramatically in the US is the way the counter reaction to his goons has revitalized civil society in cities that stand up to the goons. And there’s already a practiced opposition in Venezuela that, as in the US, dramatically outnumbers the goons in charge.
It’s only day four. We have no fucking idea how this will turn out. While Delta Force and the CIA performed spectacularly, there’s really just a handful of people in charge, and most — like Stephen Miller, who thinks of Venezuela as an island surrounded by a US armada and therefore is likely forgetting about a porous border with Colombia — are utterly ignorant about Venezuela and childish about power.
Columbia University was easy to subjugate, because no one had guns. But even there it only happened by damaging the host. There are a lot of people with guns with an interest in Venezuela.
It’s just as likely, in my opinion, that this precipitates World War III as that it succeeds in Venezuela much less produces the treasure Trump is demanding.
Update: CEO of the Human Rights Foundation, Venezuelan Thor Halvorssen, predicts Delcy Rodríguez’ quick demise.
Reports indicate the Trump administration has struck a deal with Delcy Rodríguez, Mr. Maduro’s iron-fisted vice president, positioning her as a transitional leader. She has, it seems, convinced U.S. officials that she can dismantle the Maduro dictatorship, which would have to include demobilizing the armed militias, disbanding the dreaded secret police and ending the regime’s drug empire. But this is a fantasy. Ms. Rodríguez will fail spectacularly, leading to the final unraveling.
Venezuela isn’t like Mexico, where a state coexists uneasily with cartels. Here, the cartel is the state. Factions—enriched generals, intelligence chiefs and narco-traffickers—won’t surrender power in a Washington-brokered deal. Ms. Rodríguez herself faces insurmountable obstacles, beginning with her utter lack of legitimacy. Never elected vice president, she has less authority than Mr. Maduro, the usurper who appointed her.
I think he wildly overestimates the extent that Trump would even permit any lapse in repression.
Update: Meanwhile on Xitter, I take this as confession that Stephen Miller knows fuckall about the oil market, especially the discount at which Venezuelan oil must be sold and the price at which it is worth drilling.
Paul Krugman’s column today is on how Trump’s oil math doesn’t add up.
[W]hatever it is we’re doing in Venezuela isn’t really a war for oil. It is, instead, a war for oil fantasies. The vast wealth Trump imagines is waiting there to be taken doesn’t exist.
Update: WSJ goes into more depth about the challenges Cabello may pose to Trump’s plans.
Fond of swinging a spiked club while spouting conspiracy theories on his hourslong weekly show on state television called “Bringing Down the Hammer,” now on its 556th episode, Cabello is hard to predict.
Cabello, a 62-year-old whose official title is minister of interior, justice and peace, has so far signaled unity, taking part in Rodriguez’s swearing-in ceremony on Monday, where various factions of Venezuela’s ruling socialist party were present.
But that night, Cabello was toting a rifle and riling up black-uniformed security forces before they patrolled Caracas to prevent citizens from protesting.
“Doubting is treason!” he said, before telling the armed group, “Now, off to battle in the streets for victory.”
Under a state of emergency that the government declared after Maduro’s capture, security forces were ordered to hunt down U.S. sympathizers, according to the Official Gazette, where the Venezuelan government publishes new laws and decrees. Residents in the capital reported new roadblocks around the city where armed, masked men checked the phones of ordinary Venezuelans for antigovernment messages.
Update: This offers a good explanation of all the people with guns who would make things difficult even if Delcy Rodríguez did want to cooperate with the US.
Update, January 9: This analysis lays out the difficulties of Delcy Rodriguez’ position better than I did.
For her part, Rodríguez confronts an unprecedented challenge for a Venezuelan leader: She must satisfy Washington’s demands while maintaining sufficient Chavista coalition support to prevent an internal fracture or a military coup. The Trump administration demands sufficient cooperation to enable US oil company operations, likely including transparent property contracts and regulatory stability—precisely the institutional environment that Chavismo systematically dismantled. Rodríguez making such an agreement with Trump would alienate the regime’s hardliners, who would view her accommodation as a betrayal. Thus, Rodríguez may be unable to guarantee the stability required for the business operations Trump wants to run in Venezuela.
Her public contradictions reflect this impossible position. In her first televised addresses as interim president, she demanded Maduro’s immediate release to demonstrate loyalty to domestic audiences. Less than twenty-four hours later, however, she declared it a priority to move toward a “balanced and respectful” economic cooperation between the United States and Venezuela.
This double game cannot persist indefinitely. Rodríguez must choose between accommodating Trump’s demands or preserving Chavista unity. Trump’s threat that if Rodríguez “doesn’t do what’s right, she is going to pay a very big price, probably bigger than Maduro” makes clear that there will be consequences of noncompliance. Purging the hardliners may be Rodríguez’s best option.
Perhaps Rodríguez’s most complex challenge is managing Venezuela’s deep entanglements with China, Russia, Iran, and Cuba while simultaneously partnering with the Trump administration. This is especially the case after the Trump administration demanded that Venezuela immediately cut ties and cease intelligence cooperation with Russia, China, Iran, and Cuba. These relationships represent more than diplomatic alignments—they constitute binding financial obligations, operational dependencies, and strategic commitments that cannot simply be abandoned without triggering massive economic and security consequences.
China presents the most significant financial exposure. Venezuela owes Beijing around twenty billion dollars in loans. These debts are secured through oil-for-loan arrangements that require repayment through crude deliveries, with China currently absorbing more than half of Venezuela’s oil exports (approximately 746,000 barrels per day in November 2025).
Beyond petroleum, Chinese state enterprises control critical Venezuelan infrastructure.
If NATO had cracked down on the Russian shadow oil fleet 3 years ago the Ukraine war would probably be over, with Russia’s economy in ruins. The US is doing it now to starve Venezuela instead.
Another point: Maduro’s prosecution depends on establishing that he is not the Venezuelan head of state. Who is, then? The US does not recognize either Gonzalez or Machado, although we claim Maduro stole the election from them. Rodriguez can’t be, as she is a stand-in for Maduro. Is it Rubio? Or Miller? All bets are off.
Thank you for elucidating the “new colonialism”.
“It’s just as likely, in my opinion, that this precipitates World War III as that it succeeds in Venezuela”.
JFC Marcy, you rarely talk like that.
Shall we take comfort that the odds of PeeWee German succeeding in Venezuela are infinitesmal?
Yeah, my eyes sure widened when I read that line. 8-{
Also, I keep thinking the name Eric Prince for some reason.
This is the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists Update as of January 28 so it does not include anything yet about US was crimes in Venezuela or the latest Admin ramblings about Greenland.
“Closer than ever: It is now 89 seconds to midnight
In 2024, humanity edged ever closer to catastrophe. Trends that have deeply concerned the Science and Security Board continued, and despite unmistakable signs of danger, national leaders and their societies have failed to do what is needed to change course. Consequently, we now move the Doomsday Clock from 90 seconds to 89 seconds to midnight—the closest it has ever been to catastrophe.”
Speaking of Greenland – would love to get Marcie’s and other perspective on today’s NYT article that basically reports the US already has all authority it needs to just do whatever it wants there.
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/07/world/europe/trump-greenland-denmark-us-defense-pact.html?utm_source=firefox-newtab-en-us
More of the same from the MSM, normalizing Trump’s bullshit. It should be called out for what it is – insane, instead we get crap like that from the NYT.
More wishful thinking from the imperial NYT.
Mike from Delaware and earlofhuntingdon: respectfully, that article is informative and well-sourced, and it doesn’t “normalize Trump” (which the NYT has been guilty of many times in the past).
The article gives historical context and describes a 1951 agreement that gave the U.S. wide latitude for military operations in Greenland, which was cited by Denmark’s P.M. in recent public remarks. The agreement was amended in 2004 with a consultation clause.
The article also points out that there are limits to that agreement:
“Analysts said that if the United States tried to use the defense pact as a fig leaf to send in a lot of troops and try to occupy Greenland, that wouldn’t be legal either.”
The article reiterates the position of Greenland and Denmark that Greenland is not for sale.
To me, the upshot of the article is to further highlight the insanity of Trump’s heavy-handed approach to Greenland, when he already is almost certain to receive approval for reasonable military expansion there if desired, and could negotiate rare earth deals. Trump the irrational, domineering bully is on full display in this scenario, upending relationships with allies for no obvious benefit.
Predictable? https://www.ft.com/content/985ae542-1ab4-491e-8e6e-b30f6a3ab666
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Please provide context rather than dropping blind links. “Predictable?” is not enough context. It also doesn’t let community members make an assessment as to whether it’s worth the hassle to deal with FT’s firewall; the article is only available to subscribers.
The FT article is: Polymarket refuses to pay bets that US would ‘invade’ Venezuela
As an alternative:
I like this move. If you want your bet paid, then sue us and publicly name yourself so we will all know which people in the Admin placed those bets.
The FT headline = Polymarket refuses to pay bets that US would ‘invade’ Venezuela
That tells the story. If there is more, it is supporting detail only.
Serious people understand the administration media warfare for what it is, lies and more lies. Why does Halvorssen think Rodriguez is doing anything but paying lip service to the White House? It will not be her failure but Miller’s failure. In Miller’s fantasy world the invasion of Portland Oregon greatly reduced crime, yet in the real world the National Guard was never on the streets of the city.
Where Delcy Rodríguez will fail is in dismantling the dictatorship. She’ll take “temporary power” to
“dismantle the dictatorship” and then run into problem like “cash flow” and “economic assistance” to replace what they’ve lost or stand to lose from China, Russia, Cuba, etc. and then “are unable to dismantle until we have replaced what we will lose”. Which translates to the US authorizing billions in economic assistance.
Right. There’s no reason to believe that’s even her job.
She was chosen because she won’t dismantle the dictatorship.
LGM is saying the crackdown is on in Venezuela, pointing to the NYT article (no link, it’s paywalled) so the ‘irrational exuberance’ of the expatswill not be rewarded. FWIW, expanding to Colombia and Cuba will do nothing but add enemies when the WH has no plan to handle the chaos.
Yes sir, this is brilliant strategy. First Hegseth goes through the services, dismissing service members for being woke, for being minorities, for being a woman or being a JAG. This is a volunteer army, and what could be more encouraging for potential recruits than the feeling they won’t get a fair shake in the service.
Then the USA embarks on military adventures. In the service of a five-time draft-dodger who is now senile, and weirdos, overgrown boys like Hegseth. This is gonna work out great.
Oh, and I must compliment their knowledge of recent history.
I’m still convinced that a lot of service members who got fired by Hegseth are thanking their lucky stars about now.
yes, generally I would agree but I do have a close friend who’s youngest just graduated from Annapolis and is pretty gung ho about being in Tr*mp’s and Hegseth’s military and has just signed up for Marine flight program. Know another guy that works for a big contractor I interact with who is an ex marine and he is pretty gung ho about Hegseth and the new military. Maybe outliers, but clearly there are those that support these juveniles…
Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose…
Near to my DEROS in the late 60s, new recruits were joining ahead of the official ‘all volunteer’ ARMY. Almost to a ̶m̶a̶n̶ pimply-faced teenager they had seen John Wayne’s The Green Berets and were eager to ‘get their freak on’, as Rick James would put it.
There are always those who get off on the unrestrained violence.
Well, if the current maladministration succeeds in crashing the economy, the armed forces won’t lack recruits
This would be a good place to put the joke about the Rabbi, the student and the astronomy book, too.
How about the joke about the physicist, the engineer, the linguist and the economist:
A physicist, engineer, linguist, and economist are tourists in a city and are lost. They go into a bar to ask for directions. Seeing a gentleman who appears to be a local at the bar, they approach him and the economist says to the gentleman “Hello, we are lost.” The physicists then asks “Where are we?”. The gentleman looks up from his drink and replies “You are in a bar.” The engineer then says “He is obviously a mathematician.” The linguist, totally dumbfounded, then asks “How do you know?” The engineer replies “Because he understood the question and gave an answer that was perfectly correct and completely useless.”
This one?
Rabbi Moshe Karelman, a brilliant Talmudist and his star pupil Yeshaya are traveling to Vilna when they have to stop for the night, and pitch their tent in an empty field.
After the evening prayers Rabbi Karelman and Yeshaya retire for the evening.
Some hours later, Rabbi Karelman wakes up and nudges his student.
“Yeshaya, look up at the sky and tell me what you see.”
“I see millions and millions of stars, Rabbi Karelman.”
“And from this, what do you deduce?”
Yeshaya ponders for a minute.
“Well, astronomically, this view conveys the vastness of the heavens. Chronometrically, I deduce that the time is approximately a quarter past three. Meteorologically, I suspect that we will have a beautiful day tomorrow. Theologically, I can see that God is all powerful, and that we are a small and insignificant part of His universe. What does it tell you, Rabbi Karelman?”
“Yeshaya, someone has stolen our tent.”
And what does Trump donor Paul Singer and his recent purchase of Citgo (thru Amber Energy) and their Venezuela crude-oil-friendly refineries have to do with any of this?
Moe Tkacik has done several stories about the looting of Venezuela — here’s the most recent.
Excellent article.
Thanks, a great read, and now the deed (or even deeds) is/are indeed almost done, with Amber Energy confident the sale will close soon, appeal/s notwithstanding, and the OFAC to surely rubber stamp Singer’s fait accompli.
The other place that figures into this conversation is Greenland.
From the Guardian:
Politico.eu follows up on this, with their own assessment of how this response by the EU is being received in DC:
If Trump is truly worried about US security vis-a-vis Russia, seizing Greenland while shattering NATO and the trans-Atlantic alliance is hardly the way to go about it. If you offered that as an option to Putin, he’d take that over the status quo seven days a week and twice on Sundays.
Of course, someone would have to explain that to Trump using short words and big posters — and do so in a way that would allow them to keep their job. Not an easy trick.
Oh yeah. Greenland’s rare earths that are under a mile of ice. Not likely to be proven reserves.
That doesn’t seem to be slowing down Trump’s desire to seize Greenland and as a result, blow up NATO.
(Also, thanks to Trump and the anti-science folks in the GOP, that mile of ice is getting smaller every year. Quickly.)
Sorry, I have to correct my statement. There are small rare earth deposits along the un-iced coast.
It should always be remembered that “Trump’s desire…to blow up NATO” originated with Vladimir Putin. Putin is the one who most wants NATO to implode/explode, and has almost certainly been supplying Trump with his mercenary arguments about member nations “paying up” from the beginning.
Since when have practicalities meant anything to Donald Trump?
He tore down the East Wing almost overnight, violating a string of protocols, so that something had to be put up in its place. He had no plans, only the glitter of plans for what would replace it.
His fantasies about Greenland’s rare earth deposits are much like his fantasies of the worth and accessibility of Venezuelan oil. They are expressions of his brilliance, not workable plans, based on practical assessments of hard facts.
Trump’s Greenland ambitions are positively Jeffersonian, and no doubt he sees himself on Mt Rushmore already, alongside Jefferson, and Greenland his Louisiana Purchase, hence Jeff Landry, to get the association started.
I cannot comprehend the fecklessness of NATO members who would vaporize at the mere words of Trump. If they had stood up to him the first time around we might not be where we are now.
Are we really to believe that if the fools in the White House actually move on Greenland, that all of NATO will not come to the aid of Denmark ? Is it really just a paper tiger ?
” “If the United States decides to militarily attack another Nato country, then everything would stop – that includes Nato and therefore post-second world war security,” Frederiksen told Danish television network TV2. ” What is he thinking ? Why would they not band together to stand up to Trump?
Is Frederiksen really the Neville Chamberlain of Scandinavia or am I missing something ? There must be more context to this statement.
Frederiksen is saying that the EU *would* come to Greenland/Denmark’s defense, and the first step of that would be to recognize that the US is de facto pulling itself out of NATO. An attack by the US would be the end of the post-WWII Atlantic alliance. That’s what the “everything would stop” is all about.
Others in Europe have mentioned steps such as dis-inviting US troops to be based on European soil, closing ports to US military ships, closing airfields to US military flights, etc. The EU leaders are under no illusions about Trump – not after Venezuela.
Thanks for the clarification. What you say is a relief, from a political standpoint. They need to kick the US out if Trump actually goes forward with Greenland.
But terrifying as a resident of the US. I think I am envying Marcy all the more now.
It is shocking to me that it has taken Venezuela for them to come to reality.
I’m more shocked that it’s taken Venezuela for a bunch of *Americans* to come to reality.
An Elias thought on how Maduro gets freedom, https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=lLBk1jp0OLk
For those who do not want to watch yet another video: The theory is that Maduro would be persuaded to “admit” to rigging/stealing the 2020 election for Joe Biden using the Venezuelan-origin voting machines, thus feeding into Trump’s fantasy; and he would be rewarded for that with a relaxed prosecution, reducing some charges or whatever.
Thom Hartmann advanced the same theory on his radio broadcast today.
Yes, total la-la land. But that’s where we are with the Trump crowd.
Trump Campaign Knew Lawyers’ Voting Machine Claims Were Baseless, Memo Shows Days before lawyers allied with Donald Trump gave a news conference promoting election conspiracy theories, his campaign had determined that many of those claims were false, court filings reveal. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/21/us/politics/trump-dominion-voting.html
Alan Feuer Published Sept. 21, 2021 Updated Oct. 13, 2022
Building the “Big Lie”: Inside the Creation of Trump’s Stolen Election Myth Internal emails and interviews with key participants reveal for the first time the extent to which leading advocates of the rigged election theory touted evidence they knew to be disproven, disputed or dismissed as dubious. https://www.propublica.org/article/big-lie-trump-stolen-election-inside-creation#1319228 Doug Bock Clark, Alexandra Berzon and Kirsten Berg
April 26, 2022
SC Jack SMITH testimony transcript:
https://judiciary.house.gov/sites/evo-subsites/republicans-judiciary.house.gov/files/2025-12/Smith-Depo-Transcript_Redacted-w-Errata.pdf
That was from the Minority at around [4:34] of the VIDEO. I’ll post the link in a reply.
Jack SMITH testimony VIDEO [12/17/25]:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lR-bhPzQYUE
Of course it’s a lie, but his supporters aren’t going to read and/or see any of that; they’re going to listen to the J6 peaceful tourists of the Capitol who on Tuesday were being interviewed and were throwing around all the conspiracies of Dems being responsible and of course the WH gave its supporters its version of J6 https://www.whitehouse.gov/j6/.
I don’t see much new in Laura Jedeed’s argument. Her distinction between ruling and opposition groups fails, imo, because both are creatures of empire.
As she notes, Western empires, especially the Brits, in Asia, Africa and Latin America long ago adopted the trick of using local cutouts to rule, instead of imposing their own formal govt, which they eventually did in India. They notably adopted it in Egypt and less successfully in China, pretending that local rulers were independently, and only employed British advisers. Arguably, the US attempted it in Vietnam, without much success.
The Belgians tried it in the Congo. When a local leader refused to play ball. Western powers raced to murder Patrice Lumumba and replace him with someone more compliant, leading to decades of the Congo’s status as a failed state. Latin America is full of other examples, notably Guatemala and Chile.
In the Congo the reporting was always about “mercenaries” fighting against Lumumba. MSM never said who was paying the mercenaries. I knew an ex UDT man who said he fought in the Congo, and checks were in the name of a rental strip mall site in California. I credit that as true, not blarney.
I think Laura Jedeed is spot on as to the intentions of the administration. This is what they mean when they say they are “running” Venezuela: by holding a gun to the head of Delcy Rodriguez so she will run the country to the benefit of the Trumpists. I also agree that this will not work out the way they hope, but how it fails and with what adverse consequences is anyone’s guess at this point. It will not end well, of that we can be sure.
It’s worth mentioning that several of my right wing friends and relatives are celebrating the new “freedom” of Venezuela and Trump’s role in it, completely oblivious to the oncoming disaster. One even pondered whether the Venezuelans might erect a statue of Trump in Caracas near that of Simon Bolivar. The level of delusion is astounding.
The First Rule of Dunning Kruger Club is that they don’t know they are in it!
Do not fund this administration.
Shut the government down again. President Cancer cannot pass go. He cannot collect $200.
The Crisco Kid has kicked the poor out of the federal marketplace, stopped funding for poor kids in democratically run states, and will kick people off Medicaid with his Big Bull$sit Bill – all of this means people will die.
Stop funding this sociopath.
SHUT THE GOVT DOWN
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About rare earth minerals.
Admittedly the internet is loaded with techno fanboys doing fan boy things about alt energy and energy storage, which is where rare earths come in. The word on the YouTube street is batteries with far fewer rare earth minerals are on the way. I have healthy skepticism in the short term but it bears watching.
FWIW, Chevron is on Ballard’s client list. Ballard: where Susie and Pam once worked.
More Miller, the mayor of Minneapolis says the woman murdered by an ICE person was not shot in self defense, that ICE is lying about that.
https://www.twincities.com/2026/01/07/minneapolis-mayor-says-ice-officers-killing-of-a-motorist-was-reckless-and-wasnt-self-defense/
Star Tribune also reported – https://www.startribune.com/ice-raids-minnesota/601546426
Also likely of interest to some, and likely raising fear among establishment Dems and Repubs –
https://www.startribune.com/roper-minneapolis-city-council-democratic-socialists/601558856
Excellent video by Lawrence O’Donnell
“Video of deadly Minneapolis ICE shooting exposes Trump & Noem’s lies”
https://youtu.be/xlbGMFMnCDQ
When I was ten I bought a beautiful budgie. Among the fluttering green and yellow birds at the pet shop, his pale blue and gray feathers stood out. He was the least bright thing in that crowded cage. When I brought him home, my father named him before I had a chance to: Bolivar. Because a daughter risked ridicule by doing otherwise, I pretended I thoroughly grasped the reference. Because I pretended, I couldn’t afford to learn.
Bolivar proved a sweet little soul. His cage hung from a stand high over our dinner table. I tried to teach him to speak human (I had read that parakeets can learn to talk), but he chose silence, likely because it was obvious that he shared the household with at least eight cats.
He lived in that cage (the biggest I could afford) for years. I was in high school when I came home one day and found him lying inert on the paper at the bottom. My mother said that my cat Isabel “got him.” I would not bring another bird into my life, although I came close once with an African Gray parrot who needed a new home.
I generally dislike allegory. As a narrative choice, not for me. But the combination of “our” supposed conquest of the country that produced my Bolivar’s namesake* and Donald Trump putting his name on the Kennedy Center etc. ad nauseam has got me recalling my sweet little gray-blue budgie, alive and then not.
*”namesake” can refer to either the original or the honoree. I did not know that.
There’s a Sufi teaching story that goes like this:
A big game hunter learns of a sighting in Africa of a beautiful very rare bird. He soon departs for Africa to find and capture the bird. After much searching over much of the continent, he is given a tip and soon ventures to the jungle location of the bird. He tricks the bird into a snare and captures it. He takes the bird home and puts it in a deluxe cage he bought for this most beautiful of birds.
Yet the bird becomes quiet and still. After some time has passed the hunter asks the bird what is wrong. He tells the bird it is no longer in any danger, and has a great view out the window, and never has to worry about finding food.
The bird tells him, “I long for my family. It would be wonderful if you would go back to where I’m from and tell them I am, as you say, alive and freed from want.”
The hunter tells the bird he will do so. And he does, and returns back to the spot where he captured the bird. After a few days he spots the same kind of bird perched on a branch.
“Are you related to the bird I took a few weeks ago?”
“Indeed I am. I am her brother.” The hunter relays the news about his sister’s welfare. At which point the bird faints and falls off the branch into the underbrush, presumably dead.
Crestfallen, the hunter tries to find the bird. He does not, and so he returns with sad news. Once home he relays to his bird what happened in Africa. At the end of the story the hunter’s prized bird teeters and falls dead to the floor of the cage.
Stricken, the hunter opens the door to the cage, and scoops up the bird, at which point the bird comes back to life, flying out an open window, but not before looking back and telling the hunter, “Thanks for bringing me the message!”
The worldly level of this story’s lesson is timely to our moment.
Thank you, Stephen Calhoun, for sharing that story. I will have to think about it, as is often the case with Sufi parables; they wouldn’t be “teaching stories” otherwise, right?
I thought I knew what my Bolivar story was about. Now I’m not sure. Lovely little Bolivar was a real bird I really did care for, in every sense. The fact that I couldn’t admit (at ten) my ignorance of his namesake meant that my knowledge of Venezuela remained deficient long after my Bolivar’s short life. It has taken me decades to let myself learn the many, many things I felt I couldn’t afford to admit not knowing as a child.
all we currently have are good guesses about how people will react. then there are the unknowns because we don’t know all the players that well. If the cartels start to loose market share they will fight to regain it. what that will look like? I do expect the fighting will not remain in Venezuela. It will come to the U.S.A. Combine that with an unhappy population in the U.S.A. the U.S.A. could wind up looking like a third world country in the middle of a civil war. If Trump has taken a run at Greenland or another NATO country don’t expect Europe or Canada to care.
At some level non of this is a surprise to me and on the other, its how did this happen in an advanced democratic country.
Democracy is a delicate thing. Over the decades the interests of the few became the order of the day. It was easy. Cabinet members are not elected but chosen by Presidents. When Trump pardoned all those who were convicted for their actions on 6 Jan. he sent a message. Some were unhappy about it but he just kept on going doing what he wanted. Too bad he wasn’t impeached when he could have been.
He was impeached twice. He wasn’t convicted either time. And the second time, they were given the evidence.