We need regime change, now. Here in the United States.
This morning, I called my congressman and senators and told them to tie up Congress until Trump and his accomplices relent. I know that Congress has been notably absent since last January 20th, but there are things it must do, and if Democrats simply block everything and anything, that will be powerful. And, even though they are in the minority, they can do it.
If trump and Muskrat didn't decimate the government employees through DOGE, they might have pulled this coup off better. With the loyalist/incompetent "planners" in charge, it is likely to run the country in a very dysfunctional manner. I'm guessing that most of the ones who will "run" the country don't speak Spanish, will ultimately fail and we will see a lot of demonstrations. I hope they have a large number of "Yankee Go Home" banners.
I’m sure it wasn’t intentional, but near the end of this Substack, trump was referred to as “resident “ instead of “president”. A much more appropriate title for the occupier in chief. Thank you, I like it!
Questions ask why the US is involved in Venezuela? Cheeto ran a campaign counter to such an invasion of countries but of course he lied about so many promises since he wanted to stay out of jail
Despite the fact that Venezuela has the world's largest proven oil reserves the type of oil that the country brings out of the ground is a dirty petroleum product because it requires many many steps to get a marketable product Venezuelan oil accounts for only 1% of the overall global oil production
So if it’s not about a valuable oil product, then is the US military Venezuelan capture of an awful tyrant like Maduro the real reason for this US military action? Maybe but corruption, power, and money always are the motivating factors for Cheeto who desires to be tough guy strongman who can become the bully of countries in the Western hemisphere It sets the tone to all other Western hemisphere countries
In the end there are many reasons Emperor Cheeto decided to arrest a fellow dictator He’s an impulsive malignant narcissist with loyalists willing to do his bidding and oil which is a gift to the American oil industry and its campaign donors is another piece of this bizarro puzzle Then there’s the Nobel Peace Prize Venezuelan activist who Cheeto flipped off when she offered the US help Polling numbers suck and health insurance costs are going up for millions And the action does serve as a great distraction from the haunting Epstein files and the news networks are swallowing the bait
Suppose this was NOT about regime change? Suppose this was actually a COUP by Rodriguez (the VP equally cruel and corrupt) in which Trump assisted “for a price”. This makes more sense. It was an inside job, Rodriguez was conveniently nowhere to be found (maybe in Russia?), this avoids the sticky problem of actually “running the country” (which of course we’re not in the least prepared to do), spares the comparisons to Iraq, likely renders unnecessary US boots on the ground (other than to deal with the inevitable public backlash). Of course, by calling it a law enforcement exercise, I suppose that means that if, say, Denmark decided that threats against Greenland endangered its nation (which they do far more than Maduro threatened ours) they would be legally within their rights to kidnap Tump, Melania, Pence, Rubio, Miller and whichever assorted co-conspirators were in league..
Oh, and when Trump - in his characteristic misogynistic and competitive manner - says Machado does not have “support or respect” he’s of course talking about himself. In that addled brain, all people who are not “enemies of the people” think exactly as he does.
Despite her somewhat bizarre attempts to flatter him. Perhaps she saw his connections to Rodriguez and hoped to win him over. Someone should have taken her aside and letter her know that flattery without the offer of plunder means nothing to him.
“This is the current posture…,”changing a couple of words in that paragraph, and you pretty much describe the standard operating procedure of this administration. Rube Goldberg’s machines worked better.
Harry Litman has provided a cogent, convincing and, in short, brilliant analysis of this entire Trumpian debacle. If one starts from the basic question about the applicability of international law to what amounts to an extra-territorial arrest pursuant to a U.S. indictment, and then also considers the improbable explanations for surrounding events, starting with Trump's insistence for months that the murderous blowing up of numerous small motor boats and their occupants was to address alleged trafficking of fentanyl to the U.S. by a Venezuelan cartel tied to the Maduro regime, a healthy skepticism about what's going on is warranted. Then add in a growing suspicion that seizure of "the oil" for American producers is nothing more than Trump's fever dream contradicted by facts in/on the ground -- like the undesirability of this type of oil for U.S. producers, and the allegation, which General Barry McCaffrey made yesterday, that there are several thousand Venezuelan admirals and generals who make a lot of money from drug trafficking and selling Venezuelan oil to China, which is delivered via a ghost fleet, i.e., people who are not simply going to cede that resource to U.S. interlopers, and suddenly one's focus shifts and it becomes obvious that Trump's gloating about the success of the Venezuelan attack/arrest and his announcement that the U.S. will "run the country" require further investigation and inquiry into possible true purposes and what is now possible or likely.
With this process of discovery/analysis in mind, I would add one further "what if" to the mix -- not mine but one that Lawrence O'Donnell posited last evening on his MS Now program. What if this is not about Venezuela at all but instead a trial run for the ultimate target: Cuba? As Lawrence pointed out, there is a large Cuban diaspora in the United States (primarily Florida), which originally including both voluntary immigrants from Cuba during the Batista years who could not return following the Cuban Revolution in 1959 that brought Fidel Castro to power, and other Cubans who joined them on American soil when they successfully fled Cuba for their own safety after the failure, in 1961, of the U.S. Bay of Pigs invasion and the cementing of Cuba's relationship with the Soviet Union. For these Cuban-Americans, "the dream [of returning to live in the Cuba they loved] has never died." Trump has pointed to Marco Rubio as the guy who might be tapped to run Venzuela, but the country Rubio surely wants to run, based on his own proud Cuban heritage -- the place where a regime change has been contemplated for decades by various foreign powers -- is Cuba. The decades-old link between Cuba and Venezuela is well known, as Venezuelan leaders, Hugo Chavez (until his death in 2013) and then Nicolas Maduro, have propped up the Cuban economy and improved the lives of individuals by providing a food supply and subsidizing physicians and hospitals, but at the same time curtailed basic freedoms of communication and movement for Cuban residents. Effectively Venezuela has treated Cuba as a colony for several decades.
So what if extricating Maduro with an out-of-scale strike force was part of a trial run for a full-scale, well-rehearsed take-over of Cuba soon to follow? What if Trump's bellicose talk of seizing Greenland and other lands, with reference to a badly misunderstood Monroe Doctrine from 1823, is a deliberate feint? Under conditions rife with uncertainty, improbability and Trump's history of lying about everything, it's worth using our peripheral vision here and remaining vigilant.
"Venezuela, the United States, and the broader international community would all be better off with a genuinely democratic government in Caracas." None of that matters in the slightest to trump and his cronies and donors. What they can make in the short term is all that matters. The world--be damned.
Excellent clarification of this rotten regimes attempts to control another country’s resources. I’d just add that in the bigger picture, the OT (well for sure his handlers) Putin, and Xi, see the world in three parts to rule. Between oil company’s big money insert to win the election and the regime’s sheer incompetence, they headed in willy nilly to get that started. Why else would there be threats to Greenland, Mexico, and Cuba tied to this one kidnapping?
We need regime change, now. Here in the United States.
This morning, I called my congressman and senators and told them to tie up Congress until Trump and his accomplices relent. I know that Congress has been notably absent since last January 20th, but there are things it must do, and if Democrats simply block everything and anything, that will be powerful. And, even though they are in the minority, they can do it.
A masterpiece of aftermath analysis. Thank you.
The place that needs regime change now—right now—is the Fractured States of America.
Not to mention that Trump is threatening Venezuela‘s acting president—Maduro’s vice president—with similar treatment if she doesn’t do as she is told. https://www.theatlantic.com/national-security/2026/01/trump-venezuela-maduro-delcy-rodriguez/685497/?gift=b4500jVqtjtPjVDhl6ko07aSrOOp92V9njmbSuG1sFo
As usual, Harry, your analysis sheds, much light on the moving parts and the ways all this mayhem does and does not have to do with what is legal.
If trump and Muskrat didn't decimate the government employees through DOGE, they might have pulled this coup off better. With the loyalist/incompetent "planners" in charge, it is likely to run the country in a very dysfunctional manner. I'm guessing that most of the ones who will "run" the country don't speak Spanish, will ultimately fail and we will see a lot of demonstrations. I hope they have a large number of "Yankee Go Home" banners.
I’m sure it wasn’t intentional, but near the end of this Substack, trump was referred to as “resident “ instead of “president”. A much more appropriate title for the occupier in chief. Thank you, I like it!
Emperor Cheeto Of The Western Hemisphere
Questions ask why the US is involved in Venezuela? Cheeto ran a campaign counter to such an invasion of countries but of course he lied about so many promises since he wanted to stay out of jail
Despite the fact that Venezuela has the world's largest proven oil reserves the type of oil that the country brings out of the ground is a dirty petroleum product because it requires many many steps to get a marketable product Venezuelan oil accounts for only 1% of the overall global oil production
So if it’s not about a valuable oil product, then is the US military Venezuelan capture of an awful tyrant like Maduro the real reason for this US military action? Maybe but corruption, power, and money always are the motivating factors for Cheeto who desires to be tough guy strongman who can become the bully of countries in the Western hemisphere It sets the tone to all other Western hemisphere countries
In the end there are many reasons Emperor Cheeto decided to arrest a fellow dictator He’s an impulsive malignant narcissist with loyalists willing to do his bidding and oil which is a gift to the American oil industry and its campaign donors is another piece of this bizarro puzzle Then there’s the Nobel Peace Prize Venezuelan activist who Cheeto flipped off when she offered the US help Polling numbers suck and health insurance costs are going up for millions And the action does serve as a great distraction from the haunting Epstein files and the news networks are swallowing the bait
Suppose this was NOT about regime change? Suppose this was actually a COUP by Rodriguez (the VP equally cruel and corrupt) in which Trump assisted “for a price”. This makes more sense. It was an inside job, Rodriguez was conveniently nowhere to be found (maybe in Russia?), this avoids the sticky problem of actually “running the country” (which of course we’re not in the least prepared to do), spares the comparisons to Iraq, likely renders unnecessary US boots on the ground (other than to deal with the inevitable public backlash). Of course, by calling it a law enforcement exercise, I suppose that means that if, say, Denmark decided that threats against Greenland endangered its nation (which they do far more than Maduro threatened ours) they would be legally within their rights to kidnap Tump, Melania, Pence, Rubio, Miller and whichever assorted co-conspirators were in league..
Oh, and when Trump - in his characteristic misogynistic and competitive manner - says Machado does not have “support or respect” he’s of course talking about himself. In that addled brain, all people who are not “enemies of the people” think exactly as he does.
Also Machado got a coveted Nobel Peace Prize. So of course the Jealous Felon has to denigrate her.
Despite her somewhat bizarre attempts to flatter him. Perhaps she saw his connections to Rodriguez and hoped to win him over. Someone should have taken her aside and letter her know that flattery without the offer of plunder means nothing to him.
It has become universal knowledge that whenever Trump criticizes someone and labels them with pejoratives, he is actually describing himself
“This is the current posture…,”changing a couple of words in that paragraph, and you pretty much describe the standard operating procedure of this administration. Rube Goldberg’s machines worked better.
Harry Litman has provided a cogent, convincing and, in short, brilliant analysis of this entire Trumpian debacle. If one starts from the basic question about the applicability of international law to what amounts to an extra-territorial arrest pursuant to a U.S. indictment, and then also considers the improbable explanations for surrounding events, starting with Trump's insistence for months that the murderous blowing up of numerous small motor boats and their occupants was to address alleged trafficking of fentanyl to the U.S. by a Venezuelan cartel tied to the Maduro regime, a healthy skepticism about what's going on is warranted. Then add in a growing suspicion that seizure of "the oil" for American producers is nothing more than Trump's fever dream contradicted by facts in/on the ground -- like the undesirability of this type of oil for U.S. producers, and the allegation, which General Barry McCaffrey made yesterday, that there are several thousand Venezuelan admirals and generals who make a lot of money from drug trafficking and selling Venezuelan oil to China, which is delivered via a ghost fleet, i.e., people who are not simply going to cede that resource to U.S. interlopers, and suddenly one's focus shifts and it becomes obvious that Trump's gloating about the success of the Venezuelan attack/arrest and his announcement that the U.S. will "run the country" require further investigation and inquiry into possible true purposes and what is now possible or likely.
With this process of discovery/analysis in mind, I would add one further "what if" to the mix -- not mine but one that Lawrence O'Donnell posited last evening on his MS Now program. What if this is not about Venezuela at all but instead a trial run for the ultimate target: Cuba? As Lawrence pointed out, there is a large Cuban diaspora in the United States (primarily Florida), which originally including both voluntary immigrants from Cuba during the Batista years who could not return following the Cuban Revolution in 1959 that brought Fidel Castro to power, and other Cubans who joined them on American soil when they successfully fled Cuba for their own safety after the failure, in 1961, of the U.S. Bay of Pigs invasion and the cementing of Cuba's relationship with the Soviet Union. For these Cuban-Americans, "the dream [of returning to live in the Cuba they loved] has never died." Trump has pointed to Marco Rubio as the guy who might be tapped to run Venzuela, but the country Rubio surely wants to run, based on his own proud Cuban heritage -- the place where a regime change has been contemplated for decades by various foreign powers -- is Cuba. The decades-old link between Cuba and Venezuela is well known, as Venezuelan leaders, Hugo Chavez (until his death in 2013) and then Nicolas Maduro, have propped up the Cuban economy and improved the lives of individuals by providing a food supply and subsidizing physicians and hospitals, but at the same time curtailed basic freedoms of communication and movement for Cuban residents. Effectively Venezuela has treated Cuba as a colony for several decades.
So what if extricating Maduro with an out-of-scale strike force was part of a trial run for a full-scale, well-rehearsed take-over of Cuba soon to follow? What if Trump's bellicose talk of seizing Greenland and other lands, with reference to a badly misunderstood Monroe Doctrine from 1823, is a deliberate feint? Under conditions rife with uncertainty, improbability and Trump's history of lying about everything, it's worth using our peripheral vision here and remaining vigilant.
"Venezuela, the United States, and the broader international community would all be better off with a genuinely democratic government in Caracas." None of that matters in the slightest to trump and his cronies and donors. What they can make in the short term is all that matters. The world--be damned.
Excellent clarification of this rotten regimes attempts to control another country’s resources. I’d just add that in the bigger picture, the OT (well for sure his handlers) Putin, and Xi, see the world in three parts to rule. Between oil company’s big money insert to win the election and the regime’s sheer incompetence, they headed in willy nilly to get that started. Why else would there be threats to Greenland, Mexico, and Cuba tied to this one kidnapping?