The Latest Trump Pendejada: the Invasion of Venezuela
Still smirking from his vile operation to invade a sovereign country and kidnap its president.
We’re gonna run Venezuela. That’s the word from the pathological liar, thief and crook who continues to bamboozle this country and sits in the White House. The Pendejo-in-Chief is still smirking from his vile operation to invade a sovereign country and kidnap its president. (And his wife, to boot.) A spineless Congress acquiesces. A U.S. public stares, jaw-dropped at the news on its smart phones or in the (quickly vanishing) newspapers. What a world! Since Trump asserted himself as the central force in the political and cultural realm of this country, I have jettisoned the word “unbelievable” from my personal lexicon. The word doesn’t come close to describing what this guy has done and what he’s capable of. It’s all too believable.
We, the public, are stunned, shocked and certainly angered and disappointed by what he does. But “unbelievable”? Not anymore. We have lost the capability to be surprised. Writer Jayne Mayer suggested that it’s increasingly difficult for a reasonable person to adequately respond to Trump’s reckless, harebrained words and deeds because, “it’s hard to be so angry all the time.” Yeah, we’re collectively worn out by his nonstop, dangerous, insane shit. But we have to embrace that anger, to keep deciphering his actions and to keep at the task of countering that tonteria
It’s difficult to rank, in order, the pernicious actions of the tapado on Pennsylvania Avenue. Pardoning 1,500 violent rioters who essentially tried to overthrow the U.S. government. Crushing universities and Big Time law firms in order to get them to do his bidding. Unleashing the military and national guard on immigrants and individuals exercising their rights to free speech in the nation’s cities. Gutting medical research and healthcare in general. Eliminating government support for public media. Shamelessly renaming venerable institutions in is name. Continuing to lie about just everything of substance. Using every means available to justify his bullshit assertion than an election was “stolen” from him. And the list goes on. But this latest criminal act – the invasion of Venezuela—surely ranks at the top of that nefarious list. And it doesn’t take an international scholar/historian/political strategist to know that this invasion was fundamentally about Venezuela’s oil. U.S. petroleum companies muscled their way into Venezuela decades ago. Most of them were eventually pushed out when the country more or less nationalized the petroleum industry. (Chevron maintains a foothold there.) This all fits with Trump’s ignorant and misguided desires regarding the extracting of fossil fuels.
He absurdly continues to claim that global warming/climate change is some kind of weird “hoax” created by the Chinese and perpetrated by wacky left-wing tree huggers. He rails against clean energy endeavors, such as wind and solar power. What an idiot! It’s not a giant leap to guess that he hopes to profit personally from the oil revenues that may come this way from Venezuela. It’s revealing that, according Trump’s own telling, he didn’t contact Congressional leaders about the impending actions in Venezuela, but he did contact the heads of U.S. petroleum companies. Trump trumpeted to Republican Congressmembers in a dunderheaded, meandering speech Monday that, “I don’t want money; I have plenty of money.” Yeah, explain your pocket-enriching associations with Saudi Arabian dictators.
This invasion was fundamentally about Venezuela’s oil.
It’s no surprise that he is the Fabricator-in-Chief. As Groucho Marx intoned in a movie once, “Who are you gonna believe, me or your own two eyes?” Trump is, among many other things, an emperor with no clothes. An emperor who hopes and believes the American people don’t see what’s in front of them. Writer Susan Glasser puts it succinctly: “And so, Trump sits in the White House, largely unchecked, live-streaming his manic attack on the Deep State for hours a day, an archetypal made emperor whose courtiers will keep praising him no matter how fat, ugly or naked he turns out to be.” It’s still hard for me to fathom how so many people in this country seem to be blind to his avarice and corruption.
So, what’s next in this fiasco of a telenovela from Bizarro world? Well, the debates about who will actually “run” Venezuela continue. Expect a theatrical circus that’s part Marx Brothers and The Three Stooges. (Does the aftermath of the Iraq invasion right a bell?) Who knows what the next episode will look like. It’s a sure bet that it won’t be good for the people of Venezuela or (for other myriads reasons, the people of the United States). Hey, is Greenland next? That’s the word from Trump and the Sycophant-in-Chief Stephen Miller. (Boy is that tapado a nefarious piece of work. Read Jean Guerrero’s book about him.) Hey, I don’t pretend to be an international affairs scholar, but my money is on a different sovereign country when it comes to Trumpudo hegemonic actions. Cuba: be wary and be very careful. Surely, you remember the Bay of Pigs fiasco.
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Luis Torres is a veteran journalist and author. He lives in Pasadena, California.