"Donald Trump is lashing out abroad because he is weak at home. Hounded by a failing economy and unable to shake Epstein, Trump has reverted to a tried-and-tested playbook: a foreign war meant to rally patriotic support for a floundering presidency."

~ Andrew Wilson

#Trump #Venezuela #Greenland #Epstein #ApprovalRating
/1

https://www.lincolnsquare.media/p/trumps-foreign-gambit-and-domestic

Trump’s Foreign Policy Gambit and Domestic Polling Collapse

Just 33% of Americans approve of the intervention in Venezuela—putting it in late Vietnam War territory.

Lincoln Square

"While it might seem too early to say how Americans view the intervention, it appears to have monumentally backfired. A Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted January 4–5 found that just 33% of Americans approve of the intervention. That figure is only slightly higher than approval of the Vietnam War in 1973, as U.S. troops were withdrawing from the country."

~ Andrew Wilson

#Trump #Venezuela #Greenland #Epstein #ApprovalRating
/2

"Heading into the fifth anniversary of January 6, there was pressure mounting on Donald Trump, including from Jack Smith’s recent testimony on Capitol Hill and DOJ’s failure to release the full Epstein files. Given that context, we’re forced to consider whether Trump’s attack on Venezuela is, at least in part, intended as a distraction."

~ Joyce Vance

#Trump #Venezuela #Greenland #Epstein #ApprovalRating
/3

https://joycevance.substack.com/p/the-sunday-morning-wrap-up-e9e

The Sunday Morning Wrap-Up

Every week seems to feel like the worst week yet, but this one was truly unsettling, marked by the horrific shooting death of Renee Good in Minneapolis by an ICE agent.

Civil Discourse with Joyce Vance

"When Trump asked ExxonMobil’s CEO Darren Woods [on Friday] how long it would take Exxon to restart operations there, Woods called Venezuela 'uninvestable,' suggesting it wasn’t a matter of Trump just snapping his fingers. First, 'significant changes have to be made.'”

~ Sabrina Haake

#Trump #Venezuela #oil #BigOil #EconomicElites #Exxon
/4

https://sabrinahaake.substack.com/p/big-oil-is-big-skeptical-about-trumps

Big Oil is Big Skeptical about Venezuela

Photo of Friday’s meeting from Rep.

The Haake Take

"Woods told Trump bluntly that, 'There are a number of legal and commercial frameworks that would have to be established to even understand what kind of returns we would get on the investment.'

To a failed businessman selling himself as a savvy one, that assessment must have come as a shock."

#Trump #Venezuela #oil #BigOil #EconomicElites #Exxon
/5

"After violating international law, mocking in particular the UN Charter that has kept WWIII at bay for 80 years, Trump gave U.S. oil executives their marching orders: they must rebuild Venezuela’s fossil fuel industry.

But after bankrupting six businesses, killing small companies with illogical tariffs, and closing one failed business after another, Trump’s hyped business acumen is thin."

#Trump #Venezuela #oil #BigOil #EconomicElites
/6

"As Friday’s meeting made embarrassingly clear, Trump has no clue what it will take to rebuild Venezuela’s rusted out oil infrastructure. ...

Given that the rule of law under Trump is already on life support, businesses are taking a wait and see approach, even here. Trump commanding his donors to rebuild Venezuela’s oil industry under these facts while he 'runs' the country sounds like delusional gibberish.

#Trump #Venezuela #oil #BigOil #EconomicElites
/7

"Stephen Miller, the White House deputy chief of staff, asserted Monday that Greenland 'rightfully' belongs to the United States and suggested the Trump administration could seize the semiautonomous Danish territory if it chose to."

~ Brian Daitzman

#Trump #StephenMiller #Venezuela #Greenland #Epstein #ApprovalRating
/8

https://www.lincolnsquare.media/p/stephen-miller-says-us-could-take

Stephen Miller Says U.S. Could Take Greenland, Casting Doubt over Value of U.S. Treaties

The White House deputy chief of staff declined to rule out force in Greenland and said the U.S. is “running” Venezuela after Maduro’s capture, drawing allied and U.N. warnings.

Lincoln Square

"In a CNN interview with Jake Tapper, Miller declined to rule out using military force after repeated questioning. 'Nobody’s going to fight the United States militarily over the future of Greenland,' he said.

Miller framed the dispute as a question of power, not treaty restraint."

#Trump #StephenMiller #Venezuela #Greenland #Epstein #ApprovalRating
/9

Republican Senator Thom Tillis of North Carolina responds to Stephen Miller's statements about the US "taking" Greenland:

"I'm sick of stupid."

Thanks, Sen. Tillis. A whole lot of us are sick of stupid right along with you. The nation is awash in it right now — and when your party starts acknowledging its responsibility for bringing us to this point, we'll listen.

Thanks to Peter Brown for sharing this.

#Trump #StephenMiller #Venezuela #Greenland #Epstein
/10

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sf9_KLRTzGs

'I'm sick of stupid': GOP Sen. Thom Tillis slams Stephen Miller's comments on Greenland

YouTube

"It is the NATO alliance that enables the American presence on Greenland, and it is the NATO alliance that the United States threatens when it threatens its ally Denmark. So long as the United States and Denmark are promised to defend one another from attack, Greenland is defended by both of them, and indeed by all of the other NATO allies."

~ Timothy Snyder

#Trump #StephenMiller #Venezuela #Greenland #Epstein #NATO
/11

https://snyder.substack.com/p/the-mad-stamp-collector

The Mad Stamp Collector

Our Foreign Policy as Fable

Thinking about...

"If the NATO alliance ceases to exist, then Greenland immediately becomes much less secure -- and, for that matter, so does every other member of the alliance, including the United States. Nothing could strengthen Russia and China more than the end of NATO."

#Trump #StephenMiller #Venezuela #Greenland #Epstein #NATO
/12

"It’s clear [Trump] thinks [MAGA] fully back the rapacious nature of his mission.

That says something grim about Trump’s view of his own supporters. He thinks they are just as corrupt, amoral, indifferent to the fate of those killed by our military, and eager to pillage weaker countries for the spoils of conquest as he is."

~ Greg Sargent

#Trump #StephenMiller #Venezuela #Greenland #Epstein
/13

https://newrepublic.com/article/204959/trump-venezuela-plan-maga-voters

Trump Blurts Out Dark Truth About Venezuela Plan—and About MAGA Voters

To some critics, it’s about plunder. To others, it’s about hemispheric hegemony. Actually, it’s about both.

The New Republic
@wdlindsy He thinks that he's trained them to obey without listening, to repeat without understanding context or purpose. Which is true.
@wdlindsy Except the MAGAts will be the ones sent off to die in foreign wars. He sees them as cannon fodder.
@wdlindsy
Regarding Trump’s laughable (if only it were so) justification for invading Venezuela, the New Republic writer writes: “It all smacks of the schoolyard bully sneering, ‘What did you say about my mother?’ to a hapless smaller kid who actually said nothing, then citing this invented insult as justification for forcibly taking his lunch money.”

@Hippasus500 @wdlindsy

Tod Aflin says it's similar to a creepy maladjusted school bully taking lunches for months, then sniveling to the principal about "everyone hates me!"

Ostracism & social containment of inappropriate & evil conduct is a normal human response.

The consequence-free thinking of Trump, Stephen Miller, and their patron billionaires is truly strange.

Their conduct is cancerous & cannot be permitted to spread.

@wdlindsy Well, I guess we get the picture as to Comrade Krasnov's reasons.

@wdlindsy

The only conclusion possible is that Trump is a Russian agent, whether heqq knows it or not.

@wdlindsy

Its about
●EGO
(I can so i will)

●GEO POLITICS
(America will be the biggest land mass in the world especially when we take Canada too)

●MINERALS
(We're gonna thieve what you've got)

@wdlindsy BABA ( BUY ANYTHING BUT AMERICAN)
@wdlindsy It would be nice if Tillis finally got religion but many of us here in NC are skeptical. I agree it's good he’s countering Miller though.
@heafnerj Yes, I had a phone conversation today with a friend in Charlotte about that very thing. He said essentially what you've said.
@wdlindsy yes please. Please listen here to a senator from GOP with his brain and integrity still in place.