Venezuela

/5 Comments/in /by

UPDATE January 4, 2026:  Numerous comments today.  Within the week, I plan to revisit a powerful week in December 2003 in Haiti.  This will be a separate post.  It seems particularly relevant to today, and is my own first person retrospective – my own opinion.  In times like this, the movers of agendas do not provide direct verifiable evidence, so all that is left is an informed guess.  That’s what I’ll offer.  Stay tuned.

*

Probably a good time to become acquainted with Venezuela, a country more than twice the size of California, six times the size of Georgia.  Population of over 31,000,000, roughly one-tenth the population of the United States.

Good idea, too, to get up to speed about Vietnam War era, the Gulf, Iraq and Afghanistan Wars, and other places like Grenada, Iran, Ukraine, Israel-Gaza.  Check out the War Powers Act of 2002 as well.  Review U.S. adventures in Central America in the 1980s;  the U.S. facilitated coup in Haiti in 2004, on and on and on.  Get up to speed on Panama and Greenland.  Don’t sit on the sidelines.   

Here’s a map of the Western Hemisphere.  Venezuela (W on the map) is generally south of Florida, across the way from Cuba….

Here’s the CIA Factbook about Venezuela.

Venezuela from National Geographic World Atlas 7th Edition.

Sunday Jan 4, 2026:  These overnight posts from Joyce Vance and Heather Cox Richardson and Robert Reich are relevant commentary about the Venezuela situation as known.

COMMENTS (more at end of post);

from Brian:  Yes, Venezuela!   I just listened to Trump’s live speech where he talked about our attack there and we took the two leaders (a guy and a woman) away.

As you know I worked for 2 years next door in Colombia.   Also Louisa and I have flown our little Cessna to Venezuela.    Not good to do today.

from Gail: Thanks, Dick.  In case you don’t know, Venezuela is not the source of narcotics sent to the U.S.  The major sources of drugs are Colombia, Ecuador, and Mexico.  The justification for invasion is a lie, as in all wars (see David Swanson’s War is a Lie).  The U.S. has been trying to overthrow Venezuela for decades, ever since that country voted out the descendants of Spanish colonizers who continued in power after Venezuela attained nominal political independence from Spain. The U.S. supported the ‘Comprador class’ rulers because they were easy to control and allowed the U.S. to take a large cut of Venezuela’s oil.  When Hugo Chavez was elected, he nationalized the oil company and used the oil profits to benefit Venezuelan citizens as a whole.  Venezuela has the largest amount of oil in the world – more than Saudi Arabia, although it’s a heavier oil and requires more processing.


from Carol: Monroe Doctrine = Magroe Doctrine, now called the Donroe Doctrine

We’re going to crash the cartels…
The man is a total frickin’ idiot puppet.  All they have to do is wave raw meat in front of him (and mention a Nobel Prize) and he’s on board.  Someone wrote the speech, shoved him out there, and once again told him to not go off script – which is a losing battle.
I was wrong – I told Cliff he was going to get us into a war in Venezuela by Christmas.  What took him so long?
We’re so screwed.


from Carlo:  I am so angry that Trump did that. He does not have the right and it is time Democrats in Congress stopped him.

We need to stop allowing his lies to walk and not acting when he does something This egregious.

from Sue: I’m stunned to learn that Venezuela has more oil reserves than Saudi Arabia. . .  And have we just discovered why Trump thought it was a good idea to explode a few bombs (or whatever) over Nigeria on Christmas Day?


from Fr. Harry: Many thanks Dick. Good information.  [Harry also forwarded an excellent commentary by Emmanuel Charles McCarthy.  This was published Dec. 31, 2025]. When in 2026 the economic elites who control the governments of the U.S, Britain and the EU order Trump to unleash, through the U.S. Military, the CIA, the FBI, etc., the fires of hell on Venezuela, its people, its political institutions, its infrastructure and its economy in order to restore democracy, to stop drugs, to end illegal aliens from entering into the U.S., to preserve the Monroe Doctrine and/or to get rid of the no-good, evil rulers of Venezuela who are sociopaths, murderers, oppressors of their people, just look at the graph here and know the actual reason for this murderous U.S. onslaught.

When the Catholic Bishops of the U.S., once again sit on their hands and remain silent and thereby give implicit consent to Catholic to savage and ravage Venezuela, then all that remains for an individual Catholic man or woman in the military, in the CIA, in the FBI, etc. is to stands as a solitary witness and say, “No” to murder.
Unfortunately, because of explicit decisions by the leaders of the institutional Church, almost no Catholic, young or old, has been catechized to that option. As the powers-that-be in the institutional Church well know, what people are poorly catechized in and/or non-catechized in they cannot even think of choosing. Hence the institutional Church becomes, as it has been for centuries, a significant recruitment tool for the home team’s the military, CIA, FBI, and other black ops groups.
Bishops, why are you allowing yourself to be deceived by the Evil One when it comes to war? Why are you chronically consenting to what you know are  the lies of the Evil One when it comes to war? What in the name of hell are you doing with your lives and with your ministry, and to other human beings, Christian and non-Christian, by being agents of the grand Satanic deception that there is a way to be a faithful disciple of of Jesus and engage in the mass slaughter of war?

From the President’s remarks on Jan. 3, 2026: “We’re not afraid of boots on the ground if we have to have. We had boots on the ground last night at very high level, actually.We want to surround ourselves with good neighbors. We want to surround ourselves with stability. We want to surround ourselves with energy. We have tremendous energy in that country. It’s very important that we protect it. We need that for ourselves.”


from Terry to her large mailing list: Call your representatives to oppose this illegal invasion. Write letters to the editor. Attend protests. Talk with family and friends. Click on this Indivisible link to send a message to Congress. Complain to the Strib – their webpage has the Northstar story as the main online story today!! What else can we do?

Katie Miller, Stephen Miller’s wife, just posted [on X] a map of Greenland with the American flag superimposed on it – with the heading: “SOON.” They have to be stopped, to understand how much opposition there is to war.

 

Heather Cox Richardson gives some background for the invasion – that Trump is feeling cornered – the Epstein files, the Supreme Court ruling against his use of the National Guard, Jack Smith’s powerful testimony that he had the evidence to show Trump was guilty re Jan. 6, his low poll numbers.
In another talk, Richardson discusses how this aligns with Putin’s plan – if the US stays out of Ukraine, Russia will let the US have Venezuela (and Greenland, etc.).  [Dave Troy] The Donroe doctrine.


It’s another step towards authoritarianism here that they lied to Democrat members of Congress, told Senators they weren’t pursuing regime change in Venezuela, and then invaded without any pretence of Congressional approval. [CNN]. This morning Rubio did not deny that Cuba might be next.

from Carole: I did pop down to the White House yesterday, and chatted with others who had done the same. Interestingly, most were more recent immigrants (than I). And, most reflected the perhaps world view that Maduro’s kidnapping was a good thing. But, what about the Constitution? Rule of Law? Such bloody complicated times. No question that the sooner POTUS is replaced the better.

from Darleen: Thanks, Dick.  So much information to absorb but definitely worth sharing.

…in with the new….

/1 Comment/in /by

My understanding is that the 250th birthday of the United States of America is July 4, 2026, in recognition of the signing of the Declaration of Independence July 4, 1776.  The move toward independence began earlier.  More can be read here.

On July 4, 2025 – our 249th birthday, we began our 250th year as a democracy.  We begin our 251st year July 4, 2026.  As of today, January 1, 2026, we are near half way through our 250th year as a country.  Our future as a democracy is by no means assured….

*

I offer a proposal.  The first half of this 250th year has emphasized “retribution”.  I propose that we actively dedicate the second half of this birthday year to “contribution” in the context of working for greater good for all of us, not just some of us.  In other words, to change the conversation from a negative to a positive, one action at a time.

Get actively involved in something related to the common good, something which requires you to go beyond your self-imposed limits.  We are a political society, and politics is every single one of us, regardless of our passion.

My standing definition of US is a bird which, to fly and thus survive, requires all parts to work together.  A right wing cannot function without a left wing, and a head is useless without the rest of the body.  A head cannot by itself function at all.  An individual part, no matter how insignificant it may seem, is important to the rest of the body.  (Today we are afflicted by influencers who may know nothing, but can dispense nothingness virally to millions – it is a dilemma, the only solution is to doubt and reject any glib purveyor of his or her ‘truth’.  We all have the right and the obligation to be discerning consumers.)

*

This year for Christmas I purchased for all of my children and grandchildren the book “Let Them” by Mel Robbins.  I was apprehensive about doing this – why should they care what an old man recommends.  I was astonished how many of them were not only aware of the author and the book, but were enthusiastic about it.  Here’s a little information I provided to the family members about the book. Let Them.  Take a look.

POSTNOTES

If you wish: December 31 I did a year end post,  December 27 I published one entitled “Make do”

One of the old farm postcards from about 1910. The U.S. has grown in many ways since its founding document was signed July 4, 1775

 

I looked for some official position on our countries 250th anniversary, and came across America250.  The google link behind the words is the AI page, which summarizes the controversies already in place about what the year will look like.  I would suggest taking a look at any of the links to perhaps get a bit of clarity on what can be a second revolutionary war.  I have little trust in the balance of position of this official commission.  But I think you might benefit by visiting especially the About pages and the definition of who the leaders of the program are.

COMMENTS (others at end)

from SAK:  Great idea that of contribution instead of retribution & I really liked the bird metaphor.

I am worried that cracks are widening within individual states & between states. It is surprising that humanity seems to be on a downward sloping incline but there has always between a debate about whether human nature is good or bad! Good I say if we can keep it that way. When conflicts start all bets are off though. I had yet another argument about pacifism recently with a deeply religious person who argued against pacifism. I can see that some will want to impose their views on the 250thanniversary celebrations & many of them are not convinced about the virtues of civility or even democracy let alone pacifism! In fact some are calling for a “recall of the 20th century” which would mean we forget about the world wars (and the lessons thereof), the civil rights movement as well as the many liberties that we take for granted.

Perhaps as Theodore Parker wrote: “the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice” but why, dear Lord, does it have to be so long …

Wishing you a wonderful & active 2026, many thanks for the posts & emails throughout the past year.