The hypocrisy of the Democrats on Maduro

David - Maduro is an indicted drug baron and was not even a legitimate president of Venezuela. To compare snatching him from his bed with Trump's controversial overtures with respect to Canada, Greenland and Denmark is over the top. I disagree with Trump on those issues. Maduro, and by proxy, China, Russia, Iron and their lackies, was a serious threat to our nation. The way Trump is carefully handling this sticky issue and has managed thus far to avoid a civil war in that country while most of the Venezuelan expats are ecstatic. In your opinion, they don't matter, do they?

Dirk, you know better than that. You yourself turned sour on Cheney and this is Cheney 2.0.

If this is about drugs (or weapons of mass destruction), why release the Ex-president of Honduras who was already convicted of smuggling 400t of them into this country. If drugs were the issue, that Honduras guy and his brother would be sitting in US prison.

If this was about ONE bad head of state of some "shithole country" ... Trump made clear he does not care much for these people anyways. He doesn't even care about his own people. He was totally fine with a Saudi prince chopping up a US journalist.

This is the Dick Cheney playbook: trouble at home, start a war.

This is about Approval Ratings, this is about lowering GASOLINE prices (fracking is too expensive), this is about lowering energy cost (coal, nuclear are too expensive), this is about the next election, this is about the Epstein files. This is Wag-The-Dog.

But here is the problem: "you break it, you own it". So now what?

Dirk, perhaps I did not make myself clear. I agreed firstly with most of the points made by John Marty in his letter. I never said that I have any sympathy for Maduro and agree with all of the points you repeated about how bad he and his cohorts were/are.

However, what I am trying to say is that Trump in his second administration has had a pattern of bullying countries in the Western Hemisphere, and this latest successful raid into Venezuela seems to be amping him up for more, not less, of this behavior. He immediately followed it up with threats against Columbia, Mexico, Cuba, and Greenland while also talking about a gigantic increase in U.S. military spending.

Whether he is handling this masterfully or not remains to be seen.

Trump also seems to be enamored of U.S. power during the McKinley and Teddy Roosevelt administrations, but seems to forget that the worldwide, big power, “might is right” gunboat diplomacy of those days (and I am talking mainly about the race between European powers now - the US at the time was just coming onto the scene) led the world to World War I. The botched settlement of that war then led to WWII.

I think that Trump is playing with fire when he thinks that he can get away with doing whatever he wants in this hemisphere without this behavior impacting events in Europe and Asia. Stephen Miller’s statements to Jake Tapper the other night also give an indication of how blatant this hegemonic policy is becoming in the Trump administration. Events like these risk turning our country into a predator nation in the eyes of the world instead of a guardian of democracy. If the 50% “War” department budget increase is because Trump realizes that he will need even more force to try to deter wars on all three fronts (the “Donroe” front, Europe, & Asia), then one immediately understands why one has not seen much of J.D. Vance lately who has been a proponent of keeping the U.S. out of “forever wars.” Even wacky Marjorie Taylor Greene is concerned.

It is not “over the top” to mention Maduro in connection to the above because, although he was clearly a bad guy and many Venezuelans and others in Latin America are rejoicing that he is gone, the initial success of this operation may likely lead to other, much more significant, problems down the road. It is too early for the Trump side to celebrate anything other than the successful completion of the raid. Kudos are due for the military prowess displayed, but the prospect clearly remains that this success might lead to overplaying one’s hand, and Trump’s subsequent threats are already bringing major condemnation from several of our allies. Only a short while after posting my previous comment, I also read that we had seized a Russian-flagged oil tanker en route from the Caribbean and going past Iceland… Unfortunately I just don’t share that sense of Trump’s infallibility that many of the MAGA people take as the gospel truth.

“Isn't it perhaps because they don't have valid counter points?” Yes, Dirk, very true!!! Hey DavidKristofferson (if that’s who you really are), emotional outbursts and rampant hypocrisy are not valid counter points. Leftists don’t want to waste their time arguing because they know their arguments are built on houses of cards. As this and other “Usual Suspects” have exposed, time and time again. People do have more important things to do, like control their Trump Derangement Syndrome and focus on facts instead of furry and inflatable costume loitering parties known as No Kings. That’s all the responses for now. I’ll see you again in a few months after your hibernation is over – probably in a similar context…I will undoubtedly have the last word because you’re unable to defend your stances. Have a Trump-tastic day! BTW, what happened to your complaints about meeting me in person or folks using pseudonyms? No longer pet peeves? Or maybe you’re saving for next time?

Dirk, isn’t it “cute” how some fanatics keep begging for attention by inserting themself into every conversation? When such a fanatic claims (with monotonously predictable regularity) that other people support positions which they don’t and never have, said person should not be surprised when they are ignored. Why waste time trying to have a conversation with someone who is only interested in scoring debating points for their “infallible” side by any means possible?