"HELL IS EMPTY, ALL THE DEVILS ARE HERE!" - Shakespeare, "The Tempest"

“In times of moral crisis, the decision to resist evil must be made individually.” - Dietrich Bonhoeffer

As James Fallows put it Saturday morning: “Trump’s latest move constitutes an emergency, and demands emergency response.”

An overnight poll shows that 70% of Americans oppose Malregime II’s military action in Venezuela.

Want to know why the shithole country America has become is such a shithole country, and why Trump is in the Gold House? A recent study from the University of Florida and University College London found that the number of Americans who engage in daily reading for pleasure fell 3 percent each year from 2003 to 2023. And the situation in 2003 seemed bad. In 2023, just 14 percent of 13-year-olds read for fun almost every day, down from 27 percent 10 years ago. A growing share of high-school and even college students struggle to read a book cover to cover. Illiteracy is a bad thing in a democracy.

In a telephone interview this morning, Trump issued a not-so-veiled threat against the new Venezuelan leader, Delcy Rodríguez, saying that “if she doesn’t do what’s right, she is going to pay a very big price, probably bigger than Maduro.” He said that he would not stand for what he described as Rodríguez’s defiant rejection of the armed U.S. intervention. Discussing Venezuela’s future, he signaled a clear shift away from his previous distaste for regime change and nation building, rejecting the concerns of many in his MAGA base. “You know, rebuilding there and regime change, anything you want to call it, is better than what you have right now. Can’t get any worse,” he said. Well, of course, Venezuela has the oil he and his fellow billionaire traitors want to steal. In a speech in December 2016, Trump declared as president-elect that the U.S. will “stop racing to topple foreign regimes we know nothing about.” He also claimed that “We absolutely need Greenland. It’s for defense.”

Corporal Couchfucker got pounded when the little boy went on X this morning to explain the administration’s attack on Venezuela is a mission to stop fentanyl trafficking, considering the controversial drug doesn’t flow from there. “First off, fentanyl isn’t the only drug in the world and there is still fentanyl coming from Venezuela (or at least there was),” he claimed, adding, “Cocaine is bad too!”

Yesterday, congressman Ro Khanna posted on Bluesky: “The silence from many media-hyped 2028 contenders today is shocking. If you cannot oppose this regime change war for oil, you don’t have the moral clarity or guts to lead our party or nation.”

Protests were held throughout Saturday in major cities including New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, Boston, Philadelphia, Seattle, and Washington, D.C., as well as dozens of smaller communities across the country. Additional demonstrations are planned for Sunday in cities including Detroit, Austin, Nashville, and New Orleans. If anyone has information on these events, please post in the Comments.

Surprise, surprise (not): Last night, Sundowning Grampa took to Lies Anti-Social to share macho meme videos, celebratory news clips, and fawning praise of himself. Spewing 40 posts an hour from the Golden Throne in the midst of yet another Adderall overdose, he also attacked archrival Gavin Newsom, reshared old claims that the 2020 election was “stolen” from him, and heaped praise on Nick Shirley for his bullshit video alleging welfare fraud at Somali day-care centers in Minnesota. He also spewed a congratulatory post from MAGA lunatic Laura Loomer: “Idk what it is but Trump just makes me feel so pumped to be an American. He makes it very exciting to be an American!” He then pivoted to what appears to be an artificially generated clip of himself warning the Nigerian government that the U.S. will come in “guns blazing” unless they “stop the killing of Christians.”

Rabid Dilbert supporter Elmo Muck shared a video late Saturday of what appears to be Venezuelans “crying on their knees thanking Trump” for his hostile takeover of Venezuela, but critics were quick to point out that Musk (as did many other prominent MAGA figures)had fallen for a “transparently fake” video. The video was generated with AI, which was supported by X’s own crowd-based fact-checking service known as “Community Notes.” Despite numerous MAGA influencers’ online posts, there is no evidence of widespread celebrations in Venezuela.

The last time Trump wanted to seize oil to pay for a war against ISIS, his team blocked it because such actions would be illegal. This time, his team of kowtowing incompetent sycophants are going along with what will come to be seen as one of the largest acts of theft in modern history. Again, there is plenty of precedent: Europeans stealing the Americas from indigenous peoples; colonial thefts like those of the British in India or Europeans in Africa; the overthrow of Mossadegh in Iran by the U.S. in 1953 for his crime of kicking British Petrleum out of the country - all are notable, massive, criminal expropriations... among many others. As before, just as in the Second Iraq War, Team Trump clearly has no idea what to do next.

The Republican Petro-Imperialists are out and about: everyone’s favorite Uptight Asshole Who Would Have Been Fragged In Vietnam - Tom Cotton - says that any new leadership in Venezuela would be required “to meet our demands”. “When the president said the United States is going to be running Venezuela, it means that the new leaders of Venezuela need to meet our demands,” Cotton told CNN’s Dana Bash on “State of the Union.” “Our demands are now what they were before yesterday, that we want them to stop the drug trafficking, we want them to stop the weapons trafficking. We want them to expel the Cubans and the Iranians and the Islamic radicals, and we want them to return to the civilized world.” Trump’s most excited cheerleaders included the Florida Republican delegation. Among the most prominent of these GOP lawmakers is Rep. Brian Mast, chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. He welcomed Trump’s operation as “another win” by the administration to “protect our homeland and clean up the backyard of the United States.” As chairman, Mast holds jurisdiction over declaring war and deployment of U.S. armed forces. And he is why you will not see the House pass the War Powers Act declaration pushed by Senate Democrats. Trump’s allies in the GOP competed to offer praise to the president and denounce critics. Senator “Miz Linzey” Graham called the capture of Maduro “an amazing achievement” and took aim at Democratic critics as “pathetically weak and hand wringing” for opposing or criticizing Trump’s intervention in separate posts online.

I’m soooo surprised (not): Spineless Secretary of State Marco Rubio believes it is too early to discuss holding elections in Venezuela. “All of that, I think, is premature at this point. There’s a lot of work to be done here,” Rubio told Kristen Welker on “Press the Meat.” “Ultimately, above everything else, we care about elections, we care about democracy, we care about all of that. But the number one thing we care about is the safety, security, well-being and prosperity of the United States. And that’s what we’re going to focus on first and foremost here.” He also said the U.S. will continue its targeting of alleged drug-trafficking boats, if needed.

The United Nations Security Council is scheduled to meet Monday following U.S. military action that deposed Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro. Colombia - with backing from Russia and China - requested the emergency session of the 15-member council, according to Reuters. Clio reaches for her third Old Overcoat and chugs the bottle.

Malregime II has told oil companies they must rebuild Venezuela’s crude-pumping infrastructure if they want compensation for assets seized by Caracas. But people in the industry said the message has left them still leery about the difficulty of rebuilding decayed oil fields in a country where it’s not even clear who will lead the country for the foreseeable future.

Saturday January 3 was the day the DOJ was to present a report to Congress about why it had made the redactions it did in the Epstein Files. Perhaps a coincidence that Dilbert played “Look! A Shiny Object!” the same day? Ro Khanna and Thomas Massie aren’t buying coincidence and have announced Saturday night that they are bringing “Inherent Contempt” charges against Pam Bondi in the House tomorrow. A statement from Democratic lawmakers on the House Oversight Committeestated: “We are sure it’s just a coincidence, but today is the statutory date for the DOJ to explain its redactions in the Epstein file productions. We have not forgotten, and we won’t let up – regardless of the President’s new unconstitutional actions.” You know there has to be the kind of shit that destroys careers and livelihoods - particularly those of Donald J. Trump in those files, for him to be so desperate to get a new Shiny Object - illegal unconstitutional war - to distract us from them. Nothing else he’s tried has worked and this won’t either.

The last word goes to Senator Bernie Sanders: “Trump’s attack on Venezuela will not make the United States and the world safer. Quite the contrary. This brazen violation of international law gives a green light to any nation on earth that may wish to attack another country to seize their resources or change their governments. This is rank imperialism. It recalls the darkest chapters of U.S. interventions in Latin America, which have left a terrible legacy.”

You are not the crazy ones. These are the times that try men’s (and women’s) souls. This is the fight of our lifetimes, and the challenge of our generation. I realize times are getting harder, which is why some readers understandably didn’t renew their subscriptions. If you happen to be in a position to help make up the gap, please consider joining the other paid subscribers here at That’s Another Fine Mess to keep things going. It’s only 21 cents a day. I am deeply thankful to those who have done so.

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