Inasmuch as the leadership of my country has just launched an attack on Venezuela, and extracted their leadership (I am using the least-laden words I can, as I have not had the time to understand the legalities and import of what the USA just did to Maduro and therefore my only reactions are emotional and change every 12 minutes), I find I cannot post this morning.
Call your reps and tell them how you feel. If you know how you feel yet, that is. Also feel free to vent below, if that’s helpful to you. We are a community, after all.
See you next week.
32 Responses
Oh my stomach is in knots. Truly I never imagined an administration of this country to be so corrupt and cruel … and we’ll, I’ll say it … evil. And I’m equally outraged that our congress remains silent. I’ve been on this earth for 67 years and I’m saddened that this home I love so dearly is being diminished by a person so unworthy. Sorry. I did need to vent … thank you for allowing me this space to do so. And yes. I’ve called my reps.
You said it all so well, Beth. I feel so sick and sad. Thank you so much for calling.
How to love a country that is so tarnished now, I agree. But love I do. Thank you so much for calling your reps.
I’m beyond words too, and absolutely horrified.
How many of them have called us crazy over the past two years for believing that things like this are what he wants to do?
When so much comes so fast, it’s hard to even gather our thoughts to do what we can to protest any of it, isn’t it? That’s always part of the plan for dictators. Thank you to everyone who is calling and writing today.
Oh Jess, it’s just so horrifying.
“When so much comes so fast, it’s hard to even gather our thoughts to do what we can to protest any of it, isn’t it? That’s always part of the plan for dictators.” Thank you for reminding me of this. It’s called “flooding the zone,” right?
We were not crazy, sadly.
I’m thinking that he now believes he’s matched Putin with Ukraine. Where’s a Frank Church when we need him? Not going to end well.
The only good outcome I can think of is that their incompetence swamps them and they either have to give up in shame or this takes up all their focus/desire for force and we can sweep the midterms without a big fight.
Putin, feel free to extract Trump. And please keep him.
Yes, please. Or if Venezuela would like to return the favor? No returns.
Ha! I doubt anyone wants him;).
Appalling.
Solidarity.
I’m aghast too. Just how do we wrench our beloved country back from this terrible man and his cabal of ideologues? Near reports on the Venezuela attack the NYTimes had an item: “A Diminished Congress Weighs Whether to Reassert Its Power”. WHETHER? The abdication by Congress is appalling, with so many members who prioritize fear about their own re-election over all principles. In my mid 70’s, I hope I live long enough to see America restored to our good values. The project of doing that gets bigger and bigger, and more and more necessary.
Whether, indeed. I think it’s possible that what we were doing before this was beginning to work. Protests, growing larger and larger. Polls showing Trump’s approval dropping week by week. Midterms coming up; Republicans retiring. Nothing’s guaranteed, but once Congress sees they might lose their jobs, they will bit by bit show some spirit. Or so I think, optimistically. It’s going to take so much work, and people are tired, but it can be done.
Restoring America to a trajectory in which the dream can be realized, that will take a long time. I’ve heard people refer to it as a Second Restoration.
Not being American, and looking from afar … I continue to wonder – where is the opposition to Trump? Are any Democrats speaking out? I read a lot of USA news and I don’t see much, a little of Newsome and Saunders. Why is there not a concentrated targeted Democrat response?
Journalist Aaron Parnas just published a piece titled “A World Destabilized.” 7:45pm ET
I hadn’t been able to find a targeted Democratic response, as you mentioned, or many others speaking out against Trump’s actions.
I kept thinking: “aren’t others extremely disturbed about this dangerous situation?”
Lisa’s blog and all the responses made me feel like there are others who are concerned.
Aaron Parnas is a highly respected journalist. His reports can be found on Substack and Instagram.
Democrats are speaking out. But our political system doesn’t give us a shadow leader across all branches of government, nor a unified opposition across 3000 miles from LA to NYC. So it’s been much harder to ramp up opposition. We also have institutionalist at the head of our congressional Democrats, and they don’t give speeches that the press likes to quote. Which brings us to the press, and their need for clicks, so Trump and his cabal are almost always more interesting than support for standard American norms.
However, we’re seeing more. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jan/04/democrats-trump-white-house-venezuela
Aghast is the perfect word to describe Trump’s actions in Venezuela.
I’m still aghast hours later, and even more so with facts about the illegality and breach of ethics.
Aghast – there are no immediate actions on the part of Congress.
Trump needs to be arrested and removed from office. Will he be held accountable? This is extremely concerning.
We cannot arrest him, due to the Supreme Court. We cannot impeach him, due to Republican control of Congress. Someone with standing might sue him in civil court, so we will see. The midterms and protests really are our best hope for now. And calling our reps to be heard. Their staff will listen, and your opinion will be registered.
This is very serious and will be felt for generations in Venezuela. And yet there’s a part of me that can’t help thinking: this feels like a bully who didn’t get the Christmas presents he wanted and is taking it out on other kids. It also has the shape of a classic wag-the-dog maneuver, a way to pull attention away from Epstein and his clear involvement.
I gave myself a day to focus on sustaining things before turning to this now and reading up. We’re going to need faith and strength as we move through 2026.
It does feel like wagging the dog. Epstein, the No Kings protests, and even Marjorie Taylor Greene speaking up. I am very glad you gave yourself the day. It’s going to be a slog, and many will give up, and new people should join in and those who can stick it out have to take care of themselves.
Epstein Epstein Epstein – he’ll do anything to distract us. We need to make sure that come November we elect a Congress that will actually do something.
I agree!
Maduro was a dictator who refused to accept that he lost the 2024 presidential election. His authoritarian regime, supported by the Cuban secret services, has oppressed and silenced dissidents through imprisonment, torture, and murder. He has driven 8 million Venezuelans — one third of the country’s population — into exile.
I am a progressive, under no illusions regarding the reasons why Trump did this and that preserving democracy has nothing to do with it. I am also concerned about the consequences for international law and setting a precedent for countries wishing to consolidate their sphere of influence, like China with Taiwan and Russia with Ukraine.
But Maduro was a murderous dictator, and all my Venezuelans friend in exile are exultant. That too should be borne in mind.
If the ICC had, over the weekend, done a similar operation and yoinked Trump and all others in the US who have publicly boasted about international crimes, and if they had immediately set fast plans for legitimate elections going, I’d be partly delighted while also worried about instability and international precedent and such.
If Putin yoinked Trump and co and locked him up in a dungeon… well, honestly, there would still be some temporary relief! Trump has been a continual source of stress and misery and illegal actions and uncertainty and economic instability! He has killed a bunch of people! Locked up and “lost” a bunch! Others have needed to flee! But “okay now we have a *different* murderous propaganda-and-torture dictator deciding what happens to us” would be… less of a relief, and there would be outrage at another country’s impingement on US autonomy and concern as to what would happen next and wild uncertainty: which of our country’s assets are going to vanish and which corrupt and incompetent people who don’t understand how anything works are going to be established over us in governance and what new norms are going to be broken…
Basically, Maduro can be AWFUL and some Venezuelans can be very relieved and excited in the short term because he has finally been taken down… and that doesn’t change the fact that 1. it’s breaking international norms that are very important for world stability, 2. it’ll increase nuclear proliferation and other seriously bad things, 3. it’s absolutely wrong for the US to do (and even worse for Trump to do without any congressional authorization, and while even pro-Trump Republicans are polling against it), and 4. it’ll probably be bad for Venezuela as well (as many coups are, tbh; it is relatively rare to have a non-legal removal of a leader and end up with a *good* leader out of it; you may administer poetic justice to a bad leader, and that may be momentarily satisfying, but it usually comes out poorly on the whole).
So yes, party in the streets for now for some people because someone who thoroughly earned bad outcomes got bad outcomes! Which is fair for them to do! But Venezuela is not going to have *good* outcomes from this.
And it’s still REALLY REALLY BAD for everyone else (other than Putin and possibly China) as well, esp. since the US did not do it for beneficent reasons and unless there is a *major* punishing-Trump backlash within the US, Trump will likely repeat the “abduct legitimate ruler” playbook against any other country who dares to oppose his whims (at least countries without nuclear arms; it’s less clear whether he’d hit nuclear-armed countries this way). And China and Russia can point and say “look, that was okay, what we want to do is okay too” and that’s not great for anyone, really.
Extremely well said, KC.
Thank you, KC, for such a thoughtful comment.
AA, I believe we can hold these two ideas in mind at once. We have to, right? I propose that it’s an And situation rather than But.
The US has spent more than 125 years trying to change governments in Latin America. Each time has been a failure that cost our country lives, resources, repute and domestic chaos. One nation cannot “rebuild” another, and that is especially true when the purpose is greed. This will be another failure that will damage both countries and their residents. As a Floridian I can also say that Sec Rubio is a weak reed that bends to whatever our president wants. He will provide no leadership. All this is so terribly sad.
It is so terribly sad. I still remember how ecstatic I was the day of Obama’s inauguration. It felt like we were getting so much closer to being the country our myths say we can be. And now here we are. And history has proved your statement so true: “The US has spent more than 125 years trying to change governments in Latin America. Each time has been a failure that cost our country lives, resources, repute and domestic chaos. One nation cannot “rebuild” another, and that is especially true when the purpose is greed.”
In his words: “I’m the President of the United States, I can do anything I want,” and in speaking [down] to the Governor of Maine, “I AM the law.”
If there’s a seat left on the “aghast and silenced” bench, scoot over so I can join you. My fear is it’s all just going to get worse. My hope is that somewhere behind the scenes, a counter faction is forming.