Depraved, rightwing Social Darwinism, deluded by “survival of the strongest” folly, launches a high-risk, high-cost, problematic, overseas fiasco – like faux patriotism, the refuge for scoundrels
If an atrocious administration can get away with assaulting, even killing its own citizens, why not try the same gambit in Iran or Venezuela, if not Panama or Greenland? Sky’s the limit until depleting special forces – or facing refusals to obey. “Shit-hole” countries abound, and some have oil. Thus, the big puzzle: will the staggering (unreimbursed) Venezuela costs, in money and lives (for all), be less or more than Bush-Cheney travesties in Iraq, Afghanistan, Yemen, and Syria?
Name one “national security” success story that makes Venezuela look less deranged, even doomed by civil war. When has US-riven regime change worked out well, even without the ludicrous audacity of “running” Venezuela as a profitable oil “business”? How many $millions are already squandered on bombing fishing boats or now a lawless kidnapping that mandated 150 support aircraft? Guerrilla war, anyone, by armed, dissenting combatants? “America First,” now exposed as America Fraud. Or America fleeced, again.
Willfully respecting no limits, what stops the Aggressor-in-chief from maxing out his imperial presumptions? After all, Trump’s militarized invasions “saved” LA from “being lost,” per Saturday’s bizarre bravado. CA just as likely to fall into the sea. In an era of zero WH accountability, no matter the explosion of public outrage, lost prestige and disastrous economic outcomes, Trump won’t cease his demolition derby until stopped cold, either by failing health or removal by impeachment/conviction. Venezuela proves that this shoddy, failing lame duck has nothing to lose, that plunging popularity will not change his blundering, whatever MAGA disgust with unilateral foreign “entanglements” when costs explode.
Having shredded the Constitution, abused his authority, and battered the lives of ordinary citizens, why not export like-minded, know-nothing failures as both distraction and dilution of endless bad press? When the Failure-in-chief gets bored despoiling this country, why not look overseas for a long-shot bait and switch? We have a corrupt president who longer gives a damn. Indeed, he boasts everything economic is great, never better, and our allegedly “dead” country 18 months ago is today covered in glory. The years of cynical propaganda is now internalized by insular yahoos who, failing to sustain Biden’s US growth, will try to run Venezuela by remote control. Run into the ground, far more likely.
The Venezuelan transgression could well signal a final straw, the beginning of the end, that eviscerates MAGA dominance. Stumbling wars lose votes. That’s the chronic payoff for ill-planned, wildly underestimated, reckless belligerence, reminiscent of long-discredited gun-boat diplomacy. Pity the invaded victim population since only disruption and chaos accrue from plucking up a foreign despot – as if taking one guy resolves eons of self-destructive politics. What big oil company, despite DT bluster, rushes in and spends billions on infrastructure in an explosive, unpredictable, now destabilized powder keg?
Same old, same old, here or abroad
In fact, the same shoot-from-the-hip, error-prone mayhem that talks big but flubs major objectives is on full display again. An administration that wrecks both our economy and Constitutional protections, rife with civil and legal rights abuses in only months, is anything but competent to pull off “running” a broken country. To paraphrase Cong. Pramila Jayapal on MSNOW Saturday, “how can a leader clearly ruining his own country have success in a distant one?” Behold similar MAGA anti-governance principles at play: 1) act unilaterally, with stunning speed, like any “perfect” strongman; 2) ignore established procedures and laws as mere obstacles; 3) defend scattergun harshness with unfettered, reality-denying braggadocio; 4) treat Congress with contempt (banning exchanges); 5) fail to coordinate with allies in the region and beyond; 6) and confuse not having a clue about consequences with being strong conqueror.
In short, the same blistering brutality driving the MAGA Trump Aberration (MTA) at home applies in South America. Who cares about marginal legitimacy, even actual elections, Venezuelan sovereignty (without mention of plebiscite), or tolerance for how other countries survive? Wielding great power does not justify using it to bully anyone DT pleases. Where’s the payoff for endangering the living by subsidizing oil tycoons with counterproductive wars that end up as death trips (like Iraq or Afghanistan), all slathered with phony heroism? Bravado for the military is weak tea when crudely defending might-make-right. Thus, the next chapter in the Trump immorality parade, manipulating US soldiers just like he misuses ICE thugs or kills unknown, innocent fishermen stripped not only of breath but all human rights.
Exporting cruelty and top down control
No surprise. Dictatorial takeovers, even by far more competent creeps, demand life-threatening “final, solutions” – however illusory. Consider false imprisonment, rampant violence against non-criminal citizens, denial of marginal aid to the neediest, and spurious, unjustified military belligerence against made-up enemies. Whatever the BS propaganda, MAGA bad faith is paradoxically obsessed with maximum control and being a victim, instantly forgetting BS about drugs — or the whopper that Venezuelan oil pumped from their lands was “stolen” from “us.”
Indeed, punishment and violence stalk nearly every major MAGA project. Beginning with wretched Covid negligence and now resurfacing in health care denials (ACA, Medicaid, vaccines), closure of core food programs (SNAPS), ending of U.S.A.I.D. – all of which will kill people not otherwise terminated by ICE prison camps. Consider the plague of fatal hate crimes beefed up by rightwing extremism designed to assuage their wacko “great replacement” folly. Consider the mass shootings by MAGA-influenced killers.
Whatever Trump does, whether tariffs, takeaways, or inciting energy inflation, reduces options for poor, unemployed or sick folks. If bad policies end ready access to drugs, that threatens millions. If impoverishment by discriminatory hiring or housing amplifies, victims are less healthy and mass suffering balloons. If hospitals fail and healthcare for the poor is wiped out, vulnerability to serious disease increases and, as Covid proved, millions needlessly die.
In short, poverty and racial inequality mean never seeing doctors, eating badly, and with no protection against the ravages of deadly soil, water, chemical and air pollution. Real children die needlessly from measles and more face misery when childhood cancer research evaporates. Real children will get slammed by not taking vaccines. Real, hungry children without access to food or medicine will suffer. MAGA is thus arguably a death trip for everyone but the affluent and privileged.
How can a sudden, violent overthrow of another country’s governance not produce mortal dangers? How can kidnapping one leader feed the poor or supply medical care to the already abused, here or there? How can destabilizing an entire country attract the investment to rebuild oil operations? And when has MAGA Trump ever delivered on its promises to share the wealth, the result of “oil profits,” with ordinary folks in greatest need, here or abroad?
The cruelty and lack of compassion that typify MAGA domestically will be exported, along with military force, to the latest victims of American imperialism. The only good news is the total transparency of the fraudulence in word and deed – and that this blow should seriously neuter MAGA more than domestic blunders.
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