Hi All, just sent out my free weekend update. Started with Russian strategy on the ground in 2025. By historical standards its a failure that should lead to defeat. Russian strength is flatlining, its casualties are up, and it took less than 1 percent of Ukraine. open.substack.com/pub/phillips...

Morning Bluesky.

Every imperial power drums up paranoid fears to justify aggression and expansion. If one excuse looks too ridiculous to attempt, another will always be found.

The conversation on Threads

To add to the madness of it all, the attack on Venezuela is clearly, above all, an oil grab. But we scarcely need oil any more.

Courtesy @hcrichardson.bsky.social :

Word of caution. Just because Trump claims that the USA controls things in Venezuela, it does not mean that it does or is anywhere close to doing so. All Trump has done so far is remove one dictator but leave a dictatorial system in place. Don't mistake his bluster for truth.

NBC News: “How soon will elections be held in Venezuela? Within 30 days?” Rubio: “Elections? I think it is premature at this point.” The US is going to be there for the long haul.

Leaving the regime in place and forcing them to become a puppet government, or else. What could go wrong?

The ethical and legal damage will be with us forever but it’s the raging incompetence that will strike first, within the next few days.

TIme to go to just four eyes: ▪️New Zealand ▪️Australia ▪️Canada ▪️United Kingdom #nzpol

Time for nz to re-evaluate the five eyes network & military ties with this ever spiraling rogue state. Forget all those endless creeping China articles. #nzpol

'Christmas is “a couple of days off", in the US and people generally return to work on January 3 or 4. Luxon said and expects to do the same this year..' It's Jan 4th, a major international situation hits and we get... #nzpol

Time to dust off my email to the Minister of Defense and append, “I bloody told you and you didn’t listen!!!” Nobody cares about oil prices when they’re driving an EV. @pezmico #nzpol

Husband, when I read this response to him while driving: "what a fuckin' loser, man" #nzpol

... Umm, hello? Mr Luxon?...This is Venezuela calling. ... ? Yeah gidday, we can't take your call right now. Please leave your message after the beep. ... Okaay, it's just that the Rules-Based International Order has broken down and... [BEEEEP]

There's a lot going on here. An entirely absent PM and the entirety of our public response so far being a post on Twitter from the foreign minister - a post which doesn't even mention the US by name. Just incredibly haphazard and lackadaisical. #nzpol

#NZPOL www.rnz.co.nz/news/world/5...

RIP Congress of the United States.

“The fact is there are no real checks on Trump’s power right now. Some of the courts are still holding on some of the executive orders but he’s invaded a foreign state on a pretext…if this doesn’t ram home what it means to be governed by a rogue, out of control president, then what will?” #MustRead

Oh. My. Fucking. God. Fight for the countries sake. We don’t need weaklings. Impeach Now or Resign.

Seriously, what is wrong with this person?

New indictment; Same lack of sincerity about shutting down drug trafficking. open.substack.com/pub/joycevan...

"America cannot constrain its president right now. It’s been almost impossible to pick Trump’s ‘worst’ acts, but the strikes on “narco boats”, aka murdering people without any form of due process in extrajudicial executions have to be up there." broligarchy.substack.com/p/the-threat...

Can we also substititute (or add) AoNZ in this piece?

“We should take it as a call to arms—that Trump’s America is not our America, that on the 250th anniversary year of our nation’s founding we won’t remain quiet as these thugs escalate their attack on the rule of law & our unbreakable commitment to democracy.” www.americaamerica.news/p/snapshot-a...

Absolutely useless fucking twat. 🙄 #nzpol

Just as Aotearoa New Zealand never joined the 2003 invasion of Iraq. “I made it very clear then that that was not something that either I or the New Zealand Government would want to back,” - Helen Clark, then Prime Minister of New Zealand. #nzpol

Don't copy paste an Imperial response like other world "leaders" who are abandoning their independent foreign policy to cuddle up to Trump. Have some moral courage Luxon!

Did it even get reported in NZ media that our deputy prime minister spent Christmas with a chainsaw-wielding lunatic? #nzpol

Not mentioned: how it tanked their economy and needed Trump to bail them out

Rubio is claiming that they did not need Congress permission because it was a law enforcement mission. The US is behaving as a global police state, extending its own arbitrary legal decisions to the whole world. This is not a problem just for Venezuela.

Up the creek, winter hesitating; conspiring— unimpeded flow… #Photography #Landscape #Nature #Outdoors #Colorado #Winter #Nikon #Poetry #Haiku

Snow under the moon

Feeling safe sharing this photo with you now 😁 Pretty sure the "What is the maximum number of robin photos you can post in a year" counter, was set back to zero 2 days ago Happy new year robin to you all 🤗

#Lichen Rhizoplaca subdisrepens. NWT, Canada. The lichen is about 4cm left to right. #fungi #fungifriends

Young boy reading book in a ruined bookshop in London devastated by an air raid - 1940

reminds me of a classic Japanese haiku: White Chrysanthemum Before That Perfect Flower Scissors Hesitate - Buson

Fall white mums looking for the sun. #scape #flowerscape #bloomscrolling #eastcoastkin #photography

Finnish forces released a video showing the boarding operation of the Russian-linked cargo ship „Fitburg“, which was detained on December 31, 2025. The ship is suspected of cutting undersea cables between Finland and Estonia.

The reasons for Trump's action in Venezuela emerge: 1. It is all about oil. Trump wants Venezuela's oil. 2. It looks like imperialism: Trump talks about long-term US occupation. 3. It is not about democracy. Trump dismisses María Corina Machado. 4. It is not about drugs.

EVERYONE NEEDS TO READ THIS. This administration is a bunch of fools. Yeah, we are gonna get the oil, we will rebuild the country. Not one of them has any experience or even common sense. It’s like a video game to them. As djt said “It’s like watching tv.” God help us.

That phrase "It’s like watching tv.” sums the situation up perfectly.

Several people have asked me “how did you know to write this article right before the attack?” I’ll never tell (it was luck).

The year is 2003. I’m 17 years old. I’m watching Democrats fail to appropriately oppose an illegal war for oil. The year is 2026. I’m 40 years old. I’m watching Democrats fail to appropriately oppose an illegal war for oil.

And Schumer actually believed them?!!

Not the worst response, but come ONNNNN #nzpol

These freaks want territorial expansion and they know Trump will do everything he can to deliver. This isn’t just a tweet from some random asshole either. This is Stephen Miller’s wife. Miller was in the room with Trump during the kidnapping of Maduro.

The same editorial board described Seattle’s mayor raising taxes to pay for childcare as a totalitarian power grab