The fact that Trump doesn’t give a damn about whether Venezuela is a democracy or not seems to escape a lot of smart people…

The fact that Trump doesn’t give a damn about whether Venezuela is a democracy or not seems to escape a lot of smart people…

Trump’s Latin America strategy: empire.

In this case, “covert action” means hitting a random, empty, isolated Venezuelan dock that won’t do much of anything.

In this case, “covert action” means hitting a random, empty, isolated Venezuelan dock that won’t do much of anything.

CDMX.

The ongoing “war” against drug traffickers in the Southern Caribbean could very well be the most secret military campaign in my life so far. It makes Nixon’s 1969-1970 air war in Cambodia look like an exercise in transparency.

Congress is really good at oversight.

More fighting along the Thai-Cambodian border. More fighting in the Eastern DRC. Daily Israeli strikes in Gaza. Maybe it’s time for Trump to stop bragging about “solving” so many wars?

Dick Cheney would be proud.

Seems totally legit.

The boat strikes are not only congressionally unauthorized, legally questionable and morally disturbing—they’re also ineffective. It’s all performative. The strikes don’t solve anything.

Syria’s interim president, Ahmed al-Sharaa, has got plenty right over the past twelve months. But cracks in his leadership are beginning to show

Just got the Oura Ring. I need to sit down and relax.

First of all, one of the reporters on that story was in the Army infantry in Iraq

The lack of progress on setting up an international police force in Palestine suggests that Donald Trump’s claims of peace are misplaced, writes Daniel DePetris.

Matt Gaetz actually asked a pretty good question though: are there any day-after plans in Venezuela if Maduro leaves?

The same people who were rooting for Ukraine to pursue a failed counteroffensive are now enraged that it will have to swallow bad terms in order to get a peace deal. And they have the gall to blame everybody else for Ukraine’s predicament. Total lack of self-awareness.

How many times does Pete Hegseth have to f— up before he gets the boot?

Whenever the Ukrainians are satisfied with peace terms, the Russians move back. And Vice-versa. Rinse and repeat.

On this issue, Hegseth is just operationalizing the babble he preached on Fox News all those years.

I think we need to stop referring to Gaza and Lebanon as actual ceasefires. A ceasefire means, well, a ceasing of fire. What we have in these two cases is Israel striking less than it used to, but still holding the power to act whenever it wants.

I think we need to stop referring to Gaza and Lebanon as actual ceasefires. A ceasefire means, well, a ceasing of fire. What we have in these two cases is Israel striking less than it used to, but still holding the power to act whenever it wants.

To claim that Nicolas Maduro is the head of a grand conspiracy to weaken the United States by turning us all into cocaine users is about as stupid as claiming Saddam Hussein was going to give Al-Qaeda a nuclear bomb to drop on an American city.

So I guess we have similar values after all?

“The idea that you’re going to be able to slot in a government and everything else will just fall into place, I think is just fantasy,” added Mr. Gunson, speaking from the Venezuelan capital of Caracas. And citations to our recent @crisisgroup.org statement. www.nytimes.com/2025/11/20/u...

Very on brand.

Incredible that he is paid money for these takes. www.nytimes.com/2025/11/17/o...

‘We don’t want the smoking gun to be a fentanyl mushroom cloud.’

I still think the BBC is better than any TV news network the U.S. has. Sue me.

I’d surrender too.

Amazing to see these recycled arguments about the magical attributes of air power. What in recent U.S. historical experience could lead someone to write this?

It’s odd that terms like “socialist” and “communist” still get thrown around in 2025, as if we’re still living in the Red Scare era. Do people find these attacks even remotely convincing?

Reports say that the executive branch’s legal office is claiming that Trump's campaign in the Caribbean does not technically meet the definition of "hostilities" in the 1973 War Powers Resolution, @dandepetris.bsky.social writes on @chicagotribune.com www.chicagotribune.com/2025/11/04/c...

The White House’s position on the Caribbean/Pacific boat strikes can be summed up as “the U.S. is at war with narcoterrorists but legally, we’re not technically in a war so we don’t have to follow the War Powers Resolution or get congressional authorization.” Makes John Yoo look sane.

The White House’s position on the Caribbean/Pacific boat strikes can be summed up as “the U.S. is at war with narcoterrorists but legally, we’re not technically in a war so we don’t have to follow the War Powers Resolution or get congressional authorization.” Makes John Yoo look sane.

*Throws cell phone in the East River*

And DoD would allow reporters to ask questions about that legal rationale…oh wait.

Sports gambling app commercials every five seconds actually turn me off from using sports gambling apps.

At this point, I’m just waiting for Hegseth to refer to Maduro and Petro as the new “Axis of Evil.” We’re pretty much following the George W. Bush War on Terror framework (minus the the basic legality) so we might as well use a stupid phrase to be consistent.

Let’s be brutally honest: most lawmakers are unprincipled charlatans who will always take the path of least resistance. Others will try to have it both ways: demand more oversight from Trump about what he’s actually bombing while doing nothing in practical terms. www.nytimes.com/2025/10/24/u...

Book review: An insider’s account of how the US dropped the ball on North Korea | NK News www.nknews.org/2025/10/book...

Glad to see the comments in here from Curt Mills, Jennifer Kavanaugh, and Dan DePetris pushing back against US strikes in the Caribbean and regime change in Venezuela. www.nytimes.com/2025/10/23/u...

Some thoughts in the NYT on Trump’s Venezuela policy and Rubio’s [nefarious] influence.

At what point does Trump start launching CIA operations in Colombia?