Trump and Venezuela

[Omegstrat6]

Again Omeg, you put into writing what many are thinking. There is nothing in what you write above that I or most others would disagree with.

Your last sentence in particular is interesting as I had not been aware of what Jon Stewart had said. I have actually had thoughts on whether it would be worth the UK/Europe looking for closer ties with China. That in itself is a scary thought, taking into account their human rights etc. However, this is what it might come to given the Trump regime and all that that has brought in the first 12 months of his current presidency.

As for the murder of Renee Good, Trump has her blood on his hands as he does have much Ukrainian blood too. America does have a domestic and international terrorist in their midst, and it is in the form of its current president.

I spoke this morning with a retired firearms police officer and he remarked that if he was in the shoes of the ICE officer he would be expecting to be on a murder charge in the foreseeable future. I think we can all see for ourselves that that officer was not in danger and the red mist came down.

The world is in a mess due to Putin and Trump and a few others. As has been said before, our domestic issues pale into insignificance given the global mess we are currently experiencing.

The world certainly is in a mess OB and whilst it is natural for most of us to be more concerned with immediate issues closer to hand whether family, home, work or domestic politics, a growing part of me is beginning to feel like those generations must have felt like in the build up to WW2 or during the Cuba Crisis.

A New World Order does seem to be taking shape whether deliberately so or not and whilst I certainly do not like a lot of what the CCP regime are doing or stand for it seems that Xi Jinping may be saner than either Putin or Trump after all. The UK cannot afford to allow itself to be over dependent on trade with anyone but if Trump cannot be trusted then it makes sense to at least forge better economic ties not only with Europe but also with China which may in turn afford us better protection from Putin. Far from ideal but then I guess all countries have to accept their limitations and have a degree of pragmatism and real politik. I have an increasing fear, however, that the UK is behind the curve at the moment and sleepwalking into potentially dangerous and unstable times. Cue the concerns of a certain Private Frazier...😁🤔

[kettering_baggie]

An analogy: years (many) ago when I was in a school classroom, the teacher decided to ‘let off’ a JetX motor; remember them, we put them in models, they had a solid fuel tablet that was ignited by a short fuse. I can’t remember what the lesson was supposed to be about. Anyway, when this JetX motor ignited, as it wasn’t attached to anything, it just took off and rocketed around the classroom at random, burning the ceiling at one point. Everyone just tried to take cover in case they were the next one to be hit by the aforementioned errant jet motor. Trump is like that JetX motor, whizzing around, seemingly at random, burning everything he touches and nobody knows what damage will have been done when the fuel runs out. How much ‘fuel’ does Trump have left? Too much.

[Omegstrat6]

An analogy: years (many) ago when I was in a school classroom, the teacher decided to ‘let off’ a JetX motor; remember them, we put them in models, they had a solid fuel tablet that was ignited by a short fuse. I can’t remember what the lesson was supposed to be about. Anyway, when this JetX motor ignited, as it wasn’t attached to anything, it just took off and rocketed around the classroom at random, burning the ceiling at one point. Everyone just tried to take cover in case they were the next one to be hit by the aforementioned errant jet motor. Trump is like that JetX motor, whizzing around, seemingly at random, burning everything he touches and nobody knows what damage will have been done when the fuel runs out. How much ‘fuel’ does Trump have left? Too much.

Trump would have us believe that his unpredictability and constant off-topic detours during speeches (his "waverings" as he calls them) are all a deliberate ploy and part of his famed "art of the deal" but his ever longer ramblings seem more an indication of mental health issues and the last thing that global trade markets or stability need at the moment is this madman with a JetX going off in his brain.

Meanwhile, as her Toddler in Chief ramps up his rhetoric about taking over Greenland, Karoline Leavitt helpfully releases new footage from the phone camera of the ICE agent who shot Renee Good three times in the face as a response to the "smearing" of this Federal Agent by the woke and radical Left and claims this as proof that he was only defending himself in the course of his duty. Right. That phone video clip hasn't be doctored at all has it 😂 The bit where he actually shoots her in the face isn't shown nor the bit where he called her a bitch directly having done so. Apparently, this agent was also allowed to drive himself off after the shooting. Still, I'm sure the FBI under the robust direction of non-partisan Kash Patel will have a fully transparent and unbiased approach with their investigation into it all.

Of course, whether or not she agreed with ICE, Good should have obeyed a Federal Agent but she was no threat to him or the others and whilst it certainly looks like she clipped him in turning the car to the right (actually in a direction away from where he was initially standing) to get away, this was not at speed and the agent was certainly not "run over" by her. The ICE procedures make it clear that officers should not put themselves in harm's way by positioning themselves in front of a vehicle and also clearly state that lethal force should not be used if a subject simply attempts to drive away and poses no threat (e.g. does not have a weapon or does not deliberately use the vehicle to attack them).

The BBC currently has both videos up online so people can make their own judgement. Rather like trying to judge VAR, some aspects of what actually happened are unclear from either of these videos but others seem pretty obvious to me, including the evidence to rebut any claims that the agent was run over or seriously injured or that Good deliberately "weaponised" her car to ram the agents or that she posed a threat to them that would justify the use of lethal force. Two more shootings in Portland by Federal Agents during a vehicle stop last night as well. Without too much detail it's impossible to say yet whether these were justified or not but whatever is happening in the US, this current POTUS is making no effort whatsoever to try and end divisions and bring some unity to the country. If Trump can behave like this with his own people, we can hardly expect better from him in his dealings with ourselves.

[On Balance]

Below is a link to an interesting article by the Guardians Simon Tisdall. Quite a long read but it puts into perspective what a danger to the world Trump is.

Link below.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/jan/11/greenland-venezuela-ukraine-donald-trump-lies-europe

[Omegstrat6]

Below is a link to an interesting article by the Guardians Simon Tisdall. Quite a long read but it puts into perspective what a danger to the world Trump is.

Link below.

https://www.theguardian.com/commenti...mp-lies-europe

Interesting read OB and I personally don't find much to disagree with in it.

In the US, late night hosts like Kimmel, Colbert, Meyers and Stewart do a decent job of pointing out the dangers that Trump poses domestically (though Stewart can also discuss the wider implications of his actions) and it has been noticeable that their use of political satire has turned increasingly more serious of late. All of them, of course, are viewed by the MAGA crowd as being part of the Radical Left suffering from "Trump Derangement Syndrome". Here in the UK, many on the right feel similarly with Farage, for example, continuing to fawn over the Orange One and the response by the Mail to Kimmel's "alternative Christmas Speech"on C4 making you seriously wonder whether they pre-wrote the article without bothering to actually listen to what he was saying such was the vitriol expressed. But things are slowly turning here as they are in the US.

As Trump's behaviour and actions escalate, more commentators in the UK are now beginning to worry about the consequences for not only global or European stability but for the impact that his decisions will very likely have on ourselves. What Trump does, does in fact matter to us.

It is not just the likes of O'Brien, Tisdall, Bowen or others widely viewed as being overtly leftist that are raising concerns however and recent articles by Andrew Neil, for example, show that he too is changing his mind. He may not agree with everything these commentators from the other side of the political spectrum are saying but Neil does now seem to view Trump as becoming an imperialist grifter whose actions over Venezuela and rhetoric about Greenland can only encourage Putin's aspirations on Ukraine and Xi Jinping's over Taiwan, a POTUS that can no longer be regarded as a trusted ally. Neil too urges closer ties with Europe for both economic and military protection.

I just hope that we are not too far behind the curve on this and that for all of Starmer's diplomatic unwillingness to publicly criticise Trump, behind the scenes there is a lot of work going on to ween us off our over dependence on the US and find alternative partners we can better rely on. We can hope that more Americans wake up, Trump finds himself out of power and that "normal relations" are re-established between the US and Western Europe but there is not time to wait for this and the fault lines dividing political opinion there seem too deep to be resolved quickly. Moreover, the Truman Doctrine, which enabled US support for Western Europe as part of a containment plan against the perceived threat of Communist Russia and China and that has informed much of American foreign policy since, now seems unlikely to return.

[baggieal]

More Americans are not waking up though because Trumps popularity is still near 40% and Starmer would be lucky to achieve 17%. What does this say?

If I was Trump I would not give NATO anymore funds than the average NATO partner and why should he! Europe should fight their own battles rather than meeting after meeting every time Russia attack Ukraine.

As for the UK shops and businesses are going bust every week and many are taking on extra jobs just to pay the bills. If you are struggling to pay bills clearly most would resent the money spent on illegal immigration and 200 million earmarked for a UK peacekeeping force in Ukraine. Are Hungary, Slovakia and others contributing the same? We know that answer. Poland, Italy and now Germany are massively clamping down on illegals either immediate deportation. What is Starmer doing? As for the economy here more businesses will go bust and less will invest hence why costs keep increasing.

We need to look at our own country before slating other leaders. Even the once great NHS is falling to bits and you wait for the councils who will hike their council taxes come April. Then again if you have multiple kids there would be no worry of little things like council tax when extra benefits are coming your way. I know a few people who do not work and have money thrown at them - can you blame them for not working? Asylum hotels will be emptied and guess where they will all be going - to new builds that many young hard working families can only dream about.

Starmer says more money in your pocket this year? Clearly he means if you have come in on a dinghy or sit on your fat a rse claiming benefits including extra funds coming your way for multiple kids, free council tax etc etc.