Ostensibly exploring the practice of law before the internet. Heck, before good highways for that matter.
Sunday, January 4, 2026
So now what, and what did we actually do?
Wars and Rumors of War, 2026. Part 1. The Return of the Neo Con Edition.
You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom.
Matthew, Chapter 24.
No nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare.
James Madison
January 2, 2026.
The United States v. Iran
We start off this year with the no more forever wars president threatening to intervene in Iran.
Iran is a bad actor, without a doubt, but what we'd particularly note here is that Trump's policy of intervention is beginning to look a lot like the Neo Con policy. A person can like that, or not, but it's not what he was promising at all. I'd heard various Trump supporters cite the "no more forever wars" line as (one of) their reasons for supporting him.
January 3, 2026
United States v. Venezuela
The United States hit Venezuela with a “large-scale strike” early Saturday and took Maduro and his wife prisoner.
No Declaration of War exists, of course, and there's no Congressional authorization for the use of force. This is, therefore, an illegal operation.
The news is too early to really make any definitive predictions about how this will turn out. Wars, however, tend to end when the attacked party decides they are over. Maybe this will tip the scales in Venezuela and things will change. Or maybe his followers dig in and carry on, in which case we are now committed to a wider conventional war, and perhaps a following guerilla war.
U.S. Delta Force seizes Venezuelan leader, sources say
US military captures Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro after striking military sites
The US Is Attempting Regime Change In Venezuela
Cont:
Trump's comments on the raid on Maduro:
As usual, when he reads a prepared statement, he sounds awful. While called to address the illegal attack in Venezuela, it meandered into the usual Trump mental mush addressing various Trump favorite topics and fantasies. Use of the National Guard in various states ended up being addressed by the clearly senile illegal occupant of the Oval Office.1
Trump has made it clear the U.S. intends to occupy Venezuela, apparently forgetting that simply seizing the head of state doesn't amount to a full surrender of anyone opposing a U.S. presence. This will require thousands of U.S. troops on a continent in which we've never had boots on the ground. People aligned with Maduro have no reason to cooperate with the US at all, and have plenty of reason not to.
Inside Venezuela there were protests over the U.S. action. Outside of the country Venezuelan expats celebrated the news.
Trump also made it clear that he intends to reverse the fifty year old nationalization of Venezuelan oil. Either Trump, or more likely somebody in his regime, has a real pre World War One view of the world, as this example of imperialism and gunboat diplomacy makes clear. Trump actually cited the Monroe Doctrine and his new security priorities.
Trump justified the action on the basis of ending Venezuelan drug exports to the U.S.
By way of a set of predictions, and knowing more about the use of military force that Donald Trump does, if the U.S. isn't in complete control of the country within thirty days, this will evolve into a guerilla war requiring no less than 100,000 U.S. troops. If the U.S. hasn't turned the country over to Venezuelans within one year, it'll evolve into a low grade guerilla war requiring no less than 50,000 boots on the ground.
January 4, 2026
United States v. Venezuela
So where are we now?
Yesterday it looked like, for awhile, that effectively what the US had done was to have mounted a coup of the Venezuelan government with the silent complicency of Venezuelan VP Delcy Rodríguez, sidestepping Nobel Peace Prize winner María Corina Machado Parisca.
Then came Trump's babbling senile statement about the operation.
Delcy Rodríguez was sworn in as the country's President. She's just as left wing and Maduro, and she immediately indicated that she regard Maduro as the President and that she's not cooperating with the US.
So, what was achieved? We don't know, but unless we're going to do a full scale invasion of Venezuela, all we may have done is replace one left wing leader with another.
A bit closer to home, sort of:
Well, of course they did. Was there any doubt?
Footnotes:
1. A real irony is present here in that Maduro was not the legitimate head of state, at this point, of Venezuela, and Donald Trump is not the legitimate head of state of the United States.
Related threads:
What we actually did and are doing.
Last edition:
Wars and Rumors of War, 2025. Part 10 (the final edition for 2025). The Gunboat Diplomacy Edition.
Thursday, January 1, 2026
Thursday, January 1, 1976. Venezuela nationalizes its oil industry.
It was the start of the Bicentennial year in the United States in which the country would celebrate its 200th year of independence. It was a big deal, full of celebrations and commemorations. It was particularly notable if you were in school at the time, which I was (junior high).
Venezuela nationalized its oil industry, putting all of it, including foreign interests, in its state oil company.
Donald Trump has recently been complaining about this.
A lot of nations have done this over time, and its often been upsetting to US oil interests at the time, but the concept of nationalizing petroleum interests to some degree is not irrational, and while I haven't had the chance to post on it yet, quite frankly nationalization of undeveloped petroleum resources in the US is something that is at least worth talking about, even though it will never occur.
A Lebanese airliner exploded over Saudi Arabia from a bomb in the cargo hold. All 81 people were killed in an act of terrorism for which the responsible party has never been determined, although Omani terrorists are suspected by some forces. Apparently the bomb was set to have gone off while the plane was empty and on the ground, but things went awry.
The Australian Defence Force came into being, giving the Australian military a unified command.
Last edition:
Sunday, December 28, 1975. Conflict in the Third Cod War.
Wednesday, December 31, 2025
Ascendant Ignorance in the Age of Donald Trump. Ignoramus Watch Part 2. The War is a Racket edition.
December 17, 2025.
WAR is a racket. It always has been. It is possibly the oldest, easily the most profitable, surely the most vicious. It is the only one international in scope. It is the only one in which the profits are reckoned in dollars and the losses in lives.
Gen. Smedley Butler.
American sweat, ingenuity and toil created the oil industry in Venezuela. Its tyrannical expropriation was the largest recorded theft of American wealth and property. These pillaged assets were then used to fund terrorism and flood our streets with killers, mercenaries and drugs.
Stephen Miller, Homeland Security Advisor.
Stephen Miller, who is Jewish, has somehow managed to become the most White Racist and imperialist member of the Trump Administration, apparently forgetting that the white, Protestant, demographic he's backing, doesn't regard him as white.
Maybe Miller ought to listen to some Nick Fuentes.
Anyhow, the other day Trump said something about Venezuela stealing "our land". It made no sense, but now, with Miller's help, we know what he meant.
Geology created the Venezuelan oil industry. Imperialism created the concept that somebody else's natural resources belongs to us. Neo imperialism will get us bogged down in regional wars Miller won't be going to so that young American men can die for petroleum oil, which we have plenty of here in the US.
Trump is demented. People like Miller have his ear. This is absolutely frightening.
December 19, 2025
Trump’s handpicked buttkissers on the Kennedy Center board voted to renames it the Trump Kennedy Center
It's questionable if it can legally be renamed, and all of these "love me" type of monumental acts are going to go away as soon as Trump's illegitimate interregnum is over. The amazing things that there's such syncophantic asskissers who are willing to do things like this.
December 22, 2025
And while you are, or aren't, worrying about this:
If you are an Apostolic Christian, and aren't worried yet, you ought to be. Or maybe not. Or maybe.
You might want to worry that we have a seemingly unstable would be caudillo in the Oval Office and an administration that violated the deadline provisions of the law concerning release of the Epstein files.
At first the MAGAs were pointing toward the photos of Clinton, but within 24 hours they were pulling stuff back down that referenced Trump. On Sunday they sent a deputy AG around to the Sunday shows to explain that they had to do that, apparently, as women who appeared in the buff in those photos might have been complaining about it. If those women were minors, they shouldn't have released that material, but then they should have had that figured out in the first place. If they were just nude women, well, too bad. You get photographed in the house of a creep, you can't expect that not to get around.
Anyhow, he ran around sounding rather distraught. Now we know that a third oil taker in our sights in the Caribbean, and today we learn that Trump has appointed a "special envoy" to Greenland who has said something about how we should annex that territory to the US. Denmark has called in our ambassador.
Okay, how does that relate to this thread?
Trump appears to be pretty desperate right now. Nothing distracts like a war. Nicolás Maduro shows no signs whatsoever of backing down, and there are no signs whatsoever that his military is going to force him out. Trump can't back down. And what better way to change the topic at Christmas dinner from "so. . . why do you think the administration is protecting the diddler files" than by sending than by sending FA 18s over Venezuela. . . or maybe putting the Marines on the beaches?
Am I saying that is going to happen as a distraction from the embarrassing teenage girl sex story? No, I"m not, but I am saying its not impossible to imagine that.
And at this point, it's clear, Maduro is sitting there ignoring Trump. War with Venezuela, in some form, is inevitable.
cont:
Not really properly before in this category, but administration news nonetheless, the ambassadors to Burundi, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Gabon, Ivory Coast, Madagascar, Mauritius, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, Somalia, Uganda, Fiji, Laos, the Marshall Islands, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines and Vietnam, Armenia, Macedonia, Montenegro, Slovakia, Algeria, Egypt, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Guatemala and Suriname are being removed and replaced.
cont:
We need Greenland for national protection. They have a very small population…They say that Denmark was there 300 years ago with a boat. Well, we were there with boats too I’m sure.
Donald Trump.
The United States isn't 300 years old. . .
And that small population comment is just the sort of thing a New Yorker would say . . .
And then there's this gem. Trump wants a fleet of twenty five battleships built. Battleships have been obsolete for decades.
cont:
It appears the "battleships" will not be battleships.
December 24, 2025
Now this is interesting:
Heritage Foundation killed by MAGA
December 25, 2025. Christmas Day
What a horrible person.
Last edition:
Ascendant Ignorance in the Age of Donald Trump. Ignoramus* Watch Part 1.
Wars and Rumors of War, 2025. Part 10 (the final edition for 2025). The Gunboat Diplomacy Edition.
You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom.
Matthew, Chapter 24.
I spent 33 years and four months in active military service and during that period I spent most of my time as a high class muscle man for Big Business, for Wall Street and the bankers. In short, I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism. I helped make Mexico and especially Tampico safe for American oil interests in 1914. I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City Bank boys to collect revenues in. I helped in the raping of half a dozen Central American republics for the benefit of Wall Street. I helped purify Nicaragua for the International Banking House of Brown Brothers in 1902-1912. I brought light to the Dominican Republic for the American sugar interests in 1916. I helped make Honduras right for the American fruit companies in 1903. In China in 1927 I helped see to it that Standard Oil went on its way unmolested. Looking back on it, I might have given Al Capone a few hints. The best he could do was to operate his racket in three districts. I operated on three continents.
Smedley D. Butler, War Is a Racket
December 21, 2025
United States v. Venezuela
Thee U.S. Coast Guard seized a second tanker transporting Venezuelan oil.
United States and Jordan v. ISIL
Jordan confirmed it helped the U.S. in the airstrikes in Syria against ISIL.
December 22, 2025
United States v. Venezuela
The US will be seizing, if it has not already, a third tanker.
December 23, 2025
Russo Ukrainian War
Lt. Gen. Fanil Sarvarov, head of the Operational Training Directorate of the Russian Armed Forces General Staff, was killed by an explosive device placed under his car in Moscow.
December 24, 2025
Russo Ukrainian War
Ukrainian forces withdrew from Siversk in the eastern Donetsk region after heavy fighting with Russian forces.
December 26, 2025
United States v. ISIS in Nigeria
The US hit ISIS affiliated targets in Nigeria yesterday.
Islamist attacks on Catholic Nigerians has been going on for a long time and has received very little attention in the US, outside of Catholic circles associated with Nigerians, but suddenly under the Trump Administration, it is. The attention is long overdue, but a person has to suspect that it comes out of NatCon circles and from Catholics inside the administration, rather than some personal concern from President Trump himself. Indeed, in announcing the strikes the mentally declining illegitimate chief executive stated:
Tonight, at my direction as Commander in Chief, the United States launched a powerful and deadly strike against ISIS Terrorist Scum in Northwest Nigeria, who have been targeting and viciously killing, primarily, innocent Christians, at levels not seen for many years, and even Centuries!
The many years and evcen centuries statement demonstrates a massive deficit in historical knowledge. Th is has been going on for many years, the vast majority of Christians on the plant are Catholic and there's been many examples of brutal killing of Catholics, very notably by Muslims, for centuries.
The strikes were carried out by ship to shore missiles.
Which groups were hit is unclear, but the largest IS-linked group in Nigeria is the Islamic State West Africa Province while the smaller group known as Lakurawa has sought to establish a base in north-western Sokoto state which was where the strikes were targeted.
Islamist groups in Nigeria have acted against Muslims as well as Catholics, but while that is noted, their repression and brutality is principally directed at Catholics.
The intervention seems justified and generally welcomed but now that it has commenced, the US will have to continue as this is a very long running problems and a day of missile attacks is not going to stop things immediately.
December 27, 2025
United States v. ISIS in Nigeria
In something that's obvious, but interesting in the world of Trump claims/lies/fantasies, Nigeria indicated it was open to the new military relationship with the US being ongoing and indicated that defeating Islamic extremist in the country will take some time.
It'll take a long time.
It's a worthwhile endeavor, but I wonder how the MAGAs that believed that Trump was going to end US involvement in foreign wars will justify it. Most MAGAs believe in isolationism, and the NAR folks include groups which, in their ignorance, don't realize that Catholics, the Christians in peril in Nigeria, and which are the original Christian denomination, are actually Christians.
On the strikes:
US targets ISIS with multiple strikes in Nigeria
U.S. cruise missiles miss targets in Nigeria
December 28, 2025
Russo Ukrainian War
Russia attacked Kyiv with ballistic missiles and drones yesterday, a day before scheduled talks between the Ukraine and the United States., killing at least one person and wounding 27.
It'll be interesting to see what effect this has on the talks given the participation of the unreliable and demented Donald Trump.
Thailand v. Cambodia
The fighting parties signed a new armistice in their border conflict.
The origin of the border fight dates back to the 1950s and is over undefined and unagreed to areas of their common border.
December 31, 2025
Saudi Arabia v. Yemeni separatists
Saudi Arabia bombe the Yemeni port city of Mukalla on Tuesday after a weapons shipment from the United Arab Emirates arrived for separatist forces. A warning to the UAE followed.
United States v. Venezuela.
The Central Intelligence Area hit a Venezuelan dock with drones.
Last edition:
Wars and Rumors of War, 2025. Part 9. The Neville Chamberlain Edition.
Saturday, December 20, 2025
Wars and Rumors of War, 2025. Part 9. The Neville Chamberlain Edition.
You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom.
Matthew, Chapter 24.
The settlement of the Czechoslovak problem which has now been achieved is, in my view, only the prelude to a larger settlement in which all Europe may find peace. This morning I had another talk with the German Chancellor, Herr Hitler, and here is a paper which bears his name upon it as well as mine. Some of you perhaps have already heard what it contains, but I would just like to read it to you. " ... We regard the agreement signed last night and the Anglo-German Naval Agreement as symbolic of the desire of our two peoples never to go to war with one another again".[3]
* * *
My good friends, for the second time in our history, a British Prime Minister has returned from Germany bringing peace with honour.
I believe it is peace for our time...
Go home and get a nice quiet sleep.
Neville Chamberlain.
November 23, 2025
Russo Ukrainian War.
Regarding the articles of surrender being pushed by Donald Trump on Ukraine, a CST headline:
KYIV’S ALLIES PUSH BACK ON US PEACE PLAN
The claimant of Presidential Power, Дональд Трамп, stated that the proposal was his "final offer", as if the US is doing the offering. Secretary of State Rubio, who always looks like he's caught in a bad dream and who is probably the only significant member of the cabinet who is not a complete today, claimed that the plan is a "wish list", not a plan.
Independent Maine Sen. Angus King said earlier in the day that the plan is “one of the most serious geopolitical mistakes in my lifetime" comparing it to the 1938 Munich Pact. Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said in statement, “if Administration officials are more concerned with appeasing Putin than securing real peace, then the President ought to find new advisors.” Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., said McConnell’s criticism didn’t go far enough. “Putin is a murderer, a rapist and an assassin. . . We should not do anything that makes him feel like he has a win here.” Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., ranking Member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, called the plan an “outrage.”
Israel v. Hamas in Gaza
Israel hit Gaza yesterday with airstrikes.
November 24, 2025
Israel v. Hezbollah
Israel launched a raid in Lebanon Saturday that killed Hezbollah's chief of staff.
November 26, 2025
Russo Ukrainian War
Yuri Ushakov: Yeah Steve hi, how are you?
YU: I am ok. Congratulations my friend.
YU: You made a great job. Just a great job. Thank you so much. Thank you, thank you.
SW: Thank you Yuri and thanks for your support. I know your country supported it and I thank you.
YU: Yeah, because we think that you are making the real job there in the region.
YU: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, you need to solve only one problem. [laughs]
SW: I know! How do we get that solved?
YU: You do. And when you think it could be possible?
SW: I think as soon as you suggest, my guy is ready to do it.
SW: Yuri, Yuri, here’s what I would do. My recommendation.
SW: But here’s what I think would be amazing.
SW: What if, what if... hear me out...
YU: I will discuss that with my boss and then I come back to you. Ok?
YU: Ok, that sounds good. Sounds good.
SW: And here’s one more thing: Zelenskiy is coming to the White House on Friday.
YU: Ok, ok. I got your advice. So I discuss that with my boss and then I come back to you, ok?
SW: Ok Yuri, I’ll speak to you soon.
From Bloomberg.
This comes at a time when the illegitimate Trump Administration, headed by a man who committed actual sedition, is threatening to prosecute members of Congress for sedition.
November 28, 2025
Russo Ukrainian War
Putin termed the Trump surrender terms a "starting point" and threatened to overrun Ukraine with Russia's larger army if Ukraine did not come to terms.
It should be plain by now that Russia's army is crap. It has been since some point before 1900. If it could overrun Ukraine, it would have by now. If all aid was cut off to it, and Russia then overran Ukraine, a guerrilla war would then ensue.
cont:
US. v. Venezuelan boats
From the Washington Post:
Hegseth order on first Caribbean boat strike, officials say: Kill them all
So now we kill people in the water. Something we decried in World War One and World War Two.
A U-boat commander was tried and executed for that after the Second World War.
Army identifies 2 Iowa National Guardsmen killed in Syria attack
And so Mad King Donald inches us that much closer to a war we'll still be waging when he's out of office.



