Trump continues to run his Administration as a TV/social media show – let’s call it anti-reality TV. The U.S. military that once defeated Nazis and freed the Far East from fascism is now making snuff movies for Trump in the Caribbean. Major media companies, many of whom have been bought by Trump sycophants have allowed him to move attention away from his vulnerabilities and failures by focusing on his fabrications.
The tariffs and social program cuts have reduced hiring by about two-thirds from 2 million per year under Biden, and inflation has not eased. Starting with the Epstein discharge petition, a few Republican lawmakers have been casting votes counter to Trump’s wishes.
Will Democrats try to cruise to victory in the mid-terms, or will they follow the lead of Zohran Mamdani and endeavor to improve the economic fortunes of the bottom 90% of working families? Billionaires pushing AI, crypto, and pro-Israel policies will certainly be spending in the elections.
Trump killing programs with continued impoundment
Since entering office, Trump, with leadership from his budget chief Russell Vought, has undermined the Constitution by refusing to spend appropriated funds as directed by Congress. The Government Accounting Office has issued several reports critical of this strategy. Trump has now decided he can cut off funds to Blue states only. Last week a federal judge ordered the Trump Administration to release child care funds to five states run by Democratic governors.
Meanwhile, Democrats and Republicans are negotiating the budget in the shadow of the January 30 deadline, when the current continuing resolution expires. Democratic leadership remains passive.
Nuclear treaties expiring while world tensions escalate
The last nuclear weapons treaty in effect between the U.S. and Russia expires on February 5. Moscow offered a simple deal that each side voluntarily maintain compliance with the provisions of the treaty for a single year, but Trump declined. "’If it expires, it expires,’" Trump said of the 2010 New START accord in an interview he gave to the New York Times. . . . ‘We'll just do a better agreement.’"
Both of Maryland’s senators are co-sponsoring Back from the Brink resolution S. 323 urge the nation to “lead a global effort to halt and reverse the nuclear arms race.” In the House, only Jamie Raskin and Johnny Olszewski are co-sponsoring the companion, H. Res 317.
Israel wants U.S. baseline military aid to double
The Israeli genocide in Gaza continues in slow motion. And Israeli violence and land theft are escalating in the West Bank. In this context, Prime Minister Netanyahu visited Trump at Mar-a-Lago and asked that the baseline military aid from the U.S. to Israel be doubled to $76 billion over ten years.
Senate approves War Powers Resolution to limit Trump’s actions vis a vis Venezuela
Last Thursday, the Senate voted by 52-47 to limit Trump’s ability to take further military action against Venezuela. Five Republicans joined Democrats. Trump could still veto this measure, even if the House should enact it. The vote does, however, represent a significant weakening of the Republican compulsive loyalty to Trump (as did the Epstein discharge petition vote back in mid-November).
TAKE ACTION Trump is unconstitutionally impounding funds and usurping Congress’s war powers. He explicitly rejects all international law in favor of his own “morality.” He has attacked or is threatening Yemen, Syria, Somalia, Iraq, Iran, Venezuela, Cuba, Mexico, Denmark/Greenland, and Nigeria. Here are some messages you can offer to your members of Congress. 1. Please support War Powers bills and other measures to stop Trump from endangering our nation by his wanton use of the military. Continue to demand full release of the Epstein files, 2. Please oppose Trump’s loony plan to increase the military budget by 50%. We need to improve life for working families and not waste it on foreign adventures. 3. Please oppose a renewal of the MOU that guarantees Israel billions each year in military aid from the U.S. 4. Please work to create pressure on the administration to renew nuclear weapons treaties. 5. Please work to include language in the upcoming appropriations bills to make it more difficult for Trump to impound funds
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How do I contact my senators and representative?
Members of Congress are sensitive to messages from constituents. Your calls and emails make a difference, and the more of them, the better.
Step 1: Your two senators are Angela Alsobrooks and Chris Van Hollen
Step 2: Click here to find the congressional district for your address
Step 3: Give your name and address and a very brief message tailored for your representative as indicated in the bullets above. Voicemail is fine.
25 Military/Covert Interventions by the U. S./NATO from World War II through Biden
From Wikipedia
The U.S. is by far the nation with the most violations of international law since World War II. I am not claiming that this is scholarly research, but I think the sheer number of interventions documented in Wikipedia illustrates quite well the imperialist basis of United States foreign policy. Trump’s methods and rhetoric may be jarring, and his murders of people in motorboats and invasion of Venezuela are undoubtedly criminal. But he has not done anything on the scale of the Vietnam, Afghanistan, or Iraq wars.
Date(s) | U.S. Mil. | President | Description |
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1953 | | Eisenhower | Overthrow of Mossadegh Regime in Iran |
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1954 | | Eisenhower | Coup d’etat to remove democratically elected President Jacobo Arbenz of Guatemala. |
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1956-7 | | Eisenhower | Attempted regime change in Syria. |
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1958 | | Eisenhower | Failed coup attempt in Indonesia. |
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1960 | | Eisenhower | Murder of Patrice Lumumba in the Congo. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Congo_Crisis |
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1960 | | Eisenhower | Participation in coups in Laos. |
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1961 | 
| Kennedy | Bay of Pigs invasion to overthrow Castro regime in Cuba and subsequent “Operation Mongoose.” |
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1963 | | Kennedy | U.S. (passive) support for killing of President Ngo Dinh Diem of South Vietnam. |
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1965-75 | 
| Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon | War in Vietnam NOTE: U.S. covert involvement in Vietnam began in the 1950s under Eisenhower |
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1964 | | Johnson | Overthrow of Joao Goulart government and military dictatorship installed in Brazil. |
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1965-6 | 
| Johnson | Occupation of the Dominican Republic, “Juan Emilio Bosch Gaviño was the first democratically elected president of the Dominican Republic. Sworn into office on February 27, 1963, he tried to implement a number of social reforms, which caused the anger of the business magnates and members of the army, who initiated a rumor campaign that accused Bosch of being a communist. The opposition was able to oust Bosch by September. In 1965, supporters of Bosch tried to overthrow the pro-business government. The U.S. Ambassador labelled Bosch and his supporters communists, and Pres. Johnson sent in U.S. Marines, and the pro-Bosch forces were defeated. |
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1965 | | Johnson | Overthrow of Sukarno in Indonesia. Sukarno held power for 22 years by balancing the military and the large Communist Party (PKI). The U.S. courted a right-wing faction of the army and that faction allied with political Islamists in opposition to the PKI. Over 500,000 communists were murdered, another million were imprisoned. The Director of the Indonesia/East Timor Documentation Project at the National Security Archive, says "Washington did everything in its power to encourage and facilitate the army-led massacre of alleged PKI members, and U.S. officials worried only that the killing of the party's unarmed supporters might not go far enough. . . .” |
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1973 | | Nixon | Coup d’etat in Chile Marxist Salvador Allende was democratically elected president of Chile in 1973. He was overthrown in September by the brutal general Augusto Pinochet. “The coup led to a series of human rights abuses in Chile under Pinochet, who initiated a brutal and long-lasting campaign of political suppression through torture, murder, and exile. . . . “ While the exact extent of United States involvement in the coup is unknown, it is well-documented that Pres. Nixon and Henry Kissinger wanted Allende to be overthrown. . . . After a review of recordings of telephone conversations between Nixon and Henry Kissinger, Robert Dallek concluded that both of them used the CIA to actively destabilize the Allende government. In one particular conversation about the news of Allende's overthrow, Kissinger complained about the lack of recognition of the American role in the overthrow of a ‘communist’ government, upon which Nixon remarked, ‘Well, we didn't – as you know – our hand doesn't show on this one. . . .’ The CIA used telecommunications corporation ITT as a means of disguising the source of the illegitimate funding Allende's opponents received.” After the coup, the U.S. government actively supported Pinochet. |
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1975-92 | | Ford, Carter, Reagan, Bush I | Aid to UNITA, fighting against MPLA in Angola. “UNITA received military aid initially from the People's Republic of China from 1966 until October 1975[6][7] and later from the United States[a] and apartheid South Africa while the [Marxist] MPLA received material and technical support from the Soviet Union and its allies, especially Cuba.[8][9]” |
1979-92 | | Carter, Reagan, Bush I | Afghanistan. U.S. armed and financed the Afghan mujahideen in Afghanistan from 1979 to 1992, prior to and during the military intervention by the Soviet Union in support of the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan.
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1981-90 | | Reagan, Bush I | Aid to Contras in Nicaragua. U.S. provided arms and advice to right-wing fighters attempting to overthrow the Marxist Sandinista regime. “In 1982, the Boland Amendment was passed [by Congress] to end U.S. aid to the Contras; yet the Reagan administration continued to illegally fund the Contras. . . . The Global Terrorism Database reports that Contras carried out more than 1,300 terrorist attacks.[18]“ The Reagan administration covertly sold weapons to Iran in order to fund arms aid to the Contras. [When the operation was over, Jeffrey Epstein’s billionaire colleague Les Wexner purchased the planes that were used to supply arms to the Contras.]
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1983 | 
| Reagan | Invasion of Grenada.
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1989 | 
| Bush I | Invasion of Panama and capture of outgoing President Noriega, who was then tried and convicted in the U.S. of narcotics charges. |
1992 | 
| Clinton | NATO intervention in Bosnia and Herzegovina
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1994-6 | | Clinton | Attempt to instigate a military coup to overthrow Saddam Hussein in Iraq. |
1999 | 
| Clinton | NATO bombing of Yugoslavia
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2001-20 | 
| Bush II, Obama, Biden | Invasion and occupation of Afghanistan.
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2003-11 | 
| Bush II, Obama | 2003-2001, Bush II, Obama - Invasion and occupation of Iraq.
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| SPECIAL NOTE from the Brown University0 Cost of War Project: The cost of the post-9/11 wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Syria, and elsewhere totals about $8 trillion. This does not include future interest costs on borrowing for the wars. The costs of caring for post-9/11 war vets will reach between $2.2 and $2.5 trillion by 2050 - most of which has not yet been paid. |
2004 |
| Bush II * | Jean Bertrande Aristide, popular President of Haiti was removed in [WHEN] and restored to power in [WHEN]. He was elected President a second time in [WHEN] and asked that France pay reparations for the money it received from Haiti in 1803? When Haiti’s slaves successfully rebelled. Aristide told U.S. left-wing reporter Amy Goodman that he had been forcibly removed in 2004 after an armed rebellion. The Bush administration vehemently denies the charges.
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2011 | 
| Obama | U.S. and NATO intervention in Libyan Civil War
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2012-17 |
| Obama | Involvement in civil war in Syria
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NOTE: In most of these conflicts, the U.S. had covert agents or soldiers in country.
News Notes
ICE releases U.S. citizen after 25 days
The Baltimore Banner: Dulce Consuelo Diaz Morales, age 25, whose family says she was born in Laurel, MD, was released on January 8 after 25 days in ICE detention. Prior to her release, ICE insisted that she was not a citizen.
How Amazon steals your data and how Wall Street ruins tech companies
BIG by Matt Stoller: The FTC dissuaded Amazon from buying iRobot, the company that makes Roomba. Amazon wanted to incorporate Roomba into its “Sidewalk” network so that it could have internal maps of millions of people’s houses. (It already has all the external photos from millions of residences via its Ring device. Although iRobot’s technology has serious defense and science potential, Wall Street investors won their demands to end iRobot’s research investments in favor of dividends and share buybacks. After the merger with Amazon fell through, iRobot was sold to a Chinese firm.
Epstein was a highly influential international operative
Drop Site News: NY Times soft-pedals possibility that Epstein was involved in spy networks, but their own reporting connects him to key figures in Iran-Contra. After the U. S. sold weapons to Iran and used the proceeds to undermine a Congressional ban on providing weapons to the Contras in Nicaragua, Jeffrey Epstein’s key associate Les Wexner (owner of Victoria’s Secret and other companies and a major Zionist contributor) bought the airplanes that the CIA had used to move the weapons to Central America. Drop Site News has published other articles tying Jeffrey Epstein to the following activities:
Arranged a meeting between former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Vladimir Putin.
Helped Barak sell Israel spyware to Cote d’Ivoire.
Arranged a security deal between Israel and Mongolia.
Met with Swiss banking heir Ariane de Rothschild seeking funding for Israeli cyberweapons development.
Arranged a meeting between Steven Bannon and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Consulted with Israel on the financing of its huge gas extraction project, which has recently been in the news.
Worked with Zionist law professor Alan Dershowitz to undermine the reputation of Prof. John Mearshimer.
