1/6/2026

 Monday, January 5, 2025

1531 Pope Clement VII forbade English King Henry VIII to remarry

1886 "Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde" by Robert Louis Stevenson was published

1895 French Captain Alfred Dreyfus was convicted of treason

1957 US President Eisenhower asked Congress to send troops to the Middle East

1968 Dr Benjamin Spock was indicted for conspiring to violate draft law

In bed at 9:30, up at 5:50 from a dream of attending a Jewish movie gathering with friends, speaking with Jack Levine. 3-/23/37/29, cloudy

Meds, etc.  Morning meds at 11 a.m.   

Trump and Wall Street's world of pretexts.  Donald Trump has taught Vladimir Putin what a real "special military operation" looks like: short in duration, well-planned and militarily brilliant, and, most of all, successful.  He (which is to say, the American military and intelligence teams) succeeded in capturing or arresting or kidnapping (choose your word) Mr. and Mrs. Nickolas Maduro, and decapitating the Venezuelan government.  Most Americans, however, aren't sure of why this special military operation (that is and isn't a war) was conducted.  Trump's claim that he was seeking to stop "narco-terrorism" is, as we used to say in Vietnam, happy horseshit.  No knowledgeable person believes it.  Most of Venezuela's illegal drug exports consist of cocaine and go to Europe, not America.  Nor does anyone, except perhaps dyed-in-the-wool MAGA-types, believe that he was simply enforcing American law by arresting federally indicted 'fugitives from justice.'  Nor does anybody believe that this has anything to do with the welfare and freedom of the Venezuelan people, liberating them from oppression by a cruel, murderous dictator.  He has made it clear that he will not install the Nobel Peace Prize winner and winner of the last Venezuelan election as head of state now that Maduro is gone; rather, he is keeping the Maduro regime in place, without its hitherto leader, rather than replacing him with Maria Corina Machado.  It's like kidnapping Hitler, but leaving in place his Nazi government.  Trump makes no secret of his admiration for cruel, murderous dictators, witness his relationships with his 'friend' Vladimir Putin, his 'love letters' from Kim Jung Un, and his affection for Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, prime minister of Saudi Arabia, who had the American, Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi tortured, killed, and dismembered with a bone saw in the Sauki consulate in Istanbul. Turkey, in 2018.  

No, Trump's 'special military operation' was about oil, maintenance of the petrodollar system and the American dollar as the 'reserve currency' for most of the world, and about demonstrating his willingness to use America's forces regardless of internartional and even American domestic law,  to other countries' leaders who resist his policies, e.g., Columbia, Mexico, Panama, and Greenland/Denmark.  Russia and China have been breaking away from the use of the dollar for their oil trade, and all the BRICS countries have been starting to do the same.  Venezuela has recently been using some cryptocurrency (stablecoins tethered to the dollar) to escape US sanctions, and has been trading with China, the world's largest importer of foreign oil,  using 'petroyuans.'  The Venezuelan adventure is all about oil, money, and power.  So it has been since 1859, when Edwin Drake drilled the first commercial oil well in Pennsylvania, the start of the Industrial Age, and the eventual use of oil rather than coal to power contending nations' navies and armies.  Winston Churchill, First Lord of the Admiralty, converted the British Navy from coal to oil, around 1912, making the British Empire dependent on foreign oil suppliers.  He set the stage for oil's central role in the world economy and military planning.  So it was in the First World War era, so it goes today.

We ought not underestimate the role of our Cuban-American Secretary of State and National Security Advisor, Marco Rubio, in Trump's audacious attack on Venezuela's government.  Cuba and Venezuela are joined at the hip in terms of economies and national interests.  Venezuela provides cheap oil to Cuba to keep its fragile economy running and Cuba provides Venezuela with security forces and other assets intended to keep the Maduro government in power.  Rubio hates Maduro and his regime for the same reasons he hated the Castros and their Cuban regime, and the current Cuban regime.  They are anti-capitalist Leftists who drove the Rubios and thousands of other Cuban nationals into exile in America.  Like my former friend Elsa Lamelas, Rubio hates both the Cuban and the Venezuelan regimes.  Rubio is now in a position to try to topple the communist government in Cuba.  Seizing Maduro was a big step toward accomplishing that long-held goal.

Lest there be doubts about Trump's wish to intimidate other national leaders who resist his wishes, consider this morning's New York Times report:

President Trump doubled down on his desire to take over Greenland just hours after the prime minister of Denmark urged him to “stop the threats” to annex the territory.

“We need Greenland from the standpoint of national security,” Mr. Trump told reporters on Air Force One on Sunday. He added that he thought Denmark was not doing enough to safeguard Greenland, an island in the North Atlantic that is a semiautonomous territory of Denmark.

Mr. Trump made his comments as worries grew in Denmark and other countries about his international ambitions after the U.S. military raided Venezuela and seized Nicolás Maduro, its former authoritarian leader.

After the military operation in Venezuela, Mr. Trump reiterated his ambition to take over the Danish territory. “We do need Greenland, absolutely,” he told The Atlantic, claiming that the island was “surrounded by Russian and Chinese ships.”

On Sunday, Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen of Denmark addressed the United States “very directly” to reiterate that Washington had “no right to annex” Greenland. “I would therefore strongly urge the United States to stop the threats against a historically close ally,” she said in a statement, adding that Greenlanders “have said very clearly that they are not for sale.”

Ms. Frederiksen noted that Denmark was part of NATO and that a defense agreement with the United States gave Washington “wide access to Greenland” already.

Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen of Greenland also rejected Mr. Trump’s comments, writing on social media that the president’s rhetoric was “utterly unacceptable” and that his efforts to link Venezuela with Greenland were “wrong” and “disrespectful.”

The statements from the leaders of Denmark and Greenland followed another American provocation: a post on social media from Katie Miller, the wife of Stephen Miller, one of Mr. Trump’s top advisers. “SOON,” she wrote, with a map of Greenland shaded in by the American flag. 

Russia invaded Ukraine because it disapproved of its government and its aspirations.  We invaded Venezuela because we disapproved of its government and its aspirations.  Russia invaded Ukraine because of its national interests and national security.  We invaded Venezuela because of our national interests and national security.    

What I sort of admire about Donald Trump.  I daresay he's the worst liar in the history of the United States presidency, so prolific a liar that the Washington Post (before Bezos took personal control of it) kept a running count of his lies and misleading statements.  He was, as it is said, bald-faced about it, shameless.  Many of us, perhaps most of us, abhorred his mendacity.  But in matters like the use of the American military to gain control over Venezuela's vast oil reserves, the largest in the world so far as we know, he is painfully truthful.  He did it for the oil companies.  "“We’re going to have our very large United States oil companies … go in, spend billions of dollars, fix the badly broken infrastructure … and start making money.”  On January 4–5, 2026, Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One that he spoke with U.S. oil companies “before and after” the military operation that resulted in Nicolás Maduro’s capture. He said this was to gauge their interest in going into Venezuela and investing to rebuild the oil industry.  Trump said the companies “want to go in so badly” and would “do a great job.”  He has insisted he had communicated with “all” of the major U.S. oil firms about his plans regarding oil development there.  Perhaps not surprisingly, executives from major U.S. oil companies — Exxon Mobil, ConocoPhillips, and Chevron — say they were not consulted before or after the operation, contradicting Trump’s claims. According to multiple industry sources,none of those companies had any conversations with the White House about operating in Venezuela before Maduro’s capture.   They also had no discussions with the administration about investing there afterward.  So Trump asserts he briefed the oil industry about his plans and that companies are eager to participate.   Oil industry executives explicitly deny having had those consultations, saying they were not contacted ahead of the operation or afterward about entering Venezuela to invest.  So, who to believe???  For a change, I believe Trump.

Getting back on the horse