Who's Next? Trump Invades Venezuela and Kidnaps Leader

 
After months of threats against Venezuela Trump finally invaded the country, killed innocent people in a carpet bombing, and kidnaped the country's leader President Nicolas Maduro.

Not a bad way to start a new year in Trump's opinion. He has big plans for the South American country which include looting their oil supply and rich minerals that are said to be abundant in Venezuela.

Worldwide condemnation has followed in the wake of the illegal strike and capture of the country's president. In a post on X, Rep. Jim McGovern, wrote, "Without authorization from Congress, and with the vast majority of Americans opposed to military action, Trump just launched an unjustified, illegal strike on Venezuela."

Trump's reply to the accusations were classic dictator talk, "Oh, gee, maybe it's not constitutional. You know, the same old stuff that we've been hearing for years and years and years." 

The distain that Trump has for Congress was never more apparent than when he said, "Congress has a tendency to leak."

Not even twelve hours after the illegal operation in Venezuela Trump pivoted to Mexico and hurled unveiled threats against its president. He's been pushing Mexico's government to allow him to send in American soldiers to destroy the drug cartels which he claims the government is afraid to deal with.

Naturally the Mexican government has denied Trump's outlandish plan and pushed back against his efforts to meddle in the country's affairs.

Another country, Iran, stands on the precipice of Trump's war machine. The country is experiencing a lot of government dissatisfaction and Trump - never one to pass up an opportunity - suddenly grew concerned about the "innocent" protestors and hinted at an intervention there.

Near the end of Trump's press conference on the Venezuelan operation he darkly hinted at another country that may require his intervention - Cuba. "Cuba is an interesting case. Cuba is, you know, not doing very well right now. The system has not been a good one for Cuba. The people there have suffered there for years," he claimed. At this point Trump has identified three countries to take-over for their own sake.

Meanwhile America's felon-in-charge informed the world that the U.S. is "going to run the country" after capturing Maduro. This should not come as a surprise as Trump made no bones about taking over Venezuela's oil industry and mining for rich earth minerals the last six months.

Trump's hypocritical display of concern for people in countries he's targeted stands in direct contrast to how he actually treats average Americans by violating their freedoms.

As it Stands, in one short year Trump has infused an authoritarian agenda in America and now he's ready to embark on a quest for worldwide domination.

A Triumphal Arch is the Last Thing American's Want

Americans want to see food prices go down.

Americans want affordable healthcare.

What Americans don't want is Trump's Triumphal Arch.

In case you haven't heard about Donny's latest project to glorify himself he plans to build an arch that would be located on Columbia Island in Washington D.C. The site is a traffic circle on Memorial Drive between the end of the Arlington Memorial Bridge and Arlington National Cemetery named Memorial Circle.

Trump's supporters are already calling it the 'Arc de Trump, a play on Arc de Triomphe in France. I'm sure Trump guided the faithful on what to call his latest building project in Washington D.C.

As Trump is busy tearing down the White House's East Wing in preparation of accommodating a giant ballroom twice the size of the White House itself, this new construction project could begin in the next two months according to Trump who told Fox News "Everyone loves it."

When talking about Trump the word delusional immediately comes to mind. Who is everybody? Why do we need a multi-million-dollar monument to dear leader when the money could be used to help Americans out in these tough economic times?

The answer is we have a malicious narcissist determined to have his name on as many buildings, memorials, and places he can think of. I'm reminded of a mongrel dog pissing on everything to mark his territory.

Actual information on Trump's ambitious plan to erect a monument to himself is scarce. No one knows who going to pay for this monstrosity, but I suspect Trump will go the same route he did with his 90,000 square foot ballroom - take massive bribes from corporations who want in his good graces. They're calling it charitable donations, but no one is fooled... it's another Trump grift where everyone loses but Trump himself.

It's also unclear just how big this arch would be. When Trump showed off the replicas of the arch they came in three sizes: "small, medium and large." 

Triumphal arches have been used for imperialistic ends since Roman antiquity. Trump's proposal is no exception. He sees himself as an emperor who has conquered America and who has plans of world domination. 

The major reason for building free-standing arches in history was to celebrate a major military victory known as a Roman triumph, the highest military accolade for a conquering general. Just what Trump imagines he is in his alternate universe.

And to think millions of Americans elected him to carry out this destruction of our culture and the abandonment of laws and the Constitution.

As it Stands, Trump's dreams of an imperial America will never come true as long as We the People unite and resist his madness.

What Do You Know? Now Theres 5.2 million Epstein Files Unreviewed

The Epstein files scandal continues to grow in 2026. The convicted sex offender's victims and friends are being revealed in a never-ending chronicle of crimes.

What's gone from a reported complete file on sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein sitting on AG Pam Bondi's desk to unreported files, that if stacked up would be taller than Trump Tower in New York, are a glaring contrast and evidence Trump has been covering up his involvement with Epstein since day one. 

Why else would he have gone through his first year back in office commanding the Department of Justice to scrub his name from the Epstein files, and to slow-walk demands from Congress. 

Trump was cornered by Congressional Republicans and Democrats whose constituents were demanding the complete release of the infamous files, and he was forced to sign a law demanding ALL the files be exposed.

At first, Trump let his DOJ roll out a million files, and everyone thought, "This is it! We're getting to the bottom of Trump's involvement." Not so.

On New Year's Eve everyone got a bigly surprise when, lo and behold, the DOJ reported that there were now 5.2 million files! That's quite a leap. On top of that the DOJ now wants help reviewing the files and is asking for 400 more lawyers, on top of the current two hundred, to complete the enormous task.

Think about that. What's now an enormous trove of incriminating files was once just a "Democratic hoax," according to the first felon. The numerous claims of turning everything over to the public throughout 2025 were just smoke and mirrors. We know that now.

Because of the magnitude of the investigation DOJ officials are saying it's going to take most of January to review the documents. How convenient. I suspect that February will be full of more excuses and on and on. Don the Con knows how to filibuster facts.

Last November Congress passed the Epstein Files Transparency Act mandating the release of ALL the DOJ's files on Epstein by Dec.19th. Now lawmakers have to wait while Trump loyalists' vet the files to start the new year.

I don't think anyone is clear why the DOJ suddenly fessed up to withholding millions of files. What happened? A leak perhaps? Pressure from unexpected quarters?

I know his MAGA minions are livid and want to see what's in those scandalous documents ASAP. No wonder. During his re-election campaign Trump promised to roll the curtain back to expose a sex trafficking cartel (with lots of Democrats and liberals involved) the moment he got back into office.

It looks like a lot of those MAGA faithful followers are done with Trump. He lied to them. They know it now. We'll see how that plays out in future elections.

As it Stands, what troubles me is that Trump got away with a coup attempt - despite the evidence Jack Smith recently reported to Congress behind closed doors. There's little reason to believe Trump will be held accountable for his involvement with an international sex trafficker. 

Welcome to 2026! The Year of Hope

You made it!

You survived 2025 and have arrived in a new year ripe with hope on America's 250th anniversary. 

The majority of Americans will be organizing in a national pushback against Trump's fascist regime. So, buckle up my friend. Here we go.

On January 20th the FREE AMERICA WALKOUT will see the nation come together to fight fascism. It's just the kick-off for what's going to become a year of protests and organizing for the midterms when Democrats are favored to take back the House of Representatives and have a good shot at taking the Senate back.

This July 4th is the opportunity to both celebrate our foundational values and condemn Trump on America's 250th anniversary. The NO KINGS organization plans on having parades with pro-Trump redcoats versus pro-democracy bluecoats to re-enact our anti-monarchial founding.

Some celebrations will feature mini parades of patriots dressed up as colonial bluecoats. It'll be a great opportunity to dramatize just what our patriot founders were up against. I can just see British redcoats flying banners featuring pictures of Trump (or Trump and King George) that hail monarchy and subservience to tyrants.

The resistance against Trump's corrupt regime will be more organized than ever this year. For a list of events, I suggest you Google INDIVISIBLE. The group has a monthly calendar featuring ICE Mobilization Alerts and calls to action.

Once again, we'll have to count on the courts to keep Trump somewhat in check in 2026. It's a hit and miss proposition, especially since the Supreme Court has been favoring Trump like a long-lost son. Still, there have been court victories that have helped us cling on to the hope that someday Trump will pay for his crimes.

Americans will need to brace themselves for more national and international chaos as our first felon goes into his second year of trying to destroy our republic.

The key is to fight back. This year has the potential for positive political progress against the corrupt authoritarian state that Trump is trying to implement.

Lao Tzu famously said, "The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step."

Every step Americans take protesting the hateful regime in power is a positive path towards protecting all of our freedoms.

As it Stands, perseverance leads to success when good people unite and fight tyranny.

Part 5 - 2025 Year in Review: Trump vs Venezuela and Historic Emoluments

Editor's Note.

This is the last part of the Year in Review series where I have been featuring the damage Trump has done to our country financially and culturally.

Trump's supporters believed him when he said that after he gets re-elected, he was going to reveal ALL of the Epstein files and not have any wars abroad under his America First doctrine.

It didn't take long before those loyal minions realized they were lied to about the Epstein files and having wars around the world.

When Trump sent a fleet of warships to Venezuelan waters with instructions to blow up Venezuelan boats supposedly carrying drug runners it was the first step to going to war without Congressional approval and was instantly condemned by NATO powers and the International Court of Law.

It didn't matter. In August the U.S. carried out its first strike against what Trump said was a drug-carrying vessel that departed from Venezuela and was operated by Tren de Aragua cartel. No proof was given. Then the attacks increased. By Dec. 29 the death toll from Trump's illegal war against Venezuela climbed to 107 people after at least 30 strikes.

On Dec. 29 Trump bragged that he had "knocked out" a facility tied to Venezuela. It was a major escalation that portends future attacks on the South American country. Trump told NBC News that he declined to rule out war with Venezuela. Then he ordered a blockade of "sanctioned oil tankers" to and from the country.

Our grifter in chief had a banner year for taking bribes from other countries and corporations.

Trump has expressly organized his business interests in his second term to facilitate the receipt of foreign gifts. Because spineless Republicans control Congress, they have been turning their heads the other way as Trump violated the Foreign Emoluments Clause with impunity.

One of the most glaring gifts/grifts, was a $400 million luxury aircraft from the Qatari royal family that sparked the most protest among Trump's allies. Trump started accepting gifts in February when Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu presented him with a gold-plated pager. 

When Trump visited South Korea, he was presented with a replica of a historic golden crown which I suspect was his favorite bribe next to the luxury jet. Foreign leaders didn't take long in giving him gifts of gold. Japan presented Trump a golden samurai helmet. I don't have the space to list all of his violations regarding his properties illegally soaking foreigners and countries for favors.

One positive result is that the Constitutional Accountability Center filed suit to hold Trump accountable for the Foreign Emoluments Clause. The bad news is that the suit will never go anywhere as long as Trump pulls all of the levers of power in the government.

As it Stands, this five-part series reflects the horrors Americans have been living with since January 2025. I don't believe in sugar coating reality when it comes to the truth and the challenges facing us all in trying to preserve our democracy. Someday, I hope to look back at this series and say those were the bad old days!

Part 4 - 2025 Year in Review: The War at Home

The year began with the Trump regime declaring war on immigrants... and American citizens who looked like immigrants because they were brown.

Border Patrol, ICE, and other feds have been going to where they think immigrants are living and working, and arresting or pulling over anyone they think looks undocumented. This is not idle speculation.

The Trump regime has argued in court - and the Supreme Court agreed - that they should be able to stop someone based on whether they seem like they're undocumented, including their race. 

This has become known as the Kavanaugh stop. It flips the script on the way we think law enforcement works - that you have a crime, and you have someone who you think committed the crime, and then you go after them.

The war at home began in June in Los Angeles, California, when the national guard was illegally deployed by Trump who ignored Gov. Newsome's opposition to the move. To make matters worse Trump also sent active-duty members of the military to back up ICE's illegal tactics against residents of Los Angeles.

Like a cancer, the armed deployment of active military, national guard and ICE agents spread to Washington D.C.; Portland, Oregon; Memphis, Tennessee; and Chicago, Illinois, and Charlotte, North Carolina. For the record the cities that were targeted had Democratic leaders.

As of December 2025, major federalized National Guard deployments have faced significant legal roadblocks, with the Supreme Court blocking efforts in Chicago and Portland. Federal judges in those states have also ruled against the Trump regimes defiant misuse of laws and violations of constitutional rights.

At this time, it's difficult to determine how many legal American citizens have been unjustly arrested by ICE. Pro Publica has documented 170 illegally arrested American citizens but with no government agency tracking the data it's impossible to determine the exact number of egregious arrests made this year.

Americans have been dragged, tackled, beaten, tased, and shot by immigration agents. They've been held outside in the rain with only their underwear on. Pregnant women that were American citizens have been detained.

Videos of American citizens being mistreated by immigration agents have filled social media feeds throughout the year. What's sad is the prospects for any significant reckoning over agent's conduct, even against citizens, are dim. The paths for suing federal agents are even more limited than they are for local police.

As the Trump regime continues its crusade against immigrants one thing stands out for sure: rather than focusing on convicted criminals, as Trump claims, an ever-larger share of those arrests were for solely immigration violations. 

This fall, the share of immigrants with criminal convictions decreased just before the government shutdown, with only 3% of those arrested having criminal convictions. 

As it Stands, coming up is the 5th and last part of this series where I examine the possibilities of war with Venezuela and Trump's emoluments violations that have set a new example for presidential grifting.

Part 3 - 2025 Year in Review: Political Pardons

From Day One when Trump pardoned 1,500 insurgents who attacked the Capitol on January 6, 2021, the die was cast - pardons became a way to enrich himself and further his political and financial agendas.

Trump has defiantly pardoned people, irrespective of their crimes and conviction, which has significantly eroded the moral foundation of the legal system in his first year back to the White House.

What Trump has done in mere months, by capriciously issuing pardons, has undermined the idea that everyone is subject to the same laws.

As far as Trump is concerned, there are no legal or morale guidelines when he chooses whom to pardon.

One of the two most controversial pardons came in October 2025, when he pardoned Changpen Zhao for crypto-related money laundering violations. Zhao is the co-founder of a cryptocurrency exchange.

In seeking his pardon, Zhao's company made business deals with the Trump family crypto startup, from which Trump and his family made hundreds of millions of dollars. Trump traded America's rule of law and justice for self-enrichment in broad daylight.

The other extremely controversial pardon came in December 2025 when Trump freed the former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez who had been convicted of drug trafficking and sentenced to 45 years in prison by a U.S. court.

Trump's minister of propaganda, Karoline Leavitt, claimed Hernandez was a victim of prosecution by former President Joe Biden. The fact that Trump pardoned such a criminal when the U.S. Navy is busy sinking alleged drug boats off of the coast of Venezuela was the height of hypocrisy.

To be clear, Trump has no boundaries. His return to the White House has been devastating for the rule of law. He has no guardrails like in his first term, so Trump is acting on every spurious impulse he has with impunity.

Here's some more examples:

- In January Trump pardoned Ross Ulbricht, the founder of the Silk Road dark web marketplace who was serving a life sentence on multiply charges, including conspiracy to distribute narcotics and money laundering.

- In March he pardoned Benjamin Delo, Arthur Hayes, Gregory Dwyer and Samuel Reed. The four, who founded the BitMEX cryptocurrency exchange, had pleaded guilty to violating the Bank Secrecy Act by failing to implement a compliant anti-money laundering program. 

- In May, Trump pardoned reality stars Todd Chrisley and Julie Chrisley, who were convicted of several counts of fraud and tax evasion involving more than $30 million. Their daughter, Savannah, a vocal Trump supporter lobbied for their release and received the news of their pardon in a phone call from Trump himself.

Here's a scary thought; Trump is setting a precedent using pardons unrestrainedly which encourages future presidents to do the same. He's effectively turned pardons into political favors.

The fact of the matter is we haven't seen the end of Trump's barrage of arbitrary and destructive pardons, nor his domestic and foreign mischiefs, nor his violations of the Constitution.

Although Trump's misuse of the pardon power can be reined in temporarily by the courts, the only sure way to stop them is for the Democrats to retake Congress in next year's midterms. 

Thus far it's estimated that Trump handed out over 1600 pardons this year, compared to a total of 144 pardons that he passed out during his first four years in office.

As it Stands, in Part 4, I discuss the war at home where ICE agents act like the gestapo while violating Americans and immigrants' rights daily.

Part 2 - Year in Review: The Epstein Files Rock Washington DC and the Country

The case of the Epstein files has garnered as much public interest as the X-Files did back in the 1990s. 

The difference is one tells a story about a government coverup about aliens from outer space, and the other is about a government coverup of the president of the United States relationship with an internation sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.

President Trump's friendship with the late financier and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein goes back decades when the two socialized at soirees with Victoria Secret models, parties in Palm Beach, Florida, and trips between New York and Florida on Epstein's private jet. The same jet took them to Epstein's notorious Lolita Island at least eight times.

Flash forward to 2019 (Trump was president) when Epstein was arrested on sex trafficking charges and he threw him under the bus telling a reporter he "was not a big fan of Epstein. I was not a fan. I haven't spoken to him in 15 years," he falsely claimed. 

Conspiracy theorists popped up everywhere after Epstein supposedly committed suicide while locked up and awaiting his fate. Nearly six years later speculation still abounds over what information might be in transcripts and other documents related to the investigation of the wealthy financier who was already a convicted sex offender when he died.

During the 2024 presidential election Trump promised his supporters that he would get to the bottom of the whole Epstein controversy when was re-elected.

That promise has haunted him since. Congressional members from both sides of the aisle motivated by constituents who wanted to know the whole torrid story forced Trump's hand and he was cornered into signing a law demanding the total release of everything in the Epstein files.

What followed was a slow drip of information from the DOJ that was heavily redacted with other documents that were already public. The new law gave the Trump regime a deadline, Dec. 19th, to turn over ALL of the Epstein files.

That didn't happen. Some lawmakers considered taking legal action or contempt charges against DOJ officials for the delays and heavy redactions. Then a surprising thing happened when the DOJ suddenly released over a million files of additional documents on Dec. 27th. That, of course, means more delays.

It's ironic that Trump's own campaign promise has turned into an anchor around his flabby neck. He underestimated how badly his MAGA base wanted ALL of the dirt on the story. Democrats seeing blood in the water also went after the release of the controversial files.

It's a safe bet that 2026 will feature more damning revelations as the Epstein documents continue to come to light and become political bombs throughout the year.

If it turns out that there's a ton of damning evidence against Trump, he will use his real and imagined powers to stay in office. It's going to be up to Congress to impeach him and if the Democrats do as well as expected in the midterms it could happen.

As it Stands, in Part 3 I'll lay out one of Trump's most egregious grifts of 2025 since slithering into office - Pardons for sale.

Part 1 - 2025 Begins with a Mass Pardon for Criminals - Then It Got Worse

Part 1 of a 5 -Part Series 

Editor's Note - I'm going to pretend 2025 never happened after I finish this series depicting the destruction of Democracy and decency in America.

On Day One Donald J. Trump, the convicted felon who stole the 2024 election with Elon Musk's help, pardoned 1,500 insurrectionists who tried to help him steal the 2020 presidential election.

On Day Two Trump created the "Department of Government Efficiency" (Doge) with Elon Musk in charge. Musk reduced the federal workforce by hundreds of thousands by using legal and illegal authority to purge workers and agencies like USAID.

By Day Three Trump already had caused more chaos in the country than President Biden's entire term.

Highlights include "Liberation Day" when Trump announced sweeping new tariffs on every country in the world. The result was predictable; prices on everything in the United States went up and the negative effect is still rocking the economy.

Trump's ridiculous campaign claim that he could end the war between Russia and Ukraine was just another big lie to get elected. The two countries are still engaged in a hot war during these waning days of 2025.

Bombast and bullshit... Trump's claim he ended eight wars is pure propaganda. The supposed peace agreement between Hamas and Israel collapsed a day after it was signed in Qatar even though neither side was represented by its leaders. 

Since then, there has been constant violations and this month a United Nations commission concluded that Israel had committed acts of genocide as defined by international law against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

Wild claims. Because Trump hosted an accord between Congo and Rwanda, he claimed to have ended their 30-year war. Since the signing the two countries have continued to murder each other's civilian populations despite Trump's claim there will be a "great miracle" on Dec. 4 ending the war.

Since Trump took office, the United States has been involved in six ceasefires or peace agreements. Not all of the countries give credit to Trump's regime for being involved.

As a matter of fact, it only appears one of the six countries gave Trump credit. The war between Armenia and Azerbaijan (which Trump can't pronounce) ended with praise for our dictator-in-charge.

One of the most controversial things that the Trump regime has done is to deploy the national guard and active-duty troops to cities that were run by Democrats. 

Under the guise of his new racist immigration laws the military was surged into cities to supposedly protect ICE agents who were illegally rounding up brown people and denying them their rights.

I can't sum up this historically terrible year in one post. Thus this 5-part series. 

Future posts will have more details on this corrupt regime from concealing the Epstein files to the black market of pardons where six million spells a "get out of jail" card signed by Trump. He claims he doesn't use the autopen but there's no way you can convince me he penned over 1,700 pardons thus far this year.

As it Stands, Part 2 will take an in-depth look at the Epstein file scandal rocking Washington.

Christmas Blog Break - I'll Be Back Dec. 27th

Dear readers, it's time to step away from the keyboard and take a holiday break.

I want to wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. 

I'll be back on Dec. 27th to rant and rave about the Year in Review. 

Meanwhile I invite you to look to the right of this page and preview past posts archived back to 2018. If you scroll down to the bottom of the page and look to the right, you'll see a link to my other blog - The Creative Chronicles of Dave Stancliff featuring poetry and original fiction stories.

I wrote a Sunday column for a daily newspaper in Eureka, California for about five years. Here's a link to The Times-Standard.

As it Stands, thank you for stopping by.

My 2025 Christmas Wish List (Warning Harsh Words Ahead)

All I want for Christmas is:

#1- That asshole Trump to be impeached and imprisoned.

AND

- The First Felon's entire Cabinet impeached and imprisoned.

- The war against black and brown people to stop. And for Kristi Noem and Stephen Miller to be sent to El Salvador's infamous prison after they are both impeached.

- Trump's name off of the Kennedy Center.

- Trump's name off of the Institute of Peace.

- For the Supreme Court to stop furthering the MAGA agenda.

- For Americans under Trump's sway to suddenly become enlightened and cast him from their lives and embrace truth over lies.

- An end to the chaos in our country that Trump has created.

- A new awakening in the land where neighbors don't fear their neighbors.

- For libraries to stay open and reject any attempts at banning books.

- For Congress to undergo a transformation where our elected lawmakers actually work for the people... not Don the Con.

- For the rest of the free world not to give up on us because we have a lunatic leader. He won't be there forever.

- Is for the Epstein Files to have a smoking gun (several would be nice) incriminating Donny without a doubt.

As it Stands, I actually have two lists. One for the naughty and one for the nice. I'm still working on the nice one.