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.

Ahoy! Matey! GOP Senator Proposes Maritime Version of the Proud Boys

Here we go again.

It's MAGA cosplay time.

This edition features far-right Senator Mike Lee introducing a bill allowing private citizens to play pirates and to seize Venezuelan ships.

What Lee is proposing is nothing more than a maritime version of the Proud Boys turned loose in international waters.

What could possibly go wrong?

Are you kidding me?

Let's back up for a moment and see where the inspiration for this crazy idea came from. Little known fact: American piracy is permitted by the U.S. Constitution with government approval. Who knew?

During the 1700s, following the founding of the nation, when the British had the most powerful navy in the world, the founders essentially state-sanctioned piracy. They issued a "writ" or commission called a Letter of Marque which was basically a get out of jail free card.

Later, during the War of 1812 against Britain "writs" were handed out to anyone with a ship and a grudge against England.

Back to the present.

Today, the United States is considered to have the strongest navy in the world. As Trump put it, "...we have the greatest armada in the world off the coast of Venezuela." 

So why commission pirates when the largest aircraft carrier in the world and its accompanying fleet, are already there?

I'll tell you why, Lee is counting on the ignorance of the populace to pass his bill, which he calls The Cartel Marque and Reprisal Reauthorization Act. The idea is for private citizens and groups (note groups) in defending America from cartels at sea.

I can just see a ship with a Trump flag flying and full of far-right luminaries cruising around in international waters looking for trouble. Nothing to worry about with that crew defending freedom, right?

The way I look at it, Trump is the equivalent of a Somali pirate for illegally seizing two Venezuelan oil tankers and murdering 104 people in small boats. No quarter given. This is just another example of Trump minions trying to impress dear leader.

You know the world is upside down right now when you have a lawmaker announcing he's fine with pirates and murder. In normal times Lee would have been laughed out of the chamber for proposing such lunatic legislation.

Of course, these are not normal times, ever since Trump got into politics and infused them with his special poison.

I can't help wondering if Lee has been following Kristi Noem's cosplay characters and it inspired him to come up with playing pirates.

As it Stands, I think I'm immune to being shocked by the stupid things MAGA morons do for the First Felon.

'Sucking Up' is a Sport in the Trump Regime

It's just another day of Republicans competing to see who can embarrass themselves the most by crawling up Trump's colon and singing his praises.

Listen to Secretary of Commerce, Howard Lutnick, tell Fox News host John Roberts that Trump's "mathematically impossible" claim he's cutting drug prices by 600% is actually correct.

It was a surprise to me to hear Robert's grilled Lutnick and told him that cutting something by 100% would mean that a customer gets their medication for free. 

"Well, if you cut something by 100 percent, the cost goes down to zero," Roberts explained. "If you cut it by four five or 600 percent, the drug companies are actually paying you to take their product. So, it raises the question, how much of Trump's Wednesday night speech was hyperbole and how much was fact?"

What was Lutnik's response? Believe it or not he laughed and said "no." His comeback was as lame as you can get, "It depends on how you look at it" he claimed while smiling stupidly at Roberts and the TV viewers.

This recent exchange is part of an ongoing effort among Trump minions to see who can hold their breath the longest while their head is inserted up his anus. It's like a sport, but there are no winners. Just losers praising a dictator who demands complete loyalty.

Every now and then Trump calls for a full cabinet meeting where each member heaps praise on the convicted felon hoping to stay in his good graces. It's like a mini-Olympics with each contestant abasing themselves for the glory of dear leader. It's pathetic but true.

Cabinet Meetings are a Spectar Sport.

Before watching one of these suck-up marathons I advise keeping a barf bag nearby as one official after another obsequiously kowtows to Trump. They stroke his paper machete ego and try to prevent their emotionally incontinent strongman from having a meltdown.

The cowardly cabinet members are given the opportunity to competitively slobber over Trump with melodramatic praise. This should come as no surprise to us all as most of the cabinet members came from Fox News. 

These empty-headed grifters are the anchors of Trump's carefully curated misinformation universe, many of whom know they are speaking directly to an audience of one, like a hive mind responding to the queen bee.

Trump's campaign of terror against innocent people has made America what he always wanted it to be - a last choice destination for immigrants - a place you would migrate to if you literally had no other choice.

Perhaps Trump's biggest evil achievement is the way he's reduced the Republican party into a collection of clowns who look forward to performing at his cabinet meetings.

As it Stands, I can see future historians scratching their heads while trying to make sense of these humiliating "suck-up" sessions. 

Welcome to that Dystopian Future You Always Feared

It's here.

Every dark dystopian prediction that writers and political pundits have predicted is upon us like a black cloud across the country. Americans are unwilling participants watching Trump's corruption foul every branch of government and their lives.

The first felon has a lot of plans for next year's 250th Anniversary of our nation. Buckle up and I'll share some of the events that are planned by Don the Con to glorify his regime under the guise of celebrating American Independence.

One of the larger events involves a man and a woman from each state and territory being summoned to the nation's capital to battle it out before a national audience.

A so-called sporting event called "Patriot Games" will be one of next year's low lights and if it sounds to you more like a plot from Suzanne Collins' dystopian book series "The Hunger Games" you're not alone.

I don't even want to think what the competitions will involve.

There's a slate of events for next year that's being organized by Freedom 250, a supposedly non-partisan organization that was appointed by Trump minions. 

The group promises to, "...cherish our God-given freedoms and build the Golden Age of Opportunity for the next 250 years." Trump's gold gilded ballroom will be an example of what Americans can look forward to.

There will be a "Spirit of America" parade honoring fallen soldiers despite the national holiday we already have. It's called Memorial Day. Let's hope it's not another embarrassing sad-assed parade like Trump's Birthday gala earlier this year.

Speaking of birthdays, Donny's got a bigly event planned for his next June 14th when the White House is going to host a UFC fight on the White House's South Lawn, marking both flag day and his 80th birthday. 

It would mark the first time that the White House hosted a sporting event... demeaning the People's House in a display of savagery best suited for arenas built for that purpose.

I'm skeptical about Trump's version of the "Great American State Fair" another event to take place on the White House grounds with exhibits from all 50 states. Don't be surprised if each state exhibits golden Trump statues forged by patriotic election denying MAGA minions.

From Margaret Atwood's terrifying misogynist dystopia, The Handmaid's Tale, to George Orwell's 1984 a vision of a totalitarian government is coming true. 

Aldous Huxley who presented a future where the World Controllers have created the ideal society, is particularly chilling where people are happy consumers, kept docile with a sinister mix of genetic engineering, brainwashing and the use of recreational sex and drugs.

We're already in living in Ray Bradbury's book Fahrenheit 451 where books are burned/banned and intellectual thought is illegal.

With Trump guiding our futures there's not a lot to celebrate right now as all Americans go into survival modes and hope - beyond hope - the Age of Trump will quickly end.

As it Stands, to my utter dismay dystopian fiction and fact have collided in the 21st century.

Raccoon to the Rescue: A Much-Needed Relief

I often look for funny stories to share as a relief to all of the bad news that comes out daily. 

It's not easy looking for comic relief when the country is under assault from the Trump regime. The stories are out there, however. Here's one:

Recently a racoon made national news because he broke into a liquor store and got drunk. 

Somehow a racoon came through the ceiling of a liquor store in a strip mall and wreaked havoc in the liquor aisle breaking dozens of bottles on the floor and lapping up their contents. When he was discovered the next day the store owner found him passed out in the bathroom. His chubby little body was splayed out in a classic drunken stupor.

I don't know about you, but I think raccoons are charming little bandits, but I'm careful not to get too close (if they're in the wild) because they have razor sharp claws and dagger-like teeth. It's okay to look and laugh just don't mistake their cute appearance for being docile creatures.

Seeing as how we are discussing racoons I have to give kudos to Paul McCarthy who wrote and sang Rocky Raccoon. It's on the Beatles White Album that came out in 1968. I confess it has nothing to do with a real raccoon. The main character's name was Rocky Raccoon. But it was a fun song. Here's the opening lyrics.

"Now somewhere in the black mining hills of Dakota

There lived a young boy named Rocky Raccoon

And one day, his woman ran off with another guy

Hit young Rocky in the eye

Rocky didn't like that

He said, 'I'm gonna get that boy'

So, one day, he walked into town

Booked himself a room in the local saloon..."

I know. That was a stretch, but in fairness I bet a lot of pet raccoons were named Rocky after the album came out.

If you would like to read some raccoon stories that are clever, interesting, comical, and entertaining I reccomend visiting the Wimberley Valley Forums online at VisitWimberly.com.

Here's a fun fact, a raccoon lived in the White House as a pet to President Calvin Coolidge.

Here's another: The Maine Coon is half cat and half raccoon and is one of the oldest feline breeds in North America.

Q - What do you call a group of raccoons?

A - A nursey or a gaze.

Q - What do you call a baby raccoon?

A - A kit.

Q - What do you call a female raccoon?

A - A sow.

Q - What do you call a male raccoon?

A - A boar.

As it Stands, we all deserve a break today from the chaos that's happening across the country.