We Just Conquered Venezuela

I think Trump may have just started World War III.

Trump's invasion of Venezuela doesn't make sense on the surface.  He made it clear that it was about oil.  In fact, there's no strategic advantage to an American occupation of Venezuela.  But there's no economic advantage to taking control of their oil either. at least not in the foreseeable future, because there's a global supply of oil clearly bigger than the demand, and the demand may lessen as industrialized countries other than the United States pursue renewable energy.  But when you realize that Venezuela is just the first step in imposing an American sphere of influence on the entire Western Hemisphere, even as American oil companies can go in and take over the petroleum infrastructure, then it begins to make perfect sense.  Manifest destiny.

It also puts us on Trump's agenda.  American domination of the Western Hemisphere is what he wants to talk about - not about Jeffrey Epstein, not about health care, not about a runaway Supreme Court . . . and so we're going to discuss Venezuela instead.  Trump is already looking at hoping to expand into Canada and still trying to figure out how to acquire Greenland for all of the various resources they have, and Greenland has rare-earth minerals in abundance, more than any place outside China . . ..  We won't need them, because Trump has more or less made it impossible to sell electric vehicles in this country, but other countries will.

Progressive commentators insist that Trump has turned his back on his own followers, the forgotten men and women of the industrial heartland who wanted him to focus on Americans first and that they will, in turn, turn their back on Trump.  Not so fast.  Many of Trump's supporters are comfortable and well-employed and well-fed (though Steve Bannon isn't well-groomed or well-bathed), and they're all in on this escapade.  They'll immediately point out that Nicolas Maduro, the Venezuelan dictator, was despised not just by the Venezuelan people but by the whole world - not unlike Trump - and no one is shedding tears for his arrest and extradition.  Like, how can you argue with that?  You can't.  And Trump himself will quickly point out, if he hasn't already, that Maduro has been charged with narco-terrorism and cocaine importation, and that means one more drug runner out of business.  Such an argument would have more resonance coming from a President who did not pardon the drug-running former Honduran president for sending enough tons of cocaine to the States to kill as many "gringos" as possible.

And who will be running Venezuela in the time it takes for the Venezuelan people to establish a new government on their own?

These guys.

Gee, what could go wrong?

I suppose I could send the White House a strongly worded letter about this, but who do you think I am, Charles Ellis Schumer????

Americans don't want any more foreign invasions or nation-building.  I don't have much hope, however, for those who go out to protest this invasion.  Yes, it's about oil.  At least Trump, dishonest as he usually is, is honest enough to admit it.  But, as with the war in Iraq twenty years ago, if you are against wars for oil, don't show up at a demonstration in a large SUV unless it runs on electricity.    If you do have a gasoline-powered SUV with a "War Is Not the Answer" bumper sticker on it, I propose that you either remove the bumper sticker or convert your vehicle to run on biodiesel. 

When War With Iran Is the Answer

Iran has never forgiven the United States for supporting the Shah.  The United States has never forgiven Iran for holding 52 of its citizens hostage for fourteen months.  With both sides flexing their muscles, things are coming to a boil in the Persian Gulf, and the U.S. Fifth Fleet is on alert. 

Everyone says this would be nothing more than another war for oil.  Well, of course it is, because that's what Iran is best known for producing and that's what the U.S. so desperately wants, particularly under an administration that doesn't believe in solar power or electric vehicles.  But if you show up at an anti-war demonstration with a "War Is Not the Answer" bumper sticker on your car, you'd better be driving something like this . . .  

. . . not this!

Because if you drive a sport utility vehicle that could house a family of four, then war is the answer.

James Howard Kunstler happened to point this out the last time we got into a war in a country with a name spelled with four letters with three of them being "I," "R," and "A."    

Trump To Planet: F*** YOU!

Okay, everybody, resist this!

Donald Trump took his biggest swing yet at stopping environmental progress last week, reversing Barack Obama's clean-power plan to reduce carbon emissions from coal-powered electricity-generating plants, regulations on curbs of emissions from oil production, restrictions on hydraulic fracturing (or "fracking"), and a ban on coal leasing on federal lands.  "We're going to go in a different direction," a senior White House official told reporters ahead of last Tuesday's order. "The previous administration devalued workers with their policies. We can protect the environment while providing people with work."

Ah yes, work in the energy sector . . . opportunities for work in every part of it - oil, coal, gas - except solar, wind and other renewables.

I feel like a cannibal who's overeaten - I want to throw up my hands.  Although the Paris agreement, which Trump wants to cancel, was not mentioned, this policy reversal means that the U.S. Government won't be doing its part to curb greenhouse-gas emissions at least for the next four years - and by 2021, it may be too late.   I sure would like to know how we can protect the environment and provide all of these jobs in a fossil-fuel economy.  Maybe Trump has a secret plan, like the one Nixon had to end the war in Vietnam (which the North Vietnamese did by winning it).

The good news in this - and I know I'm grasping at straws here - is that environmental groups are already planning to sue to prevent this rollback from taking place, and there are all sorts of legal hurdles to keep Trump's actions from taking effect immediately.  Meanwhile, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson - a former oilman, no less - supports the Paris agreement, meaning we still need to find a a way to honor it it if Trump takes Tillerson's advice and stays in.  Several businesses that use a lot of energy - including General Electric and Wal-Mart! - are going ahead with their own plans to reduce fossil-fuel dependency.  Also, several states, like California, are pursuing their own environmental agendas and pushing for greenhouse-gas reductions.

State-level action.  And isn't that what EPA chief Scott Pruitt wants? ;-)

Oh yeah, where I live, we've had a couple of inches of rain in the past week, and we may get a couple more this week.  I know this is a rainy time of year, but that much rain in under two weeks?  The line is, "April showers bring May flowers," not "April downpours bring May flowers!"  Climate change is making weather more extreme.

Did I happen to mention that my area is under a flood watch as I type this?

P.S.  Don't start acting smug about all this, Hill-bots; Hillary Clinton promoted fracking in other countries as Secretary of State and said that anti-fracking activists should "get a life."