I hope Congress is asking some basic questions here: (1) how can these small boats possibly travel 1800 miles to the USA carrying all that cocaine (and in the Sept 2 case, 11 people)?? They’d have to carry so much extra fuel there wouldn’t be any room for cargo. (2) didn’t Rubio say they were headed not for our shores but Caribbean islands? (3) from there, doesn’t most cocaine then go to the UK or Europe? (4) Aren’t fentanyl and opioids what kill most Americans? But Venezuela and Columbia don’t produce either? (5) What kind of message does pardoning the guy who worked with cartels to bring more cocaine into the U.S. than years and years worth of what these little boats bring? 5) wouldn’t it be better to intercept the boats and seize the cocaine rather than dump it as toxic waste into the sea (as well as simply arresting the men?) (6) How does any of this make sense, other than a way for PH to play Battleship like a bored teenager?
Agree. Trump may be trying to extort Maduro to turn over significant interest in Venezuela's oil, or he could be aiming for regime change, which is more likely. Quoted from Project 2025: "The five countries on which the next
Administration should focus its attention and energy are China, Iran, Venezuela,
Russia, and North Korea." (p 179) and "To contain Venezuela’s Communism and aid international partners, the next Administration must take important steps to put Venezuela’s Communist abusers on notice while making strides to help the Venezuelan people." (p 181).
You make the mistake of applying logic. There is no logical answer. The main purpose of this is to desensitize people to his crimes, so that he can commit bigger crimes in the future. He is building justification for illegally invading Venezuela.
I agree; however, if Congress would start asking these basic questions, they will quickly uncover more provable lies, obfuscation and contradictions for their investigation
Well, yeah, Donny is different from Putie. Putin probably isn't the brightest or most flexible leader...but Trump is no leader at all. Donny can't focus for more than two or three minutes at a time and doesn't understand half of what is said to him--provided he listens at all. He may want to invade Venezuela (for access to their crappy sulphur-compound-laden oil) but it will end up being a huge fuck-up for every reason imaginable.
I saw a video from Southern Command posted that showed the boat from above and then the first strike. You could see that the boat had stuff in it or people; it was not clear in the video. You'd think that the video could be examined for what was in the boat. Barring that we could have evidence from the strike- if they were interested in producing evidence, But instead they went for obliteration of people and evidence. So literally they are not believable... and not accountable.... which they should be to the American people.
There is no statutory limit on how many times the Justice Department can seek an indictment on essentially the same facts. This didn’t matter before the Trump Administration because prosecutors acted in a professional manner. Now that they don’t, it is imperative that statutory limits be imposed once the current group of clowns is out of office.
Or possibly let them embarrass themselves over and over again and be facing disbarment. Also, it will keep them doing busy work and not getting anywhere. They are up to no good either way. I feel bad for the targets though. I believe that both James and Comey are getting some free legal talent in fighting these charges. So that is at least a nice thing for them.
The cases against Comey and James are weak, but the point is to punish them by wasting their time and money and even weak cases can accomplish that. Current remedies for this kind of bad behavior are inadequate and need to be improved.
It legit blows my mind that a SCOTUS judge is there for life. In Australia all judges are forced to retire at 70 no matter their physical or mental fitness, and our Supreme Courts are under constant intense scrutiny by the Law Society and Law Council.
I don't understand why it's ok to gerrymander for political purposes. We need to get rid of the Electoral College and the MAGA 6. Also when is alledged drug smuggling a Capital offense? Especially when not proven? Something is very fishy (pun intended).
Someone needs to point out that the destroyed craft and two survivors posed no threat, but provided a wonderful opportunity to deliver evidence that you're not just murdering fishermen and vacationers.
Could it be that this is exactly the cause of assuring no survivors and no wreckage?
I thought that killing survivors is a war crime and expressly forbidden under international law. And weren't these boats in international waters? That would mean that the US has no jurisdiction and make the initial attacks illegal too. Please correct me if I'm wrong, but I was under the impression that military personnel had a duty to refuse illegal orders? Assuming I'm correct and I'm by no means an expert in either the law or the military, but if even I know these things, I would have thought the people in command of the attacking vessels would know so too. I would certainly be interested to hear their justifications for their actions.
It's a partisan, loyalty to the Great Pumpkin, that is at work. The first admiral resigned rather than having a choice between committing war crimes or refusing Trump's orders, which would have led to his career and life being destroyed. The replacement is just another lackey who is positioning himself as a fall guy to protect his criminal command chain. His only justification is: even though their boat was destroyed, and they were hanging to the hull with no shirts, they may have tipped the boat over and continued their drug run, or radioed for someone to pick them up and continued their drug run, thus making them an active threat to the United States 1000 miles away, so he alone ordered the murders.
In reality, it is what I stated sarcastically above.
Thank you for your reply. At least that first admiral had some honour and decency. Sadly, there seems to be no shortage of lackeys willing to sell their souls to ingratiate themselves with Trumplethinskin. I hope they get their just desserts.
Yes, it blows my mind that a navy guy could posit those things as possible. I say we drop him in the ocean shirtless, no communication devices on him with an overturned boat and see how he accomplishes all that.
Fascinating idea, Margaret. Tho from what I have been reading, I gather what they had was not "an overturned boat," but just some overturned wreckage. Which would make your scenario even more challenging.
Not that it matters much in the face of obvious murder on the high seas. But cocaine powder, even packaged, does not float. It dissolves in water. Packages of cocaine would not keep a boat afloat. Wood floats. So do human bodies for a short period. The Coast Guard would know this. Adm Bradley might not, though if he were to ask around D.C. in the parlors of the wealthy cocaine use is likely common, he could have avoided an idiotic assertion to justify what in fact is a habit of the Special Operations people, as documented recently in the Oct 5 issue of NYT magazine about their work in Afghanistan.
And what happens when it dissolves in sea water? Do the fish and other marine life inhale or digest it? The thought of super-high fish notwithstanding, this seems terrible environmental thing to do to the clear blue waters of the Caribbean.
I have been strongly doubting that cocaine could help float a boat - even in my ignorance of facts, I thought that sounded amazingly stupid. So is he that stupid, or does he think everyone else is that stupid?
He is not that stupid. He is untethered from accountability and just makes stuff up to fill in the blank. I suspect he is typical of Special Ops. I refer you all again to the Oct 5 NYT mag article on atrocities by this division in Afghanistan. They operate without accountability, are accustomed to it, so killing helpless, undoubtedly injured survivors with the push of a button does not raise the specter of morality for them.
Tennessee showed Republicans are in big trouble, Sen. Tom Cotton's comments on Venezuelan boat strikes showed he needs a mental evaluation and a Virginia federal grand jury showed it has more legal sense than trump's dumb ass prosecutors.
Yes the same "court" that has allowed billionaires (and soon-to-be trillionaire) to pump as much money into our elections as they want. Shocker that our democracy has devolved into a den of thieves. The corruption is absolutely astounding in Trump's kleptocracy. This New York Magazine cover from almost 6 years ago captured it perfectly. It sure has taken my fellow American voters a LONG time to figure this out.
I just keep thinking about the same scenario in actual police work. If a cop shot 2 defenseless survivors of a shootout, they would hang him judicially from the nearest tree. Let's also not discount the fact that Germans and Japanese military leadership were, tried, convicted, and executed for killing defenseless survivors.
That was the basis for my reply to Ron above. As far as I'm aware, it became illegal to kill survivors after and as a result of WWII and the Nuremberg trials. That's quite apart from the immorality of such actions. Your point is well made.
I'm no admiral, and as Secretary Pete said, there sure was a lot of war fog out there. But it occurs to me that one way to be sure those survivors couldn't carry on their cocaine terrorism would be to pick them up out of the water and take away their cocaine. I guess that must be illegal though, which is why the admiral correctly and lawfully murdered them instead.
Tom Cotton is up for re-election in 26 and gerrymanders don't affect Senate races. Any hope that a campaign with big signs saying "Cotton supports the murder of helpless survivors" will tip the race, if only to a less lethal Republican?
How big a concern is it, in your calculations re the midterms, that the gop voter suppression efforts are going into hyperdrive (at least according to Marc Elias's writings)?
It troubles me - we all now know that if the trumpers win the midterms, it will be ENTIRELY due to outright cheating. Democracy cannot survive with blatant gerrymandering. That it’s not been ruled unconstitutional and totally illegal baffles me. Same with all the money the gop has to invest in smear ads and candidate campaigns. This is not in the spirit of our Founding Fathers’ Constitution. None of it.
All the Blue states should take a lesson from California, and hold an election on re-jiggered districts to increase the number of blue majority districts.
What disgusts me is that, in the light of every criminal thing that's happening in this Administration, the HUGE news today is that the sports world has embraced Donald J Trump and he is receiving the 1st ever FIFA Peace Prize. This country is going to Hell, maybe permanently, and all the media can do (when something surely needs to be DONE!) is shower this egomaniacal monster with warm praise. I want to puke.
Celeste, didn't they invent this FIFA thing just for 47? I wonder what they got in return. Also I read a suggestion that he is going to rename the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts after himself. Speaking of puking. (Actually I thought he already had. I can't keep up.)
The thing that blew me away in that FIFA business, was when the presenter of the ugly gold-colored 'prize' added, 'and you also get a medal.' When the lady walked out with the open box, Trumpet couldn't wait to have that presented to him--he reached out, grabbed it and put it on himself. Like he couldn't wait to get his greedy little mitts on it!
I don't randomly call people stupid, but someone would HAVE to be dimwitted not to see how pathetic and mentally ill he is. And, God help us, this is a significant portion of the voting public. I'm not religious at all, but I swear at this point that only God can save us.
I certainly try. I've sent countless emails to Congressmen. As long as all three branches belong to Republicans, the rest of us are PRACTICALLY helpless. And I have little confidence in a Blue Wave in 2026. TN just voted GOP. How people will vote is so very unpredictable. We can only have faith that good will prevail.
Maybe they are, but are just in denial? In which case, they can be "woke"en up? I always say, you can't cure stupid, but you can fix ignorance. And I get what you're saying, but I think we have to save ourselves. :-(
Need everyone to encourge the DNC to pick the canidates who more progressive and read the room, not the checks from billionares. If they keep failing here it won't matter much long term. Get a majority and ram thing right through. SCOTUS term limits, no stock trading in Congress, limits on Citizens United, acutal healthcare reform, taxing millionares, limits on execuitve power just to name a fewm
I hope Congress is asking some basic questions here: (1) how can these small boats possibly travel 1800 miles to the USA carrying all that cocaine (and in the Sept 2 case, 11 people)?? They’d have to carry so much extra fuel there wouldn’t be any room for cargo. (2) didn’t Rubio say they were headed not for our shores but Caribbean islands? (3) from there, doesn’t most cocaine then go to the UK or Europe? (4) Aren’t fentanyl and opioids what kill most Americans? But Venezuela and Columbia don’t produce either? (5) What kind of message does pardoning the guy who worked with cartels to bring more cocaine into the U.S. than years and years worth of what these little boats bring? 5) wouldn’t it be better to intercept the boats and seize the cocaine rather than dump it as toxic waste into the sea (as well as simply arresting the men?) (6) How does any of this make sense, other than a way for PH to play Battleship like a bored teenager?
It doesn't make sense. It never will. This is just Trump and Hegseth trying to convince us they have massive willies instead of button mushrooms.
No, they have their eyes on Venezuelan oil.
Agree. Trump may be trying to extort Maduro to turn over significant interest in Venezuela's oil, or he could be aiming for regime change, which is more likely. Quoted from Project 2025: "The five countries on which the next
Administration should focus its attention and energy are China, Iran, Venezuela,
Russia, and North Korea." (p 179) and "To contain Venezuela’s Communism and aid international partners, the next Administration must take important steps to put Venezuela’s Communist abusers on notice while making strides to help the Venezuelan people." (p 181).
And Trump has done nothing to help the Venezuelan people. Blowing up boats and murdering citizens does nothing to help Venezuelans.
You make the mistake of applying logic. There is no logical answer. The main purpose of this is to desensitize people to his crimes, so that he can commit bigger crimes in the future. He is building justification for illegally invading Venezuela.
He is no different than Putin.
I agree; however, if Congress would start asking these basic questions, they will quickly uncover more provable lies, obfuscation and contradictions for their investigation
Well, yeah, Donny is different from Putie. Putin probably isn't the brightest or most flexible leader...but Trump is no leader at all. Donny can't focus for more than two or three minutes at a time and doesn't understand half of what is said to him--provided he listens at all. He may want to invade Venezuela (for access to their crappy sulphur-compound-laden oil) but it will end up being a huge fuck-up for every reason imaginable.
With credit to Jim Wright, "Hagueseth" is not acting like a bored teenager-more like a hormone crazed, out of control, spoiled little rich boy.
Oh my!! That’s perfect! You deserve this award 🥇 for greatness online! And this one, too 🏆!
I’ll take ‘asking all the right questions’ for $800, Alex! I believe we have a winner! Thank you for playing, Lpt! 👏
If facts ever mattered, reporting indicates that cocaine from V heads to Europe not US.
I saw a video from Southern Command posted that showed the boat from above and then the first strike. You could see that the boat had stuff in it or people; it was not clear in the video. You'd think that the video could be examined for what was in the boat. Barring that we could have evidence from the strike- if they were interested in producing evidence, But instead they went for obliteration of people and evidence. So literally they are not believable... and not accountable.... which they should be to the American people.
There is no statutory limit on how many times the Justice Department can seek an indictment on essentially the same facts. This didn’t matter before the Trump Administration because prosecutors acted in a professional manner. Now that they don’t, it is imperative that statutory limits be imposed once the current group of clowns is out of office.
Or possibly let them embarrass themselves over and over again and be facing disbarment. Also, it will keep them doing busy work and not getting anywhere. They are up to no good either way. I feel bad for the targets though. I believe that both James and Comey are getting some free legal talent in fighting these charges. So that is at least a nice thing for them.
The cases against Comey and James are weak, but the point is to punish them by wasting their time and money and even weak cases can accomplish that. Current remedies for this kind of bad behavior are inadequate and need to be improved.
Very true. I would like to see some disbarments happening. Make the lawyers pay, they won't like it and may think next time before getting involved.
LOVE the idea of a Blue Tsu!!! 🌊 🌊 🌊 🌊 🌊 🌊 🌊 🌊 🌊
I pray we make it so!!!!!
It legit blows my mind that a SCOTUS judge is there for life. In Australia all judges are forced to retire at 70 no matter their physical or mental fitness, and our Supreme Courts are under constant intense scrutiny by the Law Society and Law Council.
I don't understand why it's ok to gerrymander for political purposes. We need to get rid of the Electoral College and the MAGA 6. Also when is alledged drug smuggling a Capital offense? Especially when not proven? Something is very fishy (pun intended).
It shouldn’t be but the court decided it was in a case called Rucho v. Common Cause,
Jay, which thing are you referring to? Lynda mentioned a couple things.
Jay, I, too, have been wanting to know how it is legal to gerrymander for political purposes! This sounds so illegal to me...
Someone needs to point out that the destroyed craft and two survivors posed no threat, but provided a wonderful opportunity to deliver evidence that you're not just murdering fishermen and vacationers.
Could it be that this is exactly the cause of assuring no survivors and no wreckage?
Yup. My thoughts too. It's all so damn frustrating.
Yup. Could be.
I thought that killing survivors is a war crime and expressly forbidden under international law. And weren't these boats in international waters? That would mean that the US has no jurisdiction and make the initial attacks illegal too. Please correct me if I'm wrong, but I was under the impression that military personnel had a duty to refuse illegal orders? Assuming I'm correct and I'm by no means an expert in either the law or the military, but if even I know these things, I would have thought the people in command of the attacking vessels would know so too. I would certainly be interested to hear their justifications for their actions.
It's a partisan, loyalty to the Great Pumpkin, that is at work. The first admiral resigned rather than having a choice between committing war crimes or refusing Trump's orders, which would have led to his career and life being destroyed. The replacement is just another lackey who is positioning himself as a fall guy to protect his criminal command chain. His only justification is: even though their boat was destroyed, and they were hanging to the hull with no shirts, they may have tipped the boat over and continued their drug run, or radioed for someone to pick them up and continued their drug run, thus making them an active threat to the United States 1000 miles away, so he alone ordered the murders.
In reality, it is what I stated sarcastically above.
Thank you for your reply. At least that first admiral had some honour and decency. Sadly, there seems to be no shortage of lackeys willing to sell their souls to ingratiate themselves with Trumplethinskin. I hope they get their just desserts.
Yes, it blows my mind that a navy guy could posit those things as possible. I say we drop him in the ocean shirtless, no communication devices on him with an overturned boat and see how he accomplishes all that.
Fascinating idea, Margaret. Tho from what I have been reading, I gather what they had was not "an overturned boat," but just some overturned wreckage. Which would make your scenario even more challenging.
Not that it matters much in the face of obvious murder on the high seas. But cocaine powder, even packaged, does not float. It dissolves in water. Packages of cocaine would not keep a boat afloat. Wood floats. So do human bodies for a short period. The Coast Guard would know this. Adm Bradley might not, though if he were to ask around D.C. in the parlors of the wealthy cocaine use is likely common, he could have avoided an idiotic assertion to justify what in fact is a habit of the Special Operations people, as documented recently in the Oct 5 issue of NYT magazine about their work in Afghanistan.
And what happens when it dissolves in sea water? Do the fish and other marine life inhale or digest it? The thought of super-high fish notwithstanding, this seems terrible environmental thing to do to the clear blue waters of the Caribbean.
Um, I'm no expert but I think the fish get very active and want to do the Macarena. Sorry. I'll show myself out.
I have been strongly doubting that cocaine could help float a boat - even in my ignorance of facts, I thought that sounded amazingly stupid. So is he that stupid, or does he think everyone else is that stupid?
He is not that stupid. He is untethered from accountability and just makes stuff up to fill in the blank. I suspect he is typical of Special Ops. I refer you all again to the Oct 5 NYT mag article on atrocities by this division in Afghanistan. They operate without accountability, are accustomed to it, so killing helpless, undoubtedly injured survivors with the push of a button does not raise the specter of morality for them.
If there is no morality, he must be gotten rid of ASAP.
Tennessee showed Republicans are in big trouble, Sen. Tom Cotton's comments on Venezuelan boat strikes showed he needs a mental evaluation and a Virginia federal grand jury showed it has more legal sense than trump's dumb ass prosecutors.
America has become a terrorist nation. And our military is allowing it. Period.
Our military is PARTICIPATING in it, and thus far, is furthering Rump's agenda.
We're not at all happy about the "supreme" court re Texas gerrymandering.
it's the roberts court, not a [s]upreme [c]ourt.
Yes the same "court" that has allowed billionaires (and soon-to-be trillionaire) to pump as much money into our elections as they want. Shocker that our democracy has devolved into a den of thieves. The corruption is absolutely astounding in Trump's kleptocracy. This New York Magazine cover from almost 6 years ago captured it perfectly. It sure has taken my fellow American voters a LONG time to figure this out.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/gYPmX1xTETGZvzyQ7
The Supine Court?
I just keep thinking about the same scenario in actual police work. If a cop shot 2 defenseless survivors of a shootout, they would hang him judicially from the nearest tree. Let's also not discount the fact that Germans and Japanese military leadership were, tried, convicted, and executed for killing defenseless survivors.
That was the basis for my reply to Ron above. As far as I'm aware, it became illegal to kill survivors after and as a result of WWII and the Nuremberg trials. That's quite apart from the immorality of such actions. Your point is well made.
I'm no admiral, and as Secretary Pete said, there sure was a lot of war fog out there. But it occurs to me that one way to be sure those survivors couldn't carry on their cocaine terrorism would be to pick them up out of the water and take away their cocaine. I guess that must be illegal though, which is why the admiral correctly and lawfully murdered them instead.
they watched them for 41 minutes then decided to kill them. It's disgusting, the whole operation is beyond words
Truly. This is murder, plain and simple. It was done to hide the evidence. Please let honest justice prevail.
Criminal, is the word.
"Lawfully murdered"? Quite the oxymoron there! Nothing lawful about it
Tom Cotton is up for re-election in 26 and gerrymanders don't affect Senate races. Any hope that a campaign with big signs saying "Cotton supports the murder of helpless survivors" will tip the race, if only to a less lethal Republican?
There's a list to be made:
Tom Cotton supports
- murder
- drug kingpin pardons
- pedophiles
- higher medical costs
- and more
There is going to be no end of slogans that can be deployed in the next elections against all Republicans.
How big a concern is it, in your calculations re the midterms, that the gop voter suppression efforts are going into hyperdrive (at least according to Marc Elias's writings)?
It troubles me - we all now know that if the trumpers win the midterms, it will be ENTIRELY due to outright cheating. Democracy cannot survive with blatant gerrymandering. That it’s not been ruled unconstitutional and totally illegal baffles me. Same with all the money the gop has to invest in smear ads and candidate campaigns. This is not in the spirit of our Founding Fathers’ Constitution. None of it.
Not to mention all the GOP's vote suppression dirty tricks and Elon's interventions.
Yes, ma’am! All of it! The whole GOP is rotten at its core. Gaggingly, disgustingly rotten.
All the Blue states should take a lesson from California, and hold an election on re-jiggered districts to increase the number of blue majority districts.
Damned straight, shee-rah!
What disgusts me is that, in the light of every criminal thing that's happening in this Administration, the HUGE news today is that the sports world has embraced Donald J Trump and he is receiving the 1st ever FIFA Peace Prize. This country is going to Hell, maybe permanently, and all the media can do (when something surely needs to be DONE!) is shower this egomaniacal monster with warm praise. I want to puke.
Thanks for your enlightening articles, Jay.
Celeste, didn't they invent this FIFA thing just for 47? I wonder what they got in return. Also I read a suggestion that he is going to rename the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts after himself. Speaking of puking. (Actually I thought he already had. I can't keep up.)
The thing that blew me away in that FIFA business, was when the presenter of the ugly gold-colored 'prize' added, 'and you also get a medal.' When the lady walked out with the open box, Trumpet couldn't wait to have that presented to him--he reached out, grabbed it and put it on himself. Like he couldn't wait to get his greedy little mitts on it!
MINE! MINE! MINE!
I don't randomly call people stupid, but someone would HAVE to be dimwitted not to see how pathetic and mentally ill he is. And, God help us, this is a significant portion of the voting public. I'm not religious at all, but I swear at this point that only God can save us.
I certainly try. I've sent countless emails to Congressmen. As long as all three branches belong to Republicans, the rest of us are PRACTICALLY helpless. And I have little confidence in a Blue Wave in 2026. TN just voted GOP. How people will vote is so very unpredictable. We can only have faith that good will prevail.
Maybe they are, but are just in denial? In which case, they can be "woke"en up? I always say, you can't cure stupid, but you can fix ignorance. And I get what you're saying, but I think we have to save ourselves. :-(
I'll hold back your hair. This is so putrid it would make anyone hurl.
Need everyone to encourge the DNC to pick the canidates who more progressive and read the room, not the checks from billionares. If they keep failing here it won't matter much long term. Get a majority and ram thing right through. SCOTUS term limits, no stock trading in Congress, limits on Citizens United, acutal healthcare reform, taxing millionares, limits on execuitve power just to name a fewm