Welcome to 2026, a year that dawns with an act of blatant terrorism conducted by the US. The Guy who craves a Peace Prize just started a war to enrich himself.
One bit of weirdness was his claim that the capture of Maduro and his wife was done in conjunction with US Law enforcement …
WTAF!
Call me a tad picky if you wish, but since when exactly did US laws apply within Venezuela?
Toppling the regime of a smaller country is always the easy part. The hard part is what comes after. Neo-cons always expect a pro-US nirvana. It rarely works out. For examples look at both Iraq and Afghanistan.
Venezuela is already suffering severe shortages of food, medicine, and electricity. An abrupt regime change will worsen the humanitarian crisis, forcing massive international aid potentially with U.S. boots on the ground which would be politically explosive at home and abroad.
“Winning ” Venezuela militarily might be simple; holding it politically and economically is another story entirely. The U.S. will now inherit a volatile broken system, and history suggests that this is where interventions get ugly and expensive.
Meanwhile, what this was really all about is oil. He is not keeping that a secret but is being quite open about plundering it all.
Within hours what promptly swung into action was a massive propaganda flag waving event. When faced with it all, just hold on to the rather robustly established observation that nothing, he or any of his sycophants claim, is ever true.
Trump is now a war criminal and international terrorist.
I’m not suggesting that Maduro was a good guy. His brand of authoritarian rule devastated Venezuela and crushed democratic institutions. All that has actually happened is that one tyrant has overthrown another tyrant simply to grab all the other guys oil.
The guardrails are gone. This has only ever been about the oil.
So anyway, here we are more or less at the one year mark with the great isolationist ‘America First’ GOP President Donald Trump, and he has in that time declared himself the ‘owner’ of Gaza and now also the ‘ruler’ of Venezuela.
Meanwhile Stephen Miller’s wife is posting stuff like this …
What has happened is Illegal, reckless, and Deeply corrupt” …
He made the truly bizarre claim that Venezuela stole their own oil, the oil they own, from under their own feet. He must think those listening to him are deeply stupid.
Trump also justified his illegal war in Venezuela by saying that Venezuela was not producing enough oil. Venezuela was not producing enough oil because of sanctions and blockades that Trump orchestrated. (yea, about here is where you can now face-palm)
As usual lurking behind all his bluster and flag waving is his usual clusterfuck. He claimed the old VP was his guy on the ground … without checking with that VP, and so …
The truth: the degree of shit that is hitting the fan is something only he can accomplish, because as usual everything he touches turns to shit – Trump backing another authoritarian, lying about Machado, hitting cultural sites, lying about his local proxy agreeing to the role, having no post-strike plan, etc…
Meanwhile the media propaganda is all coverage about how beautifully the strike was executed, how many Venezuelans are theoretically happy about it, and how the attack could affect our relationship with Russia and China, And absolutely nothing about how this is an unprecedented foreign policy blunder, and so they are all lying about it ruthlessly.
Why did Trump choose Maduro’s VP to be his proxy in Venezuela over Machado—the champion of the people? Because Maduro’s VP has already shown she’s willing to be a proxy for a dictator. Which is what Trump and Maduro both are.
The illegal war in Venezuela isn’t just about stealing oil—though that’s a big part of it. It’s not just Trump wanting to kill anyone who defies him—though it’s that, too. It’s Trump falsely thinking Venezuela stole the 2020 election. This was also part of his personal vengeance tour.
Confused?
For some time now Trump has believed the utterly whacky conspiracy theory that Venezuela’s leadership controlled electronic voting software worldwide and caused his 2020 election defeat to Joe Biden. (yes really), so yes, this was also vengeance.
Oh, and here is a bit of cherry on this cake. Apparently the Christian Nationalists have been rooting for the invasion of Venezuela so that there can be a “revival.” … in a nation where more than 80% of the country is already Christian.
As for his justification, the supposed “Cartel of the Suns” mentioned in the Maduro indictment does not exist, it is all a lie: www.bbc.com/news/article…
Political Cartoonist Mike Luckovich (He called it in the middle of Dec with this)
OK, so moving on, what else has happened in the last 7 days.
Well this did.
Nick Shirley’s Fraudulent claims
Self-appointed “journalist” Nick Shirley is in the game of posting YouTube clips that promote BS, then when challenged that his claim was BS, he falls back on “Oh, it was just satire“.
His latest claim alleging fraud at Somali-run child care centers in Minnesota received over 116 million views. It is all about clicks and $$ not truth.
He went viral because he ticked a few MAGA boxes … anti-immigrant, racism, fraud. He does what he always does, he made it all up.
The reason this stuff works is because lurking under the surface is a nugget of truth that has been amplified, inflated, and blown up into total fiction.
People, actual reporters who checked, discovered that his claim is a lie …
Five of the ten child care centers featured in Shirley’s video had operated as meal distribution sites for Feeding Our Future, receiving nearly $5 million between 2018 and 2021. None of the five had been accused of wrongdoing in the Feeding Our Future case, in which 78 people were charged and more than 50 convicted.[34][35]
Minnesota Department of Children, Youth, and Families Commissioner Tikki Brown said officials “do take the concerns that the video raises about fraud very seriously” while questioning “some of the methods that were used in the video”.[21] She said all the day care centers in the video had been inspected within the previous six months, and that children were present during those inspections. Brown said ongoing investigations into several of the centers had not uncovered evidence of fraud.[36]
It has had dire consequences – BBC Dec 30: Trump administration says it’s withholding childcare funds from Minnesota amid fraud allegations
What this all factually establishes is that there has indeed been fraud in Minnesota, and to be clear that fraud was conducted by Nick Shirley.
Beyond the above he was “inspired” by recent events to continue promoting more BS – He posts an image from Miami and claimed it was Venezuela— then shamelessly leaves it up after this latest bit of blatant deceit was pointed out …
So what else has been happening this past week?
We transitioned into 2026.
New Year
It inspired the political cartoonists who continue to hold the line and tell the truth.
Jack Smith Deposition
The details of the Jack Smith deposition were released.
Quote: “Our investigation developed proof beyond a reasonable doubt that President Trump engaged in a criminal scheme to overturn the results of the 2020 election and to prevent the lawful transfer of power“.
In other words, Trump really should be in jail right now, he really is a criminal and the evidence is there.
More Epstein Updates
I can’t imagine why Trump, Bondi, Patel and Mike Johnson have fought so hard to cover up the Epstein files.
This is courage …
Via the “Pro-Life” party
- Link to article is here
- Quote: “We learned first-hand how the Trump administration’s decision to withhold funding for the World Food Program’s operations in Kenya led children to starve and forced thousands of families to make impossible decisions. One of the groups hit hardest by the cuts was pregnant women.”
Fraud Hypocrisy
It’s not true that Trump only pardons rich white guys. He also pardons rich foreigners who put hundreds of millions in his pocket through his crypto company.
If you have $1 million, then you can pretty much commit any crime you want and Trump will pardon you. I would recommend Pam Bondi’s brother for representation. He seems to get the best results, for some reason.
Multiple layers of Lunacy and utter incompetence
The Kennedy Center – NBC: “More musicians cancel concerts at the Kennedy Center after its board voted to rename the venue to include Trump’s name.”
KRISTY LEE: “Losing my integrity would cost me more than any paycheck… I can’t stand on that stage and sleep right at night.” www.nbcnews.com/politics/tru…
- NBC story dated Dec30 – link here
Objectively Evil
Donald Trump has been reposting videos on Truth Social suggesting that Minnesota Governor Tim Walz had Melissa Hortman assassinated. This is not just a lie, it is objectively evil, and calling it out should not be political …
ICE Gestapo updates
WASH POST: “ICE to spend $100 million to recruit gun rights supporters and military enthusiasts… a ‘wartime recruitment’ strategy…” If you’re not alarmed about Trump recruiting this goon squad with payer funds you’re not paying attention.
Link here: www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2…
The decline of US Healthcare
Rejecting science has consequences …
Diagnosis: A case of acute greed …
- Link to article here
- Quote: “The rejection of van Terheyden’s claim was typical for Cigna, one of the country’s largest insurers. The company has built a system that allows its doctors to instantly reject a claim on medical grounds without opening the patient file, leaving people with unexpected bills, according to corporate documents and interviews with former Cigna officials. Over a period of two months last year, Cigna doctors denied over 300,000 requests for payments using this method, spending an average of 1.2 seconds on each case, the documents show. The company has reported it covers or administers health care plans for 18 million people.“
- Meanwhile up in Canada All citizens and permanent residents get access to medically necessary care. This is paid for by taxes, though providers (doctors, hospitals) are mostly private, non-profit entities … and people wonder why Canada does not wish to become a US state!!!
Ukraine Peace
Matt Davies – The Negotiator
“Peace” in Israel
TIMES OF ISRAEL: “Culture Minister Miki Zohar, of the ruling Likud party, says Gaza belongs to Israel, and that Palestinians in the territory are “guests” whom Israel is merely allowing to live there for now.” www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_ent…
- Never would I have thought that Israel would be guilty of genocide but here we are. You would think they, of all people, would know the cruelty.
- In their minds, it’s only a crime if it’s done to you, not if it’s done by you.
Even More Political Cartoons from the past week
As always, there are many excellent cartoons. Here are a couple more.
Also Chris Britt
Polling Insights
Excellent News: Mamdani is now NYC Mayor
He really is very good at this. Below you can see that he is a very stark contrast to Trump’s “If you disagree with me, eat shit” -policy
They spent months and months insisting he was an antisemite, with zero evidence, and then he chooses to get sworn in as mayor by America’s most famous and beloved Jewish politician – Bernie.
His critics are a mix of liars and fools.
Oh and of course the NY Post continues to churn out the same old sh*t …
This was also suppressed by CBS …
Finally
Our favorite pranksters did a round up of their various encounters they have experienced in 2025 (It comes it two parts) …
Well OK, one last one …
The above works for two reasons – 1) As a commentary of on how he like to feed his own ego. 2) As the observation that MAGA really is a cult.