Source: Caitlin Johnstone, Rogue Journalist
by Caitlin Johnstone

“US forces have seized an oil tanker carrying some 1.8 million barrels of oil from Venezuela to Cuba as part of its ongoing series of warmongering escalations against the Maduro government. When asked what would be done with the oil, President Trump told the press, ‘We keep it, I guess.’ Meanwhile Chuck Schumer is refusing to oppose Trump’s regime change interventionism against Venezuela, and CNN just had former US intelligence official Beth Sanner on to proclaim that the Trump administration’s act of piracy ‘is absolutely normal.’ So Trump’s ostensible opposition in the political-media class are putting absolutely no inertia on this. The US pirating a Cuba-bound oil tanker from Venezuela illustrates how the empire is hurrying to shore up control over Latin America in the same way the US and Israel are quickly shoring up control over the middle east.” (12/12/25)

https://caitlinjohnstone.com.au/2025/12/12/the-empire-is-scrambling-to-fully-dominate-latin-america-and-other-notes/

Source: The Daily Beast
by David Rothkopf

“It is hard to know whether Donald Trump or the MAGA movement he created is falling apart faster. The 79-year-old president is deteriorating rapidly before our eyes—cankles puffier, bruises and bandages on his hand more ever present. He’s nodding off at event after event, slurring his words, his behavior increasingly erratic. And he has become painfully sensitive to the fact that his decay is so apparent, going as far as suggesting that media outlets reporting about his health are guilty of treason. Of course, every effort he makes to prove he’s not one step away from melting into a bubbling orange puddle seems to make it clearer that he’s losing it. As bad as all that is, however, MAGA may be collapsing even more quickly than its creator.” (12/12/25)

https://archive.is/PxEbT

Source: New York Post
by Betsy McCaughey

“Democratic pols are knocking heads over homelessness: One approach to the problem reflects reality, and the other is sheer lunacy. On the lunatic side, Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani is vowing to let homeless encampments spill into every Gotham neighborhood. And in Connecticut, Democratic state lawmakers are about to pass a law that will keep local officials from cracking down on living rough in parks or vehicles. But Democrats with higher aspirations, like California’s Gov. Gavin Newsom and Boston’s Mayor Michelle Wu, are reading the political tea leaves — and distancing themselves as far as they can from such misplaced compassion. After all, Americans favor clearing homeless encampments by nearly two to one, an August AP-NORC/Harris poll found. The general public has it right: Freezing to death, being murdered, or dying of an overdose on a urine-soaked mattress does not equal kindness.” (12/12/25)

https://nypost.com/2025/12/12/opinion/democrats-divide-on-homelessness-public-safety-vs-radical-folly/

Source: The Atlantic
by Jonathan Chait

“In rejecting yesterday a redistricting plan backed by President Donald Trump, Indiana’s Republican-controlled senate did not merely deny Republicans two new U.S. House seats in next year’s midterm elections. They also engaged in a mass revolt against the president. … The significance of Indiana’s noncompliance lies not in the specifics of what was refused — attempts to gerrymander electoral maps are hardly unprecedented, even though a mid-decade battle violates norms — but in the act of refusal itself. Trump’s authoritarian project relies on the cultlike hold he has over his party. Republicans have come to understand that the cost of defying Trump is the death of their political career. … What politician is willing to sacrifice their career or their family’s safety for a single act of defiance Yet the spines of Indiana Republicans stiffened where so many others snapped.” (12/12/25)

https://archive.is/z1Rhg

Source: Common Dreams
by Angel Gomez

“As the USS Gerald R. Ford — the largest aircraft carrier afloat — casts its shadow along the Venezuelan coast, the United States must confront an uncomfortable question: What national interest is being protected by threatening a country that poses no military, territorial, or existential danger to the American republic? The answer, made clear by an array of respected American scholars, former officials, and ex-military insiders, has nothing to do with security. Instead, it arises from a familiar mixture of ideology, geopolitical control, and the old reflex of imperial overreach. This is not defense. This is theater — one part provocation, one part political opportunism, and no part necessity. Among the clearest voices cutting through the rhetoric is professor John Mearsheimer, perhaps the most prominent American realist in international relations. He does not mince words: Venezuela is not a threat to the United States.” (12/13/25)

https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/against-intervention-venezuela