More Responses to Maduro (Oil) Seizure

Cartoons and music and commentary--and a new map of Greenland.

Greg Mitchell has authored more than a dozen books (see most of them here) and directed four recent PBS films, including the current “The Atomic Bowl.” Subscribing to this newsletter is still FREE—so if you want to help fund, maybe purchase one of those books, thanks. Or recommend this Substack to a friend!

We responded quickly yesterday to the U.S. kidnapping and planned takeover of Venezuela with a number of cartoons and apt songs, but back with more today. Frankly, there’s much too much to cover, and much else to do on this Sunday, so just a sampling below.

An excellent David Frum piece here at The Atlantic on why the Trumpers have no qualms about supporting outrages like this while anti-Trumpers remain cautious or paralyzed. For example:

Because the anti-Trump side tends to care about facts, it hesitates to speak before it knows what it’s talking about.

Because most on the anti-Trump side care about institutions, they measure their words so they won’t be misinterpreted as criticism of those parts of the U.S. government that preexisted Trump and—they hope—will survive him.

Good round-up by Heather Cox Richardson this morning:

“By proceeding without any semblance of international legitimacy, valid legal authority or domestic endorsement, Mr. Trump risks providing justification for authoritarians in China, Russia and elsewhere who want to dominate their own neighbors,” wrote the New York Times editorial board. That justification seems to be the point.

Trump warned Colombia’s president Gustavo Petro that he has to “watch his ass,” said “Cuba is going to be something we’ll end up talking about,” and warned that “something will have to be done about Mexico.” “American dominance in the Western Hemisphere will never be questioned again,” he said. Katie Miller, wife of White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller, posted an image of Greenland covered with an American flag and the caption “SOON.”

When Maduro arrived in New York City tonight, official White House social media channels, including that of the president, showed him on his perp walk.

By afternoon, though, the triumphal story seemed to be sagging.

The New York Times reported that at least 40 civilians and military personnel were killed in the attack, which hit a three-story apartment building.

Although Trump told reporters that Venezuelan vice president Delcy Rodríguez had been sworn into the presidency and that she seemed willing to work with the U.S. “to do what we think is necessary to make Venezuela great again,” Rodríguez insisted in a televised address to Venezuelans today that Maduro is the rightful president of Venezuela and must be released, and said the U.S. had “launched an unprecedented military aggression.” “If there is one thing that the Venezuelan people and this country are clear about,” she said, “it is that we will never again be slaves, that we will never again be a colony of any empire, whatever its nature.”

Ben Lefebvre, Zack Colman, and James Bikales of Politico reported that oil companies are leery of Trump’s plan that they will invest billions of dollars in rebuilding Venezuela’s oil industry. Two sources told the journalists that while oil companies would like reimbursement for the equipment and infrastructure they left behind in Venezuela when its government nationalized the oil fields, they are unenthusiastic about Trump’s demand that they invest heavily in rebuilding Venezuela’s destroyed petroleum industry in order to recoup their losses.

Warning: Stephen “Drac” Miller’s wife Katie posted this yesterday:

MAGAs also love this:

From an early Warren Zevon album, “Veracruz.”

Yesterday on CBS, Margo Price performed our song of the year, “Deportee,” though unfortunately dropping two verses.

From Tunes to Toons

Luckovich:

Telnaes:

Steve Brodner at protest in Times Square yesterday:

Bramhall:

Davies:

Photo Finish

“Calla Lily, Pasadena.”