The above was posted by one of my formerly intelligent and rational Trump Deranged Facebook friends, as usual with no dissent and a lot of “likes,” “loves,” “wows” and angry face emogis. Again, to anyone not rendered a drooling cretin by bias, the thing shouldn’t need any further commentary: it “speaks for itself,” res ipsa loquitur. Nonetheless, the meme is instructive regarding just how completely such TDS victims have left reality while their critical thinking functions head into oblivion.
“He wants the oil” is the one arguably legitimate statement, if we generously permit over-simplification because of the genre’s intrinsic limitations. There are many benefits, to the American economy, to the Venezuelan people, and to global stability of removing Venezuelan oil production from its longtime role of assisting U.S. adversaries and Communist governments. The statement is deceitful, of course: Trump does not “want the oil” for himself, not is be determined to take the oil without just compensation to the nation. U.S. companies like Chevron, Exxon Mobil, and others are expected to take advantage of investment opportunities by rebuilding Venezuela’s deteriorating oil infrastructure. This will benefit that nation’s economy and welfare as well.
The obsession with the Epstein files is the signature significance here, marking the poster of the meme as deranged beyond question. There is literally no evidence, nor has there ever been, that President Trump was complicit in his youth with the convicted sex trafficker’s criminal activities. The Trump Haters continue to beat this drum because 1) they want Trump to be implicated so, so much; 2) they know fellow Trump Derangement victims believe he’s guilty, and thus find such an argument persuasive; and 3) they are convinced Trump is a monster, so of course he sexually victimized your girls because that’s what monsters do.
Finally, they keep coming back to Epstein because there is so little of substance they can find to impugn Trump legitimately other than his mean tweets and abrasive personality.
The last item, Jack Smith’s “explosive” testimony, is text-book “It isn’t what it is” dishonesty. Smith confirmed that the J-6 committee, Nancy Pelosi’s unethical and partisan “Star Chamber” to exploit the Capitol riot for political gain, suborned perjury and coached witnesses. We knew that, of course, but it was nice to have a sworn Trump foe confirm it. Smith repeatedly claimed that Trump’s statements about the dubious results of the 2020 election were not protected First Amendment Speech, which is a bizarre and unsupportable position. He admitted that the FBI argued against the excessive raid on Mar-O-Largo, and he confirmed that he secretly surveilled members of Congress in his effort to find “insurrection” co-conspirators. Smith’s testimony confirmed that he is an overzealous and unethical prosecutor who was determined to get Trump locked up before he could get elected President again. Republicans should put it on billboards. The Axis news media is barely covering Smith’s testimony because it makes him look bad, not president Trump.
Equally damning to the meme’s creator and fans are what it doesn’t include among Trump’s reasons for taking Maduro. He had been indicted in federal court. He was an illegitimate head of state whose activities harmed the United States and its citizens. There was strong legal precedent for the action, which the President knew could be executed with minimal risk to American lives and equipment. It displayed American military power to the world, as a warning to future international evil-doers that this is a Chief Executive who will do more than say “Don’t” when confronted with their plans. Removing their brutal, unelected dictator also is a boon to the Venezualan people, who have been suffering under his rule.
I regard the meme, above all, as more smoking gun evidence of just how willing the Trump Deranged are to distort facts and reason to turn public opinion against their own nation’s President, or, in the alternative, how stupid their bias has made them. In either case, it is a political and mental health problem.
Ethics Alarms 
I have a leftist friend who made statment 1 while i was driving with him in his gas sucking Armada.
His wife is obsessed with Epstein but she watches daytime soaps. She lieks tings salacious.
I did not celebrate janaury 6 as national remembrance day. Janaury 19 is MLK Day and I was told January is Muslim Heritage Month. Too much on my social calendar.
Hey, Jan 6th is an important date. You have to celebrate it. I celebrated it better than average this year. The Magi are in front of my stable now, instead of forgotten, and I might have even hummed one of my favorite “Christmas” carols, “We Three Kings”.
In all fairness, let’s not forget the Clinton deranged (including moi) accused William Jefferson his own self of bombing a bomb factory in Sudan to distract us from the intern blow jobs in the Oval Office affair. The bombing was intended to kill some obscure Middle East guy Osama something. Would that mission had been successful…
The oil accusation is an old canard that predates even the Bush I/Bush II Middle East conflicts. It’s been a reliable Democratic Talking Point for over 3 decades now.
I would love to know who the big names are who were clients of Epstein. At this point, there appears to be no way to know for certain. Two administrations had whatever information existed and I expect that such has been in too many hands to be revelatory now.
The Smith testimony accusation is standard “It isn’t what it is”. Smith confirms that Trump was targeted unfairly so the Democrats and their allies instead claim that he dropped a bombshell about Trump. It’s no different from Robert Mueller revealing that there’s no evidence the Trump campaign colluded with foreign oligarchs either knowingly or unknowingly and the so-called Resistance claiming that he did. The Trump Deranged will grasp onto any straws that fit in their bubbles.
Trump-Derangement is a mental illness that has been encouraged by the news media. This country needs a reliable Fourth Estate that uses the broad freedoms guaranteed it in the First Amendment to enhance American democracy, not undermine it for the sake of its preferred candidates.
The news media has so sullied the waters of journalism that it will take a long time to fix the damage it’s helped wrought. The Trump Deranged have become so used to biased anti-Trump reporting that some outlets’ attempts to become more fair are seen as kowtowing to Trump rather than normal non-partisan journalism. It’s been so long since they’ve seen real journalism that they don’t know what it is.
They do not believe anything on a federal government website, even if such information predated Trump. They will not believe any conservative news source or any source that does fall within the pure revolutionary fervor of their fellow Jacobins. Bari Weiss a liberal? You must be joking! She is holding back the daily Two Minutes’ Hate of Trump so she must be a confederate of his!
The mainstream news media could post a mea culpa en masse admitting that it has spent nearly ten years using unbalanced scales to report on Trump, apologizing and explaining what real journalism is and the TD-sufferers will accuse them of being intimidated by Trump into doing it.
Once upon a time, a minister likened preaching Christianity to a fallen world to going through a cancer ward at a hospital offering a cure for cancer free of charge to anyone who would take it and failing because the patients not only won’t believe the cure will work, but also refuse to believe they’re sick in the first place.
I think that’s a good analogy for the Trump-Deranged, as well.
I tire of pundits with no specific experience in geo-political strategy make what they think is profound commentary.
Jack identified but one reason for the Maduro arrest. He was indicted for narco-terrorism and is not the actual elected leader of Venezuela so we are not taking a true head of state.
Yes, he is taking the oil which up to now was being sold on the black market to China who is buying crude at discounted rates because they are ignoring global sanctions on Russian, Iranian and Venezuelan crude. My understanding is that Venezuela provides about 35% of China’s needs and Russian crude which China buys finances Putin’s expansionary wars. So, it appears to me that China which is seeking to make the Yuan the global reserve currency and is printing Yuan to buy sanctioned oil at highly discounted prices. It should be pointed out that the Coast Guard’s interdiction of sanctioned oil is little different than interdicting drugs. Moreover, the vessels seized were changing their flags of origin which is a violation or maritime law because that is what pirates do.
Strong interdiction efforts to stop sanctioned oil from being sold to finance terrorism or global expansionary efforts by China and Russia Trump has put China into a box that requires them to pay market price or start demanding lower prices from Russia and Iran. That will make it harder for either of the two to finance terror and wars to expand their imperial desires.
It should be noted that the US froze Iranian assets globally for the purpose of settling legal claims against the government of Iran for the taking of American hostages during the Carter administration. Seizing oil to compensate American firms whose investments in Venezuelan oil production infrastructure when Chavez nationalized the industry and threw out the American firms is little different than what we did to Iran. The only difference I see is that this president will not ship plane loads of currencies to the existing socialist regime and instead will use the proceeds from the sale of the oil to compensate US interests for losses due to nationalization and to help further stabilize the governmental operations in Venezuela by improving the lives of its citizens who have been living in abject poverty for a generation.
Trump’s critics complain that he did not get all those indicted at the same time they criticize him for going after Maduro. Rubio defenestrated Margaret Brennan on this issue on Sunday.
Had Trump taken out the entire government the cries that he is getting us into an endless war through nation building might have some truth to them but leaving Maduro’s VP in place along with the military a power vacuum will likely not occur creating significant instability as that which has happened in Libya and Afghanistan. As such, the claim that he is behaving in a manner consistent with progressive’s favorite dictators by toppling legitimate governments negates that entire argument. Make no mistake, Trump is exercising power in a manner that compels the remaining government to behave in a manner consistent with our ideas of governance which is what diplomacy always attempts do. The difference between just endless talking and talks which could lead to significant costs to the decision makers makes the later form of diplomacy effective and not merely symbolic like a $25million dollar bounty Biden put on Maduro. I never saw Margaret Brennan complain that such a bounty was no more than a contract for murder.
I find much of the arguments that condemn Trump for his efforts to impose costs on Maduro, Xi and Putin run counter to their narrative that he cozies up to dictators and strongmen.
I have found the following retort seems to shut down further attempts to carry on about Trump and Epstein:
Of course Trump used to hang out with Epstein, he was a democrat at the time.
The first casualty of the fall of Maduro might be Cuba, as the economy of this country has been entirely dependent on oil from Venezuela since the fall of the Soviet Union.
So the USA having control of Venezuela’s oil forwards vital foreign policy interests of the USA, as an oil-shortage induced regime change in Cuba would be totally in line with the (M)(D)onroe doctrine.
https://legalinsurrection.com/2026/01/why-cuba-might-be-the-first-casualty-of-maduros-fall/