Please watch this important video by historian Heather Cox Richardson before you immerse yourself in the MAGA cesspool of misinformation!
(https://www.youtube.com/live/7JXQhff9aGc?si=SvdZBbsAei5oqCpO)
(reason) “The real question isn’t whether this action was legal; it is what to do about its illegality. Ignoring the law and the people’s will in this fashion is a high crime,” writes Conor Friedersdorf in The Atlantic. “Any Congress inclined to impeach and remove Trump from office over Venezuela would be within their rights.
Action – Call and email all your federal legislators!
Minimal script: I’m calling from [zip code] to tell [Rep/Sen.____] to declare that our “America-First” president has violated international law, our constitution and the powers of co-equal branches of government. There was no emergency, nor imminent danger to justify his action to enact regime change.
Tell [him/her/they] that: (pick all or just your favorites)
- Trump’s ridiculous “Donroe” Doctrine is as relevant to modern rules-based international law as the Crusades and that his “sphere of influence” concept opens the door for fellow predators, Putin and China, to attack their neighbors.
- [Rep/Sen.____] must refuse to be a party to the subjugation of a sovereign nation and the theft of their natural resources by our own government and his favored oil companies.
- [He/she/they] must refuse to include a single American tax dollar to run another country in the next budget talks. Let the oligarchs who started this pay for it.
- [He/she/they] must pass a War Powers Act to end this whole oil theft grift and to impeach our criminal president.
- [He/she/they] must demand justice from Trump for the summary executions of over 115 people as part of his drug-running charade. and the 40 people, including civilians, on the ground in his efforts to both distract the American public from the Epstein files and Jack Smith’s testimony, and to further enrich his oil industry backers. Each death is either murder or a war crime, and should be added to the list of constitutional crimes at his impeachment trial.
Final line: I expect:
- (For Representatives) – [Rep.____] to sign on to H.Res.353 – Impeaching Donald John Trump, President of the United States, for high crimes and misdemeanors, alongside Rep. Al Green.
- (For Senators) – [Senator______] to openly encourage the passage of H.Res.353 and to vote to convict our criminal leader when the opportunity is laid before them.
Extra credit:
- We want congressional hearings on this piece of political theater that real people died for. We want to know what about this administration’s collusion with the Russians, and with the Citgo buyers.
Contacts:
- Rep. Julia Brownley: email, (CA-26): DC (202) 225-5811, Oxnard (805) 379-1779, T.O. (805) 379-1779
- OR Rep. Salud Carbajal: email.(CA-24): DC (202) 225-3601, SB & Ventura: (805) 730-1710 SLO (805) 546-8348
- Senator Adam Schiff: email, DC (202) 224-3121, Burbank (818) 303-3841, SF (415) 393-0707, SD (619) 231-9712, Fresno (559) 485-7430
- AND Senator Padilla: email, DC (202) 224-3553, LA (310) 231-4494, SAC (916) 448-2787, Fresno (559) 497-5109, SF (415) 981-9369, SD (619) 239-3884
- Who is my representative/senator?: https://www.ballotready.org
Deeper Dive and Additional Resources – updating as we see good stuff
- UPDATING POST ON LEGISLATORS: Tracking congressional criticism of Trump’s attack on Venezuela (https://responsiblestatecraft.org/trump-venezuela-criticism/)
- (Hill) Senate to vote next week to block Trump’s military action against Venezuela. “Any war powers resolution passed by the Senate would need to be approved by the House and signed by Trump to have the force of law. The president is expected to veto any resolution to restrict his power as commander in chief and there are not enough votes in either chamber to override such an action.
- (Axios) Furious Dems float retaliation over Trump’s “insane” Venezuela attack
- (Ramirez.house.gov) Congresswoman Ramirez Slams Trump’s War Crimes in Venezuela, Demands Congress Act
- (Atlantic) Trump’s Risky War in Venezuela – By going around Congress, the president is showing contempt for the will of the public.
- (Impeach Trump Again)

Sec. of War Crimes Pete Hegseth: Besides regressing to spheres of influence instead of rules-based international law, Hegseth believes that the U.S. should not be “distracted by democracy building, interventionism, undefined wars, regime change, climate change, woke moralizing and feckless nation-building. We will instead put our nation’s practical, concrete interests first.” We guess that’s just stealing another country’s oil.
Now, a word from actual Venezuelans, who would like to remind everyone that Venezuela belongs to Venezuelans.
As a Venezuelan American, with family still in the country, I have a few things to say: (this is taken from several writs I have seen and have been shared with me today).
- Maduro is NOT the official and legitimate president of Venezuela. PLEASE Stop calling him the leader of Venezuela or the President of Venezuela. He LOST the presidential elections by 3:1 and decided to stay in power illegally and by using force, oppression and the military forces. So what happened today is NOT a kidnapping, and it’s NOT an extraction of a legitimate leader but a capture of an international CRIMINAL.
Independent audits, full publication of results, and credible international observation were either blocked or heavily constrained.
Under Venezuelan law and international democratic standards, an election that excludes viable candidates and suppresses voters cannot confer legal legitimacy, even if a regime controls the courts, the military, and the electoral authority. Even so, Maduro lost the elections 3:1.
That’s why Edmundo González Urrutia as the opposition’s consensus candidate, is regarded by many constitutional scholars and democratic governments as the LEGITIMATE president-elect. Not because he holds power, but because the process that denied him office was unlawful.
The legitimate elected president of Venezula is EDMUNDO GONZÁLEZ URRUTIA. - Maduro is a criminal that has violated human rights and committed crimes against humanity, by persecuting innocent Venezuelan people, by torturing them, imprisoning them and disappearing those who expressed their opinion against the regime.
- Maduro and his criminal counterparts (Diosdado Cabello, Delsy Rodriguez, Padrino López) have been nurturing a drug cartel known as the CARTEL DE LOS SOLES (Because it’s supported by the regime and Venezuelan Military forces, that wear a sun symbol on their uniform (the higher the number of suns [soles], the higher the military rank). They are responsible for making sure all drugs coming from South America, are “passing through Venezuelan ports without being detained” before shipped to Europe. Maduro’s regime is also trafficking weapons and establishing nuclear stations in Venezuela in collaboration with Iran and Russia, in order to strategically prepare for an attack on US soil (which is only 2 1/2 hours flight from Venezuela).
- I support wholeheartedly the capture of the criminal Nicolas Maduro and hope that he pays for his crimes.
- Removing Maduro will NOT end the regime, not the crimes. Delsy Rodriguez (her brother), Diosdado Cabello, and Padrino López MUST be captured for crimes against humanity as well as managing the biggest drug cartel in the world. There are at least 14 leaders that need to be brought to justice.
- Last but not least, I do NOT support that the US “runs” Venezuela. We already have a legitimate elected president and his name is EDMUNDO GONZÁLEZ URRUTIA. Obviously, Venezuela has the largest oil reserves on the planet and every powerful nation would love to get a hold of our oil and minerals.
- Venezuela is far more than “an oil country.” Under the soil sits a strategic minerals buffet that matters enormously to China, Russia, Iran, and the United States, for reasons that are technological, military, and brutally geopolitical.
- The oil does not belong to Donald Trump or the USA, it belongs to the Venezuelan people. Power is not for Marco Rubio or Steven Miller. And negotiating a transition with Delcy Rodriguez is illegitimate from the start. It is for the legitimate president elect and Maria Corina Machado the opposition leader.
- Venezuelans did not steal from USA Companies decades ago, as DT is saying, and the debts that exist from the Chavez Regime should be repaid by the Venezuelan Democratic elect government. Not to be taken as a war treasure.
- And most importantly, the ilegal acts of a Dictator in USA, are no excuse and should be condemned world wide with the same strength that Maduros regime should be condemned. They are both guilty. They are both Criminals. So it’s up to us, We The People to make things right. In all instances. The danger is far greater than it seems, and far more complex than it looks.
Here is important information on our minerals.
- Gold – Venezuela has some of the largest untapped gold reserves in the world, concentrated in the Orinoco Mining Arc. Gold is attractive not just as jewelry or finance, but as sanctions-proof money.
- Russia and Iran use gold to bypass the dollar system.
- China stockpiles gold to hedge against US financial dominance.
- The US watches closely because gold flows can quietly fund sanctioned regimes.
- Coltan (Columbite–Tantalite) This is the quiet giant. Coltan yields tantalum, essential for smartphones, satellites, missiles, drones, and medical devices.
- China already dominates global rare-mineral processing and wants supply diversity.
- Russia and Iran need tantalum for military and aerospace components under sanctions.
- The US sees coltan as a critical mineral for national security and tech supply chains.
- Rare Earth Elements (REEs) Not fully mapped, but confirmed deposits exist. These are essential for wind turbines, EV motors, precision weapons, radar systems, and AI hardware.
- China controls ~80% of global REE processing and wants to keep it that way.
- The US wants non-Chinese supply sources badly.
- Russia and Iran want access for military self-sufficiency.
- Iron Ore – Venezuela has high-grade iron deposits. This matters because steel is still the skeleton of armies, infrastructure, and industrial power.
- China wants raw materials to feed construction and manufacturing.
- Russia values iron for domestic and export-oriented steel production.
- The US cares less directly, but not about who controls supply chains.
- Bauxite (Aluminum) Aluminum is light, strong, and vital for aircraft, vehicles, power grids, and defense.
- China and Russia both want secure aluminum inputs.
- Iran needs it for infrastructure and aerospace.
- The US treats aluminum as a strategic industrial input.
- Uranium (suspected, underexplored) This is the most sensitive category. Venezuela has long-rumored uranium deposits, never fully audited.
- Iran’s interest is obvious.
- Russia has nuclear fuel and reactor expertise.
- The US considers any opaque uranium development in the Western Hemisphere a red line.
- Diamonds – Industrial-grade diamonds matter for cutting tools, electronics, and advanced manufacturing.
- Russia already plays heavily in diamonds.
- China needs industrial diamonds for high-precision tooling.
- The US tracks diamond flows as part of sanctions enforcement.
- Venezuela is attractive not because it is stable — but because it is weak. Weak institutions allow:
- opaque mining deals
- military-controlled extraction
- off-the-books exports
- payment in gold, crypto, or barter
- For China, Venezuela is a long-term resource hedge.
- For Russia and Iran, it’s a sanctions escape hatch.
- For the US, it’s a strategic dilemma: ignore it and rivals entrench themselves; intervene and validate accusations of imperialism.
- Oil made Venezuela rich.
- Minerals make it dangerous — because whoever controls them quietly shapes the future of energy, technology, and war.
Project 2025 was already working on this…
Watch it here: https://www.facebook.com/reel/1686141062606215

For those who think that Venezuelans celebrating Maduro’s exit excuses everything the US did…

RUSSIA WAS INVOLVED! (It always is with Trump!)
Russia evacuated its diplomats 24 days before the attack, no such heads up to the Chinese or Cubans. None of Venezuela’s Russia high-tech defense systems activated. Maduro just waited for people to show up, so can claim he was kidnapped by folks who had all the legal paperwork on charges (which didn’t include fentanyl) ready to go.
Read it here: https://www.facebook.com/itsashameaboutrachel/posts/pfbid09xYxkQ1H36PQUhnhq6Ne7yqhTGuCkmt4v3xM93QKUB7q5AxAeU6W3qMnwgQ41Gm5l

The evidence has been around at least since 2019.

It’s about corporate greed!
(houstonpublicmedia – 12/2/2025) “Amber Energy plans to maintain Citgo’s refineries, rather than immediately selling them, once the acquisition is complete, according to Reuters. Venezuela’s Vice President and Oil Minister Delcy Rodriguez said the country rejects Citgo’s sale and filed an appeal in the court case, the news outlet reported.”
Probably not a problem anymore.

This won’t end well!

(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PwsBwtbvNpg)







(NY Times) The nominal rationale for the administration’s military adventurism is to destroy “narco-terrorists.” Governments throughout history have labeled the leaders of rival nations as terrorists, seeking to justify military incursions as policing operations. The claim is particularly ludicrous in this case, given that Venezuela is not a meaningful producer of fentanyl or the other drugs that have dominated the recent epidemic of overdoses in the United States, and the cocaine that it does produce flows mostly to Europe. While Mr. Trump has been attacking Venezuelan boats, he also pardoned Juan Orlando Hernández, who ran a sprawling drug operation when he was president of Honduras from 2014 to 2022.
A more plausible explanation for the attacks on Venezuela may instead be found in Mr. Trump’s recently released National Security Strategy. It claimed the right to dominate Latin America: “After years of neglect, the United States will reassert and enforce the Monroe Doctrine to restore American pre-eminence in the Western Hemisphere.” In what the document called the “Trump Corollary,” the administration vowed to redeploy forces from around the world to the region, stop traffickers on the high seas, use lethal force against migrants and drug runners and potentially base more U.S. troops around the region.
Venezuela has apparently become the first country subject to this latter-day imperialism, and it represents a dangerous and illegal approach to America’s place in the world. 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. More immediately, he threatens to replicate the American hubris that led to the invasion of Iraq in 2003….
…As a presidential candidate, Mr. Trump seemed to recognize the problems with military overreach. In 2016, he was the rare Republican politician to call out the folly of President George W. Bush’s Iraq war. In 2024, he said: “I’m not going to start a war. I’m going to stop wars.”
He is now abandoning this principle, and he is doing so illegally. The Constitution requires Congress to approve any act of war. Yes, presidents often push the boundaries of this law. But even Mr. Bush sought and received congressional endorsement for his Iraq invasion, and presidents since Mr. Bush have justified their use of drone attacks against terrorist groups and their supporters with a 2001 law that authorized action after the Sept. 11 attacks. Mr. Trump has not even a fig leaf of legal authority for his attacks on Venezuela.
Congressional debates over military action play a crucial democratic role. They check military adventurism by forcing a president to justify his attack plans to the public and requiring members of Congress to tie their own credibility to those plans. For years after the vote on the Iraq war, Democrats who supported Mr. Bush, including Hillary Clinton and John Kerry, paid a political price, while those who criticized the war, like Bernie Sanders and Barack Obama, came to be seen as prophetic.
In the case of Venezuela, a congressional debate would expose the thinness of Mr. Trump’s rationale. His administration has justified his attacks on the small boats by claiming they pose an immediate threat to the United States. But a wide range of legal and military experts reject the claim, and common sense refutes it, too. An attempt to smuggle drugs into the United States — if, in fact, all the boats were doing so — is not an attempt to overthrow the government or defeat its military.
We suspect Mr. Trump has refused to seek congressional approval for his actions partly because he knows that even some Republicans in Congress are deeply skeptical of the direction in which he is leading this country. Already, Senators Rand Paul and Lisa Murkowski and Representatives Don Bacon and Thomas Massie — Republicans all — have backed legislation that would limit Mr. Trump’s military actions against Venezuela.
A second argument against Mr. Trump’s attacks on Venezuela is that they violate international law. By blowing up the small boats that Mr. Trump says are smuggling drugs, he has killed people based on the mere suspicion that they have committed a crime and given them no chance to defend themselves. The Geneva Conventions of 1949 and every subsequent major human rights treaty prohibit such extrajudicial killings. So does U.S. law.
The administration appears to have killed defenseless people. In one attack, the Navy fired a second strike against a hobbled boat, about 40 minutes after the first attack, killing two sailors who were clinging to the boat’s wreckage and appeared to present no threat. As our colleague David French, a former U.S. Army lawyer, has written, “The thing that separates war from murder is the law.”