...China should be able to kidnap Trump...

+ Kenneth Roth, former head of Human Rights Watch: “The UN charter allows military force against a sovereign state only with Security Council authorization or in self-defense from an actual/imminent armed attack.” (By this standard, Venezuela had the right to attack the US, but the US didn’t have the right to attack Venezuela.) 

+ If Trump can kidnap Maduro for an alleged violation of US law, China should be able to kidnap Trump for alleged violations of Chinese law, such as the arming of Taiwan.

+ Trump’s kidnapping of Maduro and his wife fatally undermines his argument that the ICC’s arrest warrants against Netanyahu and Gallant are unenforceable.

+ International law has almost always only been enforced against the losers in conflicts with Imperial powers…Indeed, international law has often been used as a justification for the imperial powers (usually the US) to violate it.

+ No surprise that the two most prominent Democrats to praise Trump’s illegal operation in Venezuela that killed nearly 100 people were John Fetterman and Debbie Wasserman-Schultz. Schultz wrote of the raid in rapturous terms on her social media account: “The capture of the brutal, illegitimate ruler of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, who oppressed Venezuela’s people is welcome news for my friends and neighbors who fled his violent, lawless, and disastrous rule. However, cutting off the head of a snake is fruitless if it just regrows.” Meanwhile, Fetterman made his usual migration over to Fox News to hail the kidnapping of Maduro and Flores as “a surgical operation.”

+ Elon Musk, Feb 2025: “America should mind its own business rather than push for regime change all over the place.”

Elon Musk, Jan 2026: “Congratulations, President Trump! This is a win for the world and a clear message to evil dictators everywhere.”

+ Still buzzing with post-bombing hubris, Trump threatened Mexico: “The cartels are running Mexico. She’s not running Mexico. We could be politically correct and be nice and say, ‘Oh, yes, she is.’ No no. She’s very frightened of the cartels. They’re running Mexico. And I’ve asked her number times, ‘Would you like us to take out the cartels?’ … something is gonna have to be done with Mexico.” A day later, Trump told The Atlantic that he was considering seizing Greenland by force: “We need to do Greenland, absolutely,” claiming absurdly that it is “surrounded by Russian and Chinese ships.”

+ Trump continued his bellicose ranting aboard Air Force One on Monday: Colombia’s very sick too, run by a sick man who likes making cocaine and selling it to the United States. And he’s not going to be doing it very long. Let me tell you…He’s got cocaine mills and cocaine factories.”

Reporter: “So there will be an operation by the U.S. in Colombia?” 

Trump: “It sounds good to me.”

+ It was always hard to swallow Trump’s claim that he was targeting Venezuela because it was a narco-terrorist state flooding the US with drugs. But this allegation became laughable after he pardoned the former narco-trafficking president of Honduras, Juan Orlando Hernandez. Rubio was reduced to gibberish when asked by George Stephanopoulos to explain the brazen hypocrisy…

+ During Trump’s first term, the Pentagon ran a war game to test his desire to overthrow Maduro. The result: Venezuela eventually descended into Libya-like chaos and violence.

+ Graham Platner: “One month ago, the Senate voted on a resolution to block Trump from invading Venezuela. Susan Collins voted NO and it failed 49-51. From Iraq to Venezuela, you can count on Susan Collins to enable illegal foreign wars.”

+ Trump wanted his MAGA shock troops to hang Mike Pence, but overthrow Maduro and all is forgiven…

+ But even the New York Times concedes that Trump’s motive for the overthrow of Maduro was bogus: “In reality, Venezuela is not a major source of drugs in the United States. The country does not produce fentanyl and the cocaine that passes through Venezuela is grown and produced in Colombia, and then moves on to Europe.”

+ Chuck Schumer: “The administration has assured me three separate times that it was not pursuing regime change or taking military action in Venezuela.” How many times has the credulous Schumer had the wool pulled over his eyes?

+ When asked if he supports Congress using its power of the purse to hold Trump accountable for Venezuela, Schumer said: “Let’s first get the facts.” That Schumer and his Senate colleagues didn’t “get the facts” before the bombing and kidnapping is the reason to cut the funding for Trump’s War Department and its operations in Venezuela now. But Schumer doesn’t really want to know the facts, because then people would expect him to do something, which he has never done before and will never do.

+ A strongly worded letter may be forthcoming.

+ The vultures are already circling: ” About 20 business leaders, including those from some of the top hedge funds and asset managers, are preparing to go on a March trip to Venezuela to look at investment opportunities there, including in energy and infrastructure.”

+ Jean-Luc Mélenchon on Emmanuel Macron’s shameful endorsement of Trump’s regime change operations in Venezuela: “Macron’s stance is not the voice of France. He shames us. He abandons international law. Dark day for our country.”

+ Unlike the timid Europeans, who are fearful that Trump will abandon Ukraine and leave the war with Russia to them, the African Union condemned the US attack on Venezuela…

The African Union is following with grave concern the recent developments in the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, including reports of the kidnapping of the President of the Republic, Mr. Nicolás Maduro, as well as military attacks against Venezuelan institutions.

The African Union reaffirms its unwavering commitment to the fundamental principles of international law, particularly the respect for the sovereignty of States, their territorial integrity, and the right of peoples to self-determination, as enshrined in the United Nations Charter.

The African Union underscores the importance of dialogue, the peaceful settlement of disputes, and respect for constitutional and institutional frameworks, in a spirit of good neighborliness, cooperation, and peaceful coexistence among nations.

The African Union insists that the complex internal challenges facing Venezuela can only be addressed sustainably through an inclusive political dialogue among Venezuelans themselves.

+ The fact that the biggest drug pushers on the planet for several decades, whose product killed 10s of thousands every year, never ended up having their mansions bombed or carted off in chains, tells you all you really need to know about the bipartisan hypocrisies of the alleged war on drugs. I refer to the Sacklers, of course. 

https://www.counterpunch.org/2026/01/05/roaming-charges-preliminary-notes-on-a-kidnapping/