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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region Forums"But officials in the administration no longer appear to care what the American people want......"
Heather Cox Richardson
Jan 05, 2026
Secretary of State Marco Rubio took the administrations message about its strikes on Venezuela to the Sunday talk shows this morning. It did not go well.
Asked by George Stephanopoulos of ABCs This Week under what legal authority the U.S. is going to run Venezuela, as President Donald J. Trump vowed to do, Rubio served up a lot of words but ultimately fell back on the idea that the U.S. has economic leverage over Venezuela because it can seize sanctioned oil tankers. Seizing ships will give the U.S. power to force the Venezuelan government to do as the U.S. wants, Rubio suggested. This is a very different message than Trump delivered yesterday when he claimed that the people standing behind him on the stageincluding Rubiowould be running Venezuela.
When Stephanopoulos asked Rubio if he was, indeed, running Venezuela, Rubio again suggested that the U.S. was only pressuring the Venezuelan government by seizing sanctioned oil tankers, and said he was involved in those policies. When Kristen Welker of NBCs Meet the Press also asked if Rubio was running Venezuela, Rubio seemed frustrated that People [are] fixating on that. Heres the bottom line on it is we expect to see changes in Venezuela. Historian Kevin Kruse commented: Yeah, people are fixating on a Cabinet Secretary being given a sovereign country to run because the president waged war without congressional approval and kidnapped the old leader. Weird that theyd get hung up on that.
....(snip)....
By the time American forces touched Venezuelan soil early Saturday morning, Morris writes, Trump had already lost the public.
But officials in the administration no longer appear to care what the American people want, instead simply gathering power into their own hands for the benefit of themselves and their cronies, trusting that Republican politicians will go along and the American people will not object enough to force the issue. The refusal of the Department of Justice to obey the clear direction of the Epstein Files Transparency Act seems to have been a test of Congresss resolve, and so far, it is a gamble the administration appears to be winning. ...................(more)
https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/january-4-2026
unblock
(55,928 posts)and most of his policies even more so.
But the media still insists we need to hear more from the 30-35% of the population who are racists, misogynistic, xenophobic, anti-science, etc., instead of the 50-55% who disapprove of him and want a normal president and normal political dialogue and normal policies that down rain hate down on anyone who doesn't tick all the privilege boxes.
cloudbase
(6,160 posts)They never did care.
0rganism
(25,474 posts)The casus belli buildup for the Venezuela smash&grab has been somewhere between pathetic and nonexistent. Amazingly F47 could lose popularity during the first weeks of what looks like a slam-dunk resource war.
bluestarone
(21,193 posts)Like i've stated before, our nightmare will get a lot worse after the 2026 election, even if we take BOTH houses. After what i'm saying comes true after the election choices have to be made.
DBoon
(24,743 posts)
As Jack London prophecized in 1908
yankee87
(2,758 posts)I know I'm being paranoid, but I think we'll have some Reichstag fire, and he'll declare martial law. Waiting for the ration cards.
Kid Berwyn
(22,990 posts)Baby Doc Bush blamed Iraq for what Poppy Doc's nephew bin Laden did on 9/11.
The repuglians still lie about that one, too.
TBF
(35,662 posts)at points in time they are less blatant, but lately they've had no problem "saying the quiet part out loud". Perhaps part of it is Donald's dementia. They can't control him so he just says whatever, they shrug, and no one stops him (or them).
Let's hope an election will take care of the problem, but I'm leery because I know they are willing to cheat to stay in power.
BidenRocks
(2,783 posts)Might makes right!
Fuck your feelings.
slightlv
(7,438 posts)Perspective on the common Russian people. We wre as impotent against Trump as they are against putin. Both countries suffer because of their megalomaniacs. As does the rest of the world.
Skittles
(169,599 posts)the GOP hasn't given a fuck about WE THE PEOPLE for as long as I can remember
ancianita
(42,901 posts)Once they are used to their leaders not caring what they want, they quit bothering government. They will either despair, or get to work to vote those leaders out. Right now, given their daily hardships, November and 2028 seem like a long way off. A lot can happen to the weary heart of a body politic in the meantime.
MLWR
(778 posts)They never did. They paid lip service, but what the American people want was NEVER on their agenda. NEVER.
aeromanKC
(3,819 posts)Rubio is nuts.
The mask has dropped on so many Republicans. None of them should ever be trusted again.
BlueTsunami2018
(4,865 posts)What a joke. All of this Constitutional talk and rule of law and blah blah blah is a joke. Its been a joke for decades upon decades. Piss first term proved what has long been suspected, all that Schoolhouse Rock shit is a sham. All those alleged checks and balances are a scam. Weve been an imperialist, colonizing, fascistic country for as long as weve existed. Most of the time theyve at least tried to have good cover stories about the coups, death squads, takeovers and invasions weve performed in order to keep the rulers plundering. This particular administration is phoning it in. And why not? No one cares, not really. Not enough to actually do anything about it. Were too busy fighting each other over the stupid shit they feed us nonstop through corporate and social media to unite and say enough! or ok do it!
Their team did this so we have to be against it and that side has to be in favor of it. If it was the other way around, the so-called right would be furious and the so-called left would be defending it. They dont want us united on anything. Because if we all start agreeing on certain things, it could snowball and then were coming after them and ending this shit. That, they cannot have.
So of course theyre going to coerce Venuzuela into accepting western control again. They have to. The world is being divided up by the biggest capitalist conglomerates history has ever seen. Thats why theyre speaking in terms of hemispheres and quadrants. Because of the idiotic system we live under and the current circumstances, we pretty much have to agree with these actions. No one wants our economy to fail, no one wants to lose what they have, even if its meager compared to the petty rich and ruling class. And thats why permission will be granted by Congress in the coming days.
Capitalism is the problem, its always been the problem and it will always be the problem. And because there is no longer a socialist superpower to check them, the capitalists have gone wild and they no longer even have to pretend to care what we want.
Theres only one way out of this. And next to no one in the western world is ready for it or willing to do it. Not yet anyway.