As you’re doubtless aware by the time you read this, we just invaded Venezuela, a country we were not at war with, attacked the capital and kidnapped the president. After murdering multiple Venezuelan fishermen in recent attacks on their boats (let us note that delivering drugs to the US is not a capital offense, and nobody was convicted before they were executed. And what little evidence we have indicates they were innocent). And the Felon and his vice president are openly saying it’s to take the oil.
Oh, and the US is going to run the country or at least install a puppet government: “US troops won’t be stationed in Venezuela so long as ousted strongman Nicolás Maduro’s vice president, Delcy Rodriguez, “does what we want” Rodriguez is not sounding conciliatory. That aside, this will probably not go well. Since WW II, our regime changes have worked out disastrously, most recently in Iraq under W. Shakezula makes the same point. And given Tiny Brain’s complete disinterest in following through or honoring commitments, anyone in Venezuela who decides to ally with him may be left out in the cold.
And we have the Felon’s eternal bootlicker Lindsay Graham saying Cuba should be next. Or maybe it’ll be Greenland. I suspect this may be the Felon’s usual belief that if he throws his weight around, his opponents will fold, but maybe not.
Remarkably, we’re seeing pushback on the right. Antisemitic crackpot Candace Owens blames the Jews. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Green blames the president (it unsettles me that I have to agree with her about anything). Which brings me to the point of this post: the Felon will do his best to make 2026 suck, but he may be reaching the limits of his abilities.
When the Toddler won in 2024, it was frightening. When he took office and went full shock and awe — deportations, executive orders, death to DEI (i.e., only white men should be in charge of anything), the insane DOGE thing — I could easily see disaster ahead. Especially when so many influential institutions folded. When he started shipping immigrants to hellhole prisons overseas, he talked about doing the same to American-born criminals (except, I assume, rich white dudes like himself).
As Jamelle Bouie says in his newsletter, “In their pursuit of power, Trump and his allies have done a lot of damage to the United States, and the world. But as this year comes to an end, I think it’s clear that they’ve reached the limits of what they can accomplish through brute force alone. More important, Trump’s attempt to consolidate authoritarian power has inspired a large and ferocious backlash, from mass protests and organized efforts to stymie his most draconian plans to election results that show a voting public ready for change.”
Faced with criticism over everything from the Epstein files to rising prices, Bouie says, the Felon’s response was to whine that people don’t appreciate his miraculous performance as President: “he interrupted prime time television to yell at the American people this week because he does not know what to do besides yell. He can’t convince and he can’t persuade and so he demands, in the hope that he can browbeat the public into giving him the praise he thinks he deserves.
I think he’ll find that this isn’t going to work.”
As I’ve said before the administration assumed they’d crush all resistance. When people resisted, they often won.
Paul Krugman made the same point, though I don’t have the link: the Felon’s got nothing left but trying to sell his glorious success … and he’s got no success and he’s no longer much of a salesman. He predicts the MAGA movement will implode much like the Heritage Foundation. I’m not so sure, but it’s a nice thought.
As the invasion of Venezuela shows, it’s not over. The Toddler of the United States has the power to do tremendous damage, whether it’s with bullshit DOJ investigations, mass deportations, selling out the Ukraine, and simply being an incompetent. Insurance premiums for Obamacare are going to rise catastrophically for lots of people this year. A sensible party would score political points by fixing that — but nope, like the radical left of my teenage years they’d sooner see it burn than bend on any point. That’s not going to help them win hearts and minds.
Consider Charlie Kirk. Hundreds of people got fired for pointing out Kirk was a misogynist, racist shit. That’s unfair, unjust and stupid. But they seemed convinced Kirk was a big enough deal the entire country would rise up and support them if they waved his bloodied shirt as their banner. The truth is, nobody outside the movement cared.
It will continue to be bad but I’m beginning to believe it will stop. Which won’t solve everything — the damage won’t repair itself, the creeps who supported the Felon aren’t disappearing — but it’s no small thing either.
And it will take us continuing to resist, to speak out, to protest. As LawDork says, “Whether it’s people protesting on the streets, people filling out their ballot in the voting booth, people observing immigration courts, people serving on juries, people helping their neighbors, or people acting in any of the hundreds of ways people make a difference each day, the need for the “consent of the governed” has been on full display in 2025.
The need for that consent will remain in 2026, and the need to speak out when the government acts contrary to that consent will be all the more important as cases move forward and rulings come down, as Trump and his administration try to do more, and as the midterm elections approach.”
A final thought, from Alexander Herzen: “The future does not exist; it is created by the combination of a thousand causes, some necessary, some accidental, plus human will, which adds unexpected dramatic denouements and coups de theatre. History improvises, she rarely repeats herself…she uses every chance, ever coincidence, she knocks simultaneously at a thousand gates…Who knows which may open?….”
