Doñita the Diva

In case you hadn't been paying attention, for the past, I don't know, 27 years, the US Government has been attempting to oust the Chavista regime from Venezuela. Before I start winding up with today's rant 'n' rave, let me be clear: I am no fan of the Chavista regime, either of its previous (Hugo Chavez) or current (Nicolas Maduro) leader. Both were/are venally corrupt; have committed numerous human rights abuses; and, with a little help from US political interference and economic sanctions, managed to run the Venezuelan economy into the ground.

No doubt about it. Maduro needs to go, but por el amor de Dios, not through more gringo imperalismo! Haven't we learned our lessons from trying to play puppet master in the Western Hemisphere? This is a movie we've all seen before, and wasn't good the first time or the reruns, which we were forced to watch again and again and again, especially through the second half of the last century.

And let's not forget the sheer hypocrisy of it all. Our glorioso Presidente, Doñita Trompeta, is only too happy to cozy up to dictators and authoritarians -- Kim Jung Il, Vladimir Putin, Rodrigo Duterte, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, to name a few -- so why is it he gets all hot 'n' bothered about the lack of democracy and human rights in Venezuela.

Hmmm...could it be, I don't know, the oil? Remember, this is the same knuckle head who opined about the Iraq War, "“I still can’t believe we left Iraq without the oil. It used to be, ‘To the victor belong the spoils. Now, there was no victor there, believe me. There was no victor. But I always said: take the oil.”

Or maybe he's just looking to distract us again from his myriad political and legal problems with a military adventure that, initially at least, might be less likely to blow up in his face?

Regardless, thanks to the genius of our glorious Presidente, the USG has decided to take off the opera gloves, bulldoze through the niceties of international law and foment a slow onset coup d'état. First, la Doñta had Veep Mike Pence phone our little puppet, Juan "Tally me Banana Republic" Guaidó, to pledge USG support for assuming power. Next, he sent off Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to throw some sharp elbows at the Organization of American States and bully its member states into supporting the USG's little scheme.

And where are the Democrats in all of this? As usual, sticking their collective head in the sand, just as they did right before the needless, criminal wars in Iraq, Libya and Syria (to name but a few...).  It's good to know that elections have consequences. But since they don't, not really, not in the current dispensation, I'll just sit back and enjoy the show, which I shall call Doñita, starring our Presidente playing the lead role, of course.