Wednesday, January 07, 2026

For The Time Being




Well, so that is that. Now we must dismantle the tree,
Putting the decorations back into their cardboard boxes --
Some have got broken -- and carrying them up to the attic.
The holly and the mistletoe must be taken down and burnt,
And the children got ready for school. There are enough
Left-overs to do, warmed-up, for the rest of the week --
Not that we have much appetite, having drunk such a lot,
Stayed up so late, attempted -- quite unsuccessfully --
To love all of our relatives, and in general
Grossly overestimated our powers. Once again
As in previous years we have seen the actual Vision and failed
To do more than entertain it as an agreeable
Possibility, once again we have sent Him away,
Begging though to remain His disobedient servant,
The promising child who cannot keep His word for long.
The Christmas Feast is already a fading memory,
And already the mind begins to be vaguely aware
Of an unpleasant whiff of apprehension at the thought
Of Lent and Good Friday which cannot, after all, now
Be very far off. But, for the time being, here we all are,
Back in the moderate Aristotelian city
Of darning and the Eight-Fifteen, where Euclid's geometry
And Newton's mechanics would account for our experience,
And the kitchen table exists because I scrub it.
It seems to have shrunk during the holidays. The streets
Are much narrower than we remembered; we had forgotten
The office was as depressing as this. To those who have seen
The Child, however dimly, however incredulously,
The Time Being is, in a sense, the most trying time of all.
For the innocent children who whispered so excitedly
Outside the locked door where they knew the presents to be
Grew up when it opened. Now, recollecting that moment
We can repress the joy, but the guilt remains conscious;
Remembering the stable where for once in our lives
Everything became a You and nothing was an It.
And craving the sensation but ignoring the cause,
We look round for something, no matter what, to inhibit
Our self-reflection, and the obvious thing for that purpose
Would be some great suffering. So, once we have met the Son,
We are tempted ever after to pray to the Father;
"Lead us into temptation and evil for our sake."
They will come, all right, don't worry; probably in a form
That we do not expect, and certainly with a force
More dreadful than we can imagine. In the meantime
There are bills to be paid, machines to keep in repair,
Irregular verbs to learn, the Time Being to redeem
From insignificance. The happy morning is over,
The night of agony still to come; the time is noon:
When the Spirit must practice his scales of rejoicing
Without even a hostile audience, and the Soul endure
A silence that is neither for nor against her faith
That God's Will will be done, That, in spite of her prayers,
God will cheat no one, not even the world of its triumph.


--W.H. Auden

I close Christmas with this final section from Auden’s Christmas oratorio. I feel like someday I should provide an analysis of it. But not this year. Thus year I still owe you an explanation of why I raised the ghost of “Burnt Norton” at the beginning of Advent.

And never mentioned it again. It’s still standing at my elbow, urging me to get on with it.

So I will.

Certainly before Candlemas….
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Tuesday, January 06, 2026

Yee-Hah 🤠

There is a major hospital complex less than a mile from my house. I’ve had surgeries there. I have visited family members there. There are three buildings attached to it, filled with doctors’ offices, and two more buildings attached by parking lots and skyways, also medical facilities. Doctors tend to aggregate, and patients like it that way.

What kind of idiot is this guy? “Competition”? In healthcare? That is actually antithetical to medical ethics.
Isn’t it? Grinding slowly but exceeding fine.
I only add this because I’ve tried repeatedly to embed the tweet, and been told repeatedly that the embed for this tweet (and only this tweet) “can’t be found.”

Somebody doesn’t want it bandied about.
“Porn site” is a pretty good description of what Grok hath wrought. I have no problem with making it into an albatross.

Speaking of AI, in the Texas Monthly 2026 Bum Steer Awards (if you know, you know. I never read TM except when I see this issue at the grocery checkout. It’s hit or miss every year. But I digress…), a note that: 

According to the San Antonio Water System in 2023 and 2024 data centers in the metropolitan area used at least 463 million gallons of water—even as local residents were often limited to watering their lawns once a week.
What TM assumes its Texas readership knows is that just about the entire state west of I-35 relies on the Edwards Aquifer for its water supply. An aquifer about the size of half the state; but it recharges slowly. Very slowly. Cities, homeowners, and agriculture all depend on that aquifer. And now: “data centers.”

Yee-hah.
I didn’t find this soon enough to include it in the previous post where it clearly belongs. But what’s the topic here, anyway?

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Are We Distracted From Epstein Yet?

No, he can’t do shit. And I’m not competent enough to calculate the profit on 500,000 bbl of Venezuela oil, after all the production and refining costs. But I do know it ain’t what Trump imagines. Nor do I know how the U.S. government lays claim to the proceeds of a natural resource of a sovereign nation. Pretty sure that money goes to the companies extracting it, refining it, and exporting it. If they don’t get it, why are they doing it? Even Bezos, Musk, and Apple haven’t made deals like that with Trump.

I imagine taking Greenland from Denmark would be easier. Certainly just as legal.

The analysis is right. We’ve got to stop treating Trump as rational and his pronouncements as having the force of law. The Republicans have flushed their oath of office down the crapper with their spines. May they carry that shame through eternity.
Machado told Trump what he wants to hear. What’s Trump going to do, audit the books? The man thinks there’s a “tariff shelf” somewhere, with $600 billion sitting on it. He thinks he won Minnesota 3 times. And he thinks he’s going to bring oil prices down with Venezuelan oil (why would oil companies want to invest in the country if they’re going to drive down their ROI?):
Some fears of a disruption to global energy production that helped drive oil prices up on Monday are occurring amid a bearish period for oil prices. In addition to the first several months of the year typically being a strong supply and low demand period, more US shale source development and increasing efficiencies procuring those resources have helped put a ceiling on oil prices in recent years. That led to oil trading near multiyear lows before Monday.

What’s next for oil prices? Kristen Dougherty, portfolio manager at Fidelity, thinks it may take some time for any changes in Venezuela oil production to have a notable impact.

“Given the abruptness of the political transition in Venezuela, and the country’s long history of underinvestment in its energy infrastructure, I expect any material changes in Venezuela’s oil exports will take an extended amount of time before they can affect global oil supply, and thus affect oil prices,” Dougherty notes. “And I still think oil prices are likely to remain range-bound in 2026, as phased output increases from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Companies (OPEC) are gradually absorbed by steady global demand.”
The oil market is international, and complicated. Trump doesn’t do “complicated.” (I’m not sure he can spell the word.) He's gonna believe anything Machado tells him . Especially if it’s what he wants to hear. The man is easier to play than a kazoo. And the music played on him is even less appealing.
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🍩

Trump is an unreliable narrator:
Trump told reporters on Sunday that he had spoken to U.S. oil companies “before and after” the military operation that seized Maduro and brought him to New York, where the former Venezuelan leader made his first court appearance on Monday.

“And they want to go in, and they’re going to do a great job for the people of Venezuela, and they’re going to represent us well,” Trump continued.

Industry executives on Monday told Reuters no such outreach had occurred to oil majors Exxon Mobil, ConocoPhillips and Chevron, all of which have experience working in Venezuela’s oil fields.

Bringing Venezuela’s oil production — now around 1 million barrels a day — back to its glory-days’ height of 3 million barrels a day would require at least $183 billion and more than a decade of effort, industry analyst firm Rystad Energy said Monday. While the Venezuelan government might supply some of that money, international companies would need to spend $35 billion in the next few years to reach that goal. 
Hold on to those numbers. This is business; business is a numbers game.
People in the oil industry have said a major concern is that Venezuela is not stable enough to guarantee the safety of any workers and equipment they might send there. Companies are asking that the U.S. government contract directly with them before they commit to entering the country.

“We need some boots-on-the-ground security and some financial security. That’s on top of the list,” said a second industry executive familiar with the talks who was granted anonymity to discuss private conversations.
And who's on first?
Trump’s decision to allow Maduro’s second-in-command, acting President Delcy Rodríguez, and other members of the regime to remain in charge of the country’s government has also made industry executives wary of taking on the job, this person added. Rodríguez and her family had been part of the Venezuelan government under Hugo Chávez in the mid-2000s when the regime seized the assets of foreign oil companies. Colombia, Canada, the EU and the United States have levied sanctions against her after accusing her of undermining the Venezuelan elections.

“Who’s running the game here?” the second industry executive said. “If she’s going to be in charge — plus the guys who have been there all along — what guarantee can you give us that stuff is going to change? Those three issues — physical, financial and political security — have to be settled before anyone goes in.”
What's a good euphemism for "The President doesn’t know his ass from a hole in the ground”?
Longtime Republican foreign policy hand Elliott Abrams, who served as Trump’s special envoy to Venezuela during his first term, said the president is “exaggerating” the likelihood that companies will return to the country, given the risk and capital required.

“The president seems to suggest that he will make the decision, but that is not right — the boards of these companies will make the decisions,” said Abrams, who is now senior fellow for Middle Eastern studies at the Council on Foreign Relations.
This is where I interrupt to point out Trump has never known a Board of Directors in his companies. The concept is as foreign to him as calculus or elementary analysis. It’s also part of the reason why he admires dictators.

“I expect that you’ll see all of them now say, ‘This is fantastic, it’s a great opportunity, and we have a team ready to go to Venezuela,’ but that’s politics,” he added. “That doesn’t mean they’re going to invest.”
Again: ignore what Trump says. And remember corporations play the same game. Watch the donut, not the hole. Or, to steal a comment rather than end on a cliche:
One would think by now people would be catching on to the fact Trump has no actual business sense, only a formidable will to run scams.
Lagniappe: There isn’t any “high quality” oil in Venezuela. It’s little better than the tar sands of Canada. Permian Basin oil is “sweet light.” Venezuela oil is “heavy sour.” It takes a lot more refining to make it worth anything. Such oil sells at a much lower price than sweet light.  And Venezuela is currently exporting about 500,000 bbl a day. What time frame for production is Trump talking about? Annualize that number, you get 180 billion bbl a year. Don’t regard that as accurate. But Trump is pulling numbers out of his ass, too. Venezuela doesn’t have the ability to increase production, but Trump wants a win.

He’s an unreliable narrator. Which is a euphemism for: “The President doesn’t know his ass from a hole in the ground. Or the truth, if it walked up and bit him.”
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ETTD 🛢️

That might not even work:
While it may have known there was oil in those waters all along, ExxonMobil didn’t officially announce its find until 2015, after Shell had left the partnership. Within a few years it was already shipping its first barrel and announcing that Guyana would soon be its most productive oil field in the world, outpacing even its Texas stronghold in the Permian basin. Chevron bought into the project in 2024 via its acquisition of Hess Corporation, a development Exxon fought fiercely but ultimately had to accept when an International Chamber of Commerce arbitration panel ruled in Chevron’s favor in July 2025. The project has faced a variety of lawsuits, protests, and criticisms, but the firm backing of the Guyanese government has enabled it to grow exponentially over the past decade. The one obstacle Exxon had not been able to shake was Maduro, who was growing increasingly obstinate in his claims that Guyana’s oil was actually Venezuela’s.

When Maduro first began yelling about how Essequibo, the Guyanese state that is home to the country’s lucrative oil deposits, is actually Venezuelan territory, few took it seriously. Venezuela had been making this claim off and on since 1962 after all, even occupying and setting up a military base and airfield on a small island in the region since 1966. Maduro’s announcements seemed like just the latest in a long line of brash moves made by a president losing his grip on power and watching his country’s top economic engine—the oil industry—sputter. After decades of drilling, Venezuela’s oil production is on the decline; plus the industry there produces the crudest type of oil, on par with Canadian tar sands oil, which can’t grab the top price that Guyana’s light, sweet crude can earn. And with sanctions on Venezuela’s oil and foreign powers increasingly disinterested in the country’s industry, infrastructure has been poorly maintained.
There’s also an argument to be made that the claim Venezuela has the largest reserves in the world is mostly hype; from Venezuela (specifically, Chavez and Maduro).
10. So the upshot is that Trump is trying to take control of an asset that is (a) likely overvalued (b) very expensive to process (c) is inside an economic basket case of a country (d) produces a commodity in a world with low prices and flat / falling demand.
And the oil companies are making out better next door.

This is all sounding very Trumpian indeed.
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Epiphany 2026



'A cold coming we had of it,
Just the worst time of the year
For a journey, and such a long journey:
The ways deep and the weather sharp,
The very dead of winter.'
And the camels galled, sorefooted, refractory,
Lying down in the melting snow.
There were times we regretted
The summer palaces on slopes, the terraces,
And the silken girls bringing sherbet.
Then the camel men cursing and grumbling
and running away, and wanting their liquor and women,
And the night-fires going out, and the lack of shelters,
And the cities hostile and the towns unfriendly
And the villages dirty and charging high prices:
A hard time we had of it.
At the end we preferred to travel all night,
Sleeping in snatches,
With the voices singing in our ears, saying
That this was all folly.

Then at dawn we came down to a temperate valley,
Wet, below the snow line, smelling of vegetation;
With a running stream and a water-mill beating the darkness,
And three trees on the low sky,
And an old white horse galloped away in the meadow.
Then we came to a tavern with vine-leaves over the lintel,
Six hands at an open door dicing for pieces of silver,
And feet kiking the empty wine-skins.
But there was no information, and so we continued
And arriving at evening, not a moment too soon
Finding the place; it was (you might say) satisfactory.

All this was a long time ago, I remember,
And I would do it again, but set down
This set down
This: were we led all that way for
Birth or Death? There was a Birth, certainly
We had evidence and no doubt. I had seen birth and death,
But had thought they were different; this Birth was
Hard and bitter agony for us, like Death, our death.
We returned to our places, these Kingdoms,
But no longer at ease here, in the old dispensation,
With an alien people clutching their gods.
I should be glad of another death.


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Monday, January 05, 2026

When You Can’t Pack It All Into One Post

According to Reuters, under the State of Emergency ordered by the Venezuelan Government following the operation which resulted in the successful capture of President Nicolás Maduro, military and security forces are directed to “immediately begin the national search and capture of everyone involved in the promotion or support for the armed attack” by the United States.
That’s a very broad directive. And why do I suspect Trump doesn’t have the iron grip in Venezuela he thinks he does.

Or is he playing golf?
Speaking today with the Danish broadcaster TV2, Denmark’s Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said that if President Donald J. Trump were to launch a military attack against Greenland, it would mean the end of NATO. “I believe one should take the American president seriously when he says that he wants Greenland,” Frederiksen said, “But I will also make it clear that if the U.S. chooses to attack another NATO country militarily, then everything stops, including NATO and thus the security that has been established since the end of the Second World War.”
I can’t be the only one who thinks the White House sees that as a feature, not a bug.
South African Representative: Under international law, the state has exclusive jurisdiction over persons within its own territory. Enforcement of domestic law including the arrest by one state within territory of another state without the state’s consent is an unlawful violation of sovereignty
And at the UN: It's because the price of oil is down that you won’t get Venezuela’s oil to…lower the price of oil.  You wouldn’t think this was rocket science, but somehow…🚀 So glad Congress takes its Art. I responsibilities seriously. And that nobody is in charge.
Hegseth: Maduro got to meet some great Americans wearing night vision goggles three nights ago. He didn't know they were coming until three minutes before they arrived. In fact, his wife said, I think I hear aircraft outside. They didn't know. You know why? Because every single part of that chain did their job, and they did it flawlessly.
The oil companies certainly kept quiet. Congress simply didn’t know. Constitutional order, here and abroad!
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Speaking Of Absurd

 Speak slowly, because apparently I’m very dumb:

It is absurd that we would allow a nation in our own backyard to become the supplier of resources to our adversaries, but not to us, to hoard weapons from our adversaries, to be able to be positioned as an asset against the United States, rather than on behalf of the United States," Miller said after Tapper asking about elections the first time.

"I know you love doing that smarmy thing, Jake, and I was hoping you'd be better than that this time," Miller said tersely.

"The objective, Jake, is security and stability for the people of Venezuela," Miller continued.
Me and the rest of the country.

And the way to achieve “the objective” is to assault the nation, abduct the president, and issue contradictory statements on who’s in charge and what’s expected. Oh, and to forcibly deport anyone here who hails from Venezuela.

Everyone in Venezuelan government is still in place, and yet we’re expecting a different outcome? “[S]ecurity and stability for the people of Venezuela”? Free and protected access to the oilfields, to do with as we please? Is it still “our oil”? Has the remainder of the Venezuelan government signed off on that? Citgo is the national oil company of Venezuela, but it now belongs to an American company. Chevron is the only oil company there; does the abduction of Maduro obviate any contracts Chevron had with the government?

We invaded Venezuela, killed at least 80 people abducting the President of that country, and “security and stability for the people” sounds an awful lot like “thoughts and prayers.” Especially because you said: they serve the United States, or else. “Security and stability for the people” means Venezuela becomes a vassal state of the U.S.

And then on to Colombia, and Cuba, and Greenland, and we haven’t even brought Venezuela to heel yet:
The Trump administration is pressuring Venezuela’s interim leader, Delcy Rodríguez, to make pro-U.S. moves or face further military action.

U.S. demands include cracking down on drug trafficking, expelling Iranian and Cuban operatives, and halting oil sales to U.S. adversaries.

Washington also expects her to eventually allow free elections and step aside, though not soon.

Source: POLITICO
-"Security and safety of the people” means Venezuela becomes a wholly owned subsidiary of the United States. By what right do we claim a superior interest? Proximity? So we’re going to nationalize Venezuelan oil? Because it’s “ours”? And the basis for that claim is…? He means people seeking political asylum. He thinks they come here looking for “insane asylums.” A term we stopped using over half-a-century ago.  With Trump’s clown collective running Venezuela from DC:
Trump named a group of U.S. officials — including Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Stephen Miller and Vice President JD Vance — to help oversee U.S. involvement in Venezuela.

“It's a group of all. They have all expertise, different expertise,” he said, adding that ultimate authority rests with him: “Me.”

Source: NBC News
And Bozo as the deciding vote, and Maduro insisting he is still the President. I’m sure Venezuela will have free and fair elections soon. As long as Trump accepts the outcome….
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Twelfth Night 2026


Precisely what I will be doing this week, ironically enough...


January 5th; the twelfth day of Christmas.  The eve of Epiphany. (So many Eves!)

The liturginal season of epiphany follows Christmas.  That season begins on January 6th, and commemorates the arrival of the Magi following the star to worship the Christchild. "Epiphany" comes from the Greek word "epiphaneia," which my Bauer (Greek lexicon) translates as "appearance", with the intransitive verb form "to show." Interestingly, the English word was so associated with the church that as recently as some 20 years ago the OED entry for the word still gave a first definition as the festival on January 6th, commemorating the visit of the Magi, and the second definition "A manifestation or appearance of some divine or superhuman being."

So it has almost always been a "religious" word in English.

Interestingly, too, the Greek word ("epiphaneia") only appears in the letters of the New Testament, and once in the Gospels: in Luke 1:79.

To shine on those sitting in darkness, in the shadow of death, to guide our feet to the way of peace.

The last "verse" of the song of Zechariah, the "Benedictus."

One can make a lot of idle speculation of all of this. Epiphany is actually at the heart of Christianity, and causes the constant friction Christianity has had with Greek rationalism ab initio.  Greek epistemology, via Aristotle, was based on the idea that knowledge was "discovered" from the natural world (so for centuries those we now call "scientists" were referred to as "natural philosophers"). Plato's epistemology is often considered to be different, but the difference is really only in type, not in kind. For Socrates knowledge came, not from the "illusory" world, but from the "real" soul, and the memories recovered there via the instruments of the illusory world. Either way, though, the most important knowledge is "discovered" by the activity of the subject.

Hebraic epistemology, on the other hand, and such as it was, centered on revelation, on the revealing of knowledge from the source of all things: the Creator.

This is not a mere academic concern. Much has been made about Paul's writings, and how they are less valid than the Gospels because Paul never knew Jesus (neither did the Gospel writers, most likely), and mentions little about the life of Jesus, and nothing about his teachings, but claims authority based on his "revelation."

"for surely you have already heard of the commission of God's grace that was given me for you, and how the mystery was made known to me by revelation, as I wrote above in a few words..." --Ephesians 3:2-3.

Revelation, for many in Paul's audience, was grounds enough for a claim to authority, one that would then be tested against the "proven" revelation of the Scriptures. To his Gentile audience, Paul would then appeal to a different kind of knowledge; but this brings us to Matthew, and the story of the Magi.

The story itself is really quite simple. A lot of traditions have grown up around it, to the point we are convinced Matthew mentions three wise men (he only mentions three gifts), and that the star "led" them to the stall (that's Luke, by the way) in Bethlehem, all the way from "the East." (The star directs them to the Holy Family after they get as far as Herod.) In fact, it's the traditions around Matthew that have led to speculations about whether the star was a nova (Johannes Kepler's theory), a comet (Halley's?); or even a planetary conjunction. I remember attending a presentation on the “Star of Bethlehem” at a planetarium, so there’s still a modern effort to explain it scientifically. Which shows, in part, the pervasiveness of Greek epistemology. Or maybe it's just a "human tendency." But, as Yeats asked, how can you know the dancer from the dance?


Back to Matthew: First, the star doesn't move until the end of the story. What the Magi report to Herod is that they have seen the new king's star "at its rising," and have come to pay him homage. A bit of Greek epistemology, I think, intruding into Matthew's Jewish world. Nature reveals a truth Herod's scholars have missed, until it is pointed out to them. Of course, creation responds to the creator, so Matthew is not going too far off the reservation.

Still, the Magi don't know everything, and have to rely on the Holy Scriptures for final directions. It is only then that the star "moves" and guides them until it stands still over the spot where the child lay. Which may simply mean it brought them at night (a powerfully metaphorical scene, that; the light shining in darkness.) to the home of the Holy Family. Remember, this is Matthew's nativity: no shepherds, no angels in the sky, no census to drag them to a manger. They live in Bethlehem. Why do I insist on the distinction? Because Matthew tells us Herod ordered the death of all males 2 years old and younger, based on what the Magi had told him. So "lay" doesn't mean an infant unable to sit up. (A point emphasized in the Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew: that the flight into Egypt takes place two years after the birth in the cave. “And when the second year was past, Magi came from the east to Jerusalem, bringing great gifts." Chapter 16, Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew. I find these small details fascinating.)

What, then, is the Epiphany? Traditionally, it is the revealing of Jesus to the Gentiles. Perhaps there is even a bit of unintended bias involved in it, as most of the early church "fathers" were primarily Greek in their epistemology, and sympathetic to a story that gave them an opportunity to "see" the Christchild in signs available to those without knowledge of the Scriptures, but also signs that required them to come to the Scriptures for full understanding. Certainly Augustine and Aquinas would find that a comforting tale.

But it is also the crucial story for Christians, a much more important story than simply the chance to wear coloured robes and lead a camel through the church. It is the story of how we know what we know, and where our knowledge truly comes from. It is not a story with an answer, however. As T.S. Eliot intuited, it is a story that only points in a direction.

A story worthy of more meditation and consideration than we are wont to give it.

And besides, Twelfth Night was always the occasion for a final Christmas party! Too bad the woke mob of Puritans took all that away…
The end of the story in which they flee from Herod to become illegal aliens in the United States of the area is what resonates most for me. Jesus, Mary and Joseph as the aliens who Mike Johnson and the rest of those Republican-fascists want to die on razor wire in the river.
That’s a comment from a few years ago. Sadly, the situation is little changed.

And the people say: “Amen!”
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A Footnote

 Back in Houston (one month ago):

A judge has approved the sale of Citgo, a Houston-based petroleum company, to Amber Energy following a years-long legal saga.

A court previously found that Citgo's shares could be auctioned to pay off the debts that its state-owned parent company – Petroleos de Venezuela – owed to a Canadian mining company.

J.P. Duffy is an international arbitration partner at the Houston-based law firm Bracewell. He said the Venezuelan government faced mounting debts, as the country grappled with falling oil prices and political instability.
Oil prices aren’t expected to rise, despite recent events:
Gas prices are projected to average just $2.97 a gallon nationally this year, according to forecasts from fuel savings platform GasBuddy.

If that forecast, shared first with CNN, proves accurate, 2026 will be the fourth straight year of falling prices at the pump and the first with the annual average below $3 a gallon since 2020.
Political instability hasn’t improved in Venezuela, Trump has threatened to make it worse if he doesn’t get what he wants from their oilfields. Trump really lives in a fantasy land. This is a bigger problem than anyone wants to acknowledge.
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Democracy = Making Venezuela Safe For Chevron

"War is peace.” SNAFU. O, what a paradise it seems!
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South America = Puerto Rico

The Monroe Doctrine was formulated to keep European powers out of the American hemisphere so governments could develop there without interference.

TR added a “corollary” in 1905 to justify interference by America alone. Of course, it allowed us to do what we wanted, through the rest of the 20th century, and now into the 21st.

And no, there is nothing new under the sun. Except the irony that this original was a critique, not a poster for hemispheric hegemony.
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The Best And The Brightest

The ghost of Robert McNamara has entered the chat.
We can lay a lot of blame for this change on the internet. The interconnection of the world’s knowledge was expected to democratize education. Instead, and particularly with the advent of social media, it has democratized cherry-picking. The internet universalized subjectivity instead of objectivity.

This is broadly the issue: We have reverted from acting on what we know to acting on what we think.
Robert McNamara acted on what he “knew.” It led us directly into the quagmire of Vietnam. He ended his public career at the World Bank, trying to atone for his sins. 

The internet didn’t give us Donald Trump. It didn’t “do” this to us. We did it ourselves. The internet is just the mirror that shows us how fragmented and disconnected we always were. It is the glass we are still seeing through darkly. I grew up thinking the New Deal was universally praised, as was WWII. My father was born in 1926 and 50 years later still disdained the New Deal and its products like the WPA (“We Piddle Around”). There’s a character in “The Best Years Of Our Lives” who condemns the war just ended as a waste of men and political effort. He clearly reflects an opinion that existed throughout the war, and at its “triumphal” end.

The internet just disabused us, again, of our mythology and fantasy. And still we want to blame it, blame something, rather than take responsibility for what we do. 

It’s still the same old story. And we never grow up.

(I have to add that it was “objectivity” that gave us colonialism and imperialism. It was multiculturalism and religion that taught us to abhor slavery, reject racism and the remnants of colonialist thinking, and begin to reject the “-isms” that made us “other” people we should have regarded as being as human as “us.” I’m old enough to remember when all those challenges to the status quo were critiqued for being “subjective” rather than “objective.” Vague and glittering generalizations do not a sound argument make. Though they too often pass for an “objective” one.)
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Behold Trump’s Mighty Sword

I wonder if Hegseth is going to bomb them. They might be carrying drugs, after all. 🤷🏻‍♂️
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Signs And Wonders

Recent comments made by President Donald J. Trump dismissing Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado as the person to replace Nicolás Maduro, stating that she doesn’t have the “support or respect” needed to become the President of Venezuela, stemmed from her recent decision to accept the Nobel Peace Prize, an award that had been publicly craved by President Trump.

Two people close to the White House told the Washington Post that Machado’s acceptance of the prize was an “ultimate sin” to President Trump, despite her having dedicated the award to Trump and time against having complimented his work towards Venezuela. “If she had turned it down and said, ‘I can’t accept it because it’s Donald Trump’s,’ she’d be the president of Venezuela today.”
Yes, this is real:
The New York Times reported Sunday that “Maduro’s regular public dancing and other displays of nonchalance in recent weeks helped persuade some on the Trump team that the Venezuelan president was mocking them and trying to call what he believed to be a bluff.”

The Times cited anonymous sources saying that Maduro’s antics after rejecting an ultimatum from Trump to leave office and go into exile in Turkey, ultimately led the White House to follow through on its military threats.

“This week [Maduro] was back onstage, brushing off the latest U.S. escalation — a strike on a dock that the United States said was used for drug trafficking — by bouncing to an electronic beat on state television while his recorded voice repeated in English, ‘No crazy war,'” The report said.

Some of Maduro’s celebratory dances were posted to social media, which the White House monitors routinely, as evidenced by X appearing on a large screen in the war room used by Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth during the removal operation.

Trump posted a video montage on Truth Social Saturday of Maduro shouting, “Come for me! I’m waiting for you here in Miraflores. Don’t take too long to arrive, coward!”

The video, set to the strains of AC/DC’s “Thunderstruck,” was interspersed with shots of bombs lighting up Venezuela’s night sky as U.S. troops descended on Maduro.
Yeah, or:
This is what many don’t realize, even if Maduro had made a deal with the Trump Administration - and I’m not saying he didn’t because there is still a lot of questions that need to be answered - him leaving Venezuela would still have likely required an operation similar to what see saw Saturday with the 160th and Delta Force. These Cubans weren’t just Maduro’s security, but also his handlers, if it looked like he was planning to flee the country or make a deal, he and his wife could have been killed by them under orders from Havana, Beijing and/or Moscow.
Speaking to reporters earlier onboard Air Force One, President Donald J. Trump called Colombian President Gustavo Petro a “sick man, who likes making cocaine and selling it to the United States,” adding that “He’s not going to be doing it very long, let me tell you.” Asked what he meant by that and if there could be a potential military operation against Colombia, President Trump said, “Sounds good to me.”
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Eleventh Day Of Christmas 2026


All the streets are filled with laughter and light
And the music of the season
And the merchants' windows are all bright
With the faces of the children
And the families hurrying to their homes
While the sky darkens and freezes
Will be gathering around the hearths and tables
Giving thanks for God's graces
And the birth of the rebel Jesus

Well they call him by 'the Prince of Peace'
And they call him by 'the Savior'
And they pray to him upon the seas
And in every bold endeavor
And they fill his churches with their pride and gold
As their faith in him increases
But they've turned the nature that I worship in
From a temple to a robber's den
In the words of the rebel Jesus

Well we guard our world with locks and guns
And we guard our fine possessions
And once a year when Christmas comes
We give to our relations
And perhaps we give a little to the poor
If the generosity should seize us
But if any one of us should interfere
In the business of why there are poor
They get the same as the rebel Jesus

Now pardon me if I have seemed
To take the tone of judgement
For I've no wish to come between
This day and your enjoyment
In a life of hardship and of earthly toil
There's a need for anything that frees us
So I bid you pleasure
And I bid you cheer
From a heathen and a pagan
On the side of the rebel Jesus

--Jackson Browne

As Jesus told his disciples, those who were not against him, were with him.  Which is the reverse of that all-too common phrase, and a much more inclusive one by its reversal.
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Sunday, January 04, 2026

It’s The 1950’s

 … and Trump thinks that worked once, it’ll work again.

"Venezuela, right now, is a dead country," Trump said. "We have to bring it back. We're going to have to have big investments from the oil companies to rebuild the infrastructure."

"The oil companies are ready to go," Trump continued. "They're going to go in. They're going to build the infrastructure. We built it to start off with many years ago. They took it away. You can't do that."
Oil being produced by multinationals = “ours”?
Marco Rubio says it’s alright, they have two court orders. There’s a distributive principle because it’s all South American countries, right? Or is it an associative principle I’m thinking of….? A reminder that removal by the Senate on an impeachment charge requires a 2/3rds vote. Which is why elections matter. And also, that it’s the 1950’s all over again, only this time the hemisphere is all Puerto Rico, all the time. Or they want it to be. You thought I was exaggerating. From your lips to God's ear. Speaking of which:
It is with deep concern that I am following the developments in Venezuela. The good of the beloved Venezuelan people must prevail over every other consideration. This must lead to the overcoming of violence, and to the pursuit of paths of justice and peace. I pray for all this, and I invite you to pray too, entrusting our prayer to the intercession of Our Lady of Coromoto, and to Saints José Gregorio Hernández and Carmen Rendiles. #PrayTogether
Now let me close with something long and tedious and therefore essential. And:
As a heavy oil expert, with 18 patents in heavy oil production technology development and optimizations, and prior experience as a senior technical SME at a supermajor U.S. oil company that Venezuela still owes money to….I wanted to correct some of the misguided takes circulating on X.

While Venezuela has the world's largest oil reserves, those figures do not translate directly into immediate production flow rates or rapid incremental increases, which demand substantial time and investment. With the next budget season not arriving until Q3, U.S. producers are currently committed to ongoing projects and contractual obligations. Venezuela's oil faces uniquely difficult geology, low ultimate recovery rates, and severe infrastructure deficits. From my work alongside Venezuelans who actually operated projects there, many cited rampant corruption and logistical nightmares as reasons they left the country. At current oil prices, the massive capital required for meaningful production growth simply isn't justified—one leading expert and good friend, estimates it would take at least 3 years to double output, adding about 1 million bbl/d… so not by next week….Unlike Canada, Venezuela has zero SAGD projects ZERO !!; any greenfield heavy oil development there would require at least $30,000 per flowing barrel, meaning roughly $1 billion!! for every 30,000 bbl/d increment achievable in perhaps three years. They mainly produce cold production, which is cheaper I’ll admit!! But with slower flow rates and rely on diluents and polymers which are enhanced recoveries ( EOR) that require capital and supply of these chemicals and infrastructure… more money. Finally, people seem to overlook the U.S. Midwest (PADD 2), which already processes around 4 million bbl/d of crude, predominantly from Canada (see pic specifically on 🇨🇦) Venezuela lacks the logistical or practical means to displace that supply. Hope this clarifies things for everyone and helps the understanding of this volatile situation. Thx 🫡🪒
Certainly nothing on Twitter should be taken as the truth sent from above. But Trump is a blithering buffoon with no expertise on any subject. And I’ve been around people in the oil business since I was five.  I have no expertise either, but the points above conform to my understanding of the industry (the way Trump uses “Drill, Baby, Drill” the way only someone who thinks the world is a cartoon does).  It sounds right, IOW. It may not be the last word. But even as POTUS, Trump has flushed his “benefit of the doubt” down the toilet.  🚽 Especially since he used the military to extradite Maduro, and turned that into a coup d’état.
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Who We Are Now

Statement by the Premier of Greenland, Jens Frederik Nielsen:

January 4, 2026

“🇬🇱 Let me state this calmly and clearly from the outset: there is neither reason for panic nor for concern.

The image shared by Katie Miller, depicting Greenland wrapped in an American flag, changes nothing whatsoever. Our country is not for sale, and our future is not decided by social media posts.

That said, the image is disrespectful. Relations between nations and peoples are built on mutual respect and international law — not on symbolic gestures that disregard our status and our rights.

We are a democratic society with self-government, free elections, and strong institutions. Our position is firmly grounded in international law and in internationally recognized agreements. This is not in question.

Naalakkersuisut (Government of Greenland) continues its work calmly and responsibly. We engage in dialogue, safeguard our interests, and uphold the international rules that also bind our partners.

There is no reason for panic. But there is every reason to speak out against a lack of respect. 🇬🇱”
Katie Miller is Stephen Miller's wife. In ordinary times, her post would have been a huge provocation, even with the arrest of Maduro.
In a telephone interview this morning with The Atlantic, President Donald J. Trump issued a threat against Venezuela’s Interim President Delcy Rodríguez, saying that, “if she doesn’t do what’s right, she is going to pay a very big price, probably bigger than Maduro,” adding that he would not stand for Rodríguez’s “defiant rejection” of military intervention by the United States.

Additionally, during the interview, President Trump reaffirmed that Venezuela may not be the last country subject to American intervention, or even that it would remain isolated to Latin America, clearly stating, “We do need Greenland, absolutely,” while describing the island which is a part of Denmark, a close-ally and member of NATO, as “surrounded by Russian and Chinese ships.”
Nothing to see here? I guess until the WSJ runs an article about it, the MSM can’t say anything? 

“Independent media” and “Fourth Estate,” donchaknow?
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Trump Is An Unreliable Narrator

Delcy Rodríguez and the core of the regime’s leadership are negotiating with the United States as we speak. This is not a sudden pivot. It is the result of a conclusion reached in Washington over months: the U.S. does not believe that María Corina Machado and the opposition have the operational capacity to seize power in Venezuela because they do not control, or meaningfully fracture, the military. If they did, power would have shifted immediately after the 2024 presidential election. It did not.

For a long period, U.S. officials, including Marco Rubio, were in constant communication with Machado and her team. They were asked repeatedly for proof of a concrete plan, not just to win power symbolically, but to retain it in practice: chain of command, military alignment, institutional control, day-after governance. The answers were consistently evasive, justified by security concerns, but never substantiated. At that point, from the U.S. government’s perspective, the opposition ceased to look like a viable transition mechanism and began to look like a political wager with no enforcement arm.

The plan now on the table is for Delcy Rodríguez to stabilize the country with U.S. backing and then call for general elections. This is not framed as an endorsement of the regime, but as a containment and transition strategy. Washington is explicit about one thing: this is not a partnership of equals. The United States is running the process, the lines are being managed through Rubio, and the leverage is entirely asymmetric. Delcy is the instrument, not the center of gravity.

U.S. officials also assess that Delcy’s harsh public rhetoric today was aimed inward, at the chavista base, not outward. That messaging is understood as domestic signaling. Nevertheless, as of now, negotiations with the United States are ongoing as we speak.
Somebody needs to tell Trump…
In a telephone interview this morning with The Atlantic, President Donald J. Trump issued a threat against Venezuela’s Interim President Delcy Rodríguez, saying that, “if she doesn’t do what’s right, she is going to pay a very big price, probably bigger than Maduro,” adding that he would not stand for Rodríguez’s “defiant rejection” of military intervention by the United States.

Additionally, during the interview, President Trump reaffirmed that Venezuela may not be the last country subject to American intervention, or even that it would remain isolated to Latin America, clearly stating, “We do need Greenland, absolutely,” while describing the island which is a part of Denmark, a close-ally and member of NATO, as “surrounded by Russian and Chinese ships.”
And how it's going:
Himes: "I was delighted to hear that Tom Cotton, chairmen of the Senate Intel Committee, has been in regular contact with the administration. I've had zero outreach and no Democrat that I'm aware of has had any outreach whatsoever. So apparently we're now in a world where the legal obligation to keep Congress informed only applies to your party."
Clearly a wild exaggeration: Meanwhile, this is all perfectly legal: I don’t think this is Trump playing three-dimensional electoral chess.
This is Trump playing Little Dictator. He thinks he’s finally equal to Putin, now.

But let’s not fixate on that….
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