When I saw we could never have gotten to where we are today, without the full cooperation of the Democrats, many people seem to not have any clue about what has, and is, going on under cover of stylistic differences.
I think this revival of the War On Drugs is in the service of regime change to topple a government that doesn't bow to the demands of the USA. The WOD is a subterfuge that should be emphasised whenever possible.
That's so important. Trump is boorish and grotesque, but he is a change in style, not in substance. He carries forward the ideologies that have been prominent in the leadership in both parties, but that they didn't want to be accountable for.
I often say that the Democrats did everything but roll out the red carpet for Trump. They love the guy. Without Trump, they’d have no way to raise money and nothing to campaign on. I’ve lost count of the number of times people have responded, “But Trump…”, when I accuse Democrats of being complicit in genocide, for example.
Attempts to exact regime changes aren’t unique to Republican presidents. Regime changes have been a U.S. obsession for decades. And they work so well (read sarcasm).
Which, is of course either highly ironic or deeply cynical depending on how you look at things. Obviously Obama set the precedent for unconstitutional warrantless, due process free assassinations, including of American citizens. And yet, rather than be openly thankful to Obama the warmonger and war criminal (along with the rest of the Democrats), Trump and the GOP double down on every evil Obama policy while criticizing the same politicians and policies to whom they owe thanks for the ability to act in such a criminal fashion. The MAGA base eats it up, of course.
This country has gone full Idiocracy. Genocide Don has assumed the mantle from Genocide Joe and any pretense of international law or diplomatic norms have gone totally out the window. The US, NATO and Israel act above any laws, rules or rational standards.
Trump was ALWAYS going to attempt another regime change operation on Venezuela, just as he was ALWAYS going to bomb Iran (and likely will again, once the Zionist Tumor decides it's time). The SCOTUS has torn down any vestiges of checks on the Executive and the only thing that remains to be seen, along with how much longer the Evil Empire can keep tottering along, is what the next Democrat in office does in response to their own newfound lawless powers as the Executive branch continues to abrogate them for itself.
The only wars USA can win are on small countries...........I can't remember the reason for Grenada.
After hearing and listening to many reports on the bombing of this so-called drug boat with approx 16 people on board (was there room for these drugs) and if so why wasn't this boat apprehended. and searched?
Look after you own country USA....the terrorists are YOU in the US Govt.
IF there are millions of drugs in the US it is because the people want them, maybe it's a good idea to start helping people to get off drugs. This means healthcare for those addicted.
As it was once said by Michael Leeden or Jonah Goldberg (both Zionist neocons):
"Every ten years or so, the United States needs to pick up some small crappy little country and throw it against the wall, just to show the world we mean business."
The US is so in bed with Israel that now our military is cosplaying as the IDF. It's like they take IDF press releases and replace "Hamas" with "Tren de Aragua".
To be quite frank, I prefer when the IDF accomplishes an American goal (destroying Iran bases, eliminating Hezbollah) than an American accomplishing a different countries goal.
And I'm not sure why you think this is remotely similar. Hamas was a real threat to Israel, was its sworn enemy, and still holds a ton of hostages.
Venezuela questionably is a threat to America unless you squint.
Thank you for reporting on this! It is honestly stunning to me to see how quickly we are marching toward war without almost anyone noticing or taking it seriously. Trump is so erratic and he gives the media so many random sound bites for them to chase that they often miss the real issues. Trump has threatened to annex Greenland and Canada, has threatened to reoccupy the Panama Canal, has threatened to use the military to attack "drug cartels" in Mexico, is effectively threatening war in with Venezuela, and their new national defense strategy appears set to finally give up the charade of confronting China in Asia and to focus on domination of the "homeland" and the Americas. This is real and, while erratic, is it part of an overall vision that sees the Americas as a US playground. Trump is getting more involved with our 51st State of Israel in the Middle East, but otherwise is pulling back from the rest of the world to concentrate all power here.
Any real war on drugs would constitute a serious hit on the CIA's operational budget. There's a good reason that theirs looks so comparatively small despite worldwide reach and veritable military operations around the globe: they have historically been funded by "black budget" international arms and drug trafficking.
No. A real war on drugs would address the cause of the problem -- addiction. You can't cure addiction by stopping drugs, but you can stop drugs by curing addiction.
The drug economy is demand driven, not supply driven. As long as there is a demand, there will be a supply - at a price.
Yes. The CIA has played an outsized role in driving demand for illicit drugs in this country dating back to Vietnam or even the Chinese opium trade. Nothing you wrote has a shred of relevance to my comment. The CIA helped flood the inner cities of the US with cheap crack cocaine in the 1980s, which drove demand. The CIA did the same thing with heroin during the American occupation of Afghanistan. Perdue Pharma flooded rural and exurban America with cheap oxycontin in the late 90s and early 2000s, which drove demand, including for heroin when it became difficult to source the synthetic opioids.
Read up on some (recent) American history before making dispositive (and incorrect) blanket statements like that.
What you say about the CIA is very true, but you miss the point. The purpose of a war should be to win. Cutting the CIA out of the act doesn't win the war on drugs. On the other hand, if you can cure or at least control the disease, i.e., drug addiction, you can eliminate the demand; supply will die a natural death, and the war is won. Then there is no justification for CIA, DEA or other government spending on an unnecessary war.
IF the USA were concerned with regard to their citizens they would be spending money on Healthcare and drug Clinics but they are NOT are they?
Imagine being an American who has never voted in elections since Reagan. Sitting in your underground 'dens' on your astroturf carpets/stinking of liquour and drugs. Firearms behind you as you watch YOUR Country kill thousands of people in Sovereign countries because you want their wealth.
Drugs are a demand problem not a supply problem folks. Always have been, always will be. Cut back supply and they get more expensive and people that are desperate do worse things to get them. Oh- and I guess there aren’t any labs in the US- nobody in the US would sell lethal drugs to their own citizens, right? They’re all patriots!
Yes the real scandal here is worse than WMDs. WMDs were a fake threat but if they were real the invasion would have been justified. Even if Venezuela was running drugs intentionally z it's hard to imagine attacking them will remotely help. It would just be replaced by homegrown.
hey Kenny, don't know if you're following Zach Shrewsbury's campaign at all but this morning he sent out an email with the subject line "The euphemism is dead". I think he's a subscriber lol
Yep. Since the 1970s virtually the sole purpose of the Democratic Party is to serve as a bulwark for authoritarian Republicans and big business against the anti-war, working class left.
It would seem our president is warming to military force and considers it his tool to do with as he pleases. He is trampling all laws, international and domestic. November 2026 is more than a year away. If only we had a time machine to rush us there and grab back the one branch of government that Trump barely controls.
Ken, we simply have to stop giving these government liars the benefit of the doubt in reporting on their statements.
"Hegseth and Caine’s visit follow a military strike on a small drug boat in the Caribbean last week, which the Trump administration says was carrying members of the Venezuelan drug cartel Tren de Aragua."
There is zero proof that this was a "drug boat", let alone any rational explanation what 11 people would be doing on a "drug boat" to begin with. Furthermore, others have rightly pointed out that this boat was in international waters, could not have possibly made it to any destination related to the trafficking of drugs to the US, and even if it had been able, the correct and (quasi) legal thing to do would have been to interdict it and - if drugs were present - confiscate and/or destroy the drugs.
But until the Trump Regime presents a shred of evidence that there were drugs involved, not to mention explains how Venezuela is even remotely part of the US's drug trafficking problem, nobody should grant a shred of credibility to the criminal clown tyrants currently in charge of the White House.
Just before I went to Venezuela in mid-August 2017, the US military —largely staged out of Tacoma’s Joint Base Lewis-McChord and Spokane’s Fairchild AFB— carried out the large-scale 12-day Mobility Guardian 2017 war drill, in which five hundred US 82nd Airborne paratroopers, assisted by French and Colombian special forces, carried out a joint forcible entry exercise, taking control for three days of the facilities and runway of the former Larson Air Force Base (Grant County Airport) in Moses Lake, Washington. This was presented in different media as either a drill for a humanitarian aid delivery (think the 2/22/2019 incident in Cucúta, Colombia) or a drill for the taking of a small airport (think US contingencies for setting up an opposition foothold at a remote Venezuelan airfield). See Ken Klippenstein’s piece and then my FB post about Mobility Guardian 2017 with text and additional links in comments at:
When I saw we could never have gotten to where we are today, without the full cooperation of the Democrats, many people seem to not have any clue about what has, and is, going on under cover of stylistic differences.
I think this revival of the War On Drugs is in the service of regime change to topple a government that doesn't bow to the demands of the USA. The WOD is a subterfuge that should be emphasised whenever possible.
Thanks, Ken.
That's so important. Trump is boorish and grotesque, but he is a change in style, not in substance. He carries forward the ideologies that have been prominent in the leadership in both parties, but that they didn't want to be accountable for.
I often say that the Democrats did everything but roll out the red carpet for Trump. They love the guy. Without Trump, they’d have no way to raise money and nothing to campaign on. I’ve lost count of the number of times people have responded, “But Trump…”, when I accuse Democrats of being complicit in genocide, for example.
Attempts to exact regime changes aren’t unique to Republican presidents. Regime changes have been a U.S. obsession for decades. And they work so well (read sarcasm).
Which, is of course either highly ironic or deeply cynical depending on how you look at things. Obviously Obama set the precedent for unconstitutional warrantless, due process free assassinations, including of American citizens. And yet, rather than be openly thankful to Obama the warmonger and war criminal (along with the rest of the Democrats), Trump and the GOP double down on every evil Obama policy while criticizing the same politicians and policies to whom they owe thanks for the ability to act in such a criminal fashion. The MAGA base eats it up, of course.
This country has gone full Idiocracy. Genocide Don has assumed the mantle from Genocide Joe and any pretense of international law or diplomatic norms have gone totally out the window. The US, NATO and Israel act above any laws, rules or rational standards.
Trump was ALWAYS going to attempt another regime change operation on Venezuela, just as he was ALWAYS going to bomb Iran (and likely will again, once the Zionist Tumor decides it's time). The SCOTUS has torn down any vestiges of checks on the Executive and the only thing that remains to be seen, along with how much longer the Evil Empire can keep tottering along, is what the next Democrat in office does in response to their own newfound lawless powers as the Executive branch continues to abrogate them for itself.
The only wars USA can win are on small countries...........I can't remember the reason for Grenada.
After hearing and listening to many reports on the bombing of this so-called drug boat with approx 16 people on board (was there room for these drugs) and if so why wasn't this boat apprehended. and searched?
Look after you own country USA....the terrorists are YOU in the US Govt.
IF there are millions of drugs in the US it is because the people want them, maybe it's a good idea to start helping people to get off drugs. This means healthcare for those addicted.
As it was once said by Michael Leeden or Jonah Goldberg (both Zionist neocons):
"Every ten years or so, the United States needs to pick up some small crappy little country and throw it against the wall, just to show the world we mean business."
The US is so in bed with Israel that now our military is cosplaying as the IDF. It's like they take IDF press releases and replace "Hamas" with "Tren de Aragua".
To be quite frank, I prefer when the IDF accomplishes an American goal (destroying Iran bases, eliminating Hezbollah) than an American accomplishing a different countries goal.
And I'm not sure why you think this is remotely similar. Hamas was a real threat to Israel, was its sworn enemy, and still holds a ton of hostages.
Venezuela questionably is a threat to America unless you squint.
Israel bombs a random hospital and says "Trust us, Hamas had a command and control center there." Ask for evidence? Hamas supporter!
US bombs a random boat and says "Trust us, Tren de Aragua nihilist extremists were on the boat." Ask for evidence? Terrorist sympathizer!
How are Iran and Hezbollah "American goals"? Sounds like Bibi's problem to me. Regime change is so 2003
There was plenty of evidence that Hamas used the hospital. This isn't "trust us bro". They're a terror org for a reason.
The issue with Israel is them killing 60k Palestinians, not Hamas. No need to go insane and start defending Hamas.
ASH: What a comedian you are.
Who is the biggest and best 'terrorist organization' on this planet?
I suggest you look at the British and USA!
The 'white-western' world is dying.
I see no reason that protesting the deaths of 60 thousand innocent people requires one to lose their minds.
People with attitudes like yours end up resulting in more deaths as many people don't want to be on the same side as a terrorist organization.
The only 'terrorist organizations' I know are the USA/UK and Europe.
Thank you for reporting on this! It is honestly stunning to me to see how quickly we are marching toward war without almost anyone noticing or taking it seriously. Trump is so erratic and he gives the media so many random sound bites for them to chase that they often miss the real issues. Trump has threatened to annex Greenland and Canada, has threatened to reoccupy the Panama Canal, has threatened to use the military to attack "drug cartels" in Mexico, is effectively threatening war in with Venezuela, and their new national defense strategy appears set to finally give up the charade of confronting China in Asia and to focus on domination of the "homeland" and the Americas. This is real and, while erratic, is it part of an overall vision that sees the Americas as a US playground. Trump is getting more involved with our 51st State of Israel in the Middle East, but otherwise is pulling back from the rest of the world to concentrate all power here.
This whole drug war debacle is nothing more than the world's most expensive "Whack-a-Mole" game. --- Hit one source, up pops another.
The real question is, is the War on Drugs simply another ruse to justify our bloated military?
Any real war on drugs would constitute a serious hit on the CIA's operational budget. There's a good reason that theirs looks so comparatively small despite worldwide reach and veritable military operations around the globe: they have historically been funded by "black budget" international arms and drug trafficking.
No. A real war on drugs would address the cause of the problem -- addiction. You can't cure addiction by stopping drugs, but you can stop drugs by curing addiction.
The drug economy is demand driven, not supply driven. As long as there is a demand, there will be a supply - at a price.
Yes. The CIA has played an outsized role in driving demand for illicit drugs in this country dating back to Vietnam or even the Chinese opium trade. Nothing you wrote has a shred of relevance to my comment. The CIA helped flood the inner cities of the US with cheap crack cocaine in the 1980s, which drove demand. The CIA did the same thing with heroin during the American occupation of Afghanistan. Perdue Pharma flooded rural and exurban America with cheap oxycontin in the late 90s and early 2000s, which drove demand, including for heroin when it became difficult to source the synthetic opioids.
Read up on some (recent) American history before making dispositive (and incorrect) blanket statements like that.
What you say about the CIA is very true, but you miss the point. The purpose of a war should be to win. Cutting the CIA out of the act doesn't win the war on drugs. On the other hand, if you can cure or at least control the disease, i.e., drug addiction, you can eliminate the demand; supply will die a natural death, and the war is won. Then there is no justification for CIA, DEA or other government spending on an unnecessary war.
100% correct wrknight.
IF the USA were concerned with regard to their citizens they would be spending money on Healthcare and drug Clinics but they are NOT are they?
Imagine being an American who has never voted in elections since Reagan. Sitting in your underground 'dens' on your astroturf carpets/stinking of liquour and drugs. Firearms behind you as you watch YOUR Country kill thousands of people in Sovereign countries because you want their wealth.
Relieved to learn that the U.S. military can capture the airport in St Croix. Thank you, Ken. I can sleep tonight.
lmao
Drugs are a demand problem not a supply problem folks. Always have been, always will be. Cut back supply and they get more expensive and people that are desperate do worse things to get them. Oh- and I guess there aren’t any labs in the US- nobody in the US would sell lethal drugs to their own citizens, right? They’re all patriots!
exactly
Yes the real scandal here is worse than WMDs. WMDs were a fake threat but if they were real the invasion would have been justified. Even if Venezuela was running drugs intentionally z it's hard to imagine attacking them will remotely help. It would just be replaced by homegrown.
hey Kenny, don't know if you're following Zach Shrewsbury's campaign at all but this morning he sent out an email with the subject line "The euphemism is dead". I think he's a subscriber lol
can you forward? kenneth.klippenstein@gmail.com
Juan Guaidó last seen swimming from South Florida, southbound
periodic reminder that the biggest drug cartel in the world is the U.S. military.
You mean the CIA.
https://www.globalresearch.ca/the-real-drug-lords-a-brief-history-of-cia-involvement-in-the-drug-trade/10013
As well as the CIA. Military are the foot soldiers and very directly involved in the trade:
https://www.democracynow.org/2025/8/14/fort_bragg_cartel_seth_harp
There are a few other books on the subject, but Seth's book is very good. I highly recommend it.
War would of course be a foolish escalation for any number of reasons.
That said, the military strike targeting an alleged narcotrafficking boat last week was legally akin to the drone strikes normalized by Obama. https://shahidbuttar.substack.com/p/trumps-arbitrary-assassinations-were
And that’s not the only way that Democrats have helped establish and politically empower Trump while claiming to oppose his agenda. https://shahidbuttar.substack.com/p/7-ways-democrats-made-donald-trump
Yep. Since the 1970s virtually the sole purpose of the Democratic Party is to serve as a bulwark for authoritarian Republicans and big business against the anti-war, working class left.
It would seem our president is warming to military force and considers it his tool to do with as he pleases. He is trampling all laws, international and domestic. November 2026 is more than a year away. If only we had a time machine to rush us there and grab back the one branch of government that Trump barely controls.
Marvin Gaye gave the answer when he sung this song, “What’s Going On” with his line, “War is not the answer”.
Ken, we simply have to stop giving these government liars the benefit of the doubt in reporting on their statements.
"Hegseth and Caine’s visit follow a military strike on a small drug boat in the Caribbean last week, which the Trump administration says was carrying members of the Venezuelan drug cartel Tren de Aragua."
There is zero proof that this was a "drug boat", let alone any rational explanation what 11 people would be doing on a "drug boat" to begin with. Furthermore, others have rightly pointed out that this boat was in international waters, could not have possibly made it to any destination related to the trafficking of drugs to the US, and even if it had been able, the correct and (quasi) legal thing to do would have been to interdict it and - if drugs were present - confiscate and/or destroy the drugs.
But until the Trump Regime presents a shred of evidence that there were drugs involved, not to mention explains how Venezuela is even remotely part of the US's drug trafficking problem, nobody should grant a shred of credibility to the criminal clown tyrants currently in charge of the White House.
Just before I went to Venezuela in mid-August 2017, the US military —largely staged out of Tacoma’s Joint Base Lewis-McChord and Spokane’s Fairchild AFB— carried out the large-scale 12-day Mobility Guardian 2017 war drill, in which five hundred US 82nd Airborne paratroopers, assisted by French and Colombian special forces, carried out a joint forcible entry exercise, taking control for three days of the facilities and runway of the former Larson Air Force Base (Grant County Airport) in Moses Lake, Washington. This was presented in different media as either a drill for a humanitarian aid delivery (think the 2/22/2019 incident in Cucúta, Colombia) or a drill for the taking of a small airport (think US contingencies for setting up an opposition foothold at a remote Venezuelan airfield). See Ken Klippenstein’s piece and then my FB post about Mobility Guardian 2017 with text and additional links in comments at:
https://www.facebook.com/share/1B9gcPfnGN/?mibextid=wwXIfr
Referencing our collective historical Yankee phraseology, and not directed toward Ken’s noble reporting:
“It’s the Oil, Stupid !”