Dear Progressive Reader,

As this newsletter goes to press, U.S. President Donald Trump is addressing the nation about the early morning attack on the nation of Venezuela and the abduction of Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores. Attorney General Pam Bondi has stated they will both be tried in federal court in the Southern District of New York on charges of narco-terrorism conspiracy.

The Trump Administration has been escalating the U.S. military presence surrounding Venezuela since August, with eleven battleships and more that 15,000 U.S. troops currently deployed. U.S. actions in the region have included at least thirty-five attacks on small boats, as well as the boarding of two large ships and the pursuit of another. As Carmen Rojas, who grew up with boats in Venezuela, writes in an op-ed this week, “The Trump Administration has cruelly assumed—without evidence or investigation—that each and every Venezuelan boat is part of the drug trade.” Questioning if there is any legal basis for these attacks, Medea Benjamin and Nicolas J.S. Davies wrote on our website yesterday: “Under international law, seizing civilian commercial vessels in international waters or imposing a naval blockade outside of an existing armed conflict are defined as ‘acts of aggression.’ The Trump Administration claims its actions are justified by U.S. sanctions on Venezuela. But those sanctions are themselves illegal under international law. Only the U.N. Security Council has the authority to impose and enforce sanctions. Unilateral coercive measures—especially when enforced through military force—violate the U.N. Charter.”

Venezuela is not the only nation currently receiving threats from an increasingly bellicose Trump. On Friday, the President told Iran “we are locked and loaded and ready to go,” in response to the recent crackdown on protesters in that country. “As a candidate, Donald Trump pitched himself as a peace President, and now he’s entering conflicts around the world,” said Congress member Joaquin Castro, Democrat of Texas, who noted this morning on NPR that the President had not sought any Congressional approval for today’s actions which the administration is terming a “law enforcement” action. “We got no notice at all,” said Castro.

Elsewhere on our website this week, Mike Ervin writes about a case before the U.S. Supreme Court that could determine whether a person with intellectual disabilities is exempt from the death penalty; Glenn Daigon reports on the grassroots groups that are organizing against the undemocratic nature of homeowners associations; and Eleanor Bader describes the current risk to school-based health care programs due to federal funding cuts.

Thanks to all of you for your support over the past year, and in the spirit of peace and the hope for a better world ahead, we at The Progressive, wish you all the best in the new year. Please keep reading, and we will keep bringing you important articles on these and other issues of our time.

Sincerely,

Norman Stockwell
Publisher

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