Trump, the Fall of Maduro, and the American Church

The powers that be are ordained by God and clearly in God's Providence, it was time for Maduro of Venezuela to go. That said, the Old Testament clearly demonstrates that the nation that removed him can be (on another level) outside of God's will and motivated by its own wicked desires. One thinks of Assyria and Babylon - God's servants in the punishing of Israel and Judah. They were agents of Providence but wicked in their motivation. This paradox is also seen in the commentary offered in Matthew 26.24 by Christ concerning Judas Iscariot. What is written must be fulfilled but woe to that man who actually conducts the betrayal.

So it is with Trump and the American Empire.

The public has been subjected to a campaign of lies, not just about Maduro's supposed connections to narco-trafficking and the absurd argument of 'terrorism', but also with regard to the boat bombing campaign that has killed over one hundred people. And this is just the tip of the iceberg. The US has lied about Venezuela for well over twenty years and for that matter we could say that the entire US narrative about Latin America and the Caribbean has also been overshadowed by lies, theft, and murder for well over a century.

The US is seizing control of Venezuela - what this looks like in the end, it's not clear at this point. Whether Delcy Rodriguez (the vice-president) cuts a deal or is replaced by someone else - it's just not clear at this point. It would seem she's willing to be the US proxy and take orders from Trump's cabinet and generals.

But this is about geopolitics, China, and oil. This is also about Washington's battle for control of Latin America which has been a game of musical chairs, with coups, coup attempts, and various manipulative acts. Trump and his Secretary of War Pete Hegseth have openly re-asserted the Monroe Doctrine. It's something that's always been in place but long publicly denied - until now.

One thinks back to the Early Church and its time under the Roman emperors. Rome invaded other countries and conquered them and like all empires presented arguments for moral legitimacy and necessity. It's nothing new. But when Trajan invaded Dacia, or militarily seized Nabataea, or when Antoninus Pius invaded Scotland, the Christians did not support these wars, lavish praise on the troops, nor fly Roman banners in their meetings. Such a thought is an absurdity. It's only when the Church changed its identity and sold out to Satan in the days of Constantine and his successors that this began to change.

Trump is a gangster, a lecher, and a reprobate liar. I have more hope for someone like Mick Jagger in terms of the gospel than I would Donald Trump. My concern here is not for the American Empire, it's leaders, and its criminal deeds. We could speak of banditry, piracy, and murder - but this is what empires are and what they do. The real issue here for most of the American Establishment is that Trump doesn't play the game and operate under the aegis of legal fiction - in order to keep the narrative about America and what is supposedly stands for on track. Trump's actions are no different than Bush II in Iraq, Bush I in Panama, Clinton in Haiti and Kosovo, Reagan in Grenada and his myriad other proxy wars, Nixon in Cambodia, and Johnson in the Dominican Republic. The list could go on for pages. It's no different with the British, French, Russians, or anyone else.

Empires do what empires do and obviously these things fall under the aegis of Providence but this is no way provides a divine sanction or moral justification.

My concern is with the American Church that supports Trump and his policies of theft, deceit, and murder. They cheer him on, provide justification for his actions, and bless his deeds. And they lie on a massive scale in order to do so. This is nothing less than apostasy - the fruit and rotten harvest of the Constantinian Shift some 1700 years ago, a cancer that was perpetuated by the Magisterial Reformation.

Further, how many churches will tomorrow 'pray for the troops' and pray for their safety as they commit this murder, theft, and even (it would seem) kidnapping? These are not Christian prayers. They wish to thank the troops for their service? Then thank them for disobeying Christ and dishonouring God (and for the professed Christians in those ranks) by confusing a Christian calling with participation in such actions. Christians in the military need to repent and get out. You have blood on your hands. I certainly did. You've been lied to.

We can get sidetracked when focusing on Maduro, Chavez, and the course of Venezuelan history. Unless you take in the big picture you will not understand, but the bottom line is this - a powerful nation wants to control and dominate a weaker one and will use any justification in order to do so. Even the media obfuscates the real questions in its assumptions about America's right to intervene in other countries and their politics.

It is but another shameful day in the American Empire. There are too many to count.

And there are so many ironies.

Maduro will possibly be taken to the Metropolitan Correctional Center which sits just behind the massive Federal Courthouse in Lower Manhattan, just blocks away from the World Trade Center memorials. I find it ironic that when one walks by the courthouse, unless it's in session, they have the thing all bottled up, gated and chained off. You can't climb the steps or get too near the building. In the land of the free, there's a siege mentality, a fear of unrest and attack and this fear is in turn used to control the population.*

Likewise, I was thinking about Times Square and the New Years Eve celebrations. Before 9/11 it was a free for all. I don't say this to justify anything that goes on there or the debauchery of it all - but rather to observe and make a point. After 9/11, the authorities forced everyone into cages where revellers are reduced to wearing diapers - if they leave the perimeter to use the bathroom, they cannot return. And so, as the famous ball drops at midnight, as they stand in cages and in their own urine, they cheer and celebrate the freedom and glory of living in the United States. And the heart of the celebration is in a square that is certainly dazzling in some respects but ultimately is just a big monument to capitalism and its decadence - which is really what Manhattan is all about, and by extension the United States. US actions in Venezuela are connected to all this - for those able to see.

On that note I was also thinking about the recent Laura Poitras documentary on Seymour Hersh and his own career. He took on the Pentagon, and even the White House and survived within the corridors of American media. But what broke this arrangement and started him down a path toward ostracization was when he took on big business. As I've stated before, I always think of such things when contemplating the Manhattan skyline versus the austere profile of Washington DC two hundred miles down the coast.

I'm also drawn to think of the JP Morgan building on Park Avenue, an impressive multi-billion structure next to Grand Central Station and just down from the famous Waldorf-Astoria hotel - its lobby makes you feel like you're in a Fitzgerald novel or on a set of Downton Abbey. Jamie Dimon, the CEO of JP Morgan can pick up the phone and get the president any time he wants. Figures at Goldman-Sachs rotate in and out of White House cabinets - its Lower Manhattan headquarters only a mile away from the prison where Maduro will likely be held for trial. The interests of these institutions don't steer the ship so to speak but they build the ships, provide the fuel, and much more. The relationship is symbiotic and we would do well to remember that this morning as the bombs fall on Venezuela.

And another equation in that symbiosis when it comes to Wall Street interests and GOP politics is the American Church. They praise these whoredoms, thefts, and murders, and after today, there will be more of the same. For many there will be something akin to glee as they celebrate Delta Force's capture of Maduro and the pictures of him shackled and blindfolded. Undoubtedly the disinformation campaign about Russian, Iranian, Chinese, and even Hamas and Hezbollah threats will continue. People forget that we heard of these same 'threats' back in the 1980's with the Sandinistas in Nicaragua and tens of thousands died as a result.

Maduro has fallen. There were powerful forces arrayed against him.

No matter how you dress them up, rewrite the history, provide justifications - this is what empires do.

But this is not what the Church does, nor should it support and praise such evil.

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*I erred with regard to the Manhattan Correctional Center. Apparently that's closed now (as of a few years ago) and now they're taking all such prisoners to another facility in Brooklyn - just across the East River, another couple of miles away but still in sight of the Manhattan skyline. The point (and symbolism) still stands.

I guess the MCC had reached a breaking point in terms of dilapidation - major leaks and drain back-ups, and it's infested with cockroaches and rats.