Sen. #TammyDuckworth (D-IL)∶ If it's true that we are not at #war with #Venezuela, will you advise the president to rescind his invocation of the wartime #AlienEnemiesAct?

#MarcoRubio∶ That was a mechanism to remove people from our country that present great danger

Duckworth∶ It's a wartime act. Are we currently at war?

Rubio∶ No.

#geopolitics #law #immigration #DueProcess #Congress #WarPowers #criminal #Trump #oil #sovereignty #InternationalLaw

Sen. #JeanneShaheen (D-NH)∶ It's been reported that the #oil sold for $500 million & $300 million went to the Venezuelan government. What happened to the other $200 million?

#MarcoRubio∶ It's still sitting in the account is my understanding.

Shaheen∶ The account in #Qatar?

Rubio∶ Yes.

#geopolitics #law #Congress #WarPowers #criminal #corruption #Trump #Venezuela #oil #sovereignty #theft #piracy #InternationalLaw

#RandPaul∶ What if a country indicts our president for violating a foreign law, should we extradite him or be okay if they get him by force?

#MarcoRubio∶ We're always going to act in our national interest

Paul∶ What I'm saying is our arguments are empty. It's a ruse. We do what we do because we have the force.

#geopolitics #law #Congress #WarPowers #criminal #Trump #Maduro #abduction #Venezuela #oil #sovereignty #WarCrimes #theft #piracy #InternationalLaw

More from #MarcoRubio #Senate hearing on #Venezuela, when #RandPaul is the sane person in the conversation …

PAUL: If a country bombed our air defense missiles, captured & removed our president, & blockaded our country, would that be considered an act of war?

RUBIO: We just don't believe this operation comes anywhere close to the constitutional definition

PAUL: Of course it would be an act of war!

#geopolitics #law #Congress #WarPowers #Trump #oil #sovereignty
npr.org/2026/01/28/nx-s1-56903…

#Massie said the oil was "stolen" & that #Trump cannot "legally create a second #Treasury overseas for his own piggy bank."

"Selling stolen #oil & putting billions of dollars in a bank in #Qatar to be spent without Congressional approval is not Constitutional," Massie wrote on X. "Only #Congress can appropriate money."

#geopolitics #law #criminal #Venezuela #sovereignty #theft #piracy #InternationalLaw

Looking into this I find myself shocked to be citing Fox Business, but they were interviewing a Republican who seriously gave the unvarnished & corrupt truth about the situation∶

Rep Thomas #Massie (R-KY) on Tuesday criticized the Trump admin for how it is using the #oil seized from #Venezuela earlier this month, saying #Trump cannot sell the oil for "his own piggy bank."

#geopolitics #law #Congress #Constitution #criminal #sovereignty #theft #piracy #InternationalLaw
foxbusiness.com/politics/massi…

Massie blasts Trump for selling 'stolen' Venezuelan oil 'for his own piggy bank'

Rep. Thomas Massie criticized President Donald Trump's handling of seized Venezuelan oil, arguing the president cannot legally sell it for "his own piggy bank."

^{Landon Mion (Fox Business)}

#Republican #House #Judiciary Committee members are going to focus on things like #CassidyHutchinson & the #subpoenas for #Congress members’ phone logs, because if they let #JackSmith get into the actual #evidence he gathered against #Trump, it will be damning.

#law #SeditiousConspiracy #Jan6 #insurrection #PoliticalViolence #coup #democracy #Constitution #PeacefulTransitionOfPower

Also the grandstanding performative courtroom drama behavior of the #congress members is quite heavy handed. #JackSmith who has repeatedly been described as measured & calm is coming off a little stiff especially because he keeps being interrupted. He needs to come back at them like they are hostile witnesses.

#law #House #Judiciary #Trump #SeditiousConspiracy #Jan6 #insurrection #PoliticalViolence #coup #democracy #Constitution #PeacefulTransitionOfPower

On #Jan6, 2021, over 140 law enforcement officers were assaulted, #JackSmith plans to tell #Congress, “a fact we should never forget.”

“Our investigation developed proof beyond a reasonable doubt that President #Trump engaged in criminal activity. If asked whether to prosecute a former President based on the same facts today, I would do so regardless of whether that President was a Republican or a Democrat.”

#law #Jan6 #SeditiousConspiracy #insurrection #coup #democracy #Constitution

“I am not a politician, & I have no partisan loyalties. My career has been dedicated to serving our country by upholding the rule of law,” #JackSmith says in his prepared statement.

Smith is expected to tell #Congress that his approach is to always follow the facts without fear or favor.

#law #Jan6 #SeditiousConspiracy #insurrection #PoliticalViolence #Trump #coup #democracy #Constitution #PeacefulTransitionOfPower
cnn.com/politics/live-news/jac…

"Let’s face it: The Donald doesn’t know what The Donald is going to do or say from one day to the next, so it’s hardly likely that anyone else will. He isn’t even sure if Greenland is Iceland. Hell, they’ve both got land in them. Watch out, England."

~ John Crace

#Trump #Greenland #Iceland #Davos #dementia #MadKing #SupremeCourt #Congress #Republicans
/22

theguardian.com/politics/2026/…

Along comes Trump and our emperors have no clothes

There’s no shame in not knowing what he’ll say next: neither does he. But that didn’t stop many claiming to make sense of it

^{John Crace (The Guardian)}

(continued from /20)

"and a legislative branch that has ceded its own Constitutional authority to rein in Donald’s worst impulses despite his blatant corruption, obvious mental decline, and clear desire to dismantle the post-World War II order for his own profit."

#Trump #Greenland #Iceland #Davos #dementia #MadKing #SupremeCourt #Congress #Republicans
/21

The #FederalReserve sets #MonetaryPolicy & #InterestRates, among other duties, & when #Congress established it, lawmakers worked to insulate it from #political #influence. Its leaders have 14-year terms & may be removed only “for cause.” But #Trump has increasingly attacked the #Fed, pressuring it to lower interest rates as well as trying to push out its chair, #JeromePowell, & fire board governor #LisaCook.

#law #economy #independence #SCOTUS #authoritarianism