Pointless Degradation

There’s a lot being written about María Corina Machado’s decision to give Trump her Nobel Peace Prize, but the real story here is that she’s not going to get anything for debasing herself. This CNN story gets the headline right: Venezuela’s Machado gave Trump her Nobel prize. In return she received a swag bag but no promise of support.

Trump’s pattern on the use of force is that he’s fine with the killing, but he shies away from occupation, because in the way that even a blind pig can find an ear of corn, he knows that stationing US troops in places where they can get killed is extremely unpopular. And if he wanted Machado to be President of Venezuela, it would require one hell of a military intervention and occupation, since the current regime in Venezuela is already using armed militias to crack down on opposition. Plus, he has no real interest in the welfare of the Venezuelan people — he just wants the country to pay an oil tribute to him as King of America, and it looks like they’re going to do it, or at least appear to.

So why did Machado give him the prize? She doesn’t have a lot of other options, so she’s going to use whatever leverage she can to try to get Trump to do something. Even so, this is a clear case where flattering Trump isn’t going to get him to act against his (correctly perceived) self-interest. Isn’t she smart enough to see that? Apparently not.

Let’s move on to Jared Polis, who keeps revealing himself as one of the dumber politicians in the US. He’s seems to be convinced that caving in to Trump and pardoning or granting clemency to Tina Peters, former election denying Mesa County clerk and current occupant of a Colorado prison cell, will somehow get Trump to quit his assault on Colorado. Trump has devastated NCAR, the climate research facility headquartered in Colorado. He’s vetoed Lauren Boebert’s bill funding drinking water projects in her district. And I’m sure we’re going to get more, including probably ICE agents wilding through Denver.

All signs are pointing to Polis following through. Here’s the latest:

That “if you want to run for governor” quote is typical of the stupid things he says when he’s challenged.

Anyway, granting Peters clemency won’t get Polis shit. I guess he hasn’t grasped that Trump doesn’t respect you if you kowtow to him after he’s screwed you over.

As a side note, the veto of Boebert’s bill was, IMO, because Trump is pissed at her for not removing her signature from the discharge petition for the release of the Epstein files. This feud is going to continue and hurt Coloradans in Boebert’s district no matter what Polis does, and he should know that. But like a lot of politicians, he thinks he’s more important than he really is.