Better in their words…

Media proxy-war cheerleading suspiciously sunny; U.S. sidelines Kyiv, courts Moscow; crackdown on illegals in public housing; DOD probes seditious lawmakers; Maduro and America-first Caribbean stakes.

Source: PEACE PANIC☙ Tuesday, November 25, 2025 ☙ C&C NEWS

WORLD NEWS AND COMMENTARY

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At first, I couldn’t understand this morning’s Proxy War headlines, despite reading them over and over. (Then I remembered to put on my reading glasses.) They still seemed wrong, out of place; they were as unintelligible as turning on the radio and hearing Portuguese. The words seemed … optimistic. Early this morning, CNN ran a pro-peace story headlined, “Ukraine talks gain momentum as US and Russian officials meet in Abu Dhabi.”

The news, and it is remarkable, was that Army Secretary Dan Driscoll, 38, decamped from his negotiations with the Ukrainians in Switzerland to go visit the Russians in Abu Dhabi. Seems like surprisingly rapid peace progress, not to mention a delightful travel itinerary. (Dan Driscoll, a former classmate of JD Vance’s, is the highest civilian official in the U.S. Army and reports directly to War Secretary Pete Hegseth.)

According to the official story, after long hours of withering weekend dickering, the master negotiator Zelensky chopped down Trump’s 28-item peace plan to only 19 bullet points, thereby quantifying for all time and for the permanent record that Ukraine had agency and thereby bettered the peace deal for itself by nine points.

Mathematically, Ukraine’s deal has been 32.5% improved.

🚀 In the entire fractious history of the Proxy War, we’ve never gotten this far, never mind this fast. The New York Post reported yesterday that Ukrainian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergiy Kyslytsya (say it three times fast) on Monday said both sides felt “positive” over the offer they can’t refuse new plan. “Full details of the new document remain undisclosed,” the Post unnecessarily added. All you need to know is it is much better! “Very few things are left from the original version,” Minister Kyslytsya told the Post. “We developed a solid body of convergence, and a few things we can compromise on.”

Bloomberg reported that Ukraine was represented by Zelensky’s embattled Chief of Staff, Andriy Yermak, who is neither a diplomat nor a trained negotiator but is probably the real decision-maker in Kiev. Undoubtedly, Zelensky will sign whatever Yermak puts in front of him.

Details remain fuzzy. The Post story, as well as most other media sources, mentioned several allegedly negotiated items, like limits on the size of Ukraine’s army, whether it will be banned from joining NATO, amnesty for war crimes, and so on. But conspicuously absent from all the stories was the one thing that the Ukrainians swore they’d never give up: land.

Like Yermak, Dan Driscoll has no diplomatic training, which apparently is unnecessary to negotiate this particular peace deal. In any event, Dan is shepherding the offers and counteroffers back and forth. This is called shuttle diplomacy, where a neutral third-party official is designated as “the shuttle,” because he gets thrown down a long board trying to hit the highest number without going over. If he stays on the board, he’s “corn,” and if he goes over, he’s in the “hole,” causing excited bystanders to yell “cornhole!” (Which is also a jailable offense in 26 countries.)

Jokes and green sweatshirts aside (but I repeat myself), conspicuously absent from the “peace negotiations” are any career State Department personnel. Trump trusts a brand-new, 38-year-old Army Secretary with no formal negotiation training or diplomatic field experience over anyone at Foggy Bottom, even to help resolve one of the most intractable military conflicts in modern history.

State’s being put on ice could just reflect Trump’s Swamp allergy. Or it could be that no difficult negotiations are necessary, since the deal was already in the can weeks ago, and we are now only watching the dramatic, performative windup. I’m just guessing though.

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Yesterday, NewsNation ran a story headlined, “Bondi touts crime drops in Memphis, announces hotline for public housing.” For

“Public housing should be safe,” HUD Secretary Scott Turner uncontroversially said. That was the last uncontroversial thing he said.

“Illegal immigrants should not be in public housing,” Secretary Turner declared. He called it “outrageous” that people in the country illegally would occupy housing units meant for American citizens. You might also say it is outrageous for Americans to pay taxes to subsidize illegal alien housing. But I digress.

“We’re announcing a new HUD crime hotline,” Secretary Turner continued, “to allow the residents of public housing to call to report criminals, illegal aliens, sex offenders, human traffickers, and those guilty of gang activity, drug distribution, and fraud.”

“If you see it, if you hear about it, report it,” Turner continued. Residents can call 1-800-347-3735 between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. Central Time or submit tips online at HUDOIG.gov/hotline, which is “monitored around the clock.”

One might rightly ask why HUD hasn’t previously had such a hotline. It’s almost like the previous administration was encouraging illegal aliens and druglords to enjoy free apartments. I know; it sounds crazy.

Corporate media completely ignored the story. They are starting to learn not to take the bait.

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More investigations! Yesterday, the New York Times ran a terrific story headlined, “Pentagon Opens Inquiry Into Senator Mark Kelly Over What Hegseth Calls ‘Seditious’ Video.”

The latest scandal erupted last week when Senator Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.) and five other Congressional Democrats published a polished but very stupid video encouraging U.S. troops to “refuse illegal orders,” without giving the troops any guidance on which specific illegal orders they meant.

Guidance wasn’t needed. Anyone with one more functioning neuron than Joe Biden knew what they meant: President Trump’s policies. After the video predictably blew up, Kelly and his pals backed down, claiming they only meant illegal in general terms, like Abu Ghraibing captured POWs or driving destroyers too fast in no-wake zones.

But nobody believed them, not even gullible corporate media. “The lawmakers did not refer to a particular order that they viewed as illegal,” the Times primly noted. “But Mr. Kelly and others in the video earlier raised concerns about the fate of U.S. troops involved in the 21 strikes on boats in the Caribbean.”

Oh. There was more: “Others, like Senator Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.), who organized the video, have suggested that Mr. Trump might deploy active-duty U.S. military troops to American cities to crack down on or even shoot at protesters.”

President Trump, the nation’s Commander-in-Chief, whose orders so far have defeated every Democrat challenge in courts, was understandably upset. He posted a spicy comment to Truth Social in stark terms: “SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR, punishable by DEATH!”

Of the six Congressmen who appeared in the video, five had prior military service (the odd woman out, Slotkin, was a CIA analyst). But only Mark Kelly served long enough to qualify for military retirement benefits, which means he is also subject to recall. If recalled, he could face court-martial.

Yesterday, the Pentagon announced it has begun investigating Senator Kelly for “serious allegations of misconduct” related to his appearance in the video. So. Govern yourself accordingly!

Normally, the Pentagon would be more circumspect about going after a sitting U.S. Senator, since senators wield significant influence on DOD budgets, oversight, weapons programs, and so on. But in today’s hyper-partisan environment, that seems to matter less, since Kelly will probably oppose anything Trump’s DOD does anyway.

But that’s not all.

🔥 Late last week, the Washington Post ran a similar story, headlined, “Pentagon urges inquiry of Trump foe Vindman over Ukraine work.” Remember the twin Vindman brothers, Eugene and Alexander? They were Swamp critters who were Army officers who worked in the National Security apparatus as Ukraine experts. They turned whistleblower and helped impeach Trump over Russiagate. It seems the worm of corruption has now turned its baleful eye toward … you get the idea.

The Vindman boys were both born in Ukraine in 1975, indelibly stamped with classic Eastern European physiques, which is to say they are shaped like mailboxes. Naturalized as children, they both somehow rose to high station in the U.S. Army (Colonel and Lt. Colonel), and were then posted to Obama’s National Security Council (Dir. of European Affairs and Dir. of Military Analysis—Ukraine), where they lay in wait for naive President Trump 1.0 to innocently stumble along.

Purely for background, the Vindman brothers’ given names are Yevgeny Semyonovich “Eugene” Vindman and Aleksandr Semyonovich “Alexander” Vindman.

You might especially recall Alexander Vindman, the “analyst” turned whistleblower who testified in the impeachment trial that President Trump offered a “quid pro quo” to none less than former comedian Zelensky, allegedly merely by asking about the status of Kiev’s investigation into the Biden Crime Family’s shenanigans with Ukrainian energy company and Biden sugar daddy Burisma. Whatever.

After Trump beat the Democrats’ fake impeachment hoax, his DOD escorted the Vindmans right out of the National Security Council and ordered them back to the Army. Both rage quit, becoming instant heroes to Democrats. Last year, Eugene ran for Congress in a deep-blue Virginia district and won. So he is now a sitting Representative. (He replaced former CIA officer Abigail Spanberger, who is now Virginia’s governor. Good luck, Virginians.)

After re-entering private life in 2022, the Vindman brothers formed Trident Support, LLC, a “consulting firm” allegedly providing military consulting, logistics, and weapons-system support for Ukraine (of course), mostly through State Department-funded grant programs. Last year, Human Events ran an exposé story disclosing a a pitch deck (i.e., Powerpoint presentation) the Vindmans used to hawk their services to Ukrainian officials.

The Vindman pitch was a fascinating window into lucrative Proxy War weapons dealing. Curiously, the final slide links Trident Support with its ‘project partner,’ the American Indian-owned All Native Group, which calls itself the “State Department’s #1 small business contractor.” So. War paint and wampum. Does the grifting ever end? But never mind.

This week, the Pentagon formally requested that the House review the Vindmans’ “consulting company” to see if the brothers complied with detailed rules related to post-military work for foreign governments. Specifically, and for obvious reasons, retired Army officers need consent from the Secretary of State and the Army Secretary before working on behalf of any foreign government.

The Vindmans deny doing anything wrong. “We understood, my brother and I, that we would be under a microscope,” Eugene, the human germ, said. “Everything we did, we did with an eye towards strict compliance with law and regulation.” Their defense seems to be that they weren’t working for Ukraine. Rather, they argue, they were working for American businesses that, in turn, wanted to work in Ukraine.

But their pitch deck seems to argue otherwise.

There are two remarkable features of the Pentagon’s request for an investigation, both related to timing. First, the Pentagon’s interest relates to old conduct (or misconduct) from 2022— but the request for an investigation into the Vindmans’ corrupt conduct was forwarded to the House right as Ukraine’s NABU corruption scandal broke. So that’s interesting. And second, this attack against Representative Vindman was launched the same week as the Pentagon also targeted Senator Mark Kelly, making two Congressmen who are currently experiencing the Pentagon’s fury.

The Vindmans call it retaliation. But you could also label it irony.

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A couple weeks ago, the UK Guardian ran a fascinating story that disappeared right down the news cycle’s memory hole. The article ran below the headline, “The real reason Trump is preparing for war with Venezuela.”

There’s much in the article to unpack. First, the Guardian invoked the “Monroe Doctrine.” On December 2, 1823, President James Monroe laid out his famous Doctrine in a big address to Congress, forever cementing his legacy in middle-schoolers’ hormonally distracted brains. Ask them. They are certain that President Monroe’s last name is “Doctrine.” They’ll even argue with you about it. Anyway, President M. Doctrine declared that, if he had anything to do with it, the US would stay out of Europe’s business, but in return would view any European efforts to influence independent nations in the Western Hemisphere as a hostile act.

And then, after a long stretch of Democrat political dominance, everybody forgot all about Monroe’s dusty Doctrine. But the Heritage Foundation’s landmark Project 2025, which provides the blueprint for the Trump 2.0 revolution, revived it. Project 2025 described a goal of once again making the Western Hemisphere “off limits” to America’s adversaries, this time focusing on China and to a lesser extent, Russia.

This modern modification, substituting China for Europe, led various wags who think they’re funny to call it the “Donroe Doctrine,” which is the dumbest name I’ve ever heard, and probably why it doesn’t seem to be sticking.

Anyway, Venezuela checks both Project 2025 boxes, China and Russia. The Caribbean communist country is practically daring us to do something about it. “China has poured millions into Venezuelan oil projects and loans,” the Guardian explained. Literally poured. That’s how much money China has. Meanwhile, the paper continued, “Russia has armed Venezuelan President Maduro with Sukhoi fighter jets, helicopters, tanks, and air defence systems.” And probably aggressive nesting dolls, too, but that’s not important right now.

So China and Russia are the first annoyance. But it’s like an addiction; Maduro can’t seem to stop himself. It’s not just Russia and China. The next major irritant is that Venezuela has also been cozying up to the mad mullahs and working with various Middle Eastern terrorist groups, like Hezbollah. Headline from the Atlantic Council, in 2020:

“The Lebanese terrorist group,” the story reported, “has helped to turn Venezuela into a hub for the convergence of transnational organized crime and international terrorism.” So.

Add those vexing problems to the surge into the U.S. of Venezuelan cartel gangs —at least one directly connected to Maduro’s government— and the tsunami of drugs washing northwards, and you already have a geopolitical powder keg a few hundred nautical miles from the border.

Now we reach the point in the story where the proverbial straw broke James Monroe’s camel’s back.

🔥 As I reported earlier this year, Venezuela’s quiet, unassuming eastern neighbor, Guyana, came into a bit of luck recently. It won the international lottery. Earlier this year, working with U.S.-based Texaco, Guyanese prospectors discovered one of the largest oil reserves in the world —ten billion barrels— just off the coast of Guyana’s Western half, called the Essequibo region. See the map, above.

Needless to say, the Essequibo oil fields are priceless. And Mr. Maduro wants them.

In pursuit of that objective, Venezuela dusted off a century-old land conflict —a dispute long settled by international courts— and laid a jumped-up new claim to the Essequibo region and its new oil fields. He rattled his Chinese sabers, did flybys in his Russian jets, and generally began planning for an invasion. In April, analysts predicted that war would likely result. Article from the International Crisis Group, April, 2025:

Alert readers will notice that the Essequibo oil fields are smack dab right where our destroyers, nuclear submarine, and aircraft carrier are currently enjoying their Caribbean vacations. Coincidence? Give me a break.

Warbloggers have recently expressed surprise that the U.S. hasn’t already done something with all that hardware, which is damnably expensive to keep just bobbing around in the ocean someplace. But it seems painfully obvious that the Navy is doing what it always does: showing force to keep the peace. The last thing we need is for Maduro, with his Monroe Doctrine-shattering love-fest with China, Russia, Iran, and Hezbollah, to get his pincers on an oil field that could generate Saudi-Arabian levels of liquid gold.

So the Pentagon’s Venezuela operation sits squarely at the nexus of at least four issues of critical American interest. It is partly about oil and protecting US oil companies, at a critical moment of a Bidenflation-fueled affordability crisis. It is partly about a resurgent Monroe Doctrine, as described in Project 2025, and kicking China, Russia, and Iran out of our hemisphere. It is about liquidating the linked plagues of drugs and cartels that are transforming our big cities into third-world hellholes and our vulnerable citizens into zombies. And it is about tamping down a communist dictator who is making our own hemisphere wobbly and war-prone.

In other words, contrary to corporate media’s narrative, there are lots of good reasons to move the military into the Caribbean. It’s literally our own backyard. And as James “Monroe” Doctrine would say, it’s our hemisphere.So.

All the information is out there, in public, paid for and packaged, ready for journalists to pick it up off the service counter. Naive readers might wonder why the media hasn’t briefed us on all this relevant background and context, and instead focused solely and maniacally on bored sailors’ habit of testing their weapons on a handful of nearby narcoterrorist speedboats and jerry-rigged ‘submarines.’

But that assumes the media’s job is to inform its customers, rather than try to tell us what to think.

Fortunately, we’re thinking for ourselves now.

Have a terrific Tuesday! Paddle back here tomorrow morning, for the latest installment of C&C-style essential news and sarcastic commentary. See you then.

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