Another Squirrel to Chase

A conversation with Sanho Tree on the illegal blockade of Cuba, Trump's buzz from Venezuela, and how Trump lit every fuse at once. If you want to understand why the world feels like it's on fire in six different places — and why those fires are not as unrelated as you might think — there no better guide than Sanho Tree. Sanho is a senior fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies, a former World War II historian, one of the most consistent voices on drug policy and U.S. foreign policy in the Western hemisphere, and an irreplaceable follow on Bluesky. He's been sounding the alarm on Cuba, Venezuela, and the drug war's role in driving migration for years, long before any of it became unavoidable news. In this conversation, we cover a lot of ground — and it moves fast — but there's a through line connecting all of it: the fentanyl lie. From day one of Trump's second term, the administration used the lie of fentanyl smuggling to justify tariffs on Canada and Mexico, boat strikes in the Caribbean, and ultimately a series of moves — against Venezuela, against Cuba — that have nothing to do with fentanyl and everything to do with seizing resources, toppling governments, and projecting power without any of the institutional guardrails that used to slow these things down. The experts are gone. The interagency process is gone. What's left is whatever the Mad King wants to see when he turns on the TV. We talk about Cuba's collapsing power grid, its oil blockade, and the very real possibility that if the government falls, ten million Cubans will have nothing keeping them from crossing ninety miles of water into Florida — the exact outcome Stephen Miller would hate most. We talk about Venezuela and why seizing its oil could ignite an insurgency using the same fiber-optic drone tactics refined in Ukraine. We talk about Iran, the Strait of Hormuz, and why insurance actuaries — not Trump's words — will determine when global shipping returns to normal. And we talk about the deeper history: how drugs built the Western hemisphere through colonization, slavery, and empire — and why the people we criminalize today for growing coca are doing exactly what European empires were celebrated for doing for four hundred years. Thanks for finding this. If you like what you've found, subscribe to THE FARCE newsletter, join the LOLGOP Studios Patreon, or drop a tip. Free or paid, your support helps spread this work.  

It was an extraordinary abuse of power. The FBI showed up in Fulton County, Georgia, and seized 700 boxes of ballots from the 2020 election. And standing nearby, for reasons that may actually be illegal, was Tulsi Gabbard, the Director of National Intelligence. Voting rights expert Ari Berman says this attack on our elections wasn't just about 2020. It is an unignorable sign that Donald Trump and his regime are 1000% serious about trying to swipe the 2026 elections. Trump has already said he wants to "take over the voting" in at least 15 cities. And in Georgia, unlike anywhere else in the country, there's actually a legal mechanism to do it — a MAGA-controlled state election board with the power to sideline local officials, purge voter rolls, close polling places, and hand Georgia's largest county to election deniers hand-picked by Trump. The courts are supposed to stop this. But one judge already didn't. Berman argues this isn't a hypothetical anymore. It's not doomerism. It's not paranoia. It's happening right now, in plain sight — and the question isn't whether Trump is trying to control the outcome of the next election. The question is whether anyone will stop him in time. Watch this episode: https://youtu.be/2_av_bWoF2M 

But the next best time is now. Michael Edison Hayden—author of "STRANGE PEOPLE ON THE HILL" and co-host of "Posting Through It"—gives the backstory of blockbuster stories he wrote while working for the Southern Poverty Law Center,  based on emails Stephen Miller exchanged with Breitbart News. The context he adds to that story, and the connections to his new book about extremists buying a castle in a small West Virginia town, help explain how America got to where we are now. Support this podcast and help change brains by backing LOLGOP Studios on Patreon. 

Spend a minute and a half thinking about what's happening in Minneapolis as an American citizen. We don't know who Woke Hoth Guy is but we share this only out of respect for his words and solidarity.  Found here: https://bsky.app/profile/classhuggle.bsky.social/post/3md7362oo7s25  

Will your vote count in 2026? It may be the most important question we can ask right now. There's no one better to ask than Ari Berman. He's the author of MINORITY RULE and GIVE US THE BALLOT. He is also the National Voting Rights Correspondent for Mother Jones, and he has been covering the "GOP War on Voting" for over a decade.

Read more: Trump Keeps Demanding that You Stop Talking about His Jeffrey Epstein Problem https://www.emptywheel.net/2025/07/26/trump-keeps-demanding-that-you-stop-talking-about-his-jeffrey-epstein-problem/  If Dems Successfully Message on News Outlets Lefty Pundits No Longer Read, Did It Ever Happen? https://www.emptywheel.net/2025/07/27/if-a-dems-successfully-message-on-news-outlets-lefty-pundits-no-longer-read-did-it-ever-happen/ 

Marcy Wheeler looks deeper into news that Trump's former defense attorney, now the deputy attorney general, will reach out to Ghislaine Maxwell. She lays out how Trump is orchestrating a cover-up scheme to protect himself from damaging Epstein revelations by getting Ghislaine Maxwell out of prison through a cooperation deal that will target his political opponents instead.

Donald Trump was desperately trying to regain his superpower, attempting to grab attention and refocus it. He ended up on an Obama conspiracy theory that's already been re-litigated five times. Read more at emptywheel: https://www.emptywheel.net/2025/07/18/tulsi-gabbard-accuses-kash-patel-of-covering-up-for-the-obama-deep-state/

emptywheel's Marcy Wheeler explains that the bubbling Jeffrey Epstein scandal is about two things: the underlying scandal and any ties Trump has to it, and the way it has disrupted Trump's normal super power ability to command and direct attention. Read more: Jeffrey Epstein Is about Trump's Failing Ability to Command Attention https://www.emptywheel.net/2025/07/13/jeffrey-epstein-is-about-command-of-attention/

Marcy Wheeler explains the crucial distinctions in how liberals and the right-wing use language, the role of journalism, and the impact of amplifying polarizing messages. See how journalists act as data mules for Trump's truth social posts and the broader. And find out how FEMA's failures present an opportunity to build solidarity in everyone victimized by the regime's malicious ineptitude.