[A] long habit of not thinking a thing wrong, gives it a superficial appearance of being right, and raises at first a formidable outcry in defense of custom.
—Thomas Paine’s Feb. 14, 1776 introduction to the second printing of his pamphlet “Common Sense”
As of this writing, it appears that Russia has used another hypersonic Oreshnik missile to strike Ukraine. This time, they have hit oil fields in Lvov, which is in the western part of Ukraine near Poland. No sane person should be surprised by this, given the recent actions of the United States and British governments. However, insane people, who have lost all sense of natural law, truth, and justice, will surely be howling, screeching, and muttering under their breath about the “outrageous Russian aggression.”
After the 1775 battle of Lexington and Concord, as the British efforts to regain control of the American colonies intensified, with more violent and oppressive measures, Thomas Paine took up the pen to mobilize the “Thirteen United Colonies” to finally free themselves from the British yoke.
By this time, many of the colonists had resigned themselves to the injustices they suffered, taking for granted that this was “normal.” Many, if not most, of them did not agree that the only course of action was to Declare their Independence from the Monarchy.
So, today, many Americans lazily argue that force is necessary, and if you are stronger than the other guy, you have the right to do whatever you want to him.
So, the infantile Trump advisor Stephen Miller argued to Jake Tapper, in effect, “We’re just gonna run Venezuela because we can.”
Have Miller and his like-minded-barbarian-horde-confederates considered the implications of their actions? Is it okay for your neighbor to steal your car because she thinks you don’t know how to parallel park, and she has a gun and you don’t?
So, in the first week of 2026, we have kidnapped the President of Venezuela, with his wife, and brought them to stand trial on trumped-up charges in New York; we have seized an empty Russian oil tanker (on Orthodox Christmas Day, no less); we have killed another 8 unidentified individuals on small boats in the Caribbean, and President Donald Trump says we’re going to “run Venezuela” for the indefinite future, as we steal their oil.
Do not forget that these actions were preceded by the most ominous violation of international and U.S. Constitutional law: Our CIA was involved, with the British, in our Ukrainian proxy’s launching a 91-drone attack on the residence of the Russian President Vladimir Putin, in an attempt to assassinate him and/or decapitate the military capability of the nation with the world’s most nuclear warheads, Russia, to respond to an attack. You should thank your lucky stars that this attack failed.
While this is going on, Japan is moving to host nuclear weapons to threaten China, and Nazi-sympathizer Chancellor Friedrich Merz is eagerly awaiting new nuclear-capable intercontinental ballistic missile systems to be placed on German soil.
So, Russia, which has been very restrained up to now, has sent a forceful message to the “people who only understand force” in the West that there will be consequences for their actions. President Putin said, “Never Again!” on February 24, 2022, and he meant it.
Thomas Paine understood what Shelley, Schiller, and John Quincy Adams all expressed in their various writings: There is a moment when the force becomes too much, “there is a limit to a tyrant’s power,” as the Swiss villagers proclaim when they finally decide to fight back against a tyrannical governor in Schiller’s play Wilhelm Tell.
The plight of the children of Gaza, in their helpless innocence, touched the hearts of billions around the world and woke up their sleeping conscience. The assault on Venezuela has added insult to injury, and the world is watching. The fatal shooting of a 37-year-old woman, who was protesting the violent ICE raids, by an ICE agent, who can be seen in a video chasing her vehicle to shoot her three times through the window (not standing in front of the car getting run over), may be the tipping point, or maybe the next thing will be—if we don’t stand up, there will be more.
The whole world is wondering, “What’s up with the American people?” Is your neighbor aware of this?
