Date: Friday, 17 October 2025
2 articles:
America is a dictatorship, its Constitution now trashed.
&
The Current Status of the War in Ukraine Between America and Russia
https://ericzuesse.substack.com/p/america-is-a-dictatorship-its-constitution
https://theduran.com/america-is-a-dictatorship-its-constitution-now-trashed/
America is a dictatorship, its Constitution now trashed.
17 October 2025, by Eric Zuesse. (All of my recent articles can be seen here.)
WHAT THE U.S. CONSTITUTION SAYS:
https://constitutioncenter.org/the-constitution/articles/article-i/clauses/753
“The Constitution’s Article I, Section 8 specifically lists as a power of Congress the power “to declare War,” which unquestionably gives the legislature the power to initiate hostilities. The extent to which this clause limits the President’s ability to use military force without Congress’s affirmative approval remains highly contested.”
MY COMMENT: Of course dictators and their agents would “contest” what that means — but democrats (NOT Democrats but the real thing) will instead ADHERE TO what their country’s Constitution clearly SAYS, and if there is no declaration of war, then any President who perpetrates any foreign invasion anywhere is a severe and extreme traitor to his country — a traitor to its very CONSTITUTION, regarding a life-and-death matter that profoundly affects the nation’s international relations — and should therefore be executed AS such, because to NOT apply the maximum penalty is sending a very wrong message both to the domestic population and to foreign countries.
THE PRESIDENTIAL OATH OF OFFICE:
https://constitution.congress.gov/browse/essay/artII-S1-C8-1-5/ALDE_00013936/
Article II, Section 1, Clause 8:
“Before he enter on the Execution of his Office, he shall take the following Oath or Affirmation:– I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my Ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.” …
The Supreme Court has not addressed [what — if anything — this oath means].
Consequently, the U.S. Supreme Court is protecting such treason, and therefore an American dictator doesn’t need to worry, at all, about the Constitution. The U.S. Supreme Court stands behind any President who violates his/her oath of office.
On May 5th, ABC News headlined “'Shocking': Experts question Trump claiming 'I don't know' about upholding Constitution”, and reported Trump’s repeatedly refusing to answer the question as t whether or not he needs to obey what the Supreme Court rules:
Asked a final time if, as president, he needed to uphold the Constitution, Trump again deflected.
"I don't know. I have to respond by saying, again, I have brilliant lawyers that work for me, and they are obviously going to follow what the Supreme Court said," in what's become a new standard answer in interviews when confronted with similar questions about what the law requires him to do.
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https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/115373751811822463
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Truth Details
4088 replies
Donald J. Trump
@realDonaldTrump
Under my Standing Authorities as Commander-in-Chief, this morning, the Secretary of War, ordered a lethal kinetic strike on a vessel affiliated with a Designated Terrorist Organization (DTO) conducting narcotrafficking in the USSOUTHCOM area of responsibility — just off the Coast of Venezuela. Intelligence confirmed the vessel was trafficking narcotics, was associated with illicit narcoterrorist networks, and was transiting along a known DTO route. The strike was conducted in International Waters, and six male narcoterrorists aboard the vessel were killed in the strike. No U.S. Forces were harmed. Thank you for your attention to this matter!!!!!!
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https://www.facebook.com/Southcom/posts/1276515444514166/
U.S. Department of War and Secretary of War Pete Hegseth
President Donald J. Trump “Under my Standing Authorities as Commander-in-Chief, this morning, the Secretary of War, ordered a lethal kinetic strike on a vessel affiliated with a Designated Terrorist Organization (DTO) conducting narcotrafficking in the USSOUTHCOM area of responsibility — just off the Coast of Venezuela. Intelligence confirmed the vessel was trafficking narcotics, was associated with illicit narcoterrorist networks, and was transiting along a known DTO route. The strike was conducted in International Waters, and six male narcoterrorists aboard the vessel were killed in the strike. No U.S. Forces were harmed. Thank you for your attention to this matter!!!!!!”
George Klaes
Boats of that size off the coast of Venezuela are not headed for the United States. Venezuela is not a country of origin of narcotics and is not involved in the drug trade. It is another illegal extrajudicial killing in violation of U.S. law and International Law. Even the U.S. Coast Guard and the U.S. Navy don't have the authority to board those vessels because they are so far from our shores and not headed to the United States. We can assist other nations in the area but they must make the request but even then we must board the vessels, search the vessels, and arrest the suspects not just kill them because they are on a boat that may be carrying contraband. It is a violation of U.S. Law and International Law. The World Court must investigate and prosecute all responsible.
21h
Reply
George Klaes
Smuggling is not a capital offence. Murder is a capital offence.
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MY CLOSING COMMENT: Donald Tump now holds in his hands the power to initiate World War Three without his needing to go to Congress for a vote on a Declaration of War. The last time when the U.S. declared war was during the Presidency of Franklin Delano Roosevelt. All of America’s wars since that time have been CLEARLY UNCONSTITUTIONAL. As a result, with all of the war-spending by this country after WW2, we now have a
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Investigative historian Eric Zuesse’s latest book, AMERICA’S EMPIRE OF EVIL: Hitler’s Posthumous Victory, and Why the Social Sciences Need to Change, is about how America took over the world after World War II in order to enslave it to U.S.-and-allied billionaires. Their cartels extract the world’s wealth by control of not only their ‘news’ media but the social ‘sciences’ — duping the public.
https://ericzuesse.substack.com/p/the-current-status-of-the-war-in
https://theduran.com/the-current-status-of-the-war-in-ukraine-between-america-and
The Current Status of the War in Ukraine Between America and Russia
17 October 2025, by Eric Zuesse. (All of my recent articles can be seen here.)
https://theduran.com/putin-trump-summit-orban-outsmarts-warhawks/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EN_0OvxRI7A
“Putin-Trump summit. Orban outsmarts warhawks”
17 October 2015. The Duran’s Alexander Mercouris and Alex Christoforou explain why the Budapest Summit will be the crucial one for both Putin and Trump. For Trump, it will be mainly about America’s corporations gaining privileged access to Russian natural resources (Russia is the world’s most natural-resources-rich country); for Putin, it will be entirely about protection of Russia’s national security.
There is so much in their discussion that’s basic to understanding world affairs, so that I urge you to hear it. These are two of the world’s most brilliant and knowledgeable analysts of geopolitics. Christoforou is far more critical of Putin than Mercouris is, but both have extraordinary access to reliable sources about current events, total-recall memories, and phenomenal ability to bring instantaneously to bear upon each thing that they discuss, every other relevant fact that’s in their enormous memory, so that they — especially Mercouris — are like instantaneous historians, who, unlike normal historians who need to rely upon painstakingly assembling time-lines and reconstructing events from that sequence, can do this effortlessly in real time, while the history is actually being made, instead of afterward. Also, both have in their heads detailed maps of everything, which enormously helps their understanding. All of these intellectual assets are on full display in this 57-minute video
Some of the world’s most influential people are subscribers to Mercouris’s daily commentaries.
Mercouris: “There is a very very high prospect that Budapest is going to fail.”
The stakes at Budapest will be: Will Trump go down in history as having been the U.S. President on whose watch the U.S. empire (which started on 25 July 1945) precipitously begins its ending? Will Putin need for Russia to conquer all of Ukraine in order to prevent a 1962 Cuban-Missile-Crisis in reverse (now to protect Russia from America’s missiles via Ukraine, as opposed to the prior event, which was in the opposite direction: to protect America from Russia’s missiles via Cuba)?
The reason why Mercouris expects the crucial Budapest Summit to fail is that he doesn’t think that Trump even cares about Putin’s concerns. (I agree: I believe that Trump automatically views competitors as being enemies, and therefore constantly aims to conquer them, never to help protect them — all of them must be conquered, and their viewpoint is of interest to him only to the extent that Trump needs to understand his opponent’s viewpoint in order to facilitate conquering that person. Trump despises win-win games, seeks ONLY win-lose games — rejects the possibility that he might lose, can’t even think of himself as possibly losing. I have always said this about him, but Putin has always treated Trump not as despising win-win games but as favoring them — which is the way that the lying Trump describes himself. Putin has, all along, FUNDAMENTALLY misunderstood Trump. He has been Trump’s sucker. He hasn’t read and rationally understood Trump’s long record of actions — actions of a pshychopath.)
The Budapest Summit will certainly be a major historical event. It could lead to WW3 (a lose-lose game — a danger that Trump thinks can’t happen to him); or else to the final termination of U.S. global hegemony. (I believe that the third possibility, the termination of Russia’s independence — a U.S. conquest over Russia — though conceivable, is the least likely to result.)
Basically, the U.S.-and-allied ‘news’-media have been lying the American people into thinking that Ukraine has been winning instead of losing this war, and Trump is being advised by the neocons that he himself appointed, and who keep repeating and spreading those lies, not only to the American people, but to their boss (Trump); so, Putin simply isn’t being believed by Trump. Trump isolates himself from the truth, and the nation’s ‘news’-media are equally psychopathic in spreading his lies, which result from him surrounding himself by individuals who tell him what he wants to hear. The empire’s colonial heads-of-state likewise tell him what he wants to hear — that Russia can and must be conquered. This is the kind of situation that could produce a world-destroying nuclear war. If it won’t end in a nuclear war, it will end in marking the culmination, the pinnacle, of the American empire, the decline-and-fall stage of this empire, which, as I said, had started on 25 July 1945.
Later today (October 17th), Scott Ritter and Ray McGovern reported after the day’s Trump-Zelensky White House press conference, that the sending of Tomahawk missiles to Ukraine is now far less likely to happen. Apparently, the over-two-hour Putin-Trump phone call on October 16th caused Trump to disappoint Zelensky on the 17th.
However, also on the 17th, “Simplicus” headlined “Think-Tanks Wrestle with Russian Strategic Dilemma” and presented the latest from America’s billionaires’ think tanks strategizing as to how to conquer both Russia and China, and so, even if this is the start of their empire’s decline-and-fall, the billionaires apparently want it to go down blazing. These people — the billionaires and their hired hands, the neoconservatives in the U.S.-and-allied Governments — are their countries’ actual national-security dangers. The threat is here, amongst us — not really foreign, at all. If they were expelled, there would be no danger of WW3.
Then these countries could have blossoming trade with the countries such as China, and Russia, that are rising at the same time as the U.S. and its colonies (‘allies’) are sinking. It might mean an end to the empire and a long-needed restoration to economic growth within what now is the U.S. empire.
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Investigative historian Eric Zuesse’s latest book, AMERICA’S EMPIRE OF EVIL: Hitler’s Posthumous Victory, and Why the Social Sciences Need to Change, is about how America took over the world after World War II in order to enslave it to U.S.-and-allied billionaires. Their cartels extract the world’s wealth by control of not only their ‘news’ media but the social ‘sciences’ — duping the public.
