“If the regime of Nicolás Maduro is illegitimate, as President Trump repeatedly declared before ousting Maduro, why is the administration now in bed with Maduro’s vice president, Delcy Rodríguez? Four days after the extraordinary capture of Maduro by US special forces, reports of life under Rodríguez are grim for Venezuelans who hoped for change. On Tuesday, pro-regime armed colectivos were roaming Carácas searching for anyone who might have been celebrating Maduro’s downfall. Journalists were getting hauled in and later let go. Political prisoners remain locked up — despite some holiday releases before Maduro got nabbed. The unfortunate decision to work through the existing power structure reflects the unique situation Trump now faces in Venezuela. Most leaders would have concluded the post-Maduro challenges were insurmountable — and never attempted the operation. Trump’s bold move succeeded tactically, but now comes the far more difficult strategic test.” (01/08/25)
“Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor received millions of pounds from an oligarch using funds from a firm implicated in criminal corruption, a BBC investigation has found. Kazakh billionaire Timur Kulibayev has told the BBC through his lawyers that he used a loan from a company called Enviro Pacific Investments to help him buy Andrew’s former mansion. Prosecutors in Italy concluded that the firm had received cash from a bribery scheme in 2007. Weeks after the last of these payments was made, the oligarch bought Sunninghill Park in Berkshire from the then prince for £15m — with the help of funds from Enviro Pacific.” (01/08/25)
“Venezuela will release ‘a significant number’ of Venezuelan and foreigners imprisoned in the country, the head of Venezuela’s national assembly said Thursday. Jorge Rodríguez, brother of acting President Delcy Rodríguez, did not specify who they would be releasing or how many people would be released. Despite mass detentions following the tumultuous 2024 election, Venezuela’s government maintains it doesn’t keep political prisoners. The U.S. government and the country’s opposition have demanded the release of opposition figures and critics. ‘Consider this gesture by the Bolivarian government, which is broadly intended to seek peace,’ Rodríguez said in an announcement publicized over TV.” (01/08/25)
“President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Dec. 11, 2025, that aims to supersede state-level artificial intelligence laws that the administration views as a hindrance to innovation in AI. State laws regulating AI are increasing in number, particularly in response to the rise of generative AI systems such as ChatGPT that produce text and images. Thirty-eight states enacted laws in 2025 regulating AI in one way or another. They range from prohibiting stalking via AI-powered robots to barring AI systems that can manipulate people’s behavior. The executive order declares that it is the policy of the United States to produce a ‘minimally burdensome’ national framework for AI.” (01/07/25)
“A US immigration [thug] has shot dead a 37-year-old woman in the city of Minneapolis, sparking protests overnight. Federal officials said the woman, Renee Nicole Good, had tried to run over immigration [thugs] with her car but the city mayor said the [thug] who shot her had acted recklessly. Videos of the incident show ICE [thugs] approaching a car which is in the middle of the street. As it attempts to drive off, one of them points his gun at the driver and at least two shots are heard. … Following the fatal shooting, the city’s Democratic mayor, Jacob Frey, used an expletive to urge the ICE [thugs] to leave the city.” (01/08/26)
“There have been two parts to the political world’s reaction to the American operation that deposed and captured Nicolas Maduro. The first part was to marvel at what Brit Hume called ‘the extraordinary level of skill, technology and daring’ on the part of American forces and leadership. Hume noted that the U.S. performance, when considered alongside the flawless attack on Iran’s nuclear program, sent to the world ‘precisely the opposite signal from that sent by the botched withdrawal from Afghanistan’. The second reaction emerged after President Donald Trump’s press conference announcing the action. ‘We’re going to run [Venezuela] until such time as we can do a safe, proper and judicious transition,’ Trump said. ‘So we don’t want to be involved with having somebody else get in and we have the same situation that we had for the last long period of years.'” (01/07/25)
“The private lives of political leaders have long been fair game for opponents and investigative reporters – and, increasingly, amateur internet sleuths and online provocateurs. When the high-profile individuals are female, whether leaders themselves or their wives or partners, studies show that the scrutiny tends to be harsher and more speculative. ‘The scandalization and personalization of news is profitable,’ observed the Character Assassination and Reputation Politics Research Lab, a joint initiative between an American and a Dutch university. However, this trend not only ‘diminish[es] the public standing or credibility of the politician, but … also divert[s] attention from substantive policy discussions.’ Progressively powerful internet-enabled searching and sharing amplifies both facts and fictions, honest persuasion as well as embedded prejudices. This week, as the Monitor reports, a Paris court convicted 10 individuals of ‘degrading, insulting, and malicious’ cyberharassment of French first lady Brigitte Macron.” (01/06/25)
“Before Gov. Tim Walz (D-MN) became the first casualty of the burgeoning Minnesota day care fraud scandal, he was supposed to be the reason white men and working-class white people more generally might vote Democratic. Walz, who abandoned his gubernatorial reelection bid on Monday, was the Democratic nominee for vice president in 2024. He was billed as a dad’s dad, an affable football coach, a fixer of trucks who was not afraid to get his hands dirty under the hood. Instead, Walz was judged by many voters to be as ‘weird’ as he claimed Vice President JD Vance — then a freshman Ohio senator and junior partner on the 2024 Republican ticket — was. He, or at least his aides, bungled a basic football metaphor.” (01/07/25)
“After a series of strikes in the last few days, and more than two decades of attempted coups (in 2002, 2019, and 2020), warfare, sanctions, and a ‘Maximum Pressure Campaign’, the United States has just toppled Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. Maduro and his wife are standing trial for ‘narco-terrorism’ charges, a cover to extend the War on Terror without congressional authorization, in New York, with members of his security team, along with several civilians, dead. Far-right hardliner María Corina Machado, the leader of the opposition who has longstanding ties to the White House and even went on Donald Trump Jr.’s podcast to justify a coup based on oil wealth, was expected to be put in power. She promised to implement a vision of deep privatization under ‘Popular Capitalism’, modeled on Augusto Pinochet, Margaret Thatcher, and Ronald Reagan.” (01/07/25)
“It’s time to evict Cea Weaver from her new gig. Less than a week after Mayor Zohran Mamdani appointed the radical-left tenant advocate to head up his Office to Protect Tenants, it’s clear that Weaver is not fit to work in city government. Besides being an avowed Communist and posting a social media call to ‘seize private property’ in 2018, the 37-year-old is also a woker-than-woke lady who clearly hates whitey — specifically, white men. According to Weaver, homeownership is a ‘weapon of white supremacy’. In a video from 2021 that’s making the rounds now, she says property should be transitioned ‘toward a model of shared equity’. She adds: ‘It will mean that families — especially white families, but some POC families — who are homeowners are, well, are gonna have a different relationship to property than the one we currently have.'” (01/07/25)
