This would appear to be both a message to Maduro, and the Mullahs… https://t.co/HyTmYyNY6f
— Not-So-OK Boomer (@Rand_Simberg) January 3, 2026
[Saturday-afternoon update]
Eclectic food for thought, from Blake Powers.
[Monday-morning update]
Trump, Maduro, and what’s next?
I just hope they have a better plan than Bush and Cheney did after removing Saddam. It wouldn’t be hard.
[Tuesday-morning update]
How snatching Maduro screws up everyone else’s plans.
This is the most assertive foreign policy against evil since Reagan. Dubya thought he was fighting the “axis of evil,” but he was far too soft on Islam.
[Bumped]
[Update a few minutes later]
The argument going around the Internet is that Cuba, Venezuela and probably Iran soon are no threat because they have completely collapsed with no power, no food, no water. Hence any actions against them are pure cruelty. If anything the rich capitalists should bail them out.…
— wretchardthecat (@wretchardthecat) January 6, 2026
Certainly a good start to the new year. With Venezuela removed as an irritant, Cuba should quickly follow suit. One hopes the current widespread unrest in Iran results in the fall of the Mullahs as well. Should that occur, it will be one more body blow to Russia and hasten that country’s own defeat by Ukraine and its post-defeat dissolution. By this time next year, it’s entirely possible the US will have no consequential enemies left standing except the PRC and the DPRK.
You are of the opinion that it was a smart move to snatch Maduro?
Perhaps…I’m not entirely convinced but willing to be so.
As always, the ultimate wisdom of a given move will rely crucially on what the follow-up proves to be. In general, it’s never a bad idea to remind foreign malefactors that the US has the capability to reach out and touch them personally if sufficiently provoked.
In the particular case of Venezuela, we shall soon see if grabbing off the titular headman is sufficient to bring down the regime or not. If not, then lather, rinse, repeat as necessary.
We should probably just inure ourselves to the periodic necessity of forcibly removing pestiferous caudillos from office in Latin America. There seems to be something fundamentally rotten about Latin culture that keeps surfacing these cretins. I’m inclined to think Catholicism is at least part of the baleful formula. The heirs of Rome have never enjoyed stable politics.
Noriega 2: Petroleum Boogaloo
Heh.
Maduro’s gone. Now to make Newsom think he’s next on the regime change list.
These days, I would think Pritzker in Illinois might stand a wee bit higher on that list than Newsom, but I take your point.
Can’t figure out why they keep misspelling the opposition leader’s name. It’s Gloria Bonalde.
Mullahs, Maduro, and Madmani….
This is also a message to Mark Carney in Ottawa. It dramatically boosts Alberta’s demand for a west coast pipeline. No bucks, no equalization payments.
We should rendition Carney to the high arctic….and leave him there with a porkchop tied around his neck
Maduro was a destabilizing entity for much of Latin America. He was waging a covert war in the US with Tren de Aragua. You can bet they were operating elsewhere in the Caribbean. According to US and western officials, Maduro lost the last two elections.
I understand not liking what it took to remove Maduro from power. The alternative is leaving a strongman in power simply because he is willing to use force to remain in power. Either you exceed that force or continue to do nothing. Don’t tell me “sanctions were working”, because those two arrested oil tankers shows they were not.
The Trump Monroe Doctrine: what began with mad Euros is continuing with Maduros.
That’s one small supper for a man, one huge First Lady for the Territory of Venezuela.
https://x.com/elonmusk/status/2007910921914769832
Ukraine is going to defeat Russia? Must be good stuff you are smoking.
Ukraine can defeat Russia far more easily than Iraq, Afghanistan, and Vietnam could defeat the United States. All they have to do is keep doing what they’re doing, and Russia will eventually decide it’s not worth losing an entire generation of men, along with the offspring they’ll never have.
No smoke necessary. Just pay attention to actual facts on the ground – and in the air. Ukraine is inflicting as much or more industrial, military, infrastructure and transport damage on Russia as the 8th Air Force did on Nazi Germany during WW2. But the 8th Air Force suffered over 50K casualties, including over 25K KIAs, to do that. Ukraine’s manpower losses to match or exceed that are near zero. Which means Ukraine can continue its campaign of incremental de-industrialization of Russia indefinitely – meaning until Russia finally says ‘Uncle.’
There are other reasons to regard a Russian defeat as inevitable, but Ukraine’s drone and missile campaign against Russia is sufficient by itself.
Ukraine winning is not relevant. They need only survive. Short of tactical nukes, that is at this point, a near certianty.
Were about to see the “Churn” in Venezuela. Don’t know what illegal s#¡t you’ll be doing tomorrow but it won’t be illegal s#¡t your doing now.
I think co-option is in the cards. What Trump is promising the remnants of the regime is vaster wealth through petro-dollars not nacro-dollars. That and an exodus plan to allow they and their families a smooth transition out to be followed by real elections in the future. For whatever reason Maduro refused to play and well, as demonstrated, there is a plan for that too.
The open question is whether this will end long term in a cluster-fuck, as with so much else. There’s no shortage of Democrats, RINOs, Deep Staters and other assorted assholes to bin the outcome. One lost election, one successful assassination, or even just a hemorrhagic stroke and Bob’s yer uncle…