I’ve taken to replying to such statements with the following:
No bar is too low, there is no bottom.
In a strong field, this might be the dumbest sentence ever uttered by the Tangerine Toddler: Trump: “Russia wants to see Ukraine succeed.”
Meanwhile, for years now, Israel has been assisting Gaza in stage 1 of a tremendous urban renewal project. Like nobody has ever seen before. (The casinos and resort hotels are next.)
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They do include many Random Capitalizations, so that seems likely.
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Hey, there’s an idea. The free world needs to start discussing the option of bombing DC and kidnapping the Trumps. China might be willing to help out.
I’m sorry, but if I had to pick just one, it would be Putin (and bombing Moscow), not Trump. Not that I’d say no to a Trump-Putin-Xi trifecta, if it was on offer, mind.
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The bombing of the capital is not really the important part of the equation. I am presuming some degree of bombing was necessary to abduct Maduro. But maybe Trump just insisted on there being a bunch of flashing lights and things going boom as part of the operation.
Otherwise, I respectfully disagree. I still have hope that America has the potential to return to being a functional democracy, and that regime change could help achieve that. I don’t think that applies nearly as much to Russia and China.
I would agree that, even without Putin and Xi, neither country is likely to become democratic any time soon. I do however think that both are far greater threats to world peace (and to human survival) than Trump is.
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If there was a standing international arrest-order (say the person was wanted by the ICC for war-crimes or crimes against humanity, or something) I’d not be opposed to apprehending world leaders (Putin in particular), no matter where they are from. Be that the US, Russia, Venezuela, China, Israel, or wherever else you can think of.
Either we believe in the rule of law or we do not. Nobody should have special priveleges.
The problem with this particular instance is that it appears to be instigated entirely by the current US administration for domestic US political reasons (possibly to take attention away from Trump’s constant appearance in the Epstein files lately and because the Trump adiministration have strategic interests in Venezuelan natural resources), instead of being because Maduro was wanted by the world more broadly for stuff like war crimes or crimes against humanity.
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It appears to me that a large part of the message is that the US can act with impunity, and will be unconstrained by international law. Essentially, might makes right.
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International politics 101: There is no rule of law.
International law is an idea that only matters to small countries. Internationally there is only power and money.
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https://www.npr.org/2026/01/03/g-s1-104346/trump-venezuela-maduro-press-conference
Trump says U.S. will ‘run’ Venezuela and sell seized oil in remarks on the strikes
As we all know, that worked out so well in Iraq.
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If I were a resident of Greenland, I would be getting a teeny bit more skittish.
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Meantime, while all eyes are on Venezuela …
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Day 349 of the Tangerine Circus:
The leader of a foreign nation is charged with “Possession of Machineguns and Destructive Devices” and “Conspiracy to Possess Machineguns and Destructive Devices against the United States”?
Why would US law prohibit citizens of foreign nations to possess machineguns, particularly when US citizens are allowed due to the 2nd amendment?
How can you engage in conspiracy to possess machineguns against the US? I don’t even understand what the charge is here.
What the actual fork?
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Is there actually a law against narco-terrorism, and if so does it explain what that means?
Three days into the year, and I already broke my resolution not to invade other countries.
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MIchael Cohen has thoughts on how the criminal case against Maduro is likely to play out:
On Monday, when Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, are wheeled into a federal courtroom in the Southern District of New York, they will do the least cinematic thing imaginable: they will plead not guilty to every single count. No confession. No dramatic collapse. No instant justice montage for Fox News. Just the beginning of a very long, very complicated federal case; one that Trump and his chest-thumping administration appear to fundamentally misunderstand.
I know something about that courtroom. I know something about that judge. And I know something about what happens when prosecutors overestimate theatrics and underestimate the Constitution.
Maduro, improbably, could not have landed in a better courtroom if he spun the wheel himself.
The case is assigned to Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein, a senior U.S. District Judge appointed by President Bill Clinton in 1998. A serious jurist. A constitutional hawk. A man with zero patience for executive-branch arrogance masquerading as law enforcement. He’s also the same judge who, in July 2020, looked at what the Trump administration and Bill Barr did to me—remanding me to prison because I planned to publish Disloyal —and called it exactly what it was: retaliation.
Judge Hellerstein ruled that the government violated my First Amendment rights, imposed an unprecedented and unconstitutional gag order, and attempted to silence speech as a condition of release. He said, flatly, that in over two decades on the bench he had never seen conditions like that. Then he ordered my immediate release.
So when I say Judge Hellerstein doesn’t scare easily, I’m not speaking theoretically. I’m speaking from lived experience.
That matters here. Because while the indictment against Maduro reads like a narco-terrorism horror novel—drug trafficking, machine guns, terrorist organizations, decades-long conspiracies—the legal burden remains the same. Evidence. Jurisdiction. Due process. Credibility. And restraint.
Yes, the indictment alleges that Maduro leveraged government power to facilitate cocaine importation, protect violent narco-terrorists, and enrich himself and his family. It accuses him of coordinating with FARC, ELN, Tren de Aragua, the Sinaloa Cartel, and the Zetas. It paints a picture of Venezuela as a cocaine superhighway funneling 200 to 250 tons of drugs annually toward the United States.
But read it carefully; and lawyers will. In many places, the indictment offers thin connective tissue. Passing references. Broad allegations. Assertions of coordination without granular detail. This is not unusual in superseding indictments meant to secure custody and preserve leverage; but it becomes very relevant once discovery begins and motions start flying.
And they will.