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The US's bombing of Caracas reiterates three key foundations of American foreign policy: the Constitution is dead, democracy is irrelevant, and the "rule of law" doesn't matter.
Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/three-key-lessons-uss-venezuela-intervention
What is America doing in Venezuela?
On Jan. 3, the Trump administration launched an operation that ended with the capture of President Nicolás Maduro, who is now in New York City on narcoterrorism and weapons charges. “We’re going to run it, essentially, until such time as a proper transition can take place,” Trump said.
Mr. Trump’s policy here is strange for a number of reasons: The U.S. is suffering from a fentanyl crisis, but Venezuela is not known as a fentanyl producer. Venezuela’s oil reserves are not the path to geopolitical power that they might have been in the 1970s. Mr. Maduro was a brutal and corrupt dictator, but Mr. Trump has left his No. 2 in charge. And Mr. Trump ran for office promising fewer foreign entanglements — not more.
So why Venezuela, and why now? That’s the question we look at in this conversation.
Jonathan Blitzer is a staff writer at The New Yorker. He has profiled Stephen Miller and has been following the U.S. military’s drug boat strikes in the Caribbean, as well as the Trump administration’s evolving agenda in Latin America. He’s also the author of the book “Everyone Who Is Gone Is Here: The United States, Central America, and the Making of a Crisis.
Mentioned:
Everyone Who Is Gone Is Here by Jonathan Blitzer
“How Stephen Miller Manipulates Donald Trump to Further His Immigration Obsession” by Jonathan Blitzer
“Who’s Running Venezuela After the Fall of Maduro?” by Jonathan Blitzer
Book Recommendations:
The Known World by Edward P. Jones
What You Have Heard Is True by Carolyn Forché
The Spy and the Traitor by Ben Macintyre
Thoughts? Guest suggestions? Email us at ezrakleinshow@nytimes.com.
You can find transcripts (posted midday) and more episodes of “The Ezra Klein Show” at nytimes.com/ezra-klein-podcast, and you can find Ezra on Twitter @ezraklein. Book recommendations from all our guests are listed at https://www.nytimes.com/article/ezra-klein-show-book-recs.
This episode of “The Ezra Klein Show” was produced by Jack McCordick. Fact-checking by Michelle Harris, with Mary Marge Locker and Kate Sinclair. Our senior engineer is Jeff Geld, with additional mixing by Aman Sahota. Our executive producer is Claire Gordon. The show’s production team also includes Marie Cascione, Annie Galvin, Rollin Hu, Kristin Lin, Emma Kehlbeck, Marina King and Jan Kobal. Original music by Pat McCusker. Audience strategy by Kristina Samulewski and Shannon Busta. The director of New York Times Opinion Audio is Annie-Rose Strasser.
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What kind of state does the UK find itself in as we start 2026? That’s the question Tim Harford and the More or Less team is trying to answer in a series of five special programmes.
In the second episode, we’re asking some interesting questions about health and the NHS:
Has life expectancy in the UK starting to go up again at last?
What statistics tell you about the health of the NHS?
After years of promises, are there actually any more GPs?
What’s happening to cancer rates in the UK?
What’s gone wrong with productivity in the health service?
Get in touch if you’ve seen a number in the news you think we should take a look at: moreorless@bbc.co.uk
Contributors:
Stuart McDonald, Head of Longevity and Demographic Insights at the consultancy Lane Clark & Peacock (LCP) Jon Shelton, Head of Cancer Intelligence at Cancer Research UK Ben Zaranko, Associate Director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies
Credits:
Presenter: Tim Harford Reporter: Nathan Gower Producers: Lizzy McNeill, Katie Solleveld and Charlotte McDonald Series producer: Tom Colls Production co-ordinator: Maria Ogundele Sound mix: Sarah Hockley and Neil Churchill Editor: Richard Vadon
Trump kicks off 2026 with a return to imperialism, launching a military assault in Venezuela and abducting President Nicolás Maduro. Jon, Lovett, and Tommy react to the news, the administration's open acknowledgement that they want Venezuela's oil, and Trump's hint that military action may be coming to more places in the Western Hemisphere—including Colombia, Mexico, and Greenland. Then, the guys discuss Minnesota Governor Tim Walz's decision to end his reelection campaign in response to a fraud scandal that has captured the attention of right wing media, what we've learned (and not learned) from the Epstein files that were released before Christmas, and the most online stories that you may have missed over the holidays. Then, Lovett talks to Senator Mark Kelly about Secretary Hegseth's move to censure him in response to his reminder to service members that they need not follow "illegal orders."
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Amanda Holmes reads E. E. Cummings’s “i thank You God for most this amazing day.” Have a suggestion for a poem by a (dead) writer? Email us: podcast@theamericanscholar.org. If we select your entry, you’ll win a copy of a poetry collection edited by David Lehman.
This episode was produced by Stephanie Bastek and features the song “Canvasback” by Chad Crouch.
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Zohran Mamdani held his mayoral swearing in ceremony at the now-abandoned City Hall Station that was a feature of the first New York Subway built in 1904. Unfortunately, city officials deliberately drove the subway company into insolvency and then took over.
Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/socialist-mamdani-inadvertently-pays-tribute-capitalism
Among the many rationalizations that the Trump administration is using to initiate massive force and violence against the Venezuelan people is that the Venezuelan government nationalized American oil interests many years ago.
Original article: https://mises.org/power-market/us-government-not-daddy-us-oil-companies