Venezuelans Celebrate The Demise Of Collectivism While New Yorkers Embrace Its ‘Warmth’

 

"You have to marvel at the sequence of events we just experienced. On Jan. 1, a socialist was sworn in as mayor of New York, promising the “warmth of collectivism.” On Jan. 3, President Donald Trump announced that he’d forcibly removed Nicolas Maduro from Venezuela, ending the country’s 23-year embrace of socialism.

"We will leave it to the pundits, the lawyers, politicians, and various other “experts” to debate the merits of Trump’s action.

"But what we can’t let happen is for the left and the mainstream media to ignore or downplay just how tragic Venezuela’s embrace of collectivism has been.

"So, we thought we’d do our readers a service and republish an editorial we wrote more than six years ago, in which we detailed the cold, hard truths about socialism. The situation in Venezuela had only deteriorated further in the years after this editorial ran."

Venezuela: A Humanitarian Crisis The Left Couldn’t Care Less About

"You can bet that the next time a country tries to enact Venezuela-style socialist policies, the left will be cheering it on. Until disaster inevitably strikes and it suddenly loses all interest."

"Try to imagine this scenario. A once-wealthy country spirals downward over the course of several years into a humanitarian crisis of epic proportions. Starvation and violence are rampant. The economy has collapsed. Millions have already fled. And all the while, an autocratic ruler acts with complete indifference, when he’s not trying to crush dissent and blame other countries for the misery he’s inflicting on his own. 

"Under normal circumstances, there would be regular protests in Washington. Hollywood actors would be busy creating tear-jerker videos and making emotional award ceremony speeches. Musicians would be putting on global benefit concerts. The corruption, desperation and daily human misery would be above the fold in newspapers and leading the nightly news. It would be on everyone’s mind. 

"But in this case, the catastrophic suffering is being almost completely ignored. Why? Because it’s happening in Venezuela — a socialist state that the left has for years championed and now refuses to admit has been a monumental failure.

“ 'Much of the Western left, including those who once had only kind words for (Hugo) Chávez and his successors, is treating Venezuela as an embarrassment best brushed under the carpet,” James Bloodworth writes in Foreign Policy. 

"It is almost impossible to describe what’s happening in Venezuela today. " . . . More...

What Caused Venezuela's Collapse Is No Mystery — Except To Economically Illiterate Journalists

 Investors.com  

"That list of "accomplishments" reads like the Democratic Party platform. It is their unwillingness to admit that socialism can't work that drives so many mainstream journalists to look for something, anything, else to blame when socialist economies invariable fail."

Economics: Why is it that reporters keep scratching their heads about Venezuela's descent into extreme poverty and chaos? The cause is simple. Socialism. End it and you will end the misery.

"When the New York Times wrote about Venezuela's ongoing collapse a year ago, it described how the country was suffering "painful shortages … even of basic foods," and how "electricity and water are being rationed, and huge areas of the country have spent months with little of either."

"Here is how the Times explained the reason for Venezuela's dire situation: "The growing economic crisis (was) fueled by low prices for oil, the country's main export; a drought that has crippled Venezuela's ability to generate hydroelectric power; and a long decline in manufacturing and agricultural production."

"There's no mention — not one — of the fact that Hugo Chávez tried to turn Venezuela into a socialist paradise, policies that his successor Nicolás Maduro has continued. The Times' coverage is par for the course.

"Venezuela was never a model free market economy. A couple decades ago, the Heritage Foundation gave it a 59.8 ranking on its Index of Freedom — which measures how free or government-controlled an economy is. That put it at the edge of being "moderately free." . . .

More...

Does California Want To Be Part Of The Nuclear Renaissance?

 Issues & Insights 

"If natural gas is banned, then nuclear will have to make up the shortage It can take 10 to 12 years to add new nuclear capacity, from the planning and licensing phase to completion of construction. We should add a few years this being California" . . .

"As the California Coastal Commission agreed this month to keep the state’s last nuclear energy plant open for at least five more years, the Trump administration announced federal funding for the development of small modular nuclear reactors.  

"The Diablo Canyon Power Plant in San Luis Obispo Power Plant, the only remaining nuclear energy facility in a state, was saved this month from an imminent death when the Coastal Commission voted to issue the permit the plant needs to obtain a federal license to operate for another 20 years. The twin-reactor site has been providing safe, clean and reliable electrical power for four decades.  

"Nationally, the Tennessee Valley Authority and Holtec Government Services in Michigan were chosen to develop light-water small modular reactor projects. Each will receive up to $400 million in federal cost-shared funding.  

"Champions of limited government will dispute the federal government’s involvement rather than allowing the market to make that choice.  

"They should. It’s a legitimate gripe.  

"But $800 million is a small amount of the private capital to be invested in nuclear power once public policy clears the way for the marketplace. Government has picked nuclear energy to be a loser for decades, suppressing its growth with regulatory and licensing hurdles, and even state-level bans on new plant construction (including California’s almost half-century-old in-effect moratorium). The number of domestic nuclear reactors peaked at 112 but now there are only about 90, says the Energy Information Administration, and 23 are decommissioning as of August.  

"Maybe it’s time to make up for the penalties imposed without justification on nuclear power?  

"California has been at the forefront of banning nuclear power, but some lawmakers have been considering rolling back the ban so the state can meet its clean energy goals. A bill was ntroduced earlier this year to exempt small modular reactors – the same technology that administration is betting on – from the nuclear ban." . . .

  Kerry Jackson is the William Clement Fellow in California Reform at the Pacific Research institute and co-author of the PRI book, “The California Left Coast Survivor’s Guide.”

In the 1970s, Tunnel Dweller worked on construction of the Diablo plant. It was daily beset with phony bomb threats causing evacuations which soon became ignored. Soon we might see PG&E workers walking around searching with flashlights and we'd say : "Bomb threat, huh?". They would merely smile and nod, we'd go back to work and that would be that. We figured it was Mothers For Peace or some disgruntled union worker. TD

Poet Renee Nicole Good, 37, named as Minneapolis woman shot dead by ICE agent as video captures grieving wife at the scene

 UK Daily Mail

"A woman shot dead by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in Minnesota has been named as 37-year-old poet Renee Nicole Good.

"The mother-of-three was named by her mother Donna Ganger, who spoke to the Minneapolis Star-Tribune on Wednesday afternoon

"The grieving mom denied reports Good would have been 'part of anything like' the protests against ICE that were taking place at the location where she was killed. 

" 'That's so stupid,' she said. 'Renee was one of the kindest people I've ever known.

" 'She was extremely compassionate. She's taken care of people all her life. She was loving, forgiving and affectionate. She was an amazing human being.'

"Good was a poet and mother of three children who grew up in Colorado Springs. She was married to a comedian named Timothy Macklin who died in 2023 and now lives in Minneapolis with her partner, whose named has not been shared. 

"She and Macklin had one child together, a six-year-old son, who is now orphaned. His paternal grandfather told the publication 'there's nobody else in his life. 

'I'll drive. I'll fly. To come and get my grandchild.'

"Good was shot three times in the face at a protest in Minneapolis on Wednesday after she ignored ICE agents' demands to get out of her car, reversed it and tried to drive off." . . . More

Months in planning, over in two and a half hours: how the US snatched Maduro

The Guardian

. . . "the agency also surprisingly briefed it had a human source inside the Venezuelan government – a bold statement given it could risk leading to a person being discovered – though also a way, perhaps, of undermining the confidence Maduro’s successors will have in their own security system."

"It took the US two hours and 28 minutes to snatch President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, in the small hours of Saturday morning, an extraordinary display of imperial power that plunges 30 million Venezuelans into a profound uncertainty. But it was also months in the planning.

"Critical to Operation Absolute Resolve was the work of the CIA and other US intelligence agencies. From as early as August, their goal was to establish Maduro’s “pattern of life”, or as Gen Dan Caine, the chair of the US joint chiefs of staff, described it, to “understand how he moved, where he lived, where he travelled, what he ate, what he wore, what were his pets”.

Nicolás Maduro had regularly changed his sleeping location. Photograph: Ariana Cubillos/AP

"As the US built up its military presence in the Caribbean from September, Maduro had tightened his personal security in an effort to evade capture. Gone were the well-trailed public speeches. He changed his sleeping location regularly – using between six to eight places to spend the night, according to the New York Times.

One of the helicopters believed to be carrying Maduro

"The president also relied even more heavily on Cuban counterintelligence and bodyguards, more trusted than Venezuelans, with the latter not allowed to use mobile phones. Yet such measures were not enough. On Friday evening, as the weather was finally clear enough for the US operation go ahead, Maduro’s location was fixed at a compound on Fuerte Tiuna, a key military base in Caracas.

‘Venezuela helped us a lot’: US’s capture of Nicolás Maduro stirs anxiety in Cuba

Read more

"Spy drones were part of how the CIA monitored Maduro, but after his capture on Saturday the agency also surprisingly briefed it had a human source inside the Venezuelan government – a bold statement given it could risk leading to a person being discovered – though also a way, perhaps, of undermining the confidence Maduro’s successors will have in their own security system." 

"As many as a quarter of all US navy warships had been in the Caribbean since November, bolstered by the arrival of the world’s largest aircraft carrier, the USS Gerald R Ford, with about 4,000 sailors and aircrew onboard. But despite the nearby deployment, on the night of the operation the aim of the US military was to achieve tactical surprise and air dominance." ..

More...

Jacob Frey's Disgraceful Remarks About ICE Shooting Ignore Facts, Encourage Trouble

This all began with a Democrat President and his leftist, anti-American administration that obliterated the border wall, bringing in thousands of unvetted people daily. Now the cleanup falls onto the President whom Joe Biden viscerally hates, his numerous speeches each a plea for someone to murder Donald Trump. Now, as this new administration struggles to clean the mess left by Democrats and their political puppet Joe. TD

 Nick Arama

"As we reported earlier, there was a shooting of a woman who the DHS is saying allegedly tried to run over an ICE agent in Minneapolis. 

"Now, what you should be doing in this kind of situation as a public official is reacting to calm things down, so you don't have a situation as you had in Minneapolis in 2020 with rioting and burning part of the city. You also should be waiting for the facts. 

"Instead, Mayor Jacob Frey is all-in on inflaming the situation and making things worse. Instead of taking responsibility for whipping people up and putting ICE in danger, Frey blamed ICE, claiming they were "sowing chaos on our streets" and "quite literally killing people." . . . 

. . . "Now, even if you thought that there was a problem with the shooting, you should be encouraging calm to stem rioting and more problems, if you're the mayor. And as I said, you should wait for the facts. What he did was exactly the wrong thing, unless he wants rioting. " . . .

This person tried to kill a federal law enforcement agent. Enough with the gaslighting.

"One officer at the driver side, the shooter in front steps out of the way and shoots."

"Mayor Jacob Frey just called the claim of self-defense "b*llsh*t" and said that he watched the video. He apologized to the family and said that ICE is in Minnesota to "literally kill people." This is the type of rhetoric that fuels the rage. Perhaps wait for the investigation?"... Jonathan Turley

 There is an ICE officer directly in front of the vehicle when they abruptly accelerated.

This is the direct consequence of constant attacks and demonization of our officers by sanctuary politicians who fuel and encourage rampant assaults on our law enforcement who are facing 1,300% increase in assaults against them and an 8,000% increase in death threats.  . . . "BREAKING: Video shows the moment a woman tried to RUN OVER ICE agents with her vehicle in Minneapolis, resulting in her being SHOT. 

"Tim Walz calling ICE the “GESTAPO” is EXACTLY WHY this stuff happens.

"SHAME on Walz and Mayor Frey. pic.twitter.com/qsTbdj1Y11"

— Nick Sortor (@nicksortor) January 7, 2026

Noem Eviscerates Tim Walz in Reply to Clueless Statement Against ICE

READ MORE: Breaking: Tensions Reach Boiling Point in Minneapolis As Woman Attacks ICE With Vehicle, Is Neutralized

RedState     

Governor Tim Walz  @GovTimWalz; Jan 6: "Ridiculous. Nobody is fooled into thinking this bafoonery(sp) is a reasonable use of taxpayer dollars."

"Lame duck Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz only has a year left in his term, now that he announced he will not be running for reelection. 

"He's created such a mess on multiple levels, particularly when it comes to dealing with the questions of fraud and illegal immigration enforcement in the state. 

"Really, you’re worried about taxpayer dollars? There’s been $9 billion stolen from the taxpayers in Minnesota since you became Governor.

"You won’t let us in Minnesota’s jails and there is rampant assault against our law enforcement thanks to vilification from politicians like you. So, yes, there’s strength in law enforcement numbers to remove these violent criminals from the communities you refuse to protect.

"Then came the news that ICE shot and killed a woman who allegedly tried to run them over in Minneapolis.

"It's hard not to see something like that and point a big finger at Democrats like Tim Walz for exacerbating the situation by demonizing ICE.

"But Walz doesn't seem to care about the results of his actions, and he's shameless in the process. 

"Here's the post he had the audacity to make on Tuesday. Walz claimed that it shouldn't take 50 agents to arrest one guy in a library, "Nobody is fooled into thinking this bafoonery(sic) is a reasonable use of taxpayer dollars." . . . 

"Where was his care for taxpayer dollars there? He doesn't have a leg to stand on after having let possibly billions in fraud go flying out the door.

"Then, too, as Noem notes, part of the problem is that Minnesota refuses to cooperate so that ICE could pick up suspects in the jails, rather than having to pick them up in the community, which puts ICE agents and others at greater risk. Then, on top of that, Democrats like Tim Walz demonize ICE and whip up people on the Left, so you get situations where people are attacking ICE agents. 

"The results are all on their heads. But they don't seem to care about putting people in greater danger." 

Newsom's Nightmare: Interim Report Documenting FireAid Fraud Drops on Eve of Palisades Fire Anniversary

Naturally Newsom chose MSNOW to be interviewed. You'll soon see why Newsom has been called "oily". "Exactly: Californians squandered the godsent opportunity to replace Newsom with the highly qualified Larry Elder." Eyeinthesky

RedState  

"Will California Gov. Gavin Newsom have the guts to show up in Pacific Palisades on Wednesday morning, the first anniversary of the Palisades Fire, or will he continue to use victims as props for his political ambitions?". . . 

. . . " That's the question on the minds of those who lost their small oceanside community as they prepare to memorialize those killed in the fires."

"Community groups have planned multiple events to commemorate the anniversary; the two largest are the White Glove Flag Presentation and Remembrance Ceremony, which will "commemorate the twelve Palisadians who lost their lives and pay tribute to the countless individuals and groups who are helping the community recover and rebuild," and the They Let Us Burn rally, headlined by Palisades Fire victim Heidi Montag, "to demand accountability for a total breakdown in prevention, precaution and leadership" that led to the unnatural disaster.

"Residents of Pacific Palisades and Altadena, the community decimated by the Eaton Fire the day after the Palisades Fire, are furious with Newsom for the failures that led to the fire and the bureaucratic nightmare they're still living through - and for using them as props for his political battles and campaigns, as he did during this interview Monday with MSNOW's Jacob Soboroff.

"Newsom's team told the New York Post last week that he will be in the Los Angeles area on Wednesday, meeting with "wildfire survivors," but didn't elaborate on which survivors those are or if he would participate in any public events." . . .

. . . "Newsom doesn't seem to be heeding McDaniel's advice; his strategy is to "Blame Trump." Back to his MSNOW interview in which he claimed that Trump has "not even lifted a finger" to help. While the fire occurred during the last few weeks of Joe Biden's failed presidency, debris removal - which was performed and funded entirely by the federal government, through FEMA, EPA, and the Army Corps of Engineers - started in February, after Trump was inaugurated. Not surprisingly, Newsom now takes credit for their work."

DIVE DEEPER: 100 Days After Palisades Fire, an Accountability Check

Speaking of Newsom: California’s Higher Gas Prices Are a Policy Choice, Not an Accident