GOBSMACKED . . . AGAIN

JANUARY 3, 2026 – Well, well, well. Remember the “Epstein Files”? Once upon a time they threatened (so said news organizations, at least the ones not yet afraid of censorship) to embarrass, if not “create serious problems” for, Mr. Trump. Exhibit A: Marjorie Taylor Greene’s surprise departure from the party line. But all that is ancient history since public attention has been distracted by the announcement that Maduro and his wife are in American handcuffs. What, one wonders, will the next kick of the bull’s hind hooves bring?

I was not convinced by Trump’s feeble attempt to justify his order for regime change in Venezuela. “Stop the murderous drug dealers from killing ‘hundreds of thousands of Americans’”? Hmmm. If we’re talking fentanyl—which we are, given Trump’s rally speeches and the official Republican crib sheet over the past several years—Venezuela is not the source of this illicit killer of all too many Americans. Based on what I’ve read/heard from government sources (e.g. A lengthy September 2025 interview with Troy Miller, Commissioner of the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Agency in the Department of Homeland Security; a September 2025 post on the website of the U.S. Government Accountability Office) and the BBC (e.g. an August 1, 2025 article on its website), the principal source of fentanyl “precursors” (chemical ingredients) is China, with India recently emerging as a secondary source. These precursors then find their way to Mexico—not Venezuela—(illicitly, often via the United States!) where they are used to manufacture fentanyl laden pills (often disguised as other drugs) before transshipment back to the U.S. If Trump were consistent, he’d be ordering an invasion of Mexico and . . . China?! . . . and India?!

But let’s not give the man any ideas.

To put a three-cent stamp on the outrageous scene late this morning featuring a president going off script—again—was none other than Secretary Tough Talk . . . talkin’ tough, all the while praising his boss in the now patented sycophantic manner adopted by the entire Trump cabinet.

Except . . . the unctuous blather by Mr. Hogsbreath fell on mostly deaf ears, or rather, on snoozing ears. While the tough talk was rising over the room like a foul pall over an illicit hazardous waste dumpsite, the Secretary’s boss stood off to the side—where he was quite visibly dozing! Falling asleep while seated in a cabinet meeting is one thing[1], but falling asleep in a fully upright position during a well-rehearsed “tough talk” performance by the Secretary of Defense[2] reveals much about what kind of geriatric circus master rules in Washingtown thanks to 77,303,568 American voters.

Admittedly, I don’t know much about Venezuela. My parents visited Caracas for a day on a shore excursion while they were on a Caribbean cruise—back in the early 1970s—and I got to see their photos. More substantively, I watched the (excellent) +60-episode Netflix series, Bolívar, featuring the Latin America’s “George Washington,” who was born in Caracas and heavily involved in revolutionary (19^th century) Venezuela. What else? Oh yeah, I once had a client from Venezuela. Moreover, I can find the country on a map and off the top of my head I can tell you what countries border Venezuela (Brazil, Columbia, and Guyana). Just today I learned that the country has known oil reserves of 300 billion barrels—the most of any country in the world (Saudi Arabia is second with 266 million). I’ve known for some time that the country has faltered economically under the regimes of Chavez and Maduro, that the fearless and feisty Maria Machado is the primary opposition leader, and that the Venezuelan diaspora numbers about 8 million. Perhaps most critically, I’m aware that criminal gangs and organizations, drug overlords, and various ne’er do well groups run rampant across the country. My overall impression is that Venezuela is a failed state with a population of around 28 million.

Otherwise? I’m admittedly ignorant. Accordingly, I do what I always do when approaching a subject about which I’m functionally dumb: I turn to experts; in this case, scholars who for years have studied the history, politics, economy, and cultured of Venezuela; trained and experienced journalists (vs. “self-appointed YouTube influencers”); foreign service veterans who’ve devoted serious career time to following Venezuela and working on American policy toward it; and retired military strategists, who, I’ve learned, of all the experts, often provide the most well-rounded, insightful, and knowledgeable analyses of geopolitical matters. Experts don’t always “get things right,” of course, but when it comes to understanding this latest diversion from the Epstein Files, I have far more confidence in “experts” than in a president whose jabberwocky is contrary to law and fact, who has yet to demonstrate any meaningful curiosity about much of anything other than how a recommended appointee looks on TV, and whose initial reference (in today’s announcement) to the Monroe Doctrine was “the Monroe Doctrines.”

In any event, today I listened to several bona fide experts, and in their well-articulated assessments delivered in the cool light of day, they left me to believe that Trump’s precipitous action—the stuff of a Hollywood production—is not in our national interest, unless that interest is narrowly defined as “a business opportunity for the American fossil fuel industry, with the U.S. military being put in charge of security, subsidized by the American taxpayer, and the citizens of Venezuela left to their own devices—as long as they don’t interfere with extraction and export of oil.”

Every self-respecting American—left, right, center, Democrat, Republican, Independent—should be scandalized by this whole state of affairs and should be prepared next November to deprive inertia-mired Republicans of House and Senate majorities.

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© 2026 by Eric Nilsson

[1] Video footage of Trump nodding off in cabinet meetings has been circulating on a regular basis, but at least he’s caught napping while seated. In all fairness, as a veteran of countless corporate meetings in which sycophantic lieutenants competed with talk about “value-added” measures and “optimization of shareholder value,” I can’t blame Trump for snoozing through the same kind of creepy flattery sessions.

[2] I absolutely refuse to call it the “DOW.”