"Mr. Satan, there's a Mr. Maduro on line 3. He's asking for another favor." "Put him on hold, I'm still trying to figure out that new Sudoku puzzle the Orange Man sent me. Darn it, these things are so fascinating!"

Gov. Kathy Hochul Orders World Trade Center Replacement Building and Other New York Landmarks Lit in Green to ‘Celebrate’ Muslim American Heritage Month
January 3, 2026

□ [“Huge Explosions Heard Across Caracas, Venezuela – UPDATE: US Attack Is Underway"]

This is what we woke up to this morning.  Well, the news, we didn't have the explosions.  Special Forces was doing their thing.  I've heard Delta Force or Green Berets, nobody has mentioned Rangers.  Probably some or all, 7th Group handles South America.  Four sites in Venezuela were targeted, I'm not if they were hitting the military, other defenses or if they just weren't sure where Maduro was.  Might have been about just causing chaos.

But they grabbed Maduro and got out, he is now waiting to go to court on Monday at the Southern District of New York.  Um, I have a question.  Why SDNY?  It's not entirely clear why they're going about it this way, why not a military court?  My current theory is that the 'new world order' sees him as a leader of a country and have never bothered to make it official, so all he really does is oversee the cartels.  Narcoterrorism is what he's being charged with.  My other theory is that he has a lot of connections at SDNY and they will be exposed by this.

It's rumored that Maduro is spilling his guts, saying Colombia is the one that actually handles all the cocaine.  Trump has already spoken up that Colombia's leader had better 'watch his ass.'  And that includes others.  Any other enemy of the US has to be scared by this, seeing how quickly and easily the Trump administration handled this attack.  Colombia has already run to the UN Security Council, backed by Russia and China, but what are they really going to do?  As the old saying goes, it's better to offer apologies than to ask permission.  Don't know where this will go but it's a very big win for Trump to start this year off.

French Police Arrest British Citizens Slashing Illegal Migrants’ Rubber Boats To Keep Them From Crossing the Channel
January 3, 2026

U.S. Imposes Sanctions on Venezuelan and Iranian Companies Over Combat Drone Network Linked to the Maduro Regime
January 2, 2026

□ [“Trump Strikes Hugo Chavez’s Mausoleum as Venezuela’s Socialist Legacy Goes Up in Flames"]

It's been a while since I've had a reason to go 'bwah-hah-hah.'  This more than qualifies.  Now there is dealing with Venezuela itself, as well as the second- and third-order affects.  Maduro's sidekick, Diosdado Cabello, has made an appearance now that the planes are finally gone but he couldn't really say anything.  If it's anything like most dictatorships, Maduro didn't really have a line of succession so nobody knows who's in charge now, which means several people will claim they're in charge.  Trump has already endorsed the chick who kept him from getting a Nobel Peace Prize, we'll see if that goes anywhere.

Trump has also said we'll be running the country to help it recover.  We've done this many times south-of-the-border and it rarely works out well but he won so he gets this chance.  He also says we'll be handling the oil.  Guess we can expect prices to get even lower.  We'll also see how others are going to react.

One thing that's been mentioned is that just in the last day or so, China had promised Maduro they'd support him totally.  To me that doesn't sound like they've been startled by the attack, it sounds like the Chinese version of negotiation where they're telling Maduro to get his will ready.  I've been saying for the last few months he should grab whatever cash and jewels he can and run but he didn't listen to me.  And now he's paying for it.

NYPD Found Box of Abandoned Police Uniforms Just Days Before Mamdani Was Sworn In
January 3, 2026

□ [“Venezuelans Worldwide Erupt in Celebration While Left-Wing Democrats Rage"]

Anecdotal but believable.  It's not like they're all going to be crying that Maduro is gone.  We've also heard that Cubans are celebrating, probably because the two leftist nations are so connected for so long.  Maduro had been in charge since Obama's second term and the two did meet.  A lot of people want to know what connections these two had built up.

Few Democrats have made any public comments on this, as far as I know.  Leaving aside their own connections to Venezuela, most of them have been around long enough to remember when they celebrated Obama bombing Libya for seven months without ever bothering to get permission from Congress.  The left is now complaining Trump didn't do that but those in charge know it's on record.  It's not like Hillary Clinton called out "we came, we saw, we sent him to New York for a trial" about Gaddafi.  We'll have to see if Trump immediately sends in US ambassadors and then goes to sleep while they get killed, but he's got a precedent for that too.

But the leftist trolls are also struggling, trying to say they opposed Maduro, despite never doing anything about him in all these years.  A.I. is already generating protests of mostly-white crowds with manufactured sounds going through the clean city streets on a warm day as you expect in early-January.  Not sure who's going to believe that but I am sure they already vote Democrat.

One problem Trump will face is the question of Venezuelan immigrants.  They've now got a reason to go home, will that work out?  I would guess no, but maybe I'll be wrong.  But then what about the criminal immigrants, they aren't going to want to leave.  Maybe they'll stand out like the Somalis and can be targeted that way.  I'm just spitballing, good news for the day will do that.

Court-Packing by Another Name? — Democrats Push 18-Year Term Limits on the Supreme Court Instead of Fixing Congress
January 3, 2026

□ [“San Francisco Mayor Signs Reparations Bill, Admits There’s No Money to Pay Them"]

Well then seize Nancy Pelosi's money, she's old and sick, she doesn't need hundreds of millions of dollars anymore.  That would go a long way towards paying off the [looks] $5 million for each black person in San Francisco.  Well maybe not.  You seize every penny Nancy has and that's less than a hundred blacks that you'd actually keep your promises to.  It's not going to work.

The mayor knows them better than I do, are blacks really stupid enough to fall for this?  The city is already massively in debt but blacks will just line up and wait for this promise of huge amounts of money sometime in the unforeseeable future?  It's like the only way they'd believe this is if they really are inferior to Democrat leaders.  They're already getting welfare and SNAP benefits to stay where they are just like the house... servants did in the old days, might as well pretend they'll get more.

Or maybe the point is to get blacks so mad at the government that they'll overthrow it, so the leftists in charge won't have to pretend they care about democracy anymore.  And they'll stay in charge.  And they still won't have to pay.  After all, if you're paid $5 million for self-identifying as black, a lot more people will pretend they have a different skin color.  Kamala Harris would pay some of her campaign debt.  So when you finally get around to following your own laws, there's a question of how you'll handle all the fraud.

Portland Rolls Out PAID “Immigration Leave” — City Workers Get 40 Hours Off for Deportation Hearings While Taxpayers Foot the Bill, No Questions Asked
January 3, 2026