What a way to start the celebration of our 250th year!
Nicolas Maduro, a narcotics kingpin with a $25 Million bounty on his head, was arrested in Venezuela on Saturday. Venezuelans around the world are celebrating. Wow!
If that was all you knew about this big News, probably everyone in the U.S. would be celebrating with the Venezuelans (except the Venezuelan drug gangs).
But because President Trump ordered our Armed Forces to make the arrest, and without alerting 535 members of Congress a week ahead about the top-secret mission, plenty of people are criticizing and protesting Maduro’s removal.
New York City has a new mayor, Zohran Mamdani. At his inauguration he declared an end to individualism, to be replaced by collectivism. Collectivism sounds familiar to anyone who knows the history of the old USSR. It is still practiced in Cuba and North Korea.
Mayor Mamdani was cheered wildly by his supporters as he was sworn in by a U.S. Senator. It wasn’t a Senator from New York, but Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, a fellow Democrat-Socialist who splits his time among three houses. Since none are in New York City, Senator Sanders is in no danger of losing two of them in the name of collectivism.
It’s no surprise that the protest in New York City about Maduro’s arrest was led by the young folks who swept Mamdani into office. They hate to see a fellow Democrat-Socialist lose power. They are too young and uninformed to know that in the 1990s Venezuela was the third strongest economy in the Western Hemisphere. That all began a slow decline 25 years ago when a new president was elected on the promise to “eliminate income inequality.”
Minnesota Governor Walz is thrilled to be off the front page for a few days. But the fraud by the Somalis that he ignored cost us Billions. I read that in Somalia bribery and fraud is ordinary practice. It’s a way of life. So, it should be no surprise that several would continue the same lifestyle in Minneapolis.
By the way, the bounty on Maduro’s head was increased to $25 million by President Biden. Also, in the last 8 years, about 8 million Venezuelans left the country. If Mamdani is in office for 8 years, do you think an equivalent number may leave New York City?
I’m optimistic about 2026. Regardless of politics, we are optimistic folks. The sun will come up in the morning. The economy will keep growing. For those who, unfortunately, may not benefit, the second Will Rogers quote below gives hope. We are generous to those in “actual need throughout the country.”
Historic quotes by Will Rogers:
“A conservative [Republican] is a man who has plenty of money and doesn’t see any reason why he shouldn’t always have plenty of money. A Democrat is a fellow who never had any, but doesn’t see any reason why he shouldn’t have some.” WA #535, March 26, 1935
“Well, Christmas has passed. I was just thinking if there was some way to make the Christmas spirit continue during the other days of the year, why we would be the most happy and wonderful Nation on Earth. Gosh, if all of us that was able would just feed and do things for folks without waiting till Christmas. I think we mean well, but we just sorter got in our heads that about one day a year pays our obligations off, then we swell up and hide our Conscience till the next gift day comes along. With all of our fact-finding departments in our Government, and all our statistics gatherers, I believe you could increase generosity 100 to 1000-fold if there was some way of finding out just exactly the people that were in actual need throughout the country.” WA #628, Jan. 6, 1935