Trump’s Audacious Maduro Raid Sends
a Powerful Message
Posted By: Dreadnought, 1/4/2026 11:21:29 PM
Nicolás Maduro will be exchanging the trappings of power in Venezuela for an orange jumpsuit in New York. President Trump capped an extraordinary pressure campaign against the Venezuelan leader with an audacious, technically proficient snatch-and-grab operation in the predawn hours. That Trump pulled the trigger after months of what many believed was a gigantic bluff sends a message about the seriousness of his threats that will be duly noted from Havana to Tehran. The leaders of Mexican drug cartels, in particular, have to be anxious about their own futures
people like this.
people like this.
people like this.
people like this.
people like this.
Below, you will find ...
Most Recent Articles posted by "Dreadnought"
and
Most Active Articles (last 48 hours)
Most Recent Articles posted by
Dreadnought"
Ousted former Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro pleaded not guilty at his first court appearance Monday after the U.S. seized him in Caracas in a remarkable military operation over the weekend.
Surrounded by federal agents, the socialist strongman arrived at a New York City courthouse Monday morning to face charges related to drug trafficking. Attorney General Pam Bondi announced the federal charges against Maduro and his wife on Saturday after U.S. forces carried out the successful operation to capture the pair from their heavily fortified home.
During the proceedings, Maduro insisted he was “kidnapped” from his home and remains president of Venezuela, an outburst that Manhattan federal Judge Alvin Hellerstein
The Venezuelan regime, now led by interim President Delcy Rodriguez following the capture of Nicolas Maduro, issued a decree ordering police to "immediately begin the national search and capture of everyone involved in the promotion or support for the armed attack" by the Trump administration.
Reuters noted that the decree has been in effect since Saturday but was published in full on Monday.
The decree comes even as Rodriguez called on the U.S. to "work jointly on a cooperation agenda" and appealed for peace and dialogue after assuming the role following the capture of Maduro.
Khamenei Preparing to Flee
24 replies
The London Times reports that Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is making plans to flee to Russia if protests against his misrule continue:
Iran’s Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has a back-up plan to flee the country should his security forces fail to suppress protests or desert, according to an intelligence report shared with The Times.
Khamenei, 86, plans to escape Tehran with a close circle of up to 20 aides and family, should he see that the army and security called on to quell the unrest are deserting, defecting or failing to follow orders.
Which is how unpopular dictatorships collapse.
Elon Musk shared a photo of himself dining with President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump, adding that “2026 is going to be amazing.”
“Had a lovely dinner last night with @POTUS and @FLOTUS,” Musk wrote in a post on X on Sunday. “2026 is going to be amazing!”
Musk’s post included a photo of himself sitting at a table with the president and the first lady. Breitbart News’s Nick Gilbertson reported in September that Trump and Musk were seen sitting together and shaking hands at a tribute service for Turning Point USA Founder Charlie Kirk, after Kirk was assassinated.
The moment between Trump and Musk
The Washington Post editorial board on Saturday broke with the predictable Democrat response of condemning President Donald Trump’s capture of embattled Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro and his wife Celia Flores and called the military operation “a major victory for American interests.”
In an editorial titled “Justice in Venezuela,” the board wrote:
Millions of people around the world, most of all in Venezuela, are celebrating the downfall of the dictator Nicolás Maduro. President Donald Trump’s decision to capture him on Saturday was one of the boldest moves a president has made in years, and the operation was an unquestionable tactical success. The next step is ensuring
Whoops: Schumer's 'Open Mouth, Insert
Foot' Moment as Dems' Hypocrisy Hits Hyper
Drive on Venezuela 14 replies
Foot' Moment as Dems' Hypocrisy Hits Hyper
Drive on Venezuela 14 replies
Democrats have been losing their minds over President Donald Trump's actions in Venezuela to capture and arrest the dictator Nicolás Maduro, who was wanted in the United States and had been under indictment for five years.
We saw Democrats calling it illegal and claiming that Trump needed Congressional approval to effect Maduro's arrest. Their hypocrisy is something else. Do they recall how many civilians Barack Obama in foreign countries reportedly took out with his drone actions, which led to some referring to him as the Droner-in-Chief?
Obama embraced the US drone programme, overseeing more strikes in his first year than Bush carried out during his entire presidency.
Nicolás Maduro will be exchanging the trappings of power in Venezuela for an orange jumpsuit in New York.
President Trump capped an extraordinary pressure campaign against the Venezuelan leader with an audacious, technically proficient snatch-and-grab operation in the predawn hours.
That Trump pulled the trigger after months of what many believed was a gigantic bluff sends a message about the seriousness of his threats that will be duly noted from Havana to Tehran. The leaders of Mexican drug cartels, in particular, have to be anxious about their own futures
A large part of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro’s security team was killed during Saturday’s US operation, the country’s Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino said Sunday, Anadolu reports.
In a televised speech, Padrino accused the US military personnel who carried out operation of “cold-bloodedly murdering a large part of (Maduro’s) security team, soldiers, and innocent citizens.”
He did not give further details about the number of victims.
Padrino also called Maduro the country’s “authentic and legitimate leader.”
His remarks came a day after President Donald Trump said US military action on Saturday resulted in the capture of Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores, pledging to assert American control
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump threatened Sunday that Venezuela’s interim leader Delcy Rodriguez will pay a “very big price” if she doesn’t cooperate with the United States, after US forces seized and jailed her former boss Nicolas Maduro.
“If she doesn’t do what’s right, she is going to pay a very big price, probably bigger than Maduro,” Trump told The Atlantic in a brief telephone interview.
US forces attacked Caracas in the early hours of Saturday, bombing military targets and spiriting away Maduro and his wife to face federal narcotrafficking charges in New York.
Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the leaders in Cuba were in a lot of trouble when asked about potential military actions.
Host Kristen Welker asked, “Is the Cuban government the Trump administration’s next target, Mr. Secretary?”
Rubio said, Well, the Cuban government is a huge problem, first of all, for the people of Cuba. But I don’t think people fully appreciate–”
Welker said, “So is that a yes?”
Rubio said, “I think they’re in a lot of trouble, yes. I’m not going to talk to you about what our future steps are going to be and our policies are going be right now in this regard,
Joint Chiefs Gen. Dan Caine provided details Saturday on how the U.S. military and various intelligence agencies worked together to capture Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, revealing that more than 150 aircraft were launched in close coordination in a mission called "Operation Absolute Resolve."
Caine said the operation began "during the darkest hours of January 2nd and was the culmination of months of planning and rehearsal," and one that "only the United States military could undertake."
"It required the utmost of precision and integration within our joint force, and the word integration does not explain the sheer complexity of such a mission, an extraction so precise
Democrats face persistent internal discord, unresolved strategic debates, and voter skepticism that threatens to complicate their path toward unity and success in the 2028 presidential election.
As Democrats begin 2026 with renewed optimism about flipping the House, the underlying fractures within the party have not healed. A Hill report published this week highlights how, even amid growing discontent with Donald Trump’s second term, Democrats continue to struggle with deep divisions, conflicting ideological strategies, and questions about leadership — raising serious concerns about their ability to coalesce ahead of the next presidential cycle.
“Democrats are finding their way out of political wilderness,”
Most Active Articles (last 48 hours)
VP Vance’s Splinter Problem
34 replies
At one time in my life, I was an operating-room nurse, both participating in and witnessing the things that just about every person on earth can’t stand to think about.
So, I can say with some authority that splinters in particularly sensitive areas of the body––often the kind that happen when sitting on a fence––can cause significant discomfort. And removing them requires a recovery period that involves quite a bit of post-op pain.
Metaphorically speaking, VP JD Vance has been sitting for quite a while on a splintery fence, trying to camouflage his dislike of Jews and Israel with fancified language, while at the same time,
It is no secret that the Democrats, and many Republicans!, aggressively blocked President Trump’s desire to protect the American people and build a border wall on the southern border with Mexico during his first term. Democrat attempts to block the wall in spite of significant evidence that it was obviously needed indicated there was an unknown reason for their defiance.
In May of 2016, US Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi visited the President of Mexico along with other Congressmen, including little known Texas Congressman Beto O’Rourke. Pelosi stated about the meetings – It is not clear what the discussions all entailed but after this visit, the Mexican President
Women's tennis legend Martina Navratilova took to social media on Saturday to share her thoughts on the U.S. intervention in Venezuela, supporting the idea of criminal sanctions on American companies that try to take oil from the country. Navratilova praised a post on X suggesting the sanctions, writing "love it" in response to journalist Lauren Windsor's post that read, "Any American oil company that expropriates oil from Venezuela should be sanctioned by the International Criminal Court."
Khamenei Preparing to Flee
24 replies
The London Times reports that Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is making plans to flee to Russia if protests against his misrule continue:
Iran’s Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has a back-up plan to flee the country should his security forces fail to suppress protests or desert, according to an intelligence report shared with The Times.
Khamenei, 86, plans to escape Tehran with a close circle of up to 20 aides and family, should he see that the army and security called on to quell the unrest are deserting, defecting or failing to follow orders.
Which is how unpopular dictatorships collapse.
Former President Joe Biden’s long career in politics allowed him to retire with the largest taxpayer-funded pension of any ex-prez in US history — $417,000, or more than his presidential salary, an expert says.
Biden, 83, was in line to rake in the massive amount from two pension funds in his first year as former president, according to an analysis by National Taxpayer Union Foundation Vice President Demian Brady.
“It’s pretty unusual, historically unusual, to have such a large pension amount,” Brady told The Post.
“I would have to say that it’s the largest,” the taxpayer advocate said when asked to compare Biden’s pension to his predecessors.
Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s newly appointed tenant advocate called to “seize private property” and blasted home ownership as a “weapon of white supremacy” in a series of pro-communist social media posts.
Cea Weaver, Mamdani’s new director of the city Office to Protect Tenants, made the statements and urged her followers to elect more communists in several lecturing posts on her now-deleted X account that were unearthed by internet sleuths. “Seize private property!” she said on June 13, 2018. She later doubled down on that in a mini-manifesto on August 2019.
A large part of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro’s security team was killed during Saturday’s US operation, the country’s Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino said Sunday, Anadolu reports.
In a televised speech, Padrino accused the US military personnel who carried out operation of “cold-bloodedly murdering a large part of (Maduro’s) security team, soldiers, and innocent citizens.”
He did not give further details about the number of victims.
Padrino also called Maduro the country’s “authentic and legitimate leader.”
His remarks came a day after President Donald Trump said US military action on Saturday resulted in the capture of Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores, pledging to assert American control
Amy had this earlier today: ICE agents in the Minneapolis area were denied lodging at the Hilton hotel. The Department of Homeland Security described it as a “coordinated campaign,” and screenshots of the canceled reservations accompanied their tweet:
Curtis added:
In the email, the employee wrote, "After further investigation online, we have found immigration work connected with your name, and we will be canceling your upcoming reservation. You should see a proper cancellation email in your inbox shortly from Hilton."
The hotel chain now responded, racing to do damage control, but is it too late? Fox News’ Bill Melugin posted their statement:
In the latest episode of the Deep State circus that’s turned our justice system into a bad joke, a 92-year-old federal judge appointed by none other than Bill Clinton back in the ’90s has been assigned to oversee the high-profile case against Venezuelan socialist dictator Nicolás Maduro in New York.
This is the same judge who has a track record of rulings that seem tailor-made to thwart President Trump’s agenda and protect left-wing interests.
U.S. District Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein, who took senior status way back in 2011, but somehow keeps popping up in major cases.
He has issued several controversial rulings adverse to Donald Trump and his administration.
A Brooklyn Park man has pleaded guilty in Hennepin County District Court to theft by false representation for defrauding the Medicaid program of nearly $200,000 while working at a Minneapolis physical therapy business. However, the plea deal calls for no prison time and grants him over 160 years to pay restitution. (snip) The plea agreement calls for a stay-of-imposition of the felony sentence, meaning no prison time, and the conviction level will drop to a misdemeanor upon successful completion of five years' probation.
Kids are arriving on college campuses with fewer skills and diminished attention spans. But, rather than challenge students, many colleges are lowering institutional standards to accommodate them.
Colleges around the country have English courses that require students to read a single book all semester. Ivy League schools are rolling out remedial math classes. And some schools are teaching kids skills as basic as structuring sentences.
Colleges surely have a challenge on their hands as high schools graduate less distinguished classes, but lowering the bar is the sort of coddling that keeps kids from reaching their potential. College is meant to stretch you to your intellectual max. It’s not a time for hand-holding.
Former Vice President Kamala Harris on Saturday evening condemned the Trump administration’s capture of Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro and his wife, calling the operation both “unlawful” and “unwise.”
In a lengthy post on X, Harris acknowledged that Maduro is a “brutal” and “illegitimate” dictator but said that President Donald Trump’s actions in Venezuela “do not make America safer, stronger, or more affordable.”