WEBVTT - Regime Change in Venezuela? 0:00:00.280 --> 0:00:03.760 Is regime change coming to Latin America? Is Nicholas Maduro 0:00:04.480 --> 0:00:07.320 going to be in power for much longer in Caracas? 0:00:07.480 --> 0:00:11.119 Plus a shockingly good GDP report when it comes to 0:00:11.280 --> 0:00:14.120 the third quarter in the year twenty twenty five. Also 0:00:14.200 --> 0:00:17.880 a mass exodus from the Heritage Foundation, the latest when 0:00:17.920 --> 0:00:20.759 it comes to the Internet sign fighting and all the 0:00:20.880 --> 0:00:24.640 chaos within the conservative movements. And Ben Satz, former Center 0:00:24.680 --> 0:00:27.960 of Nebraska turned president of University of Florida sharing some 0:00:28.480 --> 0:00:31.520 horrific news, but his attitude is an inspiring one. I've 0:00:31.520 --> 0:00:40.040 got details on today's episode of the Josh Hammershaw. So 0:00:40.200 --> 0:00:43.560 for months now, the United States has been upping the ante, 0:00:43.640 --> 0:00:47.720 has impressuring Nicholas Maduro, the successor to Ugo Chavez in 0:00:47.760 --> 0:00:51.320 the failed socialist regime in Venezuela. Perhaps you're familiar with 0:00:51.360 --> 0:00:52.920 the story by now, but in case you are not, 0:00:53.000 --> 0:00:55.639 that essentially goes as follows. For a very long time, 0:00:55.760 --> 0:00:58.760 Venezuela was one of the economic power horses, one of 0:00:58.760 --> 0:01:03.800 the engines they are in South America. They were punching 0:01:03.880 --> 0:01:06.040 way above their weight when it comes to GDP per 0:01:06.040 --> 0:01:09.080 capita and when it comes to basic economic resources, primarily 0:01:09.080 --> 0:01:12.679 because Venezuela, uniquely among the nations of Latin America, is 0:01:12.720 --> 0:01:16.720 blessed when it comes to hydrocarbons. The well known oil 0:01:16.800 --> 0:01:19.880 and gas company Citgo. You probably filled up your car 0:01:19.920 --> 0:01:21.920 at some point over the years at a Sitco station. 0:01:22.040 --> 0:01:25.400 That is a Venezuelan oil company. They are part of OPEK, 0:01:25.720 --> 0:01:28.080 the only country in Latin America that really is a 0:01:28.120 --> 0:01:30.559 major player when it comes to the global qalanities market 0:01:30.600 --> 0:01:34.040 for oil. So for a very long time, Venezuela was 0:01:34.720 --> 0:01:38.120 a powerhouse down there in Latin America. Argentina for a 0:01:38.160 --> 0:01:40.880 while was that way as well, prior to their own 0:01:40.880 --> 0:01:44.280 descent into socialism. We'll see if Javier Malay can salvage 0:01:44.319 --> 0:01:47.080 that country. That perhaps is an analysis and a story 0:01:47.120 --> 0:01:50.160 for another day. But when it comes to Venezuela, fast 0:01:50.160 --> 0:01:53.360 forwarding more or less to the president to the present. 0:01:54.080 --> 0:01:55.880 So Madure has been in power for a while now. 0:01:55.880 --> 0:01:58.720 There was a dispute election in Venezuela about six and 0:01:58.760 --> 0:02:02.320 a half years ago. There was another Trump backed candidate 0:02:02.360 --> 0:02:04.520 who almost gone to power, and there have been all 0:02:04.560 --> 0:02:06.560 sorts of allegations of corruption. But Udera has been in 0:02:06.600 --> 0:02:10.000 powered there for a while now, and the trumpministration perhaps 0:02:10.120 --> 0:02:13.760 unexpectedly on the one hand, but not wholly unspectively on 0:02:13.800 --> 0:02:15.440 the other hand, and all on path that in just 0:02:15.480 --> 0:02:17.840 a second, there has been really pushing quite hard when 0:02:17.840 --> 0:02:20.320 it comes to Maduro in Venezuela. And now I say 0:02:20.360 --> 0:02:23.000 unexpectedly on the one hand, because when you think of 0:02:23.000 --> 0:02:25.640 Donald Trump and as foreign policy, you don't necessarily think 0:02:25.800 --> 0:02:30.519 of regime change. You necessarily think of warmongering and swashbuckling 0:02:30.600 --> 0:02:34.560 looking to pick fights. However, if you look carefully at 0:02:34.600 --> 0:02:37.640 the administration's foreign policies oction especially it's out of the 0:02:37.720 --> 0:02:40.160 gates moves. We go all the way back to January 0:02:40.240 --> 0:02:42.160 almost a year ago and now the beginning of administration, 0:02:42.720 --> 0:02:46.160 it actually was in hindsight at least somewhat easy to 0:02:46.160 --> 0:02:49.040 see this escalation campaign against Venezuela coming. And what I 0:02:49.040 --> 0:02:52.320 mean by that is that Marco Rubio's very first trip, 0:02:52.840 --> 0:02:55.840 his very first foreign trip as Secretary of State, was 0:02:55.880 --> 0:02:58.680 actually to Latin America. It was two three different Latin 0:02:58.720 --> 0:03:01.520 American countries, if memory, and he did that to make 0:03:01.560 --> 0:03:05.480 a point. In fact, Maria Anastasia O'Grady, who is the 0:03:06.040 --> 0:03:09.359 Latin Affairs called the Western Hemisphere columnists when at the 0:03:09.360 --> 0:03:11.320 Wall Street Journal and has been for a very long time. 0:03:11.360 --> 0:03:11.600 There. 0:03:11.880 --> 0:03:13.960 She pointed this out in the first week or two 0:03:14.120 --> 0:03:17.200 of the Trump administration, again going back almost a year ago, 0:03:17.200 --> 0:03:21.640 because Rubio, this symbolism was not lost on his first venue, 0:03:21.680 --> 0:03:25.839 his first choice of international trip in this hemisphere. And 0:03:26.440 --> 0:03:28.400 this goes back a very long time. As we discussed 0:03:28.400 --> 0:03:30.600 this on the show May Times. The Monroe Doctrine, which 0:03:30.639 --> 0:03:33.960 eponymously goes back to the early nineteenth century President James Monroe, 0:03:34.280 --> 0:03:37.440 which was corroborated by the Roosevelt Corollary, which was a 0:03:37.480 --> 0:03:40.400 similar proclamation issued by Teddy Roosevelt in the first decade 0:03:40.440 --> 0:03:43.840 of nineteen hundreds, and the Monroe Doctor the Trump Corollary, 0:03:44.320 --> 0:03:46.840 which both more or less dand for the same principle, 0:03:46.960 --> 0:03:49.600 is basically says the United States is not going to 0:03:49.680 --> 0:03:53.200 shit back and let foreign powers meddle to mess in 0:03:53.280 --> 0:03:55.880 our own hemisphere. You know, Gosh, Darner, We're gonna care 0:03:55.880 --> 0:03:58.320 about our backyard. We're going to care about our backyard. 0:03:58.360 --> 0:04:00.520 We're not gonna let you which back, and especially in 0:04:00.560 --> 0:04:02.880 the era of Monroe, really meant to the European powers, 0:04:02.920 --> 0:04:05.480 We're not going to let you meddle when it comes 0:04:05.480 --> 0:04:09.120 to our concrete area of interest. This doctrine has actually 0:04:09.120 --> 0:04:13.160 only become more important over the past call it fifteen 0:04:13.240 --> 0:04:16.440 twenty twenty five years, as the global economy has become 0:04:16.480 --> 0:04:20.479 even more interconnected in a post Berlin Wall era, as 0:04:20.640 --> 0:04:23.680 global terrorist networks, narco terrorists, shei hottest networks can now 0:04:23.720 --> 0:04:28.719 continue to sprawl all across the world and exude a 0:04:28.760 --> 0:04:32.040 lot of influence all across the world. Hesvola, for instance, 0:04:32.080 --> 0:04:35.760 the Lebanese militia group backed by the Irani regime. Hesbola 0:04:35.800 --> 0:04:39.640 has long had tremendous influence when it comes to Latin America. 0:04:39.720 --> 0:04:42.679 They are very cosed with many of the leading human 0:04:42.720 --> 0:04:46.280 trafficking rings and transnational cartels when it comes to drug 0:04:46.320 --> 0:04:49.520 smuggling and things like that. The administration started to look 0:04:49.560 --> 0:04:52.520 into this ended up actually, this is quite a scandal 0:04:52.520 --> 0:04:54.479 that went under the radar. The Obomba Instration ends up 0:04:54.520 --> 0:04:58.760 actually shelving ended up deep sixing their investigation into the 0:04:58.800 --> 0:05:02.200 ties between HESBA and the Mexican narco terrorist groups for 0:05:02.240 --> 0:05:04.240 the simple reason that they didn't want to actually upset 0:05:04.279 --> 0:05:07.520 the apple cart when it came to their sycophantic diplomacy 0:05:07.560 --> 0:05:10.880 with the Iranian regime. So pretty pretty crazy stuff, frankly 0:05:12.080 --> 0:05:15.520 when it comes to that. But again, Maduro is now 0:05:15.520 --> 0:05:18.000 back in the news and trumpstry. The Trump Minstration is 0:05:18.080 --> 0:05:22.000 reasserting this Monroe doctrine here. In fact, they actually are 0:05:22.000 --> 0:05:25.080 now calling it the Trump corollary. There was recently unveiled 0:05:25.080 --> 0:05:28.479 the Trump and National Security Strategy, this formal document that 0:05:28.520 --> 0:05:31.880 the Trump Ministration revealed recently, and they're literally calling it 0:05:31.960 --> 0:05:34.640 actually the Trump corollary, which is obviously a play on 0:05:34.680 --> 0:05:37.359 the Roosevelt corollary from one hundred and twenty years ago. 0:05:37.880 --> 0:05:40.200 More or less so, those campaign has been escalating for 0:05:40.279 --> 0:05:42.240 months and months. One of the key parts of this 0:05:42.320 --> 0:05:45.800 campaign has been a series of narco terrorist strikes when 0:05:45.800 --> 0:05:49.360 it comes to the Pete Hechsath Secretary of War led 0:05:49.440 --> 0:05:53.080 strikes on many of these vessels that are essentially engaged 0:05:53.160 --> 0:05:56.719 in trying to smuggle drugs from Venezuela, worked with the 0:05:56.720 --> 0:05:59.440 cartels gain them to the Caribbean Sea, gets to the 0:05:59.480 --> 0:06:03.520 Gulf Mexican cog entering god forbid, here in Florida where 0:06:03.560 --> 0:06:05.279 I live, or in Texas or one of the other 0:06:05.680 --> 0:06:08.760 when the other ports there along the Gulf of Mexico 0:06:08.920 --> 0:06:13.040 and the Atlantic seaboard. That is the primary stipulated reason 0:06:13.200 --> 0:06:16.440 of the Hegseth led narco terrorist strikes, which we have 0:06:16.520 --> 0:06:18.839 assistently defended here on the Josh Hammer Show as a 0:06:18.839 --> 0:06:22.360 matter of both foreign policy and as legal principle when 0:06:22.360 --> 0:06:25.560 it comes to both statutory and constitutional inherent authority under 0:06:26.200 --> 0:06:29.960 Article to the Constitution to engage in such preemptive, prophylactic, 0:06:30.080 --> 0:06:33.000 targeted precision strikes. Here we defend that time and time again, 0:06:33.040 --> 0:06:34.080 and we will continue. 0:06:33.720 --> 0:06:34.000 To do so. 0:06:34.839 --> 0:06:38.080 Part of the or more recent part, though, building off 0:06:38.120 --> 0:06:40.400 of these narco terrorist strikes, which there have been now 0:06:40.480 --> 0:06:43.680 roughly two dozen more or less of the strikes. Part 0:06:43.720 --> 0:06:47.920 of that is an increasing campaign against Nicholas Maduro himself. 0:06:47.960 --> 0:06:50.760 So President Trump took to truth social over the past 0:06:50.800 --> 0:06:52.320 week or so to announce that there's going to be 0:06:52.560 --> 0:06:56.560 a blockade there on Venezuela. It's not entirely obvious exactly 0:06:56.560 --> 0:06:58.600 what that means in practice, to the best of my 0:06:58.720 --> 0:07:00.760 knowledge of the US Navy does not have the entire 0:07:00.839 --> 0:07:03.800 country cordons off when it comes to the seas, but 0:07:03.920 --> 0:07:06.919 certainly Donald Trump and and the administration are upping the 0:07:06.920 --> 0:07:10.440 pressure tremendously. In fact, Donald Trump actually was just here 0:07:10.440 --> 0:07:13.160 in Palm Beach, Florida. In South Florida yesterday, he was 0:07:13.160 --> 0:07:15.960 flanked at his sides by Pete Heggsauth, the Secretary of War, 0:07:16.000 --> 0:07:18.640 on one side, by Marco Rubio, the Secretary of State, 0:07:18.680 --> 0:07:22.680 on his other side, talking tough with Nicholas Maduro. So, 0:07:22.760 --> 0:07:25.360 for instance, here was Donald Trump speaking yesterday in West 0:07:25.360 --> 0:07:26.240 pomp Beach, Florida. 0:07:26.320 --> 0:07:29.280 Why should Maduro take your threat serious seriously? 0:07:29.320 --> 0:07:31.800 And whatever he wants, what's your end? 0:07:32.360 --> 0:07:32.960 What's your end? 0:07:32.960 --> 0:07:36.840 We could do so as he could do whatever he wants. 0:07:37.160 --> 0:07:41.360 We have a massive armada for him, the biggest we've 0:07:41.360 --> 0:07:45.160 ever had and by far the biggest we've ever had 0:07:45.160 --> 0:07:46.600 in South America. 0:07:47.800 --> 0:07:49.120 He could do whatever he wants. 0:07:49.480 --> 0:07:51.679 Whatever he wants to do, if he wants to do something, 0:07:52.680 --> 0:07:54.600 If he plays tough, it'll be the last time he's 0:07:54.600 --> 0:07:55.640 ever able to play tough. 0:07:56.280 --> 0:07:59.000 So this has been the rhetoric of administration for a 0:07:59.040 --> 0:08:01.840 while now. Nicholas Turro, for what it's worth, we played 0:08:01.840 --> 0:08:03.480 a clip on the show maybe a week or two ago, 0:08:03.920 --> 0:08:05.960 is making very light of the situation. He had this 0:08:06.040 --> 0:08:09.760 absurd clip of putting on like a Mexican sombrero looking 0:08:09.800 --> 0:08:13.840 hat and singing in English non Spanish the Bob Marley 0:08:14.000 --> 0:08:17.080 song Don't worry, be happy, I mean talk about not 0:08:17.200 --> 0:08:20.560 taking the threat seriously. You know, maybe he will learn 0:08:20.720 --> 0:08:23.080 learn the difficult lesson of not taking down trum seriously. 0:08:23.360 --> 0:08:26.280 We shall see. Now another element of what's going on here. 0:08:26.320 --> 0:08:29.200 I mentioned that Venezuela has oil connections. Now, the Socials 0:08:29.240 --> 0:08:32.880 regime has typically run the oil wells dry, but they 0:08:32.880 --> 0:08:37.679 are very close to other major petroleum hydrocarbon exporting countries 0:08:37.880 --> 0:08:41.760 such as Iran. Now, Iran is not really a hydrocarbon 0:08:41.880 --> 0:08:44.880 exporting country right now because of the various crippling sanctions 0:08:44.880 --> 0:08:46.880 that have been on the country for a very very 0:08:46.960 --> 0:08:49.760 long time now, but they are still very cozy when 0:08:49.800 --> 0:08:53.240 it comes to Iran. In fact, the second oil tanker 0:08:53.280 --> 0:08:56.160 that was just seized over this past weekend, and there 0:08:56.160 --> 0:08:58.560 are rumors of a possible third oil tanker seizure as 0:08:58.600 --> 0:09:02.560 well that also has has alleged Iranian connections there. So 0:09:02.600 --> 0:09:05.360 Donald Trump getting asked yesterday in West Palm Beach what 0:09:05.480 --> 0:09:07.480 happens again to the oil, A question that he's been 0:09:07.480 --> 0:09:09.520 asked before there. But here's Donald Trump again yesterday in 0:09:09.520 --> 0:09:11.439 West pomp Beach, far speaking of Venezuela. 0:09:11.559 --> 0:09:13.400 Man oil. What are we gonna do with the oil 0:09:13.440 --> 0:09:13.840 that we have? 0:09:14.200 --> 0:09:16.600 I'm gonna do with what the oil that has been seized. 0:09:16.920 --> 0:09:20.080 The United States sees one point nine million barrels of 0:09:20.080 --> 0:09:21.360 oil on December tenth. 0:09:21.400 --> 0:09:23.880 We're gonna keep it. 0:09:23.920 --> 0:09:24.280 Where's it? 0:09:24.520 --> 0:09:26.600 Are we gonna sell it and put in the strategic. 0:09:26.200 --> 0:09:29.240 May We'll sell it, will keep it, maybe we'll use 0:09:29.280 --> 0:09:31.160 it in the strategic reserves. 0:09:31.200 --> 0:09:33.400 We're keeping it. We're keeping the ship. 0:09:33.440 --> 0:09:36.480 So look, and that should be the reaction. I mean, 0:09:36.520 --> 0:09:38.240 that should be the stance there if you're going to 0:09:38.280 --> 0:09:41.040 get involved in the game of international seizure of oil 0:09:41.080 --> 0:09:44.599 tankers sanctioned oil tankers. To be clear, and there is 0:09:44.679 --> 0:09:46.880 plenty of legal justification for dealing with the United States 0:09:46.880 --> 0:09:50.199 has done. The DOJ isn't working hard to get those 0:09:50.400 --> 0:09:54.520 those legal memoranda and papers in place, And so far 0:09:54.640 --> 0:09:56.880 I've been pretty persuaded by what I have seen there 0:09:56.880 --> 0:09:58.760 from i legal front there. But when it comes to oil, 0:09:58.840 --> 0:09:59.880 I mean, I mean, what else are you gonna do. 0:10:00.080 --> 0:10:01.400 Of course you're going to take oyal there. I mean 0:10:01.400 --> 0:10:03.640 that's kndu's Donald Trump both troll and also taking the 0:10:04.040 --> 0:10:08.360 common sense and just utterly logical position. Now the big 0:10:08.440 --> 0:10:10.960 question is where does this go from here? Now? I 0:10:11.000 --> 0:10:14.800 was filling in on radio earlier today for Mark Davis 0:10:14.880 --> 0:10:17.560 on six sixty Am. The Answer the Sale and affiliate 0:10:17.600 --> 0:10:20.800 in Dallas Fort Worth, and I brought on a guest, 0:10:20.880 --> 0:10:23.640 Rich Goldberg, who's a foreign policy specialist, to talk about 0:10:23.640 --> 0:10:27.280 this and other issues. Now. Rich is not particularly persuaded 0:10:27.320 --> 0:10:30.280 that there's going to be massive escalatory action there. He 0:10:30.360 --> 0:10:34.280 does not takes particularly seriously the threats of Shi Jimpang, 0:10:34.360 --> 0:10:37.640 ro Vember, Photon, are various other Maduro Venezuelan allies to 0:10:37.720 --> 0:10:41.320 get involved and to potentially meddle further. I think that's 0:10:41.360 --> 0:10:44.319 probably accurate for the very simple reason that China and 0:10:44.360 --> 0:10:48.200 Russia didn't lift a finger to try to rescue their 0:10:48.240 --> 0:10:51.680 Iranian ally during the Israel Iran War during the Twelve 0:10:51.760 --> 0:10:54.640 Day War back in June. This kind of went under 0:10:54.640 --> 0:10:56.240 the radar a little bit there. But let's not forget 0:10:56.760 --> 0:10:59.839 that Iran's vaunted allies. I mean, if you go back 0:10:59.840 --> 0:11:03.280 to that and the whole argument that this conflict when 0:11:03.320 --> 0:11:06.280 in Gulf America in World War Three, thousands and thousands 0:11:06.320 --> 0:11:09.360 of dead US soldier, sailors, marines. That was the whole 0:11:09.360 --> 0:11:12.760 Tucker Carlson argument. That argument was predica in the fact 0:11:12.760 --> 0:11:15.720 that China and Russia would get involved. Okay, you can't 0:11:15.760 --> 0:11:18.160 have World War three if it's just Iran. You need 0:11:18.240 --> 0:11:21.120 China and Russia to get involved. There. They didn't. They 0:11:21.120 --> 0:11:25.400 didn't lift a finger. They did absolutely positively nothing. So 0:11:26.200 --> 0:11:28.360 what exactly these argument that they would get involved then 0:11:28.480 --> 0:11:30.480 in venta as well as well. I think that rich 0:11:30.559 --> 0:11:33.120 Goldberg frankly is right. I'm not buying the notion that 0:11:33.640 --> 0:11:37.160 puter hu Jinping would bother to get involved. Putin still 0:11:37.200 --> 0:11:38.880 has his hands more than full when it comes to 0:11:39.040 --> 0:11:42.160 Zelenski and the Ukrainian Theater. He's still sitting down with 0:11:42.280 --> 0:11:44.320 Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner when it comes to trying 0:11:44.360 --> 0:11:47.560 to get some sort of deal inked out, ironed out 0:11:47.600 --> 0:11:49.439 when it comes to trying to get off rammed here, 0:11:49.480 --> 0:11:51.560 that he can politically live with, that he will not 0:11:51.679 --> 0:11:54.880 be toppled for when in the Kremlin, that he can 0:11:54.920 --> 0:11:56.480 take back to the Russian people, and that they will 0:11:56.520 --> 0:12:01.000 not basically decapitate him out of frustration at at the results. 0:12:01.200 --> 0:12:02.679 I don't think she Gimping is really going to get 0:12:02.720 --> 0:12:06.240 involved either. H Jinping has plenty of his own problems 0:12:06.240 --> 0:12:09.360 there when it comes to the Indo Pacific. The Chinese economy, incidentally, 0:12:09.520 --> 0:12:12.640 is is really shrugging right now, and the real estate 0:12:12.679 --> 0:12:15.400 market above all. So the notion that China go ahead 0:12:15.520 --> 0:12:17.960 and over extend their influence when it comes to trying 0:12:17.960 --> 0:12:20.720 to bail out what a socialist backwater that's dried out 0:12:20.760 --> 0:12:22.840 the oil wells, I'm not really necessarily buying that either. 0:12:22.840 --> 0:12:23.080 There. 0:12:23.559 --> 0:12:28.040 Now, it's also true that the MAGA coalition, Donald Trump's 0:12:28.040 --> 0:12:33.720 supporters did not necessarily vote for a land war. I 0:12:33.720 --> 0:12:36.000 think that's a very common sense thing to say, is 0:12:36.040 --> 0:12:38.319 that very few people who vote over Donald Trump thought 0:12:38.360 --> 0:12:42.480 that they were voting for fresh hostilities and a regime 0:12:42.600 --> 0:12:46.240 change war in Latin America. But the point is this. 0:12:46.440 --> 0:12:48.559 The point is that there are any number of things 0:12:48.559 --> 0:12:51.800 that the United States can do to try to softly 0:12:51.920 --> 0:12:56.720 or more quietly, try to persuade Nicholas Maduro to step down, 0:12:57.040 --> 0:12:59.920 to abdicate his leadership. Look at what happened to Bashar 0:13:00.080 --> 0:13:02.800 al Assade. Now, admittedly that was led by a bunch 0:13:02.840 --> 0:13:06.440 of ragtag Chihatis led by this guy al Shara who's 0:13:06.480 --> 0:13:09.160 still currently in charge of Damascus. But after assad was 0:13:09.520 --> 0:13:13.960 toppled in Damascus just about a year ago. Last December, 0:13:14.200 --> 0:13:16.400 he was on the next plane to Moscow, and you 0:13:16.440 --> 0:13:20.040 haven't heard his name since then. I mean he's essentially living, 0:13:20.800 --> 0:13:23.840 you know, as in the winn Is protection program, basically 0:13:23.960 --> 0:13:26.720 Vladmir Putin in Russia style. That's what Bashar Alosad has 0:13:26.720 --> 0:13:29.600 been doing for the past year now. So I think 0:13:29.640 --> 0:13:31.840 the idea here, if I'm trying to guess what Donald 0:13:31.880 --> 0:13:33.760 Trump and Pete had Seth and Marco Ruby are thinking, 0:13:34.000 --> 0:13:36.240 is to try to get Nicholas Maduro to take the 0:13:36.240 --> 0:13:40.400 Bashar al Assade offer and then to abscond to China 0:13:40.559 --> 0:13:43.480 or Russia or I mean maybe even Havana, Cuba, if 0:13:43.480 --> 0:13:45.880 you want to get some nice cigars. I'm being tongue 0:13:45.880 --> 0:13:46.920 in cheek. I don't think. I don't know why you 0:13:47.000 --> 0:13:48.920 necessarily choose there. I think the Cuban regime is probably 0:13:48.960 --> 0:13:51.359 on thin ice too, for very similar reasons as Venezuela. 0:13:51.400 --> 0:13:53.319 There's a lot of speculation that it could be two 0:13:53.320 --> 0:13:56.320 for the price of one. If you get Maduro to abdicate, 0:13:56.400 --> 0:13:59.360 maybe the Castro regime in Cuba could be next possible. 0:13:59.360 --> 0:14:01.920 Probably wishful thinking, honestly, I mean, given how long they've 0:14:01.920 --> 0:14:03.520 been in power. But they are very much tied at 0:14:03.520 --> 0:14:08.040 the hip, is the basic argument there. I want you 0:14:08.080 --> 0:14:10.720 to understand this point though. There are a lot of 0:14:10.760 --> 0:14:15.760 folks in the right of center commentarian who have looked 0:14:15.840 --> 0:14:18.200 at the failures of the United States when it comes 0:14:18.200 --> 0:14:20.400 to a Rock and Afghanistan, and let's be very clear, 0:14:20.760 --> 0:14:24.480 they are absolute failures. I have been critical for my 0:14:24.720 --> 0:14:29.040 entire political commentary adult lifetime when it comes to the 0:14:29.080 --> 0:14:31.800 foreign policy failures of Iraq and Afghanistan. I have been 0:14:32.120 --> 0:14:35.840 deeply critical of the foreign policy doctrine that America has 0:14:35.840 --> 0:14:39.400 an interest in exporting and promoting democracy, which is the 0:14:39.640 --> 0:14:44.000 Bush two point zero neo conservative creed. That's not my stance. 0:14:44.080 --> 0:14:46.200 My stance is basically the Donald Trump stance, which is 0:14:46.200 --> 0:14:49.760 a conservative nationals realist form of foreign policy. There. But 0:14:49.800 --> 0:14:52.040 a lot of folks who have also been shocked and 0:14:52.080 --> 0:14:56.680 horrified by the Iraq and Afghanistan boondoggles have overlearned the 0:14:56.720 --> 0:14:59.480 relevant lesson when it comes to so called regime change. 0:15:00.000 --> 0:15:05.400 Regime change is not necessarily is not necessarily this horrific word, 0:15:05.560 --> 0:15:07.640 hush hush, You can't say it that. A lot of 0:15:07.680 --> 0:15:11.520 the folks on the hard isolationist Tucker wing of this 0:15:11.560 --> 0:15:15.080 broader conversation want it to be we should be skeptical 0:15:15.480 --> 0:15:20.200 of the United States imposing regime change unless, for instance, 0:15:20.200 --> 0:15:23.080 they've already been grievously wounded. It would be a very 0:15:23.120 --> 0:15:26.920 simple operation, like literally simple, not like quote unquote simple, 0:15:26.960 --> 0:15:28.800 like we saw in Iraq and O three and so forth. 0:15:28.800 --> 0:15:29.000 There. 0:15:29.600 --> 0:15:32.840 Maybe there's a very very limited case, limited case for 0:15:32.920 --> 0:15:36.560 a true US imposed military game change there. But consider 0:15:36.640 --> 0:15:40.520 the possibility that many, perhaps most, forms of regime change 0:15:40.920 --> 0:15:44.640 don't have to happen from US military force. A regime 0:15:44.720 --> 0:15:47.400 change taking a phase value, maybe I'm being literalists. Literally 0:15:47.440 --> 0:15:50.560 just means a change in regime, and unless you're a moron, 0:15:50.800 --> 0:15:52.920 you should be able to recognize. Indeed, it ought to 0:15:52.920 --> 0:15:56.360 be axiomatic that there are various regimes around the world 0:15:56.480 --> 0:16:00.240 that the American national interest would be buttressed by, would 0:16:00.280 --> 0:16:02.480 be elevated by if that regime were not in power. 0:16:03.720 --> 0:16:06.480 Is it not obvious that America's interest in the Indo 0:16:06.480 --> 0:16:09.560 Pacific would in theory be better if there were a 0:16:09.640 --> 0:16:12.720 regime change in Beijing, If the Chinese Communist Party were 0:16:12.760 --> 0:16:17.120 to bow out and you get some reasonable actors in 0:16:17.120 --> 0:16:20.320 place there really, of course, the American national interests would 0:16:20.360 --> 0:16:23.800 be enhanced by that form of quote unquote regime change. 0:16:24.200 --> 0:16:27.440 How about soft regime change in Russia if we got 0:16:27.440 --> 0:16:31.080 a leader in the Kremlin who would just make total 0:16:31.120 --> 0:16:33.480 peace with NATO. I mean, and this is kind of 0:16:33.520 --> 0:16:36.800 like fairy land, you know, like the land of you know, 0:16:36.840 --> 0:16:39.120 of unicorn farts and rainbows. Maybe it's kind of a 0:16:39.120 --> 0:16:42.240 good dream. But I'm just making a theoretical intellectual point, 0:16:42.280 --> 0:16:45.400 which is that, of course there are situations where there 0:16:45.480 --> 0:16:47.360 could be a change in regime that were down to 0:16:47.400 --> 0:16:49.480 the American national interest. And the very simple point is 0:16:49.480 --> 0:16:52.840 that a change of the social regime in Venezuela is 0:16:53.000 --> 0:16:55.360 one such case. Is that what's gonna happen here? Is 0:16:55.360 --> 0:16:57.120 that how it's going to play out? Are we going 0:16:57.160 --> 0:17:00.000 to get Nichols m Duro taking the bashar al asade options, 0:17:00.520 --> 0:17:02.520 looking all this pressure around him, looking at Trump with 0:17:02.560 --> 0:17:04.840 a tough talk, looking at the naval blockade, Trump talking 0:17:04.880 --> 0:17:07.480 about this armada when it comes to the shifts again, 0:17:07.520 --> 0:17:10.120 I'm thinking it's a literal three and sixty degree blockade. 0:17:10.160 --> 0:17:14.600 But there are there's a lot of US military equipment 0:17:14.680 --> 0:17:17.840 and vessels there now in US Southern Commands led by 0:17:17.840 --> 0:17:22.159 the USS Gerald Ford Striker Group. Is Maduro going to 0:17:22.240 --> 0:17:24.320 get the message? Is he banking on a bailout from 0:17:24.359 --> 0:17:26.240 Putin or a huge imping that's not going to come. 0:17:26.560 --> 0:17:28.679 I don't know. Your mileage may vary there. But what 0:17:28.760 --> 0:17:31.000 I do know is that when it comes to the 0:17:31.040 --> 0:17:35.480 notion of regime change, I would caution you against over learning, 0:17:36.080 --> 0:17:38.880 against over learning the lessons of a rock in Afghanistan. 0:17:38.880 --> 0:17:40.560 There are some regimes that really ought to go. There 0:17:40.560 --> 0:17:43.680 are some regimes that, in theory them going would enhance 0:17:43.680 --> 0:17:46.800 the American national interest. That is not to say that 0:17:46.960 --> 0:17:49.879 is not to say that the US itself has a 0:17:49.920 --> 0:17:53.359 moral obligation to impose it the same way that that 0:17:53.520 --> 0:17:56.800 the United States can, and in the past sometimes has 0:17:57.280 --> 0:18:05.200 provided forms of morals clandestine material and supports to Iranian protesters. 0:18:05.920 --> 0:18:08.400 Barack Obama famously said that not doing so in two 0:18:08.400 --> 0:18:11.439 thousand and nine during the Green Revolution Iran. Obama famous 0:18:11.480 --> 0:18:13.680 has said that was one of his foremost failures of 0:18:13.720 --> 0:18:15.600 foreign policy, and he had a lot to choose from 0:18:15.600 --> 0:18:18.239 when it comes to foreign policy failures. That's the kind 0:18:18.240 --> 0:18:20.760 of thing that the United States definitely can do in 0:18:20.800 --> 0:18:23.760 a situation like this in Venezuela. There so the notion 0:18:23.800 --> 0:18:26.639 of regime changing, it is not this term to be 0:18:26.720 --> 0:18:28.840 feared again. I think it is problematic when the US 0:18:28.920 --> 0:18:32.639 does it of its own accord, unless various factors ultimately 0:18:32.720 --> 0:18:36.959 do come up. The Peddragon Cycle Rise of the Merlin 0:18:37.280 --> 0:18:40.160 is the newest original series from the Daily Wire, an 0:18:40.160 --> 0:18:43.719 epic seven part adaptation of Stephen R. Lawheads acclaimed novels. 0:18:44.040 --> 0:18:47.120 I've watched the trailers and they are truly breathtaking. This 0:18:47.160 --> 0:18:50.560 isn't just another fantasy show. It's a sweeping story of belief, 0:18:50.600 --> 0:18:54.080 redemption and the origins of Western civilization, told through a 0:18:54.119 --> 0:18:58.120 bold retelling of the Arthurian legend. The Pentrogon Cycle Rise 0:18:58.119 --> 0:19:01.320 to the Merlin premieres January twenty second, exclusively on Daily 0:19:01.320 --> 0:19:04.600 Wire Plus. Watch the new trailer now at Pentragon Series 0:19:04.720 --> 0:19:08.480 dot Com in other news taking it back to the 0:19:08.480 --> 0:19:10.440 home front, because Venezuela is not the only thing going on. 0:19:10.920 --> 0:19:13.120 I was doing live radio this morning when the latest 0:19:13.520 --> 0:19:16.560 economic report came out, as have we now actually have 0:19:16.720 --> 0:19:20.360 official government data on the Q three, that is Q 0:19:20.400 --> 0:19:22.479 three twenty twenty five, most recent quarter. The ends when 0:19:22.520 --> 0:19:26.000 it comes to the GDP gross domestic product growth. Those 0:19:26.040 --> 0:19:30.040 numbers coming in courtesy of the US Commerce Department four 0:19:30.080 --> 0:19:33.399 point three percent. The inflation just number is coming in 0:19:33.440 --> 0:19:36.680 at four point three percent annualized growth for July through 0:19:36.680 --> 0:19:40.240 September twenty twenty five. That is a lot higher. That 0:19:40.359 --> 0:19:43.760 is a lot higher than what the eCOM is polled predicted. 0:19:44.440 --> 0:19:47.600 The consensus that I saw was roughly a full point 0:19:47.960 --> 0:19:50.880 lower than that three point two percent forecast was among 0:19:50.920 --> 0:19:52.679 the cocomas polled by the Wall Street Journals a one 0:19:52.720 --> 0:19:54.840 point one percent ahead of that. That's even an increase 0:19:54.880 --> 0:19:57.720 when the previous quarter three point eight percent. So look, 0:19:57.760 --> 0:20:01.560 whatever you might think about truck tariffs, and I think 0:20:01.680 --> 0:20:04.760 reasonable minds can vary when it comes to trade in general. 0:20:04.840 --> 0:20:07.520 When it comes to this trade off between lower prices 0:20:07.560 --> 0:20:09.840 and domestic production, these are these These are these are 0:20:09.920 --> 0:20:12.600 value judgments. These are value judgments upon which are reasonable 0:20:12.600 --> 0:20:17.800 people who hold reasonable differing values can indeed disagree. But 0:20:17.880 --> 0:20:21.840 whatever there is to say about that, the economy is reving, Okay, 0:20:21.880 --> 0:20:25.159 the economy is clearly revving. And this is going to 0:20:25.240 --> 0:20:28.080 be just further wined at Donald Trump's sales from his 0:20:28.160 --> 0:20:30.880