The people of Venezuela are celebrating Maduro’s departure. Those who have lived under socialism understand the depths of its destruction. Hugo Chávez is celebrated as a social justice warrior for eliminating capitalism in the 2000s. Socialism does not work because the system eventually runs out of other people’s money, as Margaret Thatcher once proclaimed. We only need to look at recent history to see the severe consequences of switching to this system. Venezuela first reported that it had a “nutritional emergency” in February 2016. President Nicolás Maduro also declared an “economic emergency” in January of the same year, providing him the power to rule by decree. Inflation was running at 141.5%, according to Venezuelan authorities, but the IMF believed the figure reached 270% in 2015 and had the potential to reach 500% by the end of 2016.
There were rumors going around that people under socialism faced such severe food shortages that they were forced to break into zoos and eat the animals. Unfortunately, this is a fact. Reports were circulating in Venezuela of people consuming zoo animals around 2016 and 2017. The animals that remained in these zoos starved to death or ate one another. The people were in such dire conditions that they were forced to consume dogs, cats, decaying meat, and anything else they could find.
The socialists claimed that acknowledging the food shortages could lead to American intervention, and Maduro consistently blamed US sanctions for his nation’s failure. As reported by a Spanish newspaper, this is how the average person waiting for their food rations: “Five hours in line to buy a chicken; kicks, pushes, and blows of all kinds to be one of the fortunate ones to enter the supermarket and get away with a bag of flour or rice, basic goods that Venezuela does not have available to everyone, unfortunately.”
Maduro told the people to grow their own food and gloated that he, too, was producing his own eggs and produce. The government owned the grocers and food production companies and intervened numerous times to prevent private-sector intervention. Politicians take no responsibility for the suffering caused by their policies, and this is precisely what a portion of the West is seeking to implement today.
Over 7.7 million people have fled Venezuela due to one of the worst economic collapses in modern history not attributed to war. GDP contracted 80% from 2013, according to the IMF. Inflation reached an astounding 130,060% by 2018, the bolivar collapsed, prices doubled daily, and people were forced to carry carts of worthless cash for basic purchases. Around 30% of the population lived in poverty in 2013. Fast forward to 2025, roughly 87% to 90% of the population lives in extreme poverty and despair.
People wonder why Venezuelans are cheering Maduro’s downfall from the safety of their first-world suburbs. Older generations remember a time when Venezuela was a thriving economic powerhouse before it rapidly fell under socialism. Oil was insufficient to sustain a system that rendered innovation and productivity worthless.
Now, Venezuela’s problems did not begin with Maduro. Maduro inherited a flawed socialist system and continued its mismanagement. Under Chávez, Venezuela was already in decline, but Maduro assumed power precisely as the country entered a major ECM down wave. Instead of reforming, he doubled down on the same policies that were already destroying confidence and refused to take ownership in typical bureaucratic fashion. The destruction was locked in long before sanctions became meaningful because the government destroyed confidence, property rights, and capital formation. Socialism wages war on capital, and capital is a pacifist that will willingly flee. Once you nationalize industry, confiscate private property, impose price controls, and criminalize profit, capital will flee and not return. Every war waged against capital results in a lost battle for the aggressor as it cannot be captured and the business cycle cannot be defeated.
Posted originally on Jan 6, 2026 by Martin Armstrong |
The minimum wage increased significantly in 19 U.S. states on New Year’s Day. Minimum wages are often portrayed in the mainstream press as a straightforward way to raise incomes for the lowest-paid workers, but this portrayal ignores the underlying economic mechanisms.
When the cost of labor exceeds the value the labor actually produces, companies begin to reduce labor costs. This has led to a massive shift to automation and outsourcing. Employers are often forced to reduce their workforce, and those who remain face reduced hours or increased responsibilities without commensurate pay increases.
Wages rise with productivity in a healthy economy. Currently, employers’ costs are growing faster than the value added by workers in numerous instances. Yes, the federal minimum wage has been stuck at $7.25 per hour for nearly a decade, and nowhere in the US is that salary sustainable. Washington state now mandates roughly $17.13 per hour; California’s state minimum is nearly $17; New York’s major cities approach $17; and other states set their minimums above $15. The market or demand does not determine these set wages.
California routinely selects groups of minimum-wage workers and determines that their skill set is now worth 10 times as much. The state in general increased the minimum wage to $16.50 per hour on January 1, 2026, while certain cities have raised the minimum to $19 per hour. Yet, hotel and airline workers in Los Angeles are to receive a minimum wage of $38 per hour within the next two years. Hotels are already struggling, with only 79% of the traffic they once experienced prior to the pandemic. The city shed 11,000 hotel jobs last year, and this proposal nearly ensures more jobs will be cut. The state saw the same phenomenon when minimum wage was raised for fast food workers—employers reduced staff and raised prices for consumers.
Should a hotel maid earn more than a teacher in Los Angeles? Do the people constructing the hotel deserve less than those paid to book rooms? Does replacing towels and bed sheets, or checking a boarding pass, warrant an $80K salary? Pay grades are no longer based on skill and experience but on industry pandering. Yet another reason for companies to relocate when possible, as we saw throughout 2025 and will continue to see in 2026.
Rest assured that the government will continue to raise taxes on the lowest-paid workers. Wages rise naturally in a real economic expansion when businesses compete for workers. That is how a free market functions. But when governments artificially raise wages, businesses respond logically—by cutting jobs, reducing hours, or passing the costs onto consumers through inflation. The very people politicians claim to be helping end up worse off, as their cost of living rises and entry-level jobs disappear.
Disgraced Governor Tim Walz announced that he will not seek re-election after the Somali socialism scandal imploded.
“As I reflected on this moment with my family and my team over the holidays, I came to the conclusion that I can’t give a political campaign my all,” Walz said in the statement. “Every minute I spend defending my own political interests would be a minute I can’t spend defending the people of Minnesota against the criminals who prey on our generosity and the cynics who prey on our differences,” he said.
The truth of the matter is that Tim Walz will soon be facing a litany of legal investigations into his role in the Somali scandal that is perhaps the largest drain on America’s social system in recent history. Investigators still cannot determine how much taxpayers sent to Somali fraudsters from Minnesota, but they have begun to uncover a direct link to these criminal organizations and the Democrats whose campaigns they’ve repeatedly supported with stolen funds. Walz personally received $10,000 in campaign donations from Somali-operated day care centers, which is likely only one drop in the bucket.
The top journalist uncovering this story does not work for a major news outlet. There have been countless reports of fraud surpassing $1 billion, but no one has dared to show the public how unconcealed and blatant these sham practices have been permitted to run in broad daylight.
Nick Shirley is an independent journalist who took to the streets of Minnesota to see for himself how these government-funded programs are operating. Shirley showed up at the doors of numerous day care centers to take his questions directly to the sources. The people operating the centers refuse to let him in the doors, nor could they answer basic questions about the day care. Strangely, there were no signs of children at any of these childcare facilities. In a few videos, Shirley asks the people on site if they can enroll a child in these day care centers. After all, these childcare facilities run by Somalian migrants have been receiving millions in funding for YEARS. Every center turned him away. Shirley is now receiving death threats as the nation has become so divided that the left would prefer to see their taxpayers robbed than to admit the Democrats passively permitted open-air fraud markets in Minnesota.
Tim Walz, Ilhan Omar, and everyone else connected to this crime ring must face their day in court. These far-left socialist diehards masquerading as modern American politicians always use social programs as their personal piggy banks. There is no feasible way that these crime rings could have operated openly without support from the inside.
Posted originally on Jan 6, 2026 by Martin Armstrong |
QUESTION: You said this invasion of Venezuela set s precedent. Would you please elaborate.
Mikki
ANSWER: Russia could then kidnap Zelensky and point to Venezuela. China is already demanding Manduro be returned to Venezuela immediately. The computer is showing that this is by no means over. The computer has been showing this would begin the first week of January and this goes into the 1st week of Feb and then look out for April. We are entering geopolitical chaos in 2026.
Posted originally on CTH on January 6, 2026 | Sundance
President Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio have noted that following the ouster of Nicolas Maduro in Venezuela, the remaining government is being pressured to realign their positions and accept a change in direction. It is always tenuous when the leader of a hostile foreign government is removed.
The current approach by the Trump administration is to permit former Vice-President Delcy Rodríguez to continue operating the mechanisms within the country to retain near-term stability.The CIA assessedDelcy Rodriquez was the interim ruler who could keep order.
Prior to the removal of Maduro, Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, the Nobel Peace Prize winner, was asked by the Trump administration to provide a detailed summary of how she could form a functioning government, should she be assisted to power.
Machado’s response did not provide confidence that her strategy was comprehensive enough. Therefore, the Trump administration assessed the best interim approach would be to continue working with the remaining Maduro government officials, led by Delcy Rodriquez, while pressuring them to follow the instructions of the United States.
Various geopolitical powers, including many that attend Mar-a-Lago functions, want Maria Corina Machado installed quickly. President Trump and Secretary Rubio are being more measured in their approach. The powers that want Machado installed are now working on a media strategy. Sean Hannity is enlisted for the assist.
The issue is one of competency and chaos. President Trump and Secretary Rubio do not want to repeat the mistakes of the past (Bush/Powell, Iraq or Obama/Clinton, Libya). The Venezuela issue is entirely different from the Middle East, but the same type of chaos can reemerge if the transition from authoritarianism to representative democracy is not well managed.
The Sea Island attendees support a quick Machado installation. Trump/Rubio prefer to proceed with more caution, especially because someone is going to be on the hook for financial support to Venezuela, because the domestic rewards from any expanded oil revenue are at least 5 to 10 years away.
Changing the regime in Venezuela may break China’s ‘belt and road’ grip, but China’s money is going to need to be replaced with independent domestic economic wealth for the Venezuelan people. That process takes time.
Maria Corina Machado is supported by all the same networks who support Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Despite the twinkles in the eyes of senators within the Foreign Relations Committee, we don’t want Venezuela to become North America’s largest Somali daycare operation.
(WSJ) – […] Latin America analysts have previously cautioned, including during Trump’s first term, that Maduro’s ouster without a capable replacement would likely empower armed military factions, rival politicians and criminal groups within Venezuela as they fought for control, leading to a security crisis in the country.
[…] analysis by the Central Intelligence Agency was briefed to President Trump and shared with a small circle of senior administration officials, according to two of the people. It was a factor in Trump’s decision to back Maduro’s vice president instead of opposition leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner María Corina Machado, some of the people said.
The assessment provides insight into Trump’s decision not to support the opposition’s bid for control of Venezuela following the brazen U.S. military operation to capture Maduro last week and bring him to the U.S. for trial. As in his first term, Trump was convinced that near-term stability in Venezuela could be maintained only if Maduro’s replacement had the support of the country’s armed forces and other elites.
Senior Trump administration officials commissioned the CIA to undertake the analytical assessment and debated it during discussions about day-after plans for Venezuela, the people said. The people familiar with the assessment said they were unsure of the precise date it was produced.
The report was briefed to Trump in recent weeks, according to two of the people.
The assessment didn’t describe how Maduro could lose power, or advocate for removing him, but attempted to gauge the domestic situation in Venezuela in the event that he did, people familiar with it said.
The intelligence report, the people said, cited Rodríguez and two other top Venezuelan regime figures as possible interim rulers who could keep order. The people familiar with the assessment didn’t identify the other two officials, but besides Rodríguez, the two most influential power brokers are Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello and Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino.
The two hard-liners, who command Venezuela’s police and military, could undo any efforts at a transition, according to former U.S. and Venezuelan officials. Both face U.S. criminal charges similar to those filed against Maduro and are unlikely to cooperate with Washington.
The report concluded that Edmundo González, widely seen as the actual winner of the 2024 election against Maduro, and Machado would struggle to gain legitimacy as leaders while facing resistance from pro-regime security services, drug-trafficking networks and political opponents. (more)
Posted originally on CTH on January 6, 2026 | Sundance
White House Deputy Chief of Staff, Stephen Miller appears on CNN to respond to Jake Tapper’s concerns about America being successful in the operation to capture Venezuelan Dictator Nicolas Maduro.
Tapper’s furrowed brow deepens with each of Miller’s statements which outline the current status. Mr. Miller explains how the acting Venezuelan government has acquiesced to the demands of President Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio. Tapper has difficulty accepting that a new strategic and targeted approach by the Trump administration could have such success. WATCH:
Posted originally on CTH on January 5, 2026 | Sundance
Secretary Pete Hegseth – “Six weeks ago, Senator Mark Kelly — and five other members of Congress — released a reckless and seditious video that was clearly intended to undermine good order and military discipline. As a retired Navy Captain who is still receiving a military pension, Captain Kelly knows he is still accountable to military justice. And the Department of War — and the American people — expect justice.
Therefore, in response to Senator Mark Kelly’s seditious statements — and his pattern of reckless misconduct — the Department of War is taking administrative action against Captain Mark E. Kelly, USN (Ret). The department has initiated retirement grade determination proceedings under 10 U.S.C. § 1370(f), with reduction in his retired grade resulting in a corresponding reduction in retired pay.
To ensure this action, the Secretary of War has also issued a formal Letter of Censure, which outlines the totality of Captain (for now) Kelly’s reckless misconduct. This Censure is a necessary process step and will be placed in Captain Kelly’s official and permanent military personnel file.”
“Captain Kelly has been provided notice of the basis for this action and has thirty days to submit a response. The retirement grade determination process directed by Secretary Hegseth will be completed within forty-five days.
Captain Kelly’s status as a sitting United States Senator does not exempt him from accountability, and further violations could result in further action.
These actions are based on Captain Kelly’s public statements from June through December 2025 in which he characterized lawful military operations as illegal and counseled members of the Armed Forces to refuse lawful orders. This conduct was seditious in nature and violated Articles 133 and 134 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice, to which Captain Kelly remains subject as a retired officer receiving pay.” (SOURCE)
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