'All options remain on the table'

'We are going to start now hitting land'

Trump’s operation to capture Nicolás Maduro in the early hours of Jan. 3 was a title wave that changed global politics drastically. Not only was a dictator de-throned and will soon be brought to justice, but Cuba, China, Iran, and Russia all stand to lose the most economically and politically—a win for all Americans. E.J. Antoni joins The Daily Signal to lay out the global implications of Maduro’s capture, and how it all will not only impact the global economy, but the U.S. as well. For more analysis and content, be sure to subscribe to The Daily Signal’s YouTube page. Editor’s note: This is a lightly edited transcript from The Daily Signal’s latest video with E.J. Antoni. Parts of this commentary are adapted from a piece that originally published in Townhall. I’d like to talk today about the recent events in Venezuela, specifically from an economic point of view, and who are the real winners and losers. The U.S.—for a change—is firmly in the driver’s seat and master of its own destiny and hemisphere. The economic story here also goes well beyond oil too, although that’s what has gotten most of the attention. Venezuela is a veritable gold mine of other natural resources like. Rare earth minerals, lumber box site, the primary source of aluminum natural gas and more. But the biggest loser of all isn’t China or Russia—it’s Canada. After last weekend’s events, not only is Canada losing its biggest crude customer, but it’s also losing, its only real leverage in trade talks with the United States. Hi, I am E.J. Antoni for The Daily Signal.   I’d like to talk today about the recent events in Venezuela, specifically from an economic point of view, and who are the real winners and losers. Let’s start with the obvious. The Venezuela operation is a win for America and the Venezuelan people. American consumers and businesses will benefit from lower prices while oil companies have a chance for bigger profits. Venezuelans will benefit from increased investment, jobs, and profits in their country as well. This is why their stock market jumped 50, 60, 70, 80% after the U.S. takeover. And if we recall that economic security is national security, then the new order in South America also simultaneously supports U.S. national security while undermining our greatest rival, China. In war, dependable access to oil is as important as dependable access to kinetic arms. Access to ample, reliable flows of oil represents a key strategic interest. Removing one such flow from the Chinese sphere of influence and bringing it into our own is tremendous progress toward this goal. But the biggest loser of all isn’t China or Russia, It’s Canada. Western Canada sends over four million barrels a day of heavy crude to American refiners that are equipped to handle this type of oil. But now, with access to the massive flows of Venezuelan crude, which is similar to the Canadian flavor, the U.S. no longer needs to rely on Canada to keep the refineries on the Gulf of America running at full capacity. Instead, the oil shipments that previously went to China are already being redirected to American refiners—tens of millions of barrels worth just days after Maduro’s capture. And while the United States is paying full market price for that oil, don’t be surprised if oil prices start coming down because of this redirection. After all, increasing supply puts downward pressure on prices. As American investment rebuilds Venezuela’s severely neglected oil infrastructure, we can expect production and exports to the U.S. to only increase, simultaneously benefiting the American and Venezuelan people. That’s why this is such a massive economic win for American families and businesses who will benefit from lower prices, courtesy of more energy supplies. And since energy affects the price of everything else in an economy, lower prices for products like gasoline will put downward pressure on countless other prices, providing relief after four years of inflation under the Biden administration. Consider when you go to a grocery store how much of the price of food you’re buying is dependent on energy prices. First off, farmers and ranchers are fueling their tractors and other vehicles with diesel and gas. They’re also using synthetic fertilizers created with natural gas. But how did the gallon of milk, the carton of eggs, or the bag of bread get to grocery store in the first place? It got there on a trunk. Fueled by oil. What I’m getting at here is that we seriously underestimate just how much the price of energy affects everything we do and everything we buy. Bring down energy prices, and you put downward pressure on prices throughout the economy. That’s a win for American consumers and businesses alike. And U.S. control of Venezuela is also a second chance for jilted American oil companies to again profit from nearly one-fifth of the world’s proven oil reserves. Years ago, those American companies poured investment into Venezuela to essentially modernize the entire industry there. For their troubles, these oil firms had their physical property confiscated and their intellectual property copied as the communists “nationalized” Venezuelan oil. Of course, communist rule there was a disaster, as it has been everywhere, and the oil industry languished as infrastructure decayed, investment lagged, and production fell well below its potential. Venezuela pumps much less oil today than they did a quarter century ago. But this is poised to reverse. Venezuela will now assuredly receive billions of dollars of investment from American oil companies, many of whom are champing at the bit to regain access to the largest reserves in the world. That will mean a windfall of jobs and income for the Venezuelan people, all of which could have been Canada’s, bringing us back to the story of the biggest economic loser here. It didn’t have to be this way for the fifty-first state. But instead of welcoming oil and gas investment from the United States and building valuable infrastructure like pipelines, Canada has preferred to prioritize far-Left causes and an anti-energy agenda. After last weekend’s events, not only is Canada losing its biggest crude customer, but it’s also losing its only real leverage in trade talks with the United States. This is an economic reality that few professional pundits seem to have grasped. To be clear, the flood of cheap Venezuelan crude will not arrive in the U.S. overnight. It will take time, years in fact, to rebuild Venezuela’s oil infrastructure and really ramp up production to replace most Canadian crude imports. But the writing is on the wall. The U.S., for a change, is firmly in the driver’s seat and master of its own destiny—and hemisphere. The economic story here also goes well beyond oil too, although that’s what has gotten most of the attention. Venezuela is a veritable goldmine of other natural resources like rare earth minerals, lumber, bauxite (the primary source of aluminum), natural gas, and more. Canada just lost not only its leverage with oil, but just about every other one of its exports too. Since the Canadian economy is much more dependent on exports than the U.S. economy is, and since nearly all Canadian exports come to the U.S. while relative few of ours go to Canada, the slowdown in trade between our two countries has very unequal effects. In short, this has been very harmful to Canada and will be devastating in the long run. But it’s little more than a speedbump here in America. President Donald Trump has effectively barred the door on Canada, and the latter will have few alternatives to completely opening every one of its markets to free and fair competition. Of course, Canada can always choose to fall further into irrelevance and economic impoverishment by stubbornly continuing to snub American manufacturers, farmers, and workers. Let me close by saying that if the Monroe Doctrine warned Europeans to stay out of the Western Hemisphere and the Roosevelt corollary established American intervention therein, then the Trump corollary has put a finer, and more economic, point on the matter that’s best summed up in two words: America first. I’m E.J. Antoni for The Daily Signal. The post How Canada’s Only Leverage Over America Disappeared in an Instant appeared first on The Daily Signal.

The Warmth of Collectivism

Both Friday editions of ABC’s World News Tonight and CBS Evening News highlighted a Minnesota family that got caught in the chaos that ensued on Wednesday after an ICE officer shot a Venezuelan illegal immigrant in the leg after he fled a traffic stop. However, both shows omitted the detail that the man fled only to eventually join in with two other men—one of whom had a snow shovel—and attack the pursuing agent. ABC reporter Matt Rivers was highlighting the case of the Jackson family, who were returning home from their oldest son’s basketball game when he declared, “On Wednesday, Destiny Jackson had her husband and six kids in the car, including a 6-month-old, when she got caught in chaotic protests after ICE shot a Venezuelan man during a traffic stop.”     Jackson recalled the scene, “And then, like, one of them, or, yeah, like, one or two of them, stopped at my car and was just like, ‘Get the F out of here,’ and I'm like, ‘We're trying, but—’ In that instance, I’m like, ‘Don't you put your foot on that gas,’ because I'd be damned if they try to shoot us like Renee, by saying we hit them with our car… Immediately, once they got behind our car, they rolled tear gas under it.” Later, Jackson recalled having to give her 6-month-old “mouth to mouth, and people are pouring milk all over my other kids.” Rivers concluded the Jackson family’s story by adding, “Thankfully, everyone now okay. Homeland Security says they've made more than 2,500 arrests since Operation Metro Surge began in December.” Over on CBS, reporter Matt Gutman was marginally better when it came to the Jacksons’ story but still omitted relevant shovel details, “The latest skirmishes come after a Venezuelan migrant was shot in the leg by a federal agent during an arrest Wednesday night, prompting hours of clashes. During the chaos, Shawn and Destiny Jackson and their six children can be seen fleeing their vehicle after they say ICE agents dispersed tear gas near their car.”     After a conversation with the family, Gutman at least made it known that the Jacksons were not targeted, “The family says that three of the six children had to be hospitalized. They’re now all at home recovering. DHS said in a statement that it never targeted the family or its innocent children, and if anything can quell the tension here, it might be this brutal cold snap that you are seeing, Tony, descend on the Midwest here.” What makes Rivers’ and Gutmans’ omission of possible shovel weapons even harder to justify is that both World News Tonight and Evening News managed to bring it up on their Thursday shows. The Jackson family got caught up in the middle of a circumstance beyond their control that was created by a crowd that either did not have or did not wish to have all the relevant facts, and ABC and CBS are helping fuel that ignorance. Here is a transcript for the January 16 shows: ABC World News Tonight 1/16/2025 6:35 PM ET MATT RIVERS: On Wednesday, Destiny Jackson had her husband and six kids in the car, including a 6-month-old, when she got caught in chaotic protests after ICE shot a Venezuelan man during a traffic stop. DESTINY JACKSON: And then, like, one of them, or, yeah, like, one or two of them, stopped at my car and was just like, "Get the F out of here," and I'm like, "We're trying, but—” In that instance, I’m like, “Don't you put your foot on that gas,” because I'd be damned if they try to shoot us like Renee, by saying we hit them with our car. [jump cut] Immediately, once they got behind our car, they rolled tear gas under it. RIVERS: They say grenades detonated their air bags, trapping inside as gas filled their van. Then their 6-month-old baby stopped breathing. JACKSON: I had to give my baby, like, mouth to mouth, and people are pouring milk all over my other kids. [jump cut] I thought I was dying, honestly. RIVERS: Thankfully, everyone now okay. Homeland Security says they've made more than 2,500 arrests since Operation Metro Surge began in December. *** MATT GUTMAN: The latest skirmishes come after a Venezuelan migrant was shot in the leg by a federal agent during an arrest Wednesday night, prompting hours of clashes. MAN: There are kids in the car. There are kids in the car. GUTMAN: During the chaos, Shawn and Destiny Jackson and their six children can be seen fleeing their vehicle after they say ICE agents dispersed tear gas near their car. What was it like inside the vehicle? SHAWN JACKSON: When I started feeling like I couldn't breathe, that's when I knew it had to be the tear gas. DESTINY JACKSON: I was like fighting to get out. GUTMAN: Did you pull up the kids one by one? DESTINY JACKSON: Yeah, I was screaming, “I have kids out there. I have an infant in the car,” as well. GUTMAN: She told us her 6-month-old had to be resuscitated at the scene. I can't imagine anything more frightening than that for a mother. DESTINY JACKSON: I was screaming, crying. My kids were screaming, crying. GUTMAN: The family says that three of the six children had to be hospitalized. They’re now all at home recovering. DHS said in a statement that it never targeted the family or its innocent children, and if anything can quell the tension here, it might be this brutal cold snap that you are seeing, Tony, descend on the Midwest here.

Mattel released a Barbie doll this past week that has sparked an important discussion about what representation looks like in doll form — and why a pretty girl wearing headphones and a cute outfit might not be representative of a severe autism diagnosis, or why we shouldn’t be celebrating something we can try to understand and prevent.“President Trump ended DEI in the government, and I was really, really, glad about that, but it appears there was more work to be done. We need to end the DEI in toys,” BlazeTV host Sara Gonzales says on “Sara Gonzales Unfiltered.”In Mattel’s press release on the new Barbie doll, it writes, “The autistic Barbie doll features elbow and wrist articulation, enabling stimming, hand flapping, and other hand gestures that some members of the autistic community use to process sensory information or express excitement.”It also writes that her eyes are “shifted slightly to the side, which reflects how some members of the autistic community may avoid direct eye contact.”“I’m not making fun of people with autism. I actually think it’s terrible. And I’ve done a lot to try to help get us to the place where we can figure out what is causing autism, but we are at this weird place where the left is like, ‘Actually it’s great if people are autistic. Actually I love that my family member’s autistic. I hope we get more autistic people,’” Gonzales comments.“I want to solve what’s happening to people. I want to solve why so many people are being diagnosed with autism, why so many people can’t make direct eye contact, why so many people need noise-canceling headphones,” she continues.“It's absurd. It’s absolutely absurd,” she adds.Want more from Sara Gonzales?To enjoy more of Sara's no-holds-barred takes on news and culture, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

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