The "New Alcatraz": The Darkest Threat of the Venezuela Looting Spree
Andrea joins Russian mafia expert Olga Lautman to expose the transnational looting spree and warn Stephen Miller will turn Venezuela into a new Alcatraz.
First, we look at who stands to get rich off Trump’s illegal invasion. Devin Nunes and a squad of Trump Media cronies just took over a company that tried to bid $10 billion for Citgo, Venezuela’s oil crown jewel, right as their boss plotted a secret invasion. So who won Citgo? Why, MAGA billionaire Paul Singer, a vulture capitalist who serves as Trump’s ATM and hand-picked Marco Rubio for Secretary of State. Who else is a big winner? The Republican Party’s longtime backers, Exxon. Just as Trump hoped invading Venezuela would boost his plummeting approval ratings, Maduro threatened to invade oil-rich Guyana to distract from his own corruption. Now that Maduro is no longer harassing Exxon in Guyana, Exxon’s stocks are soaring along with the rest of Big Oil.
But the darkest “follow the money” story goes beyond oil. The private prison industry rakes in a fortune thanks to Trump’s cruelty. El Salvador’s CECOT mega-prison holds 40,000, but Trump and Stephen Miller want space for 80,000 people kidnapped from the U.S. Construction takes years; so Venezuela offers the obvious solution: the “New Alcatraz.” Outsourcing prisoners to a lawless, torture-filled transnational Gulag, a story censored by Bari Weiss’s CBS News, is the most troubling crisis of MAGA’s illegal invasion of Venezuela and co-rule with a violent oil mafia.
There’s always hope, but it requires a blueprint and courage. The Venezuelan people proved their 2024 election victory through heroic citizen vote-counting: a model of resistance that we in the U.S. must study to reclaim our own democracy. We must align with these transnational forces for good to dismantle the global crime syndicate. We warned you this would happen. Now, we must organize, stand up, and remain defiant.
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Show Notes:
Devin Nunes and others linked to Trump Media became officers of a company soon after it made an unsuccessful $10 billion bid for Venezuelan-state-owned Citgo Petroleum’s U.S. assets by Wendy Siegelman https://newstracs.com/devin-nunes-and-others-linked-to-trump-media-are-officers-of-a-company-that-bid-for-citgo/2026/01/01/
Learn from Venezuela’s opposition: The Official Unofficial Record How do you count almost 12 million votes if you’re not the government? This week, we bring you the extraordinary story of hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans who created the only verifiable public record of votes in their presidential election — and other stories of people trying to correct the official record with their own versions. https://www.thisamericanlife.org/848/the-official-unofficial-record
Olga Lautman's Trump Tyranny Tracker: https://trumptyrannytracker.substack.com/
Venezuela raid enriches MAGA billionaire: The ouster of Maduro is a financial windfall for a prominent Trump-supporting billionaire, investor Paul Singer. https://open.substack.com/pub/popularinformation/p/venezuela-raid-enriches-maga-billionaire?utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email
Opening clip: https://bsky.app/profile/thetnholler.bsky.social/post/3mbmostp3xk2j
CNN Data Guru Reveals Trump’s Devastating Drop in Approval Rating https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/cnn-data-guru-reveals-trump-105250680.html
Trump admin sends tough private message to oil companies on Venezuela: The White House has told companies they must rebuild Venezuela's crude-pumping infrastructure if they want compensation for assets seized by Caracas. https://www.politico.com/news/2026/01/03/trump-venezuela-oil-us-companies-return-00709782
The U.S.-Venezuela-Guyana Oil Triangle https://drilled.media/news/guyana-venezuela
Gabbard abruptly ousted CIA Russia expert days after Trump-Putin meeting https://www.cnn.com/2025/08/28/politics/gabbard-abruptly-ousted-cia-russia-expert-days-after-trump-putin-meeting
Tulsi Gabbard’s history with Russia is even more concerning than you think https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/tulsi-gabbard-russian-connection-dni-trump-syria-b2692244.html
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Tulsi Gabbard (00:00):
The old Washington way of thinking is something we hope is in the rear view mirror and something that has held us back for too long. For decades, our foreign policy has been trapped in a counterproductive and endless cycle of regime change or nation building. It was a one size fits all approach of toppling regimes, trying to impose our system of governance on others, intervene in conflicts that were barely understood and walk away with more enemies than allies. The results, trillions spent, countless lives lost, and in many cases, a creation of greater security threats, the rise of Islamist terrorist groups like ISIS. President Trump was elected by the American people to put an end to this. And from day one, he has showed a very different way to conduct foreign policy.
Andrea Chalupa (01:09):
Welcome to Gaslit Nations in this special segment with Russian Mafia expert Olga Lautman, a transnational crime officionado. Wherever there's crime, there's Olga Lautman screaming at it. And this is the first big official episode of Gaslit Nation where we are, of course, starting the year off with Donald Trump invading a country because of course that is the timeline we are stuck in because all you there couldn't bring yourself to vote in 2016 and 2024, even though we warned you. We warned you.
(01:45):
Anyway, our opening clip was long time Russian propagandist, Tulsi Gabbard, the Director of National Intelligence for the United States of America, who obviously didn't get the memo that her boss was about to carry out regime change in Venezuela. Maybe it's because this isn't actually regime change. There was a heroic effort by the opposition in Venezuela.
(02:16):
We will link to the stunning report in This American Life in the show notes, how the Venezuelan opposition used exit polling from their recent presidential election to calculate that they actually won. In fact, some independent observers said that the Venezuelan opposition may have won by 34%. So there is a legitimate, robust, courageous, well-organized opposition movement for democracy and rule of law in Venezuela. This exists.
(02:53):
Don't stop pointing this out that this exists and speaking up for these people because they are heroes for all of us who care about a livable future and freedom. And instead, Trump is doing business with the Russian-backed, Chinese-backed, Iran-backed, ruling oil mafia of Venezuela that is brutally clamping down on journalists and activists across the country to prevent actual regime change or actual, or maybe even to prevent maybe the US somehow miraculously under Trump calling for free and fair elections. I'm not saying that will happen, but they are not taking any risks here. They are doing a massive, brutal crackdown as we record this. And that has to be central to these conversations because this is heartbreaking and these people are deeply vulnerable and are left alone.
(03:52):
So we are going to focus on the bigger picture in Venezuela. Call on you out there on the internet, especially the Substack warriors to cut out and stop this with the conspiracy theories in our attention creator economy. Don't just make crazy claims because you maybe read a book once on Russia like 10 years ago. So there's a lot of nonsense out there. And here to help us cut through the noise is Olga Lautman. So I want to turn to Olga Lautman and ask you first and foremost, what are you seeing in regards to Russia's reaction to their longtime Russian asset that they've pumped so much money into now stealing one of their gas colonies from them?
Olga Lautman (04:38):
It is very interesting. The one thing I'll tell you is that Russia didn't anticipate this. I mean, they knew something was coming, but they didn't anticipate that Maduro would be whisked away out of his bed. The reason that I can tell you this with certainty, and this is the only part that I could tell you with certainty, is because of the reaction, and it's not coordinated. You have the military bloggers on the telegram channels. Normally when Russia is somehow involved, everything is like a well-oiled propaganda machine. Everything is said. The information warfare is prepared fully. Everyone knows their role, what they're going to say, what they're going to do. And that said here, it was such a disconnected response that you could clearly tell that they were just as a taken back as the rest of us when we saw not only missiles falling on Venezuela, but then waking up to the news that Maduro and his wife were whisked out of their beds and flown on their way to the US.
(05:55):
So that is with certainty, I could tell you. They're not happy for starters, because again, like you said, they poured so much money into it. They already lost Syria and they ... Syria was a very critical point for them because it was their springboard to all the Africa operations and whatnot, which has made it a drop more difficult. And they're on the verge of losing Iran because I don't even know if we're going to hit Iran before this episode comes out, but any moment we could be bombing Iran and whisking away. Well, actually the Iranian leader is a drop smarter and news came out that he's already made preparations to flee to Russia should things go bad.
Andrea Chalupa (06:45):
Wait, the Iranian leader has already prepared...
Olga Lautman (06:49):
The Supreme leader.
Andrea Chalupa (06:50):
Oh my gosh. And I heard from someone who works in the Pentagon that Iran is on the verge of collapse. Well, we can see that on all the reporting, all the mass protests.
Olga Lautman (06:59):
The protests are, you see them growing by the day. Israel has been locked in national security meetings. The US has been making movements, military movements now to the region, at least we saw over the weekend, thanks to all the Ocean people, tracking the same type of planes that were involved in the summer bombing of Iran, that they went first to UK and then it looks like they're making their way to the Middle East. So with that said, Iran is next, and these are all Russia's client states. For a very long time, they purchased weapons from Russia.
(07:50):
They assist Russia in its genocidal war in Ukraine. So Russia's not happy. I've seen so many conspiracies over the weekend and people are like, "Oh, Russia orchestrated this Venezuela for Ukraine." First of all, if Russia could get Ukraine, they would've gotten Ukraine. We are now four years into this full scale invasion, 12 years since Russia invaded Ukraine. And I mean, literally they're moving inches. And for every inch of territory they get, you have thousands and thousands of Russians being murdered. It is a meat grinder on the front line. So for all the American pundits who are like, "Oh, what Trump did, this is going to open now with Putin wanting to kidnap Zelenskyy." Are you kidding me? That was the first thing they wanted to do in February 2022. Their plan was to grab Zelensky and all the senior leaders to assassinate them. And that's not even discussing the list of all the civil society and hate call it, and parliamentarians who were and journalists who were on the list for assassination by Russian forces.
(09:07):
Russia's just not capable of doing it. So no, what Trump did in Venezuela is not going to open them up to now suddenly Russia's going to wake up and say, "Oh, look, we're a superpower and we can now go ahead and kidnap Zelensky." They're not. They will try though. I even laugh. Kadyrov even threatened, Oh, where this now is going to allow us to go and kidnap Zelensky. Do you know how many times the Chechens tried to kidnap and assassinate Zelensky? I lost count over the past four years. So now if they suddenly wake up and want to try another time, good luck, they'll be met with the same ending like all the other predecessors who came before them and tried to carry out these assassination plots. So for Russia, this is a bad look. If I were the oligarch sitting around Putin, I would be like, "Now, this is what a three-day operation looks like."
(10:04):
And it was like 45 minutes. Putin promised them less than two weeks. We're into four plus years of a full scale invasion with Russia throwing everything and the kitchen sink into Ukraine, 12 years of their invasion since they invaded. And what did they get? A million and a half dead or injured Russians? They are to the point of using horseback and using Soviet tanks from the 1950s besides the cruelty of hitting apartment buildings and everything. I mean, this is not a capable military. I just want to make that final point. If I were oligarch sitting around Putin right now, I would be like, "We need to release, get rid of him," because that is the most incompetent person ever. What he set out to do is what US did in 45 minutes. And I will tell you, this is what a lot of the Telegram channels were discussing.
(11:09):
They were like, "Wow, that was very quick." I mean, before they could even finish a full reaction, news came out that Maduro was already in US custody on his way.
Andrea Chalupa (11:21):
You're absolutely right that it makes the Russian oligarchs look even more cowardly. You can't even...
Olga Lautman (11:29):
And Putin incompetent and they're military incompetent. And then the last thing I'll say and then go ahead is if Russia has tried to be a superpower. They've inserted themselves into the Middle East, into Africa, into Latin America. I mean, everywhere. They have signed all these agreements, expanded the BRICS, whatever. If I were one of these countries, this is the second, third, third time that Russia has not come to the aid of one of their client states that they sent military, signed military defense agreements. Iran got bombed by Israel and the US. Where was Russia? Oh, we're deeply concerned. Venezuela's Maduro ended up in New York and downtown Brooklyn, whisked out of his castle.
Andrea Chalupa (12:29):
We love our socialists in downtown Brooklyn.
Olga Lautman (12:30):
I know.
Andrea Chalupa (12:31):
I'm just kidding. Socialist democracy now. Okay, go on.
Olga Lautman (12:36):
And where is Russia? Oh, we're deeply concerned. They sound like the Europeans. We condemned this. We're deeply concerned. And every time Syria ... I mean, Syria fell, Assad's regime fell. And where was Russia to help after everything that Russia did and promised the Syrians and everyone. So if I were a country out there, do not expect if you could sign and have all these pretty pictures with Lavrov, the Russian military and Putin and sign these defense agreements, they're worth what the ruble was after the Soviet Union collapsed because Russia is not coming to your aid. And this reputation wise was a big hit because now Iran's going to fall potentially. And now you're going to have literally a bingo card of all of Russia's client states where one by one continues to go down. Go ahead.
Andrea Chalupa (13:40):
Well, I want to ask, so the reporting says that Big Oil is looking at this Venezuela crisis and they're like, "Thanks, but no thanks." It's way too risky to get involved. It will take $10 billion minimum a year and a stable environment and years of investment. But even if Venezuela's situation is completely unstable, so is the one in the United States where a Democratic president could come along in 2028 and be driven by their base, not that the Democratic presidents listen to their bases much, but could be driven by the American people to say, "Pull us out of there. That was illegal. That was a horrible mark on our history. Get us out of there."
(14:22):
So the big oil is like, and plus there's a whole issue with the oil being sour crude, whatever the terminology is. It's high maintenance oil. And so will Trump out of desperation through all of his many Kremlin cutouts and offshore accounts and so on, turn to some Kremlin savior that dangles money in front of him like they've done throughout his entire rise and say, "Oh, you need someone to develop that oil with you?
(14:49):
We'll do it.
Olga Lautman (14:51):
I don't see Russia again as right now a major player on the world stage. If it was a few years ago, look, the Russians are like termites. They stick themselves into everything, every country, every democracy, every institution, they infiltrate everything and
Andrea Chalupa (15:07):
The Russian-KGB ruling regime.
Olga Lautman (15:10):
Well, and every-,
Andrea Chalupa (15:12):
I want to be clear, right.
Olga Lautman (15:14):
Wow. Your regime. And everything along that extends with the regime, which is quite big and goes into the millions and millions of people.
Andrea Chalupa (15:22):
Right, the Russian Orthodox Church being an arm of the Kremlin and so on.
Olga Lautman (15:26):
So I mean, they infiltrate into everything. They sit there and like termites. They sit, eat, eat, eat, eat until the democracy's gone. Western institutions fall. People don't know what truth is. They don't know what to trust. They don't know, believe anything. They're prone to conspiracies. Everything is delegitimized and that's it. The liberal order is overturned. They're excellent for this. Information warfare, hybrid warfare, all their shadow attacks, cutting cables on the ocean bed near Latvia, burning, hate call it, railways. So they're good with this, but they are not right now in the position that they were years ago to toss around money. I mean, if anyone is coming to Trump's aid, I would see China because China's already buying that oil. I think it was like 700,000 something tons or something per day. Forgive me, I'm not an oil person. I don't know nothing about oil.
(16:34):
I do know China is a client of Venezuela. The Chinese have the money. They're very well positioned right now to come in and tell Trump, "Listen, you give us this or you ease tariffs or whatever they want and we'll help and send money in here." And with Trump's public, we want the Chinese out of our backyard. I mean, who believes him? Just like the fact with Maduro is a narco terrorist. Okay, so is the regime he left in place. They're not going anywhere. I mean, this is the Chavistas. Where are they going? They're Maduros. It's like Putin, removing Putin from the head, but then leaving all the FSB and all the security council and Patrushev and everyone there.
Andrea Chalupa (17:23):
All the Michael Flynns of the Kremlin.
Olga Lautman (17:25):
Yeah. Leaving everyone there and leaving the whole thing and just plucking Putin out. I mean, in Russia-
Andrea Chalupa (17:34):
It'd be fun. We'd celebrate.
Olga Lautman (17:35):
I would beyond celebrate. It would cause for Russia turmoil, but would it change the country toward a democracy? Absolutely not. If Putin was just gone, I mean, the whole country needs an implosion just in their system. So here too, I mean, how is it that you leave all of Chavez's senior people and Maduro senior people in place and the only person missing... I mean, for God's sakes, yesterday I watched, I believe it was CNN and Maduro's son is on the floor of the parliament speaking. I'm like, "Oh yeah, regime change." This isn't even, this is like changing the CEO of a company, but keeping everyone else beneath the company there, except these are murderous thugs. And like you started out with, there are reports that are detaining journalists and I believe 14 journalists were already detained and there were reports, I mean, not reports, video of these thuggish forces that work for the regime that are off duty that Trump is creating in the US via his ICE and all what we see, these mass thugs running around the US disappearing people, that they're doing the same thing there.
(19:01):
So clearly nothing has changed. And getting back to your point, I somewhat believe the reports because I don't see right now any major oil company. First of all, Trump is under the impression that he's going to go in, grab all the oil, turn the lights with Tron, and that's it. And we're like up for running for business. I mean, that's not-
Andrea Chalupa (19:26):
I think it's incredibly important that people understand that this operation took months of planning and in that time, instead of doing the constitutionally required legal thing of consulting Congress, working through Congress before an act of war, which is what this is, we invaded a country. This is an act of war. This whole secretive operation is also transnational insider trading because during those months, Trump was trying to court the oil industry, telling them, "Get ready. You're going back now into Venezuela. And if you bring your money, all of your tools, everything you need right now into Venezuela, I'll help you. I'll compensate you. "He was priming big oil in America. So big oil knew about his Venezuelan plans and the US Congress did not. And apparently his DNI, his director of national intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, in October, saying Trump is a man of peace. He doesn't believe in regime change.
(20:32):
And it's like, "Really, Tulsi?" And so I want to also highlight very quickly going down the list of who stands to get rich now in this transnational crime scene that is Venezuela. And there's some ... So Devin Nunes longtime Republican attack dog for Trump, especially when it came to protecting him from the Russia investigation. Devin Nunes famously in Trump's first impeachment said my sister's name two dozen times to put a big fat disinformation target on her head. We did a whole montage of it. Our editor painstakingly cut out her name and it's like two dozen times. My sister, of course, was the independent consultant for the DNC who rang the alarm that if longtime Kremlin operative, Paul Manafort was managing Trump's campaign, that meant that Kremlin was managing Trump's campaign. Anyway, so Devin Nunes is back. He's never left. He is right hand to the king of Trump in his many business ventures, most notably his social media, Trump's truth, whatever the hell it's called, like magalies.com.
(21:42):
So Devin Nunes and other key figures from Trump Media and Technology Group have become officers of Blue Water Acquisition Corps three shortly after, just right after on the heels of that company making a failed bid to buy the US assets of Citco Petroleum in Venezuela. And so there was this failed bid, the bid didn't go through, and Devon Nunes and others from Trump's media company joined this company because they know maybe something will eventually go through because they know that they clearly knew the invasion was coming.
(22:22):
So who did get Citgo, which is still pending legal action, because the vultures are fighting over Citco now. What is Citco? It's a big chunk of Venezuelan state oil that the US seized with their claim of debt repayment, and now it's up for auction in the US, but it's a whole legal mess because the vultures of vulture capitalism are fighting over it. So officially who won the bid is another Trumper, of course, because who else is a vulture in this transit actual crime scene? And his name is Paul Singer. Paul Singer is a billionaire vulture capitalist who bankrolls Trump. Whatever Trump needs, Paul Singer is his ATM. And he originally in 2016 started off by backing Marco Rubio. So Marco Rubio is secretary of state, owes that job to Paul Singer. And so Singer is, right now, he got Citgo in this competitive auction, but there's a legal challenge against him by another competitor.
(23:29):
So that's still playing out. But the point is that these are all Trumpers that pigs up the trough.
Olga Lautman (23:37):
The swamp.
Andrea Chalupa (23:38):
Yes. And then another winner of Trump's invasion of Venezuela is of course Exxon with its long ties to the Republican Party. And of course, in Trump's first term, the Secretary of State was Rex Tillerson, the former CEO of Exxon. And a member of Congress, Maxine Waters, went on live TV and said that Rex Tillerson became Trump's Secretary of State so that he could get Russian sanctions dropped so that Exxon and Russia could drill for oil together in the Arctic and divide the world's oil rights or whatever. That was Congresswoman Maxine Waters on Rex Tillerson as our Secretary of State under Trump, former Exxon CEO. So Exxon wins from this deal. Why? Because Maduro, very much like Trump, was trying to distract his people from a failed economy that was all of his disastrous corrupt making by beating his chest and being a strong man and threatening to invade neighboring Guyana.
(24:46):
And so how do you try to beat low approval ratings? You try to be, you put on a military uniform and you threaten an invasion. Exactly what Trump is doing now. His ratings are tanking and now he's going full Jack Bauer in 24 on Venezuela, hoping that's going to juice up the base and save him, especially heading into the midterms where if Democrats take back the House, it's going to be investigation TV on C- SPAN and everyone's going to watch and the subpoenas are going to go flying. And so Maduro was harassing Exxon in Guyana, threatening to make moves on Guyana. And now that's, I mean, it remains to be seen, but that's on hold right now. Guyano is desperate for help. They're going to the international court and saying, "Please help us from Maduro's trying to invade." Guyana's neighbors were trying to come to the rescue and stand up to Maduro and say, "Cut it out. You're being a bully."
(25:40):
And so now Exxon doesn't have to worry about that. And if Exxon has the appetite for it, they could join Chevron in Venezuela. All oil stocks have gone up in response to this, of course. And then the other winner, which I dread sharing with you, and please listeners, after this episode, go out and take a nature walk, go do a pottery class, go feel your toes in the sand somewhere, because what I'm about to share with you is the most troubling who's getting rich off of Venezuela storyline that we all need to follow. And that is, of course, the private prison industrial industry.
(26:21):
Trump has been outsourcing prisons in El Salvador. So Trump has been depending on El Salvador's CECOT prison, the largest prison in the world, which currently holds 40,000 people, that is the size of a city. So the Trump regime led primarily not just by Trump, but of course Nazi fanboy, Stephen Miller, have been putting pressure on Venezuela to expand their prison so that it could hold up to 80,000 people.
(26:57):
That is what the strong man of El Salvador is promising them. "Yeah, we can get up to 80,000 prisoners." My God, that is a major ... Think about that. Think about that. 80,000 prisoners, that is a bustling city of a prison.
Olga Lautman (27:14):
And it gets worse because Eric Prince was involved in this.
Andrea Chalupa (27:19):
Of course he was.
Olga Lautman (27:20):
And what they want to do is take part of that territory and put it under US jurisdiction. So that expansion would technically be US soil, just like when you go to Aruba and you step into the airport, you're now on US soil, meaning that they would completely have to bypass courts in the United States and they can directly send people here, disappear them to that. And then you can cut out the courts completely because of the fact you would say we're just transferring them. It'll be similar to transferring from Boston to Louisiana. So worse than that. Go ahead.
Andrea Chalupa (28:03):
Absolutely. And so the problem is expanding the prison, doubling its size from 40,000 to 80,000 will take time. It'll take investment and time, and Trump and Stephen Miller don't have that time. They just got $75 billion from Congress for ICE. So they want to hurry up and round people up and illegally send them abroad to their gulag in El Salvador. And so since El Salvador can't meet MAGA's Nazi growing demand, what is the solution? Well, Venezuela, Venezuela presents itself as a solution. Now they have Venezuelan prisons, right? Now they can send all the Venezuelans. They're kidnapping across America back to Venezuela. And there's a reason why they put Stephen Miller in charge of Venezuela, even though he just did a live TV interview where he kept calling Venezuela an island.
Olga Lautman (29:06):
Though I will have to say it's interesting and I'm curious what MAGA thinks about it. And it's interesting how all of this over the past six months has just in general been splitting MAGA in different factions because Noem, Krisit Noem did come out and say that they will now offer asylum to all Venezuelans, which on one moment they're rounding everyone up and disappearing them. And now suddenly after this action, she came out and made that statement on Fox News. And I was like, "What?" And I think I saw a video through Homeland Security being put out. And I'm like, I could just picture the MAGA little heads blowing up that they're going to have to welcome their Venezuelan brothers and sisters when just a week ago they were like, get everyone out of here. Is So I don't know what's going to happen, but you are right because they can use it for everyone else.
(30:05):
I mean, they want to literally remove the whole Somali community and they're going now by communities. They're not even no longer going by status, whether you are naturalized, not naturalized. They have a whole plan to ramp up denaturalization this year. So it'll be interesting to watch. We definitely have to watch that. But again, Trump is playing with fire. This is Venezuela. This is Venezuela. He doesn't know nothing as much as he thinks he knows. He doesn't know as much as his corrupt crony sociopaths like Miller and Nunes and Grinnell and everyone else involved in this. As much as they think they know, they don't know because you have Trump basically rejecting the opposition that is seen as the rightful winners. You have the brutality now coming down for anyone helping Americans in this regime, which is going to make it way more difficult for the CIA to operate if now they're running around and have a disorganized force of pick up anyone and everyone and anyone you suspect of betraying Venezuela and Maduro and this regime.
(31:28):
So we don't know. I mean, the country can go into complete chaos and then what's going to happen? And the fact that he thinks he plucked out Maduro and that's it and that you're not going to send US forces there. If you want to control a country, you do have to have US forces. And just to remind everyone, we are now what? What's today? January 6th. Okay? This is what he occupied us all with. On January 1, you have how many millions and millions of people who lost health insurance because Republicans decide to go home and not deal with the ACA subsidies. Do you think regular Americans, and I hate to say, because now I sound America first, but do you think regular Americans really right now with everything happening, expensive food prices, insurance? I mean, for people who could hang on, they're paying double insurance.
(32:27):
Other people just said, "I can't. I can't afford this. This is insanity and have to give up insurance completely." Everything is more expensive. Do you really think people are concerned about freaking now that we own or are in charge of Venezuela? People here are having problems. There are bankruptcies going up in small businesses and this and that. And here Trump created another situation, and that's why I say it's going to backfire on him because the average person, I have never seen the average person going and saying, "Gee, I wish we would do more in Venezuela." I've never seen it, except the Venezuelan community, rightfully so, pushing and fighting for change, but we're not even supporting that. They were all excited what Trump did on Sunday, which no one's going to miss Maduro, but then came Monday and Tuesday and Wednesday, and the regime is there.
(33:25):
And Trump dismissed the fricking opposition leader who, like you said, won potentially by 30 plus points, the Gonzalez, who she put to run for her, 30 plus points. And Trump dismissed her as like, "Oh, no one respects her. She's really nothing." What?
Andrea Chalupa (33:47):
Okay. What a horrible way to talk about anyone.
Olga Lautman (33:50):
Yeah. Imagine she put her life on the line to fight for, really fight for real Venezuela, for a better future. Oh, she's not respected. No.
Andrea Chalupa (34:02):
Okay. And meanwhile, she's on live TV trying to bribe him with her Nobel Peace Prize. I'm trying to meet you and give it to you. She doesn't understand. Trump is purely transactional. If he doesn't need you, you're nothing to him. And he said that in his press conference on Mar-a-Lago, he's like, "She's nothing to me." If she controlled the oil fields, that'd be a different story, but she doesn't. The violent criminals, the mafia that he's now closing up to do. I do want to say Kristi Noem with offering Venezuelans now the option to apply for asylum, sure, she's backtracking on that, but they could also now say, "No, why do you need asylum? We liberated your country. Go back." And they cannot go back.
Olga Lautman (34:46):
No, they can't. Nothing changed. They'll be arrested immediately, prosecuted immediately. Nothing has changed, and that's it. And again, I Venezuela for decades and decades since Chavez took over. I mean, Venezuela and poor Venezuelans, what they have gone through for decades with this horrific regime. But Trump, unlike Bush and everyone else who at least gave some kind of a premise and pretended, yes, we need democracy in Iraq.
Andrea Chalupa (35:23):
Oh, you stop that on my show.
Olga Lautman (35:25):
Don't
Andrea Chalupa (35:25):
Don't say that. George W. Bush and Dick Cheney. Dick Cheney came from Haliburton.
Olga Lautman (35:30):
Did they tell you? Did they tell you? It's exact same shtick. Wait.
Andrea Chalupa (35:33):
Okay, listen.
Olga Lautman (35:34):
Wait, wait, wait, wait. You're saying- Letting me finish. You're not letting me finish. I am saying that Bush actually pretended to give an excuse. There are WMDs, something. He gave some kind of excuse. Bullshit that it was. He gave an excuse. Trump stood there and said, "Nah, I'm there for the oil. Nevermind democracy. Never mind opposition. Never mind anything. I'm just there for the oil." I mean, we know this is what Bush did and Cheney did and all of them did. But here, Trump is just cutting out that it's a threat to us, that it's this, that any kind of even legal standing and just saying, "Nah, I removed them. He's in the way of the oil. I just want the oil."
Andrea Chalupa (36:20):
And he has a long history of undermining his own legal cases where he posts on social media like, "Let's go after Tish James and James Comey because they hurt my feelings." And then those cases get dismissed. He did the same thing with his Mar-a-Lago press conference. He's like, "We're going in for oil." That hard-nosed famously stubborn judge in the Southern District of New York who got Maduro's case, who's now facing trial for narcotics is going to be like, wait. Now his defense can say the president's own words are like that he was kidnapped for oil. So basically Trump already won Maduro his legal case, mark my words.
(37:07):
So obviously the big story to watch, I just wanted to leave everyone with this point on who's getting rich in Venezuela. Yes, it's the oil. It's always the oil when it comes to United States of America because one of our two major parties, which has a built-in advantage in the US Constitution, the founding of our country with the Electoral College and the US Senate favoring landowners, the elite, right? And that's the Republican Party. That party is funded primarily by the fossil fuels industry. And that is why we have these wars for oil. But the other story I want us all to watch for the sake of the people of Venezuela who have showed the world their agency, who have showed the world that they have a dream of a better free Venezuela with 34%, 34% winning their election by. And that is to follow the private prison industry and the bodies getting kidnapped by ICE in the US, wherever you're from.
(38:09):
You don't even have to be Venezuelan, as we've seen, and sent to Venezuela. That is now under Stephen Miller, who's some vice roy of Venezuela as some new American Alcatraz. That is the big story to watch, and we will be watching it here on Gaslit Nation with help from our friend Olga Lautman, as we continue to follow the money. What advice do you have for our listeners that want to help the people of Venezuela?
Olga Lautman (38:31):
Call Congress. I'm sorry. We need to be twenty four seven blanketing their phone lines and demanding the media put them on the spot because you know what? Even in Miami, I saw the Republicans celebrating. And again, rightfully so. I mean, no one wants to see you. No one's going to cry over Madoro. This is not a person. We can get into whether Trump, what he did was legal or not constitutional or not, which obviously wasn't. Honestly, if you ask me, I mean, this is so bad shit insane. I could just picture every other person, leader in the world sitting and like, "Oh my God, can I go to sleep and will I get whisked away out of my bed?" So the whole thing, obviously, whatever. But the people in the Republicans in Florida who represent Cubans and Venezuelans and whatnot, they were so happy and sitting there and like, Oh, look at Trump. Look what he did and whatever.
(39:35):
Now they're getting pushback because now the Venezuelan community who was celebrating when Maduro disappeared, was whisked away. Now they are realizing that nothing has changed. They cannot go back. The same people are there. I mean, the same, hate call it those thugs that roam around for the regime are still doing that, that journalists are being disappeared. There are checkpoints up across everywhere being put up. So call Congress and ask them, "What are we doing? What are we doing?" Because his next thing to watch for is Greenland, which we'll have a separate show on, but the fact that we might actually be fighting our NATO forces, which will be the end of NATO, what is he doing? And this is what every Republican ... Look, you have obviously Republicans in very red districts, which by the way, we've seen them losing.
(40:48):
Even if they win, they're still winning by 10, 12, 15 points less than they did just a year, a little bit over a year ago. We need to put pressure on all of them. And frankly, by 2020, this year, 2026 this November, I don't want to hear people, "I don't want to vote." We need to vote. If you have a mass group of people who voted, you see it's working. Trump and his attempts to steal the election, rig the election, they're not going to work because if the people get off the sidelines and say, "No, this is not the direction we want. " No, we're not going to be kidnapping leaders out of their beds, even though in this case he's a thug, but then it could be anyone else. I mean, really, what's next? The Greenland Prime Minister who's going to be taken out and put under arrest as American forces moving.
(41:54):
So we need to send a resounding message. And honestly, Republicans, especially the ones right now who are in sensitive districts where they won by a few points, they need to understand that if they don't take back their congressional duties, they can kiss Congress goodbye. So they either take it back right now and start acting like Congress in a check on this insanity and this insane executive branch, or they say goodbye in November, one or the other. And we see, I mean, right now this morning I looked and it's very sad that a Republican passed away this morning. No, it's sad. I mean, look, he still has a family and whatnot. In California, he died this morning. Now we are really literally going to be within a seat or two margin in Congress. So I mean, the people can make a difference today right now. Call, call, call, call, call everyone.
(42:59):
Call your local representatives. Call anyone at risk of losing their seats, call them. And for people in more purple and blue states, we need to really organize and call and push back on this ice insanity. They need to stop this surveillance state Trump is building and we need to push back because these are the states that New York. Are you kidding? What are we doing? Why are there not laws preventing surveillance happening to the citizens of New York? Same for Connecticut, same for New Jersey. We need to push back where we can. We need to slow it down because right now the courts have been doing a lot of the slowing down, but they can't hold up forever. They need the people to push back. So with Venezuela, with everything, with ACA, with everything, we need to make sure that our leaders know that they're not going to be in power if this continues on.
Andrea Chalupa (44:04):
Our discussion continues and you can get access to that by signing up at the truth teller level or higher on Patreon. Discounted annual memberships are available and you can give the gift of membership. Get bonus shows, invites to exclusive events, all our shows at free, and more at patreon.com/gaslit. That's patreon.com/gaslit. Thank you to everyone who supports the show.
(44:27):
To help Ukraine with urgently needed humanitarian aid, join me in donating to Razom for Ukraine at razomforukraine.org. To support refugees and conflict zones, donate to doctors without borders at doctorsoutborders.org. And to protect critically endangered orangutans already under pressure from the palm oil industry, donate to the Orangatang Project at the orangutanproject.org -- and check your products for Palm Oil because it's everywhere.
(44:56):
Gaslit Nation is produced by Andrea Chalupa. Our associate producer is Karlyn Daigle. Our founding production manager is Nicholas Torres. If you like what we do, please leave us a review on iTunes. It helps us reach more listeners.
(45:10):
Original Music on Gaslit Nation is produced by David Whitehead, Martin Bissenberg, Nick Barr, Damien Arriaga, and Karlyn Daigle. Our logo design was generously donated by Hamish Smyth of the New York-based firm Order. Thank you so much, Hamish.
(45:26):
Gaslit Nation would like to thank our supporters at the producer level on Patreon and higher. Jans Allstrip Rasmussen, Katie Macurus, Anne Bertino, David East, Dawn Rosener, Deborah Schiff, Diana Gallaher, D.L. Singfield. Icepare is defiant. James D. Leonard, Jared Lombardo, Joe Darcy, Kevin Gannon, Kristen Kester, Larry Gassan, Leah Campbell, Leo Chaloupa, Lily Wachauski, Marcus J. Trent, Mark Mark, Nicole Spear, Randall Brewer, Sherry Escobar, Todd, Dan, Milo and Cubby. Work for better, prep for trouble. Ruth Ann Harnish and Tanya Chaloupa. Thank you all so much for your support of the show. We could not make Gaslit Nation without you.