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Good morning, Roca Nation. Here are today’s four need-to-know stories:
President Trump demanded that the Justice Department pay him approximately $230M in compensation for federal investigations
Over 1,000 public figures signed a letter calling for a ban on the development of superintelligent artificial intelligence (free)
The US and Israel are considering a plan to divide Gaza into separate zones controlled by Israel and Hamas
The US finalized an agreement to provide $20B in financial support to Argentina (free)
By Max Frost
The footage released last week shows Venezuelans wearing t-shirts and armed with AKs rushing to their positions, crouching behind bales of hay. These men belong to “peasant militias” and are, allegedly, a handful of millions of people ready to defend the country from an American invasion.
Venezuelan officials say that invasion is increasingly likely. Last week, Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino López told Venezuelans to “prepare for the worst”; President Nicólas Maduro told his people, “The CIA has been sent to Venezuela for regime change. Since its creation, no US government has so openly ordered this agency to kill, overthrow or destroy other countries.”
He then warned his enemies in Washington: “To the conspirators, imperialists and their media outlets, I have bad news: The political and military leadership of the revolution has never been more united to defend our homeland.”
Increasingly, Washington does seem intent on toppling Maduro. Last week, President Trump authorized the CIA to conduct covert operations within Venezuela. This comes after his administration raised the bounties on top Venezuelan officials, built up forces in the region, and bombed numerous Venezuelan boats at sea.
When asked why he was pursuing a military buildup that seems counter to his promises to keep the US out of foreign wars, Trump gave two reasons: "Number one, they have emptied their prisons into the United States of America...they came in through the border. The other thing are drugs."
According to the Trump Administration, the Venezuelan leadership sits at the head of a conspiracy intended to destabilize America through drug and human trafficking. In today’s deep-dive, we look at the evidence: Does Maduro run a drug cartel? Or is this Iraq WMDs pt. 2? Today, we investigate.
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Editor’s Note
Will the US get its way? Or are we headed toward another ill-fated foreign intervention, whose costs may prove more numerous than its benefits? Let us know by replying here.
Loads of replies yesterday to our article on Santos’ release. Sharing a few emails below.
Shane wrote:
I am a conservative, Republican, even though I feel more libertarian the last couple of years. I’m appalled that Santos is already walking free. I think Trump screwed up. Maybe the sentence was too stiff but 84 days isn’t enough for what he did and I know there’s congressman who have done worse, but that’s not a reason to let him out, that’s a reason to go after them. I don’t agree with everything Trump does and I think that’s one of the things that separates a lot of us from Democrats who blindly support everything the Democrats do without ever questioning it. I know there are Trump fanatics that will support him no matter what, but by and large i know a lot more people who feel the same way I do.
Trump needs to be called out for making a bad decision. If he is gonna pardon him, he should’ve waited and let him spend a year or two in jail.
Madison said:
Presidents seem to have had the power to pardon for a while. I’d love to see a deep dive with some details about this. Are there rules to who or how many can be pardoned? What’s the history here? It almost seems to undermine the justice system to have a “loophole” in which a president can just release whoever he wants whenever he wants. There has to be some kind of restriction, right?
And Greg from New Jersey wrote:
I don't believe that solitary confinement was necessary for Santos, but let's be real. Trump pardoned him just because he's a Republican. And he blatantly admitted it by saying "At least Santos had the Courage, Conviction, and Intelligence to ALWAYS VOTE REPUBLICAN!"
This is a huge problem, obviously, because it sends a blatant message that you can get away with any crime, as long as you're tribally loyal to a political party.
What's next? If the BTK Killer sends Trump a letter, saying he's diehard MAGA, would Trump consider pardoning him too? This is a question I never thought would be on the table, but based on Trump's reason for pardoning Santos, it's not NOT on the table.
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Thanks for reading.
—Max and Max
