Venezuela’s actions deserve the attention they’ve been getting

December 16, 2025

The Trump administration’s efforts to stop drug-laden boats from Venezuela from reaching the U.S. has drawn heavy opposition from Congressional and other Democrats. These are the same Democrats who fiercely defend illegal aliens being in the country, which is a rather strange conflict of interests.

It appears from their reactions to the two topics that the Democrats are more concerned with illegals being deported than they are with Americans being killed by illicit drugs that are smuggled into the country.

And a recent action in the seizing of a Venezuelan oil tanker has added fuel to the Democrat’s fire.

Among the Democrats who have concerns about this is Sen. Chris Coons from Delaware, who said on NewsNation that he is “gravely concerned that [Trump] is sleepwalking us into a war with Venezuela.” Coons is the ranking member on the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense, and said that he has not received anything from the administration regarding a potential war with Venezuela.

This same concern was expressed by Republican Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky. Paul thinks the seizure could increase tensions between the U.S. and Venezuela. The libertarian senator, who is a sometimes critic of the Trump administration, added that it isn’t “the job of the American government to go looking for monsters around the world, looking for adversaries, and beginning wars.”

However, other GOP senators had a different response to the event, saying they were awaiting more information. Republican Sens. Josh Hawley of Missouri, Jon Husted of Ohio and Roger Marshall of Kansas commented that they did not know the specifics of the seizure. 

Hawley said, as he walked into an elevator, “I will look into it.” Husted commented that he had been in meetings and was not able have been briefed on the matter. And Marshall said that the seizure is “news to me,” but that the U.S. “should be pushing back on Venezuela.” He said that he is “concerned about the drug cartel that is running” the South American country.

The administration offered information that somewhat clarifies its position on the matter. Attorney General Pam Bondi released a video of the seizure on X (formerly Twitter). She commented that the FBI, Homeland Security, the U.S. Coast Guard and the Pentagon had executed the seizure warrant on the tanker, because it was transporting sanctioned oil from Venezuela and Iran.

The sanction was due to Venezuela’s “involvement in an illicit oil shipping network supporting foreign terrorist organizations,” Bondi said.

Adding to Bondi’s comments, White House deputy assistant Sebastian Gorka said on Newsmax’s "Rob Schmitt Tonight" that the tanker is part of a growing "shadow fleet" of vessels evading sanctions and breaching international law.

"This is a member of a shadow fleet," he said. "The attempts to evade sanctions, and also to just do an end run around international law with flags of convenience — we're not going to allow this anymore."

"So, whether it's Venezuela or whether it's other countries like Iran that are making money in ways that are illegal and counter to the U.S. national interest, as elucidated so very, very eloquently in the president's national security strategy that we published on Friday, we are very serious," Gorka continued.

He warned that the U.S. will be on the watch for any and all illegal maritime operations, including narcotics smuggling, and oil tankers operating in violation of sanctions.

"Whether it's drug boats, whether it's illegal tankers, we're going to take action where we see fit and where it threatens our national security interests as the United States," he said.

Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz commented that the seizure indicates it is “a bad idea to be a drug trafficker,” but said he did not anticipate the U.S. being in a war with Venezuela. 

While Cruz did not respond to a question regarding whether the president should ask Congress to declare war, he did say that, “If you’re a narcotrafficker, and you’re thinking about getting on a speedboat that is filled with a bunch of cocaine, you’re having second thoughts right now because President Trump is saving the lives of Americans.”  

“The poison that Maduro is flooding into this country is killing Americans and President Trump is fulfilling his responsibility as commander in chief, by saying we’re going to stop this poison that’s killing our kids,” he added.

Democrats are great at one thing: criticizing Donald Trump. It appears they will go to any lengths, use any criticism to try to make Trump look bad. And, apparently it doesn’t matter to them if they turn their backs on the harm that illegal aliens and their counterparts in rogue nations cause, in order to cast aspersions on Trump and his administration.

And let us not forget that so much of this craziness is the direct result of the foolish and dangerous policies of the Biden/Harris administration in ignoring the border crashing by illegals and the death and destruction they brought along with them.

The Trump administration is focused on things that need to be dealt with to restore the country’s national security and other assets. Slowly but surely things should improve. We should applaud this, not criticize it.

Creeping love for creepy socialism by Americans defies understanding

Those of us who learned about our country in school, and appreciate it for all the wonderful features it provides through a government structure that is unique to America, are confounded by the creeping infatuation among our fellow citizens for creepy socialism. This highly flawed ideology receives great amplification from the many Democrats vying for the nomination to run for the presidency.

Every good salesman or marketer knows that it’s easier to sell something when the potential buyer already likes it, than when the buyer must be convinced of a product’s worth.

This is why those candidates, even those who do not voluntarily wear the label of “socialist,” promote aspects of socialism: to appeal to those voters who are partial to those ideas. And the idea of free health care, a free college education, a good-paying government job or getting money “just because,” appeals to millions of people.

Programs such as the Green New Deal and Medicare for All are glaringly socialist. Other programs rely on government control of things that are now available for us to freely choose for ourselves. The U.S. Constitution restricts our government from controlling everything.

Those seduced by the siren song of socialism respond eagerly to the tactic of candidates painting fraudulent pictures that make the good (capitalism) look bad, and the bad (socialism) look good.

Since no form of government is perfect, highlighting and embellishing those elements of our capitalist system with which many find fault, and countering them with the imagined blessings of socialism enables these candidates to seduce voters to support and vote for them.

Every true American should be troubled, and even angered, that so many have been deceived by the poisonous socialist dream, and what that says about our culture.

In America, we elect those who serve in our government, and our Constitution provides ample opportunity for each of us to determine how we live our life. Under socialism, the government decides what people can, cannot and must do.

Often cited as examples of successful socialist nations are the Scandinavian countries. In fact, countries not infrequently self-identify as socialist, but in reality, only embrace some socialist ideas. While Scandinavian countries do often exhibit some socialist ideas, none is truly a socialist nation.

In fact, WorldAtlas.com, and other sources, name only four countries that currently are truly socialist: China, Cuba, Laos, and Vietnam.

Notable examples of failed attempts at socialism include the United Socialist Soviet Republic (USSR).

Of the USSR, History.com tells us: “After overthrowing the centuries-old Romanov monarchy, Russia emerged from a civil war in 1921 as the newly formed Soviet Union. The world’s first Marxist-Communist state would become one of the biggest and most powerful nations in the world, occupying nearly one-sixth of Earth’s land surface, before its fall and ultimate dissolution in 1991. The United Socialist Soviet Republic, or U.S.S.R., was made up of 15 soviet republics: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Estonia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine and Uzbekistan.”

Along the way problems worsened. The Communist Party leaders became rich while average citizens faced starvation by the millions in the 60s and 70s. Communist Party leaders attempted a coup against Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev in 1991, which failed, but substantially weakened Gorbachev, and strengthened democratic forces. Following his resignation on December 31 of that year, the Soviet Union ceased to exist, after 70 years of misery for its citizens.

Then there is Venezuela, which in 1982 was the richest country per capita in South America. Starting in 1998, Hugo Chavez led the nation, and was followed by Nicolas Maduro. These two men have been hailed by the political left as heroes of “21st-century socialism.” 

Instead of a heroic socialist success, these two men created a downward spiral of the country’s economy and wide-spread suffering of its people. This once strong economy has been destroyed by corruption and its parent, socialism.

The Soviet Union is long gone, but Venezuela’s horrors continue, and worsen. From its days as a strong nation until today, Venezuela has existed under socialism for less than 40 years, and is on the verge of total collapse.

While the USSR and Venezuela lasted only a few decades, the USA has lasted almost 250 years. In fact, no strongly socialist nation has ever thrived for very long. Socialism just does not work.

Although America has embraced socialist ideas more and more through the years, it still has a long way to go before it dies like the USSR and Venezuela.

Foolish, dangerous and unnecessary measures like the Green New Deal and Medicare for All, and other equally bad ideas like a mandated $15 per hour minimum wage, gun control efforts like mandatory buybacks, confiscations and Red Flag laws, all are steps down that deadly path.

Will the United States of America become the new USSR — the United States of Socialist Repression? If through some horrible misfortune any of the current Democrat hopefuls were to be elected president, it would take a few long strides in that direction. Not one of them campaigns on a platform that does not include socialist measures.

As Mr. Franklin wisely said, we have “A republic, if you can keep it.”