Breaking Points with Krystal and Saagar - 1/7/26: Trump Seizes Russian Vessel, China Salivates Over Taiwan, Trump Seizes Millions Of Venezuela Oil Barrels

Episode Date: January 7, 2026

Krystal and Emily discuss Trump seizes Russian vessel, China salivates over Taiwan, Trump seizes 50 million Venezuelan oil barrels.   Blowback Pod: https://blowback.show/    To become a Breaking Points Premium Member and watch/listen to the show AD FREE, uncut and 1 hour early visit: www.breakingpoints.comMerch Store: https://shop.breakingpoints.com/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-Heart podcast. Guaranteed Human. Hi, I'm Dr. Priyankawali. And I'm Hurricane Dabolu. It's a new year. And on the podcast, Health Stuff, we're resetting the way we talk about our health. Which means being honest about what we know,

what we don't know, and how messy it can all be. I like to sleep in late and sleep early. Is there a chronotype for that, or am I just depressed? Health stuff is about learning, laughing, and feeling a little less alone. Listen on the I-heart rate.

video app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hi, I'm Ed Zittron, host of the Better Offline podcast, and this January, we're going to go on the road to beautiful Las Vegas, Nevada, to cover the Consumer Electronics Show, tech's biggest conference. Better Offline's CES coverage won't be the usual rundown of the hottest gadgets or biggest trends, but an unvarnished look at what the tech industry plans to sell or do to you in 2025. I'll be joined by David Roth at DeFector and the writer Edward Ongueso Jr., with guest

appearances from Behind the Bastards Robert Evans, it could happen here's Gare Davis, and a few surprised guests throughout the show. Listen to Better Offline on the IHart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever else you get your podcasts from. Are you desperately hoping for change in 2026, but feeling stuck? I'm Dr. Lari-Santos, and in a new year series of my show, The Happiness Lab, I'm going to look at the science of getting, well, unstuck at work, unstuck in your relationships, and even unstuck. inside your mind. I am the absolute worst culprit when it comes to getting into these ruminative loops and just driving myself crazy. Listen to the Happiness Lab on the Iheart Radio app,

Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your shows. Hey guys, Saga and Crystal here. Independent media just played a truly massive role in this election, and we are so excited about what that means for the future of this show. This is the only place where you can find honest perspectives from the left and the right that simply does not exist anywhere else. So if that is something that's important to you, please go to breakingpoints.com, become a member today, and you'll get access to our full shows, unedited, ad-free, and all put together for you every morning in your inbox. We need your help to build the future of independent news media,

and we hope to see you at breakingpoints.com. Good morning, everybody. Happy Wednesday? Wednesday? Yeah. Wednesday? Wednesday? Our pro show. Good to see you, Ryan. Thank you very much for having me. I really appreciate all the flexibility with the schedule. As you know, Ryan, young children are constantly sick. Who knew? Who knew?

Yeah, it turns out that they're constantly sick too. Look forward to that. Yes, apparently. We have a stomach plague sweeping through our household as we speak. So it's just grander. I'm just going to scoop back. That's right. Don't worry.

I officially have not been yet afflicted with the plague. But thank you very much for having me, Ryan. We've got a great show for everybody today. Literally breaking news, reforming everything at the top, which we're going to lead with the United States currently boarding a U.S. or a Russian-flagged oil vessel in the North Atlantic. This is a very interesting situation

was previously unflagged, sanctioned U.S. vessel, which officially reflagged. The Russian Navy actually sent a submarine, which has on its way to try and to intercept and to escort it to Russia. There are multiple other Russian-flagged vessels now that have been reflagged. This is potentially sparting some major geopolitical tension

with Russia over this new oil gambit in Venezuela. We're also going to talk about China. There's been a lot of talk in China, particularly after the U.S. decapitation of Maduro. I can't say the Maduro regime, but at least going in the extraordinary rendition. There's been a lot of geopolitical rethinking inside of China. I think that that obviously is potentially the most influential conflict on all of our lives, you know, 10 times more important than Ukraine than Venezuela, even than Israel and Iran, to what will happen, geopolitically, the most, you know, tense region in the globe. But then, of course, we're going to have to return to Venezuela because, Ryan, we're getting

an announcement from the president some 30 to 50 million barrels of oil by the current regime will be turned over to the United States. We're all rich. Congratulations. Well, we're not yet sure about that because it's actually going to be sold at a market price. I have a lot to say about it. It's actually kind of interesting. from a general oil perspective, but it actually does show you what the designs of all of this

are really about. And Ryan's actually going to give us an update about Venezuela as well, just kind of what's going on in the ground, some more dynamics that you and your team have been able to bring us Greenland. We're going to talk about Greenland, Stephen Miller, saying that the United States is going to take Greenland, some leaked reporting behind the scenes that Rubio said, look, we're not going to invade Greenland. But we do want to buy Greenland, and that's part of the reason that we're saying.

Maybe we'll trade that oil tanker for it. I wouldn't mind. That'd be a good deal. Yeah, what do you think? Yeah, we're already there, right? Yeah, okay, we can take Greenland. And I will be reading for you from a Seward's report on Greenland from 1868. One of my favorite documents.

Actually, his real folly was not getting Greenland. I could talk a little bit about. I could talk a little bit about the stupidity of the U.S. Virgin Islands Greenland deal that we made back in the 1800s. And we're going to talk about visas. So I have said here before, I do often feel. personally attacked by the Trump administration from marijuana to gamble. Like, there's so much stuff. But this one might actually take the cake.

The U.S. O-1 Extraordinary Talent Visa is now overwhelmingly going to content creators and particularly only fans' models. Who also vape weed. Yeah, who often are, yeah, I mean, there's as you well know as a libertine yourself, the connection between degenerate pornography. and degenerate marijuana is one in the same. And in fact, that is why I'm at war with all. So, yeah, we have a bunch of... Only fit, only fans. Yeah, so now we just have a bunch of porn models

who are now USO-1 visa recipients. So that's great. Remember, this is the extraordinary talent visa for those of you are not familiar. Like, this is the type of visa that's supposed to go to, like, one of those coders who's like, I created a company with 50 million or 50 employees and worth all of us, and instead it's literally going to OnlyFans' whores.

And the story I broke back in 2007 was Anthony Wiener, created legislation to carve out more model visas. Did he really? Which I think this is what they're pushing that through. This is Anthony Wiener's legacy. So it turns out there were signs there. Anthony Wiener were there. He said it was for New York.

One of the best stories in Washington history. I will truly never forget it. And then, Ryan, a couple of your friends are going to stop by because I just dropped in, I don't know as much about. it when you tell the audience this is this will be a fun yeah emily listened to the a season of blowback to prepare for this so bad episode i think she liked her to switch with me i think she really liked it um so we're going to have brenan james and noa cool one of a blowback because their latest season is on uh angola but if in that season there turns out to be they they drew the same

connection to epstein and iron contra um as we did angola is actually the kind of unspoken an unspoken critical leg of Arran Contra that got a little bit of coverage at the time, but never made it kind of into the headline scandal news. So we're going to talk about what another look at that history tells us about both Cuba, because I think there's actually a connection to what's going on now, and also what was Jeffrey Epstein doing? Where did he make his money? How did he get his start? Well, this is why we need Ryan here, because I confess, it's only a few paragraphs in a couple Cold War books about Angola. Well, and you can stand in for the viewer here.

Okay, good. I'll do my best. Also, they don't teach much Angola. Thank you to everybody who has been signing up, supporting our show, breaking points.com. I mean, in insane times like this, I couldn't be more thankful for the entire team, and especially Ryan and Emily, you know, just not only our ability to just be able to have five days of shows, especially in crazy times like this, but everybody's, you know, various different knowledge and all of that. And that's enabled by all of our premium subscribers, so breakingpoints.com, if you're able to help us out.

If you are watching this on YouTube, please hit subscribe to our YouTube channel. And if you're listening to this as a podcast, please share an episode with a friend. It really helps other people find the show. But let's turn now to the very fast-moving situation here between the United States and Russia, you know, blowing up over Venezuela, of all things. Let's go and put this up here on the screen. This is a video that all of you are watching. Keep in mind, all of this video is coming from RT.

That's because it's Russian propaganda and it's a Russian vessel. Okay, so not that we're only choosing to bring in. That may actually cause us content problems with YouTube, but we will see. You know, it is the news, after all, Ryan. So what you guys can see in front of you is video that has been released by RT. This is from the tanker previously known as Bella One. This was an unflagged oil vessel, which was sanctioned by the United States in connection with Iranian oil. The United States now have a Coast Guard and U.S. military vessel in the North Atlantic, which has been chasing the Bello One, which has now been reflagged as a Russian vessel.

Russia has dispatched a submarine and other Russian naval assets to actually intercept the previously known Bellowan and escorted into Russian territorial waters. The United States has been in a fast and an aggressive pursuit of this ever since it actually broke the sanction blockade, wanting to seize much of the oil on board. What has obviously escalated this now massively, it is now officially a Russian flagged oil vessel, which comes with all kinds of superpower nuclear arm confrontations. Let's go with the next element that we can go and put here up on the screen. This was the news that as of this week immediately after the decapitation, you know, rendition of Maduro, that the Bella One adopted the Russian flag, along with another tanker operating in Venezuela, now known as the Hyperion, which made a similar change. At least three additional tankers that operated in Venezuelan waters have now switched to Russian flags, according to the Russian Vessel Registry, extending this pattern. Earlier this

week, one of those three actually disappeared. That's the Bella one now. Currently, despite the U.S. blockade, all five are now subject to U.S. sanctions for previously shipping Iranian or Russian oil, altering their flags, and declaring home ports in the Russian cities of Sochi or Tag Enrog. I apologize if I say that incorrectly. The reason why I think this is the most important, Ryan, is that this is now, you know, a geopolitical, geostrategic thing beyond just the western hemisphere. It's being said under that guise. But actually, this is the wet dream of Lindsay Graham and of much of the, you know, pro-Ukraine caucus. Russian oil has been the lifeblood of the Russian economy, not only to India and to China, but its ability because of its own Navy, Russian submarines

and others, has prevented the United States and of even the European powers from really effectively actually stopping the flow of Russian oil. And a U.S. interdiction and now a U.S. boarding, which is officially now happened. We have an image actually of that M3 while you talk, Ryan, that people can see. These are the first images released from R.T., which show you. U.S. military, U.S. Coast Guard assets abhorting the, what is it now called, the Marinera, previously known as the Bella One, which has now been seized officially by the United States, according to U.S. reports. It's been boarded by the United States, Coast Guard personnel as of literally five minutes ago when we started recording all of this. So this is a crude oil tanker,

Russian flag, boarded by the U.S. taken. You could all see that in those images. So this is truly now an extraordinary event. Yeah, and people often say that if you want the real news, you go to some place like The Onion. The Onion had a headline the other day that said Maduro indicted in New York for felony oil possession. And it's like, aha, that's funny because that's really what he is under indictment for. But there's no such thing as felony oil possession. That wouldn't be a thing that the United States would do. No, literally, we are currently trying to board these ships for what is a version of felony. Or possession, we are saying to the world, you know, how dare you attempt to do commerce in

energy? And what this is going to do is put a spotlight, you know, for the world on our sanctions policy, which, and our unilateral sanctions policy. There is, there, there is a sanctions regime that exists in the world that the, that the world accepts, and that is through the United Nations. You go to the UN, you go to the Security Council, you say, this country's doing a genocide or this country is doing this. And this is, we believe these companies and these people should be sanctioned. And the General Assembly can can actually take action on that. And then as a globe, you kind of, the countries then police that. The U.S. has said, good idea. We're just going to do it on our own because we control the dollar and we, and we control Swift. And, you know,

money has to run through here. So do whatever you want. But if you want it to happen in in dollars or in swift, then you're going to have to follow our rules. So then a bunch of these ships, they're like, okay, well, we're not following any of your rules at all. That's what happened after the Russian rules. And they'll, and they'll create, you know, basically entire ghost operations and, and use other banking systems. Which is what's been happening for the last four years. And we're like, uh, we're still going to enforce it. And at, and at some point, the world has to be like, wait a minute, like this is, this is utterly insane. You're chasing an oil tanker. So this oil tanker was, came to a Venezuela and it couldn't get through. It tried apparently a bunch

different times to get through the little armada that we had out there. And eventually it gave up and fled and then flipped to a Russian flag. It was probably already a Russian ship, but what they do is they... Yeah, they unflag it for these purposes. We do that. All these ships are flagged in like, you know, Mariana Islands or whatever. Well, just to explain even more, kind of, as I understand it, there is actually current speculation not only around the oil, but potentially it might have been something else on that ship, you know, going back to the Cuban missile crisis or something that potentially was dispatched to try and help Nicholas Maduro and the Venezuelan regime, then necessarily the Russians didn't want us to get our hands on. So we don't know exactly. There is speculation. I don't know yet that for sure. But I mean, it is crazy to board a Russian flagship. That speculation comes from rational Americans being like, there's no way our government would be. so crazy as to just be chasing an oil tanker like this. There must be something else on it. It's

like, if there isn't something else, you have to adjust your priors and be like, oh, actually, we are that crazy. No, see, I think we are that quote crazy because what has happened has been this and I'll explain this, which is, you know, you talk there about the U.N. and internet, and this is like my main divide, I think, with the global left. You don't like that either. No, it's not that I don't like it. It's just fake, right? It's like, if the U.S. dollar, and if the U.S. dollar is the prime currency of the world, then yes, U.S. sanctions are actually the only thing that matters. And I remember saying this during Ukraine. I'm like, yeah, you can throw your, you know, blow your financial wad, if you will, all over Ukraine. I wouldn't do it because it's not important to the U.S. at all.

I would maybe save all of this for the only conflict in the world that in my opinion really matters at all, which is China and is Taiwan, because that's the one that's going to affect my life the most. At the end of the day, who controls Dunbos or, frankly, even all of Ukraine, does not affect any person in this world, in America's life at all. But the chips in our computers and the flow through, you know, the Thai, through the sea in Taiwan, the South China Sea, that affects everybody, including everybody here. Take good care of your battery.

I've said it. I've said literally, if there's a war with Taiwan, all of us are turning our laptops in, the government's going to strip out the chips. All of us are going to be on eBay behind 2006. You think I'm kidding. I'm not. Your Xbox, all that stuff. It's all getting turned in. It's going to be sanctioned. and taken by the U.S. government because they need it to operate, especially if it's a prolonged conflict. And that's part of the reason we should do everything in our power to avoid that and to keep some of our power. Hi, I'm Dr. Priyanko Wali. And I'm Hurricane de Bolu. It's a new year.

And on the podcast's Health Stuff, we're resetting the way we talk about our health. Which means being honest about what we know, what we don't know, and how messy it can all be. I like to sleep in late and sleep early. Is there a chronotype for that, or am I just a person? press. We talk to experts who share real experiences and insight. You just really need to find where it is that you can have an impact in your own life and just start doing that. We break down the topics you want to know more about. Sleep, stress, mental health, and how the world

around us affects our overall health. We talk about all the ways to keep your body in mind, inside and out, healthy. We human beings, all we want is connection. We just want to connect with each other. Health stuff is about learning, laughing, and feeling a little less alone. Listen on the I-Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Are you desperately hoping for change in 2026, but feeling stuck? Just spinning your wheels and old routines and bad habits. I'm Dr. Lari Santos, and in a new year series of my show, The Happiness Lab, I'm going to look at the science of getting, well, unstuck at work, unstuck in your relationships, and even unstuck inside your mind.

I am the absolute worst culprit when it comes to getting into these ruminative loops and just driving myself crazy. We'll look at ways to reignite your sense of purpose, rediscover your values, and get more creative. We'll also explore how to design a life that feels more fulfilling. It's sort of like the game of life. I don't know if you ever played that game. Oh my gosh, yes. You take the car along and you try and get money, and you try and get degrees,

and you try and get to the end where either you have a mansion or a ranch or a shack. And once you get to retirement, you're done. What about the whole path along the way? So join me to get unstuck in 2026. Listen to the Happiness Lab on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your shows. I'm Ed Zittron of the Better Offline Podcast, and I want you to join me at this year's Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Nevada, starting January 6th through January 10th, 2026. We're doing 10 radio-style podcast episodes about the world's biggest tech conference, and we're going to dig into the latest and weirdest gadgets, gizmos, and horrible AI gear that the tech industry is desperate to sell you, all while covering the

biggest stories in Silicon Valley as the AI bubble threatens to burst. I'll be joined by David Roth, Chloe Radcliffe, Adam Conover, Corey Doctoro, Edon Gweso Jr., Robert Evans, and an incredible cast of the greatest talent in the tech media, with over 18 hours of interviews, commentary and bizarre stories, all told from the Better Offline pop-up studio connected to its own open bar. Today I did five hours of back-to-back panels on an official intelligence. It included a number of great moments, including an entire room full of people, laughing about people losing their jobs due to artificial intelligence. Will we make it out alive? There's only one way to find out. Tune in starting January 6th through January 10th, 2026, and listen to the literal best tech podcast

ever recorded. Listen to Better Offline on the iHot Radio app, Apple Podcasts, wherever you happen to get your podcasts. This is exactly kind of people drunk with power over this idea of the Monroe Doctrine. Now, again, you know, the Monroe Doctrine, I think, was good policy. The Monroe Doctrine was invented at a time of European intervention into the Western Hemisphere. And the Declaration from the Mono Doctrine, which was primarily authored and ideated by John Quincy Adams, was that as a power, we recognize spheres of influence. The Western Hemisphere is a sphere of influence for the United States, and we will not allow European great powers to come in here. It's since transmuted into, we can do whatever we want, we can depose,

any, you know, a president or any of that. That's how we operate, often, actually, to bad effect, actually, in Latin America. Latin American countries initially read it to say, oh, good, you're, basically you're saying that we should have sovereignty and independence, just like you, the United States, that's sovereign. Well, this has always been the primary tension with U.S. policy in Latin America, especially during the Spanish-American times, right? Because Spain was literally an empire, which colonized them.

And many of them, Bolivar, for example, was a great admirer. of George Washington and of the American Revolution. There's a statue of us of him here. I know the Bolivarian, if you've ever been to Columbia or anything, they take that very seriously. It's, you know, it's inspiring in some ways, the idea of self-determination. But the, you know, the conflict has always also been at the heart of America for, let's say, quite literally, you know, turning republics into banana republics or having explicit and coups taking over and inspiring a, the breakaway of Panama so we could do the Panama Canal. And I understand that. That's like we have to be a real nation. We have to be an idealistic nation. But in this particular case, you really just have to ask,

why is enforcing this on Russia now so important to this Venezuela dream where we have now overthrown Maduro or we have captured Maduro? We have kept the vast majority of his people in power. We are trying to strike this kind of oil deal. And we're going to get to some the details of that at a minute where they have to kick out China and Russia and all that, which I'm skeptical that that will actually happen without actual full-blown regime change. The question is, is like, when you do things that are truly extraordinary, should it not be for things that are of your absolute vital national security interests? And in this case, you overthrow Maduro.

You are now sparking, I wouldn't say conflict with Russia, but tension with Russia on the high seas, the North Atlantic over a crude oil vessel when the United States is a net exporter of oil and the price of oil remains in all this is not 1972 right this is not the OPEC gas prices there are not gas lines oil is cheap in fact one of the problems the administration has is that because the price of oil is so low a lot of oil well which is fine I'm not with that I think cool your buddies your buddies Texas are not fine with it I know that yeah everybody down in Midland is like, you know, we need the price of all to go up, okay? They're like, I need to buy some more Ford F-150s. And, you know, the car dealers of Midland, I weak tears for them.

Jokes aside, the point around this is if you were to say we're going to have imperial retrenchment, let's say from a security guarantee with Russia literally happened yesterday, or sorry, with Ukraine, happened yesterday. We didn't have as much time to put it in the show. That happened yesterday. The United States was now going to provide a security guarantee for Ukrainian sovereignty, at the same time the United States is providing a security umbrella over one of the most rogue states in Middle East history, Israel, all right, which is currently happening with Gaza, the West Bank, we're diplomatically providing cover there. We're also trying to project power in Japan, Taiwan, and to prevent a Chinese takeover of that. This is imperial. And then we're like,

oh, and we're going to start running Venezuela. We're not capable of it. This has always been kind of the theory behind retrenchment. And yes, of course we are an empire. But the point of being an efficiently managed empire is to say, look at the balance sheet and say, what's the actual most important thing? Where do we focus all of our resources? And instead, this is actually keeping the complete overextension of NATO, of Ukraine, of the Middle East policy, and the obsessions of the neocons, also with these ideological quasi-Munreau doctrine policy here of Venezuela. And you put it all together, and you actually just see the potential for conflagration now

everywhere, like with Russia. And that is the problem, is do you trust that these are competent people in power now currently after the evidence of the last year that are capable of managing all of those conflicts and the ability to make sure that the second order effect, which usually pops up somewhere on the other side of the globe, especially after something like this that could, let's say it nukes the Ukraine peace deal. This is why you don't get involved in the first place. And if you do, you need great plans that needs to be well considered. And that's, yeah. And what I don't understand genuinely is why the U.S. seems to be antagonizing and instigating

a global conflict when we have not resured our supply chains effectively such that our entire defense or sorry war industrial base we don't say defense anymore or war industrial base the supply chain leads through Taiwan and China so you would think

if you were a rational war monger you would at least wait 10 years until you've built your semiconductor plants and you've gotten your rare earths lined up and and you feel like if hostilities broke out that you could produce the types of things that you need to not only continue the war effort but continue like having the economy that we have because like the economy that we have like when when when chips were like stalled for like six weeks people couldn't buy dishwashers people couldn't buy laundry machines

like the auto industry shut yes exactly 2020 auto industry is paused people were literally buying fords, Ryan, with no computers inside of them, with the promise that we'll install it later. And that's the reality. That's why I used vehicles back in 2020, like, doubled in price. That's just from a little tiny pause during the pandemic. If China's just like, okay, you're doing war all over the place, okay, fine. Before we go to China, and I know this is, we need to get this out.

This flows into the next one. We need to get this out soon, so I'll just keep, like, wrapped here. But that is the perfect point is, let's say you're somebody like, I believe in spheres of influence. You know, I'm somebody who largely, I think international law is fake. I think everything isn't, but that doesn't mean that you should just do whatever you want. You can do whatever you want. There's never been a true limiting principle on power. What has always been a check against power?

There's other people, right? And so not only that, if you look, let's say, at the most competent realpolitik statesmen, people like Bismarck, you know, people like Eisenhower, the genuine managers of empire. They always recognize checks, balances, vital security interests, the ability to be very cogent and even in terms of potential overextension to never do so and to maintain some sort of balance. What we're acting like right now is completely drunk with power that we don't have. So that's the final word I want to make here, is that during the 12-day war, the United States spent 25% of its that interceptor's entire stockpile was depleted in 12 days in a war that

we were not even involved in. Whenever it comes to shells. With no offense to Iran, third or fourth-rate power. Sixth rate power whenever it comes to something that we're dealing with right here. Whenever, you know, we think about artillery, munitions, we don't even have enough to supply all of Ukraine. Yeah. Okay. We are, we had to overthrow him on Congress. We literally, yeah, exactly. And blackmail South Korea to send all of their shells. We have nothing for an actually prolonged conflict. That is, why do you think I've been freaking out about Ukraine and Israel? Because we are blowing hundreds of millions of dollars. Let me tell you an inside story about Midnight Hammer. And I have this confirmed, is that the actual op plan for CENTCOM was a 35 day bombing campaign against Iran. That's the, that's the, this. Israeli attack on Iran. No, no, no, no. This was Midnight Hammer was our attack on the Iranian nuclear facilities.

The one that came after Israel. Yes, the op plan for the United States, 35 days of bombing. You know why we couldn't do that? We don't have any munitions. We don't have a 35-day bombing campaign. There is also a story I was told about Midnight Hammer, where just Midnight Hammer, one B-2 bombing raid, required so much logistical headache and stretched them to the brim, that it almost broke the logistics, in terms of having to resupply, having forward

deployment, like all of that. Not to mention what just happened here with Maduro. So can we do extraordinary one-time limited operations? Of course. This is America. We're the best at that. We're like a high precision, tooled F-1 race cars. Sprinter. That is not one. That is not what wins wars. What wins wars is, I mean, the Nazis are a good example. They had plenty of it. I mean, literally the first jet aircraft in World War II. Doesn't matter because we can just roll B-17s as many as we possibly want. You want the Ford factory that just cranks out, you know, fine enough stuff compared to this high precision stuff, which has been nuked currently the defense industrial complex because that's

what's super expensive. F-35 is another good example. So put all of that in the context of what we're dealing with. Carrilla's air campaign against the Houthis is also a good example. That was supposed to last like. three or four months and it ended up lasting just a couple weeks because they're like, oh, this isn't doing the damage we thought it was and we're running out of stuff. And we ran out of stockpiles. Like, and that was against the Houthis, a non-state actor. Now we're screwing.

They're knocking our ships off of planes. I mean, knocking our planes off a ship. That's right. We lost two separate aircraft in incidents. 75 million dollars each or something. People look at Midnight Hammer and the Maduro thing and they're like, oh, America's back. No, it's the opposite guy. That's all we can do now. That's part of the problem. So long-winded, I apologize. But I mean, I do think this is a very, very, very significant event. And who knows how the Kremlin will react? I'm not predicting war or any of that. But, you know, at the very same time, they're trying to do some deal in Ukraine. I mean, why would you make a deal whenever this is the BS that you would have to deal with? So we'll see. All right. Let's get on to China.

Hi, I'm Dr. Priyong Kowali. And I'm Hurricane de Bolu. It's a new year. And on the podcast's health stuff, we're resetting the way we talk about our health. Which means being honest about what we know, what we don't know, and how messy it can all be. I like to sleep in late and sleep early. Is there a chronotype for that, or am I just depressed? We talk to experts who share real experiences and insight. You just really need to find where it is that you can have an impact in your own life and to start doing that.

We break down the topics you want to know more about. Sleep, stress, mental health, and how the world around us affects our overall health. We talk about all the ways to keep your body in mind, inside and out, healthy. We human beings, all we want is connection. We just want to connect with each other. Health stuff is about learning, laughing, and feeling a little less alone. Listen on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Are you desperately hoping for change in 2026, but feeling stuck?

Just spinning your wheels and old routines and bad habits. I'm Dr. Lari Santos. new year series of my show, The Happiness Lab. I'm going to look at the science of getting, well, unstuck at work, unstuck in your relationships, and even unstuck inside your mind. I am the absolute worst culprit when it comes to getting into these ruminative loops and just driving myself crazy. We'll look at ways to reignite your sense of purpose, rediscover your values, and get more creative. We'll also explore how to design a life that feels more fulfilling. It's sort of like the game of life. I don't know if you ever played that game.

Oh my gosh, yes. You take the car along and you try and get money, and you try and get degrees, and you try and get to the end where either you have a mansion or a ranch or a shack. And once you get to retirement, you're done. What about the whole path along the way? So join me to get unstuck in 2026. Listen to the Happiness Lab on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your shows. I'm Ed Zittron of the Better Offline podcast, and I want you to join me at this year's Consumer Electronics show in Las Vegas, Nevada,

starting January 6th through January 10th, 2026. We're doing 10 radio-style podcast episodes about the world's biggest tech conference, and we're going to dig into the latest and weirdest gadgets, gizmos and horrible AI gear that the tech industry is desperate to sell you, all while covering the biggest stories in Silicon Valley as the AI bubble threatens to burst. I'll be joined by David Roth, Chloe Radcliffe, Adam Conover, Corey Doctoro, Edon Gweso, Jr., Robert Evans, and an incredible cast of the greatest talent in the tech media,

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Listen to Better Offline on the iHot Radio app. Apple Podcasts, wherever you happen to get your podcasts. Turning now to China, you know, I do think that this is genuinely the most important after-effect and question of the post-Moduro world, is how are Russia, China going to react, what will the world take away, let's say from this U.S. action of extraordinarily renditioning Nicholas Maduro. And inside of Venezuela, obviously this is a country, Ryan, maybe you can tell us more, but had deep ties with Cuba, had deep ties with Russia, had deep ties with China. Largely with China, it wasn't ideological. China was like, look, we don't care who governs you. We'll take the oil. All right. Like, we'll come in. We'll buy as much as we possibly want. And that's why everybody's eyes kind of went wide here when Delci Rodriguez, the so-called new pro-American or like, you know, American puppet, I guess, if you want to say down, in Venezuela at her swearing in, guys, let's go and play this video, just openly, it starts to

embrace the Chinese ambassador, the Russian ambassador, and then following the Iranian ambassador. And, I mean, clearly, I think it was a telegraphed signal from Venezuela, from the Rodriguez regime, I guess we should call it now. But in and of itself, it does show you. The Chinese are not going to take this just lying down. I'm not saying they're going to start a war or anything like that, but they're going to start planning for the future. There was actually a Chinese delegation inside of Venezuela that met with Maduro hours before he was actually kidnapped. And so you put it all together and their takeaway from this geopolitically is going to be the most important one. So Russia's bogged down in Ukraine. They're more of a second rate power. But the first rate power here

has to be looking around and just going, okay, what do we do now? And I mean, I want your analysis, but we'll also show everybody. Inside Beijing, they're having a lot of very interesting debates about what this all means. Yeah, and this goes back to our sanctions policy, which Trump, you know, heavily ramped up. He tried to do his coup, tried to coup Maduro in his first term, didn't happen, so they deeply ramped up the sanctions, which produced two things. Well, three things, and they led to each other, misery among the people of Venezuela, which then led to an outflow of migration. That's why we have so many Venezuelans

pouring into the country from the time of Trump's sanctions up until fairly recently. And then it also led to tightening relationships between Venezuela and Russia, Iran, and China, because those countries can then come in and get basically heavily discounted oil because you're blocked from selling it

to lots of other places. So we created all of the conditions that we're now complaining about, both the migration crisis and also the tight relationship between Venezuela and these countries that we consider our adversaries, which we're now saying we're going to go in and solve just with violence. Put up this next element up on the screen because this is what that image that you saw is now in direct conflict with Trump's order to Rodriguez. He said, so this is the Trump administration told Venezuela's interim president. The regime must meet several conditions before being allowed to pump more oil. And the demands are the country must kick out China, Russia, Iran, and Cuba and sever economic ties. Venezuela must agree to partner exclusively with the U.S. on oil production and favor America when selling heavy crude oil. And so we can talk about Cuba in a second because that's very, that's a rubio element here.

but you're like who cares about Cuba oh Rubio cares about yeah exactly and they think that this is the way that they're going to destroy that destroy that government as well but it's like this is and this goes to your point about spheres of influence and everything else like wait kick them out

we kick them out so no no no we can to what end right so can China say all right you know what I want the U.S. out of South Korea bingo the Philippines Japan Malaysia Japan yeah like get out you can say that yeah

Exactly. And this is what I'm trying to say is everyone's like, I got a lot of income in. They're like, this is the world that you want to live in, spheres of influence. And I said, yeah, I believe strongly in spheres of influence. I also believe, though, that other countries have spheres of influence, where we also want a lot of influence. And part of the reason why you should tread lightly is to always make sure that, let's say we're acting, you know, the West. People said, you can't allow Chinese and Russian domination of Venezuela. To say that is absurd.

Did China and Russia buy oil from Venezuela? Yeah. Was Venezuela a Chinese puppet regime preposterous? I literally looked at the amount of oil that they were getting. It's like 5% total, right? In terms of China's overall oil at all. It's really not that important to China. I mean, look, it's 5% is not nothing, but it's not exactly going to kill you either.

Same with the Russians. I mean, the Kremlin had these quasi-tie to Maduro, they would kind of meet, you know, every once in a while, but it was not even close to some sort of puppet regime. It's mostly an alliance of convenience. One of the reasons why that I supported the deal with Maduro is that I was like, hey, the deal on the table is probably better for America because they effectively did it anyway. You keep the security apparatus. You try not to have the country descend into chaos. You let them sell us a ton of oil. And then basically, you can allow U.S. companies to go in there and then sell it to the world. That's what Trump even said.

Trump said, we're going to sell China a ton of oil. He literally says. said that. It's just that as long as the U.S. companies are the ones who are going to drill it. I mean, okay, we could have had that deal under Maduro, too, so I'm like, I don't really care. But the thing here is if you're China again and you're watching this explicit embrace of spheres of influence, then, yeah, they can say the exact same thing. That's what Saugher is talking about here. Put up this, Washington Post, a lot of other news outlets reporting China, studying U.S. strike for lessons and opportunities. And there's a funny pro-American slant to this coverage, which is saying that the kind of the evil, greedy, and self-interested and selfish Chinese who would love to do this sort of thing are now very excited because the U.S. doing it is giving them a green light. What that miss is that we've been doing this kind of thing for 100 plus years.

Like this, this is not new. But for those hundred plus years, 200 years, we have been a shining city on a hill. And we've had these ideals, right? And sometimes. Sometimes. Yeah. We've stated. We've stated the idea.

We tell the people that. We tell the people that. Whereas now we're just raw, like, yeah, we're just taking the oil. See, I. And so China's like, so, but I don't, I, anyway, go ahead. So how do you think China's responding to this? I think that they're, this is the best. I have always advocated for honesty in international relations.

That's why I think sometimes, that's why I mean the whole, the actual neocon dream of like Maria Machado and all that. I'm like, it's ridiculous. If we're going to do anything with Venezuela, it's going to be over oil. And that's, you know, and to Trump, at least he said it out loud because at least we can speak honestly about oil, about power projection and about whether this is good idea, bad idea. That's how I think that everything should really be looked at.

Well, with China, what they love more than anything, if you talk to the Chinese or the Russians, but I had this once from a friend who actually negotiated directly with the Chinese and specifically talked with them sometimes about the Taiwan question. And what they would always point to is we would try to lecture them about norms. They're like, oh, norms like Iraq, right? And they would just every time, Iraq, Iraq, Iraq. I knew somebody who sat across the table from Kim Jong-un, and I spoke with them a little bit about it. And every single time denuclearization, he's like, oh, like Gaddafi, right?

I mean, there's nothing that they love more than pointing this out. Putin even famously said that. He was asked by a U.S. journalist about democracy. And he said, do you mean the democracy that you bring into Iraq? He's like, we do not want that here in Russia. You know, you can't blame them. It's kind of a good point. And so what I see inside of this is that it has always driven them crazy is the hypocrisy about norms and respect for international law and all of this. With the Chinese and the Russians correctly, say, is the architecture of the U.S. Empire after World War II,

which is built to make it flourish. That's all very true. Even though I do want everything to be dealt with, honestly, we should also say, nobody cares if China takes over Taiwan because of international law. We care about the chips. That's it. If it was a military dictatorship and it had TSM,

would we really be talking about it? No, and I'll be honest to, I don't care if Taiwan is a democracy or not. It hasn't, it wasn't, you know, when it originally was founded. Interesting poll. Yeah, it would be, it's ridiculous, right? Is Taiwan a democracy? Oh, we have to defend it because it's a democracy.

Who cares? Sorry, it's all about whether we get the chips or not. That's it, period. Now, the story, though, from Beijing is they're looking at this exact story with Venezuela, and they're like, yes, we agree. Great powers have interests in their spheres of influence. Taiwan is, this isn't, they don't even talk about it as an external policy. They said, this is the internal policy of China, period.

You will not interfere in our country's affairs. They always call it mutual respect for each other's for each country. And what they mean by that is they're like, this is part of our country. And so inside of China, what they're studying. And Hal Brands, who I love, he's a very interesting guy. He wrote this, quote, if you are headed toward a world where great powers can use force and use powers ruthlessly in their own neighborhoods, that precedent is not a bad one from China's perspective. He says it fits exactly with the way Beijing would like to behave in the places like the South China Sea or the Taiwan Strait.

And what they've done inside of China not only is look at this operation, but what I love too is over there, they're a little bit puzzled. So let's put the next one up there on the screen. On their social media, there have been wild debates with kind of their version of influencers. One camp said, we should immediately do this to Taiwan. I mean, anyone can indict anybody, especially in China. Except go further, obviously. Right. But the debate by the smarter Chinese, they go, yeah, there's only one problem.

Taiwan is ours, so we wouldn't keep the regime. They're like, in a lot of ways, it's very stupid from the U.S. perspective, because they just took away Maduro, but they kept the rest of the apparatus. If we were to do this, we would arrest the Taiwanese president. and the entire cabinet and run the security forces and invade or strike some sort of, you know, capitulation deal, which would actually entail Beijing running this entire thing. So the Chinese are looking at this with both, I wouldn't say awe per se, because everybody knew the U.S. could do this. But the Chinese are looking at this with, oh, okay, so we get to do this type of

stuff in our own backyard and you can't say anything about it. But they're also looking at it with the same critical eye that we are, Ryan, of, well, yeah, you might have taken out, Duro, but you still kept the entire apparatus. And a lot of people who are anti-American or pro-Russian, pro-Chinese, they're like, you don't have nearly enough control. If anything, you didn't go far enough. But the precedent at the very least in China, they're loving it. This is the best possible thing that has happened for them in a long time. I'm not saying it's going to make Taiwan more likely or not. It makes it if it happens that the playbook of the way that they would message it, the way that would deal with the administration, the way they would

would deal with Europe. And I do, I want to talk a lot about European hypocrisy, too, because they all support this, too, with Venezuela. It's like, yeah, good luck with that one. I'm talking about you. I mean, you have Zelensky out there openly celebrating it, saying, oh, the U.S. should go do this to Putin now. I'm like, oh, yeah, that's definitely not going to work against you, you know, smaller power in the sphere of influence of another greater power, let's say, than you. So the hypocrisy that's been exposed in all of this and also the explicit affirmation, you, of sphere of influence doctrine is one that the Chinese, again, I don't think it'll make it more likely or less whenever it comes to Taiwan. If they're going to do it, they're going to do it.

But it makes the eventual way that they do and are able to maintain relations around its own, you know, in Asia and also with Europe, it makes that very, very different, which is much, much to their benefit, I think, as a result of this action. And the one thing I'd push back on is that I think there's a little bit of projection from these American analysts who are saying that China wants to be a bully like this and is excited about now

the possibility that they can do that. I think that's, we love to be a bully. But the Chinese approach to smaller countries, I don't think they love the way that China deals with them necessarily. It's never fun to deal with a much more powerful partner. But China

and the U.S. criticizes China, for this. China always respects the sovereignty and the internal politics of the country that they're doing business with. They don't come in and complain about human rights violations. Like they don't, they're not like, you need to do this, you need to do that, or you need to take this position even when it comes to the United States. They're like, you want to work with the United States? Work with the United States. We have a deal that we want to do here. We want to help build you some infrastructure. And in exchange for that, we're going to make loans. and the loans are going to be repaid in the case of Venezuela in oil.

Like, that's what they want to do. They don't actually want to come in and arrest people and tell them that they have to live the way that the Chinese think they want to live. So I think that the U.S. is confuses itself a little bit. Because in the case of Taiwan, they literally do, right? They actually do care whether Taiwan. I mean, that depends a little bit different. Or I would also say.

Taiwan is part of China. Right. According to the U.S. You're talking about like the outer empire. Let's say if there was such thing. Or Africa. No, but I do think they care about Japan, for example, which I can just go and put this up on the screen. Let's go ahead and put, where do I have it here with China?

Or at least I did. The Chinese very recently, I think just yesterday, actually did a bunch of export controls against Japan because they said something marginally supportive of Taiwan. No, they do care, actually, when the people in their backyard have their policy towards the United States and or to Taiwan. But I will say this, and I saw a great piece of analysis, I wish I knew who it was, is the current way that this is happening is that the Chinese are kind of like the Soviets in the 1950s, where there were tremendous military power in their backyard, as in like they had control of the USSR, they crushed, you know, Hungary, they had

control there, but they were watching leftist-aligned regimes, let's say in the outer empire, places like in South America or others get both Africa get which we're our guests we're going to talk about get bullied around by the United States. And what the Soviet Union did is explicitly then made a choice to go all in on militarization because they said we can't allow that. And so that, if anything, is likely to change because the Chinese are going to say, well, we can't win with soft power if the other side is going to be using hard power. And they might just fully embrace, you know, a U.S. style policy and say that this clearly is not working. necessarily to our benefit. They kind of have a two-fork in the road way. And I could easily

see that, you know, them kind of switching gears. Although a lot of those socialist countries or insurgent movements would complain that actually the Soviet Union did not go all in and they wished they had gone in more. And China, because China had split with the Soviet Union then, they were actually often siding with the U.S. or just not involved at all. We'll talk about that in our Angola segment later. But real quickly, speaking of those, let's talk about Cuba for a second. So Rubio thinks that this is his path to regime change

in Cuba. He's made that quite explicit. He even said it out loud. Put up A4 here. So he's going to successfully cut oil off to the island. Now when it comes to emissorating the population, and so this headline here, China

support helping Cuba advance towards energy, sovereignty, and sustainability. It's an pro-China publication. So the question here, there are two questions. here. Can they cut off energy? Yes, it does seem like they're going to be able to cut off oil going to Cuba. What will that do to daily life in Cuba, but also what will it do when it comes to access to energy? So the problem that Rubio has when it comes to access to energy is that the U.S. has so thoroughly annihilated the island that a significant percentage of

the population has no electricity all day long already. And a lot of the island has, like, like two hours of electricity. So they are used to suffering. So they have created so much suffering that they can only marginally increase it, you know, by this tiny bit. Now, the problem is Cuba was using a lot of the oil that they were getting from Venezuela and then reselling it internationally and then using the currency that they were getting to keep their economy alive amid these sanctions and other blockades and obstacles

the U.S. put in front of them. So even though that you can barely reduce the amount of power that Cubans have access to, what you can do is strip the island of currency entirely and just like basically shut things down

and create almost starvation-like condition. There are starvation-like conditions actually underway in Cuba now. Those will ramp up. But to the point of how little there is left to take away, you can put up A5 here, this is a chart from the Financial Times, Venezuela is no longer even the largest supplier of oil to Cuba.

That is actually now Mexico, and Mexico has slightly increased its exports to Cuba, which has put it above Venezuela, which whose exports have completely collapsed, and that's because of the sanctions, because Venezuela just doesn't have the amount to export. anymore. Now, Shinebaum has said that she's sticking with Cuba. And this is, and Trump has been very frustrated at Shinebaum for this. So this is going to be a, another serious, uh, uh, moment of confrontation between Mexico and the United States. Because Shinebom views it as, I think, a matter of principle. And also she sees the walls closing in, like right when governments are taking over all over the entire hemisphere.

Also, it's a sovereign country. They're like, look, we're going to sell oil to whoever will sell it. Right. Who are you? They were a buyer, we'll sell it, right? Who are you? Right. And see, let me, this is a perfect example of why all these idiots chanting Monroe

doctrine or realism or any of that. Why would you base your relations with a nation which controls 40% of your bilateral trade on an island of Cuba, which is off the coast of floor for purely ideological purposes? said this about India. I was like, okay, so we are going to, you know, subjectate all of our relations with one of the world's largest countries, the largest by population, one of the largest economies in the world, based on Russia and on Ukraine. It's like clearly the bilateralism should be purely on like, okay, like what's good for us, like right here, not what's going on in some tertiary style conflict. That's kind of like neoconservatism or neoliberalism

at its height is that because Rubio's father didn't like Cuba, we're going to subjugate our relations here with Claudia Scheinbaum and with Mexico. I mean, what are our primary problems with Mexico? Let's say drugs, cartels, and trade. That's it. Everything should be completely on that basis. And, you know, on the drug front, she's done okay. I mean, enough, right? Do what she can. Sent 10,000 troops to the border. We are. Shut. Didn't complain when the border got completely shut down. I mean, has pretty significantly worked with the administration when it comes to immigration, maintained her own support as domestically, you know, being seen as somebody who's willing to play ball but also willing to stand up. I mean, what else could you

ask for? Especially for a country who is just south of the most voracious drug users on the planet. We want to get high, really bad, and we have a lot of money to do it. And then we complain that people who are selling it to us? Yes. Actually, yes. Much of it is applied for it. We can save that argument, I think, for another day. I think at the very least, what we can show everybody here is that with the China situation, and with China in particular, they are, this was more important of a moment than I think I originally thought at the time. Because at first, I said, okay, we do all this stuff every day, you know, overthrowing countries in Latin America. If anything, it's an old return to U.S. policy. But in the current environment, I think what I did underestimate

from the Chinese perspective was the explicit embrace of sphere of influence doctrine, especially when we're so overextended. I mean, if you look for China's perspective, they see now a boondoggle and who knows what's going to happen in Venezuela. It could go, it could go good. It could go probably bad. I would bet on bad over the long run. You look at Israel. I mean, Israel's asking us. to bomb Iran yesterday. They want to go back to what with Lebanon. They want to go back to, yeah, they're literally bombing Lebanon right now, right?

So something could pop up there. You've got the Houthi situation, the Straits of Hormuz, and now we've got a literal security guarantee for Ukraine, all right? So you look at all of that. You look at the U.S. military overextension and just like, nobody can pay attention. Even one thing here in Washington, let alone four that I just named. And that's, I mean, the meme about Marco Rubio, how much is he supposed to run? and to pay attention to. There's literally only so many hours in a day. That embrace and also

combined with the fact that China has been studying these Russian sanctions now for four years and has explicitly created all of these alternate financial systems to make sure that they are sanction-proof from the U.S. economy. I've never really thought, I've never seen it as more likely that they'll just be able to do whatever. Right. And China is cautious and prefers to work within the status quo. But if the U.S. appears to be erratic and on stable, then they can't bank on the status quo. So we're taking away from them their preferred option, which is just to like sit back and wait and continue to grow and amass power and do their thing.

Yes. And believe that like the next week and the week after that, things are going to be, you know, most of the same except their position will get a little bit better. But if the giant power over there is like, we're going to create Somaliland, we're going to take Venezuela, we're going to war with Iran again. Again, we're going to take Greenland. Like, then China has to be like, okay, well, then we got to make some moves. That's what I was talking about the Soviet, you know, comparison,

is that they went from a point of view of, like, we have control of our internal policy to we have to be able to project. Right. I mean, it ended up being their downfall with Afghanistan. But, you know, there was a strategic logic behind all of it. I think it's dangerous because that's what led to Afghanistan. It was a disaster for them and for us eventually in terms of the blowback. Hi, I'm Dr. Priyalkiwali. And I'm Hurricane de Bolu.

It's a new year. And on the podcast's health stuff, we're resetting the way we talk about our health. Which means being honest about what we know, what we don't know, and how messy it can all be. I like to sleep in late and sleep early. Is there a chronotype for that or am I just depressed? We talk to experts who share real experiences and insight. You just really need to find where it is that you can have an impact in your own life and just start doing that. We break down the topics you want to know more about.

Sleep, stress, mental health, and how the world around us affects our overall health. We talk about all the ways to keep your body in mind, inside and out, healthy. We human beings, all we want is connection. We just want to connect with each other. Health stuff is about learning, laughing, and feeling a little less alone. Listen on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Are you desperately hoping for change in 2026, but feeling stuck? spinning your wheels in old routines and bad habits.

I'm Dr. Lari Santos, and in a new year series of my show, The Happiness Lab, I'm going to look at the science of getting, well, unstuck, unstuck at work, unstuck in your relationships, and even unstuck inside your mind. I am the absolute worst culprit when it comes to getting into these ruminative loops and just driving myself crazy. We'll look at ways to reignite your sense of purpose, rediscover your values, and get more creative. We'll also explore how to design a life that feels more fulfilling.

building. It's sort of like the game of life. I don't know if you ever played that game. Oh, gosh, yes. You take the car along and you try and get money, and you try and get degrees, and you try and get to the end where either you have a mansion or a ranch or a shack. And once you get to retirement, you're done. What about the whole path along the way? So join me to get unstuck in 2026. Listen to the Happiness Lab on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your shows. I'm Ed Zittron of the Better Offline podcast, and I want you to join me at this year's Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Nevada, starting January 6th through January 10th, 2026. We're doing 10 radio-style podcast episodes about the world's biggest tech conference,

and we're going to dig into the latest and weirdest gadgets, gizmos and horrible AI gear that the tech industry is desperate to sell you, all while covering the biggest stories in Silicon Valley as the AI bubble threatens the burst. I'll be joined by David Roth, Chloe Radcliffe, Adam Conover, Corey Doctoroe, Edon Gweso, Jr., Robert Evans, and an incredible cast of the greatest talent in the tech media with over 18 hours of interviews, commentary and bizarre stories, all told from the Better Offline pop-up studio connected to its own open bar. Today I did five hours of back-to-back panels on artificial intelligence. It included a number of great moments, including an entire room full of people,

laughing about people losing their jobs due to artificial intelligence. Will we make it out alive? There's only one way to find out. Tune in starting January 6th through January 10th, 2026, and listen to the literal best tech podcast ever recorded. Listen to Better Offline on the iHot Radio app. Apple Podcasts, wherever you happen to get your podcasts. Turning now to Venezuela and to oil, let's go and put this up here on the screen. Trump administration now saying, quote,

I am pleased to announce the interim authorities in Venezuela will be turning over between 30 and 50 million barrels of high-quality sanctioned oil. Amongst oil enthusiasts, by the way, that was the most offensive term. What's calling Venezuelan oil high quality? This oil will be sold at its market price. That money will be controlled by me as president, of the United States to ensure it is used to benefit the people of Venezuela and the United States.

So we now have not only imperial booty, but we also have an imperial fund. So we were watching the recreation of the British Empire, the American Venezuelan oil company, kind of like the Dutch East Indies Company of the 1600s be created in real time. But Ryan, this is combat. This is, at the very same time this is happening, just to explain this 30 to 50 million, it is all likely, I was reading some oil analysts this morning, that was the oil stockpiled at the docks. Because we're sanctioning it's not letting them. It's not being let out. So it's actually taking up a lot of space for the, it was making it unable for them to have more oil come to the docks,

and it was kind of a gesture that was made here by the United States. But combined, I think, with the demand that you talked about earlier, this is kind of an explicit. You have to transfer this oil to us now immediately with the combination of you to kick rush out of the country, kick China, kick Iran, all of these people have to be kicked out of the country. So a complete kind of takeover, at least for potentially right now, of the oil industry inside of Venezuela, but that's also going to run up against reality, right? And inside the country could not be, this may not go over that well. You know what's interesting about this particular announcement is that typically what the United

States does, is it claims it is doing a good thing that is for the benefit of everybody. But in fact, the details are a lot grayer, and it's really for the benefit of the United States and some oil companies and everybody else is going to get screwed. In this case, they're doing the reverse. Like, he's publicly saying that this is for the benefit of the United States and in particular some oil companies and screw you, we're doing whatever we want. But if you look at the details, it's actually kind of ironically helpful to the Venezuelan government and to PDBSA. So to your point, all this oil because of our sanctions, and we underline that again, like we created the problem that they now have.

So all their storage capacity is mostly full. So they need somewhere to sell this stuff too. Previously, we revoked their license to be able to sell it. the conditions that he's actually allowing this oil to move out under are very similar to the conditions of being licensed to just move it that's like the percentages that are getting shared in different ways are all similar to to what the licensing structure was the south floor lobby and rubio demanded that that license be stripped so he stripped the license and now he's allowing them to do the thing that he was licensing them to do but calling it in

imperialism. It's comical. It's like, what do you? It's like he's trying to satisfy the South Florida gusanos with this bloodlust, but not giving them the actual thing. In reality, it's like, actually, it's not a horrible deal, you know, for the Venezuelans. They're going to do a profit. It's going to be sold at the market price, spot price, right? So you'll be able to actually clear a decent amount of money on it, you know, in terms of the, I mean, that's another part of the issue is that oil is a literal global market. So the idea that this is just immediately going to flow into U.S. gas pump, not exactly true. As you said, it frees up some of the dock space over there. But what I want to know is your theory on how this holds up in Venezuela,

because if we put the next one on the screen, Ryan, you can break it down. Some of the marches in the streets that are pro-Moduro right now. I mean, what do you think, like for these people, and if they're going to read this headline, they don't know the details of oil like you and I, or, I mean, the real industry, we're just reading kind of from them. I mean, it's not exactly something that I think will be a popular move inside of the country. What cuts, what makes it more complicated is that, and we interviewed Carlos Rhone, former deputy foreign minister of Venezuela yesterday on our drop site show. And, you know, he was making the point that there's so little.

And I don't want to actually, let me just say it in my own, in my own words, not put it in his but there's so little export going on right now that there's very little revenue that's being shared from that export with the Venezuelan people like the bolivarian revolution was based on this idea that we're going to use the proceeds from our vast oil reserves which at the time you know oil's getting up to a hundred dollars a barrel and that's a hundred dollars at that time not not today's money maybe that's 150 so oil's like three four times as it as value at the time. And then he's spreading and Shavas is spreading

the wealth around by 2012. It was like the Norway model. Things were really like living conditions in say 2012, 13 had never been better. Wow. And then 2014 the bottom falls out. Shavas dies and then the bottom

falls out on the oil industry and they hadn't consolidated the economy to a place where it could be, it was diversified enough to withstand this like collapsing in energy prices. and we've been struggling ever since and they've been struggling ever since and you throw the sanctions on top, here we are. But so the point would be that Venezuela

is maybe like, well, there's really no, there's nothing to be upset about in the sense that other than the dignity and the insult to our sovereignty, but like we're not getting anything with this oil anyway. Like the thing is destroyed. Like it's effectively wrecked.

So if they can actually start exporting some of this and start hiring people and building the industry back up, then, and if the, and if Rodriguez can message it, which she seems to be effectively doing, saying like, okay, this is what Trump is saying, but look, this is, we're still in control, it's still our oil, then, you know, then I think that the Venezuelan people would be actually okay with it. Because, like, what they want is living conditions to improve. Obviously, right. And what they don't want, though, is Maria Machado, who is currently still making a bid

for leadership. Who supposedly won with her proxy, won with 80% of the vote, like a year and a half ago, and now has no support in the country, according to Trump? No. I mean, I mean,

this is one of those where, it's when somebody is like the legitimate leader, I'm like, maybe, you know, it's why I haven't done a lot of study. I think Maduro did some serious fraud in that election. Obviously, yeah. I'm not discounting that.

But I'm saying, though, when the West is like constantly, like the legitimate leader. Did her guy win with 70? 80% of the vote in a way. Get out of here. Look. I'm glad my suspicions. Where did that go? Where did the 78% go? Good point. Good point. If she's Nelson Mandela,

like, people would be like in the streets demanding that she returned. Right. So maybe she did lie, actually. Or maybe the West lied to us about what happened here. Wouldn't be the first time. But by the way, in her current bid for power, she is now offering to share her Nobel Peace Prize with Donald Trump, you know, reportedly he was very upset that she got the Nobel and he didn't like. Let's take it was. Did you at any point offer to give him the Nobel Peace Prize? Did that actually happen?

I had read that somewhere. I wasn't sure if it was true. Well, it hasn't happened yet, but I certainly would love to be able to personally tell him that we believe the Venezuelan people, because he's a surprise of the Venezuelan people, certainly want to give it to him and share it with him. What has, what he has done, as I said, in historic,

It's a huge step towards a democratic transition. We want to share the O-M. Why don't they just send in the Delta Force and take it from her? Yeah, they could, dude. Like, come on. Brian, you don't even need that, dude. She's in Russia. She's in Europe.

She's not even in Venezuela. And she said that she's going to return. I mean, I wonder about that, right? Because, I mean, they don't want her over there. At the same time, they can't do anything to her because, or at least they shouldn't, because that means that the U.S., South Florida people would go absolutely crazy. By the way, Lindsey Graham said yesterday that we will eventually at some, at such time it is appropriate, there will be a democratic transition in. No, we'll get to that. Just like we heard about Iraq. Yeah, yeah,

exactly. People will be holding up their fingers with the thing on it again. We'll all celebrate. I'm sure it'll just be totally fine above board. Yeah. I just love the idea of just so Trump was asked about this actually. They said, like, are you upset with her? Did you not make her president as if he could make her president? But did that have something to do with you not backing her because you didn't think she deserved the Nobel Peace Prize? Yeah. And you're upset that you didn't get it. And Trump said, well, I don't think she deserved it. So he admitted. He's like, but no, of course not. That isn't why. That wouldn't be. That wouldn't be why. The truth. We will say. She did dedicate it to him at this at the ceremony.

But that wasn't enough. Like she should have just said no. Yes. How dare you? The true man of peace. Right. Is President Donald Trump. And everything Trump has done since that day has proven that he is a

recipient of the FIFA. A true man of peace. Yes. Okay. Finally, though, confirming some reporting will end this block, Trump basically admitting Maduro's dancing did send him over the edge. Let's take a listen. And he's a violent guy.

He gets up there and he tries to. to imitate my dance a little bit. But he's a violent guy. He imitates, I don't know if it was your dance. You know, you gotta say, Maduro, he wasn't a horrible, he wasn't a horrible dancer. He's got his own dance. Actually, he was good.

I thought he was good. You know, I've had people in Venezuela sending me stuff now for months since we started covering this story. His imagine rendition, it's not horrible. In Spanish? Yeah, it's really not that bad. And especially while wearing this sombrero.

Somebody sent me that literally the day before he was taken out. He had this hilarious New Year's message where he was just driving around and talking about all of the various streets of Washington, D.C. He's a Constitution Avenue for an amazing avenue. He said Bolivar. Yeah, Bolivar. Yeah, he's right there. Because he drove, apparently, while he was here. Hi, I'm Dr. Priyankawali.

And I'm Hurricane Dabolu. It's a new year. And on the podcast, Health Stuff, we're resetting the way we talk about our health. Which means being honest about what we know, what we don't know, and how messy it can all be. I like to sleep in late and sleep early. Is there a chronotype for that, or am I just depressed? Health stuff is about learning, laughing, and feeling a little less alone. Listen on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

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