We get into the media coverage of Venezuela, hot takes on Maduro’s kidnapping, Denmark's getting nervous as Trump eyes Greenland, 19th century style US imperialism, and the breakdown of all the international norms we all love.

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No holds barred is the defining feature of politics of the 21st century. We're witnessing the abandonment of even the pretense of propriety. It used to be that politicians did the hard work of lying to the public for weeks or months before taking us into military conflicts.

There were Congressional hearings and presentations in front of the UN General Assembly with stacks of spiral bound books. They used to drag out charts and boxes of evidence. Colin Powell did one. Around 50 years earlier, then Vice President Richard Nixon made the case to the public for removing Arbenz in Guatemala.

It all amounted to what looked like serious evidence that important matters were being weighed with the seriousness they deserved. Of course, those were all also largely fictions. Iraq didn't have WMDs. There was no yellow cake uranium. Arbenz wasn't a communist puppet of the Soviets (FDR was his ideological hero).

It's time we acknowledged that the rules have changed. It's not even the case that they've changed entirely for the worse. No one is interested in making us feel good about the US kidnapping the president of Venezuela. That could be a good thing. Or at least some good may come from it. The baldness of it is refreshing in a way. We've all grown so used to living in a muck of deceptions that it might be hard to recognize the obviousness of all the motives on display. It's past time we sharpened those senses.

Music:

HoliznaCC0 - Hard Mode

HoliznaCC0 - Down In The Basement

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