The strong do what they can and the weak suffer what they must.
Thucydides
By Dr. Jim Ferguson
With the pace of events, it’s becoming hard to pick the most important topic. I had planned to focus on fraud in Minnesota and elsewhere. But then New York City inaugurated a Marxist mayor. Hey, Big Apple, did you know that in socialism, the state takes your money and property? With Democratic Socialism, you vote to have the state take your money and property. Remember, Fidel Castro was also elected. And Vladimir Lenin said, “The goal of socialism is communism.”
But everything changed when we awoke Saturday, January 3, with the surprise arrest of Venezuelan strongman Maduro by American forces. Maduro was holed up on a Caracas military base surrounded by armed Cuban intelligence agents and supposedly protected by Chinese and Russian air defenses and radar. So much for communist expertise and technology.
Maduro has been under indictment from the Biden Justice Department for drug trafficking and other narcotic-related crimes. Biden also put a $25 million bounty on Maduro for his capture, but did nothing substantive. And because there was widespread fraud in Venezuela’s 2024 election, more than 50 countries do not recognize Maduro as Venezuela’s president.
So, “our favorite president” acted to protect Americans from drugs and foreign influence in our hemisphere and arrested the illegitimate, narco-terrorist, essentially cutting off the head of Venezuela’s narco-snake. President Trump did more than pull a rabbit out of the hat; he pulled Maduro out of Venezuela. Though bad actors still reside in Venezuela’s bureaucracy, I doubt there will be many boats running drugs in the Gulf of America.
Of course, the craven Democrats, anti-American socialists and the so-called experts are decrying the arrest of Maduro, clutching their pearls and screaming about violations of international law. Someone needs to tell these pinheads that U.S. law always overrides international law. Our own Andy Jackson once said, “One man with courage makes a majority.”
But more important than arresting the head of a drug syndicate and a thug are the geopolitical aspects of the apprehension. Just before his arrest, Maduro met with China’s special envoy. It is no secret that China is trying to make inroads in the Western Hemisphere and is buying embargoed and discounted Venezuelan oil, which is also being sent to Cuba and Iran in “ghost tankers.” This oil fuels the Chinese industry, funds Iran’s support of terrorists and props up communist Cuba. Operation Absolute Resolve dealt a serious blow to the Venezuela, China, Iran, Cuba connection. This makes America safer.
In 1823, President James Monroe articulated what would later be called the Monroe Doctrine. The policy was meant to keep foreign powers out of our neighborhood in the Western Hemisphere. In recent years, President Trump has moved to end China’s control of the Panama Canal and China’s influence in Venezuela. Some are now labeling Trump’s efforts as the “Donroe Doctrine.”
As I wrote in last week’s essay, “Resolutions,” I’m optimistic about 2026. There are many reasons for this, which you can read and consider, but the fraud in Minnesota has caused such outrage that the corrupt media and the Democrats can’t hide the debacle. Handsy Tim Walz has now suspended his reelection campaign for governor, and over a thousand have already been arrested for fraud. Whether Walz is just incompetent or culpable for the $9 billion fraud in his state is unknown. When I practiced medicine, I was responsible for the actions of my staff just as surgeons are responsible for nurses in the operating room. The captain of the ship is ultimately responsible.
Fraud has become rampant with investigations proceeding in Minnesota, California, Illinois, NY and Colorado. It has become so bad that WE The People have lost trust in our institutions. An immediate example is the election of a communist as mayor of NYC. In his inaugural address, Mamdani said that “We will replace the rigidity of rugged individualism with the warmth of collectivism.” Mamdani articulated the fraud of Marxism: “From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs.” Communism is a fraud, having been tried over and over, always ending in disaster. This philosophy led to the deaths of 100 million people in the 20th century and took Venezuela from one of the most wealthy countries in the world to poverty and ruin.
We tend to forget other frauds: the Russian collusion hoax, USAID and NGOs corruption, the Biden is competent ruse, the fraud you can change your DNA and gender, ballot harvesting and mail-in voting fraud, refusal to have voter ID and perpetual media fraud. Elon Musk once said, “I learned from Paypal that the ones that cried the loudest are the perpetrators of fraud.”
The Big Beautiful Bill encompassed 30 pieces of legislation and was essentially the entire Trump agenda. Included were needed fraud provisions for Medicaid as well as work requirements for the able-bodied.
The real tragedy of the Minnesota Somali fraud is that the people who need help will not get it. Americans are a giving people, but we’ve had it. We’ve been like Charlie Brown, but we no longer trust Lucy to hold the ball. I’m now extremely careful with donations. I preferentially give to those I know rather than organizations. And, like voting, if I’m unsure about a candidate or an organization, I seek out the advice of someone I trust who can advise me. I encourage you to do the same rather than not voting or not donating.
I fear the Somali debacle will give people an excuse not to be generous. It doesn’t help to learn that 90% of Somalis are on welfare, and the fraud in Minnesota was greater than Somalia’s GDP. My frustration extends to foreign aid, the feckless UN and the foreigners living among us, waving foreign flags and scamming us.
Mr. Webster defines realpolitik as politics based on practical factors rather than theoretical or ethical objectives. President Trump is pragmatic, and his Operation Absolute Resolve in Venezuela and Midnight Hammer in Iran were examples of the practical use of power for the benefit of our country. These operations were not a perversion of “might makes right.” Trump’s realpolitik is based on common sense and what is best for America. The Greek historian Thucydides would undoubtedly agree.
