Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

A Complicated Week
American Thinker ^ | 8 Feb, 2026 | Clarice Feldman

Posted on 02/08/2026 4:58:53 AM PST by MtnClimber

Another sterling week for the Trump administration, another interval of agony for his opponents.

The attention of those less politically minded is focused on the disappearance of Savannah Guthrie’s mother, Nancy -- always fodder for the would-be Colombos and Miss Marples -- and the Olympics. Yet this week saw some victories for the administration along with some serious unfinished business.

The ousted dictator Nicolás Maduro seems isolated, depressed, and devoid of funds sufficient to hire teams of lawyers to defend him. Any claims he might have for immunity seem destined to fail. The evidence establishes he was born in Colombia; his claim falls because only a native Venezuelan is entitled to hold the office of president. Without his presence and with the active engagement of the U.S., the Venezuelan economy appears to be rapidly coming back to life. Without the assets looted from there and used to sustain the neighboring tyrants of Cuba, that country is teetering rapidly to an end. It is out of fuel, electricity, medicine, and food. American flags have been seen flying over some of the dilapidated buildings which remain after decades of misrule. I can’t imagine it will last much longer, and I expect there will be many exiles from there, willing to return and rebuild the island once the thieves are out of office.

The fall of Maduro has implications outside of this hemisphere. There is evidence that Spanish prime minister Pedro Sanchez, whose family and administration are demonstrably corrupt, and his predecessor Jose Zapatero have been linked to Venezuelan corruption. Faced with increased unpopularity among Spaniards, Sanchez plans to regularize 500,000 invaders and give them residence rights for one year. European leaders, already faced with the impossible burden of vast numbers of Third-World immigrants, correctly fear the impact on the Schengen agreement

(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...


TOPICS: Society
KEYWORDS: aoc; censorship; cordobainitiative; cuba; deportations; elonmusk; epstein; freedomofspeech; hillaryclinton; jeffreyepstein; johnkerry; josezapatero; leftism; maduro; narcoterrorism; pedrosanchez; saveact; schengenagreement; spain; trendearagua; venezuela; vladimirpadrinolopez; waronfreespeech; zapatero

1 posted on 02/08/2026 4:58:53 AM PST by MtnClimber
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

The world certainly is full of crooked leaders.


2 posted on 02/08/2026 4:59:12 AM PST by MtnClimber (For photos of scenery, wildlife and climbing, click on my screen name for my FR home page.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: MtnClimber
...medicine...

Best healthcare system money can buy.

3 posted on 02/08/2026 5:05:34 AM PST by Libloather (Why do climate change hoax deniers live in mansions on the beach?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: MtnClimber
...and I expect there will be many exiles from there, willing to return and rebuild the island once the thieves are out of office...

Many more will remain in America. Forever.
4 posted on 02/08/2026 5:23:43 AM PST by ComputerGuy
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: MtnClimber

Exiles return and rebuild. How? What government allows/encourages that? Thieves out of office. What happens to them and their cohorts?

Very complicated.


5 posted on 02/08/2026 6:09:38 AM PST by PGalt (Past Peak Civilization?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: MtnClimber

“willing to return and rebuild the island”

Is AI that stupid or do people write this?


6 posted on 02/08/2026 6:16:42 AM PST by Jolla
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Jolla

At first I thought maybe it was referring to Cuba. My best guess is that “island” was in an earlier draft and did reference Cuba, and the author overlooked when rewrites included it in comments about Venezuela. Who knows?

But it is an embarrassing error for a publication with more than 1.5 million monthly readers. We used to have proofreaders.


7 posted on 02/08/2026 12:22:34 PM PST by unlearner (See my about page for "God's Promises During Tribulation".)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: unlearner

It says Cuba right there, it is clearly talking about Cuban-Americans going back to rebuild Cuba. It looks more like the reader, rather than the author, is at fault.


8 posted on 05/11/2026 4:01:20 PM PDT by piasa (Attitude adjustments offered here free of charge)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]

To: MtnClimber

Speaking of Zapatero:


9 posted on 05/11/2026 4:03:59 PM PDT by piasa (Attitude adjustments offered here free of charge)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: MtnClimber

Speaking of Zapatero:

John Kerry also apparently had some hand in helping to spin the 3/11 bombings in Spain so that Zapatero, the socialist, would benefit in his election.
“ (Libertad Digital) The president of the government, - then, on 3/11, Socialist candidate- and the director of EL MUNDO kept a telephone conversation – the third that day – at 10:00 PM on the day of the attacks in Madrid. José Luis Rodríguez-Zapatero maintained before Pedro J. Ramírez that there were suicide terrorists on the trains and that this information came from “inside”. “Look, we have ruled for 13 years and we have people inside”, emphasized the then Socialist candidate, probably trying to grant more credibility to his words, according to the context of the dialogue reconstructed by the director of EL MUNDO. Zapatero also boasted before Ramírez of having sources in the White House by intercession of the Democrat candidate John Kerry. “They have moles in the White House”, he plotted. From one of those alleged “moles” came, according to the confidences of Zapatero to Ramírez, the White House’s certainty, reached that same afternoon of 3/11, that Al Qaeda had perpetrated the attacks. “—http://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1821681/posts

To: AZLiberty In summary, the Socialist Zapatero got himself elected in a close election by claiming that the conservative incumbent was lying when he said that ETA (the Basque terrorist organization) was responsible for the train bombings. Instead, he said it was Muslim terrorists, the ETA had nothing to do with it, and he was responsible for getting Spain bombed because he was helping the US in Iraq. Zapatero was elected on this claim that his opponent had lied about the terrorists. But, it turns out, he himself was lying, and has been covering up ever since. The ETA WAS responsible for the bombing. Possibly Muslim terrorists were involved as well, but in any case the ETA was certainly involved. This was important to us because the Socialists (virtually Communists, with a violent history) took over Spain and pulled out of the GWOT. Spain went over to the Dark Side. 5 posted on 4/22/2007, 5:26:58 PM by Cicero (Marcus Tullius) [ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 |

4 posted on 10/9/2019, 2:39:13 AM by piasa


10 posted on 05/11/2026 4:04:09 PM PDT by piasa (Attitude adjustments offered here free of charge)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: piasa

My bad.

When I read, “It is out of fuel, electricity, medicine, and food... American flags have been seen flying over some of the dilapidated buildings which remain after decades of misrule...” I thought it was referring to Venezuela, as earlier in the paragraph. It abrubtly switches to talking about Cuba (not exactly the best writing style) mid-paragraph.

But... you are correct. It was a reference to Cuba, the island.

Probably not written by AI, because AI tends to follow rules strictly even when it generates slop.

BTW, this news is 3 months old. Catching up on your reading?


11 posted on 05/13/2026 11:23:23 AM PDT by unlearner (See my about page for "God's Promises During Tribulation".)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 8 | View Replies]

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson