the attitude with arnie arnesen the monday edition jan 5
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Arnie Arnesen
Jan 4, 2026, 9:11:52 PMJan 4
to AttitudeArnieArnesen
The Attitude with Arnie Arnesen
opening thoughts: Lyn Ekedahl political poem Maduro's Oil and Maduro’s Ouster Plays Right Into Putin’s Hands
producers: Dave Scott and Stephanie Collins
Chloé LaCasse (the best of the attitude)
podcasts available at https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/attitude-with-arnie-arnesen/id1634055179
opening thought:
Maduro's Oil
Maduro’s a cad and a dictator cruel,
But his oil is so very nice.
Why not go ahead, kill two birds with one stone?
Take the oil, put Maduro on ice.
Such a great plan this is, surely all must agree.
Venezuelans, we’ve shown that we care.
We’ll care for your oil and carefully send
All of our Venezuelans back there!
Let this be a warning to leaders like him
Who offend us one way or another.
You’d best change those ways or you’ll also face
The wrath of The Don, your Big Brother!
What happens next in Caracas you ask.
Well, who cares? Not our problem to fix.
Just give us your oil, stay calm, don’t complain!
Remember, we’ve got the Big Sticks!
Why sure there’ll be chaos and violence too.
All of that you would have to expect.
Just stay out of our way as we do our thing.
Our extraction of oil respect!
But his oil is so very nice.
Why not go ahead, kill two birds with one stone?
Take the oil, put Maduro on ice.
Such a great plan this is, surely all must agree.
Venezuelans, we’ve shown that we care.
We’ll care for your oil and carefully send
All of our Venezuelans back there!
Let this be a warning to leaders like him
Who offend us one way or another.
You’d best change those ways or you’ll also face
The wrath of The Don, your Big Brother!
What happens next in Caracas you ask.
Well, who cares? Not our problem to fix.
Just give us your oil, stay calm, don’t complain!
Remember, we’ve got the Big Sticks!
Why sure there’ll be chaos and violence too.
All of that you would have to expect.
Just stay out of our way as we do our thing.
Our extraction of oil respect!
opening part 2
Maduro’s Ouster Plays Right Into Putin’s Hands
In the initial rush of news on Saturday morning, many commentators speculated that the abduction of President Nicolás Maduro of Venezuela was also a blow to President Vladimir Putin of Russia, since Venezuela and Russia are allies. To the contrary, it is a victory for Putin, because it is a blow — quite likely fatal — to the new world order of law, justice and human rights that was heralded in the wake of World War II....
Putin was Maduro’s ally, but allies come and go; worldviews, and the desire to force the world to conform to them, stay. Putin’s world has just become more harmonious. Not because, as conspiracy theorists would have you believe, Putin tells Trump what to do, but because these two autocrats really do view the world in the same way. We have a saying for this in Russian: Two boots make a pair.
part one: we grab Mel Goodman to talk Venezuela ...the why the what and the what next?
Melvin A. Goodman is a senior fellow at the Center for International Policy and a professor of government at Johns Hopkins University. A former CIA analyst, Goodman is the author of Failure of Intelligence: The Decline and Fall of the CIA and National Insecurity: The Cost of American Militarism. and A Whistleblower at the CIA. His most recent books are “American Carnage: The Wars of Donald Trump” (Opus Publishing, 2019) and “Containing the National Security State” (Opus Publishing, 2021). Goodman is the national security columnist for counterpunch.org.
DONALD TRUMP, VENEZUELA, AND THE ROOSEVELT COROLLARY
Theodore Roosevelt was one of our most interesting and progressive presidents. Donald Trump is uninteresting and uninterested to the extreme and is a political obscurantist. Nevertheless, Trump’s illegal invasion of Venezuela will ineluctably link him with Roosevelt and the Roosevelt Corollary from 1904.
U.S. citizens are generally familiar with the Monroe Doctrine of 1823, particularly in the wake of the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962, when Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev underestimated President John F. Kennedy’s willingness to deny the deployment of strategic weaponry in the Western Hemisphere.
But the Roosevelt Corollary is far less familiar to Americans. The Venezuelan affair in the winter of 1903-1904 marked a European intervention in the New World in order to collect enormous debts that a Venezuelan dictator, Cipriano Castro, had accumulated. President Roosevelt’s corollary to the Monroe Doctrine established the United States as an international police power in the Western Hemisphere to permit military intervention in South America if its nations mismanaged its finances or internal affairs in a way that invited foreign intervention.
The Roosevelt Corollary led to greater U.S. intervention, including military action in Cuba, Haiti, and Nicaragua, and fostered resentment and anti-American sentiment throughout the region. The corollary transformed the doctrine from a stance of keeping European powers out to an active U.S. role in maintaining order and economic stability in the Americas. Trump’s intervention in Venezuela last week will similarly lead to greater anti-Americanism throughout the region, and provide greater justification to Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping for their own regional goals in Eastern Europe and the Indo-Pacific, respectively.
Trump’s imperial intervention is in step with the sordid U.S. and CIA history of regime change the world over. Interventions in Iran, Guatemala, the Congo, and Chile led to instability and violence as far more vicious leaders took over the reins of government. Long-term intervention and occupations in Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan were losing ventures, marked by the loss of blood and treasure. Libya has never recovered from the U.S. and NATO intervention fifteen years ago. Numerous efforts by several U.S. presidents to conduct regime change in Cuba were all marked by failure.
This history points to the likelihood of greater failure in Venezuela, particularly in view of Trump’s threat to assume long-term control of Venezuela, placing control in the hands of National Security Adviser and Secretary of State Marco Rubio as well as Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth. The inability of Rubio and Hegseth to manage the national security agenda of the United States doesn’t inspire confidence in the future management of Venezuela’s complex domestic environment.
Nevertheless, the mainstream media seems to have no problems with Trump’s jingoism to advance America’s national security. Several days before the invasion, the New York Times dropped a long lead editorial titled “This May Be Our Last Chance to Get It Right in Venezuela,” which endorsed roles for the “authorities of the intelligence community and the Treasury and Justice Department” to “take charge of security in Venezuela.” And before the dust has settled in Venezuela, a Washington Post editorial termed the invasion a “major victory for American interests.” The Post praised the fact that Nicolas Maduro will now spend the “rest of his life in a humane American prison.”
part two:
rethink the week
rethink the week
talkers:
Lincoln Mitchell teaches political science and public policy at Columbia University. He is the author of nine books and his writings have appeared at CNN, Reuters, the New York Times, NBC, the San Francisco Examiner and numerous other media platforms. For more of Lincoln’s work you can subscribe to his Substack “Kibitzing with Lincoln” at /lincolnmitchell.substack.com/.”
Stephen Pimpare is Professor of Public Policy and Director of the Master in Public Policy program at Vermont Law and Graduate School. He is the author of four books, numerous articles, and the Host of the New Books Network's public policy channel.
Dr. Adam M. Finkel is a Clinical Professor of Environmental Health Sciences(Adjunct) at the University of Michigan School of Public Health, and is also an expert witness specializing in plaintiffs’ exposure to toxicants in the workplace and general environment. From 2009 to 2017, he was Executive Director of the Penn Program on Regulation, where he was also a Senior Fellow at the Penn Law School. From 2000 to 2003, Dr. Finkel was Regional Administrator for the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) in
Denver, Colorado Prior to that(1995-2000), he was Director of Health Standards Programs at OSHA headquarters Dr. Finkel holds an Sc.D. in environmental health sciences from the Harvard School of Public Health, a master’s degree in public policy from Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government, an A.B. in biology from Harvard College
Denver, Colorado Prior to that(1995-2000), he was Director of Health Standards Programs at OSHA headquarters Dr. Finkel holds an Sc.D. in environmental health sciences from the Harvard School of Public Health, a master’s degree in public policy from Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government, an A.B. in biology from Harvard College
topics:
Trump Says the U.S. “Needs” Greenland—Europe Should Take Him at His Word. https://olgalautman.substack.com/p/trump-says-the-us-needs-greenlandeurope
Trump Has Started Carving Up the World. Now It’s Putin and Xi’s Turn.
Fiona Hill warned in 2019 of a “strange swap agreement” involving Venezuela and Ukraine. Seven years later, here we are. https://newrepublic.com/article/204892/trump-venezuela-carving-world-putin-xi-next
Report: U.S. Special Ops built replica of Maduro's compound in Kentucky to train Delta Force commandos. (why is NO ONE talking about this!!!!???"Delta Force commandos trained extensively using a full-scale replica of Maduro's compound built by the Joint Special Operations Command in Kentucky." how long did that take?when did start the construction? how did no one notice?)
Trump DHS Post Calling for ‘100 Million Deportations’ Suggests Intent to Kick Out Nonwhite Citizens One journalist called it “absolutely insane Nazi propaganda, posted by the US government.” https://www.commondreams.org/news/dhs-100-million-deportations
Trump Is Bored to Death by the Affordability Crisis He’s finally started to acknowledge the struggles of ordinary Americans, but he’s incapable of staying focused on them. https://newrepublic.com/article/204856/trump-affordability-crisis-bored-death
Enter, Stage Left, Mayor Mamdani A New York homeboy if ever there was one
https://prospect.org/2026/01/02/enter-stage-left-mayor-mamdani/Meet Mamdani’s Biden Expats Several former members of the Biden administration, including a cabinet official, are going to work for New York City’s new mayor. Here’s what they have planned.
KEEPING THE POT STIRRED SO SCUM DOESN'T RISE TO THE TOP - Anonymous
D. ARNIE ARNESEN
15 Rumford Street
Concord NH 03301
nha...@gmail.com
(C) 603-321-7654
Host of "The Attitude with Arnie Arnesen"
D. ARNIE ARNESEN
15 Rumford Street
Concord NH 03301
nha...@gmail.com
(C) 603-321-7654
Host of "The Attitude with Arnie Arnesen"
Award Winning Public Affairs Show (NHAB 2018)
airs noon to 1pm and 7pm EST M-F at 94.7FM (concord nh)
Home Station - wnhnfm.org
Part of the Pacifica Network
go to wnhnfm.org for streaming live
Podcasts available here: https://www.wnhnfm.org/category/attitude-3/
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