Episode Details

The playbook feels familiar, and that’s exactly why it’s alarming. We break down how “fentanyl as a WMD” is being used to frame Venezuela as a battlefield, why terror designations quietly strip away constraints, and how quick-war promises almost always turn into open tabs that last years. Alan Mosley joins us to connect the dots between Beltway incentives, legacy politics, and the subtle ways a lame-duck presidency can drift into new conflicts while insisting it’s only “one and done.”

We get candid about Trump’s second term: early signals that sparked cautious optimism, the fast slide into old habits, and the uncomfortable question of cognitive decline. Then we get specific—how personnel became destiny as figures like Marco Rubio gained outsized influence on Latin America policy, and how that shapes everything from Venezuela saber-rattling to the timing of strikes. We revisit moments when escalation was possible but restraint won, and we ask whether that instinct still holds when scandals at home beg for a distraction abroad.

Finally, we unpack the Christmas Day strikes in Nigeria and the PR logic behind them. The region’s conflicts aren’t a simple Christian–Muslim binary; they’re layered with land, livelihoods, and local grievances. Turning those realities into a counterterror spectacle risks creating tomorrow’s crisis while claiming victory today. If you care about foreign policy that serves Americans rather than headlines, this conversation offers clarity, receipts, and a roadmap for skepticism that isn’t cynical.

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CHAPTERS:

• 0:35 Setting The Stage Post-Christmas
• 1:25 Grading Trump’s Second Term
• 3:10 Cognitive Decline And Beltway Loyalty
• 7:31 The Venezuela WMD Narrative
• 11:20 Blurring Policing And War
• 13:54 Will Americans Buy The Pitch?
• 17:19 Quick Wars That Never End
• 19:30 Are We Marching To Strikes?
• 23:05 Legacy, Transactions, And Restraint
• 26:20 Rubio’s Rise And Trump’s Lessons