last updated January 12, 2026Comments? Send email to: fny@freenewyork.net
Episode #1042: Chief Vampire
First Broadcast: 1/12/25
There never seems to be a dull moment with the current occupant of the White House (despite how much so many of us are yearning for one), and the first week of 2026 proved that in no uncertain terms, as President Donald Trump did an about-face on his previous opposition to regime change and the United States bombed the Venzuelan capital of Caracas on January 3, kidnapped Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores later that morning, and by that evening transported both of them to a federal jail in Brooklyn that will be their new home for the near future. The next day, January 4, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that Congressional authorization was not necessary for this action because it was "an arrest operation" and "not an invasion," which sounded like it conflicted with White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy and U.S. Homeland Security Advisor Stephen Miller's statement that the action was "an active and ongoing US military operation." Later that day, President Trump said "we're in charge" of Venezuela, and he clarified two days later that by "we" he meant "me," as he added that he, personally, would be controlling the money he anticipates to receive from the sale of millions of gallons of Venezuelan oil to the United States. This, he said, even though control of Venezuela today seems to be mostly the same as it was before Maduro's removal, as it is still being ruled by the same party that was in charge before, with the opposition seemingly shut out of the process due the U.S. reaching an agreement with the Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodriguez several months ago, and due to opposition leader Maria Corina Machado having the temerity to accept the Nobel Peace Prize she won in 2025 instead of handing it over to Donald Trump. On January 5, Maduro and Flores were arraigned in a federal court in Manhattan, where they both pleaded "Not Guilty" to various charges, and on the same day Stephen Miller told CNN that "By definition, we are in charge [of Venezuela], because we have the United States military stationed outside the country," and added "For them to do commerce, they need our permission. For them to be able to run an economy, they need our permission," which sounds an awful lot like a blockade to me, which has been internationally recognized as an act of war for over a century now, so doesn't that add to the argument that this is an illegal military operation unauthorized by Congress? To add to the chaos, the dust had barely settled in Caracas when President Trump and Stephen Miller's wife, Katie, made aggressive remarks implying that Trump was going to acquire Greenland for the United States, regardless of how either Greenland or Denmark felt about it, even though doing so without permission from anyone (let alone Greenlanders themselves) would be a catastrophic event for American relations with Denmark, and probably mean the end of NATO as we know it--which is exactly what Russian President Vladimir Putin wants, isn't it? And, despite the earth-shaking nature of all these events, I had a sinking feeling that by the time this episode aired we would all be talking about something else that would displace them in the news, and I guess I wasn't wrong, but these events are still in flux, and far from being over. I so wish we didn't live in interesting times every day of the week...
So, what is Free New York anyway? The simple answer is that it's a
this neat little
public access TV show on
Manhattan Neighborhood Network which I co-produce with the
tremendous help of my camerawoman/editor/everything else,
Kim. The complicated answer
is that it's a project of mine to broadcast opinions and events which
don't always appear within "the mainstream media" (like The New York Times,
the major networks, local radio, etc.), and so far I think it's been working.
If you think I'm doing a good job--or not--and you feel
like sending me snail mail, the address is:
Free New York
P.O. Box 20945
Tompkins Square Station
New York, NY 10009
You can also email me at fny@freenewyork.net, which should get to me a lot faster than the snail mail.
last updated January 12, 2026
Comments?
Send email to: fny@freenewyork.net