RUNNING MAN: Deposed Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores appeared in federal court in Manhattan yesterday and pleaded not guilty to narco-terrorism and other crimes just two days after they were scooped out of their country in a US military raid in Caracas.

  Maduro claimed that he is innocent, a good man, a prisoner of war, and still the president of Venezuela. The New York Post referred to his wife as “the Latin Lady McBeth.”

  While the couple entered the justice system, Mduro’s Vice President Delcy Rodriguez was sworn in as interim president evidently in continuation of his regime.

  While presenting Maduro’s taking as an act of law enforcement, the use of the military to do it has the potential to change the world order. Russia can use the Venezuela action as justification for its invasion of Ukraine and China could cite it to take Taiwan.

  António Guterres, the secretary general of the United Nations, said in a statement that he was “deeply concerned” that the United States had not respected the rule of international law and for “the precedent it may set for how relations between and among states are conducted.”

  Trump was not discouraged. Since the Venezuela operation he told reporters on Air Force One that that Colombia, a US ally, was being “run by a sick man who likes making cocaine and selling it to the United States,” and that, “He’s not going to be doing it for very long.”

  The President said that drugs were “pouring” through Mexico and that “we’re going to have to do something.” Military intervention is unnecessary in Cuba, a key ally of Venezuela, because it is “ready to fall,” he said.

  Trump once again threatened Greenland, a territory of Denmark, also a US ally and member of the NATO mutual defense alliance. “Right now Greenland is covered with Russian and Chinese ships all over the place,” Trump said.  “We need Greenland from the standpoint of national security.”

THE REGIME: 

— Presidential aide Stephen Miller told CNN’s Jake Tapper last night that Greenland rightfully belongs to the US. He said no one will fight the US for Greenland and, “Nobody’s going to fight the United States militarily over the future of Greenland “We live in a world, in the real world, Jake, that is governed by strength, that is governed by force, that is governed by power.” 

— Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth moved to reduce the retirement military rank of Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly for his participation in a video in which he and five other members of Congress reminded US service members that they have a duty to refuse illegal orders. 

  Kelly, a former fighter pilot and astronaut, retired as a Navy captain. If Hegseth succeeds, Kelly’s rank and retirement pay would be reduced.  

  The Pentagon chief also issued a formal letter of censure, which “outlines the totality of Captain (for now) Kelly’s reckless misconduct.” 

  Kelly posted online that, “Pete Hegseth wants to send the message to every single retired servicemember that if they say something he or Donald Trump doesn’t like, they will come after them the same way.” 

  For a great illustration of how Kelly is in the right about illegal orders, watch the 1992 Tom Cruise and Jack Nicholson movie, “A Few Good Men.”

— Federal health authorities under Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced a dramatic reduction in the number of recommended childhood vaccines from 17 to 11. While standards such as measles, mumps, polio, and whooping cough remain in the recommendation, others such as hepatitis A, hepatitis B, meningococcal disease, rotavirus, and influenza were put in the category of parental choice or on medical advice.

  Several medical coalitions say the Health Department is feeding unscientific doubt about vaccines.  

— President Trump posted an inflated claim about tariffs and attacked the press for not reporting his delusions. “We have taken in, and will soon be receiving, more than 600 Billion Dollars in Tariffs,” Trump posted on his Truth Social, “but the Fake News Media refuses to talk about it because they hate and disrespect our Country, and want to interfere with the upcoming Tariff decision, one of the most important ever, of the United States Supreme Court.“

  The most generous estimate of tariff intake last year is $250 billion.

IT’S POLITICAL: With scandal growing over corruption in his state’s childcare industry, Minnesota’s Democratic Gov. Tim Walz, announced that he will abandon his run for a third term. 

  “Every minute I spend defending my own political interests would be a minute I can’t spend defending the people of Minnesota against the criminals who prey on our generosity and the cynics who prey on our differences,” Walz said. “So I’ve decided to step out of the race and let others worry about the election while I focus on the work.”

  As many as 59 people have been convicted of siphoning billions of dollars out of Minnesota child and social programs, many of them from the Somali immigrant population. Walz originally ran on the slogan “Fix the Damn Roads,” only to be politically mired in a scandal that happened on his watch.

EYE ON NEWS:

— The CBS Evening News last night delayed plans to introduce their new anchor Tony Dokoupil with a 10-day, 10-city tour of the country and just stayed in New York to cover the developing news about Nicolás Maduro and the situation with Venezuela. The thing about covering the news is that it always changes your plans.

  It was actually Dokoupil’s second debut … he did a special broadcast on Saturday. He did a capable job and even smoothly handled a fumble in the lineup, but for the second time his reporting included no voices questioning the wisdom, legality, or international consequences of the US military action in Venezuela. 

BELOW THE FOLD: Private funeral services were held in New York yesterday for Tatiana Schlossberg, 35, the middle child of Caroline Kennedy Schlossberg who died of leukemia.

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