Today’s show was a master class in why independent journalism matters — and why
is one of the best at it.The internet was half-broken (Cloudflare outage, which Lawrence blamed on the upcoming Epstein file vote, naturally), my tea wasn’t doing its job, and Lawrence was broadcasting from his boyfriend’s apartment in yesterday’s clothes. So, you know, a normal morning. But once Jonathan joined us, the tone shifted: suddenly we were in the presence of a journalist who has worked everywhere — MSNBC, CNN, ABC, you get the idea — and who has seen enough political theater to recognize when a brand-new act is underway.
And according to Jonathan, that’s exactly what’s happening with Venezuela.
Over the past week, he’s been reporting on a deeply complex and almost entirely overlooked story: the same right-wing operatives who helped craft Trump’s lies about the stolen 2020 election have been feeding intelligence — or “intelligence” — into Trump’s escalating claims about Venezuela. Their narrative ties gangs, drug cartels, terrorism, and Maduro into one giant, convenient justification for military action.
Except… there’s no proof any of it is true.
Jonathan walked us through the maze: the shady operatives, the billionaire rivalries, the DEA deals, the “Kraken” tapes Sidney Powell hung her legal career on, the discredited witnesses, and the pattern — an old, familiar one — of bad actors feeding bad intel to create the conditions for a war. He compared it to Curveball before Iraq, and honestly, once he drew the parallels, it was impossible to unsee them.
He also explained the stakes: U.S. ships are already offshore. Dozens of people have died. Hundreds of families have been torn apart. And Congress — including Democrats — is doing nothing to investigate where this supposed “intel” came from or whether any of it holds up.
What I loved most was Jonathan’s clarity: he didn’t sensationalize the story, and he didn’t rant. He just laid out the receipts and let the implications land where they should. And they landed hard.
We also talked about new media, Substack, and the power vacuum left when legacy outlets stop doing the work. Jonathan was refreshingly honest: we need independent reporting, but we also need people to become better information consumers. “Confirmation bias is the algorithm we all already have installed,” he said.
I can’t argue with that.
This wasn’t just a show; it was a call to action. Read Jonathan’s reporting. Share it. Pressure your reps. Because if we’re repeating the mistakes of Iraq, we don’t get to claim ignorance this time.
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