5️⃣ Maduro’s Manhattan Court Appearance Reveals the Staged Capture
Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro appeared in Manhattan Federal Court at noon today for arraignment on narco-terrorism charges, but the photos tell a completely different story than the one Trump is selling. Images show Maduro giving a double thumbs up to DEA agents, smiling and joking during what was supposed to be a high-stakes military capture. Zev called it exactly what it was: “This is not a guy who’s just being captured out of his dictatorship. This is a guy who’s coming on a little trip, a little show and tell, stagecrafted by the White House from Caracas all the way to New York.” He emphasized that “this is not a man who is in distress” but rather someone heading to “a global vacation for the rest of his life somewhere.” The show highlighted Lev Parnas’s revelations about a nearly identical deal attempted in 2017, when Trump donors and oil executives toured Venezuelan oil fields planning how to divide the spoils. Paul Singer’s Elliott Management won the CITGO auction in November 2025 with a $5.9 billion bid, and seventeen days after Trump took office, the military operation removed the only government that could block the sale. Neither Maduro nor his wife Cilia Flores are seeking bail, and their next court date is March 17.
4️⃣ Denmark in Full Crisis Mode as Trump Threatens Greenland Annexation
Denmark is in “full crisis mode” after President Trump doubled down on threats to seize Greenland, with Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen urging Trump to “stop the threats against a historically close ally.” Trump adviser Katie Miller posted an image of Greenland covered with an American flag captioned “SOON” just hours after the Venezuela operation, signaling that military force to seize resource-rich territories is now official U.S. policy. As Dean previewed on today’s show, he’s bringing on Malcolm Nance and former Danish intelligence officer Jacob Carsbo at 6 PM to discuss the crisis, noting that “Denmark’s going through it and Greenland might too.” Trump appointed Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry as special envoy to Greenland in December, and Landry has publicly endorsed annexation. Frederiksen emphasized that “the Kingdom of Denmark is part of NATO and is therefore covered by the alliance’s security guarantee,” but Venezuela proved Trump will use the U.S. military to seize territories his donors need. One analyst told multiple outlets that “a possible U.S. intervention in Greenland is now the biggest source of risk to the transatlantic alliance, arguably far greater than Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.”
3️⃣ Zelensky Hires Canada’s Chrystia Freeland
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy appointed former Canadian Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland as his economic development adviser this morning in Presidential Decree No. 15/2026, while Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney flies to Paris tomorrow to participate in multilateral negotiations on ending the war
UPDATE: Freeland has since resigned from her role as Member of Parliament representing University-Rosedale in Toronto, allowing her to work directly for the Ukrainian government while Canada's Prime Minister negotiates the terms of peace.
Zev praised Dean's coverage of the story, noting that "your coverage of Canada's involvement in this new geopolitical world is so fascinating." Dean's analysis shows that Ukraine has made its position explicit: any ceasefire or peace agreement that does not include Western troops physically present in Ukraine is a fantasy. Canada already leads multinational battlegroups in Latvia under Operation REASSURANCE as a NATO framework nation,
2️⃣ Elon Musk Back at Mar-a-Lago After Venezuela Profits Emerge
Elon Musk posted a photo from Saturday night’s dinner at Mar-a-Lago showing him seated with President Trump and First Lady Melania Trump, writing “Had a lovely dinner last night with @POTUS and @FLOTUS. 2026 is going to be amazing!” The reconciliation comes as both men are positioned to make billions from the Venezuela operation. Musk’s SpaceX subsidiary Starlink announced it will provide free broadband internet service to Venezuela through February 3, positioning Musk to control Venezuela’s communication infrastructure at the exact moment the U.S. claims it will “run the country” during a transition period. The bromance is back after months of public feuding over congressional spending, and the timing reveals why. SpaceX’s IPO is coming later this year, expected to be the biggest in history with a $1.5 trillion valuation, and Venezuela’s oil revenue and reconstruction contracts could juice those numbers even higher. The Mar-a-Lago dinner wasn’t about friendship—it was about aligning business interests around regime change for profit.
1️⃣ FBI Jan 6 Coverup May Be Bigger Than Epstein
An NPR investigation reveals the Trump administration is systematically destroying evidence of the January 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol in what legal experts say is likely a violation of federal law. The Justice Department deleted its entire public database of 1,500-plus January 6 prosecutions, the FBI took offline its “Most Wanted” site showing Capitol rioters who remain at large, and evidence is disappearing from court exhibit sites. U.S. District Judge Paul Friedman was forced to preserve the prosecution database in a court ruling after DOJ deleted it, writing that Trump’s proclamation calling the prosecutions a “national injustice” is “factually incorrect.”
As Dean emphasized in closing the show, the goal remains singular: “We’ve got one job to do, and that’s to beat Donald Trump in America.” Zev urged viewers to commit to one action every single day, noting that “if everybody does it, all that energy multiplies and multiplies and multiplies, and it ultimately means success.”
The pattern is clear: staged military operations enable donor profits, NATO allies face credible threats using the same playbook, inner circle members reconcile around shared profits from territorial seizures, and evidence of the last attempted coup gets systematically destroyed while participants walk free. As Zev warned, America is losing the moral high ground with every barbarian plunder, and time is running out to successfully eliminate Trump’s presidency before the damage becomes irreversible.
The FiveStack is available as an audio podcast on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. The FiveStack is a co-production of deanblundell.substack.com and narativ.org.
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