The United States military is like a Denny's.

Josh Blackman | 1.3.2026 11:46 PM

As regular readers know, I do not use the internet on Shabbat. From sundown on Friday until an hour after sundown on Saturday, I am blissfully offline. And, time and again, news breaks while I am offline. Indeed, the atrocities of October 7 occurred while I was incommunicado. (Many Jewish people used their phones on Shabbat for first time during this awful day.) In April 2025, the litigation over A.A.R.P v. Trump broke during Good Friday. And the capture of Nicholas Maduro also occurred in the early hours of Saturday morning.

Of course, I do not live in a hermetically sealed bubble, so I heard news about the military operation in Caracas throughout the day. But I waited until Saturday evening to sign online, and study the incident carefully. Indeed, there is some virtue in not reading early reports, which tend to usually be incomplete or inaccurate. (During breaking news, especially mass shootings, I try not to read any news until the dust has settled.) By Saturday night, the facts from Venezuela have been fairly established.

From a legal perspective, I do not have much to add to what Jack Goldsmith wrote about the operation. We can safely ignore any arguments about the U.N.........

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