6 Killed Off Venezuelan Coast

Plus: Zohran thinks he's Obama, Department of War tries to muzzle newsrooms, and more...

Another boat downed: The U.S. military has carried out another unapproved strike on alleged narcotraffickers, killing six men just off of Venezuela's coast.

It's likely these men are affiliated with Tren de Aragua, but this has not been confirmed. This is the fifth strike of its kind, with 27 people total killed, per administration sources.

For his part, Trump has declared cartels, including TdA and MS-13, foreign terrorist organizations, seemingly in an effort to legally deploy more resources to fighting them. "Their campaigns of violence and terror in the United States and internationally are extraordinarily violent, vicious, and similarly threaten the stability of the international order in the Western Hemisphere," he declared in an executive order issued on his first day in office. Resting on the powers granted to him in the Immigration and Nationality Act and the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, Trump was also able to declare a national emergency to deal with threats posed by cartels.

But is it really?

In a memo sent to Congress last week, the Trump administration said it had "determined that the United States is in a non-international armed conflict with these designated terrorist organizations" and that these strikes are actions the U.S. must take in self-defense. Democrats in the Senate have attempted to block Trump's strikes in the Caribbean, but were stymied last week by Republicans. Democratic lawmakers in particular keep pressing the White House to supply more evidence as to how it knows who is on these boats and what they're carrying.

"They are illegal killings because the notion that the United States—and this is what the administration says is their justification—is involved in an armed conflict with any drug dealers, any Venezuelan drug dealers, is ludicrous," Rep. Jim Himes (D–Conn.) told CBS host Margaret Brennan during a Face the Nation interview. "It wouldn't stand up in a single court of law."

Past administrations have simply used interdiction—not deadly strikes—to combat this same chronic issue. This means deploying maritime law enforcement, like the Coast Guard, to attempt to surveil vessels engaged in narcotrafficking, as well as authorities sometimes boarding and seizing their cargo. Interdiction clearly hasn't completely worked, but it's also not clear that, uh, on-the-spot execution is consistent with U.S. law either, or that Congress would approve Trump's actions if he sought their approval (as he is ultimately supposed to).

"Congress is being told nothing on this," Himes continued. "And that's okay, apparently, with the Republican majorities in the House and the Senate. It's not okay with me."

When the first strike was carried out in September, Democrats in the House responded swiftly to decry Trump's action as a "dangerous expansion and abuse of presidential authority."

"The lack of transparency and information sharing with Congress, which has the constitutional responsibility to declare war and authorize or limit the use of force, poses an even greater threat to our democratic system of government," they wrote. They're not wrong. At the same time, lawmakers must contend with the limits to the interdiction approach. And it's possible—likely, even—that this is all part of Trump's 4D chess approach to unseating Nicolás Maduro.

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Scenes from New York: At a rally in Washington Heights on Monday night, socialist mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani said that he is leading a "movement that won the battle over the soul of the Democratic Party."

What exactly does this movement stand for? "We are an existential threat to billionaires who think their money can buy our democracy," said Mamdani. "We are an existential threat to a broken status quo that buries the voices of working people beneath corporations. And we are an existential threat to a New York where a hard day's work isn't enough to earn you a good night's rest."

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QUICK HITS

• The anti–public school posting will continue until conditions improve:

Public school is a service that you pay for and it exists to serve you. You should be able to take the parts you want a-la-carte as you need them.

The wacko authority regimen that's been built up around it is a downgrade. https://t.co/igUtceH97i

— Simon Sarris (@simonsarris) October 14, 2025

• The Department of War is now asking newsrooms that report on the Pentagon to adhere to a new set of rules, including choosing not to report on certain items that could compromise national security. Most outlets have decided not to adhere, saying that readers have a right to know how taxpayer dollars are being spent, and now risk restrictions in access. OANN stands out as a notable outlier. (A little ironic that this is all happening under the leadership of Pete Hegseth, who spent much of his career as…a journalist. And his old outlet, Fox, has said it will not follow these new rules.)

Frankly I'm shocked these weren't already the rules.

It's the PENTAGON! @oann is happy to follow these reasonable conditions, grounded in care for our national security. https://t.co/gv78Tvg8W0

— Matt Gaetz (@mattgaetz) October 13, 2025

• "About 466 workers at the Education Department have been fired since Friday, according to the White House Office of Management and Budget, and the breadth and depth of those cuts appeared to touch nearly all aspects of an agency that President Trump has vowed to eliminate," reports The New York Times. These include workers who administer the special education programs as well as workers at the Office for Civil Rights. The administration laid off about 2,000 DOE workers earlier this year, so this latest cut represents a substantial chunk of the remaining.
• One of the many problems with socialism:

"More of the economy should be publicly owned" and "It's good to steal from publicly owned agencies" seem like obviously contradictory statements, but somehow it's the primary stance of a lot of DSA types?

Sewer Socialists would hate these people. https://t.co/fFQhflT74O

— Daniel Trubman (@dmtrubman) October 14, 2025

• Free idea:

Strongly considering going to the No Kings protest and being like "yeah! Fuck him! Fuck King George! Fuck King Charles! Fuck all the kings!" Until someone explains it's about Trump and then be like "but he's a president?" And act totally stupid and force them to explain it to me

— Ben Dreyfuss (@bendreyfuss) October 14, 2025