A bit of Nobel Prize sycophancy trivia: Machado's gifting of her medal to Trump was only the second most degrading spectacle in this history of the prize. Norwegian writer and Nobel laureate Knut Hamsun gifted his medal to Josef Goebbels while Norway was under Nazi occupation.

The cynics think today's attack on Venezuela is staged and transactional. Maduro is allied with Putin, but in 2019 Putin offered Trump a swap: Russia cedes Venezuela and gets Ukraine. (See Fiona Hill's testimony in Trump's first impeachment trial, h/t @davetroy.com). Even Maduro may be in on it. 2/