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josephzeballos.bsky.social
Joseph Zeballos-Roig
@josephzeballos.bsky.social
2.2K followers 310 following 99 posts
Economics and business reporter, Quartz | Contributing columnist, MS NOW | Hablo español 🇵🇪 | jzeballos-roig@qz.com
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josephzeballos.bsky.social
Trump’s actions in Venezuela resembled a “corporate hostile takeover:” A firm acquires its rival and swaps out the chief executive. The new owners hold off on its destruction with stability being the chief priority.

New from me on the limits of replaying the approach in Cuba
qz.com/trump-takeov...
Trump's ‘corporate takeover’ of Venezuela spells trouble for Cuba
Trump could rerun his Venezuela playbook to force change on Havana. He shouldn’t expect similar results
qz.com
February 19, 2026 at 1:23 AM
Reposted by Joseph Zeballos-Roig
jacobbogage.bsky.social
Personal news — this is my last week at The Washington Post.

My next destination is settled, and I’ll share more soon.

Until then, subscribe to the newsletter for the right amount of Bogage in your life. And please keep supporting The Post.
Personal news
I'm leaving The Washington Post.
jacobbogage.beehiiv.com
February 16, 2026 at 2:56 PM
Reposted by Joseph Zeballos-Roig
jacobbogage.bsky.social
👀 What if I told you there was a hidden art gallery scattered across the country?

What if I told you some of its treasures had vanished?

What if I told you that I found them?

A project three years in the making (🎁 gift link):
The disappearing art gallery in your post office
The U.S. Postal Service is home to thousands of historic works of art in post offices nationwide. Hundreds have been lost, sold or destroyed.
wapo.st
February 8, 2026 at 2:08 PM
Reposted by Joseph Zeballos-Roig
jeisinger.bsky.social
Today, the Washington Post laid off more than 300 people.

If you think this is abt Jeff Bezos's concern that the paper losing money, you're wrong.

So wrong that you should be disqualified from expressing opinions in public.

Billionaires *like* losses. They *need* losses.
February 5, 2026 at 12:13 AM
Reposted by Joseph Zeballos-Roig
jakelahut.bsky.social
Republicans who have known Nancy Mace for years are increasingly worried about her. But why is she like this?

A number of scoops and new details here, including her recently departed campaign chief going on the record to call for her to leave electoral politics altogether: nymag.com/intelligence...
Nancy Mace Is Not Okay
“Something’s broken. The motherboard’s fried. We’re short-circuiting somewhere.”
nymag.com
February 2, 2026 at 11:57 AM
Reposted by Joseph Zeballos-Roig
ositanwanevu.com
I wrote about Renee Good, Venezuela, Greenland, and what it means to be a human being. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
America, JD Vance tells us, is merely a nation like many others ⁠– a “homeland”, he said upon accepting his nomination to the vice-presidency, for “people with a shared history and a common future”. That’s a vision of American identity that would have described bands of cavepeople in skins just as well or better. Stephen Miller’s proleptic defense of seizing Greenland last week suggests the Trumpists themselves know this. “We live in a world, in the real world ... that is governed by strength, that is governed by force, that is governed by power,” he declared. “These are the iron laws of the world since the beginning of time.” Miller’s laws are the laws of animals. It is true, obviously, that high ideals have long been deployed to obscure or justify predation, here and elsewhere. But Miller’s stance and the stance of the administration is that there aren’t, actually, any high ideals worth pursuing or even pretending to – that the human being, in itself, is nothing so much ⁠and that we are, fundamentally and forever, primitives. Against the demands and best aspirations of civilization – western or any kind – they tell us the human being is a creature that yearns for nothing more than blood and soil, which is, of course, just mud. The lust for mud has taken up many guises in our history and has been many given names of late – neo-reaction, post-liberalism, fascism. But the name familiar to most is evil. It was evil – the standpoint that only might matters, that human morality, and our sense of reality itself, must yield to the turfism of the primates with the biggest clubs – that ginned up the propaganda that provoked an act of terrorism against our legislature and the policemen defending it five years ago. It is evil that undergirds pronouncements from the same voices responsible for that attack, in defense of the man who shot Renee Nicole Good, that those who disobey the commands of law enforcement, however unsound or unjust, deserve summary execution – that implies, as Fox’s Jesse Watters and others have, that Good’s killing was of trivial significance because she was a lesbian “with pronouns in her bio”. It is evil that sends innocent men to foreign gulags, evil that condemns hundreds of thousands of destitute people abroad to death without a moment’s discussion or debate about what the country they had depended on might owe them, or the furnishing of alternative arrangements for their wellbeing. The gutting of USAID remains this administration’s worst and least surprising offense against the human conscience – a president who rejects the idea that we might have obligations to all within our society can’t be expected to wonder or worry about whether we have obligations to those outside of it. This is also why, after all the noise and nonsense about the need to depose the Maduro regime, the Venezuelan people are now being told that regime will be left in mostly in place for as long as it takes to secure and extract the country’s resources on our terms – that Venezuela will not see democracy unless and until it is profitable for the United States. Democracy has always been a useless abstraction to those who deny we have basic human entitlements – for those who believe, instead, that the idea of human liberty is a luxury for those wealthy and powerful enough to consider themselves our betters rather than the birthright of all. As many who’ve taken to the streets in protest have noted, the Trump administration’s assaults on liberty here at home are the kinds of abuses that spurred the revolution we will commemorate this year. But no grand revolution is in the offing this time around. The only just and plausible recourse for our situation is politics – understood not merely as the contest to win any given set of elections but as the broader fight to forge a republic that honors and strengthens our humanity. The American project must and will succeed. Its enemies stand for too little. Our lives are worth too much.
January 14, 2026 at 3:26 PM
josephzeballos.bsky.social
President Trump gathered with chief executives from U.S. and European oil companies on Friday to drum up private-sector cash for his plans to salvage Venezuela's devastated oil sector and exploit its reserves.

They're not buying what he's selling so far qz.com/trump-venezu...
ExxonMobil CEO calls Venezuela 'uninvestable'
The meeting was the latest chapter in Trump's open-ended intervention in Venezuela, a South American nation he has said he wants to control for years
qz.com
January 9, 2026 at 10:52 PM
josephzeballos.bsky.social
Trump promised oil executives at Mar-a-Lago in 2024 that they would get a “deal” if they donated lavishly to his presidential campaign. They did. Almost 2 years later, it’s safe to say Venezuela wasn’t part of the deal they signed up for.

New for Quartz on a surreal week:
qz.com/trump-venezu...
Trump and Big Oil aren’t on the same page about Venezuela
Neglect and mismanagement have left the Venezuelan oil sector in ruins. Restoring it would require huge influx of capital spending
qz.com
January 9, 2026 at 5:08 PM
josephzeballos.bsky.social
This amounts to either a day or two of US oil consumption depending on the final amount.

What’s more significant is Trump will control up to $3 billion in oil revenue. Spoils of war. There’s nothing stopping him from shaking down the post-Maduro government for more
bsky.app/profile/apne...
January 7, 2026 at 1:29 AM
Reposted by Joseph Zeballos-Roig
ms.now
OPINION by @josephzeballos.bsky.social:

“Already, Trump is making fresh threats that underscore the uncertainty of what’s next.”

READ MORE:
www.ms.now/opinion/vene...
Opinion | Trump’s plan to "run" Venezuela for its oil is already facing problems
Regime change is the easy part. Restoring oil production amid chaos, corruption and nationalist resentment takes years — if it happens at all.
www.ms.now
January 5, 2026 at 2:20 PM
Reposted by Joseph Zeballos-Roig
ericmgarcia.bsky.social
Bush strained to defend against accusations that the Iraq War was about oil. Today, President Donald Trump openly admits the U.S. is willing to carry out regime change in Venezuela to secure privileged access to the country’s oil reserves. Good @josephzeballos.bsky.social
www.ms.now/opinion/vene...
Opinion | Trump’s plan to "run" Venezuela for its oil is already facing problems
Regime change is the easy part. Restoring oil production amid chaos, corruption and nationalist resentment takes years — if it happens at all.
www.ms.now
January 5, 2026 at 8:48 PM
josephzeballos.bsky.social
Venezuelan opposition leader Machado just over an hour ago: “Today we are prepared to assert our mandate and take power.”

Trump in news conference: “We’re going to run [Venezuela], essentially, until a proper transition can take place.”
January 3, 2026 at 5:09 PM
Reposted by Joseph Zeballos-Roig
filipecampante.bsky.social
It sounds like the most deranged Latin American caricature of yankee imperialism come to life. It would be comical if it weren’t serious.
atrupar.com Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · Dec 16
Trump: "Venezuela is completely surrounded by the largest Armada ever assembled ... It will only get bigger, and the shock to them will be like nothing they have ever seen before — Until such time as they return to the USA all of the Oil, Land, and other Assets that they previously stole from us."
Venezuela is completely surrounded by the largest Armada ever assembled in the History of South America. It will only get bigger, and the shock to them will be like nothing they have ever seen before — Until such time as they return to the United States of America all of the Oil, Land, and other Assets that they previously stole from us. The illegitimate Maduro Regime is using Oil from these stolen Oil Fields to finance themselves, Drug Terrorism, Human Trafficking, Murder, and Kidnapping. For the theft of our Assets, and many other reasons, including Terrorism, Drug Smuggling, and Human Trafficking, the Venezuelan Regime has been designated a FOREIGN TERRORIST ORGANIZATION. Therefore, today, I am ordering A TOTAL AND COMPLETE BLOCKADE OF ALL SANCTIONED OIL TANKERS going into, and out of, Venezuela. The Illegal Aliens and Criminals that the Maduro Regime has sent into the United States during the weak and inept Biden Administration, are being returned to Venezuela at a rapid pace. America will not allow Criminals, Terrorists, or other Countries, to rob, threaten, or harm our Nation and, likewise, will not allow a Hostile Regime to take our Oil, Land, or any other Assets, all of which must be returned to the United States, IMMEDIATELY. Thank you for your attention to this matter!
December 17, 2025 at 12:14 AM
josephzeballos.bsky.social
New: Talked to Alex Bores, a NY assemblyman running for Congress in NY-12 and leading AI regulation effort in state.

On pro-AI spending against him: “I take that as a badge of honor"

On holding $250k fundraiser for Hochul while his AI bill is before her: "I'm a team player” qz.com/alex-bores-n...
Meet the Democrat who wants universal basic income to soften the AI blow
Alex Bores is "bullish" on what AI can achieve. He's also the target of a $10 million campaign from a pro-AI group as he runs for Congress
qz.com
December 16, 2025 at 5:24 PM
Reposted by Joseph Zeballos-Roig
pfc-npc.bsky.social
"When journalism is treated as a crime, press freedom is no longer guaranteed."

Read NPC President @mikebalsamo.bsky.social's full statement on Jimmy Lai's conviction at the link:

www.press.org/newsroom/nat...
National Press Club Statement on the Conviction of Jimmy Lai
WASHINGTON, Dec. 14, 2025 — National Press Club President Mike Balsamo today issued the following statement on the conviction of Jimmy Lai: "The conviction of Jimmy Lai in Hong Kong represents a conse...
www.press.org
December 15, 2025 at 2:50 PM
josephzeballos.bsky.social
This is the last thing domestic toy makers want to hear. They’ve already been hit by $1 billion in tariffs and plenty are grappling with a drop in sales. Some are laying off workers too. Now Trump is pushing austerity before Christmas qz.com/toy-tariff-s...
bsky.app/profile/theb...
December 10, 2025 at 3:17 AM
Reposted by Joseph Zeballos-Roig
ericmgarcia.bsky.social
Thanks for reading, Mr. President
A web page for the White House with the subbed “Media Offenders: Eric Garcia.”
November 29, 2025 at 8:24 PM
josephzeballos.bsky.social
“Perhaps Americans are a little more ready now to hear a young girl take apart politicians of all stripes at a moment when President Donald Trump is strong-arming private and public institutions into submission.. with little resistance.”

Me on the “Mafalda” comic strip:
qz.com/mafalda-arge...
Argentina's Mafalda and lessons for capitalism in the Trump era
Sometimes children are better at telling it like it is than the adults in the room — even a fictional girl from Argentina
qz.com
November 29, 2025 at 3:07 PM
Reposted by Joseph Zeballos-Roig
ericmgarcia.bsky.social
For the past decade, conversations around autism shifted from focusing around curing #ActuallyAutistic people to accommodating and accepting autistic people. We now live in the RFK Jr. backlash, which shifts discussions around autism toward prevention
www.ms.now/opinion/rfk-...
Opinion | RFK Jr.'s latest anti-vaccine move will cause untold harm to autistic Americans
The Trump administration is working toward treating autism as something to be prevented, rather than building a health care system that helps people.
www.ms.now
November 25, 2025 at 3:04 AM
Reposted by Joseph Zeballos-Roig
crampell.bsky.social
from the former BLS commissioner whom Trump fired this summer:
erikamcentarfer.bsky.social Erika McEntarfer @erikamcentarfer.bsky.social · Nov 20
So great to see BLS back to work measuring and informing us about our large and dynamic economy.

It’s a great institution full of dedicated civil servants deeply committed their mission. They have had a tough year, and everyone is covering for someone who left. I thank them all for their service.
November 20, 2025 at 5:59 PM
Reposted by Joseph Zeballos-Roig
raphae.li
New: Reuters has tallied job losses, suspensions and investigations stemming from the reaction to Charlie Kirk's Sept. 10 assassination. Its findings: More than 600 Americans have been punished, and the figure is likely to be an under-count.

www.reuters.com/investigatio...
November 19, 2025 at 11:35 AM
josephzeballos.bsky.social
I can think of at least one other authoritarian leader who also threatened broadcast licenses of TV networks he deemed hostile. A troubling threshold to cross www.ms.now/opinion/msnb...

bsky.app/profile/atru...
atrupar.com Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · Nov 18
Trump in response to an Epstein question: "ABC, your company, your crappy company is one of the perpetrators. I think the license should be taken away from ABC because your news is so fake and so wrong. And we have a great commissioner, a chairman, who should take a look at that."
November 18, 2025 at 11:12 PM
Reposted by Joseph Zeballos-Roig
ericmgarcia.bsky.social
FWIW, Elizabeth Warren and Larry Summers go back years. They had this interaction in 2009 after the 2008 financial crisis and the ensuing Great Recession.
billmoyers.com/2014/09/05/i...
It was a long dinner, with plenty of intense back-and-forth about everything from the bailout, to deregulation, to the foreclosure crisis. I also talked to Larry about an idea I’d been working on for a new consumer financial agency and he seemed interested. We didn’t agree on everything, but I give Larry full credit: I’ll take honest conversation and debate any day of the week over the duck-and-cover stuff I so often saw in Washington that spring. Late in the evening, Larry leaned back in his chair and offered me some advice. By now, I’d lost count of Larry’s Diet Cokes, and our table was strewn with bits of food and spilled sauces. Larry’s tone was in the friendly-advice category. He teed it up this way: I had a choice. I could be an insider or I could be an outsider. Outsiders can say whatever they want. But people on the inside don’t listen to them. Insiders, however, get lots of access and a chance to push their ideas. People — powerful people — listen to what they have to say. But insiders also understand one unbreakable rule: They don’t criticize other insiders. I had been warned.
November 17, 2025 at 7:44 PM
josephzeballos.bsky.social
White House unveils preliminary trade deal w/Argentina:

- Eases Arg beef imports to US
- Eliminates non-tariff barriers for US exports
- Tag-team for “stabilizing” global soybean trade (no soybean sales listed)
- Promise of future critical mineral trade/investment www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-st...
Joint Statement on Framework for a United States-Argentina Agreement on Reciprocal Trade and Investment
President Donald J. Trump and President Javier Milei reaffirm the strategic alliance between the United States of America (United States, or U.S.) and the
www.whitehouse.gov
November 13, 2025 at 10:26 PM