Sure, the coup is preordained, but it has been for so long it's starting to smell a bit stale. Gargamel has been hanging around for over a year now. I always suspected he was the sort of loser one appoints when one sort of wants the whole project to fizzle out ignominiously. What's the old saw? Something about "B-level people hire C-level people"? The elected government of Venezuela has been careful to let Guaidó run amok without arresting him or hampering his travel. Now that his erstwhile allies have realized he isn't going to an martyr anytime soon, they're less interested.

CIA themselves are on shakier ground than they used to be. They expected to be ordering Pres. Pence around by now. Now the "grown-up" Democrats have "chosen" Biden (as I predicted in 2017), with whom Trump will play as a cat torments a mouse. Say what you will about his speed habit, at least the Cheeto isn't already sundowning halfway through the afternoon. After he wins this year, Trump will be far more interested in shuttering CIA than in tolerating their further misadventures abroad.

Above, I was actually referring to Hausmann père, not Hausmann fille. The Hausmann (what a traditional Venezuelan name!) family run sort of a low-rent one-stop yes-we'll-take-black-budget-funds shop. Prof. Hausmann is at the K-school, which I guess explains why he didn't actually stop working for Guaidó when he promised Harvard administration he would. He's hoping to land at CFR...