01/06 -- Venezuela: Regime forces abduct journalists, seize communication devices; You Think Our Country's So Innocent?
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Thomas L. Knapp
Jan 6, 2026, 6:23:20 AMJan 6
to Freedom News Daily
Freedom News Daily, 01/06/26
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Produced by the staff of Rational Review News Digest
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Today's Freedom News:
1) Venezuela: Regime forces abduct journalists, seize communication devices
2) Board dissolves US state media corporation
3) Lebanon: Israeli forces strike multiple sites ahead of a key disarmament meeting
4) Dog bites man: Shitbird bureaucrat moves to demote naval officer for mentioning the law
5) NYC: Maduro paraded for show trial preliminaries
6) US regime expands list of countries whose citizens must pay up to $15,000 bonds to apply for visas
7) US CDC reduces number of recommended vaccines for children
8) Gmail to Discontinue POP3 Mail Fetching for External Email Accounts
9) After judge’s ruling, HHS authorized to resume sharing some Medicaid data with gang abduction accomplices
10) Novo Nordisk launches Wegovy weight-loss pill in US, triggering price war
11) Judge: Amazon must face price gouging lawsuit
12) UK: Regime begins “world-leading” food ad ban
13) Trump cuts off $10 billion in funding to five blue states for child care, social services
14) Japan: Bluefin tuna sells for record $3.2 million at year-opening auction at Tokyo fish market
15) MN: Walz drops bid for third term as governor; Klobuchar considers it
16) France: Ten convicted of saying mean things about Brigitte Macron
17) “We need Greenland”: Trump repeats threat to annex Danish territory
18) Bitcoin Ignites Higher as Trump’s Venezuela Seize Unleashes Oil Chaos
19) Ukraine: Zelenskyy replaces security chief, hires Canadian economic adviser
20) Uganda: Regime Bans Live Broadcasts of Riots and “Unlawful Processions” Ahead of Vote
Today's Freedom Commentary:
21) You Think Our Country’s So Innocent?
22) Gentle Individualism, Rugged Communitarianism
23) Trump’s Venezuelan Crony Capitalism
24) Trump’s health issue is growing. Maybe it’s JD Vance time.
25) Venezuela Might Be Where Trump’s Luck Runs Out
26) The Warmth of Collectivism is the Cold Logic of Ruin
27) Fed Independence?
28) Venezuela’s New President Is No Moderate
29) The Empire Stole Venezuela
30) Verbal Self-Defense #1
31) An opening for Venezuelans’ intrinsic sovereignty
32) The Development of the Straussian Mind?
33) What Planet Are We On? How Did I End Up Living in Donald Trump’s Suicidal America?
34) Trump’s Defense-Industrial Double Movement
35) The dog that didn’t bark on birthright citizenship
36) The Regulatory Pendulum: Why Financial Rules Keep Missing the Mark
37) Trump’s realpolitik may be the only way to end the Ukraine war
38) The Logic of Liberalism
39) Americans Are Increasingly Skeptical of Foreign Military Intervention
40) “We’re Going to Run the Country:” Preparing an Illegal Occupation in Venezuela
41) What Happened to Tulsi Gabbard’s Non-Interventionist Principles?
42) H3N2 Flu Rising in Palm Beach and Brevard: Why Your Health Is Your Business
43) The Ugly Truth About Many Americans: They Love War
44) MAGA seems to always need a scapegoat
45) Greta Thunberg is a warning to parents raising ideologically captured kids
46) Orwell’s Mistakes
47) When Trump’s big Venezuela oil grab runs smack into reality
48) Dreaming of a Queer Amish Hezbollah or: Revolution as Therapy in Apocalyptic Times
49) What if Trump Pulls This Off?
50) Politics, combat, and the Christ
Today's Freedom Podcast and Video:
51) Reason Roundtable, 12/05/26
52) The Mona Charen Show, 01/05/26
53) Finding Freedom, 01/05/26
54) Ron Paul Liberty Report, 01/05/26
55) Conflicts of Interest, episode 863
56) The Daily Blast With Greg Sargent, 01/05/26
57) TechTank, season 5, episode 34
58) The Remnant with Jonah Goldberg, 01/05/26
59) EconTalk, 01/05/26
60) Radio Atlantic, 01/05/26
61) Antiwar News with Dave DeCamp, 01/05/26
62) Free Talk Live, 01/04/26
63) Politics Politics Politics, 01/04/26
64) Jason Jones on The Scott Horton Show
65) BOOGAWHO?!, episode 1
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_____ Today's Freedom News _____
1) Venezuela: Regime forces abduct journalists, seize communication devices
Source: The Guardian [UK]
“At least 14 journalists and media employees, including 13 members of international media organisations, were [abducted] in Caracas on Monday, according to the union representing Venezuelan reporters. Thirteen of those [abducted] were later released, one of whom was deported. … Five of the [abducted] journalists had been covering the opening session of the National Assembly, where they were banned from recording, transmitting the event live, or taking photos. Others were [abducted] by military intelligence officers and taken to the National Guard command post in the Assembly building, according to the union. Their phones were confiscated and thoroughly searched, the union said, including contacts, conversations, voice notes, Instagram accounts, emails, and documents.” (01/06/26)
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/jan/06/venezuela-detains-journalists-after-nicolas-maduros-captured
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2) Board dissolves US state media corporation
Source: USA Today
“The Corporation for Public Broadcasting announced on Jan. 5 that its board voted to dissolve the nearly 60-year-old organization, attributing the decision to a lack of federal funding and ‘sustained political attacks.’ Such factors ‘made it impossible for CPB to continue operating as the Public Broadcasting Act intended,’ according to a news release announcing the vote. … Congress voted in July to claw back $1.1 billion that had been earmarked for public broadcasting over the next two years, prompting the corporation to announce the following month that it was starting an ‘orderly wind-down of its operations.'” (01/05/26)
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2026/01/05/corporation-public-broadcasting-dissolved/88036028007/
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3) Lebanon: Israeli forces strike multiple sites ahead of a key disarmament meeting
Source: Politico
“Israel’s air force struck areas in southern and eastern Lebanon on Monday and early Tuesday, including in the country’s third-largest city. A strike around 1 a.m. Tuesday leveled a three-story commercial building in the southern coastal city of Sidon, a few days before Lebanon’s army commander is scheduled to brief the government on its mission of disarming militant group Hezbollah in areas along the border with Israel. … On Monday, the Israeli army hit several sites in southern and eastern Lebanon saying they held infrastructure for the militant groups Hezbollah and Hamas.” (01/05/26)
https://www.politico.com/news/2026/01/05/israel-strikes-multiple-sites-in-lebanon-ahead-of-a-key-disarmament-meeting-00712171
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4) Dog bites man: Shitbird bureaucrat moves to demote naval officer for mentioning the law
Source: The Hill
“Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth moved on Monday to demote Sen. Mark Kelly’s (D-Ariz.) military rank over his participation in a recent video with five other Democrats, in which they reminded U.S. service members that they [must] refuse illegal orders from higher-ups [including shitbirds like Hegseth]. Hegseth said in a statement that the Pentagon has initiated retirement grade determination proceedings, also called officer grade determinations, with ‘reduction in his retired grade resulting in a corresponding reduction in retired pay.’ The Pentagon chief also said he issued a formal letter of censure, which ‘outlines the totality of Captain (for now) Kelly’s reckless misconduct.'” (01/05/26)
https://thehill.com/policy/defense/5672739-hegseth-censure-demote-mark-kelly
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5) NYC: Maduro paraded for show trial preliminaries
Source: BBC News [UK state media]
“The sound of clanking leg shackles could be heard moments before Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro walked into the door of a New York City courtroom for the first time. He then told packed rows of reporters and the public that he had just been ‘kidnapped.’ Minutes after his entrance, the Judge Alvin Hellerstein asked Maduro to confirm his identity so the proceedings could start. ‘I am, sir, Nicolás Maduro. I am president of the Republic of Venezuela and I am here kidnapped since January 3rd,’ he told the court in a calm Spanish before an interpreter translated for the court. … The 92-year-old judge quickly interjected to tell Maduro that there would be a ‘time and a place to get into all of this.'” (01/05/26)
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cq6v25eldmdo
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6) US regime expands list of countries whose citizens must pay up to $15,000 bonds to apply for visas
Source: Associated Press
“The Trump administration has added seven countries, including five in Africa, to the list of nations whose passport holders are required to post bonds of up to $15,000 to apply to enter the United States. Thirteen countries, all but two of them in Africa, are now on the list, which makes the process of obtaining a U.S. visa unaffordable for many. The State Department last week quietly added Bhutan, Botswana, the Central African Republic, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Namibia and Turkmenistan to the list. Those designations took effect on Jan. 1, according to a notice posted on the travel.state.gov website. It’s the latest effort by the Trump administration to tighten requirements for entry to the U.S., including requiring citizens from all countries that require visas to sit for in-person interviews and disclose years of social media histories as well as detailed accounts of their and their families’ previous travel and living arrangements.” (01/05/26)
https://apnews.com/article/us-visa-restrictions-trump-bond-travel-7211e43ef4eb84144717c3331ab89e8e
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7) US CDC reduces number of recommended vaccines for children
Source: The Hill
“The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is reducing the number of vaccines it recommends for children, officials said Monday, a major shift that officials say will bring the U.S. recommendations more similar to those of other developed countries. The move, which is effective immediately, fulfills a longtime goal of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and other vaccine skeptics who have questioned the number and benefit of the vaccines children receive. The CDC will now recommend children receive 11 vaccines, rather than the current list of 17, putting it line with the much smaller country of Denmark.” [editor’s note: Right direction, for which RFK/MAHA deserve at least a golf clap – TLK] (01/05/26)
https://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/5673251-cdc-reduces-childhood-vaccines
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8) Gmail to Discontinue POP3 Mail Fetching for External Email Accounts
Source: Cyber Security News
“Google has announced that Gmail will discontinue support for two key features regarding third-party email accounts. Starting in January 2026, the platform will drop support for ‘Gmailify’ and the widely utilized ‘Check mail from other accounts’ feature via POP3 fetching. For over a decade, power users have relied on Gmail not just as an email service, but as a central hub for managing diverse email identities. This upcoming update effectively marks the end of Gmail acting as a web-based email client for external POP3 accounts. The deprecation of Gmailify represents a loss of functionality for users who linked Yahoo, Outlook, or other IMAP accounts to get the ‘Google treatment.’ Gmailify bridged the gap between providers, applying Google’s advanced algorithms to third-party inboxes.” (01/05/26)
https://cybersecuritynews.com/gmail-drop-pop3/
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9) After judge’s ruling, HHS authorized to resume sharing some Medicaid data with gang abduction accomplices
Source: San Diego Union-Tribune
“The nation’s health department starting Monday can resume sharing the personal data of certain Medicaid enrollees with deportation officials, according to a federal judge’s ruling, in a blow to states that had sued the administration over privacy concerns. But the judge’s decision, issued last Monday, strictly limits the scope of data from the 22 plaintiff states that can be shared — for now only allowing the agency to hand over basic biographical information about immigrants residing in the United States illegally [sic]. The states’ lawsuit came after an Associated Press report identified the data sharing policy. The ruling from U.S. District Judge Vince Chhabria in San Francisco comes after the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services said it planned to share the data again as part of the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown.” (01/05/26)
https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/2026/01/05/medicaid-immigration-data-sharing/
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10) Novo Nordisk launches Wegovy weight-loss pill in US, triggering price war
Source: The Guardian [UK]
“The first pill version of the blockbuster GLP-1 weight loss drugs has been launched in the US by Novo Nordisk at a lower cost than jab varieties, accelerating a price war in the sector. The Danish pharmaceutical company said on Monday that its once-a-day Wegovy pill, which received approval from the US regulator just before Christmas, was now available in the country. … the highest doses cost $299 a month. Patients with insurance pay from $25 a month. Matt Weston, a pharmaceutical analyst at UBS, said the price was lower than expected. US list prices for weight-loss jabs are about $1,000 a month or more, although Novo Nordisk started selling its Wegovy injection at $349 a month to cash payers in November.” (01/05/26)
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2026/jan/05/novo-nordisk-launches-wegovy-weight-loss-pill-us-price-war
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11) Judge: Amazon must face price gouging lawsuit
Source: Reuters
“A U.S. judge on Monday rejected Amazon.com‘s bid to dismiss a lawsuit accusing the online retailer of price gouging during the COVID-19 pandemic. … Consumers in the proposed class action claimed to suffer losses because Amazon failed to take steps to prevent sellers from using its platform to charge excessive prices.” (01/05/26)
https://archive.is/yUTLX
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12) UK: Regime begins “world-leading” food ad ban
Source: South China Morning Post [Hong Kong]
“New regulations come into force on Monday in Britain banning daytime TV and online adverts for so-called junk foods, in what the government calls a ‘world-leading action’ to tackle childhood obesity. The ban – targeting commercials for products high in fat, salt or sugar – is expected to remove up to 7.2 billion calories from children’s diets each year, according to the health ministry. The restrictions, which cover television advertisements before 9pm and all digital platforms, will cut childhood obesity cases by 20,000 and save the healthcare system £2 billion (US$2.7 billion), the ministry said. The implementation of the measure – first announced in December 2024 – follows other recent steps, including an extended sugar tax on pre-packaged items like milkshakes, ready-to-go coffees and sweetened yogurt drinks.” (01/05/26)
https://archive.is/35UOW
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13) Trump cuts off $10 billion in funding to five blue states for child care, social services
Source: New York Post
“The Trump administration is cutting off more than $10 billion in social services and child care funding meant for a handful of Democrat-led states, officials told The Post Monday. The Department of Health and Human Services will freeze taxpayer funding from the Child Care Development Fund (CCDF), the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program and the Social Services Block Grant program. At least $7.35 billion in TANF money will be prevented from going to California, Colorado, Illinois, Minnesota, and New York. The CCDF funding block of $2.3 billion affects all those states except Colorado. Another $869 million from the Social Services Block Grant coffers is being kept from all five states. The funding pauses were to be announced via letters to each state, citing concerns that benefits were fraudulently going to non-US citizens.” (01/05/25)
https://nypost.com/2026/01/05/us-news/trump-freezes-10b-in-funding-to-five-blue-states-for-child-care-social-services-over-fraud-fears/
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14) Japan: Bluefin tuna sells for record $3.2 million at year-opening auction at Tokyo fish market
Source: NBC News
“A massive 535-pound bluefin tuna sold for a record 510 million yen ($3.2 million) at the first auction of 2026 at Tokyo’s Toyosu fish market. The top bidder for the prized tuna at the predawn auction on Monday was Kiyomura Corp., whose owner Kiyoshi Kimura runs the popular Sushi Zanmai chain. Kimura, who has won the annual auction many times in the past, broke the previous record of 334 million yen ($2.1 million) he set in 2019. … Due to the popularity of tuna for sushi and sashimi, Pacific bluefin tuna was previously a threatened species due to climate change and overfishing, but its stock is recovering following conservation efforts.” (01/05/26)
https://www.nbcnews.com/world/asia/bluefin-tuna-sells-record-32-million-auction-tokyo-fish-market-rcna252288
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15) MN: Walz drops bid for third term as governor; Klobuchar considers it
Source: SFGate
“Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, Democrats’ 2024 candidate for vice president, is ending his bid for a third term as governor amid President Donald Trump’s relentless focus on a fraud investigation into child care programs in the state. Less than four months after announcing his reelection campaign, Walz said Monday that negative attention and Republican attacks have contributed to an ‘extraordinarily difficult year for our state,’ making it impossible for him to serve full-time as governor while also being a candidate to keep his job.” (01/05/25)
https://www.sfgate.com/news/politics/article/tim-walz-democrats-2024-vp-candidate-won-t-run-21276974.php
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16) France: Ten convicted of saying mean things about Brigitte Macron
Source: CBS News
“A Paris court found Monday 10 people guilty of cyberbullying France’s first lady Brigitte Macron by spreading false online claims about her gender and sexuality, including allegations she was born a man. The court handed out sentences to all the defendants ranging from a cyberbullying awareness training to 8-month suspended prison sentences. The court pointed to ‘particularly degrading, insulting, and malicious’ comments referring to false claims regarding alleged trans identity and alleged pedo criminality targeting Brigitte Macron. … The case follows years of conspiracy theories falsely alleging that Brigitte Macron was born under the name Jean-Michel Trogneux, which is actually the name of her brother. The Macrons have also filed a defamation suit in the United States against conservative influencer Candace Owens.” (01/05/26)
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/brigitte-macron-cyberbullying-french-first-lady-10-convicted/
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17) “We need Greenland”: Trump repeats threat to annex Danish territory
Source: BBC News [UK State Media]
“Donald Trump has again proposed annexing Greenland, after Denmark’s leader urged him to ‘stop the threats’ over the island. Speaking to reporters, the US president said ‘we need Greenland from the standpoint of national security.’ Trump has repeatedly raised the prospect of the semi-autonomous Danish territory becoming an annexed part of the US, citing its strategic location for defence purposes and mineral wealth. Greenland’s Prime Minister Jens Frederik Nielsen responded by saying ‘that’s enough now’ and described the notion of US control over the island as ‘a fantasy.’ ‘No more pressure. No more insinuations. No more fantasies of annexation. We are open to dialogue. We are open to discussions. But this must happen through the proper channels and with respect for international law.'” (01/05/25)
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c4g0zg974v1o“
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18) Bitcoin Ignites Higher as Trump’s Venezuela Seize Unleashes Oil Chaos
Source: Yahoo! Finance
“The world’s largest cryptocurrency rose nearly 5% over the past three days, lifting the total value of the market by about $100 billion, as traders digested the implications of Washington’s dramatic intervention in Venezuela and its potential impact on oil prices. While some analysts described Bitcoin’s rally as an early signal of broader market stress, certain bullish commentators revived long-standing calls for prices as high as $1 million.” (01/05/26)
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/bitcoin-ignites-higher-trump-venezuela-103650171.html
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19) Ukraine: Zelenskyy replaces security chief, hires Canadian economic adviser
Source: SFGate
“President Volodymyr Zelenskyy replaced the head of Ukraine’s security service Monday, continuing a top-level reshuffle ahead of a trip to Paris where he hoped to finalize agreements with allies on how to ensure that Russia doesn’t repeat its invasion if a peace agreement is signed. Zelenskyy is trying to revamp his administration as the grinding war of attrition with Russia marks its fourth anniversary next month. He is keen to keep up the momentum of U.S.-led peace talks as well as sharpen Ukraine’s focus on defense if those efforts collapse. The Paris talks are expected to include the leaders of about 30 countries, dubbed the ‘coalition of the willing,’ which are ready to provide security guarantees to keep Ukraine safe in the future.” (01/05/25)
https://www.sfgate.com/news/world/article/zelenskyy-replaces-ukraine-s-security-chief-ahead-21276973.php
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20) Uganda: Regime Bans Live Broadcasts of Riots and “Unlawful Processions” Ahead of Vote
Source: US News & World Report
“Uganda’s government said on Monday it was banning live broadcasts of riots, ‘unlawful processions’ and other violent incidents ahead of an election in which President Yoweri Museveni is seeking to extend his 40-year rule. The authorities have detained hundreds of opposition supporters ahead of the January 15 election, which will again pit the 81-year-old Museveni against the 43-year-old pop-star-turned politician Bobi Wine. … More than 50 people were killed before the last election in 2021 in crackdowns by security forces against Wine supporters, who accused Museveni of stealing the election, which he denied.” (01/05/26)
https://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2026-01-05/uganda-bans-live-broadcasts-of-riots-and-unlawful-processions-ahead-of-vote
_____ Today's Freedom Commentary _____
21) You Think Our Country’s So Innocent?
Source: Notablog
by Chris Matthew Sciabarra
“Back in July 2016, when I predicted that Donald Trump would win his first campaign for the White House, I wrote skeptically about the coming ‘Trump Revolution.’ I was encouraged by only one thing: That Trump might foster a less interventionist foreign policy than, say, Hillary Clinton. He was belatedly critical of the Iraq War and when questioned by Bill O’Reilly about how Russia had interfered in U.S. elections, he replied correctly: ‘You think our country’s so innocent?’ Indeed, the United States government has been responsible for toppling more governments abroad (both covertly and overtly) than perhaps any other government in the history of the world. Unfortunately, not even in his first term did Trump live up to the ‘promise’ of a revolution in foreign policy.” (01/04/26)
https://notablog.net/2026/01/04/you-think-our-countrys-so-innocent/
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22) Gentle Individualism, Rugged Communitarianism
Source: Underthrow
by Max Borders
“Mindwar creates false binaries. I don’t know who coined the phrase ‘rugged individualism,’ but surely there is something gentle in respecting the person and property of every individual. No doubt, there is a ruggedness to making one’s way in the world without government goodies and nationalized industries, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Nowadays, the phrase is almost always used sardonically. I also don’t see how communitarianism ever got associated with what government authorities ought to do, but community is not something that state officials can compel.” (01/05/26)
https://underthrow.substack.com/p/gentle-individualism-rugged-communitarianism
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23) Trump’s Venezuelan Crony Capitalism
Source: Ludwig von Mises Institute
by Peter G Klein
“Trump justifies his war on Venezuela by saying that ‘they’ stole ‘our’ oil. Unpacking this claim gives us insight into Trump’s version of crony capitalism – a system of private ownership in which the state intervenes to promote the interests of politically connected firms. … A common feature of crony capitalism is the subsidization of downside loss – owners keep the profits, but losses are passed onto the taxpayer. That is exactly what Trump and his allies propose here.” (01/05/26)
https://mises.org/power-market/trumps-venezuelan-crony-capitalism
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24) Trump’s health issue is growing. Maybe it’s JD Vance time.
Source: USA Today
by Rex Huppke
“Nothing snuffs out questions about a near-octogenarian president’s health quite like that president repeatedly bragging about passing a dementia test and telling the world he ignores his doctors and doesn’t exercise. … we have a commander in chief who’s pushing 80, doesn’t sleep much and bruises ‒ if you believe the White House’s excuses ‒ when someone shakes his hand. … If Trump administration officials were smart ‒ they’re not ‒ they would be putting Vice President JD Vance front and center more often to at least reassure Americans that Trump has a competent person behind him. The fact that they’re not doing this is either a testament to Trump’s ego ‒ which bruises more easily than his flesh ‒ or an indictment of Vance’s competence and likability, or both.” (01/05/26)
https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/columnist/2026/01/05/trump-health-age-health-concerns/87997190007/
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25) Venezuela Might Be Where Trump’s Luck Runs Out
Source: Foreign Policy
by Emma Ashford
“The president has been lucky. His strikes in Iran did not lead to substantial escalation, and for the moment, the seizure of Maduro does not appear to have thrown Venezuela into chaos. But that does not mean the president’s ability to avoid the consequences of future strikes of this kind — in Mexico, say, or Greenland — couldn’t easily turn into blowback against the United States. And the more that Trump engages in these displays of U.S. force, the more likely it is that one of them will go catastrophically wrong.” (01/05/26)
https://archive.is/LPShF
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26) The Warmth of Collectivism is the Cold Logic of Ruin
Source: Town Hall
by Elicia Brand
“When New York’s new mayor vowed to replace rugged individualism with collectivism, he echoed an ideology history has already tested, and buried. Ayn Rand warned us what happens when societies punish excellence. In 2026, New York chose to learn the lesson anyway. On January 1, 2026, in his inaugural address as Mayor of New York City, Zohran Mamdani stated it plainly: ‘We will replace the frigidity of rugged individualism with the warmth of collectivism.’ This was not a flourish or a metaphor gone astray. It was a governing declaration, delivered from the seat of American commerce and offered as the philosophical blueprint for how the nation’s largest city would now be run … Socialist (cough, cough—Communist). History has heard this language before, and it has always ended the same way.” (01/05/25)
https://townhall.com/columnists/elicia-brand/2026/01/05/the-warmth-of-collectivism-is-the-cold-logic-of-ruin-n2668891
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27) Fed Independence?
Source: Foundation for Economic Education
by Walter Block
“Ideally, there should be no such thing as the Federal Reserve System. The Fed should not have been created in 1913, and should be disbanded right now. End the Fed! This organization is nothing more and nothing less than a central planning bureau for interest rates, employment, and inflation (of late, it has expanded its mandate to include climate change and social equity issues as well). Evidently, we have not yet fully incorporated the lessons about central planning we should have learned as a society from the examples of East and West Germany, North and South Korea. These came as close to a controlled experiment as we are ever likely to find in all of economics, and yet we still continue our merry way in the direction of central planning.” (01/05/26)
https://fee.org/articles/fed-independence/
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28) Venezuela’s New President Is No Moderate
Source: Persuasion
by Quico Toro
“About a month ago, as America’s military presence in the Caribbean ramped up, The New York Times ran a feature on the figures that could imaginably step into the presidency in Nicolás Maduro’s absence. One heading was titled ‘The Moderate: Delcy Rodríguez, Vice President.’ … To Venezuelans who had spent over a decade seeing in her one of Nicolás Maduro’s most ardent and uncompromising acolytes, calling her a ‘moderate’ is an outrage. Here’s a woman who has held all of the most important offices of state — oil minister, minister of foreign affairs, president of the constituent assembly, vice president — and has never allowed any hint of sunlight to appear between her and Maduro.” (01/05/26)
https://www.persuasion.community/p/what-you-need-to-know-about-venezuelas
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29) The Empire Stole Venezuela
Source: Caitlin Johnstone, Rogue Journalist
by Caitlin Johnstone
“It’s not just that they stole Venezuela’s president in order to steal its oil, it’s that they’re working to steal the whole damn country. To steal its sovereignty. Its right to conduct its own affairs on its own terms as an independent nation. Dopey right wingers who learned the phrase ‘Monroe Doctrine’ like ten seconds ago have been mindlessly parroting those words all day to defend Trump’s Venezuela assault, and what’s grating about it is they actually think they’re talking about a real thing. They’re like, ‘No no it was totally legit, see there’s this thing called the Monroe Doctrine which says we get to control everything that happens in the western hemisphere and treat half the planet like it’s our own personal property.'” (01/05/25)
https://caitlinjohnstone.com.au/2026/01/05/new-issue-of-johnstone-the-empire-stole-venezuela/
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30) Verbal Self-Defense #1
Source: The Findings Substack
by Paul Rosenberg
“Actual street fights are, thankfully, rather rare in the world. Verbal street fights, sadly, are common. In most cases these fights spring out of an amoral need to preserve status. If you begin to question or diminish ideas which someone feels tied to – from which they gain standing in one way or another – they’re likely to dislike you and/or to verbally attack you. All of us with non-standard opinions have experienced this. So, since non-standard opinions are the path to progress, it’s important that we learn how to deal with these attacks. This will be the first of several posts on this subject, which I sometimes think of as Verbal Judo.” (01/05/26)
https://thefindings.substack.com/p/verbal-self-defense-1
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31) An opening for Venezuelans’ intrinsic sovereignty
Source: Christian Science Monitor
by staff
“The American capture of Venezuelan strongman Nicolás Maduro as an alleged fugitive from U.S. justice – while an impressive military feat – has opened a vigorous, global debate about its legality. Is unilateral foreign intervention justified when a failing authoritarian state commits atrocities at home and exports drugs and migrants? Yet for millions of Venezuelans – joyful over a dictator’s exit – the question is less about international law than about their quest for the very basis of law: the freedom of sovereign individuals to choose their government and maintain a shared civic identity. ‘The time has come for popular sovereignty and national sovereignty to prevail in our country,’ Venezuelan opposition leader and Nobel Peace Prize laureate María Corina Machado declared in a weekend social media post.” (01/04/25)
https://www.csmonitor.com/Commentary/the-monitors-view/2026/0104/An-opening-for-Venezuelans-intrinsic-sovereignty
-----
32) The Development of the Straussian Mind?
Source: Law & Liberty
by Bruce P Frohnen
“The Declaration of Independence has a special place in American public discourse. Its stirring rhetoric and ringing message inspire even the most cynical and make it a suitable primer on American political ideals. That said, for many decades, there has been significant, even acrimonious disagreement concerning the Declaration’s nature and role in shaping our public life. Radicals like those behind the 1619 Project dismiss all such documents as mere cover for race-, sex-, or class-based oppression. Those more well-disposed to our constitutional order still debate its basic meaning and influence. Matthew Spalding’s new book, The Making of the American Mind, provides an excellent and admirably disciplined entrée into continuing interpretive issues and the possibility for common ground on such fundamental issues.” (01/05/26)
https://lawliberty.org/book-review/the-development-of-the-straussian-mind/
-----
33) What Planet Are We On? How Did I End Up Living in Donald Trump’s Suicidal America?
Source: TomDispatch
by Tom Engelhardt
“As 2026 begins, what a strange planet we find ourselves on. The two great empires of my youth, the Soviet Union (now Russia) and my own country, are clearly experiencing some version of imperial decline, even if Vladimir Putin is acting otherwise in Ukraine (as is Donald Trump in his own strange fashion in the Caribbean Sea and Venezuela). No less curiously, the country visibly on the rise, China, is distinctly not acting like a typical imperial power of history (at least the history I’ve known). In a world where the United States still has 750 or so military bases around the world, China, as far as I can tell, has at most just one (in Djibouti, Africa).” (01/05/25)
https://tomdispatch.com/what-planet-are-we-on/
-----
34) Trump’s Defense-Industrial Double Movement
Source: The American Conservative
by Luke Nicastro
“When it comes to defense industrial policy, the Trump administration contains multitudes. On the one hand, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth has embarked upon a crusade to remake the defense acquisition system (now rechristened the warfighting acquisition system) on more market-friendly lines. … But at the same time, the state’s role in defense production is massively expanding. … One way to interpret the administration’s Janus-faced posture is as simple incoherence, the result of different principals pursuing different policies with different aims. A deeper read, however, suggests an essential compatibility between these two tendencies. Consciously or not, the White House is executing an ambitious double movement, simultaneously blasting open an arena for market competition while anchoring strategically critical production against the vicissitudes of fortune.” (01/05/26)
https://www.theamericanconservative.com/trumps-defense-industrial-double-movement/
-----
35) The dog that didn’t bark on birthright citizenship
Source: The Hill
by Steven Lubet
“The ratifiers of the 14th Amendment could not have contemplated excluding the children of unlawful entrants, because the concept did not yet exist in 1868. There were no visas or standardized passports, or other official travel documents, and thus no defined legal categories of immigrants. The first general entry restriction — a blatantly racist law that applied only to Asians — was not enacted until 1882. There were, however, many temporary residents, the other group subject to Trump’s executive order. Naturally, some of them produced children. As Professor Amanda Frost and her student coauthor, Emily Eason, brilliantly determined, at least a dozen members of Congress in the years 1865 to 1871 may have been the American-born children of temporary residents, whose citizenship would therefore have been ‘suspect under President Trump’s interpretation’ of the 14th Amendment. And yet, there were no challenges to their qualifications to sit in Congress, for which citizenship is a constitutional requirement.” (01/05/26)
https://thehill.com/opinion/judiciary/supreme-court/5670043-birthright-citizenship-trump-challenge/
-----
36) The Regulatory Pendulum: Why Financial Rules Keep Missing the Mark
Source: The Daily Economy
by Nicolas Cachanosky
“Until policymakers accept that financial regulation shifts risk rather than eliminates it, we will keep cycling through crisis, overreaction, unintended consequences, and the next crisis.” (01/05/26)
https://thedailyeconomy.org/article/the-regulatory-pendulum-why-financial-rules-keep-missing-the-mark/
-----
37) Trump’s realpolitik may be the only way to end the Ukraine war
Source: Fox News
by Gordon Sondland
“For three years, the Washington foreign policy establishment has insisted that there is only one acceptable outcome in Ukraine: total victory over Russia achieved through relentless military aid, indefinite financial support and escalation readiness regardless of the risks. But strategy and morality are not always the same thing — and real leadership demands confronting reality as it exists, not as we wish it to be. I write this not as an academic or pundit, but as someone who worked at the center of this conflict. As U.S. ambassador to the European Union during the first Trump administration, President Donald Trump tasked me with bringing Europe into alignment — truly into alignment — behind Ukraine. That meant ending the EU’s habitual double-game: proclaiming solidarity with Kyiv while enriching Moscow through energy purchases and dragging its feet on serious sanctions.” (01/05/25)
https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/gordon-sondland-trumps-realpolitik-may-only-way-end-ukraine-war
-----
38) The Logic of Liberalism
Source: Liberal Currents
by Guillaume AW Attia
“Contra the dreams of populist strongmen, real constraints on executive power are the only approach consistent with real freedom.” (01/05/26)
https://www.liberalcurrents.com/the-logic-of-liberalism/
-----
39) Americans Are Increasingly Skeptical of Foreign Military Intervention
Source: Reason
by JD Tuccille
“The stunning U.S. raid on Venezuela that removed President and socialist thug Nicolás Maduro from power to face trial in the U.S. raises questions: What’s next for long-suffering but hopeful Venezuelans, what is the legal basis for snatching a country’s head of state without congressional authorization, and where do Americans stand on the Trump administration’s nation-building project? We’ll have to wait and see on the first point, and the answer to the second is that there is no legal basis for unilateral presidential missions to depose foreign leaders. But while the public will need some time to digest these events, we know Americans — especially young ones — are increasingly dubious about foreign adventures.” (01/05/26)
https://reason.com/2026/01/05/americans-are-increasingly-skeptical-of-foreign-military-intervention/
-----
40) “We’re Going to Run the Country:” Preparing an Illegal Occupation in Venezuela
Source: CounterPunch
by Michelle Ellner
“Let’s be clear about the claims made. The president is asserting that the U.S. can detain a sitting foreign president and his spouse under U.S. criminal law, that the U.S. can administer another sovereign country without an international mandate. That Venezuela’s political future can be decided from Washington. That control over oil and ‘rebuilding’ is a legitimate byproduct of intervention. That all of this can happen without congressional authorization and without evidence of imminent threat. We have heard this language before.” (01/05/26)
https://www.counterpunch.org/2026/01/05/were-going-to-run-the-country-preparing-an-illegal-occupation-in-venezuela/
-----
41) What Happened to Tulsi Gabbard’s Non-Interventionist Principles?
Source: Common Dreams
by Ann Wright
“Seven years ago, US Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard wrote in 2019 on Twitter: ‘The United States needs to stay out of Venezuela. Let the Venezuelan people determine their future. We don’t allow other countries to choose our leaders, so we have to stop trying to choose theirs.’ Now as director of National Intelligence in the Trump administration, Tulsi Gabbard is a key part of the US overthrow of the Venezuelan government and the kidnapping of the Venezuelan president and his wife and the deaths of at least 40 persons in Venezuela. During her 2018 Congressional reelection campaign, she warned of ‘regime change wars’: ‘Every dollar spent on interventionist regime change wars is a dollar not spent on education, healthcare, infrastructure, and a myriad of other needs desperately needed right here at home,’ Gabbard said in 2018.” (01/05/25)
https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/tulsi-gabbard-war
-----
42) H3N2 Flu Rising in Palm Beach and Brevard: Why Your Health Is Your Business
Source: Karl Dickey’s Freedom Vanguard
by Karl Dickey
“So, we have a known risk. The flu is here, and this version of it packs a punch. The critical question now — the one that separates a libertarian perspective from the standard ‘public health’ view — is: Who is responsible for managing that risk? Thankfully, we haven’t heard too many serious suggestions that the government force flu vaccines onto the citizenry, it remains voluntary at this juncture. The prevailing narrative in modern public health often leans heavily on centralized collectivism.” (01/05/26)
https://palmbeachexaminer.substack.com/p/h3n2-flu-rising-in-palm-beach-and
-----
43) The Ugly Truth About Many Americans: They Love War
Source: Antiwar.com
by Alan Mosley
“After nearly every U.S. military intervention since World War II, public opinion has followed the same trajectory: overwhelming support when the bombs first fall, then waning approval once casualties mount and victory proves elusive. … One reason for this cyclical amnesia is the way politicians package wars as risk‑free. In 2003 the Bush administration promised a short campaign financed by Iraqi oil, just as the Kennedy and Johnson administrations predicted a quick victory in Vietnam. Today President Trump suggests the Venezuelan operation will be swift, with no U.S. casualties. History suggests otherwise.” (01/05/26)
https://original.antiwar.com/alan_mosley/2026/01/04/the-ugly-truth-about-many-americans-they-love-war
-----
44) MAGA seems to always need a scapegoat
Source: Orange County Register
by Sal Rodriguez
“By now you have seen the reports about alleged widespread welfare and social services fraud in Minnesota. And by now, you have seen the right fixate on the state’s Somali community. The most prominent example of fraud took place via a nonprofit called Feeding Our Future, which bilked taxpayers out of hundreds of millions of federal COVID dollars as it falsely claimed to distribute meals. The founder of the organization, a white American named Aimee Bock, was convicted of her crimes. … If there’s blame to go around, it seems first aimed at the individual wrongdoers themselves. And then, as a systemic critique, the reckless throwing around of public funds. But, what do you know, MAGA world has chosen to make this not about the need to hold individuals liable for their actions or the need to better manage taxpayer funds. Instead, they made it about Somalis for being Somali.” (01/04/26)
https://archive.is/IpoLN
-----
45) Greta Thunberg is a warning to parents raising ideologically captured kids
Source: New York Post
by Natalya Murakhver
“‘How dare you?’ Remember that fiery 2019 United Nations speech, when a 16-year-old Greta Thunberg stared down world leaders and accused the adults in the room of stealing her future by ignoring climate change? The moment catapulted the perpetually pinch-faced teen towards unfathomable stardom as a self-anointed champion for human rights and the planet’s survival. But fast-forward to today, and Greta is falling quite short of that promise. She’s not a savior — in fact, she’s a malignant force trying to erase the horrors inflicted on some of the world’s most vulnerable, the victims of Hamas’[s] Oct. 7 massacre. How can someone who built her life around securing youth a future be so hell-bent on obliterating the past, silencing Jewish voices and denying the suffering of children burned alive, women raped and families slaughtered? Let’s look at her latest escapades.” (01/05/25)
https://nypost.com/2026/01/05/opinion/greta-thunberg-is-a-warning-to-parents-raising-ideologically-captured-kids/
-----
46) Orwell’s Mistakes
Source: David Friedman’s Substack
by David Friedman
“George Orwell got some things right; unlike most political partisans, he saw the problems with the position he supported. He also got quite a lot of things wrong. … The problem is that Orwell, like many of his contemporaries (and ours), did not understand economics and thought he did. Since he wrote we have had extensive experience with free competition, if not as free as Hayek would have wanted, and the result has not been the nightmare that Orwell expected.” (01/04/26)
https://daviddfriedman.substack.com/p/orwells-mistakes
-----
47) When Trump’s big Venezuela oil grab runs smack into reality
Source: Responsible Statecraft
by Karthik Sankaran
“Within hours of U.S. military strikes on Venezuela and the capture of its leader, Nicolas Maduro, President Trump proclaimed that ‘very large United States oil companies would go in, spend billions of dollars, fix the badly broken infrastructure, and start making money for the country.’ Indeed, at no point during this exercise has there been any attempt to deny that control of Venezuela’s oil (or ‘our oil’ as Trump once described it) is a major force motivating administration actions. One irony here is that even as the White House is proudly embracing fossil-fuel imperialism in global oil, the markets are vastly different.” (01/04/26)
https://responsiblestatecraft.org/venezuela-oil/
-----
48) Dreaming of a Queer Amish Hezbollah or: Revolution as Therapy in Apocalyptic Times
Source: exile in happy valley
by Nicky Reid
“Agorism is a political philosophy developed by a little-known libertarian burn-out named Samuel Edward Konkin III that advocates destroying the government by engaging in modes of counter-economics that essentially make every market a black market by replacing state facilitated capitalism with an unregulated ecosystem of barter, subsistence production and mutual aid which simultaneously make communities like mine more autonomous and virtually untaxable. Panarchy is a system of governance proposing an infinite constellation of diverse, co-existing, and largely non-territorial governments that individuals can chose to join or leave at will the same way they would a church or a cellphone provider, creating a network of overlapping tribal nations not unlike those once indigenous to the pre-Christian world. With those philosophies in mind, I have developed a loose long-term goal to liberate my people, the rural Queer subaltern betrayed by Pride inc., that builds on the baby steps I have begun taking this year.” (01/04/26)
https://exileinhappyvalley.blogspot.com/2026/01/dreaming-of-queer-amish-hezbollah-or.html
-----
49) What if Trump Pulls This Off?
Source: The American Prospect
by Robert Kuttner
“There has been a huge amount of groupthink on the part of critics of Trump’s smash-and-grab operation to capture and prosecute Venezuela’s President Nicolás Maduro. The critics make the obvious point that the incursion violated Venezuela’s sovereignty and international law; that Trump’s reversion to 19th-century colonialism and spheres of influence is an invitation for Putin and Xi to do likewise in their spheres; and that America’s adventures in nation building, long disparaged by Trump himself, have seldom worked out well. There is also near-universal commentary to the effect that Trump has no clear plans for the morning after. … But reading slightly between the lines, it’s evident that there is the concept of a plan, to use Trump’s idiom.” (01/05/25)
https://prospect.org/2026/01/05/what-if-trump-pulls-this-off-venezuela-rodriguez/
-----
50) Politics, combat, and the Christ
Source: The Price of Liberty
by Nathan Barton
“A revolutionary in both spirit and action, Jesus not only died challenging the police state of his day — the Roman Empire and its lesser governments — but left behind a blueprint for resisting tyranny that has guided countless reformers and freedom fighters ever since.” (01/04/26)
https://thepriceofliberty.org/2026/01/04/politics-combat-and-the-christ/
_____ Today's Freedom Podcast and Video _____
51) Reason Roundtable, 12/05/26
Source: Reason
"What Does It Mean To 'Run' Venezuela?" (01/05/26)
https://reason.com/podcast/2026/01/05/what-does-it-mean-to-run-venezuela/
-----
52) The Mona Charen Show, 01/05/26
Source: The Bulwark
“Stability Was America’s Secret Weapon (w/ Catherine Rampell).” (01/05/26)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NdR5_K3_eIs
-----
53) Finding Freedom, 01/05/26
Source: Lions of Liberty
“Power, Justice and the Decline of Trust with Brian O’Leary.” (01/05/26)
https://www.lionsofliberty.com/episodes/ff-power-justice-and-the-decline-of-trust-with-brian-oleary
-----
54) Ron Paul Liberty Report, 01/05/26
Source: Ron Paul Liberty Report
“Venezuela ‘Regime Change’ — How Long Will The Euphoria Last?” (01/05/26)
https://rumble.com/v73wrl6-e-venezuela-regime-change-how-long-will-the-euphoria-last.html
-----
55) Conflicts of Interest, episode 863
Source: Libertarian Institute
“Trump Threatens Second Attack on Venezuela.” (01/05/26)
https://libertarianinstitute.org/kyle/coi-863-trump-threatens-second-attack-on-venezuela/
-----
56) The Daily Blast With Greg Sargent, 01/05/26
Source: The New Republic
“Marjorie Taylor Greene Wrecks Trump in Epic Maduro Rant as MAGA Breaks.” (01/05/26)
https://newrepublic.com/article/204896/marjorie-taylor-greene-wrecks-trump-epic-maduro-rant-maga-breaks
-----
57) TechTank, season 5, episode 34
Source: Brookings Institution
“Why water is important for data centers.” (01/05/26)
https://shows.acast.com/tech-tank/episodes/why-water-is-important-for-data-centers
-----
58) The Remnant with Jonah Goldberg, 01/05/26
Source: The Dispatch
“John Adams Was Not an Originalist | Interview: Lindsay Chervinsky.” (01/05/26)
https://thedispatch.com/podcast/remnant/john-adams-was-not-an-originalist-interview-lindsay-chervinsky/
-----
59) EconTalk, 01/05/26
Source: EconTalk
“Conversation, Interintellect, and Arcadia (with Anna Gát).” (01/05/26)
https://www.econtalk.org/conversation-interintellect-and-arcadia-with-anna-gat/
-----
60) Radio Atlantic, 01/05/26
Source: The Atlantic
“Is the U.S. Running Venezuela or Not?” (01/05/26)
https://www.theatlantic.com/podcasts/2026/01/venezuela-maduro-trump/685501/
-----
61) Antiwar News with Dave DeCamp, 01/05/26
Source: Antiwar.com
“Trump Threatens Venezuela’s New Acting President, IDF Kills Three Palestinians in Gaza, and More.” (01/05/26)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WZk4Qt_dSrQ
-----
62) Free Talk Live, 01/04/26
Source: Free Talk Live
“Can harming a communist ever be against the NAP? :: The capturing of Maduro in Venezuela an act of war? :: Can stopping a child from running in the road be a NAP violation? :: Do individuals owe the national debt or just the government? :: Dave Ridley calls to tell us about Michael Jennings, a man working on the AI alignment problem :: The horrible job of the US cleaning up their messes after Iraq and other wars :: Sarah wants to protest for Maduro :: True communism has been tried but not true capitalism :: This war will just be bailing out oil companies :: The reasons Trump’s cover story that this is about drugs is wrong :: Israel’s interest in the US starting wars :: Crazy caller James Wittakind is back. Is he banned? :: 2026-01-04 Hosts: Bonnie, Mr. Penguin, Angelo.” (01/04/26)
https://soundcloud.com/freetalklive/ftl2026-01-04
-----
63) Politics Politics Politics, 01/04/26
Source: Politics Politics Politics
“Maduro Arrested in Venezuela.” (01/04/26)
https://www.politicspoliticspolitics.com/p/maduro-arrested-in-venezuela
-----
64) Jason Jones on The Scott Horton Show
Source: The Scott Horton Show
“Scott interviews Jason Jones from the Vulnerable People Project about why American Christians are wrong to see the Israeli government as an ally.” (01/04/26)
https://scotthorton.org/interviews/1-2-26-jason-jones-on-israels-war-on-christians/
-----
65) BOOGAWHO?!, episode 1
Source: LP Alliance
“Join us as we discuss the most influential Libertarian militia movement.” (01/04/26)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XYBbqybyRd0
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Today's Freedom News:
1) Venezuela: Regime forces abduct journalists, seize communication devices
2) Board dissolves US state media corporation
3) Lebanon: Israeli forces strike multiple sites ahead of a key disarmament meeting
4) Dog bites man: Shitbird bureaucrat moves to demote naval officer for mentioning the law
5) NYC: Maduro paraded for show trial preliminaries
6) US regime expands list of countries whose citizens must pay up to $15,000 bonds to apply for visas
7) US CDC reduces number of recommended vaccines for children
8) Gmail to Discontinue POP3 Mail Fetching for External Email Accounts
9) After judge’s ruling, HHS authorized to resume sharing some Medicaid data with gang abduction accomplices
10) Novo Nordisk launches Wegovy weight-loss pill in US, triggering price war
11) Judge: Amazon must face price gouging lawsuit
12) UK: Regime begins “world-leading” food ad ban
13) Trump cuts off $10 billion in funding to five blue states for child care, social services
14) Japan: Bluefin tuna sells for record $3.2 million at year-opening auction at Tokyo fish market
15) MN: Walz drops bid for third term as governor; Klobuchar considers it
16) France: Ten convicted of saying mean things about Brigitte Macron
17) “We need Greenland”: Trump repeats threat to annex Danish territory
18) Bitcoin Ignites Higher as Trump’s Venezuela Seize Unleashes Oil Chaos
19) Ukraine: Zelenskyy replaces security chief, hires Canadian economic adviser
20) Uganda: Regime Bans Live Broadcasts of Riots and “Unlawful Processions” Ahead of Vote
Today's Freedom Commentary:
21) You Think Our Country’s So Innocent?
22) Gentle Individualism, Rugged Communitarianism
23) Trump’s Venezuelan Crony Capitalism
24) Trump’s health issue is growing. Maybe it’s JD Vance time.
25) Venezuela Might Be Where Trump’s Luck Runs Out
26) The Warmth of Collectivism is the Cold Logic of Ruin
27) Fed Independence?
28) Venezuela’s New President Is No Moderate
29) The Empire Stole Venezuela
30) Verbal Self-Defense #1
31) An opening for Venezuelans’ intrinsic sovereignty
32) The Development of the Straussian Mind?
33) What Planet Are We On? How Did I End Up Living in Donald Trump’s Suicidal America?
34) Trump’s Defense-Industrial Double Movement
35) The dog that didn’t bark on birthright citizenship
36) The Regulatory Pendulum: Why Financial Rules Keep Missing the Mark
37) Trump’s realpolitik may be the only way to end the Ukraine war
38) The Logic of Liberalism
39) Americans Are Increasingly Skeptical of Foreign Military Intervention
40) “We’re Going to Run the Country:” Preparing an Illegal Occupation in Venezuela
41) What Happened to Tulsi Gabbard’s Non-Interventionist Principles?
42) H3N2 Flu Rising in Palm Beach and Brevard: Why Your Health Is Your Business
43) The Ugly Truth About Many Americans: They Love War
44) MAGA seems to always need a scapegoat
45) Greta Thunberg is a warning to parents raising ideologically captured kids
46) Orwell’s Mistakes
47) When Trump’s big Venezuela oil grab runs smack into reality
48) Dreaming of a Queer Amish Hezbollah or: Revolution as Therapy in Apocalyptic Times
49) What if Trump Pulls This Off?
50) Politics, combat, and the Christ
Today's Freedom Podcast and Video:
51) Reason Roundtable, 12/05/26
52) The Mona Charen Show, 01/05/26
53) Finding Freedom, 01/05/26
54) Ron Paul Liberty Report, 01/05/26
55) Conflicts of Interest, episode 863
56) The Daily Blast With Greg Sargent, 01/05/26
57) TechTank, season 5, episode 34
58) The Remnant with Jonah Goldberg, 01/05/26
59) EconTalk, 01/05/26
60) Radio Atlantic, 01/05/26
61) Antiwar News with Dave DeCamp, 01/05/26
62) Free Talk Live, 01/04/26
63) Politics Politics Politics, 01/04/26
64) Jason Jones on The Scott Horton Show
65) BOOGAWHO?!, episode 1
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_____ Today's Freedom News _____
1) Venezuela: Regime forces abduct journalists, seize communication devices
Source: The Guardian [UK]
“At least 14 journalists and media employees, including 13 members of international media organisations, were [abducted] in Caracas on Monday, according to the union representing Venezuelan reporters. Thirteen of those [abducted] were later released, one of whom was deported. … Five of the [abducted] journalists had been covering the opening session of the National Assembly, where they were banned from recording, transmitting the event live, or taking photos. Others were [abducted] by military intelligence officers and taken to the National Guard command post in the Assembly building, according to the union. Their phones were confiscated and thoroughly searched, the union said, including contacts, conversations, voice notes, Instagram accounts, emails, and documents.” (01/06/26)
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/jan/06/venezuela-detains-journalists-after-nicolas-maduros-captured
-----
2) Board dissolves US state media corporation
Source: USA Today
“The Corporation for Public Broadcasting announced on Jan. 5 that its board voted to dissolve the nearly 60-year-old organization, attributing the decision to a lack of federal funding and ‘sustained political attacks.’ Such factors ‘made it impossible for CPB to continue operating as the Public Broadcasting Act intended,’ according to a news release announcing the vote. … Congress voted in July to claw back $1.1 billion that had been earmarked for public broadcasting over the next two years, prompting the corporation to announce the following month that it was starting an ‘orderly wind-down of its operations.'” (01/05/26)
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2026/01/05/corporation-public-broadcasting-dissolved/88036028007/
-----
3) Lebanon: Israeli forces strike multiple sites ahead of a key disarmament meeting
Source: Politico
“Israel’s air force struck areas in southern and eastern Lebanon on Monday and early Tuesday, including in the country’s third-largest city. A strike around 1 a.m. Tuesday leveled a three-story commercial building in the southern coastal city of Sidon, a few days before Lebanon’s army commander is scheduled to brief the government on its mission of disarming militant group Hezbollah in areas along the border with Israel. … On Monday, the Israeli army hit several sites in southern and eastern Lebanon saying they held infrastructure for the militant groups Hezbollah and Hamas.” (01/05/26)
https://www.politico.com/news/2026/01/05/israel-strikes-multiple-sites-in-lebanon-ahead-of-a-key-disarmament-meeting-00712171
-----
4) Dog bites man: Shitbird bureaucrat moves to demote naval officer for mentioning the law
Source: The Hill
“Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth moved on Monday to demote Sen. Mark Kelly’s (D-Ariz.) military rank over his participation in a recent video with five other Democrats, in which they reminded U.S. service members that they [must] refuse illegal orders from higher-ups [including shitbirds like Hegseth]. Hegseth said in a statement that the Pentagon has initiated retirement grade determination proceedings, also called officer grade determinations, with ‘reduction in his retired grade resulting in a corresponding reduction in retired pay.’ The Pentagon chief also said he issued a formal letter of censure, which ‘outlines the totality of Captain (for now) Kelly’s reckless misconduct.'” (01/05/26)
https://thehill.com/policy/defense/5672739-hegseth-censure-demote-mark-kelly
-----
5) NYC: Maduro paraded for show trial preliminaries
Source: BBC News [UK state media]
“The sound of clanking leg shackles could be heard moments before Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro walked into the door of a New York City courtroom for the first time. He then told packed rows of reporters and the public that he had just been ‘kidnapped.’ Minutes after his entrance, the Judge Alvin Hellerstein asked Maduro to confirm his identity so the proceedings could start. ‘I am, sir, Nicolás Maduro. I am president of the Republic of Venezuela and I am here kidnapped since January 3rd,’ he told the court in a calm Spanish before an interpreter translated for the court. … The 92-year-old judge quickly interjected to tell Maduro that there would be a ‘time and a place to get into all of this.'” (01/05/26)
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cq6v25eldmdo
-----
6) US regime expands list of countries whose citizens must pay up to $15,000 bonds to apply for visas
Source: Associated Press
“The Trump administration has added seven countries, including five in Africa, to the list of nations whose passport holders are required to post bonds of up to $15,000 to apply to enter the United States. Thirteen countries, all but two of them in Africa, are now on the list, which makes the process of obtaining a U.S. visa unaffordable for many. The State Department last week quietly added Bhutan, Botswana, the Central African Republic, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Namibia and Turkmenistan to the list. Those designations took effect on Jan. 1, according to a notice posted on the travel.state.gov website. It’s the latest effort by the Trump administration to tighten requirements for entry to the U.S., including requiring citizens from all countries that require visas to sit for in-person interviews and disclose years of social media histories as well as detailed accounts of their and their families’ previous travel and living arrangements.” (01/05/26)
https://apnews.com/article/us-visa-restrictions-trump-bond-travel-7211e43ef4eb84144717c3331ab89e8e
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7) US CDC reduces number of recommended vaccines for children
Source: The Hill
“The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is reducing the number of vaccines it recommends for children, officials said Monday, a major shift that officials say will bring the U.S. recommendations more similar to those of other developed countries. The move, which is effective immediately, fulfills a longtime goal of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and other vaccine skeptics who have questioned the number and benefit of the vaccines children receive. The CDC will now recommend children receive 11 vaccines, rather than the current list of 17, putting it line with the much smaller country of Denmark.” [editor’s note: Right direction, for which RFK/MAHA deserve at least a golf clap – TLK] (01/05/26)
https://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/5673251-cdc-reduces-childhood-vaccines
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8) Gmail to Discontinue POP3 Mail Fetching for External Email Accounts
Source: Cyber Security News
“Google has announced that Gmail will discontinue support for two key features regarding third-party email accounts. Starting in January 2026, the platform will drop support for ‘Gmailify’ and the widely utilized ‘Check mail from other accounts’ feature via POP3 fetching. For over a decade, power users have relied on Gmail not just as an email service, but as a central hub for managing diverse email identities. This upcoming update effectively marks the end of Gmail acting as a web-based email client for external POP3 accounts. The deprecation of Gmailify represents a loss of functionality for users who linked Yahoo, Outlook, or other IMAP accounts to get the ‘Google treatment.’ Gmailify bridged the gap between providers, applying Google’s advanced algorithms to third-party inboxes.” (01/05/26)
https://cybersecuritynews.com/gmail-drop-pop3/
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9) After judge’s ruling, HHS authorized to resume sharing some Medicaid data with gang abduction accomplices
Source: San Diego Union-Tribune
“The nation’s health department starting Monday can resume sharing the personal data of certain Medicaid enrollees with deportation officials, according to a federal judge’s ruling, in a blow to states that had sued the administration over privacy concerns. But the judge’s decision, issued last Monday, strictly limits the scope of data from the 22 plaintiff states that can be shared — for now only allowing the agency to hand over basic biographical information about immigrants residing in the United States illegally [sic]. The states’ lawsuit came after an Associated Press report identified the data sharing policy. The ruling from U.S. District Judge Vince Chhabria in San Francisco comes after the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services said it planned to share the data again as part of the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown.” (01/05/26)
https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/2026/01/05/medicaid-immigration-data-sharing/
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10) Novo Nordisk launches Wegovy weight-loss pill in US, triggering price war
Source: The Guardian [UK]
“The first pill version of the blockbuster GLP-1 weight loss drugs has been launched in the US by Novo Nordisk at a lower cost than jab varieties, accelerating a price war in the sector. The Danish pharmaceutical company said on Monday that its once-a-day Wegovy pill, which received approval from the US regulator just before Christmas, was now available in the country. … the highest doses cost $299 a month. Patients with insurance pay from $25 a month. Matt Weston, a pharmaceutical analyst at UBS, said the price was lower than expected. US list prices for weight-loss jabs are about $1,000 a month or more, although Novo Nordisk started selling its Wegovy injection at $349 a month to cash payers in November.” (01/05/26)
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2026/jan/05/novo-nordisk-launches-wegovy-weight-loss-pill-us-price-war
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11) Judge: Amazon must face price gouging lawsuit
Source: Reuters
“A U.S. judge on Monday rejected Amazon.com‘s bid to dismiss a lawsuit accusing the online retailer of price gouging during the COVID-19 pandemic. … Consumers in the proposed class action claimed to suffer losses because Amazon failed to take steps to prevent sellers from using its platform to charge excessive prices.” (01/05/26)
https://archive.is/yUTLX
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12) UK: Regime begins “world-leading” food ad ban
Source: South China Morning Post [Hong Kong]
“New regulations come into force on Monday in Britain banning daytime TV and online adverts for so-called junk foods, in what the government calls a ‘world-leading action’ to tackle childhood obesity. The ban – targeting commercials for products high in fat, salt or sugar – is expected to remove up to 7.2 billion calories from children’s diets each year, according to the health ministry. The restrictions, which cover television advertisements before 9pm and all digital platforms, will cut childhood obesity cases by 20,000 and save the healthcare system £2 billion (US$2.7 billion), the ministry said. The implementation of the measure – first announced in December 2024 – follows other recent steps, including an extended sugar tax on pre-packaged items like milkshakes, ready-to-go coffees and sweetened yogurt drinks.” (01/05/26)
https://archive.is/35UOW
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13) Trump cuts off $10 billion in funding to five blue states for child care, social services
Source: New York Post
“The Trump administration is cutting off more than $10 billion in social services and child care funding meant for a handful of Democrat-led states, officials told The Post Monday. The Department of Health and Human Services will freeze taxpayer funding from the Child Care Development Fund (CCDF), the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program and the Social Services Block Grant program. At least $7.35 billion in TANF money will be prevented from going to California, Colorado, Illinois, Minnesota, and New York. The CCDF funding block of $2.3 billion affects all those states except Colorado. Another $869 million from the Social Services Block Grant coffers is being kept from all five states. The funding pauses were to be announced via letters to each state, citing concerns that benefits were fraudulently going to non-US citizens.” (01/05/25)
https://nypost.com/2026/01/05/us-news/trump-freezes-10b-in-funding-to-five-blue-states-for-child-care-social-services-over-fraud-fears/
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14) Japan: Bluefin tuna sells for record $3.2 million at year-opening auction at Tokyo fish market
Source: NBC News
“A massive 535-pound bluefin tuna sold for a record 510 million yen ($3.2 million) at the first auction of 2026 at Tokyo’s Toyosu fish market. The top bidder for the prized tuna at the predawn auction on Monday was Kiyomura Corp., whose owner Kiyoshi Kimura runs the popular Sushi Zanmai chain. Kimura, who has won the annual auction many times in the past, broke the previous record of 334 million yen ($2.1 million) he set in 2019. … Due to the popularity of tuna for sushi and sashimi, Pacific bluefin tuna was previously a threatened species due to climate change and overfishing, but its stock is recovering following conservation efforts.” (01/05/26)
https://www.nbcnews.com/world/asia/bluefin-tuna-sells-record-32-million-auction-tokyo-fish-market-rcna252288
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15) MN: Walz drops bid for third term as governor; Klobuchar considers it
Source: SFGate
“Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, Democrats’ 2024 candidate for vice president, is ending his bid for a third term as governor amid President Donald Trump’s relentless focus on a fraud investigation into child care programs in the state. Less than four months after announcing his reelection campaign, Walz said Monday that negative attention and Republican attacks have contributed to an ‘extraordinarily difficult year for our state,’ making it impossible for him to serve full-time as governor while also being a candidate to keep his job.” (01/05/25)
https://www.sfgate.com/news/politics/article/tim-walz-democrats-2024-vp-candidate-won-t-run-21276974.php
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16) France: Ten convicted of saying mean things about Brigitte Macron
Source: CBS News
“A Paris court found Monday 10 people guilty of cyberbullying France’s first lady Brigitte Macron by spreading false online claims about her gender and sexuality, including allegations she was born a man. The court handed out sentences to all the defendants ranging from a cyberbullying awareness training to 8-month suspended prison sentences. The court pointed to ‘particularly degrading, insulting, and malicious’ comments referring to false claims regarding alleged trans identity and alleged pedo criminality targeting Brigitte Macron. … The case follows years of conspiracy theories falsely alleging that Brigitte Macron was born under the name Jean-Michel Trogneux, which is actually the name of her brother. The Macrons have also filed a defamation suit in the United States against conservative influencer Candace Owens.” (01/05/26)
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/brigitte-macron-cyberbullying-french-first-lady-10-convicted/
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17) “We need Greenland”: Trump repeats threat to annex Danish territory
Source: BBC News [UK State Media]
“Donald Trump has again proposed annexing Greenland, after Denmark’s leader urged him to ‘stop the threats’ over the island. Speaking to reporters, the US president said ‘we need Greenland from the standpoint of national security.’ Trump has repeatedly raised the prospect of the semi-autonomous Danish territory becoming an annexed part of the US, citing its strategic location for defence purposes and mineral wealth. Greenland’s Prime Minister Jens Frederik Nielsen responded by saying ‘that’s enough now’ and described the notion of US control over the island as ‘a fantasy.’ ‘No more pressure. No more insinuations. No more fantasies of annexation. We are open to dialogue. We are open to discussions. But this must happen through the proper channels and with respect for international law.'” (01/05/25)
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c4g0zg974v1o“
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18) Bitcoin Ignites Higher as Trump’s Venezuela Seize Unleashes Oil Chaos
Source: Yahoo! Finance
“The world’s largest cryptocurrency rose nearly 5% over the past three days, lifting the total value of the market by about $100 billion, as traders digested the implications of Washington’s dramatic intervention in Venezuela and its potential impact on oil prices. While some analysts described Bitcoin’s rally as an early signal of broader market stress, certain bullish commentators revived long-standing calls for prices as high as $1 million.” (01/05/26)
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/bitcoin-ignites-higher-trump-venezuela-103650171.html
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19) Ukraine: Zelenskyy replaces security chief, hires Canadian economic adviser
Source: SFGate
“President Volodymyr Zelenskyy replaced the head of Ukraine’s security service Monday, continuing a top-level reshuffle ahead of a trip to Paris where he hoped to finalize agreements with allies on how to ensure that Russia doesn’t repeat its invasion if a peace agreement is signed. Zelenskyy is trying to revamp his administration as the grinding war of attrition with Russia marks its fourth anniversary next month. He is keen to keep up the momentum of U.S.-led peace talks as well as sharpen Ukraine’s focus on defense if those efforts collapse. The Paris talks are expected to include the leaders of about 30 countries, dubbed the ‘coalition of the willing,’ which are ready to provide security guarantees to keep Ukraine safe in the future.” (01/05/25)
https://www.sfgate.com/news/world/article/zelenskyy-replaces-ukraine-s-security-chief-ahead-21276973.php
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20) Uganda: Regime Bans Live Broadcasts of Riots and “Unlawful Processions” Ahead of Vote
Source: US News & World Report
“Uganda’s government said on Monday it was banning live broadcasts of riots, ‘unlawful processions’ and other violent incidents ahead of an election in which President Yoweri Museveni is seeking to extend his 40-year rule. The authorities have detained hundreds of opposition supporters ahead of the January 15 election, which will again pit the 81-year-old Museveni against the 43-year-old pop-star-turned politician Bobi Wine. … More than 50 people were killed before the last election in 2021 in crackdowns by security forces against Wine supporters, who accused Museveni of stealing the election, which he denied.” (01/05/26)
https://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2026-01-05/uganda-bans-live-broadcasts-of-riots-and-unlawful-processions-ahead-of-vote
_____ Today's Freedom Commentary _____
21) You Think Our Country’s So Innocent?
Source: Notablog
by Chris Matthew Sciabarra
“Back in July 2016, when I predicted that Donald Trump would win his first campaign for the White House, I wrote skeptically about the coming ‘Trump Revolution.’ I was encouraged by only one thing: That Trump might foster a less interventionist foreign policy than, say, Hillary Clinton. He was belatedly critical of the Iraq War and when questioned by Bill O’Reilly about how Russia had interfered in U.S. elections, he replied correctly: ‘You think our country’s so innocent?’ Indeed, the United States government has been responsible for toppling more governments abroad (both covertly and overtly) than perhaps any other government in the history of the world. Unfortunately, not even in his first term did Trump live up to the ‘promise’ of a revolution in foreign policy.” (01/04/26)
https://notablog.net/2026/01/04/you-think-our-countrys-so-innocent/
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22) Gentle Individualism, Rugged Communitarianism
Source: Underthrow
by Max Borders
“Mindwar creates false binaries. I don’t know who coined the phrase ‘rugged individualism,’ but surely there is something gentle in respecting the person and property of every individual. No doubt, there is a ruggedness to making one’s way in the world without government goodies and nationalized industries, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Nowadays, the phrase is almost always used sardonically. I also don’t see how communitarianism ever got associated with what government authorities ought to do, but community is not something that state officials can compel.” (01/05/26)
https://underthrow.substack.com/p/gentle-individualism-rugged-communitarianism
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23) Trump’s Venezuelan Crony Capitalism
Source: Ludwig von Mises Institute
by Peter G Klein
“Trump justifies his war on Venezuela by saying that ‘they’ stole ‘our’ oil. Unpacking this claim gives us insight into Trump’s version of crony capitalism – a system of private ownership in which the state intervenes to promote the interests of politically connected firms. … A common feature of crony capitalism is the subsidization of downside loss – owners keep the profits, but losses are passed onto the taxpayer. That is exactly what Trump and his allies propose here.” (01/05/26)
https://mises.org/power-market/trumps-venezuelan-crony-capitalism
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24) Trump’s health issue is growing. Maybe it’s JD Vance time.
Source: USA Today
by Rex Huppke
“Nothing snuffs out questions about a near-octogenarian president’s health quite like that president repeatedly bragging about passing a dementia test and telling the world he ignores his doctors and doesn’t exercise. … we have a commander in chief who’s pushing 80, doesn’t sleep much and bruises ‒ if you believe the White House’s excuses ‒ when someone shakes his hand. … If Trump administration officials were smart ‒ they’re not ‒ they would be putting Vice President JD Vance front and center more often to at least reassure Americans that Trump has a competent person behind him. The fact that they’re not doing this is either a testament to Trump’s ego ‒ which bruises more easily than his flesh ‒ or an indictment of Vance’s competence and likability, or both.” (01/05/26)
https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/columnist/2026/01/05/trump-health-age-health-concerns/87997190007/
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25) Venezuela Might Be Where Trump’s Luck Runs Out
Source: Foreign Policy
by Emma Ashford
“The president has been lucky. His strikes in Iran did not lead to substantial escalation, and for the moment, the seizure of Maduro does not appear to have thrown Venezuela into chaos. But that does not mean the president’s ability to avoid the consequences of future strikes of this kind — in Mexico, say, or Greenland — couldn’t easily turn into blowback against the United States. And the more that Trump engages in these displays of U.S. force, the more likely it is that one of them will go catastrophically wrong.” (01/05/26)
https://archive.is/LPShF
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26) The Warmth of Collectivism is the Cold Logic of Ruin
Source: Town Hall
by Elicia Brand
“When New York’s new mayor vowed to replace rugged individualism with collectivism, he echoed an ideology history has already tested, and buried. Ayn Rand warned us what happens when societies punish excellence. In 2026, New York chose to learn the lesson anyway. On January 1, 2026, in his inaugural address as Mayor of New York City, Zohran Mamdani stated it plainly: ‘We will replace the frigidity of rugged individualism with the warmth of collectivism.’ This was not a flourish or a metaphor gone astray. It was a governing declaration, delivered from the seat of American commerce and offered as the philosophical blueprint for how the nation’s largest city would now be run … Socialist (cough, cough—Communist). History has heard this language before, and it has always ended the same way.” (01/05/25)
https://townhall.com/columnists/elicia-brand/2026/01/05/the-warmth-of-collectivism-is-the-cold-logic-of-ruin-n2668891
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27) Fed Independence?
Source: Foundation for Economic Education
by Walter Block
“Ideally, there should be no such thing as the Federal Reserve System. The Fed should not have been created in 1913, and should be disbanded right now. End the Fed! This organization is nothing more and nothing less than a central planning bureau for interest rates, employment, and inflation (of late, it has expanded its mandate to include climate change and social equity issues as well). Evidently, we have not yet fully incorporated the lessons about central planning we should have learned as a society from the examples of East and West Germany, North and South Korea. These came as close to a controlled experiment as we are ever likely to find in all of economics, and yet we still continue our merry way in the direction of central planning.” (01/05/26)
https://fee.org/articles/fed-independence/
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28) Venezuela’s New President Is No Moderate
Source: Persuasion
by Quico Toro
“About a month ago, as America’s military presence in the Caribbean ramped up, The New York Times ran a feature on the figures that could imaginably step into the presidency in Nicolás Maduro’s absence. One heading was titled ‘The Moderate: Delcy Rodríguez, Vice President.’ … To Venezuelans who had spent over a decade seeing in her one of Nicolás Maduro’s most ardent and uncompromising acolytes, calling her a ‘moderate’ is an outrage. Here’s a woman who has held all of the most important offices of state — oil minister, minister of foreign affairs, president of the constituent assembly, vice president — and has never allowed any hint of sunlight to appear between her and Maduro.” (01/05/26)
https://www.persuasion.community/p/what-you-need-to-know-about-venezuelas
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29) The Empire Stole Venezuela
Source: Caitlin Johnstone, Rogue Journalist
by Caitlin Johnstone
“It’s not just that they stole Venezuela’s president in order to steal its oil, it’s that they’re working to steal the whole damn country. To steal its sovereignty. Its right to conduct its own affairs on its own terms as an independent nation. Dopey right wingers who learned the phrase ‘Monroe Doctrine’ like ten seconds ago have been mindlessly parroting those words all day to defend Trump’s Venezuela assault, and what’s grating about it is they actually think they’re talking about a real thing. They’re like, ‘No no it was totally legit, see there’s this thing called the Monroe Doctrine which says we get to control everything that happens in the western hemisphere and treat half the planet like it’s our own personal property.'” (01/05/25)
https://caitlinjohnstone.com.au/2026/01/05/new-issue-of-johnstone-the-empire-stole-venezuela/
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30) Verbal Self-Defense #1
Source: The Findings Substack
by Paul Rosenberg
“Actual street fights are, thankfully, rather rare in the world. Verbal street fights, sadly, are common. In most cases these fights spring out of an amoral need to preserve status. If you begin to question or diminish ideas which someone feels tied to – from which they gain standing in one way or another – they’re likely to dislike you and/or to verbally attack you. All of us with non-standard opinions have experienced this. So, since non-standard opinions are the path to progress, it’s important that we learn how to deal with these attacks. This will be the first of several posts on this subject, which I sometimes think of as Verbal Judo.” (01/05/26)
https://thefindings.substack.com/p/verbal-self-defense-1
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31) An opening for Venezuelans’ intrinsic sovereignty
Source: Christian Science Monitor
by staff
“The American capture of Venezuelan strongman Nicolás Maduro as an alleged fugitive from U.S. justice – while an impressive military feat – has opened a vigorous, global debate about its legality. Is unilateral foreign intervention justified when a failing authoritarian state commits atrocities at home and exports drugs and migrants? Yet for millions of Venezuelans – joyful over a dictator’s exit – the question is less about international law than about their quest for the very basis of law: the freedom of sovereign individuals to choose their government and maintain a shared civic identity. ‘The time has come for popular sovereignty and national sovereignty to prevail in our country,’ Venezuelan opposition leader and Nobel Peace Prize laureate María Corina Machado declared in a weekend social media post.” (01/04/25)
https://www.csmonitor.com/Commentary/the-monitors-view/2026/0104/An-opening-for-Venezuelans-intrinsic-sovereignty
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32) The Development of the Straussian Mind?
Source: Law & Liberty
by Bruce P Frohnen
“The Declaration of Independence has a special place in American public discourse. Its stirring rhetoric and ringing message inspire even the most cynical and make it a suitable primer on American political ideals. That said, for many decades, there has been significant, even acrimonious disagreement concerning the Declaration’s nature and role in shaping our public life. Radicals like those behind the 1619 Project dismiss all such documents as mere cover for race-, sex-, or class-based oppression. Those more well-disposed to our constitutional order still debate its basic meaning and influence. Matthew Spalding’s new book, The Making of the American Mind, provides an excellent and admirably disciplined entrée into continuing interpretive issues and the possibility for common ground on such fundamental issues.” (01/05/26)
https://lawliberty.org/book-review/the-development-of-the-straussian-mind/
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33) What Planet Are We On? How Did I End Up Living in Donald Trump’s Suicidal America?
Source: TomDispatch
by Tom Engelhardt
“As 2026 begins, what a strange planet we find ourselves on. The two great empires of my youth, the Soviet Union (now Russia) and my own country, are clearly experiencing some version of imperial decline, even if Vladimir Putin is acting otherwise in Ukraine (as is Donald Trump in his own strange fashion in the Caribbean Sea and Venezuela). No less curiously, the country visibly on the rise, China, is distinctly not acting like a typical imperial power of history (at least the history I’ve known). In a world where the United States still has 750 or so military bases around the world, China, as far as I can tell, has at most just one (in Djibouti, Africa).” (01/05/25)
https://tomdispatch.com/what-planet-are-we-on/
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34) Trump’s Defense-Industrial Double Movement
Source: The American Conservative
by Luke Nicastro
“When it comes to defense industrial policy, the Trump administration contains multitudes. On the one hand, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth has embarked upon a crusade to remake the defense acquisition system (now rechristened the warfighting acquisition system) on more market-friendly lines. … But at the same time, the state’s role in defense production is massively expanding. … One way to interpret the administration’s Janus-faced posture is as simple incoherence, the result of different principals pursuing different policies with different aims. A deeper read, however, suggests an essential compatibility between these two tendencies. Consciously or not, the White House is executing an ambitious double movement, simultaneously blasting open an arena for market competition while anchoring strategically critical production against the vicissitudes of fortune.” (01/05/26)
https://www.theamericanconservative.com/trumps-defense-industrial-double-movement/
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35) The dog that didn’t bark on birthright citizenship
Source: The Hill
by Steven Lubet
“The ratifiers of the 14th Amendment could not have contemplated excluding the children of unlawful entrants, because the concept did not yet exist in 1868. There were no visas or standardized passports, or other official travel documents, and thus no defined legal categories of immigrants. The first general entry restriction — a blatantly racist law that applied only to Asians — was not enacted until 1882. There were, however, many temporary residents, the other group subject to Trump’s executive order. Naturally, some of them produced children. As Professor Amanda Frost and her student coauthor, Emily Eason, brilliantly determined, at least a dozen members of Congress in the years 1865 to 1871 may have been the American-born children of temporary residents, whose citizenship would therefore have been ‘suspect under President Trump’s interpretation’ of the 14th Amendment. And yet, there were no challenges to their qualifications to sit in Congress, for which citizenship is a constitutional requirement.” (01/05/26)
https://thehill.com/opinion/judiciary/supreme-court/5670043-birthright-citizenship-trump-challenge/
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36) The Regulatory Pendulum: Why Financial Rules Keep Missing the Mark
Source: The Daily Economy
by Nicolas Cachanosky
“Until policymakers accept that financial regulation shifts risk rather than eliminates it, we will keep cycling through crisis, overreaction, unintended consequences, and the next crisis.” (01/05/26)
https://thedailyeconomy.org/article/the-regulatory-pendulum-why-financial-rules-keep-missing-the-mark/
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37) Trump’s realpolitik may be the only way to end the Ukraine war
Source: Fox News
by Gordon Sondland
“For three years, the Washington foreign policy establishment has insisted that there is only one acceptable outcome in Ukraine: total victory over Russia achieved through relentless military aid, indefinite financial support and escalation readiness regardless of the risks. But strategy and morality are not always the same thing — and real leadership demands confronting reality as it exists, not as we wish it to be. I write this not as an academic or pundit, but as someone who worked at the center of this conflict. As U.S. ambassador to the European Union during the first Trump administration, President Donald Trump tasked me with bringing Europe into alignment — truly into alignment — behind Ukraine. That meant ending the EU’s habitual double-game: proclaiming solidarity with Kyiv while enriching Moscow through energy purchases and dragging its feet on serious sanctions.” (01/05/25)
https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/gordon-sondland-trumps-realpolitik-may-only-way-end-ukraine-war
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38) The Logic of Liberalism
Source: Liberal Currents
by Guillaume AW Attia
“Contra the dreams of populist strongmen, real constraints on executive power are the only approach consistent with real freedom.” (01/05/26)
https://www.liberalcurrents.com/the-logic-of-liberalism/
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39) Americans Are Increasingly Skeptical of Foreign Military Intervention
Source: Reason
by JD Tuccille
“The stunning U.S. raid on Venezuela that removed President and socialist thug Nicolás Maduro from power to face trial in the U.S. raises questions: What’s next for long-suffering but hopeful Venezuelans, what is the legal basis for snatching a country’s head of state without congressional authorization, and where do Americans stand on the Trump administration’s nation-building project? We’ll have to wait and see on the first point, and the answer to the second is that there is no legal basis for unilateral presidential missions to depose foreign leaders. But while the public will need some time to digest these events, we know Americans — especially young ones — are increasingly dubious about foreign adventures.” (01/05/26)
https://reason.com/2026/01/05/americans-are-increasingly-skeptical-of-foreign-military-intervention/
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40) “We’re Going to Run the Country:” Preparing an Illegal Occupation in Venezuela
Source: CounterPunch
by Michelle Ellner
“Let’s be clear about the claims made. The president is asserting that the U.S. can detain a sitting foreign president and his spouse under U.S. criminal law, that the U.S. can administer another sovereign country without an international mandate. That Venezuela’s political future can be decided from Washington. That control over oil and ‘rebuilding’ is a legitimate byproduct of intervention. That all of this can happen without congressional authorization and without evidence of imminent threat. We have heard this language before.” (01/05/26)
https://www.counterpunch.org/2026/01/05/were-going-to-run-the-country-preparing-an-illegal-occupation-in-venezuela/
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41) What Happened to Tulsi Gabbard’s Non-Interventionist Principles?
Source: Common Dreams
by Ann Wright
“Seven years ago, US Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard wrote in 2019 on Twitter: ‘The United States needs to stay out of Venezuela. Let the Venezuelan people determine their future. We don’t allow other countries to choose our leaders, so we have to stop trying to choose theirs.’ Now as director of National Intelligence in the Trump administration, Tulsi Gabbard is a key part of the US overthrow of the Venezuelan government and the kidnapping of the Venezuelan president and his wife and the deaths of at least 40 persons in Venezuela. During her 2018 Congressional reelection campaign, she warned of ‘regime change wars’: ‘Every dollar spent on interventionist regime change wars is a dollar not spent on education, healthcare, infrastructure, and a myriad of other needs desperately needed right here at home,’ Gabbard said in 2018.” (01/05/25)
https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/tulsi-gabbard-war
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42) H3N2 Flu Rising in Palm Beach and Brevard: Why Your Health Is Your Business
Source: Karl Dickey’s Freedom Vanguard
by Karl Dickey
“So, we have a known risk. The flu is here, and this version of it packs a punch. The critical question now — the one that separates a libertarian perspective from the standard ‘public health’ view — is: Who is responsible for managing that risk? Thankfully, we haven’t heard too many serious suggestions that the government force flu vaccines onto the citizenry, it remains voluntary at this juncture. The prevailing narrative in modern public health often leans heavily on centralized collectivism.” (01/05/26)
https://palmbeachexaminer.substack.com/p/h3n2-flu-rising-in-palm-beach-and
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43) The Ugly Truth About Many Americans: They Love War
Source: Antiwar.com
by Alan Mosley
“After nearly every U.S. military intervention since World War II, public opinion has followed the same trajectory: overwhelming support when the bombs first fall, then waning approval once casualties mount and victory proves elusive. … One reason for this cyclical amnesia is the way politicians package wars as risk‑free. In 2003 the Bush administration promised a short campaign financed by Iraqi oil, just as the Kennedy and Johnson administrations predicted a quick victory in Vietnam. Today President Trump suggests the Venezuelan operation will be swift, with no U.S. casualties. History suggests otherwise.” (01/05/26)
https://original.antiwar.com/alan_mosley/2026/01/04/the-ugly-truth-about-many-americans-they-love-war
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44) MAGA seems to always need a scapegoat
Source: Orange County Register
by Sal Rodriguez
“By now you have seen the reports about alleged widespread welfare and social services fraud in Minnesota. And by now, you have seen the right fixate on the state’s Somali community. The most prominent example of fraud took place via a nonprofit called Feeding Our Future, which bilked taxpayers out of hundreds of millions of federal COVID dollars as it falsely claimed to distribute meals. The founder of the organization, a white American named Aimee Bock, was convicted of her crimes. … If there’s blame to go around, it seems first aimed at the individual wrongdoers themselves. And then, as a systemic critique, the reckless throwing around of public funds. But, what do you know, MAGA world has chosen to make this not about the need to hold individuals liable for their actions or the need to better manage taxpayer funds. Instead, they made it about Somalis for being Somali.” (01/04/26)
https://archive.is/IpoLN
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45) Greta Thunberg is a warning to parents raising ideologically captured kids
Source: New York Post
by Natalya Murakhver
“‘How dare you?’ Remember that fiery 2019 United Nations speech, when a 16-year-old Greta Thunberg stared down world leaders and accused the adults in the room of stealing her future by ignoring climate change? The moment catapulted the perpetually pinch-faced teen towards unfathomable stardom as a self-anointed champion for human rights and the planet’s survival. But fast-forward to today, and Greta is falling quite short of that promise. She’s not a savior — in fact, she’s a malignant force trying to erase the horrors inflicted on some of the world’s most vulnerable, the victims of Hamas’[s] Oct. 7 massacre. How can someone who built her life around securing youth a future be so hell-bent on obliterating the past, silencing Jewish voices and denying the suffering of children burned alive, women raped and families slaughtered? Let’s look at her latest escapades.” (01/05/25)
https://nypost.com/2026/01/05/opinion/greta-thunberg-is-a-warning-to-parents-raising-ideologically-captured-kids/
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46) Orwell’s Mistakes
Source: David Friedman’s Substack
by David Friedman
“George Orwell got some things right; unlike most political partisans, he saw the problems with the position he supported. He also got quite a lot of things wrong. … The problem is that Orwell, like many of his contemporaries (and ours), did not understand economics and thought he did. Since he wrote we have had extensive experience with free competition, if not as free as Hayek would have wanted, and the result has not been the nightmare that Orwell expected.” (01/04/26)
https://daviddfriedman.substack.com/p/orwells-mistakes
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47) When Trump’s big Venezuela oil grab runs smack into reality
Source: Responsible Statecraft
by Karthik Sankaran
“Within hours of U.S. military strikes on Venezuela and the capture of its leader, Nicolas Maduro, President Trump proclaimed that ‘very large United States oil companies would go in, spend billions of dollars, fix the badly broken infrastructure, and start making money for the country.’ Indeed, at no point during this exercise has there been any attempt to deny that control of Venezuela’s oil (or ‘our oil’ as Trump once described it) is a major force motivating administration actions. One irony here is that even as the White House is proudly embracing fossil-fuel imperialism in global oil, the markets are vastly different.” (01/04/26)
https://responsiblestatecraft.org/venezuela-oil/
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48) Dreaming of a Queer Amish Hezbollah or: Revolution as Therapy in Apocalyptic Times
Source: exile in happy valley
by Nicky Reid
“Agorism is a political philosophy developed by a little-known libertarian burn-out named Samuel Edward Konkin III that advocates destroying the government by engaging in modes of counter-economics that essentially make every market a black market by replacing state facilitated capitalism with an unregulated ecosystem of barter, subsistence production and mutual aid which simultaneously make communities like mine more autonomous and virtually untaxable. Panarchy is a system of governance proposing an infinite constellation of diverse, co-existing, and largely non-territorial governments that individuals can chose to join or leave at will the same way they would a church or a cellphone provider, creating a network of overlapping tribal nations not unlike those once indigenous to the pre-Christian world. With those philosophies in mind, I have developed a loose long-term goal to liberate my people, the rural Queer subaltern betrayed by Pride inc., that builds on the baby steps I have begun taking this year.” (01/04/26)
https://exileinhappyvalley.blogspot.com/2026/01/dreaming-of-queer-amish-hezbollah-or.html
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49) What if Trump Pulls This Off?
Source: The American Prospect
by Robert Kuttner
“There has been a huge amount of groupthink on the part of critics of Trump’s smash-and-grab operation to capture and prosecute Venezuela’s President Nicolás Maduro. The critics make the obvious point that the incursion violated Venezuela’s sovereignty and international law; that Trump’s reversion to 19th-century colonialism and spheres of influence is an invitation for Putin and Xi to do likewise in their spheres; and that America’s adventures in nation building, long disparaged by Trump himself, have seldom worked out well. There is also near-universal commentary to the effect that Trump has no clear plans for the morning after. … But reading slightly between the lines, it’s evident that there is the concept of a plan, to use Trump’s idiom.” (01/05/25)
https://prospect.org/2026/01/05/what-if-trump-pulls-this-off-venezuela-rodriguez/
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50) Politics, combat, and the Christ
Source: The Price of Liberty
by Nathan Barton
“A revolutionary in both spirit and action, Jesus not only died challenging the police state of his day — the Roman Empire and its lesser governments — but left behind a blueprint for resisting tyranny that has guided countless reformers and freedom fighters ever since.” (01/04/26)
https://thepriceofliberty.org/2026/01/04/politics-combat-and-the-christ/
_____ Today's Freedom Podcast and Video _____
51) Reason Roundtable, 12/05/26
Source: Reason
"What Does It Mean To 'Run' Venezuela?" (01/05/26)
https://reason.com/podcast/2026/01/05/what-does-it-mean-to-run-venezuela/
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52) The Mona Charen Show, 01/05/26
Source: The Bulwark
“Stability Was America’s Secret Weapon (w/ Catherine Rampell).” (01/05/26)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NdR5_K3_eIs
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53) Finding Freedom, 01/05/26
Source: Lions of Liberty
“Power, Justice and the Decline of Trust with Brian O’Leary.” (01/05/26)
https://www.lionsofliberty.com/episodes/ff-power-justice-and-the-decline-of-trust-with-brian-oleary
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54) Ron Paul Liberty Report, 01/05/26
Source: Ron Paul Liberty Report
“Venezuela ‘Regime Change’ — How Long Will The Euphoria Last?” (01/05/26)
https://rumble.com/v73wrl6-e-venezuela-regime-change-how-long-will-the-euphoria-last.html
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55) Conflicts of Interest, episode 863
Source: Libertarian Institute
“Trump Threatens Second Attack on Venezuela.” (01/05/26)
https://libertarianinstitute.org/kyle/coi-863-trump-threatens-second-attack-on-venezuela/
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56) The Daily Blast With Greg Sargent, 01/05/26
Source: The New Republic
“Marjorie Taylor Greene Wrecks Trump in Epic Maduro Rant as MAGA Breaks.” (01/05/26)
https://newrepublic.com/article/204896/marjorie-taylor-greene-wrecks-trump-epic-maduro-rant-maga-breaks
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57) TechTank, season 5, episode 34
Source: Brookings Institution
“Why water is important for data centers.” (01/05/26)
https://shows.acast.com/tech-tank/episodes/why-water-is-important-for-data-centers
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58) The Remnant with Jonah Goldberg, 01/05/26
Source: The Dispatch
“John Adams Was Not an Originalist | Interview: Lindsay Chervinsky.” (01/05/26)
https://thedispatch.com/podcast/remnant/john-adams-was-not-an-originalist-interview-lindsay-chervinsky/
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59) EconTalk, 01/05/26
Source: EconTalk
“Conversation, Interintellect, and Arcadia (with Anna Gát).” (01/05/26)
https://www.econtalk.org/conversation-interintellect-and-arcadia-with-anna-gat/
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60) Radio Atlantic, 01/05/26
Source: The Atlantic
“Is the U.S. Running Venezuela or Not?” (01/05/26)
https://www.theatlantic.com/podcasts/2026/01/venezuela-maduro-trump/685501/
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61) Antiwar News with Dave DeCamp, 01/05/26
Source: Antiwar.com
“Trump Threatens Venezuela’s New Acting President, IDF Kills Three Palestinians in Gaza, and More.” (01/05/26)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WZk4Qt_dSrQ
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62) Free Talk Live, 01/04/26
Source: Free Talk Live
“Can harming a communist ever be against the NAP? :: The capturing of Maduro in Venezuela an act of war? :: Can stopping a child from running in the road be a NAP violation? :: Do individuals owe the national debt or just the government? :: Dave Ridley calls to tell us about Michael Jennings, a man working on the AI alignment problem :: The horrible job of the US cleaning up their messes after Iraq and other wars :: Sarah wants to protest for Maduro :: True communism has been tried but not true capitalism :: This war will just be bailing out oil companies :: The reasons Trump’s cover story that this is about drugs is wrong :: Israel’s interest in the US starting wars :: Crazy caller James Wittakind is back. Is he banned? :: 2026-01-04 Hosts: Bonnie, Mr. Penguin, Angelo.” (01/04/26)
https://soundcloud.com/freetalklive/ftl2026-01-04
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63) Politics Politics Politics, 01/04/26
Source: Politics Politics Politics
“Maduro Arrested in Venezuela.” (01/04/26)
https://www.politicspoliticspolitics.com/p/maduro-arrested-in-venezuela
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64) Jason Jones on The Scott Horton Show
Source: The Scott Horton Show
“Scott interviews Jason Jones from the Vulnerable People Project about why American Christians are wrong to see the Israeli government as an ally.” (01/04/26)
https://scotthorton.org/interviews/1-2-26-jason-jones-on-israels-war-on-christians/
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65) BOOGAWHO?!, episode 1
Source: LP Alliance
“Join us as we discuss the most influential Libertarian militia movement.” (01/04/26)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XYBbqybyRd0
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