01/13 -- Iran: International calls resume but Internet still cut; A royal Paine
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Thomas L. Knapp
Jan 13, 2026, 6:23:40 AM (8 days ago) Jan 13
to Freedom News Daily
Freedom News Daily, 01/13/26
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Produced by the staff of Rational Review News Digest
https://news.rationalreview.com/
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Today's Freedom News:
1) Iran: International calls resume but Internet still cut
2) MN: AG, Twin Cities mayors sue US heimatschutz to end invasion/occupation
3) Ukraine: Four dead in Russian attacks
4) NYC: Nearly 15,000 nurses go on strike at city’s top hospitals
5) Australia: Meta kisses regime’s boot on youth social media censorship la
6) Paramount mounts proxy fight against WBD amid takeover battle
7) Greenland: Regime rejects US takeover under “any circumstance”
8) Vatican: Pope Leo meets with Machado
9) Ecuador: Five severed heads displayed on beach
10) Tillis: DOJ “credibility” is “in question” over Powell investigation
11) US Bankruptcy Filings Increase 11% in Calendar Year 2025
12) CA: Man arrested for allegedly driving truck in Iran protest rally
13) Senile reality star whines that US is “screwed” if SCOTUS rules against his illegal tax hikes on American consumers
14) UK: Zahawi Defects to Farage’s Reform
15) Malaysian, Indonesian regimes block Grok over explicit deepfakes
16) Wing’s drone deliveries are coming to 150 more Walmarts
17) Aldi to open 180 new US stores
18) UN’s top court opens landmark Myanmar Rohingya genocide case
19) Kelly sues Pentagon over Hegseth’s idiotic demotion stunt
20) Noem Threatens Minneapolis Gang Activity Escalation After Motorist’s Murder
Today's Freedom Commentary:
21) A royal Paine
22) Libertarian Aspirations
23) In Times Like This, Reframe American History
24) Not All Predictions Are Impossible
25) Absolute Immunity
26) Thoughts on Balko’s Nightmare Happening
27) Trump will be sore when Cuba domino refuses to fall
28) Where Law Would Be King
29) For Greenland, partnership over pugnacity
30) The Trump Administration Owns Responsibility for Whatever Comes Next in Venezuela
31) Real Protests vs Fake Protests
32) Making Imperialism Great Again?
33) The Rise of the Prediction Markets
34) Imperial Murder Machine In State Of Hyperactivity
35) Civilization’s Silent Killer
36) In a reasonable world, Renee Good would still be alive
37) Five Years After GameStop: What the Squeeze Actually Changed
38) US Failed To Install the Pro-US Opposition in Venezuela
39) SCOTUS needs to stop Louisiana grift against energy firms
40) Can a society be both efficient and free? Can we have both, or must we choose — and what is at stake if we cannot?
41) Quantum Vibe, 01/12/26
42) Kill, smear, cover-up
43) How the Murder of Good Changes the Stakes for Good
44) As 2026 Begins, the Pendulum Is Swinging Toward War and Oppression
45) Is Bitcoin Too Public to Become Central‑Bank Money?
46) Sovereign Credit, Affordability, and the Crisis Ratchet
47) Trump’s Shrinking Coalition
48) The Machinery of Terror
49) Iranian protesters showing courage in the face of tyranny, but Israel-obsessed liberals don’t seem to care
50) Don’t mourn the fall of the “rules-based order”
51) The Warmth of Collectivism
52) Innovation Over Ideology
53) Noam Chomsky, Jeffrey Epstein, and Moral Relativism in An Age of Lesser Evils
54) A Billionaire Tries Again to Hijack Veterans’ Care
55) War and the Growth of the American State in the 19th Century
Today's Freedom Podcast and Video:
56) Gracearchy with Jim Babka, episode 150
57) Reason Roundtable, 01/12/26
58) The Mona Charen Show, 01/12/26
59) Half the Answer, episode 58
60) Show-Me Institute Podcast, 01/12/26
61) The Remnant with Jonah Goldberg, 01/12/26
62) EconTalk, 01/12/26
63) The Daily Blast With Greg Sargent, 01/12/26
64) How to Fix It with John Avlon, 01/11/26
65) Free Talk Live, 01/11/26
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_____ Today's Freedom News _____
1) Iran: International calls resume but Internet still cut
Source: Deutsche Welle [German state media]
“Iranians were finally able to call the outside world on Tuesday morning, over four and a half days after Iran’s clerical regime imposed a communications blackout to suppress growing anti-government protests. People were able to make international phone calls on their mobile phones for the first time since Friday. But people from outside Iran were unable to make calls into the country. The internet and text messaging were also still blocked. The blackout has been in effect for over 108 hours, according to monitor Netblocks. The communications blackout was imposed as Iranian authorities began a violent crackdown to suppress the uprising sweeping the nation. Over 648 people have been killed, Norway-based NGO Iran Human Rights (IHR) said Monday.” (01/13/26)
https://www.dw.com/en/iran-international-calls-resume-but-internet-still-cut/live-75483027
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2) MN: AG, Twin Cities mayors sue US heimatschutz to end invasion/occupation
Source: KSTP 5 News
“Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison and the cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul are jointly suing the Trump administration over the influx of federal immigration agents taking over the Twin Cities. The lawsuit seeks to stop the ‘unprecedented surge’ of more than 2,000 federal agents deployed by the Department of Homeland Security that has resulted in the [murder] of a 37-year-old mother and countless claims of civil rights abuses since Department of Homeland Security forces began taking hold in Minnesota late last year. The filing further accuses the federal government of violating the 10th Amendment of the Constitution by usurping Minnesota’s right to police itself. Among the defendants named in the lawsuit are Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem; acting U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Director Todd Lyons; and U.S. Customs and Border Protection Cmdr. Greg Bovino.” (01/12/26)
https://kstp.com/kstp-news/top-news/minnesota-twin-cities-sues-dhs-to-end-federal-invasion/
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3) Ukraine: Four dead in Russian attacks
Source: Associated Press
“Russia launched a second major drone and missile bombardment of Ukraine in four days, officials said Tuesday, aiming again at the power grid and apparently snubbing U.S.-led peace efforts as the war approaches the four-year mark. Russia fired almost 300 drones, 18 ballistic missiles and seven cruise missiles at eight regions overnight, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on social media. One strike in the northeastern Kharkiv region killed four people at a mail depot, and several hundred thousand households were without power in the Kyiv region, Zelenskyy said.” (01/13/26)
https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-war-drone-missile-attack-aa7d5c2e54619fefabab72165444f8e3
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4) NYC: Nearly 15,000 nurses go on strike at city’s top hospitals
Source: Politico
“Nearly 15,000 nurses are walking out of their hospital jobs early Monday morning and onto the picket line, in what their union says is the largest nursing strike in New York City history. New York State Nurses Association members working for Montefiore Medical Center, New York-Presbyterian and the Mount Sinai Health System are demanding salary increases to account for inflation while fighting to maintain protections against understaffing that they won after a three-day strike three years ago. They are also calling for new contract provisions on artificial intelligence and workplace violence. … The strike follows months of negotiations — most recently with a mediator — over new three-year contracts to replace the union’s prior collective bargaining agreements, which expired Dec. 31.” (01/12/26)
https://www.politico.com/news/2026/01/12/thousands-of-new-york-city-hospital-nurses-go-on-strike-00721612
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5) Australia: Meta kisses regime’s boot on youth social media censorship law
Source: United Press International
“Meta has removed more than half a million social media accounts belonging to Australians under the age of 16, the company said, as it announced its efforts to comply with the Oceanian nation’s new social media age ban. The law, introduced in late 2024, went into effect Dec. 4, requiring social media services to remove accounts held by those under the age of 16 and younger and block the creation of new accounts for youth under 16. … Meta, which has argued against the ban, said it is committed to complying with the law’s obligations, while arguing that the prohibition is linked to isolating vulnerable teens from online communities and driving some to less regulated apps and alternative parts of the Internet.” (01/12/26)
https://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2026/01/12/australia-Meta-removes-youth-social-media-accounts/2261768205917/
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6) Paramount mounts proxy fight against WBD amid takeover battle
Source: Axios
“After numerous bid rejections, Paramount Skydance is officially waging a proxy fight against Warner Bros. Discovery’s board. Paramount has refused to increase the price of its offer for WBD, arguing its bid is financially superior to Netflix’s. It’s now become clear that it believes its best path to winning WBD is through legal pressure. Paramount on Monday sent a letter to WBD shareholders saying it intends to nominate directors for WBD’s board and that it filed a lawsuit to force the company to disclose ‘basic information” about the bidding process to enable shareholders to “to make an informed decision as to whether to tender their shares into our offer.'” (01/12/26)
https://archive.is/TEobi
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7) Greenland: Regime rejects US takeover under “any circumstance”
Source: Al Jazeera [Qatari state media]
“The government of Greenland has firmly rejected threats from United States President Donald Trump, stating that it will not accept a US takeover under ‘any circumstance.’ The self-governed Danish territory also underscored its NATO membership in a statement on Monday, saying that the territory’s defence falls to the transatlantic alliance. … Trump has continued to insist that he will seize Greenland, threatening that the territory will be brought under US control ‘one way or another.’ Those threats have sparked outrage from European allies who have warned that any takeover of Greenland would have serious repercussions for ties between the US and Europe.” (01/12/26)
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/1/12/greenland-rejects-us-takeover-under-any
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8) Vatican: Pope Leo meets with Machado
Source: San Diego Union-Tribune
“Pope Leo XIV met with Venezuelan opposition leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner María Corina Machado in a private audience at the Vatican on Monday, during which the Venezuelan leader asked him to intercede for the release of hundreds of political prisoners held in the Latin American country. The meeting, which hadn’t been previously included in the list of Leo’s planned appointments, was later listed by the Vatican in its daily bulletin, without adding details. Machado is touring Europe and the United States after she reemerged in December after 11 months in hiding to accept her Nobel Peace Prize in Norway. … Pope Leo has called for Venezuela to remain an independent country after U.S. forces [abducted] former President Nicolás Maduro in his compound in Caracas and took him to New York to face federal charges of drug-trafficking.” (01/12/26)
https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/2026/01/12/pope-meets-venezuela-opposition-machado/
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9) Ecuador: Five severed heads displayed on beach
Source: BBC News [UK state media]
“Bathers found five severed heads displayed on a beach in Ecuador in what appears to be a warning to gang members who have been threatening local fishermen. The gruesome discovery was made on Sunday on the beachfront in Puerto López, a town which has been wracked by gang violence. Next to the body parts, locals found a sign threatening those stealing from and extorting fishermen with the same fate. Ports and towns by the Pacific Ocean are among those worst hit by gangs which smuggle cocaine from Ecuador to the US and Europe. Police have identified the remains as those of five men who had been reported missing days earlier. They ranged between 20 and 34 years in age. Officials told local media one of them had a criminal record for gun possession. Their bodies have not yet been located.” (01/12/26)
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c2e13mlr17go
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10) Tillis: DOJ “credibility” is “in question” over Powell investigation
Source: The Hill
“Republican Sen. Thom Tillis (N.C.), a senior member of the Senate Banking Committee, is questioning the ‘credibility’ of the Department of Justice’s investigation of Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell and threatening to oppose President Trump’s nominees to the central bank until the matter is resolved. ‘If there were any remaining doubt whether advisers within the Trump Administration are actively pushing to end the independence of the Federal Reserve, there should now be none. It is now the independence and credibility of the Department of Justice that are in question,’ Tillis said in a statement. He also vowed to keep Trump’s nominees to the Fed bottled up in the Banking Committee over the matter.” (01/12/26)
https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/5684255-thom-tillis-doj-jerome-powell
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11) US Bankruptcy Filings Increase 11% in Calendar Year 2025
Source: Yahoo! Finance
“Total bankruptcy filings in Calendar Year (CY) 2025 were 565,759, an eleven percent increase from the 508,953 registered during CY 2024, according to data provided by Epiq AACER, the leading provider of US bankruptcy filing data. While representing a substantial year-over-year increase, total bankruptcy filings remain lower than the pre-pandemic total of 757,816 recorded in CY 2019.” (01/26/26)
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/fear-fatigue-finances-americas-mood-222557372.html
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12) CA: Man arrested for allegedly driving truck in Iran protest rally
Source: SFGate
“A man accused of driving a U-Haul truck into a crowd in Los Angeles over the weekend as they demonstrated in support of the protests sweeping Iran was in police custody Monday and authorities said they are considering an assault charge. One man was hit by the truck but was not seriously injured, according to police. Two people declined treatment after being evaluated by paramedics, the fire department said.” (01/12/26)
https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/police-consider-assault-charge-after-u-haul-21290466.php
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13) Senile reality star whines that US is “screwed” if SCOTUS rules against his illegal tax hikes on American consumers
Source: New York Post
“President Trump declared Monday that the US would be ‘screwed’ if the Supreme Court rules against his reciprocal [sic] tariff policies — arguing the feds would have to ‘pay back’ billions in revenue collected over the past year. ‘[I]f the Supreme Court rules against the United States of America on this National Security bonanza, WE’RE SCREWED!’ Trump wrote on Truth Social. … The Supreme Court is poised to rule as early as Wednesday on whether Trump could use emergency powers to impose sweeping tariffs announced last April, including a 10% baseline for [American buyers of goods from] most countries and higher rates that took effect in August for [American buyers of goods from] nations with which the US has a trade deficit.” [editor’s note: Don’t steal money in ways that even government rules don’t allow; then you don’t have to pay it back. “Problem” solved – TLK] (01/12/26)
https://nypost.com/2026/01/12/us-news/trump-warns-were-screwed-if-supreme-court-rules-against-emergency-tariffs/
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14) UK: Zahawi Defects to Farage’s Reform
Source: US News & World Report
“Former British finance minister Nadhim Zahawi defected to Nigel Farage’s right-wing Reform UK party from the Conservative Party on Monday, saying the country was broken and needed Farage as prime minister to fix it. Zahawi, who had a short spell in charge of the nation’s finances under former prime minister Boris Johnson in 2022, becomes the latest in a long line of former Conservatives to switch to Farage’s populist Reform UK. Reform is currently leading the polls in Britain, far ahead of Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s Labour Party, which has struggled to translate its landslide 2024 election win into popular change, against a backdrop of constrained finances and global instability. … Farage’s party has five of 650 seats in parliament, but Reform’s surging popularity has come from tapping into public frustration over issues like immigration, crime and a perceived fall in the standard of public services.” (01/12/26)
https://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2026-01-12/former-uk-government-minister-zahawi-defects-to-reform-from-conservatives
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15) Malaysian, Indonesian regimes block Grok over explicit deepfakes
Source: BBC News [UK state media]
“Malaysia and Indonesia have blocked access to Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot Grok over its ability to produce sexually explicit deepfakes. Grok, a tool on Musk’s X platform, allows users to generate images but has recently been used to edit images of real people to show them in revealing outfits. The South East Asian countries said Grok could be used to produce pornographic and non-consensual images involving women and children. They are the first in the world to ban the AI tool. There is also growing pressure to block Grok in the UK, with its technology secretary saying she would back the move, leading Musk to accuse the government of wanting to suppress free speech.” (01/12/26)
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cg7y10xm4x2o
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16) Wing’s drone deliveries are coming to 150 more Walmarts
Source: Engadget
“Don’t be surprised if you see even more drones delivering groceries across the US since the Alphabet-owned Wing announced another service expansion with Walmart over the next year. The partnership said that drone delivery services will be available at 150 more Walmart locations in Los Angeles, St. Louis, Cincinnati, Miami and more metros that have yet to be announced. According to Wing, its top 25 percent of customers have ordered its delivery drones up to three times a week. To meet growing demand, Wing and Walmart said it will serve up to 40 million US customers and build up a network of 270 delivery locations by 2027.” (01/11/26)
https://www.engadget.com/transportation/wings-drone-deliveries-are-coming-to-150-more-walmarts-180708189.html
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17) Aldi to open 180 new US stores
Source: Fox News
“Budget-friendly grocery chain Aldi is expanding its footprint in the U.S. The company announced on Monday that it plans to open more than 180 stores by the end of 2026, pushing its total footprint to nearly 2,800 this year. Its goal is to operate about 3,200 stores by the end of 2028. As part of the company’s growth plans over the next five years, it will enter the Colorado market for the first time while opening additional stores in the Southeast and West markets. It also has plans to open three new distribution centers in Florida, Colorado and Arizona. … Demand for the low-cost grocer has risen as consumers grapple with higher everyday expenses.” (01/12/26)
https://www.foxbusiness.com/lifestyle/grocery-chain-launches-massive-expansion-180-new-us-stores
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18) UN’s top court opens landmark Myanmar Rohingya genocide case
Source: Al Jazeera [Qatari state media]
“The top court of the United Nations has opened a landmark case accusing Myanmar of committing genocide against its mostly Muslim Rohingya minority. Myanmar’s military deliberately targeted the Rohingya minority in a bid to destroy the community, The Gambia’s Justice Minister Dawda Jallow told the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague on Monday. … The trial is the first genocide case the ICJ has taken up in full in more than a decade, and its outcome will have repercussions beyond Myanmar, likely affecting South Africa’s petition against Israel over its genocidal war on Gaza. The hearings will span three weeks.” (01/12/26)
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/1/12/un-top-court-set-to-open-myanmar-rohingya-genocide-case
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19) Kelly sues Pentagon over Hegseth’s idiotic demotion stunt
Source: SFGate
“Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly sued the Pentagon on Monday over attempts to punish him for his warnings about illegal orders, claiming the Trump administration trampled on his constitutional rights to free speech. Kelly, a former U.S. Navy pilot who represents Arizona, is seeking to block his censure from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth last week. Hegseth announced on Jan. 5 that he censured Kelly over his participation in a video that called on troops to resist unlawful orders. Hegseth said the censure — by itself simply a formal letter with little practical consequence — was ‘a necessary process step’ to proceedings that could result in a demotion from Kelly’s retired rank of captain and subsequent reduction in retirement pay. Kelly asked the federal court in Washington, D.C., to rule that the censure letter, the proceedings about his rank and any other punishments against him are “unlawful and unconstitutional.” (01/12/26)
https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/sen-kelly-sues-the-pentagon-over-attempts-to-21290874.php
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20) Noem Threatens Minneapolis Gang Activity Escalation After Motorist’s Murder
Source: Time
“Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem vowed on Sunday to send ‘hundreds more’ federal agents to Minneapolis as thousands continue to protest the [murder] of a woman by an immigration officer last week. … Noem’s announcement came a day after tens of thousands took to the streets of Minneapolis to protest over the [murder] of 37-year-old Renee Nicole Good by an immigration officer and the continued presence of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents in the city. Good, a mother of three and a poet, was [murdered] in front of her partner while inside her car on Wednesday. Those protests have since spread across the country.” (01/11/26)
https://time.com/7345325/ice-minneapolis-kristi-noem/
_____ Today's Freedom Commentary _____
21) A royal Paine
Source: Expression
by Matthew Harwood
“Accounts differ, but sometime between late November and the middle of December 1774, a terribly sick man was carried off a ship in colonial Philadelphia. Riddled with typhus, the middle-aged Brit was too weak to walk after his long voyage from London. …. If the British had any idea of who this Thomas Pain would become — he wouldn’t add the ‘e’ until later — they may never have let him set sail to the New World to begin with. In little more than a year, this impoverished 37-year-old, who had known only heartache and failure in Britain, would find his voice as a successful editor and journalist in America’s largest city. And with his newfound purpose and confidence, he would write one of the great world-changing pieces of political propaganda ever published and help birth a free and independent United States of America.” (01/12/26)
https://expression.fire.org/p/a-royal-paine
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22) Libertarian Aspirations
Source: Future of Freedom Foundation
by Laurence M Vance
“Although it may have been true at one time that libertarians and conservatives were ‘uneasy cousins,’ such has not been the case for many years. Still, conservatives have no problem with using libertarian rhetoric to portray themselves as advocates of the Constitution, private property, the free market, individual liberty, federalism, limited government, and a free society when they only selectively believe these things.” (01/12/26)
https://www.fff.org/explore-freedom/article/libertarian-aspirations/
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23) In Times Like This, Reframe American History
Source: JFK Facts
by Jefferson Morley
“I was taught to understand American history as the history of political institutions, how ideas of individual liberty, free speech, separation of powers, and rule of law were manifested and contested. At a time when such institutions and ideas are powerless, endangered or defunct, we might find more clarity — and power — by understanding American history as a narrative of extra-constitutional political violence. If, as Judge Andrew Napolitano says, we now live under ‘a lawless presidency,’ it’s not the first time.” (01/12/26)
https://jfkfacts.substack.com/p/in-times-like-this-reframe-american
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24) Not All Predictions Are Impossible
Source: Pierre Lemieux
by Pierre Lemieux
“Why don’t economics—the analysis of the social consequences of individual actions—and a knowledge of initial conditions suffice to make predictions? There are many reasons. Initial conditions cannot all be perfectly measured and are continuously disturbed, which generates divergent trajectories and creates new surprises as time goes on. Preferences (tastes and values) dwell in the head of each individual. Moral character may be opaque. Thanks to the law of large numbers, the average behavior of a group of individuals may be predictable (consider the law of demand: quantity demanded is an inverse function of price), but the actions of a specific individual are not. The longer the prediction horizon, the more fog in the oracle’s crystal ball. Not surprisingly, my own predictions have not all been glorious.” (01/12/26)
https://pierrelemieux.substack.com/p/not-all-predictions-are-impossible
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25) Absolute Immunity
Source: The Reframe
by AR Moxon
“Alignment with supremacy is a vile choice. Raising the natural costs for those who make that choice by putting first things first.” (01/12/26)
https://www.the-reframe.com/absolute-immunity
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26) Thoughts on Balko’s Nightmare Happening
Source: ProSocial Libertarians
by Daniel Shapiro
“Radley Balko’s article ‘Trump’s Immigration Nightmare: It Is Happening Here,’ may very well be the best article on Trump’s immigration policy. … We have four basic choices, as far as I can tell. #1: You can support these policies. If you do, I don’t see how you can call yourself a libertarian, a liberal, or anybody of any ideology — including conservatism — who claims to love liberty or support the ideals of the American Revolution. #2: You can oppose them but engage in what I call DTS — Downplaying Trump Syndrome. … #3: You can stick your head in the sand and not want to read about it or talk about it or be concerned with it. … #4: You can do something about it.” (01/12/26)
https://prosociallibertarians.substack.com/p/thoughts-on-balkos-nightmare-happening
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27) Trump will be sore when Cuba domino refuses to fall
Source: Responsible Statecraft
by William LeoGrande
“Back in 2014, economist Pavel Vidal estimated that if Venezuelan oil were suddenly cut off, the Cuban economy would drop 7.7 percent. Today, when Venezuela provides far less than it did then and the price of oil is about half of what it was, the impact would be less. But Cuba’s GDP has already fallen about 15 percent since the COVID pandemic. Another 4 or 5 percent drop would exacerbate the vicious circle of declines in domestic production reducing export earnings, and widening the gap between what Cuba needs to import and what it can afford. Would that be enough to collapse the Cuban government? Trump certainly seems to think so. … Such confidence is not new. Washington officials have been predicting the imminent end of the Cuban government since 1959.” (01/12/26)
https://responsiblestatecraft.org/trump-cuba-collapse/
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28) Where Law Would Be King
Source: Law & Liberty
by Hans Eicholz
“There are moments within traditions of thought when the pressure of events breaks apart ideas and ways of thinking that had subsisted for ages in relative harmony. These moments, often called tipping points, mark an instant when a particular notion suddenly takes prominence in public opinion due to its seeming conformity with the logic of events. Such was the publication of Thomas Paine’s Common Sense, announced for sale by Robert Bell’s print shop in Philadelphia on January 9 and officially distributed on January 10, 250 years ago. Until that time, debate over the question of colonial rights to self-government, especially over the question of taxation, had been carried on within the framework and terms of the British or Imperial constitution.” (01/12/26)
https://lawliberty.org/where-law-would-be-king/
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29) For Greenland, partnership over pugnacity
Source: Christian Science Monitor
by staff
“In the midst of the Arctic winter, residents of Greenland are feeling the heat of global geopolitics. United States officials have stepped up insistence on the ‘need’ to take control of the mostly ice-covered island by force or by financial means. The declarations stress Greenland’s strategic location along Arctic sea routes – which both Russia and China are vying to use – as well as access to its estimated 1.5 million tons of rare earth mineral reserves. What’s at stake ‘is not just about rare earths – it is about the very idea of sovereignty in an age of resource rivalry’, Phar Kim Beng, of the Institute of International and ASEAN Studies, wrote in the Malay Mail. The U.S. logic is ‘rooted in energy security, future-proofing supply chains (especially minerals) and in the strategic denial of competitors,’ geopolitics analyst and bestselling author Tim Marshall wrote in The Times of London.” (01/12/25)
https://www.csmonitor.com/Commentary/the-monitors-view/2026/0112/For-Greenland-partnership-over-pugnacity
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30) The Trump Administration Owns Responsibility for Whatever Comes Next in Venezuela
Source: Reason
by JD Tuccille
“Regarding the 2002 invasion and occupation of Iraq, former U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell warned then-President George W. Bush, ‘if you break it, you own it.’ He elaborated, ‘if we take out another country’s government by force, we instantly become the new government, responsible for governing the country and for the security of its people until we can turn all that over to a new, stable, and functioning government.’ … Owning the consequences was a risk as soon as the U.S. moved to depose Maduro. Whatever the outcome, it would have been set in motion by American actions. By supporting the continuation of Maduro’s regime under new management, the Trump administration is implicitly endorsing the censorship, fixed elections, corruption, and brutality that have kept that government in power since it took office under Hugo Chavez.” (01/12/26)
https://reason.com/2026/01/12/the-trump-administration-owns-responsibility-for-whatever-comes-next-in-venezuela/
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31) Real Protests vs Fake Protests
Source: Town Hall
by Jeff Crouere
“The protests in Iran have been building for weeks. Initially, the demonstrations were organized by merchants in December in response to a huge fall in the value of the Iranian Rial, their currency. Soon thereafter, the protests expanded to include students and workers and became a massive outpouring of citizens rejecting the country’s tyrannical Islamic regime. This theocracy has been ruling Iran with an iron grip since the overthrow of the Shah, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, in 1979. Since then, Iran has become the largest benefactor for the world’s deadliest terrorist organizations, such as Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthis. In response to the protests, the Supreme Leader of Iran, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, claimed that the government ‘would not back down.’ This statement is not surprising as the radical Islamic leaders of Iran have brutally responded to previous protests.” (01/12/25)
https://townhall.com/columnists/jeffcrouere/2026/01/12/real-protests-vs-fake-protests-n2669303
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32) Making Imperialism Great Again?
Source: Ron Paul Liberty Report
by Ron Paul
“Following the invasion of Venezuela, there have been suggestions that President Trump will direct the US military to invade other countries as well. For example, Secretary of State and National Security Advisor Marco Rubio said, ‘if I lived in Havana and I was in the government, I’d be concerned.’ To no one’ s surprise, Senator Lindsey Graham was delighted by the possibility that Venezuela was just the first of many regime change wars President Trump will wage. … President Trump’s newfound love of regime change wars may be one reason why he is seeking to increase the military budget to 1.5 trillion dollars.” (0/12/26)
http://www.ronpaullibertyreport.com/archives/making-imperialism-great-again
-----
33) The Rise of the Prediction Markets
Source: The American Conservative
by Spencer Neale
“These days, often your best bet to learn about what’s coming next, from hot-button political topics to shifts in cultural trends, is to check in with the round-the-clock traders on Polymarket and Kalshi. On the two foremost major prediction market websites, people bet real money nonstop on real-world events. Though both platforms have been operable for the better part of half a decade, it’s been the later stage of this year that has witnessed unmistakable growth in volume and name recognition for both. So much so that the two platforms are suddenly signing major deals with global tech and financial leaders amid their rise as the latest darlings of the internet these final months of 2025.” (01/12/26)
https://www.theamericanconservative.com/the-rise-of-the-prediction-markets/
-----
34) Imperial Murder Machine In State Of Hyperactivity
Source: Caitlin Johnstone, Rogue Journalist
by Caitlin Johnstone
“I hate this. I hate waiting for the next imperial act of war. I hate having to be aware of sunrise time in Iran so I can relax knowing they made it through another night without US airstrikes. I hate having to wonder which empire-targeted population is going to get hit next. The imperial murder machine has been so frenetically active these last few years. When I first started writing about the US empire it was the beginning of Trump’s first term, at a state of relative calm. There were mounting cold war tensions with Russia and the US-backed Saudi atrocities in Yemen, a faltering dirty war in Syria and a half-assed coup attempt in Venezuela, but these frenzied nonstop regime change ops and brazen power grabs weren’t so much a thing back then.” (01/12/25)
https://caitlinjohnstone.com.au/2026/01/12/the-imperial-murder-machine-is-in-a-state-of-hyperactivity/
-----
35) Civilization’s Silent Killer
Source: Underthrow
by Max Borders
“Developed-world consciousness is in demographic decline. If people in developed countries don’t have more babies, the developing world will inherit the earth. Does a dystopian future await?” (01/12/26)
https://underthrow.substack.com/p/civilizations-silent-killer
-----
36) In a reasonable world, Renee Good would still be alive
Source: Orange County Register
by Sal Rodriguez
“In a normal world, the president and vice president would call for calm and note that proper investigations would take place. Matt Walsh would be unknown outside of crank religious right circles still fixated on “the gay agenda” or whatever. And Kristi Noem definitely would not be the head of Homeland Security and instead would have peaked with a term or two in the South Dakota House of Representatives. Alas, here we are. And it’s indeed because of the weird politics of today that Renee Good is dead.” (01/12/26)
https://archive.is/xyxGy
-----
37) Five Years After GameStop: What the Squeeze Actually Changed
Source: The Daily Economy
by Peter C Earle
“Meme-stock investment infusions rescued the company without redeeming its model. Did that borrowed time produce market discipline — or simply delay error correction?” (01/12/26)
https://thedailyeconomy.org/article/five-years-after-gamestop-what-the-squeeze-actually-changed/
-----
38) US Failed To Install the Pro-US Opposition in Venezuela
Source: Antiwar.com
by Ted Snider
“The United States decapitated the Venezuelan regime and is dictating policy in Venezuela, running the country like an American colony. But the regime remains in place. Washington has been forced to exercise its dominance overtly through thuggish economic and military coercion rather than covertly by installing the pro-U.S. opposition. There are at least four reasons for this failure. The first is past failures. Many of them.” (01/12/26)
https://original.antiwar.com/ted_snider/2026/01/11/u-s-failed-to-install-the-pro-us-opposition-in-venezuela/
-----
39) SCOTUS needs to stop Louisiana grift against energy firms
Source: Fox News
by William Barr
“The U.S. Supreme Court, by now all too familiar with lawfare, will consider a startling case on Monday, Jan. 12, chock-full of hard politicking and even the appearance of corruption. Small bayou towns and parishes in Louisiana, in partnership with plaintiffs’ firms, have filed dozens of lawsuits blaming American energy companies for coastal erosion stemming from energy production during World War II. The first of those cases reached trial this spring, with a jury in Plaquemines Parish returning a $750 million judgment against Chevron. The conduct of these cases recalls an old problem with a clear solution. States and localities have for decades weaponized their courts to derail lawful and legitimate federal objectives. … The answer is to remove these cases from Louisiana’s courts and adjudicate them in a fairer forum, namely federal court.” (01/12/25)
https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/william-barr-supreme-court-needs-stop-louisiana-grift-against-energy-firms
-----
40) Can a society be both efficient and free? Can we have both, or must we choose — and what is at stake if we cannot?
Source: Students For Liberty
by Riccardo Rossi
“The tension that exists is between two classics: Adam Smith’s extent of the market, where specialization and exchange reinforce each other, because ‘the division of labor is limited by the extent of the market,’ and Alexis de Tocqueville’s art of association, where civic life survives because people learn to act together. Smith’s division of labor delivers prosperity through specialization; Tocqueville’s civic associations safeguard liberty through engagement. Yet they can pull in opposite directions: specialization isolates, and isolation weakens democracy. This is not abstract: it decides whether the West stays free or slides into a new despotism.” (01/12/26)
https://studentsforliberty.org/blog/can-a-society-be-both-efficient-and-free-can-we-have-both-or-must-we-choose-and-what-is-at-stake-if-we-cannot/
-----
41) Quantum Vibe, 01/12/26
Source: Big Head Press
by Scott Bieser
Cartoon. (01/12/26)
https://www.quantumvibe.com/strip?page=2569
-----
42) Kill, smear, cover-up
Source: Popular Information
by Judd Legum
“On January 7, Renee Good, a 37-year-old mother and U.S. citizen, was fatally shot by ICE agent Jonathan Ross in Minneapolis. After her death, Good was subjected to a vicious smear campaign by the President, the Vice President, administration officials, and their allies. The baseless attacks against Good are a coordinated, brazen and callous government propaganda effort. The goal is to convince Americans to believe an official narrative over objective evidence — including video of the incident. It is an ongoing campaign to legitimize the homicide of an American based on misinformation.” (01/12/26)
https://popular.info/p/kill-smear-cover-up
-----
43) How the Murder of Good Changes the Stakes for Good
Source: Washington Monthly
by Jonathan Alter
“o one can predict how the murder of Renee Good will change this country. But there’s an encouraging history of change the aftermath of certain violent and tragic events, and a poor track record for governments that shoot their own people in the streets. Even when this story is pushed out of the headlines by some new outrage, we may look back on it as the moment when Donald Trump lost his grip. Of course, the ICE story will likely get worse before it gets better. … why am I hopeful that after tensions escalate for a time, we’ll get some accountability—if not for Good’s murder, then for Trump’s efforts to establish an American police state?” (01/12/26)
https://washingtonmonthly.com/2026/01/12/how-the-murder-of-good-changes-the-stakes-for-good/
-----
44) As 2026 Begins, the Pendulum Is Swinging Toward War and Oppression
Source: Common Dreams
by Klaus Moegling
“The beginning of 2026 falls into a period of increasing global social destruction. Multilateral institutions such as the United Nations and the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe OSCE are being systematically destroyed. Countries such as the US and Russia are withdrawing from these institutions or attempting to obstruct them through blocking behavior. US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin are political leaders who are dismantling or destroying the remnants of democracy in their countries, increasing repressive pressure on their populations, and acting aggressively toward the outside world. They find international law rather annoying, ignore it, and develop a right-wing and authoritarian nationalism, within the framework of which the ruling circles in the US and Russia enrich themselves excessively and disregard everything that previous values in terms of decency and justice demand.” (01/12/25)
https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/2026-war-authoritarianism
-----
45) Is Bitcoin Too Public to Become Central‑Bank Money?
Source: Bitcoin.com
by Sergio Goschenko
“The issue of bitcoin’s lack of privacy has been raised as a key concern that may affect its adoption as a central bank digital currency by state nations. In the latest episode of the ‘All-In Podcast,’ venture capitalist Chamath Palihapitiya presented his contrarian take for 2026, stating that central banks will realize both gold and bitcoin have limitations, and will seek out a ‘completely new cryptographic paradigm.’ This new paradigm will be controlled by the central bank’s balance sheet and will be ‘fungible, tradable, and completely secure and private.'” [editor’s note: The LAST thing central banks want is secure/private currency. That would limit the ability of the regimes linked to the central banks to steal it from us and monitor our use of it – TLK] (01/12/26)
https://news.bitcoin.com/is-bitcoin-too-public-to-become-central%E2%80%91bank-money/
-----
46) Sovereign Credit, Affordability, and the Crisis Ratchet
Source: Ludwig von Mises Institute
by Michael Dioguardi
“In modern political debate, rising costs of living are usually blamed on markets. Housing is ‘unaffordable.’ Healthcare is ‘broken.’ Education is ‘too expensive.’ The proposed remedy is almost always the same: more public spending, more intervention, more emergency programs funded by government credit. But what if the affordability crisis is not a failure of markets at all? What if it is the predictable outcome of how modern governments finance themselves? From an Austrian perspective, the affordability crisis is best understood as a monetary and institutional phenomenon. Since the early 1970s, governments like the United States have operated under a system of discretionary sovereign credit, where spending is no longer meaningfully constrained by taxation or savings.” (01/12/26)
https://mises.org/power-market/sovereign-credit-affordability-and-crisis-ratchet
-----
47) Trump’s Shrinking Coalition
Source: The Atlantic
by Jonathan Chait
“Trump is alienating anti-system voters because he now controls the system. His appeal lay in his opposition to established power, but now that he has it, he is flexing it gleefully. He is the warmonger, the censor, the face of the Epstein cover-up. It is hard to remain an outsider while holding the world’s most powerful job. But Trump seems not to have anticipated this, in part because he had far less trouble maintaining his anti-establishment identity in his first term. He managed this because that term consisted mainly of failures. … Trump is no longer making this complaint about the established forces working against him, because he has solved this problem. His presidency is filled with loyalists. He has largely overcome any reluctance that officials might have had in carrying out his most unethical or illegal demands. He can’t present himself as anti-system, because he has become the system.” (01/12/26)
https://archive.is/J8CDj
-----
48) The Machinery of Terror
Source: The Chris Hedges Report
by Chris Hedges
“I have seen the masked goons who terrorize our streets before. … I know these goons. I have been a prisoner in their jails and spent hours in their interrogation rooms. I have been beaten by them. I have been deported, and in several cases banned, from their countries. I know what is coming. Terror is the engine that empowers dictatorships. It eliminates dissidents. It silences critics. It dismantles the law. It creates a society of timid and frightened collaborators, those who look away when people are snatched off streets or gunned down, those who inform to save themselves, those who retreat into their tiny rabbit holes, pulling down the blinds, desperately praying to be left in peace. Terror works.” (01/11/26)
https://chrishedges.substack.com/p/the-machinery-of-terror
-----
49) Iranian protesters showing courage in the face of tyranny, but Israel-obsessed liberals don’t seem to care
Source: New York Post
by Melanie Phillips
“As the Iranian uprising continues to escalate, it’s been reported that hundreds of protesters have been killed by the regime’s security forces. The internet, phone signals and lighting have been cut, and it’s feared the killings are intensifying behind the blackout. Yet the Iranian people have increasingly poured onto the streets to confront the regime’s murder and torture squads. There’s never been such a mass display of raw courage in the teeth of such vicious repression. If the regime does fall, this will be a seismic event, reshaping the region and world politics. The insurrection might be the most consequential global event so far this century. Yet from Western liberals, there’s been little more than pursed lips. There have been no demonstrations in support of the embattled protesters.” (01/11/25)
https://nypost.com/2026/01/11/opinion/iranian-protesters-are-showing-courage-in-the-face-of-tyranny-but-israel-obsessed-liberals-dont-seem-to-care/
-----
50) Don’t mourn the fall of the “rules-based order”
Source: spiked
by Tim Black
“On 3 January, US special forces removed Venezuela’s president and brutal despot Nicolás Maduro from power. A few hours later, at a hastily arranged press conference, US president Donald Trump seemed even more pleased with himself than usual. Perhaps his excitement explains the Freudian slip. ‘I watched last night one of the most precise attacks on sovereignty,’ he said, before quickly correcting himself – ‘I mean, it was an attack for justice.’ But the truth was out. … But Trump’s legion loathers among our political and cultural elites are not seeing the Venezuela intervention as an attack on national sovereignty. No, they’re casting it above all as an attack on the so-called rules-based order itself.” (01/11/26)
https://archive.is/9fTcH
-----
51) The Warmth of Collectivism
Source: Quillette
by John Aziz
“Zohran Mamdani wants to institute ‘collectivist’ governance, but NYC already has a collectivist problem—a coordinated veto system that blocks development and progress.” (01/12/26)
https://quillette.com/2026/01/12/the-warmth-of-collectivism-mamdani-nyc/
-----
52) Innovation Over Ideology
Source: Foundation for Economic Education
by Simon Sarevski
“To understand the story of the bicycle, we need to travel back to the late 19th century — a time when people’s mobility was restricted not by laws but by technology and wealth, or rather, by the lack of both. Travel required a horse, and a horse was neither cheap nor easy to maintain. For women, the barriers were even higher: social norms and safety in some cultures required a chaperone, making any trip more complicated and costly. The bicycle changed that, and in the words of the pioneering women’s rights activist Susan B. Anthony, this simple machine ‘has done more to emancipate women than any other thing in the world.'” (01/11/26)
https://fee.org/articles/innovation-over-ideology/
-----
53) Noam Chomsky, Jeffrey Epstein, and Moral Relativism in An Age of Lesser Evils
Source: exile in happy valley
by Nicky Reid
America, just like the Catholic Church, decimated and abused the innocent quite simply because they could. Every reason they supplied to the public was nothing more than another empty excuse for the perversion of naked power. The government, my government, didn’t give a flying fuck about fighting communism. In fact, they supported it when it suited them in Cambodia just to destabilize Vietnam. And they didn’t give a flying fuck about democracy either. … It was a harsh lesson to teach a pissed-off teenager, but it was also the only lesson that passed the smell test with her because I was already intimately familiar with the savagery that pious adults were capable of when they could convince themselves that they were armed with moral superiority.” (01/11/26)
https://exileinhappyvalley.blogspot.com/2026/01/noam-chomsky-jeffrey-epstein-and-moral.html
-----
54) A Billionaire Tries Again to Hijack Veterans’ Care
Source: The American Prospect
by Russell Lemle & Jasper Craven
“If there’s one thing hedge fund titan Steven Cohen is known for, it’s rising from the ashes. A decade ago, Cohen worked feverishly to recover from a notorious Wall Street scandal. Now, he’s aiming to ram through a damaging veterans mental health bill that was summarily quashed in President Trump’s first term. One of the world’s richest people, Cohen suffered a devastating blow in 2013 when his hedge fund pleaded guilty to insider trading and paid $1.8 billion in fines, the largest such penalty in U.S. history. Cohen personally reached a settlement with the Securities and Exchange Commission that banned him from managing outside money for two years. The SEC cited his ‘failure to supervise’ a portfolio manager involved in the scheme who went to prison for nine years. Following his mandatory hiatus, Cohen returned with a vengeance, swiftly doubling his fortune to $23 billion.” (01/12/25)
https://prospect.org/2026/01/12/billionaire-tries-again-to-hijack-veterans-care/
-----
55) War and the Growth of the American State in the 19th Century
Source: Libertarian Institute
by Joseph Solis-Mullen
“From the colonial frontier to the battlefields of Gettysburg, war has been both a crucible and a mirror for the American experiment. Historians from Charles Tilly to Allan Millett have long emphasized the centrality of warfare in the formation of modern states, arguing that ‘war made the state and the state made war.’ Yet, in the American case, this process unfolded within a republican framework that ostensibly distrusted standing armies and centralized power. The tension between libertarian ideals and the exigencies of war defined the nation’s evolution from fragile confederation to continental empire.” (01/11/26)
https://libertarianinstitute.org/uncategorized/war-and-the-growth-of-the-american-state-in-the-19th-century/
_____ Today's Freedom Podcast and Video _____
56) Gracearchy with Jim Babka, episode 150
Source: Gracearchy with Jim Babka
“Zaprudering ICE After The Renee Good Shooting.” (01/12/26)
https://rumble.com/v747c4i-ep150-zaprudering-ice-after-the-renee-good-shooting-gracearchy-with-jim-bab.html
-----
57) Reason Roundtable, 01/12/26
Source: Reason
"End the Fed? Or Turn It Over to Trump?" (01/12/26)
https://reason.com/podcast/2026/01/12/end-the-fed-or-turn-it-over-to-trump/
-----
58) The Mona Charen Show, 01/12/26
Source: The Bulwark
"Venezuela Was Not Liberated (w/ Quico Toro)." (01/12/26)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9-0lVgVj0sY
-----
59) Half the Answer, episode 58
Source: Liberal Currents
“The U.S. in Venezuela: The International Community and the Donroe Doctrine.” (01/12/26)
https://www.liberalcurrents.com/half-the-answer-58-the-u-s-in-venezuela-the-international-community-and-the-donroe-doctrine/
-----
60) Show-Me Institute Podcast, 01/12/26
Source: Show-Me Institute
“No Adult Left Behind, How Politics Hijacks Education Policy with Vlad Kogan.” (01/12/26)
https://showmeinstitute.org/blog/education/no-adult-left-behind-how-politics-hijacks-education-policy-with-vlad-kogan/
-----
61) The Remnant with Jonah Goldberg, 01/12/26
Source: The Dispatch
“Patriots and Loyalists | Interview: Ken Burns.” (01/12/26)
https://thedispatch.com/podcast/remnant/patriots-and-loyalists-interview-ken-burns/
-----
62) EconTalk, 01/12/26
Source: EconTalk
“The Mattering Instinct (with Rebecca Newberger Goldstein).” (01/12/26)
https://www.econtalk.org/the-mattering-instinct-with-rebecca-newberger-goldstein/
-----
63) The Daily Blast With Greg Sargent, 01/12/26
Source: The New Republic
“Trump’s Rage Explodes at GOPers as Their Defiance of Him Visibly Grows.” (01/12/26)
https://newrepublic.com/article/205145/trump-rage-explodes-gopers-defiance-visibly-grows
-----
64) How to Fix It with John Avlon, 01/11/26
Source: The Bulwark
“Is Trump Punishing Colorado? (w/ Gov. Jared Polis).” (01/11/26)
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/is-trump-punishing-colorado-w-gov-jared-polis/id1772157676?i=1000744671088
-----
65) Free Talk Live, 01/11/26
Source: Free Talk Live
“Blowback :: When did Israel start trying to start a fight with Iran? :: 9-11 Report total propaganda :: Tom sent an email to the UN to try to get them to condemn Trump’s actions in Venezuela, Tom’s plan :: The way the deep state props up the US even outside of the US itself :: The Dishonorable, Contemptible, Corrupt Ricky from the Commonwealth talks on air with the Creepy, Disturbing, Inappropriate Turd Ferguson from the Commonwealth :: The depth of Rich E Rich’s pettiness :: List of the weirdest things Trump has done in the last 24 hours alone :: Our experiences with Real ID :: Would we give up some profit/ productivity for more liberty and privacy? Yes. :: 2026-01-11 Hosts: Bonnie, Rich E Rich, Riley O’Bill.” (01/11/26)
https://soundcloud.com/freetalklive/ftl2026-01-11
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Today's Freedom News:
1) Iran: International calls resume but Internet still cut
2) MN: AG, Twin Cities mayors sue US heimatschutz to end invasion/occupation
3) Ukraine: Four dead in Russian attacks
4) NYC: Nearly 15,000 nurses go on strike at city’s top hospitals
5) Australia: Meta kisses regime’s boot on youth social media censorship la
6) Paramount mounts proxy fight against WBD amid takeover battle
7) Greenland: Regime rejects US takeover under “any circumstance”
8) Vatican: Pope Leo meets with Machado
9) Ecuador: Five severed heads displayed on beach
10) Tillis: DOJ “credibility” is “in question” over Powell investigation
11) US Bankruptcy Filings Increase 11% in Calendar Year 2025
12) CA: Man arrested for allegedly driving truck in Iran protest rally
13) Senile reality star whines that US is “screwed” if SCOTUS rules against his illegal tax hikes on American consumers
14) UK: Zahawi Defects to Farage’s Reform
15) Malaysian, Indonesian regimes block Grok over explicit deepfakes
16) Wing’s drone deliveries are coming to 150 more Walmarts
17) Aldi to open 180 new US stores
18) UN’s top court opens landmark Myanmar Rohingya genocide case
19) Kelly sues Pentagon over Hegseth’s idiotic demotion stunt
20) Noem Threatens Minneapolis Gang Activity Escalation After Motorist’s Murder
Today's Freedom Commentary:
21) A royal Paine
22) Libertarian Aspirations
23) In Times Like This, Reframe American History
24) Not All Predictions Are Impossible
25) Absolute Immunity
26) Thoughts on Balko’s Nightmare Happening
27) Trump will be sore when Cuba domino refuses to fall
28) Where Law Would Be King
29) For Greenland, partnership over pugnacity
30) The Trump Administration Owns Responsibility for Whatever Comes Next in Venezuela
31) Real Protests vs Fake Protests
32) Making Imperialism Great Again?
33) The Rise of the Prediction Markets
34) Imperial Murder Machine In State Of Hyperactivity
35) Civilization’s Silent Killer
36) In a reasonable world, Renee Good would still be alive
37) Five Years After GameStop: What the Squeeze Actually Changed
38) US Failed To Install the Pro-US Opposition in Venezuela
39) SCOTUS needs to stop Louisiana grift against energy firms
40) Can a society be both efficient and free? Can we have both, or must we choose — and what is at stake if we cannot?
41) Quantum Vibe, 01/12/26
42) Kill, smear, cover-up
43) How the Murder of Good Changes the Stakes for Good
44) As 2026 Begins, the Pendulum Is Swinging Toward War and Oppression
45) Is Bitcoin Too Public to Become Central‑Bank Money?
46) Sovereign Credit, Affordability, and the Crisis Ratchet
47) Trump’s Shrinking Coalition
48) The Machinery of Terror
49) Iranian protesters showing courage in the face of tyranny, but Israel-obsessed liberals don’t seem to care
50) Don’t mourn the fall of the “rules-based order”
51) The Warmth of Collectivism
52) Innovation Over Ideology
53) Noam Chomsky, Jeffrey Epstein, and Moral Relativism in An Age of Lesser Evils
54) A Billionaire Tries Again to Hijack Veterans’ Care
55) War and the Growth of the American State in the 19th Century
Today's Freedom Podcast and Video:
56) Gracearchy with Jim Babka, episode 150
57) Reason Roundtable, 01/12/26
58) The Mona Charen Show, 01/12/26
59) Half the Answer, episode 58
60) Show-Me Institute Podcast, 01/12/26
61) The Remnant with Jonah Goldberg, 01/12/26
62) EconTalk, 01/12/26
63) The Daily Blast With Greg Sargent, 01/12/26
64) How to Fix It with John Avlon, 01/11/26
65) Free Talk Live, 01/11/26
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_____ Today's Freedom News _____
1) Iran: International calls resume but Internet still cut
Source: Deutsche Welle [German state media]
“Iranians were finally able to call the outside world on Tuesday morning, over four and a half days after Iran’s clerical regime imposed a communications blackout to suppress growing anti-government protests. People were able to make international phone calls on their mobile phones for the first time since Friday. But people from outside Iran were unable to make calls into the country. The internet and text messaging were also still blocked. The blackout has been in effect for over 108 hours, according to monitor Netblocks. The communications blackout was imposed as Iranian authorities began a violent crackdown to suppress the uprising sweeping the nation. Over 648 people have been killed, Norway-based NGO Iran Human Rights (IHR) said Monday.” (01/13/26)
https://www.dw.com/en/iran-international-calls-resume-but-internet-still-cut/live-75483027
-----
2) MN: AG, Twin Cities mayors sue US heimatschutz to end invasion/occupation
Source: KSTP 5 News
“Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison and the cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul are jointly suing the Trump administration over the influx of federal immigration agents taking over the Twin Cities. The lawsuit seeks to stop the ‘unprecedented surge’ of more than 2,000 federal agents deployed by the Department of Homeland Security that has resulted in the [murder] of a 37-year-old mother and countless claims of civil rights abuses since Department of Homeland Security forces began taking hold in Minnesota late last year. The filing further accuses the federal government of violating the 10th Amendment of the Constitution by usurping Minnesota’s right to police itself. Among the defendants named in the lawsuit are Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem; acting U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Director Todd Lyons; and U.S. Customs and Border Protection Cmdr. Greg Bovino.” (01/12/26)
https://kstp.com/kstp-news/top-news/minnesota-twin-cities-sues-dhs-to-end-federal-invasion/
-----
3) Ukraine: Four dead in Russian attacks
Source: Associated Press
“Russia launched a second major drone and missile bombardment of Ukraine in four days, officials said Tuesday, aiming again at the power grid and apparently snubbing U.S.-led peace efforts as the war approaches the four-year mark. Russia fired almost 300 drones, 18 ballistic missiles and seven cruise missiles at eight regions overnight, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on social media. One strike in the northeastern Kharkiv region killed four people at a mail depot, and several hundred thousand households were without power in the Kyiv region, Zelenskyy said.” (01/13/26)
https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-war-drone-missile-attack-aa7d5c2e54619fefabab72165444f8e3
-----
4) NYC: Nearly 15,000 nurses go on strike at city’s top hospitals
Source: Politico
“Nearly 15,000 nurses are walking out of their hospital jobs early Monday morning and onto the picket line, in what their union says is the largest nursing strike in New York City history. New York State Nurses Association members working for Montefiore Medical Center, New York-Presbyterian and the Mount Sinai Health System are demanding salary increases to account for inflation while fighting to maintain protections against understaffing that they won after a three-day strike three years ago. They are also calling for new contract provisions on artificial intelligence and workplace violence. … The strike follows months of negotiations — most recently with a mediator — over new three-year contracts to replace the union’s prior collective bargaining agreements, which expired Dec. 31.” (01/12/26)
https://www.politico.com/news/2026/01/12/thousands-of-new-york-city-hospital-nurses-go-on-strike-00721612
-----
5) Australia: Meta kisses regime’s boot on youth social media censorship law
Source: United Press International
“Meta has removed more than half a million social media accounts belonging to Australians under the age of 16, the company said, as it announced its efforts to comply with the Oceanian nation’s new social media age ban. The law, introduced in late 2024, went into effect Dec. 4, requiring social media services to remove accounts held by those under the age of 16 and younger and block the creation of new accounts for youth under 16. … Meta, which has argued against the ban, said it is committed to complying with the law’s obligations, while arguing that the prohibition is linked to isolating vulnerable teens from online communities and driving some to less regulated apps and alternative parts of the Internet.” (01/12/26)
https://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2026/01/12/australia-Meta-removes-youth-social-media-accounts/2261768205917/
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6) Paramount mounts proxy fight against WBD amid takeover battle
Source: Axios
“After numerous bid rejections, Paramount Skydance is officially waging a proxy fight against Warner Bros. Discovery’s board. Paramount has refused to increase the price of its offer for WBD, arguing its bid is financially superior to Netflix’s. It’s now become clear that it believes its best path to winning WBD is through legal pressure. Paramount on Monday sent a letter to WBD shareholders saying it intends to nominate directors for WBD’s board and that it filed a lawsuit to force the company to disclose ‘basic information” about the bidding process to enable shareholders to “to make an informed decision as to whether to tender their shares into our offer.'” (01/12/26)
https://archive.is/TEobi
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7) Greenland: Regime rejects US takeover under “any circumstance”
Source: Al Jazeera [Qatari state media]
“The government of Greenland has firmly rejected threats from United States President Donald Trump, stating that it will not accept a US takeover under ‘any circumstance.’ The self-governed Danish territory also underscored its NATO membership in a statement on Monday, saying that the territory’s defence falls to the transatlantic alliance. … Trump has continued to insist that he will seize Greenland, threatening that the territory will be brought under US control ‘one way or another.’ Those threats have sparked outrage from European allies who have warned that any takeover of Greenland would have serious repercussions for ties between the US and Europe.” (01/12/26)
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/1/12/greenland-rejects-us-takeover-under-any
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8) Vatican: Pope Leo meets with Machado
Source: San Diego Union-Tribune
“Pope Leo XIV met with Venezuelan opposition leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner María Corina Machado in a private audience at the Vatican on Monday, during which the Venezuelan leader asked him to intercede for the release of hundreds of political prisoners held in the Latin American country. The meeting, which hadn’t been previously included in the list of Leo’s planned appointments, was later listed by the Vatican in its daily bulletin, without adding details. Machado is touring Europe and the United States after she reemerged in December after 11 months in hiding to accept her Nobel Peace Prize in Norway. … Pope Leo has called for Venezuela to remain an independent country after U.S. forces [abducted] former President Nicolás Maduro in his compound in Caracas and took him to New York to face federal charges of drug-trafficking.” (01/12/26)
https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/2026/01/12/pope-meets-venezuela-opposition-machado/
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9) Ecuador: Five severed heads displayed on beach
Source: BBC News [UK state media]
“Bathers found five severed heads displayed on a beach in Ecuador in what appears to be a warning to gang members who have been threatening local fishermen. The gruesome discovery was made on Sunday on the beachfront in Puerto López, a town which has been wracked by gang violence. Next to the body parts, locals found a sign threatening those stealing from and extorting fishermen with the same fate. Ports and towns by the Pacific Ocean are among those worst hit by gangs which smuggle cocaine from Ecuador to the US and Europe. Police have identified the remains as those of five men who had been reported missing days earlier. They ranged between 20 and 34 years in age. Officials told local media one of them had a criminal record for gun possession. Their bodies have not yet been located.” (01/12/26)
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c2e13mlr17go
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10) Tillis: DOJ “credibility” is “in question” over Powell investigation
Source: The Hill
“Republican Sen. Thom Tillis (N.C.), a senior member of the Senate Banking Committee, is questioning the ‘credibility’ of the Department of Justice’s investigation of Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell and threatening to oppose President Trump’s nominees to the central bank until the matter is resolved. ‘If there were any remaining doubt whether advisers within the Trump Administration are actively pushing to end the independence of the Federal Reserve, there should now be none. It is now the independence and credibility of the Department of Justice that are in question,’ Tillis said in a statement. He also vowed to keep Trump’s nominees to the Fed bottled up in the Banking Committee over the matter.” (01/12/26)
https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/5684255-thom-tillis-doj-jerome-powell
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11) US Bankruptcy Filings Increase 11% in Calendar Year 2025
Source: Yahoo! Finance
“Total bankruptcy filings in Calendar Year (CY) 2025 were 565,759, an eleven percent increase from the 508,953 registered during CY 2024, according to data provided by Epiq AACER, the leading provider of US bankruptcy filing data. While representing a substantial year-over-year increase, total bankruptcy filings remain lower than the pre-pandemic total of 757,816 recorded in CY 2019.” (01/26/26)
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/fear-fatigue-finances-americas-mood-222557372.html
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12) CA: Man arrested for allegedly driving truck in Iran protest rally
Source: SFGate
“A man accused of driving a U-Haul truck into a crowd in Los Angeles over the weekend as they demonstrated in support of the protests sweeping Iran was in police custody Monday and authorities said they are considering an assault charge. One man was hit by the truck but was not seriously injured, according to police. Two people declined treatment after being evaluated by paramedics, the fire department said.” (01/12/26)
https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/police-consider-assault-charge-after-u-haul-21290466.php
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13) Senile reality star whines that US is “screwed” if SCOTUS rules against his illegal tax hikes on American consumers
Source: New York Post
“President Trump declared Monday that the US would be ‘screwed’ if the Supreme Court rules against his reciprocal [sic] tariff policies — arguing the feds would have to ‘pay back’ billions in revenue collected over the past year. ‘[I]f the Supreme Court rules against the United States of America on this National Security bonanza, WE’RE SCREWED!’ Trump wrote on Truth Social. … The Supreme Court is poised to rule as early as Wednesday on whether Trump could use emergency powers to impose sweeping tariffs announced last April, including a 10% baseline for [American buyers of goods from] most countries and higher rates that took effect in August for [American buyers of goods from] nations with which the US has a trade deficit.” [editor’s note: Don’t steal money in ways that even government rules don’t allow; then you don’t have to pay it back. “Problem” solved – TLK] (01/12/26)
https://nypost.com/2026/01/12/us-news/trump-warns-were-screwed-if-supreme-court-rules-against-emergency-tariffs/
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14) UK: Zahawi Defects to Farage’s Reform
Source: US News & World Report
“Former British finance minister Nadhim Zahawi defected to Nigel Farage’s right-wing Reform UK party from the Conservative Party on Monday, saying the country was broken and needed Farage as prime minister to fix it. Zahawi, who had a short spell in charge of the nation’s finances under former prime minister Boris Johnson in 2022, becomes the latest in a long line of former Conservatives to switch to Farage’s populist Reform UK. Reform is currently leading the polls in Britain, far ahead of Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s Labour Party, which has struggled to translate its landslide 2024 election win into popular change, against a backdrop of constrained finances and global instability. … Farage’s party has five of 650 seats in parliament, but Reform’s surging popularity has come from tapping into public frustration over issues like immigration, crime and a perceived fall in the standard of public services.” (01/12/26)
https://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2026-01-12/former-uk-government-minister-zahawi-defects-to-reform-from-conservatives
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15) Malaysian, Indonesian regimes block Grok over explicit deepfakes
Source: BBC News [UK state media]
“Malaysia and Indonesia have blocked access to Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot Grok over its ability to produce sexually explicit deepfakes. Grok, a tool on Musk’s X platform, allows users to generate images but has recently been used to edit images of real people to show them in revealing outfits. The South East Asian countries said Grok could be used to produce pornographic and non-consensual images involving women and children. They are the first in the world to ban the AI tool. There is also growing pressure to block Grok in the UK, with its technology secretary saying she would back the move, leading Musk to accuse the government of wanting to suppress free speech.” (01/12/26)
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cg7y10xm4x2o
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16) Wing’s drone deliveries are coming to 150 more Walmarts
Source: Engadget
“Don’t be surprised if you see even more drones delivering groceries across the US since the Alphabet-owned Wing announced another service expansion with Walmart over the next year. The partnership said that drone delivery services will be available at 150 more Walmart locations in Los Angeles, St. Louis, Cincinnati, Miami and more metros that have yet to be announced. According to Wing, its top 25 percent of customers have ordered its delivery drones up to three times a week. To meet growing demand, Wing and Walmart said it will serve up to 40 million US customers and build up a network of 270 delivery locations by 2027.” (01/11/26)
https://www.engadget.com/transportation/wings-drone-deliveries-are-coming-to-150-more-walmarts-180708189.html
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17) Aldi to open 180 new US stores
Source: Fox News
“Budget-friendly grocery chain Aldi is expanding its footprint in the U.S. The company announced on Monday that it plans to open more than 180 stores by the end of 2026, pushing its total footprint to nearly 2,800 this year. Its goal is to operate about 3,200 stores by the end of 2028. As part of the company’s growth plans over the next five years, it will enter the Colorado market for the first time while opening additional stores in the Southeast and West markets. It also has plans to open three new distribution centers in Florida, Colorado and Arizona. … Demand for the low-cost grocer has risen as consumers grapple with higher everyday expenses.” (01/12/26)
https://www.foxbusiness.com/lifestyle/grocery-chain-launches-massive-expansion-180-new-us-stores
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18) UN’s top court opens landmark Myanmar Rohingya genocide case
Source: Al Jazeera [Qatari state media]
“The top court of the United Nations has opened a landmark case accusing Myanmar of committing genocide against its mostly Muslim Rohingya minority. Myanmar’s military deliberately targeted the Rohingya minority in a bid to destroy the community, The Gambia’s Justice Minister Dawda Jallow told the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague on Monday. … The trial is the first genocide case the ICJ has taken up in full in more than a decade, and its outcome will have repercussions beyond Myanmar, likely affecting South Africa’s petition against Israel over its genocidal war on Gaza. The hearings will span three weeks.” (01/12/26)
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/1/12/un-top-court-set-to-open-myanmar-rohingya-genocide-case
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19) Kelly sues Pentagon over Hegseth’s idiotic demotion stunt
Source: SFGate
“Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly sued the Pentagon on Monday over attempts to punish him for his warnings about illegal orders, claiming the Trump administration trampled on his constitutional rights to free speech. Kelly, a former U.S. Navy pilot who represents Arizona, is seeking to block his censure from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth last week. Hegseth announced on Jan. 5 that he censured Kelly over his participation in a video that called on troops to resist unlawful orders. Hegseth said the censure — by itself simply a formal letter with little practical consequence — was ‘a necessary process step’ to proceedings that could result in a demotion from Kelly’s retired rank of captain and subsequent reduction in retirement pay. Kelly asked the federal court in Washington, D.C., to rule that the censure letter, the proceedings about his rank and any other punishments against him are “unlawful and unconstitutional.” (01/12/26)
https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/sen-kelly-sues-the-pentagon-over-attempts-to-21290874.php
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20) Noem Threatens Minneapolis Gang Activity Escalation After Motorist’s Murder
Source: Time
“Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem vowed on Sunday to send ‘hundreds more’ federal agents to Minneapolis as thousands continue to protest the [murder] of a woman by an immigration officer last week. … Noem’s announcement came a day after tens of thousands took to the streets of Minneapolis to protest over the [murder] of 37-year-old Renee Nicole Good by an immigration officer and the continued presence of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents in the city. Good, a mother of three and a poet, was [murdered] in front of her partner while inside her car on Wednesday. Those protests have since spread across the country.” (01/11/26)
https://time.com/7345325/ice-minneapolis-kristi-noem/
_____ Today's Freedom Commentary _____
21) A royal Paine
Source: Expression
by Matthew Harwood
“Accounts differ, but sometime between late November and the middle of December 1774, a terribly sick man was carried off a ship in colonial Philadelphia. Riddled with typhus, the middle-aged Brit was too weak to walk after his long voyage from London. …. If the British had any idea of who this Thomas Pain would become — he wouldn’t add the ‘e’ until later — they may never have let him set sail to the New World to begin with. In little more than a year, this impoverished 37-year-old, who had known only heartache and failure in Britain, would find his voice as a successful editor and journalist in America’s largest city. And with his newfound purpose and confidence, he would write one of the great world-changing pieces of political propaganda ever published and help birth a free and independent United States of America.” (01/12/26)
https://expression.fire.org/p/a-royal-paine
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22) Libertarian Aspirations
Source: Future of Freedom Foundation
by Laurence M Vance
“Although it may have been true at one time that libertarians and conservatives were ‘uneasy cousins,’ such has not been the case for many years. Still, conservatives have no problem with using libertarian rhetoric to portray themselves as advocates of the Constitution, private property, the free market, individual liberty, federalism, limited government, and a free society when they only selectively believe these things.” (01/12/26)
https://www.fff.org/explore-freedom/article/libertarian-aspirations/
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23) In Times Like This, Reframe American History
Source: JFK Facts
by Jefferson Morley
“I was taught to understand American history as the history of political institutions, how ideas of individual liberty, free speech, separation of powers, and rule of law were manifested and contested. At a time when such institutions and ideas are powerless, endangered or defunct, we might find more clarity — and power — by understanding American history as a narrative of extra-constitutional political violence. If, as Judge Andrew Napolitano says, we now live under ‘a lawless presidency,’ it’s not the first time.” (01/12/26)
https://jfkfacts.substack.com/p/in-times-like-this-reframe-american
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24) Not All Predictions Are Impossible
Source: Pierre Lemieux
by Pierre Lemieux
“Why don’t economics—the analysis of the social consequences of individual actions—and a knowledge of initial conditions suffice to make predictions? There are many reasons. Initial conditions cannot all be perfectly measured and are continuously disturbed, which generates divergent trajectories and creates new surprises as time goes on. Preferences (tastes and values) dwell in the head of each individual. Moral character may be opaque. Thanks to the law of large numbers, the average behavior of a group of individuals may be predictable (consider the law of demand: quantity demanded is an inverse function of price), but the actions of a specific individual are not. The longer the prediction horizon, the more fog in the oracle’s crystal ball. Not surprisingly, my own predictions have not all been glorious.” (01/12/26)
https://pierrelemieux.substack.com/p/not-all-predictions-are-impossible
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25) Absolute Immunity
Source: The Reframe
by AR Moxon
“Alignment with supremacy is a vile choice. Raising the natural costs for those who make that choice by putting first things first.” (01/12/26)
https://www.the-reframe.com/absolute-immunity
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26) Thoughts on Balko’s Nightmare Happening
Source: ProSocial Libertarians
by Daniel Shapiro
“Radley Balko’s article ‘Trump’s Immigration Nightmare: It Is Happening Here,’ may very well be the best article on Trump’s immigration policy. … We have four basic choices, as far as I can tell. #1: You can support these policies. If you do, I don’t see how you can call yourself a libertarian, a liberal, or anybody of any ideology — including conservatism — who claims to love liberty or support the ideals of the American Revolution. #2: You can oppose them but engage in what I call DTS — Downplaying Trump Syndrome. … #3: You can stick your head in the sand and not want to read about it or talk about it or be concerned with it. … #4: You can do something about it.” (01/12/26)
https://prosociallibertarians.substack.com/p/thoughts-on-balkos-nightmare-happening
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27) Trump will be sore when Cuba domino refuses to fall
Source: Responsible Statecraft
by William LeoGrande
“Back in 2014, economist Pavel Vidal estimated that if Venezuelan oil were suddenly cut off, the Cuban economy would drop 7.7 percent. Today, when Venezuela provides far less than it did then and the price of oil is about half of what it was, the impact would be less. But Cuba’s GDP has already fallen about 15 percent since the COVID pandemic. Another 4 or 5 percent drop would exacerbate the vicious circle of declines in domestic production reducing export earnings, and widening the gap between what Cuba needs to import and what it can afford. Would that be enough to collapse the Cuban government? Trump certainly seems to think so. … Such confidence is not new. Washington officials have been predicting the imminent end of the Cuban government since 1959.” (01/12/26)
https://responsiblestatecraft.org/trump-cuba-collapse/
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28) Where Law Would Be King
Source: Law & Liberty
by Hans Eicholz
“There are moments within traditions of thought when the pressure of events breaks apart ideas and ways of thinking that had subsisted for ages in relative harmony. These moments, often called tipping points, mark an instant when a particular notion suddenly takes prominence in public opinion due to its seeming conformity with the logic of events. Such was the publication of Thomas Paine’s Common Sense, announced for sale by Robert Bell’s print shop in Philadelphia on January 9 and officially distributed on January 10, 250 years ago. Until that time, debate over the question of colonial rights to self-government, especially over the question of taxation, had been carried on within the framework and terms of the British or Imperial constitution.” (01/12/26)
https://lawliberty.org/where-law-would-be-king/
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29) For Greenland, partnership over pugnacity
Source: Christian Science Monitor
by staff
“In the midst of the Arctic winter, residents of Greenland are feeling the heat of global geopolitics. United States officials have stepped up insistence on the ‘need’ to take control of the mostly ice-covered island by force or by financial means. The declarations stress Greenland’s strategic location along Arctic sea routes – which both Russia and China are vying to use – as well as access to its estimated 1.5 million tons of rare earth mineral reserves. What’s at stake ‘is not just about rare earths – it is about the very idea of sovereignty in an age of resource rivalry’, Phar Kim Beng, of the Institute of International and ASEAN Studies, wrote in the Malay Mail. The U.S. logic is ‘rooted in energy security, future-proofing supply chains (especially minerals) and in the strategic denial of competitors,’ geopolitics analyst and bestselling author Tim Marshall wrote in The Times of London.” (01/12/25)
https://www.csmonitor.com/Commentary/the-monitors-view/2026/0112/For-Greenland-partnership-over-pugnacity
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30) The Trump Administration Owns Responsibility for Whatever Comes Next in Venezuela
Source: Reason
by JD Tuccille
“Regarding the 2002 invasion and occupation of Iraq, former U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell warned then-President George W. Bush, ‘if you break it, you own it.’ He elaborated, ‘if we take out another country’s government by force, we instantly become the new government, responsible for governing the country and for the security of its people until we can turn all that over to a new, stable, and functioning government.’ … Owning the consequences was a risk as soon as the U.S. moved to depose Maduro. Whatever the outcome, it would have been set in motion by American actions. By supporting the continuation of Maduro’s regime under new management, the Trump administration is implicitly endorsing the censorship, fixed elections, corruption, and brutality that have kept that government in power since it took office under Hugo Chavez.” (01/12/26)
https://reason.com/2026/01/12/the-trump-administration-owns-responsibility-for-whatever-comes-next-in-venezuela/
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31) Real Protests vs Fake Protests
Source: Town Hall
by Jeff Crouere
“The protests in Iran have been building for weeks. Initially, the demonstrations were organized by merchants in December in response to a huge fall in the value of the Iranian Rial, their currency. Soon thereafter, the protests expanded to include students and workers and became a massive outpouring of citizens rejecting the country’s tyrannical Islamic regime. This theocracy has been ruling Iran with an iron grip since the overthrow of the Shah, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, in 1979. Since then, Iran has become the largest benefactor for the world’s deadliest terrorist organizations, such as Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthis. In response to the protests, the Supreme Leader of Iran, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, claimed that the government ‘would not back down.’ This statement is not surprising as the radical Islamic leaders of Iran have brutally responded to previous protests.” (01/12/25)
https://townhall.com/columnists/jeffcrouere/2026/01/12/real-protests-vs-fake-protests-n2669303
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32) Making Imperialism Great Again?
Source: Ron Paul Liberty Report
by Ron Paul
“Following the invasion of Venezuela, there have been suggestions that President Trump will direct the US military to invade other countries as well. For example, Secretary of State and National Security Advisor Marco Rubio said, ‘if I lived in Havana and I was in the government, I’d be concerned.’ To no one’ s surprise, Senator Lindsey Graham was delighted by the possibility that Venezuela was just the first of many regime change wars President Trump will wage. … President Trump’s newfound love of regime change wars may be one reason why he is seeking to increase the military budget to 1.5 trillion dollars.” (0/12/26)
http://www.ronpaullibertyreport.com/archives/making-imperialism-great-again
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33) The Rise of the Prediction Markets
Source: The American Conservative
by Spencer Neale
“These days, often your best bet to learn about what’s coming next, from hot-button political topics to shifts in cultural trends, is to check in with the round-the-clock traders on Polymarket and Kalshi. On the two foremost major prediction market websites, people bet real money nonstop on real-world events. Though both platforms have been operable for the better part of half a decade, it’s been the later stage of this year that has witnessed unmistakable growth in volume and name recognition for both. So much so that the two platforms are suddenly signing major deals with global tech and financial leaders amid their rise as the latest darlings of the internet these final months of 2025.” (01/12/26)
https://www.theamericanconservative.com/the-rise-of-the-prediction-markets/
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34) Imperial Murder Machine In State Of Hyperactivity
Source: Caitlin Johnstone, Rogue Journalist
by Caitlin Johnstone
“I hate this. I hate waiting for the next imperial act of war. I hate having to be aware of sunrise time in Iran so I can relax knowing they made it through another night without US airstrikes. I hate having to wonder which empire-targeted population is going to get hit next. The imperial murder machine has been so frenetically active these last few years. When I first started writing about the US empire it was the beginning of Trump’s first term, at a state of relative calm. There were mounting cold war tensions with Russia and the US-backed Saudi atrocities in Yemen, a faltering dirty war in Syria and a half-assed coup attempt in Venezuela, but these frenzied nonstop regime change ops and brazen power grabs weren’t so much a thing back then.” (01/12/25)
https://caitlinjohnstone.com.au/2026/01/12/the-imperial-murder-machine-is-in-a-state-of-hyperactivity/
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35) Civilization’s Silent Killer
Source: Underthrow
by Max Borders
“Developed-world consciousness is in demographic decline. If people in developed countries don’t have more babies, the developing world will inherit the earth. Does a dystopian future await?” (01/12/26)
https://underthrow.substack.com/p/civilizations-silent-killer
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36) In a reasonable world, Renee Good would still be alive
Source: Orange County Register
by Sal Rodriguez
“In a normal world, the president and vice president would call for calm and note that proper investigations would take place. Matt Walsh would be unknown outside of crank religious right circles still fixated on “the gay agenda” or whatever. And Kristi Noem definitely would not be the head of Homeland Security and instead would have peaked with a term or two in the South Dakota House of Representatives. Alas, here we are. And it’s indeed because of the weird politics of today that Renee Good is dead.” (01/12/26)
https://archive.is/xyxGy
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37) Five Years After GameStop: What the Squeeze Actually Changed
Source: The Daily Economy
by Peter C Earle
“Meme-stock investment infusions rescued the company without redeeming its model. Did that borrowed time produce market discipline — or simply delay error correction?” (01/12/26)
https://thedailyeconomy.org/article/five-years-after-gamestop-what-the-squeeze-actually-changed/
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38) US Failed To Install the Pro-US Opposition in Venezuela
Source: Antiwar.com
by Ted Snider
“The United States decapitated the Venezuelan regime and is dictating policy in Venezuela, running the country like an American colony. But the regime remains in place. Washington has been forced to exercise its dominance overtly through thuggish economic and military coercion rather than covertly by installing the pro-U.S. opposition. There are at least four reasons for this failure. The first is past failures. Many of them.” (01/12/26)
https://original.antiwar.com/ted_snider/2026/01/11/u-s-failed-to-install-the-pro-us-opposition-in-venezuela/
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39) SCOTUS needs to stop Louisiana grift against energy firms
Source: Fox News
by William Barr
“The U.S. Supreme Court, by now all too familiar with lawfare, will consider a startling case on Monday, Jan. 12, chock-full of hard politicking and even the appearance of corruption. Small bayou towns and parishes in Louisiana, in partnership with plaintiffs’ firms, have filed dozens of lawsuits blaming American energy companies for coastal erosion stemming from energy production during World War II. The first of those cases reached trial this spring, with a jury in Plaquemines Parish returning a $750 million judgment against Chevron. The conduct of these cases recalls an old problem with a clear solution. States and localities have for decades weaponized their courts to derail lawful and legitimate federal objectives. … The answer is to remove these cases from Louisiana’s courts and adjudicate them in a fairer forum, namely federal court.” (01/12/25)
https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/william-barr-supreme-court-needs-stop-louisiana-grift-against-energy-firms
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40) Can a society be both efficient and free? Can we have both, or must we choose — and what is at stake if we cannot?
Source: Students For Liberty
by Riccardo Rossi
“The tension that exists is between two classics: Adam Smith’s extent of the market, where specialization and exchange reinforce each other, because ‘the division of labor is limited by the extent of the market,’ and Alexis de Tocqueville’s art of association, where civic life survives because people learn to act together. Smith’s division of labor delivers prosperity through specialization; Tocqueville’s civic associations safeguard liberty through engagement. Yet they can pull in opposite directions: specialization isolates, and isolation weakens democracy. This is not abstract: it decides whether the West stays free or slides into a new despotism.” (01/12/26)
https://studentsforliberty.org/blog/can-a-society-be-both-efficient-and-free-can-we-have-both-or-must-we-choose-and-what-is-at-stake-if-we-cannot/
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41) Quantum Vibe, 01/12/26
Source: Big Head Press
by Scott Bieser
Cartoon. (01/12/26)
https://www.quantumvibe.com/strip?page=2569
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42) Kill, smear, cover-up
Source: Popular Information
by Judd Legum
“On January 7, Renee Good, a 37-year-old mother and U.S. citizen, was fatally shot by ICE agent Jonathan Ross in Minneapolis. After her death, Good was subjected to a vicious smear campaign by the President, the Vice President, administration officials, and their allies. The baseless attacks against Good are a coordinated, brazen and callous government propaganda effort. The goal is to convince Americans to believe an official narrative over objective evidence — including video of the incident. It is an ongoing campaign to legitimize the homicide of an American based on misinformation.” (01/12/26)
https://popular.info/p/kill-smear-cover-up
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43) How the Murder of Good Changes the Stakes for Good
Source: Washington Monthly
by Jonathan Alter
“o one can predict how the murder of Renee Good will change this country. But there’s an encouraging history of change the aftermath of certain violent and tragic events, and a poor track record for governments that shoot their own people in the streets. Even when this story is pushed out of the headlines by some new outrage, we may look back on it as the moment when Donald Trump lost his grip. Of course, the ICE story will likely get worse before it gets better. … why am I hopeful that after tensions escalate for a time, we’ll get some accountability—if not for Good’s murder, then for Trump’s efforts to establish an American police state?” (01/12/26)
https://washingtonmonthly.com/2026/01/12/how-the-murder-of-good-changes-the-stakes-for-good/
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44) As 2026 Begins, the Pendulum Is Swinging Toward War and Oppression
Source: Common Dreams
by Klaus Moegling
“The beginning of 2026 falls into a period of increasing global social destruction. Multilateral institutions such as the United Nations and the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe OSCE are being systematically destroyed. Countries such as the US and Russia are withdrawing from these institutions or attempting to obstruct them through blocking behavior. US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin are political leaders who are dismantling or destroying the remnants of democracy in their countries, increasing repressive pressure on their populations, and acting aggressively toward the outside world. They find international law rather annoying, ignore it, and develop a right-wing and authoritarian nationalism, within the framework of which the ruling circles in the US and Russia enrich themselves excessively and disregard everything that previous values in terms of decency and justice demand.” (01/12/25)
https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/2026-war-authoritarianism
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45) Is Bitcoin Too Public to Become Central‑Bank Money?
Source: Bitcoin.com
by Sergio Goschenko
“The issue of bitcoin’s lack of privacy has been raised as a key concern that may affect its adoption as a central bank digital currency by state nations. In the latest episode of the ‘All-In Podcast,’ venture capitalist Chamath Palihapitiya presented his contrarian take for 2026, stating that central banks will realize both gold and bitcoin have limitations, and will seek out a ‘completely new cryptographic paradigm.’ This new paradigm will be controlled by the central bank’s balance sheet and will be ‘fungible, tradable, and completely secure and private.'” [editor’s note: The LAST thing central banks want is secure/private currency. That would limit the ability of the regimes linked to the central banks to steal it from us and monitor our use of it – TLK] (01/12/26)
https://news.bitcoin.com/is-bitcoin-too-public-to-become-central%E2%80%91bank-money/
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46) Sovereign Credit, Affordability, and the Crisis Ratchet
Source: Ludwig von Mises Institute
by Michael Dioguardi
“In modern political debate, rising costs of living are usually blamed on markets. Housing is ‘unaffordable.’ Healthcare is ‘broken.’ Education is ‘too expensive.’ The proposed remedy is almost always the same: more public spending, more intervention, more emergency programs funded by government credit. But what if the affordability crisis is not a failure of markets at all? What if it is the predictable outcome of how modern governments finance themselves? From an Austrian perspective, the affordability crisis is best understood as a monetary and institutional phenomenon. Since the early 1970s, governments like the United States have operated under a system of discretionary sovereign credit, where spending is no longer meaningfully constrained by taxation or savings.” (01/12/26)
https://mises.org/power-market/sovereign-credit-affordability-and-crisis-ratchet
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47) Trump’s Shrinking Coalition
Source: The Atlantic
by Jonathan Chait
“Trump is alienating anti-system voters because he now controls the system. His appeal lay in his opposition to established power, but now that he has it, he is flexing it gleefully. He is the warmonger, the censor, the face of the Epstein cover-up. It is hard to remain an outsider while holding the world’s most powerful job. But Trump seems not to have anticipated this, in part because he had far less trouble maintaining his anti-establishment identity in his first term. He managed this because that term consisted mainly of failures. … Trump is no longer making this complaint about the established forces working against him, because he has solved this problem. His presidency is filled with loyalists. He has largely overcome any reluctance that officials might have had in carrying out his most unethical or illegal demands. He can’t present himself as anti-system, because he has become the system.” (01/12/26)
https://archive.is/J8CDj
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48) The Machinery of Terror
Source: The Chris Hedges Report
by Chris Hedges
“I have seen the masked goons who terrorize our streets before. … I know these goons. I have been a prisoner in their jails and spent hours in their interrogation rooms. I have been beaten by them. I have been deported, and in several cases banned, from their countries. I know what is coming. Terror is the engine that empowers dictatorships. It eliminates dissidents. It silences critics. It dismantles the law. It creates a society of timid and frightened collaborators, those who look away when people are snatched off streets or gunned down, those who inform to save themselves, those who retreat into their tiny rabbit holes, pulling down the blinds, desperately praying to be left in peace. Terror works.” (01/11/26)
https://chrishedges.substack.com/p/the-machinery-of-terror
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49) Iranian protesters showing courage in the face of tyranny, but Israel-obsessed liberals don’t seem to care
Source: New York Post
by Melanie Phillips
“As the Iranian uprising continues to escalate, it’s been reported that hundreds of protesters have been killed by the regime’s security forces. The internet, phone signals and lighting have been cut, and it’s feared the killings are intensifying behind the blackout. Yet the Iranian people have increasingly poured onto the streets to confront the regime’s murder and torture squads. There’s never been such a mass display of raw courage in the teeth of such vicious repression. If the regime does fall, this will be a seismic event, reshaping the region and world politics. The insurrection might be the most consequential global event so far this century. Yet from Western liberals, there’s been little more than pursed lips. There have been no demonstrations in support of the embattled protesters.” (01/11/25)
https://nypost.com/2026/01/11/opinion/iranian-protesters-are-showing-courage-in-the-face-of-tyranny-but-israel-obsessed-liberals-dont-seem-to-care/
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50) Don’t mourn the fall of the “rules-based order”
Source: spiked
by Tim Black
“On 3 January, US special forces removed Venezuela’s president and brutal despot Nicolás Maduro from power. A few hours later, at a hastily arranged press conference, US president Donald Trump seemed even more pleased with himself than usual. Perhaps his excitement explains the Freudian slip. ‘I watched last night one of the most precise attacks on sovereignty,’ he said, before quickly correcting himself – ‘I mean, it was an attack for justice.’ But the truth was out. … But Trump’s legion loathers among our political and cultural elites are not seeing the Venezuela intervention as an attack on national sovereignty. No, they’re casting it above all as an attack on the so-called rules-based order itself.” (01/11/26)
https://archive.is/9fTcH
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51) The Warmth of Collectivism
Source: Quillette
by John Aziz
“Zohran Mamdani wants to institute ‘collectivist’ governance, but NYC already has a collectivist problem—a coordinated veto system that blocks development and progress.” (01/12/26)
https://quillette.com/2026/01/12/the-warmth-of-collectivism-mamdani-nyc/
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52) Innovation Over Ideology
Source: Foundation for Economic Education
by Simon Sarevski
“To understand the story of the bicycle, we need to travel back to the late 19th century — a time when people’s mobility was restricted not by laws but by technology and wealth, or rather, by the lack of both. Travel required a horse, and a horse was neither cheap nor easy to maintain. For women, the barriers were even higher: social norms and safety in some cultures required a chaperone, making any trip more complicated and costly. The bicycle changed that, and in the words of the pioneering women’s rights activist Susan B. Anthony, this simple machine ‘has done more to emancipate women than any other thing in the world.'” (01/11/26)
https://fee.org/articles/innovation-over-ideology/
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53) Noam Chomsky, Jeffrey Epstein, and Moral Relativism in An Age of Lesser Evils
Source: exile in happy valley
by Nicky Reid
America, just like the Catholic Church, decimated and abused the innocent quite simply because they could. Every reason they supplied to the public was nothing more than another empty excuse for the perversion of naked power. The government, my government, didn’t give a flying fuck about fighting communism. In fact, they supported it when it suited them in Cambodia just to destabilize Vietnam. And they didn’t give a flying fuck about democracy either. … It was a harsh lesson to teach a pissed-off teenager, but it was also the only lesson that passed the smell test with her because I was already intimately familiar with the savagery that pious adults were capable of when they could convince themselves that they were armed with moral superiority.” (01/11/26)
https://exileinhappyvalley.blogspot.com/2026/01/noam-chomsky-jeffrey-epstein-and-moral.html
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54) A Billionaire Tries Again to Hijack Veterans’ Care
Source: The American Prospect
by Russell Lemle & Jasper Craven
“If there’s one thing hedge fund titan Steven Cohen is known for, it’s rising from the ashes. A decade ago, Cohen worked feverishly to recover from a notorious Wall Street scandal. Now, he’s aiming to ram through a damaging veterans mental health bill that was summarily quashed in President Trump’s first term. One of the world’s richest people, Cohen suffered a devastating blow in 2013 when his hedge fund pleaded guilty to insider trading and paid $1.8 billion in fines, the largest such penalty in U.S. history. Cohen personally reached a settlement with the Securities and Exchange Commission that banned him from managing outside money for two years. The SEC cited his ‘failure to supervise’ a portfolio manager involved in the scheme who went to prison for nine years. Following his mandatory hiatus, Cohen returned with a vengeance, swiftly doubling his fortune to $23 billion.” (01/12/25)
https://prospect.org/2026/01/12/billionaire-tries-again-to-hijack-veterans-care/
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55) War and the Growth of the American State in the 19th Century
Source: Libertarian Institute
by Joseph Solis-Mullen
“From the colonial frontier to the battlefields of Gettysburg, war has been both a crucible and a mirror for the American experiment. Historians from Charles Tilly to Allan Millett have long emphasized the centrality of warfare in the formation of modern states, arguing that ‘war made the state and the state made war.’ Yet, in the American case, this process unfolded within a republican framework that ostensibly distrusted standing armies and centralized power. The tension between libertarian ideals and the exigencies of war defined the nation’s evolution from fragile confederation to continental empire.” (01/11/26)
https://libertarianinstitute.org/uncategorized/war-and-the-growth-of-the-american-state-in-the-19th-century/
_____ Today's Freedom Podcast and Video _____
56) Gracearchy with Jim Babka, episode 150
Source: Gracearchy with Jim Babka
“Zaprudering ICE After The Renee Good Shooting.” (01/12/26)
https://rumble.com/v747c4i-ep150-zaprudering-ice-after-the-renee-good-shooting-gracearchy-with-jim-bab.html
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57) Reason Roundtable, 01/12/26
Source: Reason
"End the Fed? Or Turn It Over to Trump?" (01/12/26)
https://reason.com/podcast/2026/01/12/end-the-fed-or-turn-it-over-to-trump/
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58) The Mona Charen Show, 01/12/26
Source: The Bulwark
"Venezuela Was Not Liberated (w/ Quico Toro)." (01/12/26)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9-0lVgVj0sY
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59) Half the Answer, episode 58
Source: Liberal Currents
“The U.S. in Venezuela: The International Community and the Donroe Doctrine.” (01/12/26)
https://www.liberalcurrents.com/half-the-answer-58-the-u-s-in-venezuela-the-international-community-and-the-donroe-doctrine/
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60) Show-Me Institute Podcast, 01/12/26
Source: Show-Me Institute
“No Adult Left Behind, How Politics Hijacks Education Policy with Vlad Kogan.” (01/12/26)
https://showmeinstitute.org/blog/education/no-adult-left-behind-how-politics-hijacks-education-policy-with-vlad-kogan/
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61) The Remnant with Jonah Goldberg, 01/12/26
Source: The Dispatch
“Patriots and Loyalists | Interview: Ken Burns.” (01/12/26)
https://thedispatch.com/podcast/remnant/patriots-and-loyalists-interview-ken-burns/
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62) EconTalk, 01/12/26
Source: EconTalk
“The Mattering Instinct (with Rebecca Newberger Goldstein).” (01/12/26)
https://www.econtalk.org/the-mattering-instinct-with-rebecca-newberger-goldstein/
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63) The Daily Blast With Greg Sargent, 01/12/26
Source: The New Republic
“Trump’s Rage Explodes at GOPers as Their Defiance of Him Visibly Grows.” (01/12/26)
https://newrepublic.com/article/205145/trump-rage-explodes-gopers-defiance-visibly-grows
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64) How to Fix It with John Avlon, 01/11/26
Source: The Bulwark
“Is Trump Punishing Colorado? (w/ Gov. Jared Polis).” (01/11/26)
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/is-trump-punishing-colorado-w-gov-jared-polis/id1772157676?i=1000744671088
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65) Free Talk Live, 01/11/26
Source: Free Talk Live
“Blowback :: When did Israel start trying to start a fight with Iran? :: 9-11 Report total propaganda :: Tom sent an email to the UN to try to get them to condemn Trump’s actions in Venezuela, Tom’s plan :: The way the deep state props up the US even outside of the US itself :: The Dishonorable, Contemptible, Corrupt Ricky from the Commonwealth talks on air with the Creepy, Disturbing, Inappropriate Turd Ferguson from the Commonwealth :: The depth of Rich E Rich’s pettiness :: List of the weirdest things Trump has done in the last 24 hours alone :: Our experiences with Real ID :: Would we give up some profit/ productivity for more liberty and privacy? Yes. :: 2026-01-11 Hosts: Bonnie, Rich E Rich, Riley O’Bill.” (01/11/26)
https://soundcloud.com/freetalklive/ftl2026-01-11
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