01/19 -- Pentagon puts 1,500 troops on standby for possible use in Minnesota occupation; From Inmost to Outmost: Consciousness and the Path to Liberty
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Thomas L. Knapp
Jan 19, 2026, 6:17:37 AM (2 days ago) Jan 19
to Freedom News Daily
Freedom News Daily, 01/19/26
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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:
0) Hybrid Monday at the Freedom Movement's Daily Newspaper
1) Pentagon puts 1,500 troops on standby for possible use in Minnesota occupation
2) Canada: Carney weighs sending soldiers to Greenland for military exercises with NATO allies
3) NH: Bishop warns clergy to prepare for “new era of martyrdom”
4) Palestine: Israeli regime, Islamic Jihad whine about US regime’s lineup for “Gaza executive board”
5) Ukraine: Drone strike cuts power supply in Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia
6) US heimatschutz seeks to deport witnesses to alleged ICE gang murder
7) Iran: Khamenei blames Trump for protests
8) Sources: Feds “investigating” Minnesota murder victim’s partner
9) Big chains accused of masquerading as independent restaurants on delivery apps
10) EU, South American officials sign Mercosur free trade agreement
11) Senile reality TV star vows to “take out” Indiana GOP leader over gerrymander fight
12) Iraq: Regime troops fully take over key base following US withdrawal
13) Uber pushes for law to limit California lawyer fees
14) Federal judge restricts ICE gang violence in Minnesota
15) FL: Beloved pastry chef killed in freak accident with bread-making machine
16) Trump announces new taxes on Americans in Greenland tantrum
17) NASA’s mega Moon rocket arrives at launch pad for Artemis II mission
18) Uganda: Museveni to get seventh terms as opponent condemns “fake results”
19) Argentina’s bungled hunt for Hitler’s right-hand man Martin Bormann revealed in declassified files
20) CA: Homeowner shoots intruder during attempted robbery, police say
Today's Freedom Commentary:
21) From Inmost to Outmost: Consciousness and the Path to Liberty
22) Recipe vs. Result: Does the US Government Actually Exist?
23) Congress Wants To Hand Your Parenting to Big Tech
24) What Tyranny Looks Like Now: No Crowns, No Coups Just Unchecked Power
25) The Campaign to Destroy Renee Good
26) A newspaper based on unshakable ideals
27) Writs, Riots, and Redcoats: Hancock’s Spark of the Revolution
28) “Heritage Americans” Want to Make Citizenship About Blood
29) Crooks still in charge of Venezuela; US should plot road map to freedom
30) Venezuela: The US Should Work with Machado on a Transition
31) Regime Change The US Empire
32) Exhaustion Is (Still) the Strategy
33) Beware the Rise of JD (Just-as-Dangerous) Vance
34) Congressional Republicans might finally jump off the hamster wheel
35) What is Competition?
36) Neither the ayatollah nor the shah
37) Sorry Omar Fateh, we’re not doing Somali-run no-go zones in Minnesota
38) The Public School Shell Game Makes Phantom Daycares Look Tiny
39) Republicans now embrace “seamless garment” of statism
40) Artificial Intelligence in the United States
41) Trump “Peace Plan” Just Genocide Under a Different Name
42) Hating X: The Naked Truth
43) Venezuela — the Petroleum Fortress: Power, Profits, and the Dismantling of a Nation
44) Greenlanders Don’t Consent To Becoming Americans
45) Why the Hell Should We Care If Democrats Don’t?
46) The Limits of the Hamilton-Jefferson Paradigm
47) The Trumpian ICE Age: The Frigidity of Collectivism
48) Russia Won’t Have to Say No: Europe Will
49) What a People-Powered Movement Looks Like
50) In what world would Trump’s oil play actually help Venezuelans?
Today's Freedom Podcast and Video:
51) Unattended Baggage, episode 325
52) The Good Fight, 01/17/26
53) Bulwark Takes, 01/16/26
54) The Kyle Anzalone Show, 01/16/26
55) Serious Trouble, 01/16/26
56) The Tom Woods Show, episode 2727
57) The Daily Blast With Greg Sargent, 01/16/26
58) Politicks, 01/16/26
59) Rising, 01/16/26
60) Antiwar News with Dave DeCamp, 01/16/26
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0) Hybrid Monday at the Freedom Movement's Daily Newspaper
Hey, everyone ...
It's a holiday in the US (Martin Luther King Jr. Day), but instead of taking the day off we're bringing you a full email / social media edition PLUS additional news stories, opinion pieces, and audio/video links at our web edition (I'm not sure how many extras yet, as I'm writing this on Sunday). Enjoy!
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Yours in liberty,
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Publisher
Rational Review News Digest / Freedom News Daily
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1) Pentagon puts 1,500 troops on standby for possible use in Minnesota occupation
Source: National Herald [India]
“The Pentagon has placed around 1,500 active-duty soldiers on prepare-to-deploy orders amid escalating protests in Minnesota against the federal government’s immigration enforcement campaign, according to US media reports. Troops have been alerted as a contingency measure in case violence intensifies in the northern state, the Washington Post reported on Sunday, citing defence officials. It remains unclear whether the soldiers will ultimately be deployed. The White House said such preparations were routine, stating that the Pentagon must be ready ‘for any decision the President may or may not make.’ … The move comes days after President Donald Trump threatened to invoke the Insurrection Act … In a post on his Truth Social platform last week, Trump warned that he would act if Minnesota’s leaders failed to stop protesters from confronting Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) [gang members].” (01/18/26)
https://www.nationalheraldindia.com/international/pentagon-puts-1500-troops-on-standby-amid-minnesota-protest-tensions
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2) Canada: Carney weighs sending soldiers to Greenland for military exercises with NATO allies
Source: CBC News [Canadian state media]
“Prime Minister Mark Carney is considering sending soldiers to Greenland for military exercises with North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) allies, as U.S. President Donald Trump threatens tariffs on European nations unless they let him purchase and control the semiautonomous island. Two senior Canadian officials have told CBC News that a set of contingency plans were drawn up last week and presented to the federal government. A Royal Canadian Air Force contingent is already taking part in a pre-planned NORAD exercise in Greenland, but the prime minister is weighing whether to send additional forces as part of sovereignty exercises the Danes are planning, which could include drills to protect the Arctic island’s critical infrastructure. Given the political implications of Canada joining and the potential blowback from the Trump administration, both sources said they’re not certain which way the government is leaning.” (01/18/26)
https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/carney-greenland-soldiers-trump-tariff-nato-denmark-9.7050621
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3) NH: Bishop warns clergy to prepare for “new era of martyrdom”
Source: KLFY 10 News
“New Hampshire Episcopal bishop is attracting national attention after warning his clergy to finalize their wills and get their affairs in order to prepare for a ‘new era of martyrdom.’ Bishop Rob Hirschfeld of the Episcopal Church of New Hampshire made his comments earlier this month at a vigil honoring Renee Good, who was [murdered] on Jan. 7 behind the wheel of her vehicle by a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer. … Hirschfeld’s speech cited several historical clergy members who had risked their lives to protect others, including mentioning New Hampshire seminary student Jonathan Daniels, who was shot and killed by a sheriff’s deputy in Alabama while shielding a young Black civil rights activist in 1965. ‘I have told the clergy of the Episcopal diocese of New Hampshire that we may be entering into that same witness,’ Hirschfeld said.” (01/18/26)
https://www.klfy.com/national/ap-new-hampshire-bishop-warns-clergy-to-prepare-for-new-era-of-martyrdom/
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4) Palestine: Israeli regime, Islamic Jihad whine about US regime’s lineup for “Gaza executive board”
Source: Deutsche Welle [German state media]
“Israel objected on Saturday to the US announcement of members of a so-called ‘Board of Peace’ executive board appointed to lead post-war Gaza, according to a US-brokered ceasefire agreement that came into force in October. US President Donald Trump on Friday announced the names of some of the people who are going to sit on the body that will oversee the transitional government in the war-ravaged Palestinian territory. … The Palestinian militant group Islamic Jihad, which is considered a terrorist group by some countries, also criticized the makeup of the board, arguing it ‘came in accordance with Israeli criteria and to serve the interests of the occupation, in a clear indicator of preexisting bad intentions over the implementation of the terms of the [ceasefire] agreement.'” (01/17/26)
https://www.dw.com/en/israel-objects-to-us-lineup-of-gaza-executive-board/a-75550023
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5) Ukraine: Drone strike cuts power supply in Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia
Source: Reuters
“More than 200,000 consumers in the Russian-held part of Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia region were left without electricity on Sunday, the Moscow-installed regional governor said, after a Ukrainian drone strike on Saturday. In a statement posted on Telegram, Yevgeny Balitsky said that work was ongoing to restore the power supply, but that almost 400 settlements remain without electricity. Temperatures are well below freezing throughout the southeastern Zaporizhzhia region, around 75% of which is controlled by Russia.” (01/18/26)
https://archive.is/xibnh
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6) US heimatschutz seeks to deport witnesses to alleged ICE gang murder
Source: Washington Post
“The Trump administration is seeking to deport two men who provided accounts of the Jan. 3 death of Geraldo Lunas Campos at a Texas detention camp that differed from the Department of Homeland Security’s description of the incident. Santos Jesus Flores and Antonio Ascon Frometa, two detainees at Camp East Montana who both have criminal convictions, said in phone interviews with The Washington Post this week that they witnessed Lunas Campos engaged in a struggle with guards before his death. Flores claimed he saw guards choking Lunas Campos to death. In a statement Thursday, DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said Lunas Campos had tried to take his own life and guards were trying to save him.” (01/17/26)
https://archive.is/UgbhB
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7) Iran: Khamenei blames Trump for protests
Source: Politico
“Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei pointed the finger at U.S. President Donald Trump for encouraging protests in the Middle Eastern country that he acknowledged have led to thousands of deaths. Khamenei held Trump responsible for the violence, according to Iranian state media, calling him guilty ‘for the casualties, damages and slander he inflicted on the Iranian nation.’ An Iranian official put the verified deaths at 5,000, according to a report by Reuters on Sunday. … The country is currently under an internet blackout, making it difficult to get information from inside Iran about the crackdown on widespread protests. The U.S.-based Iranian Human Rights Activists News Agency estimates 3,308 have died and said they have confirmed 24,000 arrests.” (01/18/26)
https://www.politico.eu/article/iran-khamenei-blames-protest-deaths-donald-trump
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8) Sources: Feds “investigating” Minnesota murder victim’s partner
Source: NBC News
“Federal officials are investigating the partner of Renee Nicole Good to determine whether she may have impeded a federal officer moments before he [murdered] Good in Minneapolis, according to two people familiar with the investigation who spoke to NBC News. The federal investigation into the [murder] by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer Jonathan Ross is focusing more on Becca Good, including what officials said were her possible ties to activist groups, and less on Ross’[s] actions when he fired into Renee Good’s vehicle during an immigration operation last week, the people said. … The Justice Department is also investigating Gov. Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey under the theory they conspired to impede federal immigration agents through their public statements, according to a senior law enforcement official and person familiar with the matter.” (01/17/26)
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/justice-department/federal-officials-investigating-renee-goods-partner-rcna254038
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9) Big chains accused of masquerading as independent restaurants on delivery apps
Source: BBC News [UK state media]
“Independent restaurants have accused global corporations of being ‘sneaky’ and ‘a killer’ to family businesses by masquerading as indies on delivery apps. Chain restaurants including Pizza Hut, TGI Fridays, Frankie & Benny’s, Las Iguanas and Barburrito have brands on apps such as Deliveroo and Just Eat, giving them different names and the appearance of being small or independent businesses. … Just Eat, Deliveroo and Uber Eats all said virtual brands could be utilised by any business, including independents.” (01/18/26)
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c0q53w1wzjjo
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10) EU, South American officials sign Mercosur free trade agreement
Source: United Press International
“Representatives of the European Union and South American nations signed a free trade agreement on Saturday, but it won’t be official until approved by the European Parliament. The free trade agreement would support trade between Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay, collectively called ‘Mercosur,’ and E.U. member nations, but the E.U.’s parliamentarians could reject it. Mercosur is a Spanish acronym that is short for ‘Southern Common Market,’ and the European Parliament might take months to ratify the agreement, if it does at all, some European officials have warned.” (01/17/26)
https://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2026/01/17/latam-paraguay-trade-agreement/6571768684223/
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11) Senile reality TV star vows to “take out” Indiana GOP leader over gerrymander fight
Source: Fox News
“President Donald Trump on Saturday vowed to ‘take out’ the Republican leader of the Indiana Senate after he resisted a new congressional map the president had championed. Trump wrote on Truth Social that Indiana Senate Majority Leader Rod Bray had ‘betrayed’ the Republican Party after his chamber voted down a new map last month that would have created two more right-leaning congressional districts in the state. The president said he would partner with David McIntosh, a former Indiana congressman who helped found two political groups, the Federalist Society and the Club for Growth, to target Bray. … In December, the Indiana Senate voted 31-19 against a new congressional map, with 21 Republicans joining 10 Democrats in voting against the measure. If approved, the districts of two Democratic representatives would have been eliminated.” (01/18/26)
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/trump-vows-take-out-indiana-gop-leader-over-redistricting-fight
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12) Iraq: Regime troops fully take over key base following US withdrawal
Source: ABC News
“U.S. forces have fully withdrawn from an air base in western Iraq in implementation of an agreement with the Iraqi government, Iraqi officials said Saturday. Washington and Baghdad agreed in 2024 to wind down a U.S.-led coalition fighting the Islamic State group in Iraq by September 2025, with U.S. forces departing bases where they had been stationed. However, a small unit of U.S. military advisers and support personnel remained. … Now all U.S. personnel have departed.” (01/17/26)
https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/iraqi-army-fully-takes-key-base-us-withdrawal-129314011
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13) Uber pushes for law to limit California lawyer fees
Source: Los Angeles Times
“The long-simmering fight between some of L.A.’s best-known billboard attorneys and Uber, one of their most frequent targets, is poised to spill out of the courtroom and onto the November ballot. The ride-share giant is gathering signatures for an initiative that, if passed by voters, would cap how much attorneys can earn in vehicle collision cases. … Currently, personal injury attorneys typically take 33% to 40% of a client’s payout. That is enough, they say, for them to earn a living and risk taking cases on a contingency fee basis — meaning, if they lose, they don’t get paid. Uber’s proposal would cap attorney fees for car crash cases at 25% and require extra costs — filing fees, depositions, experts — to be calculated before the fee split rather than coming out of the client’s portion.” (01/17/26)
https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2026-01-17/uber-personal-injury-lawsuits-california-law
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14) Federal judge restricts ICE gang violence in Minnesota
Source: United Press International
“Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers and others cannot use ‘crowd dispersal tools’ against nonviolent protesters while enforcing federal immigration laws, a federal judge ruled on Friday. U.S. District Court of Minnesota Judge Katherine Menendez said ICE officers cannot use tear gas, pepper spray and other commonly used devices to disperse protesters who are ‘engaging in peaceful and unobstructive protest activity,’ The New York Times reported. … The lawsuit was filed three weeks before the [murder] of Renee Good, 37, in Minneapolis on Jan. 13, whom an ICE [thug] shot and killed … while she was trying to flee a pending [abduction] for obstructing ICE [thugs].” (01/17/26)
https://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2026/01/17/ice-minnesota-ruling/8691768678870/
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15) FL: Beloved pastry chef killed in freak accident with bread-making machine
Source: New York Post
“A beloved Florida pastry chef was tragically killed after getting caught in a bread-mixing machine at a grocery store where he worked, according to reports. Mordehay Grunberger, 71, was found dead at the South Florida Kosher Market in North Miami Beach early Friday morning following a freak accident with an industrial dough mixer, the North Miami Beach Police Department told multiple outlets. Authorities believe the longtime employee got lodged in the machine and do not suspect foul play.” (01/17/26)
https://nypost.com/2026/01/17/us-news/beloved-florida-pastry-chef-71-killed-in-freak-accident-with-bread-mixing-machine-i-lost-myself/
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16) Trump announces new taxes on Americans in Greenland tantrum
Source: Politico
“President Donald Trump on Saturday said he is levying sanctions against [American buyers of goods from] eight of America’s closest European allies as he escalates his campaign to acquire Greenland from Denmark. Trump announced tariffs scheduled for February against [American buyers of goods from] the likes of the United Kingdom, France and Germany ‘until such time as a Deal is reached for the Complete and Total purchase’ of the island, which he says is critical for American defense. … In recent days, Europe has responded to Trump’s pressure by sending troops from Sweden, Norway, Germany, Finland, France, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands for military training exercises in Greenland. It’s a bid to show the White House that NATO can stave off threats from Russia and China in the Arctic — without the U.S. taking control.” (01/17/26)
https://www.politico.com/news/2026/01/17/trump-tariffs-europe-greenland-00735582
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17) NASA’s mega Moon rocket arrives at launch pad for Artemis II mission
Source: BBC News [UK state media]
“Nasa’s mega rocket has been moved to the launch pad in Cape Canaveral, Florida, as the final preparations get underway for the first crewed mission to the Moon in more than 50 years. Over almost 12 hours, the 98m-tall Space Launch System was carried vertically from the Vehicle Assembly Building on the 4-mile (6.5km) journey to the pad. Now it is in position, the final tests, checks — and a dress rehearsal — will take place, before the go-ahead is given for the 10-day Artemis II mission that will see four astronauts travel around the Moon. Nasa says the earliest the rocket can blast off is 6 February, but there are also more launch windows later that month, as well as in March and April.” (01/17/26)
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cly148lvyevo
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18) Uganda: Museveni to get seventh terms as opponent condemns “fake results”
Source: The Guardian [UK]
“Yoweri Museveni, has won the Ugandan election and his seventh term with more than 70% of the vote, state election authorities have said, amid an internet shutdown and claims of fraud by his opponent. His opponent, a youthful musician known as Bobi Wine, condemned what he called ‘fake results’ and alleged that members of polling staff were kidnapped, among other election irregularities. He called for peaceful protests to pressure the authorities to release what he called the ‘rightful results.’ Wine also alleged that he fled his home to escape arrest by security forces who raided his house on Friday, with his political party claiming earlier that he had been taken from his home in an army helicopter.” (01/17/26)
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/jan/17/yoweri-museveni-wins-ugandan-election-as-opponent-condemns-fake-result
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19) Argentina’s bungled hunt for Hitler’s right-hand man Martin Bormann revealed in declassified files
Source: Fox News
“Multiple documents released by Argentine President Javier Milei last year reveal how Argentina’s search for Nazi war criminals, who found refuge in the country during and after the Second World War, were able to avoid arrest and, for the most part, live ordinary lives. While Argentina’s Peronist government sympathized and often knew of Nazi criminals hiding in their territory – often under their auspices – once the populist regime fell, the South American nation half-heartedly tried to keep tabs on the war criminals hiding there. Though many high-profile cases went nowhere, the case of Hitler’s henchman Martin Bormann is exemplary in showing how inefficient Argentina was in its investigations.” (01/18/26)
https://www.foxnews.com/world/argentinas-bungled-hunt-hitlers-right-hand-man-martin-bormann-revealed-declassified-files
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20) CA: Homeowner shoots intruder during attempted robbery, police say
Source: Yahoo! News
“A Redlands man was arrested late Thursday after police say he broke into a home, pointed a shotgun at the resident and was then shot by the homeowner. The Redlands Police Department responded to a report of shots fired shortly before midnight on Jan. 15. The homeowner arrived home and found the intruder inside. He armed himself with a handgun before confronting the intruder, who pointed a shotgun at the homeowner, according to police. That’s when the homeowner shot the intruder and immediately exited the home to call police, officials said. When officers arrived, they cleared the home and followed a blood trail that led to the back yard where they found the intruder suffering from a gunshot wound.” (01/17/26)
https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/homeowner-shoots-intruder-during-attempted-024846673.html
_____ Today's Freedom Commentary _____
21) From Inmost to Outmost: Consciousness and the Path to Liberty
Source: Mindset Shifts
by Barry Brownstein
“Rather than a triumph of strength, collectivism is a symptom of a ‘primitive consciousness’ and is ultimately doomed to fail.” (01/17/26)
https://mindsetshifts.substack.com/p/from-inmost-to-outmost-consciousness
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22) Recipe vs. Result: Does the US Government Actually Exist?
Source: Garrison Center
by Thomas L Knapp
“Does the US government, as described in the US Constitution, even exist? I say it doesn’t, and as evidence for my claim, I’m going to talk about recipes. That, you see, is what a constitution is: A recipe for government. It’s made of ingredients, instructions, and warnings. Ingredients for sugar cookies: 1 cup of butter, 2/3 cup of granulated sugar, and 2 cups of flour. Instructions: Mix the ingredients, form into individual cookies, bake at 325 degrees for 15 minutes. Cool/rest for 15 minutes. Warnings: Don’t over-bake! Don’t skip the cooling time! If I use vinegar instead of butter, salt instead of sugar, and garlic powder instead of flour, bake it as a whole mass for an hour at 450 degrees, then immediately serve it, I made something. But I think you’ll agree that what I made was NOT a batch of sugar cookies. … A recipe is powerless to prevent incompetent or mischievous cooks from ruining the dish.” (01/17/26)
https://thegarrisoncenter.org/archives/20275
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23) Congress Wants To Hand Your Parenting to Big Tech
Source: Electronic Frontier Foundation
by Joe Mullin
“Lawmakers in Washington are once again focusing on kids, screens, and mental health. But according to Congress, Big Tech is somehow both the problem and the solution. … At the center of the debate is a bill from Sens. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Brian Schatz (D-HI) called the Kids Off Social Media Act (KOSMA), which they say will protect children and ’empower parents.’ … But while the bill’s press release contains soothing language, KOSMA doesn’t actually give parents more control. Instead of respecting how most parents guide their kids towards healthy and educational content, KOSMA hands the control panel to Big Tech. That’s right—this bill would take power away from parents, and hand it over to the companies that lawmakers say are the problem.” (01/16/26)
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2026/01/congress-wants-hand-your-parenting-big-tech
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24) What Tyranny Looks Like Now: No Crowns, No Coups Just Unchecked Power
Source: CounterPunch
by John W Whitehead & Nisha Whitehead
“In January 1776, Thomas Paine published Common Sense, a pamphlet that gave voice to the discontent of a nation struggling to free itself from a tyrannical ruler who believed power flowed from his own will rather than the consent of the governed. Paine’s warning was not theoretical. Two hundred and fifty years later, we find ourselves confronting the same dilemma — this time from inside the White House.” (01/16/26)
https://www.counterpunch.org/2026/01/16/what-tyranny-looks-like-now-no-crowns-no-coups-just-unchecked-power/
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25) The Campaign to Destroy Renee Good
Source: Wired
by Parker Molloy
“After George Floyd’s murder at the hands of police in 2020, right-wing media circulated his criminal history and toxicology report to argue he was no martyr. After Trayvon Martin’s death in 2012, they fixated on his hoodie and his school suspension. With Good, gender and sexuality have replaced race, but it’s the same takeaway: They weren’t innocent enough to mourn.” (01/16/26)
https://archive.is/w2vF8
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26) A newspaper based on unshakable ideals
Source: Christian Science Monitor
by Christa Case Bryant, Kurt Shillinger, Kenny D’Evelyn, & Casey Fedde
“At a time when shifting corporate interests, market forces, and demographic trends are buffeting many news organizations, The Christian Science Monitor is different. We are published by a church. And that means our work is based on unshakable ideals that aren’t swayed by the latest algorithm. As we begin our 118th year of publication, our new leadership team is working to both articulate these ideals and enable the sort of journalism that best encapsulates our mission in today’s news ecosystem. To do this, we’ve been going back to our founding documents from 1908, when Mary Baker Eddy established The Christian Science Monitor. Our founder wrote that she established The Christian Science Monitor ‘to spread undivided the Science that operates unspent.’ What does that mean? Many of us over the years have grappled with this.” (01/16/25)
https://www.csmonitor.com/Commentary/From-the-Editors/2026/0116/A-newspaper-based-on-unshakable-ideals
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27) Writs, Riots, and Redcoats: Hancock’s Spark of the Revolution
Source: Tenth Amendment Center
by Mike Maharrey
“In an early confrontation between the customs officials and John Hancock, the British hoped that flexing their muscles would teach the colonists a lesson and cow them into submission. They were wrong. Instead, the crackdown sparked a willingness to physically resist unconstitutional taxation and British assertions of ‘unlimited’ power.” (01/17/26)
https://tenthamendmentcenter.com/2026/01/17/writs-riots-and-redcoats-hancocks-spark-of-the-revolution/
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28) “Heritage Americans” Want to Make Citizenship About Blood
Source: Persuasion
by Sam Kahn
“Over the course of the past year, the ‘Heritage American’ movement — something I’d never come across before — moved out of the fringe and into the MAGA core, driving the rhetoric of Trump administration agencies. The ‘coming-out moment’ for Heritage Americanism may well have been JD Vance’s speech at the Claremont Institute in July 2025, in which he said: ‘America is not just an idea. We’re a particular place with a particular people and a particular set of beliefs and way of life.’ … Which ‘particular people?’ The answer may be supplied by the ‘Heritage American’ movement that centers itself on American Reformer Magazine and a group of intellectuals including C. Jay Engel, Auron MacIntyre, and Ben Crenshaw, who write lucidly, if not always with perfect logical consistency, about what they have in mind.” (01/16/26)
https://www.persuasion.community/p/its-not-my-heritage-that-makes-me
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29) Crooks still in charge of Venezuela; US should plot road map to freedom
Source: New York Post
by Andres Oppenheimer
“On a nearly three-week visit to South America, during which I interviewed the presidents of Argentina and Peru, many friends asked me the same question: ‘Who is actually running Venezuela?’ My answer was, ‘The same crooks as before.’ President Donald Trump has claimed he’s running Venezuela following the US raid that captured former dictator Nicolás Maduro, and even posted a picture of himself on social media calling himself ‘Acting President of Venezuela.’ He also said he has talked extensively with former Maduro vice-president — now interim president — Delcy Rodriguez, describing her as a ‘terrific person’ who will presumably follow his commands. She is, indeed, under pressure from a US naval blockade that could cripple Venezuela’s vital oil exports.” (01/18/25)
https://nypost.com/2026/01/18/opinion/the-crooks-are-still-in-charge-of-venezuela-us-should-plot-a-road-map-to-freedom/
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30) Venezuela: The US Should Work with Machado on a Transition
Source: Cato Institute
by Ian Vásquez
“Trump has also said that the U.S. would work toward a transition, though no timeline was specified, and that until then, it would work with the regime.” (01/16/26)
https://www.cato.org/commentary/venezuela-us-should-work-machado-transition
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31) Regime Change The US Empire
Source: Caitlin Johnstone, Rogue Journalist
by Caitlin Johnstone
“I support regime change in the United States. The real kind, not the ‘new face at the front desk every few years’ kind. I’m all for overthrowing tyrannical power structures, I just think we should start with the worst one. Why should I support the violent overthrow of the US empire’s enemies while the US empire itself remains standing? Why should I want to help the one power structure that’s terrorizing and destroying nations around the world with the goal of total planetary domination? Why should I facilitate the propaganda campaign of the latest imperial regime change operation by talking about the tyranny and oppressiveness of the Official Bad Guy of the Day when it will do nothing but help the empire expand its global hegemony?” (01/18/25)
https://caitlinjohnstone.com.au/2026/01/18/regime-change-the-us-empire/
-----
32) Exhaustion Is (Still) the Strategy
Source: The Dispatch
by Kevin D Williamson
“Once a week, the Trump administration does something that would get an ordinary president impeached in sane times: cooking up a ridiculously pretextual criminal investigation to try to bully the Fed chairman into cutting interest rates leaps to mind, as does murdering scores of seafaring South Americans on similarly thin pretexts. Consider the fact — which would be unbelievable in normal times — that NATO countries are sending troops to Greenland because NATO — a U.S.-led alliance — is worried that the United States is about to carry out an act of war against Denmark. … Trump’s amorality and ruthlessness, and those of his underlings, are constrained by one thing and one thing alone, and it is not the noodly spines of such specimens as Mike Pence: It is their incompetence — their horrifying, hilarious incompetence.” (01/16/26)
https://archive.is/I3PDy
-----
33) Beware the Rise of JD (Just-as-Dangerous) Vance
Source: TomDispatch
by Clarence Lusane
“Donald Trump may, of course, be the Republican candidate for president in 2028, the US Constitution notwithstanding. Although it is clearly written in the 22nd Amendment that ‘no person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice,’ it may well be a majority vote of the Supreme Court that determines whether that applies to Trump. In the past, that court has gotten around the Constitution without a single word of it being changed. Rather, its judges have let an innovative interpretation prevail. In 1896, for instance, in Plessy v. Ferguson, the court ignored the unambiguous language of the 14th Amendment that demanded ‘equal protection’ and so upheld racial segregation by creating the fiction of ‘separate but equal.’ It would take 58 years before that lie would be overturned.” (01/18/25)
https://tomdispatch.com/just-as-dangerous/
-----
34) Congressional Republicans might finally jump off the hamster wheel
Source: Washington Post
by George F Will
“The 19th-century cartoonist Thomas Nast made the elephant the Republican Party’s symbol, but today the hamster would be more suitable for congressional Republicans. The phrase ‘hamster wheel’ is an American idiom for energy expended pointlessly. Now, however, some of those Republicans might have managed to reach a destination: exasperation with their role as ratifiers of presidential whims. Perhaps Donald Trump has at last gone too far for those legislators weary of going nowhere. He wants to prosecute Federal Reserve Chair Jerome H. Powell, his pretext being cost overruns on the remodeling of the Federal Reserve’s headquarters. This is one of Trump’s especially pointless tantrums, given that Powell’s term as chair ends May 15. Trump has, however, clarified the debate about the Fed’s ‘independence.’ And he has perhaps finally provoked a Republican recoil against his ambitions to control everything, including interest rates.” (01/16/26)
https://archive.is/ArBGz
-----
35) What is Competition?
Source: EconLog
by David Hebert
“Economists extol the importance of competition in markets for driving prices down and quality up. But what is ‘competition’ and how does it actually work? To non-economists, the word conjures the idea of something like a sporting contest, where there can be one winner while everyone else loses. But this comparison fails on at least two dimensions.” (01/16/26)
https://www.econlib.org/econlog/what-is-competition
-----
36) Neither the ayatollah nor the shah
Source: spiked
by Étienne Vérité
“The Pahlavi dynasty laid the groundwork for the authoritarian rule that Iranians are rising up against.” (01/16/26)
https://www.spiked-online.com/2026/01/16/neither-the-ayatollah-nor-the-shah/
-----
37) Sorry Omar Fateh, we’re not doing Somali-run no-go zones in Minnesota
Source: Fox News
by David Marcus
“In a chilling series of social media posts on Saturday night, Minnesota state senator and former Minneapolis mayoral candidate Omar Fateh pledged to make the Cedar Riverside neighborhood of his city a ‘no-go zone for white supremacists.’ ‘No-go zone’ is a term popularized in Europe that refers to Muslim-majority neighborhoods where it is not safe for White people to go. The X posts began with Fateh and two other men standing before the iconic Cedar Riverside towers with the message, ‘Cedar Strong. White Supremacists aren’t welcome here. We protect our own.'” (01/18/25)
https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/david-marcus-sorry-omar-fateh-were-not-doing-somali-run-no-go-zones-minnesota
-----
38) The Public School Shell Game Makes Phantom Daycares Look Tiny
Source: The Daily Economy
by Corey A DeAngelis
“Adults siphon off taxpayer money earmarked for kids, and no one is held accountable. Teachers’ unions share the same dysfunctional incentives as headline-grabbing fraudsters in Minnesota.” (01/16/26)
https://thedailyeconomy.org/article/the-public-school-shell-game/
-----
39) Republicans now embrace “seamless garment” of statism
Source: Orange County Register
by Steven Greenhut
“Based on the troubling goings-on in Minneapolis, it’s hard to describe former GOP Rep. Justin Amash’s post on X as hyperbolic: ‘They’re building a police state right before our eyes — which will ultimately be deployed against conservative Christians and gun owners and those who refuse the jab — and a lot of ‘Republicans’ with Gadsden flags in their bios are like, ‘Yeah, FAFO!’’ There’s no hope for anyone cheering, but ‘responsible’ conservatives have a rationale for defending these actions: It’s better than having Democrats in charge. Had, say, Kamala Harris won the presidency, she would have imposed socialistic policies, they say. That’s probably true, but have you noticed the latest policy plans from Donald Trump? His economic proposals echo the Democratic platform.” (01/16/26)
https://archive.is/jc9MB
-----
40) Artificial Intelligence in the United States
Source: Foundation for Economic Education
by Kevin T Frazier
“President Donald Trump’s executive order on artificial intelligence invites analysis of a question so complex that it rarely gets asked: ‘What exactly do states have the authority to regulate?’ The current, somewhat trite answer is, ‘The residuary powers reserved under the Tenth Amendment.’ Omitting the legalese, that means that states can do whatever the federal government cannot. States have the power to look out for the health, safety, and welfare of their residents. Thus, for instance, they have the power to address local concerns through zoning laws, professional certifications via licensing regimes, and ensure public safety through law enforcement. These authorities make up what’s often referred to as a state’s ‘police powers.’ While this generic reading of state power is not necessarily wrong, it’s imprecise.” (01/16/26)
https://fee.org/articles/artificial-intelligence-in-the-united-states/
-----
41) Trump “Peace Plan” Just Genocide Under a Different Name
Source: Common Dreams
by Paul Shannon
“The Trump peace scheme is not an imperfect plan that at least ends the genocide in Gaza. It is in fact a new plan to continue the genocide using a different strategy. It poses a mortal threat to the survival of Palestinians in Gaza. However this plan is not being implemented in isolation from the massive Israeli attack on Palestinians in the West Bank, but in conjunction with it. We are now witnessing, not merely a messy and complicated ceasefire in Gaza and stepped up attacks on Palestinians in the West Bank. Rather, we are witnessing a coordinated 2-pronged attack to destroy the very idea of Palestine. As a result we need to move from targeting the Gaza genocide as separate from what’s being done in the rest of Palestine to a focus on both Palestinian self-determination and opposing ongoing efforts to erase the reality of Palestinians as a people.” (01/18/25)
https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/trump-peace-plan-genocide
-----
42) Hating X: The Naked Truth
Source: Common Sense
by Paul Jacob
“Why do so many U.S. Democrats, like some Europeans, want to outlaw X? The current stage of the U.S. assault on the social media platform formerly known as Twitter takes the form of senatorial demands that X be removed from iOS and Android app stores. Why the enmity? Well, under the ownership of Elon Musk, X lets people say and write stuff that Democrats dislike.” (01/16/26)
https://thisiscommonsense.org/2026/01/16/hatingx/
-----
43) Venezuela — the Petroleum Fortress: Power, Profits, and the Dismantling of a Nation
Source: Antiwar.com
by Michael Holmes
“The history of Venezuela is often reduced to a cautionary tale of a single charismatic leader or a sudden economic collapse, yet the reality is a far more harrowing chronicle of structural extraction and imperial oversight. For over a century, the nation has served as a primary laboratory for a specific kind of Western imperialism – one where the democratic aspirations of a people are routinely sacrificed at the altar of energy security and corporate profit. In his meticulously researched volume, Venezuela: What Everyone Needs to Know, the author provides an evidentiary excavation of this history, revealing how the machinery of international finance and foreign military attaches have historically dictated the boundaries of Venezuelan sovereignty.” (01/16/26)
https://original.antiwar.com/michael_holmes/2026/01/15/venezuela-the-petroleum-fortress-power-profits-and-the-dismantling-of-a-nation/
-----
44) Greenlanders Don’t Consent To Becoming Americans
Source: Reason
by JD Tuccille
“According to President Donald Trump, taking possession of Greenland is a national security necessity. It’s so critical, he claims, that he’s willing to take the chilly island the ‘easy way’ or the ‘hard way.’ Denmark, which governs Greenland, isn’t eager to surrender the territory. Even more important, the residents of Greenland, most of whom don’t especially want to be Danish, have even less interest in becoming American. The leader of a country founded on high-minded sentiments about the ‘consent of the governed’ should consider taking that into account.” (01/16/25)
https://reason.com/2026/01/16/greenlanders-dont-consent-to-becoming-americans/
-----
45) Why the Hell Should We Care If Democrats Don’t?
Source: Town Hall
by Derek Hunter
“Most days during the Biden administration, you’d wake up and wonder what Joe was going to trip over, either physically or verbally, today? How many mumblings would end with a ‘Well, anyway …’ like it was pudding time in the nursing home. With the Trump administration, both of them, you wake up wondering what the fake outrage will be and which liberal city might burn. The common problem is that both scenarios are Democrats, either lying to the public about Biden’s mental abilities or lying to the public in the hopes of causing riots. I used to feel bad for people in the cities overrun by Democrats’ BLM/ANTIFA Brownshirts; who wants to see their fellow Americans going through hell? But then you realize that these people voted for this, and did so repeatedly.” (01/18/25)
https://townhall.com/columnists/derekhunter/2026/01/18/why-the-hell-should-we-care-if-democrats-dont-n2669643
-----
46) The Limits of the Hamilton-Jefferson Paradigm
Source: Law & Liberty
by Michael Federici
“The legacies of Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson have had an oversized influence on American political history. As important as their individual and distinct contributions to the formation of the American political order have been, their rivalry has had a lasting effect on American political thinking and conduct. In The Pursuit of Liberty: How Hamilton vs. Jefferson Ignited the Lasting Battle Over Power in America, Jeffrey Rosen argues that American political history can be understood as a continued tension between Hamiltonian and Jeffersonian ideas. Rosen does not take sides in this ideological competition; his greater concern is how it has served the health of the American regime.” (01/16/25)
https://lawliberty.org/book-review/the-limits-of-the-hamilton-jefferson-paradigm/
-----
47) The Trumpian ICE Age: The Frigidity of Collectivism
Source: Free Association
by Sheldon Richman
“Welcome to the Trumpian ICE Age, a vivid lesson in the frigidity of collectivism. Take note, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani. Compared to Trump, you’re a piker.” (01/16/26)
https://sheldonfreeassociation.blogspot.com/2026/01/tgif-trumpian-ice-age-frigidity-of.html
-----
48) Russia Won’t Have to Say No: Europe Will
Source: The American Conservative
by Ted Snider
“merican negotiators have been negotiating on separate tracks with Ukraine and Russia in the hope that those two tracks will eventually converge. Despite President Donald Trump’s recent statement that the two sides are ‘maybe very close’ to a deal, and the Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky’s evaluation that a plan is ’90 percent ready,’ the two sides seem to be moving no closer together. In negotiating, the Ukrainian and European sides may be hoping to highlight that it is Russia that is saying no. And there is plenty in — and not in — their latest position that Russia will say no to. But, incoherently, Europe seems to have negotiated itself into a corner from which Russia doesn’t have to be the one to say no because Europe will.” (01/16/26)
https://www.theamericanconservative.com/russia-wont-have-to-say-no-europe-will/
-----
49) What a People-Powered Movement Looks Like
Source: The American Prospect
by David Dayen
“This past week has shown that you can’t leave something as important as resisting the government up to the opposition party. Democrats in Congress, like the majority of the country, are incensed about the murder of Renee Good, the subsequent wounding and maiming of others, and the seeming improbability of forthcoming accountability for any of this. To use the most salient example, federal investigators have commandeered the Good case, are withholding evidence from the state of Minnesota, and have turned the probe into a smear job against her and whatever activism she and her wife were engaged in. Justice Department prosecutors have resigned in protest. While state and local prosecutors try to keep the Good case alive, ICE agents are unquestionably violating their own written policies and the constitutional rights of citizens expressing their opposition through free speech and peaceable assembly.” (01/16/25)
https://prospect.org/2026/01/16/what-people-powered-movement-looks-like-minneapolis/
-----
50) In what world would Trump’s oil play actually help Venezuelans?
Source: Responsible Statecraft
by Francisco Rodriguez
“‘We’re going to run the country,’ President Trump said regarding Venezuela at a press conference just hours after Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro’s capture in a U.S. military raid in Caracas. To do so, the Trump administration has begun taking charge of Venezuelan oil shipments and selling them directly in international oil markets. The U.S. plans to make sure that these revenues are used only to buy imports from American companies. Whether this will at some point transform into a net benefit for the Venezuelan people depends on the granular details of the plan, which currently we know little about. The broader outlines of the vision are of course enough to make the blood of any Latin American nationalist boil.” (01/16/26)
https://responsiblestatecraft.org/trump-oil-industry-venezuela/
_____ Today's Freedom Podcast and Video _____
51) Unattended Baggage, episode 325
Source: Unattended Baggage
“Struggling with senility and battling tri-polarism.” (01/17/26)
https://unattendedbaggage.substack.com/p/episode-325-struggling-with-senility
-----
52) The Good Fight, 01/17/26
Source: Yascha Mounk
“Ian Bassin on How to Save American Democracy from Trump.” (01/17/26)
https://writing.yaschamounk.com/p/ian-bassin-on-how-to-save-american
-----
53) Bulwark Takes, 01/16/26
Source: The Bulwark
“Tim Miller takes on the rough stretch for Trump as leaked internal polling shows his immigration tactics backfiring, ugly ICE footage sparks public backlash, and even the White House admits the optics are hurting them.” (01/16/26)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HxF0GylOFr4
-----
54) The Kyle Anzalone Show, 01/16/26
Source: Libertarian Institute
“Matt Wolfson: Israeli Connection to Maduro Kidnapping/ Will Zionists Get Their War With Iran?” (01/16/26)
https://libertarianinstitute.org/blog/guest-matt-wolfson-israeli-connection-to-maduro-kidnapping-will-zionists-get-their-war-with-iran/
-----
55) Serious Trouble, 01/16/26
Source: Serious Trouble
“You Are Not Jay Powell.” (01/16/26)
https://www.serioustrouble.show/p/you-are-not-jay-powell
-----
56) The Tom Woods Show, episode 2727
Source: The Tom Woods Show
“Scott Horton on Iran Regime Change Propaganda.” (01/16/26)
https://tomwoods.com/ep-2727-scott-horton-on-iran-regime-change-propaganda/
-----
57) The Daily Blast With Greg Sargent, 01/16/26
Source: The New Republic
“Trump Press Sec Erupts in Fury at Media Over ICE as Polls Spiral Again.” (01/16/26)
https://newrepublic.com/article/205364/trump-press-sec-erupts-fury-media-ice-polls-spiral
-----
58) Politicks, 01/16/26
Source: Lions of Liberty
“Krassenstein vs Physics, Starmer vs Democracy and Trump vs Insurance Companies.” (01/16/26)
https://www.lionsofliberty.com/episodes/politicks-krassenstein-vs-physics-starmer-vs-democracy-and-trump-vs-insurance-companies
-----
59) Rising, 01/16/26
Source: The Hill
“Lindsey Granger gives her lens on the ongoing turmoil in Minnesota, with Governor Tim Walz asking President Trump to, ‘turn the temperature down,’ after Trump threatened to invoke the Insurrection Act in the state.” (01/16/26)
https://thehill.com/hilltv/rising/5692625-rising-january-16-2026/
-----
60) Antiwar News with Dave DeCamp, 01/16/26
Source: Antiwar.com
“US Surging Military Assets to Middle East, Israel Kills at Least 10 Palestinians in Gaza, and More.” (01/16/26)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pA-MByWLWlk
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Today's Freedom News:
0) Hybrid Monday at the Freedom Movement's Daily Newspaper
1) Pentagon puts 1,500 troops on standby for possible use in Minnesota occupation
2) Canada: Carney weighs sending soldiers to Greenland for military exercises with NATO allies
3) NH: Bishop warns clergy to prepare for “new era of martyrdom”
4) Palestine: Israeli regime, Islamic Jihad whine about US regime’s lineup for “Gaza executive board”
5) Ukraine: Drone strike cuts power supply in Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia
6) US heimatschutz seeks to deport witnesses to alleged ICE gang murder
7) Iran: Khamenei blames Trump for protests
8) Sources: Feds “investigating” Minnesota murder victim’s partner
9) Big chains accused of masquerading as independent restaurants on delivery apps
10) EU, South American officials sign Mercosur free trade agreement
11) Senile reality TV star vows to “take out” Indiana GOP leader over gerrymander fight
12) Iraq: Regime troops fully take over key base following US withdrawal
13) Uber pushes for law to limit California lawyer fees
14) Federal judge restricts ICE gang violence in Minnesota
15) FL: Beloved pastry chef killed in freak accident with bread-making machine
16) Trump announces new taxes on Americans in Greenland tantrum
17) NASA’s mega Moon rocket arrives at launch pad for Artemis II mission
18) Uganda: Museveni to get seventh terms as opponent condemns “fake results”
19) Argentina’s bungled hunt for Hitler’s right-hand man Martin Bormann revealed in declassified files
20) CA: Homeowner shoots intruder during attempted robbery, police say
Today's Freedom Commentary:
21) From Inmost to Outmost: Consciousness and the Path to Liberty
22) Recipe vs. Result: Does the US Government Actually Exist?
23) Congress Wants To Hand Your Parenting to Big Tech
24) What Tyranny Looks Like Now: No Crowns, No Coups Just Unchecked Power
25) The Campaign to Destroy Renee Good
26) A newspaper based on unshakable ideals
27) Writs, Riots, and Redcoats: Hancock’s Spark of the Revolution
28) “Heritage Americans” Want to Make Citizenship About Blood
29) Crooks still in charge of Venezuela; US should plot road map to freedom
30) Venezuela: The US Should Work with Machado on a Transition
31) Regime Change The US Empire
32) Exhaustion Is (Still) the Strategy
33) Beware the Rise of JD (Just-as-Dangerous) Vance
34) Congressional Republicans might finally jump off the hamster wheel
35) What is Competition?
36) Neither the ayatollah nor the shah
37) Sorry Omar Fateh, we’re not doing Somali-run no-go zones in Minnesota
38) The Public School Shell Game Makes Phantom Daycares Look Tiny
39) Republicans now embrace “seamless garment” of statism
40) Artificial Intelligence in the United States
41) Trump “Peace Plan” Just Genocide Under a Different Name
42) Hating X: The Naked Truth
43) Venezuela — the Petroleum Fortress: Power, Profits, and the Dismantling of a Nation
44) Greenlanders Don’t Consent To Becoming Americans
45) Why the Hell Should We Care If Democrats Don’t?
46) The Limits of the Hamilton-Jefferson Paradigm
47) The Trumpian ICE Age: The Frigidity of Collectivism
48) Russia Won’t Have to Say No: Europe Will
49) What a People-Powered Movement Looks Like
50) In what world would Trump’s oil play actually help Venezuelans?
Today's Freedom Podcast and Video:
51) Unattended Baggage, episode 325
52) The Good Fight, 01/17/26
53) Bulwark Takes, 01/16/26
54) The Kyle Anzalone Show, 01/16/26
55) Serious Trouble, 01/16/26
56) The Tom Woods Show, episode 2727
57) The Daily Blast With Greg Sargent, 01/16/26
58) Politicks, 01/16/26
59) Rising, 01/16/26
60) Antiwar News with Dave DeCamp, 01/16/26
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-----
1) Pentagon puts 1,500 troops on standby for possible use in Minnesota occupation
Source: National Herald [India]
“The Pentagon has placed around 1,500 active-duty soldiers on prepare-to-deploy orders amid escalating protests in Minnesota against the federal government’s immigration enforcement campaign, according to US media reports. Troops have been alerted as a contingency measure in case violence intensifies in the northern state, the Washington Post reported on Sunday, citing defence officials. It remains unclear whether the soldiers will ultimately be deployed. The White House said such preparations were routine, stating that the Pentagon must be ready ‘for any decision the President may or may not make.’ … The move comes days after President Donald Trump threatened to invoke the Insurrection Act … In a post on his Truth Social platform last week, Trump warned that he would act if Minnesota’s leaders failed to stop protesters from confronting Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) [gang members].” (01/18/26)
https://www.nationalheraldindia.com/international/pentagon-puts-1500-troops-on-standby-amid-minnesota-protest-tensions
-----
2) Canada: Carney weighs sending soldiers to Greenland for military exercises with NATO allies
Source: CBC News [Canadian state media]
“Prime Minister Mark Carney is considering sending soldiers to Greenland for military exercises with North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) allies, as U.S. President Donald Trump threatens tariffs on European nations unless they let him purchase and control the semiautonomous island. Two senior Canadian officials have told CBC News that a set of contingency plans were drawn up last week and presented to the federal government. A Royal Canadian Air Force contingent is already taking part in a pre-planned NORAD exercise in Greenland, but the prime minister is weighing whether to send additional forces as part of sovereignty exercises the Danes are planning, which could include drills to protect the Arctic island’s critical infrastructure. Given the political implications of Canada joining and the potential blowback from the Trump administration, both sources said they’re not certain which way the government is leaning.” (01/18/26)
https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/carney-greenland-soldiers-trump-tariff-nato-denmark-9.7050621
-----
3) NH: Bishop warns clergy to prepare for “new era of martyrdom”
Source: KLFY 10 News
“New Hampshire Episcopal bishop is attracting national attention after warning his clergy to finalize their wills and get their affairs in order to prepare for a ‘new era of martyrdom.’ Bishop Rob Hirschfeld of the Episcopal Church of New Hampshire made his comments earlier this month at a vigil honoring Renee Good, who was [murdered] on Jan. 7 behind the wheel of her vehicle by a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer. … Hirschfeld’s speech cited several historical clergy members who had risked their lives to protect others, including mentioning New Hampshire seminary student Jonathan Daniels, who was shot and killed by a sheriff’s deputy in Alabama while shielding a young Black civil rights activist in 1965. ‘I have told the clergy of the Episcopal diocese of New Hampshire that we may be entering into that same witness,’ Hirschfeld said.” (01/18/26)
https://www.klfy.com/national/ap-new-hampshire-bishop-warns-clergy-to-prepare-for-new-era-of-martyrdom/
-----
4) Palestine: Israeli regime, Islamic Jihad whine about US regime’s lineup for “Gaza executive board”
Source: Deutsche Welle [German state media]
“Israel objected on Saturday to the US announcement of members of a so-called ‘Board of Peace’ executive board appointed to lead post-war Gaza, according to a US-brokered ceasefire agreement that came into force in October. US President Donald Trump on Friday announced the names of some of the people who are going to sit on the body that will oversee the transitional government in the war-ravaged Palestinian territory. … The Palestinian militant group Islamic Jihad, which is considered a terrorist group by some countries, also criticized the makeup of the board, arguing it ‘came in accordance with Israeli criteria and to serve the interests of the occupation, in a clear indicator of preexisting bad intentions over the implementation of the terms of the [ceasefire] agreement.'” (01/17/26)
https://www.dw.com/en/israel-objects-to-us-lineup-of-gaza-executive-board/a-75550023
-----
5) Ukraine: Drone strike cuts power supply in Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia
Source: Reuters
“More than 200,000 consumers in the Russian-held part of Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia region were left without electricity on Sunday, the Moscow-installed regional governor said, after a Ukrainian drone strike on Saturday. In a statement posted on Telegram, Yevgeny Balitsky said that work was ongoing to restore the power supply, but that almost 400 settlements remain without electricity. Temperatures are well below freezing throughout the southeastern Zaporizhzhia region, around 75% of which is controlled by Russia.” (01/18/26)
https://archive.is/xibnh
-----
6) US heimatschutz seeks to deport witnesses to alleged ICE gang murder
Source: Washington Post
“The Trump administration is seeking to deport two men who provided accounts of the Jan. 3 death of Geraldo Lunas Campos at a Texas detention camp that differed from the Department of Homeland Security’s description of the incident. Santos Jesus Flores and Antonio Ascon Frometa, two detainees at Camp East Montana who both have criminal convictions, said in phone interviews with The Washington Post this week that they witnessed Lunas Campos engaged in a struggle with guards before his death. Flores claimed he saw guards choking Lunas Campos to death. In a statement Thursday, DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said Lunas Campos had tried to take his own life and guards were trying to save him.” (01/17/26)
https://archive.is/UgbhB
-----
7) Iran: Khamenei blames Trump for protests
Source: Politico
“Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei pointed the finger at U.S. President Donald Trump for encouraging protests in the Middle Eastern country that he acknowledged have led to thousands of deaths. Khamenei held Trump responsible for the violence, according to Iranian state media, calling him guilty ‘for the casualties, damages and slander he inflicted on the Iranian nation.’ An Iranian official put the verified deaths at 5,000, according to a report by Reuters on Sunday. … The country is currently under an internet blackout, making it difficult to get information from inside Iran about the crackdown on widespread protests. The U.S.-based Iranian Human Rights Activists News Agency estimates 3,308 have died and said they have confirmed 24,000 arrests.” (01/18/26)
https://www.politico.eu/article/iran-khamenei-blames-protest-deaths-donald-trump
-----
8) Sources: Feds “investigating” Minnesota murder victim’s partner
Source: NBC News
“Federal officials are investigating the partner of Renee Nicole Good to determine whether she may have impeded a federal officer moments before he [murdered] Good in Minneapolis, according to two people familiar with the investigation who spoke to NBC News. The federal investigation into the [murder] by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer Jonathan Ross is focusing more on Becca Good, including what officials said were her possible ties to activist groups, and less on Ross’[s] actions when he fired into Renee Good’s vehicle during an immigration operation last week, the people said. … The Justice Department is also investigating Gov. Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey under the theory they conspired to impede federal immigration agents through their public statements, according to a senior law enforcement official and person familiar with the matter.” (01/17/26)
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/justice-department/federal-officials-investigating-renee-goods-partner-rcna254038
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9) Big chains accused of masquerading as independent restaurants on delivery apps
Source: BBC News [UK state media]
“Independent restaurants have accused global corporations of being ‘sneaky’ and ‘a killer’ to family businesses by masquerading as indies on delivery apps. Chain restaurants including Pizza Hut, TGI Fridays, Frankie & Benny’s, Las Iguanas and Barburrito have brands on apps such as Deliveroo and Just Eat, giving them different names and the appearance of being small or independent businesses. … Just Eat, Deliveroo and Uber Eats all said virtual brands could be utilised by any business, including independents.” (01/18/26)
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c0q53w1wzjjo
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10) EU, South American officials sign Mercosur free trade agreement
Source: United Press International
“Representatives of the European Union and South American nations signed a free trade agreement on Saturday, but it won’t be official until approved by the European Parliament. The free trade agreement would support trade between Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay, collectively called ‘Mercosur,’ and E.U. member nations, but the E.U.’s parliamentarians could reject it. Mercosur is a Spanish acronym that is short for ‘Southern Common Market,’ and the European Parliament might take months to ratify the agreement, if it does at all, some European officials have warned.” (01/17/26)
https://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2026/01/17/latam-paraguay-trade-agreement/6571768684223/
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11) Senile reality TV star vows to “take out” Indiana GOP leader over gerrymander fight
Source: Fox News
“President Donald Trump on Saturday vowed to ‘take out’ the Republican leader of the Indiana Senate after he resisted a new congressional map the president had championed. Trump wrote on Truth Social that Indiana Senate Majority Leader Rod Bray had ‘betrayed’ the Republican Party after his chamber voted down a new map last month that would have created two more right-leaning congressional districts in the state. The president said he would partner with David McIntosh, a former Indiana congressman who helped found two political groups, the Federalist Society and the Club for Growth, to target Bray. … In December, the Indiana Senate voted 31-19 against a new congressional map, with 21 Republicans joining 10 Democrats in voting against the measure. If approved, the districts of two Democratic representatives would have been eliminated.” (01/18/26)
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/trump-vows-take-out-indiana-gop-leader-over-redistricting-fight
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12) Iraq: Regime troops fully take over key base following US withdrawal
Source: ABC News
“U.S. forces have fully withdrawn from an air base in western Iraq in implementation of an agreement with the Iraqi government, Iraqi officials said Saturday. Washington and Baghdad agreed in 2024 to wind down a U.S.-led coalition fighting the Islamic State group in Iraq by September 2025, with U.S. forces departing bases where they had been stationed. However, a small unit of U.S. military advisers and support personnel remained. … Now all U.S. personnel have departed.” (01/17/26)
https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/iraqi-army-fully-takes-key-base-us-withdrawal-129314011
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13) Uber pushes for law to limit California lawyer fees
Source: Los Angeles Times
“The long-simmering fight between some of L.A.’s best-known billboard attorneys and Uber, one of their most frequent targets, is poised to spill out of the courtroom and onto the November ballot. The ride-share giant is gathering signatures for an initiative that, if passed by voters, would cap how much attorneys can earn in vehicle collision cases. … Currently, personal injury attorneys typically take 33% to 40% of a client’s payout. That is enough, they say, for them to earn a living and risk taking cases on a contingency fee basis — meaning, if they lose, they don’t get paid. Uber’s proposal would cap attorney fees for car crash cases at 25% and require extra costs — filing fees, depositions, experts — to be calculated before the fee split rather than coming out of the client’s portion.” (01/17/26)
https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2026-01-17/uber-personal-injury-lawsuits-california-law
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14) Federal judge restricts ICE gang violence in Minnesota
Source: United Press International
“Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers and others cannot use ‘crowd dispersal tools’ against nonviolent protesters while enforcing federal immigration laws, a federal judge ruled on Friday. U.S. District Court of Minnesota Judge Katherine Menendez said ICE officers cannot use tear gas, pepper spray and other commonly used devices to disperse protesters who are ‘engaging in peaceful and unobstructive protest activity,’ The New York Times reported. … The lawsuit was filed three weeks before the [murder] of Renee Good, 37, in Minneapolis on Jan. 13, whom an ICE [thug] shot and killed … while she was trying to flee a pending [abduction] for obstructing ICE [thugs].” (01/17/26)
https://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2026/01/17/ice-minnesota-ruling/8691768678870/
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15) FL: Beloved pastry chef killed in freak accident with bread-making machine
Source: New York Post
“A beloved Florida pastry chef was tragically killed after getting caught in a bread-mixing machine at a grocery store where he worked, according to reports. Mordehay Grunberger, 71, was found dead at the South Florida Kosher Market in North Miami Beach early Friday morning following a freak accident with an industrial dough mixer, the North Miami Beach Police Department told multiple outlets. Authorities believe the longtime employee got lodged in the machine and do not suspect foul play.” (01/17/26)
https://nypost.com/2026/01/17/us-news/beloved-florida-pastry-chef-71-killed-in-freak-accident-with-bread-mixing-machine-i-lost-myself/
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16) Trump announces new taxes on Americans in Greenland tantrum
Source: Politico
“President Donald Trump on Saturday said he is levying sanctions against [American buyers of goods from] eight of America’s closest European allies as he escalates his campaign to acquire Greenland from Denmark. Trump announced tariffs scheduled for February against [American buyers of goods from] the likes of the United Kingdom, France and Germany ‘until such time as a Deal is reached for the Complete and Total purchase’ of the island, which he says is critical for American defense. … In recent days, Europe has responded to Trump’s pressure by sending troops from Sweden, Norway, Germany, Finland, France, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands for military training exercises in Greenland. It’s a bid to show the White House that NATO can stave off threats from Russia and China in the Arctic — without the U.S. taking control.” (01/17/26)
https://www.politico.com/news/2026/01/17/trump-tariffs-europe-greenland-00735582
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17) NASA’s mega Moon rocket arrives at launch pad for Artemis II mission
Source: BBC News [UK state media]
“Nasa’s mega rocket has been moved to the launch pad in Cape Canaveral, Florida, as the final preparations get underway for the first crewed mission to the Moon in more than 50 years. Over almost 12 hours, the 98m-tall Space Launch System was carried vertically from the Vehicle Assembly Building on the 4-mile (6.5km) journey to the pad. Now it is in position, the final tests, checks — and a dress rehearsal — will take place, before the go-ahead is given for the 10-day Artemis II mission that will see four astronauts travel around the Moon. Nasa says the earliest the rocket can blast off is 6 February, but there are also more launch windows later that month, as well as in March and April.” (01/17/26)
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cly148lvyevo
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18) Uganda: Museveni to get seventh terms as opponent condemns “fake results”
Source: The Guardian [UK]
“Yoweri Museveni, has won the Ugandan election and his seventh term with more than 70% of the vote, state election authorities have said, amid an internet shutdown and claims of fraud by his opponent. His opponent, a youthful musician known as Bobi Wine, condemned what he called ‘fake results’ and alleged that members of polling staff were kidnapped, among other election irregularities. He called for peaceful protests to pressure the authorities to release what he called the ‘rightful results.’ Wine also alleged that he fled his home to escape arrest by security forces who raided his house on Friday, with his political party claiming earlier that he had been taken from his home in an army helicopter.” (01/17/26)
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/jan/17/yoweri-museveni-wins-ugandan-election-as-opponent-condemns-fake-result
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19) Argentina’s bungled hunt for Hitler’s right-hand man Martin Bormann revealed in declassified files
Source: Fox News
“Multiple documents released by Argentine President Javier Milei last year reveal how Argentina’s search for Nazi war criminals, who found refuge in the country during and after the Second World War, were able to avoid arrest and, for the most part, live ordinary lives. While Argentina’s Peronist government sympathized and often knew of Nazi criminals hiding in their territory – often under their auspices – once the populist regime fell, the South American nation half-heartedly tried to keep tabs on the war criminals hiding there. Though many high-profile cases went nowhere, the case of Hitler’s henchman Martin Bormann is exemplary in showing how inefficient Argentina was in its investigations.” (01/18/26)
https://www.foxnews.com/world/argentinas-bungled-hunt-hitlers-right-hand-man-martin-bormann-revealed-declassified-files
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20) CA: Homeowner shoots intruder during attempted robbery, police say
Source: Yahoo! News
“A Redlands man was arrested late Thursday after police say he broke into a home, pointed a shotgun at the resident and was then shot by the homeowner. The Redlands Police Department responded to a report of shots fired shortly before midnight on Jan. 15. The homeowner arrived home and found the intruder inside. He armed himself with a handgun before confronting the intruder, who pointed a shotgun at the homeowner, according to police. That’s when the homeowner shot the intruder and immediately exited the home to call police, officials said. When officers arrived, they cleared the home and followed a blood trail that led to the back yard where they found the intruder suffering from a gunshot wound.” (01/17/26)
https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/homeowner-shoots-intruder-during-attempted-024846673.html
_____ Today's Freedom Commentary _____
21) From Inmost to Outmost: Consciousness and the Path to Liberty
Source: Mindset Shifts
by Barry Brownstein
“Rather than a triumph of strength, collectivism is a symptom of a ‘primitive consciousness’ and is ultimately doomed to fail.” (01/17/26)
https://mindsetshifts.substack.com/p/from-inmost-to-outmost-consciousness
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22) Recipe vs. Result: Does the US Government Actually Exist?
Source: Garrison Center
by Thomas L Knapp
“Does the US government, as described in the US Constitution, even exist? I say it doesn’t, and as evidence for my claim, I’m going to talk about recipes. That, you see, is what a constitution is: A recipe for government. It’s made of ingredients, instructions, and warnings. Ingredients for sugar cookies: 1 cup of butter, 2/3 cup of granulated sugar, and 2 cups of flour. Instructions: Mix the ingredients, form into individual cookies, bake at 325 degrees for 15 minutes. Cool/rest for 15 minutes. Warnings: Don’t over-bake! Don’t skip the cooling time! If I use vinegar instead of butter, salt instead of sugar, and garlic powder instead of flour, bake it as a whole mass for an hour at 450 degrees, then immediately serve it, I made something. But I think you’ll agree that what I made was NOT a batch of sugar cookies. … A recipe is powerless to prevent incompetent or mischievous cooks from ruining the dish.” (01/17/26)
https://thegarrisoncenter.org/archives/20275
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23) Congress Wants To Hand Your Parenting to Big Tech
Source: Electronic Frontier Foundation
by Joe Mullin
“Lawmakers in Washington are once again focusing on kids, screens, and mental health. But according to Congress, Big Tech is somehow both the problem and the solution. … At the center of the debate is a bill from Sens. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Brian Schatz (D-HI) called the Kids Off Social Media Act (KOSMA), which they say will protect children and ’empower parents.’ … But while the bill’s press release contains soothing language, KOSMA doesn’t actually give parents more control. Instead of respecting how most parents guide their kids towards healthy and educational content, KOSMA hands the control panel to Big Tech. That’s right—this bill would take power away from parents, and hand it over to the companies that lawmakers say are the problem.” (01/16/26)
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2026/01/congress-wants-hand-your-parenting-big-tech
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24) What Tyranny Looks Like Now: No Crowns, No Coups Just Unchecked Power
Source: CounterPunch
by John W Whitehead & Nisha Whitehead
“In January 1776, Thomas Paine published Common Sense, a pamphlet that gave voice to the discontent of a nation struggling to free itself from a tyrannical ruler who believed power flowed from his own will rather than the consent of the governed. Paine’s warning was not theoretical. Two hundred and fifty years later, we find ourselves confronting the same dilemma — this time from inside the White House.” (01/16/26)
https://www.counterpunch.org/2026/01/16/what-tyranny-looks-like-now-no-crowns-no-coups-just-unchecked-power/
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25) The Campaign to Destroy Renee Good
Source: Wired
by Parker Molloy
“After George Floyd’s murder at the hands of police in 2020, right-wing media circulated his criminal history and toxicology report to argue he was no martyr. After Trayvon Martin’s death in 2012, they fixated on his hoodie and his school suspension. With Good, gender and sexuality have replaced race, but it’s the same takeaway: They weren’t innocent enough to mourn.” (01/16/26)
https://archive.is/w2vF8
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26) A newspaper based on unshakable ideals
Source: Christian Science Monitor
by Christa Case Bryant, Kurt Shillinger, Kenny D’Evelyn, & Casey Fedde
“At a time when shifting corporate interests, market forces, and demographic trends are buffeting many news organizations, The Christian Science Monitor is different. We are published by a church. And that means our work is based on unshakable ideals that aren’t swayed by the latest algorithm. As we begin our 118th year of publication, our new leadership team is working to both articulate these ideals and enable the sort of journalism that best encapsulates our mission in today’s news ecosystem. To do this, we’ve been going back to our founding documents from 1908, when Mary Baker Eddy established The Christian Science Monitor. Our founder wrote that she established The Christian Science Monitor ‘to spread undivided the Science that operates unspent.’ What does that mean? Many of us over the years have grappled with this.” (01/16/25)
https://www.csmonitor.com/Commentary/From-the-Editors/2026/0116/A-newspaper-based-on-unshakable-ideals
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27) Writs, Riots, and Redcoats: Hancock’s Spark of the Revolution
Source: Tenth Amendment Center
by Mike Maharrey
“In an early confrontation between the customs officials and John Hancock, the British hoped that flexing their muscles would teach the colonists a lesson and cow them into submission. They were wrong. Instead, the crackdown sparked a willingness to physically resist unconstitutional taxation and British assertions of ‘unlimited’ power.” (01/17/26)
https://tenthamendmentcenter.com/2026/01/17/writs-riots-and-redcoats-hancocks-spark-of-the-revolution/
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28) “Heritage Americans” Want to Make Citizenship About Blood
Source: Persuasion
by Sam Kahn
“Over the course of the past year, the ‘Heritage American’ movement — something I’d never come across before — moved out of the fringe and into the MAGA core, driving the rhetoric of Trump administration agencies. The ‘coming-out moment’ for Heritage Americanism may well have been JD Vance’s speech at the Claremont Institute in July 2025, in which he said: ‘America is not just an idea. We’re a particular place with a particular people and a particular set of beliefs and way of life.’ … Which ‘particular people?’ The answer may be supplied by the ‘Heritage American’ movement that centers itself on American Reformer Magazine and a group of intellectuals including C. Jay Engel, Auron MacIntyre, and Ben Crenshaw, who write lucidly, if not always with perfect logical consistency, about what they have in mind.” (01/16/26)
https://www.persuasion.community/p/its-not-my-heritage-that-makes-me
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29) Crooks still in charge of Venezuela; US should plot road map to freedom
Source: New York Post
by Andres Oppenheimer
“On a nearly three-week visit to South America, during which I interviewed the presidents of Argentina and Peru, many friends asked me the same question: ‘Who is actually running Venezuela?’ My answer was, ‘The same crooks as before.’ President Donald Trump has claimed he’s running Venezuela following the US raid that captured former dictator Nicolás Maduro, and even posted a picture of himself on social media calling himself ‘Acting President of Venezuela.’ He also said he has talked extensively with former Maduro vice-president — now interim president — Delcy Rodriguez, describing her as a ‘terrific person’ who will presumably follow his commands. She is, indeed, under pressure from a US naval blockade that could cripple Venezuela’s vital oil exports.” (01/18/25)
https://nypost.com/2026/01/18/opinion/the-crooks-are-still-in-charge-of-venezuela-us-should-plot-a-road-map-to-freedom/
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30) Venezuela: The US Should Work with Machado on a Transition
Source: Cato Institute
by Ian Vásquez
“Trump has also said that the U.S. would work toward a transition, though no timeline was specified, and that until then, it would work with the regime.” (01/16/26)
https://www.cato.org/commentary/venezuela-us-should-work-machado-transition
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31) Regime Change The US Empire
Source: Caitlin Johnstone, Rogue Journalist
by Caitlin Johnstone
“I support regime change in the United States. The real kind, not the ‘new face at the front desk every few years’ kind. I’m all for overthrowing tyrannical power structures, I just think we should start with the worst one. Why should I support the violent overthrow of the US empire’s enemies while the US empire itself remains standing? Why should I want to help the one power structure that’s terrorizing and destroying nations around the world with the goal of total planetary domination? Why should I facilitate the propaganda campaign of the latest imperial regime change operation by talking about the tyranny and oppressiveness of the Official Bad Guy of the Day when it will do nothing but help the empire expand its global hegemony?” (01/18/25)
https://caitlinjohnstone.com.au/2026/01/18/regime-change-the-us-empire/
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32) Exhaustion Is (Still) the Strategy
Source: The Dispatch
by Kevin D Williamson
“Once a week, the Trump administration does something that would get an ordinary president impeached in sane times: cooking up a ridiculously pretextual criminal investigation to try to bully the Fed chairman into cutting interest rates leaps to mind, as does murdering scores of seafaring South Americans on similarly thin pretexts. Consider the fact — which would be unbelievable in normal times — that NATO countries are sending troops to Greenland because NATO — a U.S.-led alliance — is worried that the United States is about to carry out an act of war against Denmark. … Trump’s amorality and ruthlessness, and those of his underlings, are constrained by one thing and one thing alone, and it is not the noodly spines of such specimens as Mike Pence: It is their incompetence — their horrifying, hilarious incompetence.” (01/16/26)
https://archive.is/I3PDy
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33) Beware the Rise of JD (Just-as-Dangerous) Vance
Source: TomDispatch
by Clarence Lusane
“Donald Trump may, of course, be the Republican candidate for president in 2028, the US Constitution notwithstanding. Although it is clearly written in the 22nd Amendment that ‘no person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice,’ it may well be a majority vote of the Supreme Court that determines whether that applies to Trump. In the past, that court has gotten around the Constitution without a single word of it being changed. Rather, its judges have let an innovative interpretation prevail. In 1896, for instance, in Plessy v. Ferguson, the court ignored the unambiguous language of the 14th Amendment that demanded ‘equal protection’ and so upheld racial segregation by creating the fiction of ‘separate but equal.’ It would take 58 years before that lie would be overturned.” (01/18/25)
https://tomdispatch.com/just-as-dangerous/
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34) Congressional Republicans might finally jump off the hamster wheel
Source: Washington Post
by George F Will
“The 19th-century cartoonist Thomas Nast made the elephant the Republican Party’s symbol, but today the hamster would be more suitable for congressional Republicans. The phrase ‘hamster wheel’ is an American idiom for energy expended pointlessly. Now, however, some of those Republicans might have managed to reach a destination: exasperation with their role as ratifiers of presidential whims. Perhaps Donald Trump has at last gone too far for those legislators weary of going nowhere. He wants to prosecute Federal Reserve Chair Jerome H. Powell, his pretext being cost overruns on the remodeling of the Federal Reserve’s headquarters. This is one of Trump’s especially pointless tantrums, given that Powell’s term as chair ends May 15. Trump has, however, clarified the debate about the Fed’s ‘independence.’ And he has perhaps finally provoked a Republican recoil against his ambitions to control everything, including interest rates.” (01/16/26)
https://archive.is/ArBGz
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35) What is Competition?
Source: EconLog
by David Hebert
“Economists extol the importance of competition in markets for driving prices down and quality up. But what is ‘competition’ and how does it actually work? To non-economists, the word conjures the idea of something like a sporting contest, where there can be one winner while everyone else loses. But this comparison fails on at least two dimensions.” (01/16/26)
https://www.econlib.org/econlog/what-is-competition
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36) Neither the ayatollah nor the shah
Source: spiked
by Étienne Vérité
“The Pahlavi dynasty laid the groundwork for the authoritarian rule that Iranians are rising up against.” (01/16/26)
https://www.spiked-online.com/2026/01/16/neither-the-ayatollah-nor-the-shah/
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37) Sorry Omar Fateh, we’re not doing Somali-run no-go zones in Minnesota
Source: Fox News
by David Marcus
“In a chilling series of social media posts on Saturday night, Minnesota state senator and former Minneapolis mayoral candidate Omar Fateh pledged to make the Cedar Riverside neighborhood of his city a ‘no-go zone for white supremacists.’ ‘No-go zone’ is a term popularized in Europe that refers to Muslim-majority neighborhoods where it is not safe for White people to go. The X posts began with Fateh and two other men standing before the iconic Cedar Riverside towers with the message, ‘Cedar Strong. White Supremacists aren’t welcome here. We protect our own.'” (01/18/25)
https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/david-marcus-sorry-omar-fateh-were-not-doing-somali-run-no-go-zones-minnesota
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38) The Public School Shell Game Makes Phantom Daycares Look Tiny
Source: The Daily Economy
by Corey A DeAngelis
“Adults siphon off taxpayer money earmarked for kids, and no one is held accountable. Teachers’ unions share the same dysfunctional incentives as headline-grabbing fraudsters in Minnesota.” (01/16/26)
https://thedailyeconomy.org/article/the-public-school-shell-game/
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39) Republicans now embrace “seamless garment” of statism
Source: Orange County Register
by Steven Greenhut
“Based on the troubling goings-on in Minneapolis, it’s hard to describe former GOP Rep. Justin Amash’s post on X as hyperbolic: ‘They’re building a police state right before our eyes — which will ultimately be deployed against conservative Christians and gun owners and those who refuse the jab — and a lot of ‘Republicans’ with Gadsden flags in their bios are like, ‘Yeah, FAFO!’’ There’s no hope for anyone cheering, but ‘responsible’ conservatives have a rationale for defending these actions: It’s better than having Democrats in charge. Had, say, Kamala Harris won the presidency, she would have imposed socialistic policies, they say. That’s probably true, but have you noticed the latest policy plans from Donald Trump? His economic proposals echo the Democratic platform.” (01/16/26)
https://archive.is/jc9MB
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40) Artificial Intelligence in the United States
Source: Foundation for Economic Education
by Kevin T Frazier
“President Donald Trump’s executive order on artificial intelligence invites analysis of a question so complex that it rarely gets asked: ‘What exactly do states have the authority to regulate?’ The current, somewhat trite answer is, ‘The residuary powers reserved under the Tenth Amendment.’ Omitting the legalese, that means that states can do whatever the federal government cannot. States have the power to look out for the health, safety, and welfare of their residents. Thus, for instance, they have the power to address local concerns through zoning laws, professional certifications via licensing regimes, and ensure public safety through law enforcement. These authorities make up what’s often referred to as a state’s ‘police powers.’ While this generic reading of state power is not necessarily wrong, it’s imprecise.” (01/16/26)
https://fee.org/articles/artificial-intelligence-in-the-united-states/
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41) Trump “Peace Plan” Just Genocide Under a Different Name
Source: Common Dreams
by Paul Shannon
“The Trump peace scheme is not an imperfect plan that at least ends the genocide in Gaza. It is in fact a new plan to continue the genocide using a different strategy. It poses a mortal threat to the survival of Palestinians in Gaza. However this plan is not being implemented in isolation from the massive Israeli attack on Palestinians in the West Bank, but in conjunction with it. We are now witnessing, not merely a messy and complicated ceasefire in Gaza and stepped up attacks on Palestinians in the West Bank. Rather, we are witnessing a coordinated 2-pronged attack to destroy the very idea of Palestine. As a result we need to move from targeting the Gaza genocide as separate from what’s being done in the rest of Palestine to a focus on both Palestinian self-determination and opposing ongoing efforts to erase the reality of Palestinians as a people.” (01/18/25)
https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/trump-peace-plan-genocide
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42) Hating X: The Naked Truth
Source: Common Sense
by Paul Jacob
“Why do so many U.S. Democrats, like some Europeans, want to outlaw X? The current stage of the U.S. assault on the social media platform formerly known as Twitter takes the form of senatorial demands that X be removed from iOS and Android app stores. Why the enmity? Well, under the ownership of Elon Musk, X lets people say and write stuff that Democrats dislike.” (01/16/26)
https://thisiscommonsense.org/2026/01/16/hatingx/
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43) Venezuela — the Petroleum Fortress: Power, Profits, and the Dismantling of a Nation
Source: Antiwar.com
by Michael Holmes
“The history of Venezuela is often reduced to a cautionary tale of a single charismatic leader or a sudden economic collapse, yet the reality is a far more harrowing chronicle of structural extraction and imperial oversight. For over a century, the nation has served as a primary laboratory for a specific kind of Western imperialism – one where the democratic aspirations of a people are routinely sacrificed at the altar of energy security and corporate profit. In his meticulously researched volume, Venezuela: What Everyone Needs to Know, the author provides an evidentiary excavation of this history, revealing how the machinery of international finance and foreign military attaches have historically dictated the boundaries of Venezuelan sovereignty.” (01/16/26)
https://original.antiwar.com/michael_holmes/2026/01/15/venezuela-the-petroleum-fortress-power-profits-and-the-dismantling-of-a-nation/
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44) Greenlanders Don’t Consent To Becoming Americans
Source: Reason
by JD Tuccille
“According to President Donald Trump, taking possession of Greenland is a national security necessity. It’s so critical, he claims, that he’s willing to take the chilly island the ‘easy way’ or the ‘hard way.’ Denmark, which governs Greenland, isn’t eager to surrender the territory. Even more important, the residents of Greenland, most of whom don’t especially want to be Danish, have even less interest in becoming American. The leader of a country founded on high-minded sentiments about the ‘consent of the governed’ should consider taking that into account.” (01/16/25)
https://reason.com/2026/01/16/greenlanders-dont-consent-to-becoming-americans/
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45) Why the Hell Should We Care If Democrats Don’t?
Source: Town Hall
by Derek Hunter
“Most days during the Biden administration, you’d wake up and wonder what Joe was going to trip over, either physically or verbally, today? How many mumblings would end with a ‘Well, anyway …’ like it was pudding time in the nursing home. With the Trump administration, both of them, you wake up wondering what the fake outrage will be and which liberal city might burn. The common problem is that both scenarios are Democrats, either lying to the public about Biden’s mental abilities or lying to the public in the hopes of causing riots. I used to feel bad for people in the cities overrun by Democrats’ BLM/ANTIFA Brownshirts; who wants to see their fellow Americans going through hell? But then you realize that these people voted for this, and did so repeatedly.” (01/18/25)
https://townhall.com/columnists/derekhunter/2026/01/18/why-the-hell-should-we-care-if-democrats-dont-n2669643
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46) The Limits of the Hamilton-Jefferson Paradigm
Source: Law & Liberty
by Michael Federici
“The legacies of Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson have had an oversized influence on American political history. As important as their individual and distinct contributions to the formation of the American political order have been, their rivalry has had a lasting effect on American political thinking and conduct. In The Pursuit of Liberty: How Hamilton vs. Jefferson Ignited the Lasting Battle Over Power in America, Jeffrey Rosen argues that American political history can be understood as a continued tension between Hamiltonian and Jeffersonian ideas. Rosen does not take sides in this ideological competition; his greater concern is how it has served the health of the American regime.” (01/16/25)
https://lawliberty.org/book-review/the-limits-of-the-hamilton-jefferson-paradigm/
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47) The Trumpian ICE Age: The Frigidity of Collectivism
Source: Free Association
by Sheldon Richman
“Welcome to the Trumpian ICE Age, a vivid lesson in the frigidity of collectivism. Take note, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani. Compared to Trump, you’re a piker.” (01/16/26)
https://sheldonfreeassociation.blogspot.com/2026/01/tgif-trumpian-ice-age-frigidity-of.html
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48) Russia Won’t Have to Say No: Europe Will
Source: The American Conservative
by Ted Snider
“merican negotiators have been negotiating on separate tracks with Ukraine and Russia in the hope that those two tracks will eventually converge. Despite President Donald Trump’s recent statement that the two sides are ‘maybe very close’ to a deal, and the Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky’s evaluation that a plan is ’90 percent ready,’ the two sides seem to be moving no closer together. In negotiating, the Ukrainian and European sides may be hoping to highlight that it is Russia that is saying no. And there is plenty in — and not in — their latest position that Russia will say no to. But, incoherently, Europe seems to have negotiated itself into a corner from which Russia doesn’t have to be the one to say no because Europe will.” (01/16/26)
https://www.theamericanconservative.com/russia-wont-have-to-say-no-europe-will/
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49) What a People-Powered Movement Looks Like
Source: The American Prospect
by David Dayen
“This past week has shown that you can’t leave something as important as resisting the government up to the opposition party. Democrats in Congress, like the majority of the country, are incensed about the murder of Renee Good, the subsequent wounding and maiming of others, and the seeming improbability of forthcoming accountability for any of this. To use the most salient example, federal investigators have commandeered the Good case, are withholding evidence from the state of Minnesota, and have turned the probe into a smear job against her and whatever activism she and her wife were engaged in. Justice Department prosecutors have resigned in protest. While state and local prosecutors try to keep the Good case alive, ICE agents are unquestionably violating their own written policies and the constitutional rights of citizens expressing their opposition through free speech and peaceable assembly.” (01/16/25)
https://prospect.org/2026/01/16/what-people-powered-movement-looks-like-minneapolis/
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50) In what world would Trump’s oil play actually help Venezuelans?
Source: Responsible Statecraft
by Francisco Rodriguez
“‘We’re going to run the country,’ President Trump said regarding Venezuela at a press conference just hours after Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro’s capture in a U.S. military raid in Caracas. To do so, the Trump administration has begun taking charge of Venezuelan oil shipments and selling them directly in international oil markets. The U.S. plans to make sure that these revenues are used only to buy imports from American companies. Whether this will at some point transform into a net benefit for the Venezuelan people depends on the granular details of the plan, which currently we know little about. The broader outlines of the vision are of course enough to make the blood of any Latin American nationalist boil.” (01/16/26)
https://responsiblestatecraft.org/trump-oil-industry-venezuela/
_____ Today's Freedom Podcast and Video _____
51) Unattended Baggage, episode 325
Source: Unattended Baggage
“Struggling with senility and battling tri-polarism.” (01/17/26)
https://unattendedbaggage.substack.com/p/episode-325-struggling-with-senility
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52) The Good Fight, 01/17/26
Source: Yascha Mounk
“Ian Bassin on How to Save American Democracy from Trump.” (01/17/26)
https://writing.yaschamounk.com/p/ian-bassin-on-how-to-save-american
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53) Bulwark Takes, 01/16/26
Source: The Bulwark
“Tim Miller takes on the rough stretch for Trump as leaked internal polling shows his immigration tactics backfiring, ugly ICE footage sparks public backlash, and even the White House admits the optics are hurting them.” (01/16/26)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HxF0GylOFr4
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54) The Kyle Anzalone Show, 01/16/26
Source: Libertarian Institute
“Matt Wolfson: Israeli Connection to Maduro Kidnapping/ Will Zionists Get Their War With Iran?” (01/16/26)
https://libertarianinstitute.org/blog/guest-matt-wolfson-israeli-connection-to-maduro-kidnapping-will-zionists-get-their-war-with-iran/
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55) Serious Trouble, 01/16/26
Source: Serious Trouble
“You Are Not Jay Powell.” (01/16/26)
https://www.serioustrouble.show/p/you-are-not-jay-powell
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56) The Tom Woods Show, episode 2727
Source: The Tom Woods Show
“Scott Horton on Iran Regime Change Propaganda.” (01/16/26)
https://tomwoods.com/ep-2727-scott-horton-on-iran-regime-change-propaganda/
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57) The Daily Blast With Greg Sargent, 01/16/26
Source: The New Republic
“Trump Press Sec Erupts in Fury at Media Over ICE as Polls Spiral Again.” (01/16/26)
https://newrepublic.com/article/205364/trump-press-sec-erupts-fury-media-ice-polls-spiral
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58) Politicks, 01/16/26
Source: Lions of Liberty
“Krassenstein vs Physics, Starmer vs Democracy and Trump vs Insurance Companies.” (01/16/26)
https://www.lionsofliberty.com/episodes/politicks-krassenstein-vs-physics-starmer-vs-democracy-and-trump-vs-insurance-companies
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59) Rising, 01/16/26
Source: The Hill
“Lindsey Granger gives her lens on the ongoing turmoil in Minnesota, with Governor Tim Walz asking President Trump to, ‘turn the temperature down,’ after Trump threatened to invoke the Insurrection Act in the state.” (01/16/26)
https://thehill.com/hilltv/rising/5692625-rising-january-16-2026/
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60) Antiwar News with Dave DeCamp, 01/16/26
Source: Antiwar.com
“US Surging Military Assets to Middle East, Israel Kills at Least 10 Palestinians in Gaza, and More.” (01/16/26)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pA-MByWLWlk
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