“Scott Adams, creator of the ‘Dilbert’ comic strip, who became controversial for his right-wing statements, has died following a battle with metastatic prostate cancer. He was 68. … Born in Windham, New York in 1957, Adams started drawing comics at age 6, citing the ‘Peanuts’ comics as an early inspiration. … By 1994, ‘Dilbert’ was syndicated in more than 400 newspapers, and in 1995, Adams left Pacific Bell to become a full-time cartoonist.” (01/13/26)
“Every time that the U.S. threatens or bombs the non-nuclear weapons state Iran, it vindicates North Korea’s decision to build its own deterrent. If there are any other would-be proliferators contemplating their next steps, they would have strong incentives to imitate North Korea and avoid making the same mistakes as Iran. That is one enduring legacy of our government’s incredibly awful Iran policy. The other is that our government’s policy has given the Iranian government every reason to acquire nuclear weapons despite its many formal commitments to reject that option.” (01/13/26)
“The nation’s highest court heard more than three hours of arguments in two cases regarding state bans on transgender students playing on sports teams that are consistent with their gender identity. Chief Justice John Roberts has signaled his skepticism for what he called transgender ‘exception’ for sex-based laws. He also said he the blockbuster 2020 precedent that protects gay and transgender employees from discrimination doesn’t apply to the sports cases, signaling that he is prepared to undermine a central argument from LGBTQ advocates. Justice Brett Kavanaugh said that the court cannot look past what he characterized as the ‘harm’ that transgender-inclusive sports policies impose on cisgender women and girl’s sports teams.” (01/13/26)
“Yascha Mounk and Rebecca Goldstein debate whether our desperate need for significance is a flaw we should overcome — or an essential part of human dignity.” (01/13/26)
“Once we see ourselves as part of a group, we callously judge outsiders and rally to the cause of foolish insiders. Have you not noticed this in yourself? Once we see ourselves as part of a political whatever, part of a social whatever … it begins tainting what we think and feel. Left to continue, it poisons us against other identities. I’m not talking about simple, cooperative groups, mind you: those we feel free to jump in and out of; there’s not much identification involved. In practice, identification produces a free-for-all, each identity battling the others for whatever can be fought over.” (01/13/26)
Source: Wired
by Lily Hay Newman, Maddy Varner, & Matt Burgess
“If federal immigration agents are coming to your area — or have already arrived — you may be frantically making plans to lay low at home, or perhaps grabbing your whistle and lacing up your sneakers to join a neighborhood watch. It’s a terrifying situation for undocumented residents and all American immigrants, and the climate has even become fraught for US citizens too. There are no simple answers for how to protect yourself and others in every scenario, but there are frameworks you can use for weighing your options.” (01/13/26)
“As Canadian leader Mark Carney arrives in China on Wednesday, his hosts see an opportunity to peel the longtime U.S. ally away from their rival, at least a bit. China’s state media is calling on the Canadian government to set a foreign policy path independent of the United States — what it calls ‘strategic autonomy.’ Canada has long been one of America’s closest allies, geographically and otherwise. But Beijing is hoping that President Donald Trump’s economic aggression — and, now, military action — against other countries will erode that longstanding relationship.” (01/13/26)
“After retiring from active service, [General Smedley Butler] was frank about what his role had been. Professing to being a ‘racketeer’ and ‘gangster for capitalism,’ he went on to explain how: ‘I helped make Mexico, especially Tampico, safe for American oil interests in 1914. I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City Boys to collect revenues in. I helped the raping of half a dozen Central American republics for the benefits of Wall Street.’ That was just a selection. With President Donald Trump in power, we do not need a Butler to give the game away or expose any frightful cabal. The empire is out of the closet, bolshie, bright and more thieving than ever.” (01/13/26)
“No government should pressure a bank to cut off customers innocent of any wrongdoing. Yet that is what happened with Operation Choke Point under the Obama administration and that is what happened again with ‘Operation Choke Point 2.0’ under the Biden administration. Even today, countless customers are debanked because the laws and regulations in place have made banks too cautious. It’s time to bring governmental debanking to an end.” (01/13/26)
