“President Donald Trump’s military invasion of Venezuela to capture its president, Nicolás Maduro, was illegal and unconstitutional. There is no legal authority, in American or international law, for the United States, in Trump’s words, to be ‘running’ another country. And it is chilling that rather than acknowledging these legal issues, the president is instead talking about possible blatantly illegal military actions against Colombia, Cuba, Greenland, and Mexico. The fact that the United States has the ability to overpower other nations does not make its actions legal or just.” (01/08/26)
“The Trump administration believes you don’t have the right to record Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers in public. This stance is both factually wrong and an attempt to chill free speech by conflating it with violence. … Recording government agents is one of the few tools citizens have to hold state power accountable. Any attempt to redefine observation as ‘violence’ is not only unconstitutional — it’s authoritarian gaslighting. When a government fears cameras more than crimes, it isn’t protecting the rule of law. It’s protecting itself.” (for publication 02/26)
“Laurent Vinatier, a French researcher serving a three-year prison sentence in Russia for violating Moscow’s foreign agent laws, has been freed as part of a prisoner exchange, French and Russian officials said on Thursday. President Emmanuel Macron posted on X: ‘Our compatriot Laurent Vinatier is free and back in France. I share the relief felt by his family and loved ones.’ He added he was grateful for work done by French diplomatic officials. Russia’s FSB security service said Vinatier, 49, had been swapped for Daniil Kasatkin, a Russian basketball player who was arrested at a Paris airport last June and who was wanted in the United States for alleged involvement in ransomware attacks.” (01/08/26)
“After months of speculation, threats, and periodic bombings of Trinidadian fishermen, the Trump administration finally took direct military action against Venezuela, culminating in the kidnapping of the country’s sitting president Nicolas Maduro. The justifications for this action were eerily familiar. This extraordinary operation had nothing to do with seizing the assets of a country that, coincidentally, sits on the largest proven reserves of oil in the world. Instead, the White House Claims, this was an effort carried out with strict deference to American national security imperatives, for Maduro and his ‘illegitimate’ regime presided over one of the biggest drug-trafficking networks of any country on Earth, shipping industrial quantities of illegal narcotics to U.S. soil each year.” (01/08/26)
“George Pappas talks about how Trump ended due process for immigrants, and how to fight back. ‘The law has failed us,’ he says. ‘So now we have to turn to politics.'” (01/08/26)
“January 8, 1790. George Washington walked into the Senate Chamber of Federal Hall in New York City and delivered his first annual message to a joint session of Congress. Today, we call it the State of the Union. In his speech, Washington set the standard for how a president should act. From the clothes he wore to how he approached the separation of powers in the Constitution, to his support for an educated and armed people, ready to defend their own constitution and liberty. Once you read just what he said and did, it’s pretty obvious this blueprint has been betrayed for a long, long time.” (01/07/26)
“Global defense stocks rallied on Thursday, extending gains after U.S. President Donald Trump called for a $1.5 trillion defense [sic] budget in 2027. ‘After the long and difficult negotiations with Senators, Congressmen, Secretaries, and other Political Representatives, I have determined that, for the Good of our Country, especially in these very troubled and dangerous times, our Military Budget for the year 2027 should not be $1 Trillion Dollars, rather $1.5 Trillion Dollars,’ he wrote in a TruthSocial post late Wednesday. ‘This will allow us to build the ‘Dream Military’ that we have long been entitled to, and, more importantly, that will keep us SAFE and SECURE, regardless of foe.’ Northrop Grumman gained 6.8% in premarket trade on Thursday, Lockheed Martin was last seen 6.7% higher, RTX advanced 5.4%, and Kratos Defense was up 6.6%.” (01/08/26)
