“Our nation never called him a hero. He didn’t serve himself, he served those who served. But I think that you can learn a lot about someone through a study of their enemies: First, a preening octogenarian dilettante in clownface with little more than the skill to keep talking, just keep talking, when shame would’ve already killed better men. It turns out that in this nation of broken heroes you can rise quite high with so little, provided you have a sufficient amount of money to start. Then, the incarnation of daddy issues as a concept, soft at the jowls and so ashamed of where he’s from that he’s also ashamed of where he pretends to be from. … Next, a worm who never should have been born and whose every day spent breathing is an insult to the universal commonwealth of all humanity.” (01/28/26)
“Texas on Wednesday evening conducted the United States’ first execution of the year, putting a 55-year-old man to death for the 1998 double murder of his ex-girlfriend and her new boyfriend. Charles Victor Thompson was executed by lethal injection at the penitentiary in Huntsville, Texas. He was pronounced dead at 6:50 p.m. CST, the state’s Department of Criminal Justice told UPI in an emailed statement.” (01/28/26)
Source: Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression
by Jacob Gaba
“For months, the Trump administration has tried to justify its targeting of prominent pro-Palestinian activists like Mahmoud Khalil, Rumeysa Ozturk, and Moshen Mahdawi by insinuating that the reasons for their pending deportation went beyond mere speech. But newly unsealed records confirm the Trump administration’s legal basis for targeting these individuals was never unlawful conduct. Instead, the administration targeted them solely for protected speech — and expected a First Amendment fight from the start.” (01/28/26)
“The US Federal Reserve voted to hold interest rates on Wednesday despite White House pressure to lower borrowing costs. The Fed said it will keep its key lending rate between 3.5% to 3.75%, stating that economic activity in the US ‘has been expanding at a solid pace.’ There are signs the employment market is stabilising – job creation is sluggish but the unemployment rate has ticked lower. Policymakers are continuing to monitor the effect on the economy of three interest cuts last year. … Two Fed officials voted in favour of an interest rate cut — Stephen Miran, who is on leave from his post at the White House where he leads Trump’s Council of Economic Advisers, and Christopher Waller, a Trump appointee whose name has been floated as contender to succeed Powell.” (01/28/26)
“Many Americans think Social Security works like a retirement account. In Cato polling conducted in August, about one in four said they believed they had a personal account within the system. That misconception didn’t arise by accident. Politicians routinely describe payroll taxes as ‘contributions,’ speak of a ‘trust fund’ as if it held real savings, and defend benefits as ‘earned.’ Social Security is not a savings program. It is a pay-as-you-go transfer system. Today’s workers’ payroll taxes fund today’s retirees’ benefits. There is no individual account accumulating a balance over time. Payroll taxes are taxes, neither deposits nor savings. Its early history makes that clear.” (01/28/26)
“United Kingdom Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Chinese President Xi Jinping have called for a closer strategic partnership as they met in Beijing during the first trip of its kind by a British leader in eight years. … Starmer’s trip is also overshadowed by London’s strained relationship with the United States under the leadership of President Donald Trump. Their ties have been tested by Trump’s tariff war and his recent threats of annexing Greenland, much to the alarm of NATO members like the UK. Trump was angered by a similar visit this month to Beijing by Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, who also sought deeper economic ties with China.” (01/29/26)
