“The Corporation for Public Broadcasting announced on Jan. 5 that its board voted to dissolve the nearly 60-year-old organization, attributing the decision to a lack of federal funding and ‘sustained political attacks.’ Such factors ‘made it impossible for CPB to continue operating as the Public Broadcasting Act intended,’ according to a news release announcing the vote. … Congress voted in July to claw back $1.1 billion that had been earmarked for public broadcasting over the next two years, prompting the corporation to announce the following month that it was starting an ‘orderly wind-down of its operations.'” (01/05/26)
“Mindwar creates false binaries. I don’t know who coined the phrase ‘rugged individualism,’ but surely there is something gentle in respecting the person and property of every individual. No doubt, there is a ruggedness to making one’s way in the world without government goodies and nationalized industries, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Nowadays, the phrase is almost always used sardonically. I also don’t see how communitarianism ever got associated with what government authorities ought to do, but community is not something that state officials can compel.” (01/05/26)
“Israel’s air force struck areas in southern and eastern Lebanon on Monday and early Tuesday, including in the country’s third-largest city. A strike around 1 a.m. Tuesday leveled a three-story commercial building in the southern coastal city of Sidon, a few days before Lebanon’s army commander is scheduled to brief the government on its mission of disarming militant group Hezbollah in areas along the border with Israel. … On Monday, the Israeli army hit several sites in southern and eastern Lebanon saying they held infrastructure for the militant groups Hezbollah and Hamas.” (01/05/26)
Source: Ludwig von Mises Institute
by Peter G Klein
“Trump justifies his war on Venezuela by saying that ‘they’ stole ‘our’ oil. Unpacking this claim gives us insight into Trump’s version of crony capitalism – a system of private ownership in which the state intervenes to promote the interests of politically connected firms. … A common feature of crony capitalism is the subsidization of downside loss – owners keep the profits, but losses are passed onto the taxpayer. That is exactly what Trump and his allies propose here.” (01/05/26)
“Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth moved on Monday to demote Sen. Mark Kelly’s (D-Ariz.) military rank over his participation in a recent video with five other Democrats, in which they reminded U.S. service members that they [must] refuse illegal orders from higher-ups [including shitbirds like Hegseth]. Hegseth said in a statement that the Pentagon has initiated retirement grade determination proceedings, also called officer grade determinations, with ‘reduction in his retired grade resulting in a corresponding reduction in retired pay.’ The Pentagon chief also said he issued a formal letter of censure, which ‘outlines the totality of Captain (for now) Kelly’s reckless misconduct.'” (01/05/26)
“Nothing snuffs out questions about a near-octogenarian president’s health quite like that president repeatedly bragging about passing a dementia test and telling the world he ignores his doctors and doesn’t exercise. … we have a commander in chief who’s pushing 80, doesn’t sleep much and bruises ‒ if you believe the White House’s excuses ‒ when someone shakes his hand. … If Trump administration officials were smart ‒ they’re not ‒ they would be putting Vice President JD Vance front and center more often to at least reassure Americans that Trump has a competent person behind him. The fact that they’re not doing this is either a testament to Trump’s ego ‒ which bruises more easily than his flesh ‒ or an indictment of Vance’s competence and likability, or both.” (01/05/26)
“The sound of clanking leg shackles could be heard moments before Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro walked into the door of a New York City courtroom for the first time. He then told packed rows of reporters and the public that he had just been ‘kidnapped.’ Minutes after his entrance, the Judge Alvin Hellerstein asked Maduro to confirm his identity so the proceedings could start. ‘I am, sir, Nicolás Maduro. I am president of the Republic of Venezuela and I am here kidnapped since January 3rd,’ he told the court in a calm Spanish before an interpreter translated for the court. … The 92-year-old judge quickly interjected to tell Maduro that there would be a ‘time and a place to get into all of this.'” (01/05/26)
“The president has been lucky. His strikes in Iran did not lead to substantial escalation, and for the moment, the seizure of Maduro does not appear to have thrown Venezuela into chaos. But that does not mean the president’s ability to avoid the consequences of future strikes of this kind — in Mexico, say, or Greenland — couldn’t easily turn into blowback against the United States. And the more that Trump engages in these displays of U.S. force, the more likely it is that one of them will go catastrophically wrong.” (01/05/26)
“The Trump administration has added seven countries, including five in Africa, to the list of nations whose passport holders are required to post bonds of up to $15,000 to apply to enter the United States. Thirteen countries, all but two of them in Africa, are now on the list, which makes the process of obtaining a U.S. visa unaffordable for many. The State Department last week quietly added Bhutan, Botswana, the Central African Republic, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Namibia and Turkmenistan to the list. Those designations took effect on Jan. 1, according to a notice posted on the travel.state.gov website. It’s the latest effort by the Trump administration to tighten requirements for entry to the U.S., including requiring citizens from all countries that require visas to sit for in-person interviews and disclose years of social media histories as well as detailed accounts of their and their families’ previous travel and living arrangements.” (01/05/26)
