“‘NO ROOM AT THE INN!’ The U.S. Department of Homeland Security posted on its official X account on Monday. ‘HiltonHotels has launched a coordinated campaign in Minneapolis to REFUSE service to DHS law enforcement. When officers attempted to book rooms using official government emails and rates, Hilton Hotels maliciously CANCELLED their reservations.’ Leaving aside for a second the obscene comparison of gestapo-style immigration troops to Mary and Joseph searching for lodging in the Nativity story, the post made an extraordinary and unlikely claim: One of the largest hotel chains in the world was taking an organized stand against the Trump administration’s deportation machine. It was, like so many administration claims, a lie.” (01/06/26)
“A plot to kill Burkina Faso’s military leader, Capt Ibrahim Traoré, has been thwarted, the West African nation has announced. The sophisticated plan had been hatched by Lt Col Paul Henri Damiba, the military officer ousted by Traoré in September 2022, the security minister said in a late-night broadcast. ‘Our intelligence services intercepted this operation in the final hours. They had planned to assassinate the head of state and then strike other key institutions, including civilian personalities,’ said Mahamadou Sana, further alleging that the plot had been funded from neighbouring Ivory Coast. There has been no comment from either Col Damiba or Ivory Coast. Since seizing power, Capt Traoré has faced at least two coup attempts and is also grappling with growing jihadist violence that has forced millions from their homes.” (01/07/26)
“Chace Barber (President and Founder of Edison Motors) provides an update on their diesel electric trucks, their vision for a sustainable, right-to-repair future, and the future of their mission.” (01/06/26)
“Remember the Golden Arches Theory of Conflict Prevention? Way back in 1996, New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman observed, ‘No two countries that both have a McDonald’s have ever fought a war against each other.’ It was a little tongue in cheek, but the theory generally made sense: Once a country was sufficiently open to American culture to welcome the hamburger chain to its shores and was sufficiently plugged into the global economy, its interest in military aggression dropped significantly. … Alas, the Golden Arches Theory didn’t hold up for very long. … Perhaps it is time for a new theory to fit our dramatically different notion of who is an American ally and who is a potential foe. Consider that no two countries with a Trump-branded property have ever fought a war against each other — at least, not while they’ve had that Trump property.” (01/06/26)
Source: Independent Institute
by Alexander William Salter
“Earlier this month, the Federal Reserve cut its interest-rate target by 25 basis points, or 0.25 percentage points, bringing the range down to 3.5–3.75 percent. This was no routine decision. It passed by a contentious 9–3 vote: two Federal Open Market Committee members wanted to hold the target rate steady, while Fed Governor Stephen Miran favored a larger 50-basis-point cut. Chairman Jerome Powell called it a ‘close call.’ What justified this controversial decision? According to the Fed’s official statement, policymakers judged that ‘downside risks to employment rose in recent months.’ The unemployment rate had ‘edged up’ to 4.4 percent through September, and job gains had slowed. But there’s an obvious problem: inflation remains above target.” (01/06/26)
“A federal judge on Tuesday ruled that several major medical organisations can move forward with their lawsuit challenging policies adopted under US Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jnr that they say will lower vaccination rates. US District Judge Brian Murphy in Boston rejected arguments by lawyers for US President Donald Trump’s administration that the groups, including the American Academy of Pediatrics, lack legal standing to pursue the case because they could not show they were harmed by the policies. The lawsuit seeks to invalidate all votes cast since June by a key vaccine advisory panel whose members were hand-picked by Kennedy, who previously founded the anti-vaccine [sic] group Children’s Health Defense before becoming the head of the US Department of Health and Human Services.” (01/06/26)
“The American government has billed the dramatic capture and extradition of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro over the weekend as a law enforcement operation carried out with the support of the U.S. military. Now that Maduro is in custody, the United States intends to exert control of the country through (what the administration assumes will be) Maduro’s pliant vice president, whose primary task is to open up Venezuela’s nationalized oil production to American corporations. That’s the administration’s high-level story, at least. But as more context comes out, it gets less clear whether Maduro’s capture was a law enforcement action, a military operation, or some secret third thing.” (01/06/26)
“Protesters angry over Iran’s ailing economy conducted a sit-in Tuesday at Tehran’s Grand Bazaar, witnesses said, with security forces ultimately firing tear gas and dispersing demonstrators as the rest of the market shut down. The protest at the Grand Bazaar, the beating heart for centuries of both Iran’s economic and political life, represented the latest signal that the demonstrations likely are to continue as the rial currency fell to a record low Tuesday. Already, violence surrounding the protests has killed at least 36 people with authorities detaining more than 2,000 others, activists abroad say. Meanwhile, the situation was likely to worsen as Iran’s Central Bank drastically reduced the subsidized exchange rates for dollars it offers to importers and producers.” (01/07/26)
“As was the case the morning after ‘Shock and Awe’ signaled the start of the Iraq war, many are cheering the US military raid on Venezuela and capture of its president, Nicolas Maduro. Overwhelming US military power – and likely some bribed Venezuelan officials – ensured that the operation was swift and dramatic. This was not a war, we were told. It was just a surgical operation to remove a criminal dictator and restore democracy to the country. American oil companies would soon get even richer exploiting the country’s vast oil reserves. This time it will be different! If all of this sounds familiar that’s because it is the same narrative used each time the US has launched a ‘regime change’ operation this century.” (01/06/26)
