“The products of Flock Safety, one of the largest vendors of police surveillance technology, such as automated license plate readers (ALPRs) and gunfire locators, are frequently plagued by security vulnerabilities, either due to inherent flaws or user failure to follow best practices. As detailed in a recent video investigation by technologist Benn Jordan, several Flock Safety’s AI-powered ‘Condor’ cameras were found broadcasting both live and archived footage directly to the open internet. No passwords or login credentials were needed and the auto-focus feature in these cameras certainly raises privacy questions. … Of course, given their incognitio nature and their ability to track individuals, one would hope that utmost care is given to the cybersecurity of the camera’s footage. However, what Jordan found was a free-for-all, with less security than even what a standard Netflix account would require to watch a show.” (01/14/26)
“Limited government proponents should feel uneasy. On the right, populists deride economic liberty’s supporters as anachronistic ‘market fundamentalists.’ The free market, they suggest, is not aligned with the preferences or interests of the Republican Party’s new working-class coalition. Many of these populists are eager to abandon freedom for tariffs and other forms of ‘industrial policy’ — a euphemism for granting the state authority to pick economic winners and losers. Unfortunately, trends on the left may be even worse. With populists embracing new state interventions and untrammeled executive power, freedom advocates find their influence on the right at a nadir. Perhaps overtures to the center-left are in order? Having lost the last presidential election to a very flawed Republican candidate, maybe Democrats will be inclined to move toward the center. There is some historical precedence for this.” (01/14/26)
“For decades, the world has viewed Iran through a series of familiar, if increasingly obsolete, lenses. From the ‘clash of civilizations’ to the ‘struggle for reform’ and the poignant aesthetics of ‘Women, Life, Freedom,’ Western observers have sought a narrative that fits their own political taxonomy. But today, as the Islamic Republic plunges the country into total digital darkness … a new reality is hardening in the silence. The information that trickles out via Starlink and clandestine dispatches reveals a fundamental shift that many in the West find difficult to reconcile with their existing frameworks: Iranians are no longer asking for a seat at the table. They are demanding a different table entirely. The movement that has gripped Iran since December 28 is not a plea for human rights within a theological framework, nor is it a subset of global identity politics. It is a profound, pragmatic, and increasingly radical return to secular nationalism.” (01/14/26)
“[T]here is an enormous amount of repressed fetishism happening within the celebration of ICE violence. They find unchecked, unaccountable power enticing. Its sadism is intoxicating because it allows them to disassociate from the crushing weight of their own inner turmoil. And because virtually none of them have ever taken the time to examine their own shadows, they project them onto everyone and everything. This psychology of sadomasochism is not the kind one finds in consensual BDSM relationships or communities. Quite the opposite. The people who participate in consensual BDSM do it because it is cathartic. Because it is fun. Because they trust their partner. But the kind we see among far-right and fascist groups is solely about demeaning those who have not submitted to the state or to a mob.” (01/14/26)
“China’s trade surplus with the entire world hit an all-time record of $1.19 trillion in 2025, Beijing just announced. But here’s the stunner in the report. China’s surplus with the U.S. declined by 22 percent. The reason: U.S. tariffs on Chinese exports average over 50 percent. That’s a good outcome, since China’s chronic trade surplus is based on illegal mercantilist policies, including currency manipulation, subsidies, and domestic market protection, that cost the U.S. and other nations jobs. In the past, the main loser has been the United States. China simply diverted subsidized exports to other nations with lower tariffs. But what of Trump’s other tariffs? They are an incoherent mash-up.” (01/14/25)
“During a January 2026 interview with The New York Times, President Donald Trump was asked whether anything could limit his ability to use the vast military and economic power of the United States as he saw fit. His answer was breathtakingly candid. Trump replied, ‘Yeah, there is one thing. My own morality. My own mind. It’s the only thing that can stop me.’ … Morally, a leader claiming to be constrained only by his personal sense of right and wrong should alarm anyone who values the rule of law. But a far more concrete problem exists: the perspective reflects a misunderstanding — or willful rejection — of the constitutional design of the American republic. The U.S. Constitution was deliberately constructed to prevent the very scenario Trump describes, that of a single individual unilaterally dragging the nation into conflict.” (01/14/26)
“It is safe to say that Trump’s abuse of the pardon power has no parallel in American history. Almost every president has granted a few that seem dodgy in retrospect; many have used them as an instrument of partisan politics; a few have used them as instruments of corruption. But in extent and scale, Trump’s pardons fall well below the subterranean ethical floor established even over the past 50 years. In pardoning 1,500 rioters convicted of involvement in the January 6 insurrection, Trump showed contempt for the law enforcement officers who protected the Capitol, and the system of government they preserved. His other pardons, from crypto fraudsters to foreign drug lords, reek with contempt for the very idea of law.” (01/14/26)
“It is almost impossible to get serious criticism of the Israeli state, which (falsely) claims to represent the Jewish people, anywhere near mainstream US culture, even when it takes the form of a critically acclaimed movie, backed by Brad Pitt and Joaquin Phoenix, that received a record 23-minute standing ovation at the Venice Film Festival. For decades, pro-Israel lobby groups have dedicated their efforts to telling us that antisemitism is rampant across the West and takes the form of opposition of Israel – a message endlessly amplified by the western media. … The solution, it hardly needs pointing out, is to shut down criticism of Israel to reduce antisemitism.” (01/14/26)
“Donald Trump is trying to erase the 20th century. For those of you too young to remember back that far, he is also going after what we’ve gone through in the past two and a half decades as well. With a thoroughness that is surprising for a man who barely seems to know where he is at any given moment, Trump is rapidly eliminating many of the United States’[s] most important accomplishments during the period that marked our rise as a superpower. It is almost as if he wishes to reverse that rise.” (01/13/26)
“From defense contracting and mortgage finance to credit, housing, and monetary policy, Trump is leaning heavily on command-and-control economics.” (01/13/26)
