“Liberalism never was hegemonic, neither as an ideology or a set of political structures. There never was uniform belief in core liberal values. Rather, liberalism sometimes served as something of an ideological lingua franca: A conservative in the ‘90s, arguing for creationism in schools for instance, might say children should be ‘taught the debate’ and ‘free to make up their own minds.’ It’s not that they believed in reasoned debate and intellectual freedom, this was simply a useful rhetoric for them at the time. Now, they increasingly prefer to make their case solely in their own language. Liberalism has lost the illusion of controlling the heavens, while actually gaining followers here on Earth. The world is going through a great ideological realignment, but it is better visualized as ‘consolidation’ rather than a ‘sudden shift.’” (01/20/26)
“It has been obvious to informed observers for at least a decade that EVs are where car production as an industry is going to land, sooner or later. They are faster, simpler, cheaper to run and maintain, dramatically more efficient, and most importantly, produce no direct carbon emissions, when stacked up against cars running on fossil fuels. So, the Inflation Reduction Act contained a large subsidy package for the manufacture and sale of EVs. Automakers got a variety of subsidies for building batteries and EVs, while car buyers got a $7,500 tax credit for purchasing them. That way, the Big Three (General Motors, Ford, and Stellantis) could start to catch up with Chinese companies, which stole a march on America the first time Trump threw a wrench into the EV transition.” (01/20/25)
“As a ‘stealth tax,’ inflation requires no legislation to impose, no agency to collect, and diverts responsibility for damages onto politicians’ favorite whipping boys. It gives government the ability to buy almost anything for nothing, while creating endless problems that serve as a pretext for intervention. Inflation is the foundation of arrogant government and a prescription for our own demise.” (01/20/26)
“In what amounts to an extraordinary admission of guilt regarding their historic complicity in the US’s post-9/11 torture program, it was announced on January 11, the 24th anniversary of the opening of the ‘war on terror’ prison at Guantánamo Bay, that the British government has reached a ‘substantial’ out-of-court settlement with Abu Zubaydah. Abu Zubaydah … was the first and most notorious victim of torture in the CIA’s post-9/11 program of extraordinary rendition and torture, which involved the establishment of secret torture facilities in pliant countries around the world — Thailand, Poland, Romania, Lithuania and Morocco — as well as in US facilities in Afghanistan. He was held and tortured in all of these CIA ‘black sites’ for three years and five months from April 2002 until his transfer, in September 2006, to Guantánamo, where he has been held ever since without charge or trial.” (01/20/26)
Source: New York Post
by US Senator Rand Paul (R-KY)
“Youtube and its parent company Google deserves to be sued. For the past three weeks YouTube has been hosting a video that is a calculated lie, falsely accusing me of taking money from Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro. It refused to remove the video. It is, of course, a ludicrous accusation, but paid trolls are daily spreading this lie across the internet. This untruth is essentially an accusation of treason, which then leads the internet mob to call for my death. Advocating for liability for Google is no small step for me. I have long defended the private-property rights of internet companies and long defended them against overzealous, partisan abuses of antitrust law …. But I will not sit idly by and let them host a provably false defamatory video, which is now part of a widespread harassment campaign.” (01/19/25)
“James Konkin is a son, a friend, a student, a churchgoer, a weightlifter, and a vinyl collector. He’s also an anarchist. That is to say, he’s an opponent of the use of coercion in human relationships. Anarchists are people with principles, unpopular principles, but principles nonetheless. James’[s] principles include freedom, self-defense, and self-expression. He’s being punished for holding those principles. James has been targeted by the fascist regime, arrested and charged for constitutionally protected anti-ICE posts. He’s been released on bond for now, but his bail conditions preclude him from using social media so we haven’t heard from him in months.” (01/19/26)
“Three recently released polls could spell disaster for Trump’s second term – and for Republicans in this year’s midterm elections. According to a Quinnipiac University Poll released last week, seven in ten Americans oppose the US use of force against Iran, including a solid majority of Republican voters. Eighty percent of the very important independent voters oppose any US attack on Iran. On President Trump’s renewed demand for control of Greenland … that same Quinnipiac poll shows that 86 percent of Americans surveyed oppose taking the territory by force. A majority of 55 percent of Americans polled do not even want President Trump to purchase the massive island. An AP/NORC poll also released last week showed President Trump’s approval rating on foreign policy has shrunk to a new low in his presidency. … Americans are clearly more interested in getting our problems solved at home than acting as policeman for the world.” (01/19/26)
“The federal government has been making recommendations on what we should eat since 1980. Since 1992, those recommendations have been visually summarized in the form of a pyramid. The problem: Ever since the Food Pyramid was published, Americans have been getting progressively fatter. Trump administration officials think they know why: We have been getting bad advice. So, the administration has produced an ‘inverted pyramid,’ making recommendations that in many cases are the exact opposite of the previous ones. For example, instead of being told to limit the consumption of fat and eat carbs, we are now told to eat fat and limit our carbs. Reporters and commentators have treated the new guidelines as a revolutionary challenge to previous expert opinion.” (01/19/26)
“The authoritarian threat in the United States no longer lurks on the horizon. It’s here, unfolding at a breakneck pace. And it appears with an American face: increasingly undemocratic rule, galvanized at the ballot box, governing through strongman tactics, bolstered not just by extralegal force but through legal mechanisms, backed by stubborn popular support. People have been fighting back. One study found the number of protests in the first 100 days of Trump’s second term well surpassed the heyday of the ’Resistance’ to Trump’s first. But disruption isn’t enough. The most effective strategy — deeply rooted in American history — is to build a broad front across class, sector and ideology to isolate and defeat authoritarian power. The contemporary protest movement is growing fast but has not yet achieved this necessary solidarity.” (01/19/25)
