Politico Playbook Audio Briefing, 01/15/26
Source: Politico
“Trump’s global gambits.” (01/15/26)
China’s Global Reach
Source: Foundation for Economic Education
by Jake Scott
“For China, the world’s second-largest economy, the past year’s economic fortunes have been characterized across three dimensions: declining domestic demand; increased tensions in the Pacific; and strategic repositioning in the Middle East. Each of these dimensions have combined to force China to re-evaluate its longstanding economic policies. The ways in which China has come under pressure from, and responded to, the tariff policies of President Trump has led to some diagnoses of China as being on the verge of collapse due to a headline of slowing growth. In reality, the industrial nature of the nation remains high …. However, as Damian Ma and Lizzi Lee explained for Foreign Affairs, China’s role as the workshop of the world is under question as it attempts to balance its economy and encourage domestic demand in the face of declines at home.” (01/14/26)
The ICE uproar is a conspiracy calculated to fool Americans
Source: New York Post
by Andrew Cherkasky & Katie Cherkasky
“The chaos erupting in Minneapolis isn’t an organic protest movement, and it certainly isn’t spontaneous. It’s coordinated. It’s calculated. And it’s deadly. Ordinary Americans are being played — manipulated into dangerous confrontations by politicians and rabble-rousing activists. The indoctrination has convinced them that federal immigration law is illegitimate, that US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents have no authority to operate, and that physically confronting federal officers is not only justified, but moral. It’s a weaponized form of Trump Derangement Syndrome — and federal prosecutors should call it what it is: criminal conspiracy.” [editor’s note: I’m shocked — shocked! — when two former employees of a murderous regime continue to support and curry favor with that murderous regime – TLK] (01/14/25)
https://nypost.com/2026/01/14/opinion/the-ice-uproar-is-a-conspiracy-calculated-to-fool-americans/
MN: Health care owner charged with yearslong Medicaid scam topping $3 million
Source: Fox News
“Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison on Wednesday charged a Minneapolis man with more than $3 million in Medicaid fraud tied to a state-licensed home health agency. Mohamed Abdirashid Omarxeyd was charged with eight counts of felony theft by false representation after prosecutors said he used his company, Guardian Home Health Services, to bill Minnesota’s Medicaid program for services that were never provided or were ineligible for reimbursement from 2020 through 2024. According to the criminal complaint, Guardian submitted fraudulent claims for personal care aide services, companion care, homemaking, respite care, individualized home support and other community support services. State officials have designated many of these services as ‘high-risk’ for fraud. Prosecutors allege Omarxeyd and his wife siphoned more than $2 million from the company’s accounts during the scheme.” (01/15/25)
Ailing astronaut returns to Earth early, splashing down near San Diego, in NASA’s first medical evacuation
Source: San Diego Union-Tribune
“An ailing astronaut returned to Earth with three others on Thursday, ending their space station mission more than a month early in NASA’s first medical evacuation. SpaceX guided the capsule to a middle-of-the-night splashdown in the Pacific near San Diego, less than 11 hours after the astronauts exited the International Space Station. … Officials have refused to identify the astronaut who developed the health problem last week or explain what happened, citing medical privacy. While the astronaut was stable in orbit, NASA wanted them back on Earth as soon as possible to receive proper care and diagnostic testing. The entry and splashdown required no special changes or accommodations, officials said, and the recovery ship had its usual allotment of medical experts on board.” (01/15/26)
Antiwar News with Dave DeCamp, 01/15/26
Source: Antiwar.com
“US Pulls Troops Out of Mideast Bases Amid Threats of Iran War, Senate Kills Venezuela Bill, and More.” (01/15/26)
System Update, episode 566
Source: System Update
“Bari Weiss and David Ellison’s CBS Spreads War Propaganda for Israel.” (01/14/26)
Trump Is Risking a Global Catastrophe
Source: The Atlantic
by Tom Nichols
“Donald Trump has a lot of odd fixations, both as a person and as a president. He tends to focus his tunnel vision on things he wants: the demolishing of the White House’s East Wing, the renaming of the Gulf of Mexico. Many of Trump’s quirks are harmless, if unpleasant. (He seems to hate dogs, for example, but no one is forcing him to adopt one.) Some of his ideas, however, are more destructive: His stubborn and ill-informed attachment to tariffs has brought about considerable disorder in the international economy and hurt many of the American industries they were supposed to protect. But a few of Trump’s obsessions are extraordinarily dangerous, and likely none more so than his determination to seize Greenland from Denmark, a country allied to the United States for more than two centuries.” (01/14/26)
Online speech is powerful. That’s why Iran is silencing it.
Source: Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression
by Sarah McLaughlin
“If the Islamic Republic of Iran has its way, the news you read and the social media you follow won’t show the truth of the shocking events happening right now within the country. A mass internet shutdown orchestrated by the government this month is threatening to silence expression from courageous Iranians, at least 12,000 of whom are now dead at the brutal hands of the state, who are fighting back against their oppressors.” (01/14/26)
https://www.thefire.org/news/online-speech-powerful-thats-why-iran-silencing-it
John Taylor’s Forgotten Warning about Judges Rewriting the Constitution.
Source: Tenth Amendment Center
by Michael Boldin
“‘It is … the natural enemy of our home-bred form of government, and ought to awaken the resistance of all legislative and judicial departments, and the detestation of every person not enriched by this ruinous commerce.’ That warning came from John Taylor of Caroline over two centuries ago. The subject: What we now call ‘legislating from the bench.’ He wrote an entire book smacking down Chief Justice John Marshall, who followed Alexander Hamilton’s playbook to twist the necessary and proper clause into a blank check to justify creating a national bank. Taylor saw exactly where this was heading. Judges rewriting the Constitution to create unlimited federal power.” (01/14/26)