Source: Libertarian Institute
by Jim Bovard
“‘There is no censorship here in Germany,’ according to Steffen Meyer, a top spokesman for the German government. In reality, Germans have freedom of speech except for ideas that politicians and government contractors and nonprofit activists don’t like. Germany is providing a road map for freedom can be squashed throughout the western world. Germany was the scene of some of the twentieth century’s worst tyranny but today’s German leaders have only noble intentions for oppression.” (01/13/26)
https://libertarianinstitute.org/articles/germanys-latest-war-on-freedom
Source: CoinDesk
“Crypto markets ripped higher on Wednesday as easing U.S. inflation and renewed political uncertainty around the Federal Reserve reignited demand for scarce, non-sovereign assets. Bitcoin jumped more than 4% over the past 24 hours, breaking above $95,000 for the first time in a week and pushing toward the upper end of its January range. Ether outperformed, climbing over 7% to around $3,330, while major tokens, such as Solana’s SOL, Cardano’s ADA, and BNB Chain’s BNB, moved as much as 9% higher.” (01/14/26)
https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2026/01/14/bitcoin-surges-above-usd95-000-eth-sol-ada-up-8-as-risk-appetite-snaps-back
Source: Garrison Center
by Thomas L Knapp
“As my kids might say (if they bothered themselves with such issues rather than just plugging their bazillion game consoles into the wall and ignoring such things while raising my electric bill) ;grids are SOOOOOO 20th century.’ The idea of running power lines all over God’s green acre made a certain amount of sense in the 1930s. It makes no sense at all now. … The only real beneficiaries of continued reliance on centralized generation and large-scale ‘grids’ are the utilities which operate those power plants and those grids. They’re holding us back from what could be an era of cheap, clean, reliable energy.” (01/13/26)
https://thegarrisoncenter.org/archives/20267
Source: Variety
“Scott Adams, creator of the ‘Dilbert’ comic strip, who became controversial for his right-wing statements, has died following a battle with metastatic prostate cancer. He was 68. … Born in Windham, New York in 1957, Adams started drawing comics at age 6, citing the ‘Peanuts’ comics as an early inspiration. … By 1994, ‘Dilbert’ was syndicated in more than 400 newspapers, and in 1995, Adams left Pacific Bell to become a full-time cartoonist.” (01/13/26)
https://variety.com/2026/artisans/people-news/scott-adams-dead-dilbert-creator-1236630162/
Source: Eunomia
by Daniel Larison
“Every time that the U.S. threatens or bombs the non-nuclear weapons state Iran, it vindicates North Korea’s decision to build its own deterrent. If there are any other would-be proliferators contemplating their next steps, they would have strong incentives to imitate North Korea and avoid making the same mistakes as Iran. That is one enduring legacy of our government’s incredibly awful Iran policy. The other is that our government’s policy has given the Iranian government every reason to acquire nuclear weapons despite its many formal commitments to reject that option.” (01/13/26)
https://daniellarison.substack.com/p/the-consequences-of-another-us-attack
Source: Caitlin Johnstone
by Caitlin Johnstone
“The regime change supporter’s favorite trick is to pretend the people in the targeted country are an ideological monolith. All Iranians hate their government, all Venezuelans wanted freedom from Maduro, etc. They do this constantly. Thing is, it requires them to dehumanize the very population they’re claiming to care about. They need to pretend the people in the empire-targeted nation are these weird creatures with some kind of Pluribus-style alien brain virus that makes them all think the same as each other, unlike any other human population they themselves have ever encountered. You have never been to a country where everyone has the same attitude toward their government. Neither have I. That would be freakish and abnormal. That’s not how humans are.” (01/13/25)
https://caitlinjohnstone.com.au/2026/01/13/were-always-told-that-everyone-in-the-empire-targeted-nation-hates-their-government/
Source: CNN
“The nation’s highest court heard more than three hours of arguments in two cases regarding state bans on transgender students playing on sports teams that are consistent with their gender identity. Chief Justice John Roberts has signaled his skepticism for what he called transgender ‘exception’ for sex-based laws. He also said he the blockbuster 2020 precedent that protects gay and transgender employees from discrimination doesn’t apply to the sports cases, signaling that he is prepared to undermine a central argument from LGBTQ advocates. Justice Brett Kavanaugh said that the court cannot look past what he characterized as the ‘harm’ that transgender-inclusive sports policies impose on cisgender women and girl’s sports teams.” (01/13/26)
https://www.cnn.com/politics/live-news/supreme-court-arguments-transgender-athletes-01-13-26
Source: Yascha Mounk
“Yascha Mounk and Rebecca Goldstein debate whether our desperate need for significance is a flaw we should overcome — or an essential part of human dignity.” (01/13/26)
https://writing.yaschamounk.com/p/rebecca-goldstein
Source: The Findings Substack
by Paul Rosenberg
“Once we see ourselves as part of a group, we callously judge outsiders and rally to the cause of foolish insiders. Have you not noticed this in yourself? Once we see ourselves as part of a political whatever, part of a social whatever … it begins tainting what we think and feel. Left to continue, it poisons us against other identities. I’m not talking about simple, cooperative groups, mind you: those we feel free to jump in and out of; there’s not much identification involved. In practice, identification produces a free-for-all, each identity battling the others for whatever can be fought over.” (01/13/26)
https://thefindings.substack.com/p/identification-is-error
Source: Wired
by Lily Hay Newman, Maddy Varner, & Matt Burgess
“If federal immigration agents are coming to your area — or have already arrived — you may be frantically making plans to lay low at home, or perhaps grabbing your whistle and lacing up your sneakers to join a neighborhood watch. It’s a terrifying situation for undocumented residents and all American immigrants, and the climate has even become fraught for US citizens too. There are no simple answers for how to protect yourself and others in every scenario, but there are frameworks you can use for weighing your options.” (01/13/26)
https://archive.is/UTGRT
