Source: The Dispatch
by Jonah Goldberg
“I went down an ugly rabbit hole the other day. In case you didn’t know, the Department of Labor is pursuing a … novel digital marketing campaign. It posts pictures of 1930s-style graphics of clean-cut young white men with captions like ‘Build Your Homeland’s Future!’ ‘Your Nation Needs You!’ and ‘American Workers First!’ Maybe because I recently rewatched The Man in the High Castle, I’m a bit over-primed to find them creepy. The department has been doing this for a while, and I’ve largely ignored the posts, intentionally. So much of what this administration does is a kind of trolling. They want people to complain so they can then say, ‘See! Our critics are anti-white!’ or ‘Look at what their TDS has caused them to get mad at now! These are inspired by Norman Rockwell!’ But then over the weekend Labor put out this doozy …” (01/14/26)
https://archive.is/JO1Kb
Source: Independent Institute
by staff
“On Tuesday, January 20, the Supreme Court will hear oral argument in Wolford v. Lopez, which concerns whether the Ninth Circuit erred in holding that Hawaii may prohibit the carrying of handguns by permit holders on private property open to the public unless the property owner affirmatively gives express permission. The Ninth Circuit upheld the ban under Bruen based on the existence of merely two purported historical analogues, a 1771 New Jersey law on poaching and an 1865 Louisiana Black Code law.” (01/14/26)
https://www.independent.org/article/2026/01/14/hawaii-sticks-to-its-black-code-precedent/
Source: The Price of Liberty
by Nathan Barton
“Most familiar with recent world history are aware of the role the Brown Shirts in the corrupting of the German Weimar Republic into the Dritte (Third) Reich. In similar ways, various ‘private’ groups and militias have been instrumental in overthrowing governments and in propping up other governments. At the same time, ‘non-governmental organizations’ (NGO) are viewed by government and media as organizations that support social, humanitarian, or environmental issues. And a very good thing. While most are ‘non-profit,’ even NGOs can be organized as a for-profit entity. Most are considered charities and enjoy 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status. Yet, they are (supposedly) organized independently from any government.” (01/14/26)
Source: SFGate
“Scientists have uncovered the mummified remains of cheetahs from caves in northern Saudi Arabia. The remains range from 130 years old to over 1,800 years old. Researchers excavated seven mummies along with the bones of 54 other cheetahs from a site near the city of Arar. Mummification prevents decay by preserving dead bodies. Egypt’s mummies are the most well-known, but the process can also happen naturally in places like glacier ice, desert sands and bog sludge. The new large cat mummies have cloudy eyes and shriveled limbs, resembling dried-out husks. ‘It’s something that I’ve never seen before,’ said Joan Madurell-Malapeira with the University of Florence in Italy, who was not involved with the discovery. Researchers aren’t sure how exactly these new cats got mummified, but the caves’ dry conditions and stable temperature could have played a role, according to the new study published Thursday in the journal Communications Earth and Environment.” (01/15/25)
https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/mummified-cheetahs-found-in-saudi-caves-shed-21296805.php
Source: Politico
“California Democrats will likely be able to use their gerrymandered congressional map in next year’s midterm elections after a panel of federal judges on Wednesday upheld it. In a 2-1 ruling, the panel rejected a request to block the map from the California Republican Party and Donald Trump’s Justice Department, which sued the state after voters in November approved new boundaries, drawn in a bid to create five additional blue seats. Judge Josephine Staton, a Barack Obama appointee, wrote the ruling, with Judge Kenneth Lee, a Trump appointee, dissenting. Joe Biden appointed Judge Wesley Hsu joined Staton in her ruling. … Democratic leaders initiated the redistricting effort and special election this summer after Trump urged Texas to carve out five new red districts. … It seemed likely the judges would uphold the state’s map after the Supreme Court allowed Texas’[s] new congressional map to stand in a ruling that invoked California.” (01/14/26)
https://www.politico.com/news/2026/01/14/federal-judges-california-congressional-map-00729765
Source: The Scott Horton Show
“Andy Worthington on Twenty Four Years of Guantanamo.” (01/14/26)
https://scotthorton.org/interviews/1-9-26-andy-worthington-on-twenty-four-years-of-guantanamo/
Source: The Bulwark
“Taking Greenland Would Trigger a NATO Crisis (w/ Mark Hertling).” (01/14/26)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1-6wDWfrJHI
Source: Responsible Statecraft
by Jack Hunter
“The president went from praising ‘the wars we never get into’ to seeing how many the US can get into, and prominent members of his base are eating it up.” (01/14/26)
https://responsiblestatecraft.org/maga-regime-change/
Source: The Bulwark
by Mark Hertling
“There is a difference between leverage and lunacy. To wit: asking the world’s most elite and secretive special operations force to brainstorm ways to ‘attack’ an island three times the size of Texas populated by roughly 56,000 people, most of whom already host and love American troops, is lunacy. Yet here we are. President Trump has reportedly tasked the U.S. military with providing ‘options’ regarding Greenland — specifically requesting that the Joint Special Operations Command develop potential military scenarios. The implication — left vague but unmistakable — is that where diplomacy, money, and basic common sense have failed, force might somehow accomplish Trump’s longstanding fixation on acquiring the world’s largest island from Denmark, a NATO ally. If true, Trump’s request doesn’t merely reflect a misunderstanding of geopolitics.” (01/14/26)
https://www.thebulwark.com/p/the-best-military-option-for-greenland-trump-nato-special-forces
Source: The American Prospect
by David Dayen
“My theory is this: Sometime over the holidays, someone got to Donald Trump and told him he would lose the midterm elections badly if he did not offer something to the public to deal with affordability concerns. The traditional policy playbook for such things on the conservative side would either do nothing or make things actively worse. So this search for an affordability agenda has led Trump into the waiting arms of progressive populism, sort of. The result has been … strange. Over the past couple of weeks, Trump has called for banning corporate investors from purchasing homes. He has directed Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to buy $200 billion in mortgage-backed securities to lower mortgage interest rates. He has insisted on a one-year cap on credit card interest rates to 10 percent, and endorsed a bipartisan bill to inject competition into credit card markets to reduce excessive swipe fees merchants pay.” (01/15/25)
https://prospect.org/2026/01/15/trump-affordability-gop-policy-interest-rates-credit-cards/
