System Update, 01/03/26
Source: System Update
“Trump Bombs Venezuela, Removes Maduro.” (01/03/26)
https://rumble.com/v73te0s-trump-bombs-venezuela-removes-maduro.html
A Real Test for New FDA Reforms
Source: Independent Institute
by Raymond J March
“National public health policy under the leadership of Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. made no shortage of headlines in 2025. As a short list, RFK made controversial statements about vaccines, vowed (but failed) to find the root cause of autism, initiated efforts to ban some food dyes, cut funding, cut employment, misused AI, and tried to eliminate medical scientists from publishing in select academic journals based on their funding. Less importantly, he also wears jeans when he works out. In contrast, the Food and Drug Administration, easily the most powerful sub-agency overseen by the HHS and RFK, has had a quiet 2025. It began the process of banning red dye #3 in food products, reassessed some safety standards for cosmetics, and implemented a rule now requiring complete safety disclosures in drug advertisements. Most of the FDA’s planned major reforms are still underway.” (01/02/26)
https://www.independent.org/article/2026/01/02/new-fda-reforms/
Asia giants find warmer ties may cool conflict
Source: Christian Science Monitor
by staff
“Relations between China and India – the world’s two most populous nations, which also rank among its top five economies – have been fraught and frosty for decades, starting with armed conflict in 1962 along their shared Himalayan border and, more recently, a serious clash in 2020. But going into this new year, there are encouraging signs of a gradual thaw between the two nuclear-armed Asian powers. Even this slight warming – which one Indian diplomat described to a news magazine as a “state of armed coexistence” along disputed border areas – helps temper potential military flash points. On the political and economic fronts, the prospects are somewhat brighter. The leaders of both countries have met in recent months; flights and tourist travel are slowly resuming. And officials are exploring avenues for economic diversification and integration – moves that could boost regional growth as well as strengthen Global South economies jolted by the unexpectedly steep U.S. trade tariffs of 2025.” (01/02/25)
Astronomers detect rare “free floating” exoplanet 10,000 light-years from Earth
Source: Space.com
“Rogue planets — worlds that drift through space alone without a star — largely remain a mystery to scientists. Now, astronomers have for the first time confirmed the existence of one of these starless worlds by pinpointing its distance and mass — a rogue planet roughly the size of Saturn nearly 10,000 light-years from Earth. Planets are typically found bound to one or more stars. However, in 2000, astronomers detected the first signs of a “rogue planet” — a free-floating world that orbited no star. Then, in 2024, researchers detected an object distorting the light from a distant star, simultaneously from both Earth and space using several ground-based observatories as well as the European Space Agency’s now-retired Gaia space telescope. These observations helped scientists estimate that the object was a newfound world found about 9,950 light-years from Earth in the direction of the Milky Way’s center, with a mass about 70 times larger than Earth. (Saturn, on the other hand, is about 95 Earth masses.)” (01/02/26)
Even Elon’s Techno-Utopia Won’t Make Money Meaningless
Source: The Daily Economy
by Peter C Earle
“Elon Musk recently put forth a bold vision: that within two decades, AI will automate virtually all productive activity, work will be optional, and money will lose meaning. Coming from Musk, such pronouncements carry gravitas. And noticeably, the expressed vision unsurprisingly dovetails neatly with Musk’s admittedly exciting entrepreneurial visions. Yet variants of those claims have circulated for years, usually without reference to economic theory, institutional constraints, or political risk. Rigorously examining those assertions is essential to decouple technological optimism from the practical realities that will shape the next two decades.” (01/02/26)
https://thedailyeconomy.org/article/even-elons-techno-utopia-wont-make-money-meaningless/
This Is a Blatant Illegal Act of War Against Venezuela by Trump
Source: Common Dreams
by Medea Benjamin & Michelle Ellner
“Overnight, the United States government bombed civilian and military sites across Venezuela and illegally kidnapped Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. These are blatant and illegal acts of war by the Trump Administration. This act of aggression is a continuation of US attempts to seize and plunder Venezuela’s natural resources and undermine Venezuela’s sovereignty as well as the sovereignty of other countries in Latin America. This war also does not reflect the will of the people. Nearly 70% of Americans oppose another war and reject the endless cycle of military interventions carried out in their name. … The U.S. now claims Maduro will face ‘criminal charges’ in a US court. This sham proceeding will be done under the auspices of ‘drug trafficking’ — but we know it has nothing to do with that, and everything to do with Trump’s policy of regime change.” (01/03/25)
https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/trump-venezuela-2674845101
Tesla sales fall to lowest point since 2022 after Elon Musk backlash
Source: Axios
“Tesla vehicle sales declined for a second consecutive year in 2025, hitting their lowest point since 2022. Tesla vehicle sales are critical to funding CEO Elon Musk’s AI ambitions, including humanoid robots and self-driving cars. The company on Friday reported a 8.6% drop in deliveries — a close approximation to sales — to 1.64 million for the year. The full-year drop came despite an unexpected boost to sales in the third quarter as consumers rushed to buy EVs to qualify for the federal tax cut before it expired at the end of September. Deliveries are now down 9.5% since their all-time high in 2023.” (01/02/26)
Why America’s Inequality Story Doesn’t Add Up
Source: Reason
“Taxes, benefits, and household data make America look more unequal than it is.” (01/02/26)
https://reason.com/2026/01/02/why-americas-inequality-story-doesnt-add-up/
Fortunately, Liberals Can More Easily Defeat the Resurging Totalitarian-Isms of Yore
Source: The UnPopulist
by Daniel M Rothschild
“Both extremes are recycling old ideologies, but liberalism has a far stronger hand to counter them before they cause the death and destruction of the last century.” (01/02/26)
https://www.theunpopulist.net/p/fortunately-liberals-can-more-easily
Where did capitalism really begin?
Source: Foundation for Economic Education
by Sven Beckert
“It is impossible to pinpoint an exact place or moment when capitalism began. Capitalism is a process, not a discrete historical event with a beginning and an end, and it did not drop fully formed into a particular location. Even today, no society is organised along fully capitalist lines, and some have argued that a fully capitalist world is a theoretical impossibility. Efforts to isolate one patch of soil as capitalism’s place of origin — Florence, Barbados, Amsterdam, Baghdad, the southern English countryside, or Manchester, for example — have all proved insufficient. That is because the capitalist revolution had always been a process that drew energy from myriad sources.” (01/02/26)