Source: Reason
by Joe Lancaster

“Betty Boop is one of the most iconic cartoons of the 20th century. A pinup drawn to look like a 1920s flapper, the character debuted nearly a century ago and quickly became a household name: In 1932, just two years after her debut, one newspaper article dubbed Betty Boop ‘without question … the most popular film personage on the screen today.’ Today, the character enters the public domain, meaning it’s free for anyone to use — but perhaps only as a dog. The bizarre saga illustrates what’s wrong with modern copyright law.” (01/01/26)

https://reason.com/2026/01/01/betty-boop-enters-the-public-domain-but-only-as-a-dog/

Source: CounterPunch
by Andriy Movchan

“‘Russia’s defensive war against NATO expansion’ — a concept that has become almost axiomatic for many Western leftists. This concept conveniently serves both to rationalize Russia’s actions and to radicalize criticism of their own governments. But what role does Putin himself assign to the supposed NATO threat? A close reading of his key speeches reveals that Putin explicitly denies any danger of a NATO attack on Russia. Instead, all the ruler’s attention and passion are focused elsewhere — on the question of primordial ‘historical justice.’ Putin dusts off millennia-old chronicles, finding in them proof of his reactionary utopia, his imagined historical right to possess Ukraine. Let’s talk about the most underestimated cause of this war — ideological obsession. The Russian idée fixe.” (01/01/26)

https://www.counterpunch.org/2026/01/01/the-russian-idee-fixe/

Source: Orange County Register
by Veronique de Rugy

“There is something emotionally satisfying about watching a wealthy person call for higher taxes on people like himself. It feels civic-minded, even noble. A recent commentary by former Utah senator, Massachusetts governor and Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney fits squarely into this tradition. Faced with a looming fiscal cliff, Romney concludes that entitlement reform is unavoidable and that higher taxes on affluent Americans must be part of the solution. Don’t be fooled, though. Yes, the status quo is unsustainable, and pretending otherwise is reckless. But taxing the rich can’t meaningfully solve our underlying fiscal problems. Worse, pursuing that illusion risks making those problems harder to fix while foreclosing opportunities for the next generation.” (01/01/26)

https://archive.is/FPByK

Source: Independent Institute
by Ivan Eland

“Gradually reducing American aid to Ukraine and transferring the war funding to wealthy Europeans would have been a defensible policy. The Europeans, being geographically closer to both Russia and Ukraine, have always had much more at stake in terms of security in the conflict than has the United States. … Yet Trump went beyond that distancing policy, seemingly aiming to weirdly appease Putin by concocting a twenty-point peace plan that was embarrassingly favorable to Russia and then trying to put the screws to Ukrainian leader Zelensky to sign on board. … Putin thinks he is winning the war and will likely reject any peace settlement at this time; Trump should not be blinded to this reality, give up his weird affinity for Putin, and quit bullying Zelensky to make a disadvantageous and unsustainable peace agreement.” (12/30/25)

https://www.independent.org/article/2025/12/30/the-united-states-should-butt-out-of-the-ukraine-russia-conflict/