Source: spiked
by Brendan O’Neill
“So regime change is back? Having for years mocked the wasteful, lethal Clinton-Bush-Obama crusades against states they hated, now President Trump has carried out a regime decapitation of his own. Having installed as his director of national intelligence one of the most stinging critics of regime-change wars – Tulsi Gabbard – now Trump launches not quite a regime-change war but certainly a regime-change strike. Having said MAGA would end these ruinous excursions and prioritise the needs of the American working class, now Trump goes south and does what so many administrations before his did: topples a Latin American dictator.” (01/03/25)
https://www.spiked-online.com/2026/01/03/trumps-gunboat-diplomacy-is-a-betrayal-of-populism/
Source: Newser
“The national debt is moving into unseen territory, with annual interest owed shattering the $1 trillion mark. That’s nearly triple the charge run up just six years ago—$345 billion in 2020—according to estimates from the nonpartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, Quartz reports. The federal government now owes about $38.4 trillion to its lenders, though economists aren’t sounding the alarm just yet about a default or a rapid loss of confidence.” (01/03/26)
https://www.newser.com/story/381354/interest-on-debt-crosses-1t-with-no-signs-of-slowing.html
Source: CounterPunch
by Jeffrey Sommers
“President Trump signaled the Monroe Doctrine’s return from the start of his second term. A volatile mix of geopolitical, hemispheric and local politics was in play. The world’s largest reserves of ‘Texas Tea’ turned the wandering Eye of Sauron in Washington on the birthplace of the Bolivarian Revolution. The Trump Administration intends to juice US and global economic growth by reducing energy costs, as we saw in the 1980s and 1990s when oil prices dropped. Fossil fuels are the Trump Administration’s preferred choice of dirty energy to fuel the AI boom, which the US intends to lead. Oil-laden tankers departing from Venezuela en route to China are not part of the program. Meanwhile, the Trump Administration treats the American public like turnip truck rubes.” (01/03/26)
https://www.counterpunch.org/2026/01/03/monroe-doctrine-the-bad-neighbor-returns-2/
Source: CBS News
“At least 30 villagers have been killed while several others were abducted by gunmen who raided a village in northern Nigeria’s Niger state, police said Sunday, the latest in a cycle of deadly violence in the conflict-hit region. The gunmen stormed the Kasuwan-Daji village in Niger state’s Borgu local government area on Saturday evening and opened fire on residents. They also razed down the local market and several houses, Niger state police spokesman Wasiu Abiodun said in a statement. At least two residents put the death toll at 37 and said it could be much higher, as some people remained missing as of Sunday.” (01/04/26)
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/gunmen-raid-kasuwan-daji-village-northern-nigeria/
Source: Karl Dickey’s Freedom Vanguard
by Karl Dickey
“We’ve seen this movie before, and it usually ends with a ‘To Be Continued’ screen that no one actually wants to watch. This isn’t a victory for freedom; it’s a dangerous expansion of the ‘World Policeman’ doctrine that has consistently failed us for decades.” (01/04/26)
https://palmbeachexaminer.substack.com/p/maduro-in-us-custody-why-regime-change
Source: The Hill
“President Trump signed an executive order Friday blocking a semiconductor deal between HieFo Corp. and Emcore Corp., citing national security concerns related to China. ‘There is credible evidence that leads me to believe that HieFo Corporation, a company organized under the laws of Delaware (HieFo) and controlled by a citizen of the People’s Republic of China … might take action that threatens to impair the national security of the United States,’ Trump said in the order. HieFo is based in Delaware, while Emcore is based in New Jersey. Genzao Zhang is HieFo’s CEO and co-founder. Trump’s executive order blocks HieFo from acquiring ‘the assets comprising the digital chips and related wafer design, fabrication, and processing businesses of EMCORE.'” (01/02/26)
https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/5670409-hiefo-emcore-china-national-security/
Source: The Volokh Conspiracy
by Ilya Somin
“Maduro is a brutal dictator who is getting what he deserves. But Trump’s actions are still illegal, because lacking proper congressional authorization. Whether they result in a beneficial regime change in Venezuela remains to be seen.” (01/03/26)
https://reason.com/volokh/2026/01/03/thoughts-on-the-capture-of-maduro-and-trumps-attack-on-venezuela/
Source: Persuasion
by Quico Toro
“Venezuelans today are waking up to an unrecognizable country. Like every dictatorship, Maduro’s had invested heavily in the myth of its own invincibility. And yet the regime is very much still in place, albeit in a weird, decapitated state. State TV is still running regime propaganda, Vice President (soon, one surmises, to shed the ‘vice’) Delcy Rodríguez is still fulminating on behalf of the Venezuelan government, the hardline interior minister Diosdado Cabello is still giving fire-breathing speeches condemning American aggression, Maduro’s notoriously repressive attorney general, Tarek William Saab, is still out mining the night’s events for propaganda points. The entire ghastly apparatus of state repression that Hugo Chávez built and Nicolás Maduro perfected appears, for now, to be fully in control of the country. Maduro is gone. It’s tempting to think that, without him, the regime will implode. But Maduro’s was never the kind of personalist system that depends on a single leader.” (01/03/26)
https://www.persuasion.community/p/maduro-is-gonevenezuelas-dictatorship
Source: Unattended Baggage
“There’s oil in them there drug countries!” (01/03/26)
https://unattendedbaggage.substack.com/p/episode-323-theres-oil-in-them-there
Source: Reason
by Jack Nicastro
“Talk is cheap — but Polymarket lets you put your money where your mouth is. Nearly four years after being shut down by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), the online betting company that allows you to stake money on future events has become CFTC-compliant and relaunched for U.S. residents at the end of 2025. Not everybody is thrilled about Polymarket’s return. Commentators across the political spectrum have warned that betting, on sports or on anything, can cause financial and psychological harm, especially for those with a history of addiction. It’s prudent to abstain from speculating with money you can’t afford to lose, but Americans should still welcome Polymarket’s comeback.” (for publication 0/26)
https://reason.com/2026/01/04/the-return-of-polymarket/
