Yes, It’s Fascism
Source: The Atlantic
by Jonathan Rauch
“Until recently, I thought it a term best avoided. But now, the resemblances are too many and too strong to deny.” (01/25/26)
Governing at gunpoint: ICE in Minneapolis
Source: Orange County Register
by Abigail R Hall & Patrick S Ward
“Minneapolis is reeling as masked, heavily armed ICE agents flood immigrant neighborhoods, pulling people from cars, entering homes, and clashing with protesters and observers. Businesses have shuttered, school districts have shifted online, and candlelight memorials mark civilians killed during federal operations. Now President Trump has threatened to invoke the Insurrection Act and deploy federal troops, framing the unrest as an ‘insurrection’ led by ‘professional agitators.’ The message is clear: escalating force is being cast as governance. But we have been here before.” (01/25/26)
The Shovel Next Time
Source: The Reframe
by AR Moxon
“Death squads will sure enough murder civilians; it’s what they were formed to do and trained to do, and death squads are what we very clearly have now, as ICE has summarily executed another U.S. civilian on the streets of Minneapolis. Powerful Republican Nazis like top presidential advisor Stephen Miller are already lying about this good man …. Alex Pretti was a nurse and a helper, a friend and a son, and many other things beside; he was a human being, and an irreplaceable and unique work of art, and now he is a corpse, because corpses are the only thing Nazis can create, and Republicans aren’t different from Nazis in that respect any more than they differ from Nazis in most other respects.” (01/25/26)
Yemen: Houthis Threaten New Red Sea Attack as US Aircraft Carrier Heads Toward Iran
Source: US News & World Report
“Yemen’s Iranian-backed Houthi rebels [sic] threatened new attacks on ships traveling through the Red Sea corridor, likely trying to back Iran as it worried Monday about an approaching U.S. aircraft carrier after President Donald Trump threatened military action over its crackdown on nationwide protests. … The Houthi threat come as the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln and other guided missile destroyers with it move toward the region. Trump has said the ships are being moved ‘just in case’ he decides to take action against Iran.” (01/25/26)
Radio Atlantic, 01/25/26
Source: The Atlantic
“After killing another American, federal officials again offer an explanation that appears to be directly contradicted by available evidence.” (01/25/26)
https://www.theatlantic.com/podcasts/2026/01/another-death-minneapolis/685747/
Fountainhead Forum, episode 411
Source: Fountainhead Forum
“Ezequiel Barbara on Javier Milei’s speech at Liberty International.” (01/25/26)
Trump’s Credit Card Rate Cap
Source: Foundation for Economic Education
by Louis Rouanet
“On January 9, President Donald Trump called for a 10% cap on credit card interest rates — a drop from the 2025 average of 19.7%. This reflects growing political support within the fringes of both the Republican and Democratic Parties for such anti-market policies. In February 2025, Senators Bernie Sanders and Josh Hawley also introduced legislation mirroring Trump’s proposal. Supporters of price controls like to blame ‘greedy’ corporations. Trump told reporters that credit card companies ‘really abused the public.’ Unfortunately, his proposal treats symptoms while ignoring the disease, and that will ultimately harm the very consumers it claims to protect.” (01/25/26)
The Religion Underneath Our Arguments
Source: The Dispatch
by Michael Reneau & Kevin Brown
“Disagreement is seldom about the presenting argument. Beneath our disputes lie animating commitments, values, and a mental map of the world. Arguments cannot be separated from belief, and belief, at its core, is a matter of faith. In recent years, stories of fractured discourse and division have dominated the headlines, but the problem of pluralism — people with different visions of the good life living among each other—has bedeviled the Western landscape for centuries.” (01/25/26)