The Bulwark Podcast, 01/23/26
Source: The Bulwark
“Trump Looks Unwell on the World Stage (w/ Mike Murphy).” (01/23/26)
Left’s teachable moment about perils of unlimited government
Source: Orange County Register
by Steven Greenhut
“In freer nations, the leader’s powers are strictly limited and the citizens’ rights are protected. Yet in America today, we are dependent on every whim, utterance and narcissistic rage post from our president, as he pursues policies that could disrupt our lives. In that way, we’re more like North Korea than our founders’ America. This has always been true to a degree, but since Donald Trump took office last year, Americans have been experiencing a severe form of political whiplash. Firmly in control of the nation’s massive federal apparatus, MAGA and its Republican lickspittles in Congress have thrived on chaos. … Both political sides assume they will always control the levers of power. But they forget this important axiom: Don’t ever support a new power that you wouldn’t want in the hands of your worst enemy.” (01/23/26)
Microsoft releases second emergency Windows 11 update to fix Outlook crashes
Source: Engadget
“Microsoft issued another out-of-band update to fix a bug that caused Outlook to crash for Windows 11 users. This second emergency patch addresses issues seen with Outlook and files stored in the cloud following Microsoft’s January 2026 Windows security update. According to Microsoft, this update fixes a bug where some apps that ‘open or save files stored in cloud-backed locations’ became unresponsive or displayed error messages. Some users also experienced Outlook crashing or not opening when PST files are stored in cloud-based options like OneDrive.” (01/25/26)
The Big Winner: China
Source: The American Prospect
by Robert Kuttner
“Trump’s bizarre threats to take Greenland by military force, now rescinded, added one more signal to America’s usual allies that the U.S. could no longer be trusted. One ironic result is closer economic relations between the rest of the world and China. This is far more consequential than whatever deterrent effect on China that might be achieved by more U.S. bases in Greenland. Europe, especially Germany, was already moving in the direction of closer economic ties with China. In the wake of the Greenland debacle, there will be more trade deals and more investment, both by Europe in China and by China in Europe, increasing Europe’s dependence on Beijing.” (01/23/25)
https://prospect.org/2026/01/23/big-winner-china-trump-carney-greenland/
DC: Norton ends reelection campaign
Source: Axios
“Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.) is terminating her reelection campaign after months of speculation that she would retire from Congress rather than seek reelection, according to a new campaign filing. The 88-year-old non-voting delegate has been subject to an intense pressure campaign from both colleagues in Congress and allies in Washington, D.C., to step down. She has repeatedly maintained over the last year that she is running for reelection despite her age and concerns about her cognitive state, with her office initially walking those statements back. … Norton’s principal campaign committee, Citizens for Eleanor Holmes Norton, filed a termination report with the Federal Election Commission on Sunday.” (01/25/26)
Impermissible Punishments: How Prison Became A Problem For Democracy (with Judith Resnik)
Source: Brennan Center for Justice
“Listen as legal scholar Judith Resnik, Arthur Liman Professor of Law at Yale Law School, explores the history of punishment within prisons and how governments contend with punishments they impose.” (01/23/26)
Labour is revving up its war on drivers
Source: spiked
by Austin Williams
“Nudging people out of driving has become a guiding principle of the modern Labour Party. It views cars as nothing but a menace to society – a threat to pedestrians and cyclists, and bad for the environment. Keir Starmer’s recently announced ‘Road Safety Strategy’ – a raft of measures designed to make life even more difficult for drivers – seemed, if anything, long overdue. As I found out recently, motoring is a slow, expensive business anywhere where Labour has been in power for a long time. Over the Christmas holidays, I drove from north to south Wales and back. Laden with presents, I assumed it would be cheaper and easier than taking the train. The incompetence of Transport for Wales, which has a regular supply of excuses for cancellations, initially reinforced this decision. It turned out, however, that the freedom of the open road wasn’t what it once was.” (01/23/26)
Why Trump Should Accept Putin’s New START Offer
Source: Foreign Policy
by Ariel Petrovics
“The United States is approaching a decisive moment in its management of nuclear risk. New START — the last remaining arms control agreement between the United States and Russia — is scheduled to expire on Feb. 5. Signed in 2010, New START has helped limit nuclear competition between the world’s largest arsenals by capping warheads and delivery systems and enabling inspections and data exchanges. Although Russia suspended inspections and halted treaty-mandated data exchanges in 2023, protesting U.S. and NATO support for Ukraine, it promised to maintain treaty limits and has since offered to extend those limits by one year if the United States agrees to do the same.” (01/23/26)
Trump Sounds a Lot Like You-Know-Who
Source: The Bulwark
by Will Saletan
“Trump isn’t Hitler, of course, and any attempt to compare Hitler with a current political figure can seem laughable or outrageous. Trump is an incipient fascist; Hitler was a full-fledged totalitarian dictator. Trump likes to sue, indict, and humiliate people; Hitler orchestrated history’s worst mass murder. So let’s stipulate up front that in any analogy to Nazism, the differences dwarf the similarities. But with all that being said: It’s disconcerting how much Trump’s speech resembles Hitler’s.” (01/23/26)
https://www.thebulwark.com/p/trump-davos-speech-greenland-echoes-1938
Trump Says US Used Secret Weapon to Disable Venezuelan Equipment in Maduro Raid
Source: US News & World Report
“President Donald Trump said the U.S. used a secret weapon he called ‘The Discombobulator’ to disable Venezuelan equipment when the U.S. captured Nicolás Maduro. Trump also renewed his threat to conduct military strikes on land against drug cartels, including in Mexico. Trump made the comments in an interview Friday with the New York Post. The Republican president was commenting on reports that the U.S. had a pulsed energy weapon and said, ‘The Discombobulator. I’m not allowed to talk about it.’ He said the weapon made Venezuelan equipment ‘not work.'” (01/25/26)