Source: Students For Liberty
by Riccardo Rossi
“The tension that exists is between two classics: Adam Smith’s extent of the market, where specialization and exchange reinforce each other, because ‘the division of labor is limited by the extent of the market,’ and Alexis de Tocqueville’s art of association, where civic life survives because people learn to act together. Smith’s division of labor delivers prosperity through specialization; Tocqueville’s civic associations safeguard liberty through engagement. Yet they can pull in opposite directions: specialization isolates, and isolation weakens democracy. This is not abstract: it decides whether the West stays free or slides into a new despotism.” (01/12/26)
https://studentsforliberty.org/blog/can-a-society-be-both-efficient-and-free-can-we-have-both-or-must-we-choose-and-what-is-at-stake-if-we-cannot/
Source: The Dispatch
“Patriots and Loyalists | Interview: Ken Burns.” (01/12/26)
https://thedispatch.com/podcast/remnant/patriots-and-loyalists-interview-ken-burns/
Source: Big Head Press
by Scott Bieser
Cartoon. (01/12/26)
https://www.quantumvibe.com/strip?page=2569
Source: Popular Information
by Judd Legum
“On January 7, Renee Good, a 37-year-old mother and U.S. citizen, was fatally shot by ICE agent Jonathan Ross in Minneapolis. After her death, Good was subjected to a vicious smear campaign by the President, the Vice President, administration officials, and their allies. The baseless attacks against Good are a coordinated, brazen and callous government propaganda effort. The goal is to convince Americans to believe an official narrative over objective evidence — including video of the incident. It is an ongoing campaign to legitimize the homicide of an American based on misinformation.” (01/12/26)
https://popular.info/p/kill-smear-cover-up
Source: New York Post
“President Trump declared Monday that the US would be ‘screwed’ if the Supreme Court rules against his reciprocal [sic] tariff policies — arguing the feds would have to ‘pay back’ billions in revenue collected over the past year. ‘[I]f the Supreme Court rules against the United States of America on this National Security bonanza, WE’RE SCREWED!’ Trump wrote on Truth Social. … The Supreme Court is poised to rule as early as Wednesday on whether Trump could use emergency powers to impose sweeping tariffs announced last April, including a 10% baseline for [American buyers of goods from] most countries and higher rates that took effect in August for [American buyers of goods from] nations with which the US has a trade deficit.” [editor’s note: Don’t steal money in ways that even government rules don’t allow; then you don’t have to pay it back. “Problem” solved – TLK] (01/12/26)
https://nypost.com/2026/01/12/us-news/trump-warns-were-screwed-if-supreme-court-rules-against-emergency-tariffs/
Source: Washington Monthly
by Jonathan Alter
“o one can predict how the murder of Renee Good will change this country. But there’s an encouraging history of change the aftermath of certain violent and tragic events, and a poor track record for governments that shoot their own people in the streets. Even when this story is pushed out of the headlines by some new outrage, we may look back on it as the moment when Donald Trump lost his grip. Of course, the ICE story will likely get worse before it gets better. … why am I hopeful that after tensions escalate for a time, we’ll get some accountability—if not for Good’s murder, then for Trump’s efforts to establish an American police state?” (01/12/26)
https://washingtonmonthly.com/2026/01/12/how-the-murder-of-good-changes-the-stakes-for-good/
Source: Common Dreams
by Klaus Moegling
“The beginning of 2026 falls into a period of increasing global social destruction. Multilateral institutions such as the United Nations and the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe OSCE are being systematically destroyed. Countries such as the US and Russia are withdrawing from these institutions or attempting to obstruct them through blocking behavior. US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin are political leaders who are dismantling or destroying the remnants of democracy in their countries, increasing repressive pressure on their populations, and acting aggressively toward the outside world. They find international law rather annoying, ignore it, and develop a right-wing and authoritarian nationalism, within the framework of which the ruling circles in the US and Russia enrich themselves excessively and disregard everything that previous values in terms of decency and justice demand.” (01/12/25)
https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/2026-war-authoritarianism
Source: US News & World Report
“Former British finance minister Nadhim Zahawi defected to Nigel Farage’s right-wing Reform UK party from the Conservative Party on Monday, saying the country was broken and needed Farage as prime minister to fix it. Zahawi, who had a short spell in charge of the nation’s finances under former prime minister Boris Johnson in 2022, becomes the latest in a long line of former Conservatives to switch to Farage’s populist Reform UK. Reform is currently leading the polls in Britain, far ahead of Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s Labour Party, which has struggled to translate its landslide 2024 election win into popular change, against a backdrop of constrained finances and global instability. … Farage’s party has five of 650 seats in parliament, but Reform’s surging popularity has come from tapping into public frustration over issues like immigration, crime and a perceived fall in the standard of public services.” (01/12/26)
https://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2026-01-12/former-uk-government-minister-zahawi-defects-to-reform-from-conservatives
Source: EconTalk
“The Mattering Instinct (with Rebecca Newberger Goldstein).” (01/12/26)
https://www.econtalk.org/the-mattering-instinct-with-rebecca-newberger-goldstein/
Source: Bitcoin.com
by Sergio Goschenko
“The issue of bitcoin’s lack of privacy has been raised as a key concern that may affect its adoption as a central bank digital currency by state nations. In the latest episode of the ‘All-In Podcast,’ venture capitalist Chamath Palihapitiya presented his contrarian take for 2026, stating that central banks will realize both gold and bitcoin have limitations, and will seek out a ‘completely new cryptographic paradigm.’ This new paradigm will be controlled by the central bank’s balance sheet and will be ‘fungible, tradable, and completely secure and private.'” [editor’s note: The LAST thing central banks want is secure/private currency. That would limit the ability of the regimes linked to the central banks to steal it from us and monitor our use of it – TLK] (01/12/26)
https://news.bitcoin.com/is-bitcoin-too-public-to-become-central%E2%80%91bank-money/
