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The day's news roundup + tonight's musical feature: Rockin' Dopsie

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Hey! Good Evening!

This evening's music features Zydeco bandleader Rockin' Dopsie. Enjoy!

^{Rockin' Dopsie & The Zydeco Twisters - The Louisiana Two Step}

"The greatest braggarts are usually the biggest cowards."

-- Jean-Jacques Rousseau

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News and Opinion

Encouraging News: Lindsey Graham Looks HEARTBROKEN About Iran

You can always tell how murderous the US empire is being from day to day from the expression on warmongering senator Lindsey Graham’s face, and right now he looks like he just found his mother dead in the bathtub.

Earlier this month Graham looked positively giddy while posing with President Trump holding a Make Iran Great Again hat and gushing about how Cuba will be the next Latin American socialist government the US takes out after Venezuela, but in a Fox News clip the South Carolina senator shared on Twitter he looks and sounds like he spent all night crying and punishing his internal organs with intoxicants.

“President Trump’s resolve is not the question,” Graham glumly told reporters on Thursday regarding the possibility of an attack on Iran. “Question is, when we do an operation like this, should it be bigger or smaller? I’m in the camp of bigger. Time will tell. I’m hopeful and optimistic that the regime days are numbered.”

If you want to know what I think about recent developments in Iran, watch this clip: pic.twitter.com/T9lwN8RwEE

— Lindsey Graham (@LindseyGrahamSC) January 15, 2026

I personally place a lot more hope in Graham’s long face than I do in recent news reports that US airstrikes on Iran now appear unlikely, because the US and Israel have a track record of circulating disinformation about their intentions before attacking. In June Trump falsely announced on social media that he had hope for a diplomatic solution with Iran regarding its nuclear program hours before bombing Iranian nuclear sites, so reports that Israel and Arab states had successfully convinced Trump to hold off on attacking Iran should be considered untrustworthy.

But Lindsey Graham’s heartbroken whimper? I personally find that encouraging. Maybe war with Iran really has been put off for the time being. One less nightmare to have to worry about.

Sometimes I think it would be helpful to publish a daily Graham-o-Meter which shows Lindsey Graham’s face on a scale from dour to ecstatic to illustrate how evil the US empire is being on a given day. When the US launches airstrikes or orchestrates a regime change operation the Graham-o-Meter features a Delighted Lindsey, and when it looks like the empire has been forced to postpone a given power grab it shows a Depressed Lindsey.

People often say Lindsey Graham is gay, but I don’t think that’s true. I don’t know if there’s a word for an orientation where someone is only sexually attracted to mass military violence, but it’s not gay.

Here’s hoping we see a lot more Depressed Lindseys going forward.

Trump Hasn't Attacked Iran - Yet

US Surging Military Assets To the Middle East To Prepare for War With Iran After Trump Postpones Attack

The US military is planning to surge military assets to the Middle East to prepare for a potential war with Iran after President Trump backed down from bombing the country, according to a report from The New York Times.

US officials told the paper that the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln and some warships from its strike group were on their way to the Middle East from the South China Sea, a roughly week-long trip. The US is also planning to send an array of warplanes to the Middle East, including fighter jets and refueling aircraft, and additional air defenses.

According to other media reports, the US military’s message to Trump amid his threats to bomb Iran is that there weren’t enough US assets in the region to face a potential counterattack, which could target the many US bases in the region. Trump was also reportedly told that US strikes likely wouldn’t result in regime change and could lead to a prolonged war. ...

On the other hand, the leaks and delays could be meant to keep Iran off guard as the US and Israel engaged in a deception campaign before Israel launched the opening salvo of the 12-Day War.

Greenwald SCHOOLS Piers Morgan on Iran-Palestine "Hypocrisy" Charge

Gulf states and Turkey warned Trump strikes on Iran could lead to major conflict

Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Turkey and Oman urged Donald Trump not to launch airstrikes against Iran in a last-minute lobbying campaign prompted by fears that an attack by Washington would lead to a major and intractable conflict across the Middle East. The warnings of chaos from the longstanding US allies appear to have helped persuade Trump late on Wednesday to hold off for the moment on a military assault. In the case of Saudi Arabia, its reticence led it to deny the US use of its airspace to mount any attacks.

Continuing discussions, the Saudi Arabian foreign minister, Prince Faisal bin Farhan, conferred by phone with his counterparts from Iran, Oman and Turkey on Thursday. Iran remains politically apart from the Gulf states, partly owing to its continued support for its weakened network of regional proxies, known as the axis of resistance, and its refusal to back a two state-solution for Palestine as well as disputes over three islands in the Gulf claimed by the United Arab Emirates, a claim backed by the Gulf Cooperation Council.

But Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, has also undertaken a series of visits to Arab capitals that are said to have improved relations. Last year, for instance, he visited Bahrain, the first Iranian minister to do since 2010. He also visited Cairo four times last year in an effort to improve relations. The two sides had severed diplomatic relations in 2016. The Saudi-Iranian relationship, once the most fraught in the Middle East, has been on a recovery path for three years. Araghchi makes a point of being photographed sampling local cuisine in the Arab capitals he visits.

All the Gulf states are further aware of the disruption Iran could cause to maritime traffic in the Gulf. All the Gulf states are further aware of the disruption Iran could cause to maritime traffic in the Gulf. Araghchi has recently been trying to persuade the Gulf states than Iran is less of a risk to global stability than Israel, a case made more plausible after Israel bombed Doha last September with the intent to kill the Hamas negotiators that have lived in the Qatari capital for nearly a decade. ...

Many of the states deeply resent the interference of Iranian proxy forces in Lebanon, Iraq and Yemen. Yet by the same measure, few of them would welcome the example of an authoritarian regime being toppled by street protests riled by falling living standards, and leading to a new democratic transition, or even the fragmentation of a unified Iranian state.

NY takes action to end terror by Zionist group Betar, with Ali Abunimah

US appeals court reverses decision that freed Mahmoud Khalil from ICE detention

A federal appeals court on Thursday reversed a lower court decision that ordered the release of the former Columbia University graduate student Mahmoud Khalil from immigration detention, delivering the Trump administration a victory in its efforts to deport the pro-Palestinian activist. A 2-1 panel of the Philadelphia-based third US circuit court of appeals ordered the dismissal of a lawsuit Khalil filed challenging his detention after finding that federal immigration law stripped the lower court of jurisdiction over his claims.

Khalil’s legal battle has been unfolding in two different courts. While an immigration court was considering his potential removal from the US, his lawyers simultaneously challenged the legality of his detention in federal court, arguing that it violated his constitutional rights. Thursday’s decision finds that the district court judge who ordered his release lacked the proper authority to consider Khalil’s release petition, concluding that the judge did not have subject-matter jurisdiction over the case.

Circuit judges Thomas Hardiman and Stephanos Bibas, appointed by presidents George W Bush and Donald Trump, respectively, said in their opinion: “The scheme Congress enacted governing immigration proceedings provides Khalil a meaningful forum in which to raise his claims later on – in a petition for review of a final order of removal. That scheme ensures that petitioners get just one bite at the apple – not zero or two,” adding: “But it also means that some petitioners, like Khalil, will have to wait to seek relief for allegedly unlawful government conduct.”

Hardiman and Bibas said Khalil’s case regarding his petition for release should have been addressed by an immigration court. In her dissenting opinion, third circuit judge Arianna J Freeman said Khalil had alleged serious violations of his fundamental rights and had shown he suffered irreparable harm as a result of his detention. “The government does not challenge the finding that Khalil’s speech was being chilled. Nor could it, as it presented no contrary evidence in the District Court,” Freeman wrote in her dissent.

She added: “Despite the irreparable injury from Khalil’s past detention and forthcoming re-detention, the majority opinion says Khalil’s claims are not now-or-never. It reasons that Khalil can seek review of the legal and factual questions later. But that is not the relevant question. Instead, we must ask whether the alleged harms can be remedied later.”

INTEL Roundtable w/ Johnson & McGovern : Weekly Wrap 16-JAN

How a billionaire with interests in Greenland encouraged Trump to acquire the territory

One day during his first term, Donald Trump summoned a top aide to discuss a new idea. “Trump called me down to the Oval Office,” John Bolton, national security adviser in 2018, told the Guardian. “He said a prominent businessman had just suggested the US buy Greenland.” ... The businessman, Bolton learned, was Ronald Lauder. Heir to a makeup fortune – the global cosmetics brand Estée Lauder – he had known Trump, a fellow wealthy New Yorker, for more than 60 years.

Bolton said he discussed the Greenland proposition with Lauder. After the billionaire’s intervention, a White House team began to explore ways to increase US sway in the vast Arctic territory controlled by Denmark. Trump’s renewed pursuit of Lauder’s idea during his second term is typical of how the president operates, Bolton said. “Bits of information that he hears from friends, he takes them as truth and you can’t shake his opinion.”

The proposal seems to have stirred Trump’s imperialist ambitions: eight years on, he is mulling not just buying Greenland but perhaps taking it by force.

Like many of those around the president, Lauder’s policy suggestions appear to intersect with his business interests. As Trump has ratcheted up his threats to seize Greenland, Lauder has acquired commercial holdings there. Lauder is also part of the consortium whose desire to access Ukrainian minerals appears to have spurred Trump to demand a share of the war-torn country’s resources. ...

Lauder’s apparent involvement in shaping US policy adds to mounting questions about conflicts of interest during Trump’s second term and the apparent self-enrichment of those close to the president. Trump’s two elder sons, Don Jr and Eric, have been on a global moneymaking campaign from Vietnam to Gibraltar.

Greenland’s defence is ‘common concern’ for Nato, Danish PM says as European troops fly in

The Danish prime minister, Mette Frederiksen, has said Greenland’s defence is a “common concern” for the whole of Nato, as troops started arriving from across Europe as a result of Donald Trump’s threats to take the Arctic island by force. Troops from France, Germany, the UK, Norway and Sweden, among others, were on their way to Greenland, a largely autonomous territory of the kingdom of Denmark, on Thursday. Denmark also announced it would be increasing its military presence.

As well as providing a show of political support, the European troops were said to be on a short scoping mission, according to one country involved. The aim was to establish what a more sustained ground deployment in Greenland could look like, partly to reassure the US that European Nato members were serious about Arctic security.

Putin New Demand As Kiev Collapses: NATO Expansion Must Be Reversed; EU In Panic; Argues Over Envoy

US military seizes Venezuela oil tanker under Trump sanctions

The US military has seized another oil tanker at sea in support of Donald Trump’s sanctions against Venezuela, military officials announced on Thursday. Veronica, a crude oil tanker that marine records suggest is sailing under a Guyanese flag, was boarded in a pre-dawn action by US marines and sailors, the US Southern Command said in a post on social media.

The homeland security secretary, Kristi Noem, confirmed the action in a separate post, praising “heroic Coast Guard men and women [who] once again ensured a flawlessly executed operation, in accordance with international law”. She said the vessel was part of a “ghost fleet” of foreign-flagged tankers operating in defiance of the president’s “quarantine” of sanctioned vessels in the Caribbean.

It is the sixth known boarding and seizure by the US military of a foreign-flagged oil tanker in support of Trump’s clamping down on the Venezuelan oil industry since the capture of Maduro and his subsequent removal to the US earlier this month, an operation including air strikes on Caracas that Venezuelan officials say killed more than 100 military personnel and civilians.

Ex-UN Official EXPOSES Israel’s Secret Role in Venezuela

María Corina Machado says she presented Trump with her Nobel peace prize medal

The Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado has said she “presented” her gold Nobel peace prize medal to Donald Trump after meeting him in the White House, nearly a fortnight after he ordered the abduction of Venezuela’s president, Nicolás Maduro. Machado, who received the award last year for her struggle against Maduro’s “brutal, authoritarian state”, told reporters on Thursday she had done so “in recognition [of] his unique commitment [to] our freedom”.

Several hours later, Trump wrote on Truth Social that Machado “presented me with her Nobel peace prize for the work I have done. Such a wonderful gesture of mutual respect.” It is unclear if Trump retained the medal, and he did not post an image of it. Earlier in the day the Nobel organizers posted on “A medal can change owners, but the title of a Nobel peace prize laureate cannot.” ...

Opposition supporters hoped Trump would recognise the 58-year-old conservative politician as Venezuela’s new leader after Maduro’s downfall but instead he gave the nod to the dictator’s second-in-command, the vice-president Delcy Rodríguez, who was subsequently sworn in as acting president.

On Thursday, in an apparent attempt to win back Trump’s favour, Machado told reporters she had “presented” her Norwegian medal to the US president during a private meeting.

‘Absolutely no detail’: experts alarmed as Trump unveils healthcare plan

Donald Trump has finally unveiled his long-awaited framework for healthcare affordability, almost a year and a half after announcing during a pre-election presidential debate that he had the “concepts of a plan” for healthcare reform. The short document, titled the Great Healthcare Plan, provides four headline objectives, but few specific details as to how they will be achieved.

The Trump administration says it intends to lower prescription prices and healthcare premiums; hold big insurance companies accountable by requiring them to publish their claim costs, overheads and profits; and push insurers and medical providers to provide greater transparency over pricing. “Instead of putting the needs of big corporations and special interests first, our plan finally puts you first and puts more money in your pocket,” Trump said in a video released by the White House to accompany the plan’s publication.

The policy framework had been expected to be released in November, but was delayed by wrangling over certain elements of it, according to Politico.

The framework makes no mention of any further attempt by the administration to weaken or scrap the ACA, also known as Obamacare, which Trump has frequently railed against during his two terms of office. But it contains policy elements that lawmakers in Congress might oppose, including a call for billions of dollars in taxpayer subsidies to be sent to Americans’ personal health savings accounts, instead of directly to insurance companies, to allow them to buy health insurance of their choice; and requiring pharmaceutical companies to match or better “the same low prices for prescription drugs that people in other countries pay”.

Both elements of the Trump plan would require the approval of Congress before they could go into effect, an outcome far from guaranteed despite Republicans holding a majority in both chambers.

3 Children Hospitalized in Minneapolis After Family Van Hit With ICE Flash-Bangs

The father of three children who were hospitalized in Minneapolis on Wednesday night accused federal agents of launching flash-bang munitions and tear gas into their family van after they were caught up in protests against the Trump administration’s deadly immigration crackdown.

“Officers threw flash bangs and tear gas in my car. I got six kids in the car,” Shawn Jackson told KMSP. “My 6-month-old can’t even breathe.”

The explosions were strong enough to trigger the car’s airbags.

“They were innocent bystanders driving through what should have been a peaceful protest when things took a turn,” Destiny Jackson, the children’s mother, explained.

Destiny Jackson said that US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents “began to start throwing tear gas bombs everywhere.”

“We were trying so hard to get out the way but didn’t want to harm anybody with our car in the process,” Jackson added. “One of the bombs rolled under our truck, and within seconds our truck lifted up off the ground, and the airbags deployed, the car doors locked themselves, and the car began to fill with the powerful tear gas. We fought hard to get the doors open and get all of the kids out. Bystanders had to help.”

Shawn Jackson’s kids were taken by first responders to the hospital from the scene. He said he was trying to leave his relative’s house when a flash bang detonated his airbags and tear gas filled his car pic.twitter.com/clGdMl8sYu

— Max Nesterak (@maxnesterak) January 15, 2026

Shawn Jackson told KMSP while holding up his child’s car seat: “This was flipped over. My car filled with tear gas; I’m trying to pull my kids from the car.”

Destiny Jackson said she performed CPR on the infant after the baby stopped breathing and lost consciousness.

Three of the children—the 6-month-old infant and two others, ages 7 and 11 years—were taken by ambulance to a local hospital for treatment.

“My kids were innocent, I was innocent, my husband was innocent, this shouldn’t have happened,” Destiny Jackson told KMSP. “We were just trying to go home.”

Jackson said that neither she nor her husband have ever protested before—but now they feel they have good reason to do so.

“I’m mad as hell,” Shawn Jackson said during an interview with Sky News. “But now there’s gonna be hell on wheels. They’re definitely gonna have to pay for this.”

“This just shows how they don’t care,” Jackson said of the federal agents. “I was arguing with the officers to call the ambulance for five minutes... He knew there were [children] in the car; he didn’t even try and help.”

CBS News Posts DUBIOUS Claim About ICE Agent Injury in MN Shooting

Trump threatens to use Insurrection Act in Minnesota in response to ICE protests

Donald Trump has threatened to invoke the Insurrection Act in Minnesota in response to protests in Minneapolis against federal immigration enforcement operations, as Minnesota’s governor, Tim Walz, overnight urged demonstrators in Minneapolis to be peaceful amid escalating tensions.

In a post on Truth Social, Trump said he would use the Insurrection Act and “quickly put an end to the travesty that is taking place” if the “corrupt politicians of Minnesota don’t obey the law and stop the professional agitators and insurrectionists from attacking the Patriots of ICE”.

Later on Thursday morning, Walz put out a statement that said: “I am making a direct appeal to the president: let’s turn the temperature down. Stop this campaign of retribution. This is not who we are. And an appeal to Minnesotans: I know this is scary. We can – we must – speak out loudly, urgently but also peacefully. We cannot fan the flames of chaos. That’s what he wants.”

Trump’s warning that he might invoke the Insurrection Act came as, overnight, Walz urged people in Minneapolis to protest peacefully after it was reported on Wednesday evening that a federal officer had shot a man in the leg during an immigration enforcement operation on the north side of the city.

“State investigators have been on the scene in North Minneapolis,” Walz wrote on X overnight. “I know you’re angry. I’m angry. What Donald Trump wants is violence in the streets. But Minnesota will remain an island of decency, of justice, of community, and of peace. Don’t give him what he wants.”

ACLU sues Trump administration over ‘racial profiling and unlawful arrests’ in Minnesota ICE surge

The American Civil Liberties Union has filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration, accusing federal immigration authorities in Minnesota of racial profiling and unlawful arrests amid widespread Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids. In a 72-page lawsuit filed on Thursday on behalf of three community members who are all US citizens, the ACLU accused federal immigration agents of violating citizens’ constitutional rights, arguing that Somali and Latino communities in the state have been disproportionately targeted.

Naming the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and its secretary, Kristi Noem, as defendants, along with several other Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers, the lawsuit points to what it describes as a “startling pattern of abuse spearheaded by the Department of Homeland Security … that is fundamentally altering civic life in the Twin Cities and the state of Minnesota”.

“Masked federal agents in the thousands are violently stopping and arresting countless Minnesotans based on nothing more than their race and perceived ethnicity irrespective of their citizenship or immigration status, or their personal circumstances. At the center of DHS’s campaign are Somali and Latino people, who are being targeted for stops and arrests based on racial profiling motivated by prejudice,” the lawsuit said. It added: “DHS’s crude dragnet ensnares non-citizens, including individuals with immigration status, without warrants or any lawful basis for arrest. And its discriminatory practices also sweep in numerous US citizens in the process, shackling them and scanning their faces while ignoring documentation of US citizenship.”

According to the lawsuit, one of the plaintiffs, 20-year old Mubashir Khalif Hussen, was detained by masked ICE agents while walking to lunch in Minneapolis’ Cedar-Riverside neighborhood last December. Despite repeatedly stating “I’m a citizen,” Hussen said agents refused to check his ID, placed him in a headlock and took him to the Whipple federal building in south Minneapolis. There, Hussen was shackled, fingerprinted, and denied medical assistance and water before being released, the lawsuit alleged.

“At no time did any officer ask me whether I was a citizen or if I had any immigration status,” Hussen said in Thursday’s press release from the ACLU, adding: “They did not ask for any identifying information, nor did they ask about my ties to the community, how long I had lived in the Twin Cities, my family in Minnesota or anything else about my circumstances.”

Primary every Democrat who wants to fund and still support ICE. Hypocritical spineless amoral cowards and fascism-enablers. https://t.co/PsdJ1iYBUN

— Mehdi Hasan (@mehdirhasan) January 15, 2026

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Fearing Midterm Loss, Trump Once Again Says ‘We Shouldn’t Even Have an Election’

As armed federal agents roam the streets of American cities and amid threats to declare the Insurrection Act and use military force to quell protests in Minneapolis, President Donald Trump said once again that the next elections should be canceled because he expects his party to lose.

“It’s some deep psychological thing, but when you win the presidency, you don’t win the midterms,” Trump said in a closed-door interview published by Reuters on Thursday. He added that because he’s accomplished so much during his first term, “when you think of it, we shouldn’t even have an election.”

It’s at least the second time this month that Trump has floated the idea. He previously did so less directly during a speech commemorating the five-year anniversary of the January 6, 2021, Capitol insurrection, during which his supporters attempted to violently overturn his 2020 election loss to former President Joe Biden after he told them it was the result of fraud.

During that speech at the Kennedy Center, Trump described it as an outrage that Republicans even have to contest elections against Democrats later this year, suggesting canceling the election, but later backing off the idea.

“How do we even run against these people?” Trump said. “I won’t say cancel the election; they should cancel the election, because the fake news would say: ‘He wants the elections canceled. He’s a dictator.’ They always call me a dictator.”

In the same speech, he warned: “You gotta win the midterms. Because if we don’t win the midterms, they’ll find a reason to impeach me. I’ll get impeached.”

Trump: "They have the worst policy. How we have to even run against these people -- I won't say cancel the election, they should cancel the election, because the fake news with say, 'He wants the elections canceled. He's a dictator.' They always call me a dictator. Nobody is… pic.twitter.com/z2bhP3c5uM

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) January 6, 2026

Trump is correct that sitting presidents rarely see their parties do well in midterm elections two years after being elected. No sitting president has seen their party gain seats in both the House of Representatives and the Senate since 2002, when former President George W. Bush’s Republican Party was able to capitalize on fears of terrorism following the September 11 attacks just over a year before.

The president’s grip on a legislative trifecta is nearly as thin as it could possibly be, with Republicans holding just 218 seats to the Democrats’ 213.

Democrats were already favored to retake the House in November, and now appear even more likely to do so amid Trump’s consistent unpopularity. On Thursday, the nonpartisan Cook Political Report moved a total of 18 House races in the Democrats’ direction in its latest assessment of the odds to win the chamber.

NEW @CookPolitical House rating changes: 18 races move in Dems' direction, including four key races from Lean R to Toss Up. Full analysis by @ercovey: https://t.co/jFak44RZGG pic.twitter.com/jqyefPBynd

— Dave Wasserman (@Redistrict) January 15, 2026

However, Trump is wrong that elections can be “canceled,” at least legally. Under the Elections Clause in Article I, Section 4 of the US Constitution, the administration of elections is vested in the states, with Congress holding the power to “make or alter such regulations.” The president has no authority to determine the timing of federal elections.

The United States has never once postponed a presidential election in its nearly 250-year history: They were carried out on schedule during periods of extraordinary crisis, including the Civil War in 1864, the influenza epidemic in 1918 and 1920, and World War II in 1942 and 1944.

Elections were also carried out on schedule in 2020, though Trump, who was then the president running for a second consecutive term, also suggested that they should be delayed then due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

At the time, he claimed that the widespread use of mail-in ballots, necessitated by the illness, would make it “the most INACCURATE & FRAUDULENT Election in history” and asked if he should “delay the Election until people can properly, securely and safely vote???” But Trump never pursued the idea seriously, as it was shot down by top Republicans.

After losing the election, he wrote in 2022 that what he called “a Massive Fraud” allowed for the “termination of all rules, regulations, and articles, even those found in the Constitution” in order to address the 2020 result.

Trump has more recently suggested that a war could give him the ticket to cancel elections. While speaking with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in August of 2025, he spoke approvingly of the leader’s invocation of martial law and suspension of elections following Russia’s invasion three years prior.

REMINDER: In August, Trump floated going to war to cancel the election in 2028.

Karoline Leavitt can claim that Trump was just "joking" about canceling the election, but it's clear that this is a "joke" Trump makes frequently. pic.twitter.com/lxYHjGxorI

— American Bridge 21st Century (@American_Bridge) January 15, 2026

“So during war, you can’t have elections?” Trump said with a smile. “So let me just say, three and a half years from now— so you mean if we happen to be in a war with somebody, no more elections? Oh, that’s good.”

Since then, Trump has notably launched a war to take over Venezuela’s oil and threatened to launch several more, including with Greenland, Iran, and Mexico.

Asked on Thursday about why the president keeps talking about canceling elections, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters: “The president was simply joking. He was saying, ‘We’re doing such a great job, we’re doing everything the American people thought, maybe we should just keep rolling.’ But he was speaking facetiously.”

Ryan Broderick, the writer of the political newsletter Garbage Day, said that with his latest comments—and “the threats of invoking the Insurrection Act in Minnesota this morning—he is very clearly exploring how to cancel the midterms.”

Trump has in recent days suggested using the National Guard to seize voting machines, stating that he regretted not doing so as he attempted to overturn his loss in 2020. His handpicked election officials have previously urged him to declare a “national emergency” that they said would give the federal government unprecedented powers to override the states and write their own election rules.

On the question of canceling the midterms outright, Ken White, a criminal defense attorney and First Amendment litigator, agreed that Trump “wants to, it’s plausible he’ll try, and his people would support it,” but said “it’s vastly harder and more complicated than people are suggesting and can’t be done by his fiat.”

New York Times columnist Jamelle Bouie argued that even if Trump wanted to cancel the midterms, he would face many logistical hurdles in doing so.

“How does Trump force 50 separate state boards of election to cancel their midterms?” he asked on social media. “How does he convince Republican House members to quit their jobs and give up their paychecks?”

“[US Immigration and Customs Enforcement] can’t even deal with irate middle-aged Midwesterners. How does he occupy hundreds, if not thousands, of polling sites and precincts?” he continued. “Trump v. Illinois clarified that he has no legal authority to unilaterally commandeer national guards. How does he move forward from there?”

Minnesota lawyer Andrew Rothstein encouraged people to “take Trump at his word here... but know his word isn’t law.”

Even if this year’s elections go forward as planned, Trump is working to influence the results by bullying Republican state legislators to rig their congressional maps for the GOP and attempting to seize sensitive voter data.

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Pesticides may drastically shorten fish lifespans

The lifespan of fish appears to be drastically reduced by pesticides, a study has found. Even low levels of common agricultural pesticides can stunt the long-term lifespan of fish, according to research led by Jason Rohr, a biologist at the University of Notre Dame in Indiana. Signs of ageing accelerated when fish were exposed to the chemicals, according to the study, published in Science, which could have implications for other organisms.

Chemical safety regulations tend to focus on short-term exposure to high doses of pesticides and other chemicals, but the study focused on long-term exposure. Low doses of pesticides are widespread in the environment, so their effects should be studied and understood, the authors said.

Researcher Kai Huang, who also worked on the study, combined field observations of more than 20,000 lake skygazer fish from lakes in China with persistent low levels of the common pesticide chlorpyrifos. The research found that fish from pesticide-affected lakes showed shortened telomeres, the caps at the end of chromosomes that are known as the biological clock for ageing. When they shorten, it is a sign of cellular ageing and a decline in the body’s regenerative capacity.

The lake populations consisted of younger fish, indicating that the pesticides contributed to shortened lives. Laboratory experiments confirmed the findings and showed chronic low-dose exposure reduced fish survival and degraded telomeres. These effects were not seen with acute high-dose exposure.

“Given the conserved mechanisms of telomere biology across vertebrates, chronic low-dose exposure to these chemicals may pose similar ageing-related risks in humans, potentially contributing to age-associated diseases,” the researchers write. Rohr said: “When we examined telomere length and deposition of lipofuscin in the livers of the fish – well-established biological markers of ageing – we found that fish of the same chronological age were ageing faster in the contaminated than clean lakes.”

Judge allows offshore windfarm halted by Trump to resume construction

A federal judge on Thursday cleared the way for a New York offshore wind project to resume construction, a victory for the developer who said a Trump administration order to pause it would probably kill the project in a matter of days. District judge Carl J Nichols, an appointee of Donald Trump, ruled construction on the Empire Wind project could go forward while he considers the merits of the government’s order to suspend the project. He faulted the government for not responding to key points in Empire Wind’s court filings, including the contention that the administration violated proper procedure.

Norwegian company Equinor owns Empire Wind. Spokesperson David Schoetz said they welcomed the court’s decision and would continue to work in collaboration with authorities. It is the second developer to prevail in court against the administration this week. The Trump administration froze five big offshore wind projects on the east coast days before Christmas, citing national security concerns. Trump has targeted offshore wind from his first days back in the White House, most recently calling windfarms “losers” that lose money, destroy the landscape and kill birds.

Developers and states sued seeking to block the order. Large, ocean-based windfarms are the linchpin of plans to shift to renewable energy in east coast states that have limited land for onshore wind turbines or solar arrays. New York’s governor, Kathy Hochul, applauded the court decision, telling reporters the projects had been “stopped under the bogus pretense of national security”.

“When I heard this I said one thing: I’m the governor of New York, if there is a national security threat off the coast of New York, you need to tell me what it is. I want a briefing right now. Well, lo and behold, they had no answer,” she said.

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Also of Interest

Here are some articles of interest, some which defied fair-use abstraction.

Chopping Down Laws

Iran – Trump Chickened Out

Medical examiner believes death of man in ICE custody was homicide, recording says

Africa’s great elephant divide: countries struggle with too many elephants – or too few

A different approach to getting into hot water in Reykjavík, personally, I'd prefer the hot springs...

Anger in Iceland over incoming US ambassador’s ‘52nd state’ joke

Scott Ritter : FREE Speech & Me - I've been de-Banked!

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A Little Night Music

Rockin Dopsie - Dopsie's Cajun Stomp

Rockin' Dopsie & The Twisters - Rock Me Baby

Rockin' Dopsie - Joe Pitre

Rockin' Dopsie & The Twisters - Who's Lovin' You Tonight

Rockin Dopsie - Sweet Lucy

Rockin Dopsie - Im In The Mood

Rockin' Dopsie & The Zydeco Twisters - Keep A Knockin'

Rockin' Dopsie - High Heel Sneakers

Rocking Dopsie & the Cajun Twisters Grugahalle Essen 9-1980

Rockin' Dopsie Jr. live from the 2024 Louisiana Cajun-Zydeco Festival

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