New York Times reporter on the situation in Venezuela

Here's the entire news conference, held to celebrate a paid family leave act, in which Gov Walz comments on his decision not to seek re-election and tears into the President and the MN GOP. www.c-span.org/program/news...

Walz: "If they have emails showing that I have committed fraud, you should get those! Why aren't they putting them out there? Why aren't they turning them over to prosecutors? Right now they're hiding behind a veil of innuendo. They're protecting the biggest fraudster in the White House."

Walz: "Republicans want to tear this state down. Republicans want to tell you it's too dangerous to talk down the streets. Republicans want to tell you there's nothing good that comes out of Minneapolis/St Paul. Republicans want to tell you everybody with brown skin is stealing money ... "

Tim Walz: "None of the Republicans running for governor had the damn common decency to Melissa and Mark's children. They've asked them to stop doing what they're doing. You need to ask those people running for governor if they would ask the president to please stop attacking the Hortman children."

“The panda cub is developing healthily and growing very well. Its body weight has increased by 46% over the past 30 days, while its body length has increased by 95%," said Bongot Huaso Mulia, a veterinarian who monitors Rio’s progress.

The second Trump term is only a year old. In the next three, we face the danger of both an end to the democratic transfer of power and a global war. [Gift article] www.nytimes.com/2026/01/06/o...

The president is a criminal rapist who partied with a pedophile and incited a violent insurrection against our country and was rewarded by becoming re-elected.

WATCH: Pamela Hemphill, who rejected a pardon for her part in the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, apologizes to Capitol Police officers. “I am truly sorry from the bottom of my heart for being part of the mob that put you and so many officers in danger,” Hemphill said at a hearing Tuesday.

The pardons “erased what little justice there was,” said former Capitol Police Officer Winston Pingeon, who was part of the force’s Civil Disturbance Unit on Jan. 6. He left the force several months afterward. apnews.com/article/capi...

Starting momentarily

"The Founders did not want a world without treaties or in which our government would view treaties with contempt. The point of the U.S. was to move as much as possible beyond the world Stephen Miller relishes, a world simply 'governed by force, governed by power.'” open.substack.com/pub/thebulwa...

"The decision to use military force to topple a disfavored government will not stop with the United States. We can count on others to follow our example."

Live in 40 minutes.

Officer Harry Dunn: "People are trying to rewrite history and what happened, to tell us, and tell you all, that you didn't see what you saw and that we are lying about what we went through."

Harry Dunn: "Fuck you, Mitch McConnell…Fuck him. I despise that man with every fiber in my body. I hate him… Fuck Mitch McConnell."

.. no amount of whitewashing can erase the images of “stop the steal” rioters assaulting police officers with baseball bats, metal pipes, Confederate and Trump flagpoles, bear spray and other chemicals.

“NYT editorial board with a bracing Jan. 6 anniversary reminder of Trump's role in stoking the attack, the violence against police & the complicity of elected R's and conservative media in whitewashing history.” | NY Times 🎁 opinion piece www.nytimes.com/2025/12/31/o...

Gift link: www.theatlantic.com/magazine/202...

David Graham, a day later: “Remember what yesterday’s attempted coup at the U.S. Capitol was like. Very soon, someone might try to convince you that it was different. Maybe someone already has.” www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...

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Congress has ignored the federal law requiring hanging in the Capitol by 3/2023 the plaque promising never to forget the heroism of those who risked all to defend Congress’ members and the Constitution. This essay by the great Jamie Raskin makes good on that promise. www.nytimes.com/2026/01/06/o...

The colonial power present at the creation of Venezuela’s oil industry was Britain, not the U.S., and the U.S. companies that swept in later never owned land. Venezuela nationalized oil not once but twice, with Republicans in the White House both times. My latest. newrepublic.com/article/2049...

On the 5th Anniversary of the failed January 6th insurrection attempt, we’re reminded how fragile democracy can be. We must remember the darkness of that day so it’s never repeated. As history is rewritten by some, we choose to speak the truth of what happened.

Unlike Putin, Trump fails to realize that being an evil villain and global scourge requires *planning*. The utter lack of it really suggests Trump ordered the kidnapping of Maduro for purely surface reasons, such as for an EZ and cheap "win" comparable to Obama's assassination of Bin Laden, but...

The power of discourse, of shaping the dominant narrative, is such that a failed coup, poorly orchestrated by an old man in drag and badly implemented by middle-aged malcontents, still managed to succeed. January 6, 2021 is a stain now dried into the cloth of the American fabric.

How was this 5 years ago? Feels so much more recent, perhaps because the dust never fully settled since, and because this country is still fighting for control of the narrative of that day

cathartic, clear, on “coup”: “Why am I harping on about this? First, because it is important that we tell the truth, and second, because the words we use to describe things matter… The more this sort of stuff is allowed to go unchallenged, the more it becomes the settled version of events.”

Are we clear it’s not hers to give? I can’t give Trump my Ph.D. (granted I sense he might not want it).

We all know what day it is. As usual, @hcrichardson.bsky.social explains it better than anyone.

#NeverForget #January6

US oil giants Exxon Mobil, ConocoPhillips, Chevron didn't have conversations Trump claimed they had, four oil execs told Reuters. "Nobody in those three companies has had conversations with the White House about operating in Venezuela, pre-removal or post-removal to this point," one source said.

Spot the difference: Iraq vs. Venezuela

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Arizona Senator Mark Kelly (@captmarkkelly.bsky.social) and Jon Stewart dissect Pete Hegseth's "sedition" accusation against the retired Navy captain and how it speaks to the fragile egos of the Trump administration

More than 13,000 Venezuelans were deported by the Trump administration last year after their Temporary Protected Status was revoked. Advocates are now calling for those deportations to be halted. The administration has signaled that they intend to do no such thing. abc7chicago.com/post/advocat...

This literally could be a Goebbels speech.

The most shameful day in American history open.substack.com/pub/robertre...

Carl George, Professor Emeritus at the Biology Department of Union College, died in December at age 95, leaving his wife Christine, and legions of friends at Union College, and around the world.

BREAKING: The Trump administration is suspending $10 billion intended for child care and poor families in five blue states. www.axios.com/2026/01/05/t...

Senate Majority Leader John Thune says he's "comfortable" with being kept in the dark on Trump's illegal attack on Venezuela. It was a supreme act of treason for Republicans to gain control of Congress so they could render it meaningless.

Here's another consequence of the US attack on Venezuela to abduct Maduro: Lots of Venezuelan civilians lost their homes in the bombings and many are homeless. apnews.com/video/venezu...

Rep Adam Smith, highest ranking Dem on Armed Services Committee: The consultants keep telling me to talk about kitchen-table issues, but the rule of law is being utterly destroyed in America by Donald Trump.