But I thought AI was going to cure cancer

What do these companies have in common? -Cigna -Comcast -General Mills -Allstate -Marriott -Hilton -Walmart -Amazon -Microsoft -Meta All promised after January 6, 2021 to stop funding lawmakers who tried to overturn the 2020 election. And all have broken that promise.

They don't seem chastened.

Priorities: President Donald Trump said Republicans must win the 2026 midterm elections or else he will get impeached by Democrats. "You gotta win the midterms 'cause, if we don't win the midterms, it's just gonna be - I mean, they'll find a reason to impeach me," Trump said. "I'll get impeached."

Important thread

It’s January 6

Which is also one way to mark five years since Jan 6 or perhaps avoid doing so.

The House Republicans are having their retreat today at the Kennedy Center, which they are calling the Trump/Kennedy Center although he is trying to change the name without congressional approval.

The plaque isn’t even up.

Exclusive: US weighs special status for Greenland as quest for island intensifies - www.reuters.com/world/us-wei...

Was it a failed insurrection? Discuss.

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.

On Air Force One, a reporter noted that some had called it a kidnapping and Trump said that was a good term for it.

Walz: "We've got conspiracy theorists, right-wing YouTubers, breaking into our daycares, demanding access to our children. We've got the president demonizing our Somali neighbors and wrongfully confiscating funds that Minnesotans rely on. It's disgusting and it's dangerous."

Who’s booking the Venezuela Comedy Festival?

Tomorrow in Jan 6 - fencing up at the Capitol tonight.

Ghost intern alert. WASHINGTON, Jan 5 (Reuters) - The U.S. House Ethics Committee is reviewing allegations against Representative Mike Collins of Georgia, a Republican Senate candidate who is accused of paying more than $10,000 to an intern who was dating his chief of staff and performed no work.

Schumer opens the Senate after the year-end recess with some thoughts on Trump and #Venezuela: "Donald Trump's promise to keep us out of foreign entanglements is now as meaningful as his promise to release the Epstein files."

Also his wife almost gave her life, literally.

Four generations of my family have served our country. Service is in my blood. The President wouldn’t know anything about that.

Only 33% of Americans approve of US strike on Venezuela, Reuters/Ipsos poll finds - www.reuters.com/world/americ...

I predict that 2026 will be a big year for the “Hey Ed!” series.

What in the Gestapo is going on in Grand Rapids? Watch this activist get arrested *mid-interview* for speaking out against U.S. action in Venezuela.

scahill, now there's a name I haven't heard in a long time

But what about the FIFA Peace Prize?

Unanimous Senate confirmation. Unanimous.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy appoints former Canadian cabinet minister Chrystia Freeland as an economic development adviser, citing her experience in attracting investment. www.cbc.ca/news/world/freelan...

On X, a senior U.S. Justice Department official is promoting a post that praises colonization as “one of the greatest things that ever happened to the backwards parts of the world.”👇

The end goal of Grok sexual harassment is to make women afraid to be visible. It’s a punishment for daring to exist in a way the perpetrators can’t control. There’s no one solution to this, because the problem isn’t just technological. It’s cultural. It’s misogyny. This is just one expression of it.

This video, viewed millions of times on TikTok, Facebook and X, claims to show Venezuelans taking to the street to thank the US for detaining Maduro. But the video is a combination of four AI-generated clips and was first posted on TikTok by a user who frequently shares AI videos. It's not real.

Prompting this response: www.cbsnews.com/news/denmark...

Endless Column, by Constantin Brâncuși, 1938, 📸 by @stephenmally

Optionality

Himes: "I was delighted to hear that Tom Cotton, chairmen of the Senate Intel Committee, has been in regular contact with the admin. I've had zero outreach and no D I'm aware of has. So apparently we're now in a world where the legal obligation to keep Congress informed only applies to your party."

Wait, what? Are they taunting us with Klopp in a half-time commercial in the U.S.?

So much gaslighting.

Meanwhile …. Elon Musk's Grok AI floods X with sexualized photos of women and minors - www.reuters.com/legal/litiga...

Senator Democratic leader Schumer: "We want to know the administration's objectives, his plans to prevent a humanitarian and geopolitical disaster that plunges us into another endless war, or one that trades one corrupt dictator for another." #Venezuela

Virginia Democratic Senator Tim Kaine, who has sponsored several resolutions promoting congressional authorization of military action: "Members of the Senate and the public have definitely been lied to by the administration." #Venezuela

Democratic lawmakers say they were misled on Venezuela - www.reuters.com/world/americ...

Smoke rises from explosions in Caracas, Venezuela, January 3. via REUTERS - cloudfront-us-east-2.images.arcpublishing.com/reuters/6A5F...

How do our gun laws affect the president of a sovereign Nation who controls a military?

Thread worth a read

She won the Nobel peace prize that Trump wanted. But more seriously, who in Venezuela is more likely to have popular support. There is also for any country, particularly in the western hemisphere, the implications of being brought to power on the backs of the US military.

Keep thinking about Infantino and the "FIFA Peace Prize" he gave Trump just a few weeks ago. #Venezuela

That is certainly one way to kick off the transfer window.

Huh - Trump on Machado, the Venezuelan opposition leader: "I think it's very tough for her to be the leader. She doesn't have the support within or the respect within the country. She's a very nice woman, but she doesn't have the respect"

It's an old and obvious pattern. An unpopular president - failing on the economy and losing his grip on power at home - decides to launch a war for regime change abroad. The American people don’t want to “run” a foreign country while our leaders fail to improve life in this one.

Trump Chief of Staff Wiles recently to Vanity Fair: "But Wiles conceded that attacking targets on Venezuela’s mainland would force Trump to get congressional approval. 'If he were to authorize some activity on land, then it’s war, then [we’d need] Congress.'"

Now he’s the hunter? Like a predator?