The Country We Had This Mourning is Different From the Country we Have this Afternoon

by Rod Williams, Dec.9, 2025 - Heather Cox Richardson makes the case that yesterday was a significant day and we have turned a corner in which the country and Republicans in Congress are breaking with and defying Trump. Despite the attack on Venezuela and the threats against Cuba, Greenland, Colombia and Mexico, and despite other actions from Trump that signal an increase in his imperial and authoritarian intent, there is reason to be encouraged. More and more Republicans are breaking with Trump. She lists those acts of defiance. 

After the invasion of Venezuela, the ICE shooting in Minnesota, and the increasingly ugly rhetoric from the Trump administration, it is easy to get more and more discouraged, but I think Heather Cox Richardson is right. For those feeling despair, Richardson offers reasons to be encouraged.

The MAGA base is fracturing, the courts are standing up to Trump, and most importantly, Republicans in Congress are defying the President and it is looking more and more like Democrats will sweep the House in the midterm, if they can resist the impulse to nominate the most woke and most socialist among them. My fear is that as Trump sees the writing on the wall that his power is waning, and he is losing support, he may become more erratic, desperate, and dangerous.

Heather Cox Richardson is one of the podcasters whom I follow and whose insight I value. She is a historian and a professor of history at Boston College and the author of several books on American history, including a history of the Republican Party. 

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Federal Criminal Investigation of Rep. Andy Ogles Remains Open

Andy Ogles

by Rod Williams, Jan. 8, 2026- Despite Congressman Andy Ogles being a world-class Donald Trump suck-up, the Donald Trump Justice Department is still pursuing charges against him. Ogles supporters were hoping the Justice Department would drop its investigation.

Normally, one would not assume that one's prosecution depended on one's standing with the president, but these are not normal times and we do not have a normal president. All pretence or expectation that justice is blind and the Justice Department is independent of politics is out the window. Now, it is proper to think of the Justice Department as "Trump's Justice Department."

The investigation of Ogles involves potential fraud involving campaign finance statements he filed during his first run for Congress in 2022.

Trump has helped out a lot of people who did a lot worse things than Ogles, such as the alleged rapist Andrew Tate and his brother. The Tates had been charged with human trafficking and forming a criminal gang to sexually exploit women. Trump exerted diplomatic pressure on Romanian officials to lift the Tates' travel restrictions, allowing them to return to the U.S. 

Also, such as issuing a "full and complete pardon" to former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández, who had been serving a 45-year prison sentence in the United States for drug trafficking. He had imported over 400 tons of cocaine into the United States.

Or, such as pardoning Texas Democrat Rep. Henry Cuellar, convicted of bribery, money laundering, and wire fraud charges related to accepting money from a foreign-owned energy company and a bank. 

Or, commuted the sentence of former Rep. George Santos to time served. Santos had pleaded guilty to fraud and theft charges and was sentenced to 87 months in prison and restitution of $370,000. He had only served three months when he was given a commutation, which reduced his sentence to the three months' time served and eliminated his restitution. 

Or, the granting of clemency to approximately 1,600 individuals charged or convicted in connection with the January 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, many of whom had assaulted police officers. 

So why not drop the charges against Ogles?  I think I can explain it. If Trump lets Ogles twist in the wind a little longer, Ogles will be even more grateful when he does get a pardon. Maybe even let Ogles get convicted and then when pardoned, he will be really grateful. 

Also, maybe Trump feels Ogles is a liability and may lose his reelection campaign and Trump thinks a different Republican would stand a better chance of keeping the seat in the Republican column. So, maybe the plan is to let Ogles lose his primary and then pardon him. Trump values loyalty, but everything is about leverage and is transactional. 

Below is the News Channel 5 report: 

Federal criminal investigation of Tennessee congressman remains open, new filing reveals

By: Phil Williams, WTVF, Jan. 8, 2026-  If Congressman Andy Ogles was hoping the Trump administration would drop its criminal investigation into his troubled campaign finances, the Tennessee Republican was likely disappointed by a filing Wednesday in federal court.

U.S. Attorney Braden H. Boucek, who was sworn in Dec. 24 as the chief federal prosecutor for the Middle District of Tennessee, had been directed by U.S. Magistrate Judge Alistair Newbern to file a notice about the status of the investigation of Ogles.

But, instead of closing the matter as Ogles’ supporters had hoped, the filing by Boucek and the U.S. Department of Justice's Public Integrity Section made it clear that they are still waiting on the judge to rule on whether the FBI can look at evidence seized from Ogles.

"Thus, the parties have been awaiting a ruling on the Defendant's Motions to return property for more than 14 months," the filing concludes, asking that the court advise the parties on the status of her long-expected ruling.

Ironically, after not ruling on the case for 14 months, Newbern resigned from her federal magistrate position effective Jan. 2, leaving the controversy for another judge to handle. (read more)

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Mother of Mamdani Aide Who Said Homeownership is ‘White Supremacy’ Owns $1.6 Million Home in Nashville: Report

 Mother of Mamdani Aide Who Said Homeownership is ‘White Supremacy’ Owns $1.6 Million Home in Nashville: Report

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I had No Idea I Helped Turn so Many Black People into White Supremacists.

by Rod Williams, Jan. 7, 2026- A top housing official in New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s administration has called homeownership a "weapon of white supremacy" and argued that property should be treated as a "collective good."  

If homeownership is a "weapon of White supremacy," then I guess if you are a homeowner, that makes you a White supremacist? Have I got that right? Wow, I had no idea I helped turn so many Black people into White supremacists.

I spent most of my working years as Director of Housing Services for a non-profit organization. I pretty much developed our agency's housing counseling program. Although there were many organizations providing housing education to low-income people, we were unique in serving the hard-to-serve. 

There is a big difference between types of poor people. Some people are low-income because they are young and just out of college, and just starting their careers, and then there are poor people from generations of poverty. Some poverty is situational; some is endemic. We served the latter.

Our signature program was Homebuyers Club. A Homebuyers Club would be a group of typically about a dozen people striving to achieve homeownership. These clubs would be facilitated by me or another housing counselor and co-facilitated by a volunteer housing professional, such as a realtor or loan officer. A club met once a month for a year and included topics on saving, credit, money management, real estate agents, mortgages, home inspections, home insurance, closing, and maintenance. For those who had not achieved homeownership within a year, they were encouraged to begin again. In addition to the group sessions, there would be an initial one-on-one session where we created an Action Plan for the client, and then usually a couple of other one-on-one counseling sessions throughout the year. The program was a cross between homebuyer education and a self-help AA-type program. We had about a dozen of these clubs.

Most of my clients were African-American. They had challenges that would not occur to most of us. Each of our meetings began with a discussion period where we discussed achievements, challenges, and setbacks of the prior month. At one such meeting, several people complained about their high phone bills. This, as I seem to recall, was when one still had to pay for long-distance calls, but long-distance calls were free after certain hours and the price of a long-distance phone call had been coming down. I knew my phone bill was nowhere near as high as theirs. I probed as to why their bills were so high. Those with high phone bill, and as I recall it was most of this group, all had a loved one in prison. Prisoners could not make free calls; the recipient had to pay for the call. That was a challenge. I could not suggest they refuse the phone call of a husband or father or son who was in prison. This is but one of the kinds of challenges they faced.

To succeed and achieve their goal of homeownership, people in our Homebuyers Club often had to change their way of thinking. They had to learn about making choices and delayed gratification. Something they had to wait until next month to buy something they wanted and sometimes they just had to forego the purchase. They had to had to make sacrifices and save money. This often meant telling their young teenage son, he could not have a sports starter jacket or the popular tennis shoes. Before getting into this role, I had no idea that those things were so important. Most of my co-facilitators and, as the program grew, some of our facilitators were Black, and they could be more blunt in addressing these type issues than I. 

Some of the education involved teaching an understanding of some basic economics. Many had no idea of how much the use of payday lenders was costing them. Another issue was the view many had on having a car repossessed. I saw many with repossessed cars on their credit report. The view of many was that if they bought a car and three months later the transmission started slipping, they just stopped making payments and let it get repossessed. I have had clients proudly tell me, "I just told them, they can come and get it." They did not seem to realize that they were paying for that decision.

One of the hardest challenges was overcoming the fear of the benefit cliff. Many were on some sort of public assistance, such as Aid to Families with Dependent Children, or food stamps, or living in public housing, or housing assistance or Medicaid. There was a fear that if they started earning more money, they would lose their benefits. In some cases it took courage to stop being poor.

Another challenge was overcoming peer pressure. Before working in this program, I thought one's family would be pleased if another family member pulled themself out of poverty and improved their lives. Often, that was not the case. In fact, often other family members tried to sabotage the success of the participant in the program. If a club participant was saving money a friend or family member would pressure them to loan them money. As an example, if the club participant was saving a hundred dollars a month and a friend's electricity was going to be cut off, they would make the club participant feel guilty for not helping them. Worse than that, I had clients tell me that their family and friends told them they were "acting White" since joining the club. 

I am proud of the work I did. I know it changed lives for generations. I am proud for everly Black, White supremacist I helped create. 

 

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Former TN Rep Robin Smith will avoid Jail

Robin Smith

The Tennessean, Jan. 7, 2026- Robin Smith, the former Tennessee lawmaker sentenced for running a scheme to defraud taxpayers, is no longer going to prison.

A federal judge on Jan. 5 reduced the sentence for Smith, 62, from eight months in prison to a year of probation. U.S. District Judge Eli Richardson's decision came two months after President Donald Trump pardoned Smith's two co-defendants, former Tennessee House Speaker Glen Casada and his ex-chief of staff Cade Cothren.

Trump did not pardon Smith, who testified against Casada and Cothren at trial. She is still seeking a pardon, her attorney Ben Rose said in an emailed statement. (link)

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What is Behind Trump's War on Venezuela

by Rod Williams, Jan. 4, 2026- Of all of the commentary and analysis I have read and viewed regarding Trump's adventure in Venezuela, this from David Frum and Anne Applebaum, staff writers at the Atlantic, is the most insightful. They posit that President Trump's military action in Venezuela is not just an isolated incident but part of a larger move toward a multi-polar world divided into spheres of influence. Either through agreement or an unstated understanding, Russia and China, both of which have strong relations with Venezuela, will not object to the US colonization of Venezuela, and the US will not meddle in their backyard. Russia can take Ukraine, the U.S can take Venezuela, and the U. S. will be less robust in our defense of Taiwan and other Asian countries. 

While Frum and Applebaum do not mention Russian philosopher Aleksandr Dugin by name, this idea of the great powers dividing the world into spheres of influence has been advanced by him. In the more intellectual MAGA circles, Aleksandr Dugan is often favorably referenced. This idea that the great powers of the world should dominate their regions and leave the other great powers to dominate their region helps explain Trump's siding with Putin in the Ukraine war and Trump's calls to annex Greenland, Canada, and Panama.

David Fraum is a former speech writer for former President George W. Bush, has been a writer at National Review, and has served on the board of several influential think tanks, including the American Enterprise Institute. 

Anne Applebaum is a historian and journalist and was previously a writter for the Washington Post. Among other awards, she has won a Pulitzer Prize, for Gulag: A History, in 2004; the Cundill Prize, for Iron Curtain, in 2013; the Duff Cooper prize, for Red Famine: Stalin’s War on Ukraine, in 2003.

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Collectivism, Warmed Over

by Jonah Goldberg, The Dispatch, January 2, 2026 - ... “We will replace the frigidity of rugged individualism with the warmth of collectivism,” declared Zohran Mamdani in his inaugural address as mayor of New York City on Thursday. 

... “Collectivism” and its sibling, “collectivization,” are trigger words for, well, people like me. In the academic and philosophical literature, “collectivism” is the blanket analytical term for certainly most and arguably all forms of totalitarian ideology. 

The term came into the English language in the 1850s—probably borrowed from the French collectivisme—where it battled with competing terms for basically the same thing: communism, socialism, cooperation, corporatism, solidarity, etc.   

But it wasn’t until the 1930s that it got separated from the solidaristic adjectival herd. American journalist William Henry Chamberlin, a communist sympathizer until he lived under actual communism in the Soviet Union, wrote Collectivism: A False Utopia in 1937, which solidified its negative connotations. On the first page, Chamberlin writes, 

A question that, in my opinion, far transcends in importance the precise point at which the line may be drawn between public and private enterprise in economic life, is whether the people are to own the state or whether the state is to own the people.

“Collectivism, both in its communist and fascist forms” falls on the wrong side of that question, according to Chamberlin.

After Chamberlin, Karl Popper, Friedrich Hayek, Joseph Schumpeter, and countless other heavy hitters established “collectivism” as the acceptable term for a political orientation that stands in opposition to the individual and individual rights. 

Colloquially, the reason collectivism acquired a bad odor that sometimes even communism did not emit was because of collectivization. At least when one denounces communism, communists spout the usual “but true communism was never really tried!” Precisely because of its bloodless academic nature, the word “collectivism” evades such defenses. No serious person can claim that “true collectivism was never really tried,” in part because, again colloquially, collectivization is the fully realized act of putting collectivism into practice. 

The Soviets used collectivization to describe their effort to transform agriculture, and they killed millions in the process. In Ukraine in the early 1930s, collectivization led to such mass man-made starvation and cannibalism that Soviet authorities had to distribute posters that read, “To eat your own children is a barbarian act.” 

When I first heard Mamdani refer to the “warmth of collectivism,” I immediately thought of Anne Applebaum’s Pulitzer Prize-winning Gulag: A History. In one scene, she describes how a slave-laborer fell in the snow from exhaustion. The other slaves—and they were slaves, owned by the state, as Chamberlin would put it—rushed to strip the fallen man’s clothes and belongings. The dying man’s last words were, “It’s so cold.”

Collectivization under Mao’s “Great Leap Forward” led to millions more Chinese famine deaths from 1959 to 1961—from a lowball estimate of 20 million to a high of 45 million.

Now, I don’t for a moment think Mamdani has anything like that in mind. Moreover, even if he did, nothing like that can be orchestrated from New York’s City Hall. 

.... The inability of many people on the American left to understand why millions of decent, rational, even quite progressive, people are turned off by radical communist—or communist cosplay—rhetoric is one of my great obsessive fascinations. I have no problem with people who think Hitlerism was worse than Stalinism or Maoism—there are good and persuasive arguments on that score. What I cannot fathom, or credit, are people who can’t understand or acknowledge why it’s a fairly debatable question, a legitimately close call. 

.... Go ahead and argue that Hitlerism was worse than Stalinism. I think that’s correct. But Stalinism was close. And yet, communist kitsch—hammer and sickle T-shirts, Maoist caps—are transgressive fashion statements (in a boringly conformist sort of way), but the swastika is taboo (or was). I’m all for the swastika being taboo, I’m just at a loss why communist swag shouldn’t be too. 

(There is much more to this article, and it expresses my views exactly.  To continue reading, follow this link. Rod)

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Mamdani on ‘the Warmth of Collectivism’

By The Editorial Board, Wall Street Journal, Jan. 2, 2026 - The inaugural address of a mayor isn’t typically of national interest, but Zohran Mamdani is an exception. The New York City mayor’s speech on New Year’s Day laid out the large scope of his socialist ambition and how little it is rooted in reality.

Give him his due: He has real charisma and political talent. While he says Bernie Sanders is his hero, Mr. Mamdani is the anti-Bernie as a political actor: smiling not snarling, more optimistic than aggrieved. He can almost make socialism sound appealing if you missed the last century, which as it happens he did.

But every so often the 34-year-old mayor says something that reveals his harder-edged politics. In his inaugural it was this: “We will replace the frigidity of rugged individualism with the warmth of collectivism.”

That line could only be uttered by someone who overlooks the human misery that has been visited in the name of “collectivism.” The greatest killers of the 20th century put the virtues of the collective above individual rights and liberty. For the cold reality of collective warmth, we recommend “One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich” by Alexander Solzhenitsyn. It was a very cold day in Siberia. (link)

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I will Never Support "The Warmth of Collectivism."

by Rod Williams, Jan. 3, 2025- In his inaugural address, NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani said that under his administration rugged individualism will be replaced by the "warmth of collectivism." That is chilling. 

As much as I detest Trumpian authoritarianism and corruption, I detest socialism and collectivism more. If the choice facing America is between an America First agenda or a socialist-collectivist agenda, I think most Americans will choose to continue with an America First agenda.

In the abstract, I would like to see Democrats regain control of Congress in the midterms. However, when I had a choice between a Republican backed by Donald Trump and a radical with the endorsement of the Democratic Socialist, I voted for the Trump-backed Republican. If Democrats regaining control of the House means supporting candidates like Zohran Mamdani, Bernie Sander, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and Aftyn Behn, I will be pulling for the Republicans.

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The Heritage Foundation Blows Up. I Welcome the News.

by Rod Williams, Dec. 31, 2025- In another essay on this blog, I wrote about my end-of-year giving and listed some organizations to which I contribute.  I also said that I had stopped giving money to the various branches of the Republican Party and to prominent conservative organizations I had once supported. I listed the American Conservative Union and the Heritage Foundation as organizations I formerly, but no longer support. I wrote that, "several of the Republican and conservative organizations that I used to support have abandoned the principles they long advocated and now advance the cause of authoritarian nationalist populism, so I no longer give to them."

I am pleased that I am not the only conservative who recognizes the abandonment of conservative principles in the Heritage Foundation. The Wall Street Journal recently posted about trouble within Heritage and wrote, "Heritage once supported free trade; now it is protectionist. It once supported a robust American foreign policy; Heritage purged its defense hawks two years ago. Heritage was a supporter of the originalist judicial revolution and the rule of law; now it defends Mr. Trump’s expansion of executive power whether or not it has a constitutional basis."

While this flip-flop on core values, as stated by the WSJ, has caused tension within Heritage for the last few years, it has now escalated, and many of the scholars associated with Heritage are jumping ship. Not only are individual scholars leaving Heritage, but they are taking whole divisions of Heritage with them, and donors are putting away the checkbooks.

The final straw for some was Heritage president Kevin Roberts saying there should be no enemies to the right and defending Tucker Carlson’s softball interview with Nazi adjacent podcaster Nick Fuentes. Before this month's pubic break with Heritage, several scholars associated with Heritage had already quietly slipped away. Many of those who are jumping ship at Heritage are landing at an organization headed by former Vice President Mike Pence called Advancing American Freedom.

I stopped giving to Heritage, I guess about four years ago, maybe longer ago than that. Heritage was founded in 1973 and I have probably been giving since the founding or shortly thereafter. Anyway, I have been supporting Heritage for a long time. I am now adding Advancing American Freedom to my giving list.

The following article provides more information about the Heritage breakup and tells who is leaving:

The Heritage Foundation Blows Up

Its conservative scholars jump to Mike Pence’s policy shop after being stifled at the think tank.

By The Editorial Board, Wall Street Journal, Dec. 22, 2025- ... Some 15 or more Heritage employees, including the leaders of three prominent policy departments, are jumping to the Advancing American Freedom foundation that the former Vice President established in 2021. The defectors include the leaders of Heritage’s most important policy shops: The Edwin Meese III Center for Legal and Judicial Studies, the Center for Data Analysis, and the Roe Institute for Economic Policy Studies.

The move by John Malcolm and his colleagues at the Meese Center is especially notable. We’re told it is endorsed by Mr. Meese, the Reagan-era Attorney General who is now 94 years old and has been a fixture at Heritage. The Roe Institute is the think tank’s free-market shop—or it was before Heritage embraced Trumpian industrial policy. One data project stifled at Heritage is to map the district-by-district impact of the Trump tariffs.

...Several Heritage board members have resigned, as has Trump economic adviser Stephen Moore. Monday’s departures are the largest so far, and they underscore how far Heritage has wandered under Mr. Roberts. Mr. Pence and his board have set a target of $15 million from donors to finance the defecting analysts for three years, and as of Friday we hear they had raised more than $13 million. 

... A think tank is fundamentally a collection of people and donors who believe in certain ideas and principles. Heritage abandoned its principles, it is losing its people, and soon there might not be much left to donate to.

This is welcome news. I am heartened and have just made my donation to Advancing American Freedom.

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