Check out Mini-memeorandum for simple mobiles or memeorandum Mobile for modern smartphones.
9:50 AM ET, January 5, 2026

memeorandum

 Top Items: 
RELATED:
Judd Legum / Popular Information:
Venezuela raid enriches MAGA billionaire  —  The ouster of Maduro is a financial windfall for a prominent Trump-supporting billionaire, investor Paul Singer.  —  In a Saturday morning military raid ordered by President Trump, U.S. forces captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.
Discussion: Reuters
Noah Berlatsky / Public Notice:
Trump's Venezuela coup sends America down a dark path  —  PN is supported by paid subscribers.  Become one ⬇️  —  🧠 Subscribe to PN 🧠  —  Early Saturday morning, US forces illegally invaded Venezuela and kidnapped President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores.
Discussion: CNBC, MS NOW and NewsMax.com
David French / New York Times:
Gunboat Diplomacy Is Back.  What Could Go Wrong?  —  “War,” the Prussian military thinker Carl von Clausewitz wrote, “is a mere continuation of policy by other means.”  If there is one line that virtually every Army officer learns from Clausewitz's posthumously published 1832 book, “On War …
Discussion: Raw Story
Heather Cox Richardson / Letters from an American:
January 4, 2026  —  Secretary of State Marco Rubio took the administration's message about its strikes on Venezuela to the Sunday talk shows this morning.  It did not go well.  —  Asked by George Stephanopoulos of ABC's This Week under what legal authority the U.S. is going to run Venezuela …
Discussion: New York Times and NOTUS
Politico:
Trump weighs more military action  —  The Playbook Podcast is back!  On today's episode: Jack and Dasha discuss the impact of Trump's military action in Venezuela and what it means for his own political future.  —  Good Monday morning.  This is Jack Blanchard, thrilled to be back in your inbox after some much-needed family time.
Sophia Cai / Politico:
Trump on return trip to Washington predicts demise of Cuba, warns Colombia, threatens Greenland … “Cuba looks like it's ready to fall,” Trump said.  I don't know if they're going to hold out.  The president waved off the possibility that the administration might use American forces to hasten …
Aamer Madhani / Associated Press:
After Maduro, who's next? Trump spurs speculation about his plans for Greenland, Cuba and Colombia
Janna Brancolini / The Daily Beast:
Frenzied Trump, 79, Posts Almost 100 Times in an Hour in Late-Night Rampage
Discussion: The Independent and Raw Story
Paul Krugman:   The Real Donroe Doctrine
Wall Street Journal:
Trump Was Skeptical of Ousting Maduro—Until He Wasn't
Discussion: Axios
Rebecca Falconer / Axios:
PMs of Greenland, Denmark tell Trump to stop U.S. takeover threats
New York Times:
Live Updates: As Venezuela Projects Defiance, Rubio Says U.S. Will Use ‘Leverage’ to Advance Its Interests
Nesrine Malik / The Guardian:   Trump's coup in Venezuela didn't just break the rules - it showed there aren't any. We'll all regret that
Luke Garrett / NPR:
Rubio says there's ‘not a war against Venezuela’ despite U.S. capture of Maduro
Michael Birnbaum / Washington Post:   Trump revives an old vision of American power, with global implications
Edward Wong / New York Times:
Trump Says U.S. Is ‘In Charge’ of Venezuela, While Rubio Stresses Coercing It
Bloomberg:
Trump Says US Needs ‘Total Access’ to Post-Maduro Venezuela
Wall Street Journal:
A New Trump Game Plan Takes Shape: Strike and Coerce
Discussion: The Atlantic and The Dispatch
Just Security:
International Law and the U.S. Military and Law Enforcement Operations in Venezuela
Discussion: Informed Comment and UPI
Rebecca Falconer / Axios:
Trump: Venezuela leader to pay “big price” if “she doesn't do what's right”
Adam Johnson / The Intercept:
The Media Refuses to Call Trump's Venezuela Attack an Act of War
Discussion: Status
Meredith Lee Hill / Politico:
Old headaches will plague Mike Johnson in the new year … But Johnson will find it hard to escape internally divisive clashes as the GOP feels pressure to address the rising cost of living and otherwise firm up its standing ahead of the November midterms.  —  He will immediately confront …
Discussion: The Hill, Raw Story and MS NOW
RELATED:
Yasmeen Abutaleb / Washington Post:
Democrats look primed to win the House, but a wave might be harder
Sahil Kapur / NBC News:
Congress returns to Venezuela clash, a shutdown deadline and a health care fight
Discussion: CT Mirror
Alexander Bolton / The Hill:
Schumer, Democrats face pressure to wage new shutdown fight
Discussion: CBS News and Washington Examiner
Kellen Browning / New York Times:
The Key Senate Races to Watch in 2026
Discussion: CBS News and ABC News
Torey Van Oot / Axios:
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz drops reelection bid … - But sagging approval ratings and intensified scrutiny into fraud in state programs in recent months has fueled nerves among Democrats and calls for Walz to step aside. … - But Walz's perceived vulnerabilities had attracted a large field …
RELATED:
Adam Liptak / New York Times:
Supreme Court Increasingly Favors the Rich, Economists Say  —  A new study found that the court's Republican appointees voted for the wealthier side in cases 70 percent of the time in 2022, up from 45 percent in 1953.  —  Supreme Court justices take two oaths.
Ségolène Le Stradic / New York Times:
10 Are Convicted of Cyberbullying France's First Lady  —  The defendants made false claims about Brigitte Macron, the wife of President Emmanuel Macron of France.  —  Ten people who falsely claimed that Brigitte Macron, France's first lady, was born male were found guilty on Monday of online harassment.
Mary LeBus / WXIX-TV:
Police investigating incident at JD Vance's Cincinnati home  —  CINCINNATI (WXIX) - A suspect is in custody following an incident that occurred at Vice President JD Vance's home Monday morning.  —  It happened at Vance's East Walnut Hills house, located on William Howard Taft Drive.
New York Times:
27 Million Fewer Car Trips: Life After a Year of Congestion Pricing  —  The authors commute to the Times office inside the congestion zone by foot, bus, bike, subway, ferry, tram, Amtrak and occasionally car.  —  One year after the start of congestion pricing, traffic jams are less severe …
Kyle Cheney / Politico:
Hundreds of judges reject Trump's mandatory detention policy, with no end in sight … Others have become so familiar with the cases that they've begun issuing terse, carbon-copy rulings to dispense with the deluge.  Immigrant advocates say the administration's win-loss record is beside the point …
Washington Post:
We texted 1,000 Americans about U.S. actions in Venezuela Here's what they said.  —  What do Americans think about the U.S. military operation that captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro?  What role should the U.S. have in deciding how the country is governed?
Jennifer Rubin / The Contrarian:
If We had a Functional Constitution, We Wouldn't have an Illegal War  —  MAGA stooges destroyed the rule of law  —  Donald Trump's unprovoked and unconstitutional war against Venezuela demolished any notion that we live in a rules-based, constitutional democracy.
 
 
 Archived Page Info: 
This is a snapshot of memeorandum at 9:50 AM ET, January 5, 2026.

View the current page or another snapshot:


 
 See Also: 
memeorandum: site main
memeorandum River: reverse chronological memeorandum
memeorandum Mobile: for phones
memeorandum Leaderboard: memeorandum's top sources
 
 Subscribe: 
memeorandum RSS feed
memeorandum on Mastodon
 
 
 More Items: 
Amanda Marcotte / Salon:
Minnesota day care hoax is fueled by MAGA psychosexual weirdness
Christian Paz / Vox:
Marjorie Taylor Greene's requiem for MAGA
Discussion: New Republic, New Yorker and Reason
 Earlier Items: 
Nick Reisman / Politico:
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul confronts a rising populist tide
David Atkins / Washington Monthly:
The Dangers of AI and Extreme Wealth Inequality
Brendan Bordelon / Politico:
Big Tech won in Texas — but the age-verification fight is just getting started
Wall Street Journal:
ICE Is Using Facial-Recognition Technology to Quickly Arrest People
Aaron Parnas / MeidasTouch News:
Department of Justice Violates Epstein Files Law By Failing to Inform Congress of Reasons Behind Redactions
 

 
From Techmeme:

Maxwell Zeff / Wired:
Google DeepMind Chief Scientist Jeff Dean and 30+ staffers from OpenAI and Google file an amicus brief in support of Anthropic in its legal fight with US DOD

Wired:
Sources: Nvidia is pitching NemoClaw, an upcoming open-source AI agent platform for enterprises, and plans to offer security and privacy tools for it

David Gewirtz / ZDNET:
Anthropic debuts Code Review for Claude Code, which uses agents to check pull requests for bugs, and says a code review could average $15-$25 in token usage
 
Sister Sites:

Techmeme
 Top news and commentary for technology's leaders, from all around the web
Mediagazer
 Top news and commentary for media professionals from all around the web
WeSmirch
 The top celebrity news from all around the web on a single page