Recap 23: Jan 11-18
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This Week’s Track:
Horace Silver Quintet - Nutville
The Cape Verdean Blues - 1965
Spotify recommended a really good track this week. The whole album is quite good. Plus, with all the news lately, I feel like I live in Nutville, so it works on two levels.
If you have any recommendations for a background track, please let me know!
Further Reading
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Story 1: ICE In Minnesota
ICE agents continue to terrorize Minnesotans following the murder of Renee Nicole Good last week, with much of the conflict being caught on camera. Governor Tim Walz released a video on Wednesday responding to ICE’s terror.
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/18/us/minneapolis-federal-agents-misconduct-protesters.html
https://www.cbsnews.com/minnesota/live-updates/minnesota-protests-ice-shooting-law-enforcement/
As horrible as ICE is and how terrible what is going on right now is, one small bright spot is the many clips of ICE falling on their asses, because they don’t have the proper training to handle slippery conditions. I hope all of you eat sh*t and break you tailbone. With all of Tim Walz’s talk, I really hope he actually does something soon. He’s discussed deploying Minnesota’s state force to fight ICE and I truly hope he does so before there is more bloodshed and conflict, because every moment ICE runs around freely, more and more American people will suffer.
Story 2: War Powers Resolution
On Wednesday, the Senate failed to activate the War Powers Resolution after JD Vance’s tiebreaker vote. Without the resolution, Congress cannot reign in Trump’s powers as Commander in Chief.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jan/14/us-senate-trump-military-action-venezuela
Dude, your whole job is basically just “break ties in the Senate” and you couldn’t even do that right. In the words of Friday Fortnite host ConnorEatsPants, “Sorry but you were the only baby ever worth choosing crack over.” After the reprehensible sh*t Vance been spouting on Twitter, I’m inclined to agree. Beyond Vance, yeah, I’m not super happy about Trump having free reign to invade whatever sovereign nation he wants. Plus, why is it that when Iran kills a bunch of protestors, it’s cause for an invasion, but ICE can kill protestors with impunity? (I know that’s an oversimplification but it’s still basically true) At the end of the day I just miss when the biggest news stories were “President falls over on his bike,” not “President falls over on his bike, invades Algeria for no reason.”
Story 3: Jerome Powell’s Video
Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell released a video on Monday accusing Trump of trying to undermine the Federal Reserve’s autonomy by attempting to exert more control over the economy than he is constitutionally allowed.
https://www.federalreserve.gov/newsevents/speech/powell20260111a.htm
https://www.wsj.com/economy/central-banking/trump-fed-chair-nominee-search-powell-bb5dba1d
I saw some stuff on Twitter that was like “Jerome Powell is so cool!” and people would reply with stuff like “he is very anti-worker do not prop him up or give him support with reckless abandon.” I couldn’t even find anything specific that makes me think Powell is anti worker beyond the fact that Trump was the one who nominated him. I think it might boil down to my lack of economic knowledge to have any kind of real nuanced perspective on the issue. In AP Government and Politics the Federal Reserve was one of the only concepts I didn’t fully grasp, so I’m going to trust my gut, and stop talking about the issue now. Regarding the joke I made about the story, I don’t really know why I used Merrick Garland. Yeah, he broke from his party when it came to prosecuting Trump, but I don’t actually think that was “serving the country beyond political affiliation,” I think he was just a coward. Either way, I do my best to make fun of both parties/ideologies, so there you go.
Story 4: Grok In The Pentagon
The Department of Defense announced on Monday they intend to integrate the Twitter AI Grok into the Pentagon’s operating network, alongside AI powered by Google.
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/world/pentagon-embraces-musks-grok-ai-chatbot-as-it-draws-global-outcry
https://www.npr.org/2026/01/13/nx-s1-5675781/pentagon-musks-grok-ai-chatbot-global-outcry
I don’t even know what to say about this. I hate AI so much. I cannot wait for the bubble to burst. No, I don’t want to use an AI tool to help me sort my digital grocery list. Why is your AI helper’s name “gloob”? Who on earth is using gloob? Let me gloob that real quick. Also, deepfake porn is probably one of the worst consequences of technology I can think of. Just one of the most reprehensible, violating things imaginable. And that sh*t is now in the Pentagon. I love it here.
If you’re unable to read a story, try removepaywall.com or archive.is
Outfit
My Manchester United Jersey! United won 2-0 against City on Saturday morning after weeks of heightened chaos, so the triumph this week felt like it was the perfect time to debut my favorite football team. I don’t know if the Jersey is authentic… I bought it at a mall in Seattle for a reaaaally good deal. I don’t want to ask, because I think I know the answer. Either way, I like it, and we won (finally), so woo hoo! Right now, I’ll take any small wins I can get.
Errors
Trump’s second one-year anniversary is today, but this week’s recap was closer to the date even though it hadn’t I technically passed yet. I thought the gag was funny, though.
If you find any errors from this episode or a previous one, let me know! I’ll add it to next week’s newsletter.
Behind The Scenes
Next week there will be a section for my favorite hate comment of the week. For now, here’s my favorite, from YouTube:
Bro ur rewording everything to make it sound bad against rebublicans stop lying to ur self and other'sTrust me pal, when Gavin Newsom, Kamala Harris, or any other Democrat starts ignoring the Constitution, I’ll be the first person to say something. For now, I’m gonna keep showcasing the reprehensible stuff going on, which just happens to be mostly from Rebublicans as of right now. Also, I’m not lying to anyone. Everything I say is 100% truthful, unbiased, and completely objective. I never let my obvious political beliefs interfere with my diehard commitment to serious, impartial journalism. What on earth gave you the impression I felt otherwise??
I do apologize for putting this week’s newsletter out a day late. It’s definitely in observance of Martin Luther King Jr. Day, and totally not because I got the day off from school and was suuuuper lazy…
Next week I’m going to try and push out the video on Sunday morning by shooting + editing most of the video on Saturday. Hopefully the algorithm will be kinder to me if I make my video from that specific Sunday appear for longer than 30 minutes before midnight rolls around because I procrastinated too much.
That’s all for now. See you next week,
Sean ✧