Statement from Federal Reserve Chair Jerome H. Powell.

Bluesky video message from Federal Reserve Chair Jerome H. Powell

YouTube video Statement by Federal Reserve Chair Jerome H. Powell

On Friday, the Department of Justice served the Federal Reserve with grand jury subpoenas, threatening a criminal indictment related to my testimony before the Senate Banking Committee last June. That testimony concerned in part a multi-year project to renovate historic Federal Reserve office buildings.

Thank you.

A team of doctors has been rushed to Capitol Hill to analyze House Speaker Mike Johnson's curious absence of a spine. They were called after Johnson refused to install a plaque honoring the police officers injured during the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.

"It was just the latest in a series of spineless acts," explained one doctor. "It appears he has no spine, but some cartilage like a shark. Curiously, that cartilage only hardens when it hears Donald Trump's voice."

The General Services Administration has put the word out, looking to rent an office space in West Knoxville for federal law enforcement. The office space may end up being used to process, detain or question prisoners, according to the listing.

It did "say detainees could end up in the building." "...federal officers inside may question those detainees"

“This requirement will house a federal law enforcement office where employees can or have the potential to carry weapons, weapons will be stored on-site and individuals may be temporarily detained and/or questioned.”

Well, isn't that special. Are the representatives of Knoxville and Knox County as well as residents going to go along to get along? I can only hope they don't want to come to Blount County.

ExxonMobil statement, "Thank you, Mr. President, I appreciate the invitation and the opportunity for the entire industry to show up and provide perspective."

With respect to Venezuela in particular, we have a very long history in Venezuela. In fact, we first got into Venezuela back in the 1940s. We've had our assets seized there twice. And so, you can imagine to re‑enter a third time would require some pretty significant changes from what we've historically seen here and what is currently the state."

If we look at the legal and commercial constructs—frameworks—in place today in Venezuela, today it’s uninvestable. And so significant changes have to be made to those commercial frameworks, the legal system, there has to be durable investment protections, and there has to be a change to the hydrocarbon laws in the country.

If push comes to shove? Do they have enough excess funds to do it just to make the president happy even if they know it will fail?

President Donald Trump reportedly told The New York Times that his "own morality" serves as the thing that could potentially limit his global powers -- adding that he doesn't "need international law."

Trump says his 'own morality' is limit to his global power

Officers said that an elderly woman who was being treated at UTMC grabbed a gun from her purse and fired a round into the ground.

KPD said that due to the patient’s "compromised medical and mental state," no charges are being filed.

UTMC statement: "...there was an accidental discharge of a firearm in a patient room...

Accidental discharge? Hope she /her family don't get to keep the gun.

We’re scared to go out’: Man speaks out about violent assault in downtown Knoxville.

A Knoxville man, who chose to remain anonymous, was out with his wife on Christmas Day enjoying a movie, Christmas lights, and dinner. While walking home that evening near the intersection of Gay Street and Depot Avenue the man was attacked. ...Struck in the head multiple times with a metal pole and left stunned, he dodged swing after swing while protecting his wife, before finally taking the attacker to the ground.

Yikes!

Trump White House attempts to rewrite history of Jan. 6, accuses Capitol Police of escalating tensions

The White House unveiled a new webpage "that described the pro-Trump marchers as "peaceful" and "orderly" and accused police of escalating tensions and violence.

The timeline presented by the administration grossly mischaracterized some of the day's events, downplaying President Donald Trump's rhetoric before the violence began and falsely claiming the 2020 election was stolen.

It's sick. I'm not linking to the White House web page, but the above linked ABC News article has a link. It's sickening. How can anyone believe this or let it go as a truth by our Federal Government?

Then, "Federal ICE Agents" killed a women in Minneapolis yesterday, January 7, 2026. From videos, it appears the woman was trying to drive away and she was shot to death. The president defends the ICE killing of a poet. According to the Washington Post, he said, "the 37-year-old woman killed by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer in Minneapolis “violently, willfully, and viciously ran over” the agent, who Trump said appeared to shoot her in self-defense. The president made the claim within hours of the shooting Wednesday, before investigators had completed their work.

“The situation is being studied, in its entirety, but the reason these incidents are happening is because the Radical Left is threatening, assaulting, and targeting our Law Enforcement Officers and ICE Agents on a daily basis,” he said in a social media post. “They are just trying to do the job of MAKING AMERICA SAFE.”

How is this happening in the United States of America? We are returning to the 1930s.

Flu reaches highest level in the US in 25 years.

Tennessee in the top 19 states with highest levels of reported flu cases.

As of Dec. 27, there have been 11 million reported cases and 120,000 hospitalizations, and 5,000 deaths nationwide. The overwhelming majority of cases are H3N2 variant infections. The CDC expects severity to continue for several weeks.

CDC Weekly US Map: Influenza Summary Update. If we can believe anything coming out of this administration.

Trump Is Unleashing Forces Beyond His Control (New York Times, David French)

When a strong state operates under the principle that war is just another extension of policy, it is tempted to operate a bit like a mob boss. Every interaction with a weaker nation is tinged in some way with the threat of force: Nice little country you have there — shame if something happened to it.

The Danger of Trump’s Flamboyant Violence (New York Times)

He is willing to use force — and risk the lives of American soldiers — for increasingly flamboyant expressions of strength abroad.

These high-risk actions seem designed more for ephemeral gain than long-term strategic advantage. There is a real risk of more to come. Mr. Trump’s appetite for military action seems to grow with the eating. For a commander in chief with three years left in office, his newfound fondness for military force is ominous.

Maduro vs. the Donroe Doctrine (Tina Brown)

Yep, it’s the “Donroe” Doctrine: chin-jutting hubris, flailing testosterone, and greed, greed, greed. America has the right to intervene, assault, abduct any government it doesn’t like in the Western Hemisphere and plunder the spoils. At least now we can forget about the last few months of fentanyl feint, when the U.S. military kept blowing up fishing boats allegedly loaded with Venezuelan narcotics.

The Fuck-Around-and-Find-Out Presidency (The Atlantic)

As John Bolton, currently a Trump nemesis but once one of his first-term national security advisers, told us, “There is no Trump Doctrine: No matter what he does, there is no grand conceptual framework; it’s whatever suits him at the moment.”

Trump’s Attack on Venezuela Is Illegal and Unwise (New York Times Editorial Board)

The nominal rationale for the administration’s military adventurism is to destroy “narco-terrorists.” Governments throughout history have labeled the leaders of rival nations as terrorists, seeking to justify military incursions as policing operations. The claim is particularly ludicrous in this case, given that Venezuela is not a meaningful producer of fentanyl or the other drugs that have dominated the recent epidemic of overdoses in the United States, and the cocaine that it does produce flows mostly to Europe. While Mr. Trump has been attacking Venezuelan boats, he also pardoned Juan Orlando Hernández, who ran a sprawling drug operation when he was president of Honduras from 2014 to 2022.

The Constitution requires Congress to approve any act of war. Yes, presidents often push the boundaries of this law. But even Mr. Bush sought and received congressional endorsement for his Iraq invasion, and presidents since Mr. Bush have justified their use of drone attacks against terrorist groups and their supporters with a 2001 law that authorized action after the Sept. 11 attacks. Mr. Trump has not even a fig leaf of legal authority for his attacks on Venezuela.

On Saturday, the president "reposted a video on his social media platform, Truth Social, of someone falsely insinuating that Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota was involved in the assassination because the man now charged with the killings, Vance Boelter, was on a state panel under Mr. Walz’s administration. That man killed Ms. Hortman, according to the false theory, because she had voted against providing health care to undocumented immigrants, opposing Mr. Walz."

"In truth, the authorities have said, Mr. Boelter trafficked in conspiracy theories, and before his arrest, he wrote to the F.B.I. claiming that the shootings were part of a conspiracy involving Mr. Walz and the state’s Senate seats. Mr. Boelter has pleaded not guilty."

How is it a child is in the White House pretending to run our country and getting away with such atrocities? I'm so sad that so few in Congress are willing or able to stand up to this man. However, I do understand they tried so hard during the Biden administration and look where that got them.

The other lawmakers who appeared in the video message also served in the military or the intelligence community. They included Sen. Elissa Slotkin of Michigan; and Reps. Jason Crow of Colorado, Maggie Goodlander of New Hampshire, and Chris Deluzio and Chrissy Houlahan of Pennsylvania. No action has been taken against them.

In a post to X, the defense secretary said that in response to Kelly's "seditious statements — and his pattern of reckless misconduct," the department started "retirement grade determination proceedings" against the senator, "with reduction in his retired grade resulting in a corresponding reduction in retired pay," Hegseth said.

Pentagon seeks to reduce Sen. Mark Kelly's retirement rank over video urging troops to refuse illegal orders

Trump and his pals see a piggy bank in Venezuela.

Minerals, tourism, etc The place is beautiful. Location. I am guessing trillions of dollars.

I have been there.

U.S. will look to tap Venezuelan oil reserves, Trump says

Since May, the city has issued more than 17,000 parking citations.

Knoxville parking overhaul drives higher use, more citations, increased revenue

The Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol “does not happen” without Donald Trump, former special counsel Jack Smith told lawmakers earlier this month in characterizing the Republican president as the “most culpable and most responsible person” in the criminal conspiracy to overturn the results of the 2020 election.

Jack Smith says he had “proof beyond a reasonable doubt” that President Donald Trump illegally tried to overturn the 2020 election and hid classified documents at Mar-a-Lago.

Can you imagine being Jack Smith? He has the proof but Congress, and maybe the Supreme Court, won't let it be introduced in a court of law.

The New York Times ran a scathing editorial about Trump and the mob that tried to take over our government.

It was a day that should live in infamy. Instead, it was the day President Trump’s second term began to take shape.

That day was indeed a turning point, but not the one it first seemed to be. It was a turning point toward a version of Mr. Trump who is even more lawless than the one who governed the country in his first term.

A federal judge in California Wednesday found the Trump administration unlawfully terminated temporary protections for more than 60,000 nationals from Honduras, Nepal and Nicaragua.

“‘The President is not above the law,” the Judge "wrote in her order." “Neither are his cabinet officials. The Administrative Procedures Act ensures government accountability by making agencies transparent, require public participation, setting fair rulemaking standards, and allowing courts to review actions for legality and rationality.”
...
“Our laws should not favor the loud and powerful simply because of their positions. Yet, for too long, our laws have overlooked the quiet truths—truths carried in the margins, truths lived but never spoken aloud,” the Judge said.

Any artist who refuses to perform at the TRUMP-(Kennedy) Center for Real MAGA Values should be arrested for SEDITION or fined $1 billion.

Rep. Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.) on Tuesday promoted an AI-generated clip of Rock star Jack White attacking supporters of President Donald Trump.

"Burchett reshared an X post from the right-wing account @MAGAresponse on Monday that included a phony clip of the musician declaring, “Don’t even think about listening to my music, you fascists.” Burchett also wrote, “That cute little girl from the Addams Family got really ugly and angry."

Just like a child on a playground. That's the man elected in East TN.

Jack White responded to Burchett "in an Instagram post for trying to insult his looks like a child “on a playground” and using his “once hallowed and respected position in our society” to promote such a video."

“All of trump’s lackeys and bootlicks like this elected official are cowards that would never talk this way to anybody like me or you in person. trump really lowered the bar when he brought his scourge to this government.”

It is sad. You'll see in Burchett's X account that he spends much of his time making jokes. Little, if any, time trying to help people and make our country better. Can't see how he feels about the Affordable Care Act and how many people are not going to be able to afford the new rates because of the lost subsidies. How did he vote?

CEO of Microsoft AI, Mustafa Suleyman, said that fear over the future of AI is “healthy and necessary”, adding: “I honestly think that if you’re not a little bit afraid at this moment then you’re not paying attention.”

He later added: “If we can’t control it, it isn’t going to be on our side. It’s going to overwhelm us”.

Bill Gates, the Microsoft founder and tycoon, whose com­pany is invest­ing heav­ily in arti­fi­cial intel­li­gence, said it was “the greatest solu­tion that man­kind has ever cre­ated”.

He singled out AI’s poten­tial to revolu­tion­ise health­care pro­vi­sion within the next dec­ade.

But he also pre­dicted it would cre­ate huge upheavals, and urged gov­ern­ment to tax tech titans con­trolling the tech­no­logy more heav­ily.

Mr Gates said: “AI at the same time is the greatest solu­tion that man­kind’s ever cre­ated, and yet such an amaz­ing change agent, that in the hands of people with bad intent it cre­ates lots of scary scen­arios.”

R.F.K. Jr. Likely to Swap U.S. Childhood Vaccine Schedule for Denmark’s. The shift would mean fewer shots recommended for children. But a Danish health official found the idea baffling, saying the United States was getting “crazier and crazier in public health.”

Replacing the U.S. vaccine schedule with one like Denmark’s would be negligence.

Denmark is a nation of about 6 million people — smaller than the Atlanta metro area It has universal health care, national patient registries and a highly homogeneous population with low rates of vaccine-preventable diseases. Its immunization program is designed for a system where every child is tracked, every parent has access to care and every gap is quickly closed.

The United States is a nation of 340 million featuring enormous geographic, socioeconomic and demographic diversity. Millions are uninsured, with more probably coming soon. Many lack consistent prenatal care. Children enter daycare earlier because of restrictive parental leave policies. Disease burdens differ dramatically. Public health infrastructure is heterogeneous, sometimes varying county by county.

This is similar to the president looking into an Australian-style retirement program for America.

Australia, as is Denmark, is much more structured than the U.S. and offers more benefits. It doesn't always work to pick and choose parts of a program and expect the parts to succeed.

The New York Times asked readers for environmental fixes in their states. Readers submitted more than 3,200 ideas for our 50 States.

Saving moths, gardens, forests, buffalo, etc. Creating solar projects in low- to moderate-income communities.

Appalachian State is now requiring all undergraduates to take at least one class in the sustainability and climate literacy arena as a general education requirement.

I'm surprised the current president hasn't outlawed that project.

It is fun to see all the wonderful things people across the country are doing to help save the environment.