ICE, Measles, HYMC, Epstein, And More January 11, 2026 Fareed Zakaria: Trump is teaching the world to fear America. His as-always must-read piece concludes: [The] strategic capital built over decades is now being squandered. And in the long run, an America that behaves like an utterly self-interested predator on the world stage will not grow stronger; it will grow lonelier. Allies will hedge. Partners will search for options. Neutrals will inch away. And the balancing that history predicted all along may finally arrive — not because America became weak, but because it forgot the real source of its strength. Putin is winning. Jonathan Alter: How the Murder of Renee Good Changes the Stakes for Good No one can predict how the murder of Renee Good will change this country. But there’s an encouraging history of change the aftermath of certain violent and tragic events, and a poor track record for governments that shoot their own people in the streets. Even when this story is pushed out of the headlines by some new outrage, we may look back on it as the moment when Donald Trump lost his grip. Speaking of stories “pushed out of the headlines,” have the Epstein files that MAGA demanded been released? The two are loosely connected because the Administration is claiming ICE agents are arresting child rapists — Tom Homan just said it repeatedly on “Meet The Press” — and that’s one of their justifications for going into Home Depot parking lots targeting non-white people and asking for proof of citizenship. According to MAGA, it’s not just immigrants we should suspect of child rape. MAGA want to see the Epstein files! So does Congress! Even if it winds up hurting some of Trump’s friends. Carl: “The Republican view is that it’s okay to shoot and kill a woman disregarding orders AND using her car as a weapon to knock you down or kill you.” → The President says the agent was run over by her car and went to the hospital. Yet you’ve seen the videos. They show him on the side of the car shooting her in the face. Did he get run over, then jump up and shoot her? Or did he shoot her from the side of the car and then sprint in front of the car and get run over? As tragic as Renee Good’s death was, there are two things that are worse. First, that rather than do what any other administration would have done — lament the tragic miscalculation and pray for the family, pending further investigation — they just lied and lied and lied, calling this woman with her dog in the back seat and dolls brimming out of her glove compartment — a “terrorist.” Second, that so many good people, like Carl, actually buy the lies. THANK YOU, RFK, JR. Georgia toddler paralyzed by rare flu complication as CDC warns of rising cases. (If only she had gotten her kids vaccinated.) South Carolina measles outbreak grows by nearly 100, spreads to North Carolina and Ohio HYMC I’ve previously explained how it could make sense to sell “covered calls” against some of your shares. Friday, I sold for $8.60 the right to buy shares from me at $42 that were then selling for $27.50 (and that we bought two years ago for $2.30 and six months ago for $3.20) anytime until January 15 of next year. Got all that? Read it very slowly and it could make sense. Let’s say HYMC drops to zero. At least I get to keep that $8.60. Let’s say a year from now, when the calls expire, it’s still around $27. I have my shares that can no longer be called away from me; plus that lovely extra $8.60. Let’s say it’s $42. The calls expire worthless to the buyer, but I have shares worth $42 and got to keep the $8.60. Let’s say the stock zooms and my shares are called away for $42 each. I get $42 on top of the $8.60 — $50.60. Yes, I’ve lost whatever further zooming occurred; if the stock had hit $100, hindsight would be mocking me. But I’d still have the shares against which I have not yet written calls. Also, I can always buy the calls back if they haven’t been exercised. Let’s say the stock runs up to $40. If that happened tomorrow, the calls would jump a lot in price, so I would take a loss buying them back (though not a dollar-for-dollar-loss; the stock would have risen by $12.50 but the calls would likely have risen by somewhat less). But if it were not tomorrow but (say) Thanksgiving, the calls — worthless until the stock rises above 42, and with only a few weeks left to run — wouldn’t cost much at all. It could make sense to buy them back at that point and then sell some new calls, at a higher strike price, with another year or two to run. There are a million variations of this, and what you decide to do might depend in part on whether your shares are in a taxable account or an IRA. But you get the idea. IN CASE YOU MISSED THIS ONE I once asked Warren Buffett why he’s a Democrat. He didn’t come to it without some thought, after all — his dad was a deeply conservative Republican Congressman. But if you read John Rawls, Warren told me, how can you be anything else? There’s much to be said for traditional Republicans — Romney was certainly right about Russia! Nixon signed into law both the Earned Income Tax Credit and the Environmental Protection Agency, Eisenhower launched the interstate highway system and warned against the military industrial complex, George W. Bush launched the PEPFAR program that has saved an estimated 25 million lives. But Trump’s Republican party has veered wildly off course. Appending the term “socialist” to the term Democrat is not a slur. If anything, it helps to define Democrats as the party of Jesus Christ and anyone else — Gandhi? Maimonides? Muhammed? you? — who cared, or cares, about the welfare of all mankind, not just their own. 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