☕️ PYGMALION ☙ Thursday, January 8, 2026 ☙ C&C NEWS 🦠

Statues and executive orders spring to life; RFK Jr flips the food pyramid—meat’s back; Trump hits Big Finance, housing, MIC, Venezuela; Monroe Doctrine redux; protests brew; history surges; more.

Good morning, C&C, it’s Thursday! And what a day! The news continues breaking, hard, piling atop a massive surge of Administration action, all designed to restore constitutional order and achieve the reality of a promised Golden Age. You won’t believe the scale and scope. In today’s roundup: a morning monologue about statues (and executive orders) surging to life; Secretary Kennedy turns the so-called food pyramid on its head and changes the game for Big Food; meat is back on the menu; Trump tackles Big Finance and housing affordability in a single swoop; President puts a chokehold on the Military-Industrial Complex and offers a massive carrot; golden age vibes and Happy Daze; Monroe Doctrine lands on South America; Trump surges Venezuelan oil leverage; Columbia’s new tone; sweeping plans for years to come; Coast Guard seizes more oil tankers and locks down the American hemisphere; America First meets James Monroe; Minneapolis ICE shooting begins to provoke George Floyd-style protests; and final thoughts on a truly historic week in the making.

⛑️ C&C MORNING MONOLOGUE ⛑️

I thought I could keep up. But the furious pace of Trumpian chess moves is zooming ahead into the distant horizon ahead of me. The first ten days of January, 2026, can be compared to the first ten days of the incoming Trump administration. Do you remember it? The new president was signing executive orders like a turbocharged human Autopen, each more exciting in its promise than the last. (They were all immediately bogged down in Democrat lawfare, but that is also now in the history books.)

What we’re seeing this week is similar to January 2025 in velocity, but with a critical distinction— January 2026’s frantic activity is not confined to the signing desk. In a staggering metamorphosis, those year-old executive orders have quickened, like a platoon of Pygmalion statues magically animated by Venus —or, for Portlanders, like a bevy of beautiful Macy’s mannequins come to life— all charging around the real world like proverbial bulls in a global china shop.

I can imagine that Democrats must be feeling a bit out of control this week. It must be like that moment right after you’re happily skiing down the snowy snopes, getting just a wee bit faster than comfortable and a trifle over the sticks, when in a sudden instant —WHEEEE— you find yourself aloft, goggles gone, skiis scattered, a visual panoply of sky, snow, trees, rocks, arms, legs, spray —and most humiliating, bystanders— all whirling and spinning in a frantic melange of competing centripetal forces and there’s nothing to do but wait for the blasted ordeal to end so you can start digging yourself out of the snowbank and assessing the extent of the injuries.

Anyway, it seems to me that’s the state of the world this week for our progressive friends. I’ll do my best to tally up the carnage for you. Strap your goggles back on and let’s head downslope.

🌍 WORLD NEWS AND COMMENTARY 🌍

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And just like that —still within the first week of the New Year— Secretary Kennedy dropped the latest anvil on Wile E. Democrat party. The New York Times choked down the story below the headline, “RFK Jr. Overhauls Food Pyramid to Emphasize Red Meat and Dairy.” Red meat! It was basically the Democrats’ most terrifying worst-case scenario. Not so much because of what the new pyramid says, but because of what it means.

“My message is clear: Eat real food,” Secretary Kennedy said at a briefing rolling out the new guidelines. He might as well have said, eat more meat and fat. The new graphic “flips the food pyramid on its head, putting steak, cheese, and whole milk near the top,” the Times groaned. Sweets and grains now reside on the narrow bottom.

Say goodbye to our old friend the food pyramid, whose entire base could be described by the ingredients list in a box of Lucky Charms. That the old regime lasted as long as it did is a monument to bureaucratic inertia and regulatory capture.

The Times was not unaware of the ironic twist. “After years of being advised to avoid eating too much red meat and foods high in fats,” the paper admitted, “Americans are now being told to embrace them.” Surprisingly, the Times admitted the new guidelines were supported by the American Medical Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics (which is separately suing the Administration over its changes to the childhood vaccine schedule), and the American Heart Association.

The most surprising thing, though, was the near-total absence of progressive panic. BlueSky barely twitched. “This is all pretty meh and conventional (thankfully),” said George Pearkes (58K BlueSky followers), responding to the news.

If Secretary Kennedy flipping over the food pyramid draws a collective meh, it can only be because no one believed in the old model anymore. You don’t mourn the collapse of a doctrine you already stopped following. The public reaction wasn’t acceptance— it was indifference.

But it matters. For decades, the pyramid wasn’t just advice; it was an orthodoxy with a cash-flow spigot. It shaped school lunches, hospital trays, airline meals, food labels, supermarket configurations, and dinner-table guilt— all enforced by gold-star committees and white-coated prestige. Then came pandemic whiplash —masks, closures, shots, reversals, walk-backs— and whatever residual trust remained simply burned off like chicken bouillon left too long on the stove.

If you consider why the old food pyramid survived as long as it did, you’ll instantly recognize it was because of entrenched interests— namely, Big Food. Not only does the new system —which drives vast government expenditures in the form of school lunch programs, SNAP, and a legion of food subsidies— emphasize real food, it called for zero sugar for kids up to ten years old. (The previous limit was two years.)

Since anybody who’s been paying attention has already ditched carbs for more protein, it wasn’t revolutionary news. The change seems more like acquiescence to what we all figured out for ourselves— in spite of government experts’ bad advice. But it was revolutionary, and I will tell you why. President Trump (via HHS) just disrupted another powerful, entrenched lobby. He ripped its chocolate-coated, soy-drenched, fiber-based heart out, scattering marshmallow* puffs all over the factory floor. (* not real marshmallow.)

The political disruption extends far beyond Big Food. Consider just the sudden vanishing of the war on meat. What happened to that particularly pestilential WEF mantra? For years, red meat was immoral, carcinogenic, cardiac-canceling and climate-criminal. Remember how collective cow flatulence was perpetually on the brink of literally destroying the planet? Now, all of a sudden, steak and whole milk are back on top, and this time nobody seems to be chaining themselves to a Chick-fil-A.

Democrats have bigger salmon to fry. In olive oil, of course.

This was also great news for kids who eat government food. But don’t underestimate the political significance. Big Food was just the first politically overpowered lobby Trump kicked over yesterday.

🔥 Also yesterday, the BBC built a story headlined, “Trump moves to ban home purchases by institutional investors.” In a dramatic Truth Social post, the President explained, “People live in homes, not corporations.” President Trump announced he is “immediately taking steps to ban large institutional investors from buying more single-family homes.”

In short, Trump just declared war on BlackRock-class behemoth investment firms and frankly, the Democrats’ billionaire donor class. They’ve already been wriggling under the states’ scalpel for their woke DEI initiatives. But this is a whole new level.

Trump is unlikely to deploy an outright ban, which would probably be unconstitutional. But Congress has very broad authority under the Commerce Clause to regulate institutional purchases of single‑family homes, because large investors operate in interstate capital and rental markets. So Trump (with help from Congress) could lawfully limit these investors’ access to federal programs like GSE guarantees, FHA insurance, and tax preferences, discouraging them to stop acquiring additional owner‑occupied housing.

The BBC reported that shares of related property firms immediately fell yesterday after Trump’s comments. For instance, Invitation Homes, which owns single-family homes, fell -6%. BlackRock fell almost -8% on the news, but recovered somewhat after the firm forcefully denied directly owning residential homes (which is true, but misleading; BlackRock invests in certain companies and investment funds that do buy residential homes at scale).

You’ll recall that the two main planks of the Democrats’ affordability narrative are housing and healthcare, which in turn are two of the biggest expenses that younger Americans face. By tackling a well-protected political lobby —Wall Street— Trump expertly outflanked Democrat bills planned for the congressional pipeline this year in advance of the midterms. If Trump’s initiative works, we could see real estate prices —especially in starter homes— plunge.

But wait, there was another one. An even bigger one.

🔥 Rightly or wrongly, many people still blame the military-industrial complex for JFK’s assassination. What we can agree on is that the MIC is one of the most powerful forces in American politics. Trump declared war on the MIC yesterday, as well. Remember, this is all in one day. Al Jazeera reported the much-ignored story, and ran it under the headline, “Trump threatens US defence firms over executive pay, slow production.” He sure did. Here’s just the first part of a long post:

In yesterday’s post, Trump threatened action if defense companies fail to catch up on their production schedules, including capping executive pay, investing in new factories and producing more military equipment, faster. He even named a cap amount of $5 million on CEO salaries until performance improves. He called for the suspension of shareholder dividends and stock buybacks.

In a separate post, Trump specifically called out one huge contractor, Raytheon, and threatened to pull the defense giant’s contracts. “I have been informed by the Department of War that Defense Contractor, Raytheon, has been the least responsive to the needs of the Department of War, the slowest in increasing their volume, and the most aggressive spending on their Shareholders rather than the needs and demands of the United States Military,” Trump wrote.

That was the stick. He also dangled a carrot— the largest increase in defense spending in US history. In a post last night, President Trump announced plans to petition congressional Republicans to surge the current $1 trillion military budget by +50%, to a record $1.5 trillion for fiscal year 2027. “This will allow us to build the ‘Dream Military’ that we have long been entitled to and, more importantly, that will keep us SAFE and SECURE, regardless of foe,” the President explained.

There are well-known and serious gaps in the US military’s effective arsenal. For one, we lack a production-ready hypersonic weapon, even though both Russia and China are developing second- and third-generation versions. Our defense suppliers currently manufacture air defense missiles in batches of hundreds, while China and Russia are building theirs in thousands and tens of thousands.

While we still have more supercarriers than any other country (or all of them put together), China is crushing us in shipbuilding. Chinese shipbuilding capacity is described as “dwarfing” the US’s capabilities. Russia has surged ahead in nuclear submarines. Russia, in particular, has demonstrated rapid adaptability to new technologies such as battlefield drones, whereas the US lags far behind.

🔥 Commenters immediately complained that Trump lacks legal authority to require defense contractors to limit executive pay, shareholder distributions, or force them to build new factories.

But first of all, back in March of last year —during the signing phase— Trump issued an executive order invoking the Defense Production Act, which he delegated to the Department of War (at that time focused on critical minerals). Call it a warning shot. Second, defense contractors principally work for the US government —the US taxpayer— and we can require whatever we want in the contracts. Third, and most obviously, they’ll all want to get in on the new spending, meaning they are going to agree to surge voluntarily.

Nothing like this has ever happened before, because no president after Kennedy was bold enough to take the MIC on.

Amidst the fog of fresh news and the hot takes, let’s step back and take a bigger view. There will be loud and angry arguments about how a $1.5 trillion military budget could be financed, and how it would affect the debt, taxes, Pentagon audits, and so on, and et cetera. For now, I will assume Trump’s team is well aware of these massive financial issues and will provide reasonable answers at the appropriate time. (My perspective will change once we get details.)

But what Trump is describing —a surge to catch up a long-mismanaged military through direct US investment— is comparable to slamming the country into a high gear of WWII-style war production, with resulting effects on economic growth, job opportunities, small business chances, and a vast downstream effect kind of like drinking a national double Jolt cola. It has risks: inflation would require careful management, misallocation of resources between civilian and military sectors could arise, managing the national debt would become paramount, and so on.

There’s precedent for such a surge provoking a “golden age.” Many popular accounts credit World War II’s military boom with launching roughly two “golden” postwar decades. The US emerged from WWII with intact industry, very low unemployment, high savings, large accumulated technological advances, and a favorable global position, setting up strong growth through the 1950s and into the 1960s. This period saw rapid GDP and productivity growth, a swelling middle class, and broad gains in living standards— twenty years of consistent prosperity.

It looks like Trump is simultaneously trying to do at least two historic things: (a) corral the military-industrial complex and bring it to heel; and (b) create a world war-style economic surge— but without actually having a world war. When you combine this with the other massive initiatives in AI data centers, nuclear energy, and the “Genesis Mission,” it all suggests something truly breathtaking in scope and imagination. Happy days.

If you look at the proposed military surge not in isolation, but as part of a much bigger emerging landscape, Trump’s “Dream Military” is less of an isolated Pentagon wishlist and more like the tip of a spear aimed at rapidly re-industrializing and re-energizing America.

Either way, get ready for liberal hysterics.

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The revived Monroe Doctrine is crushing it. Already, other narco-states in the American hemisphere are paying exceedingly close attention to what just happened in Venezuela. They don’t want it to spread. Namely, President Trump reported yesterday that Colombia’s president isn’t just waiting around for the midnight caller; he phoned the White House with a whole new and more helpful tone:

President Trump also made several dramatic announcements about Venezuela itself. First, and suddenly, our former hemispheric adversary will now, for some reason, be spending their vast oil revenues right here at home, in the United States, instead of paying the Russians and Chinese for military hardware:

Not just that. Also yesterday, President Trump dramatically announced that Venezuela would be “donating” to the U.S. millions of barrels of high-quality crude oil (worth billions), immediately. Thank you for your attention to this matter.

🔥 It’s still not over. In any other news cycle, this would be all anyone was talking about. The Wall Street Journal poured out a story yesterday headlined, “Trump Team Works Up Sweeping Plan to Control Venezuelan Oil for Years to Come.” The subheadline, get this, almost casually added, “President believes the effort could lower oil prices to his target of $50 a barrel.”

Fifty dollars a barrel.

“If successful,” the Journal modestly explained, “the plan could effectively give the U.S. stewardship of most of the oil reserves in the Western Hemisphere, when factoring in deposits in the U.S. and other countries where U.S. companies control production.” That’s not all. “It could also fulfill two of the administration’s primary goals,” the article continued, “namely, to box Russia and China out of Venezuela and to push energy prices lower for U.S. consumers.”

In other words, the Journal just described the Monroe Doctrine to a “T”: (1) stewardship of most of the oil reserves in our Western Hemisphere, (2) kicking China and Russia back to their own hemispheres of influence, and (3) making life more affordable for Americans. This also, not coincidentally, describes “America First.”

🔥 Along those lines, the military executed two more dramatic missions yesterday, all buried in the avalanche of news. The Washington Post sailed out the story under the headline, “U.S. seizes two tankers as Venezuelan oil blockade intensifies.” The sub-headline noted that, “In separate operations, a Russian-flagged vessel was boarded in the North Atlantic and another ship was apprehended near the Caribbean.”

The Russian-flagged oil tanker (now owned by the U.S.) initially sailed out of Venezuela with a shady fake registration. After being trailed by suspicious Coast Guard vessels to the Arctic, the tanker’s crew hastily painted a Russian flag on its bow. Later, Moscow advised that the Bella I was being escorted by a Russian nuclear submarine. The Coast Guard intercepted it anyway, without incident.

The Coast Guard was legally justified in at least two ways. First, it enforced Venezuelan sanctions, which were imposed or continued by Democrats during the Biden Administration. Second, maritime law allows seizure of improperly registered vessels. The post-hoc effort by the Russians to fix the fake registration using a couple buckets of paint proves the Bella (renamed in mid-cruise to the Marenara, a type of bland Italian pasta sauce).

Specifically, and allowing that I’m not a maritime lawyer (trust me, they are certifiably insane), UNCLOS Article 92 says that a ship that changes nationality during a voyage (if for other purposes than a true sale) is a stateless ship that can be boarded by any state. So.

Concerned friends texted me yesterday asking whether I thought this seizure was provocative. Could snatching Russian oil tankers, even falsely registered ones, start a war with Russia? My answer is ‘no.’ More specifically, once again, last month Trump explained to the world in his National Security Strategy memo that America would enforce its hemisphere. Get out. They don’t have to go home, but they can’t stay here.

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Because I am confident this developing story will appear throughout the comments if I don’t address it, I’ll spare a few words for yesterday’s regrettable death of an anti-ICE activist. The UK Guardian shot out a story headlined, “‘This is not normal’: Minneapolis on edge and angry after ICE killing of woman amid federal surge.”

We remain in the hot takes moment. We don’t yet know yet what really happened, and we will not know for at least three days. Rumors and speculation govern right now.

Having said that, from what I can see so far, the shooting was justified. Around 9:30 am on Wednesday, Minneapolis resident Reneé Good, 37, a gay, progressive, pro-immigrant activist (and mother of three), deliberately tried to interfere with ICE officers, drove her truck into their way, and then drove over an ICE agent while being ordered to stop and desist. Critics claim the video proves she was trying to drive around the agent. Investigations are ongoing.

The left, long hoping for just such an occasion to exploit, is attempting to turn Ms. Good into the next George Floyd. I am not making this up: in an inexplicable coincidence, yesterday’s shooting occurred about a mile from where George Floyd died. A new George Floyd incident would help Democrats distract everyone from the Minnesota Fraud Scandal. Al Jazeera, yesterday:

Minnesota Governor Tim Walz decried the shooting as “totally predictable” and “totally avoidable.” He said, “I feel your anger.” Not your sorrow. Your anger. Congresswoman Ilhan Omar accused the Trump administration of spreading false information, and said she was “beyond outraged” by ICE’s “reckless, callous actions.”

The protests escalated throughout the day yesterday, culminating in standoffs between ICE agents shooting tear gas at immigration protestors. Minneapolis public schools canceled classes today and tomorrow “for safety.”

DHS has already published multiple notices defending the agent’s actions, and President Trump has also weighed in. We must wait and see how the facts develop. But if the violence continues to escalate, President Trump will have the legal predicate to invoke the Insurrection Act and bring in the military. If it heads that way, I’ll give you more background.

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Apart from the developing Minneapolis story, the rest of what we saw yesterday was a category five tornado of action, sweeping the board, challenging the biggest and most powerful entrenched interests in America and beyond. Big Food, Big Finance, and the Military Industrial Complex all came under simultaneous attack. On top of that, add Trump’s unbelievably rapid announcements about Venezuela and the dramatic seizure of the two wayward oil tankers.

Believe it or that, today’s roundup didn’t come even close to naming all the big developments. Just for one example, yesterday President Trump also signed an executive order withdrawing the US from a long list of international organizations, which I’ll cover in more detail tomorrow.

The long year of preparation, with as many terrific developments as there were —and thank goodness I compiled a partial list in my two-part Year in Review— that year of preparation is now paying off. All the planning, the carefully considered executive orders, the tedious lawfare, and the painstaking reorganization and DOGE-ing of the federal government into a coherent, fast-moving unit. The plan has now come alive, suddenly and without warning entering its live-action surge phase.

We don’t know the plan’s details (nor should we), nor what else is happening behind the scenes —probably a lot— but from what we can see, it is even more sensational and spectacular than anything we could have imagined.

Have a terrific Thursday! You’d better sail back here under full steam tomorrow, as there remains a lot to cover so that you can stay current on all the essential news with the keen commentary you need to make sense of it all. See you in the morning.

Don’t race off! We cannot do it alone. Consider joining up with C&C to help move the nation’s needle and change minds. I could sure use your help getting the truth out and spreading optimism and hope, if you can: ☕ Learn How to Get Involved 🦠

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