Dec 7th News Roundup & Five Things to Be Optimistic/Pessismitc About 2026

On this week’s episode of The Lonely Liberal, Rick and I dig into four stories that say a lot about power, violence, and accountability in 2025 America. First, we unpack the newest batch of Epstein files and photographs, including tens of thousands of images and a growing list of powerful names. Then we turn to the tragic shooting at Brown University, the first mass shooting in Ivy League history.  From there, we look at Trump’s new $12 billion farm subsidy package: who really benefits, how it ties back to his own tariff and trade policies, and whether this is relief for farmers or a taxpayer-funded band-aid for self-inflicted economic wounds. Finally, we zoom out to the sanctions chessboard surrounding Ukraine, Russia, and Belarus,  including the economic pressure campaign on Moscow and the recent U.S. move to ease some sanctions on Belarus in exchange for prisoner releases. Rick and I then break down five reasons to freak out/feel good about where U.S. politics is headed — from democratic backsliding, gerrymandered maps, attacks on the Inflation Reduction Act and the social safety net, to quietly holding a polling edge for 2026, abortion-rights victories even in Trump country, a more organized pro-democracy ecosystem, structural reforms like ranked-choice voting gaining traction, and a Republican Party that keeps overreaching on wildly unpopular issues.