“The U.S. Department of Homeland Security is shut down after Congress failed to fund the agency before the midnight deadline. The partial shutdown is due to deadlock over federal immigration operations, but it also means TSA agents at airports across the U.S. are expected to screen passengers and bags without pay. About 95% of TSA workers are deemed essential personnel and required to keep working.” [editor’s note: They’re not required to do anything. They can give up the thug life and go get real jobs any time they want to – TLK] (02/14/26)
“The general public’s awareness of Epstein’s heinous crimes came with political baggage. However at this point, the question we all should wonder is: How does redacting the names of the men who helped fund Epstein’s operation benefit either political party? It may be good for the rich and powerful men trying to avoid accountability, but it’s not exactly a campaign platform. … We have seen Congress kept out of session to avoid voting on the release of the Epstein files; we have heard equivocation about whether Epstein was a pedophile. We know Epstein’s island was a place where evil resided. The investigation, or lack of investigation, into Epstein’s fellow abusers should not be seen by anyone as a political quandary in which the object of the game is to keep your party in power.” (02/14/26)
“The latest critique of capitalism from Jason Hickel and Yanis Varoufakis …. ‘Capitalists are the ones who determine what to produce, how to use our labour and who gets to benefit. The rest of us – the people who are actually doing the production – do not get a say.’ This is simply factually wrong because markets. Capitalists might try to direct our labour into the production of things that we out here, we consumers, might not want. The Ford Edsel, say. But when we don’t want it then the capitalists stop so directing our labour into the production of what we do not want. For if they don’t they then go bust — as the death of four out of five new attempts at capitalism show. … This is not a complicated logical proposition but it’s one that seems to entirely escape two university professors here.” (02/14/26)
“The rumors of discussions on Russia’s return to the dollar system sparked speculation about the strength of the financial alternatives deployed to bypass sanctions. While the central bank denies being involved in such talks, the Kremlin clarified that Russia never left the dollar: it was excluded.” (02/15/26)
“‘American Independence was then & there born. John Adams wasn’t talking about July 4, 1776, and the Declaration of Independence. He was referring to the beginning of the real American Revolution that kicked off years earlier in February 1761. That’s when James Otis Jr delivered a fiery 5-hour speech railing against the writs of assistance. While the Declaration of Independence was a seminal moment in the Revolution, it was the culmination of more than 15 years of radical changes in the minds and hearts of the people that started with Otis’s speech.” (02/13/26)
“Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny died in prison in Russia after being poisoned with a deadly toxin found in the skin of Ecuadorian dart frogs, the UK and other allies have [claimed]. The ‘barbaric’ act — using a neurotoxin that is classed as a chemical weapon — could only have been carried out by Vladimir Putin’s government, they said on Saturday. … Russian authorities have previously claimed the dissident’s death was not suspicious but had been caused as a result of ‘combined diseases,’ including an irregular heartbeat.” (02/14/26)
