“Senate Majority Leader John Kavanagh, R-Fountain Hills, called on Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes to resign after she said people who feel [sic] they are in danger are legally allowed to shoot masked federal law enforcement officers. Mayes made these comments in an interview with 12News, where she said, ‘We have a Stand Your Ground law that says that if you reasonably believe that your life is in danger and you’re in your house or your car or on your property, that you can defend yourself with lethal force.’ … Her comments are ‘putting the lives of federal and local law enforcement officers engaged in such dangerous work at risk,’ the state senator explained. ‘She needs to recant her statement and resign in disgrace,’ Kavanagh said.” [editor’s note: Well, SOMEONE does – TLK] (01/26/26)
“The lies aren’t even creative. They’re pro forma. They tell them to cloak the impunity given to the murderous agents of the state, who’ve been unshackled from the Constitution and given license to raid and ransack, detain and kill at will. But how long will even the most slavish devotees of this regime be willing to swallow the lies without convulsing from deep-welling nausea? The right-to-lifers? The evangelicals? The NRA? How much will they tolerate? After all, federal agents disarmed Alex Pretti, then they shot him. You couldn’t script a more harrowing parable for the NRA’s warnings about the sanctity of gun rights for all these years. Will this heinous killing finally make them turn on Trump? Don’t count on it.” (01/26/26)
“An important mythical figure in Nazi Germany was a man named Horst Wessel. He was a mid-level Nazi street thug who was killed by communists over an unpaid rent dispute. Nazi propaganda turned him into a hero of the German nation, and the ‘Horst Wessel Song’ became the official Nazi anthem. The Trump administration is doing all in its power to create a similar fake martyr in the form of dead Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) or Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers. It’s central to the conservative victimhood complex: In order to violently dominate others, they must create a false narrative in which they are also the victim at the same time.” (01/26/26)
“What is the proper role of the judiciary in American political life? There has never been a clear answer to that question, even among the founders. The Constitution itself has relatively little to say about the judiciary, delegating most of its design and much of its authority to congressional action. Alexander Hamilton in Federalist #78 argued that the judiciary could resolve disputes arising under the Constitution. But James Madison in Federalist #51 suggested that many such questions should be settled by the political process. Thomas Jefferson, in retirement, was aghast at the sweeping rhetoric of McCulloch v. Maryland, in which his cousin, Chief Justice John Marshall, employed Hamiltonian reasoning to legitimize the Bank of the United States.” (01/26/26)
“If Americans, inspired by Minneapolis, collectively refuse to allow politicians to treat this as business as usual, then Renee Good and Alex Pretti will rightly be remembered as martyrs who gave their lives to the cause of restoring democracy.” (01/26/26)
“Israel on Monday confirmed that the remains of Staff Sgt. Ran Gvili, the last Israeli hostage held in Gaza, have been recovered and returned home after 842 days. Gvili, who was 24 at the time of his death, served as an Israel Police officer and was killed during fighting on Oct. 7, 2023, after confronting Hamas terrorists near Kibbutz Alumim, according to a statement from the Hostages and Missing Families Forum. His body was later abducted to Gaza. … The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said following the completion of an identification process conducted by Israel’s National Institute of Forensic Medicine, in coordination with police and military authorities, that officials informed the Gvili family that their loved one’s remains had been identified and would be returned for burial.” (01/26/26)
“n medicine, silence can be more alarming than noise. For example, a patient who abruptly stops voicing discomfort or a monitor that ceases activity may signal system failure rather than resolution. Ecology presents a similar scenario, and currently, the silence is deeply concerning. Insects are disappearing across vast regions globally. This is not a modest decline or a simple geographic shift, but a rapid vanishing of beetles, butterflies, moths, flies, mosquitoes, bees, and entire functional groups. This phenomenon is not speculative or anecdotal; it is among the most consistently documented biological trends of the past 50 years and remains insufficiently addressed.” (01/26/26)
“The Trump administration is reportedly moving to ban TP-Link routers, but experts say they’re no less secure than other devices.” (for publication 02/26)
