“I should be clear that I do think the Biden family’s business dealings were corrupt, whether or not laws were broken. Others disagree. I also think Trump’s business dealings appear to be worse in many ways than even what Biden was alleged to have done. But none of that is relevant. The standard set by Trump and Republicans is the relevant political standard, and by the deputy attorney general’s own account, the Trump administration is doing ‘exactly the same thing,’ just more openly. Since when is being more transparent about wrongdoing a defense? Try telling a cop or judge: ‘Yes, I robbed that bank. I’ve been completely transparent about that. So, what’s the big deal?'” (02/04/26)
“Have you ever noticed that in the tug of war beteeen federal and state power, politicians of all stripes support the Constitution’s balance when it suits them and ignore it when it doesn’t?” (02/04/26)
“Anger about the scenes of unrest and violence amid ICE deportation operations in Minnesota? Well, the Trump administration has telegraphed that it would like to carry out a crackdown on Haitians in Ohio next. Concern about brandishing military force after the U.S. removed the leader of Venezuela and then threatened Greenland? Trump has sent an ‘armada’ of warships to the Persian Gulf to intimidate Iran. A sense that the president has lost focus on what got him elected as he takes on vanity projects such as the White House ballroom? Well, he’ll see you that and raise you both the Kennedy Center renovation and the construction of a giant arch that no one seems to want.” (02/04/26)
“A Serbian government minister and three others went on trial on Wednesday on charges of abuse of office and falsifying of documents to help pave the way for a real estate project that was to be financed by a company of Jared Kushner, U.S. President Donald Trump’s son-in-law. Kushner has since withdrawn from the planned multi-million investment that envisaged building a high-rise hotel, a luxury apartment complex, office spaces and shops to replace a sprawling bombed-out military complex in central Belgrade. … Culture Minister Nikola Selakovic, who is a close ally of [Serbian president Aleksandar] Vucic, and three other officials are accused of illegally lifting the protection status in 2024 for the site by forging documentation. If convicted they could face up to three years in prison. They pleaded not guilty as the trial opened.” (02/04/26)
“With resources dwindling and rampant foreign military aid corruption, Azov has increasingly relied on donations from individuals and companies. According to reporting from Svidomi, which included interviews with founders and project managers, a new project, Strum, has become the ‘driving force’ behind the Brigade. The platform operates as a subscription service like Netflix or Spotify, but with some substantial differences and additional features.” [editor’s note: I’m not a fan of Azov, but this is the way ALL military organizations should be funded – TLK] (02/04/26)
“Envoys from Russia and Ukraine met in Abu Dhabi on Wednesday for another round of U.S.-brokered talks on ending the almost four-year war, a Ukrainian negotiator said. The delegations from Moscow and Kyiv were joined in the United Arab Emirates by U.S. officials, Rustem Umerov, Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council chief, who was present at the meeting, said on social media. Umerov said the planned two-day negotiations started with all three delegations present, after which negotiators were to break into groups according to topics and then meet as a full group again at the end.” (02/04/26)
“There is a new strain of authoritarian thought emerging in America today, one that threatens to rip asunder America as we know it. It has its roots in the neo-feudalism of anarcho-capitalist theorist Hans-Hermann Hoppe. It evolved into the neo-reactionism of Curtis Yarvin writing as Mencius Moldbug. His Patchwork philosophy called for a fractured network of corporate city states, each ruled by a corporate CEO with absolute power. More recently Yarvin has come out explicitly for regime change and the establishment of a de facto centralized authoritarian one party state through what he he calls Hard Party politics. An approach one might call Shock-and-Awe Centralism.” (02/03/26)
