“Every February, Black History Month invites Americans to honor the giants of the civil rights movement. We commemorate them in speeches and street names, reassuring ourselves that their struggles belong safely to the past. But history tells a less comforting story. We tend to celebrate Black moral courage only after it has been stripped of urgency — after its disruptions have been neutralized and its challenges to power rendered harmless. The figures we now hold up as national icons were once dismissed as dangerous or destabilizing by moderates and institutions that claimed to support equality while resisting its consequences. This pattern is not accidental. It is structural.” (02/16/26)
“The avatars of MAGA-land often appear to operate with almost boundless impunity. President Trump was granted nearly total immunity by the U.S. Supreme Court. He pardoned more than 1,500 Jan. 6 rioters. His officials reflexively defend masked immigration enforcement officials gunning down Minnesota protesters, rather than suspending or at least investigating them. There have been few if any lasting consequences for crimes or malfeasance in Trump world. It was, therefore, truly heartening to see a group of Republicans acknowledge that law-breaking must be meaningfully penalized, even if committed under the MAGA banner. Last month, the nine justices of the Georgia Supreme Court — eight of whom were appointed by Republican governors — unanimously stated that nothing less than disbarment was called for in the case of William McCall Calhoun, Jr., an attorney who had participated in the ‘violent takeover of the Capitol’ on Jan. 6, 2021.” (02/16/26)
“Lest anyone think I am taking the words of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-New York) out of context, here is, verbatim, her answer to a question during an appearance at the Munich Security Conference last week. … Asked, ‘Would and should the U.S. actually commit U.S. troops to defend Taiwan if China were to move?,’ Ocasio-Cortez replied: ‘You know, I think that this is such a, you know, I think that this is a, this is, of course, a very long-standing policy of the United States. And I think what we are hoping for is that we want to make sure that we never get to that point, and we want to make sure that we are moving in all of our economic research and our global positions to avoid any such confrontation and for that question to even arise.’ This was a yes-or-no question, and Ocasio-Cortez did not answer it.” (02/16/26)
“The Federal Bureau of Investigation informed Minnesota’s highest investigative agency that it will not share evidence and information related to the [murder] of Alex Pretti. The Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension said in a statement that it was informed by the FBI on Friday it would not be sharing any information. … Pretty, 37, was shot multiple times by federal agents on Jan. 24, while observing their activities in the Minneapolis area. He was the second civilian [murdered] in the area by federal agents, weeks after the fatal shooting of 37-year-old Renee Good. The FBI has also refused to cooperate with Minnesota authorities in the investigation into Good’s [murder] at the hands of federal agent Jonathan Ross.” (02/16/26)
Source: Independent Institute
by Alvaro Vargas Llosa
“For a subcontinent known for holding ‘honor’ and ‘dignity’ in (disproportionately) high esteem, as seen in everything from pop culture, including soap operas, to political discourse, the turn of events in Venezuela is fascinating. The speed and ease with which the regime’s top figures (interim president Delcy Rodriguez, minister of the Interior Diosdado Cabello, minister of Defense Vladimir Padrino and the president of the National Assembly, Jorge Rodriguez) have become the incarnation of everything they once despised should put the last nail in the coffin of the myth that the Latin American revolutionary left stands, well, for honor and dignity.” (02/16/26)
“Apple is starting to test end-to-end encrypted (E2EE) RCS messages with the developer beta of iOS 26.4 released Monday. Apple announced plans last year to support the feature, and once fully available, it will let iPhone and Android users send encrypted RCS messages to each other across platforms. However, with this initial implementation, Apple is only testing RCS encryption between Apple devices. It’s ‘not yet testable with other platforms,’ Apple says.” (02/16/26)
“If the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) wants to scrutinize a person or organization, it must meet certain legal standards demonstrating evidence to support suspicion of criminal activity before opening an investigation. Well, sort of. It turns out that if the feds can’t meet the bar to justify an investigation, they can move ahead by calling their surveillance efforts ‘assessments.’ Then, they can use the assessments to justify full investigations — assuming FBI agents care to follow the rules to begin with, which is not always the case. That’s led to the feds snooping on roughly 1,100 religious figures, journalists, activists, and public officials in recent years.” (02/16/26)
“Strikes on a market in central Sudan’s Kordofan region killed at least 28 people and wounded dozens, said a rights group on Monday, as the war between the army and a paramilitary group nears its three-year mark. Emergency Lawyers, a rights group tracking violence against civilians, said in a statement that drones bombed a market in Sudri locality in North Kordofan province on Sunday, during a time the market was bustling with civilians, ‘exacerbating the humanitarian tragedy.’ The group said the number of casualties was likely to rise. … The fighting between the Rapid Support Forces and the Sudanese military erupted into a full-blown war across the country in April 2023. So far, at least 40,000 people have been killed and 12 million displaced, according to the World Health Organization.” (02/16/26)
