The Daily, 02/26/26
Source: New York Times
“Inside the Operation to Take Down Mexico’s Biggest Drug Lord.” (02/26/26)
Author: Thomas L. Knapp
Six signs of student press censorship
Source: Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression
by Marie McMullan
“When student journalism came under fire last year, those sparks caught the public’s attention. With the ousting of The Indiana Daily Student’s advisor and temporary ban on its print issues, the University of Alabama’s decision to close two student-run magazines, and sadly more, 2025 was a busy year for student press censors. But not all efforts to suppress student journalists are as eye-catching. To help understand how censorship can sneak into newsrooms, here are six signs to look out for …” (02/26/26)
https://www.fire.org/news/six-signs-student-press-censorship
Savoring the Declaration
Source: Law & Liberty
by Joshua T Katz
“The famous second sentence of the Declaration of Independence is more complex than Isaacson realizes.” (02/26/26)
World Economic Forum chief resigns after Epstein ties revealed
Source: The Hill
“Børge Brende resigned as president and CEO of the World Economic Forum (WEF) amid revelations regarding his ties to Jeffrey Epstein. Brende wrote in a WEF release he decided to step down ‘after careful consideration’ from a role he has occupied since 2017. He did not mention the late convicted sex offender. … The WEF launched a probe into Brende earlier this month, after documents released by the Department of Justice revealed he attended multiple ‘business dinners’ with Epstein and exchanged emails and text messages with the sex offender, years after he pleaded guilty in 2008 to procuring a child for prostitution and soliciting a prostitute.” (02/26/26)
https://thehill.com/policy/international/5756220-epstein-brende-world-economic-forum-resigns/
Underthrow Podcast, 02/26/26
Source: Underthrow
“Broken People Shouldn’t Try to Fix the World,” (02/26/26)
https://underthrow.substack.com/p/broken-people-shouldnt-try-to-fix
Lessons from Wall Street sex trafficker Howard Rubin
Source: Sex and the State
by Cathy Reisenwitz
“There are people who are peddling the lie that sexual abuse – Jeffrey Epstein, Howard Rubin, Harvey Weinstein – is about sexual liberalism run amok. … it is not. It’s about POWER. Successful abusers know who to abuse. They know when to abuse. They find vulnerable people and make sure they’re not able to leave before they start abusing them. Howard Rubin didn’t rape [h]is assistant Jennifer Powers. He didn’t rape his kids’ dance instructor or his wife or daughter. He had Jennifer find women in desperate financial need and offered them $2,000 for a night and $5,000 for a great night (according to Rubin). She told them it would involve ‘light fetish work.’ They’d establish a safe word. Then, when they were alone in a room Rubin would tie them up, gag them, and rape and torture them (allegedly?!).” (02/26/26)
https://cathyreisenwitz.substack.com/p/lessons-from-wall-street-sex-trafficker
Hungary: Regime accuses Ukraine of “oil blockade,” deploys soldiers to key energy facilities
Source: CNBC
“Hungary has accused Ukraine of disrupting oil supplies it gets from Russia and has stationed troops at critical energy facilities across the country as Prime Minister Viktor Orban ramps up the rhetoric around energy and national security ahead of parliamentary elections in April. Orban on Wednesday accused Kyiv of imposing an ‘oil blockade’ on Hungary by delaying the reopening of the Druzhba pipeline which supplies it, and neighboring Slovakia, with Russian oil. Ukraine shut the pipeline a month ago, saying a Russian strike had damaged it, but Hungary’s leader accused Kyiv of deliberately keeping the pipeline closed for ‘political’ rather than ‘technical’ reasons.” (02/26/26)
Radio Atlantic, 02/26/26
Source: The Atlantic
“What the Pentagon Fears in Iran.” (02/26/26)
https://www.theatlantic.com/podcasts/2026/02/why-pick-a-fight-with-iran-now/686140/
Capitalism’s Coalition Is Cracking — And That Should Worry Us
Source: The Daily Economy
by Vance Ginn
“Polls show skepticism is rising, yet the moral and economic case for free markets has never been stronger.” (02/26/26)
https://thedailyeconomy.org/article/capitalisms-coalition-is-cracking-and-that-should-worry-us/
Are the Rich Good for Democracy?
Source: The Dispatch
by Timothy Sandefur
“Hating the rich has been a popular pastime since democracy was invented. The ancient Greek playwright Aristophanes even played on this fact in his comedy Ecclesiazusae, written four centuries before Christ, in which the idealistic Praxagora proposes building a utopian community in which ‘there will no longer be either rich or poor,’ but ‘all property [will] be in common.’ When a friend asks her ‘But who will till the soil?’ Praxagora unselfconsciously replies: ‘The slaves.’ The rhetoric hasn’t improved much since.” (02/26/26)