“Attorney General Pam Bondi clashed with lawmakers during a contentious House Judiciary Committee hearing on Wednesday, with the department’s handling of its Jeffrey Epstein records and its attempts to prosecute critics of President Donald Trump causing the most tension. … At times, Bondi’s performance on Wednesday seemed targeted specifically for Trump. She appeared to be reading off pre-written talking points on occasion and sang Trump’s praises, calling him ‘the greatest president in American history.’ Wednesday’s hearing devolved into a series of shouting matches as Democrats peppered Bondi with questions about Epstein and survivors of his abuse, many of whom attended the proceedings. … Bondi, in turn, repeatedly accused Democrats of ‘theatrics’ and said that she would not ‘get in the gutter with these people,’ though she repeatedly lobbed personal attacks on Democratic lawmakers.” (02/11/26)
“In the eyes of today’s teens, journalism and the media are doomed. In two major surveys of US teens conducted over the last two years, the nonprofit News Literacy Project found deep levels of mistrust and misunderstanding of the news …. The root of this distrust is the lack of ‘news literacy,’ argues Charles (‘Chuck’) Salter, the News Literacy Project’s President and CEO. Teens aren’t currently taught how to be savvy consumers of the information that flashes across their screens. They don’t know what makes good journalism and how to tell if a story is credible. As one result, far too many teens are falling into the trap of conspiracism and misinformation.” (02/11/26)
“The newspaper’s plan to address marijuana abuse would compound the disadvantages that state-licensed suppliers face in competing with the black market.” (02/11/26)
“The European discourse can be — for lack of a better term — America-brained. We hear stories of Black Lives Matter marches in countries without significant black populations, or defendants demanding their First Amendment rights in countries without constitutions. Why shouldn’t the opposite phenomenon exist? Europe is more populous than the US, and looms large in the American imagination. Why shouldn’t we find ourselves accidentally absorbing European ideas that don’t make sense in the American context?” (02/11/26)
“Kenyan cult leader Paul Mackenzie and seven others linked to a doomsday sect were issued with new charges on Wednesday over the deaths of 52 people whose bodies were found in shallow graves in southeast Kenya in 2025, a court charge sheet showed. Mackenzie and others were already facing charges including murder and terrorism in connection with the deaths of people whose bodies were exhumed earlier from Shakahola forest, in one of the world’s biggest cult-related disasters in recent history. Prosecutors say Mackenzie and his Good News International Church organised a cult in which they ordered followers to starve themselves and their children to death to go to heaven before the world ended. Mackenzie has denied the accusations.” (02/11/26)
“The prospect of President Donald Trump pursuing regime change in Iran has animated the most hawkish voices in the establishment. But American war-weariness has forced the usual suspects to refine the art of apologetics. Rather than calling for ‘boots on the ground’ to liberate the Iranian people, many now argue the same result can be achieved through covert methods. Some assert, without a shred of evidence, that a large-scale strike can topple Tehran’s rulers without American troops ever setting foot in the country. Others avoid the question of what regime change would look like altogether, fearful that Americans will not be pleased with the answer.” (02/11/26)
Source: Future of Freedom Foundation
by Jacob G Hornberger
“President Trump and the U.S. national-security establishment had no business invading Venezuela, kidnapping the country’s president, and forcibly carrying him back to the United States to stand trial for supposedly violating U.S. drug laws and U.S. gun-control laws. They also had no business killing Venezuelan citizens and others on the high seas near Venezuela. But what’s done is done. The question is what should Trump, the Pentagon, and the CIA do now? They should leave Venezuela alone.” (02/10/26)
“The Food and Drug Administration has declined to review Moderna’s application for the first mRNA-based flu vaccine, a decision that shocked the company and that comes as the agency plans to tighten federal vaccine approvals. The nation’s top vaccine regulator, Vinay Prasad, told Moderna that it lacked an ‘adequate and well-controlled’ study, the company said in a news release Tuesday. In a large clinical trial, the vaccine was compared with Fluarix, an approved standard-dose flu vaccine. Prasad’s letter did not detail concerns with the safety or efficacy of the vaccine, which Moderna was aiming to target for adults ages 50 and older. Moderna President Stephen Hoge said that the company had previously engaged with the FDA on the trial design and that the agency earlier indicated it would be acceptable.” (02/10/26)
