“U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio arrived in the Munich Security Conference this weekend to sooth transatlantic anxieties. After Vice President J.D. Vance’s criticisms of the old continent in 2025, the European dignitaries were looking for a more conventional American performance. What they got was a peculiar mix of primacist nostalgia and civilizational foreboding, with an explicit desire to forge a path of restoration together. ‘We are not looking for a rupture,’ the Secretary of State told his audience. ‘We want to revitalize an old friendship and renew the greatest civilization in human history,’ in a reference to the West. Predictably, Rubio – a neoconservative favorite in a pre-Trump GOP – ensured that it was America’s job to lead.” (02/14/26)
“The first solar eclipse of the year will grace Antarctica, and only a lucky few will get to bask — or waddle — in its glow. Tuesday’s annular solar eclipse, known as a ‘ring of fire’, will only be visible in the southernmost continent, home to research stations and diverse wildlife. ‘The penguins down there are going to have a great show,’ said astronomer Joe Llama with Lowell Observatory. Clear skies permitting, more people can catch a partial eclipse with small bites taken out of the sun from the tips of Chile and Argentina and bits of southeastern Africa including Madagascar, Lesotho and South Africa. Solar eclipses happen when the sun, moon and Earth align just so. The moon casts a shadow that can partially or totally block out the sun’s light from Earth.” (02/13/26)
“It has been described as Germany’s most ‘spectacular’ bank heist in years. On a quiet weekend just after Christmas, a group of thieves broke into a High Street bank in the western town of Gelsenkirchen, by boring through a wall with an industrial drill. They looted more than 3,000 safe deposit boxes and made off with millions of euros. Over a month later, police have yet to make an arrest. For the bank’s clients, some of whom say they have lost their life savings and precious family jewellery and valuables, this is a time of anger, confusion and shock. There is a strong sense that trust in institutions has been shaken. The case has thrown up all sorts of difficult questions, and some of them have been spelled out by Herbert Reul, the interior minister in the western state of North Rhine-Westphalia.” (02/14/26)
“A mere 15 years ago, during an epoch that now seems as distant as the Paleozoic era, an American president attempted to use military power to prevent a dictator from slaughtering his own citizens. Barack Obama billed the action in Libya as a humanitarian intervention, citing the new United Nations doctrine of ‘responsibility to protect,’ or R2P. The president hoped to avert a massacre by Libyan dictator Muammar Qaddafi rather than, as usual, coming in afterwards to count the dead and try to bring the malefactors to justice. Obama intervened like a global police officer, following the letter of the (international) law. Eager to be seen as a ‘good cop,’ the president even promised to ‘lead from behind.’ It’s impossible to know if the US-led action did indeed prevent massive war crimes.” (02/14/26)
“The seven Western states that depend on the Colorado River missed a deadline for the second time Saturday to agree on a plan addressing record drought and water shortages. Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs, California Gov. Gavin Newsom and Nevada Gov. Joe Lombardo released a joint statement calling on Upper Basin states to offer more concessions. Those states include Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming. ‘The Colorado River is essential to our communities and economies, and our states have conserved large volumes of water in recent years to stabilize the basin’s water supplies for years to come,’ the governors said. ‘Our stance remains firm and fair: all seven basin states must share in the responsibility of conservation.’ Arizona, California and Nevada have offered to decrease Colorado River allocation by 27%, 10% and 17%, respectively, according to those states.” (02/14/26)
“When I was growing up in the 1980s, there was a galaxy of left-wing, even socialist, intellectual stars such as Noam Chomsky, Michel Foucault and Gore Vidal whose works were like an inkwell that politicians and commentators could draw from. Judging from the Munich Security Conference this weekend, that inkwell has run dry. Take this gem of a comment on global order from Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, queen of the democratic socialists: ‘What we are seeking is a return to a rules-based order that eliminates the hypocrisies around when too often in the West we look the other way for inconvenient populations, to act out these paradoxes.’ Allow me to translate this into English: ‘The West is bad and mistreats the marginalized rest of the world.'” (02/14/26)
“The truth is out there. Former President Barack Obama said that aliens are real but he has no idea where they are during a podcast appearance released Saturday. ‘They’re real, but I haven’t seen them,’ Obama told YouTuber Brian Tyler Cowen after he asked him about extraterrestrials. The former president did not offer any further details on what he mean by ‘real’ — and no follow-up questions on the topic were asked — but he used the appearance to cast doubt on several longtime theories as to where they might be. ‘They’re not being kept in Area 51, there’s no underground facility, unless there’s this enormous conspiracy and they hid it from the president of the United States,’ Obama said.” (02/14/26)
“The chairman of the Marin County Republicans sounded alarms this week about possible voting by dead people during the special election last November. During a Board of Supervisors meeting Tuesday, John Turnacliff requested that the county’s registrar of voters look into the matter. ‘I, along with others on our committee, have been dissecting Marin County voter rolls for over three years,’ Turnacliff said during the public comment portion of the meeting. ‘… And based on our analysis of the ballots that were returned for the Prop. 50 special election on Nov. 4, we found 73 people, 73 dead people had voted in that election.’ Asking Natalie Adona, the county’s registrar of voters, to review those numbers, Turnacliff said, ‘In summary, dead people are voting in Marin County, and we would like to know why.'” (02/14/26)
“President Trump’s ‘border czar,’ Tom Homan, announced Thursday that Operation Metro Surge (the violent occupation of Minneapolis and surrounding regions by DHS kidnapping squads) was going to end. At a minimum, it’s unclear how honest Homan was being; if the Minneapolis city council is any judge, ICE kidnappings were still ongoing Thursday, and Homan said that some officers would remain. On Wednesday, one particularly violent kidnapping in St. Paul left three cars wrecked and someone being taken out in an ambulance. Given the Trump administration’s outrageous dishonesty about every possible subject, it would be wise to assume that the occupation (with kidnapping squads regularly snatching people off the streets, with cars full of ICE goons hanging menacingly around workplaces, schools, and even day cares) will continue until proven otherwise.” (02/13/26)
“A mere 15 years ago, during an epoch that now seems as distant as the Paleozoic era, an American president attempted to use military power to prevent a dictator from slaughtering his own citizens. Barack Obama billed the action in Libya as a humanitarian intervention, citing the new U.N. doctrine of ‘responsibility to protect’ (R2P). The president hoped to avert a massacre by Libyan dictator Muammar Qaddafi rather than, as usual, coming in afterwards …. It’s impossible to know if the U.S.-led action did indeed prevent massive war crimes. However, the disastrous aftermath of that Libyan campaign — the summary execution of Qaddafi and a civil war that would kill tens of thousands — was yet more evidence that Washington’s attempts to police the world are quixotic at best.” (02/12/25)
