The audacity of Trump’s choice as Fed chief

Source: Christian Science Monitor
by staff

“The U.S. Senate will soon grill Kevin Warsh as President Donald Trump’s nominee to head up the nation’s central bank starting in May. The position is one of the most powerful in Washington. The Federal Reserve, with its mandate from Congress to ensure stable prices and full employment, helps steer both the American and world economy, mainly by setting interest rates. Given that the Senate easily approved the former Wall Street lawyer two decades ago to sit on the bank’s board – as the Fed’s youngest-ever governor – it might not probe him hard on one of his most intriguing yet disputed ideas. Yet, it should. Mr. Warsh, a graduate of Stanford and Harvard, maintains that the American people – in their curiosity, ingenuity, freedom, equality, and collaboration – are as important as the Fed in keeping inflation low.” (01/30/25)

https://www.csmonitor.com/Editorials/the-monitors-view/2026/0130/The-audacity-of-Trump-s-choice-as-Fed-chief

When Life Gives You Don Lemons…

Source: Town Hall
by Derek Hunter

“Honestly, if you’d told me a couple of weeks ago literally anything about failed CNN personality Don Lemon, it would have taken me a minute to remember who he was. If I really think about it, there’s a good chance I would have had to think about it for a second or two even back when he had a show on CNN, but now that he’s gone the only thing I think of is how he had a job with Twitter for one show, an interview with Elon Musk, and was so stupid that he got fired immediately after it. Until he helped raid that church in Minneapolis, that was going to be how I remembered him…If I remembered him at all. Now it’s like the j*****s who facilitated left-wing nutjobs screaming at families trying to worship God, then claimed they were white supremacists anyway.” (02/01/25)

https://townhall.com/columnists/derekhunter/2026/02/01/when-life-gives-you-don-lemons-n2670462

Our Rulers Are Psychopaths And They’re Making Everything Awful

Source: Caitlin Johnstone, Rogue Journalist
by Caitlin Johnstone

“I don’t know what to say today. We are ruled by abusive monsters. The US is preparing for war with Iran. They’re going in for the kill shot on Cuba. The latest batch of Epstein emails looks horrifying. The US is full of protests because ICE keeps killing people. Israel is still massacring civilians in Gaza as Australia prepares to host its president for an extended visit. Reuters has confirmed that Biden officials actively obstructed the circulation of internal USAID reports that Gaza was being turned into a nightmarish hellscape in early 2024. There’s so much cruelty. So much abuse. You’d think all this evidence that we are ruled by deranged psychopaths would unite us against them, but it doesn’t. The population is more angrily, bitterly divided against itself than ever.” (02/01/25)

https://caitlinjohnstone.com.au/2026/02/01/our-rulers-are-psychopaths-and-theyre-making-everything-awful/

Iran: Khamenei warns any US attack would spark “regional war”

Source: SFGate

“Iran’s supreme leader warned Sunday that any attack by the United States would spark ‘a ]regional war’ in the Mideast, further scalating tensions as President Donald Trump has threatened to militarily strike the Islamic Republic. The comments from the 86-year-old Ayatollah Ali Khamenei are the most-direct threat he’s made so far as the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln and associated American warships are in the Arabian Sea, sent by Trump there after Tehran’s bloody crackdown on nationwide protests. It remains unclear whether Trump will use force. He’s repeatedly said Iran wants to negotiate and has brought up Tehran’s nuclear program as another issue he wants to see resolved. But Khamenei also referred to the nationwide protests as ‘a coup,’ hardening the government’s position as tens of thousands of people reportedly have been detained since the start of the demonstrations.” (02/01/25)

https://www.sfgate.com/news/world/article/iran-says-it-considers-eu-militaries-to-be-21327231.php

Don Lemon’s “other unforgivable crime” was against his old profession

Source: Fox News
by David Marcus

“Whether Don Lemon broke federal law in his role in an attack on a Minnesota church will be up to a jury, but we can already say he deserves the max for his crime against journalism. At issue, both in the criminal case and the one in the court of journalistic ethics: Was the former CNN anchor present at the disruption of the church service in St. Paul to document the event or was he participating in it? It was quite clearly the latter. In the moments prior to the harebrained ‘protest’ in the house of worship that left children in tears, Lemon can be seen outside, on video he took himself, telling his viewers the ‘operation is a secret,’ adding, ‘I can’t tell you what’s going to happen, but you’re going to watch it live.'” [editor’s note: Is a journalist embedded with a military unit betraying his profession if he doesn’t broadcast classified attack plans in advance? – TLK} (01/31/25)

https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/david-marcus-don-lemons-other-unforgivable-crime-against-his-old-profession

CA: Thousands rally against ICE gang in San Francisco’s Dolores Park

Source: SFGate

“Students poured into Dolores Park on Friday afternoon, sporting baggy pants, backpacks and protest signs as they joined thousands of workers and organizers for a national day of action demanding Immigration Customs and Enforcement agents be removed from communities nationwide. A drum circle pulsed through the crowd — with maracas shaking and a cowbell clanging — as teens waved signs bearing cheeky slogans like, ‘We are skipping our lessons to teach you one,’ ‘End the ICE age’ and ‘Sex is good but have you ever tried fucking the system?’ Cars passing the park honked in support while chants of ‘Minnesota to the Bay ICE ICE go away’ rippled across the hillside, driven by impassioned local labor and student organizers from a makeshift stage near the base of the park.” (01/30/25)

https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/sf-dolores-park-ice-rally-21325277.php

As Trump Attacks the Republic, the Cowardly Democratic Party Still Won’t Fight to Win

Source: Common Dreams
by Ralph Nader

“‘How’s the Democratic Party’s ground game in Pennsylvania?’ I asked a friend several weeks before the 2024 presidential election. He replied optimistically that there were far more door knockers this year than in 2022. It turned out these door knockers were just urging a vote for the Democrats without putting forth a compelling agenda attached to candidate commitments on issues that mean something to people where they live, work, and raise their families. There was no Democratic Party ‘Compact for the American People’. Then-President Joe Biden visited Pennsylvania, which went Republican, many times, with his most memorable message being that he grew up in Scranton. Once again, the vacuous, feeble Democratic Party is relying on the Republicans and the cruel, lawless dictator Donald Trump to beat themselves to gain control of the Senate and the House.” (01/31/25)

https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/dems-won-t-fight-to-win

Mass evictions in Lagos displace thousands including baby twins now living in a canoe

Source: SFGate

“Victor Ahansu was barely awake with his wife and baby twins before the grinding sound of bulldozers woke them. It was all the warning the family had, he said, before fleeing mass evictions in their historic community of Makoko in Lagos. Their house was demolished on Jan. 11, one of thousands taken down by the ongoing operation. Now the 5-month-old twins and their parents live in a wooden canoe, with a woven plastic sack for shelter from the rain. The thump of hammers fills the air as other residents of Nigeria ’s largest city break down homes and salvage what they can. … For decades, tens of thousands of people have lived in homes on stilts above the lagoon in Makoko, one of Africa’s oldest and largest waterfront communities.” (02/01/25)

https://www.sfgate.com/news/world/article/mass-evictions-in-lagos-displace-thousands-21327252.php

These are criminals, not protesters

Source: New York Post
by Jon Fleischman

“This weekend, what began as a protest in Los Angeles turned into violence. Not debate. Not a peaceful assembly. Violence. As you watch the scenes unfold on television, it feels like something that should be happening in Iran or Afghanistan — not in Los Angeles. Downtown mobs clashed with federal officers outside the Metropolitan Detention Center. Protesters were seen throwing water bottles, bottles, rocks, debris and other objects at federal and assisting law enforcement officers. A dumpster was moved into the street and set on fire outside the federal facility. The image was unmistakable: street chaos aimed directly at the seat of federal authority in the center of America’s second-largest city. This is happening yesterday and today — not in some unstable foreign capital. It is happening in Los Angeles, on streets where families work, live and commute.” (01/31/25)

https://nypost.com/2026/01/31/opinion/criminals-not-protesters/

Slovakia: PM’s national security adviser resigns over Epstein links

Source: BBC News [UK State Media]

“The national security adviser to Slovakia’s prime minister has resigned after documents released by the US showed he exchanged messages about girls and diplomacy with the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Robert Fico announced he had accepted Miroslav Lajčák’s departure in a video message on Saturday, describing the adviser as ‘an incredible source of experience in diplomacy and foreign policy’. The resignation comes a day after three million files relating to the influential financier were released by the US Department of Justice. While the files do not show any wrongdoing on the part of those featured, including Lajčák, they have raised renewed questions for those who associated with Epstein.” (01/31/25)

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cnvgljj1dygo