“Asked what she thought of an attack on the poet Lord Byron’s morals, a wit replied, ‘It is the first time I ever heard of them.’ You might say the same if asked what you think about proofs that the 2020 presidential election was stolen. Donald Trump’s belief in widespread fraud in the casting and counting of 2020 ballots is entailed by his belief that it is theoretically impossible for him to lose at anything. His certitude infects millions of Americans, some of whom think it inconceivable that he could ever be mistaken. Others doubt that anyone could win the presidency while obsessing about a complex conspiracy for which there is no evidence. … It would be reassuring to think that Trump believes nothing he says about 2020: Cynicism in the presidency is less disturbing than delusion. But reassurance is not plausible.” (02/18/26)
“In a well-known folktale, young Goldilocks tests out three bears’ porridge (too hot, too cold, just right), as well as their chairs and beds. The story delights most children of preschool age. But when these children enter school, according to education experts in the United States, a ‘Goldilocks approach’ to developing foundational skills does not serve them well. Teaching and grading that aligns content and standards to a ‘just right’ fit, rather than challenging students to grow, is a disservice, in the view of University of Illinois Chicago literacy professor Timothy Shanahan. ‘This popular approach to teaching has been holding kids back rather than helping them succeed,’ he wrote in The Conversation last fall. ‘Students learn more when taught with more difficult texts.'” (02/17/26)
“The Lenten season offers us the opportunity to look beyond ourselves and our short-term interests. That call to humility and service feels more needed than ever. If Trump and his weak Republican enablers on Capitol Hill won’t humble themselves to serve the public, voters will be more than willing to do the humbling for them.” (02/18/26)
“Nearly half of Americans now refuse to identify as either Democrat or Republican. According to a recent Gallup poll, independents make up a record 45% of the electorate, compared to just 27% who identify as Democrats and 27% as Republicans. Yet our political system continues to operate as though this plurality doesn’t exist – until now. Both major political parties are facing widespread public dissatisfaction, with 58% of Americans viewing the Republican Party unfavorably and 61% expressing unfavorable views of the Democratic Party. As confidence in the parties erodes, 2026 is shaping up to be the year that we see a handful of independents elected to Congress, disrupting the balance of power in Washington.” (02/18/26)
“Since early 2023, the AI discourse in the popular press and in legislative chambers has been defined by extremes. Then-Majority Leader Chuck Schumer invited AI experts to the Senate and heard extensively about the existential risks posed by AI. He wasn’t the only one to associate AI with the potential end of humanity. Then-FTC Chair Lina Khan shared that she had a p(doom) of around 15 percent — her odds that AI would cause a cataclysmic event. … Today, plenty of folks are convinced of exactly the opposite. Tech luminaries such as Elon Musk envision a bright future in which humanity is surrounded by abundance. Conversations around the end of work, universal basic income, and similar utopian outcomes (to some) pass for normal chatter these days.” (02/18/26)
Source: Caitlin Johnstone, Rogue Journalist
by Caitlin Johnstone
“One under-discussed ticking time bomb is the way Israel keeps saying it’s going to resume incinerating Gaza if Hamas doesn’t disarm while Hamas keeps saying it won’t disarm. Netanyahu’s office is saying that Hamas will soon be given a 60-day deadline to give up its arms, after which the full-scale bombing of the enclave will resume if these demands aren’t met. A lot of people don’t understand that Hamas has never at any point agreed to give up its weapons. To give up its weapons would be to surrender, which is a very different thing from agreeing to a ceasefire. … Israel and its allies have no legitimate basis upon which to demand that Hamas surrender. All they can legitimately do is stop murdering and abusing the Palestinians.” (02/18/26)
“Some in the Trump administration may now regret calling Renée Good and Alex Pretti ‘domestic terrorists.’ The hasty application of this label by Kristi Noem, J. D. Vance, and other hard-liners generated justifiable outrage and helped mobilize opposition to Donald Trump’s terror campaign against immigrants. Meanwhile, however, a far less-publicized case threatens to provide an enduring legal framework by which virtually anybody involved in activism against Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), or Trump’s agenda more broadly, can be labeled a ‘domestic terrorist’ and treated accordingly.” (02/18/26)
“CBO data show that government transfers now account for a historically large share of income among low-income households. Does today’s welfare system encourage mobility or entrench dependency?” (02/18/26)
“As we’ve been known to remark around here prices are information. We may not like the information being transmitted but that’s an incentive to change what is being done rather than to try and hide the price. On this basis the student loan system is working just perfectly …. We are seeing the price of trying to have 50% of the age cohort going to university. It’s a very high price too. One that — clearly — isn’t worth it as the whingeing is showing. But that’s what having that price, clear and obvious, does for us. Tells us that this isn’t working. … The price is too high therefore we need to change what we’re doing.” (02/18/26)
“In what is becoming a regular occurrence, someone trans-identifying is accused of committing a mass murder, this time during a high school hockey game, in suburban Rhode Island. Robert Dorgan, who preferred to be called Roberta, killed his ex-wife and one of his own children and shot three more people before turning a gun on himself. In 2020, Dorgan had told police that he was being kicked out of his home, by his father-in-law, after Dorgan had undergone ‘gender-reassignment surgery.’ His wife, Rhonda Dorgan, wrote ‘gender reassignment surgery, narcissistic + personality disorder traits’ as her grounds for divorce, but those words were crossed out and ‘irreconcilable differences which have caused the immediate breakdown of the marriage’ was written instead.” (02/17/26)
