“Those who have examined the Epstein files have seen information about how connected Jeffrey Epstein was to members of the political, business, and academic elites. Many of these connections started after Epstein’s 2008 conviction. The Epstein files support claims that Epstein worked with intelligence agencies, in particular Israel’s Mossad and the American CIA. Yet the mainstream media and most politicians seem uninterested in whether Epstein used underage girls in a scheme to blackmail powerful individuals on behalf of intelligence agencies. Fortunately, the alternative media is not afraid to discuss Epstein’s intelligence connections or any other matters related to Epstein, including suspicious circumstances surrounding his death.” (02/24/26)
“When we last left Rep. Valerie Foushee (D-NC), she was getting massively outspent in her March 3 Democratic primary for re-election in the Fourth Congressional District, where she faces Durham County commissioner Nida Allam. But that million-dollar deficit has now been mostly made up by a super PAC linked to artificial intelligence model designer Anthropic, makers of Claude, which is now dumping nearly $700,000 into supporting Foushee. Another $250,000 has been put toward Foushee by a mysterious PAC with ties to Democratic leadership. Jobs and Democracy PAC is Anthropic’s super PAC and part of an umbrella organization called Public First, which has been trying to give off a vibe of being the kinder, gentler AI super PAC, dedicated to prudent regulation rather than rampant accelerationism. The headline on Jobs and Democracy PAC’s website reads: ‘Supporting Democrats who put people before Big Tech.'” (02/25/26)
“America’s fentanyl crisis and the deaths associated with cartel violence have a common cause: the war on drugs. The criminalization of drugs does not eliminate demand. Instead, it creates a void in the marketplace for illicit actors to fill — one that provides these actors with supernormal profits. Like compressing a strong spring, that pushes back the more you push on it — the drug war cannot be won through decapitation.” (02/24/26)
Source: Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression
by Adam Goldstein
“Walkouts are a recurring form of student protest; students have used them to oppose gun violence, protest against racial injustice, call attention to climate change, protest wars, and more. Is there a right to walk out? Are states censoring students by pushing back? The short answer is that the First Amendment protects students’ rights to express views, but not the right to walk out of class to express them. But there’s a lot to unpack.” (02/24/26)
“On February 20, the US Supreme Court ruled part of US president Donald Trump’s crazy-quilt tariff scheme illegal in its particulars. … Tariff victims had already begun preemptively suing for the restitution they’re owed even before the Supreme Court ruling, and since that ruling other companies, including FedEx, have also initiated court proceedings. The victims shouldn’t HAVE to sue. President Trump SHOULD just order the US Treasury to refund the money immediately. That would be the honest thing to do. … Refunding the money wouldn’t just be honest policy, it would be smart politics. … eight months of economic recovery would certainly help his party, and him, out.” (02/24/26)
“It has been just 36 days since Trump asked [Aileen] Cannon to prohibit the release of the report compiled by former special counsel Jack Smith, based on the investigation and Trump’s 2023 indictment in hoarding classified documents at his Florida estate after he lost the 2020 presidential election. The judge predictably ruled in Trump’s favor on Feb. 23, permanently prohibiting the U.S. Department of Justice from releasing the special counsel’s report, even while the 11th Circuit considers whether the report should be made public. … the DOJ has a long-standing policy that sitting presidents can’t be prosecuted. But that doesn’t mean Americans can’t know what Trump did to get indicted in the documents case.” (02/24/26)
“To truly feel the force of America’s cultural attraction you have to be born outside of it. The natives see the cracks up close and learn to take the whole thing for granted. Growing up in the Soviet Union in the 1980s, none of my friends had to be convinced of America’s appeal. Its jeans-clad, Ray-Ban-wearing, moon-dancing cultural exports were the opposite of propaganda. They were the natural overflow of a society so confident in its own desirability that it never had to make a case for itself. … it made American leadership feel less like domination and more like the natural order of things. The slow erosion of that dominance over the past decade is therefore not just a commercial setback for studio execs but a change in how American power operates.” (02/24/26)
“The U.S. Supreme Court upheld a controversial Texas law requiring age verification to access online pornography. Enacted by the Republican supermajority in the Texas legislature in 2023 and aggressively defended by Attorney General Ken Paxton, the court’s 6–3 decision against stakeholders in the online adult industry marked a significant shift in how the state may regulate access to lawful speech online. … Texas House Bill 1181 is presented as a child-protection measure. But it is part of a political project — one that seeks to normalize identity-gated access to lawful speech and to expand state power over digital life under the moral cover of protecting minors. … Once built, such systems are easily repurposed to censor disfavored groups. The danger is not only in restricting access to online pornography but in establishing a precedent for government-mandated checks.” (02/24/26)
“Congress has not had any hearings about going to war in Iran, never mind authorized a war. And we should be clear, Congress’[s] failure to greenlight a war doesn’t mean the president is free to launch one. It means, as a constitutional matter, a war would be illegal. Think of it this way: If I don’t have your permission to enter your home and take what I want, we’re not in a gray area. The legal default setting is that you don’t have permission to rob a person unless expressly told otherwise. … If you are in favor of the constitutional process only when you like the results, you aren’t actually in favor of the Constitution.” (02/24/26)
