“The America First Global Health Strategy is an operating model that emerged after the United States withdrew from the World Health Organization and needed a way to remain active internationally without WHO governance. Instead of working primarily through multilateral institutions, the US is now signing five-year bilateral health memoranda with dozens of low- and middle-income countries, overwhelmingly in sub-Saharan Africa. These agreements bundle longstanding programs on HIV/AIDS, malaria, tuberculosis, and surveillance into large government-to-government compacts, often involving hundreds of millions — or billions — of dollars. In substance, this is continuity more than rupture; what has changed is the structure.” (02/12/26)
“I don’t want to be that guy who throws the red challenge flag on the victims of child sex trafficking at the hands of Democrat Jeffrey Epstein and his co-conspirator and fellow Democrat Ghislaine Maxwell, but someone has to. Someone has to because the ‘justice’ these women are demanding, or are claiming to demand, is fully and completely within their grasp, and their grasp alone. Yet, they don’t seem willing to take it. Sooner or later, they have to put up, or shut up, don’t they? There comes a point at which you either put your money where your mouth is or you stop talking trash. People who talk about how tough they are, or how good they are at something, often get really quiet when challenged to a fight or a game.” (02/12/25)
“Prediction markets, including Kalshi and Polymarket, are exploding in popularity. Kalshi alone saw over $1 billion in trading volume on Super Bowl Sunday. Remarkably, more than $100 million was wagered on what song Bad Bunny would play first during his halftime show. That kind of market has raised concerns about insider trading. Not only is Bad Bunny in control of which song is played, but this information is also known in advance by dancers, musicians, crew, and anyone who happened to be around during rehearsals. This is likely why, just before the big game, Kalshi CEO Tarek Mansour announced a laundry list of efforts to crack down on insider trading.” (02/12/26)
“As the scale and scope of state violence against migrants and the neighbors and community members who protect them — including the murders of Renee Nicole Good and Alex Jeffrey Pretti by federal agents in Minneapolis and of Keith Porter and Silverio Villegas González by ICE in Los Angeles and Chicago — has rapidly escalated over the first year of the second Trump administration, so have the familiar calls for quick fixes for state violence. Meanwhile, hopes placed in Democrats to save us by finally recognizing that the police state they have helped build is the vehicle through which authoritarianism is being consolidated are repeatedly dashed. This is true of the party’s recent, tepid proposals to put ‘guardrails’ on ICE.” (02/12/26)
Source: Brennan Center for Justice
by Michael Waldman
“For months, we have warned of a drive by President Donald Trump and his administration to undermine the 2026 election. It is unprecedented, outlandish. Now Trump himself is blaring his intent, and over the past week the public issue has exploded. The fight for a free and fair vote is taking shape, especially after House Republicans on Wednesday night passed the euphemistically named SAVE Act. Make no mistake: The SAVE Act would stop millions of American citizens from voting. It would be the most restrictive voting bill ever passed by Congress. It is Trump’s power grab in legislative garb. Effectively, the bill would require Americans to produce a passport or birth certificate to register and thus to vote. Brennan Center research shows that 21 million people lack ready access to these documents. Half of all Americans don’t have a passport, for example.” (02/12/25)
“Minneapolis was not the war zone I expected to find. Depending on who you are and where you live, things can seem, for a few fleeting moments, almost normal, like a few blocks or neighborhoods over people aren’t being tear gassed or rounded up by ICE or, in two tragic cases, being gunned down by federal agents. Even now some people walk their dogs, run errands and buy groceries, meet friends for dinner and drinks. Daily life has become sinister in its banality, because Minneapolis remains a city under siege. ICE and CBP agents roam the streets, though their tactics have shifted as of late: No longer acting like an occupying army, the Department of Homeland Security now operates like secret police.” (02/12/26)
Source: Foundation for Economic Education
by Cláudia Ascensão Nunes
“After decades of subsidizing expansion, Brussels is now paying to destroy vineyards, without fixing the distortions it created. The European Union is paying to uproot vineyards. The new Wine Package, proposed in March 2025 with a provisional agreement reached in December 2025, proposes among several measures, the possibility of using EU funds for the voluntary destruction of productive vines, which represents the most visible sign of a market distortion created by decades of intervention from Brussels. Successive policies supporting the wine sector progressively disconnected production from market signals. The result was a growing imbalance, marked by persistent surpluses and, later, by subsidies aimed at vineyard removal itself.” 902/12/26)
Source: The Daily Economy
by Paul Mueller & Thomas Savidge
“Once firmly established in American finance, the proxy advisory industry now faces regulatory threats and AI-driven challenges. To survive, firms must serve customers, not political agendas.” (02/12/26)
