With Friends Like These
Source: Liberal Currents
by John Banks
“To defend itself from Trump’s thuggery, Canada must seek new friends.” (02/10/26)
Category: Opinion
Trump’s Immigration Officials Don’t Want to Talk About the Cruelty
Source: Mother Jones
by Alex Nguyen
“[O]fficials maintained that ICE agents were under attack in communities like Minnesota’s Twin Cities, claiming without evidence that ‘paid agitators’ were actively trying to stop enforcement. Federal agents have been heavily armed during attacks, arrests, and removal of residents, while protesters have been overwhelmingly peaceful. As my colleague Noah Lanard wrote in October, ICE agents are objectively not in danger: Reviewing ICE’s own data, he found that none of its agents have been killed by an immigrant in its more than two-decade history. The overwhelmingly leading cause of death was Covid-19, followed by cancers linked to the September 11 attacks.” (02/10/26)
https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2026/02/trump-dhs-cbp-ice-house-hearing/
How the US Weaponizes Starvation and Aid in Gaza and Cuba
Source: Common Dreams
by Nuvpreet Kalra
“Last week, the US government announced it would be sending $6 million in aid to Cuba, on top of the $3 million it sent in January after Hurricane Melissa. This aid package might appear contrary to the significant escalation of the 66-year-long US criminal blockade, which has expanded to an all-out fuel blockade since December, with attacks on Venezuela, but it is in fact a core tenet of it. This maneuver seeks to exploit the US-manufactured energy and fuel crisis to bolster opposition groups, substantiate propaganda against the Cuban government and revolution, and force the island into total dependency and submission to the United States. This frankly genocidal strategy closely mirrors that of the US and Israeli ‘Gaza Humanitarian Foundation,’ and the weaponization of starvation and aid for colonial and imperialist ends.” (02/10/25)
Is America still considered part of the “Americas?”
Source: Responsible Statecraft
by Adam Ratzlaff & Lucia Gonzalez Camelo
“On January 7, the White House announced its plans to withdraw from 66 international bodies whose work it had deemed inconsistent with U.S. national interests. While many of these organizations were international in nature, three of them were specific to the Americas — the Inter-American Institute for Global Change Research, the Pan American Institute of Geography and History, and the U.N.’s Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean. The decision came on the heels of the Dominican Republic postponing the X Summit of the Americas last year following disagreements over who would be invited and ensuing boycotts. These parallel developments raise important questions about how the region and the United States view their relationship.” (02/10/26)
https://responsiblestatecraft.org/trump-western-hemisphere-americas/
The Price of the Lockdown
Source: Independent Institute
by K Lloyd Billingsley
“How the COVID era fettered science and liberty.” (02/10/26)
https://www.independent.org/article/2026/02/10/price-lockdown/
JAGs Shouldn’t Be Civilian Prosecutors
Source: The Bulwark
by Mark Hertling
“The mass deportation policy is a legal mess — and reassigning military lawyers to support it would only create more problems.” (02/10/26)
https://www.thebulwark.com/p/jags-shouldnt-be-civilian-prosecutors
Speaking Freely: Yazan Badran
Source: Electronic Frontier Foundation
by Jillian York
Interview: “Yazan Badran is an assistant professor in international media and communication studies at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel, and a researcher at the Echo research group. His research focuses on the intersection between media, journalism and politics particularly in the MENA region and within its exilic and diasporic communities.” (02/10/26)
What Is Genocide?
Source: Antiwar.com
by William J Astore
“Far too often, a chosen people, a ‘master race,’ decides to eliminate barbarians, inferiors, primitives, race enemies, whatever words are used to demonize other humans. Often, it’s said we must kill them before they kill us, so mass murder is defined and defended in terms of safety and security. The ‘bad’ people force us to kill them. We don’t want to do it – they make us! And we hate them all the more for making us kill. At the same time, mass murder is often quite profitable for the killers.” (02/10/26)
https://original.antiwar.com/william_astore/2026/02/09/what-is-genocide
Hate is destroying America’s promise, and half of us are blind to the danger
Source: New York Post
by Ted Deutch
“More and more Americans feel our national unity is growing fragile. Conspiracy theories and misinformation are eroding trust, stoking hate and tearing at the very fabric of our society, often with tragic consequences. At American Jewish Committee, we’re seeing those consequences up close — and our new report on ‘The State of Antisemitism in America,’ out Tuesday, reveals how these divisions are affecting the Jewish community, and us all. Every day, Jews across this country must consider wrenching questions of personal safety: * Should I wear my kippah today, or will that make me a target? * Can I hang a mezuzah on my door, or am I affixing a bullseye? * Is today the day someone throws a brick through the kosher supermarket’s window? * Will taking my kids to synagogue put them in a shooter’s crosshairs?” (02/09/25)
https://nypost.com/2026/02/09/opinion/hate-is-destroying-americas-promise-and-half-of-us-are-blind/
The imperious arrogance of Wes Streeting
Source: spiked
by Brendan O’Neill
“Has there ever existed a man whose arrogance is so out of proportion to his talents? I am of course talking about Wes Streeting – Britain’s secretary of state for health, cracker of the most terrible committee-written jokes, and the man hilariously gushed over by witless centrists as the saviour of Labour. No shade, but if the answer is ‘Wes Streeting,’ you are asking the wrong question. Unless the question is ‘Who’s the biggest tit on the frontbench?’ Streeting is back in the news, like that C-list celeb who just won’t leave us alone, after self-leaking the WhatsApp chats he had with ultimate wrong’un, Peter Mandelson.” (02/10/26)