“Finally free from the demands of being chief archivist of the United States, secretary of state, national security adviser, and unofficial viceroy of Venezuela, Marco Rubio made his way to the Munich Security Conference to deliver a major address on Saturday. I shouldn’t make fun. Rubio, unlike so many major figures in this administration, is a bona fide serious person. Indeed, that’s why President Trump keeps piling responsibilities on him. Rubio knows what he’s talking about and cares about policy. He is hardly a free agent; Trump is still president after all. But in an administration full of people willing to act like social media trolls, Rubio stands out for being serious. And I welcome that. But just because Rubio made a serious argument, that doesn’t mean it was wholly persuasive.” (02/19/26)
“Hawks routinely try to paint adversaries as irrational in order to make diplomacy with the other side seem impossible and not worth trying.” (02/18/26)
“The Reverend Jesse Jackson died yesterday at age 84. Although in the past couple of decades, he was not the public presence he once was, it speaks to his stature that Trump issued what was, for him, at least, a remarkably appreciative and respectful statement in the wake of his death. In the 1980s and early 90s, the era when Trump’s brain is stuck, Jackson was a figure of the first importance.” (02/18/26)
“As sports media star Stephen A. Smith teased talk of a presidential run in 2028 this weekend, there is one thing that he and those advising him must surely know: The Democratic Party does not nominate outsiders. This is a lesson that Sen. Bernie Sanders [I-VT] learned in both 2016 and 2020 as his populist socialist movement was blocked at every turn by party leaders. To his credit as a politician, Sanders and the socialists, after a decade of work, have now all but taken over the party. The more relevant example to Stephen A’s would-be grab for the golden ring in 2028 is not Sanders, it is Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., whose mistreatment by the DNC led him to endorse President Donald Trump in 2024.” (02/18/26)
Source: Popular Information
by Judd Legum, Rebecca Crosby, & Noel Sims
“CBS forbade Late Show host Stephen Colbert from interviewing Texas State Representative James Talarico, a Democrat running to unseat Republican Senator John Cornyn. The incident is a chilling example of how the Trump administration and allied media organizations are colluding to suppress critical coverage of the administration. Addressing the incident on Monday night’s show, Colbert said he was also told by CBS’ lawyers not to discuss the decision to spike the Talarico interview. But Colbert, whose show is being canceled in May, ignored that directive.” (02/18/26)
“Even setting aside the decimation of the Post’s metro desk, the suite of local news options available to Washington, DC residents has shrunk dramatically in last decade as the portion of the digital ad-share pie not gobbled up by tech monopolies has grown smaller. Washington City Paper ended its print circulation in 2022 and, in February of 2024, DCist was shut down by its owner, the NPR-affiliate station WAMU. Luckily for DC residents, several of the staffers laid off in the closure of DCist decided that the service they provided to the community was too important to abandon.” (02/18/26)
“ICE claims agents can enter private homes using their own paperwork — without asking a judge first. The Fourth Amendment was written for moments like this.” ()2/18/26)
Source: Washington Monthly
by Alex Bronzini-Vender
“Depending on whom you ask, Donald Trump has either heroically or horrifyingly declared open season on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in higher education. During his first year back in office, the Department of Education launched at least 57 investigations into campus DEI initiatives it deemed illegal—and many more universities have preemptively complied by dismantling their own versions of such practices and policies. As such, it may come as a surprise that Trump and his underlings don’t want to get rid of DEI altogether. On some campuses, they’ve worked to preserve or even expand DEI programs. What they object to isn’t DEI itself, but who it’s for — which, until now, has been the ‘wrong’ kind of student.” (02/18/26)
