Source: David Friedman’s Substack
by David Friedman
“Sites online have posts about the genius trick that … . Mostly they aren’t genius, a label much misused, but that started me thinking about small changes in what you do that are clear improvements, typically when you realize that what you were doing was stupid.” (02/15/26)
Source: USA Today
by Chris Brennan
“Donald Trump’s second term as president is mired by two different anxieties, and he has put them on a collision course. Trump openly fears the Republican Party losing control of the U.S. House in November’s midterm elections, and now his free-falling approval ratings could also put control of the U.S. Senate in play as well. Democratic control means serious oversight for a president who seriously needs oversight. Impeachment could be on the table, too. But Trump also shows great concern about losing control of the Republican Party in Congress. He tosses telling tantrums whenever Republicans in either chamber dare to act like a coequal branch of government rather than subservient sycophants, like his party’s leaders in the House and Senate.” (02/15/26)
Source: The American Prospect
by David Dayen
“I released a story last Thursday about MAGA lobbyists pushing the Justice Department to settle its monopolization case against Ticketmaster. By the middle of that day, Gail Slater, who was the head of the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division, resigned, and it was clear that her choice was either to resign or be fired. A lot of reporting about this situation dropped almost immediately after the resignation (CBS, The Guardian, The Free Press, the Financial Times) regarding tensions between Slater and Attorney General Pam Bondi, internal insubordination, whether Vice President JD Vance would act as a shield for his former staffer Slater, what this means for the populist right, and more. As you might expect, I’m not wired into the inner workings of the Trump White House enough to generate one of these palace intrigue articles. But I don’t think they have as much value as the basic facts.” (02/16/26)
https://prospect.org/2026/02/16/justice-department-lobbyists-gail-slater-pam-bondi/
Source: Paul Krugman
by Paul Krugman
“Until recently the question of who pays tariffs wasn’t controversial among economists. The overwhelming consensus was that under normal circumstances tariffs — taxes on imported goods — are passed on to consumers in the form of higher prices. There are caveats and exceptions to this consensus, but these caveats are well understood and for the most part don’t apply to the tariffs imposed by the Trump 47 administration. Once tariffs became a centerpiece of Trump’s economic policy, however, views about their impact became politicized, and Trump supporters were obliged to echo his claim that foreigners, not U.S. consumers, bear the tariff burden.” (02/15/26)
https://paulkrugman.substack.com/p/who-is-paying-the-trump-tariffs
Source: Foundation for Economic Education
by Kimberlee Josephson
“Spring school picture day arrives with predictable rituals — the combing of hair, the practicing of smiles, and the filling out of order forms that get crumpled up in backpacks. This year, it brings something else: scrutiny. America’s largest school photography company, Lifetouch, has landed in the headlines this month after newly surfaced Epstein-related ownership-chain disclosures triggered parental anger. The facts remain contested, but the reaction is revealing. For many families, the controversy isn’t just about one vendor. It’s about the uneasy feeling that they never had a choice to begin with. Regardless of order form submission, pictures are typically taken anyway.” (02/15/26)
Source: The Realist Review
“Among the nine people Donald Trump named to his Board of Peace to run Gaza – which holds its first meeting in Washington DC February 19 – is billionaire private equity operator Marc Rowan. The board’s stated tasks include establishing financial controls and managing the reconstruction of a Gaza. You might think a savvy financier would bring solid credentials to such a job. You would be wrong. Let’s start with the obvious: this ‘Board’ is little more than a colonial operation—a modern day version of the British East India Company. And Marc Rowan is a perfect avatar for such an operation. Rowan runs Apollo Global Management, one of the world’s largest private equity firms, not with prudent stewardship but via a financial scheme that bears the hallmarks of two of history’s most infamous frauds: the accounting chicanery of Enron and the Ponzi dynamics of Bernie Madoff.” (02/15/26)
https://therealistreview.substack.com/p/the-board-of-peace-already-has-a
Source: Garrison Center
by Thomas L Knapp
“Since voting is purely ceremonial affirmation of our masters’ authority over us, I don’t see that adding a card-flashing element to the liturgy makes much difference. I am, however, glad to see Trump once again reaffirming Office of Management and Budget director Russell Vought’s 2022 observation that ‘we are in a post constitutional moment in our country.’ Vought says that like it’s a bad thing, calling on his audience to become ‘radical constitutionalists.’ His version of ‘radical constitutionalism,’ though, can’t be found anywhere in the actual Constitution. Instead of the mere functionary described in the Constitution, whose job is to ‘take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed,’ Vought envisions the president as Kim Jong Un on the Potomac. Which brings me back to voter ID.” (02/14/26)
Source: The Dispatch
by Kevin D Williamson
“The Trump administration has announced that it is abandoning its ‘surge’ — you’ll remember that term from the Iraq War — in Minneapolis. Other than two dead Americans, millions and millions of dollars in economic losses, and the further erosion of trust in armed federal agencies, what exactly has been accomplished? … at least one observer who had been very skeptical about the wisdom of so-called sanctuary city policies is now a little more sympathetic to those arrangements — and surely I am not the only one.” (02/13/26)
Source: Washington Post
by Megan McArdle
“Covid-19 gave everyone a harsh lesson in the power of exponentials, and that memory haunts any analysis of artificial intelligence. Sure, everything looks fine — now. But then, everything also looked fine in early March 2020. By the end of the month, we were locked in our houses with our strategic reserves of toilet paper. In a viral essay on X this week, Otherside AI founder Matt Shumer draws the parallel explicitly. ‘I think we’re in the ‘this seems overblown’ phase of something much, much bigger than Covid,’ he writes, before launching into a description of what’s already here for coders: AI agents building ‘usually perfect’ software from a plain-English description. He’s predicting a world soon in which AI blows up software development and moves on to every other profession.” (02/13/26)
Source: Los Angeles Times
by LZ Granderson
“The general public’s awareness of Epstein’s heinous crimes came with political baggage. However at this point, the question we all should wonder is: How does redacting the names of the men who helped fund Epstein’s operation benefit either political party? It may be good for the rich and powerful men trying to avoid accountability, but it’s not exactly a campaign platform. … We have seen Congress kept out of session to avoid voting on the release of the Epstein files; we have heard equivocation about whether Epstein was a pedophile. We know Epstein’s island was a place where evil resided. The investigation, or lack of investigation, into Epstein’s fellow abusers should not be seen by anyone as a political quandary in which the object of the game is to keep your party in power.” (02/14/26)