“It feels like the world, and America specifically, is becoming an authoritarian dystopia. More rules, harsher punishment, more surveillance; all leading to less liberty. What disturbs me the most is how many people seem to think this is fine. Or actively demand it because they fear or hate other people or what other people might do. Government is always willing to violate your rights and will oblige when asked to do so. Too many people will trade liberty for a false promise of safety — a hope for something government power can never provide. As long as they believe ‘other people’ are getting it worse than they are, they’re fine with the police state being built around them. They seem genuinely shocked when it is inevitably used against them and their rights.” (02/25/26)
“The old Soviet Union strictly controlled photocopiers, because they empowered individuals to share ideas that challenged state control. The restrictions ultimately broke down under the weight of mass defiance as people took advantage of every opportunity to distribute that which was forbidden by the government. Now, politicians in several states are channeling totalitarian policies of the past, this time with their eyes on 3D printers that can manufacture gun parts. Their intrusive rules are likely to suffer the same humiliating fate.” (02/25/26)
“he Venezuelan dictatorship’s release of some political prisoners and its passage of what it calls a general amnesty law no doubt represent moves in the right direction. But the amnesty is only partial, leaving in place the Chavistas’ entire apparatus of repression and showing, contrary to President Trump’s claims, that the regime remains very much in control of the country.” (02/25/26)
Source: Future of Freedom Foundation
by Jacob G Hornberger
“Given President Trump’s rage-filled tirade against the Supreme Court for declaring his tariff spree unconstitutional, the question naturally arises: Will Trump come up with a plan to pack the Supreme Court with loyal toadies, as President Franklin Roosevelt did after the Supreme Court declared some of his socialist-fascist programs unconstitutional? After all, let’s not forget that Trump, like many leftwing statists, has praised FDR in the past.” (02/25/26)
“At his January 2025 confirmation hearing to become the U.S. secretary of state, Marco Rubio assessed that ‘unless something dramatic changes’ in Asia’s military balance, China would attempt to invade Taiwan before the end of the decade. This view is widely shared. … The good news is that the short-term likelihood of a Chinese attack on Taiwan has diminished, even as it remains too high. The cause of this development, however, is not exactly reassuring. The events of the past year give Chinese leader Xi Jinping good reason to believe that his U.S. counterpart, President Donald Trump, will facilitate his attempt to extend China’s influence over the island without having to gamble on an invasion.” (02/25/26)
“When will tariff refunds be available? We don’t know. The Supreme Court’s decision was silent on the issue of refunds. While the administration has not revealed how it will approach this issue, President Donald Trump’s comments during his Feb. 20 news conference were telling. Referring to refunds, the president mused: ‘I guess it has to get litigated for the next two years.’ This suggests that the administration is girding for a years-long judicial fight against the issuance of IEEPA-based tariff refunds. Who will receive tariff refunds? Probably not consumers. If and when the government cuts tariff refund checks, those funds will not be going to everyday citizens. Instead, the businesses that directly imported the affected goods will receive the money.” (02/25/26)
“If you tuned in last night hoping for a softer, more conciliatory Donald Trump, a president shaped by polls, eager to reach across the aisle, you were watching the wrong show. The 2026 State of the Union wasn’t a pivot. It was a power move. A flex. A signal that the old rules: measured rhetoric, polite bipartisanship — are dead. Trump continues to write new rules in real time, as audaciously as he’s writing everything else. From the opening line, ‘a speech to set the record straight,’ Trump made it clear: he wasn’t there to negotiate facts. He was there to define them. He understands something that confounds his opponents: in contemporary American politics, a good story doesn’t just compete with statistics, it obliterates them. While critics were fact-checking, Trump was storytelling. And in today’s politics, a story like his can outweigh nuance or evidence.” (02/25/26)
“This is at least the start of the correct way to deal with bias in Artifical Intelligence: ‘A police chief has admitted artificial intelligence used to boost crime fighting will contain bias but pledged to combat the risks.’ At the heart of the point is the question, well, is reality biased? There are certainly those myriads who insist it is, yes. OK, so we want to use AI to aid us in managing reality. Therefore the AI has to start from the point that reality is biased. And those shrieking loudest about reality’s bias are the very people who should be insisting the AI recognises that bias. Because we need the results from the AI to reflect reality.” (02/25/26)
Source: Caitlin Johnstone, Rogue Journalist
by Caitlin Johnstone
“No bro this US war in the middle east will be completely different, bro. See, this time the regime we’re trying to get rid of is REALLY BAD! No no, this is nothing like all those other times. This time military interventionism to topple an oil-rich government in west Asia will lead to peace and democracy. Our soldiers will be greeted as liberators! You don’t understand, bro. This time the government and the media are telling us the truth! … If it turns out our leaders were wrong and this war was a bad idea, I’m sure they’ll admit their mistakes and course-correct immediately to set things right, and then implement major, sweeping policy changes to make sure they never repeat the same mistakes again. What could possibly go wrong?” (02/25/26)
