“Last Friday, Vice President J.D. Vance shocked Europe with an impassioned address in defense of free speech and democratic choice. If Europe would not stop jailing speech offenders and pulling stunts like last year’s canceled Romanian election, it could no longer count on American support. CBS and Face the Nation anchor Margaret Brennan first went viral Sunday when she challenged Secretary of State Marco Rubio, saying Vance in Munich ‘was standing in a country where free speech was weaponized to conduct a genocide’. But Brennan’s dingbat equation (speech=Hitler) was just an appetizer. Considering context, what the flagship show 60 Minutes rolled out last night was unique. It came across less like a news report than a political resolution sent home by a government-in-exile.” (02/17/25)
Source: Foreign Policy
by Robert Muggah & Misha Glenny
“Organized crime, one of the world’s oldest professions, is entering a golden age. Whether pursued by tomb robbers in ancient Egypt, assassins in the Middle East, secret societies in China, pirates in the Caribbean, or the Italian Mafia, the criminal underworld is a constant of history. Modern tools of the trade — intimidation, corruption, trafficking, and violence — are much the same as in past millennia. Yet as [Rob] Jones observed, the sophistication, speed, and scale of today’s organized crime is breathtaking. And the international crime control regime — the legal frameworks, institutions, and cooperative mechanisms established by states and global organizations to prevent, investigate, and prosecute crime — is not remotely prepared.” 902/17/25)
“The Trump administration’s foreign policy gambits can be baffling: Why rename the Gulf of Mexico? What is this fixation on annexing Greenland? Does anybody really want to find out what happens if we add Canadians to the U.S. Senate? But the president is right that allies have been allowed to shift the costs of their defense to the United States for decades, and they’ve relied on the U.S. to resolve what are largely European problems. With the U.S. government spending far beyond its means, it’s time for our NATO allies to step up, as U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth recently suggested.” (02/17/25)
“A few years ago, I came across an old book at an estate sale. Its title caught my eye: ‘Our New Possessions’. Its cover featured the Statue of Liberty against stylized stars and stripes. What were those ‘new possessions’? The cover made it quite clear: Cuba, Hawaii, the Philippines, and Puerto Rico. The subtitle made it even clearer: ‘A graphic account, descriptive and historical, of the tropic islands of the sea which have fallen under our sway, their cities, peoples, and commerce, natural resources and the opportunities they offer to Americans.’ What a mouthful! I’m still impressed with the notion that ‘tropical’ peoples falling ‘under our sway’ offered real Americans amazing opportunities, as did our (whoops — I meant their) lands. Consider that Manifest Destiny at its boldest, imperialism unapologetically being celebrated as a new basis for burgeoning American greatness.” (02/17/25)
“‘I don’t really care what happens to Ukraine one way or another,’ J.D. Vance said in 2022 as he was running for the U.S. Senate. Now the vice president, he has been dispatched to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at Munich. And it just had to be Munich, didn’t it? Where better to surrender to a tyrant without a fight? Mnichovska zrada, the Czechs call it — the Betrayal at Munich. But Donald Trump is no Neville Chamberlain — Chamberlain was an intelligent, accomplished, self-made man, and a patriot, albeit one who made a terrible error in judgment. He didn’t try to stage a coup when the British people voted him out in disgust. … Vis-a-vis Moscow, the Trump administration is not even a paper tiger: A paper tiger might at least give you a papercut.” (02/17/25)
“Donald Trump was elected president in large part by promising to bring down higher prices that have made life harder for millions of Americans. But since being sworn in, Trump has basically ignored those promises. In fact, the past few weeks have made it clear that lowering prices for average Americans is the least of Trump’s concerns. How do Trump’s promises to American families line up with his demonstrated priorities? Let’s review.” (02/17/25)
“Americans these days don’t much like billionaires. Our ultra-rich, Americans overwhelmingly believe, aren’t paying enough in taxes. Polling earlier this month found that nearly three-quarters of the nation’s likeliest voters — 74 percent — feel billionaires are paying ‘too little’ at tax time. Just how concerned about billion-dollar fortunes have Americans become? Nearly half of us overall, Harris polling found last summer, would like to see a limit on ‘wealth accumulation’. Among Gen Z’ers, that support for limits on billionaire fortunes runs all the way up to 65 percent. ‘Billionaires’, some 58 percent of Americans agreed in that same Harris poll, ‘are becoming more like dictators.’ The share of Americans equating billionaires with dictators — given Elon Musk’s current dominant role in the new Trump White House — is most likely running even higher today.” (02/17/25)
Source: Foundation for Economic Education
by Lawrence W Reed
“On June 12, 1929, America’s First Lady Lou Hoover hosted one of several social gatherings at the White House for the spouses of newly elected members of the US House of Representatives. The tea party for congressional spouses was a polite and quiet tradition, a courtesy that Presidents’ wives hoped would encourage goodwill between the legislative and executive branches of government. But this one produced an uproar. What was the problem? Unforgivably to some, one of the attending spouses brought with her an immutable characteristic. She was black. Her name was Jessie DePriest, wife of Congressman Oscar Stanton DePriest of Illinois. … The incident would not be the last time a DePriest focused the nation’s attention on a worthy cause. Mrs. DePriest’s husband would see to that, and for it, he should be remembered as a hero.” (02/17/25)
Source: Caitlin Johnstone, Rogue Journalist
by Caitlin Johnstone
“So Israel held a bunch of Palestinians in concentration camps without charge just for being Palestinian, and then they not only starved and tortured them but actually made them wear a Star of David on their prison garments. But remember kids, it’s evil and wrong to compare Israel to Nazi Germany — no matter how cartoonishly blatant they make the similarities. … According to an Israeli media report, last May IDF troops strapped explosives to the neck of an 80 year-old Palestinian man in Gaza and used him as a human shield for hours. They then shot and killed him and his wife. When the Gaza holocaust first started I used to read headlines like this and go ‘Holy shit that must be an exaggeration’, and then I’d read up on it and go ‘Fuck, nope, that’s exactly what happened!’ Now I read them and sigh and just sort of wilt inside.” (02/17/25)
