Source: US News & World Report
“Bulgaria will hold a snap parliamentary election on April 19, President Iliana Iotova said on Wednesday. Iotova last week picked Andrey Gyurov, deputy governor of the Bulgarian National Bank, to head a caretaker government tasked with preparing the way for another parliamentary election, which will be the eighth in just five years in the EU and NATO member state. The previous government resigned on December 11 following weeks of street protests over its economic policies and perceived failure to tackle corruption.” (02/18/26)
https://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2026-02-18/bulgaria-will-hold-snap-elections-on-april-19-says-president
Source: Mother Jones
“The Man Who Taught Nonviolence to Martin Luther King Jr.” (02/18/26)
https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2026/02/bayard-rustin-martin-luther-king-jr-black-history-month/
Source: Libertarian Institute
“Kelley Vlahos : Does Trump’s Iran Policy Serve America or a Foreign Nation?” (02/17/26)
https://libertarianinstitute.org/news/the-kyle-anzalone-show-guest-kelley-vlahos-does-trumps-iran-policy-serve-america-or-a-foreign-nation
Source: Paul Krugman
by Paul Krugman
“Understanding the oligarchs’ power grab and the dire threat to American democracy.” (02/18/26)
https://paulkrugman.substack.com/p/billionaires-gone-wild
Source: Libertarian Institute
by Matt Wolfson
“The militarization of American cities by ICE is being addressed, or not addressed, around constitutional, moral, and practical questions familiar to Americans from sixty years of debates over ‘law and order.’ Does ICE’s deployment follow the law? What kind of deference is law enforcement due? Is the force deployed by ICE proportional to the threat? And, in general, is it appropriate to oppose the fact that a duly-elected president who was put into office on a promise of deporting illegal immigrants is actually fulfilling that promise? All of these are worthy questions on which reasonable people can disagree. But they are not the most relevant questions, and their relative irrelevance is why they have been embraced so enthusiastically by both political parties and their corporate media outlets.” (02/18/26)
https://libertarianinstitute.org/articles/ice-expansion-and-the-architecture-of-a-security-state
Source: The Bulwark
by Gabriel Schoenfeld
“Thanks to Tucker Carlson, Candace Owens, and Nick Fuentes, there has been a Vesuvian eruption of antisemitism on the American right. Fierce controversy has ensued in and around Trump world over how to address it — and how to deal with the swelling segment of MAGA supporters, especially younger people, who go in for it. Especially fascinating is the MAGA subset1 of self-professed ‘national conservatives,’ not least because their impresario, Yoram Hazony, is himself Jewish. Crosswinds have been blowing him hither and thither. The trouble is that some of the closest allies of his aborning ideology of national conservatism have become America’s most prominent antisemitic voices.” (02/18/26)
https://www.thebulwark.com/p/yoram-hazony-antisemitism-national-conservatism
Source: SFGate
“Hungary is suspending its shipments of diesel to neighboring Ukraine until interruptions to Russian oil supplies via a pipeline that crosses Ukrainian territory are resolved, Hungary’s foreign minister said Wednesday. Russian oil shipments to Hungary and Slovakia have been interrupted since Jan. 27 after what Ukrainian officials say were Russian attacks that damaged the Druzhba pipeline, which carries Russian crude into Central Europe. Hungary and Slovakia, which have both received a temporary exemption from a European Union policy prohibiting imports of Russian oil, have accused Ukraine — without providing evidence — of deliberately holding up supplies. In a video posted on social media Wednesday, Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó said the interruption to oil deliveries was ‘a political decision made by the Ukrainian president himself.’ Ukraine has denied such accusations.” (02/18/26)
https://www.sfgate.com/news/world/article/hungary-will-suspend-diesel-shipments-to-ukraine-21360242.php
Source: Engadget
“Cameo, the platform where celebrities sell short, personalized videos, has scored a preliminary win in a trademark lawsuit against OpenAI. A California judge has ruled that the AI company’s video generation tool Sora cannot use the term ‘cameo’ or any variation likely to cause confusion. A temporary restraining order in the case was originally granted in November of last year. The suit was first brought in response to a feature available within the Sora app at launch called ‘Cameo’ that allowed users to add any likeness to videos they generated. Cameo claimed the use of the term in this setting was likely to cause confusion and could dilute their brand. OpenAI then carried on with the feature despite the suit.” (02/18/26)
https://www.engadget.com/ai/federal-court-rules-that-openai-must-stop-using-the-term-cameo-124559072.html
Source: Politico
“Texas scold ’em.” (02/17/26)
https://traffic.megaphone.fm/POLL9026904378.mp3
Source: The American Conservative
by Dr. Anton Friesen
“After the end of the war in Ukraine, what would be the nature of a European order that included Russia instead of marginalizing it? What is the future for Europe in an increasingly multipolar world? How should such a European order be institutionalized so that peace, freedom, democracy, and effectiveness are ensured and Europe’s own identity is protected? These are questions that cannot wait to be asked until the guns finally fall silent in Ukraine. In the present context, these questions can only be outlined sketchily in the space of a few pages. Nevertheless, it is worth trying to find an alternative for Europe.” (02/18/26)
https://www.theamericanconservative.com/a-proposal-for-a-new-european-order/
