On Foreign Policy, AOC Is Just More of the Same

Source: The American Conservative
by Eldar Mamedov

“lexandria Ocasio-Cortez went to the Munich Security Conference to introduce herself to the world as a foreign policy thinker. She returned having demonstrated something else entirely: that the Democratic Party’s progressive star has absorbed the establishment’s worst ideas while shedding only its least popular rhetoric.” (02/19/26)

https://www.theamericanconservative.com/on-foreign-policy-aoc-is-just-more-of-the-same/

Thomas L. Knapp

85 Seconds to My Own Midnight? Working for a Nuclear-Free Future

Source: TomDispatch
by Frida Berrigan

“‘I’m not scared, you’re scared!’ is the repeated line in a children’s story we recently read to the kids at the Unitarian Universalist version of Sunday school I attend with my children. In that story, a scared bear and a brave rabbit, who (naturally!) are best friends, go on a hike together. Rabbit has to cajole and encourage Bear through every imaginable obstacle, but in the end (of course!) it’s Rabbit who gets stuck at the crucial moment and has to call on Bear for help. Bear (no surprise) sets aside his fears to rescue his friend and (tada!) finds new depths of bravery and adventurousness in the process. After we read the story, the kids worked together to build paths from blocks and Legos through the imagined obstacles in the story — a bridge over a rushing river, a path through a dark forest, a staircase up a steep mountain.” (02/19/26)

https://tomdispatch.com/85-seconds-to-my-own-midnight/

Steve Trinward

Paraguay: Nearly five million without electricity amid heat wave

Source: United Press International

“A massive blackout left nearly five million people without electricity in Paraguay amid a heat wave that pushed temperatures above 108 degrees Fahrenheit across large parts of the country and as high as 116 degrees Fahrenheit in some areas, according to local meteorological reports. The outage affected 90% of customers of the National Electricity Administration, or ANDE, the state-run company that supplies nearly the entire population of 6.4 million people. The interruption on Wednesday also disrupted drinking water services in urban areas due to reliance on electric pumping systems. Nearly 24 hours after the blackout, service had not been fully restored.” (02/19/26)

https://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2026/02/19/latam-Paraguay-blackout-heat-wave/2741771521283/

Thomas L. Knapp

Attacking Iran Would Be Monstrous

Source: Eunomia
by Daniel Larison

“There is no cause for war. The U.S. government is preparing to attack another country not because of anything that its government has done or threatened to do to us, but solely because the president feels like doing it. The president created the current crisis by making reckless threats and then by ordering a massive buildup in preparation to carry them out. We know that he has been goaded into doing this by the Israeli prime minister and hardliners here at home, but in the end the decisions and the responsibility are his and his alone. No one can explain what the president wants to achieve by attacking Iran.” (02/19/26)

https://daniellarison.substack.com/p/attacking-iran-would-be-monstrous

Thomas L. Knapp