Source: CBS News
“The United States and Hungary signed a civilian nuclear cooperation agreement on Monday, as the Trump administration deepened bilateral ties with a controversial ally at a politically sensitive moment for Budapest. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio was in Budapest for meetings with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and senior members of his government, during which Rubio and Orbán signed the pact. The deal comes two months before Hungary’s next parliamentary elections, which may determine whether Orbán can maintain his two-decade grip on power.” (02/16/26)
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/us-hungary-nuclear-cooperation-trump-deepens-ties-viktor-orban/
Source: EconTalk
“Seiko, Swatch, and the Swiss Watch Industry (with Aled Maclean-Jones).” (02/16/26)
https://www.econtalk.org/seiko-swatch-and-the-swiss-watch-industry-with-aled-maclean-jones/
Source: Liberal Currents
by Denny Carter
“The lesson here isn’t a hard one. It’s not difficult to see the writing on the wall. You can’t out-fash the fascists, so don’t try (and maybe you shouldn’t try since fascism is hostile to all things human and decent; just a thought from a humble blogger). Stop trying to peel away parts of the fascist electorate and instead use your money and power and influence to tell otherwise disengaged people — folks who sit on the sideline, convinced both major U.S. parties are exactly the same — what to think about political issues. Don’t concede far-right framing around immigration and economic matters and everything else that drives voter turnout. Fascists gain power by changing people’s minds — that is how they gain a foothold in multicultural liberal democracies that have largely rejected far-right messaging for decades.” (02/16/26)
https://www.liberalcurrents.com/a-blaring-warning-for-the-democratic-party-from-across-the-pond/
Source: Common Sense
by Paul Jacob
“In 2009, President Obama and the EPA decided that the will‑o’-the-wisp of fine-tuning the amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere fell under the agency’s purview. They introduced a not-so-thin wedge to pry open a vast new province of regulatory oppression. Obama had sought congressional legislation, but Congress had balked. So he proceeded without any new laws; or rather, as so often happens, told an agency to issue new laws. … Now things may change. Bigly. President Trump has ordered the EPA to un-find its 2009 ‘finding’ that it has blanket authority to regulate human emission of greenhouse gases. The change will be challenged in court. The Trump administration doubtless expects — perhaps even wants — the litigation.” (02/16/26)
https://thisiscommonsense.org/a-great-un/
Source: CounterPunch
by Kshama Sawant & David Montequin
“A general strike is when workers carry out a work stoppage and shut down the profits across workplaces, sectors, and industries in an entire city, region, or nation. A general strike can be a potent tool in the hands of the working class. By shutting down the business of an entire city, region, or nation, a general strike has the potential power to bring the capitalist machine to its knees. For those same reasons, organizing a general strike and making it successful by winning the strike’s demands is far from straightforward.” (02/16/26)
https://www.counterpunch.org/2026/02/16/we-need-a-general-strike-to-stop-ice-terror/
Source: SFGate
“It is Carnival season in New Orleans. That means gazillions of green, gold and purple Mardi Gras beads. Once made of glass and cherished by parade spectators who were lucky enough to catch them, today cheap plastic beaded necklaces from overseas are tossed from floats by the handful. Spectators sometimes pile dozens around their necks, but many are trashed or left on the ground. A few years ago after heavy flooding, the city found more than 46 tons of them clogging its storm drains. The beads are increasingly viewed as a problem, but a Mardi Gras without beads also seems unfathomable. That is why it was a radical step when the Krewe of Freret made the decision last year to ban plastic beads from their parade.” (02/16/26)
https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/biodegradable-mardi-gras-beads-help-make-carnival-21355022.php
Source: Politico
“The European Parliament has disabled AI features on the work devices of lawmakers and their staff over cybersecurity and data protection concerns, according to an internal email seen by POLITICO. The chamber emailed its members on Monday to say it had disabled ‘built-in artificial intelligence features’ on corporate tablets after its IT department assessed it couldn’t guarantee the security of the tools’ data. … The latest move to switch off AI tools concerns built-in features like writing and summarizing assistants, enhanced virtual assistants and webpage summaries in both tablets and phones, an EU official said, granted anonymity to disclose details of the security policy. Apps, email, calendar, documents, and other day-to-day tools are not affected, the email to lawmakers said.” (02/16/26)
https://www.politico.eu/article/eu-parliament-blocks-ai-features-over-cyber-privacy-fears
Source: The American Conservative
by Alan Pell Crawford
“No question, the Post has been a great newspaper, but, like other great newspapers, it has been hemorrhaging money for years, in part because it has been losing subscribers. It’s ironic that a lot of the people now bemoaning decisions made by the Post’s top brass are themselves no longer subscribing. After Bezos decided to pull the editorial board’s endorsement of Kamala Harris (ending a practice of endorsing presidential candidates, which it only began to do about the time [Bpb] Woodward was a Metro desk reporter), 250,000 high-minded subscribers bailed out. They did so no doubt unaware of how their decision might affect the paychecks of reporters about whom they are now expressing such heartfelt concern.” (02/16/26)
https://www.theamericanconservative.com/washington-post-rip/
Source: New York Times
“D.H.S. Pushes Social Media Sites to Expose Anti-ICE Accounts, and U.S. Troops Land in Nigeria.” (02/16/26)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2EhYuZHQgJU
Source: US News & World Report
“Nigerian troops have repelled simultaneous assaults by Islamist militants on two military bases in Borno state, leaving an unspecified number of soldiers dead, the army said on Monday, in some of the fiercest clashes reported in the northeast this year. Borno, the epicentre of Nigeria’s 17-year Islamist insurgency, has seen Boko Haram and Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) fighters intensify attacks on both troops and civilians. The weekend’s coordinated assaults targeted Pulka, near the Cameroon border, and Mandaragirau in southern Borno, both long-contested fronts in the fight against Islamist militants. The military said the failed attacks highlight mounting pressure on the insurgents.” (02/16/26)
https://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2026-02-16/nigerian-troops-repel-coordinated-islamist-attacks-in-borno-military-says