Source: The Weekly Dish
by Andrew Sullivan
“Ah yes, those famous Trump family values: money, power, rape. And once the money landed in the Trump crypto accounts, of course, government policy changed. Trump gave the UAE rare and advanced AI chips, brought the UAE into the US Stargate AI project — along with an ownership slice of TikTok — and pardoned the sleazy billionaire felon, Changpeng Zhao, who had helped seal the deal with WLF. Not just corruption, but possibly at the expense of our national security, if those UAE chips make it to the CCP. This is the real Epstein class: utterly amoral networkers and nepotists with no loyalties to anything but their absurd bank balances and party invitations. And this is their administration.” (02/13/26)
https://andrewsullivan.substack.com/p/the-president-of-the-000001-percent-36e
Source: Electronic Frontier Foundation
by Mario Trujillo
“The New York Times reported that Meta is considering adding face recognition technology to its smart glasses. According to an internal Meta document, the company may launch the product ‘during a dynamic political environment where many civil society groups that we would expect to attack us would have their resources focused on other concerns.’ This is a bad idea that Meta should abandon. If adopted and released to the public, it would violate the privacy rights of millions of people and cost the company billions of dollars in legal battles.” (02/13/26)
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2026/02/seven-billion-reasons-facebook-abandon-its-face-recognition-plans
Source: The Hill
“Lindsey Granger gives her lens on the recent announcement from border czar Tom Homan that the controversial immigration surge in Minnesota is coming to an end.” (02/13/26)
https://thehill.com/hilltv/rising/5729366-rising-february-13-2026/
Source: The UnPopulist
by Andy Craig
“Donald Trump and his administration are waging an unprecedented, multi-pronged attack on this year’s midterm congressional elections. Even compared to his attempts to overturn the 2020 presidential election, the scope and severity of this assault is unprecedented. Despite all this, most — if not all — of these lines of attack will fail. They are built on magical thinking, pursued by people who lack basic understanding of how these things work. Some of these threats are more serious and pressing. But there can be a temptation to doomerism that we should reject. Trump is dangerous, but he is not omnipotent.” (02/13/26)
https://www.theunpopulist.net/p/worry-dont-panic-over-trumps-efforts
Source: Responsible Statecraft
by Eldar Mamedov
“U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio arrived in the Munich Security Conference this weekend to sooth transatlantic anxieties. After Vice President J.D. Vance’s criticisms of the old continent in 2025, the European dignitaries were looking for a more conventional American performance. What they got was a peculiar mix of primacist nostalgia and civilizational foreboding, with an explicit desire to forge a path of restoration together. ‘We are not looking for a rupture,’ the Secretary of State told his audience. ‘We want to revitalize an old friendship and renew the greatest civilization in human history,’ in a reference to the West. Predictably, Rubio – a neoconservative favorite in a pre-Trump GOP – ensured that it was America’s job to lead.” (02/14/26)
https://responsiblestatecraft.org/rubio-speech-munich/
Source: SFGate
“The first solar eclipse of the year will grace Antarctica, and only a lucky few will get to bask — or waddle — in its glow. Tuesday’s annular solar eclipse, known as a ‘ring of fire’, will only be visible in the southernmost continent, home to research stations and diverse wildlife. ‘The penguins down there are going to have a great show,’ said astronomer Joe Llama with Lowell Observatory. Clear skies permitting, more people can catch a partial eclipse with small bites taken out of the sun from the tips of Chile and Argentina and bits of southeastern Africa including Madagascar, Lesotho and South Africa. Solar eclipses happen when the sun, moon and Earth align just so. The moon casts a shadow that can partially or totally block out the sun’s light from Earth.” (02/13/26)
https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/a-ring-of-fire-solar-eclipse-will-dazzle-people-21351817.php
Source: Quillette
“Escalating house prices and density rules trap young people in renting, eroding homeownership—a key to democracy.” (02/13/26)
https://quillette.com/2026/02/14/the-housing-crisis-is-destroying-homeownership-and-undermining-democracy/
Source: Fountainhead Forum
“Ricardo Sanchez on the politics of Chile and the new President, Jose Kast.” (02/14/26)
https://rumble.com/v75qn38-ff-424-ricardo-sanchez-on-the-politics-of-chile-and-the-new-president-jose-.html
Source: Foundation for Economic Education
by Peter Fenwick
“On February 6, 2026, the Dow Jones hit a record level of 50,000. It was now 5 times its level in 1999 when it hit 10,000 for the first time. But how real has the increase been? In 1999, $10,000 would have bought you 40 ounces (oz.) of gold. In 2026, $50,000 buys you only 10oz. of gold. The fact is that in 27 years, the dollar has lost 75% of its value.” (02/13/26)
https://fee.org/articles/whose-money-is-it-anyway/
Source: Free Association
by Sheldon Richman
“The people performing those mind-boggling contortions to justify, on libertarian grounds, state violence against migrants without papers — restrictatarians, I call them — cite a 1994 article by Murray Rothbard (1926-1995) in support of their double-jointed acrobatics. Rothbard was correct about many things, but a position is not correct merely because Rothbard held it. I expect no disagreement over that.” (02/13/26)
https://sheldonfreeassociation.blogspot.com/2026/02/tgif-immigration-vs-settler-colonialism.html
