Syria: US forces strike alleged Islamic State targets

Source: United Press International

“The U.S. military struck dozens of Islamic State targets in Syria while conducting retaliatory strikes for the deaths of two soldiers and their interpreter. CentCom said it conducted 10 strikes on more than 30 ISIS targets in Syria from Feb. 3 through Thursday to ‘sustain relentless military pressure on remnants from the terrorist network.’ The strikes over the past 1.5 weeks targeted ISIS infrastructure and weapons storage facilities with precision munitions sent by fixed-wing, rotary-wing and unmanned aircraft, CentCom officials said.” (02/14/26)

https://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2026/02/14/syria-us-strikes-isis/6561771120705/

Thomas L. Knapp

Amazon’s Ring and Google’s Nest Unwittingly Reveal the Severity of the US Surveillance State

Source: Glenn Greenwald
by Glenn Greenwald

“That the U.S. Surveillance State is rapidly growing to the point of ubiquity has been demonstrated over the past week by seemingly benign events. While the picture that emerges is grim, to put it mildly, at least Americans are again confronted with crystal clarity over how severe this has become. The latest round of valid panic over privacy began during the Super Bowl held on Sunday. During the game, Amazon ran a commercial for its Ring camera security system. The ad manipulatively exploited people’s love of dogs to induce them to ignore the consequences of what Amazon was touting. It seems that trick did not work.” (02/13/26)

https://greenwald.substack.com/p/amazons-ring-and-googles-nest-unwittingly

Thomas L. Knapp

Economic Crisis, Freedom, and Austrian Economics

Source: Ludwig von Mises Institute
by Deborah Palma

“The history of human progress is not written by government decrees, but by freedom of choice and the protection of property. The success of the most prosperous societies, from the founding of the United States to Argentina’s economic recovery in 2026, for example, results from principles discovered centuries ago. These ideas are part of the Austrian School of economics, in which it is explained how order arises from the individual and why any attempt at central planning results in failure.” (02/13/26)

https://mises.org/mises-wire/economic-crisis-freedom-and-austrian-economics

Thomas L. Knapp

States reliant on Colorado River fail to meet the latest deadline to find consensus

Source: SFGate

“The seven Western states that depend on the Colorado River missed a deadline for the second time Saturday to agree on a plan addressing record drought and water shortages. Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs, California Gov. Gavin Newsom and Nevada Gov. Joe Lombardo released a joint statement calling on Upper Basin states to offer more concessions. Those states include Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming. ‘The Colorado River is essential to our communities and economies, and our states have conserved large volumes of water in recent years to stabilize the basin’s water supplies for years to come,’ the governors said. ‘Our stance remains firm and fair: all seven basin states must share in the responsibility of conservation.’ Arizona, California and Nevada have offered to decrease Colorado River allocation by 27%, 10% and 17%, respectively, according to those states.” (02/14/26)

https://www.sfgate.com/news/politics/article/states-reliant-on-colorado-river-fail-to-meet-the-21354290.php

Steve Trinward

Remembering Ed Crane

Source: Foundation for Economic Educataion
by Daniel J Mitchell

“Ed Crane, the self-described Beloved Founder of the Cato Institute, passed away on February 10. He should be remembered first and foremost as an institution builder. In his 30-plus years as President of Cato, Ed took libertarian ideas from the fringe to the mainstream. That was no trivial accomplishment, given that so many of us in the liberty movement are nonconformists (organizing libertarians is akin to herding cats).” (02/13/26)

https://fee.org/articles/remembering-ed-crane/

Thomas L. Knapp