Source: SFGate
“The number of monarch butterflies spending the winter in the western United States has dropped to its second-lowest mark in nearly three decades as pesticides, diminishing habitat and climate change take their toll on the beloved pollinator. Monarch butterflies, known for their distinctive orange-and-black wings, are found across North America. Monarchs in the eastern United States spend their winters in Mexico and are counted by the World Wildlife Fund, which has yet to release data for this year. Monarchs west of the Rocky Mountains typically overwinter along the California coast. The Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation has been counting western overwinter populations along the California coast, northern Baja California and inland sites in California and Arizona for the last 28 years. The highest number recorded was 1.2 million in 1997. The organization announced Friday that it counted just 9,119 monarchs in 2024, a decrease of 96% from 233,394 in 2023.” (02/04/25)
https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/dramatic-drop-in-monarch-butterfly-count-nears-20144843.php
Source: Antiwar.com
by Casey Carlisle
“Paraphrasing Thomas Jefferson, the natural progress of things is for prices to yield and for quality to gain ground. Technology is what enables this natural progress. Do televisions cost more now than they did in the early ‘90s? What about mobile phones? Same answer for both questions: both are better and less expensive today than they were in the early ‘90s, which is why one will conclude that something is awry when reading headlines like ‘Global Military Spending Has Almost Doubled Since the Early ‘90s.’ Why has military spending almost doubled since the early ‘90s? Arguably for the same reason hospital services have: government intervention. Those who ‘serve’ in government endlessly tax the present because they arrogantly claim to know what the future should be rather than allow the future to unfold via voluntary exchange between producers and consumers.” (02/04/25)
https://original.antiwar.com/casey_carlisle/2025/02/03/what-does-national-security-have-to-do-with-soaring-defense-spending/
Source: The American Prospect
by David Dayen
“On Saturday, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau director Rohit Chopra, who for two weeks had been hanging on as head of the agency despite clear Supreme Court guidance that directors served at the pleasure of the president, was fired. By Monday, President Trump had named a replacement: Scott Bessent, the current Treasury Secretary. Bessent immediately froze all rulemaking, litigation, guidance, enforcement actions, and even public communications upon taking the role, in order to ‘promote consistency with the goals of the Administration.’ Other than activities that have to move forward by law, the agency is pretty much shut down, pending a review with no defined timeline. In the grand scheme of unlawful actions taken over the past few days, this development trends a little closer to whatever you might call normal these days.” (02/04/25)
https://prospect.org/economy/2025-02-04-nothing-normal-about-this-cfpb-takeover/
Source: CBS News
“Gunfights on Monday shook a Mexican border city plagued by drug cartel-related violence, forcing the suspension of flights at the local airport, authorities said. The violence in Nuevo Laredo, just south of Texas, followed the arrest of an alleged local cartel leader, Ricardo Gonzalez, alias ‘El Ricky.’ The U.S. consulate in Nuevo Laredo issued a security alert saying that it had ‘received reports of multiple gunfights throughout the city.’ U.S. government personnel were advised to shelter in place, it added. Hours later, the consulate said it would be closing on Tuesday ‘due to an emergency situation in the city.’ Nuevo Laredo airport canceled flights and was expected to reschedule them for Tuesday, Mayor Carmen Lilia Canturosas said on social media.” (02/04/25)
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/violence-mexico-border-flights-canceled-us-consulate-warning/
Source: Antiwar.com
“US Moves Forward $1 Billion in Arms for Israel, Trump Wants Deal for Ukraine’s Minerals, and More.” (02/04/25)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-uui3Tp6okk
Source: The Daily Economy
by Neal McCluskey
“Forcing people with diverse values to fund a single system of government schools fuels constant political and social conflict.” [editor’s note: Unfortunately, McCluskey calls for mere “choice” in government funding and control of schools, not separation of school and state, which is the only solution to the problem he notices – TLK] (02/04/25)
https://thedailyeconomy.org/article/why-public-schooling-delivers-war-not-peace/
Source: France 24 [French state media]
“Syria’s interim president, Ahmed al-Sharaa, arrived in Turkey on Tuesday for talks with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, his second international trip since ousting President Bashar al-Assad, an official told AFP. Sharaa was to meet the Turkish leader in the capital Ankara after flying in from Saudi Arabia, where he was seeking help from wealthy Gulf countries to finance the reconstruction of his war-ravaged nation and revive its economy. Turkey, which has close ties with Sharaa, reopened its diplomatic mission in Syria and sent its spy chief and foreign minister for talks with him soon after his Islamist-rooted HTS rebels overthrew Assad on December 8.” (02/04/25)
https://www.france24.com/en/middle-east/20250204-syria-s-interim-president-sharaa-arrives-in-turkey-for-talks-with-erdogan
Source: Responsible Statecraft
by Ben Freeman
“‘I don’t need anybody’s money … I’m not using the lobbyists. I’m not using the donors,’ proudly proclaimed Donald Trump in his 2016 campaign for president that, like his other campaigns, was laced with disdain for how money drives politics in the U.S. He, of course, did take hundreds of millions of dollars in donor money (some of it from lobbyists) in his 2016, 2020, and 2024 campaigns. And, he certainly wasn’t the only politician railing against the corrosive impact of money in politics. … in few areas is the corrosive impact of money in politics more apparent than in U.S. foreign policy. D.C. has become awash in cash from special interests that profit from America’s endless wars. Campaign coffers are flooded with money from the arms industry, but that’s just the beginning.” (02/04/25)
https://responsiblestatecraft.org/lobby-horse/
Source: Politico
“California lawmakers on Monday approved a ‘Trump-proofing’ bill package that includes $50 million in state funding to challenge President Donald Trump’s policies in court and provide legal aid for immigrants. The proposals — which emerged from a special session Gov. Gavin Newsom called last year shortly after Trump’s election — easily passed on a party-line vote and now go to the governor for his signature. … Trump deputy press secretary Harrison Fields said ‘aiding and abetting’ undocumented immigrants is against the law and disregards the will of voters who were seeking change when they elected the president.” (02/03/25)
https://www.politico.com/news/2025/02/03/california-trump-lawsuits-immigrant-aid-00202256
Source: bloggingheads.tv
“Trump vs International Law | Robert Wright & Mark Leon Goldberg.” (02/03/25)
https://bloggingheads.tv/videos/68379
