Source: Unpopular Front
by John Ganz

“Trump officials, sagging under the weight of relentless bad headlines, must be breathing a sigh of relief as the January job numbers came in much higher than expected, with 130,000 jobs added. But if you look a bit under the surface, you find a reality that’s a little more difficult for them to brag about. 2025 had some of the weakest job growth on record outside of an official recession. And most of the job growth in that year and this January has been in care work: healthcare and social services; 60 percent of all jobs in last month’s spike are in those fields. That’s important work, but it betokens an aging and ailing population.” (02/11/26)

https://www.unpopularfront.news/p/trumps-pink-economy

Source: Eunomia
by Daniel Larison

“Can you imagine any American leader agreeing to gutting the country’s defensive capabilities because a foreign government and its client demanded that we give it up or face an attack? Even if the governments threatening us were much more powerful and had already proven their willingness to attack us without cause, our leaders would rightly refuse to give in. They would understand that making concessions on these issues would just invite further aggression. The U.S. should not attack Iran, and it certainly shouldn’t do it to serve Netanyahu’s aggressive agenda.” (02/11/26)

https://daniellarison.substack.com/p/americans-must-reject-war-with-iran

Source: Washington Times
by Peter Navarro

“As the Trump economy begins to boom even as inflation moderates, Democrats and the anti-Trump media are desperate for a spin that might discredit Trumponomics. Their latest Hail Mary: pushing a counterfactual narrative that President Trump’s tariffs are hurting, rather than stimulating, a manufacturing revival for blue-collar America. The latest manufacturing data obliterates that lie. In January, the ISM Manufacturing Index jumped 4.7 points to 52.6. That wasn’t just an estimate beat; it was a blowout, and an important one. The ISM Manufacturing Index is the most widely followed survey of factory activity worldwide. When it moves above 50, the manufacturing economy is expanding. When it jumps nearly 5 points in a single month to decisively push past 50, something fundamental has changed. That ‘something’ is Trumponomics finally overpowering the wreckage left behind by Bidenomics.” [editor’s note: Hooray! It’s only five points lower than it was a year into Biden’s term — and smidge higher than it was three years into Trump’s first term! Outside of COVID lows, it’s about average for the last five years – TLK] (02/10/25)

https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2026/feb/10/trump-reversed-biden-made-manufacturing-decline/

Source: Popular Information
by Judd Legum

“Mastercard, Deloitte, and ExxonMobil are spending millions to promote events supporting Trump and his divisive political agenda.” (02/11/26)

https://popular.info/p/major-corporations-bankroll-america

Source: The Daily Economy
by Nicolas Cachanosky

“The nomination of Kevin Warsh to replace Jerome Powell as Federal Reserve Chair has many people wondering: What makes a good Fed chair? The answer, it turns out, depends on the environment in which the chair will operate. The characteristics that matter most for running an independent central bank differ from those for a central bank under pressure from political actors. Understanding this distinction is important for evaluating the president’s nominee.” (02/11/26)

https://thedailyeconomy.org/article/what-makes-a-good-federal-reserve-chair-it-depends-on-independence/

Source: Paul Krugman
by Paul Krugman

“There’s a longstanding tradition in American politics of what Richard Hofstadter famously called the paranoid style – a way of thinking that sees conspiracies lurking everywhere. MAGA-world is particularly riddled with conspiracy thinking – from George Soros and Jewish space lasers, QAnon and the Great Replacement Theory, to Italian satellites hacking into voting machines to deliver the 2020 election to Joe Biden. But these are far-fetched fantasies. The truth is far more banal and shocking. There are people in positions of great power in the U.S. government engaged in evil conspiracies against everything that is good and decent. Their conspiracies are far more extensive and damaging than almost anyone imagined. But there are no evil masterminds behind this. Only amoral, stupid grifters like Howard Lutnick.” (02/11/26)

https://paulkrugman.substack.com/p/the-banality-of-maga-evil

Source: In These Times
by Kathryn Joyce

“On February 4, former FOX News host Tucker Carlson delivered what, in other times, would be a shocking assessment: that the future of the Republican Party is a 31-year-old, long-shot candidate in Florida’s gubernatorial race with a string of financial and sexual misconduct allegations but a marked talent for attention-getting provocations. Over the course of James Fishback’s still-young candidacy, he has ostentatiously courted the followers of extreme far-right commentator Nick Fuentes and referred to his Black primary opponent, frontrunner Rep. Byron Donalds, as a ​’slave’ (to his donors) who would make Florida ‘a Section 8 ghetto.’ He called for raising tuition for foreign university students to $1 million per year, pledged to expel ‘“every illegal immigrant child’ from the state’s K-12 schools and told a white supremacist social media influencer that ​’the great replacement and white genocide’ were the most important political issues other Republicans ignore.” (02/10/25)

https://inthesetimes.com/article/laura-field-interview-right-wing-fascism-trump-maga