Inside Strum: How a Subscription Platform Funds Ukraine’s Neo-Nazi Azov Brigade

Source: Antiwar.com
by JD Hester

“With resources dwindling and rampant foreign military aid corruption, Azov has increasingly relied on donations from individuals and companies. According to reporting from Svidomi, which included interviews with founders and project managers, a new project, Strum, has become the ‘driving force’ behind the Brigade. The platform operates as a subscription service like Netflix or Spotify, but with some substantial differences and additional features.” [editor’s note: I’m not a fan of Azov, but this is the way ALL military organizations should be funded – TLK] (02/04/26)

https://original.antiwar.com/jd_hester/2026/02/03/inside-strum-how-a-subscription-platform-funds-ukraines-neo-nazi-azov-brigade/

Thomas L. Knapp

Russia and Ukraine envoys meet in Abu Dhabi for US-brokered talks

Source: Seattle Times

“Envoys from Russia and Ukraine met in Abu Dhabi on Wednesday for another round of U.S.-brokered talks on ending the almost four-year war, a Ukrainian negotiator said. The delegations from Moscow and Kyiv were joined in the United Arab Emirates by U.S. officials, Rustem Umerov, Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council chief, who was present at the meeting, said on social media. Umerov said the planned two-day negotiations started with all three delegations present, after which negotiators were to break into groups according to topics and then meet as a full group again at the end.” (02/04/26)

https://archive.is/W4oYF

Thomas L. Knapp

The Techno-Authoritarian Blueprint for America, part 1

Source: The Jolly Libertarian
by Marco den Ouden

“There is a new strain of authoritarian thought emerging in America today, one that threatens to rip asunder America as we know it. It has its roots in the neo-feudalism of anarcho-capitalist theorist Hans-Hermann Hoppe. It evolved into the neo-reactionism of Curtis Yarvin writing as Mencius Moldbug. His Patchwork philosophy called for a fractured network of corporate city states, each ruled by a corporate CEO with absolute power. More recently Yarvin has come out explicitly for regime change and the establishment of a de facto centralized authoritarian one party state through what he he calls Hard Party politics. An approach one might call Shock-and-Awe Centralism.” (02/03/26)

https://jollylibertarian.blogspot.com/2026/02/the-techno-authoritarian-blueprint-for.html

Thomas L. Knapp

Teachers’ unions have hijacked classrooms across the US to indoctrinate students with far-left [sic] propaganda

Source: New York Post
by Corey DeAngelis

“A wave of school protests sweeping the US in response to the fatal shooting of two anti-ICE protesters in Minnesota has revealed how teachers unions have weaponized classrooms for their own left-wing agenda. The unions have revealed themselves as political operatives more concerned with indoctrinating kids than teaching them reading, writing and arithmetic. These disruptions didn’t materialize out of thin air. The teachers’ unions fired the starting gun by blasting out anti-ICE propaganda to teachers, urging them to rally against immigration enforcement and turn schools into battlegrounds for their partisan fights. The National Education Association is also pushing teachers to print out immigration-related political propaganda posters and put them in their classrooms.” [editor’s note: Anti-ICE isn’t “left-wing,” it’s “anti-gang” – TLK] (02/04/25)

https://nypost.com/2026/02/03/opinion/teachers-unions-have-hijacked-classrooms-across-the-us-to-indoctrinate-students-with-far-left-propaganda/

Steve Trinward

Citing “waste and mismanagement,” White House instructs DOT, CDC to cut $1.5 billion in grants for Dem states

Source: New York Post

“President Trump’s budget office is instructing the Department of Transportation and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to claw back more than $1.5 billion from blue states on grounds the money was being mishandled, officials told The Post. The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) told the DOT Wednesday to cancel more than $943 million, while the CDC was ordered to nix at least $602 million meant for New York, California, Colorado, Illinois and Minnesota. An OMB spokesperson said that the states were being targeted for ‘waste and mismanagement’ of taxpayer funds. Illinois was slated to receive the largest of the transportation-related grants, with $100 million provided to the state’s Environmental Protection Agency to build electric vehicle (EV) charging stations.” (02/04/25)

https://nypost.com/2026/02/04/us-news/white-house-instructs-dot-cdc-to-cut-1-5b-in-woke-green-grants-for-dem-states/

Steve Trinward

Pink noise may be bad for sleep quality, new research finds

Source: NBC News

“Pink noise, a staticky sound that’s supposed to help people fall asleep, may actually worsen your rest, a new study found. … University of Pennsylvania researchers conducted a seven-night sleep lab study involving 25 healthy adults, mostly younger women, to determine the effects of environmental noise, pink noise and earplugs on sleep quality. … The study, published Monday in the journal Sleep, found environmental noise mainly disrupted Stage 3 sleep, reducing it by 23.4 minutes on average. Stage 3 is the deepest sleep state and is important for cognitive function and memory. The study also found that pink noise reduced the time spent in REM sleep by 18.6 minutes, a crucial sleep stage for mood regulation and mental focus.” (02/04/25)

https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/pink-noise-worse-sleep-quality-study-rem-rcna257099

Thomas L. Knapp