The End of US Military Aid to Israel?

Source: Foreign Policy
by David E Rosenberg

“Israel is by far the biggest recipient of U.S. military aid over the past 80 years. Is America getting its money’s worth? Advocates say it provides critical support for a small, embattled American ally. … But critics say that, today, Israel is rich enough to pay for its own defense and that the aid effectively discourages an over-armed Israel from reaching peace agreements with its neighbors or resolving the Palestinian issue. Israel’s growing violation of Palestinian human rights shouldn’t be funded by American taxpayers, the argument goes. For Israel, the case for military aid is much clearer. It covers a good part of its defense budget, and because U.S. presidents have never seriously used it to pressure Israel to change policies, it comes with almost no political strings attached.” (02/04/26)

https://archive.is/HlAqt

Thomas L. Knapp

France: Police arrest two Chinese citizens over alleged attempt to access military data

Source: Politico

“Prosecutors in Paris opened an investigation Wednesday into allegations that Chinese citizens had sought to capture sensitive French government and military data using Starlink. … The prosecutor’s office said police had been notified last week that the arrested pair were suspected of conducting satellite interception operations from an AirBnB they had rented in the Gironde region, near the city of Bordeaux, after neighbors noticed that ‘a satellite dish approximately two meters in diameter’ had been installed and local residents were experiencing internet outages. ‘The device installed was used to illegally intercept satellite downlinks, including exchanges between military entities of vital importance,’ the statement added.” (02/04/26)

https://www.politico.eu/article/france-police-arrest-2-china-citizen-access-military-data-starlink/

Thomas L. Knapp

The Techno-Authoritarian Blueprint for America, part 2

Source: The Jolly Libertarian
by Marco den Ouden

“In April 2007, a relatively unknown fellow going by the pen name of Mencius Moldbug started a new blog. ‘The other day I was tinkering around in my garage and I decided to build a new ideology,’ he writes. (A Formalist Manifesto, Unqualified Reservations, Apr. 24, 2007) But the new theory he created was ideological dynamite. It has become the favored ideology of the New Right. But it did not spring wholesale out of nothing. In his formalist manifesto he writes favorably of libertarianism, particularly the Rothbardian version. ‘I love libertarians to death,” he writes. “I would love to live in a libertarian society. The question is: is there a path from here to there?’ But as Yarvin told Ava Kofman for a recent essay at The New Yorker, he moved on from libertarianism after reading Hoppe’s Democracy: The God That Failed.” (02/04/26)

https://jollylibertarian.blogspot.com/2026/02/the-techno-authoritarian-blueprint-for_4.html

Thomas L. Knapp

Justice Jackson removed any shred of impartiality by applauding anti-ICE speeches at the Grammys

Source: New York Post
by Miranda Devine

“Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson continues to dismay. Her attendance at the rancidly partisan anti-ICE Grammy Awards on Sunday was a joke. The 55-year-old Biden DEI candidate was nominated for a Grammy for narrating the audiobook of her memoir ‘Lovely One,’ which she unashamedly believes herself to be. But she should have stayed home rather than laughing and clapping in the audience with a bunch of virtue-signaling luvvies ranting ‘Fuck ICE’ every time they got on stage. It should have been obvious to Jackson that the event would be politically charged. She has to sit in judgment on various Trump administration immigration enforcement cases. How can she be seen as im­partial? Answer is: she can’t …” [editor’s note: When sitting in judgment on the actions of a violent and unconstitutional street gang, “impartiality” is irrelevant; SCOTUS’s portfolio precludes support for ICE – TLK] (02/05/25)

https://nypost.com/2026/02/04/opinion/miranda-devine-justice-ketanji-brown-jackson-removed-any-shred-of-impartiality-by-applauding-anti-ice-speeches-at-the-grammys/

Steve Trinward

GOP firebrand urges Trump agencies to claw back massive taxpayer benefits paid out to immigrants

Source: Fox News

“Sen. Jim Banks, R-Ind., is urging key agencies in the Trump administration to recoup what he believes could amount to billions in Medicaid, SNAP and education expenses paid out to immigrants on the American taxpayer’s dime. Banks, a first-term senator and conservative firebrand, argues that by law the sponsors of legal immigrants to the U.S. are required to reimburse the government for any welfare benefits used by their sponsee. Though written in law, the Immigration and Nationality Act, Banks said this has by and large not been carried out. Under the Trump administration, however, he believes that can finally change. In a letter sent on Wednesday to the secretaries of Homeland Security, Agriculture, Health and Human Services, Housing and Urban Development (HUD), and the commissioners of the Internal Revenue Service and Social Security Administration, Banks asked the agencies to hold immigrant sponsors accountable and refund American taxpayers.” (02/05/25)

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/gop-firebrand-urges-trump-agencies-claw-back-massive-taxpayer-benefits-paid-out-to-immigrants

Steve Trinward

CIA ends publication of its popular World Factbook reference tool

Source: San Diego Union-Tribune

“Close the cover on the CIA World Factbook: The spy agency announced Wednesday that after more than 60 years, it is shuttering the popular reference manual. The announcement posted to the CIA’s website offered no reason for the decision to end the Factbook, but it follows a vow from Director John Ratcliffe to end programs that don’t advance the agency’s core missions. First launched in 1962 as a printed, classified reference manual for intelligence officers, the Factbook offered a detailed, by-the-numbers picture of foreign nations, their economies, militaries, resources and societies. The Factbook proved so useful that other federal agencies began using it, and within a decade, an unclassified version was released to the public. After going online in 1997, the Factbook quickly became a popular reference site for journalists, trivia aficionados and the writers of college essays, racking up millions of visits per year.” (02/04/26)

https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/2026/02/04/cia-world-factbook/

Thomas L. Knapp

The Minneapolis Strategy for Fighting ICE Is Worth Studying

Source: Jacobin
by Dan Denvir

“Dan Denvir, host of the Jacobin Radio podcast The Dig, sat down with three organizing leaders behind the January 23 action — Emilia González Avalos, Greg Nammacher, and JaNaé Bates Imari — to discuss how that day came to be, and how their fight continues.” (02/04/26)

https://jacobin.com/2026/02/minneapolis-ice-protest-organizers-trump/

Thomas L. Knapp