By Ben FREEMAN and William HARTUNG
This dramatic escalation in military spending is a recipe for more waste, fraud, and abuse
After promising on the campaign trail that he would drive the war profiteers out of Washington, and appointing Elon Musk to trim the size of government across the board, some will be surprised at President Trump's social media post on Wednesday that the U.S.
By Ryan McMaken
Mises.org
February 7, 2026
Whenever a new US president is sworn in, media pundits and court historians gush about the supposed "peaceful transfer of power" that is taking place. This has become a key tenet of the mythology and ideology surrounding democracy-that governing elites willfully abandon their control over the machinery of the state in response to election outcomes.
Indeed, this narrative about democracy is absolutely foundational to the perceived legitimacy of democracy.
By Tom Woods
February 7, 2026
Well, it could be worse, ladies and gentlemen. You could be living in Spain.
Here are excerpts from what their prime minister had to say the other day:
Starting next week, my government will implement the following actions: First, we will change the law in Spain to hold platform executives legally accountable for many infringements taking place on their sites.
Who knows what these "infringements" are, or what this even means.
Or What National Nightmares Are Made Of
By William J. Astore
TomDispatch.com
February 7, 2026
What constitutes national security and how is it best achieved ? Does massive military spending really make a country more secure, and what perils to democracy and liberty are posed by vast military establishments ? Questions like those are rarely addressed in honest ways these days in America. Instead, the Trump administration favors preparations for war and more war, fueled by potentially enormous increases in military spending that are dishonestly framed as "recapitalizations" of America's security and safety.
Giulio Chinappi
La visita di Keir Starmer in Cina e le parole di Bart De Wever segnano un cambio di clima: cresce in Europa la consapevolezza che la dipendenza da Washington ha un costo politico ed economico. Ma l'inerzia atlantista e i riflessi NATO frenano il riposizionamento.
Negli ultimi mesi il dibattito europeo sulla "autonomia strategica" ha smesso di essere un esercizio accademico e ha assunto contorni sempre più concreti.
Voici à quoi ressemble la tyrannie dans le monde moderne. Elle se présente sous la forme d'un dialogue, d'un consensus et d'une expertise. Elle est imposée par des personnes qui croient sincèrement ne rien faire du tout. − DataRepublican
Par James Howard Kunstler - Le 23 janvier 2026 - Source Clusterfuck Nation
Davos - Le Forum économique mondial (WEF) - c'est fini. Trump, Bessent et Lutnick ont exposé cette organisation misérable, composée de personnes trop rémunérées, à trop de lumière et de chaleur, et elle s'est transformée en un petit tas de cendres fumantes si pathétique que ses porte-parole ont déclaré que la réunion pourrait être déplacée de Davos à Dublin ou à Detroit l'année prochaine.
Le nombre d'Américains ayant déposé de nouvelles demandes d'allocations de chômage a augmenté plus que prévu la semaine dernière.
Les demandes initiales d'allocations de chômage ont augmenté de 22 000 pour atteindre 231 000, en données corrigées des variations saisonnières, au cours de la semaine qui s'est achevée le 31 janvier, a indiqué jeudi le Département du Travail.
par Observateur Continental
Trump, a reconnu qu'il considérait le vice-président, J.D. Vance, et le secrétaire d'État, Marco Rubio, comme ses principaux successeurs potentiels pour l'élection de 2028, sans préciser lequel des deux il voyait comme candidat du Parti républicain à la présidence.
«J.D. Vance (vice-président des États-Unis) et le secrétaire d'État Marco Rubio serait youtube », a fait savoir Trump lors d'un entretien avec NBC-News, précisant : «mais en politique, on ne sait jamais avec certitude».
Il fut un temps où la Constitution nous protégeait. Aujourd'hui, dans les faits, ce temps est révolu. « Nous avons constaté à Minneapolis pourquoi un quatrième amendement est indispensable », écrit le juge Andrew Napolitano.
Femmes et enfants migrants détenus dans un poste de la police des frontières américaine à Weslaco, au Texas, en juin 2019. (Bureau de l'inspecteur général du DHS, Wikimedia Commons)
By L. Reichard White
February 6, 2026
It's clear that an organization which is, minimally, $38 TRILLION in debt can't afford to support the approximately 11.7 million foreign nationals crossing our borders in just the last five years - 10 million counted via border encounters and an additional estimated 1.7 million "gotaways." And that's only during the Biden Administration.
Including estimates for local, state and national expenses for migrant health care, education, social services, etc., dollar costs run to hundreds of billions per year.
By John & Nisha Whitehead
The Rutherford Institute
February 6, 2026
In 2021, amid a global pandemic, warnings that the federal government might repurpose warehouses into detention facilities on American soil were dismissed as speculative, alarmist, even conspiratorial.
Five years later, what was speculation is a blueprint for locking up whomever the government chooses to target.
According to investigative reports, the Department of Homeland Security and Immigration and Customs Enforcement are actively purchasing warehouses, factories and industrial buildings across the country for use as detention centers-often with little public notice, minimal oversight, and virtually no accountability.
By Paul Dragu
The New American
February 6, 2026
Congressional Republicans have been trying for seven months to get Bill and Hillary Clinton to talk about suspected international sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein. The couple, who had numerous interactions with the pedophile, recently agreed to finally sit down for depositions - but on their own terms, which may be another stalling tactic.
On January 21, Republicans on the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, with help from nine Democrats, voted to recommend that the House hold the Clintons in contempt for disregarding subpoenas to testify.
Brèves de crise
Il se trouve que dans 3,5 millions de documents (plus 180 000 photos, vidéos, etc.) se trouveront mentionnés divers noms des grands du cinéma et d'Hollywood. Avec la magie Epstein, c'était inévitable. Eh bien ! L'affaire a embrasé Hollywood comme un incendie d'une forêt californienne privée de pluie depuis une décennie.
Les "personnalités", c'est du beau monde : Robert De Niro en tête de liste, George Clooney, Jane Fonda, Tom Hanks, Michael Jackson, le rapeur Jay-Z.
José Goulão
Yes, dear federalists, fervent Atlanticists, the actor closest to attacking European Union territory is your beloved American ally.
Mrs von der Leyen instructs us to arm ourselves to the teeth, even if public healthcare is allowed to rot and public education to collapse. NATO, for its part, has decided that our roads and bridges must be rebuilt at our expense so that Alliance tanks may roll across them on their way to a war with Russia - a war taken as inevitable, even if it needs to be carefully provoked.
There have been times when the Constitution protected us. Functionally today, those days are gone. We have seen in Minneapolis why we need to have a Fourth Amendment, writes Judge Andrew Napolitano.
By Andrew P. NAPOLITANO
Legal scholars have many lenses through which to examine the U.S. Constitution. Lawyers need to master about 150 Supreme Court decisions in order to have a sufficient understanding of the government.
By Laurence M. Vance
February 5, 2026
If there is one thing that shows that Americans live in a nanny state it is the maze of alcohol laws, rules, and regulations that exist in every state. What is legal in one state may get you arrested in another.
Consider the new Samuel Adams beer.
The typical Samuel Adams beer has an alcohol by volume (ABV) of around 5 percent. Samuel Adams released a new beer late last year with a 30 percent ABV.
As the Empire plans more war, more death!
By Charles Goyette
February 5, 2026
It's getting a little old at this point, but as the Deep State log rolls for another U.S. attack on Iran, it is promoting a new Iranian national savior, one with a familiar name.
Here's a graphic seen on X, much like others showing up on social media, championing Reza Pahlavi as "the legitimate national leader of Iran."
By Ryan McMaken
Mises.org
February 5, 2026
While not surprising, it has nonetheless been remarkable how quickly American conservatives have been convinced to ignore or make excuses for virtually everything the regime does, so long as Donald Trump is in the White House. This includes the administration's runaway deficit spending, inflationary monetary policy, ramping up of foreign wars, a growing disregard for federalism, and even higher taxes.
Djamel LABIDI
Mardi 17 janvier 2026. Il y a quelque chose de fondamentalement obscène, moralement, dans le spectacle de cette "Armada ", comme la nomme le président des Etats Unis, qui avance pesamment, menaçante, vers l'Iran.
Il y a quelque chose de fondamentalement obscène, de même, de voir les milieux dirigeants occidentaux et tout leur système médiatique déplorer que Trump puisse revenir en arrière dans sa promesse d'attaquer l'Iran.
Leonid Savin
Le 23 janvier 2026, le Département de la Guerre des États-Unis a publié la Stratégie de Défense Nationale, sous-titrée « Restaurer la paix par la force pour un nouveau âge d'or de l'Amérique ». Un vestige important qui attire immédiatement l'attention sur le titre du document est qu'il concerne la défense, non la guerre, même s'il serait plus correct de le désigner comme une stratégie de guerre, puisque le Pentagone a finalement été renommé selon la logique des actions agressives des États-Unis à l'étranger depuis de nombreuses décennies, ce qui est déjà devenu une sorte de norme.