No One Wished

No one wished events would prove libertarians wrong more than libertarians themselves.

-- Katherine Mangu-Ward is editor in chief of Reason, writing in the New York Times, "Libertarians Tried to Warn You About Trump" (9 February 2026)

Move Against Vaccines

US regulators will not review Moderna's request to license a new, potentially more effective flu shot -- even though the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) previously gave the green light to the project -- in a decision that could have implications for all new and updated vaccines in the US.

It's the latest move by the Trump administration against vaccines.  Officials in January decided to stop fully recommending one-third of routine childhood vaccines, including flu vaccines.

"This is likely to discourage industry from investing in future influenza vaccines, and makes working with the US FDA uncertain and problematic," said Dorit Reiss, professor of law at UC Law San Francisco.  "They are refusing to review a new vaccine with a more flexible technology, while creating a real risk we will not have traditional vaccines for next year."

-- Melody Schreiber, "FDA declines to review Moderna application for new flu vaccine" in The Guardian (10 February 2026)

RIP World Factbook

One of CIA's oldest and most recognizable intelligence publications, The World Factbook, has sunset.  The World Factbook served the Intelligence Community and the general public as a longstanding, one-stop basic reference about countries and communities around the globe.  Let's take a quick look into the history of The World Factbook.  

Over many decades, The World Factbook evolved from a classified to unclassified, hardcopy to electronic product that added new categories, and even new global entities.  The original classified publication, titled The National Basic Intelligence Factbook, launched in 1962.  The first unclassified companion version was issued in 1971.  A decade later it was renamed The World Factbook.  In 1997, The World Factbook went digital and debuted to a worldwide audience on CIA.gov, where it garnered millions of views each year.

-- Article at cia.gov announcing, but not explaining, the abrupt termination of the CIA World Factbook (4 February 2026); I'll miss it

How Hard It Is

The glory which is built upon a lie soon becomes a most unpleasant encumbrance. ...  How easy it is to make people believe a lie, and how hard it is to undo that work again!

-- Mark Twain (1835 - 1910), American humorist, novelist, writer, and lecturer, autobiographical dictation, (2 December 1906).  Published in Autobiography of Mark Twain, Volume 2 (University of California Press, 2013)

Struck By Lightning

A good poet is someone who manages, in a lifetime of standing out in thunderstorms, to be struck by lightning five or six times; a dozen or two dozen times and he is great.

-- Randall Jarrell (1914 - 1965), American poet, novelist, critic, and essayist, Poetry and the Age (1953) "Reflections on Wallace Stevens", p. 134; conclusion

Here Are The Maps

We read our mail and counted up our missions  -- 
In bombers named for girls, we burned
The cities we had learned about in school  -- 
Till our lives wore out; our bodies lay among
The people we had killed and never seen.
When we lasted long enough they gave us medals;
When we died they said, "Our casualties were low."
They said, "Here are the maps"; we burned the cities.

-- Randall Jarrell (1914 - 1965), American poet, novelist, critic, and essayist, Losses (1948) "Losses," lines 21-28

It Is Not Our Wanting

Reality is what we want it to be or what we do not want it to be, but it is not our wanting or our not wanting that makes it so.

-- Randall Jarrell (1914 - 1965), American poet, novelist, critic, and essayist, A Sad Heart at the Supermarket: Essays & Fables (1962) "Malraux and the Statues at Bamberg", p. 191

Pesky Fourth Amendment

And then there is that pesky inconvenience called the Fourth Amendment:

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and persons or things to be seized. 

Civics lesson to the government: Administrative warrants issued by the executive branch to itself do not pass probable cause muster.  That is called the fox guarding the henhouse.  The Constitution requires an independent judicial officer.

Accordingly, the Court finds that the Constitution of these United States trumps this administration's detention of petitioner Adrian Conejo Arias and his minor son, L.C.R.  The Great Writ and release from detention are GRANTED pursuant to the attached Judgment.

Observing human behavior confirms that for some among us, the perfidious lust for unbridled power and the imposition of cruelty in its quest know no bounds and are bereft of human decency.  And the rule of law be damned.

Ultimately, Petitioners may, because of the arcane United States immigration system, return to their home country, involuntarily or by self-deportation.  But that result should occur through a more orderly and humane policy than currently in place.

Philadelphia, September 17, 1787: "Well, Dr. Franklin, what do we have?" "A republic, if you can keep it."

With a judicial finger in the constitutional dike,

It is so ORDERED.

Matthew 19:14

John 11:35

-- Fred Biery, United States District Judge, ordering the release of 5-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos and his father from immigration detention in Dilley, Texas (31 January 2026)

ICE Is Not A Law Unto Itself

That does not end the Court's concerns, however.  Attached to this order is an appendix that identifies 96 court orders that ICE has violated in 74 cases.  The extent of ICE's noncompliance is almost certainly substantially understated.  This list is confined to orders issued since January 1, 2026, and the list was hurriedly compiled by extraordinarily busy judges.  Undoubtedly, mistakes were made, and orders that should have appeared on this list were omitted.

This list should give pause to anyone -- no matter his or her political beliefs -- who cares about the rule of law.  ICE has likely violated more court orders in January 2026 than some federal agencies have violated in their entire existence.  The Court warns ICE that future noncompliance with court orders may result in future show‐cause orders requiring the personal appearances of Lyons or other government officials.  ICE is not a law unto itself.  ICE has every right to challenge the orders of this Court, but, like any litigant, ICE must follow those orders unless and until they are overturned or vacated.

-- Patrick J. Schiltz, Chief Judge of the District of Minnesota, issuing a ruling in a case brought against DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, ICE Acting Director Todd Lyons, and others (28 January 2026)

The Will To Believe

As a rule we disbelieve all the facts and theories for which we have no use.

-- William James (1842 - 1910), pioneering American psychologist and philosopher, The Will to Believe and Other Essays in Popular Philosophy (1897) "The Will to Believe" p. 10

Very Different Lessons

It is only in folk tales, children's stories, and the journals of intellectual opinion that power is used wisely and well to destroy evil.  The real world teaches very different lessons, and it takes willful and dedicated ignorance to fail to perceive them.

These are, unfortunately, leading themes of history.

-- Noam Chomsky (7 December 1928 -), American linguist, cognitive scientist, political analyst, and human rights activist, Talk titled "The World After September 11th", AFSC Conference at Tufts University, Massachusetts, (8 December 2001)

[Previously Trvth'ed on 3 May 2007, but these are, after all, leading themes.]

Affluent Misery

Tax reduction has an almost irresistible appeal to the politician, and it is no doubt also gratifying to the citizen.  It means more dollars in his pocket, dollars that he can spend if inflation doesn't consume them first.  But dollars in his pocket won't buy him clean streets or an adequate police force or good schools or clear air and water.  Handing money back to the private sector in tax cuts and starving the public sector is a formula for producing richer and richer consumers in filthier and filthier communities.  If we stick to that formula we shall end up in affluent misery.

-- John William Gardner (1912 - 2002), President of the Carnegie Corporation and Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare (HEW) under President Lyndon Johnson, The Recovery of Confidence (1970), p. 152

A Line Of Demarcation

When the government kills, it has an obligation to demonstrate that it has acted in the public interest.  Instead, the Trump administration is once again engaged in a perversion of justice.

The administration is urging Americans to reject the evidence of their eyes and ears.  Ms. Noem and Mr. Bovino are lying in defiance of obvious truths.  They are lying in the manner of authoritarian regimes that require people to accept lies as a demonstration of power.

Truth is a line of demarcation between a democratic government and an authoritarian regime.  Mr. Pretti and Ms. Good are dead.  The American people deserve to know what happened.

It is premature to reach conclusions about what exactly happened on that Minneapolis street.  The Trump administration should not have done so, and we will not do so.  What is clear, however, is that the federal government needs to re-establish public faith in the agencies and officers who are carrying out Mr. Trump's crackdown on immigration.

-- Editorial board of the New York Times, "The Trump Administration Is Lying to Our Faces.  Congress Must Act." (25 January 2026)

They Have Forgotten

One of the most obvious facts about grown-ups to a child is that they have forgotten what it is like to be a child.

-- Randall Jarrell (1914 - 1965), American poet, novelist, critic, and essayist, "An Unread Book," introduction to The Man Who Loved Children by Christina Stead (Holt, Rinehart, 1965 edition)

Political Terminology

Today's political terms to know:

caprice (noun)

ca·​price kə-ˈprēs 
1a : a sudden, impulsive, and seemingly unmotivated notion or action
policy changes that seem to be motivated by nothing more than caprice
1b : a sudden usually unpredictable condition, change, or series of changes
the caprices of the weather
2 : a disposition to do things impulsively
a preference for democratic endeavor over authoritarian caprice

vanity (noun)

van·​i·​ty ˈva-nə-tē 
1 : inflated pride in oneself or one's appearance : conceit
2 : something that is vain, empty, or valueless

-- Definitions from Merriam-Webster retrieved 22 January 2026

Soon We Shall Know

Soon we shall know everything the eighteenth century didn't know, and nothing it did, and it will be hard to live with.

-- Randall Jarrell (1914 - 1965), American poet, novelist, critic, and essayist, Kipling, Auden & Co: Essays and Reviews 1935-1964 (1980) "On the Underside of the Stone," The New York Times Book Review (23 August 1953), p. 177

Delusional

Dear Jonas:

Considering your Country decided not to give me the Nobel Peace Prize for having stopped 8 Wars PLUS, I no longer feel an obligation to think purely of Peace, although it will always be predominant, but can now think about what is good and proper for the United States of America.  Denmark cannot protect that land from Russia or China, and why do they have a "right of ownership" anyway?  There are no written documents, it's only a boat that landed there hundreds of years ago, but we had boats landing there, also.  I have done more for NATO than any person since its founding, and now, NATO should do something for the United States.  The World is not secure unless we have Complete and Total Control of Greenland.  Thank you! President DJT

-- Letter from President Trump to Norway's Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre, 19 January 2026, the latest and purest evidence that Mr Trump is detached from reality

Surmounting Obstacles

People are often surprised to learn that I am an optimist.  They know how often I have been jailed, how frequently the days and nights have been filled with frustration and sorrow, how bitter and dangerous are my adversaries.  They expect these experiences to harden me into a grim and desperate man.  They fail, however, to perceive the sense of affirmation generated by the challenge of embracing struggle and surmounting obstacles.  They have no comprehension of the strength that comes from faith in God and man.  It is possible for me to falter, but I am profoundly secure in my knowledge that God loves us; He has not worked out a design for our failure.  Man has the capacity to do right as well as wrong, and his history is a path upward, not downward.  The past is strewn with the ruins of the empires of tyranny, and each is a monument not merely to man's blunders but to his capacity to overcome them.

-- Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., "A Testament of Hope", published posthumously in Playboy magazine, January 1969 (h/t Andy Borowitz)

Autoimmune Disorder

The Trump Administration is an autoimmune disorder sabotaging the things that actually made America if not great at least powerful: its economy, its higher education system, its international relations, its crucial immigrant workforce, its functioning federal government, its public health systems, the rule of law, and lots of other things like food safety and clean water.

-- Rebecca Solnit (born 1961), American writer and activist, Notes on Unbearable Stupidity, January 6, 2026 Edition

Power Over The Rules

Power over the rules is real power.  That's why lobbyists congregate when Congress writes laws, and why the Supreme Court, which interprets and delineates the Constitution -- the rules for writing the rules -- has even more power than Congress.  If you want to understand the deepest malfunctions of systems, pay attention to the rules and to who has power over them.

-- Donella Meadows (1941-2001), American environmental scientist, teacher and writer, Thinking in Systems: A Primer (2008), Part three: creating change – in systems and in our philosophy, page 158

Evidence And Economic Conditions

On Friday, the Department of Justice served the Federal Reserve with grand jury subpoenas, threatening a criminal indictment related to my testimony before the Senate Banking Committee last June. 

I have deep respect for the rule of law and for accountability in our democracy.  No one -- certainly not the chair of the Federal Reserve -- is above the law.  But this unprecedented action should be seen in the broader context of the administration's threats and ongoing pressure.

This new threat is not about my testimony last June.  It is not about Congress's oversight role.  Those are pretexts.  The threat of criminal charges is a consequence of the Federal Reserve setting interest rates based on our best assessment of what will serve the public, rather than following the preferences of the President.

This is about whether the Fed will be able to continue to set interest rates based on evidence and economic conditions -- or whether instead monetary policy will be directed by political pressure or intimidation.

I have carried out my duties without political fear or favor, focused solely on our mandate of price stability and maximum employment.  Public service sometimes requires standing firm in the face of threats.  I will continue to do the job the Senate confirmed me to do, with integrity and a commitment to serving the American people.

-- Jerome H. Powell, "Statement from Federal Reserve Chair Jerome H. Powell" (11 January 2026)

Desensitization

Can I make an insane, possibly totally true claim, which is that, when your officials, from the president on down, lie about what happened in a shooting in the middle of the street, and therefore force everybody to go watch a shooting in the street -- my guess is there's desensitization that happens.

-- John Dickerson (6 July 1968 -), American journalist, contributing writer at The Atlantic, and past co-anchor of CBS Evening News, speaking on the Slate Political Gabfest podcast (8 January 2026)

HBD Milo Donaldson Appleman

Sunday was my grandfather's 160th birthday.  He was born January 11th 1866.

He was already 51 years old when my father was born in 1917.  And then my father was 42 years old when I was born in 1959.  So my grandfather was 93 years older than me, though he only lived to age 66.

He was Milo Donaldson Appleman, and I am his namesake.

Indirections

Any problem in computer science can be solved with another layer of indirection, except of course for the problem of too many indirections. 

-- David John Wheeler (9 February 1927 - 13 December 2004), computer scientist and professor of computer science at the University of Cambridge, PhD advisor to Bjarne Stroustrup

Deduced From Behavior

Purposes are deduced from behaviour, not from rhetoric or stated goals.

-- Donella Meadows (1941 - 2001), American environmental scientist, teacher and writer, Thinking in Systems: A Primer (2008), Part one: systems structure and behavior, page 14

A Hero

I imagine that a hero is a man who does what he can.  The others do not do it.

-- Romain Rolland (1866 - 1944), French writer, 1915 Nobel Laureate in Literature, Jean-Christophe (1904-1912), a novel in 10 volumes

Infamy

This is an attack on our democracy, our way of life, and not just by the criminals who assaulted our Congress today.  The good news is our Constitution is strong, and our people are overwhelmingly devoted to the rule of law.  What we need to do going forward -- what we have to do as a people -- not as Democrats, or Republicans, or independents, but as Americans, is to ask ourselves how did we ever get to this place.  We need to look infinitely harder at who we elect to any office in our land.  At the office seeker's character, at their morals, at their ethical record, their integrity, their honesty, their flaws, what they have said about women, and minorities, why they are seeking office in the first place, and only then consider the policies they espouse.

-- General John Kelly, USMC, retired (1950 -), former U.S. Marine Corps general who served as White House Chief of Staff for President Donald Trump from July 31, 2017, to January 2, 2019; he had previously served as Secretary of Homeland Security in the Trump administration, "Statement from General John Kelly, USMC (ret.)", at American Security Project (7 January 2021)

If You Think

If you think it's simple, then you have misunderstood the problem.

-- Bjarne Stroustrup (30 December 1950 -), computer scientist and creator of the C++ programming language, Bjarne Stroustrup's FAQ: (2007 - present) 

Most Predictable Thing

It's weird how I am constantly surprised by the passage of time when it's literally the most predictable thing in the Universe.

-- Randall Munroe (1984 -), American cartoonist, author, and engineer, in xkcd 1477

The Future Beckons

The past is over and it is the future that beckons to us now. 

-- Jawaharlal Nehru (1889 - 1964), principal leader of the Indian independence movement in the 1930s and 1940s, prime minister for 17 years, Tryst with Destiny speech (14 August 1947)