In case you were wondering: why it's a war. apnews.com/article/isra...

In my Christmas-gifts column I saluted Adams for standing up to the federal bullies whose motives and tactics seem suspicious and even dangerous. Now they’re taking him to court and he’s standing strong.

www.pbs.org/newshour/sho... Too nice? He recalls dealing with Matt Bevin: “I wouldn't mistake kindness for weakness. I have gone up against a Republican incumbent governor in Kentucky who was Donald Trump before Donald Trump. And I'm the one still standing.” Also more talk about faith than usual.

On #CNN @govandybeshear.bsky.social on partisan absences at "State of" speeches: When Republicans don't attend his formal addresses "It doesn't bother me because I'm there to speak to the American people." In this year's State of the Commonwealth he actually addressed "the American people." Hmmm.

Former Lexington Herald-Leader reporter Dan Desrochers, whose Politico beat is tariffs, breaks an important story about influence peddling in the Trump administration. www.politico.com/news/2026/02...

Kash Patel Follow my work and writing on Substack: nickanderson.substack.com

kentuckylantern.com/2026/02/19/r... Kentucky has no news outlet dedicated to covering our representatives in Washington, but we do have Kentucky Lantern, part of States Newsroom, which has a D.C. staff — from whence comes this story about our governor running (officially unannounced) for president.

www.notus.org/trump-white-... Fascism on display.

nkytribune.com/2026/02/xopi... Why is Andy Barr running that ad?

"This is a big deal back home, and it’s shaped the demographics of my support back home. The people who were upset that my entire family posed with machine guns are now voting for me. And the president has control over the people who get 100% of their news from Fox." www.politico.com/news/magazin...

washingtonmonthly.com/2026/01/22/p... To get a deal with Walmart, Pepsi agreed to raise prices it charged other retailers, according to a Federal Trade Commission lawsuit that the Trump administration dropped.

Some Republicans say Trump is his own worst enemy; Kristi Noem is running a close second. The parade of horrors she has wrought is so long they can't be summarized fairly in this short space. One author of this story, Josh Dawsey, is a refugee from The Washington Post. www.wsj.com/politics/pol...

This administration doesn't want you to know the truth, or to trust any sources of information other than the president or his minions. This is fascist and authoritarian. www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2...

Emerson has not responded to my inquiry about how they determine likely voters. That’s important,especially for a poll taken via texts and online in a primary that’s likely to have low turnout.

nkytribune.com/2026/02/opin... Since I wrote this Tuesday, Emerson College and WDKY-56 released a poll showing Barr with 24 percent, Cameron with 21 percent and Morris with 14 percent, all subject to an error margin of 4.2 percentage points.

As he often does, Jonathan Martin finds an expert who knows both the policy and the politics of an issue and gives them a platform to speak some truths, such as Bovino is "a cowboy" and Noem is "out of her depth." But she also offers constructive suggestions. www.politico.com/news/magazin...

She’s been lying since she was in Congress open.substack.com/pub/arnoldga...

A former colleague has good advice, both for journalists and for citizens performing journalstic functions. Every American has the First Amendment right to commit journalism, but the active verb is a remidner that journalism has certain responsibilities to the public. www.nytimes.com/2026/01/27/i...

On social media, @RepThomasMassie continues to be on a hair trigger, claming @GovAndyBeshear was touring Europe while the big storm hit here, but he got back. Lawyer @tedcruz was more careful, posting a "thinking" emoji. Of course, he's been burned on such an occasion. www.yahoo.com/news/article...

A Frankfort church turned down a $200,000 FEMA flood-cleanup grant because it would have required the church to cooperate with immigration enforcement officers (including short-term detention) and to eliminate any DEI policies or "discriminatory equity ideology." state-journal.com/2026/01/22/c...

The latest Kentucky Press Association contest confirms that the Kentucky Lantern has become a major source of news in the state. Congrats to McKenna Horsley, Teri Carter and Sarah Ladd (below) and Editor Jamie Lucke. Judges were from South Carolina Press Assn. kentuckylantern.com/2026/01/23/l...

Reminder that a handful of Senators could have put a stop to all of this five years ago.

The Trump supplicant at the rear is Washington Post and Amazon owner Jeff Bezos, who did not join the objections of ofificals at his newspaper. He is no longer a good owner.

Gessen, who grew up in Russia and knows what autocracy and authoritarianism are, advises: "Claim all the room there still is for speaking, writing, publishing, protesting, voting. . . . It’s something each of us needs to do — right now, while we still can."(Gift link) www.nytimes.com/2026/01/18/o...

Nate Morris and JD Vance persuade Elon Musk to give a super PAC supporting Morris $10 million, the most Musk has ever given to support a Senate candidate. www.axios.com/2026/01/19/e...

Big Tobacco and lots of other folks are giving to Kentucky Attorney General Russell Coleman and to a super PAC (which can take contributions of unlimited amounts) that supports his political ambitions. But he refuses to answer questions about his fund-raising!! kentuckylantern.com/2026/01/15/k...

thedispatch.com/newsletter/w... The Dispatch, a conservative publication, sees a lot wrong with ICE.

Videos of the Renee Good shooting, synchronized by The New York Times, show that the ICE agent had his hand on her SUV as she turned and that he may have been brushed by it, but he wasn't overrun. DHS claimed he had "internal bleeding;" my guess it was a bruise. www.nytimes.com/video/us/100...

open.substack.com/pub/thebulwa... Jonathan V. Last writes on The Bulwark: “Trump is continuing to create his own funding stream . . . that can operate independently of congressional approval or oversight. He is severing the linkage between the legislature and the purse.” Clearly unconstitutional.

nkytribune.com/2026/01/opin... As more primary-election filing deadlines pass (in half the states by March 15, and in 32 by the end of March), more Republicans in Congress will no longer fear a Trump-endorsed primary opponent and will be more willing to buck him. One only hopes.

"I can remember a time when all 53 Republican senators would have said that the mere hint of an American military attack on Greenland was crazy, outrageous, and in and of itself an impeachable offense. ... 11:59 a.m. on Jan. 19 of last year," Susan Glasser writes. www.newyorker.com/news/letter-...

UPDATE: Funding has been restored.

I can understand, through a purely pilitical lens, many of the administration's outrages. Not this one. Maybe this is being done by people who still see stigma when they see drug abuse, when they should be feeling compassion. It's shameful and wrong. www.npr.org/2026/01/14/n...

Sounds like wise advice.

Because social media reach more people.

Larry Schack writes for the University of Virginia Center for Politics that the 2024 election and the reactions to the Minneapolis shooting demonstrate "the collapse of independent judgment" in American politics, which should worry us all. mailchi.mp/virginia/not...

I am in awe of the bravery of the Iranian people, who are standing up for their freedom against a brutal regime and decades of authoritarian, theocratic rule.

BERNANKE/YELLEN/GREENSPAN JOINT STATEMENT: “.. this is how monetary policy is made in emerging markets ..” (via @apnews.com)

Having served in multiple countries run by ruthless dictators, I am accustomed to their tactics for keeping their populations under control. One of them is to employ a legion of fake opposition figures who promote the false narrative that "all parties are the same, so why bother voting?"

"Americans now must understand that if ICE agents who kill Americans in cold blood get nothing but praise from Trump and his minions, then no one is safe." @jenrubin.bsky.social open.substack.com/pub/contrari...

Amid the rush to judgment in Minneapolis, conservative writer Ross Douthat looks ahead and says the first thing the administration needs to do is back off and straighten up. You can read the story for free. www.nytimes.com/2026/01/10/o...

FactCheck.org, based in the Annenberg Center for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania, is the oldest and most comprehensive of the fact-checking services. It sticks to the facts, and I recommend it without reservation. www.factcheck.org/2026/01/expl...

We are increasingly an outlaw nation.

The Next Cold War nickanderson.substack.com

"Americans don’t usually vote on foreign policy. But if any Republican primary race in America is going to test G.O.P. voters’ appetites for intervention abroad and Trump dissent at home, it’s this one." Trump backs Ed Gallrein over Rep. Thomas Massie in KY-04. www.nytimes.com/2026/01/07/u...

"The use of force to seize the sovereign democratic territory of one of America’s most loyal and capable allies would be an especially catastrophic act of strategic self-harm to America and its global influence," says @SenMcConnell, who is exactly correct. www.mcconnell.senate.gov/public/index...

The Lexington Herald-Leader wants to make the governor's schedule public. It should be. www.kentucky.com/news/politic...

open.substack.com/pub/thebulwa... “Do we have a rules-based international order, or a power-based international order? That’s the fundamental question.” Is America proposing that rules govern the conduct of sovereign nations? “Or are we proposing that all rules emanate from the barrel of a gun?”