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Thursday, February 19, 2026

Nonviolent Climate Activist Group Says It’s Been Targeted by FBI ‘Terrorism’ Task Force

“This is an escalation against the climate movement as a whole, and the next phase of this administration’s crackdown on dissent,” said Extinction Rebellion.


Climate activists with Extinction Rebellion block escalators inside CBS Studios on September 10, 2025.
(Photo by Michael Nigro/Pacific Press/LightRocket via Getty Images)

Stephen Prager
Feb 18, 2026
COMMON DREAMS


As the Trump administration broadens its efforts to criminalize dissent, a nonviolent climate advocacy group says the FBI is targeting it with a terrorism investigation.

Using a dubious legal designation of “domestic terrorism,” the US Department of Justice (DOJ) has ramped up its efforts to surveil those it considers to be domestic enemies—including members of left-wing groups with no history of violence.

The New York City chapter of the group Extinction Rebellion said one of its former members came into the crosshairs earlier this month.

In a statement on Wednesday, the group said that a former member was visited by two special agents, one of whom was from the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Forces, at their residence 200 miles outside New York City.

They said the agents asked about their involvement with Extinction Rebellion. The member declined to respond, referring the questions to their attorney.

The former member, who has chosen to remain anonymous, told the Intercept that they hadn’t been involved with the group in two years and hadn’t participated in any actions they thought would warrant FBI involvement.

“I believe this to be a significant escalation of the criminal legal system against Extinction Rebellion and find it very troubling,” Ron Kuby, an attorney for Extinction Rebellion, said. “This is usually the way we find out an actual investigation is underway and is often followed by other visits and other actions.”

He said he found it strange that Extinction Rebellion would become the target of a terrorism investigation. Members of the group take part in acts of what they call “nonviolent civil disobedience” such as blocking roads, sit-ins at public buildings, and occasional vandalism.

The group has sought to use these tactics to draw attention to leaders’ inaction in fighting the climate crisis. Increasingly, they have launched protests against the Trump administration’s policies more broadly, including its deployment of federal immigration agents in cities across the country.

While its actions can be disruptive, Extinction Rebellion has always been nonviolent, Kuby said, and its tactics are at worst misdemeanor offenses, which typically wouldn’t interest federal law enforcement.

“[Extinction Rebellion NYC] is a nonviolent, decentralized group of artists, small business owners, parents, retired teachers, and everyday New Yorkers. We are not terrorists!” said a statement from Extinction Rebellion Global posted to social media on Tuesday. “We use artistic nonviolent organized protests, community outreach, and strategic advocacy to empower everyday citizens and drive meaningful environmental change.”

“This is an escalation against the climate movement as a whole, and the next phase of this administration’s crackdown on dissent that many of us have been expecting,” the group continued.


The New York City chapter of Extinction Rebellion is not the first to receive FBI visits during the second Trump administration.

Last year, six members of its sister group in Boston said the feds came to their doors, all on the same day in March, and questioned them without providing any business cards or explanation for their visit.

According to WBUR reporting at the time, none of the activists questioned had a history of participating in violent protests or of facing felony charges in federal or Massachusetts courts.

Jeff Feuer, a lawyer in Cambridge who has represented climate activists for more than three decades, told the outlet, “Until this year, I have never heard about the FBI or any other federal law enforcement officer visiting or questioning any of the hundreds of climate activists that I have personally represented.”



After months of denial, US Attorney General Pam Bondi acknowledged during a contentious House Judiciary Committee hearing earlier this month that the department does, in fact, have a list of “domestic terrorist organizations” being compiled under President Donald Trump’s National Security Presidential Memorandum 7, which was described as a national directive to use the Joint Terrorism Task Forces to focus on “leftist” political violence in America.

That memo, commonly referred to as NSPM-7, was first obtained by independent journalist Ken Klippenstein in September. It laid out a national strategy to “disrupt” individuals or groups that “foment political violence” before it takes place.

NSPM-7 described many vaguely defined political viewpoints as potential “indicators” that one is a possible domestic terorrist, including: “anti-Americanism,” “anti-capitalism,” and “Anti-Christianity”; “extremism” on “migration,” “race,” and “gender”; and “hostility to those who hold traditional views” on “family,” “religion,” and “morality.”

In another memo that leaked in December, Bondi—who just months before pledged under oath there would “never be an enemies list” compiled by the DOJ—directed the department to compile a list of potential “domestic terrorism” organizations that espouse “extreme viewpoints on immigration, radical gender ideology, and anti-American sentiment.”

It directs federal law enforcement agencies to refer “suspected” domestic terrorism cases to the Joint Terrorism Task Forces, which will then undertake an “exhaustive investigation contemplated by NSPM-7” that will incorporate “a focused strategy to root out all culpable participants—including organizers and funders—in all domestic terrorism activities.”

During the hearing, Bondi refused to say which groups and entities were on the list of so-called “domestic terrorists,” though she acknowledged it existed, saying, “I know antifa is part of that.”

Trump designated “antifa,” referring to a loose confederation of antifascist groups, as a “domestic terrorist organization” in October, even though there is no formal “domestic terrorism” statute in US law.

It is unclear whether a formal federal investigation into Extinction Rebellion is underway or if it is part of NSPM-7.

An internal document shared with the Guardian in November revealed that the FBI had launched “criminal and domestic terrorism investigations” into “threats against immigration enforcement activity” in at least 23 regions across the US—including New York. It acknowledged that some of the investigations were related to the “countering domestic terrorism” memo.

“'Domestic terrorism’ may not yet be a criminal charge, but the Trump administration is gearing up to create it,” Extinction Rebellion NYC said on Wednesday. “NSPM-7... will be the broadest criminalization of free speech since McCarthyism or the height of the Civil Rights Movement. And while this fossil-fueled administration has already failed in some attempts to silence critics, we understand the broader context within which our specific activities sit.”


FBI BEGAN TARGETING ENVIRONMENTAL ACTIVISTS AS TERRORISTS AFTER 9/11


Digital Surveillance, ICE, and the Trumped-Up Charge of Domestic Terrorism


From the web to the streets, the president of the United States is weaponizing the federal government to hunt, prosecute, and punish his enemies.


US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, Department of Homeland Security personnel, and Border Patrol Commander Gregory Bovino stand together amid a tense protest outside the ICE processing facility in Broadview, Illinois, on September 27, 2025.
(Photo by Jacek Boczarski/Anadolu via Getty Images)


Jordan Liz
Feb 19, 2026
Common Dreams


In recent months, the Department of Homeland Security has issued hundreds of administrative subpoenas to tech companies demanding the personal information of social media accounts that track, criticize, or oppose Immigration Customs and Enforcement. This includes Google, Reddit, Meta, and Discord, which—in a move that makes far more sense now—recently announced it will require users to submit a face scan or upload an ID to access full content.

While alarming, this is only the latest step in a year-long effort by President Donald Trump’s DHS to expand its online surveillance apparatus under the guise of combating left-wing “political violence” and “domestic terrorism.” In February 2025, The Intercept revealed that ICE was soliciting pitches for an automated system that would scan social media and other sites for anti-ICE sentiment and threats. If anything “suspicious” were detected, a contractor would conduct a detailed review of the user’s background, including:
Previous social media activity which would indicate any additional threats to ICE; 2). Information which would indicate the individual(s) and/or the organization(s) making threats have a proclivity for violence; and 3). Information indicating a potential for carrying out a threat (such as postings depicting weapons, acts of violence, refences [sic] to acts of violence, to include empathy or affiliation with a group which has violent tendencies; references to violent acts; affections with violent acts; eluding [sic] to violent acts.

To estimate one’s “potential for carrying out a threat” or “proclivity for violence,” contractors would draw on “social and behavioral sciences” and “psychological profiles.” Sentiment analysis would likely be carried out by machine-learning algorithms. While details here are sparse, the important point for now is that this review would attempt to assess one’s present and future threat to ICE based on the agency’s own internal (and politically biased) criteria.

Once flagged, the system would scour a target’s internet history and attempt to reveal their real-world location and offline identity. Contractors would provide ICE with a slew of personal information including: “photograph, partial legal name, partial date of birth, possible city, possible work affiliations, possible school or university affiliation, and any identified possible family members or associates.”

All of this meant to invoke fear, silence dissent, and consolidate power for Trump and his allies. Yet, despite the dangers, we must resist.

In October 2025, Wired reported that ICE plans to drastically expand their surveillance capabilities by hiring nearly 30 private contractors to scan social media sites and convert posts, photos, and messages into new leads for enforcement raids.

In January 2026, investigative journalist Ken Klippenstein revealed that DHS and the FBI have over a dozen “secret and obscure” watch lists they use to track “protesters (both anti-ICE and pro-Palestinian), ‘Antifa,’ and those who are promiscuously labelled ‘domestic terrorists.’” These watch lists include a classified social media repository code named Slipstream, as well as others “used to link people on the streets together, including collecting on friends and families who have nothing to do with any purported lawbreaking.” This reporting came a few days after a video was released online of an ICE agent telling a protester that they have a “nice little database” and “now you’re considered a domestic terrorist.”

These watch lists are an extension of Trump’s National Security Presidential Memo 7 (NSPM-7). That memo mandates a “national strategy to investigate and disrupt networks, entities, and organizations that foment political violence so that law enforcement can intervene in criminal conspiracies before they result in violent political acts.” Per the memo, domestic terrorism is fomented by the spread of “'anti-fascist’ rhetoric” including, “anti-Americanism, anti-capitalism, and anti-Christianity,” as well as “extremism on migration, race, and gender.”

The labeling of any view Trump disagrees with as “domestic terrorism” is dangerous and strategic. As Rachel Levinson-Waldman, the director of the Brennan Center for Justice’s Liberty and National Security Program, notes, under the Patriot Act, “Any federal or state crime can be used as the basis for a domestic terrorism investigation if it is ‘dangerous to human life’” and “appear[s] to be intended to intimidate or coerce a civilian population” or the government. This broad basis allows DHS to use its vast policing and surveillance powers to investigate civil rights organizations, activists, and donors to progressive causes as well as online critics. Regardless of the outcome of their investigation, being suspected of domestic terrorism—regardless of how unconstitutional, frivolous, and politically motivated the charge—can have lasting impacts, including loss of employment and housing, inability to conduct financial transactions, as well as public stigma.

Importantly, the image of the “domestic terrorist” is quite different from the ordinary criminal. The “domestic terrorist” does not simply violate the law, they commit “ideologically driven crimes” aimed to destroy the nation and its people. They represent a far greater threat. This is why the State Department has been revoking the visas of hundreds of students who express “pro-Hamas” views, whether in protest, newsletters, or on social media. For Secretary of State Marco Rubio, the presence of “these lunatics” is contrary to the national security and interests of the United States. The State Department has also denied visas to people “celebrating” the death of Charlie Kirk for similar reasons.

National security is also the basis for imposing denaturalization quotas for foreign-born citizens as well as the Trump administration’s efforts to restrict birthright citizenship for the children of undocumented immigrants. In each case, “national security,” “left-wing political violence,” and “domestic terrorism” are used to justify the denial of rights and the abuse of federal powers.

For US-born citizens like Renee Good, Alex Pretti, Marimar Martinez, or those subjected to ICE’s mass digital surveillance, those punitive measures are unavailable. Instead, the designation of “domestic terrorist” is meant to mark them as traitors—as people who, like “pro-Hamas” visa holders or “dangerous illegal criminal aliens more broadly,” do not belong in this country. For this administration, they are essentially citizens in name only—they do not “share our values, contribute to our economy, and assimilate in our society.” Thus, they too must be subjected to the full arsenal of policing and surveillance powers at DHS’ disposal.

In fact, for Trump, these “faux” citizens are a greater threat than undocumented immigrants. As then-presidential candidate Trump put it, “I think the bigger problem is the enemy from within, not even the people that have come in and destroying our country. […] I think the bigger problem are the people from within. We have some very bad people. We have some sick people. Radical left lunatics.” But the reality is that far from sick, bad, or radical, these are ordinary law-abiding people whose only crime is defying the rising piss-stained tide of Trump’s authoritarianism.

The dangers here are real and serious: The blatant First Amendment violations; the widening of DHS’ mass surveillance capabilities; the policing of dissent, both actual and possible; the coordinated effort to undermine digital activism; the complicity of tech companies in furthering the fascist ambitions of the Trump administration; the malicious smearing of those who oppose this administration as “domestic terrorists”; as well as the reality—unnerving, though far from unprecedented—that from the web to the streets the president of the United States is weaponizing the federal government to hunt, prosecute, and punish his enemies.

All of this meant to invoke fear, silence dissent, and consolidate power for Trump and his allies. Yet, despite the dangers, we must resist. We must continue calling out ICE’s abuses, championing Palestinian sovereignty, denouncing Trump’s vile imperial and colonial ambitions, and protecting our rights and freedoms from the real domestic terrorist threat: the Trump administration.


Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.


Jordan Liz
Jordan Liz is an Associate Professor of Philosophy at San José State University. He specializes in issues of race, immigration and the politics of belonging.
Full Bio >
THE EPSTEIN CLASS


Ro Khanna Demands Action After UN Panel Says Epstein Files Point to ‘Crimes Against Humanity’

The UN Human Rights Council on Tuesday said evidence in the files is “suggestive of the existence of a global criminal enterprise.”


Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) arrives at a Department of Justice office in Washington, DC, on February 9, 2026.
(Photo by Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images)


Brad Reed
Feb 18, 2026
COMMON DREAMS

Rep. Ro Khanna on Wednesday demanded action from both the Trump administration and US Congress after the United Nations Human Rights Council said it found evidence of a potential “global criminal enterprise” in the US government’s files related to the investigation of late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

In a video posted on social media, Khanna (D-Calif.) issued a series of demands in the wake of the UN council’s Tuesday declaration that the actions of Epstein and his associates “may reasonably meet the legal threshold of crimes against humanity.”




Khanna Names 6 Men ‘Likely Incriminated’ by Epstein Files That ‘DOJ Hid for No Apparent Reason’



It’s a ‘Cover-Up,’ Says Khanna, If Official FBI Survivor Statements Not Included in Epstein File Dump

First, Khanna said that the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) must assemble a special prosecution committee to build criminal cases against Epstein associates who are alleged to have participated in the trafficking of underage girls.




He then demanded that House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) set up a congressional select committee to have hearings where “every person who went” to Epstein’s private island in the Caribbean where he trafficked girls is forced to testify.

Finally, Khanna said that the DOJ must release the remaining Epstein files that are still under wraps, without any redactions for names of the “predators” within.

Experts on the UN Human Rights Council said that the evidence contained in the Epstein files is “suggestive of the existence of a global criminal enterprise” that has “shocked the conscience of humanity and raised terrifying implications of the level of impunity for such crimes.”

The experts added that “so grave is the scale, nature, systematic character, and transnational reach of these atrocities against women and girls, that a number of them may reasonably meet the legal threshold of crimes against humanity.”

Khanna and Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) last year authored the Epstein Files Transparency Act, which mandated that the DOJ publish all materials related to the FBI’s investigation into Epstein and his associates, with redactions made only to protect the identities of the victims.

Despite this law, the DOJ proceeded to release files that revealed victims’ identities, while also blacking out names of alleged abusers.

Trump Promised to Drain the Swamp—Turns Out He’s Best Friends With the Swamp Monster

When given the opportunity to seek justice for countless women and children who were trafficked, abused, and exploited by the world’s wealthiest, most powerful people, the MAGA movement and its leaders have shown a startling disinterest in accountability.


Sonali Kolhatkar
Feb 19, 2026
OtherWords


Attorney General Pam Bondi’s contentious House hearing about the Justice Department’s handling of the Epstein files offered a clear message to the nation: Sex trafficking of women and minors is perfectly acceptable as long as wealthy white men do it.

Jeffrey Epstein, the disgraced late sex trafficker, fixer, and political networker, was found to have ties to huge number of the world’s elites on both sides of the political aisle—including Elon Musk, Peter Thiel, Ehud Barak, Bill GatesSteve Bannon, Larry Summers, Bill Clinton, and of course, Donald Trump.


Three-Time Trump Voter Calls C-SPAN to Apologize for ‘Supporting This Rotten, Rotten Man’


For years, Trump’s conservative backers have attacked LGBTQ+ peopledrag queens, immigrants, and others, claiming a desire to protect women and children from rapists and groomers. Trump even boasted that “whether the women liked it or not,” he would “protect” them from migrants, whom he slandered as “monsters” who “kidnap and kill our children.”

But when given the opportunity to seek justice for countless women and children who were trafficked, abused, and exploited by the world’s wealthiest, most powerful people, the MAGA movement and its leaders have shown a startling disinterest in accountability. During her hearing Bondi tried desperately to deflect attention, claiming that the stock market was more deserving of public attention than Epstein’s victims.

For elites like Epstein, ideological differences were superficial. The real distinction was money, power, and connections.

Even the Republican rank and file is now mysteriously detached from the Epstein files.

Polls show that in summer 2025, 40% of GOP voters disapproved of the federal government’s handling of the Epstein files. But by January 2026, only about half that percentage disapproved—even after the Trump administration missed its deadline to release millions of files and then released them in a way that exposed the victims while protecting the perpetrators.

While some European leaders are facing harsh consequences for associating with Epstein, no Americans outside of Epstein and his closest associate Ghislaine Maxwell have faced any consequences, legal or otherwise.

That’s despite very concrete ties between the Trump administration and the sex trafficker. Not only did Trump’s Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick admit to visiting Epstein island after lying about it (and has so far faced no consequences), but Trump himself is named more than a million times in the files, according to lawmakers with access to the unredacted documents. Several victims identify Trump by name, alleging he raped and assaulted them.

And it’s not just Trump. Epstein was an equal opportunity fixer. He was just as friendly with liberals as he was with conservatives, including Summers, Clinton, and, disconcertingly for the American left, Noam Chomsky. For elites like Epstein, ideological differences were superficial. The real distinction was money, power, and connections.

Epstein was a glorified drug dealer, and his drugs of choice were the vulnerable bodies of women and children, offered up to his friends and allies as the forbidden currency he traded in. A useful moniker has emerged to describe the global network of elites whose power and privilege continues to protect them from accountability: the Epstein Class.

Georgia Sen. John Ossoff, who faces reelection in 2026, is deploying this label, understanding that voters—at least those who haven’t bought into the MAGA cult —are increasingly aware of the double standards that wealthy power players are held to.

“This is the Epstein class, ruling our country,” said Ossoff in reference to those who make up the Trump administration. “They are the elites they pretend to hate.”

He’s right. And if the Trump administration won’t hold them to account, Americans should demand leaders who will.



This column was distributed by OtherWords.



Sonali Kolhatkar

Sonali Kolhatkar is currently the racial justice editor at YES! Media and a writing fellow with Independent Media Institute. She was previously a weekly columnist for Truthdig.com. She is also the host and creator of Rising Up with Sonali, a nationally syndicated television and radio program airing on Free Speech TV and dozens of independent and community radio stations. Sonali won First Place at the Los Angeles Press Club Annual Awards for Best Election Commentary in 2016. She also won numerous awards including Best TV Anchor from the LA Press Club and has also been nominated as Best Radio Anchor 4 years in a row. She is the author of Bleeding Afghanistan: Washington, Warlords, and the Propaganda of Silence, and the co-Director of the non-profit group, Afghan Women's Mission. She has a Master's in Astronomy from the University of Hawaii, and two undergraduate degrees in Physics and Astronomy from The University of Texas at Austin. Watch her 2014 Tedx talk, My journey from astrophysicist to radio host. She can be reached at www.sonalikolhatkar.com
Full Bio >

This ugly truth about America's rulers was unmasked in Epstein's emails


Robert Reich
February 17, 2026 
RAW STORY


Jeffrey Epstein is seen in this image released by the Department of Justice. Handout via REUTERS


Here’s how Kentucky Republican Congressman Thomas Massie responded on ABC last weekend, to a question about the Trump regime’s handling of the Epstein files:

“This is about the Epstein class …. They’re billionaires who were friends with these people, and that’s what I’m up against in Washington, D.C. Donald Trump told us that even though he had dinner with these kinds of people, in New York City and West Palm Beach, that he would be transparent. But he’s not. He's still in with the Epstein class. This is the Epstein administration. And they’re attacking me for trying to get these files released.”

The Epstein Class. Not just the people who cavorted with Jeffrey Epstein or the subset who abused young girls. It’s an interconnected world of hugely rich, prominent, entitled, smug, powerful, self-important (mostly) men. Donald Trump is honorary chairman.

Trump is still sitting on two and a half million files that he and Pam Bondi won’t release. Why? Because they implicate Trump and even more of the Epstein class. The files that have been released so far don’t paint a pretty picture.

Trump appears 1,433 times in the Epstein files so far. His billionaire backers are also members. Elon Musk appears 1,122 times. Howard Lutnick is there. So is Trump-backer Peter Thiel (2,710 times), and Leslie Wexner (565 times). As is Steven Witkoff, now Trump’s envoy to the Middle East, and Steve Bannon, Trump’s consigliere (1,855 times).

The Epstein Class isn’t limited to Trump donors. Bill Clinton is a member (1,192 times), as is Larry Summers (5,621 times). So are LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman (3,769 times), Prince Andrew (1,821 times), Bill Gates (6,385 times), and Steve Tisch, co-owner of the New York Giants (429 times).

If not politics, then what connects the members of the Epstein Class? It’s not just riches. Some members are not particularly wealthy, but they’re richly connected. They trade on their prominence, on whom they know and who will return their phone calls.

They exchange inside tips on stocks, on the movements of currencies, on IPOs, on new tax-avoidance mechanisms. On getting into exclusive clubs, reservations at chic restaurants, lush hotels, exotic travel.

Most members of the Epstein Class have seceded into their own small, self-contained world, disconnected from the rest of society. They fly in one other’s private jets. They entertain at one other’s guest houses and villas. Some exchange tips on how to procure certain drugs or kinky sex or valuable works of art. And, of course, how to accumulate more wealth.

Many don’t particularly believe in democracy; Peter Thiel (recall, he appears 2,710 times in the Epstein files) has said he “no longer believes that freedom and democracy are compatible.” Many are putting their fortunes into electing people who will do their bidding. Hence, they are politically dangerous.

The Epstein Class is the by-product of an economy that emerged over the last two decades, from which this new elite has siphoned off vast amounts of wealth.

It’s an economy that bears almost no resemblance to that of mid-20th-century America. The most valuable companies in this new economy have few workers because they don’t make stuff. They design it. They create ideas. They sell concepts. They move money.

The value of businesses in this new economy isn’t in factories, buildings, or machines. It’s in algorithms, operating systems, standards, brands, and vast, self-reinforcing user networks.


I remember when IBM was the nation’s most valuable company and among its largest employers, with a payroll in the 1980s of nearly 400,000. Today, Nvidia is nearly 20 times as valuable as IBM was then and five times as profitable (adjusted for inflation), but it employs just over 40,000. Nvidia, unlike the old IBM, designs but doesn’t make its products.

Over the past three years, Google parent Alphabet’s revenue has grown 43 percent while its payroll has remained flat. Amazon’s revenue has soared, but it’s eliminating jobs.

Members of the Epstein Class are compensated in shares of stock. As corporate profits have soared, the stock market has roared. As the stock market has roared, the compensation of the Epstein Class has reached the stratosphere.

Meanwhile, most Americans are trapped in an old economy where they depend on paychecks that aren’t growing and jobs in short supply. They’re one or two paychecks away from poverty. The Federal Reserve Bank of New York just reported that mortgage delinquency rates for lower-income households are surging.

Affordable housing isn’t a problem that occurs to the Epstein Class. Nor is income inequality. Nor the loss of our democracy. Nor the deleterious effects of social media on young people and children.

When Silicon Valley’s biggest tech proponent in Congress — Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) — recently announced his support for a tax on California billionaires, to help fill the void created by Trump’s cuts in Medicare and Medicaid (which, in turn, made way for Trump’s second huge tax cut for the rich), the Epstein Class blew a gasket.

Vinod Khosla, one of Silicon Valley’s most prominent venture capitalists, with a net worth estimated at more than $13 billion (and who’s mentioned 182 times in the Epstein files but is no friend of Trump), called Khanna a “commie comrade.”

Khosla, by the way, is best known by the public for purchasing 89 acres of California beachfront property in in 2008 for $32.5 million, then trying to block public access to the ocean with a locked gate and signs. Despite losing multiple court rulings, including a 2018 Supreme Court appeal, he carries on with the dispute.

Not classy, but, shall we say, a typical Epstein Class move.


Robert Reich is an emeritus professor of public policy at Berkeley and former secretary of labor. His writings can be found at https://robertreich.substack.com/. His new memoir, Coming Up Short, can be found wherever you buy books. You can also support local bookstores nationally by ordering the book at bookshop.org


A new statue shows besties Trump and Epstein frolicking in DC.
(Photo by The Secret Handshake)


Wednesday, February 18, 2026

The Munich “Security” Conference (MSC) has Become a €20‑Million Militarist Echo Chamber

The MSC’s closed groupthink militarism offers only one prescription — more weapons — even as record military expenditures, squeezed from taxpayers in economic crisis, destroy diplomacy and drive escalation and the highest war risks in decades.

From Dialogue Forum to Militarised Ritual

For decades, the Munich Security Conference (MSC) – which opened today and runs till Sunday – was one of the few places where adversaries could meet without theatrics. Founded in 1963 as the Wehrkundetagung, it served as a discreet Cold War dialogue forum between NATO and the Warsaw Pact. Even at moments of high tension, Soviet and later Russian representatives were present, and Munich allowed uncomfortable messages to be delivered directly rather than through press releases or military manoeuvres.

That era has vanished. The MSC has become something entirely different: a €13–20 million annual gathering of a closed Western security elite, a polished meeting of governments, defence industries, major media and aligned think tanks, all wrapped in the language of dialogue but operating as a self‑reinforcing militarist echo chamber.

A €20‑Million Structure That Predetermines Its Outcome

The MSC’s financing reveals its orientation more clearly than any mission statement. Roughly €5–7 million comes from the German federal government; €6–10 million from corporate sponsors, including major defence and security companies; and €2–3 million from foundations and institutional partners.

When governments and arms‑industry actors are the primary funders, the gravitational pull inevitably shifts toward military‑centric definitions of security, technological solutions, alliance cohesion and deterrence doctrines, while peacebuilding, conflict transformation, diplomacy, mediation and non‑military approaches — which lack comparable financial backers — quietly disappear from the agenda.

In consequence, the MSC will be devoid of free thinking, alternative non-military security measures and every vision of a better world.

Speaking about the World, Not with It

The MSC’s agenda is curated by a tight circle of leadership, advisory‑council members, government partners, corporate sponsors and security‑aligned think tanks. Each layer reinforces the others, producing a remarkably coherent worldview in which the same actors define the problems, propose the solutions and moderate the discussions.

Panels are dominated by Western officials, military leaders and analysts funded by the same governments and industries that support the MSC; moderators from major Western media outlets reinforce prevailing assumptions rather than interrogating them.

The result is predictable: panels on Russia without Russians; panels on China with only one Chinese representative (its foreign minister whose different perspectives are hardly ever quoted by Western media); panels on peace without peace researchers; panels on the Global South without Global South voices.

Thanks to remarkable intellectual inbreeding, the MSC increasingly speaks about adversaries, about diplomacy, about peace — but not with the actors concerned, nor with those who work professionally on conflict resolution, least of all the UN.

This is an intentional architecture crafted by the congregation of the NATO Church, and so it is only logical that its former Secretary‑General, Jens Stoltenberg, now takes over as its presiding priest.

The Only Prescription: More Weapons

Across the MSC, the policy prescriptions are strikingly uniform: more weapons, stronger deterrence, longer‑range strike capabilities, higher military spending, deeper alliance integration.

The logic is circular: insecurity is met with more armament, which produces more insecurity, which justifies more armament. Offensive long‑range deterrence is a 100 percent predictable insecurity generator, because the opponent sees it as a threat, not reassurance – no matter your argument that you have no bad intentions.

Furthermore, the world has never spent more on weaponry than it does today, yet the objective risk of a major war is rising, not falling. Citizens facing economic crises are told to pay through their noses for “security” that demonstrably increases their risk.

In any rational forum, someone would stand up and say: Something must be wrong: let us stop and think. At Munich, no one does.

The Kabuki theatre must continue. Remember, anyone can start a fight in a bar — or a war — but it requires a few capacities to avoid war and create peaceful coexistence.

From Dialogue to Narrative Consolidation

Since the Obama-orchestrated Maidan regime-change in Kiev on 22 February 2014 and Russia’s Crimea annexation of 18 March 2014, the MSC has steadily closed the door on dialogue with Russia — a far cry from 2007 when Putin gave his now historic low-key speech in which he asked what had happened to the promises given to Gorbachev about not expanding NATO one inch.

The MSC has aligned itself fully with the strategic posture of NATO and the EU. Dialogue with adversaries has been replaced by discussions about adversaries; panels on Russia or China are framed entirely through Western threat lenses; and the conference has become a stage where governments, industries, media and aligned academics reinforce a single worldview that defines security almost exclusively in military terms and is unable to see the larger world and its opportunities.

The tragedy is not that the MSC has a perspective; the tragedy is that it has only one. And it is anything but trust, confidence, conflict-resolution and peace.

The Missing Counterpart: A Global Peace Conference

The MSC’s official prominence and media attention highlights a deeper structural absence: there is no equivalent high‑level forum for peace. No annual gathering where peace researchers, mediators, peace workers, conflict‑resolution practitioners, civil society, Global South voices, non‑aligned states and humanitarian actors and people of culture meet to explore non‑military approaches to security.

The most unrealistic and debunked assumption is that security is about arms and more arms lead to more stability, security and peace – the mantra of the NATO Church, no matter what the alliance does, including violating it own treaty 24/7 since bombing Yugoslavia in 1999.

There is no €20‑million (or cheaper) platform for diplomacy, prevention, reconciliation or structural peacebuilding; no global stage where peace is treated with the same seriousness, resources and media attention as deterrence, rearmament and unlimited militarist thinking.

The imbalance is not accidental; it reflects political priorities and the MIMAC‑shaped worldview that now dominates Western security thinking.

It is dead dangerous for you and me – in substance and because of its own self-affirming blindness.

Understanding Munich for What It Has Become

The Munich Security Conference no longer functions as a platform for dialogue between adversaries or as a space for exploring diverse approaches to security. Instead, it has become a high‑profile meeting point for a closed security groupthink — a place where elite interests converge, narratives are synchronised and the boundaries of acceptable discourse are tightly managed.

It is time understand it honestly. It is time for free media (if they still exist) to have a critical perspective. Will they, or have they been co-opted completely?

Until someone invests in a serious, well‑funded, global peace conference — something with the scale, visibility and ambition of Munich — the imbalance will remain. And so will the risks of warfare.

Perhaps it is time for BRICS, the Belt & Road Initiative, a coalition of peace-willing in cooperation with the United Nations and non-Western regions and actors — governments and citizens — to arrange a conference for true peace and human security where the military dimension has its proper — minimal — place.

We must never accept that violence becomes the first resort. It should always be the last resort after everything else has been tried and found in vain.

P.S. A conference that invites María Corina Machado to speak about Venezuela, Lindsey Graham to speak about Russia, Tony Blair to speak about peace, and uses only conservative Western media as moderators, documents not global security thinking but the intellectual and ethical disarmament of a declining West and – who knows? – a disintegrating EU and NATO.

Jan Oberg is a peace researcher, art photographer, and Director of The Transnational (TFF) where this article first appeared. Reach him at: oberg@transnational.orgRead other articles by Jan.

 


Venezuela: The end game

Venezuela in Crisis Socialist Perspectives

First published at The Next Recession.

The kidnapping of Venezuela’s President Maduro and his wife by US military forces, the subsequent takeover by the Vice President Rodriguez and her agreement to allow the US to control Venezuela’s oil export revenues and to bring in US energy multi-nationals to invest — all this signals the end game of the Chavista revolution that began over 25 years ago. So it is very opportune that a new book has been published on what happened in Venezuela to reach this point.

Called Venezuela in Crisis and published by Haymarket Books, this book brings together “some of the most important Marxist, socialist, and anti-capitalist thinkers in Venezuela, representing a range of left political traditions and organizations.” These Spanish language writers have been translated so that English speakers can read the arguments and experiences of those on the left in Venezuela. Some contributors served in Chávez’s cabinet and have now become critics of the Maduro government. “Bringing these voices to an English-speaking audience will allow readers to engage with the current debates and perspectives of the Venezuelan left”.

The book has been edited by Anderson Bean from North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, who has written before on Venezuela. His introductory chapter provides the reader with the essence of the chapters in the book. Bean starts by pointing out that through the 2000s, the Chavista-Bolivarian revolution in Venezuela was an inspiration for others in the so-called Global South, perhaps even more so than the Cuban revolution of the 1960s. The election of Hugo Chavez in the 1998 election, after decades of corrupt, pro-capitalist, pro-US governments, was a burst of fresh air. In the subsequent years, the Chavez presidency “improved Venezuelans’ material well-being, brought greater social equality, and empowered sectors of society that were traditionally excluded from the political process.”

Bean argues that there were three key components of the Chavez presidency: first, the rewriting of the constitution to promote of broad citizen participation and comprehensive human rights protections; second, the redistribution of oil profits through various social programs which reduced official poverty levels by 37.6% and ‘extreme poverty” by 57.8%. By 2008, Venezuela also had the highest minimum wage in all Latin America, and inequality in the country dropped to one of the lowest in the Americas. By 2011, Venezuela was the second most equal country in the Western Hemisphere; only Canada had lower levels of inequality. And third, which Bean reckons was the “most transformative”, was the transfer of power to the popular sectors through the creation of new forms of popular assemblies and experiments with workers’ controls and community councils.

But from 2013 onwards, things began to go wrong, big time. From 2013 to 2021, Venezuela’s GDP fell 75%, inflation reached 130,000% in 2018, the highest in the world! The percentage of households classified as poor increased from 48.4% in 2014 to 81.5% in 2022. The monthly minimum wage at US$2.23 then was the lowest in all Latin America. Indeed, the monthly minimum salary was just US$0.15 a day, eight times less than the World Bank’s then limit for absolute poverty of US$1.25 a day. That compared with a monthly minimum wage under Chávez of US$300, over 60 times higher.

The collapse in real incomes and the sharp rise in poverty in the 2010s led to a migration crisis. Since 2016, millions of Venezuelans have fled the country seeking work abroad in order to send money back home. Today, the number of Venezuelan refugees and migrants worldwide is estimated to be around 7.7 million, or 20% of all Venezuelans. Venezuela now has the highest number of displaced people in Latin America and the second highest in the world, just behind Syria.

What explains this collapse from inspiration to nightmare? Bean says there were two causes. The first was US sanctions imposed on Venezuela, coupled with several attempts by the US state, in collaboration with the domestic Venezuelan right-wing opposition, to undermine the Venezuelan economy, in order to carry out regime change. US imperialism saw Venezuela as a threat, with Chavez’s renationalisation of the oil industry; and Chavez’s attempt to build trade relations with other Latin American countries outside the orbit of US-led trade agreements, while looking for support in trade and investment from the likes of China. The very early success of the Chavista presidency was anathema.

Indeed, in 2002, the US, in collaboration with the Venezuelan business class, attempted a coup to overthrow Chávez. He was removed from office for forty-seven hours, before being reinstated by mass popular mobilizations. From late 2002 to early 2003, the US supported an oil lockout to bring oil production to a halt with the stated goal of forcing Chávez to resign. In 2014, the US backed the Venezuelan right-wing again in violent street protests called the guarimbas, demanding ‘la salida’, or the “exit,” of Maduro. The US, again in collaboration with the sections of the Venezuelan right wing, attempted yet another coup in January 2019, when Juan Guiadó unconstitutionally declared himself president of Venezuela. After the January coup failed to overthrow Maduro, Guiadó tried again in April 2019, but was thwarted once more.

These attempted coups failed, but a litany of economic sanctions were imposed. Under Trump’s sanctions, US institutions and citizens were prohibited from trading in Venezuelan debt. All government assets were frozen. The country was prevented from restructuring its foreign debt or payment schedules. Payments sent by countries participating in its program for preferential payment of oil were blocked. The sale of billions of dollars in trade credits were banned. Sanctions also closed off Venezuela to its most important oil market, the US, and properties held abroad were confiscated, like the US-based Citgo, which the state depended on for sources of income. These measures led to a loss of $6 billion in oil revenue in just 2018 alone. Sanctions froze $17 billion of the country’s assets and cost the country around $11 billion in export losses in 2019, or $30 million a day.

The Washington, DC–based Center for Economic and Policy Research published a 2019 report detailing the effects of US sanctions on Venezuela. Between 2017 and 2018 alone, the sanctions killed an estimated 40,000 Venezuelans and plunged many more into precarity. Over 300,000 people were put at risk because of the lack of medicine and health care, including 80,000 HIV-positive Venezuelans who have gone without antiretroviral drugs for years now. Additionally, obtaining needed cardiovascular medicine or insulin is a challenge for the 16,000 Venezuelans who need dialysis, the 4 million with diabetes and hypertension and the 16,000 people who have cancer.

But the writers in this book are at pains to argue that the collapse in Venezuela cannot be laid solely at the door of US imperialism and its sanctions. Despite the harm that the sanctions have wrought in Venezuela, the other major component was the economic mismanagement and neoliberal program of the increasingly authoritarian Maduro government. Mainstream capitalist economists claim that the collapse of Venezuela was the result of socialism; while many on the left claim that the Maduro regime had to be defended as an example of socialism. Both sides are wrong. Bean and the other writers in this book do not accept that Chavez (and Maduro after him) had established a socialist economy, or even that Venezuela was on the ‘road to socialism’.

As I argued in my own posts on Venezuela, Chavez’s relative success in improving the lot of most Venezuelans was founded on the boom in commodity prices during the 2000s. With the price of oil and natural gas high, even a modest increase in royalties and taxes created a huge influx in government revenues. This extra revenue enabled Chávez to increase social spending, create various distribution programs and improve the standard of living of the majority of Venezuelans.

But, as Bean points out, Chavez was able to do this without touching the Venezuelan capitalist sector. “There was no real meaningful transformation of social property relations, no transformation of the international division of labor, and no challenge to the prerogatives of transnational capital.” Private capital still dominated in Venezuela throughout the presidencies of Chávez and Maduro. The overwhelming majority of the means of production remained in the hands of the private sphere and the capitalist class. In fact, under Chavez, between 1999 and 2011, the private sector’s share of economic activity actually increased from 65% to 71%. The production and distribution of the majority of goods and services, including key industries like major food import and processing operations, pharmaceuticals, and auto parts, are still controlled by the private sector.

Even in instances where the state did own the means of production, for example, the state-owned oil and natural gas company Petroleum of Venezuela (PDVSA) and the concrete and asphalt industries, it is the state bureaucracy that controls and makes all decisions in these industries, rather than the workers. Indeed, as Chavez put it himself: “Who would think to say that Venezuela is a socialist country? No, that would be to deceive ourselves. We are in a country that still lives in capitalism, we have only initiated a path; we are taking steps against the world current, including towards a socialist project; but this is for the medium or long term.” Most important, as I also argued, there was no break with the country’s dependence on the export of minerals and hydrocarbons. Venezuela’s dependence on oil exports increased during the Chávez and Maduro era, leaving the country as a ‘one-trick pony’ beholden to global financial and oil markets.

The ‘compromise’ with Venezuelan capital finished with the end of the commodity boom in 2013. By 2015, commodity prices had hit a twelve-year low. This change also coincided with the death of Chavez and his replacement by Maduro, who faced a dilemma. As Bean puts it: “Now in a situation of austere state revenues, who was going to pay for the crisis? Was it going to be labor and regular working people, the social bases that supported and voted Chávez into power? Most important, “was there going to be a conflict with capital that had been delayed for years?”

The answer soon became clear. As one chapter by Venezuelan economist Luis Salas put it: “There is not much difference between the economic program of the [right-wing] opposition and that of the [Maduro] Government... The only difference with the opposition is that the Government wants to reach agreements with the Russians, the Chinese or the Turks; and the opposition, with the Americans and Europeans. They are capitalist alliances, but with different partners.” As Roberto López argues later in the book,”[T]he inauguration of Nicolás Maduro as president in 2013, meant the almost total abandonment of the anti-neoliberal program, and the return of the same economic policies implemented in the last decade of the twentieth century. Maduro maintained the same radical discourse as his predecessor and presented his government as a genuinely “workerist” and “socialist” one. However, in office, he has implemented a real change of economic course, opening the doors to neoliberal policies, in a framework of growing authoritarianism.” This too was my view in my post at the time.

In 2016, the Maduro administration opened the Orinoco Mining Arc for mineral exploitation. And in 2021 Maduro introduced Special Economic Zones (SEZs) for capitalist businesses, free of taxation and regulation. In 2018, the Maduro presidency abolished the right to strike. With the so-called Anti-Blockade Law in 2020, Maduro effectively suspended the constitution and granted authority to the executive branch for steering the economy. Maduro dropped the living wage policy adopted under Chavez and introduced a ‘hate speech’ law that established prison sentences of up to twenty years for speeches against the government. The government also privatized major branches of industry, including oil, iron, aluminum, gold and diamonds, “Many of these privatizations targeted the very same industries that Chávez had previously nationalized, in effect carrying out a reverse appropriation that restored former state-owned assets to capitalist ownership.”

But perhaps worst of all is the cronyism. Under Maduro, the Venezuelan state has turned into a piñata, where a political-military caste distributes resources, privileges and financial benefits to secure loyalty and maintain its hold on power. The Maduro administration looked to compromise and reach agreements with the business sectors, including Fedecámaras — the big business organization that had played a key role in the failed 2002 coup against Chávez. The voices of any working class organisations were ignored.

It is the conclusion of this book’s writers from the left in Venezuela that among observers in the advanced countries of the Global North, there has been a tendency “to unwittingly lend credibility to a regime that uses the language of socialism to obscure its own oppressive and anti-worker practices. By failing to reckon with the realities of Venezuela’s crisis, such positions inadvertently sideline the struggles of the Venezuelan people, who are fighting both the consequences of the Maduro government and the suffocating sanctions imposed by the United States.” It is not socialism that failed in Venezuela, but the failure to apply socialist policies to end the sabotage of the capitalist sector in the country and to unite the working class organisations in the struggle against US imperialism.

Now in February 2026, the Rodriguez administration is prostrate before US imperialism. The Trump administration has been clever and cautious; it has not yet replaced Maduro with the right wing, free market, Nobel peace prize winner (sic), Maria Machado, for fear of generating a tumult and even civil war. Instead, it is steadily forcing Rodriguez into acceding to all its demands in preparation for elections later that can then bring in a completely pro-US regime. Appearing alongside Rodríguez at the Miraflores presidential palace last Wednesday, US energy secretary Chris Wright said: “We want to set the Venezuelan people and economy free.” A poll by Gold Glove Consulting this week found that Machado would win a landslide victory in a fresh vote, with 67% favouring her against 25% for Rodríguez. Seventy-two per cent of respondents felt Venezuela was “moving in a positive direction” after Maduro’s capture.