How do destructive ideas and bouts of collective madness so quickly become policy, law, and the status quo? After all, most have little public support – and are not Western nations supposedly rationally governed? There is usually a multi-step process on the road to these self-destructive fits of society-wide insanity. The suicidal impulse so often begins with left-leaning researchers in elite universities (i.e., the tenured in search of a novel, grant-getting theory). They begin insisting that a new existential threat requires immediate government intervention, novel legislation, ample funding, and public awareness of the impending danger.

In the first State of the Union address of his second term, President Donald Trump proclaimed that "our nation is back, bigger, better, richer and stronger than ever before." "What a difference a president makes," Trump said. "A short time ago, we were a dead country. Now we are the hottest country anywhere in the world." But our review of his speech found that he distorted a number of facts about the state of the economy, health care, immigration and other topics. Trump falsely claimed that he inherited "a stagnant economy" with "inflation at record levels." Annual growth in real GDP was 2.5% or higher each year under former President Joe Biden. The annual inflation rate was 3%, down from its peak of 9.1% under Biden, when Trump took office.

The United States and Iran began high-stakes nuclear talks in Geneva on Thursday that could determine whether the two countries go to war or strike a deal. Oman's foreign minister, Badr Albusaidi, who is mediating the talks, said the two sides were "exchanging creative and positive ideas," and would resume again after a break. "We hope to make more progress," he wrote in a post on social media. President Trump, in his State of Union address on Tuesday, said he preferred to resolve the standoff with Iran through diplomacy. But he added, "I will never allow the world's top sponsor of terror, which they are by far, have a nuclear weapon, can't let that happen."

President Donald Trump's mass deportation operation is expected to ramp up in 2026 as newly hired military lawyers-turned-immigration judges hit the bench and begin expeditiously reviewing a massive backlog of cases. Speeding up the court process for immigration matters will, in turn, lead to faster decisions and more deportations, according to former immigration judge Andrew Arthur. At the same time, the Trump administration's new pick to oversee the immigration court system has moved to simplify the appeals process, reducing the options illegal immigrants have to appeal their deportation orders and shortening their time in the system. The Trump administration's first year focused on identifying who to arrest, making those arrests, and obtaining funding to expand detention capacity. Arthur anticipates the addition of dozens, even hundreds of judges, will "absolutely" speed up the process in 2026, setting up more people — both in custody and who do not show up to their court date…

Former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton are facing lawmakers in depositions this week over their ties to Jeffrey Epstein, the late convicted sex offender. Hillary Clinton is scheduled to testify before the House Oversight Committee on February 26, followed by Bill Clinton on February 27. It will be the first time a former president has been compelled to testify before Congress. It comes amid continued scrutiny of high-profile figures named in files associated with the disgraced financier after more than three million pages of documents related to Epstein were released by the Justice Department, following President Donald Trump's signing of the Epstein Files Transparency Act in November 2025. Neither Clinton has been accused of any wrongdoing, and appearing in the Epstein files does not imply wrongdoing or criminal behavior.

Former US secretary of state Hillary Clinton is to testify behind closed doors later today before a congressional committee investigating the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and his accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell. Former president Bill Clinton is scheduled to answer questions tomorrow from the Republican-led House Oversight Committee about his relations with Epstein, who died in a New York jail cell in 2019 while awaiting trial. The Clintons had initially rejected subpoenas ordering them to testify in the panel's probe, but the Democratic power couple eventually agreed to do so after House Republicans threatened to hold them in contempt of Congress, AFP reported. The proceedings will take place behind closed doors but will be recorded, with footage expected to be released later – an arrangement reminiscent of what happened with Clinton's 1998 grand jury testimony, which was made public the following month.

In the deceptively peaceful quiet of a small town, where Sidney Prescott has finally carved out a normal life far from the bloodshed of her past, a fresh Ghostface mask reappears—sharper, more personal, and aimed straight at the one thing she can’t lose.  The post Scream 7 first appeared on Worth it or Woke.

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