Source: Underthrow
by Max Borders

“I’ve never had much time for social engineering. Not only is it usually an affront to freedom, but it usually comes with perverse unintended consequences. Still, one might make the case: If somebody’s gonna do it, it ought to be done better. While I would never want to offend the sensibilities of those who just want to be left alone by the authorities, I would like at least to imagine less poorly designed systems than the ones we currently suffer under.” (05/11/26)

https://underthrow.substack.com/p/superior-social-engineering

Source: TomDispatch
by Juan Cole

“After British troops had beaten German Field Marshal Erwin Rommel’s tank forces at the Second Battle of El Alamein in Egypt on November 4, 1942, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill declared, ‘This is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is perhaps the end of the beginning.’ The same might now be said about humanity’s struggle to defeat the dire threat of global climate change caused by our never-ending burning of fossil fuels. The illegal war of aggression on Iran, abruptly launched on February 28, 2026, by the governments of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Donald Trump, has indeed provoked a global energy crisis of a unique kind.” (05/12/26)

https://tomdispatch.com/the-electric-car-is-the-only-winner-in-the-latest-iran-war/

Source: Reason
by Jacob Sullum

“Back in January 2023, Aimen Halim bought an order of ‘boneless wings’ at a Buffalo Wild Wings outlet in Mount Prospect, Illinois. At the time, he claims, he assumed the product was composed of deboned chicken wing meat. But to his horror, he discovered that it was in fact made from chicken breast meat. That revelation resulted in a federal lawsuit: Halim sued the restaurant chain two months later, alleging breach of express warranty, common law fraud, and unjust enrichment. When U.S. District Judge John J. Tharp Jr. dismissed that lawsuit in February 2026, he did not question Halim’s claim of confusion about the nature of boneless wings. But even if Halim honestly thought he was getting a deboned version of Buffalo Wild Wings’ ‘traditional’ wings, Tharp said, ‘his complaint has no meat on its bones,’ because ‘Halim does not plausibly allege that reasonable consumers are deceived by boneless wings.'” (05/11/26)

https://reason.com/2026/05/12/are-boneless-wings-fraudulent/

Source: New York Post
by Daniel McCarthy

“Virginia Democrats are doing an unwitting service to the whole country, by revealing just how hostile their party is to the most essential checks and balances. Democrats violated the state’s constitution by pushing through a referendum to take four House seats away from Republicans. But when Virginia’s Supreme Court threw out the illegal map, Democrats didn’t back down: They started thinking of ways to get rid of every justice on the court, so they could pack it with new ones expressly picked to return a verdict more favorable to the party. If the Democrat-controlled Virginia legislature could drop the existing mandatory judicial retirement age from the current 73 all the way down to 54, every justice on the bench could be removed and replaced by compliant partisans.” (05/12/26)

https://nypost.com/2026/05/12/opinion/virginia-gerrymander-rage-exposes-democrats-undemocratic-intent/

Source: Exiled Policy
by Jason Pye

“Even as Trump’s job approval rating falls, Republicans and MAGA supporters aren’t running away.” (05/11/26)

https://exiledpolicy.substack.com/p/are-republicans-bolting-from-trump

Source: Liberal Currents
by Toby Buckle

“Understand politics with this one weird trick: just tell the truth about the far right.” (05/11/26)

https://www.liberalcurrents.com/respecting-reform-voters-means-telling-them-theyre-wrong-and-immoral/

Source: Gideon’s Substack
by Noah Millman

“Or are we going to rage against the dying of the light?” (05/11/26)

https://gideons.substack.com/p/can-we-learn-to-stop-worrying-and