Source: Foundation for Economic Education
by Paul Gessing
“National media outlets which rarely report on any news from New Mexico were eager to report on the big news this past November that the Land of Enchantment had become the first state to have a ‘free’ universal childcare program. Other states may head down the same path, but before they do they need to know exactly what was done in New Mexico, why so many other similar programs created in New Mexico have failed over the years, and what unique circumstances have enabled the state’s politicians to create a massive new entitlement program without legislative approval. Many progressives see these programs as a way to help the urban poor in particular, but they often crowd out private alternatives and leave lower-income residents with fewer childcare options.” (09/23/26)
https://fee.org/articles/new-mexicos-free-childcare-program-is-another-costly-disaster/
Source: Town Hall
by Terry Jeffrey
“Two hypothetical college graduates who are married now have a combined annual income of $240,000; they each earn $120,000 per year. Should an American who graduated from high school but never went to college — and who now works as a delivery truck driver, earning $43,950 per year (the median annual earnings for that job) — be forced to help pay off the federal student loans of these two college graduates who make $240,000? If former President Joe Biden had gotten his way, that truck driver and other hardworking American taxpayers would indeed have seen their tax dollars help pay off those loans. When Biden was running for president in April 2020, he announced his plan for ‘forgiving student debt’.” (09/23/26)
https://townhall.com/columnists/terryjeffrey/2026/09/23/the-democrat-plan-to-redistribute-wealth-to-the-wealthier-n2683426
Source: SFGate
“Billionaire Les Wexner has long been a magnet for political campaigns seeking contributions — especially in his native Ohio, where the retail tycoon directed a generous portion of his giving to candidates from both parties. Then came the Epstein files. Jeffrey Epstein, the late convicted sex offender, was Wexner’s former financial adviser. That relationship and Wexner’s history of political donations has figured prominently in Ohio’s U.S. Senate race, which could end up as the most expensive in the country this year. Wexner, who has disavowed his prior association with Epstein, contributed about $116,000 to support Republican Sen. Jon Husted from 2001 to 2025, mostly during the two decades he spent in state politics before being appointed to fill Vice President JD Vance’s seat last year. While that’s just a sliver of Husted’s prolific fundraising, his opponent in this year’s race, former Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown, is turning it into a campaign cudgel.” (09/23/26)
https://www.sfgate.com/news/politics/article/billionaire-s-political-contributions-make-the-22445580.php
Source: Brownstone Institute
by Renaud Beauchard
“Since Covid, the ‘mental health crisis’ has gone from background music to a deafening noise. It is said to touch every part of society, but none more than Generation Z, those born between 1997 and 2013. The French figures give the scale: compared with the previous decade, psychiatric hospitalizations in 2021–2022 rose 106 percent among 20-to-24-year-olds, 163 percent among 15-to-19-year-olds, and a staggering 246 percent among children aged 10 to 14. Researchers spent a decade arguing over datasets. Parents look for a single culprit they can blame or a device they can confiscate. Having exhausted the managerial and therapeutic answers of more awareness, more services, more medication, and more self-expression they offer for every modern sorrow, institutions are now itching for the stick of social networks age verification, or for AI fear porn. Two excellent books written by two Generation Z authors and published this year refuse the usual explanations and their lazy remedies.” (09/23/26)
https://brownstone.org/articles/the-commodified-self-and-the-designed-collapse-of-generation-z/
Source: Grist
by Tik Root
“The U.S. ships millions of barrels of diesel fuel overseas each day, even as Americans face unprecedented prices at home.” (09/23/26)
https://grist.org/transportation/trump-is-backing-a-diesel-export-ban-how-much-would-that-do/
Source: ABC News
“Judges at the International Criminal Court on Wednesday convicted rebel commander Mahamat Said Abdel Kani of persecution and torture as crimes against humanity committed while he ran a prison in the Central African Republic. Said, 56, wore jeans and a blue sweater and remained expressionless for most of the hourlong hearing as presiding Judge Miatta Maria Samba described the conditions prisoners endured at the facility in the capital, Bangui. … The charges stemmed from fighting more than a decade ago between the predominantly Muslim Seleka rebels, who had seized power from then-President Francois Bozize, and a mainly Christian militia called the anti-Balaka.” (09/23/26)
https://abcnews.com/International/wireStory/icc-convicts-former-central-african-republic-militia-commander-136678540
Source: The Dispatch
“‘This Is Western Civilization, Bro’ | Interview: Stephanie Slade.” (09/23/26)
https://thedispatch.com/podcast/remnant/this-is-western-civilization-bro-interview-stephanie-slade/
Source: Reason
by JD Tuccille
“Getting government involved in any area of human life is an effective way to guarantee you spend gobs of money without improving the situation or making people especially happy. That’s clearly true of health care, a field in which government has increasingly intruded for years even as dissatisfaction becomes the norm and costs go through the roof. A recent report finds that health care now consumes almost one of every three dollars the federal government spends, with more to come.” (09/23/26)
https://reason.com/2026/09/23/federal-health-care-subsidies-are-devouring-the-budget-and-killing-patient-satisfaction/
Source: BBC News [UK state media]
“Kristalina Georgieva, managing director of the IMF, issued a warning on debt levels at the UN general assembly meeting in New York City. The world’s advanced economies including the UK and US need to cut borrowing and reduce debt levels following weeks of spiraling government interest costs, the head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has warned. In an exclusive interview, Kristalina Georgieva said global economic shocks had been ‘pushing debt levels up like a staircase not to heaven’ but that governments had taken ‘no action to contain that service cost’. ‘[It’s] time to take that action,’ she said, adding that ‘courage’ was needed by politicians to take the necessary steps. The intervention comes as government borrowing costs have surged in response to wars disrupting the supply of oil, which has fueled inflation.” (09/23/26)
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cx305ymq4ldqo
Source: Antiwar.com
by Dennis Kucinich
“On September 15, the House of Representatives expressed its constitutional will and voted 220–204 to direct the President to end American participation in the war against Iran. This constitutional crisis extends beyond one resolution or one cabinet secretary. The House exists as an independent branch of government, with its own authority over war, appropriations and impeachment. The Speaker, by preventing a recorded vote on the Hegseth Impeachment and sending members home, prevented the House from exercising one of its most consequential checks on executive power. The practical effect was to protect the Administration from an immediate confrontation with a chamber that had voted to end the war.” (09/23/26)
https://original.antiwar.com/kucinich/2026/09/22/as-gas-prices-soar-congress-goes-home/
