Author: Thomas L. Knapp

Source: Reason
by Billy Binion

“A jury narrowly deadlocked on Friday in the trial of Lindsay Clancy, the 36-year-old Massachusetts woman accused of killing her children. Accused is the correct word in a legal sense. But it feels like the wrong one in a general sense, because it is not in doubt that in January 2023 she killed Cora, Dawson, and Callan Clancy, her three young kids. She admits as much. The jurors instead were tasked with analyzing her state of mind. … Did she ultimately plunge into a state of psychosis? Or was she just deeply anxious and depressed? Absent clairvoyance, how on earth was a jury supposed to know which was more likely to be true? All the evidence in the world cannot transport a juror into Clancy’s mind during the moments she killed her children.” (09/04/26)

https://reason.com/2026/09/04/the-lindsay-clancy-jury-was-tasked-with-an-impossible-question/

Source: Los Angeles Times
by LZ Granderson

“When you run a business, the goal is to price as high as you can while producing as cheaply as you can. Using enslaved, indentured and migrant workers is how this country’s economic system came to be. Underpaying factory employees, forcing them to work 12-hour shifts, in poor conditions, with no lunch breaks, no vacations, no health insurance — all of this shaped what it means to be a laborer in the United States today. And the more we need to work to afford to have a life, the harder it is to separate being a citizen of the United States from being one of its employees.” (09/04/260

https://archive.is/aVnRz

Source: Common Sense
by Paul Jacob

“It may be the president’s goofiest idea yet. His Monday brainstorm was for the federal government to get into the movie business. In a Truth Social post, Mr. Trump floated the notion of creating a ‘Federal Production Incentive to create Entertainment Jobs in America.’ So this isn’t exactly a socialist proposal — where the government would seize the means of production and go about making movies — it’s a subsidy proposal: tax breaks; to ‘benefit ALL of America.’ Trump posts as if he has worked the math out, where the booty the government loses in direct taxation ‘will be made up tenfold by the money pouring into the Treasury’s coffers.’ A familiar rationale. But does it work?” (09/04/26)

https://thisiscommonsense.org/2026/09/04/hollywood/

Source: Wired
by Maddy Varner

“Did you buy a beanie from REI recently? The Department of Homeland Security might be looking for you.
New court filings allege that Homeland Security Investigations agents subpoenaed the outdoor retailer in March, requesting the transaction information for ‘all persons’ in the greater Minneapolis-St. Paul area who had purchased a specific type of dark green beanie from the company since 2024. REI did not respond to questions about whether it had complied with the request and, if so, how many people are affected. The filings are part of a broader lawsuit by the federal government against 39 people who attended an ICE protest at a church whose pastor also worked as an acting ICE field office director. Both protesters and journalists who were attempting to cover the event, including former CNN host Don Lemon, are now defendants.” (09/04/26)

https://archive.is/Ayd1X

Source: Responsible Statecraft
by Dan M Ford

“Tucked away in the funding package passed by Congress this week is a provision that extends the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) through the end of 2028. The two-year extension of AGOA — a preferential trade deal that offers eligible sub-Saharan countries duty-free access to the U.S. market for thousands of goods — answers the White House’s request that the agreement be extended on a short-term basis while negotiations take place over its long-term future. … Trump’s strong disapproval of preferential trade agreements led many Africa watchers to assume that AGOA was going to lapse without any effort by the administration to extend it past its September 2025 expiration. But just a day before the agreement expired, Trump came out in support of a short-term extension and expressed a desire to begin negotiations over what a long-term AGOA should look like.” (09/04/26)

https://responsiblestatecraft.org/agoa-trade-agreement/