Author: Thomas L. Knapp

Source: The American Conservative
by Bill Kauffman

“Fox World is all a-twitter because a handful of members or fellow travelers of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) are about to be elected to the U.S. Congress and various state legislatures. They’re ‘godless communists,’ according to President Trump, and what with inflation, an insane war, and Trump family grift, we’ll be hearing about commies all election season. Michael ‘The Other America’ Harrington, founder of DSA, was about as threatening as the Mills Brothers. The current DSA candidates seem, at first glance, as off-putting as your typical hectoring grad-school wokester, but I can’t get too worked up over them. After all, New York City once sent a real communist to Congress—and his example complicates the Sean Hannity narrative.” (08/10/26)

https://www.theamericanconservative.com/you-want-a-real-commie/

Source: The Erick Erickson Show
by Erick-Woods Erickson

“This is the fundamental weakness of populism. It possesses no governing philosophy, only a disposition. It moves from one grievance to the next, and each time it acts to remedy a single complaint, it creates others that must later be remedied in turn. It resolves that cheap imports are destroying jobs, so it taxes the imports, and then expresses surprise when the toaster, the washing machine, and the burrito all cost more. It demands that the government make housing affordable while defending the guarantees that made housing unaffordable. It insists at once on lower prices and greater intervention, and those two aims cannot be reconciled.” (08/10/26)

https://ewerickson.substack.com/p/populism-is-emotion-without-governing

Source: The Price of Liberty
by Nathan Barton

“Is it reasonable to say that libertarians, and even lovers of liberty who are rational, free-market, anarchists, believe that members of a community do have some public duties? Even while we recognize that people have a God-given right to reject those duties, just as they have the right to stupidly refuse to accept responsibility for their actions?” (08/09/26)

https://thepriceofliberty.org/2026/08/09/public-presence-public-duty/

Source: Liberal Currents
by Jessica Pishko

“The ‘constitutional sheriffs’ movement relies on the notion that ‘men of action’ can and should determine how the Constitution is interpreted.” (08/10/26)

https://www.liberalcurrents.com/liberty-valance-goes-to-washington/

Source: The Realist Review
by Val Aksilenko

“Artificial intelligence may be among the most valuable gifts the Creator has given humanity. It can help us understand languages, cure diseases, reduce exhausting labor, overcome ignorance, anticipate disasters, restore nature, expose deception, and help hostile peoples understand one another. But perhaps every great gift is also a test. … The peril is not that artificial intelligence will suddenly become malevolent in a human-like sense. The greatest peril is that it will become obedient to human enmity — that we will embed our accumulated fear, hatred, falsehoods, and ambitions within an intelligence that is more powerful and faster than ourselves.” (08/09/26)

https://therealistreview.substack.com/p/the-choice-civilization-or-ai

Source: Big Head Press
by Scott Bieser

Cartoon. (08/10/26)

https://www.quantumvibe.com/strip?page=2600