Source: Liberal Currents
“It’s an unhinged political ad round-up, featuring racist memes from Donald Trump himself and Ken Paxton’s rancid, deep-fried AI slop rip-off of one of the most famous ads from history. Author Jonathan M. Katz helps us make sense of the hideous soup of extremism, slander, bad art, and dirty dealings that we’re all floating in.” (08/17/26)
Source: Independent Institute
by Scott Beyer
“Socialism is having another moment in U.S. politics. Politicians and activists increasingly describe themselves as socialist while their opponents use the same label as a term of condemnation. Yet both sides employ the word so loosely as to become meaningless. Sweden gets called socialist because it has high taxes and universal health care; Venezuela does because the government nationalized industries and imposed price controls. The rise of the phrase ‘democratic socialism’, which lumps together two unconnected words, adds to the confusion and makes debate difficult. Before deciding whether socialism works, we ought to determine what it actually is—and which countries practice it.” (08/17/26)
https://www.independent.org/article/2026/08/17/which-countries-are-actually-socialist/
Source: Liberalism.org
by David Bernell
“Athletics socialize us into essential democratic habits and teach us what liberal institutions require to succeed.” (08/17/26)
https://www.liberalism.org/p/sports-a-training-ground-for-liberal-democracy
Source: Politico
“President Donald Trump voted by mail in Florida’s Republican primary, according to local voting records, even as he continues to rail against mail-in voting with wide-ranging allegations of fraud. Voting records from Palm Beach County show the president requested his ballot in late July and it was returned on Aug. 13. This is not the first time that Trump has voted by mail in his adopted home state. He voted by mail in a special election in Palm Beach County earlier this year. … Trump continues to rail at the use of mail-in voting and says the current practice should be limited to those who in the military, are traveling or have a disability or illness.” (08/17/26)
https://www.politico.com/news/2026/08/17/trump-vote-by-mail-primaries-florida-01039292
Source: Libertarian Institute
“We sit down with journalist Nick Cleveland-Stout of Responsible Statecraft and Drop Site News to trace how Israeli influence operations are pushing narratives about Gaza directly into the systems people now use as ‘truth machines,’ from chatbots to AI-powered search.” (08/17/26)
Source: Show-Me Institute
by Avery Frank
“Specifically, utilities want to reduce competition by halting competitive bidding for multi-state transmission projects, as the bidding process can take 16 to 20 months. If approved, the utilities would be the default developers of those projects, with no competition involved. In Missouri, both Ameren and Evergy, our state’s largest utilities, operate in multiple states and would gain that right of first refusal. For starters, it’s worth acknowledging that 16 to 20 months is a long time to select a developer, and these companies are right that we quickly need more energy to serve big new customers. This situation illustrates why Missouri is between a rock and a hard place in its efforts to modernize our electricity grid. … There has to be a better way—and fortunately, there is. Missouri instead could allow private electricity grids (also known as consumer regulated electricity, or CRE) for large customers like data centers.” (08/17/26)
Source: Common Sense
by Paul Jacob
“There are people who still debate the term ‘woke.’ From the beginning, defenders of woke judgments, discourse, and activism claimed it was ‘just good manners’; others said it didn’t exist, a mere figment of ‘right-wing paranoia.’ Truth is, it was a new, trendy term used to replace ‘social justice’ and the peculiar bent and activism methods of ‘social justice warriors,’ after ‘SJW’ became fodder for ridicule by collegiate leftism’s opponents.” (08/17/26)
Source: US News & World Report
“A federal judge on Monday blocked a Trump administration plan to relocate the new FBI headquarters to Washington, D.C., rather than in nearby Maryland, which had been picked in 2023 to host the building. U.S. District Judge Theodore Chuang sided with the Democratic-led state of Maryland and Prince George’s County in ruling the administration had unlawfully scrapped a plan to construct a new FBI headquarters in Greenbelt, Maryland, and diverted money approved by Congress for that project to an alternate location, the Ronald Reagan Building in Washington. The judge said the selection of Ronald Reagan Building violated measures passed by Congress in 2022 and 2023 that required the General Services Administration to pick from one of three short-listed sites outside of Washington.” (08/17/26)
Source: Free the People
“Holy Cow: Why Are Steers Lactating? | Mollie Engelhart.” (08/17/26)
Source: Responsible Statecraft
by James Park
“His decision to scale down military drills could have real upsides — so long as he is willing to coordinate with Seoul to make the most of it.” (08/17/26)
https://responsiblestatecraft.org/us-korea-military-exercise/