James Madison on Human Nature
Source: Law & Liberty
by Aaron Alexander Zubia
“The Founders’ constitutional morality demands more than mechanical checks and balances.” (10/12/260
Author: Thomas L. Knapp
Is Modi facing his own Bangladesh moment?
Source: Asia Times
by Faisal Mahmud
“Demanding the resignation of a minister is one thing. It is uncomfortable for a government, occasionally embarrassing for a prime minister, but ultimately manageable. Ministers can be sacrificed and their departures can be presented as accountability, and governments can move on. Demanding the resignation of the chief election commissioner is quite another matter and for Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the difference could hardly be more consequential. The latest wave of protests in New Delhi centers on allegations of widespread voter manipulation through the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls and other suspected electoral irregularities, with demonstrators demanding the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar.” (10/12/26)
https://asiatimes.com/2026/10/is-modi-facing-his-own-bangladesh-moment/
The US and China created a new ‘Trade Board’ built on buzz words
Source: Los Angeles Times
by David Hebert
“Last month, the White House announced that the United States and China had ‘operationalized’ their new Board of Trade. The working procedures, however, say remarkably little about how the board is actually supposed to operate. Years of tariff disputes between Washington and Beijing have produced many announcements. The Board of Trade is the newest one. Tariffs and other forms of trade restrictions have been a largely ineffective strategy against China.” (10/12/26)
Trump and Rubio weigh firing Kimberly Guilfoyle after reports of improper conduct
Source: The Guardian
“Donald Trump and Marco Rubio, the secretary of state, are considering firing US ambassador to Greece Kimberly Guilfoyle after a series of reports alleging she has engaged in improper and possibly illegal conduct before and during her tenure in Athens. A senior US official said Sunday that Trump and Rubio are ‘extremely pissed off’ by Guilfoyle’s reported conduct and would likely decide on what action to take this week after Monday’s federal holiday. … In a series of stories, the Wall Street Journal has reported questionable conduct by Guilfoyle, including an alleged threat to a host country official, accepting improper gifts and services and offering to use her influence inside the administration in return for the payment of a large credit card bill.” (10/11/26)
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/oct/11/trump-rubio-weigh-firing-kimberly-guilfoyle
The Remnant with Jonah Goldberg, 10/12/26
Source: The Dispatch
“The Tumultuous, Remarkable Middle East | Interview: Simon Sebag Montefiore.” (10/12/26)
Trump Has Been Trampling Free Speech for More Than 40 Years—and It Keeps Getting Worse
Source: Reason
by Jacob Sullum
“Three decades before he was first elected president, Donald Trump had big plans for a 26-acre building site near the South Street Seaport in Manhattan. … He imagined a 150-story structure, including offices, apartments, and a hotel, that would be 1,940 feet high, surpassing Chicago’s Sears Tower, then the world’s tallest building, by nearly 500 feet. Paul Gapp, the Chicago Tribune‘s architecture critic, did not think much of that plan. … ‘The world’s tallest tower would be one of the silliest things anyone could inflict on New York or any other city.’ Trump was indulging in ‘Guinness Book of World Records architecture,’ Gapp said. … Trump did not like what Gapp said. And according to Trump, Gapp had no right to his opinion. Two months after the Tribune published Gapp’s column, Trump sued him and the newspaper for defamation.” (10/11/26)
Europeans Look for Options as Costs Mount in Ukraine
Source: Washington Monthly
by Tamar Jacoby
“[A]fter nearly five years of fighting, Europeans are running out of options, which is why the debate is circling back again to an idea proposed and rejected several times in the past—leveraging the Russian Central Bank assets held in European financial institutions. Europeans—both nation-states and the European Union—have tried just about everything else.” (10/12/26)
https://washingtonmonthly.com/2026/10/12/europeans-look-for-options-as-costs-mount-in-ukraine/
Archbishop of the US military says Catholic soldiers should not serve on firing squad
Source: SFGate
“Archbishop Timothy Broglio, who oversees the Catholic Church’s pastoral services to Catholics in the U.S. military, is condemning the proposed livestream of the firing squad execution of Nidal Hasan. Broglio, in a statement Monday, also stipulated that any Catholic soldier assigned to the U.S. Army firing squad should ask to be excused from that duty, which he described as contrary to the teachings of the church. He joins other Catholic leaders in speaking out against the death penalty and the livestream plans. Hasan, an Army psychiatrist convicted of killing 13 people in 2009 at Fort Hood in Texas, is scheduled to be executed by firing squad on Dec. 3.” (10/12/26)
The Permanent Questions, 10/11/26
Source: The Atlantic
“Do Human Beings Have Souls?” (10/11/26)
https://www.theatlantic.com/podcasts/2026/10/do-human-beings-have-souls/688931/
The Queer Optimism of Post-Apocalyptic Survivalism
Source: exile in happy valley
by Nicky Reid
“It is in downright soul crushing times like these that the little things become lifesaving. I speak as a learned student of several years of intensive trauma therapy when I say that self-care is a martial art when you are this fucked up. I have my chocolate and my candles and my dreary lesbian rock music but, as bizarre as it might sound, when all feels fucked, I prep, and I’m not talking about HIV. When I say I prep, I mean I prep like a millenarian militia fiend with tits during the run-up to Y2K. … amidst all this doom and gloom and camouflage, I find peace or at least something vaguely resembling it.” (10/11/26)
https://exileinhappyvalley.blogspot.com/2026/10/the-queer-optimism-of-post-apocalyptic.html