“Judicial independence is a hard-won but easily lost feature of liberal democracy. As we’ve seen in Europe, Latin America, and elsewhere, aspiring autocrats prioritize delegitimizing, intimidating, and weakening the judiciary. Court packing would, inescapably, have this effect, which is why a Democratic Congress rejected Franklin Roosevelt’s court-packing proposal, calling it a ‘direct violation of the spirit of the American Constitution.’ As in medicine, the operating motto for any intervention in statecraft is: first, do no harm.” (09/’23/26)
“Disgraced movie mogul Harvey Weinstein was sentenced to 15 years in prison Wednesday in another #MeToo reckoning for sexually assaulting a former production assistant in 2006. Weinstein, who was at the center of abuse allegations that spurred the #MeToo movement in Hollywood, was resentenced Wednesday to 15 years in prison for sexually assaulting one-time TV production assistant Miriam Haley. In 2020, Weinstein was sentenced to 23 years for assaulting Haley but his conviction was overturned on appeal in 2024. A jury found him guilty again in 2025 after a retrial in New York.” (09/23/26)
“The college wage premium remains substantial, but has declined sharply since 2022. Generative AI may be part of the explanation, but it is not the whole story.” (09/23/26)
“As GOP panic intensifies over Trump’s cratering numbers, a veteran Democratic strategist in North Carolina explains why Trump is so toxic among independents—and why he’s plummeting in red areas too.” (09/23/26)
“Socialism starts with a picture. Somewhere in the mind of the socialist there sits a finished society that is harmonious, planned, and fair by design. The task, as they see it, is to build toward that picture and hold reality to its measurements. Everything that resists the plan is treated as a defect to be corrected, not as evidence that the plan might be wrong. Neither Conservatism nor market liberalism work that way. Neither of them starts with a picture of the finished society. They start with what has actually happened, and they ask what it can teach.” (09/23/26)
“Venezuela’s opposition leader, 2025 Nobel Peace Prize recipient Maria Corina Machado, was prevented from returning to the South American country from her exile in Panama, a source from her political party told AFP on Tuesday. Machado is considered a fugitive by the Venezuelan government, which accuses her of calling for military intervention against the country. She has been unable to return to Venezuela since being covertly sneaked out of the country in December by a private U.S. rescue team to accept her Nobel Prize in Norway. ‘During the last 24 hours, María Corina Machado has been denied entry into Venezuela three times,’ the politician’s senior adviser David Smolansky said in a statement shared with CBS News’ Margaret Brennan and other journalists early Wednesday morning.” (09/23/26)
