“Christa Pike’s botched execution in Tennessee last week raises a host of questions about what comes next, what Gov. Bill Lee should do, and what is meant by ‘cruel and unusual.’ These are legal questions, but they are also ethical and political questions, and they demand our consideration. As an ethicist, I’m interested in the ought questions. In this case: What ought the state to do after a failed execution attempt? This is not to debate the moral acceptability of capital punishment or even the particulars of Pike’s case. It’s simply to inquire what should come next.” (10/12/26)
“After his recent congressional testimony, former Special Counsel Jack Smith appeared at a ‘Power to the People Fest’ sporting a ‘No Kings’ T-shirt. Aside from a midlife crisis, the most likely explanation is that Smith wanted to send a message, reaffirming his bona fides as an anti-Trump warrior. It was a Comey moment, but without the seashells. The Power to the People Fest featured many whom Smith has long cultivated in the ‘Democracy-is-Ending’ crowd. The organizers billed the event as ‘working to restore and strengthen democracy’ and featured some of Trump’s loudest critics. The top billing went to Bruce Springsteen, who has lately turned his concerts into anti-Trump rave sessions, including comparing Trump officials to ‘Gestapo’ and calling the administration ‘treasonous’. He continued those attacks at the concert with Smith, denouncing Trump as ‘lawless’ and his administration as murderers.” (10/12/26)
Source: The Hill
by Steven J Lepper, Dan Maurer, & Eugene R Fidell
“Gen. Dan Caine, the nation’s senior-most military leader, recently told Sen Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.) that the U.S. military has ‘no plans’ to be at polling places in November. But President Trump has made it impossible to dismiss fears of military interference. To the contrary, his persistent assault on the integrity of the voting process, his suggestion that Republicans ‘should take over the voting in at least 15 places,’ and his refusal to rule out invoking the Insurrection Act have led many to begin bracing for an imminent collision. Americans across the country are worrying that their constitutionally-assured right to vote will be curtailed by Trump’s increasingly frantic search for anything that will preserve his party’s congressional majorities.” (10/12/26)
Source: Caitlin Johnstone, Rogue Journalist
by Caitlin Johnstone
“Israel is so evil that it’s actually illegal for Israelis to tell the truth about it. Benjamin Netanyahu has just ordered Israel’s military, its attorney general, and its security agency Shin Bet to investigate and prosecute the soldiers who anonymously shared their experiences in the Gaza Strip with the award-winning investigative documentary [sic] ‘NAZA’. According to Haaretz, Netanyahu accused the soldiers of ‘serious information security offenses, criminal defamation and harm to Israel’s diplomatic and security interests’, adding that ‘there is concern that those involved in the defamatory film committed serious criminal offenses by exposing highly classified information and creating a breach in the information security of a highly sensitive intelligence unit’. Netanyahu’s accusations of ‘defamation’ are contradicted by his other accusation of ‘exposing highly classified information’. The 24 soldiers interviewed for the film are being prosecuted not because they told lies about Israel, but because they told the truth.” (10/12/26)
“U.S. President Donald Trump repeatedly promised he could end the Russo-Ukrainian War quickly. Yet the actions attributed to his administration point toward a more familiar Washington strategy that demands capitulation to the so-called ‘rules-based’ order. The contradiction reinforces an old rule of politics. Watch what officials do, not simply what they say.” (10/12/26)
Source: Foundation for Economic Education
by J Thomas Perdue
“In November, Georgians will elect a new governor. Several issues have come to define this election cycle, and the two candidates’ platforms offer significantly different solutions to the problems facing the state. Former Atlanta mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms and her opponent Rick Jackson will also have to navigate national referendums on their respective parties. But if there is one central issue of this campaign, it is affordability. Budget strain is a concern for Georgia businesses and households alike. No matter who occupies the governor’s mansion in 2027, one problem a new administration must address is the growing burden of regulations from the administrative state.” (10/12/26)
“The plotlines are predictable. A slick 60 seconds and we see the fate of worried people suffering some sort of condition ‘ask their doctor’ about Drug X, and soon the new prescription is magically transforming their lives. They turn into bliss and smiles as they romp their way through meadows of wildflowers while, sotto voce, we catch strange murmurs of liver failure and premature death. … Most of the Americans I know seem to be pretty healthy people, but any newcomer confronting all the US screens for the first time might conclude one thing: ‘Man, these people must be really sick.’ They are sick, but not in the way of being physically sick. Sick as in showing all the adverse effects of living in a polluted information ecosystem where toxic levels of drug propaganda drift through the airwaves as freely as exhaust engulfs a freeway.” (10/12/26)
“It’s time for the Left’s annual anti-Columbus bash. And once again, we will see the total injustice of leftism, their hatred of Western Civilization, their desire to destroy so they can build their godless ‘New World’. Columbus actually found a new world, one that we rejoice to live in. I doubt we’ll want the ‘new world’ the Left has in mind. The problem here with the Left is their fallacious judging — and usually condemning — of everyone who ‘lived in the past’, especially if that person had anything to do with Christianity or Western Civilization. And it’s pure hypocrisy.” (10/12/26)
‘The Iran War’s inception and its effects have brought into high relief the potential fragility and danger for America in its chosen method of waging war by relying on the sole judgment of the president. President Trump embarked on the war without consulting Congress, let alone persuading it or seeking its approval. Our practice of unilateral presidential war-making did not begin with Trump, but his war exemplifies its most troubling aspects.” (10/12/26)
