“Much like House maps, districts in parliamentary systems are vulnerable to gerrymandering. In countries that use such systems, control of the government is determined by winning seats in parliament: The party or coalition that holds the majority of seats holds the levers of power. Given the large number of countries using a parliamentary system, one would expect widespread rampant gerrymandering. Yet many have installed checks and balances to prevent such egregious partisan actions. The nation’s northern neighbor sets an example that is worth emulating. Canada uses a parliamentary system for its government. To prevent gerrymandering that gives one party advantages on Election Day, Canada uses small independent commissions that work to keep the influence of elections in the hands of the voters, not the politicians.” (06/03/26)
“‘Society cannot exist, unless a controlling power upon will and appetite be placed somewhere; and the less of it there is within, the more there must be without. It is ordained in the eternal constitution of things, that men of intemperate minds cannot be free. Their passions forge their fetters.’ – Edmund Burke … Most men have never understood the point Burke made, which is why most men, down through history, have lived under government oppression. Americans, however, have absolutely no excuse for living under a tyranny like the Democratic Party is trying to establish. Our Founding Fathers constantly repeated the point so eloquently made by Burke: ‘Only a virtuous people are capable of freedom. As nations become corrupt and vicious, they have more need of masters.'” (06/03/26)
“Azerbaijan’s energy-dependent economy and California’s costly climate mandates reveal a common lesson: environmental policy works when it is local, adaptable, and intellectually humble.” (06/03/26)
Source: The Daily Economy
by Ryan Yonk & Thomas Savidge
“James Buchanan’s Public Choice framework helps explain why political conflict intensifies and rhetoric becomes more divisive as government power grows.” (06/03/26)
Source: Brennan Center for Justice
by Michael Waldman
“I’ve written that corruption is the sleeper issue of 2026. Well, it’s awake. And the issue may be bigger than I realized. That’s the implication of a new national poll released Tuesday by the Brennan Center. The survey was conducted in late April and early May, just before the president’s attempt to create a $1.8 billion slush fund to funnel taxpayer money to his political allies. The results are striking. More than 9 in 10 voters believe corruption is a big problem across politics and government. Large majorities view corruption as endemic and deeply embedded in government institutions, from the Supreme Court to Congress to the presidency. They are dejected about the fact that scandals continuously go without consequences and shocking revelations fail to produce reform. Margins are overwhelming among Democrats, Republicans, and independents.” (06/03/26)
“Google just announced plans to build a $15 billion data center in Montgomery County, in east–central Missouri. It remains to be seen how much of that investment will be reflected in property tax totals, but since the largest expense is going to be for the very expensive equipment in the data center itself — and that equipment is taxable — we can safely assume the assessed valuation of the final project will be enormous and almost certainly measured in the billions. This for a county that had an entire assessed valuation in 2025 of $315 million. Again, that’s every farm, house, car, tractor, building, boat, and cow in the county. … What do you think happens when you add huge assessed valuations from businesses that don’t add much to the public service requirements? The answer should be tax cuts, which is exactly what happened in Loudon County, Virginia.” (06/03/26)
“In a speech delivered in the autumn of 2002, as the United States moved inexorably toward war with Iraq, the late Joan Didion delivered an offhand remark that effectively summed up the flaw at the heart of the logic behind that coming war, and of the logic of a number of wars before it, and of a number of wars to come. Referring to ‘the ‘war on terror’ that the President had declared’ of which the operation against Iraq was the centerpiece, Didion added a parenthetical critique: ‘… as if terror were a state and not a technique.’ Twenty-three and a half years later, we live in the detritus of a general lack of understanding of precisely that point.” (06/03/26)
“he United States and Russia have agreed on little in the war in Ukraine. The one thing they have agreed on is the existential necessity of avoiding a direct war between NATO and Russia, which could become a third world war or even a nuclear war. … The possibility of that caution failing is now at perhaps the highest level it has been at any time of the war. One flashpoint for a wider war is the Baltic states, while another is actually inside Ukraine, in the capital Kiev, which hosts American and European diplomats and military officers.” (06/03/26)
