One Degree of Separation: Somali Fraud Edition

Source: Common Sense
by Paul Jacob

“The ongoing unraveling of fraud in the federal government’s welfare system, particularly involving medical subsidies, has gotten politically even more interesting. The egregious Ilhan Omar, Somalian America-hater and U.S. Representative from Minnesota, is now implicated. Well, at least one member of her family is under investigation.” (08/10/26)

https://thisiscommonsense.org/2026/08/09/one-degree-of-separation-somali-fraud-edition/

Organized People Can Still Beat Your Big Money

Source: Our Future
by Sulma Arias

“Every time I hear about the insane amounts of money billionaires like Elon Musk and dark-money super PACs pour into our elections to crush grassroots candidates, it’s hard not to feel our democracy is broken beyond repair. But then I hear about the victory, against all odds, of someone like Dr. Abdul El-Sayed, who the voters of Michigan just chose as their Democratic candidate for Senate. Dr. El-Sayed is a physician and Rhodes Scholar, born and raised in Michigan, who ran the Detroit Health Department and just defeated a massive dark-money primary campaign against him, the largest in American history. Out-of-state groups spent nearly $70 million to crush his campaign, spreading divisive lies and outspending him by more than ten to one. And yet despite all of the lies big money could buy, El-Sayed won.” (08/10/26)

https://ourfuture.org/20260809/organized-people-can-still-beat-your-big-money

“But Biden” excuses are just admissions Trump has failed

Source: The Hill
by Joslin Joseph

“It is now August 2026. More than 560 days have passed since Trump took office again. He has attained more power, surrounded himself with yes-men, has a Republican House and Senate, a 6-3 tilt on the Supreme Court, and no excuse to fail. But here we are, with Trump polling in Biden territory and trying to convince Americans that things are going great. And yet, when pressed, Trump and company keep defaulting to how bad things were under Biden. … We have all dealt with kids that haven’t learned how to take responsibility for their actions. There is always someone else to blame because they believe that their parents, teachers or other adults will believe them.” (08/10/26)

https://thehill.com/opinion/white-house/6018967-trump-fails-accountability/

Florida Shows How to Demand a More Open-Minded Academia

Source: Foundation for Economic Education
by Patrick McIlheran

“A political scientist laid out the grim numbers about lopsided ideology among his fellow Florida professors—whose donations go to Democrats by a 9-to-1 margin over Republicans—and ended up giving Wisconsinites who want exposure to a fuller spectrum of ideas something to dream about. Because when that political scientist, Ryan Owens, was a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, he found in 2024 that the margin there was more like 490-to-1. This tilt isn’t just a curiosity or fodder for talk-radio segments. It leads, Owens tells me, to blind spots that weaken universities’ place in society.” (08/10/26)

https://fee.org/articles/florida-shows-how-to-demand-a-more-open-minded-academia/

Prepare for the DSA Revolution

Source: Town Hall
by Mark Lewis

“Karl Marx taught that at some point in the future there would be a ‘Golden Age’ of freedom and equality for everyone, called ‘communism’. He has countless disciples who have believed it, and hundreds of millions of innocent people have died because of it. … But, nooooo, that won’t happen in America. I beg to differ. Marxists won’t get it right in America, either, because Marxism is simply wrong, contrary to history and human nature. So, in frustration and hate, they’ll do the same things they’ve done everywhere they’ve gained power. What do these people — the DSA — really want? They want power, they want money, they want you dead, or at least cowed to where you will keep your head down and your mouth shut. And that’s all they want.” (08/10/26)

https://townhall.com/columnists/marklewis/2026/08/10/prepare-for-the-dsa-revolution-n2680947

Why the Trump administration will have to accept a Hormuz toll

Source: Responsible Statecraft
by Dan DePetris

“Of course, permitting an Iranian toll or fee structure isn’t ideal. Before the war, such a hypothetical would have been difficult to imagine. The strait at that time was free and open, and roughly 120 to 150 ships relied on the route each day to get their products to customers worldwide. The United States wants Iran to return to this status quo. Yet Iran has no intention of doing so — and to expect otherwise is to be completely ignorant of how events have played out since. Trump’s war handed Iran the perfect excuse to leverage its geography, and the Iranians didn’t hesitate to do so.” (08/10/26)

https://responsiblestatecraft.org/straight-of-hormuz-toll/

Will Trump Revive America’s Filibustering Habit?

Source: Libertarian Institute
by José Niño

“Men with rifles, investors with appetites, and consultants with slide decks have always read a permissive Washington as an invitation, and America has a long-forgotten tradition of citizens who accepted taking military action without waiting for orders from DC. They were called filibusters, from the Spanish filibustero, borrowed in turn from the Dutch word for freebooter. The practice began in the 1790s, when Americans plotted private assaults on Spanish possessions to the south and British Canada to the north. Congress answered with the Neutrality Act of 1794 and a tougher version in 1818, making it a federal crime to launch a military expedition from American soil against a nation at peace with the United States. Americans flouted both for seventy years.” (08/10/26)

https://libertarianinstitute.org/articles/will-trump-revive-americas-filibustering-habit