Source: Responsible Statecraft
by Connor Echols & Kelley Beaucar Vlahos
“Army Secretary Dan Driscoll resigned this week, raising a flurry of questions about whether his departure is part of a larger political reordering that has pushed skeptics of President Donald Trump’s war policies to the margins. A long-time friend of Vice President JD Vance, Driscoll drew widespread praise for his efforts to modernize the Army. But he has clashed with Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth …. Driscoll’s departure is the latest in a string of recent high-profile exits by Vance’s allies and ideological fellow travelers, including Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, Deputy National Security Adviser Andy Baker, White House Director of Legislative Affairs James Braid, and Director of the National Counterterrorism Center Joe Kent.” (09/02/26)
“Established by Congress in 1984, with legislation signed by Ronald Reagan and funded annually by Congress, the United States Institute of Peace, or USIP, was a well-respected, authoritative, independent, officially nonpartisan, nonprofit organization, until it was eviscerated by President Donald Trump early last year. Its purpose was to promote conflict prevention and resolution worldwide and to provide analysis, research, and training in diplomacy, mediation, and peace-related activities. … Although the institute’s extremely useful database was wantonly destroyed, one can see the breadth and depth of its important work by sampling some of its publications here.” (09/02/26)
Source: Foundation for Economic Education
by Lawrence W Reed
“As the Kremlin sought to portray American democracy as hypocritical and the Soviet Union as a more promising future for mankind, its propagandists made much of racial injustice in the United States, while exploiting internal tensions throughout the West to stir dissent. In response, the US sought out a level-headed Black American who could challenge Paul Robeson’s claims and speak on the dangers of communism. Edith Sampson became that emerging voice during the World Town Hall in 1949, where she earned headlines for publicly denouncing Soviet propaganda about America. Sampson, at the time, was a prominent leader in the National Council of Negro Women while serving as assistant state’s attorney in Cook County, Illinois.” (09/02/26)
Source: Future of Freedom Foundation
by Laurence M Vance
“Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is on a mission to Make America Healthy Again (MAHA). This implies that America was healthy at one time but is not healthy now. Is this actually the case? How is something like this even measured? Can America be made healthy again? MAHA does not stand for Make Americans Healthy Again. So what exactly does it mean to make America, a country, healthy again?” (09/02/26)
“From the beginning, the boat strikes campaign has been widely condemned as lawless. Contrary to President Trump’s absurd claims, the U.S. is not and cannot be in a formal armed conflict with the unnamed drug cartels supposedly targeted in these attacks. The boat strikes are therefore nothing more than premeditated killings of civilians. A chorus of elected officials, governments and international bodies have thus denounced the strikes as ‘illegal.’ But why focus on the strikes’ illegality in the first place? After all, one could just as easily condemn the strikes for their cruelty. The strikes have torn apart families from across Latin America, depriving them — forever — of husbands, fathers, brothers and sons. ” (09/02/26)
“Alasdair MacIntyre was a political animal, or so one naturally assumes. He was at any rate an Aristotelian, and since Aristotle declared man to be the zoon politikon (‘political animal’), it seems safe to say that MacIntyre thought of himself as one such. Nevertheless, for much of his life he was deeply reluctant to enter into political discourse. In youth, he was (in)famously a Marxist. Eventually he broke with the socialists and made his way to Aristotelian Thomism. He spent decades writing on the incoherence of modern moral theory, giving considerable attention along the way to action theory, the virtues, and the history of philosophy. But he largely eschewed political discourse, to the frustration of political theorists who hoped to enlist him as an ally.” (09/02/26)
“Senate Democrat nominee James Talarico appears ready to bring a touch of Trotsky to Texas. In a video from a climate forum, Talarico is shown declaring capitalism an ‘oppressive system’ linked with white supremacy and that it must be ‘dismantled’ to achieve a better world. It is reminiscent of Leon Trotsky, who denounced the ‘fundamental evil of the capitalist system’ and called on citizens to free themselves from its oppression. The Democratic Socialists of America and radical sites have long called ‘to dismantle the capitalist state’. As a state representative, Talarico addressed the 2020 climate conference by the Austin chapter of the Sierra Club [and] roused the crowd with an attack on capitalism: ‘I’m so thankful that you asked this question and also thankful that young activists have really drawn the link between climate change and White supremacy and capitalism in our country.'” (09/02/26)
“It’s both common and accurate to point out that many people who go into government are control freaks motivated by the desire to exercise power over others, or else driven by self-interest to profit from control of the reins of government. But a new study points out that even when government officials are sincere and intend to make the world a better place, they often cause more harm than good.” (09/02/26)
“Academics may distrust concentrated private wealth, but their retirement system owes its origins to one of history’s great industrial fortunes.” (09/02/26)
