Source: Brownstone Institute
by Clayton J Baker, MD
“Whenever I suspect that my beloved profession has finally reached rock bottom in its utter subservience to the vaccine-industrial complex, I stand corrected by the report of some new-world-record, bathyspheric descent into depravity that some new group of physicians has managed to achieve. Independent journalist Jon Fleetwood reports that some of the largest and best-known pediatric hospitals in the United States are vaccinating thousands of children while under anesthesia for surgical procedures.” (10/29/26)
“For over three decades, the International Convention on Biodiversity has brought together governments and civil society to protect and preserve what the United Nations describes as ‘the living fabric of our planet’. This year’s gathering, taking place in Armenia from Oct. 19 to 30, is a sobering assessment of the mending that’s taken place so far. The 23 targets set at a previous session include extending conservation protections to 30% of the world’s land and water areas, restoring degraded ecosystems, and recovering threatened species – and doing all this in tandem with longtime or Indigenous human inhabitants of those areas. To date, 90% of countries have established biodiversity goals. And ‘implementation is underway across all targets’, according to the International Institute for Sustainable Development. Technology transfers and scientific cooperation are taking place. Deforestation in the Amazon has fallen. And species such as the Central Asian saiga antelope and California condor have recorded notable comebacks.” (10/28/26)
“While there are significant differences between the run-up to the 1980s farm crisis and what’s happening in farming today, understanding the history of that decade is crucial to recognizing the seriousness of the moment we’re in. I know the state of agriculture won’t be high on most people’s lists of most important issues, but the families who farm the land in America are a vital-if-nearly-invisible part of our everyday lives.” (10/29/26)
Source: Future of Freedom Foundation
by Jacob G Hornberger
“When someone becomes an employee of the U.S. government, and especially the all-powerful national-security state branch of the government, he is expected to leave his conscience and sense of right and wrong behind. While he ostensibly takes an oath to support and defend the Constitution, that’s actually a sham. As a practical matter, every federal official is expected to loyally and patriotically support the actions of the U.S. government, including the dark-side actions of the U.S. national-security establishment — i.e., the Pentagon, the CIA, and the NSA.” (10/29/26)
“‘It’s getting to be decision time’ on Iran, President Donald Trump said Sunday. ‘Do I finish it off, which would be very easy to do, or do I make a deal?’ he mused in a Fox News interview. On Tuesday, at a get-out-the-vote rally in Lubbock, Texas, he put the choice on a clock. ‘You’ll see Iran in a couple of weeks,’ he said — the window that opens after Election Day, Nov. 3. US and Israeli military planners have reportedly mapped out a short post-midterm campaign against Iran’s nuclear, missile and energy sites; some officials think three days of strikes could force concessions. I spent eight years at the Treasury Department tightening sanctions on this regime — and I want it gone. Which is why the next round of bombs should stay in the racks.” (10/28/26)
Source: Niskanen Center
by Caitlin Rowley Gallamore & Marko Gajic
“More than 92 millions Americans live in a federally designated primary care shortage area. That’s about 1 in 4 patients whose demand for primary care exceeds the supply of physicians that can provide it. And this shortage will only get worse without significant changes to how primary care providers (PCPs) are paid. Thankfully, Congress now has a chance to address the poor payment incentives at the root of the primary care shortage.” (10/29/26)
“It’s weeks like this where I can’t help but think of the overquoted H. L. Mencken line that ‘democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard.’ In America, we are nearly two years into getting ‘good and hard’ what voters chose in 2024 and are quite sick of it. Israel’s version of this predicament is almost comical. You’ll find no stronger defender than me of party-list proproportional representation—the system wherein the percent of seats in the legislature that a party gets is, with some technical caveats, one-to-one with the percent of votes they receive in the public election—but in Israel that system does frequently result in a failure to form a governing majority.” (10/29/26)
“It’s really cold living in a home with no heat or running water in December. That was a hard lesson I had to learn as a kid when my family was struggling. Now, as a healthcare case manager, I’ve seen firsthand even more unnecessary human suffering caused by bad policy choices. We need change, and voting is part of how we make it. I grew up in a large family. My dad was a convoy driver during the Iraq War and was gone from us for nearly a decade. During that time, we struggled to afford the medication to manage my sister’s Type 1 diabetes. My mother stayed home so often to care for her that she lost her job. Even as prices rise, they’ve also chosen to take help away from those who need it the most—and give it to those who need it least.” (10/29/26)
“Someday the Lord will call Donald Trump home. At that happy hour, as Trump is welcomed to eternal life, there will be a great deal of uncertainty in American politics. What will happen next? My thesis is that there will be no return to normal because Trump has fundamentally changed the character and desires of a large group of American voters. This is the sort of idea that’s hard to quantify because you can’t come at it head-on. You have to look for oblique angles. The Public Religion Research Institute just gave us some interesting data points. I want to talk about them, and the Gospel, and the future of American politics. And empathy.” (10/29/26)
