“Truly ending a war of choice is hard. Anything short of total victory, especially for the American psyche, is unsatisfying. If the home front can be insulated from its consequences, the temptation is strong to wade deeper into a no man’s land between peace and war in search of a more palatable outcome. With Venezuelan oil on the way to rescue gas prices, perhaps just a few more months of conflict with Iran could secure a more face-saving end?a The hard-learned answer is no. Allowing the White House to continue to wage a conflict in the background, with no pressure to meet deadlines or clear metrics of victory, is like ignoring a steady drip from a pipe and acting surprised when the basement is eventually flooded.” (11/04/26)
“Democrats secured an overwhelming victory in the midterm elections on Tuesday in a stunning rebuke to President Donald Trump’s first two years in office, winning majorities in both the Senate and House of Representatives. By midnight Democrats flipped six Senate seats — including in reliably red states like South Carolina, Texas, and Kansas. As of this morning, they added Michigan and Maine. In a rare inversion of historical trends, foreign policy played a serious role in the results of Tuesday’s midterm elections. Exit polling showed 74% of voters said the Iran War was a ‘crucial’ or ‘major’ factor in their vote. Exit polling also found that 62% of voters believed using military force against Iran was the ‘wrong decision.’ This all jibed with polls leading up to the midterms.” (11/04/26)
Source: Caitlin Johnstone, Rogue Journalist
by Caitlin Johnstone
“The New York Times has published a story about a supposed Iranian plot to use chemical weapons which nobody actually believes. Not even the perpetually war-horny New York Times tries to frame this as a real news report, presenting it instead as a subject of tense division inside the Trump White House. … To be clear, not one single person anywhere on earth believes this is true. Israel doesn’t believe it. Washington doesn’t believe it. Nobody reading about it in the New York Times believes it. But we’re hearing about it anyway like it’s a real thing, because too many powerful people want more bombing in Iran.” (11/04/26)
“Congress was not designed to be a parliament where parties vote in lockstep with their party leader in the White House. But that’s how it’s worked for decades. Starting in the 1970s, Congress was quietly revolutionized from within. It was all done in the name of ‘reform,’ but the better word is ‘deform.'” (11/04/26)
“The MAGA movement is fully rooted in the promotion of ignorance and demonization of knowledge. That’s why it’s failing now. That’s why it will fail in the future.” (11/04/260
“‘Pretend I’m on the ballot’, said Trump, as he held rallies across the country. Yes, that’s what many did yesterday – they saw the midterms as a referendum on Trump, and they voted to give him a bloody nose. It was no big mystery what they didn’t like about Trump and his party. As exit polls showed, inflation, gas prices and the cost of living were top of mind. And voters blamed Trump for their unhappy circumstances, drawing a straight line between his policy choices – tariffs and the Iran war – and the tough cost-of-living situation they face. Whiffs of corruption (like the Qatari jet and Trump family deals) and bizarre preoccupations (like the ballroom and reflecting pool) just added to the sense that the president and his party are not focussed on people’s everyday concerns.” (11/04/26)
Source: Foundation for Economic Education
by Jake Scott
“A flurry of recent news from the European Union has put the eurozone economy into the spotlight: amid a background of solid growth in the manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI), the European Central Bank (ECB) has held off another rise in interest rates as inflation sticks at 3.8%, almost double its medium-term target of 2%. On top of this, the president of the ECB, Christine Lagarde, has announced her intention to resign in February 2027, roughly nine months earlier than her tenure is expected to end. There is, evidently, a lot going on in this, but despite the significance of Lagarde’s announcement, the most important is the level of inflation.” (11/04/26)
“While the leadership of the House and Senate is changing, the fundamentals of American politics have not. In all the finger pointing that will ensue over the coming weeks, some things should already be clear. Regardless of where the last ballots fall, the basic principles of American politics remain the same. Voters still respond to the same things they always have. As Republicans look to 2028, they must double down on the basics of campaigning that stand the test of time. 1.) Candidate quality matters. Fielding the better candidate is not optional. … 2.) Results must be felt. A majority is judged by outcomes people can feel, not by legislative talking points. … 3.) Volume is not a strategy. Too much money is spent on strategies with too little value, often in ways that simply annoy voters….” (11/04/26)
“Have Americans gotten the loyalty business all wrong? Are we grasping the ‘second rate’ when we rely on politics to lift us? We are the ones, not politicians, who will build an America we are proud of.” (11/04/26)
