“For decades, the architecture of West Asia has rested on a comforting fiction: that Pax Americana could indefinitely manage the region through the policy of offshore balancing, security guarantees to autocrats and the supreme might of the U.S. military. That order is gone. Not bruised, not bending, but wholly vaporized. Washington’s illusion that it could facilely pivot away from the region while maintaining a stranglehold on its security dynamics has collided with the hard reality of enduring quagmires. Current historical events have swept away the geopolitical framework of the past that relied on predictable diplomatic patterns, managed proxy clashes and the arrogant belief that normalization pacts could be achieved while entirely ignoring public sentiment.” (09/30/26)
“Just what is the antisemitism that Mayor Zohran Mamdani plans to oppose? He won’t say. And Mamdani’s allies have Sen. Chuck Schumer so cowed that he no longer dares spell out the fact that obsessive ‘anti-Zionism’ plainly is a form of Jew-hate. The mayor on Tuesday declined to do a live press conference to announce his new ‘anti-antisemitism’ drive, instead dropping a two-minute video that avoided any awkward questions about exactly what he’s against, let along queries about why the plan’s so pathetic. He’ll fund more ‘hate-crime prevention’ and help pay for security upgrades at religious centers (not just the Jewish ones that most need it, of course). But God forbid our Israel-hating mayor mention that ‘anti-Zionism’ is central to the recent waves of violent antisemitism he claims he wants stopped.” (09/30/26)
Source: Rutherford Institute
by John & Nisha Whitehead
“America, you got fooled. Again. For starters, the war on illegal immigration was never just about illegal immigration. If you fell for that, chances are you’re still falling for the government’s oldest trick: manufacture a crisis, identify an enemy, frighten the public, declare an emergency, and then use the resulting fear to justify another expansion of government power. Terrorism. Crime. Drugs. National security. Illegal immigration. Different threats. Same playbook.” (09/29/26)
“Merriam-Webster defines a ‘fifth column’ in its original, literal sense: ‘a group of secret sympathizers or supporters of an enemy that engage in espionage or sabotage within defense lines or national borders’. That is a high bar … and almost nothing discussed in American politics today clears it. The term has widened in recent years. Political scientists now treat fifth-column politics as rhetoric, policy, or mobilization against domestic ‘enemies within’. Scott Radnitz of the University of Washington splits it into two types: subversive claims aimed at vulnerable minorities or immigrants and collusive claims aimed at elites said to serve a foreign power. Neither needs a hidden army or single chain of command. Both describe a domestic network—whether organized or not—whose activities, funding, or ideology line up with a foreign adversary, or that treats the U.S. constitutional order as illegitimate and works to replace it from the inside.” (09/30/26)
“At the National Republican Senatorial Committee’s recent retreat at Sea Island, Ga., NRSC pollster Erik Iverson insisted that every incumbent GOP senator will be reelected and that Republicans are even on track to pick up a Senate seat. There is no public polling that agrees with this rosy GOP scenario. Ah yes, but the polls are ‘fake’ as Trump likes to say, even though, at the end of August he claimed in an interview that if the election were held today, he would win by ’25 points.’ Meanwhile, Trump’s disapproval ratings in the polls are at record or near record lows. If they were an EKG, doctors would tell the patient to get his affairs in order. But let’s ignore the polls. Given the difficulties with polling and its occasionally spotty record in recent years, skepticism is defensible.” (09/29/26)
“Let me get this straight: Because President Trump launched Operation Epic Fury against Iran for the purpose of denying the mullahs access to a nuclear weapon (a red line that every U.S. politician has embraced in the past) and, because Americans are paying more for gasoline and diesel than they were a year ago, voters are now set to elect anti-U.S., anti-Israel candidates who want to destroy the economic system and institutions that have made the United States the strongest, most prosperous nation on earth. Did I get that wrong? Has Americans’ hatred of Donald Trump made them simple? Do they really think that Democrats like Abdul El-Sayed, who is running for a vacant Senate seat in Michigan, loves our country and aligns with our values?” (09/29/26)
“In an attempt before American mid-term elections to shift blame for high U.S. fuel prices from his unnecessary and now counterproductive attack on Iran, President Donald Trump recently called Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to ask him to quit targeting Russia’s oil refineries in retaliation for Russia’s aggressive war on his country. … The problem with Trump’s blame game is that it would be much easier for him to end his war with Iran to reduce pain at the pump for U.S. voters and the world than it would be for Ukraine to stop its air attacks on Russia, as long as Russian dictator Vladimir Putin fails to end his potential existential air attacks on Ukrainian energy infrastructure and civilian targets. And as winter nears, Putin is unlikely to stop the onslaught and pass up another chance to freeze Ukrainians as the weather turns colder.” (09/29/26)
Source: Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression
by Tyler Coward
“Yesterday, the Department of Education formally repealed the Biden administration’s 2024 Title IX regulations and restored the 2020 rule promulgated during the first Trump administration. The repeal does little to change the status quo; federal courts already vacated the unlawful 2024 rule nationwide and ED has enforced the 2020 regulation for over a year and a half now. But the move does remove the last source of ambiguity by making the Code of Federal Regulations match the rule that is actually in force. For civil liberties advocates, this development is welcome news.” (09/29/26)
“The fragility of U.S. democracy is not an accident. Nor is it an inevitable product of our unfinished national slog toward freedom or proof of the inability of regular people to wisely govern their own affairs. It is instead the consequence of direct attacks on the architecture that makes any democratic system possible. Our supporting pillars are being chipped away, and if that is not stopped, the house will collapse. As anyone who has been forced into emergency home repairs knows, you have to do the necessary structural work before you do the other stuff. Your pretty paint job and new tile will not matter much when your house falls down. Our political system is the same. Our pursuit of affordability is nice, but it will be cold comfort if we fade into authoritarianism.” (09/30/26)
“Cartels, we are told in our high school (and college) history and social study classes, were outlawed by Congress way back in 1890. That is 136 years ago. But that obviously applies to our situation today. We have a governmental cartel, from DC right down to the tiniest village and special district governing board, the smallest county, and everything in between. It is a cartel that consists of the Democratic Party and the Republican Party. Two wings of the same vulture seeking out the next corpse to feast on.” (09/29/26)
