Source: The American Prospect
by Whitney Curry Wimbish
“The Trump administration is building a surveillance network to spy on its own workforce across multiple agencies. It has already given Palantir an initial $3.9 million to do so at the Department of Agriculture (USDA), federal spending disclosures show. The artificial intelligence war profiteer will ‘design, configure, deploy and manage a secure, user-friendly tool to track USDA employees’ return to the office,’ according to a disclosure. The contract started May 1 and has the potential to grow to $13.3 million over the next fiscal year, which runs from October 1 to September 30.” [editor’s note: I have no problem with it … as long as all data collected are viewable by the public in real time – TLK] (05/18/26)
“When Trump ran for president of America, and swore his oath, he was telling the world he would preserve and defend ‘due process of law,’ against all enemies foreign and domestic. Due process of law was one critical principle the great American rebels died and bled and fought to establish as a foundation of America itself. Mr. Trump is engaged in a scheme to be ‘judge in his own case’ against the IRS and you (because you pay the IRS, any dollars awarded in the case are your dollars.) Because the IRS and the DOJ ‘representing’ the IRS in the case both work for the President, Mr. Trump ‘decides’ his own case.” (05/18/26)
Source: Law & Liberty
by Alex J Pollock & Edward J Pinto
“Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are huge, with $7.8 trillion in assets and $7.6 trillion in liabilities. They are an essential part of the finances of the US government. But we do not find them as part of the government’s consolidated financial statements. We should.” (05/18/26)
“Although Donald Trump has never been modest about his abilities or reluctant to exercise personal power, during his second term in office he has shown clear signs of megalomania.” (05/18/260
Source: ProSocial Libertarians
by Andrew Jason Cohen
“Many people are writing about why Americans have lost trust in universities. There are, of course, financial reasons, including — at least plausibly — the now higher unemployment rates of recent college grads and the ever-increasing cost of tuition. I leave these to the side. I’ve written about this before but here quickly lay out what I see as a major reason for the loss of trust. Start with the fact that many universities have stopped providing the service they were meant to — and historically did — provide. That service? Providing a system of education that creates well rounded individuals capable of independent critical thinking applicable to anything and which expands the intellectual abilities. Those universities have switched to providing career-specific education. Or what they think is career-specific education.” (05/17/26)
“As a psychotherapist, I increasingly see people interpreting political disagreement through a framework usually reserved for emotional threat and psychological harm. Opponents are no longer simply viewed as wrong. They’re experienced as toxic, dangerous, unsafe, narcissistic or morally beyond redemption. Once that shift happens, the emotional intensity rises quickly. People stop feeling like fellow citizens with different ideas and start feeling like threats. … Concepts like ‘trauma,’ ‘safety,’ ‘validation,’ ‘triggering’ and ‘boundaries’ can be useful in the right context. But when applied too broadly, they begin subtly transforming disagreement itself into something psychologically destabilizing. That shift has enormous consequences.” (05/17/26)
“As [Thomas] Szasz shows, this conspiracy to domesticate civilization’s neurological malcontents is achieved by declaring our numerous eccentricities to be medical ailments treatable by a variety of forms of therapeutic coercion, from the simple quick fix of pharmaceutical intervention to our involuntary internment at glorified prison camps deemed inpatient facilities. Szasz didn’t reject psychotherapy entirely, however. In fact, he encouraged its widespread use as a means for consenting adults to seek outside guidance in order to ‘learn more about themselves, others and life.’ In other words, Dr. Szasz advocated that therapists behave more like shamans than priests while deriding any notion of mental health being pathologized as a corrupt junk science that deprives the individual of autonomy and basic human dignity.” (05/17/26)
“Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp recently announced that he will call the Georgia General Assembly into a special session, beginning on June 17, in part to redraw the state’s 14 congressional districts ahead of the 2028 midterm election. Kemp had previously rejected pressure to redraw the maps before the May 19 general primary. Early in-person voting in Georgia began on April 27. Why redistrict in Georgia in 2026 for maps that won’t be used until 2028? Kemp is a Republican. Both chambers of the Georgia General Assembly are Republican. But constitutional officers are on the ballot in 2026, as is every member of the state legislature. Although it’s unlikely that Democrats will pick up control of the legislature, Kemp’s successor could be a Democrat.” (05/17/26)
