Category: Opinion

Source: The Intercept
by Nick Turse

“He Confessed to an Afghanistan War Murder. The U.S. Military Promptly Closed the Case.” (10/07/26)

https://theintercept.com/2026/10/07/afghanistan-war-crime-confession-accountability/

Source: Independent Institute
by Abigail R Hall

“Data is often shared or accessed across jurisdictions.” (10/06/26)

https://www.independent.org/article/2026/10/06/florida-limited-ban-flock-cameras-concerns/

Source: The Daily Economy
by Paul McDonnold

“Tobias Straumann’s new book explains how economic freedoms and currency reform helped West Germany outstrip not just the Soviet Socialist East, but many other nations, on its way to economic recovery.” (10/07/26)

https://thedailyeconomy.org/article/rubble-to-riches-reckoning-with-west-germanys-postwar-economic-miracle/

Source: Exiled Policy
by Jason Pye

“Republicans and Democrats tend to claim a mandate from voters whenever they’re handed a majority. Apparently, winning enough seats to organize a chamber means voters have signed off on the party’s entire agenda. That’s a convenient way to read an election, especially when the majority is narrow, and voters may simply be fed up with the other party. A voter who wants someone to put a leash on Trump hasn’t necessarily endorsed a bigger federal government, higher taxes, or every idea circulating through Democratic congressional offices.” (10/06/26)

https://exiledpolicy.substack.com/p/democrats-need-to-understand-that

Source: Law & Liberty
by Cheryl Miller

“In his preface to the twenty-fifth-anniversary edition of God and Man at Yale, William F. Buckley offered this self-assessment of his first book: ‘Some of the predictions made in it have already been realized. Some of the questions are still open. Some of the arguments appear antiquarian; others fresh, even urgent.’ Fifty years later, that assessment still holds up.” (10/07/26)

https://lawliberty.org/forum/the-catechetical-college/

Source: Common Sense
by Paul Jacob

“For several years now, reports Reclaim the Net, lawmakers have been trying to pass legislation to require Americans to provide ID to do many of things on the Internet we can now do anonymously. In 2024, the bill — with the cuddly name of Kids Online Safety Act, it prompts us to ask, what brute would want kids to be unsafe online? — passed in the Senate but failed in the House. The Hill reports that ‘concerns over censorship and freedom of speech prevented it from ever hitting the House floor.’ The Senate bill doesn’t mandate age verification directly. But it does require the FTC … to determine ‘whether a reasonable and prudent person under the circumstances would have known that the user is a minor.’ How could platforms avoid liability for sure without imposing some kind of ID verification on all users?” (10/06/26)

https://thisiscommonsense.org/2026/10/06/not4the-swift/

Source: The American Prospect
by David Dayen

“Seaflo Marine executives were excited. They make component parts for boats, agricultural machinery, and recreational vehicles, and in 2019, they signed an exclusive five-year contract with one of the two biggest component distributors for RVs, Patrick Industries, for 500,000 units of a Seaflo plumbing part. It was a foot in the door with Patrick, a company with the scale and reach to put its products into many more RVs. Patrick even made an initial order of 30,000 units on day one. Five years later, by the end of the contract, however, Patrick had only made a partial order of 10,000 more units. It was a loss for Seaflo of about $2 million, and they went to court over the breach of contract. That’s when they learned through discovery that, even before Seaflo and Patrick had signed the agreement, a Patrick subsidiary named LaSalle Bristol was completing work on the exact same plumbing part.” (10/07/26)

https://prospect.org/2026/10/07/monopoly-on-the-open-road-patrick-industries-rv/

Source: Independent Institute
by Craig Eyermann

“One of the most useful things to know about modern politics is that no reform ever happens until it becomes a threat to the re-election chances of politicians in power. The reason it works that way is because of the bad incentives politicians have. The system they’ve built for themselves rewards them for keeping the political gravy train going as smoothly as possible. It’s only when reality catches up to them that they encounter the ultimate rule that forces them to reform: Stein’s Law, which states, ‘If something cannot go on forever, it will stop.'” (10/06/260

https://www.independent.org/article/2026/10/06/steins-law/

Source: Astral Codex Ten
by Scott Alexander

“I agree that in-person debates are confrontational and bad for truth-seeking. But I didn’t propose a debate in order to seek truth. I proposed it because, under California Penal Code § 415(1), it’s illegal for me to challenge you to a duel. I think your public writing on this topic has been dishonorable. Out of obligation, I will respond to the meaty arguments that you have set out for me. But what would be viscerally satisfying would be to make you get up on a stage where I read your own words to you in real time and ask “Really? Really?” after each sentence. … I’ll start by addressing the meaty arguments, move on to directly impugning your honor, and then we’ll decide whether to debate, duel, or seek some kind of synthesis of our conflicting views.” (10/06/26)

https://www.astralcodexten.com/p/an-open-letter-to-steven-pinker-on

Source: The UnPopulist
by Tad DeHaven

“The administration is running a television advertisement in which President Trump says, ‘Together we will defeat communism, socialism, and Marxism in America.’ Government-financed propaganda promoting an unpopular head of state is something one might associate with a communist country. The irony doesn’t end there. The ad’s target is the Democratic Party and its leftward shift, as evidenced by its ‘democratic socialism’ problem. Yet it is Trump himself who has unlocked the door the left has long sought to open: the normalization of government ownership of private companies.” (10/06/260

https://www.theunpopulist.net/p/donald-j-trump-the-dsa-president