“Over the weekend, Barack Obama appeared at a campaign rally for Democrats in Ohio and managed to make some headlines by ridiculing President Trump’s design skills. ‘He’s got the White House looking like Saddam Hussein opened a Cheesecake Factory’, the former president quipped. The crowd, of course, loved it. The media did too. Republicans responded with some mockery of their own, pointing out that Obama has little room to talk about design preferences, given the architectural monstrosity that is his presidential library in Chicago. All things considered, Obama accomplished what he set out to do: he made himself the center of attention, which is the only place, apparently, that he feels comfortable. Now, I know what you’re thinking: Obama? The guy who left office ten years ago? Why is this multi-deci-millionaire running around the country trying to get socialists and socialist-adjacent candidates (including Abdul El-Sayed) elected to high office?” (10/26/26)
Source: Future of Freedom Foundation
by Laurence M Vance
“Education is a service just like the many other services that Americans purchase every day. … But, it has been argued, education is different. It is one of the most important services there is. It can’t possibly be left up to the free market. If the government doesn’t provide, fund, or regulate education, then many children will receive a substandard education or no education at all.” (10/26/26)
“There are certainly still millions of God-fearing, patriotic Americans remaining in the country. And they’ll vote next week. But the question has become: Are there enough of us left to save the nation? To too many Americans, politics and politicians have become the do-all and end-all for the country. To them, government is the new Messiah, and the people who work in it are our only hope and saviors. Thus, ‘electing the right people’ is the redemption of the nation. Countless Americans have now been taught to look at the world horizontally, at fallible, carnal, secular humans who have virtually no wisdom to deliver us, rather than looking up where the only answers are truly found.” (10/26/26)
“America’s founders understood that liberty and the common good were not competing ideals. Today’s postliberals are blaming the wrong tradition.” (10/26/26)
“The United States, losing its influence in Eurasia, has retreated to its own hemisphere to reassert its hegemony in the region. Congress offers no brake. A Senate war powers resolution on Venezuela died after Vice President J.D. Vance broke a 50-to-50 tie, and a U.S. House version failed 215 to 215. Regional diplomacy proved just as feeble. Brazil’s Lula said the Maduro operation ‘crossed an unacceptable line,’ yet an emergency CELAC meeting on January 4 ended without a statement because Argentina and roughly 9 other governments blocked consensus. The tragedy is that Latin Americans saw this coming two centuries ago. … The strong gods of hard power have returned, Washington tramples international law, and great powers everywhere assert themselves without apology. A bully stops only when someone stands up to their aggression.” (10/26/26)
“How will historians view the 2026 midterm elections? My guess is that many of them will write that ‘the Affordability Crisis’ helped save democracy. Without a dumb war and high diesel prices, Donald Trump’s autocratic behavior might have been validated at the polls. Imagine a world where 2027 and 2028 were more sinister versions of 2025. Look instead for a neutered beast. For all the talk about the House and Senate, these midterms may be remembered by history for a race for governor—a campaign that featured the most disgusting political ad in the history of television. Echoing Roy Cohn’s maxim to never, ever admit error, Donald Trump and JD Vance (Vivek Ramaswamy’s close friend and Yale Law classmate) doubled down on a child molester who raped both his daughter and, later, his stepdaughter. The latter was 12-year-old Amy Acton, now expected to be the governor-elect of Ohio.” (10/26/26)
“Abdul El-Sayed, Michigan’s Democratic U.S. Senate candidate, is the latest politician to suggest that the Second Amendment might shield the right to bear arms, but only those that existed at the time that it was adopted: namely, flintlock muskets. It’s a not-so-clever way of trimming back the Constitution’s protections. The argument’s flaws should be clear: the U.S. Supreme Court has already dismissed that line of reasoning, and a world in which the Bill of Rights applies only to 18th century technology would be one where freedom exists only in museum exhibits.” (10/26/26)
“It is a random Tuesday night, and you are relaxing on your living room couch scrolling through your social media feed. … You make fun of a politician you don’t like, share a clip from an interview with your favorite political talking head, crack a joke about a pressing social issue, or make a plug for the blog post that you just finished writing. Then, you head to bed without giving it a second thought. This is America, after all, and the First Amendment is always there to protect you from the government. Well, to protect you from our government. Under the First Amendment, the United States cannot retaliate against you for constitutionally protected speech and expression. But the First Amendment does not necessarily protect you from a bureaucrat in Brussels, a judge in Brazil, or a police force in Hong Kong.” (10/26/26)