“Under President Donald J. Trump, the United States has now become an engine for the promulgation of White nationalism. Not since the 1930s has such an ideology, which exalts those ethnic groups it codes as ‘White’, while denigrating all others, underpinned the domestic and foreign policies of a major world power. Typically (for our moment), Trump’s recent National Security Strategy (NSS) depicted Europe as in distinct ‘civilizational decline’ because of the European Union’s commitment to multiracial democracy and international humanitarian law. These days, thanks to its racial policies, the Trump team even finds a way to inject racial hatred into dry economic statistics, complaining that ‘Continental Europe has been losing share of global GDP [gross domestic product] — down from 25 percent in 1990 to 14 percent today.'” (03/12/26)
“Shortly before Valentine’s Day, Gail Slater, the head of antitrust enforcement at the Department of Justice (DOJ), announced she was leaving ‘with great sadness.’ Accounts of the split vary, but Slater appears to have been the loser of an internal political struggle at the White House and given a choice: resign or be fired. Whether the action was warranted is debatable, but many say the departure of Slater, an antitrust hawk, will weaken antitrust enforcement in Washington.” (03/12/26)
“I can’t tell you exactly how I would respond to a dude who defended Hitler, but I know what I wouldn’t do: stalk him on social media, contact his employer to try to get him fired, or lobby my government representative to help criminalize such talk. Does this make me a free speech absolutist? Not quite. Like Robert Jensen, a professor emeritus at the University of Austin and prolific blogger, I suspect that most people who call themselves free speech absolutists don’t actually mean it.” (03/12/26)
Source: Future of Freedom Foundation
by Jacob G Hornberger
“Immediately after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, an ostensibly shocked President Franklin Roosevelt went before Congress to request a declaration of war against Japan. In that address, Roosevelt declared that December 7 would be ‘a date which will live in infamy.’ … the Japanese attack on the United States was a ‘sneak’ attack — that is, an attack that was not preceded by an official declaration of war by Japan against the United States. Under FDR’s reasoning, by not first declaring war on the United States and then attacking Pearl Harbor, Japan had behaved in a sneaky, low-brow, dishonorable way. And that’s been the official U.S. narrative that has been taught to American schoolchildren in America’s public schools ever since. … A question naturally arises: Should that official narrative regarding America’s entry into World War II now be scotched, in view of the recent U.S.-Israel sneak attack on Iran?” (03/12/26)
“Former President Barack Obama long ago surpassed the Rev. Jesse Jackson and the Rev. Al Sharpton as America’s most influential race hustler. The country got a reminder when Obama spoke at Jackson’s funeral, even though Jackson’s son urged the speakers ‘not to bring their politics’ to the service. Obama said, ‘Every day you wake up to things you just didn’t think were possible. Each day, we’re told by those in high office to fear each other, and to turn on each other. And that some Americans count more than others.’ Same old Obama. In his 2004 Democratic National Convention speech, he famously declared, ‘There is not a Black America and a White America and Latino America and Asian America — there’s the United States of America.’ It was the line that launched him and made millions across party lines believe he could bridge divides.” (03/12/26)
“Donald Trump’s Iran war is either ‘won’ and ‘complete’ or just ‘beginning,’ depending on which fragment of one of Trump’s incoherent run-on rants you focus on. If it is the latter, the Trump regime apparently will ask Congress for more money to support his unconstitutional, unpopular, and unending war. You can hear the panic rising in the voices of Republicans too cowardly to openly confront Trump. It is one thing to mumble about deference to the commander in chief in voting down a War Powers Act (WPA) resolution; it is quite another to go all in by rubber-stamping funds to continue a war that even many MAGA voters question.” (03/12/26)
“‘It’s not meant to be happening here.’ Louise Starkey, an Australian influencer in Dubai posted those words to the internet in response to Iranian missiles hitting the United Arab Emirates. The adverb says everything. Life is forever nice ‘here’ because all the crimes we commit ‘there’ are denied a response and whitewashed out of the news ‘here.’ The phrase, which Starkey erased in response to a tsunami of indignant criticism, aptly sums up the dominant attitude in the Global North, where misfortune is happenstance and the organized brutality undergirding economic life merely makes for an ‘interesting proposition’ in an academic seminar, if even that. The ‘here’ makes clear that there are places that can be bombarded, like Palestine and Venezuela, and other places no, like the United Arab Emirates, an oil and gas tax shelter for the fabulously wealthy.” (03/12/26)
“The ongoing Trumpian plot to rig the midterms and end democracy is getting crazier and more dangerous by the day. The plot is also becoming increasingly layered and will likely continue all the way to next January 3, when newly elected members of the Senate and every member of the House will be sworn into office. Keeping abreast of all the twists and turns as the scheme unfolds can be exhausting and overwhelming, and that’s exactly how our narcissist-in-chief and his assorted obergruppenführers want you to feel. But don’t give in. The plot is inherently flawed and, although we can never be certain, it will ultimately fail in the face of the president’s plummeting poll numbers, the deepening affordability crisis, and the growing popular resistance movement. In the meantime, here is a list of the plot’s main elements to help you stay informed, connected, and, above all, engaged.” (03/12/26)
Source: The American Conservative
by George D O’Neill Jr.
“It is abundantly clear that most of the American people are against this latest Middle Eastern war, yet Congress is afraid to fulfill their constitutional duty to stop it. Congress is not even willing to debate our participation in that frenzy of death and destruction. Why? This decades-long pattern suggests there is some force or forces able to maintain an almost continual pro-war agenda. How does this happen in administration after administration without fail? It never seems to go the other way.” (03/12/26)
