“While debates rage online about the Democratic party needing to be more moderate or more progressive, Democratic primary voters are focused on a different set of priorities entirely. They want fighters who can win and seem like they care about average people struggling in this economy. It makes sense that Democratic voters are in the mood for a candidate like Platner, with his oyster-farmer aesthetic and ‘not a regular politician’ energy. But we were still left wondering how voters were processing Platner’s laundry list of personal baggage, from the much-discussed Totenkopf tattoo to the slew of bad Reddit posts. Here’s what they said …” (05/06/26)
“Since Trump returned to office, Democrats have overperformed in 90 percent of competitive elections and hold a perfect 30–0 record in flipped state legislative seats. Republicans may dominate the cash-on-hand conversation in political media, but Democrats are investing resources into actual electoral gains. That disconnect underscores how fundraising comparisons are, at best, an incomplete measure of political strength. Importantly, many of these gains are happening in places national Democrats historically have ignored.” (05/06/26)
“It goes without saying that any tool or power government acquires for addressing some crisis of the moment will eventually—often, almost immediately—be deployed against the general public. So it is with border enforcement and the crackdown on immigrants. Surveillance technology ostensibly intended for the enforcement of laws regulating migration is being turned against Americans.” (05/06/26)
Source: Foundation for Economic Education
by Kerry Jackson
“It was supposed to cost $33 billion when voters approved the train in 2008. It will now cost at least $126 billion. It was also supposed to be carrying 65.5 million to 96.5 million intercity riders a year by 2030. Yet now 2040 is the date for ‘full service to start.’ Skeptics don’t believe we’ll ever see the train run with paying customers aboard.” (05/06/26)
Source: The American Conservative
by Murtaza Hussain
“Over two decades after the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, it is difficult to understand what the precise relationship is between Baghdad and Washington. Economic, political, and cultural ties between the two countries are weak—mostly reflecting in-built structural dependence by Iraqi institutions on the U.S. financial system—while a legacy of suspicion and hostility has outlived the war. This alienated relationship will be strange to those who remember the justifications for the U.S. invasion of Iraq, which was depicted as another step in an unstoppable march of liberal democracy after the end of the Cold War, intended to benefit not just Iraqis but Americans themselves.” (05/06/26)
“John Adams’s evolution from mere toleration of Roman Catholicism to open support for religious liberty personifies a revolution in the American mind.” (05/06/26)
“Finalization of the much-heralded Pandemic Agreement, the flagship of the World Health Organization’s pandemic agenda, has just been postponed again after another failure to resolve disagreements. Despite heavy pressure from the WHO and European Union in yet another meeting, in Geneva, Switzerland, a large bloc of African states are refusing to sign on to what they consider a clear colonialist agenda. Which of course it is, aimed at putting Covid-era wealth transfers on a more permanent footing. The WHO, for reasons explained below, is doing what it is paid to do. Major financial sponsors of the WHO have much to gain from getting this Agreement through.” (05/06/26)
“In the week since the Supreme Court barred gerrymandering of districts intentionally based on race, many state legislatures have been busy debating how to redraw electoral maps. Some lawmakers have offered non-race-based ideas – including proportional representation – to ensure all disadvantaged voters have a voice. Such ideas, however, might first entail a dialogue, both across the aisle and across races. In Alabama, one legislator, Rep. Curtis Travis, offered a different kind of dialogue Monday.'” (05/05/26)
“Washington blocked the merger that might have saved Spirit Airlines—then stood by as it collapsed. The result: fewer flights, higher prices, and a textbook case of policy backfiring on the consumers it aimed to protect.” (05/06/26)
“Most Americans appear to be unaware of the fact that life expectancy in the United States is substantially lower than in other advanced countries; we’re on a par with poorer nations in Europe like Albania. Surely even fewer people know that this wasn’t always true. In the early 1980s Americans lived about as long as citizens of other rich nations. Now we die substantially earlier …” (05/06/26)
