Source: Caitlin Johnstone, Rogue Journalist
by Caitlin Johnstone
“The Trumpanyahu administration is pushing a ‘peace plan’ for Gaza which critics are saying would damn Palestinians to permanent subjugation under the thumb of Israel. The proposed plan would see Gaza supervised by Trump and by war criminal Tony Blair, and Netanyahu is already saying that the deal will allow the IDF to remain in the Palestinian territory indefinitely. The last time the US brokered a ‘peace plan’ between Israel and Hamas, the US and Israel torched it in a few weeks, laid siege to the enclave, and announced a plan for the ethnic cleansing of Gaza. So even without all the major problems with the offer, there’s not going to be a whole lot of enthusiasm about it.” (10/01/25)
“The principle of human equality is perhaps the most universally accepted dogma of moral life in our world. But this view is quite novel. In A Short History of Relations between Peoples, John M. Ellis crafts an argument that traces this transformation from about 1500 to the present. Ellis opens the book with an example of what he has in mind. The International Chess Federation’s motto — gens una sumus (‘we are one family’) — would have made little sense to most people before the twentieth century.” (10/01/25)
“The presence of federal law enforcement can drive crime down, at least in the short term. In neighborhoods where the Guard and federal police have flooded in, carjackings, assaults, and homicides dropped. Polls show that many citizens, tired of theft and violence, welcome the uniforms. To dismiss that desire for order as illegitimate is unserious. People want to be safe, or at least feel safer. And it’s popular. An August Associated Press-NORC poll found that 81 percent of respondents view crime as a ‘major problem’ in America’s large cities, while 66 percent view it as a ‘major problem’ nationwide. A full 82 percent of Republicans, and 55 percent of respondents overall, consider it ‘completely or somewhat acceptable’ for the military and National Guard to assist local police. But a military occupation of American cities is neither constitutionally sound nor fiscally viable.” (for publication 11/25)
Source: Center on Budget & Policy Priorities
by Sharon Parrott
“Wednesday’s government funding shutdown is fundamentally different than prior funding fights because the administration is acting outside the law. Any funding agreement must put a stop to this pattern of lawlessness. I have long opposed shutdowns and debt limit brinkmanship, but the administration’s actions will harm people, the economy, and our democracy for years to come if they are not stopped. Make no mistake, shutdowns hurt people. The federal government provides a wide range of critical public services. And the president has even implied that he will use a shutdown to impose harsher consequences than required by law, threatening to fire many federal workers and cut benefits for large numbers of people.” [editor’s note: Nothing illegal about a chief executive trimming the Executive Branch; just nobody who wanted to before – SAT] [editor’s note: Incorrect. The president’s job is to follow Congress’s instructions – TLK] (10/01/25)
Source: Ludwig von Mises Institute
by Connor O’Keeffe
“McCabe’s lawyers claim that, when McCabe leaked classified information to a Wall Street Journal reporter related to that investigation, it was done with Comey’s knowledge. So the central questions in this case are whether McCabe is telling the truth and, if so, whether Comey’s allowing a subordinate to carry out leaks is legally equivalent to authorizing them. Trump’s critics are trying to paper over those details and instead depict this indictment as simply a norm-shattering case of a president weaponizing the Justice Department to go after innocent people just because he doesn’t personally like them. … However, it’s better to understand this indictment as the latest chapter in a long struggle within the American federal government between elected and unelected officials.” (10/01/25)
“For every conservative in America who is delighted that at least some of the purveyors of hate speech and misinformation on the woke left are at last being held accountable, there is another who still adheres to the ideals of free speech. As UFC CEO Dana White recently said on 60 Minutes, ‘Probably the most important speech to protect is hate speech.’ That diversity of opinion never surfaced among the left, however, over the nearly ten years during which alleged misinformation and hate speech were suppressed whenever they originated from conservatives.” [editor’s note: Does Mr. Ring have poor memory, a vivid imagination, or both? – TLK] (10/01/25)
Source: Niskanen Center
by Kerri Raissian & Jennifer Necci Dineen
“Insurance companies may be in a unique position to mitigate firearm-related deaths, injuries, and other harms in the United States. Insurers have played a prominent role in helping reduce injury and death in at least two other significant areas: automotive accidents and swimming pool drownings. In those cases, insurance firms were able to make meaningful societal change simply by compelling their customers to wear seatbelts and put fences around their pools. Firearms may be more difficult for insurance companies to detect than automobiles or swimming pools.” (10/01/25)
“Donald Trump’s Give Me A Nobel Prize Tour made a stop in Quantico, Virginia on Tuesday. At a much anticipated gathering of over 800 US flag officers — who were ordered to the Marine base at the behest of Secretary of War [sic] Pete Hegseth — Trump asserted that he should be awarded a Nobel Peace Prize because, among other things, he brought the decades-long conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan to a peaceful end. But is this in fact the case?” (10/01/25)
Source: Foundation for Economic Education
by Jake Scott
“The ongoing realignment of international trade flows in the midst of the escalating tariff wars between the United States and other nations and trading blocs (principally China and the European Union) continues to ripple across the world. Yet the changes we are witnessing are by no means caused by these tariff wars; instead, they are more the catalyst to spur on such changes, perhaps irreversibly. For instance, the sudden 50% tariff slapped on Indian jewelry exports to the US in the summer has been cast as a new trade shock. In reality, it is the culmination of pressures that have been building for years, and a turning point that is already reshaping global trade patterns. The outlines of this shift can be traced through the past six months, from early warnings to the contemporary strategic pivot towards the Middle East.” (10/01/25)
“Most jobs have a ‘playbook,’ a sort of instruction manual or checklist for how to do the job right, whether it’s running an assembly line, piloting an aircraft, or redoing a house’s plumbing. Although our media seems oblivious to it, dictators have a playbook, too. It’s one that’s been carefully followed in recent times by Putin, Orbán, Erdoğon, Duterte, Bolsonaro, and numerous initially-elected leaders of other smaller nations. In previous generations the Dictator’s Playbook was followed, step-by-step, by Mussolini, Hitler, Franco, Marcos, Pinochet, Stalin, and Tojo (among others). And now it’s being followed by Donald Trump and JD Vance, who’re a bit more than halfway through the list.” [editor’s note: For starters, what were Lincoln, Wilson & FDR (and others who occupied the POTUS throne, if not “dictators?” – SAT] (10/01/25)
