Source: The American Conservative
by Esfandyar Batmanghelidj
“What I’ve learned from speaking with Iranian officials and analysts.” (08/03/26)
https://www.theamericanconservative.com/irans-leaders-now-doubt-a-peace-deal-is-possible/
Source: The Price of Liberty
by Nathan Barton
“The entire premise of democracy is based on a fallacy that is as ignored as it is ubiquitous: that a majority is always right, and that a committee is somehow smarter and wiser than any individual. When tied to the idea that government has power over the lives of people that it should have, it creates a truly monstrous evil. So what does this mean to lovers of liberty? It is more than just the tyranny of the majority, and how that so typically results in riding roughshod over individuals and their lives and liberty. It is more than just the cost of such ‘democratic institutions’ or even the way money destroys the meaning of free elections in so many ways. Democracy survives only by propaganda that extolls it and therefore government. The result is that government is made into an absolute essential for any society.” (08/02/26)
https://thepriceofliberty.org/2026/08/02/managed-democracy-versus-a-republic
Source: Washington Monthly
by Suzanne Gordon & Steve Early
“Encourage veterans, including those with PTSD and brain injuries, to join law enforcement after they leave the military. What could go wrong?” (08/03/26)
https://washingtonmonthly.com/2026/08/03/the-vet-to-cop-pipeline/
Source: Karl Dickey’s Freedom Vanguard
by Karl Dickey
“President Trump recently halted his proposed strikes against Iran in favor of regional diplomatic talks; he has the right instincts, and while this is the right thing to do – favor diplomatic talks and engage in free trade – he is under pressure by war hawks all around him. He’s been engaged in this ‘on again — off again’ war talk since February, at the behest of Netanyahu and Israel. All of this is happening with little input from Congress, which has the power to give him the ‘go ahead’ to engage in a war with Iran. It seems that, over the last several decades, Congress has abdicated its power to declare war, giving it up to the Executive branch so they do not receive flak from their constituents blowing up in their face.” (08/02/26)
https://palmbeachexaminer.substack.com/p/executive-war-powers-and-iran-why
Source: exile in happy valley
by Nicky Reid
“So, the communists are coming again or at least so screech the doom merchants over at the GOP. Fox News is ablaze with round-the-clock, wall-to-wall coverage of the Democratic Party’s fall beneath the unstoppable onslaught of the deadly DSA; a Maoist cult of ultra-woke, brown grad students just itching to open the borders and empty the suburbs into the killing fields of a terrifyingly transgender Khmer Rouge cover band. I’m not the communist I once was but it actually sounds pretty sexy when I write it down like that. Unfortunately, all available evidence suggests that this latest red scare is just more post-McCarthyite fan fic from an increasingly desperate Republican Party.” (08/02/26)
https://exileinhappyvalley.blogspot.com/2026/08/whos-really-afraid-of-dsa.html
Source: The Hill
by David Wippman and Glenn C Altschuler
“Earlier this year, a presidential commission staffed almost entirely by conservative Christians urged Americans to rethink the separation of church and state and build ‘bridges’ between them. Last week, the Department of Justice directed federal agencies to expand protections for religious expression in public employment, military service, education, healthcare and federal contracting. These policies reflect the influence of Christian nationalism, a movement predicated on the belief that the United States is ‘divinely chosen,’ the New Testament should shape government policies, and white Christians should dominate American culture.” (08/02/26)
https://thehill.com/opinion/campaign/6002868-christian-nationalism-threatens-democracy/
Source: The American Prospect
by Robert Kuttner
“Rep. Seth Moulton, who represents Massachusetts’s Sixth Congressional District, will debate incumbent Sen. Ed Markey Monday evening in the second of three televised debates ahead of the September 1 Democratic primary for Senate. Polls show Markey narrowly leading. Markey, a progressive who recently turned 80, has served in Congress since 1976. Moulton, 47, a former Marine who is more of a centrist, has sought to primarily frame the contest as youth vs. age. But Moulton may well be vulnerable because of a series of investments after entering public service that have made him a multimillionaire.” (08/03/26)
https://prospect.org/2026/08/03/seth-moultons-sweetheart-deals-defense-webai/
Source: Agorist Nexus
by TechLibre
“Your Android phone is a tracking device that happens to make calls. It knows where you sleep, what you search, who you talk to, and what you whisper near its microphone. The apps below won’t make you invisible—but they’ll make you expensive to surveil.” (08/02/26)
Source: Garrison Center
by Thomas L Knapp
“The ‘school choice’ movement in the US supports tax-funded ‘vouchers,’ targeted tax credits, and ‘charter’ schools, on the theory that giving parents more options on where, how, and by whom their children are taught isn’t just a good thing, but a thing that government ought to be, and can legitimately be, involved in. Unfortunately, the real effect of that kind of ‘school choice’ is to turn all the available options into carbon copies of the ‘public’ school system it supposedly helps parents and students escape.” (08/02/26)
Source: Adam Smith Institute
by Madsen Pirie
“Stasis is a state in which opposing forces balance so precisely that nothing moves. It is a useful word because it names something real, and something increasingly common in political and social argument. There are people, and indeed whole movements, who want the world to stop where it is now, as though the present moment were a plateau to be defended rather than a point passed through on the way to somewhere else. This yearning deserves examination, because it is often mistaken for Conservatism, and the mistake matters.” (07/31/26)