“I read some really great political theory this week. And unlike Plato’s Republic or Aristotle’s Politics, this book had a dragon. Joe Hill’s most recent novel, King Sorrow, takes its main characters and its readers on a scary and suspenseful exploration of the dubious wisdom of the claim that ‘the enemy of my enemy is my friend.’ That old political saw gets hauled out from the back corner of the basement whenever it seems expedient to make a morally dubious alliance with a stronger power. Hill’s novel, a deliciously gory and smart bit of horror in its own right, exposes the ethical void at the center of such alliances.” (05/05/26)
“The Trump administration has been cracking down on a handful of Iranian residents who have ties to the Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran, and have even allegedly been involved in gun-running while living lavish lifestyles in LA. That may leave the impression that this community might not support attempts to overthrow the Islamic Republic. Nothing could be further from the truth. In reality, California’s Persian community is overwhelmingly opposed to the regime. A survey done recently by the Public Affairs Alliance of Iranian Americans found that barely 3% of Iranian-Americans favor the current regime, while an additional 8% would welcome a reformed Islamic Republic.” (05/04/26)
“Washington treats healthcare spending like a moral obligation and interest payments like an accounting nuisance. They’re linked: Federal spending that is wasted in the healthcare system forces higher taxes or more borrowing, leaving less money for Medicare, defense or anything else. To slow deficit spending and the ballooning costs of the national debt, policymakers should start by eliminating a large preventable expense: waste in U.S. healthcare.” (05/05/26)
“There’s been no shortage of expressed outrage from the left in response to the U.S. Supreme Court’s 6-3 decision in Louisiana v. Callais, which significantly limits states’ efforts at racial gerrymandering. A Salon headline captures the progressive indignation: ‘Supreme Court guts the Voting Rights Act in ‘Jim Crow 2.0 ruling.’’ The left can never be accused of understatement. But the change needed to happen because U.S. demographics are making racial gerrymandering increasingly difficult. And that’s a good thing.” (05/05/26)
Source: Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting
by Julie Hollar
“If you haven’t heard the argument that civilization is about to collapse because women aren’t having enough babies, you haven’t been consuming much media. ‘The Birth-Rate Crisis Isn’t as Bad as You’ve Heard — It’s Worse,’ announced The Atlantic (6/30/25). Business Insider (8/21/25) ran a piece titled ‘America’s Great People Shortage,’ which opened, ‘America is about to tumble off the edge of a massive demographic cliff.’ And NPR’s Brian Mann warned on PBS (4/10/26) that, as a result of the birth rate decline, ‘many people say’ that the US soon ‘will be unrecognizable.’ It’s repeatedly in the news in part because it’s a priority of the ‘pronatalist’ right, which has prominent backers in the Trump administration.” (05/05/26)
“In my role as Co-chairperson and member of the CDC Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, I have been participating in a training course regarding the GRADE methodology for public health decision-making. The acronym stands for Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation, and this methodology is intended to provide a structured, transparent framework to evaluate the quality (certainty) of evidence and the strength of recommendations derived from that evidence. … The GRADE approach assumes that, in the case of peer-reviewed clinical and epidemiological data (otherwise referred to as ‘evidence-based medicine’), individual studies will reflect various forms of bias (structural, intentional, or unintended), but when systematically analyzed as a collection of information, these biases will either cancel each other out or (if bias is detected) can be statistically compensated for. What could possibly go wrong? Clearly, something did.” (05/05/26)
“Earlier this month, the United States Department of Education proposed a regulatory framework to hold postsecondary educational institutions accountable for their students’ labor market and earnings outcomes. Under the proposed rule, students risk losing eligibility for federal loans and, in some cases, Pell Grants, if they are enrolled in undergraduate programs whose graduates’ earnings fail to exceed those of a typical high school graduate. Graduate programs face similar consequences should their graduates earn less than the average bachelor’s degree holder. Though the benchmarks are modest, in the sense that most college programs will meet these criteria, some will not. And the consequences for college programs are severe, as most universities rely heavily on federally subsidized tuition dollars.” (05/05/26)
“The Gulf states have tried very hard to stay out of the war on Iran. But they are home to one of the largest American forward military deployments in the world, a network of 13 U.S. bases and 40,000 U.S. troops that has made the war possible. Kuwait hosts more U.S. bases than any other country in the region. Bahrain is home to the U.S. Navy’s Fifth Fleet. Qatar hosts Al Udeid Air Base, the largest U.S. military facility in the region and a headquarters for U.S. Central Command. In the UAE is Al Dhafra Air Base, from which Washington coordinates intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance. Saudi Arabia is home to the Prince Sultan Air Base.” (05/05/26)
“The man just won’t leave the stage. Fed Chairman Jerome Powell announced last week that he’s going to remain on the Federal Reserve Board until 2028, even as he, by law, surrenders his chairmanship. The announcement came even after President Donald Trump agreed to drop his unwise lawsuit against Powell for funding a $2 billion new Taj Mahal building down the street from the White House. Powell will be the first Fed chair to stay on the Fed’s Board of Directors in 50 years. This isn’t the way it’s done. It’s bad form. Only once did he come within spitting distance of his inflation target. February 2021 was the only month in his whole tenure when inflation hit the range of 1.8 percent to 2.2 percent. He’s retiring with a batting average of .011.” (05/05/26)
