Source: Washington Monthly
by Michael McGough
“His jabs at the pope probably would matter more if Congressional Republicans and JD Vance weren’t already heading for grim midterms.” (04/30/26)
https://washingtonmonthly.com/2026/04/30/trump-pope-catholic-voters-midterms/
Source: Persuasion
Angel Eduardo & Aaron Terr
“[T]he term ’86’ has been around since the 1930s, commonly used in restaurants and other contexts to mean ‘get rid of,’ ‘throw out,’ or ‘refuse service to.’ When combined with the number 47, referring to our current 47th president, the message becomes clear: Get rid of Trump. To assume that ’86’ means ‘kill’ or ‘assassinate’ is, at best, uncharitable. There are obvious ways to ‘get rid of’ a president without ending his life …. Even if they can somehow establish that ’86’ unambiguously means what they say it means, the prosecution still has their work cut out for them. … The law is clear that merely wishing for someone’s death is and should be protected speech, as distasteful as it may be, absent more evidence proving intent to cause harm.” (04/30/26)
https://www.persuasion.community/p/you-cant-just-call-something-a-threat
Source: CounterPunch
by Dean Baker
“I have written before on the AI bubble. The stock valuations we are seeing now look a lot like the valuations we saw before the Internet bubble began to crash in 2000. Even a quarter century later, people miss much of the story of that bubble. It’s true we had companies that never made a profit, like Pets.com, with valuations in the billions. But the story went far beyond some flaky companies having ridiculous market capitalizations. The irrational exuberance, to use Alan Greenspan’s great term, infected everything.” (04/30/26)
https://www.counterpunch.org/2026/04/30/will-gravity-pull-down-the-ai-bubble/
Source: The Daily Economy
by Corey A DeAngelis
“Chicago Public Schools has struck a deal with the city’s teachers’ union that turns students into political props. On May 1, a regular school day, children will participate in rallies and civic lessons before being bused to a union rally at Union Park. The agreement promises no retaliation for participants and for joint lobbying in Springfield. This deal does nothing to advance education. It simply enables the union to use children as pawns to demand more money from the very taxpayers funding the system.” (04/30/26)
https://thedailyeconomy.org/article/may-day-politics-come-to-classrooms/
Source: The Bulwark
by Mona Charen
“Charles III delivered a veiled message that Trump probably missed.” (04/29/26)
Source: The Atlantic
by Russell Berman
“Florida Republicans have approved a new congressional map that could hand them as many as four House seats that Democrats currently hold. Their goal is straightforward and universally understood: They want to bolster the GOP’s majority in Congress and retake the lead in a yearlong, nationwide partisan gerrymandering showdown with Democrats. Good luck, however, getting top Republicans in the Sunshine State to openly admit that. In contrast with other states that have held lengthy and freewheeling public debates over redistricting during the past year, the drive to redraw maps in Florida has been marked by secrecy and obfuscation. Republicans can’t acknowledge the intent of their gerrymandering proposal, because the state constitution expressly prohibits partisan redistricting.” (04/29/26)
Source: Town Hall
by Derek Hunter
“The Supreme Court striking down Democrat racism in the drawing of Congressional districts set off a predictable wave of panic across the Left [sic], as the concept of having to make a case to voters who aren’t simply blindly loyal to the party began to sink in. … they absolutely refuse to have a conversation with an American who will not bow down to their left-wing [sic] agenda. Why? Because they can’t. There is no case to be made by the Left [sic] to normal people, so they refuse to and have created districts of the obedient to serve the party, as nothing scares the hell out of a Democrat more than having to compete for anything based on merit.” (04/30/26)
Source: Tenth Amendment Center
by Michael Boldin
“American Independence was built on the understanding that compliance with arbitrary power isn’t safety – or peace. It’s surrender. That’s an essential, but long-forgotten foundation of the American Revolution: Laws made outside the limits of the constitution aren’t law at all. And they should be treated that way too.” (04/29/26)
Source: Quillette
by Ron Capshaw
“The son of Bernardine Dohrn and Bill Ayers has written a perceptive, fascinating, and rather sad book about his lonely life as the child of violent revolutionaries.” (04/29/26)
Source: Independent Institute
by K Lloyd Billingsley
“Dr. Erica Schwartz, President Trump’s nominee to lead the Centers for Disease Control, comes billed as a ‘home run pick’ but may face pressure from the ‘vaccine-skeptical’ Robert F. Kennedy’s HHS. Kennedy ally Aaron Siri recalls that Schwartz, ‘with threat and force, mandated almost every major vaccine on civilians and military members’ and disciplined those who refused. Others see the Schwartz pick as a political move in the run-up to the midterms. While confirmation awaits, the people might look back to the way the CDC handled COVID in the election year of 2020.” (04/29/26)
https://www.independent.org/article/2026/04/29/trump-cdc-pick-not-just-about-vaccines-or-elections/