“Once again, Washington is facing the prospect of a government shutdown when congressional appropriations lapse at the end of this month. But this is anything but a normal shutdown standoff. Against the backdrop of an administration that is waging an unprecedented war on free speech, ginning up corrupt prosecutions of its opponents, facilitating unimaginable levels of self-dealing and personal grift, and subjecting states and cities to military occupation, this standoff cannot help but take on a heightened valence. If ever there was a time for a legislature to wield its power of the purse against a power-grabbing executive, this is it. And what are congressional Democrats — whose votes are essential to reach the 60-vote threshold in the Senate — reportedly demanding in exchange for keeping the government open? Their main condition is a temporary patch for health insurance subsidies under the Affordable Care Act.” (09/29/25)
“In the wake of Charlie Kirk’s assassination, conservatives and moderates alike are crying out for the decimation of hyper-politicized nonprofit organizations and the ‘NGO complex’ that many believe enables and encourages left-wing extremism. The sentiment is correct, but the righteous anger is currently directionless, leading to dubious comments about ‘hate speech,’ vague notions of charges under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, and talk of investigations into Antifa funding, with no real sense of where to strike first. There needs to be a clear target, and it should be one easily hit for maximum effect. The ‘charitable’ voter registration industry is that target, and this is a uniquely opportune moment to hit it.” (09/29/25)
“If everybody is struggling to figure out what AI really is, or how it will affect our lives as a whole, one thing would seem to be certain: Gen Z is defined by AI in the way that flappers might have been by the radio or Boomers by the electric guitar. But the equation of AI and Gen Z misses a great deal of nuance — it misses both the more skeptical approach that many young people are quietly taking towards AI; and it misses that AI is exacerbating, not causing, an educational crisis that is affecting Gen Z more deeply than any particular technology and which necessitates urgent reform.” (09/29/25)
“I get it that Trump and his supporters have some reasons to be frustrated by events over the past 8 years or so. The Russian collusion charges that turned out to be complete inventions of the opposition party. The prosecutions by the NY AG for (at best) borderline victimless crimes for which no one in history had ever been previously prosecuted. The over-prosecution of rank-and-file January 6 protestor-rioters. The ‘election denier’ prosecutions in multiple states that look a lot like attacks on political speech (particularly when similar statements made by Democrats in 2016 went un-prosecuted). But there are two possible responses to this frustration …” (09/29/25)
Source: The Peaceful Revolutionist
by David S D’Amato
“The rate of language loss today is higher than it has ever been in recorded history. The data from the past several decades reveal that hundreds of languages were lost in those years, and that the rate of loss has accelerated over time and continues to do so today. Researchers estimate that more than 43% of the world’s approximately 7,100 languages are already endangered (some place this value as high as >50%), and they could be looking at extinction by the end of this century if current trends hold. … It is never just language that it lost, though this would be bad enough. The loss of a language is also the loss of unique cultural practices, oral traditions and myths, and specialized knowledge of the environment, etc., that may not obtain anywhere else on the planet.” (09/29/25)
Source: The American Prospect
by David Dayen & Whitney Curry Wimbish
“Talks at the White House on Monday aimed at preventing a government shutdown left both sides far apart on a deal. Earlier in the day, reports emerged that Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) would consider a ten-day extension of government funding if Trump agreed to negotiate on enhanced Affordable Care Act subsidies that expire at the end of the year. … Within a couple of hours, Schumer told reporters that he would not back a short-term funding agreement under any circumstances. But one bigger problem with the conversation around government funding, with less than 24 hours to the deadline, is the nature of the fight being picked. The negotiations and debates are operating under the premise that appropriations to federal agencies are flowing today and will stop flowing tomorrow, and that this is something political leaders want to avoid.” (09/30/25)
“‘An elective despotism is not the government we fought for.’ Thomas Jefferson warned about the dangers of unchecked power even in a system where the people get to choose their leaders. But what if you were told that’s just what we ended up with? Because the system we live under today is virtually the same – in practice – as the British system the founders fought a long, bloody war to secede from. And it all gets down to sovereignty – or final authority. To the founders, any government that gets to determine the extent of its own power is the very definition of tyranny. America didn’t escape the British system. We rebuilt it.” (09/29/25)
“Two things can be simultaneously true. One is that President Donald Trump and his aides are petty, vindictive people who, like other members of the political class, misuse power to punish opponents. The other is that some of their targets currently or recently within government are abusive, untrustworthy, and should be held to account. That brings us to former director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) James Comey and the law enforcement agency he once led. Comey’s indictment is undoubtedly an act of political payback. But Comey and his agency really are dangerous and worthy of scrutiny and deprivation of power to prevent future harm.” (09/29/25)
“One of the more frustrating dynamics of the Trump era is being called hysterical for warning that the president would do exactly what he has said he would do. There was a lot of this before the 2024 election, as anti-anti Trumpers lectured those of us worried about authoritarianism that Trump is all bluster, or that our institutions would hold, or that he would be too incompetent to carry out his worst campaign promises. You’d think that the last nine months would have shut those people up. Alas, no.” (09/29/25)
“The Trump administration is ending one of the biggest statistical scams in Washington. For thirty years, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has issued an annual ‘food security’ report that politicians used to fabricate an illusion of mass hunger. USDA announced that it is canceling that annual survey because ‘the data is rife with inaccuracies slanted to create a narrative that is not representative of what is actually happening in the countryside.’ That annual survey was ‘costly, politicized, and [does] nothing more than fear monger,’ USDA said. Those were some of the most honest statements out of USDA since Agriculture Secretary Earl Butz confessed in 1973 that the federal peanut program was driving him crazy.” (09/29/25)
