Category: Opinion

Source: Independent Institute
by Alex Tokarev & Kristin Tokarev

“Data centers can lower costs, but states shouldn’t waste tax subsidies on them.” (09/03/26)

https://www.independent.org/article/2026/09/03/data-center-paradox/

Source: Cato Institute
by Benjamin Giltner

“Congress and the Trump administration are not at blame for investing too little in America’s military; they are at fault for taking on too many national security projects. To quote a favorite line from the Rolling Stones, ‘You can’t always get what you want.'” (09/03/26)

https://www.cato.org/blog/squaring-defense-budget

Source: The Daily Economy
by Joakim Book

“Brendan Greeley’s new book ‘The Almighty Dollar’ traces the dollar’s 500-year journey from a European silver coin to the shaky foundation of American financial power.” (09/03/26)

https://thedailyeconomy.org/article/how-the-dollar-became-american/

Source: Brownstone Institute
by Joseph Varon

“When did saving a life start to feel like breaking the rules? When did the doctor at the bedside become less trusted than the people making decisions from far away, such as administrators, regulators, or distant experts who have never met the patient? And how did a profession built on judgment, uncertainty, and moral responsibility end up rewarding people for just following orders? These aren’t just abstract questions. They decide who can act when someone is dying, and who gets blamed if the official plan fails.” (09/03/26)

https://brownstone.org/articles/saving-lives-should-not-require-permission/

Source: Liberal Currents
by Shaily Patel & Matthew Gabriele

“The right wing’s assault on Religion and Humanities programs is an assault on our ability to understand the world, from Hindutva abroad to Christian Nationalism at home.” (09/03/26)

https://www.liberalcurrents.com/religion-humanities-and-the-public-good/

Source: Los Angeles Times
by Ian Ayres

“The headlines this week wrote themselves: Meta, humbled at last, agrees to pay up to $17.1 billion and accept the strictest limits ever imposed on teenage social media use. A combined two-hour daily cap across Instagram and Facebook. A midnight-to-6 a.m. blackout. Age assurance. Attorneys general from 47 states, the District of Columbia, and three territories took a victory lap. But amid all this, Meta’s stock went up. Wall Street understood something the headlines missed. Meta did not simply buy peace. It bought a government-backed campaign to press the same restraints on its rivals — restraints that, by design, might cost rivals far more than they cost Meta, thus serving Meta’s interests.” (09/03/26)

https://archive.is/2kH85

Source: Common Dreams
by Tim Karr

“For many, Labor Day signifies a time of transition, the end of summer and the return to business as usual, whether it be school or work. But the holiday weekend was born out of a more radical past, and at a place charged with a history of protest and free expression. On September 5, 1882, more than 10,000 workers sacrificed a day’s pay to march on Union Square and demand an eight-hour workday and an end to child labor. The success of their protest paved the way for Labor Day to become a federal holiday in 1894. Initially a gated garden enclave for New York’s wealthiest, architects Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux redesigned Union Square in 1872 as an open plaza for public assembly and patriotic demonstration. By the beginning of the 20th century, Union Square became the epicenter of radical American politics, a setting for protests by anarchists and socialists.” (09/03/26)

https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/flock-big-tech-surveillance

Source: Paul Krugman
by Paul Krugman

“During the 2024 campaign Donald Trump promised to cut energy prices in half. He has, instead, presided over soaring prices at the pump, which have played an important role in his collapse in the polls. Some might attribute this disaster to Trump’s decision to go to war with Iran, ignoring what appear to have been near-unanimous warnings by experienced military and intelligence officials that such a war would, in addition to disrupting oil supplies, overstretch the U.S. military and dangerously deplete stocks of munitions — which is exactly what happened. But Scott Bessent, Trump’s Treasury secretary, has found someone else to blame: Ukraine.” (09/03/26)

https://paulkrugman.substack.com/p/imperialist-delusions-and-the-price

Source: The Daily Economy
by Art Carden

“Mismatching students and institutions can hurt the very students such policies intend to help — while squandering scarce faculty talent on remedial math.” (09/02/26)

https://thedailyeconomy.org/article/admissions-standards-ration-scarce-resources/

Source: The Hill
by Mark Toth & Jonathan Sweet

“President Trump and his national security team are heading back to the future in Vietnam. No, we do not mean April 29, 1975, when the U.S. chaotically evacuated Saigon. Nor are we referring to the quagmire the Vietnam war had become by then. Rather, we refer to Operation Rolling Thunder, which began in March 1965 and ended just after Halloween in 1968. The U.S. military’s limited aerial campaign was intended to coerce the North Vietnamese to the negotiating table. Instead, over time, it began planting the seeds that resulted in Hanoi’s victory over South Vietnam ten years later. Today, Team Trump is attempting to wield a similar failed strategy in Iran.” (09/03/26)

https://thehill.com/opinion/national-security/6066434-avoiding-vietnam-mistake-iran-conflict/