“Extreme partisanship disables principled thinking in almost every arena of American life, but this cycle of tit-for-tat illiberalism is especially dangerous. Liberal democracy depends on a shared belief in individual rights, equality of all citizens, and the rule of law. The major political factions must not behave as if they have a monopoly on the truth or a right to power. Illiberal actors think they have both.” (09/29/25)
“The return of U.N. sanctions will achieve nothing except to inflict more misery on the people of Iran. The U.K., France, and Germany were wrong in pushing for the reimposition of sanctions. If the goal was to revive nuclear negotiations, threatening Iran with more punishment shortly after Israel and the U.S. attacked their country was the worst way to go about it. The three European governments acted as accomplices to the Trump and Netanyahu’s aggression after the fact, and they shredded what little credibility with Iran they had left. The U.S. and Israel did most of the work to kill diplomacy with Iran, but Britain, France, and Germany went out of their way to finish the job.” (09/29/25)
“A human rights organization is demanding answers about why the Center for American Progress — an influential center left think tank — awarded a board seat to former Secretary of State Antony Blinken despite his alleged complicity in war crimes in Gaza, according to an open letter shared exclusively with Responsible Statecraft. The letter, drafted by DAWN, accuses Blinken of providing Israel with ‘essential military, political and public support to ensure it could continue its atrocities’ in Gaza. ‘We believe that Mr. Blinken is not an appropriate choice to serve as a board member of an organization that aims to ‘promote peace and shared global prosperity’ in light of his well-documented role in aiding and abetting Israeli war crimes,’ the letter says. Raed Jarrar, DAWN’s advocacy director, said Blinken’s appointment ‘damages the reputation’ of the Center for American Progress (CAP).” (09/29/25)
“Every American must take a side on everything. A dispute so trivial as to have zero impact on your life? Sorry, personal relevance is irrelevant. You feel unqualified to offer an opinion? Weigh in anyway. Sorry, I can’t go for that. No can do. In matters that don’t matter, I’m taking the side of not taking a side. When everyone becomes part of everyone else’s focus group, it’s time to step out. If you find yourself preparing for arguments you’ll never have with people you’ll never meet, whose minds you could never change, it’s muzzle time. My opinions barely matter to me anymore, but in the last month alone, I’ve been asked for opinions on so many issues, I have attention-surplus disorder. Well, there’s a fence in my backyard. I’m sitting on it.” (09/29/25)
“If Zohran Mamdani, the Big Apple’s openly democratic-socialist, covertly communist mayoral candidate makes it into Gracie Mansion, he will try to enact many plans to improve — i.e., worsen — things. The candidate wants to increase taxes and government spending, reduce freedom and individual responsibility. The standard Democratic agenda, but foisted bigger and faster. One announced plan is to scrap mass transit fees. Taxpayers would then suffer new costs. But so would riders who travel ‘free.'” (09/29/25)
Source: The American Conservative
by George D O’Neill Jr.
“The news has been filled with reports of assassinations, attempted assassinations, and shootings targeted against law enforcement. The spate of political violence has seriously eroded America’s legitimacy as a moral and decent state. How did we get here? U.S. state violence on the world stage may help explain the rise of political violence here at home.” (09/29/25)
“The first thing to say about the sale of TikTok to a still-undefined U.S. consortium is that everything about this episode has been rampantly illegal. The U.S. passed a law requiring the divestiture of TikTok from its Chinese parent company. There was a date certain for the divestiture—January 19—and one prescribed escape valve to extend the deadline a single time. Donald Trump did not use that prescribed provision, and instead unilaterally extended the deadline five times, including another 120-day delay established on September 25, essentially by saying his Justice Department would not enforce the law passed by Congress. This isn’t a case of prosecutorial discretion, where you have some colorable justification to not prosecute someone violating the law. In this case, the law was just about Chinese-controlled social media platforms.” (09/29/25)
Source: Ludwig von Mises Institute
by Stanisław Wójtowicz
“Anarcho-capitalism is a libertarian project of a stateless order in which private companies would be responsible for providing security, law, and dispute resolution. In previous articles, I briefly described the most important doubts about the feasibility of such an order and analyzed the most widespread concern, which is that agencies will not cooperate with each other. We now move on to another objection to anarcho-capitalism, which suggests that private security agencies (PDAs), instead of competing with each other, would form a cartel. The effects of cartelization can be twofold: first, colluding agencies may inflate prices and lower the quality of security; second, the cartel could, in the long run, transform into a state.” (09/29/25)
“The United States is generally a place where comedy is king. As the weekly cartoon series South Park demonstrates, by routinely putting Trump in bed with Satan, nothing is sacred in this country. Trump, like most would-be dictators, has no real sense of humor aside from making fun of other people. Can he wipe out the great scourge of comedy in America? He has many models to choose from.” (09/29/25)
