Source: Responsible Statecraft
by Jack Hunter
“The warmaking president is shedding his base. But the last ones on the MAGA bus may be the first to leap off at any sign of political trouble.” (04/27/26)
Source: Liberal Currents
by Thomas E Ricks
“Tactical excellence without a strategic understanding is a recipe for failure.” (04/27/26)
Source: Ludwig von Mises Institute
by Patrick J Lee
“A man stands at a farmers market stall. His wife is talking to the farmer. He picks up a chicken. Paper-wrapped, no barcode, a handwritten tag on the twine. He holds it close to read the label and sets it back down fast. The price is an insult. What are these people thinking? A minute later, another man reaches for the same bird, reads the same label, and smiles. What a deal. Same chicken, same label, same words. … Mises was clear that prices don’t emerge from some objective measure of worth. They emerge from subjective valuations, each party to an exchange believing—at the moment of transaction—that what he receives is worth more than what he gives up. The price is not a fact about the chicken. It is the meeting point of two different minds reading the world differently.” (04/27/26)
Source: The Dispatch
by Andy Smarick
“The recent scuffle between Pope Leo XIV and the Trump administration, Vice President J.D. Vance in particular, reveals a great deal about the role faith principles play in shaping (and not shaping) those in public life. This ugly episode confirms what our era has been teaching us: America would be far healthier if more of our leaders were faithful to principles instead of partisanship, pique, or personal ambition.” (04/27/26)
https://thedispatch.com/article/catholicism-converts-pope-leo-jd-vance/
Source: The Daily Economy
by Daniel J Smith & Gabriel F Benzecry
“From trade policy to public debt, today’s economic debates echo those of 1776. The problem isn’t a lack of knowledge — it’s a failure to teach and apply enduring principles.” 904/27/26)
Source: Common Dreams
by Thom Hartmann
“The attempted shooting at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner Saturday night shouldn’t surprise us. Not only does America have the world’s most active small-arms industry that essentially controls the GOP (the reporters got a taste of what American — and only American — schoolkids experience every few months from their ‘realistic’ active shooter drills), but we also host the world’s largest and most profitable hate-amplification industry. Algorithms that amplify hate and division in order to “increase engagement” have made Mark Zuckerberg into one of the richest people on the planet, complete with a super-yacht and a doomsday bunker estate in Hawaii; Elon Musk’s X has turned into a sewer of Nazi-style rhetoric while Musk himself has posted, according to The Washington Post, nakedly white supremacist slogans and statements over 850 times just in the past seven months.” (04/27/26)
Source: The Intercept
by Matt Sledge
A messy fight over whether the U.S. government can conduct warrantless surveillance of American citizens could come down to whether four Democrats endorse Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson’s latest plan. Johnson was stymied this month when he attempted to push through a reauthorization of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. The roadblock came thanks to opposition from most Democrats, plus 20 hard-right members of the GOP caucus. Still, four Democrats crossed party lines to vote for a procedural motion to advance the bill, despite instructions from House Democratic leaders to the contrary. Whether those four support Johnson during a vote this week could prove crucial.” (04/27/26)
https://theintercept.com/2026/04/27/four-democrats-fisa-domestic-spying-trump/
Source: Libertarian Institute
by Brad Pearce
“While there is a disconnect between the general public and our professional warrior class, and one hears now and again that it would be good for our public to understand military life better, mandatory service would more likely create a false sense of understanding of our professional military that would be more irritating and divisive for everyone. Regarding the premise that mandatory service would build character, this is on its face nonsense.” (04/27/26)
https://libertarianinstitute.org/articles/conscription-means-slavery-not-unity/
Source: Quillette
by Milton Ezrati
“Amid the great uncertainties produced by the Iran War, some likelihoods have begun to emerge.” (04/27/26)
https://quillette.com/2026/04/27/this-is-not-the-1970s-iran-war-trump-oil-energy/
Source: The American Conservative
by Ali Rizk
“One of the important conclusions to draw from the Iran War is how much importance Tehran attaches to Hezbollah, its long-time Lebanese Shiite ally. This is not to be dismissed as business as usual, but rather reflects a major shift whereby supporting Hezbollah has become even more necessary for Iran’s national security.” (04/27/26)
https://www.theamericanconservative.com/is-the-lebanon-file-the-key-to-ending-the-iran-war/