“When it comes to the dangerous misgovernance of our tottering American Republic, there is no more deadly combination imaginable than: *The sweeping unchecked powers of the imperial presidency. * A $1 trillion per year war machine which is organized mainly for conduct of wars of invasion and occupation and the propagation of Empire and which stands at the unilateral beck and call of the POTUS. *An Oval Office occupied by a blustering Caesarean bully sporting an undersized brain enveloped in a gargantuan ego. That gets us to the stupidest thing that Washington has done since LBJ’s idiotic escalation of the war on Vietnam. We are referring, of course, to Donald Trump’s impending military attack on Iran when there is not a scintilla of justification for it based on the homeland security of America.” (02/23/26)
“While communist systems elsewhere fell like dominoes, beginning in the late 1980s, Cuba stubbornly kept its state-dominated economy, even as the standard of living deteriorated after Russia failed to continue subsidizing Cuba after the USSR disappeared into political history. Because of aggressive U.S. policies, Cuba’s political leaders — beginning with Castro — were able to appeal to Cuban patriotism and keep the communist system in place. Although U.S. government pressure has played a role in Cuba’s stubbornness of holding onto a failed system, American supporters of the revolution have also spread falsehoods about what they believe has been the superiority of communism over capitalism, especially in the areas of literacy and healthcare. Indeed, left-wing Americans have been supplying propaganda about Cuba since the late 1960s.” (02/23/26)
“Kevin Hassett’s recent call to ‘discipline’ Federal Reserve researchers over a New York Fed study on tariffs is not just a political swipe. It is a troubling signal about the growing willingness of policymakers to delegitimize economic analysis they find inconvenient or unsupportive. Disagreement with research is a normal, healthy part of scientific inquiry. But attempts to intimidate researchers because their findings conflict with a preferred narrative undermine the credibility of policymaking itself. At a moment when trade policy is already generating uncertainty across markets, this kind of rhetoric risks turning economic debate into a loyalty test rather than an evidence-based process.” (02/23/26)
Source: The American Conservative
by Spencer Neale
“Watching Trump repeat his rolling critique of AOC, I wondered why he, Vance, and the broader conservative movement seem so driven to undermine her aspirations for higher office beyond mere partisan loyalty. The obvious answer is that AOC has made a career out of punching back against Trump and the ever-shifting brand that is MAGA conservatism, which recently is drifting daily toward a retrograde neoconservatism. … nothing the congresswoman said in Munich—not her stumble on Taiwan or tacit support for the war effort in Ukraine—was so disastrous as the Trump administration’s current, real-life intentions for Iran are, should a deal fail to materialize.” (02/23/26)
“Perhaps it is appropriate to disempower a grieving family and uphold a patient’s decision to donate if we are confident we know the patient’s wishes; but a lone checkbox among many others in a DMV form hardly clarifies those wishes …. I removed my name from the donor registry, told my husband that I generally wish to donate and revised my advance directive (often called a living will, which describes one’s medical treatment preferences) to correct the power imbalance codified in the law: ‘I hereby revoke from any OPO (organ procurement organization) the authority to require organ procurement or extend my time on life support. I give my husband the authority to decide whether to make a gift of my organs and under what circumstances.'” (02/22/26)
