“The Democratic National Committee is holding its summer meeting in Minneapolis. There is a lot to talk about. The party, of course, is suffering through a major slide in popularity. A Wall Street Journal poll a few weeks ago found that voters’ approval of the party is its lowest in 35 years. A New York Times report this month found that, ‘Of the 30 states that track voter registration by political party, Democrats lost ground to Republicans in every single one between the 2020 and 2024 elections — and often by a lot.’ Democrats have also shown a knack for getting on the unpopular side of a number of issues, like the border and crime. They’re also deeply divided on Israel and Gaza. And they’re in a terrible money crunch …” (08/27/25)
“Since Donald Trump took office in January, his administration has deployed 8,500 active-duty military to the U.S.-Mexico border, turned vast areas of the border into restricted military zones known as National Defense Areas, deployed Stryker combat vehicles to the NDAs, and built large detention camps on military bases like Fort Bliss in El Paso. This is only the last eight months, but it follows three decades of persistent border militarization executed by multiple administrations, both Democratic and Republican. Over these decades, the U.S.-Mexico land border has become one of the most militarized and deadly places on the planet. In other words, it is time to retire the term border security. It is inaccurate. What we are witnessing on the border is an act of war.” (08/27/25)
“The Democrats lost a presidential election where the biggest issue, shared by both contenders, was The Other Side Is Off-putting, Icky and Crazy. Third Way, a think tank pushing for ‘moderate’ policy, almost acknowledged this in a widely-shared memo: ‘For a party that spends billions of dollars trying to find the perfect language to connect to voters, Democrats and their allies use an awful lot of words and phrases no ordinary person would ever dream of saying.’ So it’s not without reason that Third Way suggests Democrats drop the ‘therapy-speak,’ for example — words like privilege, violence (‘as in ‘environmental violence’’), othering, etc. Also to be nixed? ‘Seminar room language,’ featuring jargon like subverting norms, systems of oppression, heuristic, etc.” (08/27/25)
Source: Caitlin Johnstone, Rogue Journalist
by Caitlin Johnstone
“Australian prime minister Anthony Albanese has announced that Canberra will be expelling the Iranian ambassador and legislating to list Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terrorist group. Albanese says the move is because an assessment by the intelligence agency ASIO has concluded that Iran used ‘a complex web of proxies’ to orchestrate two antisemitic arson attacks in Australia in order to ‘undermine social cohesion and sow discord.’ As you might expect, not one shred of evidence has been provided for this assertion, much less the giant mountain of rock-solid proof required for intelligence agency credibility in a post-Iraq invasion world. This hasn’t stopped the Murdoch press from going ballistic and framing the assertion as a ‘bombshell revelation’ of an established fact.” (08/27/25)
Source: Responsible Statecraft
by Jennifer Kavanagh
“After a furious week of diplomacy in Alaska and Washington D.C., U.S. President Donald Trump signaled on Friday that he would be pausing his intensive push to end war in Ukraine. His frustration was obvious. ‘I’m not happy about anything about that war. Nothing. Not happy at all,’ he told reporters in the Oval Office. To be sure, Trump’s high-profile engagements fell short of his own promises. But almost two weeks after Trump met Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska and European leaders in Washington, it is clear that there were real winners and losers …. Putin clearly fared best of all. He got a face-to-face meeting with his American counterpart on U.S. soil, avoided the economic penalties that Trump had threatened, and continued his war without making notable concessions.” (08/27/25)
“One of the recurring motifs of President Donald Trump’s rhetoric these days is that he’s Mr. Peace, settling wars left and right across the globe. Certainly this is better than styling himself as Mr. War, who is a character who has been found wanting these past few decades and whose departure from the stage is not much mourned. Of course, there’s a bit of slippage between style and substance. Yes, wars have been settled …. On the other hand, in the first eight months of the second Trump administration, the U.S. has bombed the daylights out of Yemen’s Houthis (ineffectually) and was buffaloed by a junior partner into bombing the daylights out of Iran (also ineffectually, so far as anyone can tell); we’re still funding and arming the Ukrainians and Israelis, and we’re now directly menacing various South American potentates with war ships and strike plans.” (08/27/25)
“So much of what is considered science today is really just art. It’s a subjective interpretation of the meaning of data. Data does not speak for itself. It does not tell you cause and effect. It provides no predictive map for the future. It’s often incorrect or merely a proximate rendering of the full reality. Even the best and most experienced experts and invested stakeholders cannot overcome this problem. The implications of this insight are vast. Let’s start with an easy example.” (08/26/25)
“On Monday, President Trump signed an executive order ending cashless bail nationwide and creating rapid-response National Guard units that can be deployed to any city in need. Chicago, which Trump has aptly said ‘is a killing field right now,’ is one of the candidates. Send in the feds, Mr. President. Those forces should include ATF, DEA and FBI agents and other Department of Justice resources, as well as federalized National Guard troops if necessary. It’s high time to act against the dereliction of duty we’ve seen from Mayor Brandon Johnson and Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker.” [editor’s note: In English, Caldwell is saying “unleash the same kinds of thugs who killed my brother” – TLK] (08/26/25)
“It is a bit of a mystery why people who claim to be American-style conservatives do not embrace Friedrich Hayek, the economist and legal theorist who was awarded a Nobel Prize in economics in 1974. The mystery dissipates when one realizes that most self-identified conservatives are in fact as collectivist as the self-defined progressives (‘liberals’ in the confusing American terminology). Each side gives primacy to collective and political choices over individual and private choices, except that it is different collective choices that each side wants to impose. The difference is typically about which groups in society will be favored and which ones harmed.” (08/26/25)
