We Should Not Fear The Tyrants; The Tyrants Should Fear Us
Source: Caitlin Johnstone
by Caitlin Johnstone
“In our society, we do not push psychopaths off the ice when nobody is looking. In our society, we let them rule the world.” (04/19/26)
Category: Opinion
The eternal English revolt
Source: spiked
by Gawain Towler
“Chartism was a constitutional movement. It operated through petition, through the discipline of the mass meeting, through the moral pressure of demonstrated popular will. The General Convention of the Industrious Classes, called regularly from 1839 onwards, styled itself a parliament of the people, not to overthrow parliament but to remind it of its obligation to the people. When three petitions, each signed by millions, were presented and each contemptuously refused, the movement’s response was not insurrection but reorganisation, continued agitation, education and, eventually, decades later, the slow grinding of history through the machinery of genuine reform. Five of the six Chartist demands are now simply the unremarkable fabric of democratic life: universal suffrage, secret ballot, payment of MPs, no property qualification for membership of parliament and equal electoral districts. The sixth, annual parliaments, we decided against, and probably wisely so.” (04/19/26)
Can Primary Reform Keep Out Extremist Candidates and Depolarize America?
Source: The UnPopulist
by Lee Drutman
“The dysfunction in American politics runs deeper than the mechanics of nomination contests. The United States operates under an unusually rigid two‑party system that compresses an enormous range of political views into two increasingly polarized coalitions. Adjusting the rules of primaries may change how candidates are nominated, but it does little to change the incentives created by the larger political environment.” (04/18/26)
https://www.theunpopulist.net/p/can-primary-reform-keep-out-extremist
I’m a truck driver. I’m not worried about AI taking my job.
Source: USA Today
by Kris Edney
“The world’s tech leaders – the ones who are driving the AI revolution – insist that people like me are actually the foundation of the technology shaping the future. The numbers prove them right.” (04/19/26)
Tech Troubleshooting in Space
Source: EconLog
by Joy Buchanan
“When astronaut Christina Koch, the first woman to fly around the moon, reported an issue from space that could have been copy-pasted from any IT helpdesk ticket, something clicked for Americans. Her grievance? ‘No joy seeing the device in the list of available devices when I attempt to re-pair it after doing the Bluetooth forget.’ Commander Reid Wiseman, orbiting Earth aboard the Artemis II mission, radioed Houston with a problem millions of office workers share: ‘I have two Microsoft Outlooks, and neither one of those are working.’ So much for old ‘one small step for man …’ Internet commentators found these moments painfully relatable and shared them widely. Why did those quotes about tech maintenance go viral in April 2026? Beneath the comedy lies an underappreciated cost of modernity: we are wealthier, and that wealth means we own more things.” (04/17/26)
https://www.econlib.org/econlog/tech-troubleshooting-in-space
Chief Justice Roberts could learn from baseball great Ted Williams when it comes to leaks
Source: Fox News
by Jonathan Turley
“The legendary baseball player and manager Ted Williams once wrote a letter to Angels outfielder Jay Johnstone on improving his hitting. Among his pieces of advice was that ‘with two strikes, you simply have to protect the plate.’ Williams'[s] advice on not striking out came to mind this week when another leak of confidential information rocked the Supreme Court. (The prior leak of the Dobbs decision went unsolved.) For Chief Justice John Roberts, the message is clear: it is times like these when you have to protect the plate. Roberts, of course, is famous for his own baseball analogies. In his confirmation, he declared that ‘judges are like umpires. Umpires don’t make the rules. They apply them … Nobody ever went to a ballgame to see the umpire.’ Yet, justices do make rules not only in new precedent, but in the operation of the court system. Those rules are being broken.” (04/19/26)
Why I Oppose Race-Consciousness
Source: The Findings Substack
by Paul Rosenberg
“Race-consciousness is not something that belongs in the minds of children; rather than being a virtue, it’s far more of a poison. I want children to be entirely separated from and ignorant of racial issues. Rather, they should simply see people, with their pigmentation being an accidental triviality. Race-consciousness robs that from them, and I think it’s tragic.” (04/17/26)
https://thefindings.substack.com/p/why-i-oppose-race-consciousness
On Witless Great Vengeance and Furious Anger
Source: Common Dreams
by Abby Zimet
“Seeking to rally the troops for his unholy war, Christian nationalist, TV-carnie and war fanboy Pete Kegseth just passed off some vengeful Gospel According to Tarantino as scripture at his (unconstitutional) Pentagon prayer service, and yes we have them now. Added to the ‘shameless blasphemy’ of quoting — without credit — Samuel Jackson’s homicidal hitman Jules as ‘prayer,’ Pete moronically misses the redemptive point: As he cites the ‘tyranny of evil men,’ he, unlike Jules, doesn’t friggin’ get that he is one.” (04/18/26)
https://www.commondreams.org/further/on-witless-great-vengeance-and-furious-anger
After three years of fighting, Sudan’s civil war is only getting worse
Source: Responsible Statecraft
by Alex Thurston
“This month marks the third anniversary of the war in Sudan. Estimates of the death toll range from 150,000 to 400,000 or more; 2025 was, according to the United Nations’ internal estimates, a particularly deadly year for civilians. The humanitarian impacts are even broader: the U.N.’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs calculates that, as of April 2026, nearly two-thirds of Sudan’s 46.8 million people need humanitarian assistance.” 904/17/26)
And Augustine Wept
Source: The Weekly Dish
by Andrew Sullivan
“The Pope rightly calls out the objective moral evil of this indefensible, immoral war.” (04/17/26)
https://andrewsullivan.substack.com/p/and-augustine-wept-862