“In September 2026 we live in a world of uncertainty and change. Geopolitics, technology and the physical world are experiencing rapid transformation that fascinates and terrifies in equal measure. Much of this would have occurred without September 11, but there is a sense in which that day changed all these things. The collapse of 80 years of global order cannot be said to have simply resulted from the world’s biggest terror attack, but it certainly played a role in triggering a series of responses that changed all the nations involved. Could the September 11 attacks have been foreseen and prevented? Absolutely. … One clear way the September 11 attacks changed the world was as a catalyst for a decades-long global ‘War on Terror.’ This war never had a clear strategic plan or an agreed endpoint.” (09/07/26)
“Every Labor Day, Americans participate in a holiday whose meaning has gradually thinned out—stripped down to a three-day weekend, end-of-summer sales, and only a passing nod to ‘workers.’ American thinking about work and freedom used to run much deeper than that. At the Founding, and for the decades that followed, working for wages wasn’t seen as a normal fact of economic life. Rather, it was widely regarded as a form of dependence, a glorified form of servitude. That suspicion of wage labor shaped one of the 19th century’s defining political movements. Today, on Labor Day, its logic is worth closer examination. I’m proposing that we go back to the future, reviving the ‘free labor’ vision of Abraham Lincoln and fellow early Republicans.” (09/07/26)
“The descent of stable societies into ones of endemic violence rarely produces anything but new forms of tyranny and terror. People are fond of citing history’s most famous revolutions in support of such extremism, but the full record of armed revolt is mixed to say the least. Widespread revolt in contemporary America is unlikely, but it is also not something we should wish for. Luigi Mangione is not patient zero for revolution discourse, but he is a good example of how febrile contemporary American politics has become.” (09/07/26)
“The Detroit–Windsor, Ontario region was poised for an economic and psychic boost courtesy of the opening of the Gordie Howe International Bridge this summer. Travelers would save time transiting the border, tolls would be cheaper, and even cyclists and pedestrians could make the trip. But the White House had so poisoned the atmosphere surrounding the bridge—demanding and securing new concessions on revenues, even though Canada fronted all the costs—that Michigan and Ontario ended up holding separate celebrations. Ontario Premier Doug Ford headlined the Canadian ribbon-cutting, featuring various provincial and national dignitaries and members of Gordie Howe’s family. Michiganders had Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) cruising across the span a couple of days later in a Michigan-made Mustang convertible.” (09/08/26)
“In 2009, during the H1N1 swine flu panic, I was among a few vocal health policy critics remarking that public health officials were strangely and repeatedly invoking the terrifying spectre of the 1918 Spanish flu. Why? We had no idea what was going on, but in hindsight the game being played was quite clear: Evoking the worst infectious outbreak in living memory was pretty much a corporate-backed push to justify the stockpiling of an antiviral known as Tamiflu (generic name: oseltamivir). … Roche, the drug’s manufacturer, assured us that it would prevent flu complications, reduce hospitalizations, and stop transmission. Those are the bad things we hoped Tamiflu would help us avoid. The global gastronomic appetite for Tamiflu came with a bit of heartburn: the manufacturer hid the data which supported its approval and licensing.” (09/07/26)
“President Donald Trump’s latest temper tantrum over Canada, including the renaming of Lake Ontario as Lake America after the collapse of trade negotiations, is premised on the claim that ‘Canada has been ripping off the United States for decades.’ At least, that’s what the White House insisted in an August 25 press release about the tariff dispute. But, if that’s true, why are Canadians poorer than Americans and falling further behind? A new study from Canada’s Fraser Institute points out that while our northern neighbors started the century with high hopes for their economic prospects, the years since have shown them lagging Americans. If Canadians are taking advantage of us, they’re doing a remarkably poor job of it.” (09/07/26)
Source: Karl Dickey’s Freedom Vanguard
by Karl Dickey
“Apparently, the Pentagon is actively purging any dissent it finds within its ranks, even when it’s for constitutional reasons. Reminds me of the Oathkeepers before the org went a bit rogue, in my opinion. So federal investigators subjected around 50 senior military officers assigned to the U.S. Joint Staff to polygraph lie detector interrogations. Not for espionage or treason, but to find whistleblowers — though the White House will say it is to ferret out traitors. The polygraph sweep was ordered after leaked Pentagon records revealed that six four-star military commanders formally expressed dissent against extended foreign operations, warning that ongoing strikes are ‘unsustainable’ and have severely depleted domestic weapons stockpiles, putting our country at risk. But rather than deal with these warnings by senior military leadership, they were met with a hunt to find and punish any whistleblowers.” (09/06/26)
“The jury took just two hours. Tony Greenstein – Jewish socialist, anti-Zionist – had faced fourteen years under the Terrorism Act for three social media posts and a blog article opposing Israel’s genocide in Gaza. The Crown called it ‘inviting support for Hamas.’ The jury called it something else. Section 12 of the Terrorism Act makes it an offense to invite support for a proscribed organization. Greenstein’s reference to a ‘Gaza ghetto uprising’, it argued, amounted to support for Hamas. Three social media posts and a blog article. The bill the State was demanding for those words – fourteen years.” (09/07/26)
Source: USA Today
by Cristine Soto DeBerry and Greg Srolestar
“In the spring of 2020, the nation was roiled by protests as people reacted to disturbing video footage showing Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin kill George Floyd, a Black man he arrested and subdued who posed no plausible danger to him or anyone else. … Some of the calls for changes in 2020 went beyond what most Americans were ready to accept. It’s understandable how a call to ‘defund the police’ was easily turned into a political weapon, especially as crime increased during the COVID-19 pandemic. But in the years since, we’ve seen a growing backlash to any change to policing … This lack of effective accountability is particularly troubling as police killings remain stubbornly high, with most data showing more than 1,000 people killed by officers each year. According to Mapping Police Violence, there were just six days in 2025 when police did not kill someone.” (09/07/26)
Source: ProSocial Libertarians
by Anrew Jason Cohen
“Education is important. Some believe we must provide education to maintain the society we live in. Without education, after all, we would not have the doctors and teachers, etc. (many would say, politicians, police officers, and lawyers; see this post), that are needed to make society work. This seems right. We do need a system that provides doctors, teachers, and more. But that says nothing about the sort of educational system we ought to have. In my last post, I laid out my view of an ideal college. It is, unsurprisingly, very different from what we now have.” (09/07/26)
