Source: The American Conservative
by Scott McConnell
“Has Trump’s Iran invasion wrecked MAGA? For the White House and its allies, the question is nonsensical: MAGA is whatever Trump says it is. … It’s reflected in the doctrine of Trump infallibility that permeates the White House. Many Trump supporters have long considered those notions ridiculous, while at the same time recognizing that Trump was exceptional in many ways. They would roll their eyes, chuckle and support him nonetheless. He was, they would say to themselves, actually quite good on very important issues, many of his appointments were first rate. Others have argued that for many low-attention voters, backing Trump has no relation to actual issues anyway; people root for him as a fun disruptive personality, as they might a professional wrestling favorite. These theories are about to be tested.” (03/06/26)
“The Senate on March 4 wisely rejected a new war powers resolution aimed at halting or restricting President Donald Trump’s ability to carry out further military strikes against Iran. A House version also failed. Introduced by Sen. Tim Kaine [D-VA] the resolution in the upper chamber called for ending hostilities ‘unless explicitly authorized by a declaration of war or a specific authorization for use of military force’ issued by Congress. The resolution, supported by nearly all Democrats, was defective for several reasons. First, the president can engage in military action with or without a declaration of war. He does not need permission from Congress.” [editor’s note: The opposite, of course, is the case — absent a declaration of war, a president has precisely zero “constitutional authority” to engage in one – TLK] (03/06/26)
“The government is too reliant on private software vendors for core mission work and AI will make this much worse. Forcing companies to work at gunpoint won’t fix things.” (03/06/26)
Source: CounterPunch
by John W Whitehead & Nisha Whitehead
“The military-industrial complex and the American police state have joined forces. War abroad and war at home are no longer separate enterprises. They have fused. This did not happen overnight. Every modern president has stretched the limits of war-making power. Some have shredded those limits altogether. Each time that boundary is breached, the Constitution recedes a little further. This is one of those moments.” (03/06/26)
“Don Quixote, hero of Miguel de Cervantes’[s] novel and the much more recent musical, is famed for tilting at windmills, believing them to be (in his senility) monsters with four arms intent on conquest and domination. Of course, his efforts availed nothing, except to demonstrate his concern for others. But no one was rescued from tyranny or destruction by his efforts against windmills. Today, we suggest a similar mental problem in many lovers of liberty: in many of those who try to defend freedom. We waste our effort, our resources tilting at windmills and not fighting true evil.” (03/06/26)
“If Democrats expect to flip a U.S. Senate seat in Texas, they’ll need all the stars to align. This almost never happens, because politics has a way of scrambling the constellations. But on Tuesday, the first star blinked on. I’m referring to state Rep. James Talarico’s victory over Rep. Jasmine Crockett in the Democratic primary. Most political prognosticators agree that Talarico, an eloquent young Democrat who speaks openly about his Christian faith, is their best hope in a red state that Donald Trump won by 14 points.” (03/06/26)
“Donald Trump says his preemptive attack on Iran was justified, in accordance with international law, because Iran posed an imminent threat to the United States. In his speech announcing the operation, he declared, ‘Our objective is to defend the American people by eliminating imminent threats from the Iranian regime.’ But the threats posed by Iran to the United States, while potentially serious, weren’t imminent. So Trump and his officials have redefined ‘imminent’ to include distant, indirect, and theoretical risks. They’ve stretched the word beyond any semblance of its meaning.” (03/06/26)
“On March 9, 1776, four months before the American colonies broke with Britain over the issue of taxation, a little-known Scottish thinker published a long, dense book with an unpromising title: ‘An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations.’ Two hundred and fifty years later, Adam Smith is, by any objective measure, easily the most widely cited and widely quoted economist who ever lived. Astonishingly, his work still frames the central questions we face, not just about free markets, trade and capitalism, but about the nature of human society, and even what it is to be human at all.” (03/06/26)
“There are reasons for Democrats to hope that this might be their year in Texas, including big primary turnout numbers that suggest an engaged Democratic electorate. And there are a few voters and donors who support Cornyn who would not transfer their support to Paxton — but probably not very many. In 2026, Republicans do not vote Republican because they love the Republican candidate but because they hate the Democrats categorically. The same holds true across the aisle: Negative partisanship is the third-strongest force in American politics, coming in behind only inertia and stupidity.” (03/06/26)
“American bombs are now falling on Tehran, and while Donald Trump ultimately pulled the trigger, administrations before him – Republican and Democrat alike – constructed the gun, and even loaded it.” (03/06/26)