“Last week, the Senate voted on a resolution would force the State Department to produce a report on Israeli violence in the West Bank. The legislation would require the State Department to report on human rights in countries receiving American security funds within 30 days. If the department fails to produce a report in time, those funds halt automatically. … Since 2022, at least nine U.S. citizens have been killed in the West Bank. None of the perpetrators have faced accountability. It’s a striking trend: a foreign government, funded and armed by the United States, killing Americans without repercussion. You’d think lawmakers would unanimously be desperate for answers. But you would be wrong.” (10/09/26)
“The sound and fury of this autumn’s politics signifies nothing but the bipartisan determination to talk about anything (data centers are the distraction-du-jour) other than the most important thing: the ruinous consensus beneath today’s performative rancor. Both parties are committed, behaviorally if not ideologically, to running huge deficits at every point in the business cycle. As a result, interest costs, which were $241 billion in fiscal 2016, have more than tripled in 10 years, to $1.1 trillion. As the cost of servicing the national debt will drive future annual budget deficits up from $2 trillion, something else will increase commensurately: the temptation of repudiation.” (10/09/26)
“During his family trip to England last year, Vice President J.D. Vance lectured the European Union on its approach to free speech. Lacking the equivalent of the United States'[s] First Amendment, European nations—and Great Britain in particular—have admittedly embraced speech policies that most Americans should find creepy. ‘Democracy rests on the sacred principle that the voice of the people matters. There’s no room for firewalls. You either uphold the principle or you don’t,’ Vance said, as he blasted German political parties for refusing to work with the far-right AfD party. He also criticized British police for arresting anti-abortion protesters and for their nasty habit of monitoring internet speech. It’s hard to take issue with Vance’s point about Europe, although it’s always easiest to remove the speck from someone else’s eye than it is to remove the plank from one’s own.” (10/09/26)
“Tariffs raised costs and manufacturing jobs disappeared. Now, the administration is declaring victory for partially filling the hole it dug.” (10/09/26)
“My father, Elie Wiesel, received the Nobel Peace Prize for ensuring the Holocaust wouldn’t be forgotten. By honoring Navi Pillay, who accused Israel of genocide, the committee has betrayed his legacy.” [editor’s note: I can’t really say whether Pillay deserves that particular prize, but noticing the attempted genocide in Gaza certainly doesn’t seem like a disqualification for it, and does seem like a continuation, not a betrayal, or Wiesel’s work – TLK] (10/09/26)
Source: Karl Dickey’s Freedom Vanguard
by Karl Dickey
“Sanders condemns corporate welfare, and free-market advocates should too. AI regulation shows how political privilege replaces competition.” (10/11/26)
Source: Philadelphia Inquirer
Source: Bruce Fein & Ralph Nader
“Doubting Thomases who dismiss impeachment maintain that Trump has been impeached and acquitted twice already, and the impeachment would be futile unless and until Democrats capture control of the House and Senate in the midterms. The argument is unconvincing and ignores the many high crimes and misdemeanors Trump has committed since he returned to the White House. … If Trump is not removed from office, then the Constitution’s impeachment power will become a dead letter.” (10/10/26)
“The United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit issued an interesting torts decision yesterday on group libel. In Bean Maine Lobster, Inc. v. Monterey Bay Aquarium Found., a unanimous appellate panel ruled that the Maine lobster industry could not sue the Monterey Bay Aquarium Foundation for saying that Maine lobstering is all wrong for the right whale. The controversy began after the Aquarium told the public to avoid lobster because lobster fishing poses a risk to the endangered North Atlantic right whale. The Maine lobster industry employs roughly 6000 people and catches a whopping 80 percent of the ‘lobster landings’. The Aquarium maintains a program called Seafood Watch, which assigns ratings to different species of seafood, ‘based on environmental impact and sustainability’. It gives a ‘red’ rating to seafood that ‘comes from sources that don’t align with [Seafood Watch’s] guiding principles.’ It gave a red rating to lobster.” (10/10/26)
“Russia is escalating its war against Ukraine, killing at least 30 Ukrainian civilians during an October 8 glide bomb attack on two public buses. Rightly, most of the world is outraged. Civilians, tragically, are always killed in wars. But deliberately targeting them is another thing altogether. What this outrage means, unfortunately, is that this war will not end anytime soon. Anger is a major catalyst for wars, and Ukrainians are angry. It’s unclear what the Kremlin’s calculation was in carrying out this strike, perhaps chalked up to growing desperation on the Russian side. Yet bombing civilians doesn’t break a people’s morale and will to fight; in fact, such acts usually strengthen that will.” (10/09/26)
“Our Founding Fathers did not put ‘charity’ in the Constitution as a responsibility — power — of Congress or the national government. Thus, the entire American welfare system is unconstitutional, and if anyone disagrees, please ‘lay [your] finger on that article of the Constitution which granted a right to Congress of expending, on objects of benevolence, the money of their constituents’ and point it out to me. And prove to me that you know more about the Constitution than the man who wrote it. The Founders didn’t put [it there] for a quite obvious reason: if the government starts giving out free money, the lazy, shiftless, and selfish (which is far too many of mankind) will line up for miles to get as much of it as possible.” (10/10/26)
