“So much of being online is constructing and performing identity. You present yourself as something to people listening to, reading, or watching what you choose to put online, and that “something” isn’t who you really are. … This sounds grim: You’re just a brand you’ve constructed. My Marxist friends would say it’s another example of the late capitalism draining us of humanity. But let me push back. Because there’s something amazing and optimistic and encouraging about this. Online, you get to be who you want, or who you can figure out how to present. And you can be that thing consistently. You can, in other words, go all-in on your obsessions. … Except. The other thing about the online world, as it is now in its major structures, even if not as it always used to be, is that there are metrics. And metrics interfere with, smooth out, and dissipate obsessions.” (09/16/26)
“In the run-up to November’s midterm elections, potshots at opponents have been coming fast and hard in advertisements and social media, while legislating on Capitol Hill has slowed to a crawl. But state capitals and city halls across the United States offer encouraging examples of what the nonpartisan Future Caucus calls ‘constructive, collaborative governance’. This ‘get it done’ attitude is particularly evident among younger generations of elected officials, according to the organization’s head, Layla Zaidane. And that’s what offers hope for upcoming legislative cycles, she wrote Tuesday in Governing, a digital publication. Future Caucus supports and mentors more than 2,000 young lawmakers, Republicans and Democrats, ranging from liberal to centrist to conservative. Together, they take part in workshops, field visits, and online connections. And together, they hone skills in negotiation and compromise across party lines, while deepening their understanding of each other as well as bread-and-butter public issues.” (09/15/26)
Source: Foundation for Economic Education
by Lilly Rossi
“Out of nearly 6,900 bills in Illinois that proposed changes to laws, programs, projects and personnel, lawmakers provided the estimated cost to taxpayers of a mere 32—fewer than half of 1%. Only those 32 bills in the 104th General Assembly came with ‘fiscal notes,’ which estimate the financial effects of proposed legislation, giving lawmakers and taxpayers information about its potential cost. While such estimates are required in many other states, Illinois law allows a bill’s sponsor to determine whether it needs a fiscal note. If the sponsor decides it does not, a lawmaker who disagrees must gain the support of a majority of members to require a fiscal note.” (09/16/26)
“Call him ‘The Rock.’ That’s what John Kennedy, Louisiana’s wittiest U.S. senator, dubbed Mitch McConnell, yesterday. Why? From the Wall Street Journal’s write-up, it must be the Kentucky’s senator’s fortitude and resilience that qualify him as hard and stony. The 84-year-old lame duck solon was rolled into the Capitol after a three-month absence, and it appears that everyone was nice to the wheelchair-bound octogenarian. … McConnell should step … roll … aside. Let someone else do the job. But, as it is, he serves as a stark reminder of the gerontocracy.” (09/16/26)
Source: Caitlin Johnstone, Rogue Journalist
by Caitlin Johnstone
“As American rapper Macklemore becomes a frontline for renewed mainstream discourse about Israeli atrocities in Gaza, Israel apologists have been falling all over themselves to circulate the demonstrably false narrative that the artist has a history of antisemitic behavior. Zionist billionaire Robert Kraft defended his intervention to remove Macklemore from the Ed Sheeran tour for saying ‘Free Palestine’ onstage, falsely claiming in a statement that the artist has a ‘history of antisemitic rhetoric and imagery that we believe has been deeply offensive and hurtful to the Jewish community.’ The Anti-Defamation League falsely claimed that Macklemore’s onstage pro-Palestine rhetoric is colored by the artist’s ‘record of demonizing Israel and Israelis, falsely accusing Israel of genocide and engaging in antisemitic rhetoric and behavior.'” (09/16/26)
“Behind the battles over ideas and policy proposals, at its core, democratic politics is about buying votes. Sometimes, vote-buying is overtly a cash for ballots arrangement. But in the United States, votes have more often been purchased with the promise of ‘free’ goods and services, paid for through taxes or, increasingly, by running up debt, and justified by empty verbiage about the public good that the scheme will allegedly promote. That makes President Donald Trump’s promise of $5,000 ‘dividend’ payments to Americans if his party wins the midterms a jarring return to the open corruption of the politics of the past—or of other country’s present experiences.” (09/16/26)
“During the first-ever Republican Midterm Convention in Dallas last week, there was a lot of talk about ‘the common sense revolution’. It was familiar territory to me because every night on my evening newscast, ‘Fox News @ Night’, we join the common sense revolution — you could say we started the common sense revolution more than four years ago. We like to call it ‘The Fox News @ Night Common Sense Department.’ Common sense gives us a chance to take a deeper and sometimes snarkier take on one of the day’s big topics. The goal of the Common Sense Department is not to accuse Americans of not having common sense, but to remind Americans that we share a great deal of common sense. And when somebody or some group steps outside the boundaries of what we consider societal norms, we love to point out exactly why those boundaries exist.” (09/16/26)
“Knowing what’s in your food or whether what you’re about to eat comports with a medically prescribed diet can be difficult. There’s no reason why the government should make it harder. But that’s exactly what the United States Department of Agriculture and Food and Drug Administration are doing when they prohibit companies from conveying information about FODMAP content on food labels. Although not inherently harmful to most people, FODMAPs are a broad category of short-chain carbohydrates and sugar alcohols believed to trigger gastrointestinal symptoms in individuals living with irritable bowel syndrome and possibly several other functional gastrointestinal disorders. … as one US company learned, even if one of the world’s leading FODMAP research facilities tells you your food is low in FODMAPs, this isn’t exactly the kind of thing you can just put on a label in the United States.” (09/16/26)
“‘How can I be of service?’ That was the phone message Gloria Steinem kept leaving at the office of the African National Congress Parliamentary Women’s Caucus in Cape Town, South Africa in 1997. I had arrived in the country a year earlier, working as a young staffer for some of the first women elected to lead South Africa’s new democracy. When they asked if I wanted to call that American woman back, I jumped at the chance. Soon Gloria was on her way to Cape Town, and I was assigned to pick her up at the airport. As this global icon (something she hated to be called) stepped into my rusted car, the first thing I remember is asking her to keep her head near the window as exhaust crept in through a hole in the floor. (She didn’t flinch.)” (09/16/26)
“Holly [Mathnerd] warns that social media magnifies tribal hatred. Having written many essays on the horrors of tribalism, I think she is spot on. We can go further. We won’t get to the roots of tribal hatred if we don’t assess cause and effect. Our inner decision to cherish our tribal beast creates the demand to express our hatred on social media. No matter what political or social side we are on, Holly’s observation applies: ‘You cannot defend the individual by changing which collective gets put in the defendant’s chair.'” (09/16/26)
