There is a difference between reporting and storytelling, and the story many observers wanted to tell this summer—that this primary season is a referendum on the ideological future of the Democratic Party—is at least in part at odds with the reported facts. Sometimes the DSA wackadoodle pulls it out, sometimes the relatively sober municipal-government guy takes the win. That’s the thing about elections: Whatever you may hear on the internet, they really are not fixed—on Election Day, things can go either way. … The general consensus among psephologists is that female major-party candidates do about as well as male major-party candidates for federal office, ceteris paribus. But the picture gets a little more complicated when you start asking the right questions.” (08/14/26)
“He’s guilty as sin. Luigi Mangione has now admitted his role in the brazen murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson back in December of 2024. ‘I shot Mr. Thompson in Manhattan and he died,’ Mangione declared Friday morning in Manhattan Federal Court. Those chilling words should put the 28-year-old behind bars for life. However, among his depraved army of fangirls, Mangione’s guilty plea only bolsters his status as a righteous warrior. As one self-declared ‘Mangionista’, 27-year-old Abril Rios, said outside the courthouse: ‘I see it more of a revolutionary act of protest, the likes of which we haven’t seen since the civil rights era.’ Another dimwit gushed that she and the killer used the same sleeping medication, calling it ‘a little bonding moment.'” (08/14/26)
“When a crisis is upon a society, it is natural to seek those who can and will take charge. And rapidly, silence and neuter those who are unwilling to join into a ‘common effort’ led by those emergent leaders. In some cases (even some recorded in history), once the crisis is resolved, that leadership steps back, retires. (The classical example is Cincinnatus of Rome. We might also consider Devorah of Issachar and Barak of Naphtali or other Judges of Israel, such as Gideon of Manassah. Some point to George Washington of Virginia.) But what we see the most is those in power who retained and even increased their power after the crisis was resolved. Octavian (Augustus), Gideon’s son Abimelech, Napoleon Bonaparte, Santa Ana de Lopez, are a few that come to mind.” (08/15/26)
Source: Caitlin Johnstone, Rogue Journalist
by Caitlin Johnstone
“Today in dystopia, the US government is monitoring the social media accounts of individuals who oppose the rapidly spreading installation of Flock surveillance cameras throughout the United States. … Mass surveillance is dramatically escalating around the world as the public grows increasingly discontented with the soul-crushing, planet-devouring, murderous abuses of the imperial status quo. In order to keep us subjugated, they need to control us. In order to control us, they need to spy on us. That’s what all these surging authoritarian measures are all about. … Today in dystopia, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman says we are not far off from artificial intelligence monitoring every facet of our lives 24/7 in order to give it more ‘context’ for the assistance it can offer us throughout our day.” (08/14/26)
Source: Brownstone Institute
by Colleen Aldous & Eleftherios Gkioulekas
“On July 29, 2026, we watched Dr. Anthony Fauci’s appearance before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, which was coerced via Congressional subpoena after he declined to appear voluntarily. The hearing reopened a deep wound. Throughout the Covid-19 pandemic, we were part of a minority group that fought for the science of early outpatient multidrug treatments for Covid-19 based on repurposed medications with an excellent safety record, including but not limited to hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin. Other minority groups advocated for the truthful investigation of other equally important matters such as the cost/benefit calculation of the lockdown policies, vaccine safety, the ethics of vaccine mandates, and the origins of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. We were all marginalized by several government public health agencies and by the downstream institutions that deferred to government public health policies and recommendations.” (08/15/26)
Source: Macroeconomic Policy Nexus
by David Beckworth
“In the sections that follow, I will briefly look at the two different paths being taken by the United States and Europe in their pursuit of digital currencies. To paraphrase poet Robert Frost, there are two roads diverging in the digital currency woods, but unlike Frost’s traveler we get to see both roads taken. The question is which one will make all the difference.” (08/14/26)
“Living through a global resurgence of fascism, the greatest difficulty has proved to be not arguing against it, but convincing non-fascists that fascism’s adherents really mean it. That they believe what they are telling us they believe—and they will act accordingly. The overwhelming instinct is to view calls for 100 million deportations in the US, civil war in the UK, arresting or executing political leaders, eliminating of trans people, rolling women’s rights back centuries, legalising domestic violence, and global genocide as a sort of trolling, or ugly incoherent rhetoric. But these are plain statements of intent. That modern fascists haven’t fully achieved these goals doesn’t somehow prove they don’t want to.” (08/14/26)
“[O]ne need not accept the Pope’s Christian faith in order to oppose usury as a social relationship of unjust, exploitative power. And it is a relationship of power rather than one of mere economics, as if the latter exists in a sphere separate from the former. It may surprise some that one of American history’s most ardent and consistent proponents of free markets and individual liberty was also one of its greatest critics of usury. The anarchist Benjamin Tucker set forth to confront ‘a most momentous question,’ the question of who receives ‘the surplus wealth that labor produces and does not consume.’ For Tucker, usury was the key characteristic of capitalism, but it was the result of political power, not economic relationships of free and voluntary exchange.” (08/14/26)
“California Gov. Gavin Newsom has been frantically trying to restart a presidential campaign that appears moribund, with polls showing him losing in some states to figures such as Pete Buttigieg and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. In his absence, his multibillion-dollar high-speed train also seems to be going nowhere fast. A new report from the state inspector general revealed that the train will be delayed again and that the public is being kept in the dark about ongoing problems with Newsom’s signature project. Oh, and one more thing: the project will run out of money by December 2027. Benjamin Belnap’s report revealed the project is again running out of money. It found missing details in the project’s 2026 business plan, and concluded that the project will again be out of money by next year. The state has already spent $18 billion, but it will need at least another $18 billion to finish the first segment.” (08/15/26)
“The 47th president has a habit of waffling on important issues ranging from abortion to gun rights, but another position he has long maintained is his commitment to protectionism. Not only did Trump use executive action during his first term to impose tariffs on aluminum, steel, and other products, he also promised the nation that tariffs would be a centerpiece of his second-term economic vision. ‘To me the most beautiful word in the dictionary is ‘tariff.’ It’s my favorite word,’ he said in a 2024 interview. Occam’s razor suggests the president was not duped by Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, White House advisor Peter Navarro, or postliberal pseudo-economists (to be generous) such as Oren Cass any more than he was ‘fooled’ by Bibi Netanyahu or the late-Senator Lindsey Graham. The man just loves tariffs, despite the data.” (08/14/26)
