Source: Washington Post
by Megan McArdle
“There is no question that something terrible happened at a Cornell University fraternity in 2024. The question is what. Was it a brutal gang rape? Or was it something messier and more complicated, a sexual encounter that was unwise but nonetheless consensual? What facts we have are not enough to distinguish between the two possibilities.” (10/04/26)
Source: Jonathan Turley
by Jonathan Turley
“There are certain dates that have become a regular feature in American life. In February, the Sandhill Cranes return to the Platte River in Tennessee. In March, the swallows return to San Juan Capistrano…and in October, the protesters have returned to Hupper Island, the summer vacation home of Chief Justice Roberts. The last migratory pattern is more recent and certainly less welcomed. In past years, liberal protesters have descended on the homes of conservative justices to disrupt their lives, shout abuses, and, in one case involving Justice Brett Kavanaugh, seek to kill a member of the Court. Protesters outside the home of Justice Amy Coney Barrett left bloody dolls on the lawn, knowing that she had young children inside. This week, the protesters appeared at the vacation home of Chief Justice John Roberts in Maine.” (10/03/26)
Source: Freedom and Flourishing
by Edward W Younkins
‘Behavioral Economics has emerged over the past seven decades as a significant development in economic thought challenging the idealized assumptions of perfect rationality that have long dominated neoclassical economics. Yet, for all its insights into human cognition and decision-making, the field has generated controversy regarding its normative implications. Should behavioral economists address their findings to public policy makers who could nudge citizens toward supposedly better choices? Or should they address their recommendations to individuals, empowering them to make better decisions for themselves?” (10/04/26)
https://www.freedomandflourishing.com/2026/10/behavioral-economics-and-human.html
Source: Garrison Center
by Thomas L Knapp
“For more than a century, the Republican and Democratic parties have used ballot access laws and debate exclusion criteria to rig elections, making it as difficult and expensive as possible for ‘third party’ and independent candidates to even appear on ballots. Then when Republicans and Democrats lose, or look like they may lose, the whining begins. ‘Why, the nerve! How dare anyone but us seek political office? Those other guys can’t win — we’ve busted our butts to make sure of that! But here they come, ‘stealing’ our votes and ‘spoiling’ the rightful outcomes! There oughta be a law! Oh, wait, there is … why isn’t it working?'” (10/02/26)
Source: Christian Science Monitor
by staff
“A big reason for the rules of war is to prevent a country that’s losing a conflict from unleashing a last-resort wave of attacks on innocent civilians. After its 4 1/2-year war in Ukraine, Russia appears to fit that description, adding one more justification for the 1949 Geneva Conventions – to which Moscow is legally bound. Civilian casualties in Ukraine were up 37% in the first half of 2026 from the same period last year. And, increasingly, the slaughter is in major cities, away from the most contested territory. ‘I … see the nature of this war changing,’ said Alexander De Croo, administrator of the United Nations Development Programme, during a visit to the country last month. ‘Civilian infrastructure is being attacked deliberately and relentlessly, day and night,’ he added. ‘Buses. Trains. Bookshops. Supermarkets. The ordinary places where ordinary people live their lives.’ In addition, Russia’s gloves-off tactics appear to come from orders on high.” (10/02/26)
https://www.csmonitor.com/Editorials/the-monitors-view/2026/1002/One-of-Ukraine-s-winning-principles
Source: The Daily Economy
by Caleb S Fuller & Scott Burns
“Trade isn’t complicated. People around the world work to produce things for one another — and protectionism makes that cooperation harder.” (10/02/26)
https://thedailyeconomy.org/article/keep-the-case-for-free-trade-simple/
Source: American Greatness
by Thaddeus G McCotter
“Like Germany’s center-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU), America’s center-left Democrat Party faces a challenge from its extreme flank. Unlike the CDU, which has abandoned its past strategy and adopted one of confrontation, the Democrat Party is sticking with its strategy of co-option (not fusion) with the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA). But will the Democrat Party’s strategy prove any more successful in staving off its possible extinction than the CDU’s? Presently, the Democrat Party has a ringside seat at the continuing struggle between the GOP establishment and President Trump and his MAGA movement, which constitutes a halting attempt at fusion. This occurs when the party establishment and its insurgents, be they internal or external, join together to defeat a common enemy or promote a common position.” (10/03/26)
Source: The UnPopulist
by Gabriel Schoenfeld
“A lesson from the 20th century is that intellectuals sometimes choose to serve monsters. Hitler, Stalin, and Mao all found thinkers willing to sing their praise even as they murdered millions. On the spectrum of evil and death, Donald Trump, a crass, ignorant would-be authoritarian, is not in their league. And yet already, under Trump’s rule, people have died—and already lives are being ruined by the tens of thousands. As all this happens, crankish right-wing intellectuals have been drawn to Trump’s scepter as moths to a flame. A case in point, not exactly a household name but not entirely unimportant, is Chad Pecknold.” (10/02/26)
https://www.theunpopulist.net/p/a-catholic-theologian-signs-up-for
Source: Caitlin Johnstone, Rogue Journalist
by Caitlin Johnstone
“They botched another execution in Tennessee. They stuck the prisoner full of seven different syringes, but she didn’t die. She just experienced extreme suffering, minute after excruciating minute, before eventually losing consciousness. Her name is Christa Pike. As of this writing, she is still alive. Pike committed a horrific violent crime as a young woman after a life of nightmarish abuse. She was physically and sexually abused by her mother’s live-in boyfriend, was raped by a neighbor when she was eleven, and attempted suicide at the age of twelve. And now she is on a respirator in a hospital as doctors fight to save her life, presumably so that the state of Tennessee can try to kill her again. It’s all so absurd. People are so cruel to each other.” (10/03/26)
https://caitlinjohnstone.com.au/2026/10/03/meditations-on-the-botched-execution-of-christa-pike/
Source: Future of Freedom Foundation
by Jacob G Hornberger
“How often were Americans told that if Republicans controlled the presidency and both houses of Congress, they would be able to rein in federal spending and even balance the budget. Well, Republicans now control both houses of Congress and the presidency. They could balance the budget today. Have they done so since they took control after the 2024 elections? Nope. In fact, the Congressional Budget Office projected a $1.9 trillion federal deficit for fiscal year 2026. Same old, same old. American right-wingers and left-wingers like to emphasize their differences, but those differences aren’t fundamental in nature. Their fight is over control of the welfare-warfare state.” (10/02/26)
https://www.fff.org/2026/10/02/should-americans-vote-for-tweedle-dum-or-tweedle-dee/