“California lets interest groups propose measures for the state ballot. Anyone who gathers enough signatures (currently 874,641) can put their hare-brained plans before voters during the next election year. This year, the big story is the 2026 Billionaire Tax Act, a 5% wealth tax on California’s billionaires. … On one level, it’s no surprise that California, a state full of bad socialists, is considering bad socialist policy. But I think this is the wrong perspective. This proposition isn’t being sponsored by some generic group of Piketty-reading leftists. It’s the project of SEIU (Service Employees International Union) a union of mostly healthcare workers.” (03/06/26)
“The Middle East is on fire, the planet on the verge of world war, the Homeland Security director just ousted. It’d hard to pay attention to anything else. Still, if you want to know why news that the FBI has begun to turn over long-concealed ‘prohibited access’ files to Congress might matter, just ask Seymour Hersh. Fifty-two years ago, on December 21, 1974, the famed muckraker printed ‘Huge C.I.A. Operation Reported in U.S. Against Antiwar Forces, Other Dissidents In Nixon Years’ in the New York Times. … These misdeeds were part of a trove of dirty secrets in the CIA’s past that came to be known as the agency’s ‘Family Jewels.’ Some sources Racket spoke with this week recalled the case in conjunction with news about the discovery of a cache of secret files at the FBI.” (03/06/26)
“Donald Trump’s attack on Iran will have many unintended and unforeseen consequences. One consequence even I wasn’t thinking about, but which is already clear after less than a week, is that Trump has made a strong new case for renewable energy. The usual argument for promoting solar and wind power is that relying on renewable energy avoids the environmental damage caused by burning fossil fuels. This environmental damage includes, but isn’t limited to, climate change. In addition, air pollution imposes shockingly large direct and immediate costs by harming our health and reducing our life expectancy.” (03/06/26)
“In his recent comments justifying a preventive war against Iran, President Donald Trump declared, ‘In 1983, Iran’s proxies carried out the Marine barracks bombing in Beirut that killed 241 American military personnel.’ Secretary of War Pete Hegseth has invoked that attack numerous times. The 1983 Beirut barracks attack is one of the most cited and least understood pretexts for the new war with Iran. That bombing was one of President Ronald Reagan’s biggest foreign debacles.” (03/06/26)
“Despite endless obfuscation, sanitizing, and sanewashing from the mainstream media, the debate on if we’re living though a resurgence of fascism is now over. And, honestly, it’s been over for some time. We are. This does not mean that, as many have vaguely assumed, our new reality is a ‘post-liberal’ one. There are still plenty of liberals — more, arguably. The ideology that has utterly failed is conservatism; the center right has ceased to exist across the world, its institutions taken over by fascists, its voters pledging allegiance to a new flag. There are, increasingly, only two teams — a progressive liberal one, and a far-right one, with little in between and everyone else forced to pick a side.” (03/06/26)
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)
