“One criticism of House Republicans is that they haven’t really done much with their majority. The Wall Street Journal notes that House Republican leadership has canceled 63 voting days since the beginning of the 119th Congress. Congress really hasn’t done much to address the issues that are at the forefront of voters’ minds, such as affordability, inflation, and the economy. During an interview on Newsmax 2 with Family Research Council’s Tony Perkins, Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) tried to deflect the criticism, claiming that the House has been on a record pace in terms of passing legislation. … Johnson’s version of events is almost comically self-congratulatory. It’s campaign rhetoric, and it’s disingenuous.” (09/21/26)
“About 4,000 people in America die every year while waiting for kidney transplants. More than 95,000 currently need regular dialysis to stay alive while waiting for transplants. The average person who needs a kidney must endure the discomfort and restrictions of dialysis for three to five years during the wait. Most countries have organ-donation systems like America’s—and long waitlists. Iran, by contrast, legalized payment to kidney donors in 1988; within 11 years the country eliminated its waitlist. Payment compensates donors for their time, pain, and risk; it also increases the supply of willing donors.” (09/21/26)
“President Trump, speaking at the Republicans’ midterm convention, pledged that if Republicans maintained control of the Congress in the November election every adult American will receive 5,000 dollars from the government. … Some commentators have expressed outrage over President Trump’s attempt to bribe voters. These commentators have tended to ignore the fact that, since the rise of the welfare-warfare-regulatory state, most political campaigns are little more than legalized bribery.” (09/21/26)
Source: Ludwig von Mises Institute
by George Ford Smith
“You might want to hire someone to paint your house, but the painters need your permission first. For most people, consent precedes action. In the world of ‘government as we know it,’ an invaluable Robert Higgs expression, the exact opposite is often the case, especially when the action desired implies a disastrous change to American life. Ever wonder why false flags are so dear to government’s heart?” (09/21/26)
“In a necessary and unquestionably correct decision, the U.S. Supreme Court last week declined to let President Trump throw the midterm elections into chaos with his scheme to use the U.S. Postal Service to interfere with mail-in voting. The ruling should have been unanimous. … The court’s MAGA maximalists seem to be operating under the principle that anything that interferes with Trump’s authoritarian whims is a violation of the Constitution. Fortunately, in this case, even Trump justices who helped invent king-like immunity for the president recognized that the attempt to force new election rules on the states — especially this close to an election — was a recipe for disaster.” (09/21/26)
Source: Independent Institute
by Daniel Sánchez-Piñol
“President Donald Trump’s worldview essentially consists of dividing countries into two camps: those whose leaders flatter him or kowtow to his demands and those whose leaders balk at such subservience. In this view, dictatorships—even avowed enemies of the United States—are fine, as long as they play the game. This is not new in American politics. It echoes the famous quote attributed to Franklin D. Roosevelt about Nicaragua’s military dictator, Anastasio Somoza Garcia, who ruled the country from 1936 until 1956 (when he was assassinated): ‘He may be a son of a b****, but he’s our son of a b****.’ True to this maxim, Trump turned his back on Venezuela’s democratic majority, led by Nobel Peace Prize winner Maria Corina Machado, and recently signed the so-called biggest oil deal in world history with leftist Delcy Rodriguez, who was put in power after the U.S. captured and removed Nicolas Maduro in January.” (09/21/26)
“The standoff over Washington’s iconic Kennedy Center underscores the current place of the arts in America in ways that are both symbolic and substantive. On Tuesday, the complex formally known as the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts formally closed to the public. The move followed President Donald Trump’s monthslong effort to rename and remake the center in his vision, which disrupted norms and expectations around political, artistic, and cultural touchstones. Like most buildings that are several decades old, the center needs repairs and updates. Mr. Trump says his star power would attract the needed millions – but will only be exerted if he receives recognition. If not, the president threatened Wednesday, the complex could be ‘ripped down’.” (09/18/26)
Source: Foundation for Economic Education
by Cláudia Ascensão Nunes
“As discussions unfold over the EU’s proposed ‘associate membership’ for Canada, Prime Minister Mark Carney has repeatedly stressed his desire for an economic and geopolitical partnership that preserves national sovereignty. This alliance serves the mutual interests of both the European Union and Canada by reducing strategic dependence on major third-party trading partners, particularly the United States and China. The paradox is that the core economic instrument designed to unite Canada and the EU, the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA), remains without full ratification by 10 EU national parliaments, nearly a decade after entering into provisional application. Rather than dismissing the concerns of these 10 member states as blind protectionism, one must understand that Brussels’s excessive regulations created the conditions for this impasse.” (09/21/26)
Source: ProSocial Libertarians
by Andrew Jason Cohen
“I recently heard Chiara Cordelli, a political theorist at the University of Chicago, on a podcast, talking about her article ‘What is the Wrong of Capitalism?’ (APSR 2025). Cordelli says that the real problem with capitalism is its impersonality. Her thinking seems to be that because there is noone running the system, there can’t be any democratic control over the system—no one to take direction from the demos. Given that, she seems to think, we can’t but be alienated from the system—because it is not a person with whom we could connect. Cordelli’s description of the capitalist system seems spot on (at least in this regard). Her view that this is something to bemoan is, in my view, a mistake. What she sees as problem, I see as the real benefit of capitalism.” (09/21/26)
Source: Caitlin Johnstone, Rogue Journalist
by Caitlin Johnstone
“The fashionable thing to say these days is that everything’s fucked and we are headed to our doom, and that if anything changes it will be because the insanity of our capitalist system causes our material conditions to deteriorate so drastically that we are forced into revolution to survive. That things are bad because we’re a rotten people with selfish hearts who haven’t forced the revolutionary changes the world needs because, deep down, we actually like things the way they are. People who want to look cool and smart in revolutionary political circles tend to say that if a mass-scale transformation of human consciousness were going to happen, it would have happened by now.” (09/20/26)
