“This Tuesday’s gubernatorial primaryt in Wisconsin may seem like the latest chapter of an internecine fight among Democrats over the philosophical direction of the party. And it is that. But there’s much more on the line as well: The fallout from the Wisconsin election could extend nationally, by making it possible for Trump-allied Republicans to screw with the presidential election results in ways they tried, but failed, to do in 2020. On the line is the Democratic Party of Wisconsin’s decade-and-a-half-long effort to claw its way back to a unified state government, as well as the opportunity to add more safe Democratic House seats to the next congressional map. Beyond that, however, is another hugely consequential prize: the capacity to ensure that the state’s 2028 presidential election results will be properly certified.” (08/09/26)
“They say that the arch of history bends towards progress but as a trans person in the midst of the second decade of the twenty-first century, I find myself torn at the crossroads of an increasingly bewildering age. On the one hand, transgender and gender diverse people in the West have never experienced a greater level of exposure and popular acceptance. On the other hand, these same trans people, my people, have also never faced a greater threat of state sanctioned violence and outright erasure.” (08/09/26)
“Justice Samuel Alito is not done yet. A month after National Public Radio’s Nina Totenberg announced that Sam Alito was retiring (a story NPR later had to retract), the 76-year-old jurist told the Wall Street Journal in an interview, ‘Obviously, I’m here for another term’. Looking at the docket for the coming term, it is easy to see why. Even after overturning Roe v. Wade and other historic opinions, Alito still has unfinished business. An example can be found in two cases involving bans on semiautomatic rifles like the AR-15 that are now awaiting argument in the October term. Many of us have been frustrated by the Court’s failure to address these laws barring AR-15s and other weapons. Just last year, the Supreme Court declined review of such a Maryland law. Alito and Justices Clarence Thomas and Neil Gorsuch indicated that they wanted to hear the case, falling just one vote short of granting certiorari.” (08/10/26)
“Throughout this election cycle, big-money super PACs, like AIPAC affiliate United Democracy Project and Democratic Majority for Israel, have laundered their political spending by transferring millions of dollars to other PACs that run independent expenditure ads in primaries. This way, voters see support for candidates from neutral-sounding groups, often on totally unrelated topics, rather than pro-Israel organizations that have become toxic to Democratic voters. Those secondary PACs have other priorities, of course. BOLD America, which has taken $1.55 million from United Democracy Project this cycle, supports Hispanic candidates. Women Vote, the super PAC affiliated with EMILYs List that has received $650,000 from Democratic Majority for Israel (DMFI) this cycle, backs pro-choice Democratic women. 3.14 Action, which ran into controversy in 2024 as a pass-through for AIPAC donors to support Rep. Maxine Dexter (D-OR), was set up to uplift Democratic scientists and doctors.” (08/10/26)
“Because adherents of a story based on lies do indeed lie (as might be expected) about their motivations and intentions, to others and often even to themselves, this is a struggle that can get very complex and confusing to understand. This confusion is only compounded when we realize that supremacy is a foundational story, which have leaked into our shared cultural mythologies and power structures, so even those of us who hold ourselves opposed to it might still reflect supremacy’s assumptions, without knowing we are doing so. And those of us who have inherited some measure of supremacy’s privileges bear a measure of the shared responsibility for supremacy’s harm, because through those privileges we participate in supremacy, even as we are opposed to supremacy.” (08/09/26)
“Anthony Fauci is now facing intense scrutiny. His diaries, emails, and testimony have raised fundamental questions about what he knew, what he told the public, and how he exercised authority during the pandemic. Many outside academia describe this as his fall from grace, while universities and medical institutions continue to celebrate him as a heroic public servant and scientific authority. That contradiction is the starting point for this essay. Fauci matters not only because of his individual conduct, but because he exposes the institutions that produced, empowered, and continue to protect him.” (08/09/26)
“For much of American history, presidents have steadily accumulated the power to wage war while Congress has gradually surrendered the constitutional authority that the Framers explicitly entrusted to it. This transformation has weakened constitutional checks and balances, expanded executive power beyond its constitutional limits, claimed millions of lives, cost trillions of dollars, and repeatedly drawn the United States into conflicts that had little or nothing to do with defending America. The Constitution is remarkably clear on the question of war. Article I grants Congress — not the president — the power to declare war. The president, under Article II, wages war, but only after Congress has authorized it.” (08/07/26)
“Yes, things cost more than they used to. That’s always the case, but it’s been MORE the case over the last few years. While there are various reasons for that, the biggest one is taxes, and the most pernicious, if not always the largest annual, tax is inflation.” (08/09/26)
“The redistribution of wealth has once again become a central demand of American progressivism. Figures such as Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren argue that extreme concentrations of wealth should not merely be taxed to finance government programs but actively reduced through policies such as annual wealth taxes. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Zohran Mamdani have advanced similar arguments in favor of shifting resources from the wealthy toward public services, income supports, and social programs. Behind these proposals lies a broader moral claim: the state is justified in redistributing concentrations of private wealth for public purposes. The deepest objection to these policies is not economic but political and moral.” (08/07/26)
