“First it was New York’s unlovely Mayor Mamdani Trump did the great honor of visiting at Gracie Mansion on Monday. Then on Wednesday the president rolled out the literal red carpet for another Communist dictator, President Xi Jinping of China. Donald Trump and the first lady warmly greeted Xi and his wife, Peng Liyuan, when they alighted from their plane at Joint Base Andrews and strolled together companionably down the red carpet as a 21-gun salute sounded, followed by the national anthems of both nations. … Despite Trump’s elaborate courtesies toward Xi, he clearly has no illusions about China’s mal-intent as it seeks to dislodge America’s geopolitical primacy.” (09/24/26)
“Galileo got called a heretic for suggesting that the Earth wasn’t the center of the universe. Semmelweis was treated like a madman for insisting that doctors wash their hands before attending births. Researchers Barry Marshall and Robin Warren said that the bacterium Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) causes most cases of gastritis and peptic ulcers and people thought they were nutjobs. Those nutjobs eventually revolutionized gastroenterology and won a Nobel Prize in Medicine. In each case, the problem wasn’t the science; it was the people defending consensus like it was holy Scripture, punishing anyone who dared question it. Fast forward to today: the same instinct survives, repackaged in social media posts, think pieces, and snarky tweets.” (09/24/26)
“The ‘President’ of Iran spoke at the United Nations General Assembly this week, and I remember thinking to myself, ‘Now would be a pretty good time for an air raid.’ I’m joking, of course, at least mostly. But it is a testament to the worthlessness of the United Nations that a bunch of world leaders who oppress and murder large chunks of their population get to saunter onto some very expensive real estate and complain, without consequence, about the country hosting them. Honestly, if there had been an air raid that leveled that ugly building on the East River, would you miss it? The obvious answer is no, you would not. Rather than bomb it, however, the United States should simply treat it the way the rest of the world does: don’t pay for it, don’t waste our time with it, and mostly involve ourselves as the country that vetoes everything bad.” (09/24/26)
“In 1776, agents of the Crown could raid a newspaper’s offices for publishing critical commentary about the royal regime. The Stamp Act was imposed to smother America’s nascent free press in the cradle. Authorities in London charged publishers sympathetic to the rebels under Britain’s seditious libel laws. Perhaps the jilted King George can find some relief from beyond the grave. Two and a half centuries after the American Revolution, the colonists—one colonist in particular—are finally coming home to the monarchical tradition.” (09/24/26)
Source: Libertarian Institute
by Joseph Solis-Mullen
“When President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping met in Beijing this past May, the outcome was largely as anticipated: ceremonial pomp, a handful of commercial commitments, rhetorical emphasis on ‘stability,’ and little progress on the structural frictions that actually define the relationship. Trump invited Xi for a reciprocal state visit, and that visit is now underway. Xi arrived in the Washington area on Wednesday evening for a tightly choreographed program of White House ceremonies, closed-door talks, a state dinner, and a brief National Archives tour before departing Friday. The script remains familiar. The underlying reality is unchanged.” (09/24/26)
‘Candidates in tight midterm races are trying to distance themselves from the president and his Middle East mess, citing — you guessed it — the economy.” (09/24/26)
“A Peruvian man threatened with removal to the Central African Republic is safe for now after an appeals court reiterated late Wednesday night that its decision last week overturning the Trump administration’s third-country removal policy was effective immediately. But hours after that decision came down, flight data shows an ICE charter jet landed in two known third-country removal ‘host’ countries in Africa, while another appeared to be heading toward the continent, raising the possibility that other immigrants may have been or are about to be removed unlawfully. The Peruvian man, identified in court filings as ‘John Doe,’ has judicial protections from deportation to Peru and has been held in ICE custody in Massachusetts since July, one of his attorneys previously told the Prospect.” (09/24/26)
