Quantum Vibe, 08/17/26
Source: Big Head Press
by Scott Bieser
Cartoon. (08/17/26)
Category: Opinion
For the American Left, Nothing Succeeds as Much as Failure
Source: Jonathan Turley
by Jonathan Turley
“Below is my column in The Hill on the familiar bust-and-boom cycle of socialism, where failure is used to call for even more radical changes. While House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries this week reaffirmed that Democratic Socialists are part of the Democratic Party, radical figures are demonstrating how extreme this agenda is for some. For example, Socialist State Assemblywoman Emily Gallagher has declared that stealing should be legal for those in need. If socialism takes hold in New York, many will indeed need five-finger discounts in the Big Apple. From New York to California, the American left is proving that nothing succeeds like failure. In areas ranging from immigration to taxes to health care, politicians are playing to their past fiascos to push an even more radical agenda. Take immigration.” (08/17/26)
https://jonathanturley.org/2026/08/17/for-the-american-left-nothing-succeeds-as-much-as-failure/
Return of the Property Tax Revolt
Source: Law & Liberty
by Thomas Savidge
“It’s fine to oppose property taxes, but without binding rules, the state will go on helping itself to taxpayer money.” (08/17/26)
The Price of Fed Silence
Source: The Daily Economy
by Stephen Lewarne
“When the Fed withholds information, markets don’t stop searching — they simply reward those with privileged access.” (08/17/26)
https://thedailyeconomy.org/article/the-price-of-fed-silence/
We All Know This Civilization Is Doomed, But They Keep Telling Us Everything’s Normal
Source: Caitlin Johnstone
by Caitlin Johnstone
“Life in the 2020s comes with so much dissonance and dysphoria because everyone knows this civilization is doomed, but it’s not being acknowledged by any of our mainstream institutions. We can all see everything getting worse and worse before our eyes in real time, but our government officials don’t talk about it. Our mass media outlets don’t report on it. Our education systems don’t recognize it. There’s a giant elephant in the room with us at all times, and normal people are acutely aware of it, but the talking heads keep speaking as though everything’s going to keep ticking along normally into the foreseeable future. We can all see the summers heating up. We can all see that there are fewer insects and less wildlife around than when we were young. We can all see that the western empire is on borrowed time.” (08/17/26)
What Exactly Is “Narcoterrorism?”
Source: Libertarian Institute
by José Niño
“Credit for the coinage belongs to Peru’s Fernando Belaúnde Terry. Foreign Policy traces his first use to 1982, after Shining Path hit a prison and a police station, when he called what he saw ‘narco-terrorism — the union of the vice of narcotics with the violence of terrorism.’ The SAGE Encyclopedia of Terrorism places the birth year at 1983 instead. The date stays unsettled because the idea underneath never firmed up. Experts remain split over whether the term ‘designates too broad a range of activities to be definitive.’ Elasticity proved to be the feature. … Every fresh narcoterrorism designation narrows the space between a criminal suspect and a lawful target, and it narrows that space inside their own borders first.” (08/17/26)
https://libertarianinstitute.org/articles/what-exactly-is-narcoterrorism/
Medicare-for-all, private insurance for none
Source: Washington Post
by Ramesh Ponnuru
“Americans, for all their complaints about the health care system, generally dread the prospect of Washington disrupting their insurance. Many surveys have found that most people are satisfied with what they have. When Bill Clinton proposed a more government-run system a generation ago, the most potent attack against it was that it threatened that coverage. Barack Obama, having learned from Clinton’s failure to enact his legislation, made ‘if you like your plan, you can keep your plan’ a central promise of his own health policy. The lowest political moment for Obamacare was when that promise didn’t bear out for 4 million people who saw their plans canceled. … Medicare-for-all would impose more radical disruptions on the health care system than any of these earlier proposals and laws.” (08/17/26)
The Iran war has exposed the limits of the US military
Source: Los Angeles Times
by Jon Duffy
“The Trump administration chose this war, launched it without congressional authorization, has repeatedly changed its definition of success and has failed to define an achievable political end. It owns the strategic failure. But bad strategy does not absolve military leaders of responsibility for how military force has been employed.” (08/17/26)
Chaos and the Birth of Order
Source: Brownstone Institute
by Charles Krblich
“Growing up, I never cared for Mathematics. It was too logical, bland, boring, difficult, and when contrasted against the stories, battles, wars, glory, destruction, growth, and exploration that was History, I never gave it a fair chance. So it was one of the little ironies of life, that I came to do Mathematics for a living. Focused study softened the difficulty, and armed with growing knowledge, bland and boring transformed to mildly charming. With new perspective, I discovered what has since become my favorite toy, a Galton Board. The toy is a small window into our experience over the last several years in which our free and independent lives have clashed broadly against arcane, top-down rules conceived by bureaucrats.” (08/17/26)
https://brownstone.org/articles/chaos-and-the-birth-of-order/
Florida needs Byron Donalds to protect the DeSantis legacy
Source: Fox News
by Gianno Caldwell
“When COVID hit in March 2020, I was living in Los Angeles. What I saw there changed the course of my life. It became clear almost immediately that local officials in California weren’t following the science. They were following the politics. Every decision, every mandate, every shutdown got filtered through one lens: how do we use this crisis to fight back against Trump and Republicans? Californians paid for that calculation. Businesses shuttered. Kids lost years of school. Families lost everything they’d built. I watched it happen in real time. Florida went a different way. Governor Ron DeSantis stood firm.” [editor’s note: DeSantis did his best impression of Gavin Newsom and Gretchen Whitmer having a secret love child until he realized Floridians were ignoring and/or laughing at him. Then he did his best impression of Mel Gibson yelling “FREEEEEEDOOOMMMM!” in Braveheart – TLK] (08/17/26)
https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/gianno-caldwell-florida-needs-byron-donalds-protect-desantis-legacy