Source: Caitlin Johnstone, Rogue Journalist
by Caitlin Johnstone
“The New York Times has published a story about a supposed Iranian plot to use chemical weapons which nobody actually believes. Not even the perpetually war-horny New York Times tries to frame this as a real news report, presenting it instead as a subject of tense division inside the Trump White House. … To be clear, not one single person anywhere on earth believes this is true. Israel doesn’t believe it. Washington doesn’t believe it. Nobody reading about it in the New York Times believes it. But we’re hearing about it anyway like it’s a real thing, because too many powerful people want more bombing in Iran.” (11/04/26)
“Congress was not designed to be a parliament where parties vote in lockstep with their party leader in the White House. But that’s how it’s worked for decades. Starting in the 1970s, Congress was quietly revolutionized from within. It was all done in the name of ‘reform,’ but the better word is ‘deform.'” (11/04/26)
“The MAGA movement is fully rooted in the promotion of ignorance and demonization of knowledge. That’s why it’s failing now. That’s why it will fail in the future.” (11/04/260
“‘Pretend I’m on the ballot’, said Trump, as he held rallies across the country. Yes, that’s what many did yesterday – they saw the midterms as a referendum on Trump, and they voted to give him a bloody nose. It was no big mystery what they didn’t like about Trump and his party. As exit polls showed, inflation, gas prices and the cost of living were top of mind. And voters blamed Trump for their unhappy circumstances, drawing a straight line between his policy choices – tariffs and the Iran war – and the tough cost-of-living situation they face. Whiffs of corruption (like the Qatari jet and Trump family deals) and bizarre preoccupations (like the ballroom and reflecting pool) just added to the sense that the president and his party are not focussed on people’s everyday concerns.” (11/04/26)
Source: Foundation for Economic Education
by Jake Scott
“A flurry of recent news from the European Union has put the eurozone economy into the spotlight: amid a background of solid growth in the manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI), the European Central Bank (ECB) has held off another rise in interest rates as inflation sticks at 3.8%, almost double its medium-term target of 2%. On top of this, the president of the ECB, Christine Lagarde, has announced her intention to resign in February 2027, roughly nine months earlier than her tenure is expected to end. There is, evidently, a lot going on in this, but despite the significance of Lagarde’s announcement, the most important is the level of inflation.” (11/04/26)
“While the leadership of the House and Senate is changing, the fundamentals of American politics have not. In all the finger pointing that will ensue over the coming weeks, some things should already be clear. Regardless of where the last ballots fall, the basic principles of American politics remain the same. Voters still respond to the same things they always have. As Republicans look to 2028, they must double down on the basics of campaigning that stand the test of time. 1.) Candidate quality matters. Fielding the better candidate is not optional. … 2.) Results must be felt. A majority is judged by outcomes people can feel, not by legislative talking points. … 3.) Volume is not a strategy. Too much money is spent on strategies with too little value, often in ways that simply annoy voters….” (11/04/26)
“Have Americans gotten the loyalty business all wrong? Are we grasping the ‘second rate’ when we rely on politics to lift us? We are the ones, not politicians, who will build an America we are proud of.” (11/04/26)
“In the wake of the Democratic blowout in Tuesday’s midterms — South Carolina, Kansas, and Texas have gone blue — beware the preachers of holy complexity bent on obfuscating the obvious: President Trump and the GOP broke their pledge of peace, launched an ill-conceived war with Iran, and thus exacerbated an affordability crisis they’d been elected to solve. To be sure, other failures marked the first two years of the Trump administration: the chaotic tariff regime, the grotesque corruption, the performative cruelty of ICE, Trump’s own descent from mere reality-TV vanity to ballroom-obsessed, Neronian caprice. But the Iran war — given both its inflationary effects and galling betrayal of one of Trump’s core pledges — looms largest. The preachers of holy complexity have good reason to avoid this bare truth.” (11/04/26)
