“The World Health Organization declared an end to the COVID-19 public-health emergency more than three years ago. Its deaths, infections, hospitalizations, and other damage still leave us with a litany of questions about what could have been done better, sooner, or differently. It’s a long list: mask mandates, lockdowns, school closures, stay-at-home orders, curfews, delayed surgeries, etc. Operation Warp Speed, the public-and-private partnership with billions of dollars to bring us a COVID-19 vaccine quickly, never seems to be on it. Rather, the partnership remains hailed as ‘a triumph of public health policy,’ ‘miraculous,’ and ‘a new model for industrial policy.’ … For all the accomplishments of Operation Warp Speed, it was not the first of its kind. In fact, it has an overlooked and largely forgotten predecessor that didn’t require any government partnership at all.” (10/08/26)
“A birth cohort study at Henry Ford followed 18,000 children to compare chronic health outcomes between vaccinated and unvaccinated from birth through long‑term follow‑up. After multivariate adjustment, vaccination exposure showed a higher risk of chronic conditions, including asthma, autoimmune disease, atopic disease, eczema, and neurodevelopmental disorders. By 10 years of follow‑up, 57% of vaccinated children had chronic illness compared with 17% of the unvaccinated. Vaccination was independently associated with a 2.5‑fold increased likelihood of chronic health conditions. Academia chose not to publish the study, citing concerns about career repercussions.” (10/08/26)
“Is one of the world’s most pernicious social stigmas finally lifting? In late September, more than 1,400 young people from nearly 70 countries locked tools at the WorldSkills competition, testing their abilities across 64 crafts, from industrial robotics to culinary techniques. This Olympics-like contest, held in Shanghai this year, has grown in stature and scope over decades. And so, perhaps, has a favorable view of blue-collar work. A survey of the skilled tradespeople pitted against each other for four days found 71% believe the public image of technical and vocational careers has improved. Three-quarters (76%) of respondents say technical and vocational skills are increasingly important to the global economy. Yet just over half had been encouraged by parents or others toward traditional academic paths. In the United States, at least, such advice nowadays makes less sense.” (10/08/26)
“Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) said something out loud this weekend that many in Washington have long understood: Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY), he argued, lives in fear of the far-left wing of his party. Thune pointed to Democrats blocking debate on military funding and a defense authorization bill, as well as resistance around the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. He also recalled the backlash Schumer faced after voting to reopen the government during an earlier shutdown fight. In Thune’s telling, Schumer learned the price of defying his party’s loudest faction and has deferred to it ever since. Thune’s criticism deserves scrutiny. He is a Republican leader making a partisan argument, and his account is not the whole story. But the larger point is difficult to dismiss: Party leaders increasingly govern under threat from their own flanks.” (10/08/26)
Source: Responsible Statecraft
by Wendy Ramadan-Alban
“These continuous calls by ultraconservatives to withdraw from the NPT have yet to produce an actual withdrawal because of a lack of political consensus. Iran has remained in the treaty despite the war, unprecedented economic pressure, and the return of U.N. sanctions. But is continued NPT membership still an asset for Iran?” (10/08/26)
“Republicans always attempt to pin any incident of violence aimed in their direction on liberals, who have done nothing more than point to the objective fact of Trump’s authoritarianism. Republicans, meanwhile, are openly the party of rape and domestic abuse. … The Republican Party is the party of Andrew Tate, of Richard Hanania, and, more than anything, of Donald Trump—a rapist, an open misogynist, and all-around avatar of male supremacism.” (10/08/26)
Source: Libertarian Institute
by Joseph Solis-Mullen
“The underlying drivers were never mysterious. Prime Minister Abiy’s centralizing ambitions, to say nothing of his authoritarian tactics and ethnic chauvinism, have understandably collided with Tigrayan and Amharan demands for security and autonomy. Eritrea, which fought alongside Ethiopian federal forces against the TPLF in the last war, has since turned hostile. Relations between Addis Ababa and its former province turned neighbor deteriorated sharply as Abiy began again to discuss openly Ethiopia’s dire need for cheap and secure Red Sea access – particularly through the Eritrean port of Assab.” (10/08/26)
Source: Philadelphia Inquirer
by Michael J Gerhardt & Michael Stokes Paulsen
“The failure of impeachment to meaningfully check corrupt or tyrannical presidents, because of partisan acquittals, may be the Constitution’s greatest modern failure. It is a betrayal of the principles that inspired the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.” (10/08/26)
