“On Friday afternoon, Liberty University Law School emailed its first and second-year students about an ‘exciting opportunity to intern with the Department of Labor in DC.’ The available positions covered the full breadth of the DOL’s activities …. For second-year students, the internship ‘could lead to a full-time job offer for after your 2027 graduation.’ One important caveat: only passionate devotees of President Trump would be considered. Students who ‘aligned politically with President Trump’ and were ‘willing to work hard’ were strongly encouraged to apply, even if they had poor grades.” (03/04/26)
“Marco Rubio tries to spin U.S.-Israeli aggression: ‘The bottom line is this: The president determined we were not going to get hit first. … If you tell the president of the United States that if we don’t go first, we’re going to have more people killed and more people injured, the president’s going to go first. That’s what he did. That’s what the president will always do.’ This is Rubio’s attempt at damage control, but this answer is even worse than the one he gave the day before. If the U.S. and Israel hadn’t attacked, U.S. forces weren’t going to get ‘hit’ at all. The president’s threat against Iran was the main reason that American troops were in any danger in the first place.” (03/04/26)
“On March 4, 1801, Thomas Jefferson delivered his inaugural address as our third president. Here is part of what he said: ‘Enlightened by a benign religion, professed, indeed, and practiced in various forms, yet all of them inculcating honesty, truth, temperance, gratitude, and the love of man; acknowledging and adoring an overruling Providence, which by all its dispensations proves that it delights in the happiness of man here and his greater happiness hereafter. With all these blessings, what more is necessary to make us a happy and prosperous people? Still one thing more, fellow citizens: a wise and frugal Government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another, shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned …'” (03/04/26)
“Risk migrated outside traditional banks, but insolvencies and widening credit spreads are raising questions about leverage and liquidity strain system-wide.” (03/04/26)
“On Sunday, a fire broke out at a data center in Dubai belonging to Amazon Web Services. The facility was stuck by an object, likely shrapnel from an Iranian drone intercepted by the United Arab Emirates’ air defenses. The incident, which may mark the first time in history that a major company’s cloud data center was damaged in a war, is emblematic of the unprecedented nature of the conflict now unfolding in the Middle East. Far from just another war in the Persian Gulf, this is the first conflict since the Second World War to directly impact cities and facilities that serve as hubs in the globalized economy.” (03/04/26)
“Benjamin Franklin said it best: ‘There never was a good war, or a bad peace.’ Now that war is again underway — the third attack on Iran in two years — people of healthy human consciousness must pray that the destruction and carnage is limited. Yet the trajectory appears to be grim. Wars often progress in unexpected ways. The Persian Gulf region is a tangled spaghetti plate of interests including economic, religious, cultural, and geopolitical. None of our politicians have proved capable of comprehending those interests and foreseeing the consequences of their elective wars.” (03/04/26)
Source: Common Dreams
by Medea Benjamin & Michelle Ellner
“On International Working Women’s Day in 2025, Cilia Flores, the wife of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, read a poem she wrote highlighting the historic role played by Latin American women in the fight against imperialism: ‘We’re not flowers the wind can pluck, / we’re roots of rebel and loyal land, / we’re grandmothers, mothers, daughters, granddaughters; / we are woman. / Our blood pulses with the Manuelas, / Luisas, Josefas, Juanas, Cecilias, / Apacuanas, Bartolinas, Eulalias, / Martas, Anas Marías, Barbaritas / and so many others who legacy inspires, / commits, and strengthens us / to continue walking and traveling our path. / And in our hands and chests / a light is on that nobody will ever turn off: / love, peace and liberty.’ One year later, she languishes in a cell in New York City, having been dragged out of her room and kidnapped by US forces on the January 3 attack on Venezuela.” (03/04/26)
Source: Foundation for Economic Education
by Deborah Palma
“Brazil finds itself at a historical crossroads that demands a rigorous analysis of its institutional structures. The release of the 2025 Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI), record-breaking data from the Impostômetro, and the persistence of an authoritarian labor framework expose a system of economic asphyxiation and moral erosion. The State, under the pretext of protecting the citizen, in reality hinders their initiative, their property, and their future.” (03/04/26)
“Right-wing criticism of Trump’s war has mostly come from familiar MAGA cranks like Steve Bannon and Tucker Carlson. But it could quickly spiral out of control.” (03/04/26)
