Source: Ludwig von Mises Institute
by Wanjiru Njoya
“If a judge could rule that state law in one state—or indeed five states—constitutes federal law governing all states, that would also be a recipe for judicial chaos. For example, by Curtis’s reasoning, the Southern states which have now banned abortion would be able to get federal courts to enforce that ban on Massachusetts, a state which permits abortion at any time until birth. One could, following Bass’s own reasoning, argue that the dissenting judges ‘ignored’ the fact that the doctrine of state sovereignty is particularly relevant and important on matters where the law differs between states. Examples abound of matters on which states strongly disagree, and which could similarly test the limits of state sovereignty and the legitimacy of federal intervention.” (09/29/26)
“An update on the campaign to save a political scientist from an authoritarian country from being imprisoned and tortured for attending the Libertarian National Convention.” (09/28/26)
“‘Man will become immeasurably stronger, wiser, and subtler. His body will become more harmonized, his movements more rhythmic, his voice more musical, the forms of life will become dynamically dramatic. The average human type will rise to the heights of an Aristotle, a Goethe, or a Marx. And above these heights, new peaks will rise.’ — Leon Trotsky … Those have got to be among the most idiotic words I have ever read in my life. Any quarter-witted human being, looking at the history of our species, who thinks that man is ‘progressing towards perfection’, that the average ‘human type’ in the future will be an Aristotle, Goethe, or (heaven forbid) a Marx, is … missing something upstairs. And yet, leftists today, in America and around the globe, believe they can bring this ‘perfection’ into existence. … In fact, I see the exact opposite.” (09/29/26)
“Has liberalism run out of steam? After the second election of Donald Trump, it sure felt that way. MAGA was ascendant. A new, muscular, vigorous, cruel energy had taken over America, and it was our task to just adapt ourselves to this fact. Even as resistance to Trump built on the ground, elite liberals felt at sea. Maybe Charlie Kirk was doing politics the right way.” (09/28/26)
“In 1992, Bill Clinton won the presidential election partly on the basis of his campaign’s false accusation that George H. W. Bush had overseen ‘the worst economic performance since the Great Depression’. Or so claimed Clinton’s running mate Al Gore. James Carville, chief campaign adviser to Clinton/Gore, amplified that message with the constant refrain: ‘It’s the economy, stupid!’ That strategy worked for three reasons: First, third-party candidate Ross Perot siphoned off nearly 19 percent of the vote. Most of his supporters would otherwise likely have gone to Bush. Perot allowed Clinton to win with a mere 43 percent of the popular vote, in part by echoing the false narrative of a crushing Bush recession. Second, the brilliant Bush campaign strategist Lee Atwater, who had virtually destroyed the Dukakis campaign in 1988 (remember the tank ad, the Boston Harbor ad, and the Willie Horton ad?) had died in 1991 at the age of 40 from a brain tumor.” (09/29/26)
“The 1998 action thriller Enemy of the State (RIP Gene Hackman) imagined a world in which government surveillance could follow an ordinary citizen almost anywhere, drawing on cameras, communications data, and increasingly sophisticated technology to monitor his movements. What once played as an exaggerated warning about the surveillance state now looks considerably less exotic. Some of today’s most consequential surveillance infrastructure is far less dramatic than the machinery of a Hollywood thriller. Instead of hidden trackers in your buttons and shoes, you instead have cameras mounted on utility poles, quietly recording your every move.” (09/29/26)
Source: Responsible Statecraft
by Sam Fraser & William Hartung
“With Trump’s overall polling numbers cratering, Democrats appear to have a decisive advantage in November’s midterms. Yet this has not translated into a lead in foreign affairs, where polling suggests the two parties are essentially tied. This reality may stem from the fact that, while Democrats have correctly lambasted the president’s actions abroad, the party — and especially its top leadership — has yet to articulate a vision for U.S. foreign policy that reckons with how Trump’s two terms have changed the world and America’s role in it.” (09/28/26)
“As Americans struggle to pay for gas, groceries, and other necessities, Donald Trump has found a new use for their tax dollars: promoting himself and his party in the midterms. In the last week, the Trump administration has spent more than $1.7 million in federal funds to run three ads on TV, including on Fox News during primetime, on a Sunday-morning political show, and on NFL games. The White House calls these videos ‘public service announcements.’ In reality, they’re obvious campaign ads. And Trump, through taxation and unauthorized spending, is forcing Americans to pay for them.” (09/28/26)
“One of the signature public service announcements of my youth was created by the Partnership for a Drug-Free America in 1987. A father finds a stash of pot and confronts his son: ‘Who taught you how to do this stuff?’ ‘You, all right!’ the kid snaps back. ‘I learned it by watching you!’ I am bound by the AP Stylebook to not anthropomorphize artificial intelligence. But I can imagine these very words being uttered by the agents that hacked Hugging Face, or the models that engaged in tens of thousands of incidents of, in the new euphemism of the time, ‘misalignment’. This refers to AI stepping beyond guardrails set up by researchers during both internal and real-world testing.” (09/29/26)
