“Three years ago, Donald Trump referred to himself as ‘the candidate who delivers peace.’ This weekend, his administration bombed Iran. While it may seem unusual, the historical record suggests otherwise, clearly demonstrating that Trump follows a long line of American politicians who spent a lot of time talking about being against wars only to wage them once elected president.” (03/02/26)
“Since 1992, a series of presidents representing both parties have run for office vowing to be peacemakers and to avoid their predecessors’ excesses and mistakes, yet once in office they cannot resist the urge to blow stuff up in faraway lands. Once again, we must ask ourselves the question: Is the United States addicted to war? Until Trump’s second term, one might explain this pattern by examining the hubristic mindset of the bipartisan foreign-policy ‘Blob,’ which saw military force as a useful tool for advancing a global liberal order. But that explanation has trouble explaining Trump’s actions during his second term. Trump still loathes the establishment (aka, the ‘deep state’), blames it for the failures of his first term, has gutted the national security bureaucracy, and appointed a lot of loyal lackeys who will do his bidding to key positions. This latest war can’t be blamed on the Blob.” (03/02/26)
“The once debatable notion that we live in a democratic republic, governed by the Constitution of the United States, has been definitively debunked by the bombing of Tehran. We do not. Under Article I, Section 8, Clause 11 of the U.S. Constitution, Congress holds the exclusive power to formally declare war, ‘ensuring this decision rests with elected representatives rather than a single executive.’ Or so Google’s Artificial Intelligence agent tells me with a straight face. … by all means, let us celebrate the semiquincentennial of our independence by glorying in the irrelevance of the Constitution. If you want to pursue life, liberty, and happiness, don’t pretend that antique parchment has much influence on this administration, the Congress, or the courts.” (03/02/26)
Source: Future of Freedom Foundation
by Jacob G Hornberger
“President Trump’s decision to wage a war of aggression on Iran appears to make no sense at all, especially when considers the array of alternating and shifting reasons that Trump has given to justify his decision to launch this war. … However, there is a another possible explanation as to why Trump and the Pentagon have decided to launch their all-out war of aggression against Iran — a possible explanation that the mainstream press is loathe to consider — one that, interestingly, involves an active partner in this war of aggression — Israel.” (03/02/26)
“The U.S. Senate Special Committee on Aging conducted a hearing on February 26 to investigate why the FDA is holding up the approval of desperately needed new drugs for those with rare diseases. Many of the people suffering with these ailments are children with short life expectancies. Those with Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (DMD), which is progressive muscular deterioration, end up in a wheelchair at about age 11-12, and die in their 20s. Angelina Olivera, the mother of a 14-year-old son who has DMD, who also watched her brothers die at ages 20 and 22 of the disease, told me there is only one promising new treatment for DMD but the FDA won’t approve it for her son Ryu. A study was conducted on 1,200 patients using Elevidys from Sarepta Therapeutics and revealed promising results. The gene therapy slowed disease progression by 70-73 percent compared to untreated children.” (03/02/26)
“Sen. Bill Cassidy, Republican of Louisiana, chairs and is the face of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP). A physician, Cassidy has been a vocal advocate of vaccines and even ran a vaccination campaign in his home state. ‘After seeing patients die from vaccine preventable diseases,’ Cassidy said in a speech, ‘I dedicated much of my time to vaccine research and immunization programs. … Put simply, vaccines save lives.’ He also cast a key vote to confirm Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a fervent anti-vaccine advocate, as HHS secretary last year. It’s not like Cassidy can claim ignorance of Kennedy’s track record. Cassidy and every other Republican who voted for Kennedy had all the information they needed to see that he would be a disaster for public health in the United States, from his decades-long crusade against vaccines to his history of fevered conspiracism.” (03/02/6)
“Amid the unfolding chaos in Mexico following the death of cartel leader Nemesio Oseguera, the Mexican government has worked to hit the cartels where it hurts, including seizing weapons. In a recent press conference, Mexican Defense Secretary Ricardo Trevilla announced that some 18,000 weapons have been seized since President Claudia Sheinbaum took office in October 2024. Of those weapons, nearly 78 percent originated in the United States. In a separate talk, Sheinbaum addressed an even more shocking datapoint — much of the ammunition recovered in Mexico was designed for use by the U.S. military.” (03/02/26)
“I grew up with a vision of a possible instant apocalypse, inspired (if, under the circumstances, such a word can even be used) by the nuclear obliteration of the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki to end World War II. It could happen at any moment, even if you were ‘ducking and covering’ under your school desk, as I did in those years. And I was hardly alone. That was a genuine generational nightmare of the 1950s and early 1960s — the possibility of a nuclear war between my country and the Soviet Union that might devastate my city, New York (or your city, FILL IN THE BLANK), and our world. But in those years what I never could have imagined was that, even without an atomic blast, I might already be living through the extremely slow-motion equivalent of just such an apocalypse, which should, of course, be the definition of climate change.” (03/02/26)
“We’re all familiar with the idea that actions have consequences. Parents teach it to their children as an important part of raising responsible human beings. As adults, we sometimes get harsh reminders of this truth. This principle doesn’t apply just on a personal level. Our justice system imposes consequences on people who break the law or harm others. For a society that is free, fair and just, those consequences must apply to everyone. That’s why ‘equal justice under law’ is carved in stone over the entrance to our Supreme Court. Unfortunately, the Trump regime makes a mockery of that principle, insulating the president, his underlings, his friends and anyone willing to pay his price from the consequences of their lawbreaking.” (03/02/26)
“In thundering attacks on Iran’s government that started Saturday, Israel and the United States appear to have shredded what remains of the liberal, rules-based world order. The head of the United Nations – the pinnacle of that order – called the attacks a threat to international security. Yet as much as that charge might be true, President Donald Trump nonetheless has left open a door to an essential value that has sustained that order for decades. He told the Iranian people in a video that they themselves, not American soldiers with boots on the ground in Iran, must ultimately choose to be free from the regime – one that has denied basic rights, killed dissenters by the thousands, and sown terror abroad. Liberty, in other words, is first a mental commitment.” (03/01/26)
