Source: Property and Environment Research Center
by McLean Albritton
“More than 50 years after the ESA’s passage, the statute has succeeded in one important respect—99 percent of listed species have avoided extinction. But recovery, the ESA’s ultimate goal, has lagged far behind. Just 3 percent of listed species have recovered. And, according to PERC research, 96% of the recoveries federal agencies predicted have not happened. The sobering recovery numbers are a call to action for reforms to make the law work better.” (09/30/26)
Source: Caitlin Johnstone, Rogue Journalist
by Caitlin Johnstone
“Being forcefully pro-Palestine is the most efficient way to weed all the worst people out of your life. It takes care of them all. Zionists. Islamophobes. Apathetic narcissists. Unthinking herd-minded right wing ideologues. Abuser-enabling ‘both sides’ moral cowards. Emotionally stunted man-babies who turn every challenging conversation into an ‘allow me to play devil’s advocate’ mental exercise to avoid feeling normal human feelings. Leaned-back, too-cool-for-the-current-thing victims of western meta-irony brain rot. It’s like spraying yourself with asshole repellant. Supporting Palestine doesn’t automatically make you a good person; opposing genocide and apartheid is just the basic bare-minimum position we’re all morally obligated to take. But supporting Israel against the Palestinians absolutely does automatically make you a bad person.” (10/01/26)
“On 31 January 2025, just a few days after The Donald took office for his second term and nominated his various cabinet officers, this graphic was published by some MAGA/MAHA types. People worried about the overall state of ‘health care’ (read, the Medical Industrial Complex) in the States, and hoping, praying, even expecting some things to start to improve. Looking back nearly two years, how many of these threats to human health and life have really, REALLY been addressed?” (09/30/26)
“The Trump administration has spent the past two years asserting broad executive powers and privileges with little historical precedent: imposing tariffs, executing mass deportations, deploying the National Guard in American cities, unilaterally halting permitted clean-energy development, sanctioning law firms and universities, firing civil servants and watchdogs, removing foreign heads of state, calling in drone strikes on fishing boats, withholding grants to states and nongovernmental agencies, bending banking rules, brokering critical minerals deals, and speeding up federal contracting, with many of these enriching the president’s family and their circle. Some orders have been brazen and public enough to generate blowback in court. But the infrastructure underlying them has remained in place. In fact, it’s continued to grow through a little-scrutinized mechanism of the federal government: the interagency task force.” (10/01/26)
“Democracy for Tocqueville meant many things, but first and foremost it meant the equalization of social conditions. To say that the world was undergoing a ‘democratic revolution’ was to say that the old hierarchies of power based on birth and ancestral status were dissolving and more undutiful relations were taking their place. He described this visible process of change as the ‘gradual unfurling of equality,’ a slow unraveling of the layers of dogmatic control in human societies, that had progressed over many centuries, ‘surmounting all obstacles, and which is still advancing today amid the ruins it has caused’ in Europe.” (09/30/26)
“For 30 years, the internet has stripped middlemen out of the news business. Classified ads fled to Craigslist, readers fled to search engines and social media, and writers fled to Substack and like platforms. The history of journalism reveals the next step and how to avoid potential pitfalls. As in finance, the disintermediation of journalism has mostly been good for customers, journalists, and the pursuit of Truth. Readers get more solid news, and writers do not have to submit to corporate pressures to say X (yay for vaccines!), or not say Y (yay for Ivermectin!). Disintermediation has a cost, though, and the one- and two-person nano-journalism shops pay it every month.” (09/30/26)
“The recent escalations in Donald Trump’s rhetoric and imagery have reignited intense debate among clinical psychologists and political analysts regarding the mental framework of such leadership. At the core of Trump’s actions is a pattern of grandiosity, characterized by an inflated sense of self-importance and a need for constant admiration. … So how did the United States end up with Donald Trump as its leader? From the perspective of economist Friedrich Hayek and the Austrian School, certain factors create a movement that makes the trade-off for a leader like Trump feel not only rational but necessary.” (09/30/26)
Source: Ludwig von Mises Institute
by Ryan McMaken
“Throughout much of the nineteenth century, and into the twentieth, the American Revolution had often been framed according to the ‘neo-whig’ narrative in which the American Revolution was very non-radical, and represented a sort of conservative revolution which, because of its lack of radicalism, differed from virtually every other revolution in the past several centuries. This narrative was revived and promoted by conservatives in the 1950s who sought, as a Cold War measure, to discourage revolution of all types, and to foster greater support for the American regime. Yet, some historians have argued otherwise, including Rothbard. … Russian historian Aleksandr Fursenko explored the debate over whether or not the new Constitution of 1787 was in line with ‘the Spirit of ‘76’ or if it represented a counterrevolution against the ideology behind the Declaration of Independence.” (09/30/26)
