Source: Garrison Center
by Thomas L Knapp

“Several persons within and around the executive branch of Florida’s government conspired to misappropriate $10 million in taxpayer money, funnel that money through a charity founded by the governor’s wife, give it to Political Action Committees operated by the future state attorney general, and spend it to rig an election. … Courts can expunge reports, but once the truth is out, it stays out.” (10/18/26)

https://thegarrisoncenter.org/archives/20949

Source: Reason
by Eric Boehm

“America’s interminable war with Iran has killed thousands, disrupted commerce that flows through the Strait of Hormuz, and raised prices on the home front. But there may be one silver lining. In an attempt to lower gas prices that spiked because of the war, the Trump administration has repeatedly issued waivers of the Jones Act, a century-old law that requires all goods moved between American ports to be carried on American-built, American-crewed ships. With the law (temporarily) not being enforced, commerce has exploded.” (for publication 11/26)

https://reason.com/2026/10/18/a-world-without-the-jones-act/

Source: Noahpinion
by Noah Smith

“Years ago, I thought it was valuable for me to understand the depth of the human capacity for atrocity, so I made myself look at photos and videos of some of the worst things people had done to each other. So in 2015, I made myself watch the full, unedited video of ISIS burning a man alive in a cage. … I thought of that video when I heard about the Trump administration’s plan to stage a public televised execution by firing squad. … Seemingly swayed by the bad polling, Trump cancelled the idea, declaring that the execution wouldn’t be livestreamed. But the episode has revealed something important about the nature of the men who now rule America. Their values and their worldview are not the same as those of the average American. They are, in many ways, premodern and barbaric.” (10/18/26)

https://www.noahpinion.blog/p/why-are-we-ruled-by-barbarians

Source: American Greatness
by Stu Cvrk

“Failing to prosecute politically connected wrongdoers promptly and with the same severity applied to ordinary citizens emboldens further and more brazen misconduct by the individuals who escape consequence. Furthermore, non-enforcement itself functions as an incentive structure to others contemplating corrupt actions. And a justice system that appears, case after case, to apply one set of rules to the politically connected and another to everyone else breeds cynicism and corrodes public trust in the institutions responsible for enforcing the law. The purpose of this article is to test that well-established pattern against four decades-long case studies plus three additional cases that have matured substantially in the years since the political events that first drew scrutiny. Part I covered Edward Kennedy and the Clintons; this part examines John Kerry, John Brennan, James Comey, Hunter Biden, and the Uranium One case.” (10/16/26)

https://amgreatness.com/2026/10/16/delayed-accountability-in-the-american-political-class-part-two/

Source: Desultory Scribblings
by Tyler Harris

“‘These are the times that try men’s souls’ So wrote Thomas Paine 250 years ago about a long, dark winter when the young nation’s fortunes looked so bleak that many feared it might yet arrive stillborn. Now, the eldest and most celebrated liberal democracy on Earth finds herself again contemplating the grave. Even far on the exurban outskirts of our nation’s capital, a capital now home to the world’s most militarized algae plume, the steady drumbeat of failure wafts out from its source like a relentless, festering wind. It’s enough to make anyone despair.” (10/16/26)

https://tylerjohnharris.substack.com/p/a-long-dark-summer

Source: The Volokh Conspiracy
by Ilya Somin

“Tyranny of the majority is obviously a problem distinctive to democracy. The same goes for rational voter ignorance, which arises from the perverse incentive structure of individual voters, who have only an infinitesimally small chance of influencing electoral outcomes. And, while illiberal forces can and do seize power under authoritarian systems, the pathways democracies (usually involving the electoral process) create for them are distinctive.” (10/17/26)

https://reason.com/volokh/2026/10/17/libertarianism-and-democracy-revisited-a-rejoinder-to-matt-zwolinski/