Source: Yascha Mounk
by Yascha Mounk

“Any attempt to understand China, and the challenge it poses to Western values, must start with an honest enumeration of its strengths.” (08/08/25)

https://yaschamounk.substack.com/p/the-case-for-chinas-strength

Source: Common Dreams
by Ralph Nader

“The worst crimes of Donald Trump and dangers to America from the unstable, monomaniacal, lying outlaw in the White House have yet to come. He is not satisfied with tearing apart our country’s social safety net for tens of millions of Americans (e.g., Medicaid and food program cuts); wrecking our scientific/medical systems, including warning people about pandemics. He is, by wrecking FEMA et al, failing to address the impact of mega-storms, wildfires, and droughts; and allowing cybersecurity threats to increase while giving harm-producing big corporations immunities from the law, more subsidies, and more tax escapes. Recall how he always adds to his attacks on powerless people that ‘This is just the beginning’. He just took the next step in his march to madness and mayhem by announcing more concentration camps holding immigrants, arrested without due process, for deportation to foreign countries that want U.S. taxpayer cash for each deportee.” (08/09/25)

https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/trump-attacks-on-democracy-institutions

Source: The Atlantic
by Rogé Karma

“If you read the fine print, the ‘concessions’ from America’s trade partners don’t add up to much.” (08/08/25)

https://archive.is/0eVFm

Source: Law & Liberty
by Reema Jadeja-Reed

“The sheer horror and bleakness of trench warfare is unrivalled. The humanitarian toll of the First World War, which began in August 111 years ago, is staggering, with 10 million military deaths, close to 7 million civilian deaths, and 21 million military personnel wounded. On July 1, 1916, the Battle of the Somme saw the deadliest day in British military history to date, with 57,000 casualties, including 19,240 dead. The Commonwealth War Graves Commission files reveal that 526,816 British and Commonwealth soldiers of WWI have no known resting place. Tragically, 338,955 have never been buried, and 187,861 have unidentified graves. It is hard to fathom the scale of devastation and brutality that could render half a million families bereaved without even a tangible location in which to mourn their dearly departed. How did half a million men die in service of their country, with no known final resting place? What spurred the idea of a single tomb to commemorate these men?” (08/08/25)

Source: The Bleeding Heart Libertarian
by Matt Zwolinski

‘In a recent piece for The Unpopulist, I argued that being anti-state isn’t the same thing as being pro-liberty, and that libertarians should put more weight on the latter. Today I want to follow up by looking at one way anti-statism can go wrong: when the urge to cut government outpaces a plan for how to do it. Suppose you think the state should be much smaller than it is. It doesn’t follow that any cut is good, or that we should just start hacking away with a chainsaw at a stack of programs. The details matter — and they’ve rarely been thought through. Libertarians, classical liberals, and conservatives have all made the case for a smaller state. But what we still lack is a theory of how to shrink it.” (08/08/25)

https://bleedingheartlibertarian.substack.com/p/how-not-to-shrink-the-state

Source: Town Hall
by Derek Hunter

“Democrats have been wetting themselves over the past week about the idea of Texas redistricting their Congressional seats like, well, Democrats have in the states they control. They can’t handle it; they won’t handle it. Honestly, I don’t care. As Democrats flee Texas like roaches when the light is flipped on, let them destroy it all. We had a good run, right? There comes a time when it is simply no longer worth it, doesn’t there? I mean, 249 years is a pretty good run for a republic. They’re usually destroyed by leftists looking to do things with government power long before now. We had a good run. My favorite part of the week is these leftist Democrat Governors coming out and saying how they’re going to consider gerrymandering their states beyond where they are, when doing so would be impossible.” (08/10/25)

https://townhall.com/columnists/derekhunter/2025/08/10/well-249-years-was-a-pretty-good-run-n2661618