The Nonsense Case Against Birthright Citizenship

Source: Mother Jones
by Pema Levy & Isabela Dias

“Meet the conservative legal minds telling the Supreme Court to side with Trump.” [editor’s note: By definition, a “conservative legal mind” would support birthright citizenship. Birthright citizenship is what the US has always had, and what the US Constitution has unambiguously mandated for the last 150 years. Only “living constitutionalists” (usually calling themselves “progressives”) could hold otherwise – TLK] (03/31/26)

https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2026/03/birthright-citizenship-ilan-wurman-history-amicus-brief/

Thomas L. Knapp

What, We Worry?

Source: Common Sense
by Paul Jacob

“For many decades, U.S. presidents have cited national security as a reason for this or that exercise of power … and spending. Watching CBS’s 60 Minutes two weeks ago, it became painfully obvious that ‘national security’ are simply two words our past leaders spat out when politically convenient and not at all a concept to which they have paid serious attention.” (03/31/26)

https://thisiscommonsense.org/2026/03/31/what-we-worry/

Thomas L. Knapp

China: Regime bans storing cremated remains in empty “bone ash apartments”

Source: BBC News [UK State Media]

“The Chinese government is set to ban people from storing the cremated remains of their loved ones in empty apartments instead of paying for expensive cemetery plots. The new law will put an end to ‘bone ash apartments,’ which have risen in popularity as spaces in cemeteries remain scarce. Low property prices in the country mean that for many, it is more affordable to entomb the ashes of relatives in an empty apartment than pay for funeral costs. The legislation prohibits the use of residential properties ‘specifically for the placement of ashes’ as well as the burial of remains outside of cemeteries and areas where ecological burial is legal. Bone ash apartments are empty properties which are turned into ritual halls by family members of the deceased. Their loved one’s ashes are placed inside and the space turned into an ancestral shrine.” (03/31/26)

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cm25ynex2zxo

Steve Trinward

Private Equity’s Great Escape

Source: The American Prospect
by David Dayen & Maureen Tkacik

“For 14 years, the Abu Dhabi Investment Council (ADIC) remained silent about John Raymond’s woefully underperforming Houston private equity firm Energy & Minerals Group (EMG). The $330 billion sovereign wealth fund’s leadership made no public pronouncements when Raymond, son of the iconic Exxon chief executive who masterminded the merger with Mobil, agreed to invest some $3 billion in the new venture of extravagant fracking mogul Aubrey McClendon, who’d just been forced out of the company he’d founded for looting corporate coffers …. They raised no alarm bells when McClendon and his new company American Energy Partners were sued a few years later for stealing trade secrets, or when the next year he was indicted for orchestrating a vast bid-rigging conspiracy, or when following his spectacular death the day after the indictment by driving 75 miles per hour into an overpass wall, EMG’s investments were themselves set ablaze.” (03/31/26)

https://prospect.org/2026/03/31/apr-2026-magazine-private-equitys-great-escape-continuation-funds-rollup-retirement-abu-dhabi-investment-council-energy-mineral-group/

Steve Trinward

US gasoline hits $4 per gallon, highest since 2022, as Iran war drives up fuel prices

Source: CNBC

“U.S. gasoline prices have surged above $4 per gallon for the first time in more than three years, as the oil supply shock triggered by the Middle East war rapidly drives up costs for families. Prices at the pump hit a nationwide average of $4.018, the highest level since August 2022 when Russia’s war against Ukraine shook energy markets, the travel association AAA said. Gas prices have soared more than 30% since the U.S. and Israel attacked Iran in late February, according to AAA data. … Vice President JD Vance told consumers they face ‘a rough road ahead’ on gas prices in the coming weeks. Vance promised that the spike is temporary and prices will fall after the war has ended.” (03/31/26)

https://www.cnbc.com/2026/03/31/gas-oil-diesel-price-iran-war.html

Thomas L. Knapp