Source: Paul Krugman
by Paul Krugman
“This will be a brief post, with some bad news and some good news. The bad news comes in two parts. First, any hopes that this war might be extremely brief are fading. … Second, war in the middle of the world’s most important oil-producing region — which is also a key source of liquefied natural gas — inevitably has major consequences for energy prices.” (03/04/26)
https://paulkrugman.substack.com/p/reality-sets-in-on-trumps-new-war
Source: CNBC
“Mortgage rates hovered around a four-year low last week, prompting more borrowers to refinance and more potential homebuyers to get off the fence. Total mortgage application volume rose 11% from the previous week, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association’s seasonally adjusted index. Last week, the average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages with conforming loan balances, $832,750 or less, was unchanged from the previous week at 6.09%, with points decreasing to 0.52 from 0.53, including the origination fee, for loans with a 20% down payment. That rate is the lowest since 2022. Last year that rate was 64 basis points higher.” (03/04/26)
https://www.cnbc.com/2026/03/04/weekly-mortgage-demand-surged-11percent-higher-last-week.html
Source: The New Republic
“Trump Blurts Out Damning Iran Admission as MAGA Turns Harshly on Him.” (03/04/26)
https://newrepublic.com/article/207320/trump-blurts-damning-iran-admission-maga-turns-harshly
Source: Responsible Statecraft
by Jack Hunter
“Mega-MAGA might be trying to purge them, but Tucker Carlson and other conservatives have their fingers on the real pulse after this week’s Iran strikes.” (03/04/26)
https://responsiblestatecraft.org/reaction-to-iran-war/
Source: Reason
by Jacob Sullum
“A Supreme Court case illustrates the potential for trans-partisan alliances between critics of gun control and critics of the war on drugs.” (03/04/26)
https://reason.com/2026/03/04/civil-libertarians-left-and-right-unite-to-oppose-disarming-cannabis-consumers/
Source: Fox News
“Eleven-term Veteran Rep. Al Green, D-Texas, and newly minted Rep. Christian Menefee [D-TX] will face off again after neither Democrat captured over 50% of the vote on Tuesday evening in their bids to represent Texas'[s] 18th Congressional District. Under Texas law, if no candidate has captured a majority of the vote, the race will head to a runoff election. On Wednesday, the Associated Press reported that Menefee received 46% of votes and Green 44.2%. Green has served in Congress since 2005, representing the Lone Star State’s 9th Congressional District. This year, because of redistricting changes advanced by Republicans, Green announced he would pursue reelection in the state’s 18th Congressional District, putting him on a collision course with Menefee. Menefee won election to the House of Representatives in a January special election to fill the seat of Rep. Sylvester Turner, who died in office last March.” (03/04/26)
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/house-democrat-who-has-repeatedly-tried-impeach-trump-heads-runoff-election-amid-tight-primary
Source: Mother Jones
“Iran, the US, and the Making of a New Middle East.” (03/04/26)
https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2026/03/iran-middle-east-us-israel-islamic-revolution/
Source: The Daily Economy
by Cláudia Ascensão Nunes
“The law classifies user identities at the operating system level. Once embedded, that regulatory architecture of control is easy to expand and difficult to roll back.” (03/04/26)
https://thedailyeconomy.org/article/californias-age-verification-law-is-a-civil-liberties-test/
Source: Brownstone Institute
by Eyal Shahar
“In my epidemiology coursework, many years ago, I was taught that the smallpox vaccine had eradicated that dreadful disease. It was common knowledge, so I did not question the claim. They did not tell me about favorable time trends in the natural course of other infectious diseases for which there was no vaccine, nor about the correlation of those trends with improved living conditions, sanitation, personal hygiene, and nutrition. The unexplained transition from the severe form of smallpox (variola major) to the mild form (variola minor) in the Western world was not mentioned. All the credit was given to the smallpox vaccine. Of course, no randomized trial of that vaccine was ever conducted. There was, however, a natural experiment in Yugoslavia in 1972—a short-lived outbreak of smallpox with a total of 175 infected people and 35 deaths.” (03/04/26)
https://brownstone.org/articles/covid-of-the-past-smallpox-in-yugoslavia-1972/
Source: The American Prospect
by James Baratta
“Months before overturning the scientific determination behind federal regulation of greenhouse gas emissions, Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lee Zeldin restated his plans for the agency at an auto dealership in Indiana, saying, ‘The Trump EPA is proposing to end 16 years of uncertainty for automakers and American consumers’. The reality is that the Trump EPA has abdicated responsibility for the agency’s quintessential mandate of protecting human health and the environment. The EPA has elected not to contest climate science, instead relying on legal arguments that appear to be tweaked versions of what the Supreme Court rejected in its landmark 2007 ruling in Massachusetts v. EPA. ‘To state the obvious, this White House doesn’t give a damn about clean air or clean water,’ Rep. Sean Casten (D-IL) said in an interview with the Prospect.” (03/04/26)
https://prospect.org/2026/03/04/environmental-protection-agency-climate-endangerment-finding-repeal-trump-zeldin-supreme-court/
