Source: Common Dreams
by Roger D Harris

“In the wake of Washington’s January 3 military attack and then problematic détente with Caracas, corporate media suggest a meaningful shift in Venezuela policy, implying relief for a country long subjected to economic coercion. However, far from dismantling the sanctions regime, the US has merely adjusted its application through licensing mechanisms, leaving the core structure of coercive measures fully intact. Reuters reported, ‘US lifts some Venezuela sanctions,’ followed by news of sanctions being further ‘eased.’ … Not a Single Sanction Has Been Rescinded.” (03/25/26)

https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/venezuela-sanctions-continue

Source: Reason
by JD Tuccille

“The moral argument for not making laws about many — especially victimless — activities is that people have a right to live their own lives so long as they don’t hurt anybody else. That’s a convincing case for those of us who naturally gravitate to a live-and-let-live take on life. But it’s unpersuasive to the growing ranks of those inclined to control freakery in these illiberal times, and who believe the state should step in to control bad things. The strongest rebuttal to the authoritarian case is that people so vigorously disagree as to what constitutes ‘bad’ that efforts to regulate a whole host of activities invite noncompliance. Recent polling provides evidence that Americans disagree on many issues.” (03/25/26)

https://reason.com/2026/03/25/dont-legislate-morality-most-americans-cant-agree-on-whats-immoral/

Source: Libertarian Institute
by Charles Goyette

“‘We’ve won. Let me tell you, we’ve won. You know, you never like to say too early you won. We won. We won the – in the first hour it was over. We won,’ President Donald Trump declared, claiming ‘we won’ five times in just thirteen seconds at a Kentucky rally on March 11. We’ve seen such misbegotten braggadocio before. Six weeks into the elective invasion of Iraq, President George W. Bush starred in a campaign stunt when he landed on the deck of the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier wearing a flight suit. He stood under a ‘Mission Accomplished’ banner ordered up and paid for by White House spinmeisters. It was the ‘end of major combat operations,’ Bush said. Only it wasn’t.” (03/25/26)

https://libertarianinstitute.org/articles/we-did-win-didnt-we

Source: Paul Krugman
by Paul Krugman

“We are now in a global fossil fuel crisis. With oil and liquefied natural gas from the Persian Gulf unable to reach international markets due to Iran’s blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, hydrocarbon prices have been soaring around the world and widespread shortages are emerging. Anyone who thought that the U.S. would be insulated from this dire picture thanks to its large domestic oil production has had a rude awakening: the average retail price of gasoline has risen more than $1 per gallon over the past month, while the price of diesel is up $1.60. But the Trump administration hasn’t allowed these short-run distractions to divert it from its long-run goals: It remains deeply committed to killing renewable energy, especially wind power, and increasing America’s reliance on fossil fuels.” (03/25/26)

https://paulkrugman.substack.com/p/the-war-on-wind-continues

Source: Common Sense
by Paul Jacob

“‘I’ve never been more pleased by ‘losing’ in my life,’ tweeted Jay Bhattacharya. What makes the Director of the National Institutes of Health a ‘loser?’ Well, the doctor (who also serves as current Acting Director of the Centers for Disease Control) has not always served in the federal government. In his days between Trump administrations he’d run afoul of censors on social media. Now he’s jubilant that a major case against censorship has come to a freedom-of-speech conclusion.” (03/25/26)

https://thisiscommonsense.org/2026/03/25/modern-tech-irrelevant/

Source: Liberal Currents
by Denny Carter

“The idea that there are huge swaths of the United States populace who want and need the right wing’s unreality — their alternative reality — is a farce: a gaudy, festering artifice constructed and maintained by a million people who need it to be real for financial, political, and cultural purposes. And it was on full horrifying display during Super Bowl LX in Santa Clara, where Bad Bunny sang his catchy Spanish-language pop tunes at halftime, intermingled with some nonoffensive and rather hopeful political messaging. This was preemptively framed by the American right as an assault on the country itself: a Spanish-speaking Latino man doing Latin music during the nation’s biggest sporting event. During a time of revanchist white supremacy, this would simply not do. … So they fled, as they always do, to an alternative venue: an all-American halftime show hosted by Turning Point USA.” (03/25/26)

https://www.liberalcurrents.com/fakery-is-the-key-to-the-rights-cultural-and-political-dominance/