Source: Liberal Currents
by Hunter CG

“The First American Republic is dead. We currently are in the Magafascist Period, a new system that is still solidifying, but a period that is just one aspect of a much wider Renaissance of Global Fascism. Yet we must not live in despair, as there are clever and brave souls in equal measure still innovating and trying to prefigure the future of democratic politics within and beyond the bounds of magafascism. So let me walk you through the still growing and solidifying concept of Civic Campaigning Politics in 2025 America and abroad. What is Civic Campaigning Politics? CCP is a method of electoral and non-electoral progressive political action that combines direct mutual aid, direct and decentralized communication, centralized and highly data driven mass volunteer electioneering, and the unifying of political and cultural political spheres.” [editor’s note: The “First American Republic” died in 1787, and we’ve been through several other “American Republics” since – TLK] (08/13/25)

https://www.liberalcurrents.com/civic-campaigning-politics-a-muscular-mass-politics-for-our-time/

Source: Reason
by Elizabeth Nolan Brown

“Anti-porn crusaders and squeamish financial companies are coming for kinky gamers. Once upon a time, this unholy collaboration seemed content targeting actual porn (something I wrote a Reason cover story on in 2022, if you want a deep dive). But as all good observers of the war on sex work know, things that start off under the auspices of targeting porn and prostitution — or protecting children from them — end up affecting things tinged with even a hint of sexuality, and sometimes things that aren’t even related to sex at all. Now we seem to have reached a new frontier in this crusade. Not only is content featuring real, human performers being targeted, but payment processors are getting fussy about artwork, animation, and AI-generated imagery, too.” (08/13/25)

https://reason.com/2025/08/13/the-anti-porn-crusade-comes-for-online-games/

Source: Antiwar.com
by Jeffrey D Sachs

“In the view of most of the world, with which I concur, Israel is engaged in mass murder and starvation; you would not have known it from your speech. You failed to acknowledge that Israel has caused the deaths to date of some 18,500 Palestinian children …. You blamed all the mass murder of civilians by Israeli forces on Hamas, even as the world watches video clips every day of Israeli forces killing starving civilians in cold blood as they approach food distribution points. You lamented the starvation of 20 hostages but failed to mention Israel’s starvation of 2 million Palestinians. … Whether your oversights are the result of obtuseness or prevarication, they would be a tragedy for Israel alone were it not for the fact that you attempted to rope me and millions of other Jews into your government’s crimes against humanity.” (08/13/25)

https://original.antiwar.com/jeffrey_sachs/2025/08/12/open-letter-to-israel-foreign-minister-saar/

Source: The Volokh Conspiracy
by Ilya Somin

“[Davis’s] case has multiple flaws as a potential vehicle for the Obergefell issue. Among other things, that question is an appendage to a dubious religious-liberty claim, under which Davis claims that government officials have a First Amendment right to refuse to issue marriage licenses to couples they disapprove of on religious grounds. It’s worth noting, here, that some people have religious objections to interracial marriages and interfaith marriages, among other possibilities. Does a clerk with religious objections have a constitutional right to refuse to issue a marriage license to an interracial couple or to one involving an intermarriage between a Jew and a Christian? The question answers itself. … In the private sector, I think there often is a First Amendment free speech or religious liberty right to refuse to provide services …. Public employees engaged in their official duties are a very different matter.” (08/13/25)

https://reason.com/volokh/2025/08/13/why-the-supreme-court-is-highly-unlikely-to-overturn-obergefell-in-the-kim-davis-case/

Source: Eastern New Mexico News
by Kent McManigal

“Government is an unnecessary evil. Every government, not just the ones you dislike. The governments you are encouraged to hate are no worse than the one you look to for advice on which ones to hate. In fact, they are less harmful to you since they aren’t able to rule or tax you. People who try to justify government often admit it’s evil. Thomas Paine, in his pamphlet Common Sense from 1776, wrote, ‘Government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil; in its worst state, an intolerable one.’ This doesn’t hold water. If something is evil, it’s not necessary, and if it’s necessary, it can’t be evil. It’s like arguing for a square circle. It’s one or the other, and government is always intolerable.” (08/13/25)

https://www.easternnewmexiconews.com/story/2025/08/13/voices/opinion-government-should-become-extinct/231446.html