Source: Washington Post
“Europe promises a life many Americans envy: longer vacations, universal health care, beautiful cities and a slower pace. But those benefits come with trade-offs. Host Megan McArdle looks past the usual America versus Europe arguments to explore what economic indicators reveal about quality of life.” (05/22/26)
https://www.washingtonpost.com/podcasts/impromptu/is-life-better-in-europe-its-not-so-simple-/
Source: The Watch
by Radley Balko
“A Minneapolis prosecutor charges an ICE agent, exposing how DHS shamelessly lied after its officers shot an immigrant, tear gassed two kids, and put a bullet in the wall of a child’s bedroom.” (05/22/26)
https://radleybalko.substack.com/p/your-lying-ice-the-shooting-of-julio
Source: Common Dreams
by John Ripton
“The Democrat’s 2026 midterm electoral strategy remains essentially the same as it was during the melted-down 2024 presidential election: Focus on President Donald Trump’s obvious character flaws and failings rather than highlight the critical issues and offer progressive alternatives. Waiting for Trump to shoot himself in the foot is not a winning campaign strategy. Neither are abstract ideas about defending democracy and saving the nation from autocracy or fascism. Voters want practical approaches to everyday challenges of rising food costs, prohibitively expensive and inadequate health insurance, skyrocketing medical costs, exorbitant childcare and pre-K expenses, and spiraling energy pricing. Since the last quarter of the 20th century, establishment Democrats and their leaders have slid so far to the political right that progressive, populist initiatives are undermined by fear of taxes and debt.” [editor’s note: If this is true, may this be the death knell of that war party wing – SAT] (05/25/26)
Source: South China Morning Post [Hong Kong]
“Pope Leo called for the ‘disarming’ of artificial intelligence in his long-awaited manifesto on the rapidly developing technology on Monday, and warned of “new forms of slavery” behind its rise. The ‘just war’ theory – espoused recently by the Trump administration – was ‘outdated,’ Pope Leo XIV wrote in his first encyclical, which he presented in person at the Vatican, alongside AI experts including the co-founder of US giant Anthropic. The first US pope, who has clashed with the White House over the Iran war and its use of religion to justify conflict, sounded the alarm over AI-directed weaponry, saying it was ‘not permissible to entrust lethal’ decisions to tech.” (05/25/26)
Source: Lions of Liberty
“Trump Dead to Libertarians?” (05/22/26)
https://www.lionsofliberty.com/episodes/politicks-podcast-trump-dead-to-libertarians
Source: Brownstone Institute
by Max Dublin
“For many months now a historic debate about vaccine safety and effectiveness has been unfolding in America’s regulatory agencies and recently the debate has escalated into open partisan warfare. It started on June 9, 2025 when Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. dismissed all 17 sitting members of the Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) and replaced them with his own picks. As one might have expected such a sweeping step was very controversial.” (05/22/26)
https://brownstone.org/articles/inside-the-great-vaccine-debate/
Source: Law & Liberty
by Rachel Lu
“The Cambridge Five offer a harrowing case study in what can happen when a youthful elite hates its own nation.” (05/22/26)
Source: Washington Monthly
by Bill Scher
“New polling shows not so much ideological division among Democrats but a lack of consensus about where the party should go.” (05/22/26)
https://washingtonmonthly.com/2026/05/22/the-democratic-party-is-divided-but-not-how-you-think/
Source: SFGate
“The deal being discussed between the U.S. and Iran fails to achieve any of Israel’s goals for the war, Israel’s opposition leader Yair Lapid said on Monday, as he accused Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of failing to influence a better agreement. Lapid, who is part of an alliance attempting to unseat Netanyahu in elections this year, said details of the emerging deal are ‘disturbing’. ‘The deal is bad for Israel, bad for the region, bad for the citizens of Iran,’ Lapid told reporters in Jerusalem. Israel and the U.S. launched the war on Feb. 28 vowing to destroy Iran’s ballistic missile program, end its support for proxy militant groups across the region and end Iran’s ability to pursue a nuclear bomb. Both Netanyahu and President Donald Trump also said they hoped to create conditions to topple Iran’s government..” (05/25/26)
https://www.sfgate.com/news/world/article/israeli-opposition-leader-lapid-says-trump-s-22275369.php
Source: The Tom Woods Show
“The Trump Assassination Plots: The Unanswered Questions.” (05/22/26)
https://tomwoods.com/ep-2763-the-trump-assassination-plots-the-unanswered-questions/