Source: Christian Science Monitor
by staff

“In countries with eroding democracies, many people have watched Hungary over the past three months make rapid reforms under a new prime minister, Péter Magyar. In April, he and his center-right Tisza party won a landslide election victory that ousted Viktor Orbán. The pro-Russia conservative leader ruled for 20 years in total, leaving a web of corrupt cronyism in highly compromised state institutions. Mr. Magyar’s reforms have so far required a nuanced distinction between seeking personal retribution for the closest supporters of Mr. Orbán and merely holding them accountable for misdeeds. ‘One thing we … cannot do,’ said András Baka, a former head of the Supreme Court who took over the largely ceremonial position of president this month, is ‘build the new Hungary on revenge.’ ne liberal newspaper, HVG, noted that Mr. Magyar’s supporters are ‘noticeably impatient’ and that ‘their demand for accountability is by no means free from a desire for revenge’.” (08/24/26)

https://www.csmonitor.com/Editorials/the-monitors-view/2026/0824/Repair-not-revenge-in-post-autocratic-Hungary

Source: Common Sense
by Paul Jacob

“We are told that we have no expectation of privacy on public roads. But is a Flock of a.i.-backed cameras the kind of thing we want spying on us, tracking our every move? While we say that ‘it’s only a conspiracy if they do it in secret,’ what is it when the people who seek to destroy the last vestiges of our privacy demand their own privacy even as they plot against us?” (08/25/26)

https://thisiscommonsense.org/2026/08/25/goose-gander-flock/

Source: Jonathan Turley
by Jonathan Turley

“I recently wrote about Hasan Piker leading a hatefest in San Francisco with thousands mocking the death of Charlie Kirk. He is now being condemned for a livestream statement suggesting that American Jews are asking to be attacked if they continue to support Israel. On the Aug. 20 livestream, Mr. Piker declared: ‘If Jews in America keep putting this idea out there that they are singularly invested in Israel, eventually someone’s going to come around and take action, not against the state of Israel — mind you — but against American Jews.’ The veiled threat was just the latest shocking statement from Piker, who has said that America deserved 9-11 and displays a picture of the attack on his wall during podcasts.” (08/25/26)

https://jonathanturley.org/2026/08/25/hasan-piker-american-jews-are-asking-for-attacks-on-them-by-supporting-israel/

Source: The Daily Economy
by Per Bylund

“A full refund may balance an airline’s books, but it doesn’t make a stranded passenger whole. The difference illustrates one of economics’ most important insights: value is subjective.” (08/25/26)

https://thedailyeconomy.org/article/the-airline-guide-to-subjective-value/

Source: The Progressive
by Bill Blum

“There is no bigger con man in the United States than Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts. Not even President Donald J. Trump. The con began in September 2005, during Roberts’s confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee. Articulate, handsome, and energetic at 50 years old, Roberts seemed to have been culled ‘straight from central casting’ …. Roberts was also convincing—he famously promised that if confirmed, he would serve in the fashion of a baseball umpire, calling only ‘balls and strikes, and not to pitch or bat’. Seventy-eight senators, including 22 Democrats, fell for the ploy and voted to give him the lifetime assignment. The biggest yarn Roberts told during his hearing concerned his views on the Voting Rights Act of 1965 (VRA), a cornerstone of American democracy, which the Supreme Court gutted this past April in a redistricting case from the state of Louisiana (Louisiana v. Callais).” (08/25/26)

https://progressive.org/magazine/the-long-con-of-john-roberts-blum-20260821/