Source: Liberal Currents
by John Banks
“‘Civilizationist’ thinking, once confined to the radical fringe and the manifestos of mass killers, has moved to the center of American foreign policy.” (08/17/26)
https://www.liberalcurrents.com/the-schoool-shooter-civilization/
Source: Niskanen Center
“Richard Nixon’s elusive totality, with Lee Huebner.” (08/17/26)
https://www.niskanencenter.org/richard-nixons-elusive-totality-with-lee-huebner
Source: Big Head Press
by Scott Bieser
Cartoon. (08/17/26)
Source: Jonathan Turley
by Jonathan Turley
“Below is my column in The Hill on the familiar bust-and-boom cycle of socialism, where failure is used to call for even more radical changes. While House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries this week reaffirmed that Democratic Socialists are part of the Democratic Party, radical figures are demonstrating how extreme this agenda is for some. For example, Socialist State Assemblywoman Emily Gallagher has declared that stealing should be legal for those in need. If socialism takes hold in New York, many will indeed need five-finger discounts in the Big Apple. From New York to California, the American left is proving that nothing succeeds like failure. In areas ranging from immigration to taxes to health care, politicians are playing to their past fiascos to push an even more radical agenda. Take immigration.” (08/17/26)
https://jonathanturley.org/2026/08/17/for-the-american-left-nothing-succeeds-as-much-as-failure/
Source: Newsday
“A Russian court on Monday convicted a prominent opposition politician for speaking out against the war in Ukraine and sentenced him to 11 years and one month in prison in the latest crackdown leading up to next month’s parliamentary election. The verdict against Lev Shlosberg, a senior member of the Yabloko party, was another step by the Kremlin to stifle dissent since Russia invaded its neighbor in February 2022. Yabloko is the only official political party overtly opposing the war. Shlosberg, 63, is Yabloko’s deputy chairman and served in the regional legislature of Pskov from 2016-21. He stood trial in the city of Pskov, some 600 kilometers (370 miles) northwest of Moscow, on charges of ‘discrediting’ and spreading ‘false information’ about the Russian military.” [editor’s note: Yabloko briefly BECAME the only “official party” opposing the war last month after the Libertarian Party was banned, and was barred from ballots itself earlier this month – TLK] (08/17/26)
https://www.newsday.com/news/nation/russia-ukraine-shlosberg-crackdown-election-yabloko-war-x47119
Source: Law & Liberty
by Thomas Savidge
“It’s fine to oppose property taxes, but without binding rules, the state will go on helping itself to taxpayer money.” (08/17/26)
Source: The Daily Economy
by Stephen Lewarne
“When the Fed withholds information, markets don’t stop searching — they simply reward those with privileged access.” (08/17/26)
https://thedailyeconomy.org/article/the-price-of-fed-silence/
Source: Caitlin Johnstone
by Caitlin Johnstone
“Life in the 2020s comes with so much dissonance and dysphoria because everyone knows this civilization is doomed, but it’s not being acknowledged by any of our mainstream institutions. We can all see everything getting worse and worse before our eyes in real time, but our government officials don’t talk about it. Our mass media outlets don’t report on it. Our education systems don’t recognize it. There’s a giant elephant in the room with us at all times, and normal people are acutely aware of it, but the talking heads keep speaking as though everything’s going to keep ticking along normally into the foreseeable future. We can all see the summers heating up. We can all see that there are fewer insects and less wildlife around than when we were young. We can all see that the western empire is on borrowed time.” (08/17/26)
Source: Reuters
“Rebuffing President Donald Trump for a second time, the U.S. Supreme Court declined on Monday to hear his appeal of a $5 million verdict in favor of E. Jean Carroll after a jury found him liable for sexually abusing and defaming the former magazine columnist. The justices rejected Trump’s request to reconsider their previous decision in June denying his appeal of the 2023 jury verdict stemming from allegations that he raped her in the 1990s in a Manhattan department store’s dressing room. Trump’s lawyers contend that the trial was unfair. The Supreme Court is also weighing the Republican president’s appeal of a separate $83.3 million jury verdict for defaming Carroll in 2019 during his first term as president, when he denied the claims and asserted that she lied about the accusations. Trump’s lawyers in that appeal argue that presidential immunity shields him from Carroll’s claims and that lower courts wrongly decided that he had forfeited that defense.” (08/17/26)
Source: Everyday Samurai
“Not Civil War.” (08/17/26)