Can ‘America First’ survive Trump’s war-first presidency?

Source: Responsible Statecraft
by Blaise Malley

“In a Thursday address at the GOP midterm convention that exalted President Donald Trump and demeaned his opponents as ‘extremists who openly hate our nation,’ Vice President JD Vance hardly spoke about foreign policy. He did not mention the war in Iran directly, and he only brought up foreign policy as an example of an issue that divides the party’s base. He urged voters not to ‘throw the baby out with the bathwater’ because ‘you happen to disagree with us on a policy issue here or there.’ The acknowledgement of foreign policy as a divisive issue in the MAGA coalition is a stark retreat for Vance, who staked his 2023 endorsement of Trump on the fact that ‘he started no wars despite enormous pressure from his own party and even members of his own administration,’ framing the president’s America First record as a much-needed deviation from decades of bipartisan hawkishness.” (09/11/26)

https://responsiblestatecraft.org/america-first-jd-vance/

Free Talk Live, 09/12/26

Source: Free Talk Live

“Jay discusses giving kids a head start in life by keeping them off of tablets and teaching them skills :: Dave Ridley came out with an audiobook :: Caller lost use of legs after meth-related car accident and gained a new meaning for his life :: 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center caused by the FBI :: TSA and Flock have killed the fourth amendment :: Correcting your citizenship status to take your rights back from the feds :: Lindsay Clancy, should her drs be accountable? :: Jury rights and red flag laws :: Just asking questions about the Holocaust :: Riley got 5% of the vote in his state rep run :: SignalTrace, new business like Flock :: Green language the language of synchronicity :: They don’t listen to the constitution anyway :: VT has fewer people than NH but more homeless :: 2026-09-12 Hosts: Bonnie, Jay Noone, Riley O’Bill.” (09/12/26)

https://soundcloud.com/freetalklive/ftl2026-09-12

Osama Bin Laden Won

Source: The Intercept
by Nick Turse

“Bin Laden’s plan was to trap the U.S. in expensive, foreign quagmire wars that would trigger a domestic economic collapse. It was patterned on the strategy that the local mujahideen, he and other foreign fighters, and the U.S. and its allies had used to defeat the Soviet Union in Afghanistan. Not only does bin Laden’s strategy continue apace long after his 2011 death, but it also spawned an even more effective means of destroying America from within. Bin Laden’s attacks turned the U.S. government into an engine for the destruction of America, inducing it to implement policies that have devastated the country and immiserated its people.” (09/11/26)

https://theintercept.com/2026/09/11/bin-laden-september-11-trump-america/

No, We’re Not Having The “It’s Not Genocide” Conversation Anymore

Source: Caitlin Johnstone, Rogue Journalist
by Caitlin Johnstone

“It’s so undignified how Zionists keep trying to resurrect the ‘stop calling it a genocide’ conversation about Gaza when every relevant human rights group on earth says that’s exactly what it is. The latest effort to revive this long-dead debate comes in the form of a letter signed by 5,000 high-profile Israel supporters like Anti-Defamation League CEO Jonathan Greenblatt, Zionist megadonor Haim Saban, and neoconservative war criminal Elliott Abrams. ‘We the undersigned are outraged and sickened by the latest blood libel to be inflicted on the Jewish people: the lie that Israel committed ‘genocide’ in Gaza. We reject this accusation with contempt,’ the letter says, followed by the usual mountains of hasbara verbiage.” (09/12/26)

https://caitlinjohnstone.com.au/2026/09/12/no-were-not-having-the-its-not-genocide-conversation-anymore/

Judge boots Trump ‘loyalty’ question from civil service job applications

Source: Washington Times

“A federal judge issued a stay forbidding the administration from asking those seeking jobs in the federal government to say how they would help carry out presidential executive orders, in what some saw as a test of ‘loyalty’ to President Trump. U.S. District Judge George A. O’Toole Jr., a Clinton appointee to the court in Massachusetts, sided with labor unions that argued asking the question was an unconstitutional politicization of federal jobs. The question, the third in a series of four essay questions, was added to the hiring process last year in response to a Trump executive order. It asked applicants to say how they would advance such orders and to name one or two in particular. ‘The plaintiffs are likely to succeed in showing that Question Three is neither related to an important government interest nor narrowly tailored to promote that interest,’ the judge wrote.” (09/12/26)

https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2026/sep/12/judge-boots-trump-loyalty-question-civil-service-job-applications/

Unfair Gains?

Source: Foundation for Economic Education
by Mark Nayler

“After another summer of heatwaves and wildfires, Spain is petitioning the EU to create a climate adaptation fund. In a letter sent to the EU’s climate commissioner Wopke Hoekstra, the Spanish minister for the ecological transition Sara Aagesen Muñoz said that Europe needs a blanket strategy to help its member states cope with climate change, and to mobilize the ‘resources needed to deliver the necessary investments.’ The mobilizing strategy favored by Muñoz is a permanent windfall tax on energy companies, many of which have cashed in on higher gas and oil prices resulting from the wars in Ukraine and Iran. … The fairness of windfall taxes, of course, is one of the most questionable things about them. As the Portuguese finance ministry said when introducing its windfall levy, the elevated profits of oil and gas providers this year have resulted ‘solely from external market conditions.’ So why punish them?” (09/11/26)

https://fee.org/articles/unfair-gains/

Applying liberal arts learning in a changing world

Source: Christian Science Monitor
by staff

“New and returning students have been flocking to college campuses across the United States this month. And, at several institutions – such as Brandeis University, just outside Boston – they are encountering a higher education reinvention that’s rapidly picking up pace: the concept of ‘applied’ humanities or interdisciplinary and skills-focused liberal arts learning. For Brandeis and similar institutions, changing demographics (fewer college-age students overall) and budget shortfalls are an immediate impetus for this shift. But underlying such pragmatic considerations is also a growing willingness within higher education to better align with the needs of a changing society and economy. And that signals both humility and introspection – qualities integral to the humanities, which prize curiosity and the willingness to change and expand thinking and reasoning. ‘Higher ed shouldn’t be an ivory tower concept,’ according to Sonya Christian, chancellor of the California Community Colleges system, the nation’s largest.” (09/11/26)

https://www.csmonitor.com/Editorials/the-monitors-view/2026/0911/Applying-liberal-arts-learning-in-a-changing-world

Canada: Boycott of US products pushes grocers to adapt, explore new supply sources

Source: Reuters

“A growing consumer push to buy Canadian and boycott U.S. products is reshaping supermarket shelves in Canada, forcing grocers to improve country-of-origin labeling and secure new sources of supply. In Ontario, the ​president of independent grocer Vince’s Market, Giancarlo Trimarchi, turned to Facebook to show customers that most produce on the shelves of his stores is Canadian after receiving angry emails ‌and comments about the grocer stocking U.S. produce. A bitter trade war between the United States and Canada has made consumers more conscious of where their dollars go. ‘Buy Canadian’ movements started last year after U.S. President Donald Trump imposed tariffs on Canadian goods. They have intensified in recent weeks after trade talks broke down and Trump signed an executive order to change the name of to Lake America.” (09/12/26)

https://www.reuters.com/business/retail-consumer/canadian-boycott-us-products-pushes-grocers-adapt-explore-new-supply-sources-2026-09-12/