Source: CounterPunch
by David S D’Amato

“The imperial logic is familiar. Washington successfully weaponized Ukrainian nationalism to weaken a key rival, while bearing minimal direct costs. Hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian and Russian casualties represent losses that are acceptable within U.S. imperial calculus, insofar as Russian power is diminished and U.S. hegemony preserved. The strategy mirrors historical imperial practices of using local populations as hapless cannon fodder in great power struggles, revealing the fundamentally exploitative nature of an American global dominance that masquerades as promoting democracy and human rights. Both the U.S. and Russia fundamentally operate as crime syndicates on a worldwide scale, pursuing power and wealth through violence, threats, and bribery.” (08/19/25)

https://www.counterpunch.org/2025/08/19/the-bloodless-logic-of-empire/

Source: Law & Liberty
by Paul Mueller

“The legacy of entitlement programs from FDR to LBJ has been largely framed in terms of charity, solidarity, and community. Many people on the left, and even some on the right, laud these programs for creating a social safety net and for contributing to the fabric of society. Some have hailed these collectivist programs for reducing poverty. But collectivism is not charity. Nor does it generate true solidarity. Nor does it constitute civil society. It pretends to be and to do all these things. Collectivism wears the mask of charity and camaraderie. Though collectivism always brings tragedy, pointing out past failures doesn’t fully unmask it. It continues to capture people’s imaginations because it feeds their desire to belong and to participate in community.” (08/19/25)

https://lawliberty.org/why-collectivism-is-surging/

Source: Responsible Statecraft
by Gregory Daddis

“Since the end of World War II, Americans crafted and then embraced a rather disjointed relationship with war, exhilarated by its possibilities to transform the world and make them safe, while also fearing wars they could not prevent or, perhaps worse, win. This tension between faith and fear has haunted Americans and led to a persistent failure to align ends and means in carrying out US foreign relations.” (08/19/25)

https://responsiblestatecraft.org/united-states-war/

Source: Common Dreams
by Steven Harper

“US President Donald Trump and Republicans face a daunting challenge: How to preserve power in the wake of their wildly unpopular policies? Their strategy is to intensify the GOP’s decades-long quest to limit voter participation. Selecting the voters likely to cast ballots for them is far better than letting all voters select their leaders. Trump has taken the strategy to a whole new level. And he’s doing it out of fear and desperation. During midterm elections, the president’s party loses seats in Congress. In Trump’s first term, Republicans lost 40 seats in the House in 2018. In 2010, President Barack Obama’s Democrats lost 63. The exceptions are few and far between. In the aftermath of 9/11, President George W. Bush’s GOP gained eight House seats in 2002, but then lost 30 in 2006. In 1998, President Bill Clinton’s Democrats gained five seats, but that didn’t offset the 52 seats that they had lost in 1994.” (08/19/25)

https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/trump-quest-for-power

Source: Common Sense
by Paul Jacob

“While adding more police officers to a peaceful society won’t likely decrease crime much, a violent community is another story. People in these communities need greater safety to live their lives. Without becoming a statistic. Law enforcement that is visible on the street can surely help. But rethinking the meaning of ‘safety’ won’t. So what’s burning? Democratic hopes, maybe. We’ll see how Trump’s move to clean up the capital goes. Yet, if he tries to use the National Guard in other cities without constitutional warrant, that’d go beyond mere policing, into police-state territory.” (08/19/25)

https://thisiscommonsense.org/2025/08/18/rethinking-what-safety-means/