Source: Reason
by JD Tuccille

“If you need another reason to hope for success from the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) — you probably don’t, but there are plenty to go around — it turns out that efforts by the waste-hunting, government-shrinking (we hope) body may not just save money; it may help make people more honest. That’s because, after decades of increasing flows of federal grants to local governments, there’s strong evidence that the money fuels corruption.” (02/24/25)

https://reason.com/2025/02/24/research-says-big-federal-grants-to-local-governments-breed-corruption/

Source: The Daily Economy
by Vance Ginn

“State governments can reshape welfare to serve as a safety net that helps people when they fall but doesn’t trap them in a cycle of dependence.” (02/24/25)

https://thedailyeconomy.org/article/let-states-lead-the-way-on-welfare-reform/

Source: Common Dreams
by Ralph Nader

“Enough already of the media’s lazy indifference to the vast undercount of the Palestinian death toll from Netanyahu’s genocidal daily bombing and shelling of Gaza’s defenseless civilian population. I’m referring to all the media — the corporate media, the public media, and the independent media. They all stick with the Hamas Ministry of Health’s (MOH) count of named victims whose corpses have been identified by hospitals and mortuaries. For months there have been no operating hospitals and mortuaries to send their grisly data to the Health Ministry. The official Hamas count that all sides like to cite is now over 48,000 deaths. As American doctors back from Gaza before the Rafah closing last year said — just about everybody surviving in Gaza is sick, injured, or dying.” (02/24/25)

https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/real-death-toll-gaza

Source: Quillette
by Ronald W Dworkin

“Donald Trump is often described as an imperialist and an expansionist and these terms are usually used interchangeably. Neither of these descriptions is meant to be flattering, but the larger problem is that they are imprecise.” (02/24/25)

https://quillette.com/2025/02/24/from-imperium-to-expansionism-american-empire-donald-trump-usaid/

Source: Gideon’s Substack
by Noah Millman

“I have been struggling to think of what to say about the absolutely stunning collapse in Ukraine’s diplomatic position, and the larger radical shift in America’s relationship to Europe. Various commentators, including Noah Smith and Francis Fukuyama, have wondered whether, under the leadership of President Donald Trump, the United States has gone from being the leader of the free world to being an enthusiastic member of an authoritarian entente — at a minimum allied with Russia, maximally encompassing China, India, Turkey, India, Israel and the far-right parties of Europe. As I’ve turned things over and over in my mind, though, I think the best way to understand Trump’s move on Ukraine specifically is by thinking of Ukraine not as a cause that we’ve abandoned, but as a business venture that is no longer viable.” (02/24/25)

https://gideons.substack.com/p/strictly-business

Source: Antiwar.com
by Eugene M Chudnovsky

“I was born in a Jewish family in Leningrad – Russia and lived in Kharkiv – Ukraine for 30 years before emigrating to the United States 40 years ago. Back then, the war between Russia and Ukraine was unimaginable. Today, after hundreds of thousands on both sides are dead and memorable places of my youth have been reduced to rubble, I am trying to make sense of it and wonder how it is going to end. … The consequences of poor judgment often become irreversible. The brutality and illegality of Russia’s actions notwithstanding, the prospect that it will give back the annexed Ukrainian lands (now incorporated into the Russian Constitution) is next to none.” [editor’s note: Much of that “annexed” land doesn’t have to be “given back” because Russia doesn’t control it – TLK] (02/24/25)

https://original.antiwar.com/eugene_chudnovsky/2025/02/23/what-are-realistic-expectations-for-peace-in-ukraine/