Source: USA Today
by Jonathan Turley

“Across the country, a chilling shift is occurring. Political violence has become a twisted form of virtue signaling. Mahatma Gandhi is out and Luigi Mangione is in. For an increasing number of young people, nothing signals your values like a willingness to kill others for them. For decades, being nonviolent has been the touchstone for many on the left. Something is changing. On my campus and others around the country, students are rationalizing violence and even idolizing assassins.” (09/10/26)

https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2026/09/10/charlie-kirk-die-political-violence-acceptable/91658823007/

Source: Karl Dickey’s Freedom Vanguard
by Karl Dickey

“Anyone who thought Donald Trump was a fiscal conservative may want to reassess after his most recent promise he made during his Dallas trip earlier this week. At the September 9, 2026 Republican Midterm Convention in Dallas, President Trump offered $5,000 to every adult American citizen if the Republicans keep power in the U.S. House and Senate from the November 2026 midterm elections. Trump’s promise, like many, lacks reality. He’s like every other politician buying votes, something Republicans accuse Democrats of doing frequently. And the math of his promise should scare all Americans, as Trump exposed his disdain for financial conservatism. With around 240 million adult American citizens, Trump’s ‘dividend’ would amount to around $1.2 trillion, when we are already running a deficit of TWO TRILLION DOLLARS a year.” (09/10/26)

https://palmbeachexaminer.substack.com/p/trump-floats-buying-votes-to-secure

Source: Christian Science Monitor
by staff

“What just happened? As the Monitor’s Mark Sappenfield reported Tuesday, that’s what Germans are asking themselves after a far-right party won nearly 44% of the vote in a state election this week. The Alternative for Germany (AfD) has been viewed as an extremist threat to democracy by the government in Berlin, and a tacit ‘firewall’ among centrist parties has excluded it from local or regional governing coalitions. Yet, with its euroskeptic, anti-immigration platform, the AfD is now just three seats short of a governing majority in the state of Saxony-Anhalt, and has 28% support among German voters nationally. The follow-up question for Germany, and Europe more broadly, is: What happens next? Or perhaps, what should happen next? The continued rise of right-wing populism across the 27-member European Union is placing new demands on traditional centrist and liberal political leaders.” (09/09/26)

https://www.csmonitor.com/Editorials/the-monitors-view/2026/0909/In-Germany-a-call-to-create-a-compelling-vision-for-democracy

Source: Expression
by Sarah McLaughlin

“Many of the free speech fights today rest on the question: How do we protect kids online? But some of the battles over what can be said or shared on the internet are about protecting a remarkably less vulnerable — and significantly more powerful — group from so-called harm: public officials. One such case is in Australia, where top bureaucrat body the Secretaries Board is asking Parliament to cap politicians’ and parties’ ability to share and criticize clips of testimony from the very officials the board represents.” (09/10/26)

https://expression.fire.org/p/australias-top-bureaucrats-want-protection

Source: Jonathan Turley
by Jonathan Turley

“Will Rogers once observed that ‘Everything is funny, as long as it’s happening to somebody else’ No one ever personified Rogers’ rule as much as University of California, Irvine instructor Matt Goldman, who cracked everyone up this week by joking about celebrating the anniversary of the assassination of Charlie Kirk by alluding to the possible assassination of independent journalist Nick Shirley. Today is the anniversary of the murder of Kirk. In anticipation, Goldman posted a picture of Shirley with the line ‘Someone can do the funniest thing just before the Kirkiversary’. It was a response to an Instagram post by the Harvard Republican Club promoting a speech by Shirley. Goldman reportedly has long found the deaths of disfavored people to be a real knee-slapper, allegedly mocking the deaths of Henry Kissinger and others. Indeed, Goldman takes Gallows humor to a particularly dark place in American politics.” (09/10/26)

https://jonathanturley.org/2026/09/10/the-funniest-thing-academic-jokes-about-celebrating-the-kirkiversary-by-assassinating-nick-shirley/