Source: The American Prospect
by David Dayen

“‘My name is Randy Villegas, and I’m for Medicare for All.’ That was how Villegas, a 31-year-old Democratic candidate for Congress, opened a health care town hall in late August for close to 100 residents, most of them Latino. He was speaking at Salon Juarez, a dance hall that hosts quinceañeras and weddings in a historic section of Bakersfield known as Old Town Kern. Preceding him on stage was Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA), the progressive House member who is flirting with filling the left lane in the 2028 presidential race. Sandy Reding, a president of the California Nurses Association (CNA), one of America’s most left-wing unions, spoke before Khanna. The Working Families Party, which supports progressive populists across the country, had a table along one side. You wouldn’t know that this is one of America’s most hotly contested swing seats.” (09/14/26)

https://prospect.org/2026/09/14/oct-2026-the-new-majority-makers/

Source: Brownstone Institute
by Joseph Varon

“When was the last time your doctor actually examined you? I do not mean when someone checked your blood pressure, copied your medication list, looked at your laboratory results, or listened briefly through a shirt before returning to the computer. I mean examined you. Looked at you. Watched you breathe. Felt your pulse. Looked at your eyes. Examined your neck. Listened carefully to your heart and lungs. Palpated your abdomen. Watched you walk. Noticed the color of your skin, the movement of your hands, the expression on your face, and the thousand other small pieces of information that a human body offers to someone who has learned how to observe it. For most of the history of medicine, this was not an optional ritual performed before ordering the ‘real tests.’ This was medicine. Today, increasingly, it is treated as something quaint, inefficient, or unnecessary.” (09/13/26)

https://brownstone.org/articles/medicine-has-forgotten-how-to-touch-the-patient/

Source: Garrison Center
by Thomas L Knapp

“American law recognizes the right of a jury to acquit a defendant ‘in the teeth of the facts.’ We call it ‘jury nullification’: The jury decides that even though the defendant did X, the law forbidding X is wrong, at least in that case. Prosecutors hate that because they prefer convictions at any cost. Judges hate it, because they like to be in charge and don’t think anyone should be free to ignore their ‘instructions.’ The lone juror in the Clancy case is a flip side of jury nullification. He decided, based on the evidence he’d seen and the testimony he’d heard, that she was guilty, and he wasn’t going to let himself get bullied into saying otherwise. The effect isn’t as broad as acquittal — the prosecutor is free to bring the case again — but it’s the same principle. Jurors get to vote their conclusions and their conscience. Period. That’s important.” (09/13/26)

https://knappster.blogspot.com/2026/09/garrison-center-op-ed-trial-by-jury-in.html

Source: Tenth Amendment Center
by Michael Boldin

“Millions of people today refer to their rights by amendment number, as if they get them from the Bill of Rights. They talk about their ‘2nd Amendment rights,’ but they have it completely backwards. The founders didn’t write the words as a permission slip for the people. They aren’t a ‘gun permit.’ They are a restraining order for government: hands off our natural rights. There is no clearer restraining order than the 2nd Amendment. It doesn’t grant a right. It recognizes one that already exists, and issues a direct command to government.” (09/12/260

https://tenthamendmentcenter.com/2026/09/12/you-dont-have-2nd-amendment-rights-you-just-have-rights/