Source: The Atlantic
by Olga Khazan

“When some Taylor Swift fans listened to the lyrics of her 2025 song ‘Wi$h Li$t,’ in which she sings about yearning to ‘settle down’ with ‘a couple kids,’ they heard a Republican dog whistle. On social media, they claimed that Swift’s desire for family life was ‘a conservative agenda on a silver platter.’ Swift, an avowed feminist who has endorsed Democratic political candidates, almost certainly did not set out to make ‘tradwife propaganda.’ But her online critics are getting at something real: Having children—particularly lots of children—has become a bit right-coded, as the kids say. Americans and Europeans who identify as leftist or liberal tend to have fewer children than those who identify as conservative or right-leaning.” (08/20/26)

https://archive.is/Ur53e

Source: Responsible Statecraft
by Stavroula Pabst

“After cutting down the DOT&E to a skeleton crew, the Pentagon now wants to remove 25 years worth of its reports from public view.” (08/20/26)

https://responsiblestatecraft.org/dod-weapons-testing/

Source: Los Angeles Times
by Jackie Calmes

“It wasn’t so many months ago that Democrats were debating about what their winning message should be for capturing control of Congress in November’s midterm elections and finally putting a needed check on President Trump. Should they stay laser-focused on Trump’s culpability for a laggard economy and American families’ affordability crisis? Or spotlight Trump’s overt and corrupt self-enrichment?
The answer, finally, became obvious to the ditherers: Both. Better late than never, the economy and corruption have merged as Democrats’ two-pronged cudgel against Trump. Midterm elections are, after all, a referendum on the president’s performance; the subservient Republicans on the ballot are simply his proxies.” (08/20/26)

https://archive.is/GdrrV

Source: The Bulwark
by Matt McManus

“Disregard the empty allegations of ‘socialism.’ The real problem with postliberalism is its underlying authoritarian vision.” (08/20/26)

https://www.thebulwark.com/p/postliberalism-is-not-about-economic-transformation-socialism-social-conservatism

Source: Common Dreams
by Dr. Rob Stone

“Paul Krugman won the Nobel Prize for Economics in 2008 and must be a smart fellow. He wrote on Substack August 11, ‘The U.S. Healthcare System is Already Mostly Socialized, and there’s nothing radical about wanting to end insurance company parasitism’. Krugman explained that taxpayers currently pay two-thirds of US healthcare costs. It’s not just the costs of Medicare, Medicaid, the Indian Health Service, the VA, and the Affordable Care Act premium subsidies, but also employers deduct their contribution for their employees’ private insurance as a tax-deductible expense, while the employees owe no income tax on the value of employers’ contribution. Maybe that’s a bit wonky, but the point is simple – when we give tax breaks that subsidize heath insurance for employees, then the rest of us taxpayers have to make up the difference.” (08/20/26)

https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/medicare-for-all-2677735164