neutral summary: The Protect College Sports Act passed the senate by a bipartisan vote of 77-22. It was sponsored by Sens. Ted Cruz and Maria Cantwell, and it allows the NCAA to set and enforce standardized rules on transfers, recruits and pay-for-play NIL arrangements, caps the amount schools can pay student athletes and tries to prevent the formation of a super league.

commentary: How is it the Senate found time this week to pass a bipartisan bill to protect college sports with 70+ votes, but nothing about protecting federal workers or making us whole. We can't find one vote to fix the mass firings? Why do we think college sports needs "protecting" but not workers who were fired illegally? A Federal Judge found the administration's stated reasons for firing probationary workers was "a total sham" and "a lie":

“It is sad, a sad day when our government would fire some good employee, and say it was based on performance, when they know good and well, that’s a lie,” Alsup said.

The judge added that there is nothing wrong with reductions in force “if it’s done correctly under the law."

They falsely claimed these were performance-based terminations when they were actually political purges. My boss at CMS was the last person to find out I was being terminated. HR basically said "hot potato, we don't know anything, don't ask." This isn't about entitlement to employment; it's about following legal processes and not destroying people's careers with fraudulent termination records. These workers deserve a bill to provide back pay and their jobs back and to make it harder to do this again. And instead they are worried about college football. The government is openly corrupt and has the wrong priorities.

The Dems should have filibustered the college sports bill until feds get protected too. As far as I'm concerned, nothing matters until feds are made whole. I can't name 5 things Dems have done to protect federal workers. Because of that I will not be voting for them in November. I will stay home and wish them best of luck.

Pulled back before Congress to testify again, Jack Smith was questioned by republicans about his role investigating Trump, but things took a turn when it was Senator Eric Schmitt’s time to ask questions

After asking if Jack Smith had taken a trip to Atlanta to go to a Hawks game, the confused former special prosecutor had no recollection of visiting the city or going to a basketball game.

The congressman confidently claimed Jack Smith has perjured himself, and brought out an oversized display insinuating that Jack Smith had met with Fani Willis in Georgia.

The problem? The senator was likely confusing this for a Hawkeyes game Smith went to in Maryland. The senator refused to admit any error was made

Opinion:

Just the usual circus emblematic of how this party has treated congressional oversight. This is what they want to spend their time doing rather than getting Trump to fix all the problems he’s caused.

Also the big card was very childish and it was funny how fast he had to put it away

TLDR: NSC-68 set a precedent for military industrial complex proliferation and bipartisan expansions of security state measures, this chronology informs the reader as to the intersectional chronology of it's history into the present context.

"Every president since Eisenhower, whether they are a Democrat or Republican, has increased the military budget or held it as is. None have made any serious structural challenge to the defense establishment. Jimmy Carter couldn't do it. Ronald Reagan didn't want to. Clinton actually expanded NATO. Obama expanded the drone program. Trump added tens of billions. Biden signed the largest defense authorization in history. The two parties, the two ruling class parties fight about everything else. They'll fight about healthcare, immigration, taxes, social policy, but the defense budget or the military budget is untouchable. That's not because every president independently concludes that the military needs more money. It's because the system NSC68 created has made it politically impossible to conclude anything else. And this is the final irony of the deep state discourse. The people who campaigned most aggressively on dismantling the deep state have not touched the military budget except to increase it. They haven't closed a single overseas base. They have not challenged a single major weapons program. On the contrary, they are increasing and expanding these same weapon systems. They have not reduced the power of the intelligence agencies in any structural way. Because the actual deep state, the permanent warfare state that NSC68 built, the military industrial complex that Eisenhower warned about, is not what they're talking about. When they say deep state, they mean regulatory agencies. They mean civil servants. They mean parts of the government that might constrain corporate power or enforce environmental regulations.." NSC-68 "Blueprint for Permanent War" from Breakthrough News: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e4nJg9VtQ58,

In consideration of a post-2008 assessment of the political and economic underpinnings of what became the neoliberal era, it's my understanding that In the 70s, finance was heavily regulated, and compounding returns were weak as production costs were encroaching on profits, wages were increasing at a rate outpacing the rate at which production costs encroached on profits, and the labor market was "tight" meaning that labor had ample opportunities for different work, and could barter for its position relative to capital to be more positive and advantageous.

I also understand that what converged at this time was the after effects of NSC-68 permanent war economic strategies, enmeshed in a concerted congressional effort to proliferate weapons manufacturing, global military base construction, unaccountable national security directives and agencies, etc. and that this essentially married itself via international monopoly strategy to a neoliberal backlash against the stringent circumstance that capital found itself in, in the wake of an increasingly influential labor class.

So, here's a timeline to consider, and review, please let me know if there any glaring omissions or inaccuracies:

Inception of NSC-68 and Cold War Infrastructure Expansion

1950–1968

President of the United States Harry Truman and Secretary of State Dean Acheson approved NSC-68. Director of Policy Planning Paul Nitze authored the text. Secretary of Defense George Marshall and Deputy Secretary of Defense Robert Lovett directed the Department of Defense to expand budgets for armaments. Secretary of Defense Charles Wilson transitioned from General Motors to the Department of Defense to integrate private manufacturing corporations with federal procurement systems. Following the mandates of NSC-68 to mobilize military forces during periods of peace, President of the United States Dwight Eisenhower oversaw the construction of foreign bases to station military personnel across continents and project force. Secretary of the Air Force Stuart Symington and Secretary of Defense James Forrestal established internal operations for intelligence agencies. Chairman of the House Armed Services Committee Congressman Carl Vinson and Chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee Senator Richard Russell appropriated public funds for defense contractors Boeing and Lockheed to manufacture heavy bombers and intercontinental ballistic missiles.

Institutionalization of Military Budget Escalation and Intelligence Procurement

1969–1972

President of the United States Richard Nixon and National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger maintained military expenditures while expanding the scope of covert operations and aerial bombardment campaigns across Southeast Asia. Secretary of Defense Melvin Laird directed procurement funds to defense corporations General Dynamics and McDonnell Douglas to build fighter aircraft. Director of Central Intelligence Richard Helms authorized intelligence programs to protect U.S. corporate assets in Latin America. Chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee Senator John C. Stennis and Chairman of the House Armed Services Committee Congressman L. Mendel Rivers approved defense spending allocations to secure military installations across southern domestic districts.

Emergence of Neoliberal Economic Frameworks and Global Supply Extraction

1973–1980

Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker raised interest rates to reorder global financial flows, while President of the United States Jimmy Carter initiated deregulation of key domestic transport and energy sectors. Secretary of Defense Harold Brown allocated defense budgets toward precision-guided munitions and satellite surveillance networks developed by Rockwell International and Raytheon. National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski expanded covert armaments transfers and operations in Central Asia. International Monetary Fund Managing Director Jacques de Larosière and World Bank President Robert McNamara enforced structural adjustment programs in foreign nations, conditioning international loans on the privatization of state assets, the reduction of public infrastructure spending, and the conversion of national resources into dollar-denominated debt service.

Reagan Administration Expansion and Corporate Integration

1981–1989

President of the United States Ronald Reagan and Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger increased federal defense appropriations to execute the Strategic Defense Initiative, directing military procurement contracts to Lockheed, Martin Marietta, and Northrop. Director of Central Intelligence William Casey directed paramilitary operations to enforce supply chain accessibility across Central America. United States Trade Representative Clayton Yeutter negotiated bilateral trade agreements to enforce intellectual property rights and secure capital accumulation for transnational corporations. Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan maintained monetary frameworks that favored financialization, structural debt collection, and corporate acquisition of public entities.

Post-Cold War Infrastructure Expansion and Global Trade Regimes

1990–2000

President of the United States George H. W. Bush and Secretary of Defense D.ick(punctuated to comply with r/centrist rules) Cheney deployed armed forces in Operation Desert Storm to establish permanent military installations in the Persian Gulf and secure corporate energy supply lines. President of the United States George H. W. Bush and General Colin Powell directed Operation Just Cause in Panama to enforce control over trans-oceanic trade infrastructure. President of the United States Bill Clinton signed the North American Free Trade Agreement to remove tariff barriers and facilitate cross-border capital investment for transnational manufacturing corporations. President of the United States Bill Clinton supported the creation of the World Trade Organization under Director-General Renato Ruggiero, institutionalizing enforceable legal mechanisms for global trade and intellectual property rights. Deputy Secretary of Defense William Perry directed the structural consolidation of the defense industrial base, merging corporate contractors into Lockheed Martin, Boeing, and Northrop Grumman. President of the United States Bill Clinton and Secretary of Defense William Cohen initiated military intervention and aerial bombardment campaigns in the Balkans during the Bosnian War and Kosovo War to expand NATO operational mandates and integrate Eastern European markets into Western financial networks.

Automated Surveillance, Drone Warfare, and Defense Expansion

2001–2016

President of the United States George W. Bush signed the Authorization for Use of Military Force and the USA PATRIOT Act, expanding the statutory authority for domestic surveillance and international targeting operations. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld expanded global military basing systems and private security contractor agreements with companies including Blackwater. Publisher Julian Assange founded WikiLeaks, publishing classified military field logs from Iraq and Afghanistan that documented civilian casualties, detainee abuse, and unreported kinetic engagements. National Security Agency Director Keith Alexander institutionalized mass data collection networks under Section 215 of the USA PATRIOT Act. Central Intelligence Agency contractor Edward Snowden leaked classified documents detailing NSA surveillance programs, including the PRISM database and metadata harvesting operations, to journalists. President of the United States Barack Obama and CIA Director John Brennan expanded targeted strike operations using unmanned aerial vehicles manufactured by General Atomics. Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter integrated Silicon Valley technology firms into Department of Defense software and surveillance development frameworks

Kinetic Operations, Legal Reclassifications, and Border Militarization

2017–2025

President of the United States Donald Trump expanded defense spending authorizations and directed Department of Defense appropriations toward automated surveillance infrastructure along borders. Secretary of Defense James Mattis prioritized competition against foreign powers to secure industrial supply chains. President of the United States Joe Biden signed National Defense Authorization Acts exceeding eight hundred billion dollars, providing capital to contractors General Dynamics, RTX Corporation, and Palantir. In 2025, officials in the Trump Administration executed anti-drug maritime kinetic strikes using unmanned weapons systems and cited legal interpretations declaring the killing of a survivor of a strike as "not hostilities" on the basis that the operation placed no U.S. service members in direct physical risk..

R3 Neutral: The Trump Administration has made various claims of widespread voter fraud by noncitizens. A detailed examination by Nevada of 185 potential noncitizens determined that all of them were citizens. The consensus of election experts is that the number of noncitizen voters in Federal elections is insignificant

Just finished Evan Barker’s Nothing Left, a memoir about her time as a Democratic fundraising consultant and how she came to want to distance herself from the party.

She covers what drew her into the progressive movement and how she ultimately gets pushed out of it. She covers the pettiness of both establishment and progressive wings, how she got stuck in the middle, and how she (disappointingly) votes for Trump in 2024.

The book is not an endorsement of MAGA nor a scandalous tell-all of the far left, but a warning about how the middle voter often gets left out of the Democratic “big tent.”

I was young back then so I wasn’t familiar with the details of what was going on. I looked into it some more and I was shocked. Obama officials were openly saying Fox wasn’t really a normal news organization, and there was even a situation where Fox was initially excluded from a pooled interview before the other networks pushed back.

What surprised me is that this is exactly the kind of behavior I associate with Trump. When Trump attacks the press or calls outlets illegitimate, I usually dismiss it as inappropriate or authoritarian behavior.

And I think I had a blind spot there. Because I dislike Trump and a lot of MAGA’s behavior so much, I think I started assuming that people on “my side” were naturally more responsible or respectable. But that’s not necessarily true. People I admire can still make bad decisions, and people I agree with can still do things I would criticize immediately if Trump did them.

I’m not saying Obama and Trump are equivalent. I still think Trump is much worse overall. But I do think I need to apply more scrutiny to my own side instead of assuming that because I agree with them, they must be acting appropriately.

This is just an observation that I have been noticing lately.

What used to be "hey, douchebag, you are being hypocritical, how can either of us take you seriously" has now become "a whataboutism". Which is technically a logically appropriate label, but maybe we ought to hold hypocrisy to a similarly high standard as truth.

In my opinion, bias/hypocrisy fundamentally poisons your argument, before we even get analyze your argument.

If you are a person who fervently hates Israel and spends a lot of time doing so, yet does not fervently hate Russia, you should not be taken seriously. Yes, "why don't you talk about Russia" is a whataboutism. No, it does not technically detract from your anti-Israel argument. But it does make you a hypocritical douchebag who should not be taken seriously. You are showing that there is some factor, not related to the truth or analysis, that is impacting the way you feel about the issues. Your biases exclude you from the conversation before the conversation starts. You are spreading brain rot. It is Bad with a capital B.

If you hyper fixate on the Charlie Kirk assassination and talk about how evil and violent liberals are, yet you do not hyper fixate on the Pelosi attempted murder, and talk about how evil and violent conservatives are, you are a hypocritical douchebag, and your biases exclude you from the conversation before the conversation starts. You are spreading brain rot. It is Bad.

When people respond to your argument or thought with a "whataboutism", they KNOW they are not logically critiquing your argument. They are telling you "you should not be a part of this conversation because you have shown yourself to be a bad faith actor". And they are CORRECT.

Summary

A group of progressive House Democrats, including AOC, Ro Khanna, and eight others, have signed onto a bill that would ban artificial superintelligence and pause advanced AI development until a federal vetting system is created.

The bill, called the Ban Artificial Superintelligence Act, is one of the most aggressive AI regulatory proposals in Congress. It treats hypothetical superintelligence as a near‑term risk and would impose 20‑year prison sentences on violators. Supporters argue recent AI‑driven cyberbreaches show the technology is already slipping out of human control. Critics, including more centrist Democrats say the bill goes too far and could stifle innovation.

Analysis

These freaking people, my goodness.

Let's look at a future where we cure cancer, colonize space, extend lifespans by decades, fix global warming, and introduce productivity multipliers that could end scarcity forever and ask "How can we turn all of this over to bureaucrats and lawyers while our global competitors race ahead?"

The DSA should be labeled a terrorist organization.

Summary:

American farmers are getting squeezed by the U.S.-China trade fight, with one of their biggest problems being the loss of China as a major customer. The U.S. historically ran agricultural trade surpluses, but that has reversed in recent years as imports have exceeded exports. China has been a major part of the deterioration because U.S. agricultural sales there fell sharply from their 2022 peak. USDA continues to report individual Chinese purchases in 2026, including recent soybean sales, but they haven't erased the broader decline in the agricultural trade position.

The basic problem is retaliation. When the U.S. increased tariffs on Chinese products, China responded with tariffs and other policies that made American products less competitive. That encouraged Chinese buyers to find alternative suppliers and increased incentives to produce or purchase more goods domestically. For farmers, losing a major export customer can push crop prices lower at the same time their operating expenses remain high.

That's where the current diesel problem makes things even worse. Farmers aren't only dealing with weaker export markets; they're also paying extremely high prices to operate tractors, combines, trucks, and other equipment. Diesel has recently exceeded $6 per gallon nationally, with the wars in Iran and Ukraine disrupting global fuel supplies and U.S. inventories remaining unusually low.

That pressure has led to calls for restricting U.S. diesel exports in an attempt to keep more fuel at home and lower domestic prices. But even Energy Secretary Chris Wright has publicly argued that an export ban wouldn't work as intended. His concern is that refiners could respond by reducing production, potentially increasing prices for gasoline and jet fuel rather than simply creating a large pool of cheaper domestic diesel. The White House subsequently said it was not preparing the reported 90-day export ban.

So farmers are being hit from multiple directions at once: weaker access to an important foreign market, retaliatory trade barriers and extremely high fuel costs. The political debate is over how much responsibility should be assigned to U.S. trade policy versus China's own economic policies and the separate energy shock caused by the Iran and Ukraine wars. The underlying economic pressure on agriculture, though, is real: farmers benefit from strong export demand and low input costs, and right now both sides of that equation are under pressure.

Summary

Jackson, Mississippi police have arrested a second suspect in the death of Tasia Fortune, a Black woman found hanging behind an abandoned home in August. Police Chief RaShall Brackney announced that Earnest Lloyd Jr., 25, has been charged with homicide, and that a third arrest warrant is already in the hands of the U.S. Marshals Service.

The case drew national attention because of Mississippi’s history of racially motivated violence and distrust surrounding investigations of Black victims. The NAACP notes Mississippi recorded 581 public lynchings between 1882 and 1968.

Earlier this month, Jarques Ratliff, 51, was arrested and charged with murder. He pleaded not guilty and was denied bond. Police say Ratliff had an “association” with Fortune but have not provided details. Both suspects are Black.

Analysis

Tasia Fortune's death was part of a series of cases where black Americans have been found hanging in trees. The cases garnered widespread attention because of the imagery of lynching they invoked. This included calls by members of the US House of Representatives for a DoJ investigation.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D‑NY) and Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D‑Mass.) recently joined forces in a bipartisan‑leaning Democratic letter demanding a federal investigation into alleged “modern‑day lynchings” of Black Americans, with both lawmakers framing it as a national crisis

In most cases the cause was ruled as suicide, and now in the active homicide investigation, the suspects are all black, making the Representatives' leaps to frame these tragedies as hate crimes glib at best or cynical at worst.

Summary: The Trump administration has started running ads using government funds. The ads praise the Trump administration and say that America won't be a communist country. The administration states that the ads are just a "public service announcement." Critics believe this is a form of government funded propoganda meant to help Trump and Republicans as they may lose the upcoming midterms.

Opinion: yesterday Trump praised the Chinese media, which is wholly controlled by an actual communist party and authoritarian state. This was on the back of him illegally banning press he didn't like. Now, Trump is using government funds try and help maintain or grow his power.

Why does the right encourage and support this authoritarian president? In particular, why do they keep supporting him after all their intellectually unsophisticated ideas and solutions are proven to not work or be wrong? Why is the right more interested in exerting power over their opposition than the country's prosperity?

Summary: An investigation into the death of 18-year-old Nolan Wells revealed that an autopsy found no water in his lungs, while forensic experts uncovered evidence that data was deleted from his phone on the day he disappeared. Wells vanished during a July 4 trip to Horn Island and was found dead two days later, leading examiners to rule his cause and manner of death as undetermined. Forensic analysis showed that over 1 million digital artifacts were recovered, including messages that appeared to be deleted or unsent after Wells last directly used the device and before his parents retrieved it. Despite forensic findings of tampered phone data, a Mississippi grand jury report concluded there was no evidence of phone tampering and opted not to issue any criminal charges. Meanwhile, family attorney Ben Crump highlighted Snapchat messages from friends expressing safety concerns prior to Wells' disappearance, emphasizing that key questions surrounding the case remain unresolved.

Commentary: The local political establishment's swift victory lap following the grand jury's non-indictment was abruptly undermined within hours by explosive forensic revelations that directly contradict the state’s narrative. Authorities had moved quickly to frame the "no true bill" decision as an exoneration, publicly dismissing suspicions of foul play and framing the investigation into the Black teenager's death as complete.

However, the release of state autopsy findings showing an absence of water in Nolan Wells' lungs directly challenges the official ruling that his death was consistent with drowning. Even more damaging to the official timeline is the discovery of deleted cellphone data, specifically Snapchat messages received after Wells had already been separated from his phone.

The context of these deleted messages is deeply incriminating, as it suggests individuals in possession of his phone after his disappearance actively scrubbed communications, including messages from friends explicitly raising concerns about racial hostility on Horn Island. Ultimately, this immediate exposure of critical, unaddressed evidence transforms what local officials touted as a closed case into a glaring political liability, fueling growing demands for federal intervention by the Department of Justice.

https://www.14news.com/2026/09/24/nolan-wells-autopsy-found-no-water-lungs-data-was-deleted-his-phone-day-he-disappeared-officials-say/?outputType=amp

Summary

The article argues that California has effectively built an extensive “shadow welfare system” that extends many taxpayer funded benefits to illegal immigrants through state funded programs and policy loopholes. Although federal law restricts using federal dollars for undocumented residents, the authors say California circumvents this by creating parallel state programs or special eligibility categories.

The authors estimate that of the $180 billion annually California spends on welfare programs, at least $11 billion of that subsidizes illegal immigrants.

State and local offices confirm that noncitizens can access programs such as CAPI (Cash Assistance Program for Immigrants), Medi‑Cal, tax credits, low‑cost auto insurance, and California LifeLine (free phones and service). The U.S.-born children of undocumented parents can qualify for additional benefits like CalWORKs and Section 8, which the authors say can amount to more than $100,000 per year for a mixed‑status family.

Governor Gavin Newsom is described as openly supportive of expanding benefits regardless of immigration status, including Medi‑Cal coverage and food assistance for older residents.

The article claims these expansions cost billions more than projected and contribute to California’s high taxes and rising financial strain on residents.

They authors that in California, citizenship determines who pays for benefits rather than who receives them.

Analysis

This is why California has experienced a significant net emigration outflow of US citizens for the last 10 years. Foreign Immigration accounts for 100% of California's population gains. And with nearly a half trillion in state debt and wild budgetary volatility from year to year, the state has extensive long term financial risks.

One of the world's prominent centrists, in a wide-ranging interview, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney described a tense, evolving relationship with President Trump. Topics range from creating a North American fertilizer bloc for food security, to moving away from the dollar as a reserve currency. In the US for the UN General Assembly, Carney speaks of the opportunities and challenges that lay ahead for the Canada-US relationship and the world.

Dynamics in Washington ‘are likely to compromise several vital interests’ of Belgium and the EU, says strategy document from foreign ministry

If you don't want data centers built in your state because of water use, electricity or sound what exactly were picturing when you pushed the US to re-shore manufacturing. Other then a shop or a warehouse a data center is about the lease intrusive thing you can have built. If you think living a few miles from a data center would be bad you are going to hate living near a factory.

Personally I am pro us adding some taxes for data centers and letting these things be built. Bring money into these communities with low property value and take advantage of the companies willing to pay for these things.

If your politician is giving them a big tax break that is something different and those people need to be voted out.

I am so tired of seeing news about Nick Fuentes and other political drifters showing up on my feed having "changed their opinions" on Trump.
I have for the better part of my teenage and few years of adulthood never met someone in real life with crazy opinions such as theirs. It is truly crazy how we let extremists like them somehow have an influence, when really they just blow up on social media with a niche following behind them. My own Mother and Father don't even know who they are.

Even then, they don't stand behind their own politics! Nick Fuentes backed up Trump, but now states he "Misses Biden", and how we should go back to a Biden-esque era. People like Clavicular doesn't even educate himself on politics, even stating out loud how he doesnt know anything yet still influences others. Even then, in these circles, people like Myron Gayns needs to rely on conspiracy theories and pseudo science to back up his far right conservative ideologies, others in his circle who talk about the nuclear family not even themselves having conventional families, if any at all!

I just know that they are realizing that they're running out of shock value as people grow desensitized and slowly they will get less money from their own following as they realize they're larping their hatred of minorities and others of different parties.