By Boyd Cathey
August 8, 2026
There are historical figures whose lives, it seems, are cut far too short, figures who offered hints of significant future contributions to society, which their passing prevented. And always we wonder what might have been if they had lived longer.
In the antebellum Carolinas, on the cusp of the tragic and brutal War Between the States, such a man was the polyglot James Johnston Pettigrew.
By George F. Smith
August 8, 2026
The 16th of November may be considered as the Fourth of July in the economic life of the United States. Coming generations will commemorate it as marking the foundation of our financial emancipation. - libertystreeteconomics.newyorkfed.org
By Drago Bosnic
Infobrics
August 8, 2026
NATO's wider nuclear build-up perfectly fits the Pentagon's "geopolitics of controlled chaos". In practice, that translates into a NATO-occupied Europe that's mainly useful as a springboard for strategic pressure against the Kremlin. The overall nuclear posture keeps moving closer to the point where peace is maintained only by the threat of immediate catastrophe.
By Doug Casey
International Man
August 8, 2026
International Man: The Strategic Petroleum Reserve was created after the 1970s oil shocks to protect the country from severe supply disruptions.
Since the war with Iran began earlier this year, Washington has been tapping it again. Is this exactly what the reserve was designed for-or is it being used to suppress oil prices and postpone the political consequences of the crisis?
By J.B. Shurk
American Thinker
August 8, 2026
Some politically charged words become part of our common vocabulary almost overnight. "Globalism" is a timely example. Ten or fifteen years ago, calling someone a "globalist" didn't have much effect. Today, it is well understood as a pejorative that highlights someone's allegiance to international institutions over those created within a nation state.
By Gary D. Barnett
GaryDBarnett.com
August 8, 2026
All government, of course, is against liberty."
H.L. Mencken
In all of nature, man is the only living thing that purposely seeks rule and abandons self-governance. I see this as entirely foreign, and completely unnatural. This desire to be ruled, to be coddled, to be told how to act, regulated, and restricted is unique to the human animal. Why is it that the only entity known that is supposedly intellectually superior and has the ability to reason, surrenders independence in favor of dominance by a master ? Why is self-responsibility forsaken for a life bound by slavery ? Why do people voluntarily vote to choose their commanding ruler, king, and court?
By Brandon Smith
Alt-Market.us
August 8, 2026
For the past couple of weeks I have been closely tracking the migrant surge in the Spanish enclave of Ceuta and taking notes on the behavior of the extremely liberal Spanish government. One of the most important things to note about the event is that European officials quickly took to the media to admonish the OPTICS of the crisis, but not the migrants.
By Martin Armstrong
Armstrong Economics
August 8, 2026
The latest polling from Europe exposes the hypocrisy behind the entire war campaign. Europeans have been frightened into supporting larger military budgets, common European debt, weapons for Ukraine, and an EU defense structure, but when they are asked whether they would personally pick up a rifle, the enthusiasm suddenly disappears. They support war in theory as long as Ukrainians, professional soldiers, or somebody else's children are forced to die for it.
By Eric Peters
Eric Peters Autos
August 8, 2026
I've read that an effective torture technique is to demoralize the subject. This can be done (as at Abu Ghraib) by stripping the subject naked and (if he is male) having a woman mock him. Or the reverse. There are also subtler ways to demoralize someone. Perhaps the most effective way being to make him feel powerless to do anything about what's being done to him.
By Brandon Campbell
Ultimate-Survival
August 8, 2026
Beneath dying embers of a civilization that believed progress infinite, Dutch ministers unveiled their latest monument to managed decline. "New Energy"-a phrase ringing through The Hague like funeral dirges disguised as lullabies. Presented July twentieth by bureaucrats in The Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate Policy, this summons does not suggest; it commands Dutch citizenry toward futures where abundance becomes heresy, scarcity transforms into virtue.
By Edward Curtin
EdwardCurtin.com
August 8, 2026
Throughout all the news cycles over the years, you can count on a continuity in U.S. government/media propaganda and strategy. Make a time capsule, fill it with today's news, hide it away, and pull it out in five, ten, or fifteen years, and while many details (tactics) will have changed, the underlying themes will remain. Or do it in reverse.
Assuming the world miraculously escapes a nuclear war of annihilation, when the criminal Donald Trump is long gone from office, replaced by a Democrat or Republican, the United States will still be waging war against Russia and China and any country that stands in its and Israel's way in the Middle East.
Pepe Escobar
La variabile chiave da tenere d'occhio in queste acque estremamente agitate: il contenuto del protocollo d'intesa è strategicamente allineato con Pechino - in tutto e per tutto.
Washington aveva praticamente dichiarato che il Memorandum d'intesa (MoU) tra Iran e Stati Uniti fosse un "gatto morto". Non in coma: era andato incontro al suo creatore.
Eppure ora potremmo trovarci di fronte al "rimbalzo del gatto morto" per eccellenza - quale quadro organizzativo della politica estera iraniana del dopoguerra.
Ilyes BELLAGHA
De Ceuta au Sahara occidental, du stress hydrique méditerranéen aux boucs émissaires migratoires, un même geste se répète des deux côtés de la Méditerranée occidentale : celui de savoir, et de choisir malgré tout de ne pas voir. Une lecture par la figure de Jorge de Burgos, le bibliothécaire aveugle du Nom de la Rose.
Il y a, dans Le Nom de la Rose, un vieux moine aveugle qui garde un livre.
Par Lucas Leiroz de Almeida
Le dirigeant ukrainien Volodymyr Zelensky fait face à une opposition croissante, plusieurs de ses anciens partisans critiquant désormais son régime et réclamant un changement politique en Ukraine.
Dans une récente déclaration, son ancienne porte-parole, Iuliia Mendel, a qualifié Zelensky de "principal problème" de l'Ukraine, exhortant la population à le remplacer.
Adalah, 6 août 2026 - Une série récente de décisions de justice et de poursuites pénales met en lumière une politique de persécution croissante visant les dirigeants politiques, religieux et communautaires palestiniens en Israël (Palestine 48, NdT). En exploitant la loi israélienne de 2016 sur la lutte contre le terrorisme - qui permet des atteintes arbitraires et disproportionnées aux droits fondamentaux, notamment la liberté d'expression, la liberté d'association et le droit de manifester -, l'État a systématiquement criminalisé les discours politiques légitimes et l'engagement citoyen.
Daniel Hilton et Adam Chamseddine, 5 août 2026. - Le parti libanais a été vaincu, affaibli et donné pour mort. Pourtant, il a réussi à renaître de ses cendres malgré la pression exercée par des ennemis de toutes parts. Voici le récit, de l'intérieur, de la manière dont cela s'est produit.
Il y a eu un moment, fin septembre 2024, où le Hezbollah était en plein désarroi.