Source: Cato Institute
by Doug Bandow

“The ongoing murderous repression of protesters in Iran is symptomatic of a long-term and deeper cruelty on the part of the regime: the attempt to eradicate freedom of conscience.” (02/03/26)

https://www.cato.org/commentary/irans-brutal-religious-persecutions

Source: Los Angeles Times
by Jon Duffy

“As the United States assembles a ‘massive armada’ off the coast of Iran — an aircraft carrier, accompanying destroyers, strike aircraft positioned across the region — the choreography is instantly recognizable. Forces move into place. Officials speak of ‘options.’ The president’s social media account warns of ‘far worse’ attacks than those launched against Iran last summer. What remains conspicuously absent is any explanation of what the use of that force is meant to accomplish.
If this sequence sounds familiar, it should. In late 2002 and early 2003, the U.S. followed a similar path. … Two decades later, the circumstances are different, but the failure is unmistakable.” (02/03/26)

https://archive.is/Qk9rn

Source: Bet On It
by Michael Crone

“In an earlier post, Caplan proposed eliminating the welfare state as a means to increase adoptable infants. Hidden among the responses to his post is data suggesting that eliminating abortion would bring about a massive increase in adoptable babies. Elizabeth Kirk and Ryan Hanlon, in a response to Caplan’s argument, wrote ‘For every child placed for adoption, approximately 70 other women choose to rear the child as a single parent, and 50 other women choose to terminate the pregnancy.’ In a different response, Steven Salop wrote ‘One study found that among women denied access to abortion, only about 10% chose adoption, so simply prohibiting abortion is not the best route to supporting expanded adoption.’ While knowing the best route to expanded adoption is difficult, the data presented imply prohibiting abortion would be a very powerful force for expanded adoption.” (02/03/26)

https://www.betonit.ai/p/abortion-and-adoption-the-crone-critiques

Source: Foreign Policy In Focus
by Reza Hasmath

“Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney’s speech at the World Economic Forum on January 20 was not an exercise in pique. It was the clearest articulation yet of a strategic shift that has profound implications – not just for US-Canada relations, but for the entire structure of American alliances worldwide. Carney told the Davos audience that ‘the old order is not coming back’ and that the rules-based international system was always ‘partially false’. The strongest exempted themselves when convenient, trade rules were enforced asymmetrically, and Canada ‘placed the sign in the window’ while avoiding the gaps between rhetoric and reality. That bargain, he declared, no longer works. Canada is now building what Carney called ‘strategic autonomy’: the capacity to feed itself, fuel itself, and defend itself without depending on the United States.” (02/03/25)

https://fpif.org/canadas-pivot-is-a-warning-to-the-united-states-and-the-entire-alliance-system/

Source: The Atlantic
by Donald Moynihan

“Getting silenced on X is, and I realize how absurd it sounds, the worst professional fate a Trump official can face. It signals that [Greg] Bovino is no longer a player in an administration that has, from top to bottom, merged a social-media-first worldview with authoritarian tendencies. I like to call it the clicktatorship. Political appointees in the clicktatorship are not just using online platforms as a mode of communication. Their judgment and decision making is hyperresponsive to what’s happening on the far-right internet. They view everything as content. No one better exemplifies the clicktatorship than the president himself.” (02/03/26)

https://archive.is/18cgV