“A federal judge late Friday put a hold on the $6.2 billion merger between Nexstar Media Group and Tegna, a deal that would create the largest operator of local television stations in the country. U.S. District Judge Troy L. Nunley in California granted a request from DirecTV, which argued in a lawsuit that the pending merger violates federal antitrust laws. Eight attorneys general, led by California’s Rob Bonta, filed a separate lawsuit on similar legal grounds. … Nunley issued a 14-day temporary restraining order and scheduled an April 7 hearing. Nexstar declined to comment. Tegna did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The Federal Communications Commission and the Department of Justice both approved the merger earlier this month. President Donald Trump also publicly backed the deal.” (03/28/26)
“Each era has its superheroes, and the Trump era may have finally stumbled across one for the ages. You may remember him from such hits (well, hit) as “Because I Got High” — the chill, stoner, self-mocking classic of 2000. But way back then, we had no idea that Afroman’s true masterpiece was yet to come. And here it is: a viral 2022 album called Lemon Pound Cake, which comprises a series of songs about a botched police raid on his home. … the poor wittle white cops were so upset by being woasted in these videos, they did the woke thing and sued Afroman for $3.9 million, which would have easily bankrupted him. The defamation trial had some fantastic moments, and the whiny cops walked right into a Streisand effect: so many more people saw the videos — 20 million views and counting — because they sued over them than if they’d just ignored them.” (03/27/26)
“I used to be a techno-optimist. Today, I’m not so sure. Don’t get me wrong. I do not bemoan the invention of antibiotics. I have little respect for primitivism. Either they haven’t thought through how many children and pregnant women live every year because technology has made their diseases preventable or survivable, or you’re a psychopath. But I’m less sure than I was in the past that technology has been overwhelmingly good for humans. Maybe it’s just that I turned 40. Being middle-aged will have one wondering whether maybe stuff really was better when I was younger — or even earlier.” (03/27/26)
“Why is the current war happening? If you want to answer that question in a broad sense—in a way that applies not just to the Iran war but to other needless bursts of carnage of the past and future — I would direct your attention to an exchange that took place this week on a New York Times podcast called The Opinions. The exchange was between Times columnist David French and retired four-star General Stanley McChrystal …. The roles played by the two men aren’t what you might expect based on their job descriptions. It wasn’t the career Army officer who exemplified the narrowly tribalistic perspective and the writer for the liberal media who offered the more balanced and pacific view. Rather, it was the professional soldier who brought the enlightenment and the journalist who lacked it — and who showed no signs of absorbing any of it.” (03/27/26)
“Judge Lewis Kaplan wants to know what lawyers are helping Sam Bankman-Fried, including mom; the Pentagon is having trouble in the courts; judges make divergent rules about attorney AI disclosure.” (03/27/26)
“The last thirty years have been a period of pronounced overextension in U.S. foreign policy, and it has upset the balance between promoting liberal values overseas and protecting liberalism at home. Worse, the two primary camps in today’s foreign policy debates — Trump’s America-First nationalism and Biden’s global democracy-vs-autocracy framework — are simultaneously protectionist and militarily interventionist. If liberals are to build an effective domestic agenda, they instead need to tether it to a more modest, realist foreign policy capable of protecting American democracy and prosperity at home. This need has only been heightened by the Trump administration’s disastrous war with Iran, which looks increasingly likely to seriously strain the American economy.” (03/27/26)
Source: Ludwig von Mises Institute
by Joshua Mawhorter
“[T]he concept of interventionist non-intervention argues that the state — following coercive taxation and monopolization or competition suppression — can intervene through doing ‘nothing,’ that is, paid non-delivery of promised and monopolized service. The core elements of interventionist non-intervention are: 1) the binary intervention of coercive taxation where citizens are forced to pay for a service regardless of whether or not they receive it; 2) the triangular interventions of monopolization or competition suppression where the state claims exclusive domain over the service provision; and, 3) non-delivery wherein the state then fails or refuses to provide the monopolized service for which it has extracted payment, in part or in whole.” (03/27/26)
“n the United States, cloud seeding has long been a subject of controversy. The process involves releasing small quantities of compounds such as Silver Iodide (AgI) into the atmosphere, causing clouds to produce rain or snow. Critics call it “weather modification,” but cloud seeding is a moderate and cost-effective effort to enhance rainfall that can benefit the water-strapped Southwest by fortifying its water supply.” (03/27/26)
“My mother did not die in an intensive care unit. She was not surrounded by machines, alarms, or artificial light. She died at home, in a room imbued with the quiet weight of memory. Decades of life were embedded in those walls, which had witnessed birthdays, conversations, laughter, arguments, and the countless ordinary moments that, in retrospect, constitute the true foundation of a life. A peripherally inserted central catheter (PICC) line rested in her arm, serving not as a symbol of escalation but as an instrument of compassion. Medications were given to relieve discomfort rather than to reverse disease. Nurses entered the room with calm, deliberate purpose rather than urgency. Their voices were soft, their movements measured. Their objective was not to save her life, but to honor it.” (03/27/26)
