“The first problem with the Prime Directive was that it made the captains stupid. Rather than doing what they knew had to be done, they had to contend with a wrench thrown into their formerly strong minds. It was, to have fun with words, stupidizing to those captains. It made them delay rational choices. In the end they ignored the Prime Directive anyway (reason and decency demanded it) or else they found some clever way around it. … When encountering a difficult situation, a capable person considers the facts available and tries to imagine a win-win resolution. And Star Fleet officers were supposed to be great at this: That the primary attribute of a great captain, after all, and it was generally the Federation’s flagship we were observing. What we saw were these powerful minds and wills brought low by the basest of mental choices: a binary, obey-or-transgress choice.” (04/15/26)
“If you earn a salary or an hourly wage, the Internal Revenue Service already knows how much money you make. It likely knows how much you owe or how big your refund should be too. Nine in 10 households take the standard deduction, making their liability easy to glean from payroll and banking data. Yet Uncle Sam demands that Americans fire up TurboTax, head to a storefront preparer, hire an accountant, or sit down with a sharp pencil and a strong cup of coffee to get their taxes done each spring. The average filer spends 13 hours on their 1040 — a time tax that many of our wealthy peer countries have reduced to a couple of minutes, if that. Prepopulated documents and return-free systems are common everywhere but here.” (04/15/26)
“House GOP leaders postponed a Wednesday procedural vote on an extension of a key federal spy powers program as they scramble to land a deal with hard-liners around changes — acknowledging the truly ‘clean’ extension that President Donald Trump is demanding is currently DOA in the chamber. There are ongoing discussions around modifying the clean, 18-month extension of the surveillance authority known as Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or FISA, that Trump is ordering. GOP leaders acknowledged in private conversations Tuesday night and publicly Wednesday morning that at least some tweaks are necessary to quell a GOP rebellion that could lead to Section 702’s expiration April 20. … Democrats aren’t expected to help Republicans overcome the procedural rule, even though some of them support a reauthorization without policy changes at this time.” (04/15/26)
“In the last year, the country’s most prominent legal organizations—such as the American Bar Association and the American Immigration Lawyers Association— have warned that scams targeting immigrants and attorneys have increased to an alarming level. Certainly, these kinds of grifts are not new in the legal world, which for years has dealt with bad actors practicing law without a license. But representatives from several legal groups and private attorneys told me that today’s scams are more sophisticated and harder to detect thanks to the proliferation of AI and social media.” (04/15/26)
Source: Foundation for Economic Education
by Mark Nayler
“Although it’s the world’s second most-visited country, Spain hasn’t been sending out a welcoming message recently. Its Socialist-led government has proposed or passed several measures aimed at deterring foreign property investors, such as a 100% tax on non-EU citizens buying houses (so far just an idea) and a ban on Golden Visas, which awarded residency to non-Spanish citizens who purchased real estate worth at least €500,000 (effective from last April). Over the last few years, there have also been protests against what residents see as over-tourism in hotspots such as Valencia, Málaga, Catalonia, and the Balearic Islands. One might have expected all this negative publicity to have dented Spain’s reputation as one of the best places in the world to take a vacation or buy a second home. But the opposite seems to be true: Spain set a new tourism record in 2025 with 97 million visitors, a 3.2% increase on 2024’s 94 million.” (04/15/26)
“Donald Trump was not playing five-dimensional chess when he attacked Pope Leo for being ‘weak on crime’ or when he posted a picture portraying himself as Jesus (subsequently taken down). Assuming a clever strategy behind objectively demented conduct is the equivalent of sane washing, that is, straining to attribute rational motives to someone behaving irrationally. Trump is deeply unwell, becoming more so as he experiences serial failures and finds his bully routine no longer works (on Iran, Europe, or the Pope). … Pope Leo is as much a problem for Trump as Pope John Paul II was for communist Poland.” (04/15/26)
“Recently, President Donald Trump asked Republicans to unify to extend the [Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act] with no changes in oversight or accountability. Trump posted on Truth Social, ‘When used properly, FISA is an effective tool to keep Americans safe. For these reasons, I have called for a clean 18-month extension.’ … In May 2020, Trump urged Republicans to vote ‘NO’ on FISA, explicitly tying the law to fears of abuse, including against his own re-election campaign. Four years later, he told lawmakers to ‘KILL FISA,’ claiming it had been ‘illegally used’ against him and that officials had ‘spied on my campaign.'” (04/15/26)
