Source: Foundation for Economic Education
by Harry Phibbs
“Poland was pivotal to the fall of Communism in Europe. The Solidarity protests in the 1980s gave hope that political change was possible, even among those who feared that totalitarian states might prove permanent with their grim monolithic structures. Poland’s subsequent success as a free nation serves as an exemplar to others. What a contrast with Russia, which has also overthrown Communism and remains beset by poverty, tyranny, and an aggressive foreign policy.” (02/23/26)
“The U.S. Supreme Court declined on Monday to revive the National Rifle Association’s lawsuit accusing a former New York state official of coercing banks and insurers to avoid doing business with the gun rights group. The justices in 2024 had reinstated the group’s lawsuit accusing Maria Vullo, the former superintendent of New York’s Department of Financial Services, of violating its free speech rights under the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment. But they declined to do so a second time after a lower court again dismissed the lawsuit. … The case returned to the New York-based 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which ruled last year that Vullo was immune from the NRA’s claims because the law addressing her conduct was unclear at the time. This prompted the NRA’s second appeal to the justices.” (02/23/26)
“Trump will forever be known as the president who was intent on sowing doubts about the integrity of America’s elections — despite a total lack of evidence and dozens of investigations and judicial findings. When all is said and done, this may be his greatest legacy. But as much as Trump has taken these cries of voter fraud and rigged elections to an extreme, it is not one of his narcissistic innovations. He merely took what has long been conservative orthodoxy and put his own deceitful spin on it. Decades before he came along, the right was pushing the voter fraud myth — and using it as an excuse to suppress the vote.” (02/23/26)
“Israeli [squatters] vandalized a mosque in the Israeli-occupied West Bank early Monday, spray-painting offensive phrases and setting a fire, according to the Palestinian Authority’s Ministry of Religious Affairs. Worshippers arriving for the day’s first prayers found the damage and a smoldering fire that spewed black smoke across the entrance of the Abu Bakr Al-Siddiq Mosque in the town of Tell, near Nablus, and stained the ornate doorway. … The Israeli military and police said they responded to the incident and were searching for suspects. The military said it ‘strongly condemns’ harm done to religious institutions. Palestinians and rights groups say Israeli authorities routinely fail to prosecute [squatters] or hold them accountable for violence.” (02/23/26)
“With two U.S. carrier strike groups assembling in the Arabian Sea, the chances of an armed conflict with Iran are uncomfortably high …. Unfortunately, other contingencies loom that raise uncomfortable historical parallels. I refer specifically to June 28, 1914, when Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his pregnant wife Sophie were shot and killed on a bridge in Sarajevo by 19-year-old Gavrilo Princip. That assassination triggered a series of mobilizations among the major European powers, based on faulty, outdated premises that whoever mobilizes first wins and that Prussia could easily and quickly defeat France by using railroads to mobilize. More than 110 years later, it is not mobilization that catalyzes catastrophe, but a series of crises that could ignite into a conflagration by a single spark or even a smoldering ember.” (02/23/26)
“Daniel Cox just shared 2025 polling data showing that 57% of US dating app users were male and just 38% were female. This data point is just one more indication of a much wider reality that I don’t think a lot of people have incorporated into their worldview. Men are a lot more interested in dating (and marrying) women than women are interested in coupling with men. Below, allow me to present a few more stats that point in this direction.” (02/23/26)
