Source: Ludwig von Mises Institute
by Isaias Lobão
“Imagine yourself sailing on a boat through a serene and breathtaking sea. The waters shine around you, inviting and attractive, but they hide grave dangers ahead. This is ‘listening to the mermaid’s song’ — being deceived by something that, while it sounds charming, leads to ruin. … While strolling through the launch section of a bookstore in Brasilia, I came across a work that can be seen as a true modern siren song: the Portuguese translation of the book It’s OK to Be Angry About Capitalism by US Senator Bernie Sanders (Cia das Letras, 2024). Such work exemplifies how appealing ideologies can seduce audiences with seemingly irresistible but misleading and destructive promises. Like the sailors of antiquity, many may be tempted by these ideas without realizing the underlying dangers they carry.” (01/08/26)
“President Donald Trump violated his sworn and paramount obligations to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution when he ordered his invasion of Venezuela without congressional authorization and when he attacked a member state of the U.N. without U.N. authorization. James Madison himself argued at the Constitutional Convention that if a president could both declare war and wage war, he’d be a prince; not unlike the British monarch from whose authority the 13 colonies had just seceded. And the American drafters of the U.N. Charter, indeed American senators who voted to ratify it, understood that its very purpose was to prevent unlawful and morally unjustified attacks by one member nation upon another.” (01/08/26)
“A spacewalk planned for Thursday outside the International Space Station was called off late Wednesday because of a ‘medical concern’ with an unidentified crew member, NASA said in a statement. An update shortly before midnight said the agency was exploring ‘all options, including the possibility of an earlier end to Crew 11’s mission.’ … Going into the new year, the crew expected to remain in space until their replacements arrive in mid-February. Crew 11’s return to Earth is expected around Feb. 20. That’s still the official plan.” (01/08/26)
“In the words of legal scholar Timothy Sandefur, the concept of law includes certain rational elements such as clear formal rules and procedures, without which a legislative enactment cannot be ‘law’ in any real sense. He explains it this way: ‘Law is the use of government’s coercive powers in the service of some general principle; that is, under some intelligible theoretical regularity, and not based on the mere ipse dixit of the legislative body. Law is the use of coercion for public purposes, not for the personal interest of the lawmaking authority.’ So understood the Trump administration’s disfigurement of both the letter and spirit of the law to fit the personal vanity and passing vendettas of the person who, let us remember, was originally appointed by the American founders to preside over the faithful execution of the law is itself a shameful repudiation of the elementary principles of American jurisprudence.” (01/08/26)
“The year is 1983. At 8pm sharp on 28 February, 106 million viewers tune in to watch the M*A*S*H finale. The next day, everyone from truck drivers to corporate attorneys had the same reference points. For years, M*A*S*H functioned as a national ritual, allowing families across the country to laugh at the same jokes and debate the same plot twists. Of course, it wasn’t just M*A*S*H. Everyone could assume that nearly everyone else had seen shows like Seinfeld or Dallas. … This anchored social life in common references and fostered a sense of collective identity. This logic could also be applied to cinema … music … video games … or even software … Today, that sense of shared cultural experience has eroded and been replaced by a landscape of personalised content that appeals to ever-diminishing niches.” (01/08/26)
“The union representing British nurses is under fire from some of its own members over what they say is an opaque investment strategy linked to companies investing in Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian Territories. A report sent to Royal College of Nursing (RCN) management by activist group Nurses for Palestine and NGO Corporate Watch, and obtained by POLITICO, argues that the union’s choice of investment managers Legal & General and Sarasins is at odds with its own ethical investment policy. … The report points to a list of companies held by the RCN’s fund managers, including U.S. tech firm Palantir and Israeli arms-maker Elbit Systems, which activists say should be enough for the union to put its money elsewhere.” (01/08/26)
“In the year since Donald Trump returned to power, the United States has become — as one of Trump’s supporters, Rep. Andy Ogles of Tennessee, admiringly put it on Wednesday — ‘the dominant predator’ in the Western Hemisphere. Trump has extorted Canada and Ukraine, threatened Panama and Colombia, invaded Venezuela, and deployed the American military to loot Venezuela’s oil. Now Trump is now circling back to a familiar target: Greenland. He doesn’t care that the island territory and its parent country, Denmark, have done nothing to deserve aggression. Nor does he care that they’re part of NATO. And he’s utterly indifferent — just as he’s always been with his abuse of women — to their requests to be left alone. He keeps threatening and harassing Greenland and Denmark, no matter how many times they ask him to stop.” (01/08/26)
