“Outgoing Colombian President Gustavo Petro has barred President-elect Abelardo De la Espriella from holding his inauguration at a military base, triggering an unprecedented institutional dispute that has clouded the transfer of power and underscored the country’s deep political polarization. Citing his authority as commander-in-chief of the armed forces until Aug. 7, the leftist president blocked De la Espriella’s plan to take the oath of office before military personnel. The incoming government had sought to use the ceremony to signal a sharp break with the outgoing administration’s security policies.” (07/13/26)
“There is a small alcove at the back of most chemist shops these days, usually curtained off, where a pharmacist jabs your arm with a flu vaccine or a Covid booster while you sit with your sleeve rolled up. It is, in its modest way, one of the great quiet successes of British healthcare over the last decade. Nobody voted for it, nobody legislated it into being with a grand ten-year plan, and yet it works. It exists because Boots and Superdrug and the local independents worked out that people would pay a small sum for convenience, speed, and the absence of a three-week wait. I propose that we should extend this principle, and put a doctor in there as well.” (07/13/26)
“A group of 12 state attorneys general filed a lawsuit on Monday challenging Paramount Skydance’s
proposed acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery. The lawsuit seeking to block the merger for antitrust concerns was brought by a group including California Attorney General Rob Bonta. CNBC’s David Faber reported earlier that the lawsuit was expected to come on Monday. Representatives for Paramount and Bonta didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment. The deal would combine two storied film studios — Paramount and Warner Bros. — as well as streaming platforms Paramount+ and HBO Max.” (07/13/26)
“President Trump told his followers he would ‘drain the swamp.’ Instead, he became the biggest swamp monster ever. He has obliterated the line between public service and personal enrichment. Trump’s recent financial disclosures revealed that he made $2.2 billion in the year since he returned to office. That is a breathtaking figure. It is more than 20 times the annual budget of the city of Ithaca, N.Y., where I served as mayor for 10 years. In other words, Trump raked in, on average, more than $6 million a day, seven days a week.” (07/13/26)
“What’s the best thing about wokeness? Simple: Holding people in the past to universal moral standards. History is packed with mass murder, slavery, and other atrocities, often committed by famous beloved figures like Columbus and the American Founding Fathers. When confronted with these harsh realities, most thinkers try to weasel out with a variation on, ‘It was a very different time.’ The woke, on the other hand, want to not only teach kids about mass murder and slavery, but tear down the statues of mass murderers and slavers. Which is the rational position. … Sadly, wokeness aggressively refuses to universalize its own universalism. If we should hold people in the past to universal moral standards, we should also hold people in the present to universal moral standards, not credulously accept lame, lawyerly excuses like, ‘In their culture, this is normal’ or ‘Given their life story, we mustn’t blame them.'” (07/13/26)
“The U.S. Department of Justice and the Pentagon have created a joint task force to identify and prosecute what Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth described as unauthorized disclosure of sensitive information to news media. ‘I have delegated tasking authority to the War Department’s [sic] Office of General Counsel, empowering OGC to request and receive all information, records, and support across the department concerning media leak investigations,’ Hegseth said in a video posted to X.” [editor’s note: The War Department doesn’t have an Office of General Counsel because the War Department doesn’t exist – TLK] (07/13/26)
Source: Ludwig von Mises Institute
by George Ford Smith
“One way a person can become a billionaire is by providing people with a product or service they want. As various economists have pointed out, the money people use to acquire the product or service is like a vote cast. The votes can change overnight if the entrepreneur fails to deliver what people want at a price they can afford, or if a competitor offers something people perceive as better or cheaper. This process of voluntary production and exchange is the free market in action. But security agencies are needed to keep this process free of coercion. … If government stayed in the role of rights-protector the market might function smoothly. But it has never remained confined to that purpose. The idea of ‘protection’ has expanded over time to become a lucrative racket.” (07/13/26)
“Vusimusi ‘Cat’ Matlala, a key figure in a ongoing police corruption inquiry in South Africa, has withdrawn from a controversial plea deal, serving a blow to prosecutors. The business tycoon pulled out of the agreement after a South African court recommended a higher jail sentence – 12 years instead of the agreed eight. Matlala was accused of bribing top police officials to win a 360m rand ($22m; £16.5m) tender for his health company Medicare24 in 2024. He pleaded guilty last month, as part of a deal that could have seen Matlala giving key evidence against senior officials. Though disappointed by Matlala’s U-turn, the state still believes it has a ‘strong and winnable case’, Kaizer Kganyago, a spokesperson for the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) told journalists on Monday.” (07/13/26)
