Source: Responsible Statecraft
by Ali Rizk
“It is fighting for the survival of the organization and of Shiites there, and in the region. The US would be wise not to get sucked into this conflict, too.” (03/11/26)
Source: Ludwig von Mises Institute
by Connor O’Keeffe
“After Trump ordered this major joint US-Israeli air campaign on Iran a week and a half ago, several politicians, political commentators, and public figures heaped praise on the president for the ‘remarkable courage’ he showed to finally take on the Iranian regime. …. these characterizations already look a bit antiquated after Trump quietly dropped his initial stated goal of helping the Iranian people take over their government. But, especially as the price of oil has risen, the administration has continued to use this whole conflict to present Trump as a bold, decisive, and courageous president who is uncharacteristically willing to endure short-term economic, military, and political hardship in order do what is necessary to make the world a safer and more prosperous place for future generations in America and across the globe. That is nonsense.” (03/11/26)
https://mises.org/mises-wire/launching-war-iran-was-no-act-courage
Source: Quillette
“Australia has long been considered politically stable compared with Europe and the United States. But according to political scientist Eric Kaufmann, that period of ‘Australian exceptionalism’ may be coming to an end.” (03/11/26)
Source: Libertarian Institute
by Alan Mosley
“Political movements often begin as revolts against entrenched power, only to be absorbed by the very institutions they sought to challenge. The pattern is familiar in American political history. Grassroots insurgencies ignite public enthusiasm, mobilize voters around neglected issues, and briefly threaten the ruling consensus. Yet over time they are either neutralized or transformed into instruments of the existing political order. Two movements defined the political awakening of many Americans in the early twenty-first century: the Tea Party and the MAGA movement. Both promised a revolt against Washington. Both claimed to represent ordinary Americans against an unaccountable ruling class. Both attracted millions of supporters who believed they were witnessing the birth of something genuinely transformative. Yet both ultimately failed.” (03/11/26)
https://libertarianinstitute.org/articles/the-tea-party-stumbled-so-that-maga-could-fall
Source: PCMag
“Amazon has secured a major win in its lawsuit against Perplexity. A federal judge has ordered Perplexity to block its AI agents from placing orders on Amazon without permission. In the lawsuit filed in November, Amazon accused Perplexity of using its Comet AI browser to covertly access the Amazon website and users’ accounts to place orders on their behalf. Before filing the complaint, Amazon had also sent Perplexity a cease-and-desist letter accusing it of disguising Comet as Chrome to ensure its AI agents could avoid detection. … Amazon has welcomed the preliminary injunction. … For the e-commerce giant, the case could also be about protecting its advertising revenue. As Bloomberg notes, Amazon earned $68 billion from ads last year, as brands are still willing to pay huge sums for prime visibility across the platform. If customers purchase products without visiting the website, that revenue could take a hit.” (03/11/26)
Source: Libertarian Institute
“Lt Col Karen Kwiatkowski: Operation Epic Failure: Trump’s War in Iran Is NOT Going As Planned.” (03/10/26)
Source: Astral Codex Ten
by David Speiser
“Everyone hates Congress. That poll showing that cockroaches are more popular than Congress is now thirteen years old, and things haven’t improved in those thirteen years. Congressional approval dipped below 20% during the Great Recession and hasn’t recovered since. A republic where a supermajority of citizens neither like nor trust their representatives is not the most stable of foundations, so it should not be shocking that the legislative branch is being subsumed by the executive. What’s the solution? Many have been proposed, some with very snazzy websites.” (03/11/26)
Source: Yascha Mounk
by Yascha Mounk
“It is impossible to understand the recent politics of the Western world without considering a giant sociological transformation—one that, inevitable though it may seem in retrospect, nearly nobody predicted: The bourgeoisie has switched sides. For much of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the proletariat was the political stronghold of the left. The bourgeoisie was the stronghold of the right. Indeed, the assumption that affluent professionals would tend to be conservative is reflected in the most famous political treatises and pieces of art that the period produced. Karl Marx called on the workers, not on the lawyers or freelance illustrators, of the world to unite. … But of late, these realities have started to shift, with huge impacts on contemporary politics.” (03/11/26)
https://writing.yaschamounk.com/p/the-paradox-of-infinite-voices-and
Source: The Daily Economy
by Peter C Earle
“The strongest objections to fiat money are moral and institutional, not legal. Inflating a currency erodes trust over time, but it isn’t counterfeiting.” (03/11/26)
https://thedailyeconomy.org/article/soundness-trust-and-the-real-case-against-fiat-money/
Source: The New Republic
“Trump Humiliated as Viral Exchange with Journo on Iran Backfires Badly.” (03/11/26)
https://newrepublic.com/article/207606/trump-humiliated-viral-exchange-journo-iran-backfires-badly