“Last week, far-left Democrat Melat Kiros won her Denver, Colorado, U.S. House primary against 15-term incumbent Rep. Diana DeGette, making the 29-year-old the latest in a slew of democratic socialists to have defeated establishment Democrats in this midterm election cycle. … Kiros in particular has come under fire, particularly from some conservatives, for depicting Islamic terrorism as blowback from American and Israeli policies. … The neocons used to insinuate the same about Pat Buchanan, a cofounder of this magazine, because he too explained terrorist attacks by reference to U.S. and Israeli policies.” (07/08/26)
“Restrictive patent eligibility has pushed investment in key technologies overseas, weakening one of America’s historic competitive advantages. Congress can still reverse course.” (07/08/26)
“Nigeria’s president has ordered a corruption investigation into allegations that a fictitious government agency was set up within his own office, complete with public funding worth $950,000 (£700,000). According to the presidency, the letter from the president’s chief of staff creating the Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council (PFIPC) had been forged. The police have launched a manhunt for Adeniyi Adeyemi Matthew, who had been presenting himself as the ‘PFIPC director general’, on suspicion of forgery, impersonation and related offences. Before going into hiding, Adeyemi told local media that he was innocent and now feared for his life. He also promised to show up in court to clear his name, saying the body was lawfully established. He accused senior government officials of demanding bribes during the process of his appointment and later attempting to take control of the council’s funds.” (07/08/26)
Source: Ludwig von Mises Institute
by Connor O’Keeffe
“Despite the surface-level rhetoric used by all sides, the growing popularity of ‘socialism’ or ‘populism’ is primarily a non-ideological phenomenon. That becomes obvious if we look back in time. Because there was a period in the early twentieth century when the intellectual battle between advocates of socialism and capitalism was as rigorous and intellectual as many like to pretend it still is.” (07/08/26)
“U.S. President Donald Trump said Wednesday he was cutting off trade with Spain over defense spending — reviving a long-running feud between Washington and Madrid. ‘I didn’t speak to Spain. Spain is a wasted cause. We don’t want to do any trade business with Spain anymore,’ he told reporters ahead of a meeting with fellow NATO leaders in Ankara. ‘By the way, I’d like you to cut it off,’ he added, appearing to address U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent. … However, it’s unclear how Trump’s idea would work as Spain is a member of the EU, which is in charge of trade policy for all of its member countries.” (07/08/26)
“Rather than trying to neutralize the partisan results of a politicized appointment process, the Democrats would have done well to focus on depoliticizing the process that produced those partisan results. Court expansion threatens to make the process even more political, and although term limits – the other possible Supreme Court reform featured in a report commissioned by President Biden early in his term – is unlikely to make the process any more political, there’s no reason to expect it to make the process any less. A third possibility, however, holds a great deal of potential in this regard: Change the proportion of senators needed to confirm a Supreme Court nominee from a simple majority to two-thirds.” (07/07/26)
“Scott brings Kyle Anzalone on the show to run through where things stand with the fighting in Lebanon, the talks between the US and Iran, the flare-up between the Houthis and the Saudis, the unending suffering of the people of Gaza and more.” (07/07/26)
“A Brazilian court has sentenced a couple to 50 days in prison for ‘intellectual neglect’ after they homeschooled their two daughters without a state-approved curriculum. A São Paulo criminal court ruled against Audato and Ieda Denardi, alleging they had failed to include programs on ‘gender and sex education’ and ‘tolerance and diversity’ in the curriculum for their daughters, aged 15 and 11, Alliance Defending Freedom (‘ADF’) International said. According to the legal group, the court also ruled that the parents failed to properly integrate their children into Brazilian culture, citing the girls’ preference for religious and classical music over popular trap or ‘sertanejo’ (folk) music. Isabel Monteiro, the defense attorney representing the family, said the judge made an ‘ideological decision to convict them’ based largely on the older daughter’s preference for sacred music over mainstream music that often features explicit lyrics.” (07/08/26)
