“That the U.S. Surveillance State is rapidly growing to the point of ubiquity has been demonstrated over the past week by seemingly benign events. While the picture that emerges is grim, to put it mildly, at least Americans are again confronted with crystal clarity over how severe this has become. The latest round of valid panic over privacy began during the Super Bowl held on Sunday. During the game, Amazon ran a commercial for its Ring camera security system. The ad manipulatively exploited people’s love of dogs to induce them to ignore the consequences of what Amazon was touting. It seems that trick did not work.” (02/13/26)
Source: Ludwig von Mises Institute
by Deborah Palma
“The history of human progress is not written by government decrees, but by freedom of choice and the protection of property. The success of the most prosperous societies, from the founding of the United States to Argentina’s economic recovery in 2026, for example, results from principles discovered centuries ago. These ideas are part of the Austrian School of economics, in which it is explained how order arises from the individual and why any attempt at central planning results in failure.” (02/13/26)
Source: Foundation for Economic Educataion
by Daniel J Mitchell
“Ed Crane, the self-described Beloved Founder of the Cato Institute, passed away on February 10. He should be remembered first and foremost as an institution builder. In his 30-plus years as President of Cato, Ed took libertarian ideas from the fringe to the mainstream. That was no trivial accomplishment, given that so many of us in the liberty movement are nonconformists (organizing libertarians is akin to herding cats).” (02/13/26)
“A state-by-state breakdown of the Senate primaries shows Democrats have largely, but not completely, averted a debilitating ideological civil war in the midterm elections.” (02/13/26)
“A SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule glided in for a Valentine’s Day docking at the International Space Station Saturday boosting the lab’s crew back to a full complement of seven one month after four other fliers came home early because of a medical issue. The Crew Dragon docked at the space-facing port of the lab’s forward Harmony module at 3:15 p.m. EST, 34 hours after launch Friday from the Kennedy Space Center atop a Falcon 9 rocket.” (02/15/26)
“As the entire world is having a temper tantrum over the most recent Epstein case revelations about our discredited elites – obsessing over the power networks, the private jets, the bank accounts in the Virgin Islands, the French ministers, the European royalty, the foreign intelligence agencies, etc. – I’m having an entirely different epiphany. And, strangely, a flicker of hope. The rot on display is hard to take your eyes away from, but I find myself thinking more about what might rise in its place. I’m not talking about another faction of whip-crackers wearing better suits or pushing slicker slogans, but a quieter bunch, who appear to have the capacity to generate moral assent to a new political formula. That new elite prototype has started to take shape inside the MAHA movement. It might not yet be a fully formed counter-elite, but it certainly looks like a promising kind of one.” (02/13/26)
