Source: Foundation for Economic Education
by Cláudia Ascensão Nunes
“In 1990, Belgian footballer Jean Marc Bosman saw his contract expire and discovered something he did not expect: although he was no longer under contract, RC Liège still controlled his future. He had found a team in France willing to sign him, but Liège demanded a transfer fee the French club could not afford. Bosman had no contract, no salary, and no real way out. In practice, he remained tied to the club. His case would go on to change the football market and European sport forever. Across European football, a transfer system allowed clubs to retain control over players even after their contracts had ended. A player could be prevented from joining a new employer unless a transfer fee was paid, even when no contractual obligation remained. … Bosman challenged this system in court, and in 1995, the European Court of Justice ruled in his favor.” (07/01/26)
“President Donald Trump is taking his first presidential flight aboard a newly retrofitted Boeing 747 serving as Air Force One on Wednesday, traveling to Medora, North Dakota, to mark the opening of the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library and promote a conservation push tied to America’s 250th birthday. … Trump is traveling aboard a $400 million Boeing 747-8i donated by the government of Qatar and refurbished for presidential use [and will magically become his “presidential library’s” property later]. (07/01/26)
Source: Responsible Statecraft
by David C Hendrickson
“In the run-up to America’s 250th anniversary, we’ve witnessed a few amazing spectacles, but not much historical reflection. Insofar as discussions have addressed our history, attention has focused on American statesmen and warriors from back in the day. But there is more to be gained by looking from a different standpoint: that of Britain’s leaders at the time of the American revolution. They had an empire to run, as we now do, not a republic to create. Great Britain had achieved, by 1763, a position widely compared to Rome in its heyday. It had won the great contest with France over control of the interior of North America, gaining Canada and a secure claim to the Mississippi River in the Peace of Paris in 1763. But all was not well.” (07/01/26)
“Between 1880 and World War I, 20 million foreigners had immigrated to the U.S. Nearly 7 million people entered the country between 1900 and 1910 alone. That amounted to nearly 10 times the annual average for the 1850s, the previous big wave of arrivals. By 1915, newcomers and their young, native-born children made up the majority of many major American cities. No wonder then that, at the beginning of the 20 century, Americans questioned whether the nation could accommodate this massive wave of immigration and still retain its national identity and its democratic institutions. Many saw the new arrivals as a mortal threat; for these nativists, the white Anglo-Saxon Protestant heritage defined the United States.” (07/01/26)
“A breakaway group of traditionalist Catholics on Wednesday directly defied Pope Leo XIV by celebrating an ancient Latin Mass to consecrate four bishops without his consent, dismissing the threat of schism and excommunication and justifying their actions as a ‘sacred duty’ to defend the Catholic faith. … According to church law, the mere act of consecrating a bishop without a papal mandate incurs the harshest penalty in the Catholic Church: automatic excommunication for the four new bishops and the bishop administering the rite. It also amounts to a schismatic act, or an intentional rupture of the unity of the Catholic Church.” (07/01/26)
“Photographs. Paintings. Editorial cartoons. Cover art. Memes. We are steeped every day of our lives in visual art. And who can doubt the profound effect that a particularly striking image can have on our psyche? Today, James explores the way art and imagery can be used to unlock minds and deprogram the masses with two practicing artists, Anthony Freda and Jordan Henderson.” (07/01/26)
“In recent years the American right’s been inverting phrases taken from the left, taking something that meant well and turning them into cliches. Triggered. Woke. Social justice warrior. Critical race theory. They use these as a shorthand to mock and belittle, while also reducing the left to something separate and less than. At the same time, these phrases are often ill-defined: what is woke, exactly? One may as well ask who leads the oft-cited but hard to find antifa organization. Once one starts looking at how they use these phrases to delegitimize the left, one sees the pattern all over the place: gender ideology, fake news, and perhaps most nefarious of all, cultural Marxism.” (07/01/26)
