“Both Russia and Iran illustrate that wars with oil-rich countries cause oil prices to surge. By using actual warfare alongside economic warfare, the Trump Administration has increased Iran’s economic advantages at America’s expense. With Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner no-showing in Islamabad for peace talks, Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi continued his shuttle diplomacy to Oman and Moscow on Monday. It is without question that Iran and Russia are two countries who have in many ways shocked the world community with their resilience in the face of sanctions and embargoes.” (04/28/26)
Source: Popular Information
by Rebecca Crosby and Noel Sims
“On Monday, Cole Tomas Allen, an educator from California, was charged by the Department of Justice (DOJ) for attempting to assassinate President Donald Trump. … Trump was asked about the suspect and his motivations during an interview with CBS News’ ‘60 Minutes’ on Sunday. In response, Trump said the ‘No Kings’ protests were to blame. … The truth is that the No Kings rallies have been some of the largest and most peaceful protests in history. … Trump has described the January 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol as a ‘day of love’ and said that his supporters acted ‘patriotically and peacefully.’ Yet the January 6 riot caused far more harm than the No Kings protests, despite having just a fraction of the attendance.” (04/28/26)
“Late-night host Jimmy Kimmel responded to calls from the White House for him to be fired by Disney and ABC by telling first lady Melania Trump to speak to President Donald Trump about what he called the president’s ‘violent rhetoric.’ ‘I agree that hateful and violent rhetoric is something we should reject, I do, and I think a great place to start to dial that back would be to have a conversation with your husband about it,’ Kimmel said during his monologue on the April 27 episode of ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live!’ Kimmel mirrored the language the first lady used when suggesting ABC should axe him over a joke at her expense, he told days before the shooting at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner.” (04/28/26)
Source: Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression
by JT Morris
“If democracy is our nation’s engine, then political protest is its gas pedal — and it has been since our founding. Early Americans rose up to protest the tyranny of the Stamp Act and the Tea Act, fighting taxation without representation and planting the seeds of independence. Two decades later, they enshrined the freedom to protest in the First Amendment. All throughout America’s 250 years, that freedom has given millions the voice to demand change. It spearheaded the fight against segregation. It secured voting rights for women. And today, Americans gather in public parks and city streets for No Kings rallies, the March for Life and countless other political and social causes. But a lawsuit that has snaked through the courts for eight years threatens our prized freedom to protest, exposing protesters to vast damages for acts they didn’t commit and chilling Americans from making their voices heard.” (04/28/26)
Source: Chris’s Substack
by Chris Matthew Sciabarra
“My life with disability has been the subject of several interviews through the years, including one that appeared in Folks magazine in January 2018, and an interview conducted in February 2023 by Léa Hirschfeld that is finally being released today as part of an Out of Sync Podcast series, which explores ‘life through disability, one story at a time.’ Listening back to the interview, recorded less than three months after my sister’s death, I was struck not by how much had changed, but by how much had endured. The interview is broader in its subject matter than I’d remembered. It deals not only with my medical challenges, but also with my work on Ayn Rand, libertarianism, and dialectics. It explores the dangers of ideological rigidity in the face of real-world constraints, the need to live in a known reality, rather than an unknown ideal.” (04/28/26)
Source: The Daily Economy
by Logan Tantibanchachai
“Is a product defective if it gives you too much of what you want? And are social-scroll algorithms regulated products — or protected speech?” (04/28/26)
“Taylor Swift is taking new steps to protect her voice and likeness from AI misuse. The global pop superstar on Friday filed trademark applications for two audio clips of her voice. … Swift also filed for a third trademark to protect an image of her onstage, wearing one of her signature sparkly bodysuits and strumming a pink guitar. … The Grammy winner has been the target of numerous deepfakes in recent years. Fake clips of her promoting a brand of cookware have tricked fans online, sexually suggestive deepfakes of her have gone viral on social media, and even President Donald Trump shared manipulated photos of her supporting his candidacy.” (04/27/26)
“Menger’s ‘saleableness’ is a lot like our term ‘liquidity.’ A more saleable good can be more easily sold at any time without having to lower the price. A house, for example, is not very saleable, because it might take months to find a good buyer, as contrasted with Girl Scout cookies, which have much broader appeal—even children can sell them. Because it’s hard to find someone willing to make a direct exchange for exactly what you want, Menger argued that people traded for more saleable items, which they would then use for exchanges. Over time, the most saleable commodities became the naturally emergent money. If people tend to trade for more saleable goods, why would they ever buy a gift card?” (04/28/26)
