Bullet Train or Bay Bridge?
Source: Independent Institute
by K Lloyd Billingsley
“The contest for California’s biggest disaster may soon be decided.” (05/14/26)
https://www.independent.org/article/2026/05/14/bullet-train-or-bay-bridge/
Category: Opinion
We Need a Department of Peace, Not $1.5 Trillion for More War
Source: Common Dreams
by Robert C Koehler
“It’s hard to avoid noticing, and internally screaming over, the Trump administration’s proposed military budget upgrade to $1.5 trillion annually, as though the present trillion-dollar annual gift to the end of the world weren’t enough. It’s not just the proposed taxpayer bleed. It’s the collective assumption that ‘self-defense’ requires an ever-present readiness to kill lots of people, and beyond that the utter certainty that we have soulless enemies out there who want what we have, hate our freedoms, and will take what they can the moment we relax. This is just the way it is. No questions allowed. And our enemies aren’t pussycats. One of them, for instance, is China. … Nothing holds a country together like a good enemy.” (05/14/26)
Can Socialists Support Commerce But Not Capitalism?
Source: The Daily Economy
by Christopher Freiman
“Many socialists condemn trade barriers while supporting bans on wage labor and private ownership. Can that logic be reconciled?” (05/14/26)
https://thedailyeconomy.org/article/can-socialists-support-commerce-but-not-capitalism/
Return of the Next Pandemic Script
Source: Brownstone Institute
by Yaffa Shir-Raz
“On the surface, an international cruise ship experiencing serious illnesses and deaths during a voyage would seem destined to become an immediate global news story. But that did not happen. Only weeks later, on May 1, the story suddenly received intense international coverage. Within a short time, headlines around the world warned of a ‘plague ship’ at sea, passengers from 23 countries under monitoring, quarantine measures, and fears of human-to-human transmission. After the Covid years, and the way the crisis unfolded in early 2020, the sense of déjà vu was almost unavoidable. … This time, the timing is particularly striking. On May 1, three days before the MV Hondius story received widespread international media attention, the World Health Organization announced yet another one-year delay in negotiations over the PABS annex of the Pandemic Agreement.” (05/14/26)
https://brownstone.org/articles/return-of-the-next-pandemic-script/
Pope Leo is right. Trump’s war in Iran fails a test.
Source: Washington Post
by Ramesh Ponnuru
“Trump has made next to no attempt to justify his Iran policy using the traditional criteria for just war, and sometimes he broadcasts contempt for the idea that war could be subject to moral evaluation. When he threatens to end Iran’s civilization, it can’t plausibly be spun as anything but placing large-scale war crimes on the table. Though just-war theory is frequently associated with the Catholic Church, its influence extends to non-Catholics and it rests on no distinctively Christian premises. It holds that war is permissible when (among other conditions) it serves a just cause, is declared by a legitimate authority, has a reasonable chance of success and can be expected to do more good than harm.
There is plenty of room to debate when these conditions have been met, but they clearly rule out some wars.” (05/14/26)
Mike Pence, Pretend Lifeguard of Conservatism; Voters Already Left His Pool
Source: American Greatness
by Steve Cortes
“Mike Pence anointed himself to stand athwart the populist Right with a whistle in his mouth, screaming for conservatives to ‘get out of the pool.’ The imagery fits him perfectly. Pence increasingly resembles that obnoxious childhood lifeguard we all remember — the self-important scold, high on perceived power, perched way above everyone else. As such, Pence is convinced that enforcing his rules matters more than understanding why people jumped into the water in the first place. From his perch at CNN studios and establishment think tanks, Pence now lectures conservatives about ‘traditional principles,’ warning Republicans against populism and urging a return to the old GOP orthodoxy. … Pence demands that Republicans engage in ‘soul-searching’ over populism. Fine. Let’s do exactly that.” (05/14/26)
Defending Taiwan
Source: Law & Liberty
by Mike Watson
“Deterring China is about more than chip manufacturing and foreign democracy.” (05/14/26)
Socialists Are Reaping a Bountiful Political Harvest while They Create Havoc
Source: Ludwig von Mises Institute
by William L Anderson
“There is no doubt that socialists are doing very well in the current electoral climate. Zohran Mamdani’s recent victory in the New York City mayoral election has electrified the socialist movement across the country, which also includes the election of Katie Wilson as mayor of Seattle. … Indeed, Bernie Sanders lost narrowly in the 2016 and 2020 Democratic presidential primaries, and it certainly is not beyond the imagination to say American voters might well have sent him to the White House in either of those elections, had he won the nomination. … One might think, given the electoral successes of leftwing Democrats, that their policies have been successful in transforming the economic and social landscapes of the cities and states where they govern. Think again.” (05/14/26)
Trump surrendered to China before he even landed there
Source: Los Angeles Times
by Jackie Calmes
“However the Trump-Xi meeting ends, Trump is no Achilles going into this match. In fact, in the six decades of U.S.-China relations, perhaps no American president has entered the summit arena in a weaker position than Trump, the would-be strongman and artiste of the deal. Worse, his weakness — and by extension his country’s — is mostly self-inflicted. Trump had postponed what was intended as an early April meeting in hopes of striding triumphantly into Beijing as the conqueror of Iran, a China ally. Instead China is receiving him as a ‘giant with a limp,’ in the phrase of its Communist Party-controlled Global Times newspaper.” (05/14/26)
How to Lower Gas Prices
Source: Common Sense
by Paul Jacob
“Gasoline prices have skyrocketed. The Iran War is to blame, but the President has not been able to bring it to an end. Still, he has offered a small fix. A federal gas tax suspension! In its favor, this temporary measure would offer some relief. In addition, the federal government shouldn’t be attaching an excise to fuel sales anyway. The states already burden our fuel bills with their own taxes. … Cutting off a source of revenue would increase the deficit, of course. But there is a simple solution to that: spend less.” (05/14/26)