“[W]hen Fauci — formerly known as ‘the Science’ — asserted his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination 111 times before Congress (NBC says 106), refusing to answer questions about his past role as a government official, it was illegitimate. Because on those matters, he cannot be incriminated. ‘No person,’ reads the amendment, ‘shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself.’ There can be no criminal case brought for his past lies. But the problem for Dr. Fauci is that he can be prosecuted for telling those lies again to Congress. Like at yesterday’s hearing.” (07/30/26)
Source: Libertarian Institute
by Joseph Solis-Mullen
“For nearly twenty-five years, Washington has quietly expanded America’s Global War on Terror across Africa. Today, U.S. military activities stretch from the Horn of Africa through the Sahel to the Atlantic coast, encompassing intelligence bases, drone operations, special operations deployments, partner-force training, logistical support, surveillance missions, and recurring multinational exercises. Yet if the objective has been to produce a more secure region, the strategic picture is difficult to reconcile with the investment. To understand why, begin with a map.” (07/30/26)
“For 14 seasons right up to his first run for president, Donald Trump was the star of his own reality shows, ‘The Apprentice’ and then ‘The Celebrity Apprentice.’ The shows stopped, but Trump as president is still creating his own reality. … In the increasingly warped world in which the showrunner president appears to dwell, he inherited messes and created the best economy in history. Trump took a country that was an international laughingstock and made it respected again. He won election three times, he said yet again at Friday’s White House Correspondents Assn. dinner. But the second was rigged against him, so brave ‘patriots’ revolted on Jan. 6, 2021; they were ultimately foiled and then unfairly prosecuted and convicted — only to have super-hero Trump return to dispense clemency and spring the freedom-fighters on his first day back in office. Daily, on matters big and small, the president just makes things up.” (07/30/26)
“he Democratic Socialists of America, an insurgency within the Democratic Party, is having a moment, and it is showing us something worth noticing: This is the democracy John Adams warned us about. Given the record of socialism in power, critics of the DSA and what it stands for are justified in suspecting that these radicals are not actually all that serious about the democratic part of democratic socialism, that the word ‘Democratic’ in the faction’s name is no more meaningful than in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. But the thing to be feared here is the opposite: They are extremely serious about the democratic part and will strip Americans of their rights, liberty, and property in the name of—and with the aid of—democracy.” (07/30/26)
“Smith notes that the lords, who at one time used their excess agricultural wealth to keep a multitude of knights and retainers, began to spend instead on consumption goods. Eventually, these goods became so important that the nobles had to cut their lavish lifestyles and reduce their retainers. Traders no longer relied only on the local lord, and the barons found it advantageous to shop around. The old personal feudal bonds, in this way, were slowly transformed into public, pecuniary ones. The feudal institutions were being slowly dismantled by the nobles themselves without any intention to do so on their part. For Smith, this commercial success had an additional consequence. The innovations from the broadened market spilled over into agriculture in three ways.” (07/30/26)
“Rand [Paul] and other Republicans tried to claim Fauci had no right to take the Fifth because Biden issued him a preemptive pardon that eliminated that privilege, an ongoing debate in some legal circles. What is not debated though Repubs tried to argue otherwise: Invoking the Fifth Amendment is not a confession of guilt, but a foundational right against self-incrimination as long as there exists a valid threat of prosecution. Most pointedly, the Fifth does not represent guilt but ‘the ordinary caution’ of any citizen who is dragged before a hostile panel by a vindictive chairman vowing for years to put him behind bars, and who ‘understands this hearing was never a search for information but a search for a crime – of having stood in public and told a frightened country the truth, while a president lied to it.'” (07/30/26)
Source: Ludwig von Mises Institute
by William L Anderson
“As I observe (and participate in) a few discussions on Facebook and elsewhere about socialism, I have come to a few conclusions about the nature of the arguments and the reasons why socialists remain socialists even as we see the utter failure of socialist economies throughout history. Maybe the meme that appears once in a while — ‘If socialists understood economics, they wouldn’t be socialists’ — might be true, but I doubt it. As I see it, the purpose of establishing socialism is to further promote socialism, not improve the lot of a society and certainly not to promote prosperity.” (07/30/26)
Source: Responsible Statecraft
by Courtney Rawlings
“Israel is spending wads of cash on public diplomacy in a desperate attempt to reverse waning American support for the country after it stands accused of genocide in Gaza and pushing the U.S. into the Iran war. Since Oct. 7, Israel has spent over a billion dollars on global ‘hasbara’ — television appearances, social media campaigns, chat-bot training, and other efforts to influence how people think about Israel. And this ‘public diplomacy’ budget more than quadrupled in the last year alone.” (07/30/26)
“The events at Prairieland on July 4, 2025, resulted in a large number of activists arrested, no national upsurge in anti-ICE sentiment, and legal and propaganda victories for the government. A tactical analysis of Prairieland is a case study in mistakes. But negative examples are nevertheless useful for future organizing.” (07/30/26)
