“Over the past few years, quiet but extraordinary warnings have emerged from the US Treasury Department. The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network reports that illicit e-cigarettes are being used as part of trade-based money-laundering schemes linked to fentanyl trafficking. Illegal vaping products are no longer just a regulatory nuisance or a youth-use talking point. They have become a financial instrument in the cartel economy. The finding matters because it exposes a reality many policymakers have spent years denying — prohibition does not eliminate markets, it reorganizes them. And when demand persists, prohibition reliably hands control to the most ruthless and well-organized suppliers.” (02/26/26)
“Protectionism has been absurd for centuries. Trade is, for all practical purposes, a technology, so protectionism is just Luddism in disguise. … But over the last ten years, protectionism has taken a major turn for the worse. Classic protectionism was at least predictable. Protectionists looked at sellers and saw gainers; they looked at buyers and saw losers. … however, protectionists have risen to a new level of nonsense. While they still loudly complain when their countrymen buy goods and services from foreigners, they also loudly complain when their countrymen sell oddly specific goods to foreigners.” ()2/26/26)
“When President Donald Trump first announced that he had ordered the Pentagon to attack fishing boats and speedboats on the high seas which he said carried dangerous drugs destined for willing buyers in the United States, many of us who monitor the government for its indifference to the Constitution perceived it as truly criminal and utterly scandalous. The military commits murder when it intentionally kills a civilian non-combatant who poses no immediate threat to the U.S. or to military personnel. The crime is committed by all personnel in the chain of command who knowingly participate in these attacks. The order to kill civilian non-combatants is an unlawful order which the military personnel who receive it have a legal and moral duty to challenge and either decline to carry out or resign from the military. It was scandalous because the president and his secretary of defense boasted about it.” (02/26/26)
Source: Future of Freedom Foundation
by James Vermilion
“Seventy years ago, Leonard Read invited a pencil to tell its story. The lesson has not changed. Only the complexity has. I am a computer chip. I am a thin square of silicon, sealed in plastic, small enough to disappear into your phone, your car, your thermostat, or your pacemaker. You notice me only when I fail. Yet each day you ask more of me than entire rooms of machinery once delivered in a year. You may say I am made in factories, designed by engineers, financed by corporations, and regulated by governments. Each of these statements is true. And yet no single person on earth knows how to make me.” (02/26/26)
“President Donald Trump appears intent on war with Iran. After demanding that Norway give him the Nobel Peace Prize for magically solving multiple imagined conflicts, he is threatening to ignite a real war with an unjustified aggressive attack on a nation half a world away that poses no danger to America. He is unashamedly acting on behalf of another government, violating his duty to the American people under the U.S. Constitution, which does not authorize the president to wander the globe bombing other nations at will.” (02/26/26)
“In early February, the barbarians reached my gate. There could be no more comfort or denial here on this island where I live. The masked thugs were roving through a town just across the water, a short ferry ride away, harassing and arresting long-time residents. I was shocked, but not surprised. What do we do now? Yes, we all knew they were coming, still…. I was raised in the post-World War II ‘it can’t happen here’ era. Hadn’t my parents’ generation crushed the Nazis for all time? While we’d been taught that democracy, like a faith or a marriage, did need tending, we had mostly taken it for granted. Yes, I did understand that life as I had lived it was under attack, but there was still, I thought, some time to respond.” (02/26/26)
“The Trump administration’s rhetoric on Iran is beginning to sound familiar in ways that should make Congress uneasy, if what’s past is prologue. The language is confident, abstract, and deliberately imprecise. Trump has casually talked about strikes on Iran, while skirting the far more consequential questions that follow large-scale military strikes that could include escalation, retaliation, political collapse, and long-term responsibility.” (02/26/26)
“To those of us who studied political science, Perú presents a bit of a taxonomic conundrum. We’re all taught at school that systems where the executive needs to keep parliament on side to stay in power are called ‘parliamentary,’ and systems where the executive is separately elected and serves a fixed term independent of legislative majorities are called ‘presidential.’ These are the two flavors democracy comes in. Everyone knows this. Perú didn’t get the memo. Peruvian legislators have figured out one weird trick that magically turns a presidential system parliamentary.” (02/26/26)
“Severe weather events now cause billions in damages annually, while electricity demand is on the rise — driven by economic growth and the expansion of artificial intelligence and advanced manufacturing. Building resilient, modern infrastructure will be essential for maintaining global competitiveness, ensuring affordability and reliability, and supporting a growing domestic economy. Yet even as our capacity to build the economic and technical infrastructure we need has stalled, we are also losing much of the natural infrastructure we depend on.” (02/26/26)
“The Supreme Court’s decision is clear. The president did not have the authority to impose most of his tariffs. President Donald Trump argued that, under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, his actions were justified because of a national emergency caused by a foreign threat. In the 6-3 ruling, the court said that, on the contrary, that act provides Congress with that authority, which hadn’t delegated it to the president. The tariffs left standing are largely by sector: cars, semiconductors, steel. Trump, like the infamous honey badger, don’t care. The president immediately insulted the six justices who ruled against him, calling them ‘disloyal’, ‘unpatriotic’ and ‘lapdogs… for the radical left Democrats’. Then he turned around and reimposed a global 15% tariff rate.” (02/26/26)
