“Just over halfway into the term of Guatemala’s reformist leader, the ‘democratic spring’ that he and his Movimiento Semilla (Seed Movement) sought to nurture is sending up fresh shoots of hope for lawful governance. President Bernardo Arévalo has appointed a new attorney general, marking what he calls ‘a new chapter’ for the small Central American nation. The outgoing attorney general, María Consuelo Porras, had tried to derail Mr. Arévalo’s 2024 inauguration, and has since obstructed multiple efforts to promote judicial impartiality and transparency. To many Guatemalans, Ms. Porras’ tenure symbolized entrenched political impunity and corruption that used the power of the state to settle scores with perceived enemies and make allowances for allies. In 2022, the United States cited her for repeatedly undermining anti-corruption efforts to ‘gain undue political favor.'” (05/08/26)
“Delaying pension contributions may ease immediate pressure on New York City’s budget, but the shell game reveals deeper weaknesses in the city’s finances.” (05/08/26)
Source: Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression
by Jessie Appleby
“The University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) School of Law is in the midst of a free-speech emergency. When a major American law school teaches its students that the right way to respond to political opponents is to silence them, something has gone wrong. And when it then attempts to protect those disruptive students from public criticism by threatening other students’ speech, it’s a crisis. That’s just what happened at UCLA this past month.” (05/08/26)
“‘We are socialists.’ So said Adolf Hitler. The Left desperately tries to portray Hitler as some sort of ‘rightis,t’ mainly because he was so opposed to Soviet Bolshevism. But just as there are different manifestations of ‘right-wing’ philosophies, there are different ‘left-wing’ ideologies as well. And socialism is a leftist philosophy, not a ‘rightist’ one. ‘National Socialist German Workers’ Party’ was the official name of Hitler’s political party (‘Nazi’ comes from the German word ‘Nationalsozialistische,’ or national socialist). Hitler was a totalitarian leftist, not a Christian, right-wing, pro-American, freedom-loving conservative.” (05/10/26)
“Bill Jamieson wrote a Sunday Telegraph story titled ‘Your starter for £1,000’ on 31 December 1995. It discussed the Adam Smith Institute proposal for ‘baby bonds’ or ‘Fortune Accounts.’ When the IPPR copied the idea in 1999, without reference to the ASI’s earlier publication, Jamieson directed them to his 1995 story and published the fact. A version of it was implemented by the Blair government. it was called the Child Trust Fund, launched in 2002 and scrapped in 2010. It would undoubtedly be a very popular policy, were it to be given another go in the way I outline. Each newborn child would have £1,000 put into an investment account in their name, but no withdrawals could be made until age 18. Money paid in by family or friends would be tax-free and contribute to its growth.” (05/08/26)
“No one disputes that the regime in Iran is awful. The government massacres its own people. Iran is a major state sponsor of terrorism and has been for decades. But the reality is that Trump is ad-libbing the war with Iran from day to day. After launching his attack against Iran on Feb. 28, Trump told an audience, ‘We’ve won.’ Yet here we are, 10 weeks later, with the Strait of Hormuz still closed, the regime still in power, the national average price of gas approaching $5 a gallon and jet fuel, airline ticket prices and baggage fees on the rise. Is this what Republicans are supposed to run on in the 2026 midterm elections?” (05/08/26)
Source: Future of Freedom Foundation
by Jacob G Hornberger
“[W]ho has it right when it came to celebrating genuine freedom on the Fourth of July — Americans in 1875, who lived without income taxation, Social Security, Medicare, welfare, immigration controls and immigration police state, non-interventionism, a national-security state, drug war, public (i.e., government) schooling, and other statist programs — or Americans today, who live under all these statist systems?” (05/08/26)
Source: Caitlin Johnstone, Rogue Journalist
by Caitlin Johnstone
“The EU is looking to ban VPNs, arguing that the ban is necessary to police recent online age verification laws. Critics have been warning for years that these age restriction laws are being rolled out around the world to erase online anonymity and enable greater surveillance of the entire population, and they are looking more vindicated than ever today. This isn’t about protecting children from social media addiction and porn, it’s about expanding the western empire’s surveillance network. This happens as the FCC moves to require ID verification for every phone activation in the United States, claiming the push is about stopping robocalls but effectively ending another form of anonymous communication. It’s always been about being able to more closely monitor the behavior of the public to make sure nobody’s plotting a revolution.” (05/09/26)
“‘Thank God for Mississippi’ was something I heard a lot in my younger years, after moving to Arkansas. Friends from Alabama and Louisiana also know the saying well. Back then, Mississippi was ranked 50th in so many categories by which the states were measured against each other that the Magnolia State saved those inhabiting states near the bottom from occupying that un-coveted dead last place. This was still the case in 2005, when Mississippi ranked 50th in fourth-grade reading scores. In 2013, Mississippi students climbed one rung, to 49th. Then things started to change.” (05/08/26)
