Source: Ludwig von Mises Institute
by Wanjiru Njoya
“In the Ethics of Liberty, Murray Rothbard argued that aggressive war is always immoral and must always be opposed. The just war doctrine should be understood not as a moral toolkit that can be harnessed to justify aggressive war, but, on the contrary, as an exception to the foundational anti-war principle. This means that the just war exception should never become more important than the anti-war rule. Unfortunately, many now treat the just war doctrine as a presumption that launching war is morally upstanding so long as a ‘just cause’ can be found to rationalize it.” (09/01/26)
“On December 13, 1790, just one week after Philadelphia became the U.S. capital, President Washington wrote to several Hebrew congregations across the fledgling nation to respond to the congratulations they sent him for his inauguration as president. Washington opened the letter by invoking a word that today is almost lost to history. He praised the congregations for their ‘liberality of sentiment’ concerning religious tolerance, arguing that ‘the affection of such people is a treasure beyond the reach of calculation.’ The virtue Washington identified—’liberality’—is the progenitor of modern political liberalism. To understand why Washington held this ideal in such high regard, we must return to the ancient Romans who inspired him, and follow the history of liberality from antiquity to the present. In this ancient virtue lies the seeds of modern political liberalism—and quite possibly an antidote to the crisis of meaning that plagues liberalism today.” (08/31/26)
Source: Common Dreams
by Medea Benjamin & Nicolas JS Davies
“Simon Bolivar, the great liberator of South America, famously observed, ‘The United States appear(s) to be destined by Providence to plague America with misery in the name of liberty’. For 200 years, US leaders have never proved him wrong. In the early 1800s, Bolivar led what is now Venezuela and five other countries to independence from the Spanish Empire. But the United States still refuses to recognize the independence of other countries in the region. Wannabe emperor Donald Trump even refers to Canadian prime minister Mark Carney as a ‘governor’, as if Canada was merely another US state. The US-backed despots replacing popular democratic and socialist governments across Latin America today are indeed doing so in the name of liberty, as Bolivar warned.” (09/01/26)
“Once upon a time, New York Tribune editor Horace Greeley dispensed some memorable advice to a young correspondent seeking advice on how to become successful: ‘So many people ask me what they shall do; so few tell me what they can do. Yet this is the pivot wherein all must turn. I believe that each of us who has his place to make should go where men are wanted, and where employment is not bestowed as alms. Of course, I say to all who are in want of work, Go West!’ … What’s the modern-day equivalent? It might not be as aspirational as Greeley’s advice, but here it is: ‘Want to be a millionaire? Don’t start a business. Run for Congress!'” (08/31/26)
“In America’s recent experience, the first six months of a war are the best ones. Six months after the invasion of Iraq, the U.S. was setting up a provisional government in Baghdad and hunting down Saddam Hussein. Six months after the invasion of Afghanistan, with the Taliban shattered and Osama bin Laden on the run, combat was winding down. Six months after the 1991 Gulf War, U.S. troops had withdrawn, victorious, from Iraq. Even the Vietnam War looked eminently winnable six months after U.S. Marines landed at Da Nang. But the war with Iran is different. … [Donald Trump] began the war, egged on by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, assuming it would be a simple duplicate of the U.S. strike that toppled Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and installed a puppet government in Caracas. But the Iranian regime is a far more formidable adversary.” (08/31/26)
“The editors of the Wall Street Journal continue to describe President Donald Trump’s campaign against Canada as ‘the dumbest trade war in history,’ but there’s stiff competition for that title. Americans are still paying a 25 percent tax on imported light trucks in retaliation for European taxes on our chickens in the 1960s. The stupidity of Trump’s recent escalation is certainly impressive, though, and it contains as many layers as a Canuck walking to Tim Hortons in January. Consider these six.” (08/31/26)
Source: Future of Freedom Foundation
by Jacob G Hornberger
“Why save and reform immoral, dysfunctional, and destructive systems that have obviously failed to achieve their purported ends and, in the process, have served to destroy the liberty of the American people? The question is especially pertinent to libertarians, given that genuine libertarianism is about freedom, not attaining some sort of warmed-over, improved serfdom. Here is my libertarian solution to the massive amount of federal spending that undergirds the federal government’s rapidly growing $40 trillion debt that now hangs over the American people like a sword of Damocles …” (08/31/26)
“Canada’s Prime Minister Mark Carney took to the airwaves on August 22 to explain in a speech and Q&A why he walked away from trade negotiations with the United States and thereby opened Canada to economy-crushing tariffs from the country once considered its closest friend. … the U.S., at the last minute, had rewritten items already agreed to: ‘The U.S. proposed new terms that were uneconomic, unfair, and undermined the net benefits to Canada.’ That, he said, called into question ‘the reliability of any deal.’ The Trump administration’s unreliability, the prime minister explained, was not a new problem or one likely to go away soon. … Other U.S. partners, namely Saudi Arabia and Ukraine, have made similar complaints in recent weeks. … Though Trump boasts of the art of the deal, there is a historical pattern that suggests, instead, the art of the broken deal.” (08/31/26)
“In a court victory the Trump administration effectively handed to the plaintiff, a federal judge cited First Amendment concerns in slapping down the federal government’s designation of AI company Anthropic as a ‘supply chain risk to national security.’ The company also won a due process claim. President Donald Trump and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth made clear their intent to punish the company for its ethical limitations on how its technology can be used when they banned federal agencies and contractors from doing business with Anthropic. The White House has been reminded that government officials can’t do that in the U.S.” (08/31/26)
“Milo Yiannopoulos, the Gamergate reporter who exposed the Left’s attempt to push feminism, LGBT and diversity into gaming; the Breitbart enfant terrible who called himself a ‘virtuous troll’ among corporate media types; the bête noire of campus lecturers, the jokester who mocked the wokesters before becoming a woke joke himself; the gay ‘conservative’ who became a straight far-right (?) influencer; the celebrity-turned-obscurity who turned everyone off, the wannabe podcaster who grifted where he could; the flimsy buddy to white nationalists who betrayed them when their association stopped paying the bills; Kanye West’s former PR guy who failed at his own PR, the guy who was ‘super-hot back in 2015, 2016 and… kind of disappeared’ according to Ben Shapiro; the male version of Sue Mengers, bad taste but lacking class, connections, common decency, or relevance; and a chief cheerleader for deporting all illegal aliens (and the above-mentioned Shapiro, disturbingly enough), has been deported.” (08/31/26)
