“I’ve been suspicious of the Southern Poverty Law Center for some time. The SPLC, a nonprofit founded in 1971, was built to combat hate and discrimination. The mission sounds worthy enough. But then the group began publishing its annual ‘Year in Hate and Extremism’ report, identifying hundreds – sometimes more than 1,000 – ‘hate groups’ across the United States. In 2019, it labeled Alliance Defending Freedom, a prominent conservative legal organization, a ‘hate group.’ Calling a firm that focuses on First Amendment and religious liberty cases a hate group is like calling a defense attorney a criminal for representing the accused. For many conservatives, that was a bridge too far, and it eroded their trust in the SPLC. I thought I might have been onto something. It turns out the situation could be even more serious.” (04/23/26)
“Writing more than 2,000 years ago, the Greek historian Plutarch gave us an eloquent description of what modern historians now call ‘micro-militarism.’ When an imperial power like Athens then, or America now, is in decline, its leaders often react emotionally by mounting seemingly bold military strikes in hopes of regaining the imperial grandeur that’s slipping through their fingers. Instead of another of the great victories the empire won at its peak of power, however, such military misadventures only serve to accelerate the ongoing decline, erasing whatever aura of imperial majesty remains and revealing instead the moral rot deep inside the ruling elite. There is mounting historical evidence that America is indeed an empire in steep decline, while President Donald Trump’s war of choice against Iran is becoming the sort of micro-military disaster that helped destroy successive empires over the past 2,500 years …” (04/23/26)
“Mancur Olson’s The Rise and Decline of Nations doesn’t provide a particularly optimistic picture: once your nation has been stable for a while, and may even have risen to wealth, it becomes more and more vulnerable to ‘institutional sclerosis.’ This happens because small groups are better able to overcome free-riding, resulting in their ability to effectively skew the system towards their own interests. As more and more of these groups emerge, survive and are able to reap their rents—protected from that competition which makes for general progress and growth—the overall system deteriorates. If you take Olson’s work to its logical conclusion, a very effective cure for economic stagnation is a catastrophic war. That is obviously not a desirable solution. But Olson was pointing to a real issue: the longer a society remains stable, the more it gets choked by special interest groups.” (04/23/26)
“[W]hat are Republicans to do? They try blaming Joe Biden, but the public does not buy that he is still responsible for the economy. They try preconditioning the electorate to dispute the 2026 election with specious fraud claims, but have found none: courts have slapped down demands for voter rolls (a scheme to purge voters), and a blue wave would make fraud claims entirely unbelievable. They try labeling the affordability crisis a ‘hoax,’ which only further enrages voters. They try to distract voters from serial failures with mean-spirited attacks on trans Americans, but the vast majority of voters do not put that on the list of their top concerns. … In sum, Republicans are rarely asked what they have done to deserve re-election.” (04/23/26)
Source: Foundation for Economic Education
by Mike Salem
“As London heads toward local elections on May 7, voters will hear plenty about housing, crime and the cost of living. But on the streets, literally underfoot, a smaller, more visible issue is shaping perceptions of how well the city is run: the explosion of dockless e-bikes. What should have been a triumph of consumer choice and green innovation has instead become a daily frustration. Across the capital, rental bikes are left sprawled across pavements, obstructing pedestrians and provoking growing public irritation. For many, this looks like a failure of the market. In reality, it is the opposite.” (04/23/26)
“Waymo cars are currently being tested in driverless mode in London and UK cities, and prepared for passenger use later this year. Waymo has started letting its software take the wheel on London streets, with trained specialists on standby as it gradually accelerates toward a fully driverless ride-hailing launch. It is aiming for a commercial launch in London by autumn 2026, which would make it the company’s first operational city outside the United States. Road safety is arguably the most significant potential benefit. Waymo’s technology has been involved in five times fewer injury-causing collisions, and twelve times fewer injury-causing collisions with pedestrians compared to human drivers in US deployments. … One of the most compelling and less-discussed benefits is for people who cannot drive.” (04/23/26)
“A circuit court has ruled that Virginia’s new voter-passed congressional map, gerrymandered to give Democrats in the state a prohibitive advantage in the next congressional election, is unconstitutional.
Judge Jack Hurley, of the Circuit Court of the Commonwealth of Virginia for the 29th Judicial Circuit, Tazewell County, denied a motion to stay his injunction blocking certification of the election using the new districts. Former Virginia attorney general Ken Cuccinelli reports that once a final order is drafted and entered, ‘it will be immediately appealed.’ If the rejiggering survives the challenge, it could be the factor that tips the balance in the House of Representatives toward the Democrats next November.” (04/23/26)
Source: Fox News
by Lt. Col. Robert Maginnis, (USA, ret.)
“On Tuesday, President Donald Trump posted on Truth Social that he would extend the ceasefire with Iran — with no set deadline — until Tehran’s leaders can “come up with a unified proposal.” That announcement landed hours after Vice President JD Vance’s trip to Islamabad for a second round of peace talks was canceled without explanation, after Iranian officials told U.S. counterparts through Pakistani intermediaries that they would not appear at the table. Trump had said that very morning he did not want to extend. By Tuesday evening, he did. The extension may have been unavoidable. What happened in the Strait of Hormuz on Wednesday makes clear exactly what Washington bought.” (04/23/26)
Source: Libertarian Institute
by Joseph Solis-Mullen
“While taxation is coercive, economically distortive, and ultimately something to be abolished, it does not follow that one may simply opt out of the existing legal regime. As much as one might wish otherwise, there does exist — at present — a binding legal obligation to report and pay income taxes under U.S. law. This article then is a response to a recent post on Twitter by Peter Schiff, who argued that, unlike excise taxes, the Internal Revenue Code contains no provision that creates a liability to pay the income tax, rendering it effectively ‘voluntary.’ This is not a new argument. It is, in fact, one of the more persistent claims advanced by so-called ‘tax protester’ theories. And like most such claims, it depends less on the structure of the law than on a selective reading of it.” (04/23/26)
