“A wise man — possibly Winston Churchill — once said, ‘Never let a good crisis go to waste.’ And if he’d lived long enough to see President Trump in office, he might have added, ‘Especially if you can turn it into a real estate project.’ In the aftermath of the chaos at the White House Correspondents’ dinner, Trump was presented with yet another opportunity to refocus his presidency on issues important to the American people. Instead, he chose to exploit the opportunity for his personal priorities. The real crisis, in his telling, was less about guns or mental health and more about America’s strategic shortage of sufficiently opulent indoor gathering spaces.” (05/01/26)
Source: Caitlin Johnstone, Rogue Journalist
by Caitlin Johnstone
“Laws aimed at pro-Palestine protests should always be looked at as efforts to ban criticism of Israel. That’s what we’re seeing in the UK as the prime minister encourages the prosecution of anyone who says ‘globalise the intifada.’ ‘If you stand alongside people who say globalise the intifada, you are calling for terrorism against Jews and people who use that phrase should be prosecuted,’ said Keir Starmer during a Thursday press conference. ‘It is racism, extremely racism and it has left a minority community in this country scared, intimidated, wondering if they belong. So, I say again this government will do everything in our power to stamp this hatred out.'” (05/02/26)
“Jürgen Habermas (1929–2026) dominated post-war European liberal philosophy. He dedicated his life to the rational foundation of a global liberal order and the post-national European Union. Loaded with philosophical terms, his writing does not invite the reader, yet there is pathos in the background. Habermas addressed the question of whether the Enlightenment was the cause of the German genocides and Germany’s own ruin.” (05/01/26)
“Long time ago, May Day was about celebrating Spring — for which rejoicing is appropriate. Over the last century, it has become International Workers’ Day. ‘In 1889, an international federation of socialist groups and trade unions designated May 1 as pro-workers day,’ informs the Wikidates.org website, ‘on the anniversary of the Haymarket Riots in Chicago (1886).’ Five years later, clearly opposed to cavorting with socialists, the U.S. established Labor Day on September 1, an alternative date to honor workers. Today, political rallies and protests are expected in major cities across the country.” (05/01/26)
“In its daily use of social media (three hours, 32 minutes on average), Latin America leads the world. Over the past quarter century, it has nearly tripled the number of people attending university and cut poverty by about half. This list of notable trends could go on, regardless of concerns about crime, corruption, and caudillo-style rulers. Together, however, they might help explain this latest news: Last year, the region saw the greatest improvement in key indicators of democracy, such as political participation and civil liberties, compared with Asia, Africa, and elsewhere. In fact, it was the only region to improve. And Latin America did so after seeing nine years of decline on the index of democracy compiled annually by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU).” (05/01/26)
“In ‘It’s On You,’ Nick Chater and George Loewenstein turn from advocates of ‘nudging,’ subtle policy efforts to shape behavior without coercion, to critics who see it as ineffective and misleading.” (05/01/26)
“In my March 5 Dispatch article on the Iran War and the Constitution, I explained why Donald Trump’s initiation of the war without congressional authorization is unconstitutional. As of today, it is also in violation of the War Powers Act of 1973. Enacted in the wake of the Vietnam War, the WPA requires the president to secure congressional approval within 60 days of entering U.S. troops into ‘hostilities’ or situations ‘where imminent involvement in hostilities is clearly indicated by the circumstances.’ The president can seek a 30 day extension without additional congressional authorization, but Trump has not done so in this case. The sixty day deadline expires today. Therefore, Trump is now in violation of the WPA, as well as the Constitution.” 905/01/26)
“On three major occasions in President Trump’s second term, his opponents, including many elected officials, have taken to the streets under the banner of ‘No Kings.’ And yet just this week, King Charles III spoke before our joint houses of Congress, where his comments about governmental checks and balances drew a standing ovation from everyone there. A contradiction lies here, between our history and our perception of it. The truth is, the law that made kings untouchable (that ‘the king can do no wrong) has never gone away in the United States. Instead, it multiplied. Today we call it ‘sovereign immunity.'” [editor’s note: Fascinating how this “progressive” pundit babbles about “sovereign immunity” when the “qualified” version for police is the real problem – SAT] [editor’s note: Fascinating how SAT doesn’t understand that the “qualified” version is a just a subset of the “sovereign” version and that both are irredeemably evil – TLK] (05/02/26)
Source: Foundation for Economic Education
by Denise Lever
“For our family, learning didn’t follow the traditional school calendar, and the results look nothing like traditional school outcomes. Years ago, when I started homeschooling our three kids, I made the rookie mistake of trying to replicate the traditional school system. Up early, hours of instruction, correcting pages of work, and the outcome was inevitable. I soon discovered that not only was this time consuming and exhausting; it was also unnecessary. I was fortunate to have a veteran homeschooler guiding me when we started. She gently nudged me to consider what a more bespoke education could look like. We intentionally chose a family-centric calendar over an institutional one, and before long, we were schooling a couple of hours a day while holding space for interests, hobbies, and relationships.” (05/01/26)
“I was kind of disappointed to see that more hadn’t changed in the past 12 years in libertarian-land. On the one hand, there was open acknowledgement that the far-right was a salient problem. On the other hand, that problem was blamed on Russian interference, antifa, and the far left rather than low social mobility, status loss, or inequality. On the one hand, they’ll talk about how it takes five years to open a standard-issue coffee shop in Madrid. On the other hand, they won’t mention the lobbyists the transnational coffee and retail corporations hire to write these rules. For some reason. At the same time, I was super impressed with what Students For Liberty has been able to accomplish in terms of their chapters.” (05/01/26)
