Source: Foundation for Economic Education
by Pedro Urso
“The persistence of underdevelopment in Latin America cannot fully be explained solely by external factors, colonial legacies, or unfavorable cycles in the international economy. While these elements have played a significant role throughout history, it has become increasingly evident that the main obstacles to the region’s sustainable development lie in the fragility, capture, and dysfunctionality of its institutions. If the countries of this region intend to break with its history of low growth, inequality, and instability, the first step is to correct their political, legal, and economic institutions.” (01/15/26)
“Donald Trump may, of course, be the Republican candidate for president in 2028, the U.S. Constitution notwithstanding. Although it is clearly written in the 22nd Amendment that ‘no person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice’, it may well be a majority vote of the Supreme Court that determines whether that applies to Trump. In the past, that court has gotten around the Constitution without a single word of it being changed. Rather, its judges have let an innovative interpretation prevail. In 1896, for instance, in Plessy v. Ferguson, the court ignored the unambiguous language of the 14th Amendment that demanded ‘equal protection’ and so upheld racial segregation by creating the fiction of ‘separate but equal’. It would take 58 years before that lie would be overturned.” (01/15/25)
“The public is coming around to the notion that the agency has to be eliminated. Fortunately, this administration and its Supreme Court allies have made that incredibly easy.” (01/15/26)
Source: The Dispatch
by Katharine B Stevens & Jenet Erickson
“‘[F]ree’ child care is one of the rare proposals to attract support across the political spectrum — from progressives concerned about affordability and gender equity to conservatives hoping to boost family formation and the labor force. It looks like a simple, popular solution to several hard problems at once. But political appeal is not the same as sound policy for young children. This sweeping plan to shift the care of America’s young children from their families to paid providers is wrong for children, not what most parents want, and undervalues the family’s irreplaceable role in early development.” (01/15/26)
“OK, so abundance has legs — but what kind of creature are they attached to? And where are those legs capable of taking us? What are the appropriate contours of the concept — we want an abundance of what, exactly? And what’s the social vision behind this desire for more — we want abundance for what?” (01/15/26)
“Our big, important job, before we can change our systems, is to figure out how to dampen dynamics that hasten humiliation or deny dignity. In other words, how do we help people keep their cool?” (01/15/26)
“On January 7, an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent fatally shot Renee Good in Minneapolis—a city long enriched by immigrants and now under assault from thousands of ICE and Customs and Border Protection agents. Good, a 37-year-old poet and mother of three, was driving alongside her wife, Becca. They were observing an ICE raid in their community. ‘We stopped to support our neighbors. We had whistles. They had guns,’ said Becca. Sadly, at least three other people have been killed by ICE officers in the last five months, according to The Marshall Project. Among them was Silverio Villegas González, a 38-year-old father and cook originally from Mexico, who was fatally shot during a traffic stop in a Chicago suburb. Keith Porter Jr., a 43-year-old father of two (and, like Good, a US citizen) was shot and killed by an off-duty ICE agent on New Year’s Eve in Los Angeles.” (01/15/25)
“We’ve seen masked government agents roughing people up, shouting obscenities at them, trapping them on freezing cold roofs, smashing their car windows, shooting pastors with pepper balls, shoving women to the ground, separating mothers from their children, and killing an unarmed American citizen as she attempted to maneuver her car away, dog in the backseat and glove compartment overflowing with colorful stuffed animals. This is not just excessive anti-immigrant zeal. This is certainly not the normal push and pull between political philosophies or parties. This is the Republican party’s attempt to tyrannize the American people and transform our carefully balanced, rights-honoring republic into a thugocracy.” (01/15/26)
“The president went from praising ‘the wars we never get into’ to seeing how many the US can get into, and prominent members of his base are eating it up.” (01/15/26)
Source: Tenth Amendment Center
by Joe Wolverton, II
“Fortunately, there is a means of exposing suspected terrorists to justice, even when they are hiding out in nations that refuse to extradite them to the United States for that purpose. Article I, Section 8, Clause 11 of the Constitution authorizes Congress to ‘grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal.’ This is a power that is rarely discussed and almost never exercised.” (01/15/26)
