Source: Ludwig von Mises Institute
by Connor O’Keeffe
“In 1977, Murray Rothbard wrote an article in response to an issue of Reason Magazine where the main feature of the month was a debate between interventionism and non-interventionism. The bulk of the 3,000-word article is spent tearing apart the two pieces by alleged libertarians who are advocating an interventionist foreign policy. But, before he dives in, Rothbard devotes some time to attacking the idea that this should even be up for debate within libertarian circles at all …” (04/22/26)
“More than three decades after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the promise of a democratic Russia has given way to something much darker — and far more durable.” (04/22/26)
“Please excuse me for returning yet again to a solution to the UK student loans system. At present, graduates are burdened with debt that can climb, despite repayments, because of interest charges. It would be difficult for taxpayers to fund student costs, given that it would involve poorer people (for the most part) paying higher taxes so that those less poor could be given access to higher incomes in later life. The money has to come from somewhere, but if not from students themselves or taxpayers, then from whom? The obvious answer is business sponsorship of students.” (04/22/26)
“Earth Day once helped focus public attention on real environmental problems. Today it is a festival of alarmism, misanthropy, technophobia, and moral theatrics.” (04/22/26)
“President Donald Trump’s doubts about the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) date back at least to the 1980s, when he took out full-page newspaper ads questioning the value of defending prosperous allies capable of paying for their own security. So, when he voices frustration with the alliance and the lack of support among its members for the U.S. and Israeli campaign against Iran’s theocratic regime, it’s not a new development. What’s new is growing disenchantment with NATO among Americans, led by the president’s Republican supporters.” (04/22/26)
“As another week of Trump’s war begins, it becomes ever more clear that all his presumptions about how the war would go have proven wrong. Iran’s economy has bent but not folded despite a blockade of its ports. Its ability to control the Strait of Hormuz hasn’t been eliminated. Iran still has drones and missiles for retaliatory attacks. The regime’s control of the population remains. Gas prices and the cost of oil remain high. The war goes on. Trump’s deadline on the cease-fire expires April 22. Will Vice President JD Vance travel to Islamabad for a second round of talks with Iran? … The only certainty is in Trump’s mind: that Iran has ‘no choice. We’ve taken out their navy, we’ve taken out their air force, we’ve taken out their leaders,’ he said on his social media. He just doesn’t get it.” (04/22/26)
Source: Liberal Currents
by Holly Berkley Fletcher
“Around the country, Mainline Protestant churches are stepping up to help organizing the resistance to ICE’s incursions into their communities.” (04/22/26)
“Palantir CEO Alex Karp’s book, The Technological Republic, is a clarion call for Silicon Valley to abandon its consumer trinkets and rush headlong into the arms of the military-industrial complex. According to Karp, America’s future depends on wielding hard power through technology — arming soldiers, AI-weaponry, and mass surveillance systems — rather than on the ‘soft’ influence demonstrated by free markets and liberty-first principles. The book claims that ‘the survival of the American experiment depends on the technological revitalization of the military-industrial complex’ and urges the country’s engineering talent to focus on national defense. … This techno-militarism dressed up as patriotic duty presumes that concentration of power in the state and its corporate allies (isn’t there a word for this?) is not only desirable, but morally required.” (04/22/26)
Source: The American Conservative
by Harrison Berger
“When the NSA responded to [Tucker] Carlson’s 2021 allegation that the agency had been monitoring his communications, it said only that he had never been an intelligence ‘target,’ a carefully lawyered denial that conspicuously avoided saying his communications had never been queried under programs like FISA Section 702. The NSA’s response was also unusual since three-letter agencies typically neither confirm nor deny whether any specific individual’s communications have been collected. On how Trump, another documented victim of FISA abuse, and Johnson, who built his political identity around opposition to FBI overreach, both ended up as the leading advocates for a clean renewal of those spying powers, Carlson pointed to institutional capture and coercion.” (04/22/26)
