“The war in Iran has forced many Americans to confront what their tax dollars make them party to. After the US has killed hundreds of Iranian children in school and bombed the country’s civilian infrastructure, more and more Americans are considering tax refusal. It’s a tradition older than the republic itself. Quakers resisted military taxes in the colonies, sometimes at the price of seized property. Thomas David Thoreau was jailed for refusing a poll tax in protest of slavery and the Mexican-American War. And hundreds of thousands resisted the telephone tax during the Vietnam War, when the National War Tax Resistance counted 192 centers in 45 states. Call that ‘freedom.’ In an age of ascendant religious liberty, a fortunate class of Americans enjoys it in special measure. Employers, schools, religious institutions, and corporations have won exemption after exemption from ordinary legal duties they claim violate their religious faith.” (06/04/26)
Source: Ludwig von Mises Institute
by William L Anderson
“When the communist regimes of Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union collapsed in 1990 and 1991, followers of the Austrian School of Economics knew that socialism’s lack of a coherent method of economic calculation certainly led to the demise of these regimes. Economists had known for years of the chronic shortages, shoddy workmanship, and all of the other negative aspects of economic life in those countries and why no one who understood socialism was surprised at these results.” (06/04/26)
Source: Rutherford Institute
by John & Nisha Whitehead
“We are losing ground economically. We are losing credibility abroad. We are losing tourists, workers, stability, trust, constitutional guardrails, and whatever remained of the illusion that the government answers to ‘we the people.’ The tourism economy is taking a hit, with international visitors increasingly reluctant to come to the United States. Even migration—the lifeblood of America’s economic growth, innovation, labor force and national renewal—is now moving in the wrong direction. Fewer people are coming in, more Americans are leaving, and by some estimates the country has already crossed into negative net migration. That is not the mark of a nation ‘winning.’ It is the mark of a nation people are increasingly choosing to escape.” (06/03/26)
“There’s a lot of hostility toward ‘the rich.’ Especially billionaires. The hostility is misplaced. The real divide is not ‘the rich’ versus ‘everyone else.’ It is those who seek to rule, versus everyone they seek to rule.” (06/03/26)
“The bottom income quintile is not a static social class but a temporary snapshot of lives in motion. Most Americans do not remain poor for life, and removing policy barriers can help more people move up.” (06/04/26)
“The PEACE Act, a proposed ballot measure that essentially bans fishing, hunting, ranching, and trapping, appears to have gathered enough valid signatures to qualify for the ballot in Oregon this November. If it passes and is not reversed in court, look for other states to follow suit and for food prices and insecurity to grow, all for no net reduction in animal cruelty.” (06/04/26)
“An addendum to the president’s ‘settlement’ of his lawsuit against the IRS shields him and his family from liability for any federal offenses they committed prior to May 19.” (06/03/26)
“Ultimately, the new Section 301 tariffs appear to be yet another attempt to give the president a blank check to impose tariffs at will. The same is true of the administration’s plans to use Section 301 to target ‘structural excess capacity,’ which rely on the absurd premise that it is somehow an unfair trade practice for countries to be able to produce more goods than they can use themselves.” (06/04/26)