“Free societies depend on institutions that reduce the trust burden of dealing with strangers. The work of political economist Elinor Ostrom reminds us that institutions earn legitimacy not by projecting authority, but by aligning rules, roles, and incentives with the problem they are meant to solve. When an institution is fit for purpose, people can see it. They may not love every inconvenience it imposes, but they can tell that it is organized around solving a real shared problem. That legibility is part of what makes trust possible.” (03/30/26)
“The future of expression online will in part rest on today’s debates over what age groups can legally use platforms deemed ‘social media’ and what information we must provide to prove we’re adults and allowed to access them. This week, developments out of the UK and Australia continued the global age-verification campaign, as governments around the world push full steam ahead into dicey questions of who is allowed to speak, whether they can do so anonymously, and what responsibilities rest on platforms when teens are users.” (03/30/26)
Source: Caitlin Johnstone, Rogue Journalist
by Caitlin Johnstone
“Whenever Israel is killing tons of civilians the western media always start churning out articles about ‘antisemitism’ and Jewish feelings. ‘Jews Begin to Wonder: Is Anywhere Safe?’ blares a recent headline from The Wall Street Journal, subtitled ‘‘It feels like the 1930s again.’ Hostility against Jews surges in Western countries where they felt safe in recent decades.’ An article for The Atlantic titled ‘Canada’s Polite Pogrom’ bizarrely tries to argue that ‘tolerance for zealotry’ is somehow ‘purging Jews from public life.’ A Washington Examiner headline proclaims that ‘Jewish voters feel ‘politically homeless’ as antisemitism rises on both sides.’ A headline for The Telegraph asserts that ‘Many Jews are sensing frightening echoes of 1930s Germany in 2020s Britain.’ War Criminal Tony Blair writes an article for The Free Press titled ‘Why the West Fails to Stop Antisemitism.'” (03/30/26)
“A brash bid to reassert U.S. dominance is delivering short-term wins. But a region tired of being pushed around may not stay compliant for long.” (03/30/26)
“Once you admit the notable prevalence and grave danger of crypto-Communist politicians during a particular era, there is a clear-cut contemporary implication: A notable share of current and would-be leaders who say they aren’t Communists are probably lying. If you’re living through this era, this raises a thorny question: ‘How do we identify the crypto-Communists before it’s too late?’ Needless to say, you can’t just publicly ask them, because they’ll lie. You could do a thorough background check, but the people who know the most are usually fellow Communists eager to protect their own. So you’re usually left with three admittedly imperfect heuristics.” (03/30/26)
“Unfortunately, not everyone today thinks that natural property rights are obvious. Especially in the faculty lounges of law schools and political science departments, it is now taken for granted that rights are products of sovereign power alone. Property rights in particular are assumed to be entirely conventional. Without positive laws, there is no property. And without politics, there are no positive laws. This simplistic creed has motivated a corrosive skepticism of natural property rights, which scholars and teachers have expressed in books, articles, and classrooms for more than a century.” (03/30/26)
“The congressional fight over funding the Department of Homeland Security has caused massive security lines at many large airports around the country. Privatizing airport security could avoid this problem in the future, but a more radical reform — abolishing the Transportation Security Administration and its monopoly on security procedures — would be a better solution.” (03/30/26)
“A weather person who told us to bundle up for the cold weather, but also be sure to drink plenty of fluids to protect against the heat, would not be taken very seriously. That is roughly the state of economics when it comes to basic demographic questions. On alternate days the economy seems to be suffering from too many people and too few people. Yet people somehow still take economists seriously on this issue.” (03/30/26)
Source: Ludwig von Mises Institute
by George Ford Smith
“Nock was persuaded by Franz Oppenheimer’s theory that people acquire wealth in one of two ways: either through work and exchange or theft. The first, Oppenheimer called the economic means, the second, the political means. States are the manifestation of the political means, the embodiment of a predatory class that coercively feeds off and controls its productive captives. Within the American state the occupants change periodically, and many people believe the troubles we’re experiencing are due to voting the wrong people into office. Better people would produce better government. There are several shortcomings to this idea.” (03/30/26)
“There is nothing more infuriating to a frustrated air traveler delayed for hours by the Democrat shutdown than to see senators strolling smugly by with VIP escorts. The worst offender last week was Senate Majority Leader John Thune, who hightailed it out of DC on Friday morning, hours after stitching up a duplicitous 2 a.m. deal to end the shutdown by caving to Democrat demands to defund ICE and border enforcement, at least for the time being. Elements of the Department of Homeland Security were funded in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act last year, but Thune’s deal freezes out immigration enforcement and border security functions that are all-important as we go to war against the world’s largest sponsor of Islamic terrorism.” (03/29/26)
