“Kentucky’s next generation deserved better from this legislative session. For two years, Kentucky’s Housing Task Force built a record, heard from builders, experts, local officials, and families struggling to afford a place to live. Ultimately, the task force embraced recommendations advanced by the Bluegrass Institute last year. … Legislation that was one concurrence away from final passage would have altered the housing marketplace to make homes more affordable, enhance Kentuckians’ property rights, clear away needless regulatory barriers, and give developers greater confidence to undertake projects. Kentucky lawmakers couldn’t get the job done, and that failure carries real consequences for young people across our commonwealth.” (04/15/26)
“Ronald Reagan’s budget director, David Stockman, spoke candidly years ago about why Republicans like tax cuts so much. In his 1986 book, The Triumph of Politics: Why the Reagan Revolution Failed, he confided that tax cuts served the purpose of creating budget deficits that could then be used to justify spending cuts on government programs. Typically, administrations only cut spending for a program if it’s no longer necessary, and the resultant surplus may then be used as a tax cut to stimulate the economy. However, Stockman turned this on its head by using the tax cuts to create a budgetary crisis that would then require cuts in spending regardless of whether the programs were necessary or not. In other words, Stockman used tax cuts to create a revenue problem that the Reagan administration could then mask as a spending problem. This is known as ‘starving the beast’.” (04/16/26)
“When yet another air conditioner in her apartment building broke down in early March, Heather Myatt braced herself and began her usual beeline for the property manager’s office. For more than a year, Myatt and her neighbors have been waging a war to secure long-overdue repairs at Maple Grove Apartments, an income-restricted building in Brandenburg, KY. Being ignored had become routine for the tenants of Maple Grove; last summer, an elderly resident whose AC had been broken for two years, despite regular complaints to the building’s landlord, reportedly collapsed from the heat. But now, for the first time, Myatt knew her demand might actually be heard. ‘Y’all really don’t want to be violating this contract already,’ Myatt, a proud mother of two, recalls telling the property manager. ‘You have 24 hours to respond, or that’s a breach. You put it on this paper. You just signed it. Keep your word.'” (04/16/26)
“The U.S. government’s total public debt outstanding is on the verge of permanently surpassing $39 trillion. In truth, it already has, first breaching it on March 17, 2026. Since then, it’s bounced around that level, sometimes over, sometimes under. This situation won’t last. Soon, the U.S. government will borrow even more money to support its excessive spending. When it does, it will leave $39 trillion in the rear-view mirror, probably for good.” (04/15/26)
“The executive branch is out of control. We’re now more than six weeks into a deeply unpopular, unnecessary war with Iran that lacks any semblance of congressional authorization. The Trump administration has sent masked, unaccountable goons into American cities, where they have harassed and arrested innocent people and killed multiple times. President Donald Trump’s signature economic policy is an illegal tax increase that his administration is refusing to refund. Congress has been unwilling or unable to stop these unlawful actions. If legislators will not deploy ‘the power of the purse,’ then it falls to the rest of us to do something. That’s why I have stopped paying the federal income tax. I’m not the only one doing it. I think you should, too.” (04/15/26)
Source: Future of Freedom Foundation
by Wendy McElroy
“Individuals may feel powerless but, in fact, individuals are the only restorative for civil society because they are the ones who can bind it together by establishing what is called ‘high trust.’ A high-trust society is characterized by members who reasonably expect others in the community to treat them fairly, which encourages voluntary association far beyond family bonds or other tight networks.” (04/16/26)
“Why does government continually grow in size and in power? If you look at a roster of things it meddled with a century ago compared to today, you’ll notice today’s list is much longer and more comprehensive. Government is never satisfied; it never has enough control. It won’t give up control or take “no” for a final answer. If it loses in court (which it controls), it acts as though it didn’t. Often, it doubles down on its illegal activities. This is because there are no immediate, painful consequences for its defiant criminality. It lies, and many people still believe it.” (04/16/26)
“For more than eight decades, Washington has rooted its regional strategy in the ‘myth of authoritarian stability’ — the belief that select autocratic states are the best guarantors of regional stability and US interests in the Middle East. … The United States has consistently sought to expand its authoritarian client network by acting against adversarial governments in the region with the objective of installing more compliant regimes. Since the end of World War II, Washington has pursued regime change in the Middle East on average once per decade. The governments residing within the US-led regional order also push the United States toward status quo policies to advance their own interests, echoing the same pro-authoritarian rationales used by Washington to justify continued American support. Freedom, therefore, was never the objective in Iran.” (04/15/26)
Source: Ludwig von Mises Institute
by Jonathan Newman
“Tax Freedom Day, calculated by the Tax Foundation, ‘represents how long Americans as a whole have to work in order to pay the nation’s tax burden.’ It appears that they stopped publishing this in 2019, but others have picked up where they left off. The idea is that the income earned by taxpayers over a certain proportion of the year goes to Uncle Sam. In 2025, that date was April 16th. But the burden of government is much larger than the amount we pay in taxes. The government spends much more than it collects in taxes, diverting valuable resources away from where they would be used in the private market economy, subject to the profit and loss test of the market. The difference is made up by new government debt.” (04/15/26)
Source: Caitlin Johnstone, Rogue Journalist
by Caitlin Johnstone
“I don’t mind admitting that I hope the US and Israel suffer a crushing, devastating defeat in Iran. I hope this war collapses the entire US empire. My only loyalty is to humanity, and being on Team Human in today’s world means being against the US empire and against Israel. I hope the empire falls. I hope the apartheid state of Israel is dismantled. … YouTube has banned the channel that’s been creating viral AI Lego music videos criticizing the US war on Iran. The Google-owned platform claims the Lego videos somehow constituted ‘violent content,’ but we all know it was to facilitate the US propaganda effort by shutting down effective propaganda for the other side.” (04/15/26)
