“Chalk another one up for the ethno-nationalists! That’s right, as I’m sure you’ve heard by now, the Alternativ für Deutschland party (AfD) won an election last Sunday in Saxony-Anhalt, one of Germany’s sixteen federal states …. Germany’s federal domestic intelligence agency has designated them a ‘confirmed right-wing extremist endeavor,’ and the mainstream media have been calling them ‘Nazis.’ Which they are, kind of … or, okay, not literally. … People tend to refer to them as ‘Nazis’ … well, for a lot of reasons. For one thing, many of them are former neo-Nazis, or they attend meetings held by neo-Nazi groups, or they are otherwise friendly with actual neo-Nazis. Also, some of them spout Nazi slogans at their political rallies, or embed Nazi symbols in their campaign artwork … which, of course, is all in good fun.” (09/10/26)
Source: Foundation for Economic Education
by Vincent Geloso
“There is nothing wrong with criticising capitalism, Friedrich Hayek, Milton Friedman or classical liberalism. The problem is that much of the discussion does not pass even a modest ideological Turing test. An ideological Turing test asks whether one can state an opposing position so accurately that its proponents would recognise the argument as their own before one proceeds to criticise it. Here, too often, they would not.” (09/10/26)
“Remember the media firestorm in 2016 when Donald Trump supposedly failed to denounce former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke? Trump, appearing on CNN, claimed he did not know enough about Duke to disavow him. Trump later blamed a faulty earpiece and repudiated Duke and the KKK. But the episode became Exhibit A for those who accused Trump of using racial ‘dog whistles’. Then-Republican House Speaker Paul Ryan declared, ‘If a person wants to be the nominee of the Republican Party, there can be no evasion and no games. They must reject any group or cause that is built on bigotry’. … Now consider the Democrat Party’s treatment of Hasan Piker, the socialist streamer who said, ‘America deserved 9/11.'” (09/10/26)
Source: Ludwig von Mises Institute
by William L Anderson
“In a recent Mises article, Tho Bishop declared that the institution of college sports is currently under the grip of anarcho-tyranny, which he defined as ‘the state-driven phenomenon of criminalizing the enforcement of basic civic norms while increasingly restricting the liberties of law-abiding citizens.’ The latest outrage comes from Louisiana State University in which its enfant terrible football coach, Lane Kiffin, has done what he always has done: push the boundaries of the rules of college athletics well beyond where they should be.” (09/10/26)
“There are in fact two types of realism, a ‘realism of means’ and a ‘realism of ends.’ … In the realism of ends, all states are said to pursue national interest, defined in terms of power and security. They may dress up this drive in the elevated language of democracy or human rights, but ultimately they all seek the same thing: maximization of their power. … I subscribe instead to a realism of means. I believe that liberal values and power shape the United States’ role in the world, while being realistic about both the extent to which the U.S. can prioritize democracy and the means by which such a goal could be achieved.” (09/10/26)
‘A failed war does not end when the drones stop flying. It creates a new danger: A government that refuses to admit defeat and a president who, having failed abroad, seeks muscular victories elsewhere. The war against Iran is a case study in the limits of military power, the dangers of presidential overreach and the enduring wisdom of the Constitution’s separation of powers. It was unauthorized, unconstitutional, illegal, strategically incoherent and — by the standards by which wars must be judged — a geopolitical failure.” (09/10/26)
