Source: Responsible Statecraft
by Jack Hunter
“Mega-MAGA might be trying to purge them, but Tucker Carlson and other conservatives have their fingers on the real pulse after this week’s Iran strikes.” (03/04/26)
Source: Reason
by Jacob Sullum
“A Supreme Court case illustrates the potential for trans-partisan alliances between critics of gun control and critics of the war on drugs.” (03/04/26)
Source: The Daily Economy
by Cláudia Ascensão Nunes
“The law classifies user identities at the operating system level. Once embedded, that regulatory architecture of control is easy to expand and difficult to roll back.” (03/04/26)
https://thedailyeconomy.org/article/californias-age-verification-law-is-a-civil-liberties-test/
Source: Brownstone Institute
by Eyal Shahar
“In my epidemiology coursework, many years ago, I was taught that the smallpox vaccine had eradicated that dreadful disease. It was common knowledge, so I did not question the claim. They did not tell me about favorable time trends in the natural course of other infectious diseases for which there was no vaccine, nor about the correlation of those trends with improved living conditions, sanitation, personal hygiene, and nutrition. The unexplained transition from the severe form of smallpox (variola major) to the mild form (variola minor) in the Western world was not mentioned. All the credit was given to the smallpox vaccine. Of course, no randomized trial of that vaccine was ever conducted. There was, however, a natural experiment in Yugoslavia in 1972—a short-lived outbreak of smallpox with a total of 175 infected people and 35 deaths.” (03/04/26)
https://brownstone.org/articles/covid-of-the-past-smallpox-in-yugoslavia-1972/
Source: The American Prospect
by James Baratta
“Months before overturning the scientific determination behind federal regulation of greenhouse gas emissions, Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lee Zeldin restated his plans for the agency at an auto dealership in Indiana, saying, ‘The Trump EPA is proposing to end 16 years of uncertainty for automakers and American consumers’. The reality is that the Trump EPA has abdicated responsibility for the agency’s quintessential mandate of protecting human health and the environment. The EPA has elected not to contest climate science, instead relying on legal arguments that appear to be tweaked versions of what the Supreme Court rejected in its landmark 2007 ruling in Massachusetts v. EPA. ‘To state the obvious, this White House doesn’t give a damn about clean air or clean water,’ Rep. Sean Casten (D-IL) said in an interview with the Prospect.” (03/04/26)
Source: CounterPunch
by Beverly Gologorsky
“Power is felt, attributed, invisible, all-important, descriptive, without shape, and so much more. There is personal power, governmental power, and the collective power of the people. Power can be bought, sold, traded, bestowed, even rescinded. It can be good or bad, positive or corrupt. However you might wish to describe power, one thing is clear: how it’s used depends on the society in which we live. At present, of course, our society is one in which President Donald J. Trump is the quintessential seeker of power, a man who needs power the way most of us need food. And as it happens, he has at his beck and call not just the entire military establishment, but ICE (and so much more). With him in the White House, power is distinctly in fashion.” (03/04/26)
https://www.counterpunch.org/2026/03/04/from-personal-power-to-autocracy-in-donald-trumps-america/
Source: Mindset Shifts
by Barry Brownstein
“In short, there are experts, and they want to make health decisions for you. And no matter how many times they are wrong, their ignorance and arrogance are inexhaustible. How dispiriting it is to have to defend basic freedoms against these medical .bullies. Read on and see what is true about decision-making by experts.” (03/04/26)
https://mindsetshifts.substack.com/p/the-tyranny-of-alleged-experts
Source: Law & Liberty
by Philip K Howard
“America’s moral culture has been torn apart by ideology. To revive it, we need a society capable of passing judgment.” (03/04/26)
Source: The American Conservative
by Lauren Smith
“‘When you have lost your inns,’ warned writer Hilaire Belloc over 100 years ago, ‘drown your empty selves. For you have lost the heart of England.’ A century later, his message could not be more pertinent. Since the beginning of this year, roughly four pubs have permanently closed their doors every day. By the end of 2026, something like 540 pubs could shut for good. For this British institution, no help can be expected to come from the current Labour government.” (03/04/26)
https://www.theamericanconservative.com/labours-war-on-uk-pubs/
Source: Adam Smith Institute
by Tim Worstall
“Some infrastructure spending undoubtedly increases productivity, creates economic growth. Say, a functioning commercial law system. Or something more than a rutted track as the pathway from Bristol to London. Just to offer a wide expanse of things that could be beneficial. But other forms, types and pieces of infrastructure perhaps don’t. Better housing certainly makes lives better but it’s not an increase in productivity nor a cause of economic growth other than the process of building the better housing itself. It’s even possible for infrastructure to be productivity reducing. Say, the Humber Bridge, which cost a great deal in real resources and never has reached anything like the traffic levels to justify it. … the answer to ‘infrastructure?’ is like so much in economics, the answer is ‘It depends.'” (03/04/26)
https://www.adamsmith.org/blog/its-which-infrastructure-not-how-much