Source: Washington Monthly
by David Masciotra
“John Chrastka of EveryLibrary, which fights for library budgets and against book bans, discusses libraries, their central role in our society, censorship — and those drag-queen story hours.” (05/14/26)
https://washingtonmonthly.com/2026/05/14/library-book-bans-limited-government/
Source: The Daily Economy
by Walter Donway
“Organizations often mistake measurable activity for meaningful achievement. AI productivity metrics confuse computation costs with added value.” (05/14/26)
https://thedailyeconomy.org/article/how-not-to-measure-ai-productivity/
Source: Foundation for Economic Education
by Mani Basharzad
“One of the first attempts by the second Trump administration to cut government waste was massive cuts and layoffs at USAID. Now, the same administration is pressuring the United Nations to adopt more trade-focused policies rather than aid-focused ones — the ‘trade not aid’ strategy. While it is not obvious how Trump’s tariffs are helping poor nations through trade, we still need to rethink foreign aid.” (05/14/26)
Source: Our Future
by Sulma Arias
“Who of us has the right to live without fear? This is the question human rights lawyer Ruth Lopez has asked fearlessly in El Salvador — the country of my birth — for decades. It’s a question we all need to ask ourselves in the United States as well. For speaking boldly, Ruth is now in prison. She’s been held without trial since May 18, 2025 — now a year ago — when she was torn from her bed by police and arrested without any investigation or judicial warrant. Ruth has since had minimal contact with her family and lawyers. Ruth’s crime? She opposed corruption. When Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele signed a secret agreement with the Trump administration to accept $4.7 million for the illegal transfer of more than 200 U.S. deportees to El Salvador’s CECOT mega-prison, Ruth spoke up to defend their basic rights.” (05/14/26)
https://ourfuture.org/20260514/ruth-lopez-spoke-up-for-due-process-now-shes-detained-without-charges
Source: The Contrarian
by Jennifer Rubin
“Democrats’ prospects are actually improving with time.” (05/14/26)
https://www.contrariannews.org/p/republicans-cannot-gerrymander-senate
Source: hypertext
by Geoff Kabaservice
“There was a time when Silicon Valley and the tech industry seemed — not cool, exactly, but vaguely countercultural and brashly anti-establishment. That was the point of Mark Zuckerberg wearing pajamas to an investor pitch, or tech execs spurning coats and ties: to emphasize that they were unlike traditional elites in every way. They consciously presented themselves as rebels whose products would liberate humanity from the old constraints of authority and tradition. Back in the early 2000s, it would have seemed far-fetched to imagine that these former outsiders would become an elite themselves.” (05/14/26)
https://hypertext.niskanencenter.org/p/what-silicon-valley-can-learn-from
Source: CounterPunch
by Dean Baker
“There is widespread concern that AI will lead to mass unemployment in the years ahead. As I and others have pointed out, we have yet to see any evidence of this in the data on job growth or productivity. But maybe we just have to wait a bit longer. But the idea that AI will eliminate all the jobs ignores the ways that creative entrepreneurs can develop new industries that require hundreds of thousands, or even millions of employees. These new industries may contribute nothing to well-being, but they create jobs. The best example of this sort of waste is the financial industry.” (05/14/26)
Source: New York Post
by Elaine Dezenski & Max Meizlish
“A bombshell report this week laid bare a startling truth: Hong Kong is the lifeline for the Iranian regime and its terrorist proxies. Hong Kong-registered shell companies are funneling billions of dollars in illicit oil revenue, along with weapons technology and surveillance tools, to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, fueling Tehran’s repressive military machine. But more than two months into the war, not one of Iran’s most important financial enablers — in Hong Kong or anywhere else in China — has been taken offline. Donald Trump and Xi Jinping shaking hands, with the US and Chinese flags behind them. It’s a glaring loophole in President Trump’s ‘Economic Fury’ and ‘Maximum Pressure’ campaigns that he’s promised will break the regime. So this week, as the president meets with Xi Jinping in Beijing, he should present the Chinese Communist Party with the bill for its continued support of Tehran’s terror.” (05/13/26)
https://nypost.com/2026/05/13/opinion/china-summit-is-trumps-chance-to-choke-irans-terror-cash/
Source: Reason
by Veronique de Rugy
“Central planning from Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, President Donald Trump, and others reflects a fundamental misunderstanding of what makes private markets work.” (05/14/26)
Source: Independent Institute
by K Lloyd Billingsley
“The contest for California’s biggest disaster may soon be decided.” (05/14/26)
https://www.independent.org/article/2026/05/14/bullet-train-or-bay-bridge/