“The United States must be growing and prosperous at home and strong and secure in the face of the many security threats facing us abroad. The former can only be achieved with free markets and limited government domestically and the latter through a robust defense [sic] budget. On both fronts, Democrats would take the country in the exact opposite direction needed. Voters seem to understand this. RealClearPolitics reports Democratic Party favorability at -20.0 unfavorable and Republicans at -15.4 unfavorable. Nevertheless, in polling on the overall congressional election for 2026, RealClearPolitics shows Democrats up +6.0. Two things may explain this disconnect: One, although voters show generically more favorability to Republicans, Republicans are still underwater in overall favorability. Second, when voters are overall not happy with how things are going, they vote against the party in power.” (04/08/26)
“The U.S.-Israel joint attack on Iran exemplifies the foreign policy theory guiding the Trump administration: other countries aren’t real, and they can’t hurt you. The United States, the thinking goes, has the most expensive armed forces in the world — more expensive than the next nine countries combined. Who could stand against American might? Sure, those armed forces failed in Afghanistan and Iraq, but that was because of, well, politics. … Ultimately, of all the posturing and Trump doctrines, I think it is FAFO that will stand the test of time.” (04/07/26)
“It is among the most familiar patterns of the Trump era. First, the president says or does something weird, rude or otherwise norm-defying. Some elected Republicans object, and the response from Trump and his minions is to shoot the messenger. The dynamic holds constant whether it’s big (Jan. 6 pardons) or small (tweeting ‘covfefe’ just after midnight). The essence of this low-road-for-me-high-road-for-thee dynamic rests on the belief that Trumpism is a one-way road. Insulting Trump, deservedly or not, is forbidden, while Trump’s antics should be celebrated when possible, defended when necessary, or ignored when neither of those responses is possible. But he should never, ever face consequences for his own actions. This was the week Trump’s routine went global.” (04/07/26)
Source: Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression
by Sarah McLaughlin
“Free speech advocates have long warned that the laws and regulations passed at the state, federal, and international level are chipping away at our ability to speak anonymously online. Now, Türkiye is threatening to gut that right directly — and asserting that social media platforms are playing along. According to Justice Minister Akın Gürlek, the Turkish government is submitting a proposal to parliament that would require people to provide a national ID number to use social media. Unregistered accounts will be removed by platforms. Gürlek also claims platforms have agreed to implement these terms — though which platforms, and which exact terms, are not entirely clear yet. … Make no mistake: These kinds of regulations are like a bad cold — they spread fast and are hard to shake.” (04/07/26)
“For years, bureaucrats and the chattering class in Washington have tried to justify innocent people’s suffering from war and sanctions. America’s enemies hide among civilians and weaponize civilian infrastructure, they argued. Military strategy and sanctions policy were designed to leave civilians alone, they claimed. Wars and sieges would actually liberate people suffering under evil regimes, they asserted. Trump keeps making their job harder by speaking frankly about what his goals actually are.” (04/07/26)
“As a new analysis by Johan Norberg shows, the regime many MAGA Republicans see as a model to emulate has repressed civil liberties, undermined the free market, destroyed the rule of law, and made Hungary the poorest nation in the European Union.” (04/07/26)
“If I asked you to name the most unpopular Supreme Court justice, you might choose the venal Clarence Thomas or the perpetually enraged Samuel Alito. In either event, you’d be wrong. Americans’ least popular member of the high tribunal is Brett ‘I like beer’ Kavanaugh. Poll after poll has shown Kavanaugh taking the honor since his nomination in 2018. Kavanaugh also holds the honor of being President Donald Trump’s favorite justice, an accolade he earned with his dissenting opinion from the court’s February invalidation of Trump’s worldwide ‘reciprocal tariffs.’ Kavanaugh is now poised to deliberate on pending voting rights cases and a ruling on birthright citizenship under the 14th Amendment. It’s frightening but indisputable: The future of American law may rest in his ideological, incompetent hands.” (04/08/26)
Source: The American Prospect
by Whitney Curry Wimbish
“Late last year, the godfather of supply-side economics dropped in on a Georgia state Senate special committee hearing. He spoke of the urgent need to dump their income tax, a ‘killer, killer, killer,’ akin to ‘a nuclear weapon,’ that has destroyed the 11 states that have instituted it as of 1960: Connecticut, Illinois, Indiana, Maine, Michigan, Nebraska, New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and West Virginia. ‘Each and every one of those states in population has had a cataclysmic decline relative to the rest of the nation. It’s just amazing,’ said Arthur Laffer, inventor of the ‘Laffer curve,’ the discredited [sic] theory [sic] that claims lowering taxes raises tax revenue.” [editor’s note: The Laffer Curve is neither “discredited” nor a “theory.” It’s an observation of fact — the fact that there’s a point when increased tax rates decrease, and decreased tax rates increase, tax revenues – TLK] (04/08/26)
Source: David Friedman’s Substack
by David Friedman
“Much of what schools are spend money on has at most a tenuous connection to the quality of education. That left me wondering whether there are any schools for smart cheapskates, schools that provide a good education in the company of smart people at the lowest practical cost — which I would expect to be less half the cost of the elite schools I looked at when my children were choosing where to apply. I went online to look.” (04/07/26)
“There’s a big difference between a man who hits on 1,000 women and finds only two who are interested, and another man who asks two women out and they both respond positively. Both men have gotten two dates over that same time period, but they’ve adopted very different approaches and built very different reputations. The latter is likely respectful, charismatic, and creates an environment where the women he interacts with feel good. The former’s a loser. In the same way, when the Libertarian Party fields thousands of candidates to win dozens of offices, they sacrifice their success rate on the altar of raw numbers. Like pickup artists, they, too, have adopted in advance the narratives necessary to reinforce this approach even in the face of repeated failures.” (04/07/26)
