“Josiah Tucker (1713–99), dean of Gloucester Cathedral in England, is best known in the history of political thought as a proto-conservative who had the audacity to question the Lockean natural rights school in the age of the American Revolution. The rebellious spirit of the American Revolution, and even more so its supporters in Britain, made him suspicious of Locke’s theory of government based on the social contract and consent. As a consequence, Tucker is a neglected and underrated thinker who contributed to both the conservative and liberal traditions; his Political and Economic Writings repay careful study.” (02/19/26)
Source: Foundation for Economic Education
by Lawrence W Reed
“Whether free or slave, did black Americans play a role in the fight for liberty during the American Revolutionary era? Yes indeed, they did. It’s a story that didn’t earn much attention in history books until recent decades. When I was in school in the 1950s and 1960s, I think I heard of just one of them, Crispus Attucks, a black sailor who was the first person killed by British soldiers in the March 1770 Boston Massacre. Black people were to be found among both patriots and loyalists, depending in large part on which side seemed more likely to advance their prospects for freedom.” (02/19/26)
“Today, Barcelona is today one of the great tourist destinations of the Western world. Fifty years ago, however, it was a somewhat dusty backwater still smarting from the punishments inflicted on it by the Franco regime (1939-1975) for its citizens’ stubborn refusal to abandon their attachment to the Catalan language and culture, and for having served as the nerve center of the defeated Second Spanish Republic (1931-1939) during the Spanish Civil War (1936-39) eventually won by the Nationalist general. The city’s dramatic transformation is rooted in actions taken under the leadership of Mayor Pasqual Maragall in the six or so years leading to the city’s hosting of the 1992 Summer Olympics. While the mayor of every Olympic venue promises that the Games will enduringly change his city for the better, this actually occurred in Maragall’s Barcelona, especially in the realm of public infrastructure.” (02/19/26)
“Conservatives want you to believe that the ‘talking filibuster’ is the norm in the Senate. This is misleading. What these conservatives aren’t describing is how the Senate actually works today. Before the adoption of the cloture motion in 1917 — found in Rule XXII of the Standing Rules of the Senate — there wasn’t a way to force an end to debate. Prior to 1917, senators could use various tactics to stop a bill from moving forward, ranging from objecting to unanimous consent to engaging in a talking filibuster. What we think of as the modern-day filibuster—the cloture motion—was created out of necessity during World War I, after the Senate proved incapable of ending debate on critical wartime legislation.” (02/19/26)
“Texas Democratic Senate candidate James Talarico’s campaign is $2.5 million richer this week and a bit closer to victory after Stephen Colbert, host of ‘The Late Show’ on CBS, made up a ridiculous lie about being censored by President Trump. It took a few days for the dust to settle, but now that we have a clear picture of what happened, it is about as bad as it can be. In fact, it would likely be a fireable offense if the ratings challenged Colbert was not already slated to get the ax in May. According to Colbert’s version of events, which is falling apart faster than a house of cards in a wind tunnel, he was told by CBS lawyers on Monday, just minutes before he was set to interview Talarico, that he could not air the conversation. Why? Because of the Trump administration Federal Communication Commission’s new rules on equal time.” (02/19/26)
“In the classic Cold War film The Ugly American, Marlon Brando plays an American ambassador neck-deep in the kind of covert operations that would later get tens of thousands of Vietnamese killed. The film gave us a phrase, but most people forgot what it actually meant. Burdick and Lederer’s novel portrays the ‘ugly American’ as Homer Atkins, a straightforward engineer who genuinely cared about the locals and actively listened to their perspectives. The real ugliness came from the polished diplomats who saw Southeast Asians as pieces on a chessboard. Sixty years on, we’ve become exactly what we pretended to oppose. Only worse.” (02/19/26)
“On January 29, Venezuela’s acting President, Delcy Rodríguez, signed a law that opens Venezuela’s oil industry to privatization. With the stroke of a pen, Rodríguez signed, not only the law, but the death certificate of a decades old Latin American dream.” (02/19/26)
“The Fifth Circuit embraces a radical vision of endless detention, as does the Trump administration. Will it be too much even for the Roberts Court?” (02/19/26)
