“The UK government’s imposition of VAT on schools will raise less money than they calculated, and might well cost them money. Private schools now charge VAT at 20% on fees, and the government collects that revenue. On paper, this looks like a straightforward tax windfall. But several offsetting effects erode or potentially reverse the gain. Families who can no longer afford fees pushed up by 20% are withdrawing their children and placing them in state schools, which the government must fund. Estimates run as high as one in ten leaving private education. Each additional state school pupil costs roughly £7,000-£8,000 per year. If enough pupils switch, this spending can outweigh VAT receipts. Private schools, now VAT-registered, can reclaim VAT on their own purchases such as building work, supplies, etc., something they couldn’t do before. This reduces the net VAT take.” (05/11/26)
“It’s been a tough couple of months for women officials in Washington — or, more accurately, in Trumpland. In early March (Women’s History Month, by the way), in a Truth Social post, the president fired Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem, the second woman ever to hold that title. Weeks later, also in a social media post, he fired Attorney General Pam Bondi, the third woman ever to serve as head of the Department of Justice. While in the first year of his first presidency, Trump 1.0 had fired numerous officials, this time around, Bondi and Noem, who ran the two largest law enforcement agencies in the country, were the first cabinet officials to be dismissed. Both — no surprise — were replaced by men. And just as I was writing this piece, Trump removed another female cabinet official, Secretary of Labor Lori Chavez-DeRemer.” (05/10/26)
“President Donald Trump’s most recent pick for the office of U.S. Surgeon General, Nicole Saphier, is a source of tension between the MAGA and MAHA factions of his supporters. Given that she’s the president’s third pick for the slot, the administration would undoubtedly just like to put disputes over this one office behind them. But there’s an easy path to a conflict-free resolution: The Trump administration could leave the Office of the Surgeon General unfilled and push for its abolition. … the Surgeon General doesn’t really have a clearly defined role or a good reason to parade around in a quasi-naval uniform. That is, unless you like the office’s transformation into a national nag that lectures Americans on whatever alleged lifestyle sins most annoy the current Surgeon General.” (05/11/26)
“As a progressive economist, I wrote a paper in 2021 with a generally conservative colleague, Kevin Hassett, who now directs the National Economic Council in the Trump White House. We agreed then on the basic arithmetic of the American retirement crisis. We still do. That’s why people like him and people like me can all say: Trump’s executive order establishing TrumpIRAs, signed last month, is simply the right move for American workers.” (05/11/26)
Source: Caitlin Johnstone, Rogue Journalist
by Caitlin Johnstone
“In a fawning softball 60 Minutes interview released Sunday, Benjamin Netanyahu stressed the importance of winning ‘the propaganda war’ on social media. This comes as Israel moves to quadruple its propaganda budget to $730 million a year. Major Garrett (which apparently is a real name belonging to a real guy who works for 60 Minutes) told the CBS audience that ‘Netanyahu attributes the reputational harm to Israel almost entirely to social media, which he calls the eighth front of the war.’ ‘This is yours, right?’ asked Netanyahu, picking up Garrett’s phone. ‘You’re not immune either. Because you can penetrate this machine, you can penetrate this little instrument, and you can say about Major Garrett anything you want. And I can paint you as a monster. And if I say it often enough, enough people will believe it.'” (05/11/26)
“According to the White House website, Trump warned Iran against having nuclear weapons on 74 occasions prior to the war. Since the war began on February 28, 2026, Trump has discussed Iranian nuclear issues in at least 20 documented public appearances, based on the Senate Democrats’ Trump transcript archive and Roll Call’s Factbase transcript database. … But Trump’s claims are not supported by the record. In fact, official statements from U.S. intelligence, the State Department, the IAEA, and others state that Iran does not have a nuclear weapon, is not currently building one, and does not seek to build one.” (05/11/26)
“Tel Aviv has controlled the talks from the beginning and as a result Hezbollah is stronger. Time for Washington to learn from history and take the reins.” (05/11/26)
“A disease responsible for approximately one thousand confirmed cases over three decades in a population exceeding 330 million does not constitute an existential societal threat. It is neither comparable to Covid-19 nor does it justify widespread public alarm. However, contemporary media systems are structurally ill-equipped to present rare infectious diseases in proportionate terms. Fear increases engagement, which in turn drives revenue, and dramatic narratives consistently overshadow measured epidemiological analysis. … A disease can be both dangerous and exceedingly uncommon. Contemporary public discourse frequently fails to differentiate between these two concepts. This distinction matters because exaggerated risk perception carries consequences of its own.” (05/11/26)
“After the Virginia Supreme Court rejected the results of the recent Democratic effort to effectively wipe out Republican representation in the state, Democratic pundits and activists have latched onto a proposal by Michigan State law professor Quinn Yeargain to gut the court by forcing the retirement of the current justices, appointing liberal activists, and then reversing the opinion. It is extremely telling that some are pushing the raw muscle play to retake power in Washington, particularly in light of the calls to pack the United States Supreme Court once the party is back in control. … Under this plan, Virginia Democrats would adopt an absurdly low age for retirement in a gut-and-pack scheme: Yeargain suggested that they could set ‘the mandatory retirement of justices and judges after they reach a prescribed age, beyond which they shall not serve, regardless of the term to which elected or appointed.'” (05/10/26)
Source: Future of Freedom Foundation
by Jacob G Hornberger
“The common assumption is because the Iranian regime is engaged in evil, that makes the U.S. government’s war on Iran something good. Nothing could be further from the truth. Here we have a classic case of evil versus evil. That’s what all too many Americans still can’t come to grips with — that their very own government is engaged in evil while combatting the evil actions of the Iranian regime. Twin evils — that’s what we have here.” (05/11/26)
