“War is an extreme action and, thus, triggers extreme reactions. Including extreme stupidity. It’s always disheartening — or ought to be — to see what should be a last resort comes to pass. It’s worse when a war is accompanied by cruelty, callousness, recklessness, and idiocy, though for obvious reasons that might be unavoidable. As for Trump’s war in Iran — which could well be an immense blunder — it has been enveloped in layers of excessive dumbness. I’m not talking about the strategic wisdom — or lack thereof — of this attack, which could precipitate calamities throughout the region and beyond. Or the madness of impulsively launching such a war without planning for what comes afterward. I’m referring to how it has prompted imbecility among its supporters, including at the White House.” (03/11/26)
Source: Center for a Stateless Society
by Kevin Carson
“The argument that capitalists are needed to provide workers with means of production, and profit is their reward for doing so, is nonsense. All capitalists have are paper or digital claims on the right to allocate means of production or material resources. All of the actual material resources — means of production and raw materials — are entirely the product of labor acting on free gifts of nature. The entire point at issue is the legitimacy of the process by which capitalists happen to be in possession of those paper or digital claims, and how workers come to be dependent on those claims.” (03/11/26)
“At first glance, the latest Trumpian weirdness seems almost endearingly harmless: The Wall Street Journal reports that late last year, Trump developed a passion for black Florsheim Oxford shoes and started giving them as gifts. ‘All the boys have them,’ according to a female White House official. … if you read the Journal story closely, it starts to look more like a case of “beware of Trump bearing gifts.” For one, the gift shoes are not universally welcome — but recipients are reportedly ‘afraid not to wear them,’ especially since Trump badgers them with ‘Did you get the shoes?’ nudges at cabinet meetings. Some of the disgruntled recipients have issues with the downscale, non-designer brand. But also, it looks like many of the shoes just don’t fit …” (03/12/26)
“With Kansas City preparing to host matches during the 2026 FIFA World Cup, Missouri lawmakers are considering a bill to simplify food truck licensing in Jackson County. The proposal would allow vendors licensed by the county to operate in any municipality without additional city permits. The change would remove a common barrier: multiple permits just to cross a city boundary. The idea makes sense. But if it will help entrepreneurs and visitors during the World Cup, why should the same principle not apply across Missouri?” (03/11/26)
“Before she was Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s Deputy Mayor for Economic Justice in New York City, before she was President Biden’s Labor Secretary in Washington D.C., even before she led California’s Labor Department, Julie Su had a long career as a civil rights attorney. It was in that role in 1995 that Su served as lead attorney in the El Monte Thai garment slavery case, which would lead to a landmark ruling in favor of 72 Thai nationals who had been enslaved in a sweatshop, winning them $4 million in stolen wages and legal status, and eventually leading to the creation of the ’T visa’ for victims of human trafficking. Su had successfully argued that manufacturers should be held liable for wage theft, part of a broader campaign around the El Monte case which Su has said, ’turned my life upside down and changed me forever.'” (03/11/26)
“When Congress created Opportunity Zones in 2017, the goal was simple: use tax incentives to steer private investment into distressed communities. Investors could defer or eliminate capital-gains taxes if they reinvested those gains in designated census tracts. The hope was that these incentives would spur development and expand opportunity in struggling neighborhoods. But new research suggests the program may suffer from the same problems as Tax-Increment Financing (TIF).” (03/11/26)
“Working from home is a very old idea, becoming new again during this Age of the Internet. COVID made telework something of a mania. But there’s been some withdrawal of support for the arrangement from major corporations, and one of the main results of Elon Musk’s DOGE effort in government was to bring government workers back into the office. Well, sort of.” (03/11/26)
“The U.S. government, with its state and local affiliates, is a much greater threat to your life, liberty, and property than any foreign power in the past century. This includes the old Soviet Union. Which one takes a large percentage of your money before you even see it? Which one then takes more of your money every time you buy something, or demands it in ransom so you’re allowed to keep what you already own? Which one makes and enforces arbitrary rules about the way you’re allowed to live? I’ll give you a hint: it’s not Iran’s evil government. Right now, I’m not extorted to prop up an Iranian government, but if the U.S. government wins this fight, I will be.” (03/11/26)
“The popular telling of the histories of Iran, Venezuela, and other countries, and their relevance to current U.S. policy, requires that we get something straight. While natural resources exist in such places, those resources do not naturally belong to the said country, people, or government. That would be collectivism and, thus, nonsensical. The proper owners of land and subsurface resources are those who discover and develop them, no matter where they were born or live. They are the Lockean owners (per John Locke’s homesteading principle). This means that someone from outside the territory could be the legitimate owner in a given case. Indigenous persons who had no role in the discovery and development have no natural claim based merely on their birth. That’s no achievement. The foregoing does not mean that outside entrepreneurs may morally disregard the Lockean property rights of indigenous individuals.” (03/11/26)
