Is It All Just Envy?
Source: Liberal Currents
by David Lay Williams
“The sides of the inequality debate continue to talk past one another, as Don Boudreaux’s recent criticisms demonstrate.” (02/04/26)
Category: Opinion
Understanding Money and Inflation in Today’s World
Source: Libertarian Institute
by Oscar Grau
“Leaving aside the events that made the current monetary system possible, banknotes that are printed monopolistically (currency) by central banks have purchasing power and serve as a general medium of exchange (money) for billions of people around the world. Such currencies (paper money), with no backing and with no non-monetary use, make up the monetary base upon which the fractional reserve banking system relies; first, through their privileged backing by central banks as lenders of last resort and second, through the reserve multiplier, allowing commercial banks to provide loans (bank money) beyond their reserves. The new funds created and lent by commercial banks via mere accounting entries perform the same function as money and therefore increase the money supply.” (02/04/26)
https://libertarianinstitute.org/articles/understanding-money-and-inflation-in-todays-world
Big Money Is Back
Source: The American Prospect
by David Dayen
“A preview to this year’s congressional primary season kicks off, unusually, on Thursday. Former Rep. Mikie Sherrill won a landslide to become New Jersey’s governor last year, and a crowded primary to replace her in the state’s 11th Congressional District is being held tomorrow. It’s a light-blue district, but the winner of the 11-candidate Democratic primary is expected to easily prevail in the general election in early April. That’s brought a familiar face out of the shadows to help determine the outcome: AIPAC. Though some reports indicated that the pro-Israel PAC was pulling back on electoral spending, it has thrown down nearly $2.3 million in television ads through its subsidiary United Democracy Project (UDP), and $1.83 million more in direct mail and phone banks, to block former Rep. Tom Malinowski from winning the seat. As is typical for single-issue groups, the ads are 100 percent pretextual.” (02/04/25)
https://prospect.org/2026/02/04/2026-primaries-spending-aipac-analilia-mejia-tom-malinowski/
Wrong Is Wrong
Source: The Dispatch
by Jonah Goldberg
“I should be clear that I do think the Biden family’s business dealings were corrupt, whether or not laws were broken. Others disagree. I also think Trump’s business dealings appear to be worse in many ways than even what Biden was alleged to have done. But none of that is relevant. The standard set by Trump and Republicans is the relevant political standard, and by the deputy attorney general’s own account, the Trump administration is doing ‘exactly the same thing,’ just more openly. Since when is being more transparent about wrongdoing a defense? Try telling a cop or judge: ‘Yes, I robbed that bank. I’ve been completely transparent about that. So, what’s the big deal?'” (02/04/26)
Federal Election Takeover?
Source: Common Sense
by Paul Jacob
“Have you ever noticed that in the tug of war beteeen federal and state power, politicians of all stripes support the Constitution’s balance when it suits them and ignore it when it doesn’t?” (02/04/26)
https://thisiscommonsense.org/2026/02/04/federal-election-takeover/
Trump Is Doubling Down on All the Wrong Things
Source: The Atlantic
by Jonathan Lemire
“Anger about the scenes of unrest and violence amid ICE deportation operations in Minnesota? Well, the Trump administration has telegraphed that it would like to carry out a crackdown on Haitians in Ohio next. Concern about brandishing military force after the U.S. removed the leader of Venezuela and then threatened Greenland? Trump has sent an ‘armada’ of warships to the Persian Gulf to intimidate Iran. A sense that the president has lost focus on what got him elected as he takes on vanity projects such as the White House ballroom? Well, he’ll see you that and raise you both the Kennedy Center renovation and the construction of a giant arch that no one seems to want.” (02/04/26)
Inside Strum: How a Subscription Platform Funds Ukraine’s Neo-Nazi Azov Brigade
Source: Antiwar.com
by JD Hester
“With resources dwindling and rampant foreign military aid corruption, Azov has increasingly relied on donations from individuals and companies. According to reporting from Svidomi, which included interviews with founders and project managers, a new project, Strum, has become the ‘driving force’ behind the Brigade. The platform operates as a subscription service like Netflix or Spotify, but with some substantial differences and additional features.” [editor’s note: I’m not a fan of Azov, but this is the way ALL military organizations should be funded – TLK] (02/04/26)
Let the Affordability Bidding War Begin
Source: Washington Monthly
by Paul Glastris
“Democrats have a stronger hand. They should raise their bets.” (02/03/26)
https://washingtonmonthly.com/2026/02/03/affordability-bidding-war-democrats-trump/
The Techno-Authoritarian Blueprint for America, part 1
Source: The Jolly Libertarian
by Marco den Ouden
“There is a new strain of authoritarian thought emerging in America today, one that threatens to rip asunder America as we know it. It has its roots in the neo-feudalism of anarcho-capitalist theorist Hans-Hermann Hoppe. It evolved into the neo-reactionism of Curtis Yarvin writing as Mencius Moldbug. His Patchwork philosophy called for a fractured network of corporate city states, each ruled by a corporate CEO with absolute power. More recently Yarvin has come out explicitly for regime change and the establishment of a de facto centralized authoritarian one party state through what he he calls Hard Party politics. An approach one might call Shock-and-Awe Centralism.” (02/03/26)
https://jollylibertarian.blogspot.com/2026/02/the-techno-authoritarian-blueprint-for.html
Teachers’ unions have hijacked classrooms across the US to indoctrinate students with far-left [sic] propaganda
Source: New York Post
by Corey DeAngelis
“A wave of school protests sweeping the US in response to the fatal shooting of two anti-ICE protesters in Minnesota has revealed how teachers unions have weaponized classrooms for their own left-wing agenda. The unions have revealed themselves as political operatives more concerned with indoctrinating kids than teaching them reading, writing and arithmetic. These disruptions didn’t materialize out of thin air. The teachers’ unions fired the starting gun by blasting out anti-ICE propaganda to teachers, urging them to rally against immigration enforcement and turn schools into battlegrounds for their partisan fights. The National Education Association is also pushing teachers to print out immigration-related political propaganda posters and put them in their classrooms.” [editor’s note: Anti-ICE isn’t “left-wing,” it’s “anti-gang” – TLK] (02/04/25)