Source: Foundation for Economic Education
by Rachel Chiu
“Earlier this month, US District Judge Alan Albright granted an injunction against Texas Senate Bill 13 (‘SB 13’), a state law aimed at curbing ‘woke capitalism’ and environmental, social, and governance (ESG) practices. Over the past few years, these practices have taken the form of regulations, reporting requirements, and credit metrics on areas including environmental impact and diversity. Conservatives have pushed back on ESG, believing that these initiatives have enabled progressive ideology and values to undermine business investments. … Lawmakers have good reason to be skeptical of ESG principles and their effects on investment. However, Judge Albright’s ruling is a potent reminder that overly expansive legislative fixes can skirt too close to civil liberties and ultimately fail to achieve their intended objectives.” (03/01/26)
“In 1996, Harry answered the call to run for president. I discovered Harry and libertarianism as he won and accepted the Libertarian Party nomination. I read his first campaign book, Why Government Doesn’t Work. As a result of that campaign, I became a party member, almost immediately a county chair, then quickly a state chair. That could’ve been the end of the story, and Harry Browne still would’ve made an indelible impression on my life. But then I was hired to be his 2000 campaign press secretary.” (03/01/26)
“Even in wars described as strategic, children die first. In many cities, including Tehran, explosions were heard near major government and military sites, including parts of the Supreme Leader’s compound. News followed that Ayatollah Khamenei himself was dead. I can’t lie — when I saw satellite images of his compound in ruins and heard the reports of his assassination, it felt surreal. When I lived in Iran, I passed that heavily guarded building many times on the way to my grandmother’s house. I would not dare look up at the armed guards, irrationally afraid they might recognize my hatred. For many Iranians inside the country — and for those condemned to exile — this is a cathartic moment decades in the making.” (03/01/26)
“You read the labels. You check the ingredients. You avoid seed oils, limit sugar, and side-eye anything with a barcode longer than a haiku. You subscribe to Substacks that dissect institutional capture. You understand, probably better than most, that ‘the science’ can be quietly purchased by the people it is supposed to regulate. So let me ask you a question that might sting. What did you feed your dog this morning? If the answer is a brown pellet from a bag, you are running the same ultraprocessed food experiment on your dog that you have spent the last few years learning to reject for yourself and your family.” (03/01/26)
“They frame the crisis not as an act of war against a UN member state, but as a natural consequence of Tehran’s failure to capitulate unconditionally.” (03/01/26)
“The proposed Paramount-Warner Bros. Discovery merger, which the principals are trying to get done quickly before state attorneys general can react with a challenge, is terrible for a host of reasons, the most politically salient being the fairly explicit effort to convert a healthy chunk of American media organizations into a swamp of pro-MAGA propaganda. But perhaps the worst part is how bad a business deal it is, and that has implications for both the future of Hollywood and the ability for states to actually block it. The deal is tied up with so much debt that it virtually guarantees layoffs the likes of which Hollywood hasn’t seen before. That’s going to mean far less output from the suite of properties under Paramount and Warner’s control.” (03/02/26)
“On April 21, 1996, Russian forces executed one of the most precise assassinations of the modern era. The target was Dzhokhar Dudayev, leader of Chechnya’s separatist war against Moscow. … When U.S. strikes failed to kill Moammar Kadafi in 1986 or Saddam Hussein numerous times in the 1990s, many airpower advocates concluded near misses were the problem. If the leader actually died, the regime would fracture. Russia — with a critical U.S. assist — proved the execution could be perfected.
But execution was never the core variable. Leadership assassination in international disputes does not simply remove authority; it redistributes it under emotional mobilization.” (03/01/26)
“Yesterday’s attack by Israeli and US forces on Iran has within hours expanded to include a dozen different nations. As usual, we have nowhere near enough information to figure out what is really going on. The claims made by various and sundry (including The Donald and Bibi) seem to be contradictory and are challenged by people in all corners of the political diamond. Not just in Israel and the States, but around the world.” (03/01/26)
“Last Friday, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth declared AI company Anthropic a ‘supply chain risk,’ the first time this designation has ever been applied to a US company. The trigger for the move was Anthropic’s refusal to allow the Department of War to use their AIs for mass surveillance and autonomous weapons. A few hours later, Hegseth and Sam Altman declared an agreement-in-principle for OpenAI’s models to be used in the niche vacated by Anthropic. Altman stated that he had received guarantees that OpenAI’s models wouldn’t be used for mass surveillance or autonomous weapons either, but given Hegseth’s unwillingness to concede these points with Anthropic, observers speculated that the safeguards in Altman’s contract must be weaker or, in a worst-case scenario, completely toothless.” (03/01/26)
“So, imagine if you will, that it’s 1933. Armed with these ideas about ‘citizens’ and ‘aliens,’ enraged over the mess he’s inherited from his predecessors and by the nightmarish conditions his country has endured, Hitler explains that he will target ‘illegal alien criminals’ and anyone who chooses to ‘block the removal of criminal aliens.’ … I can almost see the eye-rolling and hear the shouting: ‘Please Sciabarra. Not the Hitler Analogy. Spare us!’ Let me assure you: I do not believe that Donald J. Trump is Adolf Hitler or that the United States is a full-blown fascist dictatorship. Yet. But insofar as Trump draws from the same crude collectivist well of racism as an antidote to palpable fear of contemporary conditions, the ominous parallels exist.” (02/28/26)
