Source: Foundation for Economic Education
by Jake Scott
‘At the end of June 2026, Brazil’s National Treasury published a document forecasting the nation’s fiscal future, though it read more like a confession of failure than anything else. The eighth edition of the Fiscal Projections Report, first issued just over three years ago, was phrased in the usually dry government statements of routine transparency: reference scenarios for fiscal projections, sensitivity exercises on macroeconomic parameters like interest rates and inflation, a box on how oil prices are predicted to hit federal revenue, and so on. The headline fact, however, was clear: the government’s own fiscal targets are unreachable beginning in 2028. The government’s arithmetic shows that it is no longer able to reach these goals, and what makes matters worse is that there is no permissible measure capable of closing the fiscal gap that yawns beneath the target.” (07/20/26)
“One thing that is always thrown by the wayside in times of war is the maintenance of the national soul. When faced with the inherent brutality of war, the emotions of the moment can overshadow the values we seek to uphold. When the job of maintaining this national soul is left to the state, – a group Murray Rothbard labeled a ‘centralized, regularized organization of theft’ – more enticing projects tend to arise. Often those projects directly harm the citizens of the nation, as by the state’s very nature, they tend to involve aggression, theft, murder or coercion. Despite the lack of care given by the government to our nation’s soul, it is nonetheless a core pillar of a cohesive country. It defines the virtues our country intends to project to the world.” (07/20/26)
Source: Future of Freedom Foundation
by Wendy McElroy
“There are about a dozen ways to argue against the exit tax, but the constitutional approach is all that should be necessary; that is, if the tax is found to be unconstitutional — against the most basic law of the land — then other arguments should be unnecessary. The constitutional argument should be given priority for another reason, however. It shows whether or not the government is willing to play by its own basic rules by abiding by the Constitution. If it is not, then no other argument will be effective against the exit tax because the game is rigged. Only it is not a game being played; this is people’s lives.” (07/20/26)
Source: Responsible Statecraft
by Andre Pagliarini
“[T]here’s a reason Washington’s tariffs and the Brazilian presidential race have become inseparable. Senator Flávio Bolsonaro, the son of the convicted former president and Lula’s likely opponent in the October election, visited Trump, Rubio, and other senior officials in Washington in May. He returned to lobby USTR directly again in July, this time asking for a 180-day delay so the tariffs wouldn’t land before Brazilians voted. His argument was candid about the politics involved: imposing the tariffs now, he told American officials, would hand Lula ‘precisely the political victory’ the president’s campaign has been ‘engineering.’ Lula, for his part, has accused the senator, whose brother advocated for Trump’s trade war against Brazil last year, of committing ‘yet another act of treason against the Fatherland.'” (07/20/26)
“Kentucky Senator Mitch McConnell, 84, has been absent from Congress, hospitalized for weeks — first with no comment on his medical condition, still with very little information divulged. There should be an ethic in public service that when one is incapacitated, one hands the trust given back to the public to fill anew. Sadly, this tradition has fallen victim to … take your pick: incumbency, partisanship, lack of electoral competition, Cicero’s times/mores. History’s third-oldest U.S. Congress ‘boasts’ 23 members of the House and Senate now eighty years old or older.” (07/20/26)
“Marx looms over the American political landscape. Victor Marx, that is. As Democrats continue to embrace anti-white socialists, Colorado Republicans nominate a strange outsider for governor. … Marx claims to be a high-risk humanitarian who rescues women from dangerous circumstances. He told an interviewer he helped kill a man when he was seven. He frequently talks about engaging in exorcisms and battling demons. These comments and others would make him a hit on the podcast circuit, but aren’t ideal for a gubernatorial candidate. … DSA candidates have a discernible ideology. Marx and other ‘Insane Clown Party’ figures do not. … The DSA can actually take power and implement a radical agenda. The ICP can only lose races and create headlines for liberal reporters.” (07/20/26)
“Fifty years ago, liberals were attacking what today is called the deep state—that is, the unelected members of the federal government. At the center of this liberal coalition was Idaho Sen. Frank Church, who in 1975 and 1976 headed high-profile hearings into the national security apparatus that had been created at the start of the Cold War in the late 1940s, but which seemed to be pursuing interests very different from what elected officials were telling voters.” (07/20/26)
