“At a convention of Canadian Liberals, tech executive Patrick Pichette proposed that youngsters eager to escape Canada be charged a half-million dollars for what he apparently regards as a privilege, not a right. We must remind ourselves that the word ‘liberal,’ here, is used in its modern, anti-liberal sense: of the ideology of ever-increasing restraints on everybody. Very illiberal. Even if Pichette means Canadian dollars, that’s still $360,000 in real USD dollars. Hardly a ten-dollar processing fee. More like extortion. He rationalizes that the kids owe that much anyway thanks to Canada’s heavily subsidized education system.” (04/26/26)
Source: Caitlin Johnstone, Rogue Journalist
by Caitlin Johnstone
“One common feature of western empire propaganda is that we are always given reasons for the empire’s violence, while the violence of those who resist the empire tends to be framed as happening for no reason at all. We’ve all been fed reasons for the US-Israeli war on Iran, and we all know what those reasons are. Even less-informed members of the western public will have heard something about the Iranians being a nuclear threat, having a tyrannical government, and maybe something about sponsoring terrorist groups. But the so-called ‘peaceful protesters’ who were killed in an uprising fomented and facilitated by the United States? They were killed for no reason, simply because the Iranian government is evil and hates dissent. … It is only by pure coincidence that this happened at the exact same time the US empire was making the decision to try to topple the Iranian government.” (04/16/26)
“Claims that NAFTA increased deaths among manufacturing workers overlook a key reality: most job loss stems from productivity gains, not trade.” (04/16/26)
“In Musk v. Altman, a jury will soon determine whether OpenAI has strayed from its founding mission to ensure AGI benefits humanity. Here’s what to know.” (04/16/26)
Source: Electronic Frontier Foundation
by Rory Mir & Nathan Sheard
“New York’s proposed 2026-2027 budget currently includes provisions that will require all 3D printers sold in the state to run print-blocking censorware — software that surveils every print for forbidden designs. This policy would also create felony charges for possessing or sharing certain design files. The vote on the state budget could happen as early as next week, so New Yorkers need to act fast and demand that their Assemblymembers and Senators strip this provision from the budget.” (04/16/26)
“Roman moralists mistrusted ambition, which they connected to bribery and flattery. The powerful men around President Donald Trump show the dangers of ambition in its classical sense.” (04/16/26)
“On Sunday night, the streets of Budapest were filled. Tens of thousands of Hungarians poured into the streets along the Danube River, singing folk songs and waving flags celebrating the end of Viktor Orbán’s rule. A young man named Mark Szekeres, his face painted with the colors of the Hungarian flag, told CBC News: ‘This election was about a clash of civilizations. Either you belong in a Western-type democracy or an Eastern-type dictatorship.’ For 16 years, Orbán controlled the country as the classic strongman. Orbán’s electoral defeat was sound—so much so that he conceded defeat before all the votes were counted. Péter Magyar’s Tisza Party captured more than 53% of the vote and approximately 136 of 199 parliamentary seats, a supermajority decisive enough to undo the constitution and other laws that Orbán rewrote. The turnout alone was a verdict: nearly 80% of all eligible voters.” (04/16/26)
Source: David Friedman’s Substack
by David Friedman
“One of the things that has struck me, looking at a wide variety of legal systems past and present, is the important role of feud as a form of law enforcement. The logic of feud law is simple: If you wrong me I threaten to hurt you unless you compensate me for the wrong. In order for it to work, it requires some mechanism that makes my threat of hurting you more believable when you actually have wronged me than when you have not, in order to prevent the enforcement mechanism from being used for extortion. To put it differently, you need some mechanism such that right makes might. … Feud systems are not only a matter of historical interest; they still exist, de facto if not de jure. One current example is patent litigation among modern companies such as Apple and Samsung, two of the largest producers of cell phones.” (04/16/26)
“In Village of Euclid v. Ambler Realty Co., Justice Sutherland handed local governments near-total power to reshape neighborhoods on the basis of taste and social preference, even likening an apartment block in a single-family area to ‘a pig in the parlor instead of the barnyard.’ That comparison mattered because it announced a new rule: you no longer had to show real, measurable harm to stop someone from using their property. Courts moved away from old nuisance laws that demanded evidence and replaced it with discretionary control over how places should look and who should live where.” (04/16/26)
