“I recently wrote about a new elite strategy of peppering us with anti-Arab, anti-Muslim propaganda ahead of the 2026 elections. Since then, we’ve also started to hear quite a lot about a sinister ‘red-green’ coalition—red for communists, green for Islamists—threatening the very existence of our republic. The propagandists making this pitch employ astonishingly broad definitions …. It should be clear to all of us, of course, that this new ‘red-green’ canard is not a native-grown, conservative defense of our constitutional order from outside enemies. On the contrary, it’s nothing less than an attempt by our ruling class to force our own coalition to dismantle itself—less than two years after we handily won the 2024 election.” (09/01/26)
“For most people, the story of the medieval world was one of cramped cities, constant violent crime, and episodic outbreaks of deadly plagues—the dividends of unclean urban conditions, rotting food, fouled water, open sewage, and unchecked rats, fleas, and lice. Most of each day was spent simply trying to survive until the next. Castles and walls dotted the landscape to protect kingdoms from marauding tribes and foreign invaders. City gates were usually closed at dusk to keep out nocturnal marauders. Public executions drew massive crowds. And religious schisms and conflicts often turned deadly. In other words, it was not altogether unfamiliar to the world we are becoming today. Yet meanwhile, science advanced quietly among true elites at universities, courts, and monasteries, producing windmills, mechanical clocks, and eyeglasses.” (09/01/26)
“Desensitization is one of Donald Trump’s most powerful tools: Through repetition, he acclimates Americans to troubling and dangerous ideas. Occasionally, though, his statements and actions are so outrageous that they can still provide a shock. The president’s hostility toward the media is familiar, but this weekend provided a clear reminder that Trump hates freedom of the press and will use any government power at his disposal to try to get rid of it.” (08/31/26)
Source: Ludwig von Mises Institute
by Wanjiru Njoya
“In the Ethics of Liberty, Murray Rothbard argued that aggressive war is always immoral and must always be opposed. The just war doctrine should be understood not as a moral toolkit that can be harnessed to justify aggressive war, but, on the contrary, as an exception to the foundational anti-war principle. This means that the just war exception should never become more important than the anti-war rule. Unfortunately, many now treat the just war doctrine as a presumption that launching war is morally upstanding so long as a ‘just cause’ can be found to rationalize it.” (09/01/26)
“On December 13, 1790, just one week after Philadelphia became the U.S. capital, President Washington wrote to several Hebrew congregations across the fledgling nation to respond to the congratulations they sent him for his inauguration as president. Washington opened the letter by invoking a word that today is almost lost to history. He praised the congregations for their ‘liberality of sentiment’ concerning religious tolerance, arguing that ‘the affection of such people is a treasure beyond the reach of calculation.’ The virtue Washington identified—’liberality’—is the progenitor of modern political liberalism. To understand why Washington held this ideal in such high regard, we must return to the ancient Romans who inspired him, and follow the history of liberality from antiquity to the present. In this ancient virtue lies the seeds of modern political liberalism—and quite possibly an antidote to the crisis of meaning that plagues liberalism today.” (08/31/26)
“‘I want to be President of all Americans,’ said Joe Biden. Barack Obama said something similar about there not being red Americans or blue Americans, only Americans, or some such garbage. It’s garbage because in pursuit of that job, and in the execution of it, they do not speak to half the country at all. They want to control you, not talk with you. During his presidency, Barack Obama barely ever gave interviews to Fox News. Occasionally, he would do the Super Bowl interview with Bill O’Reilly, but that was all that really comes to mind. At his press conferences, Obama would work off a printed list of pre-screened reporters in something with all the choreography of a Broadway show. No surprise, or even challenging, questions were allowed or even attempted by the sycophants with press credentials.” (09/01/26)
Source: Common Dreams
by Medea Benjamin & Nicolas JS Davies
“Simon Bolivar, the great liberator of South America, famously observed, ‘The United States appear(s) to be destined by Providence to plague America with misery in the name of liberty’. For 200 years, US leaders have never proved him wrong. In the early 1800s, Bolivar led what is now Venezuela and five other countries to independence from the Spanish Empire. But the United States still refuses to recognize the independence of other countries in the region. Wannabe emperor Donald Trump even refers to Canadian prime minister Mark Carney as a ‘governor’, as if Canada was merely another US state. The US-backed despots replacing popular democratic and socialist governments across Latin America today are indeed doing so in the name of liberty, as Bolivar warned.” (09/01/26)
“Once upon a time, New York Tribune editor Horace Greeley dispensed some memorable advice to a young correspondent seeking advice on how to become successful: ‘So many people ask me what they shall do; so few tell me what they can do. Yet this is the pivot wherein all must turn. I believe that each of us who has his place to make should go where men are wanted, and where employment is not bestowed as alms. Of course, I say to all who are in want of work, Go West!’ … What’s the modern-day equivalent? It might not be as aspirational as Greeley’s advice, but here it is: ‘Want to be a millionaire? Don’t start a business. Run for Congress!'” (08/31/26)
“In America’s recent experience, the first six months of a war are the best ones. Six months after the invasion of Iraq, the U.S. was setting up a provisional government in Baghdad and hunting down Saddam Hussein. Six months after the invasion of Afghanistan, with the Taliban shattered and Osama bin Laden on the run, combat was winding down. Six months after the 1991 Gulf War, U.S. troops had withdrawn, victorious, from Iraq. Even the Vietnam War looked eminently winnable six months after U.S. Marines landed at Da Nang. But the war with Iran is different. … [Donald Trump] began the war, egged on by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, assuming it would be a simple duplicate of the U.S. strike that toppled Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and installed a puppet government in Caracas. But the Iranian regime is a far more formidable adversary.” (08/31/26)
“The editors of the Wall Street Journal continue to describe President Donald Trump’s campaign against Canada as ‘the dumbest trade war in history,’ but there’s stiff competition for that title. Americans are still paying a 25 percent tax on imported light trucks in retaliation for European taxes on our chickens in the 1960s. The stupidity of Trump’s recent escalation is certainly impressive, though, and it contains as many layers as a Canuck walking to Tim Hortons in January. Consider these six.” (08/31/26)
