Source: Ludwig von Mises Institute
by Connor O’Keeffe
“Donald Trump announced on Sunday that his administration had reached a trade deal with the European Union, which would place a 15 percent tariff on all goods Americans buy from Europe and require the EU to purchase a certain amount of oil and weapons from some US firms. Although European officials clarified that this was a legally non-binding outline and the two sides are still working out some details, Trump is characteristically celebrating the ‘deal’ as a major win for the American people. But it really isn’t. Every supposed benefit that comes from the agreement applies only to a small subset of the country while leaving the American public, as a whole, worse off.” (07/30/25)
Source: Foundataion for Economic Education
by Caitlin Peters
“After 47 years of Superman movies, James Gunn’s 2025 film offers a poignant take on the values Superman has always embodied: truth, justice, and the American Way. Through his origin story as an alien adopted and raised in Kansas, Superman symbolizes the hope and idealism that define the American Dream: that through hard work and determination, anyone has a shot at success.” (07/30/25)
“For nearly two years, the Israeli military has been relentlessly obliterating everything in Gaza. That destruction has not been hidden. The Palestinians who live in Gaza, the majority of whom are refugees forced to flee what became Israel in 1948, have been documenting every moment of the carnage. And in fact, Israeli soldiers have gleefully shared photos and videos of themselves destroying everything they see. The Israeli government has openly and repeatedly declared its intent to annihilate Palestinians. For decades, Israel has denied it planned and carried out ethnic cleansing in 1948. … Now, nearly 80 years later, Israeli politicians at the highest level openly plot to ethnically cleanse all of Gaza. It has been clear since October 7, 2023 that the current Israeli assault is the culmination of more than 140 years of colonization, dispossession, expulsion, and repeated massacres. This is genocide.” (07/30/25)
“After the French President Emmanuel Macron announced last Thursday that France will recognize the state of Palestine, several U.S. and Israeli leaders dismissed the move as merely symbolic. … ‘What he says doesn’t matter,’ Trump told reporters Friday. ‘That statement doesn’t carry any weight.’ But if Macron’s announcement ‘doesn’t matter,’ then why have opponents of Palestinian self-determination reacted to it with such venom? In truth, recognition does matter in international affairs, which is why Israel and its Western backers, unlike most nations, have steadfastly refused to acknowledge Palestinian statehood in the first place.” (07/30/25)
“As racial minorities, women, and the LGBTQ+ Americans made social advancements in the decades since World War II, the overt violence of Jim Crow gave way to more hidden structural violence and malign governmental neglect of marginalized communities. If private organizations or foundations wanted to advance social justice, then so be it, but conservatives in government would not help them. However, that is no longer true with MAGA and the second Donald Trump administration. The president and his allies are using government coercion to enforce culture-war bigotry even upon private enterprises. The rhetoric coming from federal agencies and spokespeople echoes 19th-century white supremacist propaganda.” [editor’s note: It also echoes 20th-century “anti-discrimination” and “affirmative action” propaganda – TLK] (07/30/25)
Source: David Friedman’s Substack
by David Friedman
“Expanding production on the intensive margin means getting more grain out of land already cultivated, expanding it on the extensive margin means getting more grain by bringing new land into cultivation. In economics, the intensive margin means writing new articles — new enough, at least, to get published — on subjects that smart people have been writing articles about for most of the past century. … The extensive margin, in contrast, is the application of the existing tools of economics, including mathematics where needed, to new subjects.” (07/29/25)
“Pretty much everyone wears blue jeans in modern America. Jeans have gone from workwear to high fashion over the last 150-plus years. Dress them up, dress them down … they’re as flexible as American culture. Perhaps they are so enduring because everyone can wear them. Fat or skinny, tall or short, curvy to curve-less and everything in between — jeans are the fashion of unity. But when we’re buying a pair, we’re not contemplating any of that. We want to think about what we could look like wearing them, or who might be attracted to us while we’re wearing them. I am speaking, of course, about the power of advertising, and last week the latest ad for American Eagle jeans caused extreme distress among the Very Online crowd.” (07/30/25)
“Imagine this scenario: one day, Chief Justice John Roberts announces an investigation into ‘fake news, false reports of crimes, slanderous reports, threats, and other infractions’ that ‘affect the honor and security of the Federal Supreme Court, its members, and their families.’ Roberts appoints Justice Samuel Alito to lead the probe, granting him powers to issue warrants, access private phone and messaging data, block social media accounts, and even suspend entire platforms that refuse to comply. Alito then unilaterally expands the investigation to target ‘antidemocratic’ fake news, propaganda, and illegal content more broadly. Such a scenario … would be unthinkable in the United States, or in any democracy that respects the separation of powers and the rule of law. However, in Brazil this scenario is not a hypothetical dystopia but a reality.” (07/29/25)
Source: Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression
by Angela Erickson
“Tom Lehrer never needed to shout to be heard. He just sat down at the piano, smiled sweetly, and sang about nuclear war, venereal disease, or killing pigeons. His satire wasn’t angry or bitter either. It was playful, subversive, and cheerfully delivered in a musical theater voice. Earlier this week on July 26, Lehrer passed away at the age of 97 at his home in Cambridge, Massachusetts. As we say goodbye to this legend, we celebrate a man who reminds us that free speech isn’t just a legal concept. It’s a cultural one. One that lives or dies not just in the courts, but in our collective willingness to laugh, to listen, and to be challenged.” (07/29/25)
“For many years, large segments of the American public were perfectly willing to go on Jerry Springer and admit to the world that they abused their spouses, molested their children, tortured their pets, and consumed every illicit drug they could get their hands on. Beginning with Alcoholics Anonymous, a plethora of Anonymous organizations has come on the scene to deal with these issues, along with an ever-increasing number of other social and psychological maladies. However, there is not one Anonymous chapter where a person can get in front of a supportive group and state: ‘Good evening. My name is Steve, and I’m stupid!’ Don’t believe me? Google it!” (07/29/25)
