“Anne Davis is a psychotherapist who spent two decades counseling homeless people and patients with mental illness in Colorado. But when she moved home to Michigan — which has a severe shortage of counselors, social workers and therapists — it took more than a year for the state to allow her to get back to work. The state desperately needs therapists like Davis. According to the National Alliance on Mental Illness, more than 3 million Michiganders live in a community that does not have enough mental health professionals. The state is facing a shortage of therapists and psychiatrists. But Michigan’s licensing laws have made it difficult to fill these gaps. The Wolverine State’s struggle to attract mental health professionals is a symptom of the broader problems caused by America’s patchwork of occupational licensing laws.” (08/05/26)
“Let’s play a fun little game of ‘what does ‘sign’ actually mean’, shall we? Because Dr. Anthony Fauci just spent a Senate hearing invoking the Fifth Amendment 111 times — one hundred and eleven, an Olympic gold medal in constitutional dodging — and buried underneath that spectacle is a question that’s far more interesting than anything Fauci actually said, which was, of course, nothing. Was his blanket pardon from Joe Biden even valid in the first place? And if it wasn’t, does the Fifth Amendment even apply to a man who might not be pardoned at all?” [editor’s note: Are McCullough’s paychecks signed by autopen? If so, is he going to return the money? – TLK] (08/05/26)
Source: Foundation for Economic Education
by Kerry McDonald
“We all have distinct needs and preferences. Some of us like pickup trucks; others like Priuses. Some of us demand Dunkin’ coffee (me!); others swear by Starbucks. Some of us prefer to live in the city; others in the suburbs. Some of us like to read mystery novels; others prefer science fiction. Some of us want one type of Airbnb experience; others prefer something else. We are all different, and that diversity is what makes our society so dynamic. It’s also why decentralization is crucial. No top-down policy could possibly satisfy all of our individual needs and preferences, and imposing such a policy would understandably breed discontent. … In education, we are thankfully starting to see the choice, variety, and abundance we enjoy in all other parts of our lives where market competition prevails. ” (08/05/26)
“Weather is local, weather that affects food production is local, therefore security of supply is gained by getting food from multiple local areas affected by different local weathers. Trade. We can go further too. Say that they’re right about this climate change thing. Weather is going to become more variable in each local area – this is indeed one of the predictions. That means that we must gain our food from many more local areas, local weathers, in order to have a consistent supply. The worse climate change is the more we not just desire but insist upon more trade in food. Climate change itself, that is, is the one single argument against local self-sufficiency in food.” (08/05/26)
Source: Caitlin Johnstone, Rogue Journalist
by Caitlin Johnstone
“One point I will always adamantly insist on is that it’s entirely possible to live a joyful and exuberant life in the midst of this abusive dystopia. There’s a pervasive, unexamined notion throughout revolutionary politics that there’s some kind of nobility in being miserable. If it isn’t seen as noble, it’s at least seen as rational, because everything is so unjust and unhealthy. There’s a widespread assumption that your level of political awareness should have an inverse correlation to your level of personal happiness, because of all the tyranny, injustice, poverty, genocide and ecocide. That it would be selfish to be happy in a world so deeply troubled. But that’s rubbish. Nobody is helped by your misery. By depriving yourself of joy, you are only depriving the world of that much joy.” (08/05/26)
Source: Future of Freedom Foundation
by Jacob G Hornberger
“The communist threat from Cuba has returned with a vengeance. According to a Washington Post article entitled ‘State Dept. Again Deems Cuba a Threat Amid Talk of U.S. Push for Regime Change,’ the Trump administration recently issued an official report ‘alleging that a multi-decade Cuban influence campaign in the United States has had ‘remarkable success’ in infiltrating ‘the highest reaches of the U.S. government,’ backing ‘left-wing terrorism on American soil’ and turning ‘America against itself.’’ Yikes! The Reds are coming to get us … again! Is it time to send the troops back into Vietnam to prevent the dominoes from falling to the commies? Is the international communist conspiracy still centered in Moscow? What about the terrorists? And the Muslims? And the drug dealers? And the illegal immigrants? Should we put those on the back burner?” (08/05/26)
“Perhaps more so than in other parts of the world, Africa has been jolted by global trade shocks, epidemics, and climate uncertainties in recent years. At the same time, foreign aid has slowed to a trickle. Yet, amid all this, the continent’s one bright spot has been agriculture, which is evolving from subsistence farming into sustainable livelihoods. Investors from the Middle East, Asia, and Europe are putting money into African agriculture, seeding the ability of farmers there to intensify and diversify their crops and livestock with an eye toward processing raw materials for export. These investments signal a shift from resource exploitation by outside interests to an approach that recognizes African countries as reliable producers and trade partners.” (08/04/26)
“The wave of anti-Semitic violence, threats, and harassment that swept US campuses immediately after the barbaric Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, should have constituted a wake-up call to all Americans. It revealed the cowardly character of the country’s academic leaders, especially those directing our most prestigious universities. Over 1,200 Israeli civilians were murdered; another 250 were kidnapped and taken to Gaza; no attack of this scale had been perpetrated against Jews since the Holocaust. Yet, even as Israeli authorities began to respond, American campuses were filled with demonstrators denouncing Israel as a ‘genocidal’ state, calling to ‘Globalize the Intifada’ (that is, the waves of Islamist terror that struck Israel, killing thousands of civilians over two decades ago).” [editor’s note: How many Palestinian civilians have been murdered, both before and after that single day, by Israeli forces? As Ayn Rand would say, “blank out” – TLK] (08/05/26)
“Thin-skinned and heavy-handed, the Trump administration apparently feels like it is being singled out by those who dissent from its policies. As a result, Trump appointees are taking drastic ‘McCarthy’ tactics to stop dissent. In less than one month, alleging that dissent and protests are part of attempts of other governments ‘to overthrow the government of the United States’, Secretary of State Marco Rubio has sponsored two major initiatives to frighten those who oppose the Trump administration’s policies. The first salvo was orchestrating a conference with 60 countries participating over ‘Threats From Left-Wing Terrorists’. The second was the report on Cuba that alleged virtually every group that has ever visited Cuba is paid by the Cuban government.” (08/05/26)
