Source: The American Conservative
by Joseph Addington
“Earlier this month, Daniel Ortega, the dictator of Nicaragua, announced that his country would no longer hold elections. In response, Secretary of State Marco Rubio issued a statement condemning Ortega and declaring that Nicaragua ‘cannot expect to maintain business as usual with other nations when it is thwarting the basic tenets of our democratic hemisphere.’ There is no doubt that Nicaragua has suffered under the rule of Ortega and his wife Rosario Murillo, who have run the country as their personal fiefdom for nearly two decades. But Rubio’s rhetoric on Latin America increasingly resembles the neoconservatism President Trump was ostensibly elected to displace.” (07/29/26)
“As COVID cases and deaths began to soar in the spring of 2020, America desperately needed a trustworthy public-health leader. Instead, we got Dr. Anthony Fauci — and now his diary entries from that time are showing just how incredibly unworthy of the nation’s trust he truly was. Time and again, his private notes contradict what he was telling the world at the very same time, and the stories he’s spun up since to protect his unearned reputation.” (07/28/26)
Source: Karl Dickey’s Freedom Vanguard
by Karl Dickey
“Senator Paul released the Fauci diaries this week. I read the journals, and they reveal an official focused on celebrity and media praise. Fauci wrote during the 2020 lockdowns about interacting with Hollywood actors like Sean Penn and Julia Roberts. He called himself the most credible scientist in the world. He filled pages with insults aimed at Donald Trump, calling the former president an idiot and totally nuts. I expect public servants to focus on public outcomes. Fauci focused on his television appearances and fame while individual freedoms were sacrificed and small businesses collapsed. … I view this upcoming testimony as a lesson in a core libertarian truth. Harry Browne often warned that government power always grows beyond its intended limits and destroys personal freedom.” (07/29/26)
“American’s first Red Scare took place from 1917 to 1921. Pres. Woodrow Wilson’s terror campaign against American radicals, dissidents, immigrants and workers makes the current Trump-Rubio effort look like a pathetic puppet show. Wilson jailed his charismatic Socialist opponent, the 63-year-old Eugene Debs, for opposing America’s descent into the carnage of the First World War. … The second Red Scare dragged on between 1947 and 1954. In 1954, Senator Joseph R. McCarthy (R-W) was at the height of his campaign against ‘communism,’ alleging that hundreds of Communists had infiltrated the State Department and other federal agencies. … Today’s Red Scare 3.0 is driven by the growing opposition to Trump’s foreign and domestic policies. Trump needs a new front to contest the opposition and give him – and his Republican Party backers, especially in Congress — a wedge they can use to fight the challenges they face. Nothing is better than an ill-defined yet omni-threatening enemy.” (07/29/26)
“Encouraged by Ukraine’s sustained advances in drone warfare, Western media is abuzz with the idea that Kyiv just might be able to defeat Russia after more than four years of bitter fighting. … But this isn’t the first time the press has played up Ukraine’s military capabilities, despite repeated setbacks on the battlefield. As experts warn RS, such coverage reinforces the idea that more military aid can still help Ukraine win back all of its territory, thus downplaying the need for a negotiated solution.” (07/29/26)
Source: Ludwig von Mises Institute
by Patrick Barron
“So-called ‘Democratic Socialists’ are winning elections in America (New York City and Colorado). I’m sure that no one who either is running on a socialist platform or who voted for a socialist candidate has ever visited a real socialist country. One of the reasons is that there are not that many left. I can think only of Cuba and North Korea.” [editor’s note: Bernie Sanders honeymooned in the Soviet Union, and many American “democratic socialists” have made highly publicized trips to Cuba – TLK] (07/29/26)
“he Trump administration’s 13 nights of strikes on Iran, including on bridges and energy infrastructure, have been followed by three nights of calm. The Iranians, however, clearly do not trust Trump to halt his war of aggression on their country for very long, especially with the visit to Washington, D. C. this week of Trump Whisperer, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Even Trump is complaining about Netanyahu’s loud campaign to have Trump bomb specific targets in Iran. To show what they thought about Netanyahu’s warmongering against them, the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) commanders sent a barrage of missiles against covert US bases in Jordan early on Wednesday local time.” (07/29/26)
“Acoustic gunshot detection (AGD) systems are designed to detect and report gunfire to law enforcement. Promoted as a high-tech solution to urban gun violence, AGD has been widely adopted by police departments across the United States, with California a leader in the number of cities that use the technology. To be considered a successful public safety innovation, a technology would be able to demonstrate effectiveness in assisting law enforcement in reducing violence and solving crimes and do so in a cost-efficient manner. However, AGD does not meet these criteria and constitutes a costly failure that undermines effective policing.” (07/29/26)
“In the 1960s, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service came to landowners across the Midwest, including the farmer who previously owned my land, with a deal. The government wanted an easement on part of the property to protect wetlands that provide habitats for ducks and other waterfowl. The agency did not offer much money. It paid about $630 for rights across roughly 328 acres of land I now own. The easement document explicitly states that farmers could continue ‘normal farming practices.’ Farmers across the northern Great Plains signed these deals. … When my family bought farmland in LaMoure County‚ the property had one of these easements on it. If the government had stuck to the agreement, the easement would not have been a big obstacle to our land management practices. But in 2024, the Fish and Wildlife Service reinterpreted the scope of the wetland easements and updated the restrictions applied to prairie potholes.” (07/29/26)
“[E]ven as fierce criticism of Israel reaches the very apex of American politics, a profound, schizophrenic rupture divides Washington. While the American public, influential media personalities, and top-tier politicians are openly turning against Israel’s unbridled violence, the traditional power structures continue to toe the line. This is explicitly evident in Congress, where establishment politicians remain busy acting as defense contractors for Tel Aviv. … To believe this subservience is a recent phenomenon is to misunderstand history.” (07/29/26)
