Source: Ludwig von Mises Institute
by Thiago VS Coelho
“The argumentum ad baculum — appeal to force — is, in plain terms, an attempt to secure assent not by evidence but by threat. As one line of analysis puts it even more starkly, ad baculum often isn’t really an argument at all; it’s a tactic offered instead of argument to shut the exchange down. That is not an occasional vice of the state. It is the state’s operating system. … when the state ‘argues,’ its syllogism is always lurking in the background: Do X (pay, register, comply, cease, confess, submit), or else.” (03/13/26)
“As one might expect, waging war in a critical chokepoint in the world’s supply of petroleum — and many other goods — has been disruptive, with oil prices spiking and consumer gasoline and diesel prices following. President Donald Trump had at first resisted calls to tap oil reserves in the United States and the other 31 members of the International Energy Agency, but then came TACO Wednesday, which follows TACO Tuesday and precedes TACO Thursday — if it is a day of the week ending in the letter ‘y,’ then you can count on it: Trump Always Chickens Out. His resolve to hold the line on oil reserves lasted about as long as his relationship with Stormy Daniels. … The way the graph lines are moving right now, Trump’s approval ratings are poised to dip below his BMI more or less presently. So, the oil taps will be opened.” (03/13/26)
“I’m no economist — but I understand that the market for petroleum products is a worldwide one, and if supply collapses on the other side of the world, it’s going to affect prices over here. We may not buy from Iran, but folks elsewhere do, and when they cannot get what they need, they’ll go to competitors, and world prices will be bid up. … The first casualty of a price hike is common sense.” (03/13/26)
“It is well known, and even taught in government-run, tax-funded schools, that European nobility and royalty made and maintained their wealth by stealing. Land, labor, the products of the land, and more. But those in government-ruined, theft-funded schools are told that today, governments no longer do that. After all, they are ‘of the people, for the people, and by the people.’ We worship democracy. But all governments, at least those which are mandatory and instituted by fallible men, are kleptocracies to some (generally large) degree. Taxes, licenses and fees, and regulatory demands are just a part of it. Stealing land is perhaps far bigger.” (03/13/26)
“Talia Rose can see the FedEx planes. ‘They’re directly across the tarmac from me,’ they told me. Rose works the overnight shift at the UPS air hub. Most days, they clock in before dawn, when much of Oakland is asleep. Metal containers — ULDs — are rolled off the aircraft and pulled into the building. Rose unloads them, sending boxes down conveyor belts to be sorted and routed. Sometimes they’re on the other side, throwing freight toward outbound trucks. It’s physical work, repetitive and precise. Around six months ago, during a weekly organizing meeting at the Oakland Liberation Center, they learned that military cargo bound for Israel had been moving through the airport. Activists had just released research documenting hundreds of such shipments passing through OAK.” (03/12/26)
“President Donald Trump really screwed up this time. And I’m talking raised-the-chances-of-nuclear-catastrophe levels of screwing-up. … The Trump administration is failing to achieve its war aims, to the extent that anybody can decipher what they are. Trump initially had said he wanted to spread “freedom” to Iran, but so far, the U.S. and Israel are spreading apocalyptic scenes of mass devastation—and without managing to collapse the regime. Senior U.S. and Israeli officials are ready to deescalate, and Trump himself may want to declare victory and get out, but Tehran gets a vote as to when this war ends.” (03/13/26)
“You can outsource to machines not only such tasks as lawnmowing and vacuuming and dishwashing and laundry, but (with the aid of AI) also thinking, idea-generation, writing, art, music, and (brace yourself) romance. Smart bassinets will rock your baby, while AI will respond to your emails — and your recipients, in turn, can use AI to read these emails and write back, cutting out the human middlemen and women from the conversation altogether. Meanwhile, robot pets and other AI tools offer companionship for lonely seniors who have no one else to care for them, and AI therapists are available to assist with the mental health crises of our age. Soon, if predictions hold true, we will also be able to outsource all driving to self-driving cars, pregnancy to artificial wombs, and all childcare and teaching to AI. … Serious ethical dilemmas follow from the outsourcing of many of these tasks.” (03/13/26)
“You may have only recently heard: As of this coming December, all American males will find themselves ‘automatically registered,’ upon the occasion of their 18th birthdays, for a prospective military draft. Given current events, that prospect understandably gives off sinister vibes — ‘but without a draft, who would do the necessary work of murdering Iranian elementary school students and Venezuelan fisherme … er, ‘narco-terrorists?” — so you might be surprised to learn that it’s old news. On December 30, 2024, then US president Joe Biden (or maybe his autopen?) signed the National Defense [sic] Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2025, which included the relevant provision. Reaction from the general public: Yawn … hey, the Chargers clinched a wild card playoff berth! OMG, Jimmy Carter died! NDAA? Whazzat? War has a way of retroactively refocusing the mind, doesn’t it? In reality, ‘automatic registration’ is even older news, though.” (03/12/26)
“In coverage of the war against Iran, a familiar choreography is playing out again, one that the media have carefully refined to exploit the perceived credibility of diaspora groups in order to push war and empire. This phenomenon of selectively and specifically amplifying diaspora voices who will cheerlead for war is now a well-documented feature of the American media ecosystem. For months in the lead up to this new illegal and unconstitutional war, high-profile American ‘news’ outlets featured almost exclusively Iranians and Iranian-Americans who argued for regime change through ground invasion, a position arguably even more extreme and reckless than that of Donald Trump. Major outlets host sympathetic figures with very good reasons to hate the target country and unassailable arguments that its rulers are authoritarian criminals.” (03/12/26)
