Source: Ludwig von Mises Institute
by Ryan McMaken
“The phrase ‘political opportunity’ was developed decades ago to describe the phenomenon that successful revolutionaries, reformers, and activists have long understood: that significant changes in political institutions come out of a mixture of ideology and historical conditions. Political events are not determined only by the battle of ideas, but also by ideological and political movements being present in the right place at the right time. It’s not enough for an ideology to have a ‘good argument.'” (05/04/26)
“For a war that was formally ‘ended’ by the president, there is still sure a lot of shooting going on. Specifically, the United Arab Emirates claimed that it intercepted Iranian missile and drone attacks on Monday, though at least one strike hit the Fujairah oil hub, which had been flowing through a pipeline to the southeast of the Strait of Hormuz. The U.S. military says it’s aiding stranded tankers through the strait, though satellite imagery doesn’t show those movements. A South Korean vessel in the strait does appear to have been struck, and other reports indicate that two U.S.-flagged merchant ships made it out. I don’t think a lot of shipowners will risk the journey given the events in the region. Only an actual resolution to the crisis will alleviate the stress on the global economy, and that’s not coming anytime soon, for reasons we here at Aftermath have expressed.” (05/05/26)
“Just 60 years ago, we were talking the end of ideology. Thirty years ago, we were talking about the end of socialism — and of history itself! — as capitalist democracies seemed triumphant after the fall of the USSR. But here it’s A.D. 2026 and we have socialist mayors in New York and Seattle and … we don’t need to argue about definitions. They call themselves socialist.” (05/04/26)
“Traditionally, a public-health problem was something that damaged or threatened the health of a large number of people without their consent and could only be addressed through collective action. Industrial pollution, cholera in the water supply, infectious disease, that kind of thing. If you walk around infected with SARS, it affects me in a way that you walking around with obesity doesn’t. That is what makes it a public-health issue rather than a mere lifestyle choice. … Over time, ‘public health’ has been redefined to include activities like smoking and it is now virtually a catch-all term. … As we saw during the pandemic, politicians can get away with nearly anything so long as it involves ‘public health.’” (05/04/26)
Source: Future of Freedom Foundation
by Jacob G Hornberger
“The Watson family has been dairy farming since before the Civil War. But no longer. [Brad] Watson recently had to auction off all of his dairy cows, each of which had a name that Watson’s children had given them. The reason that Watson lost all of his daily cows? Two reasons: Trump’s tariffs and Trump’s war on Iran, which have caused fertilizer costs to soar. Barely making it as it was, the tariffs and the soaring fertilizer costs sent the Watson dairy operation over the cliff. … the Watson story is just one of many across the United States. There are countless other people who are suffering the consequences of Trump’s tariff sprees and his illegal war of aggression on Iran. Only a few of these horror stories will end up in the mainstream press.” (05/04/25)
“While we should not trust any public pronouncements made by the Iranians (nor should our government take private ones at face value either), the regime has effectively acted in keeping with the perception it wishes to create: Iran’s leaders are not impatient for negotiations, nor do they seem willing to make accommodations in advance of any, while simultaneously demanding preconditions from the United States. The only indications of Iranian eagerness to seek peaceful resolution come from Trump — who has a less than firm relationship with the truth — claiming that the Iranians have told him privately they are desperate to give in to each of our demands. That would strain credulity under any circumstances, but especially after the president has made many, many claims of Iranian surrender or concession over the course of the nine-week conflict, all of which have proven to be demonstrably false.” (05/04/26)
“The so-called ‘AI race’ is propelling stock markets to new highs even as geopolitical turbulence rattles investors. Artificial intelligence may prove to be the rare technological revolution capable of generating real growth despite the headwinds of tariffs and misguided industrial policy. Yet the data centers powering this next generation of innovation have become a flashpoint for public anxiety. Maine has outright banned new large data center construction, and average Americans are increasingly convinced that these facilities are to blame for rising electricity bills. The statewide data, however, tell a different story. Newly published research finds no meaningful link between the number of data centers in a state and its electricity prices and points instead to a far less glamorous culprit: bad state energy policy.” (05/04/26)
“An entrepreneur casts a certain kind of spell. He brings resources, people, and capital together in a way that enables him to make others better off, so they will make him better off. He is a master of mutualism. His magic lies in his ability to carry all this out sustainably, imposing no costs on anyone other than his partners in mutual gain, all within the Law of Consent. This distinguishes him from a political entrepreneur who practices dark dialectics. That means, somewhere in his spellcasting, the political entrepreneur colludes with those who have seized the authority to compel others. Dark dialectics is the art of mingling persuasion and compulsion — like money and power — to dominate. A subversive entrepreneur casts his spells in dangerous territory, where political entrepreneurs and powerful authorities, wielding monopolies on violence, roam the land. This makes the subversive entrepreneur the rarest among entrepreneurial spellcasters.” (05/04/26)
“In the week-plus since the latest attempt on President Trump’s life, many on the Right and in the political Center are, at long last, waking up to the possibility that the political opposition today is not entirely normal. It’s not unprecedented either, but it’s far from what we have come to expect in the so-called ‘civilized’ world. As the polymath and public intellectual Eric Weinstein put it on Twitter/X, ‘These aren’t deranged liberals. They are normalized revolutionaries.’ By now, the story of how these revolutionaries came to be normalized is well-worn.” (05/04/26)
Source: ProSocial Libertarians
by Andrew Jason Cohen
“All borders, including those of voting districts and nation-states, are legal constructs. Legal constructs serve a purpose, of course. That a country extends to the ocean tells us something, but without a legal ruling about how far into the ocean it controls, we risk repeated skirmishes at sea, for example. The same is true of voting districts. Should Joe’s vote count in district 2? Or one of the other 5? Should he be allowed to decide for himself? Perhaps he’d choose 2 because the polling place is closest to his home or his kids’ school. Perhaps he’d choose 3 because the polling place is closest to his office. Perhaps he’d vary by year. It’s apparently important to people — and is obviously important to the duopoly — that people only vote in set areas. Do you actually care about that? Is it really problematic to let people vote where they choose?” (05/04/26)
