Source: Ludwig von Mises Institute
by Joshua Mawhorter

“While not entirely consistent in every respect, the Declaration of Independence — as an act of secession — can be understood as one of the earliest major challenges to centralized, modern, sovereign authority within the emerging nation-state system. Although it created new states rather than abolishing state power itself, it decentralized and imposed limits upon British imperial sovereignty through an appeal to self-government and national self-determination. To their great credit, Locke and Jefferson both affirmed pre-political natural rights, that the only legitimate role of government is to protect those rights, and that rights remain rights and crimes remain crimes whether one is a private individual or a state elite.” (05/22/26)

https://mises.org/mises-wire/how-social-contract-theory-became-state-apologetics

Source: The American Prospect
by Harold Meyerson

“Exactly one year and six days ago, the Prospect posted a piece I’d just written about Colorado’s Jared Polis, under the headline ‘The Democrats’ One and Only Union-Busting Governor’. As of a couple weeks ago, that headline is no longer accurate. Polis is still a union-buster and even more out of sync with Colorado Democrats, who’ve just formally censured him for complying with President Trump’s demand to commute the sentence of Tina Peters …. But Polis no longer holds that ‘one and only’ status when it comes to Democratic governors who bust unions. Two weeks ago, Virginia’s Abigail Spanberger did just that by vetoing a bill that would have given Virginia’s public-sector workers the right to bargain collectively.” [editor’s note: So now she has lied to ALL sectors in that state; can an impeachment be far behind? – SAT] (05/25/26)

https://prospect.org/2026/05/25/how-gov-spanberger-betrayed-virginias-workers/

Source: The Dispatch
by Jeffrey Bilbro

“Will we ever decide between a producerist American dream and a consumerist one?” (05/22/26)

https://thedispatch.com/next-250/productive-land-american-dream-250/

Source: EconLog
by Peter Boettke

“European powers frequently justified conquest by claiming that they were bringing civilization, Christianity, and economic improvement to the peoples they conquered. Smith rejected this narrative. In The Wealth of Nations, Smith described the ‘savage injustice’ of European colonial expansion, conquest and exploitation rather than benevolent improvement. Instead of imposing progress through force, Smith envisioned an alternative based on voluntary exchange and mutual gains from trade. The meeting of different societies, he argued, could have produced enormous benefits if it had occurred through peaceful commerce rather than coercion. The crucial issue for Smith and Easterly was not simply whether development increased material output but whether it respected the autonomy of individuals and communities.” (05/22/26)

https://www.econlib.org/econlog/development-by-consent

Source: Foundation for Economic Education
by Andrew Lilico

“It sounds so simple. If consumers are suffering because prices are going up, then forbid that. Who could object, beyond greedy firms profiteering by pushing prices up? … If the government caps the prices of supermarket products, that will make those products unprofitable for the supermarket to stock and also mean that consumers have to pay less for them than their economic value, the consequence being that they will sell out and not be available. Why would I, as a consumer, want key products to be unavailable in supermarkets?” (05/21/26)

https://fee.org/articles/only-a-fool-or-a-politician-would-cap-food-prices/