Source: Law & Liberty
by Peter Campbell
“As we enter another Cold War, we should prepare ourselves for the progressive critics who eagerly allege hypocrisy when democratic powers support non-democracies. In the Free World’s first struggle against a global communist power, the Soviet Union, American statesmen often made the prudential decision to support authoritarian leaders whose interests aligned with America’s. As American statecraft navigates the sequel to that struggle, Hamid’s [book The Case for American Power] is the first of likely many more to critique an American foreign policy that does not have a default preference for democracy.” (05/11/26)
https://lawliberty.org/book-review/an-excess-of-democrophilia/
Source: Caitlin Johnstone, Rogue Journalist
by Caitlin Johnstone
“The Israeli government is currently accusing The New York Times of antisemitic blood libel for publishing a report on Israel’s already well-documented systemic rape of Palestinian prisoners. Contrary to popular belief, the highest award in journalism is not the Pulitzer. The highest award in all of journalism is being accused of antisemitism by the Israeli government for factual reporting. But the New York Times is unworthy of this award. The Times has been running cover for the Gaza holocaust from the very beginning with extensively documented biases in its reporting, and played a leading role in promoting the atrocity propaganda about mass rapes on October 7. Israel’s abuses were actively facilitated by the New York Times, including its systemic sexual abuse of Palestinian prisoners.” (05/12/26)
https://caitlinjohnstone.com.au/2026/05/12/israel-accuses-the-new-york-times-of-antisemitic-journalism-and-other-notes/
Source: The Dispatch
by Jessica Riedl
“It has become commonplace to dismiss concerns about soaring government debt as much ado about nothing—a modern case of the boy who cried wolf. Indeed, voters have cycled through catastrophic warnings about runaway deficits as far back as the Reagan administration, the 1992 Ross Perot presidential campaign, the mid-1990s ‘Republican Revolution’ in Congress, and the early-2010s Tea Party era. And yet, continually rising budget deficits have not brought a debt crisis. Instead, hysterical deficit concerns have been cynically deployed by minority parties to attack the agenda of the party in power—right before they seize power and start running up deficits of their own.” (05/11/26)
https://thedispatch.com/article/debt-gross-domestic-product-ratio-economic-effects/
Source: The Dispatch
“The TED Talk Heard ‘Round the World.” (05/11/26)
https://thedispatch.com/podcast/advisoryopinions/the-ted-talk-heard-round-the-world/
Source: Students for Liberty
by Oscar Mario Tomianovic Parada
“Central bank independence has become one of the basic benchmarks of any liberal democracy today. The notion of separating decisions on monetary policy from the hands of elected politicians is relatively recent. Yet it has spread so widely that we now tend to take it for granted. This widespread acceptance, however, leaves several important questions unanswered: what exactly is central bank independence, and why does it truly matter?” (05/11/26)
https://studentsforliberty.org/blog/central-bank-independence-how-to-preserve-monetary-policy-from-fiscal-irresponsibility/
Source: Washington Monthly
by Bill Scher
“Trump pardoned a right-wing authoritarian convicted of cocaine trafficking, apparently to reinstate him to power in Honduras and undermine left-wing governments in Mexico and Colombia. So why isn’t America media covering it?” (05/11/26)
https://washingtonmonthly.com/2026/05/12/hondurasgate-trump-honduras-juan-orlando-hernandez/
Source: Reuters
“Japan’s top maker of snacks has landed on a creative solution to conserve oil-derived input materials: it will switch its brightly coloured packaging to black and white. In an eye-catching move, Tokyo-based Calbee on Tuesday said it would temporarily use only two ink colours on 14 of its products including its Potato Chips, Kappa Ebisen snacks and the Frugra breakfast cereal. Products with the revised packaging will hit store shelves from May 25, it said. … Japanese companies have lately sought to minimise the impact of rising costs and input material shortages even as the government seeks to reassure the public and businesses over supplies. Printing ink requires naphtha, an oil derivative for which Japan relies on imports from the Middle East for about 40% of its consumption.” (05/11/26)
https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/snacks-giant-calbee-crunched-by-iran-related-ink-shortage-switches-monotone-2026-05-12/
Source: National Review
“Ben Sasse Writes About Kids and Technology.” (05/11/26)
https://www.nationalreview.com/podcasts/capital-record/ben-sasse-writes-about-kids-and-technology/
Source: Brownstone Institute
by Jeffrey A Tucker
“A leading columnist for the Washington Post just wrote: ‘Hantavirus has an incubation period of up to 8 weeks and kills 30-40% of people who show symptoms …. It’s not pandemic yet and probably won’t be, but if it were, the rational action would be — lockdown.’ She added: ‘If this thing goes pandemic, I personally will be hiding in my house.’ Yes, and let the workers and peasants deliver food and drink to you while you safely type and tell the rest of what to do. We know how this works. Keep in mind that no one thought this way a quarter century ago. No one was pushing for society-wide lockdowns in the event of a pandemic. That changed in 2005.” (05/12/26)
https://brownstone.org/articles/george-bushs-2005-fowl-play/
Source: Town Hall
by Derek Hunter
“It almost seems impossible, and I wouldn’t believe it if didn’t see it with my own eyes, but through the miracle of ‘new math’ and the sheer stupidity of the ABC News product ‘The View,’ it is not possible to bring five human beings together and make their collective IQ less than the sum of their individual IQs. How can people coming together be dumber collectively than individually? Skill, I have to assume, and really trying. I say trying because all the ladies on The View are so dumb that they have to be trying, like the whole show is some sort of dare. The end result is a show that makes its audience dumber: a cultural cancer on the country.” (05/12/26)
https://townhall.com/columnists/derekhunter/2026/05/12/the-view-is-a-cancer-on-the-culture-and-the-country-n2675912