Source: The Daily Economy
by Daniel J Smith
“Claims to ‘protect consumers’ often shield established industries from competition. The century-old battle over the definition of ‘whiskey’ shows how.” (07/30/26)
https://thedailyeconomy.org/article/when-consumer-protection-protects-producers-from-competition/
Source: The Scott Horton Show
“Scott brings Larry Johnson back on the show to discuss where things stand between the US and Iran. Johnson explains why he’s convinced things are ultimately headed towards escalation.” (07/30/26)
Source: EconLog
by Nathanael Snow
“[Adam Smith] explains the mechanisms that Crown and Parliament in Great Britain used to achieve their goals through intervention into and control over the lives of colonists. Great Britain imposed protections and privileges for a subset of society, foreclosed on the colonists’ right to self governance, and advanced institutions to promote British nationalism. In contrast, Smith and the colonists seek after impartial institutions that govern for the welfare of all, analogous to a market.” (07/30/26)
Source: Seattle Times
“A man who gave his son the gun used to kill two students and two teachers at Appalachee High School in Georgia is set to be sentenced Thursday after he was convicted of second-degree murder and involuntary manslaughter. Colin Gray’s sentencing comes just days after his 16-year-old son, Colt Gray, pleaded guilty to murder and other charges and was sentenced to serve life in prison without the possibility of parole for the Sept. 4, 2024, shooting …. The elder Gray is one of a handful of parents around the country who have been charged criminally after their children were accused in shootings. … Prosecutors have said that Colin Gray gave his son the rifle as a Christmas gift and also bought him ammunition, a gun sight and other shooting accessories.” (07/30/26)
Source: Cato Institute
“AI: Must We Act Now?” (07/30/26)
https://www.cato.org/multimedia/cato-podcast/ai-must-we-act-now
Source: Paul Krugman
by Paul Krugman
“If believing something suits MAGA’s prejudices and interests, they don’t hesitate: they simply insist that it’s true. They routinely dismiss scientific and statistical evidence, but they don’t stop there. They’re perfectly willing to deny reality even if the truth is staring them in the face. Thus, Trump urged Americans to remember that 2024 TV blackout, which nobody remembers because it didn’t happen. He insists that California has ‘blackouts and brownouts every weekend,’ when the state’s 39 million residents can tell you it doesn’t. He says that you must show ID to buy groceries, which everyone who buys their own food knows isn’t so. Do Trump and his followers actually believe these things? As I see it, that’s a category error, starting from the presumption that they even accept that objective facts exist.” (07/30/26)
https://paulkrugman.substack.com/p/reality-is-a-communist-plot
Source: Antiwar.com
by Thomas S Karat
“Four days before Donald Trump took the oath a second time, a company controlled by the intelligence chief of a foreign monarchy wired the president-elect’s family its first installment. The date was January 16, 2025. The buyer was Aryam Investment 1, a vehicle backed by Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan, national security adviser of the United Arab Emirates and brother of its ruler, a man his own country’s press calls the spy sheikh. The purchase was 49 percent of World Liberty Financial, the Trump family’s cryptocurrency firm, for $500 million. … What that money bought is the subject of this account. It did not buy a dinner, though there was a dinner. It bought the machinery of the American national-security state, piece by piece, and the transactions can be traced with the precision of a bank statement, because for once the participants did not trouble to hide them.” (07/30/26)
Source: Common Sense
by Paul Jacob
“[W]hen Fauci — formerly known as ‘the Science’ — asserted his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination 111 times before Congress (NBC says 106), refusing to answer questions about his past role as a government official, it was illegitimate. Because on those matters, he cannot be incriminated. ‘No person,’ reads the amendment, ‘shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself.’ There can be no criminal case brought for his past lies. But the problem for Dr. Fauci is that he can be prosecuted for telling those lies again to Congress. Like at yesterday’s hearing.” (07/30/26)
Source: Libertarian Institute
by Joseph Solis-Mullen
“For nearly twenty-five years, Washington has quietly expanded America’s Global War on Terror across Africa. Today, U.S. military activities stretch from the Horn of Africa through the Sahel to the Atlantic coast, encompassing intelligence bases, drone operations, special operations deployments, partner-force training, logistical support, surveillance missions, and recurring multinational exercises. Yet if the objective has been to produce a more secure region, the strategic picture is difficult to reconcile with the investment. To understand why, begin with a map.” (07/30/26)
https://libertarianinstitute.org/articles/making-sense-of-the-sahel-when-washington-cant
Source: New York Post
“Pope Leo XIV has appointed San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone, who made international headlines after barring then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi from receiving Holy Communion over her support for abortion rights, to serve on the Vatican’s highest judicial body, in an announcement Saturday. Cordileone was among seven clergy named to the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura, the Catholic Church’s highest court after the pope. The appointment allows him to continue leading the Archdiocese of San Francisco while serving a five-year term on the Vatican tribunal, which oversees the administration of justice within the Church. … In 2022, Cordileone said that Pelosi would be banned from receiving Holy Communion in her own San Francisco Archdiocese because of her pro-abortion position.” (07/29/26)