Source: Ludwig von Mises Institute
by Larsen Plyler

“It is taken, in many cases, to be fact that the reason the Constitutional Convention was called and that the Constitution was ratified was because of the failure of the Articles of Confederation system. The folks at Heritage have made their position clear: ‘The first plan the Framers tried after declaring independence was called the Articles of Confederation. The government that the Articles created failed because it was too weak to coordinate national policy among states with different priorities.’ Now, this is not particularly a criticism of the Constitution, though I believe there is room for that. But, I simply want to raise questions: What if the Articles were not failing? What if they were doing exactly what they were intended to do? What if the Articles were successful, but success was not in the agenda of powerful people?” (01/09/26)

https://mises.org/mises-wire/did-articles-confederation-fail-probably-not

Source: Caitlin Johnstone, Rogue Journalist
by Caitlin Johnstone

“All these abuses are going to continue until the people rise up and force them to stop. Western governments are going to get more and more authoritarian. Police forces are going to get more and more militarized and murderous. Freedom of speech is going to be crushed with more and more aggression. Military budgets are going to get more and more bloated. The imperial war machine is going to get more and more belligerent, genocidal and expansionist. The gap between the rich and the poor is going to keep growing and growing. People are going to get more and more miserable and mentally unhealthy. The systems we use to gather information about our world are going to get more and more tightly controlled by the powerful. The extraction of resources and labor from the global south will get more and more abusive and overt.” (01/09/25)

https://caitlinjohnstone.com.au/2026/01/09/these-abuses-will-continue-until-people-force-them-to-stop/

Source: Law & Liberty
by Alex Hibbs

“As anyone living today knows, the Luddites were fighting a losing battle. Though they broke stocking frames, burned factories, and killed mill owners, their efforts to stymie the rise of new cost-reducing machines could not compete with the power of the British state. Their legendary leader, Ned Ludd, inspired disgruntled craftsmen and terrified the authorities like a nineteenth-century Robin Hood. Yet the long processes of enclosure, technological innovation, and global expansion would nonetheless bring mass urbanization, the destruction of local cultures, and the rise of the technologically driven society we inhabit today. In his book Against the Machine: On the Unmaking of Humanity, Paul Kingsnorth speaks with the voice of a modern-day Ned Ludd, naming the force that propelled this change: The Machine. What exactly is Kingsnorth’s Machine? It is the culmination of all the ills of modernity.” (01/09/26)

https://lawliberty.org/book-review/assessing-modernitys-malaise/

Source: Common Dreams
by Harvey J Kaye & Alan Minsky

“Common Sense by Thomas Paine is the most influential work of political literature in American history. Self-published on January 10, 1776, Common Sense instantly became a sensation, spreading like wildfire across the colonies. Within a few weeks, it had sold more copies than any book in the history of the colonies. Paine’s arguments persuaded thousands-upon-thousands of people throughout the 13 colonies to demand more than reform, to support complete independence from England and join the revolutionary cause. Less than six months after Common Sense was first published in Philadelphia, the Declaration of Independence was signed in the same city, establishing a new country defined, in contrast to its European predecessors, by its commitment to equality, liberty and the consent of the governed—just as Paine advocated in Common Sense (and, unlike the founding fathers, Paine did not hesitate to advocate for democracy).” (01/10/25)

https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/honor-thomas-paine-common-sense

Source: Independent Institute
by Allen Gindler

“Recently, I came across a commercial by Mayor Mamdani, who advertises his approach to supporting small businesses. He correctly identifies over-regulation as one of the unnecessary obstacles in opening and conducting small businesses in New York. Then he suggested creating yet another department in the mayor’s office, which would help businesspeople navigate the web of requirements the city demands from businesses. (It looks like a socialist brain is pre-wired to produce this kind of solution: any issue needs its own bureaucratic apparatus.) But he never mentioned the main reason why it is so difficult for new small businesses to survive, besides high rent, that is the minimum wage mandate. On the contrary, among his priorities is to raise the city’s minimum wage. He imagines politicians can decree prosperity by commanding higher pay.” (01/09/26)

https://www.independent.org/article/2026/01/09/minimum-wage-fallacy/