Source: Politics Politics Politics
“The Dems’ Messaging Problem and the Controversy Around Nancy Mace (with Juliegrace Brufke).” (05/27/25)
https://www.politicspoliticspolitics.com/p/the-dems-messaging-problem-and-the
Source: EconLog
by Jon Murphy
“Rule of law has long been sacred to the classical liberal. While the term was popularized by British jurist A. V. Dicey, the concept is much older. The rule of law has three distinct characteristics in the common law world: 1. An absence of arbitrary power on the part of the government 2. Every man (regardless of rank or condition) is subject to ordinary law administered by ordinary tribunals 3. The law is discovered by judges when considering cases brought before the courts This last is often a cause for controversy. Why should judges decide law? If judges simply decide, and those decisions become legal precedents, aren’t judges just substituting their judgement for politicians? Why do judges deserve special reverence when classical liberals are skeptical of politicians? Or, as it’s sometimes put, aren’t judges just ‘politicians in black robes?’ These are legitimate questions. Fortunately for us, public choice analysis lets us explore them.” (05/27/25)
Source: SFGate
“The European Union lifted a wide range of sanctions on Syria on Wednesday, but slapped new ones on people and groups it says participated in attacks on civilians during a wave of violence in the Syrian coastal region in March. The move lifted most sanctions that had been imposed on the country, including on its financial system, while keeping them in place on individuals and organizations in Syria it says violated human rights or for ‘security grounds’, like the extended family of former President Bashar Assad or its chemical weapons program, according to the text of the European Council on the decision. The EU’s foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas had announced plans to lift the sanctions last week.” (05/28/25)
Source: Persuasion
by Sam Kahn
“The government literally wants to traumatize you out of a job. Now is the time to stand your ground.” [editor’s note: Er, no … the faster bureaucrats leave the parasitic/political sector and move to the private/productive sector, the better – TLK] (05/27/25)
https://www.persuasion.community/p/dont-quit-you-wavering-bureaucrat
Source: The American Prospect
by Bryce Covert
“Christopher Crim’s troubles started when his husband, who has cystic fibrosis and is in end-of-life hospice care, needed a tooth pulled. Crim took him to a dentist near their home in Tennessee, and while he was in the bathroom, the dentist pulled all of his husband’s teeth, not one, and left a bone sticking out of his husband’s gums. The ensuing pain was so severe that his husband couldn’t sleep, even on morphine and oxycodone. So Crim rushed him to a new dentist, who estimated that surgery to fix the problem would cost $6,000. Crim and his husband didn’t have that kind of money.” [editor’s note: I got scammed by this a couple years ago, for dental work – SAT] (05/28/25)
https://prospect.org/health/2025-05-28-predatory-lenders-operating-room-medical-credit-cards/
Source: Politico
“A federal judge in New York on Tuesday cleared the way for the Treasury Department’s entire DOGE team to access the federal government’s sensitive data systems that manage trillions of dollars in payments each year. U.S. District Judge Jeannette Vargas lifted the final legal restriction barring four Treasury DOGE staffers from accessing Treasury’s payments infrastructure. Vargas relaxed her earlier order, finding the Trump administration had shown it set up a process to appropriately vet and train the employees. The ruling marks a win for the Trump administration, which set off a political and legal firestorm earlier this year for granting access to the payment systems to Elon Musk’s DOGE operation. The payment systems contain sensitive financial data on tens of millions of American citizens and businesses.” (05/27/25)
https://www.politico.com/news/2025/05/27/judge-treasury-doge-access-data-payment-systems-00371969
Source: The Tom Woods Show
“Benjamin Franklin: The Greatest American?” (05/27/25)
https://tomwoods.com/ep-2648-benjamin-franklin-the-greatest-american/
Source: Brownstone Institute
by Andrew Lowenthal
“Since October of 2024, liber-net has been researching federal MDM funding to inform a set of policy proposals for how the US government-funded wing of the Censorship-Industrial Complex might be dismantled. … After reviewing almost 1,100 awards, we included almost 900 in the database. The total value of those awards is roughly 1.5 billion U.S. dollars. All this sits against the backdrop of the deteriorating Trump 2.0 record on free speech. While there seems to be less government involvement in online speech, the snatching of students off the street (often digitally assisted) or micro-management of private university policy should make anyone wary – such approaches could also easily cross into the online realm. Breadth over accuracy seems to be the rule of the day, and it is tarnishing the genuine need for reforms.” (05/27/25)
https://brownstone.org/articles/how-the-us-government-built-the-anti-disinformation-field/
Source: ABC News
“Hundreds of Ukrainian drones crossed into Russia overnight into Wednesday morning, dozens of which targeted Moscow and again caused disruption to flights in and out of the capital, according to officials there. Russia’s Defense Ministry said its forces shot down 296 Ukrainian drones over 12 regions — including the capital Moscow — during the latest round of long-range strikes. … Russia continued its own long-range attacks on Ukraine overnight. Ukraine’s air force said Moscow launched six missiles and 88 strike drones into the country, of which 71 drones were shot down or otherwise neutralized. The air force said it recorded impacts in eight locations.” (05/28/25)
Source: Freeman’s Perspective
by Paul Rosenberg
“Once entrenched, power-holders fight until they can’t. This is not a function of a system; it is a function of power itself, and the humans who become addicted to it. And so we’ve seen a long succession of violent revolutions. The good news of our time – the transformative news of our time – is this: Cryptography displaces violence. However much cryptography we use, change will require that much less violence. And there is a very good reason for this: Cryptography is impervious to weapons. … Please understand that without strong cryptography (for which you can thank cypherpunks), the world of 1984 would already be here. Surveillance is the crack cocaine of the powerful, and political systems have done little to restrain it. But encryption has.” (05/27/25)
https://freemansperspective.com/how-cryptography-has-revolutionized-revolution/