Source: Ludwig von Mises Institute
by Marcos Giansante
“Public policies are rarely judged by the effects they produce. They are far more often evaluated by the intentions they declare. In The Vision of the Anointed, Thomas Sowell identifies this habit, not as a mere analytical error, but as a moral failure. Intentions have no causal power, results do. This distinction offers a precise lens for understanding contemporary fiscal policy when taxation is presented as social action. Taxes are seldom described as extraction; they are framed as instruments of justice, care, and/or inclusion. Language shifts attention from effects to purposes; cost fades; intention becomes an alibi.” (01/22/26)
https://mises.org/power-market/why-good-intentions-are-not-enough
Source: CBC News [Canadian state media]
“A Cuban migrant held in solitary confinement at an immigration detention facility in Texas died after guards held him down and he stopped breathing, according to an autopsy report released Wednesday that ruled the death a homicide. Geraldo Lunas Campos died Jan. 3 following an altercation with guards. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) originally said the 55-year-old father of four was attempting suicide and the staff tried to save him. But a witness told The Associated Press last week that Lunas Campos was handcuffed as at least five guards held him down and one put an arm around his neck and squeezed until he was unconscious.” (01/22/26)
https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/us-el-paso-ice-detention-death-homicide-9.7055697
Source: The New Arab [UK]
“Two prominent Tunisian columnists were sentenced on Thursday to three and a half years in prison each for money laundering and tax evasion, according to a relative and local media. The two men, Mourad Zeghidi and Borhen Bsaies, have already been in detention for almost two years for statements considered critical of President Kais Saied’s government, made on radio, television programmes and social media. They were due to be released in January 2025 but have remained in custody on charges of money laundering and tax evasion.” (01/22/26)
https://www.newarab.com/news/two-tunisia-journalists-handed-over-three-years-prison
Source: New York Times
“The Global Showdown Over Greenland.” (01/22/26)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GzA1t8nnBKk
Source: Wired
by Garrett M Graff
“With Donald Trump’s actions in Greenland, Minneapolis, and Venezuela, a foreign enemy could not invent a better chain of events to wreck the standing of the United States.” (01/22/26)
https://archive.is/nJXmd
Source: Common Dreams
by Rev. Graylan Scott Hagler
“Every single moving mouth and face I see in the media seems to be obligated to stress the barbarity and illegitimacy of the Maduro government to establish some acceptable moral clarity even before they can carry on with any analysis of the current political situation, or the current political conditions in the world. Likewise, each personality seems obligated to make similar statements as a prerequisite to speak on the Iranian regime and the religionists controlling the country. Each is evil they must claim, and that they expressively disagree and denounce them in all shape and form. Each is beyond the specter of acceptable civilization, they must state. Each has no inkling of morality, but is simply obsessed with power and control. This was the same in any discussion of Hamas in Gaza.” (01/22/25)
https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/us-pointing-at-self
Source: NBC News
“France’s navy, working with intelligence provided by the United Kingdom, on Thursday intercepted an oil tanker in the Mediterranean Sea that traveled from Russia, in a mission targeting the sanctioned Russian shadow fleet, officials said. French maritime authorities for the Mediterranean said the ship, the Grinch, is suspected of operating with a false flag. The French navy is escorting the ship to anchorage for more checks, the statement said. The tanker departed from the city of Murmansk in northwestern Russia, it said.” (01/22/26)
https://www.nbcnews.com/world/europe/france-navy-intercepts-oil-tanker-mediterranean-sailing-russia-rcna255425
Source: The American Conservative
“Trump Covets Greenland, Europe Freaks Out.” (01/22/26)
https://www.theamericanconservative.com/tac-right-now-trump-covets-greenland-europe-freaks-out/
Source: Adam Smith Institute
by Tim Worstall
“Of course it’s possible to insist that climate change isn’t a thing, if it is it’s of no matter, or that we’re not doing it. It’s also true that whatever the truth of any of that society as a whole insists it is, it is and we are therefore something must be done. At which point we should have had a carbon tax …. At which point we would be done. Lower petrol tax and raise, modestly, taxes elsewhere and we’ve solved climate change. All of which is, of course, just a repeat of the grand lesson of the 20th century. Those places which tried to use planning, direction and insistence as a method of economic management remained poor. All of those that used markets and prices to achieve the same end, that of economic management, became grossly rich by global or historical standards.” (01/22/26)
https://www.adamsmith.org/blog/how-hugely-cheap-a-carbon-tax-would-have-been
Source: Foundation for Economic Education
by Mark Nayler
“Tourism might have exacerbated Spain’s housing problem, but it’s not the root cause. The gap between sluggish supply and explosive demand has resulted in a deficit of around 700,000 homes. As a result, rental rates have doubled and house prices risen by 44% since 2020. In its last Financial Stability Report, released in November, the Bank of Spain identified historically low construction levels as a key factor in the deficit. … Still, it’s easier to blame tourists.” (01/22/26)
https://fee.org/articles/housing-lessons-from-spain/
