On December 8, 2024, the 24-year reign of Syrian strongman Bashar al-Assad came to an end after a rebel coalition of  Al-Qaeda offshoots, Turkish proxies, and other Islamist militants overwhelmed the capital of Damascus. In effect, a Sunni Islamist saturnalia brought an end to the Middle East’s last secular Arab government. The Assad family, starting with Hafez al-Assad in 1971, has held an iron grip on Syrian politics for over five decades. As committed members of the Arab Socialist Ba’ath Party, the Assads aligned with rivals to the West and Israel such as the Soviet Union, the Islamic Republic of Iran, and later on the Russian Federation.For it being a perennial thorn in the US‘s and Israel’s side, Syria was mentioned as a potential target for regime change by neoconservative policy

Politicians thoroughly enjoy times of war. Periods of bellicosity are when the most power-hungry members of the political class indulge in their most depraved political fantasies.

While geopolitical commentators are fixated on Russia’s border with Ukraine, a more interesting development is slowly boiling underneath the surface of the Russo-Ukrainian conflict that could potentially reorder international relations—namely, the death of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).

Could Texas usher in a uniquely decentralized approach to immigration? Texas Governor Greg Abbott recently embarked on a unique policy drive to have the state government lead the charge on immigration policy. It’s no secret that talks of immigration evoke powerful emotions on both sides — another indication of the elevated levels of polarization present in the US.

Few political movements can boast of success like the firearms movement in the United States. Often overlooked is how before the 1980s there was no concept of licensed, let alone unlicensed, concealed carry in the overwhelming majority of the country. The sole exception was Vermont, which through an idiosyncratic state supreme court decision in 1903 has had unlicensed carry for over a century.

Pulling troops out of South Korea is an important step in changing the conversation on American foreign policy, which is swamped in platitudes of promoting missionary enterprises abroad and finding new bogeymen to confront. 

Original Article: "It’s Time for the US to Withdraw from Korea"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. Narrated by Michael Stack.

On October 25, 2020, 78 percent of Chilean voters went to the ballot box to approve rewriting the country’s constitution, largely viewed as Latin America’s most stable constitution.

The Democrats, Liz Cheney, and the Never Trumpers still want endless wars, and they hate Trump’s apparent lack of enthusiasm for embracing their dreams of empire.

This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. Narrated by Michael Stack.
Original Article: "On Foreign Policy, Trump Is Still the Lesser Evil".

The NRA would be wise to vote with its feet. Millions of Americans have already escaped the high taxes and freedom-destroying blue state regimes by doing the same.
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. Narrated by Michael Stack.

Original Article: "The NRA Would Be Wise to Leave New York ASAP".

It was only eight months ago that Bolivia concluded a bizarre political conflict that saw President Evo Morales step down from office. Morales was pursuing a fourth presidential term but encountered numerous constitutional roadblocks.
Protesters cited irregularities and alleged voter fraud during elections in October 2019 as the principal motive behind their demonstrations.

Scandinavian welfare states continue to allure leftist onlookers across the world. The Nordic welfare model is marketed as a humane alternative to the cutthroat nature of Western capitalism. It received a massive boost when Vermont senator Bernie Sanders campaigned on emulating these countries in both of his presidential runs during 2016 and 2020.

In the increasingly polarized America, Black Swan moments like the COVID-19 pandemic have further confirmed growing divides in the country. Our textbooks would like us to believe that emergencies create fertile grounds for unity. But when you have a populace that is politically dividing itself even when it comes to the TV shows it watches, there comes a point when we have to start recognizing that the prospect of national unity is becoming more of a mirage as the days go by.

As we watch in real-time how governments respond to the novel coronavirus pandemic, some of the most predictable forms of state overreach—from restrictions on the freedom of assembly to the suppression of regular commerce—have been rolled out. Thankfully, there is no unified world government, so there exist various examples of how certain countries are dealing with the crisis that we can closely examine and learn from.