Australia’s early colonization was driven by shiploads of wretched English prisoners, whose descendants at least gained their liberty and built one of the freest countries on Earth. In The Atlantic, Conor Friedersdorf chronicles the slash-and-burn destruction of liberty by the island-continent’s pandemic-panicked political class. Almost like they want to resuscitate the 18th century prison-island – using sinister 21st century tech and bureaucratic ruthlessness.
Toppling a Communist Empire for $2.7 Million
Though widely thought of as focused on waterboarding terrorists or poisoning foreign potentates, it was by smuggling paper that the CIA achieved its most monumental triumph. R.M. Gerecht in a book review for The Washington Free Beacon charts how the late Cold War-era operation to flood Poland with Western books, magazines, printing supplies and audio recordings fatally weakened the country’s Communist dictatorship, setting the stage for the downfall of the entire Soviet empire. Total cost: US$2.7 million.
