Source: Future of Freedom Foundation
by Jacob G Hornberger
“Every American who cares about liberty should be grateful to the American Civil Liberties Union for the fantastic job they have been doing to protect civil liberties, especially during the past few months. In case after case all across the country, ACLU lawyers have been filing suits and securing favorable judicial rulings in the defense of civil liberties, especially the vital concept of due process of law, a principle of liberty that stretches all the way back to the Magna Carta in 1215. Their efforts have been truly heroic and have also entailed some absolutely excellent lawyering.” (05/08/25)
Source: Responsible Statecraft
by Nick Cleveland-Stout & Gabe Murphy
“What’s worse than the Pentagon spending taxpayer dollars on golf courses? Spending taxpayer dollars on golf courses that nobody uses. Even as the Department of Defense renovates some of its 145 golf courses, the Army acknowledged in a new Pentagon study on excess capacity that it owns at least six facilities labeled ‘Golf Club House and Sales’ that almost no one uses. … the problem goes far beyond golf courses. The Pentagon oversees some $4.1 trillion in assets and 26.7 million acres of land — a sprawling network of military installations across the United States and the globe. Wasted space and resources in that network could be squeezing taxpayers out of billions of dollars. … the Pentagon has a phantom infrastructure problem made up of empty storage warehouses and training facilities that collect dust. The only thing real about them is the cost, brought to you by the U.S. taxpayer.” (05/08/25)
“It’s no secret that one of Donald Trump’s favorite U.S. presidents is William McKinley, who led the country from 1897 until his assassination in 1901. Indeed, Trump recently changed the official name of Denali back to Mount McKinley in honor of the late president. In recent months, Trump has particularly emphasized McKinley’s protectionist policies, which Trump believes were a key part of America’s economic progress in the McKinley era. … The idea that tariffs historically helped spur American prosperity has become a common refrain for many in the Republican Party. And at first blush, it certainly seems plausible — the McKinley era witnessed a fair amount of protectionism alongside considerable economic growth. But there is a fatal flaw with this view, which has been pointed out most explicitly by Ludwig von Mises and his fellow Austrian economists.” (05/08/25)
“For decades, taxpayers have been forced to fund PBS and NPR, and with them any political tilts that we disagree with. For decades, some lawmakers have nominally agreed that taxpayers should be liberated from this unchosen obligation. But nothing has changed. Now, however, President Trump has issued an executive order to simply end ‘Taxpayer Subsidization of Biased Media.’ … I say we have a right that our tax dollars not be used at all to fund public broadcasting. And that, also contrary to the text of the order, the government is not ‘entitled to determine which categories of activities to subsidize.’ It should have no authority to pay for any activities unrelated to the proper functions of government. I will, however, accept the result of the executive order, defunding of public broadcasting. If we do get this result.” (05/08/25)
“The radical libertarian city builders of the tech-bro set have an audacious new proposal: They want to convert Guantánamo Bay, host to the infamous prison, into the high-tech charter city of their wildest imaginations, which will double as a ‘proving ground’ for migrants seeking to enter the United States. The Charter Cities Institute, or CCI, which has lobbied the Trump administration on setting up so-called freedom cities in the U.S, suggests the president take advantage of Guantánamo’s special legal status to convert the controversial detention camp into ‘a beacon of 21st-century prosperity.’ … Charter cities have long been a fascination of Silicon Valley’s libertarian right. Tech billionaire Peter Thiel was an early investor in ‘seasteading,’ the dream of seaborne libertarian enclaves floating beyond sovereign jurisdiction.” [editor’s note: As soon as she invokes Thiel, it becomes obvious that Clarke doesn’t know what the word “libertarian” means – TLK] (05/08/25)
“‘Corporations First’. That, and not ‘America First’, is the slogan that would truthfully describe the Trump administration’s approach to law enforcement. A new investigation by my organization shows that the Trump administration is dropping investigations and enforcement actions against corporations that showered money on Trump’s inauguration earlier this year. Seventy-one big businesses, which were facing at least 102 ongoing federal enforcement actions at the time of Trump’s inauguration, collectively gave a whopping $57 million to the Trump-Vance inaugural fund, we found. And many may now be collecting special favors. Trump’s inaugural haul from corporations facing investigations and lawsuits alone is comparable to the total amount raised for the inaugurations of former Presidents Barack Obama in 2009 ($53 million) and Joe Biden in 2021 ($62 million). And it’s just a third of the record-breaking $239 million Trump collected overall, $153 million of which came from corporate donors.” (05/08/25)
“China’s robotaxi revolution is moving along at an accelerated rate when compared to any other country. By the decade’s end, Goldman analysts forecast that half a million autonomous robotaxis will be operating across ten major cities. … This is wild. So what about a humanoid robot to load luggage? … Meanwhile, in the U.S., robotaxi operations have been lagging behind China, primarily due to regulatory fragmentation, a slower pace of infrastructure adaptation, and cautious public sentiment. … What’s becoming very clear is that automation is set to displace hundreds—if not millions— of transport jobs globally by 2035, as robotaxis, autonomous trucks, and drones become cheap enough to be deployable for the mass market.” (05/08/25)
“Using and misusing quotations from Shakespeare’s characters is a perennial problem. (The Bard didn’t hate attorneys.) Kudos to Judge Beryl Howell, in the Perkins Coie case, for getting it right.” (05/08/25)
“There is a battle over the university. Consider ‘DEI’ programs, long embedded in university life, or the fight over whether faculty should be permitted to ‘teach divisive concepts,’ or universities’ responses to the war in Gaza. But these are skirmishes. The real battle is over who runs the university anyway. One side claims that universities are independent, and so are free to determine for themselves whether to stay on the DEI trail, and so on. The other claims that universities are responsible to the societies that support them, especially financially. Accordingly, society’s elected representatives can and should actively determine what universities do or teach (e.g., by prohibiting campus DEI programs or mandating certain curriculum). To understand these arguments better, it’s best to step back, far back, to the Middle Ages.” (05/08/25)
“When the administration claims a power without the force of law, the law remains available to those who would resist. Case in point: Trump issued an executive order to force states to take specific steps to prove citizenship to vote in federal elections even though the Constitution gives the power of setting terms for federal elections to Congress and leaves the regulation of those elections to states. The order has already been partially blocked in court for exceeding executive authority. To take another example, Judge Beryl Howell struck down Trump’s executive order targeting the law firm Perkins Coie, which, unlike so many of their competitors, chose to fight the administration in court. What’s more, because these fights are maximally public, significant downstream effects will result from today’s acts of resistance or capitulation.” (05/08/25)
