“On Wednesday, 19 April 1775, in the British colony, the Province of Massachusetts Bay, several small groups of farmers, tradesmen (and probably ne’er-do-wells) stood up to and fought several units of British regulars. Troops sent out from Boston to seize weapons and ammunition from a depot or armory in Concord. Their orders to do so stemmed from fears that the supplies would be used to aid the growing rebellion in Boston and elsewhere. … Although both the Boston Tea Party and the Boston Massacre had taken place, 19 April 1775 is considered the start of the American War of Independence. Independence was not the initial goal, which leads many to call it just the American Revolution. But it grew into a war of secession from the Crown of Great Britain and Ireland, and the entire British Empire.” (04/19/25)
“Donald Trump promised that he would lower prices on day one of his new term in office. He also promised to end the war in Ukraine on his first day. Neither of those quite panned out. But it looks like he might accomplish something not on his list, he quickly ended the manufacturing boom he inherited from President Biden. You may not know of this boom because it didn’t get much attention during the campaign. This was partly because it was in construction not employment. Biden’s record on employment in manufacturing was pretty good given the reality of the pandemic, but it did not surge. His recovery package quickly brought back the 600,000 manufacturing jobs lost in the pandemic. We had gotten back those jobs by the spring of 2022.” (04/19/25)
“The education system often fails to communicate honestly with students, parents, and community members about how much students are actually learning. The discrepancy between actual student performance and what is reported is referred to as the “honesty gap.” A troubling example is the gap between students’ grades and their performance on standardized tests, which has grown tremendously since the pandemic. Grades are up, but test scores are down. This is problematic because grades tend to carry more weight with students and parents than test scores. Many parents assume that the grades their children receive are accurate indicators of academic progress. But this assumption is increasingly incorrect.” (04/18/25)
“The founder of the Human Design system, Ra Uru Hu, is an unlikely source of resonance here at Underthrow. I know nothing about Human Design. But I would like to offer a tour of Ra Uru Hu’s predictions as synthesized by Zed James at Gestures of Synthesis. According to James, Ra Uru Hu prophesied that 2027 will mark a pivotal shift between cycles, where the current cycle started in 1615. This transition will dismantle many collectivized societal structures, fostering a new era of individuality and the emergence of a new type of human with enhanced consciousness. This changing of cycles will reshape politics, economics, culture, and spirituality, according to Ra Uru Hu. While I am generally skeptical of BFPs (big future predictions), much less any that seem grounded in astrology or woo, I found myself nodding along with nearly all of Ra Uru Hu’s prognostications.” (04/18/25)
“In writing about nationalism’s manifestations, Storm establishes three categories he recognizes as primary elements of nationalism that are present in each phase of history he describes in the book. Those three categories center on the nature of citizenship, the nationalization of culture and the nationalization of physical space.” (04/18/25)
“Here’s an issue for the new Trump appointees to the Homeland Security Advisory Council: deep-sixing the Transportation Security Administration’s airport-screening work. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem recently ended collective bargaining with the union representing TSA agents after DHS found that more TSA employees are busy doing ‘full-time union work’ than actually screening passengers on any given day, while 60% of ‘poor performers’ don’t get fired. But as any beleaguered traveler can contest, TSA’s issues go far beyond that: Virtually the whole security/screening apparatus is a pointless circus. Having understaffed teams of low-wage workers screen millions of air passengers a day brings painfully long lines, contradictory and arbitrary ‘rules’ (Are we taking off shoes today? Laptops out of the bags? It depends!) and countless invasive searches that turn up nothing but pocket lint.” (04/19/25)
“One of the Trump-led GOP’s strengths was a rejection of the old Bush-led GOP, particularly its ‘war on terror’ and the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan. But when they were riding high, Bush’s Republicans got a lot of mileage from accusing political opponents of being objectively pro-terrorism if they defied them — if they opposed creating a Department of Homeland Security, if they doubted that Saddam Hussein was trying to enrich uranium. … There’s a new war on terror; critics of how it’s conducted, or who it ensnares, are part of a new fifth column. Democrats haven’t acted particularly worried about this during the Ábrego García saga; the administration hasn’t convinced skeptics that MS-13 is as dangerous now as ISIS was 10 years ago, or al-Qaeda was after 9/11. But you can read ahead in the script.” (04/18/25)
Source: Future of Freedom Foundation
by Jacob G Hornberger
“While China might well be the new official enemy of Trump and his Trumpsters, along with the State Department and the U.S. national-security establishment, China is not my enemy. … Oh yes, I fully realize that China is governed by a communist regime. As a libertarian, I dislike communism immensely. But that still doesn’t make China my enemy. I’m with President John F. Kennedy, who declared in his Peace Speech at American University in June 1963 that Americans and communist nations could exist in mutual harmony despite their ideological differences. Of course, it was that mindset that got him killed. Moreover, it’s worth noting that the officials in the Chinese Communist Party are as unlikely to be adversely impacted by Trump’s tariffs as Trump will be by China’s retaliatory tariffs.” (04/18/25)
“On April 9, the White House gave the Pentagon 90 days to come up with a list of weapons programs that are at least 15% over budget or behind schedule for potential termination. You know, because we’re getting too little bang for our bucks. That came two days after President Trump said his administration has approved a $1 trillion defense budget for 2026, which represents a 18% boost over its current $850 billion level. ‘We are very cost conscious,’ he said, ‘but the military is something that we have to build and we have to be strong because you have a lot of bad forces out there now.’ That’s kind of like telling your kids to tighten their belts while you’re boosting their allowance.” (04/18/25)
“What if this was the letter the U.S. president received from those at what some consider the nation’s premiere institution for aspiring lawyers? Dear President Trump: We are Harvard Law students who have read the lengthy and comprehensive list of demands on our Harvard University by your staff. They are assuredly designed to turn this institution of higher education, older than the U.S.A., into a fiefdom under your iron rule. As modest students of medieval history, we see that your demands provide a status for the peasants – the students, the vassals – the faculty, but no one for the role of the Lord of the Manor. It is obvious that you want to become the LORD OF THE MANOR. We have a proposal.” (04/19/25)
