Source: Washington Monthly
by Bill Scher
“Donald Trump is poised to raise taxes on imported goods without coming close to offsetting them with other cuts.” (04/01/25)
https://washingtonmonthly.com/2025/04/01/the-republican-party-is-no-longer-the-party-of-tax-cuts/
Source: Town Hall
by Derek Hunter
“Everyone in politics is against waste, fraud and abuse … until they find themselves in a position to do something about it, then they go radio silent. They talk a good game, but that’s it. Action, in politics at least, is a difficult commodity to come by. Rather than waiting for everyone to agree, or even some from the other side to come on board, Republicans need to strike hard while they can and gut as much of the garbage in government as they can, starting with National Public Radio and the Public Broadcasting Service. Isn’t it odd how so many people get rich off taxpayer money? ” [editor’s note: Given that taxpayer support is only ONE PERCENT of “public airwaves” budgeting, it is hardly going to “kill” them, but the sentiment is correct – SAT] (04/01/25)
https://townhall.com/columnists/derekhunter/2025/04/01/time-to-kill-npr-and-pbs-n2654757
Source: Cato Institute
by Colin Grabow
“The U.S. economy is staring down the barrel of a tax increase to the tune of several hundred billion dollars. If the Trump administration follows through with its threats (never a sure thing), we will this week see the imposition of so-called reciprocal tariffs to ostensibly match the burden placed by other countries on U.S. exports. As President Donald Trump and administration officials tell it, the move is rooted in a desire to stop foreign countries from ripping Americans off through unfair trade. But such claims warrant considerable skepticism. The administration’s words and actions make it increasingly clear that this reciprocity talk is just a fig leaf for higher tariffs. They aren’t a means to an end but the end themselves. And unless Congress acts − an unlikely proposition − American businesses and consumers alike will suffer.” (03/31/25)
https://www.cato.org/commentary/brace-impact-america-trumps-tariffs-will-soon-hit-bank-accounts
Source: The Peaceful Revolutionist
by David S D’Amato
“It is almost axiomatic in political philosophy that a stable and enduring social order requires the state, a powerful ultimate authority, exclusive within a given territory, to which all other social institutions must be subordinated. Across the ideological landscape, it is largely taken for granted that the division of power within a single territory opens the way to social confusion, disorder, and violence. The state, the leviathan, is the necessary paternal figure, endowed with the power to make the rest of the social order fall in line under a uniform set of standards imposed from on high. But what if roughly the opposite is true — if social vitality, cohesion, and accountability thrive best in an environment decidedly without a final arbiter, a court of last resort, or a top boss who can dispose of all questions for us?” (03/31/25)
https://dsdamato.substack.com/p/colin-wards-topless-federations
Source: Brownstone Institute
by Josh Stylman
“The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has long portrayed itself as America’s humanitarian aid organization, delivering assistance to developing nations. With an annual budget of nearly $40 billion and operations in over 100 countries, it represents one of the largest foreign aid institutions in the world. But recent disclosures reveal its true nature as something far more systematic: an architect of global consciousness.” (03/31/25)
https://brownstone.org/articles/usaid-and-the-architecture-of-perception/
Source: In These Times
by Adam Johnson & Sarah Lazare
“President Trump’s unprecedented crackdown on constitutionally-protected speech has solicited crickets from key Democratic Party leaders and self-described ’free speech’ advocates in the U.S. media. A review of public statements from influential pundits and Democratic Party leadership shows that while there has been a smattering of (heavily qualified) support for Mahmoud Khalil and other Palestine solidarity activists who are being deported or threatened with deportation, most have been muted as Trump continues his war on free speech. Particularly notable is the absence of meaningful criticism from major Democratic Party luminaries such as former Presidents Joe Biden and Barack Obama, former Secretary of State, former Democratic nominee for president — and Columbia lecturer — Hillary Clinton, none of whom have commented on the Khalil case or any of the other individuals the Trump administration is kidnapping off the streets.” (04/01/25)
https://inthesetimes.com/article/democratic-party-free-speech-trump-deportation-mahmoud-khalil
Source: EconLog
by Max Molden
“Donald Trump’s decision to impose tariffs has sparked a lively debate among economists and others: are tariffs good? Maybe some of them? Should governments then impose those tariffs that are good? While these discussions are interesting in themselves, they also raise a more general question: what should economists be doing at all?” (03/31/25)
Source: JimBovard.com
by James Bovard
“On March 25, six masked federal agents seized a Turkish graduate student on the streets of Somerville, Massachusetts. Rumeysa Ozturk … was abducted and vanished into the maw of the federal prison system. The Trump administration ignored a federal court order and took Ozturk from Massachusetts to Louisiana federal detention facilities. But the Trump administration knew Ozturk had criticized the government of Israel a year earlier, enough to seal her doom according to the latest iron-fisted political correctness dictates. She co-authored one piece for the Tufts student newspaper criticizing the university’s refusal to divest from Israel despite ‘credible accusations of …. indiscriminate slaughter of Palestinian civilians and plausible genocide.’ … Does the Trump administration consider op-eds to be a weapon of mass destruction?” (03/31/25)
https://jimbovard.com/blog/2025/03/31/first-they-came-for-the-op-ed-writers/
Source: Future of Freedom Foundation
by Jacob G Hornberger
“In an apparent attempt to appease President Trump in the hope of averting the imposition of U.S. tariffs on Mexico, Mexican president Claudia Sheinbaum did four things: 1. Sent 29 Mexican citizens to the United States so that they could be prosecuted for violating America’s drug laws; 2. Sent thousands of Mexican troops to the Mexico-U.S. border, ostensibly to help prevent fentanyl and other drugs and illegal immigrants from entering the United States; 3. Busted several illegal fentanyl operations inside Mexico; and 4. Assured Trump that Mexico was doing — and would continue doing — everything possible to stem the flow of drugs and illegal immigrants into the United States. Trying to appease Trump, however, is the wrong way for Mexico to go. Instead, the best thing Sheinbaum could ever do is declare directly and forthrightly that Mexico will no longer have anything to do with America’s ridiculous, deadly, destructive, and corrupt wars on drugs and immigrants.” (03/31/25)
https://www.fff.org/2025/03/31/mexico-should-reject-appeasement-and-choose-peace/
Source: Ron Paul Liberty Report
by Ron Paul
“Recently a new front has been opened in the war on free speech and it is one that Americans must take seriously. On university campuses across the country students – both American and foreign guests – have taken to protesting US support for Israel’s actions in Gaza, where tens of thousands of innocent civilians have been killed. The political class in the United States is determined to defend Israel from its critics and has responded to these protests by threatening and blackmailing the universities if they do not crack down on speech the powers-that-be do not like. Both Presidents Biden and Trump have used the power of US government funding to demand a crackdown on speech they don’t like, with President Trump recently pulling 400 million dollars in federal funding for Columbia University if they don’t silence the protesters.” (03/31/25)
http://www.ronpaullibertyreport.com/archives/free-speech-is-worth-fighting-for