Source: The American Conservative
by Sumantra Maitra
“There is no Trump Doctrine; it is a fool’s errand to justify strategic irrationality. This administration is increasingly running on instincts. Some of them are coherent: Burden-shifting in Europe is one example. The policy execution of these instincts, however, often leaves a lot to be desired. But, even by that standard, this new tariff regime is a bit difficult to understand. Tariffs on India can seem like a strange policy, especially, given the desire to pivot to Asia and balance China. … That said, this is a deeper issue, one lurking under sophisticated analysis. India is turning out to be a global problem. And it is in part the Indian government to blame.” (08/01/25)
Source: Future of Freedom Foundation
by Jacob G Hornberger
“As smart as some conservatives are, many of them just don’t get it when it comes the concept of open borders. They make two common mistakes. First, they are convinced that open borders means no borders. Second, they think that an immigration-control system that doesn’t work — that is, one where lots of people are successfully circumventing the border-control system — is ‘open borders.'” (07/31/25)
“‘My bill,’ US Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) tweeted in June, ‘will require the U.S. Census Bureau to conduct a new census immediately upon enactment of the bill. In conducting the new census of the U.S. population, it shall require questions determining the citizenship of each individual, and count US citizens only.’ The money shot: ‘[T]he bill will direct states to immediately begin a redistricting of all U.S. House seats process using only the population of United States citizens.’ Naturally, US president Donald Trump supports the idea. So does Florida governor Ron DeSantis. Why? Because Republicans want to rig future elections by re-drawing — that is, re-gerrymandering — the American political map to benefit themselves. One problem with the idea: It’s wholly, completely, and unquestionably illegal.” (07/31/25)
Source: Rutherford Institute
by John & Nisha Whitehead
“The government’s war on homelessness — much like its war on terrorism, its war on drugs, its war on illegal immigration, and its war on COVID-19 — is yet another Trojan Horse. … An Orwellian exercise in doublespeak, Trump’s executive order suggests that jailing the homeless, rather than providing them with affordable housing, is the ‘compassionate’ solution to homelessness. … Trump wants to see more use of civil commitments (forced detentions) for anyone who is perceived as posing a risk ‘to themselves or the public or are living on the streets and cannot care for themselves in appropriate facilities for appropriate periods of time.’ Translation: the government wants to use homelessness as a pretext for indefinitely locking up anyone who might pose a threat to its chokehold on police state power.” (07/31/25)
“Long ago the economist Joan Robinson arguably pre-butted Trump’s argument for protectionism because, he claims, other nations are treating us unfairly: ‘The popular view that free trade is all very well so long as all nations are free-traders, but that when other nations erect tariffs we must erect tariffs too, is countered by the argument that it would be just as sensible to drop rocks into our harbours because other nations have rocky coasts.’ But it’s even worse when a president mines our harbors based on the false claim that other nations have rocky coasts — and the media declare that he’s winning.” [editor’s note: I’m so used to Krugman being wrong that it’s always an invigorating experience to notice he’s being right – TLK] (07/31/25)
“Poor Josh Hawley! Missouri’s senior senator is a simple man: All he wants is to pass populist-posturing America First laws taking aim at our dastardly elites. That’s what Republicans are into these days, right? Take congressional stock trading. Republican influencers have long shaken their fists (and not without reason) at lawmakers’ penchant for remarkably canny stock trades. So when Josh Hawley drew up a bill banning the practice, he surely thought he was hitting on both a policy and PR win. He even named it the PELOSI Act as a red-meat coup de grâce! What he certainly didn’t expect was the Truth Social response he got from Donald Trump. Apparently outraged that Hawley’s bill would also ban future presidents from trading stocks beginning in 2029, the president decried Hawley as a ‘second-tier senator’ who was ‘playing right into the dirty hands of the Democrats.'” (07/31/25)
“Former President Barack Obama will not face charges for treason, sedition or any other crime in the wake of newly disclosed intel. Whether Obama’s actions, if true, meet the elements of a crime is, of course, one thing. But this is not the primary reason Obama has little to worry about. Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard claims newly uncovered documents show how Obama and intelligence officials worked during the 2016 presidential campaign to help elect former Secretary of State and Democrat candidate Hillary Clinton. Gabbard contends that Obama’s director of national intelligence, FBI head and CIA knowingly used false and sketchy evidence and sources to help Clinton distract from the growing controversy over her unsecured basement server, a likely violation of the Espionage Act. They did so by concocting a fake attention-drawing scandal: Candidate Donald Trump colluded with Russia to win the election.” (07/31/25)
“If what Israel is doing has nothing to do with actually defending the country, then it is simply guilty. If much of what it has been doing is legitimately related to self-defense, then it is simply not-guilty. Right? Maybe. But what if self-defense cannot be achieved without destroying Gaza utterly? Would that mean that the destruction of Gaza wasn’t genocide? That doesn’t seem right — the destruction happened, and if it gets even worse then what are we going to call it? So does that mean that genocide was justified on the grounds of self-defense, as self-defense can justify homicide? That might sound like an absurd idea, but before saying so, consider the narrative that your average middle-of-the-road Israeli or Israel-defender feels in their bones.” (07/31/25)
“U.S. President Donald Trump is not a fan of sharks or the ocean. From gutting the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, or NOAA, to seeking the expansion of offshore oil drilling and deep-sea mining while attacking wind energy, his view of our public seas is that they’ll make a good gas station and garbage dump. And, this view is reflected in his major legacy bill recently passed into law by the MAGA majority in Congress. But there’s been little discussion about how this bill will impact our public seas. So, we (Vicki Nichols Goldman and myself) spoke with George Leonard, former chief scientist with the Ocean Conservancy and an ocean policy consultant about what’s going on.” (07/31/25)
