“During the last two legislative sessions, the Teamsters and other labor groups convinced the California legislature to pass bills effectively banning driverless trucks from the state’s highways. Both times the bills were vetoed by California governor Gavin Newsom. But even if Newsom had signed that legislation, it wouldn’t have kept Aurora out of business-friendly states like Texas. So labor unions have also tried to stop driverless trucks at the federal level. One surprising front in this battle: the reflective triangles truckers place on the road to warn other drivers when their rigs are stopped at the side of the highway.” (02/26/25)
Source: Independent Institute
by Randall G Holcombe
“When President Trump was running for election in 2024, he said he’d end the war in Ukraine within 24 hours of taking office. That hasn’t happened. Lately, he’s called Ukraine President Zelensky a dictator and even blamed him for starting the war with Russia. It seems he’s tilting toward Russia in his attempt to negotiate an end to the war. President Trump wants a personal victory in that dispute, and for him, a victory would be the end of the war. It matters little to him whether the war ends with Russia pulling out and leaving Ukraine with its old boundaries, or with Russia taking full control of Ukraine, or something in between. He isn’t taking Russia’s side, or Ukraine’s side. He wants a win for himself.” (02/26/25)
“MSNBC just canceled ‘The ReidOut,’ the most vicious, nasty, anti-white and pathologically anti-Trump show on air. Host Joy Reid, for five years, unleashed one hateful, often irrational attack after another. It was only after President Donald Trump’s reelection and her ratings plummeting nearly 50% that MSNBC pulled the plug. Here are just some of her greatest hits: * ‘(The courts) are stacked now to essentially suborn our democracy to their very particular version of right-wing evangelical Christ — That’s no different than Talibanism.’ * ‘The goal of the Republican Party today, is it to seize control of every level of government, to lock out voices of color and LGBTQ voices except those who conform to their demand that history and education uplift white Christian dominion …’ * ‘Fascism isn’t a game, y’all. It’s real. And it’s in America, sometimes dressed as a kooky personality cult or carrying a confederate flag …'” (02/27/25)
“If President Donald Trump was elected with a specific mandate, it was to lower prices. Poll after poll reveals that inflation is a top worry for Americans. So the administration should be worried that it’s ticking back up. Further, the president — who seems to think he can solve all problems unilaterally with executive branch orders — will soon discover that to conquer inflation, he will need the help of Congress. Today’s rising inflation isn’t Trump’s fault. When inflation first spiked several years ago, the Federal Reserve insisted for months that it was under control and on its way back to the 2 percent target. It had yet to arrive there when, this past September, the Fed began prematurely cutting interest rates by 100 basis points.” (02/27/25)
“To listen to protectionists, one would think tariffs are something of a miracle drug. Anything and everything can be solved by tariffs. Prices too low? Tariffs will raise ‘em. Prices too high? Tariffs will lower ‘em. Sprained knee? Just take two tariffs and call me in the morning. Yes, tariffs may seem like a miracle drug that can be applied to any situation (no matter how contradictory). But what many tariff supporters’ arguments are missing is reasonable political analysis. I mean ‘reasonable’ in the literal sense: derived from reason. Or, as put more poetically by James Buchanan, ‘politics without romance.'” (02/26/25)
Source: Future of Freedom Foundation
by Jacob G Hornberger
“During his recent campaign for president, Donald Trump repeatedly stated that he had a secret plan for settling the war in Ukraine. He suggested that he would be able to resolve the conflict within a day of so of taking office. That obviously was political hyperbole because the war is still going on. Trump and people in his administration are now talking to Russian president Vladimir Putin and Russian officials in an effort to find a way to end the war and possibly even normalize relations between the United States and Russia. There is one great big obstacle, however, to bringing an end to the Ukraine-Russia conflict. That obstacle is NATO, the old Cold War dinosaur that should have gone out of existence with the end of the Cold War, just like the Warsaw Pact did.” (02/27/25)
“One of the hallmarks of small-l liberalism is that journalists are supposed to be concerned with both actual fairness and the perception of fairness. This internal self-regulation is one of those aspects that makes free societies work. It’s part of the honor system. Here is the problem: While MSNBC holds to the honor system and tries to be fair to Republicans, Fox News paid $787 million dollars so that it could knowingly lie about Democrats. This asymmetry runs all the way through our media.” (02/26/25)
“Human rights courts have become the place where democracies go to die. Law, both within and among nations, is an effort to align power to justice. All justice systems rest on a dynamic interaction between law, politics, and norms. Politics is about power: its location, bases, exercise, effects. Law seeks to tame power and convert it into authority through legitimising principles (e.g. democracy, separation of powers, due process), structures (e.g. legislature, executive, judiciary), and procedures (e.g. elections, trials).” (02/26/25)
Source: Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression
by Brennen VanderVeen
“Imagine putting a political sign in your yard, only to have your town threaten to fine you $1,000 a day for not following arbitrary size and placement rules. That’s exactly what happened to four residents of Lodi, New Jersey. But with the help of FIRE Legal Network attorney Randall Peach and his colleagues at the law firm Woolson Anderson Peach, they fought back — suing Lodi for violating their First Amendment rights. Like many places, Lodi regulates yard signs on private property, but its rules blatantly violate the First Amendment by singling out ‘political’ signs — regulating how tall, wide, and close to the property line such signs can be, as well as whether they are up during the ‘correct’ time of year.” (02/26/25)
