Children Are the Future: Authoritarianism, Culture War, and Making Model Citizens
Source: Liberal Currents
by Adam Elrod
“MAGA’s approach to young Americans is about creating adherents and eliminating undesirables.” (04/16/25)
Category: Opinion
Trump Is About to Learn That Iran Is a Problem Without a Solution
Source: Foreign Policy
by Aaron David Miller & Lauren Morganbesser
“As Steve Witkoff, U.S. President Donald Trump’s ‘envoy for everything,’ sits down again with a top Iranian diplomat this weekend, he confronts one galactic diplomatic lift. In either Oman or Rome, Witkoff will face off against Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, a skilled nuclear negotiator from a repressive authoritarian regime that has been badly weakened by Israel and is in no mood for dramatic concessions, let alone capitulation to Washington.” (04/17/25)
Colloquial Law
Source: EconLog
by Jon Murphy
“For any science to be broadly understood, it needs to be communicated in a helpful manner. Indeed, much of my research focuses on how experts communicate their opinions and on the institutions under which that communication is improved. In this post, I turn my eye toward another form of expert opinion, the law. With law, or any science, we must distinguish between a term of art and a colloquial term. A term of art is a term that has a specialized meaning within a particular field or profession. A colloquial term is a term whose use is not formal; it is used in ordinary conversation. The two uses can be similar but they often differ significantly.” (04/16/25)
Why Taming Our Inner Tribal Beast Is Imperative to Civilization
Source: Mindset Shifts
by Barry Brownstein
“People are equal, but ideas are not.” (04/16/25)
https://mindsetshifts.substack.com/p/why-taming-our-inner-tribal-beast-c4e
A World Beyond Tariffs
Source: The American Prospect
by Luis Feliz Leon
“In 1966, at the height of the labor movement’s postwar power, Walter Reuther, then president of the United Auto Workers, helped establish the first four ‘World Auto Councils.’ Workers at General Motors, Volkswagen-Daimler-Benz, Fiat, and Chrysler (now Stellantis) could now meet across borders and, it was hoped, establish common international contract expiration dates. The plan fell short of an international bargaining agreement, but the unions hoped it would ‘strengthen the hand of each union in the contract negotiations of its own country’, said World Auto Councils coordinator Burton Bendiner in 1978. In 1971, French GM workers who supplied gearboxes and transmissions for the company’s European operations went on strike. They coordinated with their counterparts in Germany’s IG Metall and the UAW to pressure GM management. They refused work that management had diverted from a struck plant and created a common strike fund.” (04/17/25)
https://prospect.org/labor/2025-04-17-uaw-automakers-world-beyond-tariffs/
Why Trump Doesn’t Want You to Notice His Most Dangerous Move
Source: The Daily Beast
by Shan Wu
“The blizzard of executive orders signed in the Oval Office is a smokescreen for a ticking timebomb: Accusing his own former official of treason.” (04/16/25)
The United States of El Salvador
Source: Future of Freedom Foundation
by Jacob G Hornberger
“[I]n 2021 the national Legislative Assembly, which was dominated by Bukele’s party, voted to remove the judges in what is called the Constitutional Chamber of the Supreme Court. Given that it has the power to declare actions of the president unconstitutional, it is the most important part of the Salvadoran Supreme Court. The reason for removing those judges? They were issuing rulings that challenged the constitutionality of Bukele’s ’emergency’ measures during the Covid crisis. Bukele didn’t like judges challenging his authority. Sound familiar? So, he and his cohorts effectively just fired those judges and replaced them with new ones who, Bukele no doubt hoped, would uphold the constitutionality of whatever action he decided to take, including running for a third term as president, which the Salvadoran constitution prohibits. In March 2022, Bukele and the national Legislative Assembly declared a ‘national emergency.’ Sound familiar?” (04/16/25)
https://www.fff.org/2025/04/16/the-united-states-of-el-salvador/
Yankee, Stay Home
Source: The American Conservative
by Bill Kauffan
“I daresay not a soul in a million who voted for Donald Trump last November did so because he or she wanted to buy Greenland, annex Canada, seize the Panama Canal, or ‘own’ Gaza and displace 2 million human beings. This expansionist frenzy isn’t America First: Trump’s land-and-people grab is to the historic political tendency of America First as murdering the adulterous lover whose inheritance you stole is to the Ten Commandments. The utter perversion of America First by people who couldn’t even spit the phrase out a couple decades ago — ‘tainted’ as it was by association with the antiwar tradition—astonishes. Once the term America First was denatured, market-tested, and approved, it was coopted by the usual Beltway grifters: people who sneered at Trump 10 years ago but slobber over him now.” (04/16/25)
Why Do Domestic Prices Rise with Tariffs?
Source: Foundation for Economic Education
by Alex Tabarrok
“Many people think they understand why domestic prices rise with tariffs — domestic producers take advantage of reduced competition to jack up prices and increase their profits. The explanation seems cynical and sophisticated, and it’s not entirely wrong, but it misses deeper truths. Moreover, this ‘explanation’ makes people think that an appropriate response to domestic firms raising prices is price controls and threats, which would make things worse. In fact, tariffs will increase domestic prices even in perfectly competitive industries. Let’s see why.” (04/16/25)
https://fee.org/articles/why-do-domestic-prices-rise-with-tariffs/
Political Violence Surges as the Use of Force Becomes Mainstream
Source: Reason
by JD Tuccille
“The weekend’s apparent attempted murder over the weekend of Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro with an arson attack is, unfortunately, only part of the wave of political violence sweeping over the country. Recent months have seen assassinations and attempted killings, attacks on political headquarters, arson against Tesla cars and dealers, and other acts that make it clear that some people have gone beyond hardened political hostilities to assaults on people and property. Worse, Americans — especially those on the political left [sic] — seem increasingly open to violence as a means of settling ideological disputes.” (04/16/25)
https://reason.com/2025/04/16/political-violence-surges-as-the-use-of-force-becomes-mainstream/