“As the White House continues to pressure Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to ramp up its rate of deportations, the agency has cast about for allies willing to help them meet President Trump’s expectations. While many have answered that call, one group in particular has stood out for its willingness to be deputized, as it were, to help make mass deportations a reality: sheriffs. The office of the sheriff has become a political battlefield in recent years, with everyone from red state governors to thinkers at the right-wing Claremont Institute advocating radical reinterpretations of the sheriff’s role to better suit their own priorities. Few embody this tendency better than Bob Songer, the controversial and powerful thrice-elected sheriff of Klickitat County, Washington. Last week, Songer appeared on a conservative talk show to explain his enthusiasm for cooperating with ICE — even if doing so goes against his state’s laws.” (03/20/25)
“Every day’s headlines now seem to bombard us with ever more outrageous Trumpian antics. Who could have possibly imagined, for instance, that a president of the United States would turn the White House lawn into a Tesla auto showroom? But these antics actually do serve a useful social and political purpose — for President Donald Trump’s fellow deep pockets and the corporations they run. Trump’s kleptocratic arrogance and audacity have shoved the institutionalized thievery of Corporate America’s ever-grasping top execs off into the shadows. Those shadows could hardly be more welcome. American corporate executive compensation, as the business journal Fortune has just detailed, is now ‘surging amid a roaring bonus rebound.’ One example: Tyson Foods CEO Donnie King has seen his annual executive rewards leap from $13 million in 2023 to $22.7 million in 2024.” (03/20/25)
“A central claim in the abundance literature is that power in liberal-dominated areas lies with homeowners and the groups they support. Homeowners, seeking to preserve their housing values among other less savory goals, have supported zoning regulations that have destroyed housing markets. Texas housing markets, where such regulations are looser, really are much more accommodating of the American middle class than the millionaires’ playgrounds of New York or San Francisco real estate. The fact that so many ordinary Americans are moving from California to Texas exposes this reality. … The same thing goes for infrastructure. The central lesson of the growing body of work on infrastructure development is that ‘citizen voice’ has slowed and increased the cost of projects throughout the country.” (03/20/25)
Source: Foundation for Economic Education
by Sergio Martinez
“Tariffs primarily hurt consumers. Douglas Irwin, a prominent trade economist, notes that import taxes inevitably reduce a country’s ability to export. Trump’s proposed tariffs would negatively impact US citizens’ welfare as analyzed in detail here and here. But what about Mexico? Roughly 80% of Mexico’s exports — ranging from agricultural goods and manufactured products to automobiles — are destined for the US. Among the most vulnerable sectors is the automotive industry, where supply chains are deeply intertwined. Individual car parts often cross the US-Mexico border multiple times before final assembly. Tariffs would instantly raise the cost of Mexican-made goods, triggering job losses in key industries. The Peterson Institute for International Economics estimates huge losses for Mexico if the tariffs are enforced. Exports account for nearly 40% of Mexico’s GDP. Tariffs would be particularly damaging, given that Mexico’s previous administration oversaw near-zero economic growth.” (03/20/25)
“The January ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas, which brought a pause to the 15 months of death and destruction following Hamas’ October 2023 terror attack against Israel and Israel’s ensuing war in Gaza, has collapsed. President Donald Trump reportedly gave Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu the green light to tank the agreement he and his team helped negotiate and resume the war. Trump’s decision to follow Netanyahu’s lead is wrong. Continuing to enable this war will result in more violence and further U.S. entanglement in the region. Ending support for the war now may be Washington’s last chance to get out and pull the region back from the brink.” (03/20/25)
“Democrats are facing the worst ratings in decades in my polls and others, dropping to as low as 29% favorability in the CNN poll, down from 62% in 2008. The reasons are pretty clear — after the 2024 election, voters reevaluated the job that President Joe Biden did and began scratching their heads at the actions and positions of Democrats in Congress. Unless there is a major reset, I expect they will have an unexpected wipeout in next year’s midterm elections. Back in the late ’90s, Democrats stood for a balanced budget, expanded health care benefits, tough immigration policies, and smaller government. Bill Clinton declared ‘the era of big government is over.’ Boy was he wrong. Step by step, Democrats drifted from these policies that produced near 75% approval ratings for Clinton.” (03/20/25)
“News reports about the World Happiness Report usually give the impression that it is based on a major research effort. Noting that the report is ‘compiled annually by a consortium of groups including the United Nations and Gallup,’ for example, an article about last year’s iteration in the New York Times warned darkly that ‘the United States fell out of the Top 20’ without a hint of skepticism about the reliability of such a finding. In light of such confident pronouncements, and the absence of any critical voices in most of these news stories, you might be forgiven for thinking that the report carefully assesses how happy each country in the world is according to a sophisticated methodology, one that likely involves both subjective and objective criteria. But upon closer examination …” (03/20/25)
“What do the JFK assassination files and an obscure booklet called ‘The Adam and Eve Story’ have in common? Both are examples of how the CIA and other Deep State actors keep us guessing and in the dark: by over-classification. A ‘sanitized’ copy of Chan Thomas’s immortal classic of seeming ultra-nuttery, the aforementioned ‘Adam and Eve Story,’ was de-classified in 2013. Now on the CIA’s website, it floats a wild theory about human history and life on this planet, complete with repeated global, world-turned-on-end catastrophes. Most people had never heard of the work until de-classified and placed on the website. The Wikipedia entry mentions the de-classification of the document but not why it was classified as secret in the first place. Here’s a theory: to confuse us.” (03/20/25)
“Charles E. Schumer, the top Senate Democrat since 2017, is facing calls for a primary challenge. The proximate cause? Progressive fury at Schumer’s decision to back a Republican budget bill to keep the government open. But the Democratic dissension runs deeper. It is starting to resemble the strife that afflicted Republicans 15 years ago during the tea party era. But the tea party did not solve Republicans’ problems, and following a similar path is unlikely to lead Democrats somewhere better.” (03/20/25)
“San Juan Capistrano has swallows, Provincetown has whales, and spring doesn’t arrive in Washington until the cherry blossoms do. Mobs of tourists and locals will descend on the sublime white-and-pink cherry trees that circle the Tidal Basin below the Jefferson Memorial for an annual event rivaled only by the Fourth of July. It’s no small exercise to deploy the staff, volunteers, police, and cleanup crews necessary to pull together the festival that pumps millions into the District of Columbia economy. And yet after historic and sudden federal budget cuts were signed into law last week, it would be easy to come up with a dark side to Washington’s countdown to the peak blooms expected at the end of March.” (03/20/25)
