“A recent Facebook memory notice reminded me of when I was young and naïve and full of political hope. Okay, maybe I wasn’t full of political hope but at least I wasn’t as old at the end of the last century. Facebook flashed a jpeg image with a quote from my 1999 book, Freedom in Chains: ‘It is absurd to expect governments to descend gradually, step-by-step into barbarism – as if there was a train schedule to political hell and people could get off at any stop along the way.’ When I wrote that book, I reached deep within to dredge up whatever remnants of positive thinking that I could find. But that didn’t stop the Los Angeles Times from denouncing my ‘political paranoid’s view’ in which ‘government assumes an overweening, menacing aspect.'” (03/23/26)
Source: Future of Freedom Foundation
by Jacob G Hornberger
“For those Americans who still believe that the U.S. government’s deadly, destructive, illegal, and unconstitutional war of aggression against Iran is about concern for the freedom and well-being of the people of Iran, what the U.S. government is now doing with its war on immigrants will help dispel such Americans of such a quaint notion. That’s because U.S. officials are in the process of deporting 400 Iranian immigrants to Iran as part of their war on immigrants. Yes, you read that right! U.S. officials are forcibly returning 400 Iranian immigrants to a country that the U.S. government and the Israeli government continue to bomb to smithereens. How is that action consistent with a supposed concern for the freedom and well-being of the Iranian people?” (03/23/26)
“Former FBI director Robert Mueller died last week at the age of 81. The New York Times eulogized him as a ‘button-down, lockjawed, rock-ribbed exemplar of a vanishing caste.’ In reality, Mueller was simply a twenty-first century version of J. Edgar Hoover, trampling the Constitution and seizing new power on any pretext.” (03/23/26)
“I’d kind of assumed that the frontier AI labs (Anthropic, OpenAI, X) would reap the financial rewards of frontier AI development. But that might not be correct. AI might be more like electricity than Google. After all, who profited from electrification? It certainly wasn’t the inventors. Or their companies. The people who got rich from electricity were the ones who used it to make other things. Profits went to the factory owners who electrified their factories and the folks who sold light bulbs. The electric companies became utilities. I had assumed that the companies currently building AI would become the next Google and Bing. However, many believe that the actual models are more likely to become cheap and interchangeable, like electricity. Or Wi-Fi. Or railroads.” (03/23/26)
“In democracies, rulers require the consent of the governed. Even within elite theories of democracies, some sort of common consent is necessary. The easiest way to secure such consent is to persuade the people that you are really one of them. Politicians from elite backgrounds work to appear as if they are unafraid of working a day in McDonald’s, or plead for the fortunes of a favourite football team. They are not ‘regular people,’ but they try to look like they belong. These efforts cut across ideology as attempts to cultivate authenticity emerge on both the left and right. But politics cannot be defined by personality alone.” (03/23/26)
“Jimmy Carter in 1977 cut the size of the White House staff by 30%. Coming just two years after Nixon’s resignation, Carter’s election coincided with a series of legislative reforms to tame the imperial presidency. Carter for a brief shining time seemed to embody that smaller presidency. He announced on his inauguration day that, ‘I would never permit my White House staff to try to run the major departments of government.’ We’ve endured nine withering years of Trump’s America (including what we now realize was but a fleeting interregnum under Biden). The idea that the presidency should be an executive with cabinet secretaries and independent agencies constrained strictly to statute and the constitution seems distant. Instead, the American imperial executive is led now by a few unaccountable staffers in the West Wing with the opaque character of a monarch’s courtiers.” (03/23/26)
“Many people in this country feel attacks on our civil liberties have gone too far. I agree. Heavily armed ICE and CBP agents, who are paid with our tax dollars, hide their identities as they storm into our homes without warrants, suppress free speech, and even murder U.S. citizens who engage in peaceful protest. Many people feel it is time to stop this cruelty and violence. Yet what can we do? One answer is to flood the streets. Indeed, in places like Chicago and Minneapolis, we’ve seen tens of thousands show up to demand an end to the militarized occupation of their cities. And millions nationwide have turned out to No Kings rallies, and will do so again this March 28th. Mass moments like this are important; they show us we are not alone. Yet on their own, they are not enough …” (03/22/26)
“The news that the 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU) might be headed to the Middle East to reinforce the 31st MEU, which was already ordered there, raises the odds that ground troops might play a part in President Trump’s war with Iran. … We all know of Joe Rosenthal’s famous picture of the raising of the American flag on Mount Suribachi on Iwo Jima. Trump will want to have a similar image to get the American public hyped about an unpopular war and to boost his own image as a warfighting President along the likes of Abraham Lincoln or Franklin Roosevelt. But what Trump needs to understand is what happened after the Iwo Jima photo was released to the public.” (03/23/26)
“[UK secretary of state for communities Steve] Reed has officially adopted a definition of ‘anti-Muslim hostility’ — ‘Islamophobia’ by another name — and announced that a government-appointed ‘special representative,’ a so-called ‘czar,’ will record complaints and ensure that anyone who falls foul of the definition is ‘appropriately’ dealt with. … Now, you might think: What’s wrong with that? Nobody wants Muslims to face hatred or discrimination. But here’s the problem. Discrimination against Muslims — indeed, against people of any religion — is already illegal under Britain’s Equality Act of 2010. … Britain repealed blasphemy laws that proscribed attacks on Christianity in 2008. It would be a peculiar irony if, 18 years later, a Labour government reinstated a new version of them …” (03/23/26)
“After protests across Iran turned deadly in January, President Donald Trump promised Iranians that ‘help is on the way’. On February 28th, the U.S. and Israel launched what immediately became a devastating war on Iran. American and Israeli warplanes began dropping bombs on a country of some 93 million people. Trump soon put out a video address, telling Iranians that ‘the hour of your freedom is at hand’. Around the time that video appeared, Iranians in the city of Minab were sorting through the corpses of more than 165 people killed in an airstrike on an elementary school for girls. That same day, an airstrike killed Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, an 86-year-old who was supposedly already in poor health. Throughout the ensuing days, American and Israeli attacks struck hospitals, historic sites, and more schools.” (03/22/26)
