“Sparta pursued a Sparta-first policy throughout most of its history, preserving its unique domestic institutions while giving citizens in distinctive military training. It drew back from pursuing a wider empire, for fear that what it took to build an empire would undermine its unique constitution. Sparta’s politicos put Sparta’s domestic needs first when responding to regional powers in the Peloponnese (the peninsula in western Greece where Sparta was hegemon), the Persian challenge, and, ultimately, the Athenian challenge. Then one day, the Spartans, long landlubbers and homebodies, finally became sailors and grasped for a wider empire, having first exhausted most other possibilities. Paul Rahe, professor of history at Hillsdale College, serves as an excellent guide to the subtle, grudging transformation of Sparta in his six-volume set.” (02/21/25)
“It is a fascinating moment, isn’t it, when Reagan’s vision of the West is finally swept into the dustbin of history by a Republican president. And that is the only solid conclusion one can make after this week of astonishing incompetence and madness. We only saw Donald Trump’s foreign policy darkly in his first term — constrained, as he was, by a handful of white-knuckled Republicans in the executive branch. Now we see it face to face. It’s a vision where international law disappears, great powers divide up the planet into spheres of influence, and the strong always control the weak. It’s Trump’s vision of domestic politics as well. And of life. Control, plunder, gloat. This is the Trump way. And to give the madman his due, something had to happen.” (02/21/25)
“If you beamed in from Mars, you could learn everything about the state of the West and its politics through a split screen last week. On one half is an unhinged b-rated street-theater, suicide-march of mostly geriatric Democrats protesting Elon Musk’s effort to cut fraud, waste, and abuse — dandies like an EPA grant of $50 million to a group that believes ‘climate justice travels through a Free Palestine,’ $8 billion to teach Sri Lankan journalists how to use proper gender-fluid pronouns and grants for drag queen shows in Ecuador. Across the Atlantic at the same time were the pursed lips and stone faces of the priggish European Union bureaucratic elites warned by Vice President J.D. Vance about their increasing illiberalism — in particular their censorship and criminalization of political views in conflict with the EU’s yawning bureaucratic decrees.” (02/22/25)
Source: Independent Institute
by Alvaro Vargas Llosa
“The emergence of right-wing leaders in various parts of the world and their counter-offensive against wokeism, global elites, and liberalism has given rise to a narrative according to which the ‘far right,’ the ‘nationalist right,’ or the ‘populist right’ (whatever you want to call them) is taking over from the left and establishing itself as the dominant force in the West and its periphery. … This line of thought and public discourse, however, gives the false impression that the new forces of the right gaining attention across the Western world are homogeneous and ideologically compatible and share the same vision. Nothing could be further from the truth.” (02/21/25)
“Imagine being forced to leave everything behind, your home, your family, your dreams, because U.S. sanctions have devastated your country’s economy, making day-to-day living increasingly unbearable. You endure a treacherous journey, risking everything for a chance at stability and to help your family back home, only to be met with handcuffs and an indefinite sentence in one of the world’s most infamous prisons. This is the fate of many migrants, including Venezuelans, fleeing an economic war waged by U.S. policies.” (02/22/25)
“All state and local governments suppress the supply of houses and apartments throughout the country—and the problem has gotten worse for most of the country. Let’s be clear: many more dwellings of all types, including high-rise apartments, would exist and be much cheaper were it not for government prohibitions, requirements, and other cost-boosting impediments. The housing shortage, then, is not caused by greedy construction executives trying to squeeze buyers and renters into poverty or by immigrants. It’s caused by do-gooder politicians and bureaucrats along with members of the public who just don’t get it.” (02/21/25)
“Donald Trump wants you to envision a world where providing running water or renting an apartment to illegal [sic] immigrants is a crime. Where law enforcement acting upon ‘reasonable suspicion’ can detain people to determine their immigration status. Where anyone who gives a person in the country illegally [sic] a ride — even giving a colleague a ride to work or a neighbor a ride home — can be penalized. Where undocumented people can neither seek work nor enroll in public college. Where schools must collecting immigration status information from childre — including about their parents. But as the president sets about putting together this tapestry of harsh new immigration laws, not everyone needs to imagine the consequences. Some Americans have actually lived through them.” (02/21/25)
“Pete Buttigieg, who spent four totally incompetent, useless years drawing a salary at taxpayers’ expense for doing nothing for the country as Transportation Secretary (he did find time to take several weeks ‘maternity’ or ‘paternity’ leave), recently had the unmitigated gall to complain on ‘X’ that ‘the flying public needs answers. How many FAA personnel were just fired? What positions? And why?’ Well, fortunately, the American people fired this intolerable, inept bozo and his senile boss and put some intelligent, decent, competent people in as replacements. If Buttigieg had done what Trump and his people are (rightly) doing, maybe the country’s transportation system wouldn’t be the total wreck it is now. But, of course, nothing is ever the Left’s [sic] fault.” (02/22/25)
