“When the Founders wrote ‘Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness’ into the Declaration of Independence, they weren’t guaranteeing comfort, equality of outcome, or a government-managed society. They were making a bolder claim that became the foundation of the American Dream: that people could build meaningful lives if government protected liberty and then got out of the way. That idea still matters today. At its core, the phrase shows trust in the American people. The Founders believed individuals, given freedom and responsibility, could make better choices for their lives than distant officials ever could. Perhaps more important is the idea that, as adults who are created equal, we have inherent dignity that must be recognized by our government. When this dignity is recognized, we can truly thrive as humans and give our best to our families, communities, and workplaces.” (02/25/26)
“Free and democratic society is not possible when the kings of oil and gas can threaten our stability, pollute our information systems, and poison our politics.” (02/25/26)
Source: Electronic Frontier Foundation
by Matthew Guariglia
“The Secretary of Defense has given an ultimatum to the artificial intelligence company Anthropic in an attempt to bully them into making their technology available to the U.S. military without any restrictions for their use. Anthropic should stick by their principles and refuse to allow their technology to be used in the two ways they have publicly stated they would not support: autonomous weapons systems and surveillance.” (02/24/26)
Source: Independent Institute
by Phillip W Magness
“The Supreme Court dealt a serious blow to President Trump’s economic agenda by ruling that the International Emergency Economic Powers Act doesn’t allow him to rewrite the U.S. tariff schedule. Mr. Trump immediately invoked a different law to impose a 10% tariff on all countries, followed by threats to raise it to 15%. The White House’s tariff Plan B looks copied from President Biden’s playbook when the court overruled his student-loan forgiveness scheme in 2023 and Mr. Biden began statute shopping for anything to back it. That strategy hit a roadblock in federal court, as a succession of rulings invalidated his attempt to revive the policy under different laws.” (02/24/26)
“In response to his tariff defeat, Trump went on a rant. He called the judges ‘fools and lapdogs.’ Even worse, he questioned their patriotism, going as far as to say they had been ‘swayed by foreign interests.’ This insult was bad even by Trump’s standards, and his talk of ‘foreign Interests’ – without any evidence – can only fuel online conspiracy theorising. The Supreme Court justices were doing their job. On many occasions in the past, including when it came to the president’s personal immunity, the majority has ruled in Trump’s favour. The separation of powers, which places limits on the power of the presidency, is a key principle of the US Constitution. In this regard, the court has been consistent under both Joe Biden and Trump.” (02/24/26)
“‘Why do Trump’s supporters keep trying to kill him?’ That’s the question I’ve most seen floating around in the wake of the killing of Austin Martin, a 21-year-old man who attempted to storm the cordon at Mar-a-Lago this past week while wielding a shotgun. It’s mostly rhetorical, but the glib and obvious answers – that Trump’s unique detestability and employment of violent rabble-rousing makes him an alluring target, even for his own acolytes, or that MAGA itself is a mental illness particularly prone even to internal violence – obscure a far more sweeping challenge. The online right has created an incredibly efficient and effective engine for breaking and radicalizing lonely young men.” (02/24/26)
Source: American Institute for Economic Research
by Thomas Savidge
“This explainer traces the evolving, mutually dependent relationship between the federal government and the states through four pivotal eras of fiscal transfers: the Antebellum Land Grants, the Civil War, the New Deal, and the Great Society.” (02/24/26)
“Those who have examined the Epstein files have seen information about how connected Jeffrey Epstein was to members of the political, business, and academic elites. Many of these connections started after Epstein’s 2008 conviction. The Epstein files support claims that Epstein worked with intelligence agencies, in particular Israel’s Mossad and the American CIA. Yet the mainstream media and most politicians seem uninterested in whether Epstein used underage girls in a scheme to blackmail powerful individuals on behalf of intelligence agencies. Fortunately, the alternative media is not afraid to discuss Epstein’s intelligence connections or any other matters related to Epstein, including suspicious circumstances surrounding his death.” (02/24/26)
“When we last left Rep. Valerie Foushee (D-NC), she was getting massively outspent in her March 3 Democratic primary for re-election in the Fourth Congressional District, where she faces Durham County commissioner Nida Allam. But that million-dollar deficit has now been mostly made up by a super PAC linked to artificial intelligence model designer Anthropic, makers of Claude, which is now dumping nearly $700,000 into supporting Foushee. Another $250,000 has been put toward Foushee by a mysterious PAC with ties to Democratic leadership. Jobs and Democracy PAC is Anthropic’s super PAC and part of an umbrella organization called Public First, which has been trying to give off a vibe of being the kinder, gentler AI super PAC, dedicated to prudent regulation rather than rampant accelerationism. The headline on Jobs and Democracy PAC’s website reads: ‘Supporting Democrats who put people before Big Tech.'” (02/25/26)
