First They Came for the Op-Ed Writers

Source: JimBovard.com
by James Bovard

“On March 25, six masked federal agents seized a Turkish graduate student on the streets of Somerville, Massachusetts. Rumeysa Ozturk … was abducted and vanished into the maw of the federal prison system. The Trump administration ignored a federal court order and took Ozturk from Massachusetts to Louisiana federal detention facilities. But the Trump administration knew Ozturk had criticized the government of Israel a year earlier, enough to seal her doom according to the latest iron-fisted political correctness dictates. She co-authored one piece for the Tufts student newspaper criticizing the university’s refusal to divest from Israel despite ‘credible accusations of …. indiscriminate slaughter of Palestinian civilians and plausible genocide.’ … Does the Trump administration consider op-eds to be a weapon of mass destruction?” (03/31/25)

https://jimbovard.com/blog/2025/03/31/first-they-came-for-the-op-ed-writers/

Mexico Should Reject Appeasement and Choose Peace

Source: Future of Freedom Foundation
by Jacob G Hornberger

“In an apparent attempt to appease President Trump in the hope of averting the imposition of U.S. tariffs on Mexico, Mexican president Claudia Sheinbaum did four things: 1. Sent 29 Mexican citizens to the United States so that they could be prosecuted for violating America’s drug laws; 2. Sent thousands of Mexican troops to the Mexico-U.S. border, ostensibly to help prevent fentanyl and other drugs and illegal immigrants from entering the United States; 3. Busted several illegal fentanyl operations inside Mexico; and 4. Assured Trump that Mexico was doing — and would continue doing — everything possible to stem the flow of drugs and illegal immigrants into the United States. Trying to appease Trump, however, is the wrong way for Mexico to go. Instead, the best thing Sheinbaum could ever do is declare directly and forthrightly that Mexico will no longer have anything to do with America’s ridiculous, deadly, destructive, and corrupt wars on drugs and immigrants.” (03/31/25)

https://www.fff.org/2025/03/31/mexico-should-reject-appeasement-and-choose-peace/

Free Speech is Worth Fighting For

Source: Ron Paul Liberty Report
by Ron Paul

“Recently a new front has been opened in the war on free speech and it is one that Americans must take seriously. On university campuses across the country students – both American and foreign guests – have taken to protesting US support for Israel’s actions in Gaza, where tens of thousands of innocent civilians have been killed. The political class in the United States is determined to defend Israel from its critics and has responded to these protests by threatening and blackmailing the universities if they do not crack down on speech the powers-that-be do not like. Both Presidents Biden and Trump have used the power of US government funding to demand a crackdown on speech they don’t like, with President Trump recently pulling 400 million dollars in federal funding for Columbia University if they don’t silence the protesters.” (03/31/25)

http://www.ronpaullibertyreport.com/archives/free-speech-is-worth-fighting-for

Something worse could be coming for the economy than a recession

Source: Washington Post
by Heather Long

“President Donald Trump is pushing the economy to a breaking point with sweeping tariffs and rapid cuts to immigration and the federal workforce. There is growing fear of not just a recession but stagflation, a frightful situation — not seen in the United States since the 1970s — in which the economy contracts and people lose jobs but prices remain high. This is a self-inflicted wound from Trump. Many of his economic advisers, including Larry Kudlow and Stephen Moore, are urging him to show restraint on tariffs. But Trump is set to unleash the biggest increase in tariffs since the Depression era on Wednesday. He’s calling it ‘Liberation Day.’ It may turn out to be Stagflation Day.” (03/31/25)

https://archive.is/ANiis

It Is Basically Holistically Intuitive

Source: EconLog
by Piere Lemieux

“To analyze society and the economy, and especially if the goal is to coerce peaceful individuals, an understanding of basic economics should be a must. Economics is needed to think clearly about the social consequences of individual actions and government interventions. … The president doesn’t seem to understand that a tariff also leads to an equivalent increase in the prices of competing domestically produced goods — American cars in this case. This is precisely why domestic producers of tariffed goods are happy: higher prices for their own products will be protected against foreign competitors. A tariff ‘protects’ only if it allows domestic producers to get higher prices.” (03/31/25)

https://www.econlib.org/it-is-basically-holistically-intuitive/

Liberals Believe In Nothing And Remember Even Less

Source: Caitlin Johnstone, Rogue Journalist
by Caitlin Johnstone

“The other day I shared a short post about a video that was going around showing a father in Gaza tearfully cradling the head of his son who was decapitated in an Israeli airstrike, and some guy responded with the comment ‘Good thing you helped get TRUMP ELECTED!!’ And I must admit I was actually, truly shocked. I mean, what exactly did this fellow think was happening under Biden that whole time? I saw a post on Twitter where a leftist responded to a liberal who was acting like ICE just suddenly transformed into a modern gestapo under Trump, saying, ‘Liberals believe in nothing and remember even less.’ And it’s just so true. They don’t believe in anything. They don’t stand for anything. It’s just a team sport for these people.” (03/31/25)

https://caitlinjohnstone.com.au/2025/03/31/liberals-believe-in-nothing-and-remember-even-less/

The Irony of “Nobody Elected Elon”

Source: Foundation for Economic Education
by Peter Jacobsen

“Democrat lawmakers have been rallying behind a simple slogan in opposition to DOGE (the ‘Department of Government Efficiency’): ‘Nobody elected Elon.’ The slogan might be convincing if the irony behind the statement weren’t so apparent. Much of the consternation surrounding DOGE has been due to Elon Musk’s involvement in downsizing federal bureaucracies such as USAID. But if this criticism (that nobody elected Elon) were applied to all bureaucrats, all the agencies Musk is targeting would be closed already.” (03/31/25)

https://fee.org/articles/the-irony-of-nobody-elected-elon/

Does the First Amendment Come with an Israel Exception?

Source: Libertarian Institute
by James Rushmore

“Earlier this month, Miami Beach Mayor Steven Meiner introduced a resolution threatening to cancel the O Cinema’s lease. The theater’s crime? Showing No Other Land, a documentary about the Israeli occupation of Palestinian villages in the West Bank. … Many libertarians would argue that no cultural institution should receive taxpayer funding, especially when such funding will inevitably be used to promote viewpoints that some segments of the taxpaying public will disagree with. That argument would hold water if Meiner’s opposition were rooted in a belief that taxpayer-funded entities should not be permitted to exhibit any documentaries that contain politically sensitive content. Unfortunately, Meiner only appears to care about profligate government expenditures when they manage to inconvenience Israel.” (03/31/25)

https://libertarianinstitute.org/articles/does-the-first-amendment-come-with-an-israel-exception

Safety at the top of the world

Source: Christian Science Monitor
by staff

“President Donald Trump is clearly worried about the security of the Arctic. Most obviously, he has made numerous controversial statements about the need for the United States to have control over Greenland. Similar comments about Canada bespeak his underlying concern: Neither Greenland nor Canada is being vigilant enough about the threats facing them. Those threats are widely acknowledged. As a warming world makes the Arctic more navigable, Russia and China are seeking to take advantage. The Trump administration underlined its seriousness by sending Vice President JD Vance to an American air base in Greenland last week. In a different context, such demands for accountability are already driving change. In February, Mr. Vance made a similar trip to Europe, delivering rebukes. Europe has since taken dramatic steps to reimagine its security structure and free itself from dependence on the U.S.” (03/31/25)

https://www.csmonitor.com/Commentary/the-monitors-view/2025/0331/Safety-at-the-top-of-the-world

Convicting Boeing for Its Deadly Crime Becomes Simple Under the “Judicial Admission” Doctrine

Source: The Volokh Conspiracy
by Paul Cassell

“In its deferred prosecution agreement, Boeing stipulated to an agreed statement of facts demonstrating that it is guilty.” (03/31/25)

https://reason.com/volokh/2025/03/31/convicting-boeing-for-its-deadly-crime-becomes-simple-under-the-judicial-admission-doctrine/