“College economics students know that a tariff is a tax charged to importers when a good enters the country and that this tax is generally transferred to domestic consumers by way of an equivalent price increase. So what Trump is really saying is, ‘very simple, a foreign state charges a tax on its residents, my own state will charge an equivalent tax to our own residents.’ Your tribe or collective harms its own, the tribe or collective I run will cause an equivalent harm to its members; it’s that simple. Not only does elementary economic theory demonstrate this conclusion, but it is continually confirmed by experience to the point where the mere announcement or expectation of domestic tariffs starts pushing up the price of the imported goods and of the substitute domestic goods.” (02/19/25)
“News of Trump’s plans to gut the Department of Education has certainly made waves. But given that the federal government has a limited role in K-12 education and limited control over education spending, too few are focused on considering what public education under Trump’s second term might look like. If Uncle Sam is out of the K-12 business, at least President Trump won’t be using his power to interfere with local schools, right? If only! Trump, working with a GOP-controlled Congress, can inflict damage not just to American education but through it. The track record of MAGA-run states, the policy designs of Project 2025, and Trump’s own statements reveal a clear interest in using schools to sunder the separation of church and state.” (02/19/25)
Source: Electronic Frontier Foundation
by Tori Noble
“You shouldn’t need a permission slip to read a webpage–whether you do it with your own eyes, or use software to help. AI is a category of general-purpose tools with myriad beneficial uses. Requiring developers to license the materials needed to create this technology threatens the development of more innovative and inclusive AI models, as well as important uses of AI as a tool for expression and scientific research.” (02/19/25)
Source: Ludwig von Mises Institute
by Ryan McMaken
“‘Workers across the country responded with anger and confusion,’ the Associated Press reported last week, in response to the Trump administration’s layoffs of probationary workers. … The legacy media has portrayed this all as a conflict between the hard-working, guileless folk of the federal workforce on the one hand, and the insensitive villains of the Trump administration on the other. There is a third party to all of this that is virtually never mentioned by the media, though: the taxpayers who pay for it all.” (02/19/25)
“This week, the Supreme Court can begin cleaning up a predictable mess — it was predicted by a justice at the time — that it made with a misbegotten decision 20 years ago. The justices in conference on Friday are set to begin considering whether to decide a case that gives the court an opportunity to overturn Kelo, a decision so bad it provoked the passage of many beneficial state laws.” (02/19/25)
“On my first day as secretary of Transportation, we witnessed the midair collision in Washington, D.C., that took 67 lives. While the investigation is ongoing, the tragedy highlighted the urgent need to modernize our air traffic systems — and to move past the broken promises and political inertia of the past. The Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) unsustainable software systems that we’ve inherited are symptomatic of the endemic problems that plagued the Biden administration: a bloated bureaucracy that pushed overregulation instead of innovation, and radical DEI instead of merit. As a result, innovation stagnated and safety was sacrificed. Unlike my predecessors, I won’t run from difficult problems; I will fix them.” (02/19/25)
“The president, through his attorney general, has the power to determine prosecutorial priorities — such as the deportation of illegal [sic] aliens over the prosecution of a mayor who he believes could help him implement that policy. Danielle Sassoon (who once was a student researcher for me and is a friend) had the right to refuse to play a role in dropping the prosecution of Adams, who she understandably believes is guilty of serious crimes that were neutrally investigated for years before Trump assumed office. She, like any public official, has the prerogative to resign or be fired rather than agree to file a motion she believes is wrong. In her resignation letter, Sassoon said her decision was a matter of ethics because she believed that the decision to drop the charges was part of a quid pro quo.” (02/19/25)
“Armed to the teeth with M4 rifles and Glock pistols and pockets stuffed with their $10,000 advance plus some, 96 former U.S. special forces veterans are currently stationed in Gaza. These mercenaries have been hired by UG Solutions, a North Carolina-based military contractor, to patrol the intersection that Israel used to separate the north from the south of Gaza. What the Occupation called the ‘Netzarim Corridor’ split Gaza with a fortified, wide road to resupply weapons and tanks as well as providing a vantage point to launch attacks on both the north and the south. Named after the settler encampment in the same area from 1975-2005, the area was once again made into a violent and deadly zone. After the occupation forces withdrew from the intersection, the decomposing bodies and skeletal remains of Palestinian people were found.” (02/19/25)
