“Yemen and Palestine have tested the limits of the imperial system — how many innocent women and children can we liquidate before self-absorbed, mindlessly scrolling, Netflix-watching, garbage-eating Americans will bat an eyelash? Lots of them apparently. The Signal story is the perfect apparently anti-Trump narrative for the chattering classes: they need not even pretend to stake out a progressive position contrary to Trump. As legal residents who have broken no law are disappeared from our streets for opposing a genocide in Palestine — fully supported by both wings of the ruling class — the ruling class can focus our attention and loyalties on America’s righteous military mission.” (04/04/25)
“The ranks of global billionaires has grown by 247 in the past year, bringing up the total worldwide to 3,028, according to Forbes’ annual survey of the wealthy published April 1. The combined wealth of the nine-figure club is now $16.1 trillion, up $2 trillion from a year ago. There are 902 billionaires in the United States as of the newest survey, up from 813 in 2024. However, the Forbes data release is dated March 7, 2025, and there has been significant market volatility since then. There are now three billionaires in America with more than $200 billion in estimated wealth: Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, and Jeff Bezos. And there are 15 billionaires with more than $100 billion each and combined wealth of $2.4 trillion. For comparison, that’s more wealth than the ‘poorest’ 1,500 billionaires combined.” (04/05/25)
“‘Nothing is more dangerous to the cause of truth and liberty than a party-spirit.’ Noah Webster didn’t mince words. Over 200 years ago, he saw the warning signs we still ignore today – the danger of trading truth and principle for party loyalty. This isn’t just some abstract warning. It’s a direct hit on the rot that dominates American politics today. When people stop thinking and start following, liberty doesn’t stand a chance. Let’s walk through Webster’s message. Piece by piece and step by step.” (04/04/25)
“Imagine two businesses across the street from each other: a hardware store and a café. Once a year, the café buys a set of pans from the hardware store to keep its kitchen running. Meanwhile, every day, the hardware store’s employees pop over to the café for lunch — sandwiches, coffee, maybe a slice of pie. At the end of the year, the hardware store’s manager tallies up the books and frowns. ‘Look at this!’ he says. ‘We’re spending way more on lunches than the café spends on our pans. We’ve got a trade deficit with them! This has to stop.’Sounds familiar? It’s the kind of logic you hear on the news: ‘Country X buys less from us than we buy from them — unfair!’ The solution, we’re told, is tariffs — taxes on imports to ‘level the playing field.'” (04/04/25)
Source: Caitlin Johnstone, Rogue Journalist
by Caitlin Johnstone
“President Trump has posted a video on social media showing a US airstrike in Yemen killing dozens of people who he claims are ‘Houthis gathered for instructions on an attack.’ Trump also bizarrely suggested that Ansar Allah has been sinking US ships in its Red Sea attacks, writing ‘They will never sink our ships again!’ There is no public information about any US ships having been sunk by Houthi attacks. As of this writing there is also no evidence supporting the president’s claim that the people killed in the airstrike were combatants; there are photos online of unarmed Yemeni tribesmen standing in the exact formation seen in the video Trump posted for normal civilian gatherings.” (04/06/25)
“Donald Trump had a plan. It was not a good plan, or even a plausible one. But it was, at least, a coherent plan: By imposing large trade barriers on the entire world, he would create an incentive for American business to manufacture and grow all the goods the country previously imported. Whatever chance this plan had to succeed is already over. The key to making it work was to convince businesses that the new arrangement is durable. Nobody is going to invest in building new factories in the United States to create goods that until last week could be imported more cheaply unless they’re certain that the tariffs making the domestic version more competitive will stay in place.” (04/04/25)
“I get it; politicians lie. That’s like saying beer drinkers burp or fish swim – it’s just how life is. But some lies are unforgivable, and the lies Democrats told last year fall in that category. Democrats, in and out of the media, not only swore that Joe Biden was ‘the best Biden ever,’ they insisted that even suggesting anything to the contrary was ageism, outrageous, and heresy. They attacked you, us, for the simple act of noticing reality. They denied that reality insisted it wasn’t so, and attempted to destroy people for pointing it out. And they did it all with a smug sense of holier-than-thou-ism for the record books. Now, they’re retroactively on board with all of it.” (04/06/25)
“I believe dangerous predators should spend their lives behind bars. … I also cringe at many California Democrats’ refusal to take seriously public-safety concerns. … Yet, unlike some of my conservative-minded friends, I am encouraged rather than appalled by the Newsom administration’s $239-million plan to remake the notorious San Quentin State Prison in Marin County ‘into a Scandinavian-style rehabilitation center complete with a farmer’s market, a podcast production studio and a self-service grocery store,’ per the San Francisco Chronicle. The podcast idea sounds dopey, but the rest of it isn’t.” (04/04/25)
“DNC Chair Ken Martin on Friday announced the launching of a People’s Cabinet! This is potentially exciting news. As I wrote about last month, a People’s Cabinet is a powerful way to combat the latest unlawful, unconstitutional, cruel, and downright stupid action from the Trump-Musk administration. And it’s a great way to lift up leaders who can propose common sense, people-centered alternatives. One proposal that may be a stretch for the DNC, though: Instead of the same old top-down decision making, please make this an open process. Invite everyone to help select cabinet members …. The Democratic Party’s approval ratings are very low and there is a lot of ground to make up after the party first insisted Joe Biden would be the 2024 presidential candidate and then anointed Kamala Harris as the presidential candidate — with no public input.” (04/05/25)
Source: Foundation for Economic Education
by Reem Ibrahim
“‘Liberation Day’: That is what US President Donald Trump has called Wednesday, April 2, the day he announced huge swaths of taxes on imports worldwide. Despite the label, it was far from a day of liberation. By making imports to the US more expensive, the government is actively increasing the cost of living for American consumers. The Trump administration has fallen for one of the most common misconceptions about trade — that it only benefits a country when it is the exporter. This could not be further from the truth. One of the greatest benefits of free trade lies with the importing country, where consumers gain access to a huge range of goods, crucially, at lower prices.” (04/04/25)
