“According to a Wall Street Journal story, some members of Congress are beginning to start waking up to the current president’s power grab …. Budget and tariff policy are two areas where some suspect that Congress should not have delegated so much power to the president. It could happen here, ‘it’ being despotism of the harder sort than the Tocquevillian soft sort that we have already gotten used to. Instances of the problem are too numerous to be listed here. My post of yesterday suggests that one man has apparently been granted the power to close America to the rest of the world if he feels like it. Let me mention three other incidents that seem symptomatic of a general rejection of anything that looks like the remnants of classical liberalism.” (03/05/25)
“The Trump administration, after legal challenges, abruptly reversed its mass firings of so-called ‘probationary’ federal employees. But it is moving speedily to find other ways to hobble the administrative state, focusing dubiously on instituting large reductions in force, while claiming that federal staffing levels are unreasonably high to carry out executive branch duties. One of the first agencies to comply was the Social Security Administration (SSA). Last week, I reported that the agency, which enrolls and manages benefits for over 73 million Americans, was undergoing ‘a significant workforce reduction,’ even though the agency was at a 50-year staffing low before Trump took office.” [editor’s note: If bloated staff-totals are essential for delivering checks to those already on retirement or now eligible for such, we’ve seen the problem in high relief – SAT] (03/06/25)
“Antonio Gramsci, the Italian Marxist philosopher, is easily underestimated with regard to what his intellectual legacy can teach us in the 21st century. It is true that Gramsci – or rather, a caricature of Gramsci, as well as of the Frankfurt School of Critical Theory – has been in circulation for some time (and of Martin Heidegger, too, although he and Theodor Adorno, of the Frankfurt School, did not see eye-to-eye), but these caricatures don’t do any of them justice.” (03/05/25)
“As expected, Apple will withhold its most advanced data protection from customers in the United Kingdom of the iPhone rather than obey a UK order to provide a worldwide back door to such encryption.
This is probably Apple’s least worst choice given the alternatives confronting it. But that means British users of the iPhone won’t have this encryption at all. Had Apple obeyed, the back door would have been installed on encryption-equipped iPhones worldwide, not just in the iPhones of persons residing in the sceptered isle. The mandated back door would, of course, have been exploitable by cyberhackers contracted by enemy governments as well as by members of ‘good’ governments claiming really good reasons for needing to rummage through your iPhone at will.” (03/05/25)
“Has your democracy been lost yet? Has someone stolen it? Silly questions for a silly era asked of silly people who worship mob rule as long as they are on the majority side. They have no problem ignoring the will of those who disagree with them; they only wring their hands when they end up on the losing side. America was never supposed to be a democracy. It was set up as a republic, limited in scope by a constitution that defined exactly what government is allowed to do to the population, regardless of what the majority wants. This failed. Republics, including those defined and limited by a constitution, turn into democracies because people, in overwhelming numbers, want to violate the rights of others and vote themselves goodies paid for with taxes.” (03/05/25)
Source: Caitlin Johnstone, Rogue Journalist
by Caitlin Johnstone
“President Trump has made a post on Truth Social saying federal funding will be cut to universities which allow ‘illegal protests’ on their campuses, obliquely referring to pro-Palestine demonstrations against Israel’s genocidal atrocities. ‘All Federal Funding will STOP for any College, School, or University that allows illegal protests,’ Trump said. ‘Agitators will be imprisoned/or permanently sent back to the country from which they came. American students will be permanently expelled or, depending on on the crime, arrested. NO MASKS!’ Elise Stefanik, Trump’s nominee for ambassador to the UN, made it clear that this was the Trump administration taking a position on ‘anti-Israel hate.’ ‘Antisemitism and anti-Israel hate will not be tolerated on American campuses,’ tweeted Stefanik with a screenshot of Trump’s Truth Social post.” (03/05/25)
Source: Ludwig von Mises Institute
by Connor O’Keeffe
“After Zelensky kicked things off by using a rhetorical question to challenge Vance on his appeal to the need for diplomacy, Vance fired back by calling Zelensky out for ‘forcing conscripts to the front lines because [he] has manpower problems.’ As far as I can tell, that was the first time a senior American government official has made any negative comment about the Ukrainian government’s use of conscripts in its war with Russia. Which is appalling, because abducting people and sending them to fight and die in a military campaign they clearly don’t believe in enough to join voluntarily is one of the worst, most tyrannical things a government can do. And Ukraine has been doing it with the enthusiastic support of American officials for years.” (03/05/25)
“Undocumented immigrants contribute billions to Social Security and other programs. That money might fall off because of Trump’s crackdown.” (03/05/25)
“The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) has undergone massive changes in the past month. Contrary to what many members of Congress and bureaucrats are saying, it’s great news. Reining in the CFPB means reducing uncertainty in the financial world from excessive regulation and costly regulatory agencies’ bloated budgets. Unfortunately, the measures have been stalled in court. Reducing the CFPB’s size and scope would greatly reduce a large amount of uncertainty in financial markets that stem from regulation.” (03/05/25)
