“Every time Trump issues, or federal agencies attempt to implement, an unconstitutional executive order — one or both of which happen on a near-daily basis — journalists and pundits want to know: First, will the courts order a halt to the executive branch’s latest roughshod running over of the US Constitution? Second, if the courts do so rule, will the administration comply with those rulings? I find that line of questioning rather odd, since history’s already answered it for us many times over the Constitution’s 230-odd years of supposed rule. The answer to both questions is ‘maybe, maybe not.'” (03/30/25)
Source: Foundation for Economic Education
by Will Ogilvie Vega de Seoane
“Alexis de Tocqueville didn’t journey across the United States to write a travelogue — he set out to craft a mirror. He wasn’t interested in landscapes or monuments. He wanted to understand democracy not as an abstract theory but as a living, breathing reality. He wanted to see its people — their passions, their dreams, the way they lived, worked, and shaped their own future. But more than all of that, he wanted them to see themselves. His concern wasn’t that democracy would collapse overnight in a violent coup. Nor did he fear the rise of radical ideologies, from the left or the right, as much as something far more insidious: the slow suffocation of freedom under layers of bureaucracy, endless rules, the tyranny of the majority, and growing public apathy. He saw it coming. And, in many ways, we’re living it today.” (03/28/25)
“Trump has always known how to craft a reality show. But behind the curtain, there is still a small, bitter, vengeful, incompetent man, surrounded by third-rate sycophants and hacks with no coherent strategy for economic or political success, no serious experience in government, and a record of making enemies of everyone and losing long-loyal friends. A president who uses ancient laws and police-state tactics shows not only that he is a degenerate and a disgrace, but that he is too weak to do things the right way; he pushes executive orders because he doesn’t have the votes in Congress to achieve anything lasting …” (03/28/25)
“‘Compared to what?’ That should be the first response of any economist worth his or her salt if asked to opine on a specific public policy. For example, should we err on the side of disease prevention and lockdown an entire country despite devastating social and economic consequences? Or should we live with the risk of the disease? That is what economics is supposed to do well: compare alternatives based on tradeoffs. Experts in various policy realms often lack the perspective to consider the consequences of focusing exclusively on their narrow fields. Health experts focus on health, sometimes without consideration of other costs, particularly down the road. Of course, this assumes that the experts themselves have relevant, rigorously tested, and accurate prescriptions to handle public policy challenges.” (03/28/25)
“When we finally learn the full melodrama of the so-called Signal 1-2 day ‘scandal’ of inviting a leftwing, Trump-despising, Atlantic editor Jeffrey Goldberg onto a supposedly secure conference list, involving most of the top Trump security officials, lots of questions need asking and answering. Most importantly, who exactly had Goldberg’s private number, and ostensibly (in error [?]) could have possibly inserted it into the cleared list of participants in the discussions? Why Goldberg, rather than some random person of some 345 million Americans? So why in the world would any top Trump officials or their staffers ever even have Goldberg’s private contact information, given his quite public record of: a) fabricating stories with unnamed sources, and b) suffering from a decade of chronic Trump derangement syndrome? Did Goldberg know the mechanisms that had prompted and continued his stealthy presence on the secure discussions?” (03/29/25)
“One of the tired old truisms of post-Watergate Washington is ‘It’s not the crime, it’s the coverup.’ In fact, usually it’s both — but this coverup reflects the cult-like insistence on unreality as a sign of tribal loyalty that flows down from President Donald Trump. Tone always comes from the top. Lies are the instinctive official defense from this administration. As Andrew Egger noted this week, ‘It’s all there in the three rules Trump learned from his mentor, Roy Cohn: always attack, always deny everything, always declare victory.’ At this point, those tactics have just become ‘a habit of mind’ — they’re second nature for Team Trump. So, when caught red-handed sharing classified information on a public messaging app, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth did what Trump would have done: lie loudly. Hegseth was hardly alone.” (03/30/25)
“Soon before Claudia Sheinbaum became Mexico’s first female president last October, a clergyman pleaded with her to listen to the mothers of thousands of ‘disappeared’ Mexicans. Such a step, said Catholic Bishop Francisco Javier Acero Pérez, would help mend the country’s ‘broken social fabric’. His request came after Dr. Sheinbaum stated she did not share the church’s ‘pessimistic evaluation’ of violence by organized crime in the country. In March, the new administration finally did show a readiness to act – after news broke of an ‘extermination center’ run by a drug cartel at a ranch and reportedly used for mass killings. President Sheinbaum and her attorney general have now announced reforms to deal with the estimated 120,000 missing persons in Mexico.” (03/28/25)
“Leading politicians of the Democratic opposition, and the U.S. corporate media covering the Signal text leak, have not condemned or showed concern about the sudden surprise acts of war that involve civilian murder and that are illegal under international law. Because military action in Yemen has not been declared or authorized by a vote of the Congress, the operations also represent an unconstitutional use of the military. Rather, the opponents and critics of Trump consider it a scandal and a kind of national emergency that the exchange was accidentally leaked to an unauthorized participant, in a clumsy and incompetent fashion.” (03/28/25)
“As President Donald Trump continues to toy (troll?) with the idea of Canada becoming the 51st state, he should consider a better option: Build a common market with our neighbors to the north. That’s a lot more in line with the statehood idea than hitting the country with a barrage of tariffs. A deal to let labor, goods and capital flow freely both ways would be a boon to both economies, similar to the early days of European economic integration, before European Union bureaucrats started regulating industries within an inch of their lives. And it would avoid the drawbacks of the statehood approach — two more senators for the Democrats and the yoke of absorbing a relatively sluggish economy.” (03/29/25)
