Source: RealClearPolitics
by Rob Arnott

“We get the government we choose to elect, hence the government we deserve. Voting for ever-higher punitive taxes on the rich is arguably a form of civic suicide. Consider that a wealthy New Yorker can get a raise of almost 40% just by moving. That’s right. If moving eliminates a 14.8% top state and local tax rate, our top-tier taxpayer gets a 36% raise, not a 14.8% raise, by leaving. It’s doubtful if any of our city and state leaders have done this math, but it’s shocking. Mamdani wants to take the top rate up another 2%, if not by the state then by the city, which would mean that our rich neighbor can get a 42% raise.” (03/26/26)

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2026/03/26/the_assisted_suicide_of_lofty_state_and_local_taxes_153980.html

Source: Common Dreams
by Gerald Sussman

“At this year’s National Football League Super Bowl, the Trump regime could not resist politicizing the event by attacking the halftime performance of Bad Bunny, a celebration of Puerto Rican musical culture conducted entirely in the Spanish language. President Donald Trump endorsed an alternative country western streamed halftime program of Kid Rock, which was dedicated to the conservative icon Charlie Kirk. It was the president and his party inciting the MAGA base to campaign for congressional Republicans. The two shows represent two radically different cultural streams in America, roughly approximating the struggle over ethnic, gender, and racial representation in public life. On a more material level, however, the unfulfilled day to day needs of working people caught up in this ideological divide suggests that rhetorical claims about the culture wars are not grounded in the quotidian realities and material demands of most people.” (03/26/26)

https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/class-war-not-culture-war

Source: The UnPopulist
by Steve Chapman

“Texas, as we’ve always been told, doesn’t do things on a small scale, and Republicans there are not about to be outdone when it comes to inciting fear and loathing of Muslims. Gov. Greg Abbott, now in his third term and practically guaranteed to win a fourth in November, has made certain that no one can outdo him on this issue.” (03/26/26)

https://www.theunpopulist.net/p/texas-republicans-are-moving-from

Source: Adam Smith Institute
by Madsen Pirie

“This is my fifth group of the many short principles that help clarify reasoning, decision-making, or analysis. I am featuring some of them in a series of posts, expositing a few of them each time. Some of these are insights into the worlds of public service and business.” 903/26/26)

https://www.adamsmith.org/blog/still-more-useful-maxims

Source: Wired
by Vittoria Elliott

“In the early hours of February 26, agents from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) arrived at Columbia University student housing. According to the school, the immigration officers told campus safety staff that they were police officers looking for a missing 5-year-old child. But once in the building, agents knocked on the dorm-room door of Elmina ‘Ellie’ Aghayeva, a student from Azerbaijan. When her roommate opened the door, agents quickly detained Aghayeva. … Columbia’s policy is to not allow federal agents onto nonpublic areas of the campus without a judicial warrant. Most immigration arrests, however, are based on administrative warrants, which do not require a judge’s sign-off. So how had ICE gotten onto university property? In the hours after Aghayeva’s detention, as students and faculty rallied against DHS, it became clear: ICE had lied. And, as it turns out, that’s (mostly) legal.” (03/26/26)

https://archive.is/5d1rx