Source: Independent Institute
by Randall G Holcombe
“When President Trump was running for election in 2024, he said he’d end the war in Ukraine within 24 hours of taking office. That hasn’t happened. Lately, he’s called Ukraine President Zelensky a dictator and even blamed him for starting the war with Russia. It seems he’s tilting toward Russia in his attempt to negotiate an end to the war. President Trump wants a personal victory in that dispute, and for him, a victory would be the end of the war. It matters little to him whether the war ends with Russia pulling out and leaving Ukraine with its old boundaries, or with Russia taking full control of Ukraine, or something in between. He isn’t taking Russia’s side, or Ukraine’s side. He wants a win for himself.” (02/26/25)
https://blog.independent.org/2025/02/26/president-trumps-ukraine-policy-art-deal
Source: Town Hall
by Larry Elder
“MSNBC just canceled ‘The ReidOut,’ the most vicious, nasty, anti-white and pathologically anti-Trump show on air. Host Joy Reid, for five years, unleashed one hateful, often irrational attack after another. It was only after President Donald Trump’s reelection and her ratings plummeting nearly 50% that MSNBC pulled the plug. Here are just some of her greatest hits: * ‘(The courts) are stacked now to essentially suborn our democracy to their very particular version of right-wing evangelical Christ — That’s no different than Talibanism.’ * ‘The goal of the Republican Party today, is it to seize control of every level of government, to lock out voices of color and LGBTQ voices except those who conform to their demand that history and education uplift white Christian dominion …’ * ‘Fascism isn’t a game, y’all. It’s real. And it’s in America, sometimes dressed as a kooky personality cult or carrying a confederate flag …'” (02/27/25)
https://townhall.com/columnists/larryelder/2025/02/27/the-unmatched-bigotry-of-joy-reid-n2652903
Source: Common Dreams
“The acting leader of the Social Security Administration reportedly instructed managers earlier this week to draw up plans for a 50% cut to the agency’s workforce, a push that advocates and lawmakers said would result in the gutting or total closure of local field offices, and likely benefit disruptions. The American Prospect first reported the request from Leland Dudek, whom Trump installed as SSA commissioner earlier this month after the agency’s former head resigned following a clash with Elon Musk’s deputies over their attempts to access highly sensitive personal data. At the time he was elevated to the helm of SSA, Dudek was under investigation for allegedly sharing information with Musk’s team improperly. According to the Prospect, the deadline for SSA managers to comply with Dudek’s request for mass-firing plans was Wednesday afternoon.” (02/27/25)
https://www.commondreams.org/news/official-installed-by-trump-moves-to-demolish-social-security-administration
Source: US News & World Report
“The EU Court of Justice should rule in favour of Austria in its appeal against the European Commission’s decision to approve Hungary’s state aid for the expansion of its Paks atomic plant, the court’s adviser said on Thursday. The court’s advocate-general said Austria had been correct in arguing that the Commission should have examined whether the direct award of the construction contract to Russian company Nizhny Novgorod Engineering was compatible with EU procurement rules. Opinions of the advocate-general are non-binding, but ECJ judges, who are expected to rule on the case in the coming months, typically follow the majority of them.” (02/27/25)
https://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2025-02-27/eu-top-court-should-rule-against-hungarys-nuclear-state-aid-adviser-says
Source: Reason
by Veronique de Rugy
“If President Donald Trump was elected with a specific mandate, it was to lower prices. Poll after poll reveals that inflation is a top worry for Americans. So the administration should be worried that it’s ticking back up. Further, the president — who seems to think he can solve all problems unilaterally with executive branch orders — will soon discover that to conquer inflation, he will need the help of Congress. Today’s rising inflation isn’t Trump’s fault. When inflation first spiked several years ago, the Federal Reserve insisted for months that it was under control and on its way back to the 2 percent target. It had yet to arrive there when, this past September, the Fed began prematurely cutting interest rates by 100 basis points.” (02/27/25)
https://reason.com/2025/02/27/trump-promised-to-lower-prices-will-congress-help-him-deliver/
Source: Ron Paul Liberty Report
“DOGE Success! DC Unemployment Claims Skyrocket!” (02/27/25)
https://rumble.com/v6pui1c-doge-success-dc-unemployment-claims-skyrocket.html
Source: The Bulwark
“Trump is turning chaos at the border into chaos in the streets by having ICE grab people who haven’t even committed crimes to pump up his deportation numbers. Plus, Elon’s insatiable and scandalous quest for more money, the Dems evolving media strategy, and how to help maintain mental health during these stressful times. Zerlina Maxwell joins Tim Miller.” (02/26/25)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QFpWDmW8dqk
Source: EconLog
by Jon Murphy
“To listen to protectionists, one would think tariffs are something of a miracle drug. Anything and everything can be solved by tariffs. Prices too low? Tariffs will raise ‘em. Prices too high? Tariffs will lower ‘em. Sprained knee? Just take two tariffs and call me in the morning. Yes, tariffs may seem like a miracle drug that can be applied to any situation (no matter how contradictory). But what many tariff supporters’ arguments are missing is reasonable political analysis. I mean ‘reasonable’ in the literal sense: derived from reason. Or, as put more poetically by James Buchanan, ‘politics without romance.'” (02/26/25)
https://www.econlib.org/the-political-problem-of-tariffs/
Source: Future of Freedom Foundation
by Jacob G Hornberger
“During his recent campaign for president, Donald Trump repeatedly stated that he had a secret plan for settling the war in Ukraine. He suggested that he would be able to resolve the conflict within a day of so of taking office. That obviously was political hyperbole because the war is still going on. Trump and people in his administration are now talking to Russian president Vladimir Putin and Russian officials in an effort to find a way to end the war and possibly even normalize relations between the United States and Russia. There is one great big obstacle, however, to bringing an end to the Ukraine-Russia conflict. That obstacle is NATO, the old Cold War dinosaur that should have gone out of existence with the end of the Cold War, just like the Warsaw Pact did.” (02/27/25)
https://www.fff.org/2025/02/27/nato-is-the-big-obstacle-to-peace-in-ukraine/
Source: The Bulwark
by Jonathan V Last
“One of the hallmarks of small-l liberalism is that journalists are supposed to be concerned with both actual fairness and the perception of fairness. This internal self-regulation is one of those aspects that makes free societies work. It’s part of the honor system. Here is the problem: While MSNBC holds to the honor system and tries to be fair to Republicans, Fox News paid $787 million dollars so that it could knowingly lie about Democrats. This asymmetry runs all the way through our media.” (02/26/25)
https://www.thebulwark.com/p/the-washington-post-and-autocracys
