Source: The Dispatch
by John McCormack

“For decades, the U.S. government has asked faith-based charities to help resettle refugees legally admitted into the country and help care for unaccompanied minors who cross the border. Donald Trump and Congress funded both of those programs for all four years of Trump’s first term. In order to ease the burden on border towns in 2019, Trump and an overwhelming majority of Congress created a third program giving grants to religious charities and other organizations to provide assistance to migrants released inside the United States by the federal government. But in the opening weeks of Trump’s second term, these religious groups have found themselves in the crosshairs of the MAGA movement. They’ve been branded as corrupt, possibly criminal, and bearing blame for the border crisis — all for their participation in one or more of the programs once funded by Trump.” (02/18/25)

https://thedispatch.com/article/immigration-refugees-trump-religious-charities-border/

Source: Town Hall
by Stephen Moore

“The spectacular dominance of America’s Magnificent Seven tech firms — with $1 trillion-plus market caps — has been a marvel to behold and a genuine source of American pride. This is a theme that both President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance have in celebration of American business prowess. The Magnificent Seven companies — Amazon, Apple, Google, Meta, Microsoft, Nvidia, and Tesla — have a combined net worth greater than all the companies in Europe. Now that’s Chiefs-versus-Eagles dominance. The mystery is why many regulators in Washington view these digital-age companies, whose continued rocket-ship growth has created hundreds of thousands of high-paying jobs for Americans, as villains not heroes. They keep calling for a blanket of smothering regulations via antitrust laws to rein in their market power.” (02/18/25)

https://townhall.com/columnists/stephenmoore/2025/02/18/get-ready-for-americas-little-tech-revolution-n2652382

Source: Cobden Centre
by Joseph Solis-Mullen

“The Panic of 1819 was one of the first major economic and financial crises in American history. The panic led to widespread bank failures, unemployment, and distress, particularly in the western states. For decades, the only significant work to have examined this event in any depth was Rothbard’s The Panic of 1819: Reactions and Policies. Now, Rothbard finally has some company in Andrew Browning’s The Panic of 1819: The First Great Depression. And while both books focus on the same historical event, their differing emphases and approaches mean they can in many ways serve to complement each other: whereas Rothbard’s monograph is primarily a meticulous study of the ideological and policy debates that followed the event, Browning’s work is largely a sweeping narrative of the political, economic, and social turmoil caused by the crisis.” (02/18/25)

https://www.cobdencentre.org/2025/02/the-panic-of-1819-rothbard-v-browning/

Source: Common Dreams
by Emese Ilyes

“Last Friday, an estimated 14,000 federal workers were fired from their positions across multiple agencies. Among them was Brian Gibbs, a National Park Service ranger whose heartbreaking account of losing his ‘dream job’ puts a human face on a crisis that threatens the very fabric of American life. ‘I am the smiling face that greets you at the front door,’ Gibbs wrote. ‘I am your family vacation planner … I am the Band-Aid for a skinned knee.’ This generous offering of his words reveals an essential truth: Public service is not about bureaucracy; it’s about the careful, often invisible, undervalued work of maintaining our society’s fundamental freedoms.” [editor’s note: When “progressive” pundits like this can distinguish between actual “public service” work and the money laundering, fraud and other crimes that surround most of it, we can start calling it “progress” – SAT] (02/18/25)

https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/democracy-and-the-public-service

Source: Palm Beach Examiner
by Karl Dickey

“What has happened with Germany these days? Recently, 60 Minutes did a segment on Germany’s anti-free speech policies. The authorities glibly fine people for saying negative things on their social media accounts — things that may offend or upset another German. What happened to this nation that had such industrial might and economic stability? It is now going back to Gestapo-style tactics to control the speech of its citizens while mired in two years of economic contractions and rising energy costs. Talk about a case study on the perils of centralized control missteps and what happens when a country abandons free speech and free market principles!” (02/18/25)

https://palmbeachexaminer.substack.com/p/germanys-economic-collapse-and-free

Source: Gideon’s Substack
by Noah Millman

“Europe’s leaders are still reeling from the speech by Vice President Vance in which he called for an end to the ostracism of parties of the extreme right. As someone who has argued before (most recently here) that such ostracism is no longer practically viable, I think the Vice President is basically right on that point, though he seems enthusiastic about what I find ominous. But it’s far from clear that his effective endorsement will actually benefit the AfD in the upcoming German elections. It’s certainly possible that undecided voters will see Vance’s intervention as permission to vote with their gut, but it strikes me as at least as possible that the opposite will be the case and that wavering voters will get their backs up about American leaders telling them how to vote, and turn against the AfD out of spite.” (02/18/25)

https://gideons.substack.com/p/fun-with-proportional-representation