Source: The American Prospect
by Gabrielle Gurley

“At the beginning of South Dakota’s short legislative year, which runs from January to March, state lawmakers voted to add the most extreme geographic requirement in the country, which would make it incredibly difficult to qualify constitutional amendments. The plan would have forced canvassers to collect signatures in each of the state’s 35 senatorial districts. The number of signatures would have to equal 5 percent of that senatorial district’s votes for governor in the last gubernatorial election. … After hearing from outraged voters, South Dakota Gov. Larry Rhoden got the message. Even though he thought the bill was a ‘worthy goal,’ he also surmised that it wouldn’t stand up to an inevitable court challenge, and he vetoed it. Last Monday, in the final meeting of the 2025 session, the members of the state House voted to overturn the decision, but the state Senate sustained the governor’s veto.” (04/07/25)

https://prospect.org/politics/2025-04-07-south-dakota-louisiana-voters-ballot-initiatives/

Source: EconLog
by Pierre Lemieux

“What will happen if foreign companies or foreign plants of American companies cannot sell their goods in America without being constantly hit by whimsical American tariffs and threats thereof, up one month, down the next month, and up again? They will move their production facilities to America? But then, they will also know that they risk being hit with whimsical American tariffs on their inputs. And they know that foreign states will often retaliate. Moreover, in these circumstances, the legendary American market will have become much less attractive since most people will be poorer, except for government cronies. The best idea for entrepreneurs may be to stay put or to move to a country still open to trade — or, ideally, to a country unilaterally open to trade if such countries exist.” (04/06/25)

https://www.econlib.org/the-ugliness-of-the-great-protectionist-state/

Source: Garrison Center
by Thomas L Knapp

“Nearly three months into Trump’s second presidency and after three consecutive presidential campaigns, none of his supporters have any excuse for not knowing his record …. At least the supporters who continue to make excuses for him — ‘he’s playing 6D chess and you just don’t understand,’ ‘the DEEP STATE is making him do all the bad things he does,’ etc. — can be explained:  Half of Americans possess below-median intelligence. And those who, at any point, have finally admitted to themselves and others that they fell for a scam should be supported, commended, and consoled. But the ‘I didn’t vote for THIS!’ crowd? They clearly follow current affairs. They clearly know their votes enabled this craziness. Now they want absolution without first accepting responsibility for what they did.” (04/05/25)

https://thegarrisoncenter.org/archives/19487

Source: The Dispatch
by Kevin D Williamson

“As I have been writing for some time, Donald Trump’s most fundamental character flaw — his laziness — has been his country’s saving grace, at least at times. Trump is an aspiring caudillo whose political models are Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping, and a would-be tyrant who attempted to stage a coup d’état after losing the 2020 election to a barely sentient Joe Biden — but, as bad as he was and is, he could have been and could be a great deal worse if not for the fact that he is unbelievably lazy, a Fox News-watching, social-media-addicted couch potato of a chief executive who might have wielded the levers of power to greater malevolent effect if he had bothered to work at his craft a little bit. But the so-called reciprocal tariffs are shockingly lazy even by Trumpian standards.” (04/04/25)

https://thedispatch.com/article/trump-tariffs-lazy-trade-deficit/