News of the Week for March 16th<\/sup>, 2025<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Texas GOP senator files bill to clarify abortion ban, expand protections in emergencies<\/a> <\/p>\n Second Amendment Roundup: Rehearing En Banc Sought in 5th Circuit Suppressor Case<\/a> Gun confiscation under Nevada’s ‘red flag’ law ticking up after slow start<\/a> Oregon Court of Appeals reverses lower-court ruling, rules gun control Measure 114 is constitutional<\/a> New Jersey Governor Wants To Price Americans Out Of Their Second Amendment<\/a> <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Michael Mann Sanctioned for False Testimony, Bad Faith<\/a> Amazon forest felled to build road for climate summit<\/a> <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Kennedy Links Measles Outbreak to Poor Diet and Health, Citing Fringe Theories<\/a> The World’s Deadliest Infectious Disease Is About to Get Worse<\/a> <\/p>\n Iran, Russia and China to hold joint naval exercises this week<\/a> President Trump on Japan’s Military Limits: ‘Who Makes These Deals?’<\/a> Heritage Foundation report calls to wind down military aid to Israel<\/a> Trump is carving up Ukraine with Putin. Taiwan is terrified it could be next<\/a> Trump to invoke wartime Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to carry out deportations to Guantanamo<\/a> Ukraine Never Turned Down a Survivable Deal<\/a> China and Russia Unite Behind Iran in Challenge to Trump’s Plans<\/a> American ‘Lifelines,’ Threatened<\/a> Chilling pics show China’s giant D-Day style INVASION BARGES moored off coast as fears grow they could attack Taiwan<\/a> Putin Flips Trump’s Cease-Fire the Bird<\/a> The Crimean War’s Lessons for War and Peace in Ukraine<\/a> <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Hamtramck mayor who backed Trump also called Saddam Hussein a ‘martyr’<\/a> Supreme Court to Hear Challenge to Colorado Law Banning ‘Conversion Therapy’ for Minors<\/a> US to require registration for Canadians staying over 30 days <\/a> USDA cancels $1B in local food purchasing for schools, food banks<\/a> Infowars Reporter ‘Brutally Murdered’ in Texas: ‘Blood All Over the Parking Lot’<\/a> Texas bill would make identifying as transgender a felony punishable by jail<\/a> NH Democratic Party announces keynote speaker for McIntyre-Shaheen 100 Club Dinner<\/a> USAID official tells remaining staffers: Shred and burn all your documents<\/a> New Hampshire Democrat Sen Jeanne Shaheen Won’t Seek Reelection in 2026<\/a> Gavin Newsom Finds Some Surprising Common Ground With Steve Bannon<\/a> Gavin Newsom Makes Pitch to Conservatives With an Eye Toward 2028<\/a> Big Warning Signs for Trump’s Approval on the Economy<\/a> Why three senators may leave Washington to run for governor<\/a> Former Wyoming Sen. Alan Simpson, who bridged partisan gaps with his quick wit, dies at age 93<\/a> WA state city council appoints trans OnlyFans content creator with cannibalism fetish to fill vacant seat<\/a> Short Circuit: A Roundup of Recent Federal Court Decisions<\/a> As ICE claims it’s ramped up immigration enforcement, the number of Colorado arrests, deportations is still unclear<\/a> Judge blocks Trump administration from implementing Alien Enemies Act<\/a> <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Rubio Keeping 1,000 USAID Programs, Slashing 5,200 Contracts<\/a> Ontario slaps 25% levy on U.S.-bound electricity in latest trade war volley<\/a> As trade war simmers, Canadian province bans U.S.-made gaming equipment<\/a> Steel Sits at the Core of Trump’s Tariff Ideology<\/a> Trump Promised Americans Booming Wealth. Now He’s Changing His Tune.<\/a> Consumers Keep Bailing Out the Economy. Now They Might Be Maxed Out.<\/a> Small-business people were jubilant over Trump’s victory in November. They\u2019ve since grown very uncertain about the U.S. economy.<\/a> Airline CEOs warn domestic travel demand is slowing<\/a> First Inflation, Now Tariffs: Low-Income Americans Can’t Catch a Break<\/a> Trump to Double Tariffs on Canadian Steel, Aluminum as Markets Reel<\/a> Poor Ricardo<\/a> Trump Salvos Bring On Market Meltdown<\/a> The Gulf of [to Be Updated] Fishery Management Council<\/a> One of the Biggest Victims of Trump’s Metals Tariffs: The Ford F-150<\/a> EU retaliates against Trump’s trade moves and hits beef, whiskey, motorcycles with targeted tariffs<\/a> The Beatings Will Continue Until Markets Improve<\/a> House Republicans Block Proposal for Congressional Vote on Trump’s Tariff ‘Emergency’<\/a> Todd Young Knows Trade Wars Harm the Heartland<\/a> European Union Enacts Retaliatory Tariffs as Trump Trade War Escalates: ‘We Deeply Regret This’<\/a> Growing fears of corporate defaults hit US credit markets<\/a> More on How Trump’s Tariffs Will Harm Farmers<\/a> Construction Workers Continue to Flee Unions<\/a> MAGA’s Manufacturing Nostalgia<\/a> Trump Threatens 200% Tariff on French Wine, EU Alcohol<\/a> Where’s the economic sense behind Trump’s tariffs?<\/a> Trump Threatens 200 Percent Retaliatory Tariff on European Alcohol<\/a> The Trade War Will Pound Stocks<\/a> Defined-Benefit Pensions Went Away Because They Were Bad for Workers<\/a> One of the Biggest Victims of Trump’s Metals Tariffs: The Ford F-150<\/a> Senators Blackburn, Lee Introduce Bill to End Federal Worker Labor Unions<\/a> A Market Indicator From Early 1900s Is Blaring an Alarm for Stocks<\/a> The Trump Honeymoon Is Ending Quickly, Because of the Economy<\/a> Hit by storms and disease, Florida’s citrus growers try to survive until bug-free trees arrive<\/a> US chip-making dream awakes to labor crisis reality<\/a> <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Trump Critic Mark Carney Voted Canada\u2019s New Prime Minister<\/a> Venezuela Stops Taking US Deportees After Trump Orders Chevron Out<\/a> Infowars Reporter ‘Brutally Murdered’ in Texas: ‘Blood All Over the Parking Lot’<\/a> Texas bill would make identifying as transgender a felony punishable by jail<\/a> Greenlanders Reject Trump’s Overtures at the Ballot Box<\/a> UN Judge Found Guilty of Slavery<\/a> ‘You’re Tough’: How Mexico’s President Won Trump’s Praise<\/a> Ex-Tory mayor ‘died in drug den with plastic bag over head tied to chair for sexual pleasure’<\/a> Cuba struggles to restore power to millions as night falls<\/a> <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Pennsylvania Supreme Court and GOP Cannot Be Complacent<\/a> Beware Zombie McKinleyism<\/a> Left-Wing Education Nationalism<\/a> Let Them Fight<\/a> Does Trump Know Why He Was Elected?<\/a> How Foundation and Eyeliner Became a Political Battleground<\/a> Why the Ukraine Cease-Fire Is No Cause for Celebration<\/a> Senate Democrats Keep Voting with Their Feet<\/a> The Trump Honeymoon Is Ending Quickly, Because of the Economy<\/a> Republicans Will Have to Step Up to Save Trump from Himself<\/a> Keep Electing Teetotalers, They Said. It’ll Be Fine, They Said<\/a> Is Trump’s Patience with Russia Bottomless?<\/a> Trump has bet his legacy on two daring gambles that could make him the greatest leader of a lifetime… and his odds just shifted<\/a> It’s not too late to abandon “Christian nationalism”<\/a> Trump Transition at FTC Is No Reagan Revolution<\/a> America will regret throwing away the free world’s respect<\/a>![\"\"](\"https:\/\/impeachreno.org\/politicalhat\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/Newsboy.jpg\" "\\"News")
<\/a>
\n<\/p>\n\n
<\/a>Abortion<\/h1>\n
Dobbs Decision<\/h2>\n
\nA new bill by the author of a sweeping Texas abortion ban would give doctors more leeway to end pregnancies during medical emergencies, a highly anticipated proposal that comes after reports of increased sepsis rates and several avoidable maternal deaths.<\/p>\n<\/a>Gun Rights<\/h1>\n
\nThe panel’s ruling that suppressed firearms aren’t protected should be reconsidered.<\/p>\n
\nRed flag laws temporarily remove a person’s firearms if they pose a threat to themselves or others.<\/p>\n
\nOregon’s second-highest court affirmed Wednesday that the voter-approved gun control law Measure 114 is constitutional, potentially clearing the way for the law to take effect after being on hold for years because of a Harney County judge’s ruling.<\/p>\n
\nWith leftist states in a frenzy, introducing new measures to infringe on the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding Americans, it should come as no surprise that New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy is throwing his state\u2019s hat in the ring in the race to become the country\u2019s biggest dumpster fire. Murphy\u2019s new proposal to tax a Constitutional right by imposing increased taxes and fees on firearms and ammunition is further igniting controversy over gun rights, and critics are already calling it an assault on the Second Amendment.<\/p>\n<\/a>Hide the Decline<\/h1>\n
Environment &<\/a>“Green Energy”<\/h2>\n
\nMy wife and I attended several days in court, near the end of the Michael Mann v. Mark Steyn and Rand Simberg trial in Washington, D.C. We witnessed a dramatic moment, when Mann’s lawyers had introduced into evidence a document, which was blown up for the jury and about which Mann testified, that contained a list of grants that Mann allegedly didn’t get as a result of the defendants’ purported defamation. The value of one of those grants, per the exhibit, was $9 million. <\/p>\n
\nA new four-lane highway cutting through tens of thousands of acres of protected Amazon rainforest is being built for the COP30 climate summit in the Brazilian city of Bel\u00e9m.<\/p>\n<\/a>Obamacare<\/h1>\n
Government in Healthcare<\/h2>\n
\nIn a recent interview, the health secretary also suggested that the measles vaccine had harmed children in West Texas, center of an outbreak.<\/p>\n
\nBy retracting foreign aid, President Trump could make tuberculosis untreatable again.<\/p>\n<\/a>War & Terror<\/h1>\n
\nDrills in northern Indian Ocean meant to boost cooperation between the three countries; South Africa, UAE, Qatar and Pakistan among countries to send observers<\/p>\n
\nDear God, Mr. President, please crack a history book once in a while. The United States of America made that deal. In fact, the U.S. government imposed that deal upon Japan.<\/p>\n
\n“Just as Israel once advanced from a financial assistance recipient to an economic partner of the United States, so, too, should it move from a military financing recipient to a security partner,” the report says.<\/p>\n
\nThe island could be left at China’s mercy as America’s mercurial president upends the old world order<\/p>\n
\nPresident Trump is planning to invoke a wartime law known as the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 as soon as Friday to authorize the summary deportation of some migrants, including to Guantanamo Bay, escalating his government-wide immigration crackdown, multiple U.S. officials familiar with the plan told CBS News.<\/p>\n
\nWhat we know about the negotiations suggests that there was never a deal on the table that would have left Ukraine secure from Russian conquest.<\/p>\n
\nChina and Russia joined Iran in denouncing US sanctions and backed efforts to restore a landmark nuclear deal with Tehran that President Donald Trump abandoned in his first term and now wants to replace.<\/p>\n
\nFor as long as anyone can remember, the U.S.\u2013Canada relationship has been one of the friendliest in the world. But now the two countries are at odds. Bitterness and hostility are in the air. That shows you the power of what one man can do: the president of the United States. You may say it should not be this way. There are 340 million of us Americans, and the president is only one guy who heads one branch of the federal government! But it is that way. Manifestly (as WFB would say).<\/p>\n
\nScroll down to discover how the mega barges work<\/p>\n
\nOn the menu today: After weeks of the Trump administration pressuring Ukraine to sign on to a cease-fire deal, Russia’s Vladimir Putin has responded with a raspberry. The Russian dictator declared at a press conference, “We agree with the proposal to cease hostilities, but we have to bear in mind that this cease-fire must be aimed at a long-lasting peace and it must look at the root causes of the crisis.” That’s a lot more ominous than it sounds, because Putin’s ideas of “the root causes of the crisis” are the existence of an independent Ukraine and the NATO alliance making its own decisions. Meanwhile, a Fox News personality whose name you haven’t heard in a while takes a weekend trip to Moscow and reports back that everything’s hunky-dory.<\/p>\n
\nHistory repeats itself in Ukraine, but we shouldn’t reenact it blindly.<\/p>\n<\/a>National<\/h1>\n
\nHamtramck Mayor Amer Ghalib, a Yemeni immigrant and Muslim who last month made headlines for endorsing Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, called Saddam Hussein a “martyr” in the past, mocked Black Lives Matter protesters and didn’t always support the former president, a review of his social media posts shows.<\/p>\n
\nThe Supreme Court on Monday agreed to hear a case that could determine if mental health professionals in the United States can legally engage in conversations aimed at helping young clients struggling with their gender identity to accept their biological sex.<\/p>\n
\nA new regulation will soon require Canadians who stay in the United States for 30 days or more to register with the federal government. This notice was obtained by ABC News and signifies a shift from the traditional rule where Canadians crossing the northern border by land and staying for longer than 30 days did not have to register.<\/p>\n
\nStates have been notified that they will not receive 2025 funding for schools to buy food from nearby farms.<\/p>\n
\nJamie White, a reporter for Alex Jones’ Infowars, was killed in a suspected homicide outside of his home in Austin, Texas just before midnight on Sunday.<\/p>\n
\nThe bill, while unlikely to pass, highlights the increasing extremism of legislation targeting trans people, especially in Texas, in recent years.<\/p>\n
\nNew Hampshire Democrats seeking a glimmer of hope for the future are poised to get their first visit from a potential 2028 presidential contender: JB Pritzker, the governor of Illinois.<\/p>\n
\nThe mass document destruction order marks the latest step to dismantle the agency.<\/p>\n
\nThree Democrat Senators won’t seek reelection.<\/p>\n
\nThe California governor hosted one of the architects of President Trump’s political movement on his new podcast, and their friendly sparring revealed a few points of agreement.<\/p>\n
\nCalifornia governor hosts conservatives on new podcast\u2014and occasionally agrees with them<\/p>\n
\nA new CNN poll has grim news for Donald Trump on the public’s view of the signature issue at the heart of his reputation and comeback: the economy. By a margin of 56 percent to 44 percent, poll respondents disapprove of his handling of the economy \u2014 worse than at any time in his first term, even as he draws high marks on immigration. Voters are more closely divided on his budget-cutting efforts, and half of all voters still see him as bringing needed change. Looking at the details of the poll, Trump’s handling of the economy is viewed unfavorably by 63 percent of independents, 12 percent of Republicans, 12 percent of 2024 Trump voters, 48 percent of white voters, 67 percent of non-white voters, and majorities of men, women, college graduates, non-college graduates, and every age bracket, as well as 11 percent of people who approve of his job performance overall.<\/p>\n
\nAs Michael Bennet weighs whether to run for governor, his fellow Colorado Democratic senator is offering some advice.<\/p>\n
\nSimpson died early Friday after struggling to recover from a broken hip in December.<\/p>\n
\nJessica Ann Roberts, 32, born Neil Vincent Roberts, has posted on social media about having an uncontrollable desire to impregnate women and eat them.<\/p>\n
\nIntellectual strait jackets, vulgar language, and dodging judicial inquiry.<\/p>\n
\nAgency has publicly confirmed at least 17 arrests in the Denver area since the large-scale raids on Feb. 5<\/p>\n
\nA federal judge expanded his ruling temporarily blocking the Trump administration from invoking the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 on Saturday preventing the removal of Venezuelan undocumented immigrants presumed to be members of the Tren de Aragua gang.<\/p>\n<\/a>Economy & Taxes<\/h1>\n
\nThe canceled contracts ‘spent tens of billions of dollars in ways that did not serve, (and in some cases even harmed), the core national interests of the United States.’<\/p>\n
\nSurcharge will generate up to $400K per day to be used for worker, business supports: province<\/p>\n
\nAlberta took the action in response to U.S. tariffs placed on goods from Canada. Nevada’s slot machine industry worries other provinces will follow.<\/p>\n
\nThe steel and aluminum tariffs President Donald Trump is due to impose starting this week are the latest piece being inserted into an expanding protectionist policy jigsaw puzzle.<\/p>\n
\nPresident Trump’s sweeping promises are running headlong into the reality of governing.<\/p>\n
\nRecession fears rekindle concerns that Americans are overstretched on debt<\/p>\n
\nSmall businesses are aggressively raising prices, according to survey<\/p>\n
\nDelta, American and Southwest have cut their first-quarter forecasts. Airlines have said economic weakness and uncertainty have driven down domestic travel demand. Government travel has also slowed, executives said.<\/p>\n
\nWith views of current finances among the poorest Americans already near the lowest in 14 years, tariffs are set to add more pressure by making many everyday items even pricier.<\/p>\n
\nPresident Donald Trump announced Tuesday his plan to double tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminum despite negative market reactions to the trade war.<\/p>\n
\nDavid Ricardo has been through a lot in the past few years. For someone who’s been dead since 1823, he’s taking quite a beating from the New Right and the current Trump administration \u2014 he’s not just misinterpreted but butchered beyond recognition.<\/p>\n
\nOn the menu today: Yes, it’s easy to overestimate the impact of the Dow Jones Industrial Average, the Standard and Poor’s 500, and the Nasdaq, and the stock market is no stranger to volatility. But the cumulative effect of the Trump tariffs, the overall uncertainty and erraticism in the president’s trade policies, and some loose talk about the possibility of a recession all added up to a market meltdown on Monday. Trump team members like Kevin Hassett insist this is all just a temporary blip and a hangover from bad Biden policies; meanwhile Larry Summers, the Cassandra of Joe Biden’s inflation and cost-of-living woes, warns that we’re nearly 50\u201350 for a recession, almost entirely because of self-inflicted wounds. Read on \u2014 and try not to check your investments for a little while.<\/p>\n
\nPerusing the Federal Register \u2014 an old habit from my wire service days \u2014 I see that a part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council, will hold a four-day meeting to “consider actions affecting the Gulf of Mexico fisheries in the exclusive economic zone in early April.”<\/p>\n
\nNew costly steel, aluminum tariffs threaten to boost car prices, dent automaker profits<\/p>\n
\nThe European Union on Wednesday announced retaliatory trade action with new duties on U.S. industrial and farm products, responding within hours to the Trump administration’s increase in tariffs on all steel and aluminum imports to 25%.<\/p>\n
\nThe markets still don’t appear to be as appreciative as they should be of the zombie McKinleyism that appears to have been adopted by this administration as its trade policy.<\/p>\n
\nRemember the old days, when Republicans used to snark at how Democrats would rally to the defense of any lawless thing President Obama or President Biden decided to do? Remember the touching lectures about constitutional separation of powers and about how congressional Democrats had a duty to protect the institutional prerogatives of the branch of government in which they served \u2014 to prevent even a president of their own party from usurping their authority? Long ago and far away, I guess.<\/p>\n
\nYoung’s concerns are similar to those raised by Indiana House of Representatives Speaker Todd Huston (R.). “Everybody from one of the largest companies in the world, Eli Lilly, being based in Indiana, to being a huge manufacturing state across a large number of industries, to being one of the top ag states in the country \u2014 all those industries rely a lot on importing and exporting,” Huston told National Review in February. “So trade policy really matters to a state like ours.”<\/p>\n
\nThe European Union is enacting retaliatory tariffs against various U.S. products in response to President Donald Trump’s 25 percent steel and aluminum tariffs that went into effect Wednesday.<\/p>\n
\nWorries about corporate credit defaults rose in the US for a second straight day on Tuesday, after US President Donald Trump threatened to ratchet up tariffs on Canada.<\/p>\n
\nAfter his address to a joint session of Congress last week, I wrote about how Donald Trump takes farmers for granted. He told them to “have a lot of fun” and said “I love you” while promising tariffs that will hurt them. We already know how the tariffs worked out for farmers during Trump’s first term: The federal government spent billions of dollars bailing them out.<\/p>\n
\nOne of the common misconceptions about organized labor in the United States is that it is the province of blue-collar workers in male-dominated fields. The “hard hats” voting for Nixon is still a part of the conventional wisdom about union membership, even though it is woefully out of date.<\/p>\n
\nBeing a proud carrier of the MAGA party card requires one to take a nostalgic detour into an imaginary 1971 \u2014 one where working-class wages were apparently at their peak, manufacturing dominated the economy, and everything was sunshine and American Dream milkshakes. So it isn’t surprising that Batya Ungar-Sargon, one of MAGA’s loudest voices, has decided to take that fantasy trip back to the past.<\/p>\n
\nOne X user: “Trump should dress up like an American Revolutionary and dump a bottle of Dom Perignon into Boston Harbor.”<\/p>\n
\nNot even Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent can convincingly defend the president’s trade policy.<\/p>\n
\nPresident Donald Trump is threatening to impose 200 percent tariffs on alcohol products from the European Union, escalating his trade war against the bloc after it announced retaliatory tariffs on the U.S. Wednesday.<\/p>\n
\nHigh American asset prices require a large U.S. capital surplus, the mirror image of a trade deficit.<\/p>\n
\nA common myth of economic nostalgia is that back in the good old days everyone had a defined-benefit pension, but then the greedy capitalists ganged up to exploit the workers under Ronald Reagan and now nobody has one. It is true that defined-benefit pensions used to be more common than they are today, but even at their peak, most workers didn’t have one, and the reason for their demise has a lot more to do with the fact that they were bad for workers.<\/p>\n
\nNew costly steel, aluminum tariffs threaten to boost car prices, dent automaker profits<\/p>\n
\nGOP Senators Marsha BlackBurn of Tennessee and Mike Lee of Utah are introducing legislation to end federal labor union deals to improve government efficiency and increase productivity, National Review has learned.<\/p>\n
\nA century-old indicator that has helped predict the direction of the US stock market is signaling more pain ahead for battered investors.<\/p>\n
\nIt will be a long while before Republicans really need to worry about President Trump’s approval rating; the 2026 midterms are a long ways away. But if you were wondering if the president’s recent moves, tariffs, stock market instability, high egg prices, etc. were starting to bring down Trump’s initially high (by his past standards) approval rating\u2026 the new CNN poll indicates that yes, Americans are starting to sour on the new administration.<\/p>\n
\nConsumers are drinking less orange juice, citrus growers are folding up their operations in the state and the major juice company Tropicana is struggling to stay afloat.<\/p>\n
\nIt’s not clear where US will find the 300,000 engineers and other high-tech workers needed to staff planned new chip plants<\/p>\n<\/a>International<\/h1>\n
\nThe next election is scheduled for October 20, 2025. However, Carney could call a snap election.<\/p>\n
\nCabello confirms Maduro has halted direct flights from US. Nation will continue receiving migrants from other countries.<\/p>\n
\nJamie White, a reporter for Alex Jones’ Infowars, was killed in a suspected homicide outside of his home in Austin, Texas just before midnight on Sunday.<\/p>\n
\nThe bill, while unlikely to pass, highlights the increasing extremism of legislation targeting trans people, especially in Texas, in recent years.<\/p>\n
\nIn a sign that many in Greenland also want to wrest more power from Denmark, voters put a strongly pro-independence party second place for the first time<\/p>\n
\nLydia Mugambe was appointed to a judicial role at the United Nations months after police were first called to her home<\/p>\n
\nWith a trade war brewing, President Trump gave the Mexican president a sign of grudging respect: “You’re tough,” he told her in a phone call last month, according to four people with knowledge of the exchange.<\/p>\n
\nLes Winwood, 67, visited the address of a drug dealer and was said to have used a shoelace to tie one of his arms to a chair and placed a plastic bag over his head<\/p>\n
\nCuba’s capital Havana plunged into darkness for a second night on Saturday as efforts to restore power proceeded in fits and starts, with setbacks slowing progress and leaving several million still without electricity across the island.<\/p>\n<\/a>Opinion<\/h1>\n
\nCentral Pennsylvania state Sen. Greg Rothman, the newly elected state Republican Party chairman, will face his first big challenge this year with the control of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court on the ballot.<\/p>\n
\nBringing back Karl Rove’s hero won’t usher in a new economic golden age.<\/p>\n
\nRamesh correctly notes the anti-religious bias at the heart of many arguments against school choice \u2014 arguments often made with little regard to the First Amendment. The ancillary argument he mentions, that public schools are “one of the few experiences that most Americans share,” is also worth refuting.<\/p>\n
\nOh frabjous day! Calloo, callay! An internecine Democratic battle for the 2026 California governor’s race is shaping up, and \u2014 because my timing in such things is becoming proverbially snakebitten \u2014 it’s happening exactly when I predicted it likely wouldn’t. In a stroke of serendipity, this morning I chanced to write about Kamala Harris’s prospective return to politics. She has been teasing a potential California gubernatorial run since late November of last year, when she was still licking her wounds from her loss as a replacement candidate for Joe Biden.<\/p>\n
\nThe public wants the economy humming, the border secure, and an end to woke lunacy \u2014 not tariffs and irrelevant indulgences.<\/p>\n
\nAppearance-based insults are becoming more common, all the way up to the Capitol Building<\/p>\n
\nOn the menu today: Don\u2019t think that the Ukrainians agreeing to a U.S. proposal for a 30-day cease-fire represents some significant accomplishment. There’s still the unresolved question of whether Vladimir Putin and the Russians will agree, and even if they do agree, whether they will actually keep their word. The deal comes amidst a slew of U.S. policy changes that all strengthen the hand of Russia and weaken our own hand and the hands of our NATO partners. It is an absolute foreign-policy disaster that is getting the window dressing of so-called foreign-policy “realism” but that amounts to a wholesale surrender to Putin’s ambitions. Oh, and a tanker ship full of jet fuel for the U.S. military just got rammed and burned to a crisp because of a collision with a container ship steered by a Russian captain. Nothing to see here, people! Nothing to worry about!<\/p>\n
\nWe do not know yet what the political environment will look like for Senate races in 2026, but we got another sign with this morning\u2019s announcement by New Hampshire Senator Jeanne Shaheen that she will not seek reelection. If you’re keeping score at home, there will now be three Democratic seats opened by retirements in light-blue states (Shaheen follows Michigan’s Gary Peters and Minnesota’s Tina Smith out the door), plus one Republican seat in a deep-red state (with Mitch McConnell retiring in Kentucky) and two appointed Republicans (John Husted in Ohio and Ashley Moody in Florida, the replacements for JD Vance and Marco Rubio) facing the voters for the first time. The most vulnerable incumbents (Republican Susan Collins in Maine, Democrat Jon Ossoff in Georgia, and Republican Thom Tillis in North Carolina) all appear to be running again, and Brian Kemp is inching closer to launching a challenge to Ossoff.<\/p>\n
\nIt will be a long while before Republicans really need to worry about President Trump’s approval rating; the 2026 midterms are a long ways away. But if you were wondering if the president’s recent moves, tariffs, stock market instability, high egg prices, etc. were starting to bring down Trump’s initially high (by his past standards) approval rating\u2026 the new CNN poll indicates that yes, Americans are starting to sour on the new administration.<\/p>\n
\nSecond terms are often messy affairs, but the wheels are coming off this one far too early.<\/p>\n
\nTrump is the second consecutive president to abjure alcohol. He has his personal reasons, as did his predecessor. But they’ve been the exceptions. Say what you will about Nixon, for example, even considering his broad and short-lived 10 percent tariff. The hard drinker (with a famously low tolerance) never would have jeopardized his access to a wide selection of beverages in this way. Skin in the game \u2014 it just matters.<\/p>\n
\nOn Thursday, the Russian regime responded to Team Trump\u2019s claim that the ball is now on Moscow’s side of the court. For now, the Kremlin appears content to run out the clock.<\/p>\n
\nPresident Donald Trump has hazarded his presidency on two perilous bets \u2013 gleefully starting one ‘war’ and vowing to end another. And over the past few days \u2013 wild moves in his escalating global tariff tiff and high-stakes Art of the Deal diplomacy over the fate of Ukraine would turn even a hardened gambler’s face white.<\/p>\n
\nThe label\u2014manipulated by the left and some on the right\u2014hinders faith-based political arguments<\/p>\n
\nFerguson’s decision not to revoke the guidelines sent a warning that no industry can afford to overlook.<\/p>\n
\nTrump’s muscular displays of raw power against US allies could be bad for its material interests as well as its international standing<\/p>\n