Author: nick

There are eight key indicators to watch as the US government falls deeper into the self-perpetuating debt spiral. Indicator #1: Federal Budget Deficits The chart below shows the actual and projected federal budget deficits. It’s important to note that these projections rest on the ridiculous assumption that there will be no wars, recessions, or other events that drive additional federal spending. That assumption is already out the window with the Iran war: the Pentagon has requested an additional $200 billion, for starters. Even with this rosy and unrealistic forecast, the US government is projected to run a cumulative deficit of over…

The Sunshine State’s innovative school-choice programs are setting the standard nationally. Source link

Artemis II: Back to the Future Source link

President Donald Trump called on Congress to extend the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) Section 702 for 18 months. While FISA was intended to surveil foreigners to provide security, it was expanded and abused to illegally surveil Americans.  “When used properly, FISA is an effective tool to keep Americans safe. For these reasons, I have called for a clean 18-month extension,” the President posted on Truth Social Wednesday. “HOWEVER, the Critical and Common Sense Reforms that were made in the last Reauthorization of FISA must remain intact to protect the American People from abuses.” The House is set to vote…

Poisoned Ivies: The Inside Account of the Academic and Moral Rot at America’s Elite Universities, by Elise Stefanik, Threshold Editions, 256 pages, $29. Elise Stefanik seems to be stepping away from politics, having suspended her gubernatorial campaign and announced that she will not seek re-election to Congress. The New York Republican’s new book, Poisoned Ivies: The Inside Account of the Academic and Moral Rot at America’s Elite Universities, was presumably intended to advance her political career. It may instead serve as a coda to it. Central to Poisoned Ivies is a congressional hearing held December 5, 2023, when three Ivy…

NA After the Supreme Court struck down Donald Trump’s massive International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) tariffs in a case I helped litigate along with the Liberty Justice Center and others, litigation continued over tariff refunds owed to the many businesses that paid illegally collected tariffs under IEEPA – a total of some $166 billion. In March, Judge Richard K. Eaton of the US Court of International Trade – the judge assigned to oversee the refund process – ordered the administration to grant refunds to to all those businesses that were forced to pay the tariffs – including those that…

The Israeli-American attack on Iran has been defined more than anything by the nonsensical nature of the messaging, with statements listing any number of potential goals. Meanwhile, President Donald Trump, always eccentric and erratic, has been ranting about an endless variety of topics, with each day bringing about new unhinged statements. It is as if we have watched the White House become a Greek tragedy before our very eyes, with Donald Trump in the role of a mad king. This represents an incredible fall for a man who defeated all of his opponents and orchestrated the greatest comeback in American…

Blue Power: How Police Organized to Protect and Serve Themselves, by Stuart Schrader. Basic Books, 432 pages, $34 “Everybody else can indulge in politics—every black group, every political party group, every church group,” groused Carl Parsell, then president of the Detroit Police Officers Association, in 1969. “Why are police officers so different?” The question goes to the heart of Stuart Schrader’s Blue Power, a new book charting how police unions accreted and cemented power in the decades following Parsell’s query. It’s a ripe subject for review: Police officers’ savvy use of public sector unions and lobbying to largely immunize themselves…

In January, following Mark Carney’s well-publicised Davos speech, I wrote an article headlined… 2026 – The Year US Hegemony Ends? To be clear, I was not – and am not – predicting the empire is about to fall and usher in a new world of justice and freedom. No, I was predicting that certain media and political figures would start belatedly calling out the empire’s crimes and, more importantly, would start demanding and/or predicting its demise. Two-and-a-half months later, we can see that they are indeed doing exactly that. Even when that article was published, when the war with Iran was barely…

The Office of Legal Counsel concluded that the Presidential Records Act (PRA) is unconstitutional. In Civitas Outlook, I explained why I thought this opinion was consistent with recent Supreme Court precedents, including Trump v. Mazars. Others, unsurprisingly, disagree. Christopher Fonzone, who headed OLC during the Biden Administration, writes that the PRA is constitutional. Here, I want to focus on one aspect of Fonzone’s analysis: who owns the President’s papers? Fonzone writes: First and foremost, the Property Clause. Article IV of the Constitution expressly grants Congress the “Power to dispose of and make all needful Rules and Regulations respecting” U.S. property. Since…