Author: nick

[ad_1] Four days before Donald Trump took the oath a second time, a company controlled by the intelligence chief of a foreign monarchy wired the president-elect’s family its first installment. The date was January 16, 2025. The buyer was Aryam Investment 1, a vehicle backed by Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan, national security adviser of the United Arab Emirates and brother of its ruler, a man his own country’s press calls the spy sheikh. The purchase was 49 percent of World Liberty Financial, the Trump family’s cryptocurrency firm, for $500 million. Eric Trump signed it. Of the first tranche,…

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[ad_1] If Washington is good at anything, it is self-celebration. Those who dominate the city constantly remind the public, especially those who live in the great beyond, the “flyover country” between the coasts, of the eternal wisdom, dedication, genius, and goodness of those who have successfully climbed the capital’s well-greased pole of political rule. Never is the shameless hypocrisy on greater display than during the funerals of those who did the most to sacrifice the interests of the Americans who lack genuine representation in Washington. Such was Tuesday’s commemoration of the passing of Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC). Graham was a…

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[ad_1] The conflict between the United States and Iran has laid bare a profound failure of political judgment and strategic adaptation in Washington and Tehran alike. Both sides locked themselves into rigid adversarial paradigms and prioritized short-term tactical military successes at the expense of long-term strategy. For the United States in particular, this failure is a symptom of a much larger, more dangerous disease—a stubborn adherence to a militaristic, interventionist grand strategy that refuses to accept the realities of a multipolar world in which its relative financial and military resources are much more limited.  The on-again, off-again conflict, characterized by…

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[ad_1] At a hearing of the Senate’s Homeland Security and Government Committee today, Anthony Fauci invoked the Fifth Amendment to avoid answering questions about gain-of-function research his former agency, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), funded in Wuhan, China, and the role that research might have played in starting the pandemic.  “I believed in and respect the value of legitimate congressional oversight,” said Fauci, who had been subpoenaed to appear before the committee that’s chaired by Sen. Rand Paul (R–Ky.), in a brief opening statement.  “Given Sen. Paul’s obvious obsession with calling for my prosecution, his repeated…

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[ad_1] Wednesday on the RealClearPolitics podcast, Andrew Walworth, Carl Cannon, and RCP contributor Richard Porter discuss Dr. Anthony Fauci asserting his Fifth Amendment rights more than 100 times at a Senate hearing on the origins of the pandemic.RealClearInvestigations senior reporter James Varney joins the group to discuss his latest article on the Trump administration’s effort to reverse the massive amount of money spent on green energy and climate grants during the final weeks of the Biden administration: “Biden Bucks: Climate Change Funds a Bonanza for State Outfits”Plus, Walworth and Cannon look at the developing 2028 presidential primary fields in both…

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[ad_1] State governments often argue that it’s necessary to give subsidies to private companies to encourage economic development. In return, they say, those companies will make investments that create jobs. “Unfortunately, these claims are largely unfounded,” Russell S. Sobel, professor of economics at The Citadel, wrote in 2024. “There is now a large literature that examines the data and clearly brings into question the effectiveness and accountability of these programs, finding they do not lead to statistically significant improvements in tax revenue, employment, economic growth, or personal income.” A new study found that economic development subsidies actually do create jobs—specifically,…

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[ad_1] Washington has opened talks with Saudi Arabia to consider nuclear capability for the desert kingdom. The Americans and Saudis insist they are only discussing peaceful nuclear weapons. Don’t believe it. The Saudis argue they must have nuclear capability to generate energy when their oil begins to wear out.  Every oil-producing nation can rightly make the same argument.  When the oil runs out, no more gold beds, French furniture, show girls and disposable Rolls-Royces. The only really admirable Saudi king in recent memory, Faisal bin Saud, reportedly said, ‘we are riding in expensive cars, but I fear one day soon…

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