In 1977, East Germany ransomed hundreds of its leading intellectuals and artists to West Germany, partly because it did not wish to endure public criticism by its own citizens during an International Rights Conference. In spite of the human sale, there was no general revulsion against the East German government in the international community. The East German regime was considered by many social scientists to have more legitimacy than the West German government, because of its more expansive social welfare system and its grandiose paternalist pretensions. How many of its citizens does a...
Op-Ed Writer Freed by Federal Judge
Federal judge orders Trump administration to release Tufts University grad student Rumeysa Ozturk from ICE lockup. Ozturk, who had a valid student visa from Turkey, was only guilty of writing an op-ed. Secretary of State Marco Rubio vilified her and Department of Homeland Security officials claimed Ozturk had other sweeping offenses, including that she “engaged in activities in support of Hamas, a foreign terrorist organization that relishes the killing of Americans.” But the feds could provide no evidence after locking her up for six weeks. Federal judge William Sessions III declared...
America Should Bolt From the World Bank and IMF
U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent complained on Wednesday that the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) are suffering from “mission creep.” But Bessent announced that the Trump administration will be “doubling down” on supporting the largest foreign aid gushers on earth. “Far from stepping back, ‘America First’ seeks to expand U.S. leadership in international institutions like the I.M.F. and World Bank,” Bessent declared. Bessent complained the IMF “devotes disproportionate time and resources to work on climate change, gender, and social issues.” What should the U.S....
On Tax Day, Never Forget IRS Culture Bingo
On Tax Day, politicians and mainstream media will hector Americans to be grateful for the opportunity to pay their taxes. The Internal Revenue Service website touts a moth-eaten quote from a dead Supreme Court Justice: “Taxes are what we pay for civilized society.” But recent history is the best antidote to groveling in gratitude to the federal agency that commandeers a lion’s share of your income. The smiley face IRS should have been banished forever after revelations in the years before the 9/11 attacks. Former IRS district chief David Patnoe observed in 1998, “More tax is collected by...
A Vaccine Reckoning Under Trump?
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert Kennedy Jr. forced Peter Marks, the Food and Drug Administration’s top vaccine official, to resign on Friday. Good Washingtonians were horrified, especially since Marks had played a key role in enabling federal dictates during the COVID pandemic. Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) responded to Marks’ exit enthusiastically: Last year I held a hearing exposing COVID vaccine malfeasance led by Peter Marks at the FDA. Instead of verifying safety and efficacy of the shots, Marks swept things under the rug and became a cheerleader for the jab. Yesterday Peter...
The ‘Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’ Is Anything But…
One of President Donald Trump’s most popular reforms is his executive order abolishing federal Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) dictates and their efforts to “socially engineer race and gender into every aspect of public and private life.” Trump’s order outraged progressives and sparked a torrent of legal challenges. Can Trump end a half century of federal tyrannizing of private employment policies? DEI’s absurdities are the end game of perpetual power grabs and and bureaucratic conniving. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has been at the forefront of concocting race...
No Donald Trump, America Was Not ‘Always Free’
In his State of the Union address last week, President Donald Trump promised that Americans “will always be free.” That throwaway line assured another round of applause from his Republican devotees on Capitol Hill. But will other Americans be as gullible or servile as members of Congress? Americans are indoctrinated in government schools to presume that our national DNA practically guarantees we will always be free. But few follies are more perilous than presuming that individual rights are safe in perpetuity. None of the arguments on why liberty is inevitable can explain why it is becoming...
Trump Should End All Foreign Aid: My Interview with Georgian TV
Will President Donald Trump end America’s corrupt foreign aid program and democracy promotion con games? Levan Akhalaia, a reporter with Georgian Public Broadcasting, and I had a lively conversation on that topic last week. Mr. Akhalaia has shown a lot of courage condemning brutal police attacks on protestors in recent times. Below is a rough translation of the Georgian language article on our discussion, which can be read here. Here is a link to a Spotify audio version of the discussion with my voice dubbed into Georgian. And here is a link to a translation via Edge, reposted below with...