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President Trump: Give Back the Money and Stop Grabbing More
The White House and Congress can and should provide relief to American families who bore the costs of these illegal tariffs. The administration has the responsibility to design such relief. You took the money illegally; now you should return it. President Donald Trump, you took funds from the American people that were never yours to take. […]
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How Australia’s Tobacco Excise Produced Crime
The cutting of pleasures, the trimming of delights and telling people how they can enjoy life, is the sort of thing that will be tolerated, up to a point. Otherwise liberal countries do suffer moral convulsions, be it about sex, drug taking, smoking and boozing. Regulations and laws are inevitably passed, much of it tolerated. […]
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Considerations on the Morality of Donald Trump
In an interview with the New York Times, when asked if there were any checks on his powers on the world stage, Trump replied: “Yeah, there is one thing. My own morality. My own mind. It’s the only thing that can stop me.” A voice jumps in to ask: “Not international law?” “I don’t need […]
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Conceptual Model of State Collapse
Summary A minimalist conceptual model of the state is presented in which the fundamental basis of state existence and continuity is the flux of produced resources between producers and the needed state apparatus, while contending with powerful domestic non-state actors and foreign challenges. External conditions that reduce per capita production threaten state continuity, and the […]
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Trump’s Whims on Tariffs and Trade Deficits
“Trump’s tariff formula explained: How rates were determined for each country” IMAGE/USA Today/Duck Duck Go Tariffs Tariffs are a tax imposed on imported goods to protect local industries in order to be self-sufficient and thus avoid being taken advantage of. For a very long time, Britain charged tariffs on many items, only in 1860 were […]
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Let’s Shift Federal Subsidies to Loans After 1 Year, Starting With Oil/Gas Industry?

The origin of federal subsidies—to businesses, industries, farmers, national infrastructure—began with our country’s first Congress (1789) approving startup financing that banks and other sources couldn’t or wouldn’t provide. The idea then (and now) was that if these investments were successful, they would trigger other enterprises. Subsequent jobs would follow, feeding consumer spending, and, ultimately, federal […]
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Janissary Words
Kidnapped words are the Janissaries of campaigns to promote an invented reality. Their original identities are obliterated. Worse, unlike the Ottoman Janissaries, figments of the past identity can be retained when its resonance is considered helpful. Words are kidnapped for two reasons. One is to slay them; the other is to exploit them. American politics […]
