President Trump recently signed an executive order changing marijuana’s Controlled Substances Act classification from Schedule I to Schedule III. Schedule I is supposed to include especially dangerous drugs that are likely to be abused and have no medical purpose. Whatever one thinks of the wisdom and morality of using marijuana, the fact is it is... Read More

Late last week, Congress passed and President Trump signed the 2026 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). The bill marks the first time the US military budget officially passed the one trillion dollar mark. Of course, when you add in other military-related spending such as interest on the debt, veterans’ affairs, and military components of other... Read More

Unless President Trump reverses course, the “Lower Prices Bigger Paychecks” banner that hung behind him at his “affordability” speech this month will be remembered as being to economic policy what President George W. Bush’s “Mission Accomplished” banner was to foreign policy. According to a Politico poll, many Americans are having difficulty paying for food, housing,... Read More

Last week the Pentagon, under “War Secretary” Pete Hegseth, carried out yet another military attack on a boat in the high seas that the Administration claims is smuggling drugs. That makes 23 boats blown up by the US military in the waters off Latin America – most near Venezuela – and nearly 100 persons killed.... Read More

The government shutdown “proved an argument that conservatives have been making for 45 years: The U.S. Department of Education is mostly a pass-through for funds that are best managed by the states.” The most significant thing about this statement in a November 16 USA Today editorial is not its substance. As the editorial’s author points... Read More

Donald Trump’s victory in the 2024 presidential election was due in large part to his promises to pursue an America First foreign policy and rein in inflation. One year later, prices remain high, and President Trump is more focused on overseas meddling than on the American people. This has helped enable Democrats to win governor... Read More

I recall when then-President Barack Obama was planning to send troops to enforce his “Assad must go” policy in Syria, many Republican US Senators passionately argued that the US President must come to Congress for approval before sending US troops into combat overseas. At the time, they portrayed themselves as brave defenders of the US... Read More

According to data collected by the research firm Statista, 29 percent of Americans cannot afford to take a vacation this year. A vacation is not the only thing Americans are struggling to afford. The failure of wages to keep up with price inflation is why household debt hit a record level of 18.4 trillion dollars... Read More

According to several recent news reports, the two major Trump foreign policy shifts last week are the handiwork of Marco Rubio, the President’s Secretary of State and (acting) National Security Advisor. As with all neocon plans, they will be big on promises and small on delivery. First up, according to Bloomberg it was Rubio who... Read More

For all the media hand-wringing over the government shutdown the fact is only approximately 750,000 of the over two million non-military federal workers are being furloughed. Most federal programs will continue operating, including the major entitlement and welfare programs. The national parks will remain open, if understaffed and with closed visitor centers. Unfortunately, the shutdown... Read More

In my first column after the events of Jan. 6th, 2021, I criticized those who called the protest a “coup,” pointing out that, “Some of the same politicians and bureaucrats denouncing the ridiculous farce at the Capitol as if it were the equivalent of 9/11 have been involved for decades in planning and executing real... Read More

The covid lockdowns caused many Americans to stop trusting the government’s propaganda and led to a 39 percent increase in homeschooling in the 2020-21 school year. While the number of homeschoolers did decline some after this jump, homeschooling has continued growing in popularity over the last several years. Today, approximately six percent of American school... Read More

I had the pleasure of appearing on Charlie Kirk’s program a few times over the years and I always found him to be polite, respectful, and genuinely interested in ideas. Even in areas where we might not have agreed, he listened carefully. He was a strong advocate of free speech and he made a career... Read More

President Trump has recently endorsed a policy that is arguably as socialist as anything proposed by New York mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani or Sen. Bernie Sanders — partial government ownership of private corporations. Earlier this year, as a condition of approving Nippon Steel’s purchase of US Steel, President Trump demanded Nippon give the US government... Read More

Last week President Trump took steps to re-name the Department of Defense the “Department of War.” The President explained his rationale for the name change: “It used to be called the Department of War and it had a stronger sound. We want defense, but we want offense too … As Department of War we won... Read More

After four years of unnecessarily confrontational foreign policy under President Biden, Americans elected Donald Trump in part for his promise to put America first at home and overseas. He promised a war-weary America that he would start no new wars and would get us out of the existing ones. Eight months into his second Administration... Read More

According to the July Consumer Price Index (CPI) report, prices rose by 2.7 percent over the past year, and by 3.1 percent when the “volatile” food and housing sectors are removed from the calculation. Markets rose following the release of the CPI since the increase in price inflation was not as high as expected. This... Read More

Bureau of Labor Statistics head Dr. Erika McEntarfer is one of the latest persons President Trump has told “you’re fired.” President Trump said this month that he fired Dr. McEntarfer because the president believed she manipulated jobs data. Manipulations, he stated, include the updated May and June BLS numbers showing the U.S. economy created 258,000... Read More

Last week the nuclear rhetoric between the US and Russia made some of us feel like we were transported back to 1962. Back then, Soviet moves to place nuclear-capable missiles 90 miles off our coast in Cuba led to the greatest crisis of the Cold War. The United States and its president, John F. Kennedy,... Read More

President Trump has recently suggested that, unless Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell cuts interest rates, the president might revert to his The Apprentice days and tell Powell, “you’re fired.” President Trump backtracked on firing Powell after the president’s comments caused stock markets to fall. However, it is almost certain that President Trump will not reappoint... Read More

As Syria descends into full-scale civil war, with more than a thousand people killed in just the last few days, it may be a good time to remember the phrase, “Assad must go.” That was the slogan the regime-changers rolled out some 14 years ago during the “Arab Spring” that was supposed to usher liberal... Read More

A few weeks ago I urged President Trump to make a deal with Iran that would satisfy his stated goal of no nuclear weapons production and would allow Iran to continue its lawful pursuit of civilian nuclear energy. The deal on the table, as described by the Iranian foreign minister himself, was a win-win “update”... Read More

The US Senate worked through the weekend on the “Big Beautiful Bill.” The goal was to pass it quickly to ensure the House will then pass it and send it to President Trump’s desk before the July 4th holiday. However, disagreements among Republican Senators over reductions in spending on programs including Medicaid and food stamps... Read More

Just a few weeks ago in this space I urged President Trump to accept a deal with Iran allowing it to continue pursuing civilian nuclear power while ensuring that it would not pursue nuclear weapons. Iran signaled it was ready to sign such a deal, yet suddenly Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff changed the US... Read More

On March 20, President Trump signed an executive order “Eliminating Information Silos.” The order directed heads of federal agencies to make sure officials designated by the president “have full and prompt access to all unclassified agency records, data, software systems, and information technology systems.” The executive order did not attract much attention until it was... Read More