Interview by Zach Weissmueller and Liz Wolfe, “Simply Asking Questions,” Cause, February 27, 2025.
Excerpt:
The Division of Homeland Safety…has this idea, you already know, they name it constructing resilience on the one hand, or pre-bunking on the opposite, which is this concept of introducing a doubtlessly controversial or troublesome thought to an viewers early in order that they’ll be extra accepting of it later. So, as an example, if it’s often it’s carried out in a approach that’s presupposed to be prophylactic, such as you warn any individual 5 months forward of time that there might be, you already know, Russians would possibly intrude with the election, and that can make individuals extra receptive to the concept that there’s once you do this story afterward. However generally in addition they prefer to introduce an thought. And that is all about how will we shield individuals towards sure sorts of concepts and the way will we conditioned them to just accept others, like in regards to the vaccine. And both they speak about constructing resilience, which is we wish the the inhabitants to and form of on their very own reject psychologically sure concepts earlier than they’re even posed to them. So there’s loads of signaling that goes on in media…the 60 Minutes [German hate speech] factor felt to me like a traditional seeding of a of an thought.
There’s a lot extra there, together with how Google and most different serps grew to become a lot much less helpful for individuals who need to know what was really stated and never simply learn some “trusted” reporter’s view.
I hardly ever watch a 1-hour plus interview. This was the exception, partly as a result of I had a foul headache that day and had bother writing. However I’m glad I made the exception. I like to recommend 1.25 time. YMMV.
by Beth Brelje, The Federalist, February 28, 2025.
Excerpts:
Regardless of draconian legal guidelines that punish individuals for expressing themselves, United Kingdom Prime Minister Keir Starmer lied about his nation’s horrible free speech document throughout a White Home assembly with President Donald Trump on Thursday.
And:
Father Sean Gough, a Catholic priest, was arrested in 2023 for standing silently at a closed abortion enterprise with an indication studying “praying at no cost speech.” He additionally had an “offensive” bumper sticker, “Unborn lives matter.” He was interrogated by police and criminally charged, in line with the Standing for Freedom Heart.
UK pro-life activist Isabel Vaughan-Spruce has been arrested twice for silent prayer exterior an abortion enterprise.
by Adam N. Michel, Cato at Liberty, February 28, 2025.
Excerpts:
As Republicans work to increase and develop the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) earlier than it expires, politicians will relitigatethe misleading distributional statistics that purport to indicate who advantages most from tax cuts. These distribution tables are inherently restricted, usually grossly deceptive, lead to distorted coverage outcomes, and make basic tax reform all however inconceivable.
And:
The primary two columns in Desk 1 report the Tax Coverage Heart and the Tax Basis’s estimates of the TCJA’s impact on after-tax revenue from the time of passage. This measure tells policymakers if explicit teams are made higher off after the adjustments. The 2 units of outcomes from the TJCA inform a broadly comparable story: all revenue teams noticed larger after-tax incomes in 2018 following the tax cuts. The primary two measures are usually not an identical as a result of the underlying fashions use totally different definitions of annual revenue and totally different methodologies for distributing some tax adjustments, like the company revenue tax.
The accompanying pic is of Weissmueller, Taibbi, and Wolfe.
