Interview by Zach Weissmueller and Liz Wolfe, “Simply Asking Questions,” Purpose, February 27, 2025.
Excerpt:
The Division of Homeland Safety…has this idea, you understand, 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 illustration, if it’s often it’s carried out in a method that’s speculated to be prophylactic, such as you warn any person 5 months forward of time that there could possibly be, you understand, Russians would possibly intervene with the election, and that can make folks extra receptive to the concept that there’s while you do this story in a while. However generally additionally they wish to introduce an thought. And that is all about how will we shield folks in opposition to sure sorts of concepts and the way will we conditioned them to simply accept others, like in regards to the vaccine. And both they discuss constructing resilience, which is we would like 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 numerous 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 turned a lot much less helpful for individuals who need to know what was really mentioned 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 hassle 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 folks for expressing themselves, United Kingdom Prime Minister Keir Starmer lied about his nation’s horrible free speech report 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 totally free speech.” He additionally had an “offensive” bumper sticker, “Unborn lives matter.” He was interrogated by police and criminally charged, based on the Standing for Freedom Middle.
UK pro-life activist Isabel Vaughan-Spruce has been arrested twice for silent prayer outdoors an abortion enterprise.
by Adam N. Michel, Cato at Liberty, February 28, 2025.
Excerpts:
As Republicans work to increase and increase 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 elementary tax reform all however inconceivable.
And:
The primary two columns in Desk 1 report the Tax Coverage Middle and the Tax Basis’s estimates of the TCJA’s impact on after-tax earnings from the time of passage. This measure tells policymakers if explicit teams are made higher off after the modifications. The 2 units of outcomes from the TJCA inform a broadly comparable story: all earnings teams noticed increased after-tax incomes in 2018 following the tax cuts. The primary two measures are usually not equivalent as a result of the underlying fashions use totally different definitions of annual earnings and totally different methodologies for distributing some tax modifications, like the company earnings tax.
The accompanying pic is of Weissmueller, Taibbi, and Wolfe.
