A Partial Truism

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Willian Galston, in his Tuesday Wall Street Journal op-ed, has it mostly right in his discussion of the meaning of created equal as acknowledged in our Declaration of Independence.

There has always been a gap between America’s promise and its performance. This was true in the revolutionary era, and it remains so today. This doesn’t make the equality proclaimed in the Declaration false or hypocritical. It means that there is a difference between moral truth and empirical reality. Politics at its best works to narrow the gap between them….

That’s completely true, as far as it goes. But it’s necessary for us to take the next, long, critical step. Politics at its best works is far more than just politicians doing politics in the nooks and crannies and in the hallways and on the floor of our government buildings. The critical factor here is us. Us American citizens, We the People, we who are the sovereign of our nation are—or should be—the driving force, the primary political actors, of our government and of our nation.

As a great American philosopher once said, “We have met the enemy, and he is us.” But it doesn’t have to be that way.

Driving out the Successful

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In the race to see who can tax the rich the most, Rhode Island is contesting for the lead, courtesy of the State’s Progressive-Democratic governor, Dan McKee, and his legislature. The legislature has just passed and McKee just signed a bill that, among other items on Progressives’ wish list, raises the top income tax rate from 5.99% to 8.99%.

All races have winners and losers, and the losers in this race to tax are the citizens of those States whose governments keep raising taxes. It’s not just the Evil Rich who are losers in this race, though. The losers include all those whose portfolios—including 401(k)s and IRAs—benefit from the investments those rich folks make. The losers include the citizens of those high and higher tax-competing States who work, or would like to work, but the jobs aren’t expanding as much or aren’t being created at all because the Rich are constrained in how much they can grow their businesses or innovate from inside them. The losers include the small mom-and-pop businesses who fall into the Evil Rich category via the income pass-through nature of their businesses.

McKee’s tax on the rich in particular, will, as the editors at The Wall Street Journal noted, very heavily impact pass-through small businesses. What can those folks do? A glance at a map suggests a response, at least for the State over which McKee reigns. Rhode Island is 45 miles long, north to south, and its east-west width varies from 20 miles in the north to 35 miles in the south, with some detours to get to bridges across various fingers of Narragansett Bay and Mt Hope Bay. Those business owners easily could relocate to next door Massachusetts or Connecticut and still ably serve their existing customers. Those two States have high taxes, also, but not as destructively so as what McKee is inflicting.

For this Texan, for most of us in the Midwest and Pennsylvania, that’s an easy daily commute.

The Barbarian Strikes Again

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The Russians just attacked Kyiv Pechersk Lavra, a thousand-year-old Orthodox Christian holy site and cultural icon in Kyiv. The hit was direct, not a nearby one for which the Lavra was merely collateral damage. The targeting was deliberate. And it was repeated, with a subsequent strike adding to the damage. This is far more than just a Russian communist attack on religion, for all that the barbarian has

confiscated church property, tortured clergy, and otherwise persecuted Protestants, Catholics, and Orthodox believers[.]

It’s also more than a simple campaign of terrorism that would make the 13th century Mongols overrunning Russia blush. The modern-day barbarian appears to be starting a campaign to erase Ukrainian culture altogether.

It’s long past time Europe—and the US—stopped dilly-dallying around with half measures and stepped up support for Ukraine, arming and supplying them at the rate they need, with the weapons and materiel they need, so they can drive the barbarian back out of their nation, and do it so decisively that the barbarian will be unable to attack again for years if not generations.

Entertainers Entertaining

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Hollywood’s “entertainers” and NLMSM “journalists” put on a 3-hour show to compete with and draw viewers from the cage fight circus that President Donald Trump (R) put on to kick off our nation’s three-week celebration of our 250th birthday.

The event, called “Rise Up, Sing Out: A Concert for the First Amendment,” was hosted by far-left activist and actress Jane Fonda…and the Committee for the First Amendment in New York City.

Bette Midler, reediting an Arlo Guthrie classic:

All you fascists bound to lose
Lose, you fascists bound to lose
We’ll battle ICE together, until they cut and run,
just like in Minneapolis, and when the midterms come
you’re bound to lose, you fascists bound to lose.

Joy Reid:

The threat is not coming, friends. It is here. Brendan Carr, the man who wrote the blueprint to dismantle the FCC and Project 2025, is now running it. He is weaponizing the agency to bully and control the press and suppress the wider televised media.

Robert De Niro:

I hate to say it, but loving our country is starting to sound like an abused spouse saying they love their abuser. I can’t love a country that’s led by a racist, misogynist, xenophobic tyrant.

The competing show was neither competitive nor entertaining. Pro tip from the peanut gallery of viewers: if you want to compete with an entertainment event, bitter hysteria is not the way.

Keys to Watch

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Damian Paletta, of The Wall Street Journal, has identified some keys to watch to see if the deal with Iran is a real one.

The Strait of Hormuz. Trump suggested that the Strait of Hormuz…would be opened after the deal is formally signed on Friday.

We’ll see. Iran has a long and hoary history of welching on its deals.

The blockade. The White House has imposed a naval blockade on Iranian ships, with the goal—essentially—of economic strangulation. … If the blockade is removed, Iran might be much more likely to continue negotiating with the White House on other things, as it could ease pressure on their economy.

Paletta’s interpretation is wrong. With pressure taken off, the men and women of Iran’s government and of its shadow government, the IRGC, will be much less willing to do any serious negotiation. They will, instead, be much more likely to continue tapping us along.

Israel. One of the biggest strains on the talks in the past months has been Israel, which has continued bombing inside Lebanon. Iran has said this was a deal breaker. Trump initially brushed aside concern about Israel’s strikes against Iran, but in recent weeks he has become furious that Israel wouldn’t stand down.

This is President Donald Trump’s (R) mistake. The fight between Iran and Israel, with the former using its satrap Hezbollah for its continuing fight, is an entirely separate war from the conflict between the US and Iran. Trump needs to openly recognize this and refuse any connection between the Israel-Iran war in Lebanon and our own conflict with Iran.