866OurVote is a national non-partisan election protection coalition working year round to ensure that voters have an equal opportunity to vote and have that vote count. We provide Americans from coast to coast with comprehensive information and assistance at all stages of voting – from registration to absentee and early voting, to casting a vote at the polls, to overcoming obstacles to their participation. Our volunteers provide voter information, document problems they encounter when voting and work with partners and volunteers on the ground to identify and remove barriers to voting.
ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge’s mission is to foster civic culture and institutionalize democratic engagement activities and programs at colleges and universities, making them a defining feature of campus life. By recognizing colleges and universities for their commitment to increasing student voting rates, through its national awards program, ALL IN encourages higher education institutions to help students form the habits of active and informed citizenship, make democratic participation a core value on their campus, and cultivate generations of engaged citizens who are essential to a healthy democracy.
Anti-Defamation League is a leading anti-hate organization. Founded in 1913 in response to an escalating climate of anti-Semitism and bigotry, its timeless mission is to protect the Jewish people and to secure justice and fair treatment for all. Today, ADL continues to fight all forms of hate with the same vigor and passion. ADL is a global leader in exposing extremism and delivering anti-bias education, and is a leading organization in training law enforcement. ADL is the first call when acts of anti-Semitism occur. ADL’s ultimate goal is a world in which no group or individual suffers from bias, discrimination or hate.
The Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law is a nonpartisan law and policy institute that seeks to improve our systems of democracy and justice. We work to hold our political institutions and laws accountable to the twin American ideals of democracy and equal justice for all. The Center’s work ranges from voting rights to campaign finance reform, from ending mass incarceration to preserving Constitutional protection in the fight against terrorism.
The California Center for Civic Participation is a non-partisan, non-profit civic education organization, engaging high school students by sparking their interest with exposure to real excitement of the democratic process. We believe that youth hold so much untapped and unlimited power to change their communities and their world and we exist to expose and nurture that power.
Learn more about the California Center for Civic Participation and volunteer opportunities.
The Center’s mission is to promote an enlightened and responsible citizenry committed to democratic principles and actively engaged in the practice of democracy. The Center has reached more than 30 million students and their teachers since 1965.
The Center for Civic Education helps students develop (1) an increased understanding of the institutions of constitutional democracy and the fundamental principles and values upon which they are founded, (2) the skills necessary to participate as competent and responsible citizens, and (3) the willingness to use democratic procedures for making decisions and managing conflict.
The Center for Common Ground empowers under-represented voters through non-partisan voter registration and Get Out the Vote. It provide voter information through door knock canvassing, texting, phone-banking. It also provide free rides to the polls on Election Day.
Learn more about the Center for Common Ground and volunteer opportunities.
Center for Election Innovation & Research engages in cutting-edge work to build voter trust, increase voter participation, and improve the efficiency of election administration. Their work helps elections officials maintain accurate and complete voter lists and secure election technology infrastructure.
Common Cause is a nonpartisan, grassroots organization dedicated to upholding the core values of American democracy. We work to ensure open, honest, and accountable government; to promote equal rights, opportunity, and representation for all; and to empower all people to make their voices heard as equals in the political process. Common cause works across four major issue areas: voting and elections; money and politics; ethics, transparency and government accountability; and media and democracy.
Learn more about Common Cause and the Common Cause Education Fund.
Democracy North Carolina is a nonpartisan organization that uses research, organizing, and advocacy to strengthen democratic structures, build power among disenfranchised communities, and inspire confidence in a transformed political process that works for all.
ElectionDay.Org engages businesses to provide resources and tools to promote voting within their organizations including information on how to register, voting methods, and relevant deadlines.
Equal Justice Works creates opportunities for lawyers to transform their passion for equal justice into a lifelong commitment to public service. Equal Justice Works is a 501(c) (3) nonprofit organization and is the nation’s largest facilitator of opportunities in public interest law. Equal Justice Works brings together an extensive network of law students, lawyers, legal services organizations, and supporters to promote a lifelong commitment to public service and equal justice. The organization believes that a community of lawyers committed to public service can fulfill our nation’s promise of equal justice for all. Following their Fellowships, more than 85% of Equal Justice Works Fellows remain in public service positions, continuing to pursue equal justice for underserved communities.
Learn more about Equal Justice Works and available volunteer opportunities.
The Election Official Legal Defense Network (EOLDN) is a project of the nonpartisan, nonprofit Center for Election Innovation & Research. EOLDN connects licensed, qualified, pro bono attorneys with election administrators who need advice or assistance. Election workers from all over the country, at the state and local level, can contact EOLDN via this website or by phone (1-877-313-5210) at any time, to request to be connected to a lawyer who can help them, at no cost. This service is available regardless of the election official’s political affiliation, or whether they work in a blue or red state or county.
Learn more about Election Official Legal Defense Network and available volunteer opportunities.
FairVote is a nonpartisan organization seeking better elections for all. They research and advance voting reforms that make democracy more functional and representative for every American. FairVote has a proven record since 1992 as a nonpartisan trailblazer that advances and wins electoral reforms at the local, state and national level through strategic research, communications and collaboration. Today, we are the driving force behind advancing ranked choice voting and fair representation in multi-winner legislative districts that will open up our elections to better choices, fairer representation and more civil campaigns.
HeadCount is a non-partisan organization that uses the power of music to register voters and promote participation in democracy. HeadCount uses a grassroots approach to reach young people and music fans at concerts and online to inform and empower. Like music and democracy? Come work (or volunteer) with us!
Learn about how to be involved at a concert or event near you.
Indivisible is committed to providing civic education, policy resources, strategic guidance, and targeted trainings for groups across the country. It educates and empowers civic leaders at the community level across the country.
Learn more about Indivisible and volunteer opportunities available in several states.
Leaders We Deserve is a grassroots organization dedicated to electing young progressives to Congress and State Legislatures across the country to help defeat the far-right agenda and advance a progressive vision for the future.
The League of Women Voters of the United States encourages informed and active participation in government, works to increase understanding of major public policy issues, and influences public policy through education and advocacy.
The Lincoln Project is a leading pro-democracy organization in the United States — dedicated to the preservation, protection, and defense of democracy. The Lincoln Project launched with two stated objectives. The first was to defeat Donald Trump at the ballot box. The second was to ensure Trumpism failed alongside him. As we have seen, our fight against Trumpism is only beginning. We must combat these forces everywhere and at all times. Our democracy depends on it.
Learn more about The Lincoln Project and available volunteer opportunities.
People For the American Way Foundation conducts research, legal, and education work on behalf of First Amendment freedoms and democratic values; monitors, exposes, and challenges the Religious Right movement and its political allies; identifies, trains, and supports the next generation of progressive leaders through its Young People For youth leadership programs and its Young Elected Officials Network; and carries out nonpartisan voter education, registration, civic participation, and election protection activities.
Project Vote is a national, nonpartisan, nonprofit organization founded on the belief that an organized, diverse electorate is the key to a better America. Project Vote’s mission is to build an electorate that accurately represents the diversity of this nation’s citizenry, and to ensure that every eligible citizen can register, vote, and cast a ballot that counts.
Project Vote Smart offers services and programs for political journalists to enhance their coverage of politics and elections. The Project partners with more than 300 national, state, and local news organizations, all endorsing Project programs. In addition to comprehensive databases on more than 40,000 candidates and incumbents, the Project provides journalists with special research services and publications. We devote considerable effort to researching information about all candidates for presidential, congressional, gubernatorial and state legislative office and elected officials. Voters thus have access to unbiased information on candidates as well as those serving in elected positions.
Learn more about Project Vote Smart and available volunteer opportunities.
The Public Citizen Foundation supports Public Citizen’s education, litigation, research, and public information activities. Public Citizen is a national consumer advocacy organization founded in 1971 to represent consumer interests in Congress, the executive branch and the courts. Public Citizen fights for openness and democratic accountability in government, for the right of consumers to seek redress in the courts; for clean, safe and sustainable energy sources; for social and economic justice in trade policies; for strong health, safety and environmental protections; and for safe, effective and affordable prescription drugs and health care.
Learn more about Public Citizen and available opportunities.
Rideshare2Vote was created to increase the voice and power of people by expanding their civic engagement and voting rights. We have created a voter touch outreach field program that includes our transportation service specifically for Democratic and progressive voters. Rideshare2Vote focuses our work in disenfranchised communities; voting for the first time; who are not voting in every election; that are disabled; living in poverty and who are elderly.
Learn more about Rideshare2Vote and available volunteer opportunities.
Fusing pop culture, politics, and technology, Rock the Vote works to mobilize the millennial voting bloc and the youth vote, protect voting rights, and advocate for an electoral process and voting system that works for the 21st century electorate. For almost 25 years, Rock the Vote has pioneered ways to make voting easier by simplifying and demystifying voter registration and elections for young adults.
Learn more about Rock the Vote and available volunteer opportunities.
The Andrew Goodman Foundation makes young voices and votes a powerful force in democracy. Our ability to spark their passion — today — will result in change, tomorrow. The Andrew Goodman Foundation supports youth leadership development, voting accessibility, and social justice initiatives on campuses across the country with mini-grants to select institutions of higher learning and other financial assistance to students.
Our vision is that young people will become active, engaged citizens who ensure a just democracy and sustainable future. Join us during this critical time for American democracy and help shape the next generation of civic leaders.
Learn more about The Andrew Goodman Foundation and available volunteer opportunities.
The Center for Public Integrity is dedicated to producing original, responsible investigative journalism on issues of public concern. The mission of the Center for Public Integrity is to protect democracy and inspire change using investigative reporting that exposes betrayals of the public trust by powerful interests. To pursue its mission, the Center generates high-quality, accessible investigative reports, databases, and contextual analysis on issues of public importance; disseminates work to journalists, policymakers, scholars, and citizens using a combination of digital, electronic, and print media; and educates, engages, and empowers citizens with the tools and skills they need to hold government and other private institutions accountable.
The Civics Center is dedicated to building the foundations of youth civic engagement and voter participation in high schools through education, organizing, and advocacy. We support student-led, peer-to-peer voter registration and pre-registration efforts in high school communities.
Learn more about The Civics Center and available volunteer opportunities.
TurnUp is non-profit organization and mobile app that comprises the largest youth-led voter registration and turnout initiative. TurnUp’s 2024 election engagement plans include four integrated programs that work together to increase youth voter registration and turnout: physical registration and turnout drives; relational registration and turnout drives; grassroots organizing; and digital campaigns. TurnUp has Volunteer and Internship positions for high school, college, and recent graduates.
VoteRiders is a non-partisan, non-profit organization with a mission to ensure that all citizens are able to exercise their freedom to vote. VoteRiders informs and helps citizens to secure their voter ID as well as inspires and supports organizations, local volunteers, and communities to sustain voter ID education and assistance efforts. VoteRiders offers a variety of volunteer options including virtual and on the ground positions.
When We All Vote is a leading national, nonpartisan initiative on a mission to change the culture around voting and to increase participation in each and every election by helping to close the race and age gap. Created by Michelle Obama, When We All Vote brings together individuals, institutions, brands, and organizations to register new voters across the country and advance civic education for the entire family and voters of every age to build an informed and engaged electorate for today and generations to come. We empower our supporters and volunteers to take action through voting, advocating for their rights, and holding their elected officials accountable.
Learn more about When We All Vote and available volunteer opportunities.
Resources
Defending our values through knowledge and action.
Dear Friends
If you missed today’s program featuring David Axelrod in conversation with Madeleine Brand, you can watch the program at THIS PAST EVENTS LINK. The program will post a few hours after it ends. Starting Thursday morning, you can listen AT THIS PODCAST LINK.
Next Wednesday, May 28 at 5 pm Pacific we welcome David Ignatius, who will be in conversation with Larry Mantle (see bios below), “Behind the Headlines: America’s Role in a Changing World”.” (Register Here).
David Ignatius writes a twice-a-week foreign affairs column for The Washington Post, where he also serves as associate editor. Over the course of his journalism career, Ignatius has also served as executive editor of the International Herald Tribune and was a reporter for The Wall Street Journal, covering at various times the steel industry, the Departments of State and Justice, the CIA, the Senate, and the Middle East. He has written eleven novels, including “Body of Lies,” which director Ridley Scott adapted into a film. He is a former adjunct lecturer at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University and was a Senior Fellow to the Future of Diplomacy Program from 2017 to 2022.
Larry Mantle has been the host of AirTalk with Larry Mantle on NPR-member station KPCC, 89.3 FM, since April 1st, 1985. AirTalk is the longest-running daily talk show in Southern California.
The Weaponization Czar
And Our Russia Problem
|
Ed Martin is a major actor in Trump’s attempted regime change to authoritarianism. His particular role is to transform the law into a tool to intimidate Americans. After a stint as interim US Attorney for DC which was marked by unprecedented weaponization of the position, Martin will now continue his work for Trump as the official “weaponization czar.”
This is a new position within the Justice Department, designed by the Trump administration, to punish people who have committed no crimes. Martin was originally placed on the “weaponization working group” seemingly ex officio when he was a US Attorney; he will now continue as its chairman. On Martin’s account, his assignment will be to publicly single out Americans who have not been found guilty of anything, or for that matter even indicted. He says there will be “no limit to the targets.”
Martin’s authoritarian past and loyalties are a matter of public record. He helped build an alternative reality around Trump’s Big Lie and coup attempt, treating the January 6th criminals as heroes deserving of financial support and pardons. As interim US attorney, he described himself as President Trump’s lawyer, and abused his position to send letters to people who displeased the president in some way. He threatened journalists, universities and scientists.
Martin, to use the historical term, is taking an ostentatious part in the ongoing attempt at what the Nazis called a Gleichschaltung of institutions: of dropping the distinction between the law and the leader, and of attempting to force everyone in public life into line with the leader’s latest statements. The reference is not accidental. Martin is on the far right, and an advocate of great replacement theory: the spurious idea that a conspiracy seeks to replace white Americans with immigrants. He had a very supportive relationship with a known American Nazi.
(To read the complete article, click here)
NY Times
Guest Opinion Column
Michael Posner
May 18, 2025
Trump Is Destroying a Core American Value. The World Will Notice.
In the late 1980s, Joseph Nye, the Harvard political scientist who died this month, developed the concept of “soft power.” His central premise, that the United States enhances its global influence by promoting values like human rights and democracy, has guided U.S. foreign policy for decades across both Republican and Democratic administrations.
Donald Trump has made clear that he fundamentally rejects this vision. As president, he has ordered a sweeping overhaul of the State Department that will cripple its capacity to promote American values abroad. At the center of this effort are drastic cuts to the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor — the State Department’s core institution for advancing soft power, which I led under President Barack Obama. Unless Congress intervenes, the debasement of the bureau’s role will impair America’s ability to challenge authoritarianism, support democratic movements and provide independent analysis to inform U.S. foreign policy. The long-term result will be a United States that is weaker, less principled and increasingly sidelined as authoritarian powers like Russia and China offer their own transactional models of global engagement.
The Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor was created with bipartisan congressional support in 1977, a time when lawmakers sought greater influence over foreign policy in the aftermath of the Vietnam War and America’s support for authoritarian regimes in countries like Chile and South Korea. President Jimmy Carter’s religious convictions and deep commitment to human rights gave the fledgling bureau early momentum. Still, its purpose was always practical: to ensure U.S. foreign aid and trade decisions were informed by credible assessments of human rights conditions around the world. That’s why every year, the bureau prepares congressionally mandated human rights reports.
Dear Friends
Next Wednesday, May 21 at 5 pm Pacific, we welcome David Axelrod, who will be in conversation with Madeleine Brand (see bios below), “Can our American Democracy Survive Today’s Challenges? The Observations of a Keen Observer.” (Register Here)
David Axelrod is a political consultant, journalist, and analyst. He was the chief strategist for Barack Obama’s presidential campaigns and served as Senior Advisor to President Obama. Axelrod is currently the Chief Political Analyst for CNN. Until recently, Axelrod served as the director of the non-partisan University of Chicago Institute of Politics. His memoir is titled “Believer: My Forty Years in Politics.”
Madeleine Brand is the host of the award-winning daily news and culture show, Press Play.On the show, she covers national, international and local stories through a Southern California lens. She is also the co-host of KCRW’s legal affairs podcast, The Legal Eagle files.
NY Times
Guest Opinion Column
Michael Posner
May 18, 2025
Trump Is Destroying a Core American Value. The World Will Notice.
In the late 1980s, Joseph Nye, the Harvard political scientist who died this month, developed the concept of “soft power.” His central premise, that the United States enhances its global influence by promoting values like human rights and democracy, has guided U.S. foreign policy for decades across both Republican and Democratic administrations.
Donald Trump has made clear that he fundamentally rejects this vision. As president, he has ordered a sweeping overhaul of the State Department that will cripple its capacity to promote American values abroad. At the center of this effort are drastic cuts to the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor — the State Department’s core institution for advancing soft power, which I led under President Barack Obama. Unless Congress intervenes, the debasement of the bureau’s role will impair America’s ability to challenge authoritarianism, support democratic movements and provide independent analysis to inform U.S. foreign policy. The long-term result will be a United States that is weaker, less principled and increasingly sidelined as authoritarian powers like Russia and China offer their own transactional models of global engagement.
The Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor was created with bipartisan congressional support in 1977, a time when lawmakers sought greater influence over foreign policy in the aftermath of the Vietnam War and America’s support for authoritarian regimes in countries like Chile and South Korea. President Jimmy Carter’s religious convictions and deep commitment to human rights gave the fledgling bureau early momentum. Still, its purpose was always practical: to ensure U.S. foreign aid and trade decisions were informed by credible assessments of human rights conditions around the world. That’s why every year, the bureau prepares congressionally mandated
human rights reports.
In its early years, it struggled to defend its existence. Foreign governments resented being called out in its annual reports and attacked its legitimacy. Many State Department traditionalists viewed its focus on human rights as an unhelpful distraction from the realpolitik topics they were much more comfortable addressing. It also drew criticisms of hypocrisy, mostly from the left, for condemning the records of other countries in the face of unresolved human rights problems here in the United States. Others accurately pointed out that even as the State Department’s human rights reports documented serious abuses, the United States continued to provide substantial aid to governments like Ferdinand E. Marcos’s Philippines, Mobutu Sese Seko’s Zaire, Hosni Mubarak’s Egypt and numerous military regimes across Latin America.
(To read the complete article, click here)
Los Angeles Times
Guest contributors
Aaron David Miller and Lauren Morganbesser
May 14, 2025
The Mideast has changed since Trump’s first term. How will he reshape it?
The U.S. president is nothing if not unpredictable, and he may find himself drawn into day-after planning for Gaza and Palestinians.
As President Trump parades through the Middle East this week, he will encounter a very different region than the one he experienced during his first term. True, the Israeli-Palestinian problem remains unresolved, as do the challenges emanating from Iran’s much-advanced nuclear program and the instability and dysfunction in Iraq, Lebanon, Libya, Syria and Yemen.
But this old wine is now packaged in new bottles. Beyond the garish headlines of Trump’s plan to accept a Boeing 747 as a gift from Qatar, new trends are emerging that will redefine the region, posing additional challenges for U.S. policy.
Of all the changes in the Middle East since Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel, perhaps the most striking is Israel’s emergence as a regional powerhouse. Aided by the administrations of Presidents Biden and Trump, and enabled by Arab regimes that do little to support Palestinians, Israel devastated Hamas and Hezbollah as military organizations, killing much of their senior leadership. With the support of the United States, Europe and friendly Arab states, it effectively countered two direct Iranian missile attacks on its territory.
Israel then delivered its own strike, reportedly destroying much of Iran’s ballistic missile production and air defenses. In short, Israel has achieved escalation dominance: the capacity to escalate (or not) as it sees fit, and to deter its adversaries from doing so. Israel has also redefined its concept of border security in Gaza, Lebanon, the West Bank and Syria by acting unilaterally to preempt and prevent threats to its territory.
(To read the complete article, click here)
Dear Friends
Next Wednesday, May 21 at 5 pm Pacific, we welcome David Axelrod, who will be in conversation with Madeleine Brand (see bios below), “Can our American Democracy Survive Today’s Challenges? The Observations of a Keen Observer.” (Register Here)
David Axelrod is a political consultant, journalist, and analyst. He was the chief strategist for Barack Obama’s presidential campaigns and served as Senior Advisor to President Obama. Axelrod is currently the Chief Political Analyst for CNN. Until recently, Axelrod served as the director of the non-partisan University of Chicago Institute of Politics. His memoir is titled “Believer: My Forty Years in Politics.”
Madeleine Brand is the host of the award-winning daily news and culture show, Press Play.On the show, she covers national, international and local stories through a Southern California lens. She is also the co-host of KCRW’s legal affairs podcast, The Legal Eagle files.
Los Angeles Times
Guest contributors
Aaron David Miller and Lauren Morganbesser
May 14, 2025
The Mideast has changed since Trump’s first term. How will he reshape it?
The U.S. president is nothing if not unpredictable, and he may find himself drawn into day-after planning for Gaza and Palestinians.
As President Trump parades through the Middle East this week, he will encounter a very different region than the one he experienced during his first term. True, the Israeli-Palestinian problem remains unresolved, as do the challenges emanating from Iran’s much-advanced nuclear program and the instability and dysfunction in Iraq, Lebanon, Libya, Syria and Yemen.
But this old wine is now packaged in new bottles. Beyond the garish headlines of Trump’s plan to accept a Boeing 747 as a gift from Qatar, new trends are emerging that will redefine the region, posing additional challenges for U.S. policy.
Of all the changes in the Middle East since Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel, perhaps the most striking is Israel’s emergence as a regional powerhouse. Aided by the administrations of Presidents Biden and Trump, and enabled by Arab regimes that do little to support Palestinians, Israel devastated Hamas and Hezbollah as military organizations, killing much of their senior leadership. With the support of the United States, Europe and friendly Arab states, it effectively countered two direct Iranian missile attacks on its territory.
Israel then delivered its own strike, reportedly destroying much of Iran’s ballistic missile production and air defenses. In short, Israel has achieved escalation dominance: the capacity to escalate (or not) as it sees fit, and to deter its adversaries from doing so. Israel has also redefined its concept of border security in Gaza, Lebanon, the West Bank and Syria by acting unilaterally to preempt and prevent threats to its territory.
(To read the complete article, click here)
Wall Street Journal
Opinion
Editorial Board
May 12, 2025
The Great Trump Tariff Rollback
The President started a trade war with Adam Smith. He lost.
Rarely has an economic policy been repudiated as soundly, and as quickly, as President Trump’s Liberation Day tariffs—and by Mr. Trump’s own hand. Witness the agreement Monday morning to scale back his punitive tariffs on China—his second major retreat in less than a week. This is a win for economic reality, and for American prosperity.
Make that a partial win for reality. The Administration agreed to scrap most of the 145% tariff Mr. Trump imposed on Chinese goods on April 2 and later. What remains is his new 10% global base-line tariff, plus the separate 20% levy putatively tied to China’s role in the fentanyl trade, for a total rate of 30%. In exchange, Beijing will reduce its retaliatory tariff to 10% from 125%. The deal is good for 90 days to start, as negotiations continue….
If there’s a silver lining to this turmoil, it is that markets have forced Mr. Trump to back down from his fever dream that high tariff walls will usher in a new “golden age.” The age didn’t last two months, and it was more leaden than golden. White House aide Peter Navarro, the main architect with Mr. Trump of the Liberation Day fiasco, has been repudiated.
Mr. Trump will not want to admit it, but he started a trade war with Adam Smith and lost. He’s not the first President to learn that lesson.
(To read the complete article, click here)
Dear Friends
If you missed today’s program featuring Andrew Weissmann in conversation with Warren Olney, you can watch the program at THIS PAST EVENTS LINK. The program will post a few hours after it ends. Starting Thursday morning, you can listen AT THIS PODCAST LINK.
Next Wednesday, May 21 at 5 pm Pacific, we welcome David Axelrod, who will be in conversation with Madeleine Brand (see bios below), “Can our American Democracy Survive Today’s Challenges? The Observations of a
Keen Observer.” (Register Here)
David Axelrod is a political consultant, journalist, and analyst. He was the chief strategist for Barack Obama’s presidential campaigns and served as Senior Advisor to President Obama. Axelrod is currently a Senior Political Commentator on CNN. Until recently, Axelrod served as the director of the non-partisan University of Chicago Institute of Politics. His memoir is titled “Believer: My Forty Years in Politics.”
Madeleine Brand is the host of the award-winning daily news and culture show, Press Play.On the show, she covers national, international and local stories through a Southern California lens. She is also the co-host of KCRW’s legal affairs podcast, The Legal Eagle files.
Wall Street Journal
Opinion
Editorial Board
May 12, 2025
The Great Trump Tariff Rollback
The President started a trade war with Adam Smith. He lost.
Rarely has an economic policy been repudiated as soundly, and as quickly, as President Trump’s Liberation Day tariffs—and by Mr. Trump’s own hand. Witness the agreement Monday morning to scale back his punitive tariffs on China—his second major retreat in less than a week. This is a win for economic reality, and for American prosperity.
Make that a partial win for reality. The Administration agreed to scrap most of the 145% tariff Mr. Trump imposed on Chinese goods on April 2 and later. What remains is his new 10% global base-line tariff, plus the separate 20% levy putatively tied to China’s role in the fentanyl trade, for a total rate of 30%. In exchange, Beijing will reduce its retaliatory tariff to 10% from 125%. The deal is good for 90 days to start, as negotiations continue….
If there’s a silver lining to this turmoil, it is that markets have forced Mr. Trump to back down from his fever dream that high tariff walls will usher in a new “golden age.” The age didn’t last two months, and it was more leaden than golden. White House aide Peter Navarro, the main architect with Mr. Trump of the Liberation Day fiasco, has been repudiated.
Mr. Trump will not want to admit it, but he started a trade war with Adam Smith and lost. He’s not the first President to learn that lesson.
(To read the complete article, click here)
New York Times
Opinion
David French
Trump Is No Longer the Most Important American
May 11, 2025
President Trump is no longer the most important American in the world.
He is certainly the most powerful, at least for three more years, but power is only one measure of importance. On Thursday, a Chicago native and Villanova University graduate named Robert Prevost supplanted Trump. He became the first American pope, taking the name Leo XIV.
And it happened at exactly the right time.
I’m not Catholic. I’m an evangelical from the rural South who grew up so isolated from Catholicism that I didn’t even know any Catholics until I went to law school. But I’m deeply influenced by Catholicism, in both its ancient and its modern forms.
I devoured the works of Augustine and Thomas Aquinas in college. And one of my favorite classes was about liberation theology, a left-wing, modern Catholic approach to the Gospel that puts an emphasis on improving the material conditions of the poor, in part through political and economic reform. And no book has influenced my approach to abortion and human life more than Pope John Paul II’s encyclical “Evangelium Vitae.”
It was in this study and reflection that I understood the true importance of the historical stream of Christian thought. Christianity is an ancient faith, one that has endured through rulers and regimes far more ignorant and brutal than anything we’ve ever confronted in the United States.
(To read the complete article, click here)
Dear Friends
Wednesday, May 14 at 5 pm Pacific we welcome Andrew Weissmann, who will be in conversation with Warren Olney (see bios below), “The Critical Quest for Presidential Accountability (Register Here).
Andrew Weissmann is a professor of practice at New York University School of Law. His distinguished Department of Justice career encompasses serving as a lead prosecutor in Robert S. Mueller’s Special Counsel’s Office, the FBI general counsel, director of the Enron Task Force, chief of the DOJ’s Fraud Section, and chief of the Criminal Division in the Eastern District of New York. He is a regular commentator on MSNBC and co-host of the podcast Main Justice. He is the author of the New York Times bestseller “Where Law Ends: Inside the Muller Investigation.”
Warren Olney was the host and executive producer of the nationally syndicated weekday afternoon program “To the Point,” which originated at KCRW. Olney and his programs have been honored with nearly 40 national, regional and local awards for broadcast excellence. He is the only two-time winner of the Los Angeles Society of Professional Journalists Distinguished Journalist award.
New York Times
Opinion
David French
Trump Is No Longer the Most Important American
May 11, 2025
President Trump is no longer the most important American in the world.
He is certainly the most powerful, at least for three more years, but power is only one measure of importance. On Thursday, a Chicago native and Villanova University graduate named Robert Prevost supplanted Trump. He became the first American pope, taking the name Leo XIV.
And it happened at exactly the right time.
I’m not Catholic. I’m an evangelical from the rural South who grew up so isolated from Catholicism that I didn’t even know any Catholics until I went to law school. But I’m deeply influenced by Catholicism, in both its ancient and its modern forms.
I devoured the works of Augustine and Thomas Aquinas in college. And one of my favorite classes was about liberation theology, a left-wing, modern Catholic approach to the Gospel that puts an emphasis on improving the material conditions of the poor, in part through political and economic reform. And no book has influenced my approach to abortion and human life more than Pope John Paul II’s encyclical “Evangelium Vitae.”
It was in this study and reflection that I understood the true importance of the historical stream of Christian thought. Christianity is an ancient faith, one that has endured through rulers and regimes far more ignorant and brutal than anything we’ve ever confronted in the United States.
(To read the complete article, click here)
The Forward
May 8, 2025
Arno Rosenfeld
Jewish feud over Trump escalates with open letter in The New York Times
Dozens of former leaders say the organizations they once led are being ‘far too silent’
More than three dozen former leaders of major Jewish organizations published an open letter advertisement in The New York Times rebuking current leadership for being “far too silent about the stunning assault on democratic norms.”
Although they did not name President Donald Trump in the letter published Thursday, the signatories — which included directors and former chairs of the Anti-Defamation League, American Jewish Committee, Hillel International, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee and major federations — decried his administration’s approach to fighting antisemitism.
“A range of actors are using a purported concern about Jewish safety as a cudgel,” they wrote. “We call on Jewish leaders and institutions — national and local — to resist the exploitation of Jewish fears.
It was the latest salvo in a war over how American Jews should respond to the Trump administration, which has launched an unprecedented crackdown on colleges and universities in the name of protecting Jews.
(To read the complete article, click here)
Dear Friends
Next Wednesday, May 14 at 5 pm Pacific we welcome Andrew Weissmann, who will be in conversation with Warren Olney (see bios below), “The Critical Quest for Presidential Accountability (Register Here).
Andrew Weissmann is a professor of practice at New York University School of Law. His distinguished Department of Justice career encompasses serving as a lead prosecutor in Robert S. Mueller’s Special Counsel’s Office, the FBI general counsel, director of the Enron Task Force, chief of the DOJ’s Fraud Section, and chief of the Criminal Division in the Eastern District of New York. He is a regular commentator on MSNBC and cohost of the podcast Prosecuting Donald Trump. He is the author of the New York Times bestseller “Where Law Ends: Inside the Muller Investigation.”
Warren Olney was the host and executive producer of the nationally syndicated weekday afternoon program “To the Point,” which originated at KCRW. Olney and his programs have been honored with nearly 40 national, regional and local awards for broadcast excellence. He is the only two-time winner of the Los Angeles Society of Professional Journalists Distinguished Journalist award.
The New York Times
Guest Essay/Opinion
May 8, 2025
How Will We Know When We Have Lost Our Democracy?
How will Americans know when we have lost our democracy?
Authoritarianism is harder to recognize than it used to be. Most 21st-century autocrats are elected. Rather than violently suppress opposition like Castro or Pinochet, today’s autocrats convert public institutions into political weapons, using law enforcement, tax and regulatory agencies to punish opponents and bully the media and civil society onto the sidelines. We call this competitive authoritarianism — a system in which parties compete in elections but the systematic abuse of an incumbent’s power tilts the playing field against the opposition. It is how autocrats rule in contemporary Hungary, India, Serbia and Turkey and how Hugo Chávez ruled in Venezuela.
The descent into competitive authoritarianism doesn’t always set off alarms. Because governments attack their rivals through nominally legal means like defamation suits, tax audits and politically targeted investigations, citizens are often slow to realize they are succumbing to authoritarian rule. More than a decade into Mr. Chávez’s rule, most Venezuelans still believed they lived in a democracy.
How, then, can we tell whether America has crossed the line into authoritarianism?
(To read the complete article, click here)
The New York Times
By The Editorial Board/Opinion
May 6, 2025
Trump’s Third-Term Jokes Deserve a Serious Response
When Republicans took control of Congress in 1947, they were still angry that President Franklin D. Roosevelt had won a fourth term in 1944, and they set out to pass a constitutional amendment to limit future presidents to two terms. John Jennings, Republican of Tennessee, stood on the House floor and said a 22nd Amendment was necessary to prevent a dictator from taking over the country.
“Without such a limit on the number of terms a man may serve in the presidency, the time may come when a man of vaulting ambition becomes president,” Mr. Jennings said on Feb. 6, 1947. Such a man, backed by a “subservient Congress” and a compliant Supreme Court, could “sweep aside and overthrow the safeguards of the Constitution,” he said. Without such a law, a president could use the office’s great powers to tilt the political system in his favor and win repeated re-election. Eventually, that president could come to resemble a king, effectively unbound by the Constitution’s checks and balances.
In the decades after the country ratified the 22nd Amendment in 1951, members of both parties occasionally chafed against its restrictions, but no sitting president openly talked about evading it — until recently.
(To read the complete article, click here)
Dear Friends
If you missed today’s program featuring Douglas Brinkley in conversation with Patt Morrison, you can watch the program at THIS PAST EVENTS LINK. The program will post a few hours after it ends. Starting Thursday morning, you can listen AT THIS PODCAST LINK.
Next Wednesday, May 14 at 5 pm Pacific we welcome Andrew Weissmann, who will be in conversation with Warren Olney (see bios below), “The Critical Quest for Presidential Accountability (Register Here).
Andrew Weissmann is a professor of practice at New York University School of Law. His distinguished Department of Justice career encompasses serving as a lead prosecutor in Robert S. Mueller’s Special Council’s Office, the FBI general counsel, director of the Enron Task Force, chief of the DOJ’s Fraud Section, and chief of the Criminal Division in the Eastern District of New York. He is a regular commentator on MSNBC and cohost of the podcast Prosecuting Donald Trump. He is the author of the New York Times bestseller “Where Law Ends: Inside the Muller Investigation.”
Warren Olney was the host and executive producer of the nationally syndicated weekday afternoon program “To the Point,” which originated at KCRW. Olney and his programs have been honored with nearly 40 national, regional and local awards for broadcast excellence. He is the only two-time winner of the Los Angeles Society of Professional Journalists Distinguished Journalist award.
The New York Times
David Brooks
May 1, 2025
How to Survive the Trump Years With Your Spirit Intact
I had forgotten how exhausting it is to live in Donald Trump’s world. He’s not only a political figure. He creates a psychological and social atmosphere that suffuses the whole culture — the airwaves, our conversations, our moods.
If there is one word to define Trump’s atmosphere, it is “pagan.” The pagan values of ancient Rome celebrated power, manliness, conquest, ego, fame, competitiveness and prowess, and it is those values that have always been at the core of Trump’s being — from his real estate grandiosity to his love of pro wrestling to his king-of-the-jungle version of American greatness.
The pagan ethos has always appealed to grandiose male narcissists because it gives them permission to grab whatever they want. This ethos encourages egotists to puff themselves up and boast in a way they find urgently satisfying; self-love is the only form of love they know.
The pagan culture is seductive because it lures you with images of heroism, might and glory. Think of Achilles slaughtering his enemies before the walls of Troy. For a certain sort of perpetual boy, what could be cooler than that? But there is little compassion in this worldview, no concept that humility might be a virtue. There is a callous tolerance of cruelty.
(To read the complete article, click here)
Dear Friends
Next Wednesday, May 7 at 5 pm Pacific we welcome Douglas Brinkley, who will be in conversation with Patt Morrison (see bios below), “The American Presidency: A Presidential Historian’s Perspective” (Register Here).
Douglas Brinkley is a Professor of History at Rice University, a CNN Presidential Historian, and a contributing editor at Vanity Fair. He has received seven honorary doctorates in American Studies. He has authored more than 25 books, including several highly acclaimed presidential biographies. Six of his books were named New York Times “Notable Books of the Year,” and seven became New York Times bestsellers. The New-York Historical Society selected Brinkley as their official U.S. Presidential Historian. He is on the Board of Trustees of Brevard College and the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library. He is a member of the Century Association, Council of Foreign Relations and James Madison Council of the Library of Congress.
Patt Morrison has a share of two Pulitzer Prizes as a longtime Los Angeles Times writer and columnist. As a public television and radio broadcaster, she has won six Emmys and a dozen Global Mike awards. Her first book, “Rio LA,” about the Los Angeles River, was a bestseller. Her most recent book is “Don’t Stop the Presses! Truth, Justice, and the American Newspaper.”
The New York Times
David Brooks
May 1, 2025
How to Survive the Trump Years With Your Spirit Intact
I had forgotten how exhausting it is to live in Donald Trump’s world. He’s not only a political figure. He creates a psychological and social atmosphere that suffuses the whole culture — the airwaves, our conversations, our moods.
If there is one word to define Trump’s atmosphere, it is “pagan.” The pagan values of ancient Rome celebrated power, manliness, conquest, ego, fame, competitiveness and prowess, and it is those values that have always been at the core of Trump’s being — from his real estate grandiosity to his love of pro wrestling to his king-of-the-jungle version of American greatness.
The pagan ethos has always appealed to grandiose male narcissists because it gives them permission to grab whatever they want. This ethos encourages egotists to puff themselves up and boast in a way they find urgently satisfying; self-love is the only form of love they know.
The pagan culture is seductive because it lures you with images of heroism, might and glory. Think of Achilles slaughtering his enemies before the walls of Troy. For a certain sort of perpetual boy, what could be cooler than that? But there is little compassion in this worldview, no concept that humility might be a virtue. There is a callous tolerance of cruelty.
(To read the complete article, click here)
Dear Friends
Next Wednesday, May 7 at 5 pm Pacific we welcome Douglas Brinkley, who will be in conversation with Patt Morrison (see bios below), “The American Presidency: A Presidential Historian’s Perspective” (Register Here).
Douglas Brinkley is a Professor of History at Rice University, a CNN Presidential Historian, and a contributing editor at Vanity Fair. He has received seven honorary doctorates in American Studies. He has authored more than 25 books, including several highly acclaimed presidential biographies. Six of his books were named New York Times “Notable Books of the Year,” and seven became New York Times bestsellers. The New-York Historical Society selected Brinkley as their official U.S. Presidential Historian. He is on the Board of Trustees of Brevard College and the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library. He is a member of the Century Association, Council of Foreign Relations and James Madison Council of the Library of Congress.
Patt Morrison has a share of two Pulitzer Prizes as a longtime Los Angeles Times writer and columnist. As a public television and radio broadcaster, she has won six Emmys and a dozen Global Mike awards. Her first book, “Rio LA,” about the Los Angeles River, was a bestseller. Her most recent book is “Don’t Stop the Presses! Truth, Justice, and the American Newspaper.”
The New York Times
The Editorial Board
There Is a Way Forward: How to Defeat Trump’s Power Grab
May 1, 2025
The first 100 days of President Trump’s second term have done more damage to American democracy than anything else since the demise of Reconstruction. Mr. Trump is attempting to create a presidency unconstrained by Congress or the courts, in which he and his appointees can override written law when they want to. It is precisely the autocratic approach that this nation’s founders sought to prevent when writing the Constitution.
Mr. Trump has the potential to do far more harm in the remainder of his term. If he continues down this path and Congress and the courts fail to stop him, it could fundamentally alter the character of American government. Future presidents, seeking to either continue or undo his policies, will be tempted to pursue a similarly unbound approach, in which they use the powers of the federal government to silence critics and reward allies.
It pains us to write these words. Whatever our policy differences with other modern presidents, every one of them fundamentally believed in democracy. They viewed freedom, constitutional checks and balances and respect for political opponents as “the bulwark of our Republic,” as Ronald Reagan said in the opening of his first Inaugural Address, while praising his predecessor Jimmy Carter.
(To read the complete article, click here)
The New York Times
Michelle Goldberg
April 28, 2025
I Can’t Believe Anyone Thinks Trump Actually Cares About Antisemitism
About a decade ago, conservatives would often denounce Muslim immigration on the grounds that it threatened Western progress on gay rights. This posture, sometimes called homonationalism, got its start in Europe, then made its way into American politics with Donald Trump’s first presidential campaign. In his acceptance speech at the 2016 Republican National Convention, Trump decried the murder of 49 people in a gay nightclub in Orlando, Fla., by the Islamist Omar Mateen. “As your president, I will do everything in my power to protect our L.G.B.T. citizens from the violence and oppression of a hateful foreign ideology,” he said. A month later he unveiled his proposal for the “extreme vetting” of Muslim immigrants, which would exclude anyone who failed to “embrace a tolerant American society.”
It should have been clear at the time that Trump’s putative concern for the safety of sexual minorities was simply a convenient wedge to try to divide the Democratic coalition. During his first term, he stacked the courts with judges who had opposed the rights of gay and transgender people and rolled back some of their workplace protections. Last year he used a growing backlash to trans rights to propel himself back to power, where his administration has been on a crusade to strip federal funding from almost anything with “L.G.B.T.” in it.
Trump’s treatment of L.G.B.T. people should have been a lesson to anyone tempted to take his campaign against antisemitism seriously, when it is screamingly obvious that it’s just a pretext to attack liberal institutions. Trump and his allies, after all, have mainstreamed antisemitism to an astonishing degree. Elon Musk, to whom Trump has outsourced the remaking of the federal government, is perhaps the world’s largest purveyor of antisemitic propaganda, thanks to his website X. (My “for you” feed recently served me a post of a winsome young woman speaking adoringly of “the H man,” or Hitler.) Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the secretary of health and human services, once said the unvaccinated had it worse than Anne Frank. Just last month Leo Terrell, the head of Trump’s antisemitism task force, shared a social media post by a prominent neo-Nazi gloating that Trump had the power to take away Senator Chuck Schumer’s “Jew card.” Trump himself, of course, dined with the Hitler-loving rapper Kanye West and the white nationalist Nick Fuentes.
Yet I’ve been astonished to learn that some people believe that when the administration attacks academia for its purported antisemitism, it’s acting in good faith.
(To read the complete article, click here)
Dear Friends
If you missed today’s program featuring Bret Stephens in conversation with Larry Mantle, you can watch the program at THIS PAST EVENTS LINK. The program will post a few hours after it ends. Starting Thursday morning, you can listen AT THIS PODCAST LINK.
Next Wednesday, May 7 at 5 pm Pacific we welcome Douglas Brinkley, who will be in conversation with Patt Morrison (see bios below), “The American Presidency: A Presidential Historian’s Perspective” (Register Here).
Douglas Brinkley is a Professor of History at Rice University, a CNN Presidential Historian, and a contributing editor at Vanity Fair. He has received seven honorary doctorates in American Studies. He has authored more than 25 books, including several highly acclaimed presidential biographies. Six of his books were named New York Times “Notable Books of the Year,” and seven became New York Times bestsellers. The New-York Historical Society selected Brinkley as their official U.S. Presidential Historian. He is on the Board of Trustees of Brevard College and the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library. He is a member of the Century Association, Council of Foreign Relations and James Madison Council of the Library of Congress.
Patt Morrison has a share of two Pulitzer Prizes as a longtime Los Angeles Times writer and columnist. As a public television and radio broadcaster, she has won six Emmys and a dozen Global Mike awards. Her first book, “Rio LA,” about the Los Angeles River, was a bestseller. Her most recent book is “Don’t Stop the Presses! Truth, Justice, and the American Newspaper.”
The New York Times
Michelle Goldberg
April 28, 2025
I Can’t Believe Anyone Thinks Trump Actually Cares About Antisemitism
About a decade ago, conservatives would often denounce Muslim immigration on the grounds that it threatened Western progress on gay rights. This posture, sometimes called homonationalism, got its start in Europe, then made its way into American politics with Donald Trump’s first presidential campaign. In his acceptance speech at the 2016 Republican National Convention, Trump decried the murder of 49 people in a gay nightclub in Orlando, Fla., by the Islamist Omar Mateen. “As your president, I will do everything in my power to protect our L.G.B.T. citizens from the violence and oppression of a hateful foreign ideology,” he said. A month later he unveiled his proposal for the “extreme vetting” of Muslim immigrants, which would exclude anyone who failed to “embrace a tolerant American society.”
It should have been clear at the time that Trump’s putative concern for the safety of sexual minorities was simply a convenient wedge to try to divide the Democratic coalition. During his first term, he stacked the courts with judges who had opposed the rights of gay and transgender people and rolled back some of their workplace protections. Last year he used a growing backlash to trans rights to propel himself back to power, where his administration has been on a crusade to strip federal funding from almost anything with “L.G.B.T.” in it.
Trump’s treatment of L.G.B.T. people should have been a lesson to anyone tempted to take his campaign against antisemitism seriously, when it is screamingly obvious that it’s just a pretext to attack liberal institutions. Trump and his allies, after all, have mainstreamed antisemitism to an astonishing degree. Elon Musk, to whom Trump has outsourced the remaking of the federal government, is perhaps the world’s largest purveyor of antisemitic propaganda, thanks to his website X. (My “for you” feed recently served me a post of a winsome young woman speaking adoringly of “the H man,” or Hitler.) Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the secretary of health and human services, once said the unvaccinated had it worse than Anne Frank. Just last month Leo Terrell, the head of Trump’s antisemitism task force, shared a social media post by a prominent neo-Nazi gloating that Trump had the power to take away Senator Chuck Schumer’s “Jew card.” Trump himself, of course, dined with the Hitler-loving rapper Kanye West and the white nationalist Nick Fuentes.
Yet I’ve been astonished to learn that some people believe that when the administration attacks academia for its purported antisemitism, it’s acting in good faith.
(To read the complete article, click here)
Wall Street Journal
Opinion/Commentary
April 27, 2025
J
oshua Claybourn
.
Why We’re Joining the Legal Fight Over Trump’s Tariffs
The taxing power belongs to Congress, which didn’t surrender it in the 1977 law he cites.
I joined a broad coalition of leaders—including former U.S. senators, retired federal judges, a former U.S. attorney general and pre-eminent constitutional scholars—in filing a friend-of-the-court brief last week in V.O.S. Selections v. Trump. Our brief urges the U.S. Court of International Trade to strike down President Trump’s 2025 tariffs as an unlawful and unprecedented seizure of legislative power. It challenges Mr. Trump’s sweeping proclamations not because of what they do but how they were done: unilaterally, without congressional authorization, and in defiance of the Constitution’s structure.
In April, Mr. Trump imposed a 10% baseline tax on all imports and sharply higher duties on goods from many countries. Then, in a series of whiplash tweaks, he shifted the numbers. These measures weren’t authorized by Congress. They weren’t part of a debated trade bill. They were declared unilaterally by presidential proclamation.
Tariffs are taxes, and under the Constitution, they must be enacted by Congress.
(To read the complete article, click here)
Dear Friends
Next Wednesday, April 30 at 5 pm Pacific we welcome Bret Stephens, who will be in conversation with Larry Mantle (see bios below) “Still 45 Months to Go: Trump, America, and the World” (Register Here). You can read Bret Stephen’s most recent column below!
Bret Stephens is a Pulitzer Prize-winning American conservative journalist, editor, and columnist. He began working as an opinion columnist for The New York Times in April 2017 and as a senior contributor to NBC News in June 2017. In 2021, in addition to his position at the NY Times, Stephens became editor-in-chief of SAPIR: A Journal of Jewish Conversations, published by Maimonides Fund. Stephens previously worked for The Wall Street Journal as a foreign-affairs columnist and later as the deputy editorial page editor, and was responsible for the editorial pages of its European and Asian editions. From 2002 to 2004, he was editor-in-chief of The Jerusalem Post. He won the Pulitzer Prize for Commentary in 2013.
Larry Mantle has been the host of AirTalk with Larry Mantle on NPR-member station KPCC, 89.3 FM since April 1st, 1985. AirTalk is the longest-running daily talk show in Southern California.
The New York Times
Bret Stephens
April 22, 2025
Harold Macmillan, the midcentury British prime minister, supposedly said that what statesmen feared most were “events, dear boy, events.” Misfortunes happen: a natural disaster, a terrorist attack, a foreign crisis. Political leaders are judged by how adroitly or incompetently they handle the unexpected.
Luckily, the Trump administration hasn’t yet had such misfortunes. Its only misfortune — and therefore everyone else’s — is itself.
So much has been obvious again this week, thanks to two stories that are, at their core, the same. First, there was the revelation that Pete Hegseth, the secretary of defense, had shared sensitive details of the military strike on Yemen with his wife, brother and personal lawyer on yet another Signal group chat. That was followed by an essay in Politico from a former close aide to Hegseth, John Ullyot, describing a “full-blown meltdown at the Pentagon” — a meltdown that included the firing of three of the department’s top officials. Donald Trump Jr. responded by saying Ullyot is “officially exiled from our movement.”
Then there was a market rout and a dollar plunge, thanks to President Trump’s unseemly and unhinged attacks on Jerome Powell, the Fed chairman. Powell’s sin was to have the audacity to describe the probable effects of the president’s tariffs: namely, that they’ll cause prices to go up and growth to slow down. This sent Trump into a rage, complete with White House threats to examine whether Powell can be fired — a potential assault on central bank independence worthy of the worst economic days of Argentina.
(To read the complete article, click here)
Washington Post
Fareed Zakaria
April 18, 2025
Trump revives a 1930s mistake that hurt more than it helped
The Smoot-Hawley tariffs didn’t save agriculture. Trump’s tariffs probably won’t save manufacturing.
When Donald Trump was inaugurated, by most measures, the United States was the strongest major economy in the world. Growth was robust, unemployment was just above a historic low, inflation had fallen to a manageable level, and productivity — the elixir of economics — had picked up. Trump took this booming economy and upended it with massive tariff hikes. Has anything like this ever been done before? Well, nothing quite as self-defeating, but the Smoot-Hawley tariffs were also imposed after a decade of heady growth. That story is worth recalling because there are startling parallels to today’s situation.
We remember the 1920s as the “Roaring Twenties,” and in economic terms, it’s apt. The annual growth rate for the decade was over 4 percent. Unemployment stayed low for most of it. Revolutionary innovations defined the period, allowing for the mass production of cars, airplanes, telephones, radios and movies. Television was birthed then, as were Band-Aids, which many saw as the greatest thing since sliced bread, also invented then. Henry Ford perfected the mass-production systems that would define modern manufacturing for decades. Just as the 1990s and 2000s were celebrated for creating a new economy, that was the feeling about the ’20s.
(To read the complete article, click here)
Dear Friends
If you missed today’s program featuring Ambassador (fmr) Michael McFaul and Larry Diamond, you can watch the program at THIS PAST EVENTS LINK. The program will post a few hours after it ends. Starting Thursday morning, you can listen AT THIS PODCAST LINK.
Next Wednesday, April 30 at 5 pm Pacific we welcome Bret Stephens, who will be in conversation with Larry Mantle (see bios below) “Still 45 Months to Go: Trump, America, and the World” (Register Here).
Washington Post
Fareed Zakaria
April 18, 2025
Trump revives a 1930s mistake that hurt more than it helped
The Smoot-Hawley tariffs didn’t save agriculture. Trump’s tariffs probably won’t save manufacturing.
When Donald Trump was inaugurated, by most measures, the United States was the strongest major economy in the world. Growth was robust, unemployment was just above a historic low, inflation had fallen to a manageable level, and productivity — the elixir of economics — had picked up. Trump took this booming economy and upended it with massive tariff hikes. Has anything like this ever been done before? Well, nothing quite as self-defeating, but the Smoot-Hawley tariffs were also imposed after a decade of heady growth. That story is worth recalling because there are startling parallels to today’s situation.
We remember the 1920s as the “Roaring Twenties,” and in economic terms, it’s apt. The annual growth rate for the decade was over 4 percent. Unemployment stayed low for most of it. Revolutionary innovations defined the period, allowing for the mass production of cars, airplanes, telephones, radios and movies. Television was birthed then, as were Band-Aids, which many saw as the greatest thing since sliced bread, also invented then. Henry Ford perfected the mass-production systems that would define modern manufacturing for decades. Just as the 1990s and 2000s were celebrated for creating a new economy, that was the feeling about the ’20s.
(To read the complete article, click here)
Foreign Affairs
Michael Beckley
April 16, 2025
The Age of American Unilateralism
How a Rogue Superpower Will Remake the Global Order
Since the end of the Cold War, the United States has largely been expected to follow one of two foreign policy paths: preserve the country’s position as the leader of the liberal international order or withdraw and adjust to a post-American, multipolar world. But as I argued in Foreign Affairs in 2020, the most likely trajectory was always a third: become a rogue superpower, neither internationalist nor isolationist but aggressive, powerful, and increasingly out for itself.
U.S. President Donald Trump has given this vision sharp definition by raising tariffs to levels that echo the infamous Smoot-Hawley Act of 1930, slashing foreign aid, snubbing allies, and proposing to seize foreign territory, including Greenland and the Panama Canal. Yet Trump is more accelerant than architect, channeling long-simmering frustrations with global leadership and deeper structural forces pulling U.S. strategy inward. The real question now is not whether the United States will continue to go its own way but how—and to what end.
Understanding the drivers of this shift is no longer a matter of academic debate. It’s essential for shaping what comes next. Left unchecked, Washington’s unilateral turn could destabilize the world and undermine its own long-term power. But if recognized and redirected, these forces could form the foundation of a more focused and sustainable strategy; one that sheds the overreach of liberal hegemony without surrendering the core strengths of a liberal order.
(To read the complete article, click here)
Voting Rights and Empowerment
Immigration and Asylum
Equality - Fighting Hate and Discrimination
Freedom of the Press
Voting Rights and Empowerment
CENTER FOR COMMON GROUND’S RECLAIM OUR VOTE CAMPAIGN
Ongoing voter suppression and voter list purging have been disenfranchising millions of eligible voters — especially voters of color. Reclaim Our Vote works in those voter suppression states. Our volunteers inform and mobilize voters of color to make sure they are registered and they know how to get a ballot and vote. It is a nonpartisan campaign of the nonprofit 501(c)3 Center for Common Ground.
LEAGUE OF WOMEN VOTERS
The League of Women Voters of the United States encourages informed and active participation in government, works to increase understanding of major public policy issues, and influences public policy through education and advocacy.
POSTCARDS TO VOTERS
Postcards to Voters are friendly, handwritten reminders from volunteers to targeted voters giving Democrats a winning edge in close, key races coast to coast.
ROCK THE VOTE
In 1990, music executives founded Rock the Vote in response to the censorship of hip-hop and rap artists. Our first partnership, with MTV, promoted the message that “Censorship is Un-American” and activated millions of young people across the country to exercise their rights and represent their interests. For thirty years, we have continuously adapted to the changing landscapes of media, technology and culture to breakthrough and empower each new generation.
VOTE.ORG
Vote.org uses technology to simplify political engagement, increase voter turnout, and strengthen American democracy.
WHEN WE ALL VOTE
When We All Vote is a non-profit, nonpartisan organization that is on a mission to increase participation in every election and close the race and age voting gap by changing the culture around voting, harnessing grassroots energy, and through strategic partnerships to reach every American.
Immigration and Asylum
ACLU
For nearly one hundred years, ACLU lawyers have been at the center of one history-making court case after another, participating in more Supreme Court cases than any other private organization. With attorneys nationwide, we handle thousands of cases each year on behalf of clients whose rights have been violated.
Bet Tzedek
Bet Tzedek attorneys and advocates help people of all communities and generations secure life’s necessities. Wherever people are in crisis, Bet Tzedek’s core services and rapid response programs provide stability and hope.
Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights
CHIRLA is a California leader with the national impact made of diverse immigrant families and individuals who act as agents of social change to achieve a world with freedom of mobility, full human rights, and true participatory democracy. CHIRLA’s mission is to achieve a just society fully inclusive of immigrants.
HIAS
HIAS works around the world to protect refugees who have been forced to flee their homelands because of who they are, including ethnic, religious, and sexual minorities. For more than 130 years, HIAS has been helping refugees rebuild their lives in safety and dignity.
Public Counsel
Public Counsel is the largest pro bono law firm in the nation. We work with major law firms and corporations to change people’s futures. A staff of 71 attorneys and 50 support staff – including five social workers – along with over 5,000 volunteer lawyers, law students and legal professionals assists over 30,000 children, youth, families, and community organizations every year.
Equality - Fighting Hate and Discrimination
ANTI DEFAMATION LEAGUE
ADL is a leading anti-hate organization. Founded in 1913 in response to an escalating climate of anti-Semitism and bigotry, its timeless mission is to protect the Jewish people and to secure justice and fair treatment for all. Today, ADL continues to fight all forms of hate with the same vigor and passion. ADL is a global leader in exposing extremism and delivering anti-bias education, and is a leading organization in training law enforcement. ADL is the first call when acts of anti-Semitism occur. ADL’s ultimate goal is a world in which no group or individual suffers from bias, discrimination or hate.
BEND THE ARC
Bend the Arc is a movement of tens of thousands of progressive Jews all across the country. For years, we’ve worked to build a more just society. Now we’re rising up in solidarity with everyone threatened by the Trump agenda to fight for the soul of our nation.
EQUAL JUSTICE INITIATIVE
The Equal Justice Initiative is committed to ending mass incarceration and excessive punishment in the United States, to challenging racial and economic injustice, and to protecting basic human rights for the most vulnerable people in American society.
INTEGRITY FIRST FOR AMERICA
Integrity First for America (IFA) is a nonpartisan nonprofit organization dedicated to holding those accountable who threaten longstanding principles of our democracy—including our country’s commitment to civil rights and equal justice.
NAACP
Founded in 1909 in response to the ongoing violence against Black people around the country, the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) is the largest and most pre-eminent civil rights organization in the nation. We have over 2,200 units and branches across the nation, along with well over 2M activists. Our mission is to secure the political, educational, social, and economic equality of rights in order to eliminate race-based discrimination and ensure the health and well-being of all persons.
Freedom of the Press
ACLU
For nearly one hundred years, ACLU lawyers have been at the center of one history-making court case after another, participating in more Supreme Court cases than any other private organization. With attorneys nationwide, we handle thousands of cases each year on behalf of clients whose rights have been violated.
REPORTERS COMMITTEE FOR FREEDOM OF THE PRESS
The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press provides pro bono legal representation, amicus curiae support, and other legal resources to protect First Amendment freedoms and the newsgathering rights of journalists.
