The Walt Disney Company used to control Florida’s government. In 1965, Governor W. Haydon Burns hosted a press conference with Walt Disney where they announced the Florida Project, a sprawling development that became Walt Disney World. There has not been a time between 1965 and early 2022 when Mr. Disney’s company did not exert a heavy influence on Florida’s state government. To maintain that influence, … Continue reading The old rules don’t work anymore
Three of the largest economies in the Americas – the U.S., Canada, and Mexico – have a decades-old free trade arrangement. Slightly modified under the Trump administration, the deal ensures that most goods can be made in any of the three countries and sold in any of the other three countries. Originally called the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and now called USMCA, the … Continue reading It turns out Republicans are manufacturing some of the supply chain issues for political points
Contrary to popular belief, the United States is not the only country where student loans exist. But the ubiquity of student loans in the U.S. is somewhat unusual. Less than 20% of German students obtain student loans, for example. Things in the U.K. might be more relatable to American students; there, students rack up an average of $43,298 in debt, slightly above the average $39,351 … Continue reading The Biden administration is going to delay student loan repayments again. How can it ever expect to resume them?
Vladimir Putin celebrated his country’s middling performance at the 2022 Winter Olympics by invading Ukraine, which is more or less also how he celebrated his country’s middling performance at the 2014 Winter Olympics. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, maybe your country shouldn’t be allowed to go to the Olympics anymore. It’s not the only repercussion faced by Russians, who have watched … Continue reading Again, the Iraq War was more popular than you remember
In an Associated Press report provided to news outlets Thursday, former Senator Heidi Heitkamp (D-ND) lamented that “far-left” positions taken by some Democrats alienate rural voters. Heitkamp explained, “We’re letting Republicans use the language of the far left to define the Democratic Party, and we can’t do that.” The problem that Heitkamp fails to grasp – and that, indeed, a lot of Democrats fail to … Continue reading Moderate Democrats still don’t understand the tautology of American politics
When a politician is looking to score some quick political points, there’s a well they consistently dip their bucket into: term limits. In 2018, President Donald Trump tweeted that he had met with lawmakers and discussed term limits, giving his “full support and endorsement for their efforts.” President Obama wrote in A Promised Land that, as a senator, he “questioned what might happen to me … Continue reading There’s no evidence that term limits work and a lot of evidence that they don’t
Five U.S. Senators – Joe Manchin of West Virginia, Mitt Romney of Utah, Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona – could break away from their respective parties today and form a new centrist party which would have an inconceivable amount of power in the divided senate, depriving the Republicans and Democrats of guaranteed control and forcing legislation to … Continue reading If Manchin and Murkowski can’t start a new party, no one can
When Carter Woodson was a young boy, his family had very little. They were poor farmers and, to make things worse, they were Black in a post-Reconstruction Virginia where white figures were reasserting control over the political and social sphere. But what they did have was freedom, something Woodson’s parents had gained in their lifetime. He was a free American citizen at his birth, something … Continue reading A History of Black History Month
Donald Trump v. Twitter is a very silly lawsuit. It boils down to “Twitter says I can’t use its platform and that’s illegal because of the First Amendment.” Wise armchair lawyers are desperate to find a Pyramid comments section so they can wisely point out in a wise way that the First Amendment protects you from the government, not from private companies. But Trump’s lawyers … Continue reading In a court filing, Trump’s lawyers said the quiet part out loud
As is their unstoppable habit, Twitter users speculated about what would be the straw that breaks the filibuster’s back on Thursday in light of the news that it would apparently not be a vote by Senate Democrats. The Atlantic mused that opposition to the filibuster has now become a core belief in the Democratic Party, with most Dems unwilling to preserve the archaic (yet not … Continue reading Could We Be in the Era of One Term Presidencies?
