Two hundred fifty-six years ago, one of history’s most consequential figures was born. Napoleon Bonaparte—Emperor of the French, master of Europe, and the Little Corporal—rose from being an obscure Corsican boy to redrawing the map of an entire continent, and leaving behind a legacy that continues to reverberate through the ages and shapes our world today. There are many names and titles we can give the late military genius, but astute economic strategist is not one of them.

[The Woke Revolution: Up From Slavery and Back Again by H.V. Traywick, Jr. (Shotwell Publishing LLC, 2025; 101pp.)]

In a significant escalation of federal involvement in private enterprise, President Trump claimed that Intel had agreed in a meeting last week to give the US government a 10 percent equity stake in exchange for converting government grants pledged to the struggling firm under the prior administration. Days before the meeting, Trump had called for CEO Lip Bu Tan’s resignation over alleged ties to China—a move that, combined with the equity stake, signals a growing willingness to blur the line between private ownership and state control.

Isaiah 1:22—“Your silver has become dross, Your drink diluted with water.”

“Why declare that things shall not be done which there is no power to do?”—Alexander Hamilton, Federalist No. 84, writing on his opposition to the inclusion of a Bill of Rights in the Constitution

“The Bill of Rights would never have been necessary . . . if so much power had not been granted to the central government by the constitution of 1787 in the first place.”—Ryan McMaken

Native Americans live amid vast natural wealth, yet their communities are among the poorest in the United States. This paradox is not the result of a lack of ambition or ability, but a consequence of decades of federal policies that treat native peoples, not as equal citizens, but as wards of the state. The paternalism embedded in the federal trust doctrine has crippled economic development, discouraged investment, and stifled individual initiative.