“Shame on those who voted for it: you know you did wrong. You know it.”

Trump is partnering with CIA-funded surveillance operation Palantir to build a database on all Americans. 

The United States, formerly these united colonies, is preparing for its 250th anniversary of its break-up from that era’s “Great Satan” by reminding us of what brought it about, such as the Battle of Lexington and Concord and subsequent battles of 1775, along with issues that preceded them.

Many non-governmental organizations (NGO’s) operating in India receive foreign funds. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) received a majority of seats in India’s Lok Sabha (lower house of parliament) in May 2014 national elections. National elections in 2019 and 2024 have continued the BJP majority in Lok Sabha control.

In his day, Frédéric Bastiat (1801-1850) marveled at the “prodigious mechanism” by which Paris—a city of one million inhabitants in 1845—was constantly supplied with food without the intervention of any central planner. He attributed this spontaneous order to individual interest, “so active, so vigilant, so far-sighted, when it is free in its action.”

When Constantine the Great carried the seat of empire from Rome to Constantinople he set up in the market-place of the new capital a porphyry pillar which had come from Egypt, and of which a strange tale is told. In a vault beneath he secretly buried the seven sacred emblems of the Roman State, which were guarded by the virgins in the temple of Vesta, with the fire that might never be quenched.

President Trump hosted Elon Musk for a farewell press conference on Friday. Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) team savvily exposed federal follies and spurred over $100 billion in canceled federal contracts and cutbacks. It remains to be seen whether Congress will codify the DOGE spending cuts. Even if that happens, the “savings” will practically vanish in the tsunami of new deficit spending championed by Trump—up to $4 trillion in the next decade.

Whatever one may think of the Catholic Pope’s religious authority, the fact remains that the Papacy—also known as the Holy See—in spite of several centuries of decline in prestige, is an international institution that is difficult to ignore. There are good reasons, after all, why the heads of state from major global powers choose to meet with the Pope and with his representatives. In spite of lacking any significant military force or sizable territory, the Papacy exercises what the Americans like to call “soft power.”