From the right: Fake ‘Families’ and Billionaires
“Like a surprising number of Trump 2.0 resistance pop-up groups,” reports The Free Press’ Gabe Kaminsky, Families Over Billionaires, which claims to “elevate the voices of the majority of Americans who oppose more tax breaks for the rich,” owes its existence to “a single entity: the consulting firm Arabella Advisors.” That group “oversees a massive ‘dark money’ network bankrolled by the super-rich and aligned with the Democratic Party.” (Think “Bill Gates, eBay founder Pierre Omidyar, LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman, and Democratic megadonor George Soros.”) Per an employee at a related nonprofit parent, these groups “essentially act less as meaningful organs of policy change than as providing cover for billionaires and the consultant class” to “consolidate power into the hands of a few influential individuals.”
Russia desk: Trump’s Sanctions Hammer
President Trump’s vow to unleash major sanctions on Russia unless the Ukraine war ends breaks a “puzzling restraint” towards Vladimir Putin,notes Peter Doran at The Hill: “This is the right play. The test is whether Trump will swing the hammer with the precision it demands.” “Sanctions do not work unless they break something vital” — and this move must “be a sledgehammer, applying an unbearable blow that will leave Moscow desperate for the relief of peace.” “Trump can start by gutting Russia’s oil lifelines.” “Next, turn the screws on Europe” over defense spending. “Finally, Trump should hit Russia’s industrial underbelly with secondary sanctions on the banks and transhippers that enable ‘shadow trades.’” “Trump now has a chance to finish the job — no half-measures, no retreat.”
Libertarian: Yes to Ending Tax on Tips
“Trump is right to want to get rid of taxes on tips, primarily because it’s a heavy paperwork load and it generates practically no revenue,” but there are “a few flies in the ointment,” observes Jared Dillian at Reason. “Naturally, people are going to try to arbitrage the system and treat actual wages as tip income,” so likely “tipped occupations will explode after the tax is abolished.” And tipping may “decrease after tax on tips is eliminated.” Still, “tipped employees” have frequently been “the target of IRS audits,” since “the IRS disproportionately” audits “low-income taxpayers compared to high-income” ones. “Ending the tax on tips not only puts more money in the pockets of service employees but also unburdens them from an onerous tax enforcement regime.”
Culture critic: The Joys of JD Memes
The Washington Examiner’s Salena Zito laughs at an Atlantic think piece finding deep meaning in the explosion of memes featuring a photoshopped Vice President JD Vance: It’s one more example of the gulf “between regular people and our cultural curators.” No, the memes don’t make Vance “a doofus in the eyes of voters”; he’s “being treated no differently than any of us treat one another when we are joking around in real life.” Indeed, “it’s called ‘jagging around.’” And: “Those in charge of our cultural institutions need to get out of their bubble if they ever want to understand the sea change in America.”
Civil rights beat: Masked Protesters Break the Law
Is President Trump’s demand that protesters not be allowed to wear masks “mere bullying” or a “response to a real legal problem?” asks Philip Hamburger at The Wall Street Journal. “The Ku Klux Klan relied on masks to protect their identities” when they attacked recently emancipated slaves. Congress responded “by enacting laws against masking, including the Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871,” which provided for damages against those who wear masks to aid in “depriving” others “of the equal protection of the laws.” Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 bans discrimination, which masks facilitate. So schools that allow “violent antisemites to hide their identities are depriving Jews of equal protection in violation of the Ku Klux Klan Act and Title VI.”
— Compiled by The Post Editorial Board
