Tariffs, Markets, and Traditions

Former Clinton strategist James Carville has reinvented himself at age 80 as a sage Democrat podcaster. His predictions—remember, a victorious Kamala Harris?—are usually wrong.

He enjoys engaging in public duels with celebrities to gain online clicks and media appearances. Yet sometimes he appears judicious in his effort to return his party to the Clinton glory days of 1992-2000, before the takeover of the party by the lunatic left.

That said, he too has become part of the new left nihilism he supposedly despises.

Most recently, Dr. Carville diagnosed Donald Trump as suffering from tertiary syphilis. Carville’s “proof” was his identification of a bruise on Trump’s much-used shaking hand, along with his supposed brain dementia.

As confirmation, Carville described Trump as a “fat f—ing slob” with a “beached whale body.” So, a once top Democratic strategist has gone from his 1992 iconic campaign reminder, “It’s the economy, stupid,” to smearing Trump as a fat slob with syphilis.

Carville’s descent sums up his entire party.

When Syria's dictator, Bashar al-Assad, was thrown from power last December and fled to Russia, Europe's elites, and its Washington swamp allies, rejoiced.

Sure, the new guys in charge, Head of State Ahmed al-Sharaa and an armed rebel group called HTS, had been members of al-Qaida in Iraq. But Assad was the bad guy -- evil, wicked, worst person in the world.

What's more, the rebels had changed. They were now Muslim “moderates” as they told the dancing gullibles at PBS who dutifully took them at their word.

Freedom would flow. They would govern as Jeffersonian democrats now. They were woke and “diversity-friendly,” too, and no, that's not a sarcastic phrase I made up.

All of the favorite things of blue rule were cited.

The Guardian suggested that feminism would flourish. Gays would be okay. Veils would be optional. The ever-diminishing Christian minority, which came to about 2% of the population, from about 20% two decades ago, would be fine.

As a result, European leaders from Germany and France came to court them, and the big EU cash streams flowed, at least $300 million worth. It was as if George Bush was president all over again.

Now the bearded beasts are back to their old form, targeting and slaughtering Christians, Alawites, Druze and Yazidi minorities now, not exactly concerned if anyone knows.

This is what is going on now:

Welcome to your chance to nerd out on the difference between process and merits in legal actions. Our case of interest is AIDS Vaccine Advocacy v. Department of State.

For non-lawyers, this is the case challenging President Trump’s order to freeze all payments from USAID until they can be fully reviewed for compliance with the law and the administration’s policies.

If your claim has merit, it will be paid. If not, pound sand.

And if you think you’re owed money that the government says they won’t pay, you can go to the Court of Federal Claims.

The District Court does not have jurisdiction to hear you. Nor does it have the power to order anyone to pay you.

After Donald Trump was elected, on December 2, 2024, Joe Biden hustled (I think that means he shuffled less slowly…) to appoint Amir Ali, a reliable left-wing lawyer, to a seat in the reliably left-wing District Court for the District of Columbia, a reliably left-wing locale.

Ali had barely gotten his chair adjusted when the USAID case landed on his desk.

Before the recent election, the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability asked then-Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen to turn over all Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs) relating to ActBlue — not much happened. An SAR is a document that banks file with the Treasury Department pursuant to potentially fraudulent or illicit financial activity.

Yellen stalled, presumably in the hope that the Democrats would win the House back in November and halt the investigation. That obviously didn’t happen and the new Secretary of the Treasury, Scott Bessent, is of course cooperating with the committee.

This may well be what precipitated the sudden departure of seven senior officials from ActBlue in February. The New York Times reports that the exodus included “the associate general counsel — who was the highest-ranking legal officer at ActBlue — the assistant research director, a human resources official, the chief revenue officer and an engineer who had spent 16 years building and maintaining the electronic pipes through which the group’s donations flow.”

These “electronic pipes” are clearly of particular interest to the Chairman of the Oversight and Accountability Committee, Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.), who included the following forewarning in his letter to erstwhile Treasury Secretary Yellen:

JOHNSTOWN, Pennsylvania — Alex Bambino, 21, is the son of two educators.

He’s busy working, welding a piece of material that will be used on a heavily armored military vehicle when finished.

Despite two college-educated parents, who teach at the local Cambrian County schools, he wanted nothing to do with college following high school.

“I like working with my hands, being part of making something that is important, and I had no interest in starting my adult life in debt,” he said.

So he went to Greater Johnstown Career and Technology Center, and he became so good at what he did that he was recognized at the SkillsUSA championship as a national competitor.

He found work in his hometown at JWF Defense Systems, located in the old Bethlehem Steel plant along the Conemaugh River.

And he became part of something bigger than himself in the machines he helped make.

Bambino is just the kind of young person Mike Rowe has been talking about for the past few years in his tireless effort to inspire young people to consider a different path after high school.