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A short note to Kristi Noem

The New York Times reports that the Department of Homeland Security has sent Google (owner of YouTube), Meta (Facebook and Instagram), and other media corporations subpoenas for the names on accounts that criticize ICE enforcement. The department wants to identify Americans who oppose what it’s doing. I’ll save them time. Hello? Kristi Noem? Robert Reich here. I hear you’re trying to find the names of people who are making negative comments on social media about ICE enforcement. Look no further. I’ve done it frequently. I’m still doing it. This note to you is another ...

Our usual predictable, boring Super Bowl Satyricon

In recent years, Americans have known what to expect from our Neronian Super Bowl halftime shows. Mediocre music is veneered over with gaudy, flashily lit, but ultimately empty and meaningless sets. The usual array of supporting dancers twerk and simulate intercourse, in sync with the main singer periodically grabbing his/her genitals — apparently to highlight the explicit sexual allusions of the mostly nonsensical lyrics. All this Roman orgiastic ritual is designed by the NFL each year somehow to appeal to American families of all ages as they gather together around the living ...

Make sure you prepare to vote in May primary

If you’re beginning to feel as though the stakes in this year’s elections are unusually high, you are not alone. Even a cursory glance at newspaper opinion pages or social media feeds will tell you there are strong feelings on many important issues — and plenty of people believe they must weigh in on the candidates who might address those issues. Here’s the problem. When it really counts — Election Day — those opinion pieces or social media posts will not move the needle. Your vote will; and primary elections are closer than you might think. Ohio’s Secretary of ...

Ohio set to benefit from Japan-U.S. deal

Good news came this week out of the U.S. Commerce Department, which says Japan is planning to fund three projects totaling approximately $36 billion in the coming years — one each in Ohio, Texas and Georgia. According to Reuters, this is the first wave of investments in the planned $550 billion reportedly pledged as part of a trade deal with the U.S. The Ohio project is expected to be a $33 billion natural gas-fired power plant in Portsmouth — perhaps the largest ever, according to U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick. Reuters reports Lutnick said the plant would have a 9.2 ...

The poet and the president

In early 1862, Union generals, soldiers and even the commander in chief of the Civil War were literally at a loss. Morale ran low. Taking the oath of office in March 1861, President Abraham Lincoln of Illinois was a newcomer to the nation’s capital. Compared to the flash-and-dash style of winning Confederate general Robert E. Lee, Lincoln was not a military man. Lee, educated at West Point, was a career Union Army officer who chose to side with his state, Virginia, in battle rather than his riven country. For that he’s a traitor, not a noble Southern gentleman, as he’s ...

Remembering Cato co-founder Ed Crane

Within the last six months, two friends, both pioneers and giants in the world of ideas in Washington, D.C., passed from this world. One, Ed Feulner, was the co-founder of the Heritage Foundation, which became the nation’s defining policy institute for conservative ideas. Now, last week, Ed Crane, the co-founder of the Cato Institute, passed away. Ed Crane built Cato to become the major presence in the nation’s capital for libertarian ideas and policy. My personal involvement with Cato began in 1996 when I was invited to join the national advisory board for Cato’s project ...