If the next pope is from sub-Saharan Africa, he would be the first in Catholic Church history. Catholic Africans think it is a long shot, though some are cautiously optimistic that Pope Francis’ successor could be a Black cardinal from their continent.

The answer will come soon, as the cardinals eligible to elect the new pope open their conclave next Wednesday at the Sistine Chapel.

At least three African cardinals are among those currently cited as “papabile,” the term used by Vatican observers to describe possible contenders to lead the Catholic Church.

They are Cardinals Robert Sarah of Guinea, Peter Turkson of Ghana and Fridolin Ambongo of Congo.

If any of them is selected, he would be the first African pope in more than 1,500 years and the first ever from sub-Saharan Africa. That historical record makes many in Africa eager for change — but not overly hopeful.

Before the 2005 conclave that elected Pope Benedict XVI, there was much media attention around Francis Arinze, a highly respected cardinal born in Nigeria, raising questions even then about whether the world was ready for a Black pope from Africa.

Two decades later, Catholicism continues to decline in Europe while it grows in the developing world. The number of Catholics is growing faster in Africa than anywhere else.

At least 20% of global Catholic community is in Africa, which “is characterized by a highly dynamic spread of the Catholic Church,” according to a recent Vatican report.

Some say having a pope from Africa, or Asia — which is also seeing strong Catholic growth — would signal a powerful message of inclusion. But as Francis’ papacy showed, inclusive efforts can alienate many others and even breed dissent.

The three possible papal candidates from Africa — Sarah, Ambongo, and Turkson — are seen as holding orthodox views on some of the hot-button issues that the Catholic Church is grappling with, reflecting wider social conservatism on the continent of 1.3 billion people. Catholic orthodoxy in Africa was at odds with Pope Francis’ pastoral vision of mercy and understanding for all marginalized groups, including LGBTQ+ Catholics.

The real-life situation was reflected in the fictional Oscar-nominated film “Conclave,” in which one of the four contenders vying for the papacy was a socially conservative cardinal from Nigeria.

Congo has the highest number of baptized Catholics in Africa.

Ambongo — the archbishop of Congolese capital, Kinshasa, since 2018 — last year signed a statement by the conference of African bishops rejecting a Vatican declaration to allow priests to offer spontaneous, non-liturgical blessings to same-sex couples seeking God’s grace.

That statement, seen as a rebuke of Francis, asserted that same-sex unions were “contrary to the will of God.” It cited biblical teaching condemning homosexuality and asserted that same-sex relations are “contradictory to cultural norms” in Africa.

But it is Sarah, the Guinean cardinal who is the Vatican’s former liturgy chief, who posed a more public challenge to Francis.

A favorite of traditionalists, Sarah prefers silent prayer and is an adherent of the old Latin Mass. He is a staunch defender of longstanding doctrinal faith.

After Francis in 2021 reimposed restrictions on celebrating the Latin Mass that Benedict had relaxed, Sarah responded with tweets quoting Benedict’s original 2007 law to relax the restrictions. His posts were accompanied by a photo of Benedict wearing the red cape that Francis had eschewed the night of his election.

A year earlier, Sarah had orchestrated a media firestorm by persuading Benedict to co-author a book reaffirming priestly celibacy at a time when Francis was considering ordaining married men to address a clergy shortage in the Amazon. As the scandal grew, Benedict removed himself as a co-author.

Sarah, 79, officially retired in 2021 but remains eligible to attend the conclave. Since the death of Francis on April 21, he has emerged as a favorite of European traditionalists who want to see a reversal of Francis’ progressive policies.

But in Africa, where Francis was widely loved for his engagement with the continent’s crises, many Catholics simply want a pope who will be a faithful leader for everyone.

“For us, it does not matter whether he is African, white, or Black. What matters is having a good, holy pope who can unite Catholics across the world,” said Luka Lawrence Ndenge, an emergency officer with the Catholic charity Caritas in the remote town of Wau in South Sudan.

The father of two said he believes an African can rise to the papacy, especially as “we already have African cardinals who are fully capable.”

Bishop Tesfaselassie Medhin, primate of Adigrat in the Ethiopian region of Tigray, said he hopes the next pope will be as compassionate as Francis, who repeatedly called attention to war in Tigray in 2021 and 2022.

But the prospect of having a Black African pope is exciting, he said.

“For me, having a passionate, dedicated and competent African leading the Catholic Church is very important to me as an African and to see it in my lifetime is my absolute wish,” he said.

Emily Mwaka doesn’t like speculating about the next pope, especially on the color of his skin. So when the head of the Catholic laity in Kampala, Uganda, recently came upon a small group of Christians discussing a newspaper article about possible papal contenders — including some from Africa — she asked them to stop it.

Even if the next pontiff is “green,” she said, he “will be for all of us.

NewsmaxWorld

Will we ever see justice for the top tier of traitors in America? Yes, Hillary Clinton. But also the Biden, Obama, Soros, Fauci and Pelosi crime families? For abusing the highest level of power entrusted to them by setting our Constitution on fire? Or will they continue to live out their seemingly endless lives as wealthy, connected criminals with ZERO accountability for everything they have done?

Another one: Michelle Obama. She says she “lays awake” at night worrying about Trump deportations of violent, savage gang members in the country illegally.

Michelle: We understand. The life of a charlatan is stressful. Your contradictions catch up with you. Being advanced and applauded not for any real intelligence or actual achievements, but for your race, isn’t a recipe for self-respect or inner serenity. Of course you’re full of resentment. Eventually good people do fight back, and you could be a target. If you’re finding your life of crime, deception and tyranny too stressful to handle, Michelle, then you should have made better choices.

Michael J. Hurd, Daily Dose of Reason

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Wednesday on “Hannity” that 17 trading partners have come forward to negotiate deals with the Trump administration.

Just a day after President Donald Trump’s official 100 days in office, the Republican-led Senate voted Wednesday to justify his sweeping global tariffs, which he originally revealed on April 2. During a discussion with Fox host Sean Hannity, the host asked Bessent about the “state” of the deals, questioning where the U.S. currently stands and if official deals will be signed “in the near future.”

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“Yeah, Sean, what I believe, and you can see it, the president had this incredible first 100 days. Just look at the success of the border. Now we closed the first 100 days with this deal where President Trump is one of the first presidents to create assets rather than debt for the American people,” Bessent said.

“Now we’re moving on to the trade deals. President Trump has created the maximum optionality, maximum pressure for our trading partners. By showing the high level of tariffs from April 2 that are possible, they’ve all come to the table to negotiate,” Bessent added. “So we’ve got 18 important trading partners. We put China to the side. Seventeen have not escalated. We are in negotiations with them. There’s a process in place.”

Trump announced sweeping reciprocal tariffs against a list of countries, setting a baseline of 10% for the tariffs, but adjusting some according to what others had imposed on the United States. However, by April 9, the president announced a 90-day pause on the tariffs for all countries besides China, which had responded with retaliatory tariffs against the U.S.

As Bessent began explaining how Trump had responded to handling the tariffs, Hannity interrupted to clarify that “all 17” trading partners had come to the table.

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Trump announced sweeping reciprocal tariffs against a list of countries, setting a baseline of 10% for the tariffs, but adjusting some according to what others had imposed on the United States. However, by April 9, the president announced a 90-day pause on the tariffs for all countries besides China, which had responded with retaliatory tariffs against the U.S.

As Bessent began explaining how Trump had responded to handling the tariffs, Hannity interrupted to clarify that “all 17” trading partners had come to the table.

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“All 17 have approached us. We are batching them in groups at a time,” Bessent said. “But we’ve had 100 approach us, and we are working with the top 17 to try to move them along as quickly as possible. Knowing that their levels could ratchet back up to the April 2 tariff level has made everyone come to the table with some, what I would say, are very good proposals.”

Since the pause on the tariffs, Trump administration officials have hinted at potential deals with foreign countries, but they have released limited information on the details. During a press briefing on Monday, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said that the U.S. had received “18 proposals on paper” from foreign countries to negotiate tariffs.

The president also signaled on April 22 that the 145% tariff against China would “come down substantially,” but he said it would not be eliminated entirely.

(Featured Image Media Credit: Screenshot/Fox News/”Hannity”)

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Hailey Gomez, Daily Caller News Foundation

When It Comes to Gravy Trains, Nothing ‘Do Nothing’ About This Congress

While most conservatives, and even many Republicans, are pleased with the almost round-the-clock executive order machine of the Trump White House, many are also wondering why there isn’t the same level of activity, or any activity at all for that matter, coming from Congress?!

Sadly, but not surprisingly, our catatonic Congress makes work-from-home federal employees look like beehives of activity by comparison.

The Washington Times has some of the details and the news is not good.

Right now, both houses are “working” on a budget reconciliation bill that is being sold to Trump voters as the Big Bang in government reform and cutting spending.

And this isn’t Trumpian hype.

This is possible!

A budget reconciliation bill only needs a simple majority in both houses to pass and the Republicans have enough members to do so.

The only variable holding up passage is, you guessed it, individual Republicans.

Here’s one example:

Biden’s hilariously misnamed and fraudulent Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) was a multi-billion-dollar gift to the left:

• It provides thousands of patronage jobs for left-wingers.
• It funds anti-fossil fuel organizations and the employees.
• It imposes economy and power generation roadblocks on the nation’s power grid.
• It gives billions to wealthy “green energy” subsidy farmers.
• It helps Chinese firms that build solar panels and windmills, and it does so by increasing deficit spending.
• It also gives jobs to people who won’t vote GOP.
• It funds organizations that work against Republican policies.
• It makes the power grid as susceptible to the weather as a summer picnic.
• And . . . it helps China!

Repealing this travesty should be automatic even for our spineless members of congress.

Only there’s one side effect from the bill we left out.

The subsidy farming companies that have latched on to the green energy scam take some of the tax dollars they’ve bled from Uncle Sam and contribute to politicians whose vote they want to rent.

That makes the IRA the worst of all worlds.

The Trump White House has admirably promised, “Inflation Reduction Act credits will be repealed to the fullest extent possible.”

That extent will be essentially zero if four RINOs in the U.S. Senate get their way.

Sens. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, John Curtis, R-Utah, Thom Tillis, R-N.C., and Jerry Moran, R-Kan., signed a letter that reads, “A wholesale repeal, or the termination of certain individual credits, would create uncertainty, jeopardizing capital allocation, long-term project planning, and job creation in the energy sector and across our broader economy.”

Translation?

If taxpayers don’t continue subsidizing these economically insane, money losing projects that only help leftist voters, our donors will lose money and won’t contribute to our next campaign.

Maybe if Trump installed a windmill in each of their backyards, it might change their minds. Unfortunately, so far, the president has only declared war on members of congress who vote with him 90% of the time.

The disloyal RINOs have gotten off scot-free.

We aren’t optimistic regarding the prospects for a budget bill that cuts spending and shrinks the size of the bloated federal government. Too many of our “combover conservatives” have become addicted to spending and subsidies and they show no inclination to ever enter political rehab.

Michael Reagan, the eldest son of President Ronald Reagan, is a Newsmax TV analyst. A syndicated columnist and author, he chairs The Reagan Legacy Foundation. Mr. Reagan is an in-demand speaker with Premiere Speaker’s Bureau. Read Michael Reagan’s Reports — More Here.

Michael R. Shannon is a commentator, researcher for the League of American Voters, and an award-winning political and advertising consultant with nationwide and international experience. He is author of “Conservative Christian’s Guidebook for Living in Secular Times (Now With Added Humor!)” Read Michael Shannon’s Reports — More Here.

U.S. stock index futures jumped Thursday as shares of Microsoft and Meta Platforms surged after strong quarterly results from both the Magnificent Seven heavyweights pointed to a still-strong outlook for the technology sector.

Microsoft forecast stronger-than-expected quarterly growth for its cloud-computing business Azure after beating Wall Street estimates for the latest quarter. Meta Platforms posted better than expected revenue on the back of strong advertising performance.

Meta rose 6.2%, while Microsoft jumped 8.85% in premarket trade. Both companies reported after market close on Wednesday.

The strong results from the two megacaps helped calm jitters over an increasingly uncertain outlook for businesses and the economy, due to sweeping and often erratic shifts in U.S. tariff policy and an escalating trade war with China.

Data on Wednesday showed the U.S. economy contracted in the first quarter for the first time in three years, while several companies have cut or even withdrawn financial forecasts amid a highly uncertain environment.

Despite that, estimates for S&P 500 earnings growth in the first quarter now stand at 11.5%, as per LSEG data on Wednesday, up from the 7.8% growth forecast at the start of April.

At 6:53 a.m. ET, Dow E-minis were up 346 points, or 0.85%, S&P 500 E-minis were up 67.50 points, or 1.21%, and Nasdaq 100 E-minis were up 341.25 points, or 1.74%.

Other technology megacaps jumped, with Nvidia up 4.3% and Alphabet gaining 1.1%.

After Microsoft and Meta’s strong reports, Amazon.com and Apple are scheduled to report after the close on Thursday.

Amazon shares rose 4%, but Apple shares slipped 1.3% after a federal judge ruled the iPhone maker had violated a U.S. court order to reform its App Store.

Corporate results continue at full throttle, with Eli Lilly , McDonald’s and Mastercard among those due before the bell.

The day’s economic data docket is also heavy with weekly jobless claims, manufacturing PMIs and construction spending.

Despite choppy intraday trading, the S&P 500 has managed to close higher for the past seven sessions, a winning streak last seen in late November. The benchmark index and the Dow notched monthly losses in April, while the Nasdaq rose slightly.

Mobile chip designer Qualcomm was one of the latest firms to forecast a hit to revenue from the trade war. Its shares fell 5.2%.

Meanwhile, shares of Robinhood rose 3.1% after higher volumes amid volatile markets lifted the trading platform’s profit above forecasts.

NewsmaxMoney

The world will not soon see a man like David Horowitz again..

One of the great Americans of our age, David Horowitz, died on Tuesday at the age of 86.

David Horowitz was one of the towering intellects and most perceptive thinkers of the late twentieth century and early twenty-first; he was also a man of unusual courage and remarkable vision. Though few people today realize it, David Horowitz was also one of the most influential people of our time, as he was one of the first leftists of any prominence to leave the leftist ranks and become a stalwart warrior for freedom.

Multitudes followed in his wake, often without realizing who it was who had blazed the trail for them. We are all in his debt not only for blazing that trial, but for the fact that after he established himself as a voice for freedom, sound values, and patriotism, David Horowitz spearheaded efforts to seize the intellectual and moral initiative from the left, and to articulate a vision for an America that really is the land of the free and the home of the brave.

After decades of the left’s cultural hegemony, David Horowitz played a massive role in establishing a large-scale movement of American patriots who refused to accept the claims of self-anointed “progressives” that their victory was inevitable, that they were on the right side of history, and that surrender was wiser than resistance. Today, that movement is broad-based, and one of its foremost exponents is in the Oval Office. Trump himself called Horowitz his “great friend.”

Stephen Miller, one of Donald Trump’s key advisers, was in his college days the president of the Duke chapter of David Horowitz’s Students for Academic Freedom; Miller’s uncompromising, unapologetic and deeply informed response to the left’s propaganda machine (that is, the establishment media) is redolent of Horowitz’s influence.

Even just a few years ago, Miller’s robustly pugnacious approach to the media propagandists would have been unthinkable. It was taken for granted that American conservatives let the left define the parameters of the public discourse and control the debate over any controverted issue. If the left denounced any voice for freedom on the right, which it did on a regular basis, establishment conservatives fell dutifully into line and denounced the target themselves.

These establishment conservatives were ignorant of or indifferent to the fact that Saul Alinsky, a man who had been a socialist activist like David Horowitz but who had never heeded the better angels of his nature and broken with the left, taught that radicals could defeat their foes by isolating a target, demonizing and destroying that target, and then proceeding onto the next target by first denouncing him for associating with the first target.

David Horowitz not only refused to play along with this game; he broke its power. At the David Horowitz Freedom Center’s flagship publication, Front Page Magazine, he did not let the left set the agenda; instead, he set his own. He didn’t shun figures who enunciated unpopular truths that the left wanted desperately to conceal; instead, he gave them a platform. He articulated an American conservatism that was not defensive, not reactive, not imitative of the left, but providing a vision for our nation’s future that is a genuine alternative to what the left has forced upon Americans for so long, and which preserves and strengthens what has made our nation great.

Nowadays, when patriots seek out pundits and political analysts who articulate what they themselves want for our country, and they encounter a strong and self-assured patriotic movement, this is to a great degree the fruit of the tireless labors of David Horowitz. When he and his longtime friend and colleague Peter Collier left Ramparts magazine, which was at the vanguard of the leftist movement in the late 1960s, and embraced the patriotism and love for freedom they had previously fought so energetically against, the American left lost two of its foremost thinkers; it has never recovered.

If free people prevail in this great struggle in which we are now engaged, and if an honest history of our turbulent age is someday written, David Horowitz will stand as one of those who shone forth most brightly when the darkness seemed all-pervasive and invincible.

It has been an immense honor for me personally to have known David for twenty years, and to have fought for freedom alongside him as part of the David Horowitz Freedom Center. At the Center, we are now determined to continue David’s fight for freedom and to keep on carrying the torch for freedom that he lit, until we prevail. May his memory be eternal.

Robert Spencer, frontpagemagazine.com

Ukraine is ready to sign an agreement that would give the U.S. access to its valuable rare minerals in the hopes of ensuring continued American support for Kyiv in its grinding war with Russia, senior Ukrainian officials said Wednesday.

Ukraine’s economy minister and deputy prime minister, Yulia Svyrydenko, flew to Washington on Wednesday to help finalize the deal, Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said during an appearance on Ukrainian television. Although the main part of the agreement had been settled, there were still hurdles to overcome, said a senior Ukrainian official who spoke on condition of anonymity because the official wasn’t authorized to discuss the matter publicly.

For Ukraine, the agreement is seen as key to ensuring its access to future U.S. military aid.

Truly, this is a strategic deal for the creation of an investment partner fund,” Shmyhal said. “This is truly an equal and good international deal on joint investment in the development and restoration of Ukraine between the governments of the United States and Ukraine.”

President Donald Trump indicated in February that he wanted access to Ukraine’s rare earth materials as a condition for continued U.S. support in the war, describing it as reimbursement for the billions of dollars in aid the U.S. has given to Kyiv. But talks stalled after a tense Oval Office meeting of U.S. and Ukrainian leaders, and reaching an agreement since then has proven difficult and strained relations between Washington and Kyiv.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Wednesday during a Cabinet meeting at the White House that the Trump administration was ready to sign off on a deal, but that there was still work to do.

“The Ukrainians decided last night to make some last-minute changes,” Bessent said when asked about reports that Ukraine was ready to agree to the pact. “We’re sure that they will reconsider that. And we are ready to sign this afternoon if they are.”

He didn’t elaborate as to the late changes he said Ukraine made.

The U.S. is seeking access to more than 20 raw materials deemed strategically critical to its interests, including some non-minerals such as oil and natural gas. Among them are Ukraine’s deposits of titanium, which is used for making aircraft wings and other aerospace manufacturing, and uranium, which is used for nuclear power, medical equipment and weapons. Ukraine also has lithium, graphite and manganese, which are used in electric vehicle batteries.

After Kyiv felt the initial U.S. draft of the deal disproportionately favored American interests, it introduced new provisions aimed at addressing those concerns.

According to Shmyhal, the latest version would establish an equal partnership between the two countries and last for 10 years. Financial contributions to a joint fund would be made in cash, and only new U.S. military aid would count toward the American share. Assistance provided before the agreement was signed would not be counted. Unlike an earlier draft, the deal would not conflict with Ukraine’s path toward European Union membership — a key provision for Kyiv.

The Ukrainian Cabinet was expected to approve the agreement’s text before it could be signed in Washington. The deal would then need to be ratified by the Ukrainian Parliament before it could take effect.

The negotiations come amid rocky progress in Washington’s push to stop the war.

Russian President Vladimir Putin backs calls for a ceasefire before peace negotiations, “but before it’s done, it’s necessary to answer a few questions and sort out a few nuances,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said. Putin is also ready for direct talks with Ukraine without preconditions to seek a peace deal, he added.

“We realize that Washington wants to achieve quick progress, but we hope for understanding that the Ukrainian crisis settlement is far too complex to be done quickly,” Peskov said during his daily conference call with reporters.

Trump has expressed frustration over the slow pace of progress in negotiations aimed at stopping the war. Western European leaders have accused Putin of stalling while his forces seek to grab more Ukrainian land. Russia has captured nearly a fifth of Ukraine’s territory since Moscow’s forces launched a full-scale invasion on Feb. 24, 2022.

The American president has chided his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, for steps that he said were prolonging the killing, and he has rebuked Putin for complicating negotiations with “very bad timing” in launching deadly strikes on Kyiv.

Trump has long dismissed the war as a waste of lives and American taxpayer money — a complaint he repeated Wednesday during his Cabinet meeting. That could spell an end to crucial military help for Ukraine and heavier economic sanctions on Russia.

The U.S. State Department on Tuesday tried again to push both sides to move more quickly and warned that the U.S. could pull out of the negotiations if there’s no progress.

“We are now at a time where concrete proposals need to be delivered by the two parties on how to end this conflict,” department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce quoted U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio as telling her.

Russia has effectively rejected a U.S. proposal for an immediate and full 30-day ceasefire, making it conditional on a halt to Ukraine’s mobilization effort and Western arms supplies to Kyiv.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov claimed Wednesday that Ukraine had accepted an unconditional truce only because it was being pushed back on the battlefield, where the bigger Russian forces have the upper hand.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian civilians have been killed or wounded in attacks every day this year, according to a U.N. report presented Tuesday in New York.

The U.N. Human Rights Office said in the report that in the first three months of this year, it had verified 2,641 civilian casualties in Ukraine. That was almost 900 more than during the same period last year.

Also, between April 1-24, civilian casualties in Ukraine were up 46% from the same weeks in 2024, it said.

The daily grind of the war shows no sign of letting up. A nighttime Russian drone attack on Ukraine’s second-largest city, Kharkiv, wounded at least 45 civilians, Ukrainian officials said.

Also Wednesday, the Ukrainian Security Service claimed its drones struck the Murom Instrument Engineering Plant in Russia’s Vladimir region overnight, causing five explosions and a fire at the military facility. The claim could not be independently verified.

Newsmax/AP

The tax collection data shows that April was the month Trump’s campaign of tariffs started to make a real financial impact. Trump’s April 2 “Liberation Day” tariffs against all U.S. trading partners ranged from 10% for many countries to 145% for Chinese products. That came on top of previous tariffs, including a 25% duty on foreign cars that went into effect that month.

Trump’s stated goals for his import taxes include raising revenue to fund the government, restoring U.S. manufacturing by protecting it from foreign competition, and pressuring foreign governments to make trade deals favorable to the U.S. Economists have warned the tariffs are likely to drive up the cost of living, and risk plunging the economy into a recession.

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Let’s Never Forget: Free Trade Requires Free Nations

According to a report from the U.S. Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, of Tues. Sept. 24, 2024, Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., has “made it abundantly clear that diplomacy and free trade should be America’s tools for reducing tensions, not more counterproductive heavy-handed government mandates and sanctions.”

Let’s not forget to emphatically add, that free trade among free people is not only a good thing, it’s a great thing.

However, if you’re trading with someone who lives in a country ruled by totalitarian fascists labelling themselves Communists or “Democrats,” it’s anything but free trade.

By the way, you’re deluding yourself if you don’t agree.

By its very name, free trade denotes free individuals doing the trading.

In America, at least under President Donald Trump and the better members of the GOP, you are free, at least in relative terms.

Not so for people living under the socialist regimes of Western Europe, Australia, Canada, and Japan, or under the totalitarian regime of China.

They are not free.

They operate only with permission of their governments and on the terms set by those governments. To be clear, Sen. Paul and other free market advocates are mistaken when they uncritically accept the premise that what we have is free trade in a world with overwhelmingly unfree countries.

Oppose Trump’s tariffs if you wish, but opposing them on the false assumption that free trade is universal doesn’t comport with global harsh realities.

Trading and dealing with people in totalitarian countries is like dealing with the Mob.

It’s not that the people in those countries are necessarily bad; but their rulers most certainly can be — and frequently are.

China is not a free nation, it’s totalitarian.

Workers in China are borderline (if not actual) slaves. They work not for their own benefit, but their rulers’ welfare.

They operate only with the consent of the government.

If you reside in a free country, it’s an absurd delusion to claim you are “trading” with slaves. You are never trading with workers or businesspeople in a Communist or fascist country, like China; it’s all an illusion perpetrated by the totalitarian government.

The only appropriate policy of a free country toward a slave country’s government is to do everything possible (economically or even militarily) to undermine or destroy that government.

At the least, you don’t trade with them, because it’s no different than doing business with the Mob. It will come back to bite you. Everything Trump is doing to the Chinese government at present is morally justified and long overdue.

Before you get free trade, you must first have free nations. I’ll again state the obvious: China is not free.

Nobody would say that Ayn Rand, the author of the classic “Atlas Shrugged” and an unyielding defender of unhampered capitalism and individual rights, is opposed to free trade.

Yet . . . during the Cold War she supported a form of economic intervention against the Soviet Union even stronger than what President Trump is doing today with China.

At the height of the Cold War, Playboy magazine asked Ayn Rand, “Would you actively advocate that the United States invade Cuba or the Soviet Union?”

The author’s response?

“Not at present. I don’t think it’s necessary. I would advocate that which the Soviet Union fears above all else: economic boycott.

“I would advocate a blockade of Cuba and an economic boycott of Soviet Russia. And you would see both of those regimes collapse without the loss of a single American life.”

Rand understood that Communist countries are not free markets. You don’t apply the principle of individual rights to countries disrespecting individual rights.

It’s beyond naïve and gullible to think that the legal and economic status of people in countries like China are anything like ours in America.

If you want to trade with the people of these countries for mutual benefit, then you’ve got to get rid of their governments.

Or, as Ayn Rand suggested, undermine those governments enough that they’d collapse and perhaps the people will then become willing and able to embrace freedom, including free market capitalism.

With its citizenry as property of the state, nations like China have no regard for individual rights.

Obviously that structure does not comprise freedom.

The government of a truly free country merely upholds contracts and private property rights. The government doesn’t decide who gets to have what property; the government doesn’t get to decide how much is or isn’t a reasonable profit.

Once again, our nation’s 47th commander in chief is merely the messenger.

Pointing out the obvious: China isn’t fair to the U.S. China is a totalitarian Communist government. Totalitarian governments are not, and never have been, fair.

Increasingly, we let China’s government-run system:

Produce our pharmaceuticals.
Our computer parts.
All things we require for living.

Additionally, we’re letting the red giant:

Buy up our farmlands.

Remember, the Chinese government can cut us off at any time. Even starve us.

At some point, they’ll be able to overtake our military (that is, unless Trump’s policies prevail); that means they’ll threaten to cut off our internet and devices if we don’t comply.

It’s only a matter of time.

Punishing China isn’t thwarting free trade.

It’s treating a Communist country in exactly the manner it deserves to be treated.

It’s a matter of stern, strong foreign policy.

And yet again, President Trump is right.

Why?

Because he lives in the reality of global realpolitik, seeing it for what it is, unlike so many supposed leaders.

Michael J. Hurd, Daily Dose of Reason

Founder of Frontpage Mag and his Freedom Center, David Horowitz, has died. According to his website:

On behalf of the David Horowitz Freedom Center, we are very saddened to announce the passing of the Center’s founder, David Horowitz. After a lengthy battle with cancer, David passed yesterday at the age of 86.

The Freedom Center’s founder and guiding force was a relentless conservative warrior who survived a previous brush with death (chronicled in his book Mortality and Faith), confrontations with the Black Panthers, campus radicals, government investigations, death threats, and hate campaigns, some led by his former friends and allies, without ever considering giving up or letting up. Nothing short of the end that comes for us all could silence his voice. He continued writing, working, and steering the Center to the very last; his final article, “The Biggest Lie of All,” appeared earlier this month.

Although he was a giant in the conservative liberty movement for over 40 years, David was raised a Marxist and was one of the leading intellectuals of the New Left movement at Berkeley in the 1960’s. But David, along with his writing partner and Freedom Center co-founder Peter Collier, eventually had a political epiphany and joined the side of freedom in the early 1980‘s. They committed the second half of their lives and work warning Americans of the dangers of the Progressives whose intellectual roots and totalitarian aims they understood better than many Leftists themselves.

David’s legacy is vast and the number of people that he inspired, mentored, and impacted is incalculable. That we live in a world today where there is a fighting chance of defeating the Leftist utopians who would enslave us is due in no small measure to the rare courage and unflagging passion that exemplified David’s work these past 40 years.

Over the years, David became something of a Saul Alinsky for the conservative movement, shaking a complacent Right out of its sleep and reinventing it as a war machine, laying out the strategies and principles for defeating the Left in too many bestselling books, articles, and pamphlets to count.

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David’s message to the conservative movement was that it needed to abandon its habit of embracing noble failure and instead fight to win. Indeed, Donald Trump’s MAGA movement was shaped and guided by David and his disciples like Stephen Miller. And while his passing is an incalculable loss, David lived long enough to see his ideas and tactics become the heart and soul of a new movement to take back America.

The post on X announcing his death includes a tribute video:

On behalf of the David Horowitz Freedom Center, we are very saddened to announce the passing of the Center’s founder, David Horowitz. After a lengthy battle with cancer, David passed yesterday at the age of 86.