"Societies advance through the creation, expression, and evaluation of alternative ideas. Therefore, for almost a millennium, we have had universities where ideas and discoveries are born and different perspectives are debated in 'marketplaces of ideas' or 'learning communities.' Yet there has been a decline in rational, reasonable discourse on issues of the day on modern campuses. This has been demonstrated by numerous suppressions of speakers, including one recently -- and most shockingly -- at the Stanford Law School, where a federal judge, Stuart Kyle Duncan, was prevented from speaking by a student protest, aided and abetted by the law school's diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) dean.

"The university's own administration was helping to lead the suppression of speech and ideas. It is incidents like this one that have made members of university communities afraid to express themselves, fearing potential negative outcomes (e.g., insults, attacks on character, possible physical attack, or efforts to dismiss) from individuals opposed to their viewpoints. Hence, expressed viewpoint diversity is on a notable decline. We are moving at least partway in the direction of universities in 20th-century totalitarian societies like Nazi Germany or the Soviet Union. And this movement has spread to the broader society.

"Individuals are increasingly engaging in self-censorship -- the consequences of using an inappropriate word become too costly, so we muzzle our expression."

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"The American Dream is at risk of death, thanks to decades of terrible economic policy and social engineering from the left.

"A new Wall Street Journal-NORC survey tells the tale: 80% say the nation's economy is poor or not so good; 47% see it getting even worse over the next year.

"And 44% disagree that people like them and their families have a 'good chance' of bettering their living standards, while 78% are 'not confident' that their children's lives will be better than their own -- the highest level since NORC began the poll in 1990.

"The proximate causes are clear. Ever since President Joe Biden took office, he and his allies have at every turn adopted policies designed to wreck the economic lives of average Americans and laughed off the consequences."

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"The collapse of the Silicon Valley Bank has grabbed the headlines, obscuring one of the most significant events of the year: the list of President Joe Biden's tax increases inside his 'budget.' ... So what is on President Biden's tax hike wish list?

"The highest personal income tax rate since 1986. ...

"The highest capital gains tax since Jimmy Carter. To a rate twice as high as Communist China. ...

"A corporate income tax hike to 28% from the current 21%. Higher than China's 25%. ...

"An unconstitutional wealth tax on 'unrealized gains.' ...

"Quadruped Tax on Stock Buybacks: a tax on your IRA or 401K. ...

"President Biden will try to assert that some of these taxes hit only the rich or large businesses. In speeches he does not finish the sentence. If he spoke honestly, the full sentence would be, 'I will tax the rich ... first. Then you.'"

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"Financial regulators have ignored their post-2008 rule book to contain the latest banking panic. And on Tuesday Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen tore it up by announcing a de facto guarantee of all $17.6 trillion in U.S. bank deposits. Regional bank stocks rallied, but it's important to understand what this moment means: the end of market discipline in U.S. banking. ...

"Letting uninsured depositors at SVB and Signature take a modest haircut would have provided useful market discipline. The Administration is doing the opposite. It's creating moral hazard that will seed future trouble by encouraging more risky behavior by bank management and reducing caution among depositors, investors and creditors.

"The Administration is presenting its intervention as a one-off. But once regulators do something, they create the market expectation that they will do it again. And if they don't, the ensuing market panic will invariably impel them. Biden officials are crossing a Rubicon here, and they're doing it essentially by fiat without approval by Congress."

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"President Biden's FY 2024 budget promises to reduce future deficits by $2.8 trillion over the next 10 years. That's a big number. It is not enough, however, to prevent the debt from climbing to a record 110 percent of GDP in 2033, up from 98 percent this year and more than twice its average over the past 50 years.

"It is also not enough to prevent interest on the debt from doubling over the next 10 years and reaching a record high as a share of the economy by 2032. The record is 3.2 percent of GDP in 1991. It reaches 3.3 percent of GDP in 2032 in the proposed budget.

"How can a deficit reduction plan of nearly $3 trillion still leave the debt and interest costs at record levels? The answer is simple. Deficit reduction is calculated from a baseline of projected deficits that assume no changes are made to current law. Baseline deficits in the president's budget total $19.9 trillion over the next 10 years, meaning that even with $2.8 trillion of deficit reduction the federal government would still accumulate $17.1 trillion of new deficits, adding to the total debt.

"To put it mildly, we are in a very deep hole and it could get even deeper than the Biden budget projects."

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"More than 1.6 million foreign nationals have been apprehended or reported evading law enforcement officers after illegally entering the U.S. in fiscal 2023 through February, according to Customs and Border Protection apprehension data and gotaway data obtained by The Center Square.

"When reporting February enforcement data, CBP stated nationwide total encounters for fiscal 2023 through February totaled 1,285,056, excluding gotaways.

"Including monthly gotaway totals previously reported by The Center Square based on data obtained by a Border Patrol agent, at least 358,124 known gotaways in the nine southwest border sectors fiscal year were recorded through February.

"Combined, apprehensions and gotaways totaled at least 1,643,180. The number is likely higher because the total doesn't include all CBP sectors and Office of Field Operation data."

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"On Tuesday, one Russian SU-27 fighter jet forced down a U.S. surveillance drone, leading it to crash into the Black Sea.

"This was the first highly consequential military encounter of the kind that could have resulted in a direct conflict between Russia and the U.S.

"Even if Moscow and Washington manage to avoid such a catastrophic clash, their proxy war over Ukraine, which is in its second year, will transform the world in the long term, nevertheless."

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"Congressional investigators have identified a labyrinth of at least a dozen bank accounts that were used to funnel money from foreign sources to Joe Biden's family and uncovered the first evidence that some funds went to benefit the future president, the chairman of the House Oversight and Accountability Committee has disclosed.

"'It's getting very close to Joe Biden,' Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.) told Just the News.

"In a wide-ranging interview with the 'Just the News, No Noise' television show Wednesday night, Comer said his investigators were finally allowed to see Suspicious Activity Reports filed with the Treasury Department by banks flagging Biden family overseas business transactions dating back years.

"Whistleblowers have augmented those financial records with testimony, Comer revealed."

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"President Biden is facing strong pushback from Republicans challenging his claim that U.S. taxpayers won't foot the bill for rescuing wealthy investors who deposited their money in Silicon Valley Bank, which federal regulators now control.

"GOP senators argue the banks around the country that pay into the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), which will cover depositors' losses, are also U.S. taxpayers and that higher bank fees are likely to be passed down to consumers.

"They also have questions about the creation of a new lending facility the Federal Reserve announced on Sunday to provide other banks with liquidity if depositors begin to demand their money back en masse as they did at Silicon Valley Bank.

"The Fed's new Bank Term Funding Program will be backed up by $25 billion the Treasury Department will make available from the Exchange Stabilization Fund, which Congress relied on to keep financial markets from freezing at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic."

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"When Cincinnati firefighter Ed Wallace bought a high efficiency Whirlpool washing machine, he came to regret the decision almost immediately. The machine used less water -- not enough to clean Wallace's work clothes -- and his colleagues at the firehouse quickly took notice. 'I walked past my guys and they say, "Dude, you stink!"' Wallace said. 'I smelled myself, and yeah, that's me stinking.'

"Now, President Joe Biden is pushing regulations that could force Wallace's stinky situation upon millions of Americans.

"Biden's Energy Department last month proposed new efficiency standards for washing machines that would require new appliances to use considerably less water, all in an effort to 'confront the global climate crisis.' Those mandates would force manufacturers to reduce cleaning performance to ensure their machines comply, leading industry giants such as Whirlpool said in public comments on the rule. They'll also make the appliances more expensive and laundry day a headache -- each cycle will take longer, the detergent will cost more, and in the end, the clothes will be less clean, the manufacturers say.

"The proposed washing machine rule marks the latest example of the administration turning to consumer regulations to advance its climate change goals. Last month, the Energy Department published an analysis of its proposed cooking appliance efficiency regulations, which it found would effectively ban half of all gas stoves on the U.S. market from being sold. The department has also proposed new efficiency standards for refrigerators, which could come into effect in 2027. 'Collectively these energy efficiency actions ... support President Biden's ambitious clean energy agenda to combat the climate crisis,' the Energy Department said in February."

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