A cursory examination of history reveals that the United States is mired in the same process that precipitated the collapse of the great empires of the past.  The foibles and failures of human nature and their impact on the rise and fall of empires is amazingly consistent and the end result always inevitable.  Can this nation avoid a similar fate?Empires are defined as great military and economic powers encompassing large occupied or controlled land areas.  Although they vary greatly, they average around 250 years in duration.  The United States will be celebrating its 250th anniversary in 2026.In 1976, Sir John Glubb, a distinguished British diplomat and general, wrote an essay on the fate

Lab-grown meat has a higher carbon footprint than retail beefThe production of livestock is an essential part of the global food system because it helps poor households in low- and middle-income nations by providing them with income, staple proteins, increased crop yield, and nutrition.Lab-grown meat, created from animal cells, is sometimes assumed to be more environmentally friendly than beef since it is expected to require less land, water, and greenhouse gas emissions than raising cattle.According to present and near-term manufacturing methods, the environmental impact of lab-grown meat is projected to be “orders of magnitude” greater than retail beef.This is because highly refined or pur

The fascist far left have always had to lie to survive.  They've always been on the wrong side of history, and the only way they can remain viable is by gaslighting people on a full-time basis.  For decades, their biggest lie has been that the supposedly pro-freedom side of the political spectrum, imbued in the precepts of individual liberty and limited government, is somehow connected to totalitarian collectivist regimes that displayed the exact opposite of those values.Anyone who has debated leftists for the past few decades has been subjected to the same bluff abuse in their trying to maintain that nonsensical lie.  But the close similarities between fascism and communism have been obviou

Edward C. Smith passed away peacefully on March 11. He was 80. Smith was the first tenured black professor at American University, where he taught history for 45 years and founded the school’s Civil War Institute. For decades, Smith lectured on art history and led tours for the Smithsonian Institution, the National Geographic Society, the National Park Service, and the Historical Society of Washington, D.C. He was also active in politics but not in the typical partisan fashion. He served in both the Johnson and Carter administrations and also wrote speeches for several Republicans, including U.S. Senator James Buckley (R-N.Y.).But these impressive achievements (all the more astounding for a

To most, putting Washington and Trump together might seem an odd pairing. Let’s consider, though, why these two great Americans belong together.From 1776, when our Declaration of Independence was signed, until the signing of the Treaty of Paris in 1783, George Washington led our colonial army against the greatest military force in the world. The last major battle of the Revolutionary War was the Battle of Yorktown, fought in September and October 1781. Throughout this period, Washington held our meager fighting forces together through revolts and mutinies as our soldiers suffered many deprivations from inadequate food and clothing to lack of pay.After the great Yorktown victory, which the Fr

Just about everybody on Wall Street knows, despite what you read in the financial press, that the Biden administration’s economic policies are driving our economy into a recessionary ditch. In a recent Wall Street Journal survey of 23 large financial institutions that do business directly with the Federal Reserve, 16 predicted a recession in 2023 and two predicted a recession in 2024, while only five predicted that we would avoid a recession—although even those five predicted we’d have only one-half percent economic growth, well below the 2.1 percent average over the past 20 years and dangerously close to what has traditionally been considered a recession.A recession is defined, traditionall

We are in a battle between good and evil, but evil cannot be honest about its true nature so it must lie.  The New Saint Andrews College recently produced a very powerful video entitled LIES, with the thesis that lies lose all their power when the deceived become wise. With laughter being the best weapon against these lies, it’s the ‘assault weapon’ of choice in the cultural civil war in which we are engaged.This is why the fascist far-left hates President Trump, Tucker Carlson, and others -- because they puncture their lies and have a good time doing it. The forces of freedom have lightness and laughter on our side. We have the ideas that work: individual liberty, and limited government. Ec

Victor Davis Hanson recently published an essay titled “Our French Revolution.” In it, he describes the cultural upheaval we are experiencing in America today and how we should view those presently in control of our government who clearly intend to destroy what America once was.  In short, we are in the midst of a modern-day Jacobin revolution.Once again, however, left unsaid is what exactly should patriots be doing between now and the next elections in 2024 to stop this emerging tyranny before our nation reaches a point of no return. Every day, we hear from many patriots who tell us that we’ll be able to fix it all in 2024 when Trump is re-elected and we take the White House back from the D

Policymakers in both the United States and China seem to have fully accepted, and even embraced, the logic of economic decoupling. But what exactly will decoupling entail, and what will its consequences be?Over the last year, the trajectory of Sino-American relations has become indisputable: the United States and China are headed toward a substantial, though not complete, decoupling. Far from resisting this outcome, both sides now seem to have accepted that this will play out as a largely non-cooperative game, to the point that they are embedding it in their policy frameworks.On the American side, national-security concerns have led to the creation of a lengthy – and still growing – list of

I developed a serious cardiac arrhythmia, ventricular tachycardia, seven years ago. It worsened over the past summer and early fall, and over the past six weeks I’ve had several ambulance rides and hospitalizations. And my experience through this illustrates the good side as well as the bad side of medicine today.On the good side, I was fortunate to have the attention of two world-class doctors who spent six hours, one going inside my heart, the other coming through my chest wall to the outside of my heart, to map electrically the aberrant signals in my heart and to ablate them. Since then, I’ve not had a problem.On the bad side, two days after the procedure, I was in the intensive care unit

A small chemical processing plant hidden in Maywood, NJ has been processing coca leaves for Coca-Cola for over 100 years and is now run by a chemical manufacturer called Stepan Company.Stephan Company imports coca leaves into the US on behalf of The Coca-Cola Company and manufactures as much as $2 billion of pure cocaine every year.The leaves are used to produce a 'decocainized' ingredient for the iconic soda and the cocaine byproduct is sold to the nation's largest opioid manufacturer, which markets the powder as a numbing agent and topical anesthetic for dentists.In 1988, the Associated Press reported that St. Louis pharmaceutical giant Mallinckrodt was the only entity in the US permitted

I developed a serious cardiac arrhythmia, ventricular tachycardia, seven years ago. It worsened over the past summer and early fall, and over the past six weeks I’ve had several ambulance rides and hospitalizations. And my experience through this illustrates the good side as well as the bad side of medicine today.On the good side, I was fortunate to have the attention of two world-class doctors who spent six hours, one going inside my heart, the other coming through my chest wall to the outside of my heart, to map electrically the aberrant signals in my heart and to ablate them. Since then, I’ve not had a problem.On the bad side, two days after the procedure, I was in the intensive care unit

On February 3, 2023, a group of former high-ranking US government officials, led by Hoover senior fellows Michael McConnell and John Cogan, Hudson Institute fellow Christopher DeMuth, and American Enterprise Institute emeritus fellow Peter Wallison, filed an amicus brief in the US Supreme Court case challenging President Biden’s student loan debt-relief program. The signatories included former White House counsel C. Boyden Gray, senior fellow John B. Taylor, former attorneys general Bill Barr and Michael Mukasey, three former directors of the Office of Management and Budget, and other former officials at the Department of Justice, the Treasury, and the Office of Management and Budget with ex

If you want to see the problem with American education, look at a chart illustrating the comparative growth in the number of students, teachers, and district administrators in our public schools in the period between 2000 and 2019. (See the chart below.) The number of district administrators grew by a whopping 87.6 percent during these years, far outstripping the growth in the number of students (7.6 percent) and teachers (8.7 percent).In illustrating the difference in these rates of growth, the chart also illustrates a fundamental change that has come over our nation as a whole during this period—a change in how we govern ourselves and how we live. To say a change is fundamental means that

A few weeks back I went online to RSBN to tune into the solemn and yet very enlightening funeral for Lynette “Diamond” Hardaway of Diamond and Silk fame. The funeral expenses were paid for entirely by Donald J. Trump, and the former President also attended the funeral, sitting alongside the Hardaway family. I discovered that Silk possessed a very commanding presence of her own. While being somewhat eclipsed by the presence of her more animated Irish-twin, Diamond, it was evident that she could handily proceed with the Diamond and Silk brand in Diamond’s absence. I also learned a great deal more about the rich history of the Hardaway clan.The closing speaker was of course, Donald J. Trump.  H

Elon Musk’s takeover of Twitter last October and the subsequent reporting on the Twitter Files by journalists Matt Taibbi, Bari Weiss, and a handful of others beginning in early December is one of the most important news stories of our time. The Twitter Files story encompasses, and to a large extent connects, every major political scandal of the Trump-Biden era. Put simply, the Twitter Files reveal an unholy alliance between Big Tech and the deep state designed to throttle free speech and maintain an official narrative through censorship and propaganda. This should not just disturb us, it should also prod us to action in defense of the First Amendment, free and fair elections, and indeed our

Elon Musk’s takeover of Twitter last October and the subsequent reporting on the Twitter Files by journalists Matt Taibbi, Bari Weiss, and a handful of others beginning in early December is one of the most important news stories of our time. The Twitter Files story encompasses, and to a large extent connects, every major political scandal of the Trump-Biden era. Put simply, the Twitter Files reveal an unholy alliance between Big Tech and the deep state designed to throttle free speech and maintain an official narrative through censorship and propaganda. This should not just disturb us, it should also prod us to action in defense of the First Amendment, free and fair elections, and indeed our

The natural human propensity for clear and simple answers constantly tempts to false dichotomies and lopsided choices. Sometimes the complexity is clear. Should we develop our personal lives or our professional lives? Should we organize our finances with a view to the short term or the long term? Should we care for our bodies or cultivate our minds? In these cases, it easy to see that the answer is both; the hard part is coordinating, adjusting to circumstances, and striking the right balance. But what seems obvious when it comes to juggling the personal and the professional, handling money, and keeping body and mind in good order appears more elusive in politics.In matters of public policy,

In the postpandemic era, America and the West have faced critical challenges to their security, societies, and economies. Meanwhile, authoritarian forces such as Russia and China (also confronted by internal challenges) have sought to revise the global order in favor of their respective national interests and ideological preferences.Throughout the year 2022, Hoover fellows provided extensive and timely analyses on pressing policy concerns, including record rates of inflation and energy shortages not seen since the 1970s and 1980s; Russia’s invasion of Ukraine; and China’s aggression against Taiwan. Fellows also assessed public opinion on these and other issues and how they shaped midterm ele

In a recent Rasmussen Reports poll, 39 percent of Americans consider other Americans to be America’s greatest threat. That’s more people than consider China our greatest threat (25 percent). It’s almost twice as many as those that consider Russia our greatest threat (20 percent).Of those polled, 22 percent say Democrats are our greatest threat. That would include people like myself, who believe the Dems have become the American communists -- determined to destroy everything that makes us exceptional -- as a necessary measure to marshal in a socialist utopia.Another 17 percent say that Republicans are the greatest threat. Those would be our fellow citizens who have bought Biden’s semi-fascist