In the Allegory of the Cave, Plato provides what is considered one of the most famous thought experiments. In it, people with a distorted sense of reality try to make sense of their world—but with no real reference, they remain confused—and afraid. And nearly 2,400 years after the allegory appeared in Plato’s “Republic,” are we...
During last year’s parental empowerment debate, many Texas ISDs got politically active and used government resources to rally the public against legislative proposals, going so far as to say: “We must let our legislators know that we stand behind them and expect them to vote NO on vouchers.” “…fund public schools fully before diverting dollars...
Amid one of the worst national security, immigration and public safety crises in U.S. history, President Biden’s attempts to smooth over the crisis at the southern border are actually exacerbating the situation. At this point, he is empowering the very authoritarian regimes responsible for orchestrating the flow of refugees and migrants to the U.S. to begin with....
The ornaments are packed away. The mailbox is filling up. The season of giving has passed into the season of paying what you owe, and just as that credit card statement is on its way from Christmas so too is the next property tax bill beginning to take shape. Tax relief promised by the Texas...
In June 2023, at the start of a summer in which Texas experienced record electricity demand and came to the brink of rolling outages on Sept. 6, I wrote a warning about the upcoming winters, noting that “…the Texas grid is moving toward a situation where the winter period, not the summer period, will see...
Earlier this month, Harris County—the most populous county in Texas—launched a guaranteed income pilot program, known as Uplift Harris. The purported purpose of the program is to: “provide no-strings-attached $500 monthly cash payments to 1,928 Harris County residents for 18 months in hopes of providing a financial cushion that can help close the wealth gap.”...
The International Energy Agency (IEA) turns 50 this year. Doubtless there will be champagne-infused celebrations at its Paris headquarters. But on this side of the Atlantic, it’s past time for the United States, the biggest source of that agency’s funding, to rethink the IEA’s role. To be blunt: the U.S. should suspend payments to the...
Pushing out Claudine Gay as president of Harvard may be the biggest academic rejection in American history since Cotton Mather was passed over for the same job in 1702 because of his participation in the Salem Witch Trials. That said, many people do not realize that Gay is still at Harvard as a professor earning...
The following commentary is published on Thursdays as part of TPPF’s subscriber-only newsletter The Post. If you would like to subscribe to The Post, click here. In August, TPPF CEO Greg Sindelar predicted that President Biden self-inflicted immigration crisis would get so bad that he would cut a deal with the Mexican government to crack down...
Do the mysterious removals of cabinet ministers and generals signal weakness? Paranoia? Or something else? Several high-profile purges are said to have happened in China over the past few months. What do they mean? Do the mysterious removals of cabinet ministers and generals signal weakness? Paranoia? Or something else? Because China is a tightly controlled...
A new Axios-Harris poll bolsters the idea that Washingto,n D.C. policymakers and Bidenomics have utterly failed most Americans. Some topline findings: “Republicans, rural residents, renters, women and singles disproportionately feel like they’re in a big fat funk financially…” “Six in 10 surveyed say they’re now ‘triggered’ by trips to the grocery store.” “Grocery purchases are...
Millions of potential and current college students fill out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) every year. In 2020, Congress passed a law updating the FAFSA and the aid formulas for 2024, but the Department of Education’s (ED) release of the new FAFSA has been a fiasco. Despite having three years to prepare,...