David P. Goldman

SECRETARY RUBIO: Iran would rather invest in the rapists and murderers of Hamas than their own people. The BBC and these other media outlets should be covering how evil these people are in Iran and the damage they’ve done to people all over the world.

Farewell, Ned Phelps: My friend of many years Edmund Phelps passed away peacefully over the weekend at the ripe age of 92, honored with a Nobel Prize and the gratitude of generations of students. It was a privilege to know him. He was a towering figure in a generation of giants who tackled fundamental problems of economics, a field that turned trivial during the past twenty years. In 2023 I reviewed his last book, "My Journeys in Economic Theory," at Law and Liberty: "Nobel Prizes in economics are usually awarded to old men whose productive years are behind them. Edmund Phelps, the 2006 Nobel Laureate in the field, is an exception. With the publication of his book Mass Flourishing in 2013, Phelps proposed an entirely new way to think about economics. Periods of extraordinary economic growth, he argued, cannot be explained by monetary or fiscal policy, scientific discovery, entrepreneurship, or any of the standard categories of economic research. Instead, exceptional growth stems from the willingness of the whole of society to adopt innovation, take risks, and embrace uncertainty. I can think of no other octogenarian economist who advanced such a bold and original thesis." lawliberty.org/book-review/th…

Tomorrow marks the one year anniversary of our father’s death. I am struck today with overwhelming gratitude that he was my father and that I had so much time with him. He was a great man and a great father. I feel his hand on my back. Many rightfully focus on his body of work related to the Iranian regime, but he was first and foremost an historian. He had a special gift of distilling complex ideas into simple, relatable concepts to make them approachable for the average reader. I recently found this speech he gave years ago to mark the publication of his book, “Machiavelli on Modern Leadership,” which does just that. I hope you’ll give it a listen (scroll past the opener before it begins). c-span.org/program/book-t…

On this day 250 years ago, our forefathers gathered for a national day of fasting and prayer. Today, Americans will come together again as one Nation under God. This is who we are and who we’ve always been.

Met with Italian Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Tajani to discuss maritime security and bilateral economic and security cooperation.

JUST IN: 🇺🇸🇩🇪 President Trump says the German Chancellor should spend more time fixing his broken country.

@KP_Schwarz The "Forza" I heard featured Leyla Gencer as Leonora. Unforgettable. Franco Capuana's reading of the score (I'm convinced on re-listening) was the best ever. More than the panini I remember the hot coffee-and-brandy combination, to take the chill off the evening air.

@davidpgoldman I was there several times in the sixties. Unforgettabel Moffo, Corelli, the humble public, the vendor of panini repeating the arias between the acts. Tempi passati.

I ust stumbled onto a recording of the "Forza del Destino" I heard as a teenager at the Arena di Verona in 1967: youtube.com/watch?v=WKH3qk… The recording brought back vivid memories. The cast and stating and Capuana's conducting were brilliant. It was a family outing, with working-class Italians comprising most of the audience, rather than the unaffordable, elite exercise that Italian opera has become. Rather than a preserve of rich tourists, the Arena di Verona was their theater where they communed with their Verdi. Only sixty years ago, high culture was popular culture in Italy and many other parts of Europe. And in 1967 the average Italian woman had 2.6 children, vs. 1.2 today.

With determined leadership, nothing is impossible. 🇺🇸

Armies do not fight for abstractions. Armies fight for a people. Armies fight for a nation. Armies fight for a way of life and that is what we are defending.

On Day One, @POTUS withdrew from the one-sided Paris Climate Agreement which raises prices, hinders economic growth, and weakens our national security. The U.S. will no longer be a part of international agreements and initiatives that undermine our national interests. Promises Made, Promises Kept!

On International Holocaust Remembrance Day, we reaffirm our commitment to countering antisemitism, defending historic truth, and to upholding the immortal words never again.

🕯️ Today we remember the victims of the Holocaust. In Hungary, this tragedy has names and faces, with so many families torn apart. Remembering is not about the past alone. At a time when antisemitism is once again on the rise across Europe, it is our duty to ensure that such evil is never allowed to return.

Der Jahrestag der Befreiung des Vernichtungslagers Auschwitz-Birkenau ist ein Anlass zum Innehalten – zum Gedenken an die vielen Millionen Menschen, die der verbrecherischen Gewaltherrschaft der Nationalsozialisten zum Opfer fielen. Auschwitz steht für ein beispielloses Menschheitsverbrechen, das im Namen Deutschlands begangen wurde: den industriellen Massenmord an den Juden Europas. Dieser Schrecken darf auch nach 81 Jahren nicht verblassen. Das Unrecht und das millionenfache Leid dürfen nie in Vergessenheit geraten.

Anne Frank’s story has repeatedly been perversely looted by activists — during 2020, there was a discourse on here about whether Anne was a “Karen.”

A central preoccupation of the “censorship-industrial complex” (NGOs + their govt principals) was the creation of a de facto DSA / OSA regime in the United States. Compare, eg, DSA “trusted flagger” structure with the prioritized “content moderation” channels seen in Murthy.

The United States cares greatly about the people of Europe and the bonds we share as a civilization. But we want strong allies, not seriously weakened ones. Europe must depart from the culture they've created over the last ten years. Otherwise, they will destroy themselves.

🚨JD VANCE JUST OBLITERATED GLOBALISM — AND EXPOSED HOW SMALL OUR POLITICIANS REALLY ARE While Britain is led by careerists who can’t think beyond slogans, JD Vance just dismantled the entire intellectual foundation of globalisation — calmly, methodically, and devastatingly. He explained what our so-called leaders never understood: You cannot separate making things from designing things. When you offshore manufacturing, you don’t just lose jobs — you lose knowledge, skills, innovation, and eventually sovereignty. The countries that make things learn how to design them. They absorb the expertise. They build the ecosystems. They overtake you. And that’s exactly what happened. Globalisation didn’t lift the West — it hollowed it out. Then Vance delivered the knockout blow: Cheap labour isn’t progress. It’s a drug. A shortcut that replaces innovation with dependency. Instead of building better systems, Western elites imported cheaper workers. Instead of investing in productivity, they chased lower wages. Instead of strengthening nations, they weakened them. The result? • Stagnant productivity • Collapsing industries • Hollowed communities • Lost national purpose And this isn’t theory — it’s visible everywhere. From the rust belts of America to the broken towns of Britain to the productivity collapse across Europe. This is the level of thinking real leadership requires. Not soundbites. Not Davos slogans. Not “learn to code”. But first-principles understanding of power, labour, innovation, and national interest. Listening to JD Vance speak makes one thing painfully clear: Our political class isn’t just corrupt. It’s intellectually bankrupt. And that — more than anything — is why the West has been losing.