Masked Protesters Violate the Law, Trump’s Sanctions Strike, and More Commentary

From the Right: Fabricated ‘Families’ and Billionaires

According to Gabe Kaminsky at The Free Press, Families Over Billionaires, a group that claims to “amplify the voices of the majority of Americans against additional tax breaks for the wealthy,” is primarily backed by “a single entity: the consulting firm Arabella Advisors.” This organization “manages a vast ‘dark money’ network funded by ultra-wealthy individuals, closely linked to the Democratic Party.” (Consider figures like “Bill Gates, eBay founder Pierre Omidyar, LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman, and Democratic donor George Soros.”) An employee from a connected nonprofit stated that these groups “act less as genuine instruments of policy reform and more to provide cover for billionaires and consultants,” thereby “centralizing power within a select few influential figures.”

Russia Desk: Trump’s Sanctions Strategy

President Trump’s pledge to impose significant sanctions on Russia unless the conflict in Ukraine ceases challenges a “puzzling restraint” towards Vladimir Putin, observes Peter Doran at The Hill: “This is a crucial move. The true measure will be whether Trump delivers these sanctions with the needed precision.” “Sanctions are ineffective unless they disrupt something critical” — thus, this action must “be forceful, delivering a crushing blow that compels Moscow to seek a resolution.” “Trump should start by dismantling Russia’s oil dependencies.” “Next, apply pressure on Europe” regarding their defense spending. “Finally, he should target Russia’s economic backbone with secondary sanctions on the banks and transporters that facilitate ‘shadow trades.’” “Trump now has an opportunity to finish this job — no half-measures, no backing down.”

Libertarian Perspective: Ending the Tax on Tips

“Trump is correct in wanting to eliminate taxes on tips, mainly because it creates a hefty administrative burden and yields virtually no revenue,” but there are “a few issues to consider,” remarks Jared Dillian at Reason. “Inevitably, individuals may attempt to exploit the system by classifying standard wages as tip income,” which could lead to a growth in “tipped positions after the tax is removed.” Additionally, tipping may “decline if the tax on tips is abolished.” Nonetheless, “tipped workers” have often been “the focus of IRS audits,” as “the IRS disproportionately” examines “low-income earners compared to their high-income counterparts.” “Abolishing the tax on tips not only provides more financial relief to service workers but also frees them from an unnecessary tax enforcement burden.”

Culture Critique: The Delights of JD Memes

Salena Zito of The Washington Examiner chuckles at an Atlantic piece that finds deep significance in the surge of memes featuring a photoshopped Vice President JD Vance: It illustrates the divide “between everyday people and our cultural leaders.” The memes don’t render Vance “a fool in the eyes of voters”; instead, he’s “being treated as any of us would joke with one another in everyday life.” In fact, “it’s just called ‘jagging around.’” Furthermore, “those presiding over our cultural institutions need to step outside their bubble to truly grasp the fundamental shifts happening in America.”

Civil Rights Update: Masked Protesters and the Law

President Trump’s insistence that protesters should not be permitted to wear masks raises the question of whether it is “simply intimidation” or a “response to a legitimate legal concern?” poses Philip Hamburger at The Wall Street Journal. “The Ku Klux Klan leveraged masks to conceal their identities” when they assaulted newly freed slaves. Congress acted “by passing laws against masking, including the Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871,” which allowed for damages against individuals wearing masks to aid in “denying” others “equal protection under the law.” Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits discrimination, which masks can enable. Therefore, schools that permit “violent antisemites to conceal their identities are failing to uphold the equal protection owed to Jews, in violation of the Ku Klux Klan Act and Title VI.”

— Compiled by The Post Editorial Board