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crime and punishment government transparency partisanship

Open Secret Re-opened

Peter Schiff, Trump, classified documents

Sometimes the news, hot off the press, turns out to be re-heated leftovers. But while some foods should not be re-cooked, the latest declassification appears worth a second feast.

The “new” news is historic: “The FBI said Monday night that it is ‘closely’ reviewing newly declassified memos,” reports John Solomon at Just the News. The declassified material shows that “the intelligence community kept secret for years evidence raising questions about the credibility and bias of the main accuser in President Donald Trump’s 2019 impeachment case.”

The CIA analyst who posed as a “whistleblower” about Trump’s controversial phone call asking that the Ukraine government look into Biden family corruption in the country was a Biden supporter. Deep blue. A known hater of Trump.

He was also a friend of “fired FBI Director James Comey and [Peter] Strzok,” the latter notorious from his work during the heady days of the Russiagate biz.

The analyst’s name is redacted in the newly declassified documents, but, Solomon notes, other media outlets identify him as “Eric Ciaramella.” 

Why does that name seem familiar? Because Ciaramella’s identity has been an open secret for over half a decade, at least since October 2019. 

Though the name was unsuccessfully protected by Adam Schiff, now a U.S. Senator from California,  the biggest secret was his partisanship, and the weakness of his evidence, both “kept from Trump’s impeachment proceedings by ex-Intelligence Community Inspector General Michael Atkinson, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard said Monday. 

“Gabbard accused the former watchdog of ‘weaponizing’ the whistle-blower process to hurt Trump.”

Not exactly shocking. 

Which the ever-increasing ranks of Trump critics may now regret. How many times can they impeach the same president? 

At some point a Never Cry Wolf element comes into play.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

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Thought

Kingsley Amis

The rewards for being sane are not very many but knowing what’s funny is one of them.

Kingsley Amis, Stanley and the Women. London: Hutchinson, 1984.
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Today

Bergen-Belsen Liberated

On April 15, 1945, the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp was liberated.

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international affairs

Sharing Power with Evil

shared power, world police, war, foreign policy, Israel, China, North Korea

“What does America do next?” Tucker Carlson recently asked Jiang Xueqin, the Chinese Canadian known for his Predictive History YouTube channel.

“So, what I would do is basically sit down everyone, okay, including Russia, China, Iran, and say, ‘it’s time for a new world order where we are partners in this relationship,’” explained ‘Professor’ Jiang. “Before America was a hegemon, before the U.S. dollar was a world reserve currency, but now what we want to do is open a dialogue where everyone is respected, where America is no longer the bully but a willing partner in creating a new economic order that benefits everyone and not just a few.”

To which, Mr. Carlson responded: “I think that’s the wisest possible advice and probably the only path that preserves civilization.”

The previous day, he declared, “The U.S. is not going to defend and cannot defend Taiwan.” 

After informing Zanny Minton Beddoes, The Economist’s editor-in-chief, that “we’ve reached the limits of our power and power has limits,” she inquired, “What about Japan and South Korea?” 

“Oh, man, it’s hard,” acknowledged Tucker. “I don’t understand exactly how that’s going to go . . . But, in the end, big powers want to and get to control their regions . . . hopefully in a non-brutal, enlightened way, but they want some influence over their neighbors. 

“We can no longer be the sole author of terms, of commerce, of anything,” he offered. “We have to share power.” 

“With China?” injected Beddoes.

“Of course,” he shot back, “because of their scale. And so, there’s got to be a non-destructive way to do this.”

The Chinese Communist Party’s regime is the most destructive in world history. Let’s not partner.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

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Alphonse Daudet

Méfie-toi de celui qui rit avant de parler!

Distrust the man who smiles before he speaks.

Alphonse Daudet, Tartarin sur les Alpes (1885); Katharine Prescott Wormeley (trans.) Tartarin of Tarascon. To Which is Added Tartarin on the Alps (Boston: Little, Brown, 1900) p. 241.
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Today

Private Daniel Hough

Daniel Hough was an Irish-born American soldier who, historians claim, became the first man to die in the American Civil War. This is something of a misnomer, for his death was accidental. On April 14, 1861, a cannon went off prematurely during a salute to the flag two days after the Battle of Fort Sumter, which was the zero-casualty skirmish by which the seceded state of South Carolina and the newly formed Confederate States Army forced the United States Army to relinquish control of the fort near Charleston.

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ideological culture

Semiquincentennial Blues

centennial, United States, Uncle Sam

“Now is the time for all good men to come to the aid of their country” — or so typing manuals back in the 1970s had students peck out. Thankfully, the typewriter has been replaced, but that sentiment is ever so relevant today.

America is sick. Almost everyone agrees . . . still, we point our fingers in different directions.

This year, 2026, marks the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, the greatest political words ever written and the birth of this very consequential country in which we live.

“The American Revolution is the most important event since the birth of Christ,” documentary filmmaker Ken Burns contends, adding, “in all of world history.”

Yet, where’s the celebration? I mean, I see ads for “America 250” t-shirts on Facebook, but . . . the country is not coming together as one for a big event to honor and appreciate the United States of America, this experiment gone largely very, very right. 

For us and the world.

Old-timers like me remember the bicentennial in 1976, fifty years ago. It was YUGE! 

The whole country seemed to celebrate. Not because the nation was perfect and everyone agreed on everything — the civil rights movement was in progress, the Vietnam War barely over, a myriad of other festering issues divided us — but because folks perceived they had the ability to change it. 

And that America was worth the effort.

Let’s find ways to commemorate year 250 of this grand experiment. As corrupt and partisan as our politics has become, we still have the ability to make change. Peacefully. Democratically. 

And America is still very much worth the effort. 

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

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Jack Vance

I know that the history of man is not his technical triumphs, his kills, his victories. It is a composite, a mosaic of a trillion pieces, the account of each man’s accommodation with his conscience. This is the true history of the race.

Jack Vance, “The Last Castle,” Galaxy (April 1966).
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Today

The Jefferson Memorial

On April 13, 1943, the Jefferson Memorial was dedicated in Washington, D.C., on the 200th anniversary of the birth of the third president of the United States, Thomas Jefferson.

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Update

Fifteen Months to Flatten the Cuba

Cuba, doctors, Brazil, freedom, slavery, slaves,

During the late coronavirus epidemic, we were told to “lock down” and “mitigate” the spread of the infection by extreme “social distancing” for 15 days, to “flatten the curve” and thereby save the medical system. But most governors kept the lockdowns going for months and months longer.

Foreshadowing this, years before the leader of the Cuban Revolution dictated a 15-month emergency “democratic lockdown” that stretched on and on and on.

Initial Promise: After overthrowing Batista on January 1, 1959, Fidel Castro initially pledged “free elections” within a year.

Delays: On April 9, 1959, Castro announced a 15-month postponement, arguing that immediate elections could allow the old oligarchy to regain control. He later reassured the public that elections would be held within four years.

What Actually Transpired: Consolidating power, the new revolutionary government outlawed opposition parties, and instituted a single-party system. No competitive, multi-party elections occurred as originally promised.

Later Elections: In the 1976 constitutional referendum, followed by the 1978 election of the National Assembly of People’s Power, voting did occur. However, these elections were conducted with pre-approved Communist Party candidate lists rather than the free, competitive elections initially promised.

The country transitioned to a single-party socialist state under Communist Party control.

Now, as negotiations between the U.S. Government and Cuba continue, if rockily — after deposing Venezuela’s dictator, the U.S. prevented the island nation from receiving oil shipments, putting extreme pressure on an already-embargoed economy — it’s a perfect time to reflect on the failure that is the 66-year-old Revolution:

Alina Fernández Revuelta, daughter of former Cuban leader Fidel Castro, premiered a documentary on April 10 at the Miami Film Festival, bringing together personal testimony from generations of exiles grappling with displacement, shared trauma, and a search for freedom.

“Revolution’s Daughter” showcased several leading voices against the Cuban regime, including exiles, refugees, and former political prisoners, who all, like Castro’s daughter, said regime change in Cuba is overdue. It’s a sentiment shared by top U.S. officials.

“We are in circumstances in which there can be a change,” Revuelta said about Cuba on the red carpet prior to the premiere of the documentary for which she is also credited as an executive producer.

Troy Myers, “Fidel Castro’s Daughter Releases Documentary on Generational Impacts From Communist Cuba,” The Epoch Times (April 10, 2026).

The timing of the documentary was coincidental, the filmmakers said. “This came in a special moment. It wasn’t on purpose,” Fidel Castro’s daughter explained. “It’s just that the circumstances are helping the spread of the message.”