The people of the United States are entitled to a sound and stable currency and to money recognized as such on every exchange and in every market of the world.
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Grover Cleveland
Author: Redactor
On March 24, 1765, the Kingdom of Great Britain passed the Quartering Act, which required the Thirteen Colonies to house British troops.
On the same date in 1855, slavery was abolished in Venezuela.
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Trump Support vs. Bernie Crowds
“I really thought Trump’s approval might break below 50 today,” Rasmussen Reports pollster Mark Mitchell confessed. “Back up to 51.”
Why?
“He’s doing what he promised to do. Hence the approval.”
Yet it is hard to hear the support from the din of the critics. And some of Trump’s moves do seem reckless, unconstitutional, or at least not well-thought-out.
But significantly unmentioned in most reports is the common-sense revulsion of normal citizens to the riotous vandalism against Tesla owners’ property.
The more Teslas burn, the more electric cars keyed, the more surfaces spray-painted, the higher Trump’s approval rating will likely go. This was the general tenor of Paul Jacob’s commentary from last week.
But as Trump’s popularity bounces back, the Vermont fake socialist’s popularity rises, too:
Just to be clear about the moment we’re in:@BernieSanders biggest crowd in Phoenix previously was 11,300 in 2015 when he was running for president.
Tonight, in a non-campaign year, when he is running for nothing, 15,000 Arizonans turned out.
This is a big deal.
Anna Bahr (@anna_bahr), X.com (March 20, 2025).
The question is, will Bernie succeed in revving up crowds while dampening down the wildfire of riot and mayhem?
If he doesn’t do the latter, the opposition to the left will get stronger too, feeding Trump’s popularity. For most people not committed to leftism do in fact disapprove of violence, on the whole — despite the constant fear in the Deep State of “right-wing extremism.”
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Tibor R. Machan
Ethics requires the kind of personal reflection, in the end, that no one else can do decisively for any individual.
Tibor R. Machan, The Promise of Liberty: A Non-Utopian Vision (2009), p. 69.
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“Give Me Liberty”
On March 23, 1775, Patrick Henry delivered his “Give me Liberty, or give me Death!” speech at St. John’s Church in Richmond, Virginia.
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The Attacks on Tesla
“I can’t walk past the TV without seeing a Tesla on fire,” lamented Elon Musk.
“At least ten Tesla dealerships, charging stations and facilities have been hit by vandals,” a Friday NBC News article explains, “many of whom have lit cars on fire, while a growing collection of videos posted to social media have shown people defacing and damaging Tesla vehicles.”
NBC’s estimate may rest on a Fox News report that actually listed ten Tesla dealerships and charging stations by name and location.
“Some of the most prominent incidents have been reported in left-leaning cities in the Pacific Northwest,” asserts the Associated Press, “like Portland, Oregon, and Seattle, where anti-Trump and anti-Musk sentiment runs high.”
These appear to be “spontaneous” eruptions of hatred towards Elon Musk, whose DOGE task force has loudly proclaimed major cuts to “waste, fraud and abuse” in the federal government.
“The Hamilton police in Ontario announced that over 80 Tesla vehicles were damaged in a vandalism attack at a Tesla service center,” a Canadian news source reports.
“US Attorney General Pam Bondi said on Thursday that three defendants accused of vandalism targeting Elon Musk’s Tesla electric vehicle company could face up to 20 years in prison,” adds the BBC.
“Bondi said the damage to Tesla cars, dealerships and charging stations was ‘domestic terrorism.’
“Arrests and charges against the three suspects were previously announced by prosecutors.”
Musk is the electric automobile company’s largest shareholder, at 5.3 percent, but investment firms own no small amount of Tesla stock, and the hit in price hurts more people than Mr. Musk himself. “‘Hang onto your stock,’ Elon Musk tells Tesla workers,” explains the Financial Times, and “urges vandals to ‘stop being psycho,’” but does anyone expect programed leftist saboteurs to “stop being psycho”? Really?
Paul Jacob’s commentary on the uprising of saboteurs appeared at this website on Wednesday.
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Grover Cleveland
What is the use of being elected or re-elected unless you stand for something?
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Templar Order Dissolved
On March 22, 1312, in the papal bull Vox in excelso, Pope Clement V dissolved the Order of the Knights Templar, after five years of suppression, torture and executions that began with the events of Friday the 13th, October 1307.
March 22nd marks some sad days for Americans, too:
1622 — Algonquians killed 347 English settlers around Jamestown, Virginia, a third of the colony’s population, during the Second Anglo-Powhatan War.
1631 — The Massachusetts Bay Colony outlawed the possession of cards, dice, and gaming tables.
1638 — Anne Hutchinson was expelled from Massachusetts Bay Colony for religious dissent.
1765 — The British Parliament passed the Stamp Act, which levied taxes directly on its American colonies.
On a brigher note, on March 22, 1621, the Pilgrims of Plymouth Colony, led by governor John Carver, signed a peace treaty with Massasoit, sachem of the Wampanoags; Squanto served as an interpreter between the two sides.
This week, here at Common Sense, we did not celebrate the birthday of Stephen Grover Cleveland (1837–1908), whom some of my friends regard as the last great president of these United States. It wasn’t even mentioned in Tuesday’s Today feature.
Is there any reason to devote a column to him?
Sure:
- He was the only president, prior to Trump, to serve two non-consecutive terms, designated as the 22nd and 24th president in the history books.
- Like Trump, and like presidents Martin Van Buren, Millard Fillmore, Theodore Roosevelt, and Franklin D. Roosevelt, he was born in New York; like Van Buren and the Roosevelts, he had, before his presidency, served as governor of that state.
- Also like Trump, he weathered a major sex scandal. Accused of fathering a child out of wedlock, he admitted to it. And still got elected.
- Grover Cleveland also made history by being the first president to get married in the White House. He married his former ward — itself something of a scandal — in the Blue Room during his first administration.*
The main truth about Grover Cleveland, though, was that he was a great believer and practitioner of honesty in government, and was the last real limited government man in the office — though, like all presidents, he was hardly consistent on this issue. He supported sound money, and opposed (but could not stop) the imperialist move of annexing Hawaii. He could be called President Veto, for his 584 vetoes held the record until the first four-term president stretched out enough years in office to beat it.
He also knew his place: “Officeholders are the agents of the people, not their masters.”
He was the only Democrat President in the half-century following the Civil War, when the Republican Party dominated, and was — consequently — super-corrupt.
Today we have a Democrat-turned-Republican fighting an ultra-corrupt Democrat-dominated federal government.
Donald Trump could learn a lot from Grover.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
* This made his bride, Frances Folsom, the youngest First Lady in history — at the age of 21. There was a 27-year difference between them.
Illlustration created with Krea and Firefly
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Jimmy Dore
When the devil comes he’s not gonna have horns, he’s gonna have a crew neck sweater and glasses.
Comedian Jimmy Dore on John Papola’s Dad Saves America podcast (March 13, 2025).