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tl;dr: "American democracy depends on the census. Trump is undermining it" is my new op-ed at the Guardian. Check it out!

For census geeks, this summer has been one eeeek after another. Planks of the Jenga tower keep getting pulled out. First, the White House announced that the Census Bureau must stop using sophisticated techniques to protect the public's confidentiality; they were told to go back to the 1960s and suppress data or round. The result will be less data, less quality data, and/or less privacy. It's bad all around. We are starting to see the impact: critical data has been delayed.

The American Mind’s podcast is a weekly conversation with Ryan Williams, Spencer Klavan, and Mike Sabo devoted to uncovering the ideas and principles that drive American political life. Stream here or download from your favorite podcast host.

Political Fallout: Charlie Kirk’s Legacy and “The Flight 93 Election” | The American Mind Podcast

One year ago today, America lost Charlie Kirk.

In some ways, it feels like only yesterday. At other times, it feels like a lifetime ago. Twelve months after that horrifying day, we have only begun to reckon with the scale of the loss for conservatism—and for America.

To someone who ignores politics, it can be hard to explain just why Charlie’s loss was so great. He had a popular podcast—but there are many of those. He did campus debates—but he didn’t have a monopoly on that concept. And of course, however deeply involved in politics he was, Charlie never held office himself.

And yet millions think that Charlie Kirk’s martyrdom leaves a tremendous void on the Right. Why?

What America lost one year ago on that dreadful September 10 was not merely a debater, a pundit, an activist, or even, as many speculated, a future president. What America lost was a true leader, the kind who comes along only a few times in a generation.

The American Way

In one of the most important passages in Democracy in America, Alexis de Tocqueville describes the tremendous capacity for self-organization among America’s citizens, in contrast to the torpor he saw among the people of Europe:

It is hard to believe that a year has passed since Charlie’s assassination.

Paying fitting tribute to his life’s work is daunting, and I have been hesitant to write anything at all—especially when I think of his wife, Erika, and their children. None of us can fathom what they have endured.

But we must keep Charlie’s life and work alive in memory and let them inspire and inform our own.

Prudence is an old word with a venerable tradition in Western thought and politics, though its full meaning has grown obscure in modern times. It is also the virtue I most associate with Charlie—and the one we would do best to learn from as we continue to fight for the country he loved.

Charlie was a principled man, but he was no ideological fanatic and no dogmatist on questions of politics and policy. He was always reading, learning, and talking with Americans from every walk of life: college students, grassroots conservatives, the donor class, and leaders across the country.

The poll of 1042 voters, conducted by YouGov, found that 93% of Australian voters want online platforms to be legally required to provide a safe online environment and prevent harmful content.

83% of Australians want those spreading dangerous content to be fined, while half (50%) say the executives of offending companies should also be jailed.

Seven in ten voters (72%) believe users who suffer physical or mental harm should be able to seek compensation from the platform, including 62% of One Nation supporters and 69% of Coalition voters.

Key points:

Today’s decision by the Greens to support a new method of carbon offsetting in publicly-owned forests is “fiddling while the forest burns”, according to Dr Richard Denniss, co-CEO of The Australia Institute.

Green’s leader, Senator Larissa Waters, indicated her party would vote with the government this afternoon to allow a new ‘method’ to increase the supply of carbon credits. However, three Greens Senators say they’ll cross the floor to support the disallowance motion.

“The task of stopping Australia’s expansion of coal and gas is going to become a little harder today,” said Dr Denniss.

“In voting with Labor, the Greens have shown they now support putting publicly-owned forests into the ‘carbon marketplace’, and have tied the protection of trees and koalas to the expansion of gas and coal.

“Native forests are one of nature’s best carbon storage units – they truly are the lungs of the planet. The climate science makes clear that we need to protect these forests and stop expanding fossil fuels. Allowing fossil fuel pollution to increase because a forest wasn’t logged might take pressure off politicians but it wont take pressure off our climate.

“If Australia only saves forests so that polluters can increase their fossil fuel use, the science says there is no benefit to our planet.

This interview is also available on podcast platforms and Rumble.

The images created by socialist and antiwar political cartoonists during the period around World War I were powerful tools for countering the elite’s propaganda of the time. The Russian Revolution had just occurred, and in response to extreme wealth inequality, a militant working class was on the rise in the United States. The ruling class was afraid and responded to the growing dissent with severe measures – a massive propaganda campaign, laws that limited free expression, deportations, violence and imprisonment. It was an era that echoes the repression – ICE raids, the designation of Leftists as “terrorists” and restrictions of academic freedom - that is occurring today.

This submission addresses two of the instruments under consultation. On the draft Income Tax Assessment (Method for Apportioning Capital Gains and Capital Losses) Determination 2026, we identify two defects in the prescribed method as it applies to real property — the treatment of capital expenditure incurred after 1 July 2027, and of discontinuous value events […]

On this episode of Dollars & Sense, Greg and Elinor discuss One Nation’s superannuation proposal, ways the government could provide genuine cost-of-living support, the Reserve Bank’s twisted thinking over inflation and interest rates, and Barnaby Joyce’s run-from-Jesus moment.

This discussion was recorded on Thursday 10 September 2026.

More Fool Me: How the gas industry tricked Australia by Richard Denniss, the latest Vantage Point essay from Australia Institute Press, is available now.

Use the code ‘FOOLME’ on a four-edition Vantage Point subscription to receive a free copy of Richard’s book, Econobabble.

Host: Greg Jericho, Chief Economist, the Australia Institute // @grogsgamut

Host: Elinor Johnston-Leek, Senior Content Producer, the Australia Institute // @elinorjohnstonleek

Show notes:

Gloria Steinem, a popularizer of feminist dogmas, died last week at the age of 92. She promoted many of the false doctrines of women’s liberation beginning in the 1960s through her persona, writings, publications, and speeches. As she passes from the scene, few of the original so-called second-wave feminists remain. Yet the overwhelming victories the movement has achieved in the decades since have largely obscured the radicalism at its center.

As I researched my second book, The Recovery of Family Life: Exposing the Limits of Modern Ideologies, I read Steinem’s influential 1970 Time essay, “What It Would Be Like If Women Win,” to understand what the fully realized feminist project would look like. What emerged from my survey of her work was the idea of an unfinished and unfinishable Rolling Feminist Revolution.

For fun, I like to read Golden Age mysteries, and so recently picked up The Wrong Murder Mystery (Charles Barry) which was published in 1933.

The Hon Dr Andrew Leigh MP, Assistant Minister for Productivity, Competition, Charities and Treasury, joins Ebony Bennett to discuss the pernicious impact of non-compete clauses and the federal government’s new legislation seeking to ban them for 9-in-10 workers.

This episode was recorded on Tuesday 8 September.

More Fool Me: How the gas industry tricked Australia by Richard Denniss, the latest edition in the Vantage Point series, is available now.

Use the code ‘FOOLME’ on a four-edition Vantage Point subscription to receive a free copy of Richard’s book, Econobabble.

Guest: Andrew Leigh, Assistant Minister for Productivity, Competition, Charities and Treasury and Federal Member for Fenner // @aleighmp

Host: Ebony Bennett, Deputy Director, the Australia Institute // @ebonybennett

Show notes:

Reform to non-compete clauses and other restraints – draft legislation, Department of Treasury Consultation Hub

September 9, 2026 — Equality Australia has welcomed landmark recommendations to tackle anti-LGBTIQ+ hate crime in Victoria, calling on state and federal governments to act on the inquiry’s findings and address the scale and devastating impact of hate.

The report, tabled on Tuesday, makes 41 findings and 35 recommendations to strengthen Victoria’s response to the alarming rise in hate.

They include stronger policing and justice responses, a whole-of-government prevention strategy, a restorative justice pilot, hate crime diversion programs and consideration of aggravated hate-based offences.

The inquiry also made recommendations related to the federal government, including strengthening national data collection, stronger safety measures on dating apps and ensuring anti-terrorism preparedness accounts for threats against LGBTIQA+ communities.

“This report is a stark acknowledgement of the scale and impact of anti-LGBTIQ+ hate in Victoria,” said Equality Australia Legal Director Heather Corkhill.

“LGBTIQ+ people are being deliberately targeted because of who they are, including through increasingly serious and violent attacks. We cannot dismiss this as isolated incidents or fringe behaviour.

“This is targeted hate, and it demands an immediate and serious response.”

Summary of recommendations  Prosper Australia supports the NSW Government’s decision to replace the insurance-based Emergency Services Levy with a broader property-based levy. Removing the ESL from insurance premiums would improve insurance affordability, reduce incentives for underinsurance and place emergency services funding on a more efficient and sustainable base.  However, Prosper considers that the Government should […]

Originally posted on LinkedIn I love coming home to visit. Clean air and water, bird song that makes me weak to my knees. News headlines so delightfully provincial, they’re as likely to make you smile as make you cry. Coming home during an election period is even more satisfying, because the political debates are so […]

It finds the centrepiece – a pledge to save $22 billion from a public service hiring freeze – simply does not withstand scrutiny.

To deliver the promised savings, the analysis finds the Victorian Liberals would need to halve the public service, which would have substantial flow-on consequences.

Opposition Leader Jess Wilson claims the $22 billion could come from a hiring freeze on back office roles. The analysis describes this as implausible.

The  analysis also finds that the Coalition’s vague plans to cut payroll tax, expand stamp duty exemptions and provide land tax relief would be expensive and benefit high income households much more than ordinary Victorians.

Key points:

With tensions in Iran still boiling and our national debt hitting $40 trillion, it’s time to take a hard look at the military’s budget. We should preserve what the military needs to be capable and prepared—and cut the waste. One little-known program has not only failed its mission but also driven excess government spending. The good news is that Secretary of War Pete Hegseth has already announced a review. The bad news? This program is so fundamentally defective that it should be abolished outright.

In the summer of 2024, a “socially disadvantaged” small business won two Defense Logistics Agency contracts worth more than $34 million. The firm then handed 95% of one contract’s value to Lockheed Martin and 94% of the other to a subsidiary of Leonardo DRS, two of the world’s largest defense contractors. The disadvantaged firm did little more than sign the paperwork and collect a fee.

The arrangement broke no law. It followed the standard business model of the Small Business Administration’s 8(a) Business Development Program, the federal government’s oldest identity-based contracting scheme—and one of Washington’s most durable corporate welfare rackets.

This article was read by Eunice Wong. You can find her work at www.eunicewong.actor.

Text originally published June 19, 2026.

Warnings and Lessons from the Struggle Against Trumpism

 — Author: Thomas Zimmer — Saturday 5th September 2026

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“The Flight 93 Election,” Ten Years Later

 — Organisation: The Claremont Institute — Saturday 5th September 2026

Ten years ago today, September 5, 2016, Michael Anton’s “The Flight 93 Election” took the internet, and the Right, by storm. Anton’s essay made the case for Trump in the face of furious, well-funded opposition from elite conservative intellectual and political circles.

The electoral choice was easy: Trump was a risk; Hillary was a certainty. On Trump, though, Anton went further. On trade, war, the economy, and especially immigration, Trump promised to disrupt the establishment status quo in the name of the long-aggrieved GOP voting base. He ran on a concrete policy platform, amassed a presidential electoral coalition around it, and then delivered. How novel!

Anton’s arresting polemic in defense of Trump has been vindicated. It also did not come from nowhere. Six years before “Flight 93,” in 2010, the late Angelo Codevilla (a longtime Claremont Senior Fellow) published an equally viral essay in The American Spectator, “America’s Ruling Class—and the Perils of Revolution.” He called out the intellectual, moral, and republican bankruptcy of America’s bipartisan ruling class. Rush Limbaugh read it on air, as he would again with Anton’s essay in 2016.

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One Voice. One Strategy.

 — Author: Fadhel Kaboub — Saturday 5th September 2026

For years, I have argued that Africa’s greatest challenge is not a lack of resources. It is the persistence of a colonial economic structure designed to keep the continent structurally trapped at the bottom of the global value chain, exporting raw materials, importing manufactured goods and technology, and serving as the destination for obsolete industries disguised as “development.” The global race for critical minerals risks reinforcing exactly that model, only this time under the banner of the green transition. But it doesn’t have to be this way.

I am delighted to announce the launch of a new report that I had the privilege of writing for the Southern Africa Resource Watch (SARW): One Voice. One Strategy: A Continental Blueprint for African Strategic Minerals, Joint Industrial Policies, and Diplomacy.

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The High Cost of Going No Contact

 — Organisation: The Claremont Institute — Friday 4th September 2026

Mark exited his family group chat after Donald Trump’s victory in the 2024 election and, shortly after, stopped speaking to his family entirely. He knew his mom and siblings were conservative and pro-life, and though they didn’t really talk politics, his suspicions about their votes were confirmed when he pressed them. They had made a choice, and now he would too.

Mark had taken to social media the day after the election to rant about half the country, but there was little he could do with anger of that scale. His family offered something more manageable: a localized target for a generalized grievance. He couldn’t control how millions of Americans voted, but he could control whether the few he knew who voted for Trump remained in his life.

His mother, recently widowed, is heartbroken by her son’s decision to go no contact. She tries to focus her attention on the rich relationships she still has. Mark’s siblings vacillate between annoyance and deep hurt, bewildered that something so distant from the ordinary life of their family—national politics—could enter their intimacy and overwhelm it.

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The trickle-down economics of climate policy | Between the Lines

 — Organisation: The Australia Institute — Friday 4th September 2026

From our CEOs – with Richard Denniss

Carbon offsets are the trickle-down economics of climate policy. Spoiler, they don’t work.

For decades Australians have been told the best way to help those with the least is to give tax cuts to those with the most. The benefits of rich people spending money on themselves would, we were told, trickle down. Eventually.

Likewise, we’ve been told that instead of investing in high quality public services we should cut taxes, privatise services and trust that market forces would solve our problems. Spoiler, it didn’t work as promised. But to be fair, neoliberalism did deliver enormous profits, record CEO pay and expensive housing.

Just this week NSW Greens Senator David Shoebridge wrote a scathing critique of the divide and conquer strategy of neoliberalism, describing how those with wealth and power are “shamelessly and effectively wielding their wealth to make us fight each other instead of them”. He asks the key question ‘How did we get here?’ His answer? “Decades of privatising public assets”.

Which brings me to recent calls for further privatisation of nature, or as former Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek put it, the need for Australia to become the global “Green Wall St”.

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The Jason Arday Scandal Proves Woke Isn’t Over

 — Organisation: The Claremont Institute — Thursday 3rd September 2026

Optimists have lately claimed that wokeness was a fad that has gone out of style. To their credit, there has been evidence to support this. “Woke 1 was crazy,” Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said in August on ABC News. “Rhetoric in that time is not rhetoric we would use today.” Progressivism’s biggest champions seem eager to distance themselves from its recent excesses.

But the Jason Arday scandal shows that wokeness is not over, not by a long shot. The fact that Arday held a well-paid position at one of the world’s most prestigious universities is a telling sign that wokeness is alive and well.

More telling still is that powerful and otherwise seemingly intelligent people, such as the autism specialist Simon Baron-Cohen, have leaped to defend Arday. It would have been easy for people on the Left to acknowledge his blatant fraud and dismiss him as an isolated case whose offenses have no bearing on the broader issue of DEI in higher education. They did not.

The lesson for the Right is that there is much more work to do to dismantle wokeness, and it will not simply be a matter of doing more of what we have been doing so far. The power centers of wokeness are not just holdouts we haven’t gotten around to eliminating yet. They are strongholds that have been impervious to our tactics.

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AnnouncementRighting the Rules – Policy Releases by Game Changers

 — Organisation: Just Money — Thursday 3rd September 2026

More “Announcement
Righting the Rules – Policy Releases by Game Changers”

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The quarter of a trillion dollar shortfall leaving states and territories scrambling 

 — Organisation: The Australia Institute — Thursday 3rd September 2026

The GST was launched in July 2000, with then Treasurer Peter Costello declaring it a solution to states and territories’ seemingly endless battle to fund essential services like hospitals, schools, police and roads.

“Every dollar raised by (the) GST is paid to the state and territory governments,” Mr Costello pledged.

“It is the money that will provide the schools, the hospitals, the police, and the roads of the future.

“From 1 July they have a revenue base that grows in line with the economy. It will provide a secure base to fund their services.”

But the new analysis shows that not only was that initial pledge hundreds of billions of dollars short of the mark, the current cost of-living crisis is making things even worse.

The report calculates that if the GST had grown at the same pace as the economy – as promised – states and territories would have more than $120 billion to spend on essential services over the forward estimates.

“When it comes to the GST, states and territories have been sold a pup,” said Matt Grudnoff, Senior Economist at The Australia Institute.

“The GST has failed every Australian who’s had to wait for an ambulance or essential health care.

“It’s failed every child who’s been squashed into a double classroom because their school can’t find or afford a replacement teacher.

“It’s failed anyone who’s suffered because a shortage of police.

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Fighting Big Money in Politics (w/ Karishma Manzur) | TCHR

 — Author: Chris Hedges — Thursday 3rd September 2026

This interview is also available on podcast platforms and Rumble.

The blowback of the failed 2024 Biden-and-then-Harris Democratic presidential campaign, which supported Israel’s genocide in Gaza, continues as another grassroots candidate runs for Congress. Dr. Karishma Manzur, a scientist who is running for senate in the September New Hampshire Democratic Primary against Chris Pappas, joins Chris Hedges in this episode of The Chris Hedges Report to talk about her campaign.

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Designation of Linfox Armaguard Pty Ltd under the Cash Distribution Framework Act 2026

 — Organisation: Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) — Thursday 3rd September 2026

Media Release Number 2026-25: The RBA has today designated Linfox Armaguard Pty Ltd (Armaguard) (ACN 099 701 872) under the Cash Distribution Framework Act 2026 (the Act).

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August 2026 Media Highlights

 — Organisation: The Australia Institute — Thursday 3rd September 2026

We hosted the 2026 Hugh Saddler Memorial Lecture with former ACT Greens leader Shane Rattenbury, discussed the war in Gaza with former Human Rights Commissioner Chris Sidoti on After America, and more!

Here are just a few of the things that happened in August!

The post August 2026 Media Highlights appeared first on The Australia Institute.

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EVs driving “discretionary” spending, so will the RBA slam the brakes?

 — Organisation: The Australia Institute — Thursday 3rd September 2026

On this episode of Dollars & Sense, Greg gets triggered by the growth figures, before he and Elinor discuss how the states and territories have missed out on a lazy quarter-trillion and why access to specialist healthcare is slipping out of reach for many Australians.

This discussion was recorded on Thursday 3 September 2026.

More Fool Me: How the gas industry tricked Australia by Richard Denniss, the latest Vantage Point essay from Australia Institute Press, is available now.

Use the code ‘FOOLME’ on a four-edition Vantage Point subscription to receive a free copy of Richard’s book, Econobabble.

Host: Greg Jericho, Chief Economist, the Australia Institute // @grogsgamut

Host: Elinor Johnston-Leek, Senior Content Producer, the Australia Institute // @elinorjohnstonleek

Show notes:

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Historical Materialism | Sydney | Call for Papers

 — Publication: Progress in Political Economy — Thursday 3rd September 2026

Historical Materialism | Sydney

Liberation, Now: The Death of Liberal Order and the Fight for Another World |

11-12 February 2027

Call for Papers

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Lindsay Clancy and the Battle of the Sexes

 — Organisation: The Claremont Institute — Wednesday 2nd September 2026

Will marriage survive the internet?

It’s a question no one was asking in the 1990s, even as the World Wide Web became part of our everyday lives. Yet here we are more than halfway through the 2020s, and it’s fair to say the digitization of our social lives has drastically unsettled the relations between the sexes. As scholar Patrick T. Brown recently wrote, “At this point, anyone who is arguing that phones didn’t change societal scripts in a meaningful way has the burden of proof.”

Yes, the battle of the sexes is as old as civilization itself. But digital technology has introduced a new and disorienting dynamic. It turns humans into avatars. And avatars don’t fall in love or find God or have children. They exist in your phone, as pixels to be rewarded with likes or screamed at with comments, depending on the situation.

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FIRE Challenges Trump’s Deportation of Pro-Gaza Immigrants | The American Mind Podcast

 — Organisation: The Claremont Institute — Wednesday 2nd September 2026

The American Mind’s podcast is a weekly conversation with Ryan Williams, Spencer Klavan, and Mike Sabo devoted to uncovering the ideas and principles that drive American political life. Stream here or download from your favorite podcast host.

FIRE Challenges Trump’s Deportation of Pro-Gaza Immigrants | The American Mind Podcast

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Break up the ‘big four’: fixing Australia’s scandal-plagued consulting sector

 — Organisation: The Australia Institute — Wednesday 2nd September 2026

On this episode of Follow the Money, Josh Bornstein and Skye Predavec join Ebony Bennett to discuss Australia’s scandal-plagued big consultancies, the impact of governments’ “orgy of outsourcing” to these firms, and why breaking up the ‘big four’ is the best way to prevent future misconduct.

This episode was recorded on Wednesday 2 September.

More Fool Me: How the gas industry tricked Australia by Richard Denniss, the latest edition in the Vantage Point series, is available now.

Use the code ‘FOOLME’ on a four-edition Vantage Point subscription to receive a free copy of Richard’s book, Econobabble.

Guest: Josh Bornstein, Director, Corporate Regulation, the Australia Institute // @joshbornstein

Guest: Skye Predavec, Researcher, the Australia Institute // @skyelark

Host: Ebony Bennett, Deputy Director, the Australia Institute // @ebonybennett

Show notes:

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That’s Not the Warsh of It: The End(ish) of Forward Guidance and the Rise(?) of Treasury Monetary Policy

 — Author: Nathan Tankus — Publication: Notes on the Crisis — Wednesday 2nd September 2026

This is a free piece of Notes on the Crises. Take out a paid subscription to support our work here. 

Publisher Note: I’ve been off for two weeks because of a family medical emergency. Everything is fine now, but as you are likely aware, medical emergencies take up an enormous amount of time. I have a large backlog of pieces, especially OMB pieces, so we should be back to our regular schedule as of this piece. Thank you for bearing with me.

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The Curse of the Sincere Believer

 — Organisation: Economic Reform Australia (ERA) — Tuesday 1st September 2026

The Curse of the Sincere Believer Steve Keen “Don’t overrate sincerity,” a voice boomed from the back of the room. “The most sincere person you’ll…

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John Adams and the Meaning of Independence

 — Organisation: The Claremont Institute — Tuesday 1st September 2026

According to John Adams, if you cannot fail, you’re not truly free. In his last public statement, honoring the 50th anniversary of American Independence in 1826, Adams wrote that the American Revolution would be

A Memorable epoch in the annals of the human race; destined, in future history, to form the brightest or the blackest page, according to the use or the abuse of those political institutions by which they shall, in time to come, be Shaped, by the human mind.

That was not a new thought. In the Preface to his Defence of the Constitutions of Government of the United States of America, Adams mused that Americans “have now the best opportunity and the greatest trust in their hands, that Providence ever committed to so small a number, since the transgression of the first pair.” Should “they betray their trust,” Adams contended, “their guilt will merit even greater punishment than other nations have suffered, and the indignation of Heaven.”

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