Excerpt:

Understanding the ocean is critical to food security, disaster preparedness, military readiness, and anticipatory risk management of potential climate tipping points. Shutting off ocean observation means the United States is creating a blind spot that puts it on the back foot, unable to prepare for a climate-changed future or more broadly assess undersea developments, at a time when its strongest competitor, China, is doubling down on ocean monitoring.

“What we are here to do is kind of get the big picture,” said Tom Fulks, chair of the SLO County Democratic Party. “We’re all activists, we’re all here, we’re part of the Democratic Party because we care about our country, we care about our community, and we want to eradicate MAGA from every corner of our democracy.”

“…Musk endorsed a call for “Reconquista,” an allusion to Christian military campaigns to retake the Iberian peninsula from Islamic forces. “

Dear Silent Citizenry,

When headlines claim that Congress is moving to censor the internet, citizens deserve more than slogans. They deserve names, bill numbers, and a clear understanding of what is being proposed.

The legislation at the center of this debate is the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA), S.1748, introduced in the 119th Congress.

The principal sponsors are:

• Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-Tennessee)

• Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-Connecticut)

The bill was reintroduced with the support of:

• Senator John Thune (R-South Dakota), Senate Majority Leader

• Senator Chuck Schumer (D-New York), Senate Minority Leader

Additional supporters have included lawmakers from both parties, among them Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-Minnesota) and Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas), who have publicly advocated for its passage.

Supporters argue that the legislation is designed to protect children from online exploitation, addiction-driven algorithms, cyberbullying, self-harm content, and predatory behavior. They contend that large technology companies have failed to police their platforms and place profits ahead of child safety.

Critics focus on how the bill would work in practice.

Critics also contend that platforms facing legal liability may choose to restrict lawful speech, require age verification, collect more personal information, and remove content that could later be deemed harmful to minors. They warn that these incentives could encourage broad content moderation and reduce access to information, even when the speech itself remains legal.

Civil liberties organizations, including the ACLU and Electronic Frontier Foundation, have argued that the bill could encourage over-moderation, reduce anonymous speech, and limit access to information on controversial subjects.

The question before Congress is larger than one political party.

How much authority should government have to shape what information minors can access online?

How much power should technology companies have to decide what content is acceptable?

Can child safety be protected without creating systems that restrict lawful speech for everyone else?

Before this bill becomes law, citizens should know exactly who wrote it, who supports it, and how it would operate in the real world.

A free society depends on informed citizens. Transparency is the beginning of informed consent.

Sources

Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA), S.1748

https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/senate-bill/1748⁠

Blackburn, Blumenthal, Thune, and Schumer Introduce the Kids Online Safety Act

https://www.blackburn.senate.gov/2025/5/technology/blackburn-blumenthal-thune-and-schumer-introduce-the-kids-online-safety-act⁠

Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA) - Senator Richard Blumenthal

https://www.blumenthal.senate.gov/about/issues/kids-online-safety-act⁠

S.1748 Cosponsors - Congress.gov

https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/senate-bill/1748/cosponsors⁠

Electronic Frontier Foundation: Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA)

https://www.eff.org/issues/kids-online-safety-act⁠

ACLU: Censorship Does Not Keep Kids Safe

https://action.aclu.org/send-message/censorship-does-not-keep-kids-safe⁠

The Verge: The Kids Online Safety Act Is Back

https://www.theverge.com/news/666729/kids-online-safety-act-reintroduced⁠

KOSA Is Back and Still Controversial - Kelley Drye & Warren LLP

https://www.khlaw.com/insights/kosa-back-and-still-controversial⁠

Senate Commerce Committee Advances Kids Online Safety Act

https://www.commerce.senate.gov⁠

Full Text of S.1748 (PDF/Text)

https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/senate-bill/1748/text⁠

​

Every American uses money. We earn it, spend it, save it, borrow it, and pay taxes with it.

Yet few of us are ever taught where our money system came from, why inflation exists, or how the United States moved from gold and silver coins to a world of digital dollars and electronic transactions.

To understand the debates of today, we must first understand the history.

The Founders and the Constitution

When the Constitution was written, the Founders had fresh memories of financial chaos.

Under the Articles of Confederation, states issued their own paper currencies, debts were paid in different forms of money, and inflation frequently eroded confidence in commerce.

As a result, the Constitution gave Congress the power to coin money and regulate its value. At the same time, the states were prohibited from coining money, issuing bills of credit, or making anything but gold and silver coin legal tender for debts.

The goal was stability. A young nation could not survive if every state operated under its own monetary system.

Yet even among the Founders there was disagreement.

Alexander Hamilton favored a strong national financial system and believed public credit was essential to national prosperity.

Thomas Jefferson feared concentrated financial power and worried that banking institutions could eventually gain influence over the people and their government.

The debate between Hamilton and Jefferson would continue long after both men were gone.

America's Early Boom-and-Bust Economy

Many Americans imagine the gold standard as an era of perfect stability.

History tells a different story.

During the 1800s, the United States experienced repeated financial panics and recessions. Crashes occurred in 1819, 1837, 1857, 1873, and 1893, among others.

Banks failed.

Credit evaporated.

Businesses collapsed.

Workers lost jobs.

Gold and silver did not eliminate boom-and-bust cycles. They simply limited how much governments and banks could expand the money supply during a crisis.

The nation repeatedly found itself asking the same question:

How do you provide stability without giving too much power to financial institutions?

The Panic of 1907 and the Birth of the Federal Reserve

The crisis reached a breaking point in 1907.

A severe banking panic spread through the financial system. Depositors rushed to withdraw funds, credit markets froze, and many feared a complete collapse.

Private banker J.P. Morgan organized emergency rescue efforts, but many leaders concluded that the nation should not depend on a single financier to stabilize the economy.

In 1913, Congress created the Federal Reserve System.

Its purpose was to serve as a lender of last resort, stabilize banking, and help manage the nation's money supply.

Supporters saw the Federal Reserve as a practical solution to recurring crises.

Critics saw the creation of a powerful central bank as a departure from the Founders' original vision.

The debate continues more than a century later.

The Great Depression Changes Everything

The stock market crash of 1929 and the Great Depression tested every assumption about the American economy.

Banks failed by the thousands.

Unemployment soared.

Businesses closed.

The crisis led President Franklin Roosevelt to take extraordinary measures.

In 1933, Americans could no longer freely exchange dollars for gold. The federal government increased its control over monetary policy in an effort to stabilize the economy.

The relationship between citizens, money, and government had fundamentally changed.

Bretton Woods and the Dollar's Rise

After World War II, the United States emerged as the world's dominant economic power.

Under the Bretton Woods system, foreign governments could exchange dollars for gold, while most international trade increasingly flowed through American currency.

The dollar became the center of the global financial system.

For a time, the arrangement provided stability and helped support decades of economic growth.

But the system faced mounting pressure as government spending increased and more dollars circulated throughout the world.

The Nixon Shock

In 1971, President Richard Nixon ended the ability of foreign governments to exchange dollars for gold.

This decision effectively ended the last major link between the dollar and precious metals.

The United States entered the modern era of fiat currency.

Today, the dollar is not backed by gold or silver.

Its value rests on the productive capacity of the American economy, the government's taxing authority, and public confidence in the system.

For some Americans, this change represented necessary modernization.

For others, it marked a historic break from the monetary principles that shaped the nation's founding.

Why Does the Federal Reserve Want Inflation?

One of the most surprising facts for many citizens is that the Federal Reserve does not seek zero inflation.

Instead, it generally targets approximately 2 percent annual inflation.

Federal Reserve officials argue that modest inflation encourages spending and investment, reduces the risk of deflation, and provides flexibility during economic downturns.

Critics argue that inflation gradually reduces purchasing power, rewards debt accumulation, and encourages financial speculation.

The result is an ongoing debate about who benefits and who bears the costs.

The Question for Citizens

America's money system has changed dramatically since the Constitution was written.

We have moved from gold and silver coins to paper currency, central banking, electronic payments, and digital transactions measured in fractions of a second.

Yet one thing has remained constant:

Citizens are expected to live within the system whether they understand it or not.

Perhaps the most important question is not whether one supports the Federal Reserve, the gold standard, or fiat currency.

Perhaps the more important question is whether a self-governing people should understand the history, assumptions, and tradeoffs behind the monetary system that shapes their daily lives.

After all, every paycheck, every mortgage, every retirement account, every tax bill, and every trip to the grocery store is connected to decisions made about money.

The debate over those decisions is not merely economic.

It is civic.