02/24 -- Judge bans enforcement of Biden's 100-day deportation pause; How Not to Leave Afghanistan
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Thomas L. Knapp
Feb 24, 2021, 8:15:52 AM2/24/21
to Freedom News Daily
Freedom News Daily, 02/24/21
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Presented by the Liberty International
Produced by the staff of Rational Review News Digest
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Today's Freedom News:
1) Judge bans enforcement of Biden's 100-day deportation pause
2) Chinese Mars craft enters parking orbit before landing rover
3) Netherlands: Lockdown eased, but curfew extended
4) Trump May Soon Have to Answer Rape Allegations Under Oath
5) Argentina: Regime releases list of Covid-19 vaccine recipients as scandal widens
6) DC: Pols continue ritual of milking Capitol riot
7) Malaysia: Regime deports Myanmar nationals in defiance of court order
8) Georgia: Opposition leader arrested, protesters set up camp
9) ERCOT board members who live outside of Texas resign in the aftermath of the power outage, winter storm
10) FDA to allow Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine to be stored at higher temps
11) Hillary Clinton to publish State of Terror "novel"
12) FL: Fried issues latest idiotic gubernatorial campaign press release
13) Southern Baptists oust to churches over LGBTQ inclusion
14) Iran: Regime begins restricting international inspections of nuclear facilities
15) Payments firm Square buys $170 million worth of bitcoins
16) Armenia: Protesters demand prime minister's resignation
17) Canada: Parliament declares China treatment of Uighurs "genocide"
18) Puerto Rico: Regime rejects key deal with creditors to reduce debt
19) Proposed US legislation would target Honduras president
20) Florida base attack victims' families sue Saudi regime
Today's Freedom Commentary:
21) How Not to Leave Afghanistan
22) Moralism, nationalism, and identity politics
23) Machinery of Death: When the Government Acts as Judge, Jury and Executioner
24) Why I Believe that Covid Derangement Syndrome Is Real
25) Defeating the enemies of liberty
26) Subsidizing Chinese Attacks on American Ideals
27) Corporate Lawyers Line Up for Justice Department Top Slots
28) Corporate Charters
29) Understanding the Kennedy Assassination
30) Betsy DeVos Is Gone, But Her Education Agenda Is Rolling Out Across the Country
31) Why Was The National Polling Environment So Off In 2020?
32) To Prove That Recessions Reduce Inequality
33) Biden can redeem checkered past and regenerate hope for millions with criminal justice reform
34) Fauci Was Duplicitous on the AIDS Epidemic Too
35) What Planet Is NATO Living On?
36) The Best Way for Florida to "Take on Big Tech" Is to Keep Welcoming the Crypto Community
37) How Brexit Helped the UK Win Europe's Vaccination Race in a Landslide
38) India's Farming Reform: A Lesson in Interest Group Politics
39) The Vaccine (Dis)Information War
40) Coronavirus pandemic, lockdowns reveal our leaders' totalitarian instincts
41) The Blob circles the wagons around failing Afghanistan strategy
42) Why Don't People Resent Celebrities' Wealth?
43) States Don't Need a Bailout
44) Why China's homeowners prefer universal rights
45) Give Dealmaking Another Try
46) Biden Administration Revokes Trump Changes to Citizenship Test for Immigrants
47) Capitol Riots were a Dark Day for American Journalism
48) The Blue States Are Now the Beggar States
49) Ten Crazy Examples of Unrelated Waste and Partisan Kick-Backs in New "COVID" Bill
50) Dealing with Scammers
51) The Methodenstreit Revisited: Marginalism and the Lost Power Context
52) House Democrats, Targeting Right-Wing Cable Outlets, Are Assaulting Core Press Freedoms
53) Local Gas Taxes Are the Secret Garden of City Road Funding Options
54) Indigenous Water Protectors Face Off Against the "Pandemic Pipeline"
55) Ignorance of the Law Should Be an Excuse
Today's Freedom Podcast and Video:
56) Understanding the Texas blackouts: What lessons can we learn?
57) Free Talk Live, 02/23/21
58) Power Problems, 02/23/21
59) Ron Paul Liberty Report, 02/23/21
60) The Tom Woods Show, episode 1841
61) The Chris Spangle Show, 02/23/21
62) Fintech Beat, episode 83
63) Just Add Liberty, episode 17
64) FiveThirtyEight Politics Podcast, 02/22/21
65) The Cyberlaw Podcast, episode 350
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_____ Today's Freedom News _____
1) Judge bans enforcement of Biden's 100-day deportation pause
Source: Associated Press
"A federal judge late Tuesday indefinitely banned President Joe Biden's administration from enforcing a 100-day moratorium on most deportations. U.S. District Judge Drew Tipton issued a preliminary injunction sought by Texas, which argued the moratorium violated federal law and risked imposing additional costs on the state. Biden proposed the 100-day pause on deportations during his campaign as part of a larger review of immigration enforcement and an attempt to [slightly tweak] the priorities of former President Donald Trump." [editor's note: "Federal law" -- in particular the US Constitution -- says the feds don't get to deport at all. It's hard to see how a pause in violating federal law would violate federal law - TLK] (02/24/21)
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2) Chinese Mars craft enters parking orbit before landing rover
Source: Phys.org
"China says its Tianwen-1 spacecraft has entered a temporary parking orbit around Mars in anticipation of landing a rover on the red planet in the coming months. The China National Space Administration said the spacecraft executed a maneuver to adjust its orbit early Wednesday morning Beijing time and will remain in the new orbit for about the next three months before attempting to land. ... That follows the landing of the U.S. Perseverance rover last Thursday near an ancient river delta in Jezero Crater to search for signs of ancient microscopic life. A successful bid to land Tianwen-1 would make China only the second country after the U.S. to place a spacecraft on Mars." (02/24/21)
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3) Netherlands: Lockdown eased, but curfew extended
Source: ABC News
"Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte on Tuesday extended the Netherlands' coronavirus curfew until March 15 while also relaxing some lockdown measures in what he called a calculated risk to make the year-long crisis 'bearable.' 'We are on our way to better times,' Rutte told the nation of 17 million in a nationally televised press conference. Rutte said high school students can return to their classrooms for at least one day a week starting March 1. Vocational education also will be allowed to partially reopen, although universities will remain closed." (02/23/21)
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4) Trump May Soon Have to Answer Rape Allegations Under Oath
Source: US News & World Report
"During a December visit to New York City, writer E. Jean Carroll says she went shopping with a fashion consultant to find the 'best outfit' for one of the most important days of her life -- when she'll sit face-to-face with the man she accuses of raping her decades ago, former President Donald Trump. The author and journalist hopes that day will come this year. Her lawyers are seeking to depose Trump in a defamation lawsuit that Carroll filed against the former president in November 2019 after he denied her accusation that he raped her at a Manhattan department store in the mid-1990s. Trump said he never knew Carroll and accused her of lying to sell her new book, adding: 'She's not my type.' ... Carroll, 77, a former Elle magazine columnist, seeks unspecified damages in her lawsuit and a retraction of Trump's statements." (02/23/21)
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5) Argentina: Regime releases list of Covid-19 vaccine recipients as scandal widens
Source: Straits Times [Singapore]
"Argentina's government released the names of dozens of officials and allies who secretly got vaccinated against Covid-19 in an apparent violation of the country's guidelines, attempting to contain a growing political scandal. The list of about 70 people disclosed on Monday (Feb 22) by the government includes leaders from the ruling Peronist party, mid-level government officials and family members who received the shots. The release comes after President Alberto Fernandez fired his health minister, Gines Gonzalez Garcia, on Friday, when the preferential access to the vaccine was made public." (02/23/21)
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6) DC: Pols continue ritual of milking Capitol riot
Source: CNN
"Former officials who were responsible for security at the US Capitol testified Tuesday at the first congressional hearing about the failure to prevent the deadly insurrection on January 6, admitting some failures but also deflecting blame to other security agencies, saying that the FBI did not provide any warnings beforehand that there would be a coordinated assault. Lawmakers grilled former US Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund, former House sergeant-at-arms Paul Irving and former Senate sergeant-at-arms Michael C. Stenger, who all resigned after the attack. Also testifying was Michael Contee, the acting chief of local police in Washington DC." (02/23/21)
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7) Malaysia: Regime deports Myanmar nationals in defiance of court order
Source: National Public Radio [US state media]
"Malaysia has returned nearly 1,200 migrants from Myanmar in defiance of a court order and appeals from human rights groups to halt the process. The Myanmar nationals were bused in from around the country and loaded onto three navy ships sent to retrieve them by Myanmar's ruling junta, which seized power in a coup earlier this month. The action followed a stay issued by the Kuala Lumpur High Court putting the deportation stay of the 1,086 refugees on hold pending a Wednesday hearing." (02/23/21)
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8) Georgia: Opposition leader arrested, protesters set up camp
Source: San Francisco Chronicle
"Demonstrators set up tents outside Georgia's parliament building and blocked the capital's main avenue Tuesday to protest the arrest of the leader of the country's main opposition party. The demonstration came hours after police stormed the headquarters of the United National Movement and arrested its chairman, lawmaker Nika Melia. Georgian media reported that about 20 other people were also arrested at the party's headquarters. The political situation in Georgia has been tense amid allegations of voter fraud in the country's fall parliamentary election. The opposition is demanding a rerun of the vote." (02/23/21)
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9) ERCOT board members who live outside of Texas resign in the aftermath of the power outage, winter storm
Source: Texas Tribune
"Four board members of the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, the entity that manages and operates the electricity grid that covers much of Texas, will resign on Wednesday, according to a notice to the Public Utility Commission. ... ERCOT board members had come under fire last week when it was reported that some of the board members did not reside in the state. ERCOT officials, during a press conference last week, said it had removed personal information about the directors from its website because the board members were experiencing harassment. The board has also been criticized for its handling of last week's mass power outage during a winter storm that has claimed the lives of dozens of Texans. More than 4.5 million customers were without power at one point last week." (02/23/21)
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10) FDA to allow Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine to be stored at higher temps
Source: Reuters
"The U.S. Food & Drug Administration plans to approve Pfizer Inc and BioNTech SE's request to store their COVID-19 vaccine at standard freezer temperatures instead of in ultra-cold conditions, the New York Times reported on Tuesday. The FDA is expected to announce the new guidance to the providers as early as Tuesday, modifying documents related to the emergency use authorization that was previously granted for the vaccine, the NYT report said, citing people familiar with the matter. Last week, the companies said they asked the U.S. health regulator to relax requirements for their COVID-19 vaccine to be stored at ultra-low temperatures, potentially allowing it to be kept in pharmacy freezers. In December, the FDA granted emergency use authorization to the vaccine and current label to be stored at temperatures between -80ºC and -60ºC (-112ºF to -76ºF), meaning it has to be shipped in specially designed containers." (02/23/21)
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11) Hillary Clinton to publish State of Terror "novel"
Source: BBC News [UK state media]
"Hillary Clinton has written her first novel, a thriller featuring a US government 'dangerously out of touch' amid a series of terror attacks. State of Terror, which follows a novice secretary of state, will be released on 12 October 2021. Mrs Clinton, a former presidential hopeful, secretary of state and first lady, penned the book in partnership with author Louise Penny. It explores a world of 'high stakes diplomacy and treachery' she said. The novel's protagonist has 'joined the administration of her rival, a president inaugurated after four years of American leadership that shrank from the world stage'. It features a series of terrorist attacks which throws the global order into disarray, and the secretary is tasked with assembling a team to 'unravel the deadly conspiracy.'" (02/23/21)
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12) FL: Fried issues latest idiotic gubernatorial campaign press release
Source: The Hill
"Florida Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried (D) on Monday said that she will direct offices under her purview to disregard Gov. Ron DeSantis's (R) order to lower flags to half-staff to commemorate the late conservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh. 'Lowering to half-staff the flag of the United States of America is a sacred honor that pays respect to fallen heroes and patriots. It is not a partisan political tool. Therefore, I will notify all state offices under my direction to disregard the Governor's forthcoming order to lower flags for Mr. Limbaugh -- because we will not celebrate hate speech, bigotry, and division,' Fried said in a statement Monday." [editor's note: If DeSantis came up with a cure for cancer and gave it away free, Fried would condemn him for contributing to over-population. She thinks that approach will get her elected governor. Maybe she's right – TLK] (02/23/21)
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13) Southern Baptists oust to churches over LGBTQ inclusion
Source: San Francisco Chronicle
"The Southern Baptist Convention's executive committee voted Tuesday to oust four of its churches, two over policies deemed to be too inclusive of LGBTQ people and two more for employing pastors convicted of sex offenses. The actions were announced at a meeting marked by warnings from two top leaders that the SBC, the largest Protestant denomination in the United States, was damaging itself with divisions over several critical issues including race. 'We should mourn when closet racists and neo-Confederates feel more at home in our churches than do many of our people of color,' said the SBC's president, J.D. Greear, in his opening speech." (02/23/21)
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14) Iran: Regime begins restricting international inspections of nuclear facilities
Source: euronews [EU]
"Iran has officially begun restricting international inspections of its nuclear facilities, following a law passed in parliament. The move is thought to be a bid to pressure western countries, including the US under new president Joe Biden, to lift economic sanctions and [begin keeping the US end of] the 2015 nuclear deal, which former US president Donald Trump [put the US in violation of]. An Iranian state TV report said reduced cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) had begun." (02/23/21)
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15) Payments firm Square buys $170 million worth of bitcoins
Source: Reuters
"Payments firm Square Inc said on Tuesday it had purchased about 3,318 bitcoins for an aggregate price of $170 million." (02/23/21)
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16) Armenia: Protesters demand prime minister's resignation
Source: ABC News
"Thousands of protesters calling for the resignation of Armenia's prime minister demonstrated in the center of the capital, Yerevan, on Tuesday, the third protest in a week. ... The demonstrations revive a wave of protests against [Nikol] Pashinyan that arose in November after he signed a cease-fire with Azerbaijan that ceded territory occupied by Armenian forces." (02/23/21)
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17) Canada: Parliament declares China treatment of Uighurs "genocide"
Source: BBC News [UK state media]
"Canada's House of Commons has voted overwhelmingly to declare China's treatment of its Uighur minority population a genocide. The motion (which passed 266 to 0) was supported by all opposition parties and a handful of lawmakers from the governing Liberal Party. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and most members of his cabinet abstained. The motion makes Canada just the second country after the United States to recognise China's actions as genocide. Lawmakers also voted to pass an amendment asking Canada to call on the International Olympic Committee to move the 2022 Winter Olympics from Beijing 'if the Chinese government continues this genocide.' China responded late on Tuesday, saying it condemned and rejected Canada's motion, according to a Reuters report." (02/23/21)
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18) Puerto Rico: Regime rejects key deal with creditors to reduce debt
Source: Minneapolis Star Tribune
"Puerto Rico's governor announced Tuesday that a federal control board reached a key deal that would reduce the U.S. territory's overall debt by nearly 80%, but that his administration is rejecting it because it would require cuts to the island's crumbling public pension system. The impasse between the governor and a board that oversees Puerto Rico's finances threatens to throw into limbo attempts to end a bankruptcy-like process for a government that six years ago declared unpayable its more than $70 billion public debt load. The deal was reached with creditors who hold general obligation bonds and Public Building Authority bonds sold by Puerto Rico's government and would resolve $35 billion worth of debt and non-debt claims, according to the board." (02/23/21)
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19) Proposed US legislation would target Honduras president
Source: San Francisco Chronicle
"Newly proposed U.S. legislation targets Honduras President Juan Orlando Hernandez as allegations of ties to drug trafficking grow. As the administration of President Joe Biden seeks to return the issues of corruption and human rights to relations with Honduras and other Central American countries, a group of Democratic senators says the U.S. government's relationship with Honduras must change. On Tuesday, Sen. Jeff Merkley of Oregon introduced a bill that would seek to isolate Hernandez, who in recent years has leaned heavily on his support within the U.S. government when facing domestic opposition and multiplying allegations of connections to drug traffickers by U.S. prosecutors." (02/23/21)
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20) Florida base attack victims' families sue Saudi regime
Source: Metro
"Families of three U.S. service members who were killed and 13 others who were wounded in a shooting by a Saudi gunman at Pensacola Naval Air Station in Florida in 2019 have sued Saudi Arabia for damages. The complaint, which was filed on Monday in a federal court in the city of Pensacola, alleged that Saudi Arabia had known about the gunman being radicalized and that it could have prevented the killings. The Saudi authorities did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the lawsuit." (02/23/21)
_____ Today's Freedom Commentary _____
21) How Not to Leave Afghanistan
Source: Foreign Policy
by Stephen M Walt
"Joe Biden is the fourth U.S. president to face the question of what to do about a deteriorating situation in Afghanistan. After sending more troops there in 2017, the Trump administration eventually agreed to remove all U.S. forces by May 1, as part of a broader process intended to end the civil war there. Biden has to decide if he's going to honor that commitment, back away from it entirely, or kick the can down the road a little further. To guide his thinking, he could rely on a recent report from the congressionally mandated Afghanistan Study Group .... They advise Biden to extend the May 1 deadline (ideally with the Taliban's concurrence but even if that is not forthcoming) and maintain a U.S. military presence and economic support package until U.S. objectives are met. ... there is little reason to believe that the study group's recommendations will produce the desired outcome." (02/23/21)
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22) Moralism, nationalism, and identity politics
Source: Radical Classical Liberals
by Andrew Jason Cohen
"I have been seeing, once again, posts on social media about the loss of national identity (and praise for a few places that seem to still have such). My response to such posts is always the same: why would anyone value a national identity? That is the same response I have to those who seem to identify with a political party, ideology, racial or cultural groups, groups with the same sexual preferences, etc. I always wonder why anyone thinks that a group has any independent substantive value rather than just being a set of people that happen to share something in common. ... To be clear, so far as I can tell, nationalism is no different from any other form of political identity. Each group wants all of its members to 'fall in' and be what the group is self-portrayed as." (02/23/21)
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23) Machinery of Death: When the Government Acts as Judge, Jury and Executioner
Source: Rutherford Institute
by John W Whitehead & Nisha Whitehead
"The government should not be in the business of killing its citizens. Nevertheless, the U.S. government continues to act as judge, jury and executioner over a populace that have been pre-judged and found guilty, stripped of their rights, and left to suffer at the hands of government agents trained to respond with the utmost degree of violence. That the death penalty was recently abolished in Virginia is just the tip of the iceberg. While any effort to scale back the government's haphazard application of the death penalty -- meted out as a punishment, a threat, and a chilling glimpse into the government's quest for ultimate dominion over its constituents -- is a welcome one, capital punishment remains a very small part of the American police state's machinery of death." (02/23/21)
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24) Why I Believe that Covid Derangement Syndrome Is Real
Source: American Institute for Economic Research
by Donald J Boudreaux
"Below is a list of some of the facts, as I understand them, about Covid-19, as well as about the reaction to this disease. Although some of these facts are more firmly established than are others, I believe that each of the facts detailed below is legitimate, and that my interpretations of them are plausible. Further, I believe that my understanding justifies my relative lack of anxiety about Covid's likely impact on me personally and about its impact on humanity. And I believe that the facts as I understand them warrant my description of the media's, the public's, and governments' reactions to Covid as being hysterically excessive." (02/23/21)
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25) Defeating the enemies of liberty
Source: The Price of Liberty
by Nathan Barton
"The Fifty States have been engaged in an internal non-violent unconventional warfare form of a civil war for a half-century. A war which the lovers of liberty, the friends of freedom, has lost so far and continues to lose. For decades, we who love liberty have been slowly but steadily losing a war we didn't even realize we were fighting. And we are nearing the crisis -- the decision point. The point at which the war is finally and completely lost. Not that the (non-violent, unconventional) warfare will cease. But that the final outcome is known and inevitable." (02/23/21)
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26) Subsidizing Chinese Attacks on American Ideals
Source: Common Sense
by Paul Jacob
"Should the federal government fund organizations working at the behest of China and the Chinese Communist Party?" (02/23/21)
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27) Corporate Lawyers Line Up for Justice Department Top Slots
Source: The American Prospect
by Alexander Sammon
"The first day of Senate Judiciary hearings for Merrick Garland, Joe Biden's appointee for attorney general, was surprisingly uneventful. Garland faced little meaningful pushback from Republicans, while assuring them repeatedly that he would not bring anything even resembling political motivation into the Department of Justice. 'I would not have taken this job if I thought that politics would have any influence over prosecutions and investigations,' he said. With support from at least John Cornyn and Chuck Grassley on the Republican side, Garland is likely to sail through to confirmation. But while Garland was asked about investigating Hunter Biden, he was barely asked about the burgeoning ranks of corporate lawyers who are joining or expected to be joining the DOJ." (02/23/21)
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28) Corporate Charters
Source: Dispatches from Heck
by Frank Clarke
"A corporation comes into being because a group of investors, having decided to incorporate, asks a State for a (corporate) charter. When the State issues that charter, the corporation springs into existence. The corporation is a creature of the State that issued the charter. People (and courts) sometimes treat corporations as if they were persons; they are considered 'artificial persons' .... Because a corporation is a creature of the State, it has only the attributes acquired by heredity from its parent." (02/23/21)
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29) Understanding the Kennedy Assassination
Source: Future of Freedom Foundation
by Jacob G Hornberger
"There are simple but profound ways to view the assassination of President John F. Kennedy and to understand the who and why of the assassination. 1. The U.S. national-security establishment conducted the autopsy on President Kennedy's body. This is one of the irrefutable facts of the assassination. It is one of the facts with which everyone agrees. That is, the Mafia did not conduct the autopsy. Neither did Fidel Castro, the Soviets, or other communists. The same for the Israeli Mossad. Only the U.S. national-security establishment conducted the autopsy. 2. Texas law required the autopsy to be conducted by the Dallas County medical examiner, a civilian. Operating on orders, however, a team of Secret Service agents, brandishing guns and implicitly threatening to use deadly force against the Dallas County medical examiner, forced their way out of Parkland Hospital with Kennedy's body." (02/23/21)
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30) Betsy DeVos Is Gone, But Her Education Agenda Is Rolling Out Across the Country
Source: Our Future
by Jeff Bryant
"Supporters of public education and school teachers were relieved to see Betsy DeVos leave her job as head of the Department of Education, knowing full well the education policies she and former President Trump supported would go nowhere in a President Biden administration. But they should remain incensed over how her efforts to privatize public schools are being rolled out in state legislatures across the country. In states as politically diverse as Washington, Arizona, Georgia, Virginia, and New Hampshire, state legislators are introducing bills to increase the number of charter schools and create new school voucher programs or greatly expand current ones. According to the Educational Freedom Institute (EFI), a think tank that advocates for vouchers, charter schools, and other forms of 'school choice,' there are at least 14 states actively considering legislation to pour greater sums of taxpayer dollars intended for public education into privately operated schools." (02/16/21)
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31) Why Was The National Polling Environment So Off In 2020?
Source: FiveThirtyEight
by Geoffrey Skelley
"A look at how congressional polls, just like those for president, missed in 2020." (02/23/21)
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32) To Prove That Recessions Reduce Inequality
Source: Continental Telegraph
by Tim Worstall
"A hypothetical rentier living off nothing but a fat share portfolio has lost 41% of their income this past year. Someone on benefits and nothing but benefits has lost none of their income this past year. Inequality between the trustafarian and the oik has shrunk. Inequality shrinks in recessions. This has an interesting effect. In the good times it's possible to whinge that inequality is increasing. And because we've now a formal definition of 'poverty' that is in fact one of inequality -- less than 60% of median income -- then we can say poverty is increasing in the good times. In the bad times of course that means poverty by this definition is decreasing. But no one at all wants to say that." (02/23/21)
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33) Biden can redeem checkered past and regenerate hope for millions with criminal justice reform
Source: The Hill
by Dawn Freeman
"As President Biden works to fulfill his campaign promise of healing America and defeating systemic racism, he is haunted by a skeleton in his closet: His leading role in the passage of the 1994 crime bill, a major accelerator for mass incarceration, has many black and brown Americans feeling skeptical about his commitment to reform. But like justice-involved individuals, President Biden deserves a chance at redemption." (02/23/21)
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34) Fauci Was Duplicitous on the AIDS Epidemic Too
Source: American Institute for Economic Research
by Phillip W Magness
"In May 1983, amid the rapidly escalating AIDS crisis, a doctor at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) promoted a stunning theory about the newly encountered disease in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA). Noting that the same issue of the journal contained an article documenting one of the first cases of the immunodeficiency disease's appearance in an infant, the author sounded an alarm about 'the possibility that routine close contact, as within a family household, can spread the disease.' ... The author of the article has since attained widespread familiarity. It was Dr. Anthony S. Fauci .... As [Randy] Shilts explains, 'Upon investigation, [Arye] Rubinstein learned that Anthony Fauci had not bothered to read his paper.' The NIH scientist instead relied on second-hand information from another researcher to indulge in open-ended speculation ..." (02/23/21)
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35) What Planet Is NATO Living On?
Source: Common Dreams
by Medea Benjamin & Nicolas JS Davies
"The February meeting of NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) Defense Ministers, the first since President Biden took power, revealed an antiquated, 75-year-old alliance that, despite its military failures in Afghanistan and Libya, is now turning its military madness toward two more formidable, nuclear-armed enemies: Russia and China. This theme was emphasized by U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin in a Washington Post op-ed in advance of the NATO meeting, insisting that 'aggressive and coercive behaviors from emboldened strategic competitors such as China and Russia reinforce our belief in collective security.' Using Russia and China to justify more Western military build-up is a key element in the alliance's new 'Strategic Concept,' called NATO 2030: United For a New Era, which is intended to define its role in the world for the next ten years." (02/23/21)
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36) The Best Way for Florida to "Take on Big Tech" Is to Keep Welcoming the Crypto Community
Source: Reason
by Andrea O'Sullivan
"It is fantastic to see leaders in Florida embrace the promise of cryptocurrency. Legislators want to build on the momentum of Florida's fintech sandbox and new Digital Service by updating our money transmission rules to attract even more cryptocurrency activity. Florida, in general, has been very open to technology and innovation. This does not mean that our leadership is a big fan of 'Big Tech.' Our Republican-run government representatives have been pretty vocal about their problems with the management of popular social media platforms, particularly when it comes to content controls. Last month, rhetoric ratcheted up to proposed legislation in the form of two bills aimed at reining in big technology companies through new data privacy and content moderation regulations." (02/23/21)
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37) How Brexit Helped the UK Win Europe's Vaccination Race in a Landslide
Source: Foundation for Economic Education
by Sarah Lilly
"After a year of lockdowns, vaccinations are finally making their way into the arms of eager citizens around the globe. The speed of that progress differs greatly between nations, however. The UK is doing quite well with the third fastest vaccination rate in the world, behind only Israel and the UAE. Within Europe, the UK takes the top spot ... and it's not even close." (02/23/21)
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38) India's Farming Reform: A Lesson in Interest Group Politics
Source: Ludwig von Mises Institute
by Lipton Matthews
"India's farmers have been demonstrating in response to the government's decision to liberalize the agricultural sector. Though economists note that these measures will boost the incomes of farmers, it is unsurprising that the protests have received immense support. Unlike corporate titans, the heavily subsidized farmers of Punjab can weaponize sympathy to further their agenda. Because people rarely equate farming with wealth, these relatively prosperous farmers are well suited to present themselves as victims in need of sympathy. Although downplayed, generating sympathy is a crucial step in the quest to maintain privileges." (02/23/21)
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39) The Vaccine (Dis)Information War
Source: Consent Factory Inc.
by CJ Hopkins
"The important thing at the moment is to defeat this common-flu-like pestilence that has no significant effect on age-adjusted death rates, and the mortality profile of which is more or less identical to the normal mortality profile, but which has nonetheless left the global corporatocracy no choice but to 'lock down' the entire planet, plunge millions into desperate poverty, order everyone to wear medical-looking masks, unleash armed goon squads to raid people's homes, and otherwise transform society into a pathologized-totalitarian nightmare. And, of course, the only way to do that (i.e., save humanity from a flu-like bug) is to coercively vaccinate every single human being on the planet Earth!" (02/23/21)
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40) Coronavirus pandemic, lockdowns reveal our leaders' totalitarian instincts
Source: Fox News Forum
by Tucker Carlson
"Naomi Wolf has been a prominent person in America and a prominent Democrat for more than 30 years. She's one of the founders of third-wave feminisim. She worked for Bill Clinton and famously advised Al Gore. Late last year, she voted for Joe Biden. You've almost certainly seen her books; she's written a lot of them. We didn't think we agreed on much with Wolf, to put it mildly. Yet less than a week after the last election, Wolf surprised a lot of people by tweeting this: 'If I'd known Biden was open to 'lockdowns' as he now states, which is something historically unprecedented in any pandemic, and a terrifying practice, one that won't ever end because elites love it, I would never have voted for him.'" (02/23/21)
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41) The Blob circles the wagons around failing Afghanistan strategy
Source: Responsible Statecraft
by Daniel Larison
"Nothing alarms hawks in the foreign policy establishment more than the prospect of an end to U.S. involvement in a foreign war. ... The opinion editors at The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal may not agree on much, but they are both determined to oppose bringing forces out of Afghanistan as our war there approaches its 20th anniversary, raising the specter of 'withdrawing irresponsibly.' Meanwhile conservative establishmentarians like Washington Post columnist Max Boot, and his cohort on the center-left side of the dial, David Ignatius, as well as Madeleine Albright, make common cause for keeping troops in Afghanistan as Biden's 'best option.' Today's 'stay' advocates, which include Republicans like Lindsey Graham making the media rounds, may all be coming from different plot points on the Washington political grid, but keeping the United States committed to a desultory, unwinnable conflict unites them." (02/23/21)
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42) Why Don't People Resent Celebrities' Wealth?
Source: 200-Proof Liberals
by Jason Brennan
"According to various net worth websites, Tom Morello has a net worth of around $30 million. Emma Watson has a net worth of around $80 million. Bono has a net worth around $700 million. These celebrities are rich by American standards, not merely rich compared to most people in the world. Yet when people complain about the top 0.1% or 0.01%, they don't usually have these celebrities in mind. They resent Wall Street investors, real estate developers, tech leaders, inventors, or the CEOs of the companies that make their shoes, phones, and laptops. If one thinks the rich are evil and exploitative, or simply that amassing more wealth than one needs while so many people suffer is immoral, why wouldn't one also despise Morello, Watson, and Bono?" (02/23/21)
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43) States Don't Need a Bailout
Source: Cato Institute
by Chris Edwards
"Despite the rebounding economy and aid spending still in the pipeline, President Biden and congressional Democrats are pressing to pass another $1.9 trillion stimulus bill. In general, the bill is not needed, but the most wasteful part is $500 billion in further subsidies for the states." (02/23/21)
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44) Why China's homeowners prefer universal rights
Source: Christian Science Monitor
by staff
"Only in the past three decades has China's ruling Communist Party allowed people to own a residence. Now about 96% of city dwellers own a home, usually in high-rises. Despite this leniency, the party ensures the state still owns the land under housing structures. Private ownership, contends party leader Xi Jinping, is a 'Western' system. He dismisses the notion of 'universal values,' such as a right to own a home and the land it sits on. Only the party, he says, can define China's particular 'core values.' Yet millions of Chinese living in private residences seem to disagree. Since the 1990s, many have formed homeowner associations (HOAs) to demand a say in the management of their properties. To them, individual ownership requires individual freedom and other rights that are universal in nature." (02/23/21)
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45) Give Dealmaking Another Try
Source: The American Conservative
by Peter van Buren
"As the new administration plays dress up to re-drag us through the muck of failed Obama-era politics, one leftover bit of foreign policy does deserve a second chance: the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), or Iran nuclear deal. Steps toward peace were a good idea in 2015 and an even better idea in 2021. The United States and Iran again have an opportunity to end decades of hostility. The nuclear deal, however imperfect, would bind the two nations, along with NATO and other actors, to years of engagement, opening the door to fuller relationships." (02/23/21)
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46) Biden Administration Revokes Trump Changes to Citizenship Test for Immigrants
Source: The Volokh Conspiracy
by Ilya Somin
"The previous administration had made some reasonable changes, but also introduced questions based on factual errors and questionable normative assumptions smuggled in under the guise of factual knowledge." (02/23/21)
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47) Capitol Riots were a Dark Day for American Journalism
Source: CounterPunch
by Patrick Cockburn
"The three-hour takeover of the Capitol building by a pro-Trump mob is portrayed as a 'coup' or an 'insurrection' egged on by President Trump. The five who died during the events are seen as evidence of a violent, pre-planned plot to overturn the result of the US presidential election. Film spliced together and shown by prosecutors during the impeachment proceedings gives the impression that what happened resembled a battle scene in Braveheart. Does it matter what really did occur? Many people feel that anything damaging to Trump and his fascistic followers is all right by them. They may suspect privately that accounts of Trump's plot against America are exaggerated, but the fabricator of 30,573 falsehoods over the last four years is scarcely in a position to criticise his opponents for departing from the strict truth." (02/23/21)
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48) The Blue States Are Now the Beggar States
Source: Town Hall
by Stephen Moore
"Last week, I visited South Florida for four days, and what a shock: Everything was open. The beaches, the hotels, the restaurants (with some sensible safety and social distancing restrictions). The classrooms are full. The other strange thing about being in Florida was that people were happy. They were playing tennis and golf. They were going to work and getting on with their lives. Florida is a Republican, can-do kind of place. Then, there is New York. Manhattan is a morose and deserted place to be. It's as if it's boarded up. People are living their lives afraid. They are depressed, which makes the whole place depressing. In Southern California, I experienced the same dreariness. And it wasn't the weather, which was warm and sunny." (02/23/21)
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49) Ten Crazy Examples of Unrelated Waste and Partisan Kick-Backs in New "COVID" Bill
Source: Foundation for Economic Education
by Brad Polumbo
"President Biden has proposed $1.9 trillion in additional COVID-19 spending. He's asking Congress to authorize another round of checks, more expanded unemployment benefits, a $15 minimum wage, and much, much more. Over the weekend, House Democrats finally released the text of the 600-page bill meant to make Biden's broad COVID proposals a legislative reality. Critics and economists have already attacked the proposal on the merits of its main provisions and staggering overall cost, arguing it would break the budget, incentivize unemployment, and fail to stimulate the economy. However, there's a much simpler objection to this legislative bonanza: it's full of unrelated pork and political priorities." (02/22/21)
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50) Dealing with Scammers
Source: Heartland Institute
by Daniel Sutter
"Every society must protect against those who would use violence to steal from others. After controlling criminals, swindlers become a major fear and motivates many government regulations. Yet regulations against fraud allow far worse swindling than markets." (02/23/21)
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51) The Methodenstreit Revisited: Marginalism and the Lost Power Context
Source: Center for a Stateless Society
by Kevin Carson
"The Methodenstreit was a long-running and fairly acrimonious debate over the methodology of economic science, between Carl Menger (posthumously regarded as the founder of Austrian economics) and Gustav Schmoller of the German Historical School, which eventually drew in many of their followers. Menger is widely viewed -- particularly among Austrian economists -- as having won that debate. But there are enough fundamental issues with marginal utility theory, specifically regarding its inadequate treatment of institutional and power issues, that the debate is in my opinion worth revisiting." (02/22/21)
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52) House Democrats, Targeting Right-Wing Cable Outlets, Are Assaulting Core Press Freedoms
Source: Glenn Greenwald
by Glenn Greenwald
"Not even two months into their reign as the majority party that controls the White House and both houses of Congress, key Democrats have made clear that one of their top priorities is censorship of divergent voices. ... The same Democratic House Committee that is demanding greater online censorship from social media companies now has its sights set on the removal of conservative cable outlets, including Fox News, from the airwaves. ... The way Democrats justify this to themselves is important to consider. They do not, of course, explicitly acknowledge that they are engaged in authoritarian assaults on free speech and a free press. Not even the most despotic tyrants like to think of themselves in that way. All tyrants concoct theories and excuses to justify their censorship as noble and necessary." (02/23/21)
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53) Local Gas Taxes Are the Secret Garden of City Road Funding Options
Source: Show-Me Institute
by David Stokes & Jakob Puckett
"When troubled or sickly aristocratic English youth needed a place to recuperate in private away from their cruel stepparents, they would go to Secret Gardens, where magic and mystery would solve all of their problems. We don't need mysterious places to address our transportation needs in Missouri, and most of our 'Secret Gardens' are actually illegal meth labs. But, amazing as it may seem, there really is a local transportation funding option that is unknown to most municipal officials in Missouri. Local gas taxes are a little-used yet very efficient method of funding important local transportation priorities for cities like Lake Ozark as it considers ways to improve Bagnell Dam Boulevard and Valley Road." (02/22/21)
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54) Indigenous Water Protectors Face Off Against the "Pandemic Pipeline"
Source: In These Times
by Clara Liang
"Grandma's Table is where Taysha Martineau first learned to proudly speak their name in the Ojibwe language. In December, Martineau could only watch as Canadian oil giant Enbridge (authorized by the Fond du Lac tribal chairman) began digging up the site to make way for its Line 3 oil pipeline. 'That was, for me, the final straw,' says Martineau, co-founder of the Indigenous community support group Gitchigumi Scouts. 'It was as if someone had stormed into church and left the broken body of your grandmother on the altar.' In early January, Martineau and other water protectors (the activists opposing the pipeline) set up a resistance camp on nine acres of land they bought with $30,000 from a GoFundMe campaign." (02/23/21)
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55) Ignorance of the Law Should Be an Excuse
Source: A Geek With Guns
by Christopher Burg
"Why isn't ignorance of the law an excuse? If legal professionals who attend specialized schooling can't comprehend the entirety of the law, why are laymen expected to do so? Why is a system built on a practically uncountable number of laws that are frequently conflicting and always changing considered just? I call bullshit on the entire concept." (02/22/21)
_____ Today's Freedom Podcast and Video _____
56) Understanding the Texas blackouts: What lessons can we learn?
Source: Niskanen Center
"This Thursday, the Niskanen Center and the Duke University Energy Initiative are co-hosting a live briefing that will cover what happened in Texas and what can be learned to prevent similar events in the future, both in the particular case of Texas and beyond ..." [Zoom webinar -- registration required] (1-2pm Eastern, 02/25/21)
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57) Free Talk Live, 02/23/21
Source: Free Talk Live
"USDH in the Mariannas Islands :: Why Mark likes the CNMI :: Woca-Cola :: Race is a social construct :: What is racism? :: Justin Amash and LPNH :: Can Aria just become a man for a day? :: Mark won an election to be a delegate :: College is useless :: Asian American attacked in New York :: Hosts -- Aria, Mark, Ian." [Flash video or MP3] (02/23/21)
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58) Power Problems, 02/23/21
Source: Cato Institute
"A New Approach in Asia." [various formats] (02/23/21)
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59) Ron Paul Liberty Report, 02/23/21
Source: Ron Paul Liberty Report
"Facts Or Cover-Up? Congress To Hold Hearings On Capitol Riot." [Flash video] (02/23/21)
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60) The Tom Woods Show, episode 1841
Source: The Tom Woods Show
"The Nonexistent Super Bowl Superspreader, and Other Cases of Hysteria." [various formats] (02/23/21)
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61) The Chris Spangle Show, 02/23/21
Source: We Are Libertarians
"Inside the Restaurant Industry During the Pandemic with Zach Reath." [various formats] (02/23/21)
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62) Fintech Beat, episode 83
Source: Roll Call
"Kyckr gives the scoop on anti-money laundering compliance." [various formats] (02/23/21)
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63) Just Add Liberty, episode 17
Source: Just Add Liberty
"Surviving the Texas Snowvid 21." [various formats] (02/22/21)
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64) FiveThirtyEight Politics Podcast, 02/22/21
Source: FiveThirtyEight
"Democrats Are More United Today Than The Last Time They Passed Major Legislation." [various formats] (03/22/21)
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65) The Cyberlaw Podcast, episode 350
Source: The Volokh Conspiracy
"This episode features an interview with Jason Fagone, journalist and author of The Woman Who Smashed Codes: A True Story of Love, Spies, and the Unlikely Heroine Who Outwitted America's Enemies." [various formats] (02/22/21)
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