“Two decades ago, factions argued that biowarfare threats were so significant that biodefense responsibility needed to be removed from the purview of the uniformed military and placed within NIAID under NIH and under HHS. There were structural and efficiency reasons to do this but the intangible reason was that the uniformed military officer corps would not stain its honor with biowarfare. It had held the line with the bioweapons convention since Nixon axed the US bioweapons program, so it had to be removed from the picture for the factions to proceed. This action, called BioShield, fused the pharmaceutical industry with biodefense and fused the public health agencies with the intelligence community. The two entities in America not held accountable by law or practice, the vaccine industry and the intelligence community (IC), were joined into one.” (01/29/25)
“Turkish authorities have detained a prominent investigative journalist and four of his colleagues and replaced an elected pro- Kurdish mayor with a state appointee on Wednesday, escalating a recent government crackdown on the opposition and dissenting voices. Critics say the crackdown follows significant losses by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s ruling party in local elections in March as well as growing calls for early national elections. Government officials insist that the courts operate independently and reject claims that legal actions against opposition figures are politically motivated.” (01/29/25)
“Nawar al-Awlaki would have been 16 this year. She was dead long before that. Nawar was just 8 years old when on January 29, 2017 she was killed during a pre-dawn raid on the Yemeni village of al-Ghayil. The raid was carried out by the US Navy’s SEAL Team 6 and commandos from the United Arab Emirates. Donald Trump personally ordered the raid, just nine days into his first term as president, although planning had begun under the Obama Administration. … Nawar might have been just one more nameless casualty of US wars, if not for two facts. Nawar was an American citizen and she was the daughter of Anwar al-Awlaki, the radical cleric killed in Yemen by a Hellfire missile fired from a US drone on September 30, 2011.” (01/29/25)
“The Texas Senate Education Committee on Tuesday night voted to advance school voucher legislation for a full vote in the Senate after hours of public testimony largely focused on whether the proposal would live up to its promise of prioritizing low-income families and children with disabilities. A 9-2 Republican majority on the committee pushed the bill forward days before Gov. Greg Abbott takes the stage Sunday for his State of the State speech. It is expected that Abbott will declare the school voucher bill — his top legislative priority in recent years — an ’emergency item,’ allowing lawmakers to pass the proposal within the first 60 days of the ongoing legislative session, which started earlier this month.” (01/29/25)
“On Day One of his second administration, President Trump signed an executive order to end birthright citizenship for the children of illegal immigrants and even for children of some temporary visa holders. This idea won’t survive legal scrutiny (it has already been blocked by a judge). But even if allowed to stand, this policy wouldn’t help fix America’s immigration system one bit. What it would do is hinder assimilation and create more problems instead. It’s unclear why ending birthright citizenship for the targeted populations is a Day One priority for the Trump administration. It’s possible he made the move in part to signal to some of his voter base that he is tough on immigration. The policy would have very little impact on immigration levels for a very simple reason: Immigrants aren’t motivated to come to America primarily to have children.” (01/29/25)
Source: Foundation for Economic Education
by Patrick Carroll
“Reich begins by raising and immediately dismissing two common explanations for inflation: wage increases and government spending. It would have been nice if he had actually explained what these theories say and where he thinks they go wrong. But instead, he effectively says, ‘They’re wrong because this other theory (concentration) is right.’ Even if he’s correct about corporate concentration being an important factor behind inflation, that’s not much of a rebuttal. Briefly, then, the wage-increase theory says that when wages go up — perhaps because of union pressure — employers respond by passing the higher costs on to consumers in the form of higher prices. Thus, wage increases result in price inflation. As it happens, Reich is correct to call this particular explanation a myth.” (01/29/25)
