“Judged against other world empires, the Soviet Union had a short lifespan. The communist regime did not even last a full century: only a mere sixty-nine years passed from the Russian Revolution to the dissolution of the USSR. That is one year less than the Jews’ biblical exile to Babylon. And yet, the history of some aspects of that brief existence is only now coming to light. The USSR was a notoriously closed, secretive place. My grandmother, who was born in the 1920s and lived into the early 2000s, noted late in life that silence was safest.” (11/19/24)
“In a year of major elections worldwide, one consistent theme so far has been a desire for more accountability in governance. Voters have tossed out incumbents, defied autocrats, and forced political rivals into partnerships. In particular, young people have demanded better economic performance. One election stands out on that last note. In Sri Lanka last week, citizens elected a new Parliament with one party winning a majority large enough to make reforms without opposition. Corruption was the most vocal concern. But beneath that lay a desire for equal access to opportunities for wealth. ‘Sri Lankans want to see a Government that works for them, not against them – a Government that acts in the national interest and upholds the rights and dignity of every citizen,’ observed Daily Financial Times, a newspaper in Colombo, the capital.” (11/18/24)
“Donald Trump’s pick of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to head Health and Human Services suggests utter lack of concern for the well-being of everyday Americans. ‘Bobby,’ as Trump affectionately calls him, could threaten cutting-edge research into cancer cures, for heaven’s sake. Trump is clearly enjoying his latest clown show, urging Bobby to ‘go wild on health care.’ Expect Bobby and his Trump-delivered supporters to accuse scientists and public health officials of being part of some dark elite bent on forcing vaccinations. They will undoubtedly find innocent missteps during the COVID epidemic to inflate their accusations. Believe me, the elite doesn’t care. The elite — which I define not as the rich, but as the informed — know who has medical expertise, and it’s not this weirdo who says that a worm has been eating his brain. The elite know to get their shots.” (11/19/24)
“James Pethokoukis wants the future back. The 1960s future he was promised as a child. The future of Star Trek: The Original Series, The Jetsons, and Walt Disney’s EPCOT, the Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow. Walt Disney promised that EPCOT ‘will never be completed but will always be introducing and testing, and demonstrating new materials and new systems.’ The Conservative Futurist: How to Create the Sci-Fi World We Were Promised urges us to boldly go, in our flying cars, to the world of tomorrow. But why is it, nearly sixty years after the community of tomorrow was imagined, that we are still not there? Pethokoukis offers readers an interesting array of answers and presses throughout, ‘Faster please!'” (11/19/24)
“The world desperately needs to pull the plug on fossil fuels. So agree most of the official delegates from nearly 200 nations who have gathered this month by the Caspian Sea for the 29th annual global ‘Conference of the Parties’ on climate change (COP29 for short) in Azerbaijan’s capital city Baku. But not all the estimated 70,000 attendees at this year’s COP are practicing what they should be preaching. Private jet arrivals at Baku’s international airport, news reports note, have just doubled. What makes that such a big deal? Practically nothing symbolizes wanton disregard for our Earth’s environment more dramatically than private jet travel. A corporate executive taking a single long-haul private jet flight, points out the Travel Smart Campaign’s Denise Auclair, ‘will burn more CO2 than several normal people do in an entire year.'” (11/19/24)
Source: Orange County Register
by Veronique de Rugy
“Donald Trump won the election. The House and Senate are in Republican hands. That means the GOP now owns the debt and its consequences. This responsibility, while too much for past politicians, presents the opportunity of a lifetime: namely, to be the ones who put the government back on fiscal track and, among other things, save entitlement programs from long-term disaster.” (11/19/24)
Source: Foundation for Economic Education
by Richard Morrison
“In a society awash in self-care routines, mental health days off, and quiet-quitting workplace trends, the last thing most readers would expect is a new book about how most Americans don’t work enough. Financial advisor and National Review contributor David Bahnsen is not only making that argument; he’s targeting it at his fellow religiously-observant Christians, who are likely to think that focusing too much on one’s career is a detriment to spiritual and family life. His argument is clear and, for the most part, compelling, but his pleas to readers frequently sound like that song by The Animals: ‘Oh Lord, please don’t let me be misunderstood.’ Bahnsen is not the only modern conservative to argue that work is important to one’s sense of self-worth and that idleness is destructive to human happiness.” (11/19/24)
“Federal Reserve Chair Jay Powell, asked on Nov. 7 if he would resign at the request of President-elect Donald Trump, gave a clear and blunt response: ‘No.’ Powell further denied that the incoming president, who has criticized him harshly, had any authority to force him out. Such an effort, he said, would ‘not be permitted under the law.’ Powell, however, may not have the last word on the matter. The Fed has no clear legal standing to challenge his removal, and he would likely have to fund a fight himself. Yet even if Powell were to survive such a fight, Fed independence under a Trump White House is not ensured. There are other ways for the president to influence the conduct of monetary policy.” (11/19/24)
“Over the weekend, President-elect Donald Trump selected Chris Wright to run the Department of Energy, demonstrating that climate realism and U.S. energy dominance will be front and center when the new administration assumes power next year. Chris Wright is not a household name but he will soon play a pivotal role for the American people, who have suffered immensely under four years of the Biden-Harris administration’s climate alarmist policies. … Unlike Biden’s Secretary of Energy, Jennifer Granholm, Wright does not buy into the pseudoscience claiming that climate change poses an existential threat to humanity. ‘There is no climate crisis,’ Wright plainly stated last year in a video on his LinkedIn page.” (11/19/24)
“For 50 years, every ‘outsider’ running for president has campaigned on a sweeping promise: to end the status quo in Washington and dislodge its entrenched powers. Once in office, they always become cautious incrementalists. Over and over again, they find out that federal agencies are vast and labyrinthine, and only a limited number of people in the world are even half-qualified to run them, let alone reform them. It turns out that most federal spending is immutable or popular, and no president is going to bang his head against that wall. Until this week. Donald Trump’s opening moves after winning a second term all seem to indicate that when he talked about taking vengeance on what he calls the ‘deep state’ (and what most other people call ‘government’), he wasn’t just play-acting.” (11/19/24)
