Source: Future of Freedom Foundation
by Jacob G Hornberger
“What authority does the federal government have to [Make America Healthy Again]? Federal powers do not come from the president or the Congress. They come from the Constitution. If a power is not enumerated in the Constitution, then the federal government is prohibited from exercising it. If one does a very careful search of the Constitution, one notices one glaring omission: The Framers did not vest the federal government with any power to MAHA. In fact, the Constitution does not vest the federal government with any healthcare powers whatsoever, including the power to provide healthcare (e.g., Medicare and Medicaid) or the power to regulate and control healthcare (e.g., the FDA, the Centers for Disease Control, and the National Institutes for Health).” (11/14/24)
Source: Caitlin Johnstone, Rogue Journalist
by Caitlin Johnstone
“President Biden and President Elect Trump met at the White House on Wednesday and shook hands and exchanged pleasantries after an emotionally exhausting presidential race in which each side accused the other of presenting an immediate existential threat to the country. This is it. This is the real story. … They do not hate each other. They do not see one another as an existential threat to the nation. They are not enemies. They’re barely even opponents. When the show is over they hug and kiss like boxers after weeks of phony trash talk made solely to sell pay-per-views.” (11/14/24)
“Western politics and progressive logic are generally dominated by the idea that, when encountering a problem or injustice, it is better to act than not. There is injustice in the world. We must act to prevent that injustice. Children born in underdeveloped economies are dying of starvation, malaria, diarrheal disease, or a thousand other preventable things. We must act on their behalf. The climate is changing. We must act. An infection is spreading across national and geographic boundaries. We must act to prevent death and disease. A perceived moral imperative exists to mitigate injustice, suffering … and to prevent changes that threaten current homeostasis; threats to the current order of things.” (11/14/24)
“Overall, immigration is good. You wouldn’t want to live in a country where nobody wanted to get in. Without a steady flow of incoming workers, businesses — particularly in specific sectors such as agriculture, meatpacking, and construction — would strain to find workers. Some companies would shutter, and others would provide clunkier service while increasing costs. Small-to-mid-size cities would lose population and revenue, forcing cuts in schools, police, and so on. However, too much immigration in a short period causes acute disruptions. States and cities struggle to find sufficient lodging. Schools can’t handle sudden increases in students who need to learn English. As with just-right inflation, Goldilocks immigration policy engineers an amount that’s just right—relatively slow, steady, reliable, and predictable.” [editor’s note: With open borders and a free market, immigration levels would optimize themselves – TLK] (11/14/24)
“After an unexpected landslide victory, Donald Trump will become the 47th President of the United States and Vice President Kamala Harris won’t. After elections there is always the temptation among the electorate to give up and check out of politics or to grandstand, based on whether your preferred candidate lost or won. This fails to recognize that politics isn’t something that occurs every four years on the first Tuesday in November. Politics happen constantly, and voting in an election is only one way that people can participate. There’s also the temptation to blame specific classes of voters for a loss, either for voting the ‘wrong way’ or not showing up to vote at all. That’s unhelpful.” (11/14/24)
“Judy Shelton has spent her career advocating for sound money. Her latest book, Good as Gold: How to Unleash the Power of Sound Money, makes an up-to-date case for reinstituting a gold standard. Her intriguing conclusion is that the dollar can be reconnected to gold by simply issuing federal treasury bonds with gold-redeemability clauses. The book also addresses recent events and important current debates about monetary systems like whether central bankers should have wide policy discretion, whether fixed or floating exchange rates are better for economic growth, and what happens when countries manipulate their currency to boost exports. Dr. Shelton engages these questions in the context of academic debates, but she also uses the lens of rational economic planning to evaluate how the monetary system contributes to or detracts from economic growth.” (11/14/24)
“Twelve Step programs like Alcoholics Anonymous, Narcotics Anonymous and Cocaine Anonymous are free, self-supporting and do not advertise so many do not know about them and their success rate. (Disclosure: members of my own family have benefited from them.) Such programs promote no drugs and use no psychiatric or psychology experts, relying instead on peer-to-peer healing. But drugmakers and insurance companies are increasingly trying to monetize such groups. They are succeeding. That is why so many people who once called themselves alcoholics and drug addicts now say they are ‘dually diagnosed’ with ‘major depressive disorder’ and ‘bipolar disorder.’ (That’s what the psychiatrists and the rehab center said — both sponsored by drugmakers.) Today, when alcoholics and drug addicts leave rehab, they are lifelong Pharma customers when a cup of coffee and a hug used to be enough to keep someone clean and sober.” (11/14/24)
“Fallout for the Biden-Harris administration and the broader Democrat agenda continues apace after a disastrous reelection bid. Over the weekend, news broke that federal relief workers were ordered to skip homes of people displaying support for Donald Trump. In an attempt to contain the ensuing backlash, FEMA administrator Deanne Criswell released a statement providing that the supervisor responsible was fired and that her actions were reprehensible and in clear violation of ‘FEMA’s core values and principles to help people regardless of their political affiliation.’ If reports are true, then the Democrat-led administration not only violated ‘FEMA’s core values and principles,’ it blatantly discriminated against Americans during their vulnerable hour of need, on the basis of political viewpoint and in clear violation of core constitutional guarantees of equal protection under the law and of free speech.” (11/14/24)
“The concept of ‘the West’ is a complex and difficult one. At times it excludes countries in the geographical west, like Cuba and Venezuela and sometimes Brazil. At times it includes countries not in the geographical west, like Japan and Australia. As Richard Sakwa has explained, the West can refer to a 500 year old civilizational West or to a cultural or historical West of which Russia considers itself to be a core member. The twin ticket to admission of the political West is membership in the U.S. led post Cold War security community built around NATO and in a cultural community allegedly built around free trade, freedom and democracy. The political West, by definition, excludes Russia and, now, China. But recently, there seems to be a political price being paid by governments in the political West. It is being exacted at the polls by their citizens.” (11/14/24)
