“To avoid becoming an impoverished, crime-ridden nation, our families and neighborhoods need high-performing teachers dedicated to improving literacy and math skills — now. This requires teachers who will show up to work in person. Union-backed COVID-19 lockdown policies caused a drastic loss of learning, the largest decline in reading scores since 1990 and the first drop in mathematics scores ever recorded. These test scores are a dire warning sign. … The U.S. could lose $188 billion annually in GDP by 2040, due to lower productivity from lockdown-affected children. But teachers’ unions (under current state policies that grant unions tremendous power) are continuing to lock children into miserable futures.” (09/22/22)
In a recent New York Times piece, ‘School Is for Everyone,’ Anya Kamenetz lavished praise on 19th Century education reformer Horace Mann …. Mann and his acolytes insisted that shifting the reins of educational power from private to public hands would ‘yield better teaching methods and materials, greater efficiency, superior service to the poor, and a stronger, more cohesive nation.’ He even ventured to predict that if public schooling were widely adopted and given enough time to work, ‘nine-tenths of the crimes in the penal code would become obsolete,’ and ‘the long catalogue of human ills would be abridged.’ On the macro level, Mann was dead wrong. Our nation, with its massive education bureaucracy, is more divided than ever, crime is skyrocketing, and we have more ‘human ills’ than we can handle. On the micro level, he also misses the boat.” (09/22/22)
“I used to think of Singer as a radical leftist first, and a contrarian second. Since then, he’s changed and I’ve learned. Now I think of him as primarily the intellectual godfather of Effective Altruism, a movement for which I have great admiration. As I told students at the University of Chicago last year, ‘Effective Altruism is what Social Justice ought to be.’ (In slogan form, “EA is what SJ ought to be.”) Though I often disagree with specific EA views, their hearts and their brains are in the right place. And the same goes for Peter Singer himself.” (09/22/22)
Source: Caitlin Johnstone, Rogue Journalist
by Caitlin Johnstone
“Vladimir Putin has announced that referenda will be held in four regions of the eastern part of Ukraine whose populations will now vote on whether to join the Russian Federation, much like the Crimea referendum of 2014 which resulted in Russia’s annexation of that territory. Putin announced that 300,000 additional troops will be mobilized for the war to help facilitate this action, which is a major escalation in the conflict by any measure. Putin also issued a stern nuclear warning that’s being hysterically spun by empire managers as a shocking and unprecedentedly bellicose threat, but if you read what he actually said it’s clear that he’s really reminding the west of the same principles of Mutually Assured Destruction that have been in place for generations, and isn’t expressing any position that western nuclear powers don’t also hold.” (09/22/22)
Source: Foundation for Economic Education
by Dr. Rainer Zitelmann
“Poland owes its economic success to capitalist reforms — but the current government has stopped privatizations and is pursuing a policy of redistribution.” (09/22/22)
“For most economists the velocity of money circulation is an important factor in determining the prices of goods and services. If, for example, it was found that the quantity of money increased by ten percent in a given year, while the price level has remained unchanged it would mean that there must have been a decline of about ten percent in the velocity of money circulation. … Does the concept of velocity of money circulation make sense?” (09/22/22)
Source: Real Clear Politics
by Victor Davis Hanson
“Martha’s Vineyard has been all over the news. The tony resort community so loves aiding and comforting the undocumented immigrants who were flown in from Florida that it hugged them — for all of 48 hours. Oddly, the Left became unhinged when red-state governors — whose states the last two years were flooded with some 3 million people who entered the country illegally [sic] — finally decided to spread welcoming chores among affluent blue-state communities. It was a natural fit. Most, like Washington, D.C., and New York, were on record as sanctuary city jurisdictions. In the abstract, they endorse open borders and celebrate diversity — from the serenity of thousands of miles away. The uproar at Martha’s Vineyard prompted the Democratic hierarchy to do some explaining.” (09/22/22)
Source: The American Conservative
by Michael Warren Davis
“George Washington was not a party man. In his Farewell Address, he warned that the political parties are ‘truly the worst enemy’ of popular government. They are a ‘frightful despotism’ built on the ‘ruins of popular liberty.’ They are animated by a ‘spirit of revenge.’ They are ‘baneful.’ Worst of all, the party system ‘opens the door to foreign influence and corruption.’ Two hundred years later, Washington has been vindicated, and then some. According to a new survey by the Pew Research Center, less than 30 percent of Americans are happy with the two-party system. (Even that seems remarkably high.) Meanwhile, 27 percent of Americans have an unfavorable view of both the Democrats and Republicans, up from 6 percent in 1994. It doesn’t have to be this way. Abolishing the two-party system would be easier than legalizing pot. Just follow these two little steps.” (09/22/22)
“As the monkeypox outbreak appears to slow in the U.S., countries around the world are still waiting to get access to the vaccine, called Jynneos. African countries where monkeypox is endemic, including the Democratic Republic of Congo, have no doses, despite recording multiple deaths. All of Latin America is expected to get just 100,000 doses this year. One small Danish corporation, Bavarian Nordic, controls global supply of Jynneos. That control gives it the power to shape the global response. For instance, after the Biden administration announced a plan to stretch supply of Jynneos by splitting doses, the head of Bavarian Nordic reportedly threatened to cancel U.S. orders. ‘People are begging for monkeypox vaccines, and we’ve just pissed off the one manufacturer,’ one U.S. official told The Washington Post.” (09/22/22)
“Vladimir Putin’s recent partial ‘mobilization’ order mandating conscription of up to 300,000 people into the Russian military has sparked protests and led many Russians to try to flee the country. The latter trend is on top of the hundreds of thousands who have already left or tried to do so since Russia’s brutal invasion began on February 24. This situation further strengthens the case for opening Western doors to Russians fleeing the regime, and granting asylum to Russian troops who surrender. … Every one that manages to escape is one less potential pair of boots on the ground for Putin, at a time when his need for additional manpower is particularly dire. The prospect of saving people from being forced into becoming unwilling gun fodder for Putin also strengthens the purely moral case for accepting refugees, at least those who are potential draftees.” (09/22/22)
