“One of the immediate effects of the shutdown of legal booze was the scramble to obtain alcohol in whatever illegal way it could be had. … The government had already anticipated that people would try to divert the industrial alcohol to the glasses of now-criminal tipplers. The government therefore decreed that industrial alcohol had to be laced with chemicals that made it foul tasting and even poisonous. … Deciding that causing thousands of deaths was fine as long as the result was less drinking, and since dead men — or women — don’t drink, the bureaucrats pushed things forward. … The callous zealots of Prohibition may have been reincarnated in the mandatory vaxxers of the current Administration. They give no indication that they find any problem in causing millions of people to lose their jobs if they continue to make their own decisions about whether or not to vaccinate.” (09/16/21)
“Yesterday we learned that Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, is a danger to the country. That was not totally surprising. We already knew he was a reckless nutcase. In June, in the middle of a televised congressional hearing, Milley leveled a racial attack against more than half of this country. Milley told Congress that something called [w]hite rage was a national crisis. He never proved it or even defined the term and yet still he kept his job, which says as much about Congress as it does about him. Then in July, we learned that Milley had suggested the U.S. military was willing to use violence against Donald Trump, who was then the sitting president. ‘We’re the guys with guns,’ he told fellow officers. Still, Congress did nothing.” (09/16/21)
“After Congress passed the American Recovery Plan, Joe Biden’s $2 trillion economic relief legislation, the president proposed roughly $4 trillion in further spending. The American Jobs Plan, also known as the president’s infrastructure proposal, accounted for about half of that money. The rest was included in the American Families Plan, a $1.8 trillion package that the Biden administration described as a set of ‘investments and tax credits for American families and children over ten years.’ In other words, it was a welfare bill, and quite an ambitious one. The plan would put most working-age American households on the dole, even when the economy is strong and the country is not in crisis.” (for publication 10/21)
“According to the Pentagon’s annual reports on military justice, there have been more than 1.3 million cases of discipline in the US military since 2001, mostly relating to the so-called ‘War on Terror.’ But as The Intercept highlighted, the generals who misled Congress and the American public about the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq have not only avoided repercussions after conducting a disinformation campaign for 20 years, but were instead rewarded for their deceivingly positive assessments.” (09/16/21)
“Maurizio Cattaneo is exasperated. A chemical engineer, Cattaneo patented a filter for virus harvesting that helps scale up the production of viral vector vaccines, like those used to prevent COVID-19. Right now, business is booming. But instead of inking new deals for his virus filter supply company, Cattaneo has just had to tell a dozen clients to wait six months. Cattaneo usually orders $10,000 worth of membranes for his startup, Artemis Biosystems, but his ordinary supplier now won’t fill an order under $300,000. Finding a contractor who can fit a special casing around the membrane is even trickier, though he thinks he could find a work-around, given enough cash. But he can’t find a line of credit, he told the Prospect.” (09/16/21)
“It takes a certain amount of gall to parade before the plebes, maskless while they are masked — though we are told the celebs masked up once the red carpet parade was over. To pretend to be ‘with the people’ and somehow against the rich while hobnobbing with the super-wealthy is one thing, but twirling and smiling and showing off while the lowly servants are not even allowed to show their faces … undermines that whole ‘tax the rich’ theme. … All this echoes Marie Antoinette — had she ever possessed the temerity to parade about as Jean-Paul Marat.” (09/16/21)
“The response to the introduction has been fairly predictable. Bond prices have fallen and bitcoin’s value has fluctuated. The naysayers suggest that the general adoption by residents will be small, fearing the currency’s volatility. Protestors fear that the cryptocurrency will simply enable further corrupt practices to take place. The converse may also be true: given Latin America’s long history of fiscal instability, banking collapses, and failed economic advisors, bitcoin promises an unorthodox form of insulation from shock.” (09/16/21)
“It’s hard to figure out why we sometimes internalize the deaths of people we never knew personally. Maybe it forces an awareness of our own mortality we often try to ignore. Maybe it signifies the end of an era that gave you inspiration or happiness. In the case of comedian Norm Macdonald, his death hit me hard and I know precisely why. Another voice of truth is gone. I’ve had the privilege over the years of interviewing great comics who come through town to promote their shows. It’s always a particular thrill when those comics happen to be people I grew up watching and appreciating stylistically. The late 80s and 90s-era Saturday Night Live cast are those people to me.” (09/16/21)
“There is a new government in Kabul. The U.S. should acknowledge reality and talk to Afghanistan’s rulers. The Taliban will never be a friend of America, but the movement need not remain at war with the U.S.” (09/16/21)
