“More than 15 years after the ‘kids for cash’ scandal shocked the nation, it’s back, stirring not just public incredulity but, for some, soul-slicing memories of hell on Earth. This is thanks to U.S. President Joe Biden’s decision to grant clemency to Michel Conahan, one of two juvenile-court judges in Luzerne County. Pennsylvania, convicted of accepting cash from private detention centers (as much as $2.8 million over a period of about six years) in exchange for sending them children (my God, as young as eight years-old) convicted of petty offenses, such as fighting, shoplifting, underage drinking, to serve prolonged sentences in prison. Conahan, along with Mark Ciavarella, had collected cash for sending more than 2,300 children to prison. Many of them were scarred for life by this experience. Some committed suicide.” (12/21/24)
“We lack the tools to critically assess and interrogate our social institutions and our ways of thinking about and interacting with them. That is among the core claims of a new book by Michael J. Thompson, a professor of political theory at William Paterson University and a practicing psychoanalyst. In The Descent of the Dialectic, published earlier this year, Thompson argues that in our age of all-penetrating relativism and the ‘drastic decline of critical thought in Western culture,’ we must attempt to put an objective ethics grounded in critical theory back on firm footing.” (12/20/24)
“Of course, if docks are automated, many longshore-people will be laid off, and they are willing to hold all of us hostage to prevent that from happening. An added bonus to automation is that dockworkers will no longer be able to do so – strikes lasting just a couple of days can cost us billions. The October strike was estimated to cost the economy about $5 billion per day. Trade that goes through ports is simply too important to our economy to allow a few people to dictate a disruption.” (12/20/24)
“Some things haven’t changed since 1883. In that year Yale University professor William Graham Sumner, the anti-imperialist laissez-faire liberal and pioneer of American sociology, noticed that ‘we are told every day that great social problems stand before us and demand a solution, and we are assailed by oracles, threats, and warnings in reference to those problems.’ Then, as now, self-styled progressives announced that the sky would fall unless the problem that had most recently caught their fancy was addressed once by the government. Adam Smith’s observation that ‘there is a great deal of ruin in a nation’ was too complacent for these world-savers.” (12/20/24)
“If one wants to discuss the prospect of a new director unleashing the FBI on enemies, shouldn’t he grapple with the reality of years of bureau leadership unleashing the FBI on enemies? During the Trump years, FBI directors and other top law enforcement and intelligence officials did the following: 1) Opened investigations on presidential candidates. 2) Deployed undercover agents and confidential sources to spy on a candidate’s advisers. 3) Hired a campaign opposition researcher under the guise of intelligence gathering. 4) Presented false opposition research to a court as a basis for wiretapping a candidate’s adviser. 5) Used false opposition research to brief the president of the United States. 6) Ambushed the president-elect with false opposition research. 7) Sought to include false opposition research in intelligence community products.” (12/21/24)
Source: Responsible Statecraft
by Lyle J Goldstein
“Since Donald Trump’s reelection, his campaign promise to quickly end the Russia-Ukraine War has seemed increasingly out of reach as the situation in Ukraine continues to deteriorate. It’s hard to imagine that dispatching more arms to Ukraine and slapping more sanctions on Russia will be successful at achieving peace. The Russian army continues its slow but steady advance, so Putin may well have concluded that his country should push for a more complete Russian military victory and defy any near-term Western peace overtures. However, the incoming administration has an opportunity to break from the status quo and entice Russia to end the war.” (12/20/24)
“The art of effective propaganda is an encompassing discipline that requires careful and thorough study — and review — from time to time. For the beginner, it can be very difficult to master. Even the experienced propagandist can at times fall into the trap of thinking that creating and disseminating propaganda is a straightforward enterprise – which is a good way to win a permanent all-expenses paid Siberian vacation. It is not usually so simple a task to befuddle the entire society every day, 365 days a year, indefinitely. The following short guidebook will provide the aspiring propagandist, WEF lackey, Communist Apparatchik, Woke Marxist, and seasoned government bureaucrat alike with the tools and knowledge necessary to develop their promising talent into full-bloom mastery of the art of propaganda.” (12/20/24)
“Restrictive policies in response to COVID-19 did a huge amount of damage to our liberty, prosperity, kids’ education, and even our sanity. But now there’s evidence supporting what many of us suspected: Lockdowns also contributed to a surge in crime that temporarily reversed a decades-long decline in homicides. According to a new Brookings Institution report, forcing young men out of work and out of school fueled a surge in violence. Worse, this outcome was predicted.” (12/20/24)
“While analyzing the tailspin of the Biden presidency and the failed campaign of Vice President Kamala Harris, few pundits have questioned that militarism is a political necessity as well as a vital tool of U.S. foreign policy. Harris checked a standard box at the Democratic National Convention when she pledged to maintain “the strongest, most lethal fighting force in the world.” Yet the erosion of the Democratic Party’s base is partly due to the alienation of voters who don’t want to cast their ballot for what they see as a war party. That perception is especially acute among the young, and notable among African Americans. Many have viewed President Joe Biden’s resolute support for the Israeli war in Gaza as a moral collapse. When Harris remained loyal to it during the fall campaign, her credibility sank.” (12/21/24)
“Donald Trump can’t turn the U.S. Postal Service over to private hands with a wave of his hand. But he can push to make it happen. Three people ‘with knowledge of the matter’ say that he has discussed the possibility with Howard Lutnick, his choice for commerce secretary. USPS never makes money. It costs taxpayers billions every year. In fiscal year 2023, it lost $6.5 billion; in the next fiscal year, $9.5 billion. If privatizing the agency does happen, the transition probably won’t be seamless, not even if we can surmount the opposition of the powerful postal union. Fortunately, we already have many private alternative ways of shipping information and packages, from encrypted email to UPS and FedEx.” (12/20/24)
