“Racism is the lowest form of collectivism. Ayn Rand once called it ‘barnyard collectivism.’ Throughout history, it has usually been the handmaiden of every other form of collectivism. In the early 20th century, for example, racist attitudes were common among people who called themselves ‘progressives.’ Woodrow Wilson was notoriously racist, and progressives at the time were generally strong advocates of eugenics, in order to improve the gene pool. At the same time, communists, fascists and socialists in other parts of the world often espoused racist views of one sort or another. By the last half of the 20th century, however, it became unfashionable in the developed world to espouse racist views. The focus instead shifted to economic collectivism. Such mainstream economists as Paul Samuelson suggested that a socialist economic system might actually work.” (05/15/24)
Source: Kent’s “Hooligan Libertarian” Blog
by Kent McManigal
“The more information that comes out about that cop who murdered the guy who came to his door holding a gun, the worse it shows the cop to be. Everything about that incident is horrible. The cop was a coward (what a shock) and killed someone who wasn’t even a threat to him. Even if the guy had been a threat, a cop is ethically required to die to avoid violating someone’s rights. Don’t like it? That’s easy: Don’t be a cop.” (05/15/24)
“People talk a lot about ‘neurodiversity,’ but they mostly just mean that some people are autistic or whatever. The true extent of neurodiversity — like 99% of the colors that one woman can see — remains invisible to most of us. My other disagreement with neurodiversity advocates is that they insist no neurotype is better than any other. This is, as they say, a postmodernist lie. The best neurotype belongs to a 76 year old Scottish woman named Jo Cameron. Cameron’s condition was discovered ten years ago, when her anaesthesiologist noticed she needed no pain medication after a difficult surgery. He checked her records and found she had never asked for pain medication, and moreover, that she described giving birth as basically painless. … Cameron appeared to be incapable of any form of suffering. She could not feel pain. She had never been anxious or depressed.” (05/15/24)
“Readers of the French newspaper Le Monde were confronted with a striking image on the front page Tuesday. It showed 100 public figures with personal stories of sexist or sexual violence implicating some of their country’s most venerated institutions – cinema, government, media, hospitals, and churches. The paper called the visual ‘unprecedented in our history.’ After years of halting public debate, France may be at a turning point on an issue that challenges some of its deepest social and cultural mores. Rather than unraveling French identity, however, the opening of a more honest public reckoning reveals a society striving to renew its core values of equality and individual dignity.” (05/14/24)
Source: Responsible Statecraft
by Christopher Fettweis
“Invading Mexico, which think tanks close to the former president have recommended, is a spectacularly bad idea for many reasons. Employing special forces to do the job, like Trump is apparently contemplating, may seem like a middle ground, an alternative that carries less risk and lower costs. While not as insane as an invasion, it would still be a dangerous, counterproductive and ultimately pointless endeavor. … Even if it proved possible to track down the kingpins, killing them would have little effect on the drug trade. Those proposing the special forces ‘solution’ to the fentanyl crisis do not appear to grasp the basic economics: Supply will always find its way to high demand, and new narcotics entrepreneurs will always arise.” (05/15/24)
“Having served on three Manhattan juries, I would not be surprised if the 12 men and women hearing New York v. Donald J. Trump acquit him of all charges. In two civil actions and one criminal case, my fellow jurors were serious, professional, and movingly civic-minded. A quiet, solemn patriotism infused our deliberations. Several jurors said that we should respect the justice system because we might need it to respect us someday. My first case was a medical malpractice lawsuit involving a botched abortion. We empathized with a woman wounded by her doctors, but her lawyer did not prove negligence. So we sent the plaintiff home without a penny. Next, we deliberated intensely for almost three days before concluding that a Harlem drug counselor never demonstrated his claim of defamation of character against his employers. My sympathetic pleas went unheeded, and he left empty-handed.” (05/15/24)
Source: Libertarian Institute
by Lora Karch Dulgarian
“Palestinian and Israeli civilians are uniquely brought together in their disdain and disagreement with the strategies executed in this unwanted war. The destruction caused by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the terrorist organization Hamas have each caused popularity to wane for both warring parties in their own respective populations. In theory, war is politics by other means. In reality, warring actors always experience unintended consequences from their decisions and actions. Civilian casualties, whether intended or unintended, are the most dire consequence of war.” (05/15/24)
“Ultimately, there is no mystery as to why the Forever Wars go on endlessly. Or why at a time when Uncle Sam is hemorrhaging red ink a large bipartisan majority saw fit to authorize $95 billion of foreign aid boondoggles that do absolutely nothing for America’s homeland security. To wit, Washington has morphed into a freak of world history – a planetary War Capital dominated by a panoptic complex of arms merchants, paladins of interventionism and Warfare State nomenklatura. Never before has there been assembled and concentrated under a single state authority a hegemonic force possessing such unprecedented levels of economic resources, advanced technology and military wherewithal.” (05/15/24)
Source: Caitlin Johnstone, Rogue Journalist
by Caitlin Johnstone
“I sometimes see people expressing bafflement that the US would back a genocide in the middle east knowing that it will radicalize the region against them, mistakenly thinking this goes against US strategic goals. And I always want to say to them, uh, have you been asleep the last quarter century? Have you not seen how the US empire uses the radicalism caused by its military violence in the middle east to justify more military expansionism in the region, leading to more military violence? That’s what the so-called ‘war on terror’ has been about since 9/11.” (05/15/24)
Some people can get away with anything. They can grab women by their genitalia because they ‘let them,’ or, hypothetically, shoot someone on Fifth Avenue and not lose the support of their fans. Less hypothetically, they can violate multiple gag orders and still avoid jail time. They can do all these things — and much more — and see their approval rating rise in the polls. Some countries can get away with anything. Their leaders can search for imaginary weapons of mass destruction and boast of accomplished missions that result in the deaths of tens of thousands of innocents, then comfortably retire to paint clown portraits of their deceased enemies. … Ah, we reassure ourselves, but no one is above the law—domestic or international. Except, of course, those who are, and who, true to the principle of trickle-down criminal justice, quite literally piss on those below.” (05/15/24)
