Category: Opinion

Newsom Celebrates a Higher Minimum Wage as California Jobs Struggle

Source: Foundation for Economic Education
by Kerry Jackson

“California law now provides for an annual adjustment to the statewide minimum wage for inflation. On Jan. 1, 2027, it will jump from $16.90 per hour to $17.40, higher than any statewide minimum wage currently in effect. (In a few cities, the minimum wage is already $20 an hour and in many others it’s dangerously close to that mark.) It is a wage, said Newsom, ‘that rewards work, grows the economy, and puts working families first. We believe if you work hard, you deserve a decent paycheck.’ Put aside for the moment that government is in no position to decide what a ‘decent paycheck’ is and let’s look at the employment numbers and marvel at why advocates don’t see the destructive nature of government-instituted wage floors.” (08/31/26)

https://fee.org/articles/newsom-celebrates-a-higher-minimum-wage-as-california-jobs-struggle/

Thomas L. Knapp

Data center fight could decide next president, and cost America the AI race

Source: Fox News
by Len Khodorkovsky

“It’s the fall of 2028. A debate moderator turns to two presidential nominees who spent their governorships fighting over data centers. ‘China’s AI lead is now a fact,’ she says. ‘In 2026, you decided to restrict data-center construction, and the machinist in Youngstown, Ohio, watched his job follow the servers to the Gulf. What do you tell him? Which of your policies would you take back?’ That reckoning is two years away, but the choices that will decide it are being made now. Rising electric bills deserve a real fix, but not one rushed for political expediency that leaves the people it’s meant to help worse off down the road. The pressure to do something is building.” (08/31/26)

https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/data-center-fight-could-decide-next-president-cost-america-ai-race

Steve Trinward

Global Empire as Domestic Policy

Source: CounterPunch
by David S D’Amato

“We rarely consider the domestic political implications of Washington’s globe-spanning empire, yet government spending on war and empire functions as the de facto national industrial policy of the United States, largely determining which cutting-edge technologies receive the most investment, which companies will enjoy massive state-guaranteed markets, and which physical objects will be the focus of the country’s industrial production capacity. Through the military empire, the state becomes both the architect of and primary consumer for a huge industrial sector. And while it has grabbed more headlines this year due to the parlous speculative bubble surrounding AI, the political consequences of the connection between the global military empire and the private sector tech industry remain woefully under-discussed in the mainstream discourse.” (08/31/26)

https://www.counterpunch.org/2026/08/31/global-empire-as-domestic-policy/

Thomas L. Knapp

Trump designates protesters terrorists. How far will it go?

Source: Responsible Statecraft
by Elizabeth Beavers

“Protesting is terrorism. At least, that is the message that the Trump administration has communicated in a series of recent actions, culminating last week in its designation of the U.K.-based Palestine Action as a terrorist group. … Separately from financial transactions, it also means that all U.S. persons are prohibited from vaguely-defined interactions with the group that amount to “material support” or ‘services.’ Anyone violating this prohibition could be subjected to civil or criminal penalties, or could themselves be placed on the SDGT list. The question of exactly what illegal ‘support’ for Palestine Action could now mean is a troubling one.” (08/31/26)

https://responsiblestatecraft.org/palestine-action-terrorists/

Thomas L. Knapp

The Fallacy of Stable Prices

Source: Ludwig von Mises Institute
by George Ford Smith

“Though Herbert Hoover was a pioneer among presidents in getting the government to ‘do something’ about a depression, he was no maverick. He had the support of distinguished court economists who promoted the idea that stable prices were the key to lasting prosperity. Common sense tells us that if we walk into a store and find prices consistently lower than they had been, we are better off, other things equal, because our money buys more. As Rothbard wrote, ‘Increased productivity tends to lower prices (and costs) and thereby distribute the fruits of free enterprise to all the public, raising the standard of living of all consumers. Forcible propping up of the price level prevents this spread of higher living standards.’ While the concept ‘stable price level’ may not sound menacing, the mechanism for achieving it was.” (08/31/26)

https://mises.org/mises-wire/fallacy-stable-prices

Thomas L. Knapp

Opioid Settlement Funds Belong to the Public: Communities Want Healing, Not Punishment

Source: Common Dreams
by Kasia Malinawska-Sempruch

“Nearly $58 billion is now flowing into states and local governments after the recent settlement with Purdue Pharma and other companies whose actions fueled the overdose epidemic, one of the deadliest public health crises in American history. For the first time in a generation, local communities have a critical opportunity to decide how this money is spent and allocate funding to build systems on their own terms, systems that actually save lives and provide care rooted in dignity. The question is whether state, county, and municipal officials will actually take that chance. The settlement money belongs to the people that paid the price. It is restitution for those lives lost, for families devastated, and for communities harmed not only by addiction and overdose, but by decades of failed punitive policies that criminalized suffering instead of treating it. It doesn’t belong to politicians, hospital systems, police departments, or consultants.” (08/31/26)

https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/opioid-settlement-funds-community

Steve Trinward