Source: EconLog
by Pierre Lemieux
“According to a Wall Street Journal story, some members of Congress are beginning to start waking up to the current president’s power grab …. Budget and tariff policy are two areas where some suspect that Congress should not have delegated so much power to the president. It could happen here, ‘it’ being despotism of the harder sort than the Tocquevillian soft sort that we have already gotten used to. Instances of the problem are too numerous to be listed here. My post of yesterday suggests that one man has apparently been granted the power to close America to the rest of the world if he feels like it. Let me mention three other incidents that seem symptomatic of a general rejection of anything that looks like the remnants of classical liberalism.” (03/05/25)
https://www.econlib.org/unshackling-the-shackled-leviathan/
Source: SFGate
“The United States has withdrawn from a climate agreement where rich nations have pledged billions of dollars to help a small group of developing countries switch from coal to green energy sources in a possible blueprint for future deals to cut carbon emissions, one of the participating countries said Thursday. South Africa said it had received notice that the U.S. had withdrawn from the International Partners Group, a bloc of rich countries that has pledged money for energy transitions in South Africa, Indonesia, Vietnam and Senegal. The bloc includes the European Union, the U.K., Germany, France, Italy, Canada, Japan, Norway and Denmark. The U.S. had declared, effective immediately, its withdrawal from the agreements in South Africa, Indonesia and Vietnam, said Chrispin Phiri, a spokesperson for the South African Foreign Ministry. The U.S. had not pledged money for Senegal’s energy transition, although other members of the IPG did.” (03/06/25)
https://www.sfgate.com/news/world/article/the-us-has-withdrawn-from-a-climate-agreement-20206056.php
Source: Anarcho Agenda
“On episode 128 of Anarcho Agenda, I talk about society, and press freedoms.” (03/05/25)
https://anarchoagenda.libsyn.com/anarcho-agenda-ep-128-2025-03-05
Source: Reason
by Jordan McGillis
“New York’s proposed ban on nicotine pouches ignores science, consumer choice, and the lessons of prohibition.” (03/05/25)
https://reason.com/2025/03/05/pray-for-us-zynners/
Source: The American Prospect
by David Dayen
“The Trump administration, after legal challenges, abruptly reversed its mass firings of so-called ‘probationary’ federal employees. But it is moving speedily to find other ways to hobble the administrative state, focusing dubiously on instituting large reductions in force, while claiming that federal staffing levels are unreasonably high to carry out executive branch duties. One of the first agencies to comply was the Social Security Administration (SSA). Last week, I reported that the agency, which enrolls and manages benefits for over 73 million Americans, was undergoing ‘a significant workforce reduction,’ even though the agency was at a 50-year staffing low before Trump took office.” [editor’s note: If bloated staff-totals are essential for delivering checks to those already on retirement or now eligible for such, we’ve seen the problem in high relief – SAT] (03/06/25)
https://prospect.org/health/2025-03-06-how-social-security-administration-cuts-affect-you/
Source: Action News Jax
“A 31-year-old man is dead after a home invasion in Lake City, police said. Officer were called to a home on SW Leslie Glen just after 11 p.m. Tuesday. Officers arrived at the home and found the man shot and unresponsive, a Lake City police news release states. Police unsuccessfully tried to resuscitate the man. ‘Victims of the home invasion reported that the individual, who was known to the victims, attempted to break into the home and was successful,’ the news release states. ‘The residence contained multiple adults and children. One of the adults fired multiple shots at the intruder when he rushed toward them,’ the news release states.” (03/05/25)
https://www.actionnewsjax.com/news/local/police-intruder-shot-death-during-lake-city-home-invasion/HUE7VHBLMBBJXIJL4FTQETRSHM/
Source: System Update
“Lee Fang Reacts to Trump’s Speech to Congress; Will DOGE Tackle Military Waste?” (03/05/25)
https://rumble.com/v6q6xz2-lee-fang-reacts-to-trumps-speech.html
Source: Brownstone Institute
by Bert Olivier
“Antonio Gramsci, the Italian Marxist philosopher, is easily underestimated with regard to what his intellectual legacy can teach us in the 21st century. It is true that Gramsci – or rather, a caricature of Gramsci, as well as of the Frankfurt School of Critical Theory – has been in circulation for some time (and of Martin Heidegger, too, although he and Theodor Adorno, of the Frankfurt School, did not see eye-to-eye), but these caricatures don’t do any of them justice.” (03/05/25)
https://brownstone.org/articles/gramsci-hegemony-and-the-world-order/
Source: Associated Press
“President Donald Trump on Wednesday issued what he called a ‘last warning’ to Hamas to release all remaining hostages held in Gaza, directing a sharply worded message after the White House confirmed that he had recently dispatched an envoy for unprecedented direct talks with the militant group. In a statement on his Truth Social platform soon after meeting at the White House with eight former hostages, Trump added that he was ‘sending Israel everything it needs to finish the job.'” (03/05/25)
https://apnews.com/article/hamas-israel-trump-ceasefire-bdc21f862b073dd478e0960ebfbf71e3
Source: Common Sense
by Paul Jacob
“As expected, Apple will withhold its most advanced data protection from customers in the United Kingdom of the iPhone rather than obey a UK order to provide a worldwide back door to such encryption.
This is probably Apple’s least worst choice given the alternatives confronting it. But that means British users of the iPhone won’t have this encryption at all. Had Apple obeyed, the back door would have been installed on encryption-equipped iPhones worldwide, not just in the iPhones of persons residing in the sceptered isle. The mandated back door would, of course, have been exploitable by cyberhackers contracted by enemy governments as well as by members of ‘good’ governments claiming really good reasons for needing to rummage through your iPhone at will.” (03/05/25)
https://thisiscommonsense.org/2025/03/05/back-door-demand/
