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: 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: 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/

Source: Eastern New Mexico News
by Kent McManigal

“Has your democracy been lost yet? Has someone stolen it? Silly questions for a silly era asked of silly people who worship mob rule as long as they are on the majority side. They have no problem ignoring the will of those who disagree with them; they only wring their hands when they end up on the losing side. America was never supposed to be a democracy. It was set up as a republic, limited in scope by a constitution that defined exactly what government is allowed to do to the population, regardless of what the majority wants. This failed. Republics, including those defined and limited by a constitution, turn into democracies because people, in overwhelming numbers, want to violate the rights of others and vote themselves goodies paid for with taxes.” (03/05/25)

https://www.easternnewmexiconews.com/story/2025/03/05/voices/opinion-democracy-no-more-than-mob-rule/230259.html