The Good Fight, 03/04/25
Source: Yascha Mounk
“Yascha Answers Your Questions #1.” (03/04/25)
https://yaschamounk.substack.com/p/yascha-answers-your-questions-1
DeSantis, Hochul threaten academic freedom with political interference
Source: Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression
by Robert Shibley
“It’s no secret that politicians are getting more involved in higher education. And while some level of involvement with how colleges and universities operate is appropriate given the amount of taxpayer money spent on campuses, nobody should be surprised to learn that greater political involvement can pose academic freedom risks.” (03/04/25)
https://www.thefire.org/news/govs-desantis-hochul-threaten-academic-freedom-political-interference
Trump nominee to lead NIH questioned on funding cuts, vaccines
Source: SFGate
“A health economist who once famously clashed with officials at the National Institutes of Health and now is the nominee to lead the agency faced questions from senators from both parties Wednesday about drastic funding cuts and research priorities. Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, a Stanford University professor, was an outspoken critic of the government’s COVID-19 shutdowns and vaccine policies. Now he’s poised to become director of the NIH, long called the government’s crown jewel, as it faces mass firings and drastic funding cutbacks. ‘I love the NIH but post-pandemic, America’s biomedical sciences are at a crossroads,’ Bhattacharya told senators. He laid out priorities including a bigger focus on chronic diseases, including diabetes and obesity. But he also said the agency needs to be more open to scientific dissent, saying influential NIH leaders early in the pandemic shut down his own criticisms about responses to COVID-19.” (03/05/25)
Politics Politics Politics, 03/04/25
Source: Politics Politics Politics
“Trump’s Trade War! How The Internet Collided With Politics (with Bill Scher and Katie Harbath).” (03/04/25)
https://www.politicspoliticspolitics.com/p/trumps-trade-war-how-the-internet
My Views of the Trump Administration
Source: David Friedman’s Substack
by David Friedman
“Congratulations, your cancer is cured. But that might be a heart attack.” (03/04/25)
https://daviddfriedman.substack.com/p/my-views-of-the-trump-administration
Gaping at the Cult of Trump
Source: In These Times
by Hamilton Nolan
“In the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History, you can learn that the first animals with backbones evolved during the early Cambrian Period, 525 million years ago. Outside of that museum, few backbones can be found in Washington, DC. As you wonder why, muse on the fact that all of the information on life’s history is contained in the museum’s David H. Koch Hall of Fossils. When Koch died in 2019, he had amassed a fortune of $50 billion. There was a time when that was considered real money. Not any more. Downtown D.C. has an ambient glow at night, the light from omnipresent office windows suffusing the dark, bland streets. Yesterday evening, after dinnertime, the lights were still on in many of the cheerless, rectangular government office buildings below Independence Avenue, buildings that the new administration just announced are for sale.” (03/05/25)
https://inthesetimes.com/article/state-of-the-union-trump-dc-protest
OnlyFans star opens fire on masked robbers after her cryptocurrency
Source: New York Post
“A buxom OnlyFans star who bragged online about having $20 million in cryptocurrency was yanked out of bed by a trio of robbers — who held her hostage, before she opened fire on them and sent them fleeing. Amouranth — whose real name is Kaitlyn Siragusa, 31 — posted about the terrifying Sunday ordeal on X, along with dramatic video. ‘I believe I shot one of them … I’m covered in blood but only some of it is mine,’ she wrote. Amouranth — who has 6.2 million followers on the streaming platform Twitch — shared a clip that reveals the moment she and her husband turned the tables on her attackers.” (03/05/25)
Vital Dissent, episode 281
Source: Libertarian Institute
“Blood Meridian: War Is God?” (03/04/25)
https://libertarianinstitute.org/patrick/blood-meridian-war-is-god-ep-281
Trump’s Most Inexplicable Decision Yet
Source: The Atlantic
by Roge Karma
“If you were setting out to design a trade policy that would harm the American economy while undermining political support for its leadership, you might come up with something like the tariffs that Donald Trump just imposed on Canada, China, and Mexico. The new tariffs will raise prices for American consumers, weaken the American auto industry, and prompt severe retaliation from America’s top trading partners. … Usually, when elected officials implement foolish policies, they do so because they believe the political upside outweighs the substantive downside. What makes Trump’s tariffs so unusual is that the politics of them also appear to be terrible.” (03/04/25)
Trump’s Tariffs Set Off Day of Anger, Retaliation and Market Unease
Source: New York Times
“China, Canada and Mexico responded angrily on Tuesday to steep new tariffs imposed by President Trump, setting off a day of retaliatory actions, stern warnings and falling stock prices as the potential ramifications of an escalating trade war began to sink in. Stung by the tariffs — an additional 10 percent on imports from China and 25 percent on almost all imports from Canada and Mexico — prompted Canada and China to quickly announce retaliatory actions, including measures that could bar some American products from their markets entirely and hit U.S. farmers particularly hard. … The S&P 500 fell as much as 2 percent, before moderating losses in the afternoon and ending the day down 1.2 percent. The day’s selling was broad based, with roughly 80 percent of the stocks in the S&P 500 lower for the day.” (03/04/25)