Source: New York Post
by Robert Pondiscio
“When Elon Musk’s budget-cutters start hunting for waste in the US Education Department, good luck finding the smoking gun. The agency’s roughly $240 billion annual haul isn’t a slush fund for whimsical bureaucrats — it’s mostly a conveyor belt, dutifully delivering dollars to programs Congress has already blessed. Title I’s $18 billion for poor kids? Mandated. IDEA’s $15 billion for special education? Same deal. Pell Grants topping $30 billion? That’s the Higher Education Act, not some rogue educrat’s hobbyhorse. Critics itching to dismantle the department often imagine it’s awash in frivolous spending, but the truth is more mundane: It’s mostly a middleman. The real waste isn’t in the budget lines — it’s in the mailroom.” (03/02/25)
https://nypost.com/2025/03/02/opinion/how-education-department-letters-have-wasted-billions/
Source: The News International [Pakistan]
“A young child has died of the Ebola virus in Uganda, the second victim of an outbreak that was announced in late January, the health ministry said on Saturday. On Tuesday, the east African country confirmed it had recorded 10 cases of the Sudan Ebola strain of the often deadly virus — including that of a nurse at Mulago National Referral Hospital, who had died. On Saturday, it announced an ‘additional positive case’ had been detected at Mulago.” (03/02/25)
https://www.thenews.com.pk/latest/1287996-uganda-confirms-second-fatality-in-worsening-ebola-outbreak
Source: Washington Post
by Megan McArdle
“Even ardent vaccine lovers like myself have uneasily accepted the right of religious communities to opt out of vaccination and other health care. There are limits to that right when the danger is grave — courts have held (correctly) that blood transfusions can be given to the children of Jehovah’s Witnesses over the objections of their parents. But when the risk of imminent harm is low, we defer to the community. The child’s death, while horrible, represents a very unusual occurrence: The last person to die from measles in America was an immunosuppressed woman who caught it in a hospital in 2015. Though this might not be a direct result of our current political wars, it has implications for that larger story.” (02/28/25)
https://archive.is/NogDj
Source: ABC News
“Guyana’s president Saturday denounced an incursion by an armed Venezuelan naval vessel in disputed waters that are home to a mammoth offshore oil deposit being developed by ExxonMobil. President Irfaan Ali, in a televised address, said Guyana was hurriedly notifying all of its international allies, including the Trump administration, and had summoned Venezuela’s ambassador in the capital, Georgetown, to lodge a formal protest. … Saturday’s development came just two weeks after armed men, suspected Venezuelan pirates operating in the border Cuyuni River, exchanged gunfire with a Guyanese military patrol, injuring six soldiers, two of them seriously. Since ExxonMobil made its major oil discovery in Guyana in 2015, Venezuela has revived a century-old territorial dispute with Guyana and taken steps to annex the remote Essequibo region that comprises about two thirds of Guyana’s land mass.” (03/01/25)
https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/guyanas-president-denounces-venezuelan-incursion-offshore-oil-field-119325990
Source: Libertarian Institute
“The Demise of USAID and NED.” (02/28/25)
https://libertarianinstitute.org/kyle/coi-764-the-demise-of-usaid-and-ned
Source: Law & Liberty
by Titus Techera
“The first time Chalamet’s Dylan talks about himself and fame he suggests one has to be a freak, like in a carnival, certainly, something people can’t look away from. His girlfriend compares him, perhaps unfavorably, to Sinatra, who is not a freak. Sinatra would be the definitive post-war artist if classing up popular music mattered very much, but the American audience is much larger than the suit-wearing class. Another contender for the role may have been Elvis, who was more popular than Dylan, but Elvis is much more a creature of his native South than the Northern cities that gave America mass media and pop culture. Compared to them, Dylan could barely sing — but he could write. He is the natural artistic representative for a democracy dedicated to learning, perhaps even universal access to higher education.” (02/28/25)
https://lawliberty.org/bob-dylans-call-to-freedom/
Source: New York Post
“Vice President JD Vance was forced [sic] to move his family to an ‘undisclosed location’ after hundreds of pro-Ukraine protesters swarmed the Vermont ski resort they were vacationing Saturday — just days after his public dust-up with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at the White House. Vance and his family were greeted by hundreds of outraged protesters lining the snow-covered streets while visiting Sugarbush Resort in Waitsfield but were forced [sic] to cut their four-day trip short after seeing the intensity of the protests.” (03/01/25)
https://nypost.com/2025/03/01/us-news/jd-vances-visit-to-vermont-ski-resort-interrupted-by-pro-ukraine-demonstrators-after-zelensky-exchange/
Source: Foundation for Economic Education
by Carlos Cobo
“2025 marks the 25th anniversary of the most important public policy in Ecuador’s history: dollarization. This measure is so popular that almost 90% of Ecuadorians support the US dollar as their legal currency. They trust a stable currency that retains its value over time, and they no longer worry about Ecuadorian politicians eroding their purchasing power through inflation. Maintaining a globally recognized currency has brought multiple benefits to Ecuador, such as price stability, and the protection of property rights by preventing monetary authorities from acting without public consent. This protection particularly benefits the most vulnerable, allowing them to preserve and even regain their purchasing power. Saving is now possible, and long-term financial planning is a reality.” (02/28/25)
https://fee.org/articles/the-silver-jubilee-of-ecuadors-dollarization/
Source: Caitlin’s Newsletter
by Caitlin Johnstone
“Israeli media are now reporting that Benjamin Netanyahu is considering ‘a brief resumption’ of the onslaught in Gaza in order to pressure Hamas to make concessions and change the terms of the ceasefire agreement which was signed on the 19th of January. This framing that Hamas has ‘rejected’ Israel’s proposed extension of phase one is just the current propaganda line from the US-Israeli PR machine. In reality the terms of the ceasefire deal say that Israel and Hamas were supposed to move on to phase two of the agreement this weekend, but Israel has been refusing to negotiate the second stage of the agreement this entire time because it would entail a withdrawal of Israeli troops and a commitment to a lasting peace.” (03/01/25)
https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/trump-sends-netanyahu-weapons-while
Source: US News & World Report
“NATO member Norway will continue to supply fuel for U.S. Navy ships, the country’s defence minister said on Sunday, after a call from a private marine fuel supplier to stop doing so in response to the apparent breakdown in U.S.-Ukrainian relations. ‘We have seen reports raising concerns about support for U.S. Navy vessels in Norway. This is not in line with the Norwegian government’s policy,’ Norway’s Defence Minister Tore Sandvik said in a statement. … Haltbakk Bunkers CEO Gunnar Gran confirmed to Norwegian newspaper VG that the company made a decision not to supply the U.S. military, but said the move would have a ‘symbolic’ impact as it didn’t have a fixed contract.” (03/02/25)
https://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2025-03-02/norway-says-it-will-keep-supplying-fuel-to-us-navy-after-company-calls-for-boycott
