The Vital Center, episode 74
Source: Niskanan Center
“Why Britain (and the US?) face a governance crisis, with Sam Freedman.” (12/03/24)
https://www.niskanencenter.org/why-britain-and-the-us-face-a-governance-crisis-with-sam-freedman
Default Browsers and Debit Payments: The DOJ’s Latest Antitrust Cases
Source: Foundation for Economic Education
by Kimberlee Josephson
“Antitrust has been a hot topic for media coverage ever since the Biden administration appointed Lina Khan to the chair position of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). And while Khan’s days may be numbered at the FTC, antitrust enforcement will continue to be a contested issue for some of America’s most successful businesses thanks to current cases being brought forth by the Department of Justice (DOJ). Take, for instance, the DOJ’s efforts to force Google to sell off its Chrome browser, which is reminiscent of a case brought against Microsoft three decades ago. In 1997, the DOJ sued Microsoft for bundling its web browser, Internet Explorer, with its operating system, Windows, and asserted that doing so constituted monopolistic and anticompetitive behavior.” (12/03/24)
https://fee.org/articles/default-browsers-and-debit-payments-the-dojs-latest-antitrust-cases/
Donald Trump’s Last Bankruptcy (Us)
Source: TomDispatch
by Tom Engelhardt
“Give him credit. As a start, for that first surprise victory in 2016. No, I didn’t fully get it at the time, but I kind of get it now (since, like the rest of us, I’ve lived through it all, including his close loss in 2020). Still, twice? Him? A convicted felon, no less! … Two times as the president of these increasingly disunited states of America? Holy cowpie! This country actually did it — elected him (again!) — and so we deserve whatever we get, at least a little less than 50% of us do: Fox News … oops, sorry, Pete Hegseth to run the largest, best-funded, and least adept military on planet Earth? Robert Kennedy, Jr., to keep our health in check(mate?) or do I mean checkerboard red shape? Tulsi Gabbard overseeing what still passes for American ‘intelligence,’ though in some sense it couldn’t have been dumber for endless years?” (12/03/24)
UK: Police recover a stolen van with 2,500 pies after a chef’s appeal, but they are too damaged to eat
Source: San Diego Union-Tribune
“A British chef’s appeal for thieves to return 2,500 pies that were in a stolen van ended in disappointment Tuesday when police found the vehicle abandoned, with its savory cargo too damaged to eat. Tommy Banks, who owns two Michelin-starred restaurants and a pub in the northern English county of Yorkshire, said a member of staff discovered the van was missing, along with its cargo of steak and ale, turkey and butternut squash pies intended for a Christmas market in the city of York. The food has been valued at 25,000 pounds ($32,000). Banks said the van was insured, but he implored the vehicle thieves not to let the food go to waste. In an Instagram video, he suggested they ‘do the right thing’ and drop the pies at a community center or other venue.” (12/03/24)
https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/2024/12/03/britain-stolen-pies/
LGBTQ+ People Are Not Going Back
Source: Okay, Liberal
by Paul Crider
“Gender and sexual freedom is for everyone. If you are cis and straight as an arrow, was that your destiny, or could a more liberal culture have allowed you to try out other options? Are you really free in cis heterosexuality when the threat of coercion and stigma pervade society? Do you know for certain you will always be straight? Sexuality can evolve over a lifetime. Is your spouse or partner free to be themselves or who they could be? Who our sons and daughters will be is out of our control. Shouldn’t they be free? … If we care about freedom, we must care about gender and sexual freedom. If we abandon gender and sexual freedom, we never cared about freedom in the first place.” (12/03/24)
https://paulcrider.substack.com/p/lgbtq-people-are-not-going-back
Matthew Hoh on The Scott Horton Show
Source: The Scott Horton Show
“Scott brought Matthew Hoh on Antiwar Radio to talk about his experience discovering the truth about what Israel is doing to the Palestinians and his recent experience traveling to the border of Gaza.” (12/03/24)
https://scotthorton.org/interviews/11-26-24-matthew-hoh-on-his-journey-to-palestine/
The real reason Hunter Biden’s pardon goes all the way back to 2014
Source: Fox News
by Andrew McCarthy
“An intriguing aspect of President Biden’s pardon of his son Hunter – which was utterly predictable, and predicted, notwithstanding the president’s repeated, indignant insistence that it would never happen – is the sweep of the clemency order. Biden didn’t limit his son’s insurance against future prosecution to the two cases – criminal gun and tax prosecutions – on which he’s been found guilty (by a jury in the former and a judge who took his guilty plea in the latter). The pardon covers all potential federal crimes in which he may have culpability from Jan. 1, 2014, through Sunday night (Dec. 1, 2024). Why 2014? Well, the most damning evidence of the Biden family influence-peddling business occurred in the last years of Joe Biden’s term as vice president – specifically, 2014 through 2016.” [editor’s note: Anyone who ignores this self-serving factor in the pardon is just being intentionally ignorant – SAT] (12/03/24)
US regime charges Chinese national for allegedly exporting guns and ammo to North Korea
Source: CBS News
“A Chinese national living in California has been arrested and charged by federal law enforcement after he allegedly bought and exported guns and ammunition to North Korea at the direction of North Korean agents who funneled him $2 million to purchase the equipment, according to a newly unsealed criminal complaint. Shenghua Wen, 41, also admitted to trying to obtain military uniforms in an apparent attempt to help North Korean soldiers disguise themselves and conduct a ‘surprise attack’ against South Korea, prosecutors said in an affidavit accompanying the complaint, which was filed on Nov. 26.” (12/03/24)
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/shenghua-wen-north-korea-california/
Media lied about Joe Biden for years; he just burned them for their obsequiousness
Source: New York Post
by Isaac Schorr
“The fiction that Joe Biden is a selfless, honorable public servant — long undermined by his own deeds — collapsed in on itself Sunday night. As did the credibility of his longtime allies in the Fourth Estate who helped write it. For well over a year now, the president and his surrogates have indignantly insisted that he would not pardon his son Hunter. And because Biden is a Democrat, he enjoyed not only the benefit of the doubt from America’s journalists, but preemptive praise from them. SE Cupp marveled that ‘the contrast’ between Biden and Donald Trump — who protested the politically motivated zombie case brought against him by Alvin Bragg — was ‘profound.’ Andrew Weissmann declared that Biden was ‘living what it means to have rule of law in this country’.” (12/02/24)
Former Abercrombie boss’s partner pleads not guilty to sex trafficking charges
Source: BBC News [UK State Media]
“The British partner of former Abercrombie & Fitch CEO Mike Jeffries has pleaded not guilty to charges of sex trafficking and interstate prostitution. Matthew Smith, in a tan oversized shirt and black rimmed glasses, sat tight-lipped in New York federal court on Long Island as lawyers entered his plea The 61-year old was released under house arrest on condition of a $10m (£7.7m) bond. Mr Smith, along with Mr Jeffries, 80, and their alleged middleman James Jacobson, 71, were arrested in October and charged with running an international sex trafficking and prostitution business. Mr Jeffries and Mr Jacobson have also pleaded not guilty. Federal prosecutors have accused the trio of using force, fraud and coercion to make at least 15 young men engage in ‘violent’ and exploitative sex acts between 2008-2015.” (12/03/24)