Source: Foundation for Economic Education
by Nikolai G Wenzel
“For years, American reformers have idolized Canadian healthcare, touting it as the gold standard for universal care, and a model to replace an American system that is also broken. But the reality tells a starkly different story. In Canada, wait times are unmanageable, access to services is dwindling, and public trust is eroding. Recent data indicate that one in six Canadians lacks a regular family physician, and fewer than half can secure an appointment with a primary care provider within a day or two. This shortage has led to overwhelmed emergency rooms and significant delays in care. … As Americans reckon with record deficits and runaway government spending, some voices are once again touting the Canadian example as cheaper and more effective than the US system.” (02/17/25)
https://fee.org/articles/canadas-ailing-national-healthcare-is-not-a-model-for-america/
Source: New York Post
by staff
“Guess what? The Trump administration’s much-criticized strategy to get Western Europe to do more to defend itself is working. President Trump smiled in the Oval Office as Robert F. Kennedy Jr was sworn in as secretary of Health and Human Services. Yes, Europe’s leaders were miffed that President Trump had a one-on-one call with Russian President Vladimir Putin last week apparently without consulting them. And that he sent Secretary of State Marco Rubio, National Security adviser Mike Waltz and Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff to to Saudi Arabia to discuss a possible deal to end the Ukraine war with their Russian counterparts — while not inviting them. Last week, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told NATO members in Brussels, ‘Leaders of our European allies should take primary responsibility for defense of the continent.'” (02/17/25)
https://nypost.com/2025/02/17/opinion/team-trumps-strategy-for-getting-europeans-to-step-up-is-working/
Source: BBC News [UK State Media]
“Detained Britons Craig and Lindsay Foreman have been charged in Iran with espionage, the country’s judiciary news agency has said. Mr and Mrs Foreman were arrested in the city of Kerman in January but news of their detention, on unspecified security charges, emerged last week. Judiciary spokesman Asghar Jahangir said that the couple, both aged 52, had ‘entered Iran under the guise of tourists’ and ‘gathered information in multiple provinces of the country.’ The couple had been on a motorbike trip around the world and had planned to stay in Iran for five days before they were charged with espionage, or spying, by Iranian authorities. Mr and Mrs Foreman were heading for Australia on their journey across the globe and had crossed into Iran from Armenia on 30 December and were planning to be in Pakistan by 4 January.” (02/18/25)
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c743jle3vkno
Source: The Nation
by Jeet Heer
“America’s greedy gangster president is forcing European elites to finally reckon with the high price of protection.” (02/17/25)
https://www.thenation.com/article/world/trump-end-nato-mafia/
Source: CNBC
“Elon Musk’s xAI on Tuesday unveiled its latest artificial intelligence model, Grok 3, claiming it can outperform offerings from OpenAI and China’s DeepSeek based on early testing, which included standardized tests on math, science and coding. ‘We’re very excited to present Grok 3, which is, we think, an order of magnitude more capable than Grok 2 in a very short period of time,’ Musk said at a demonstration of Grok 3 that was streamed on his social media platform X. The team also said it was launching a new product called ‘Deep Search,’ which would act as a ‘next generation search engine.’ Grok 3 will be rolled out for premium X subscribers, starting Tuesday stateside, and will also be accessible through a separate subscription for the model’s web and app versions, the xAI team said.” (02/18/25)
https://www.cnbc.com/2025/02/18/elon-musk-xai-grok-3-model-release-ai-competition-.html
Source: My History Can Beat Up Your Politics
“‘Separated By a Swinging Door:’ Presidential Aides and Assistants.” (02/17/25)
https://myhistorycanbeatupyourpolitics.wordpress.com/2025/02/17/separated-by-a-swinging-door-presidential-aides-and-assistants/
Source: EconLog
by Scott Sumner
“Over the past decade, China has drifted away from its previous policy of free market reforms, toward a more statist economic model. Statism almost never works, and the recent Chinese experience is no exception. Now Bloomberg reports that China may be willing to move back toward a somewhat more market-oriented economic policy regime …. This is not just good news for China’s investors; it’s also good for the broader Chinese public, and indeed for the entire world.” (02/17/25)
https://www.econlib.org/is-china-waking-up/
Source: SFGate
“A California court ruled on Wednesday that the owner of a Bakersfield bakery violated state law when she refused to sell a wedding cake to a same-sex couple in 2017. A three-judge panel in the 5th Appellate District Court unanimously ruled that Cathy Miller’s policy of denying the cake was intentionally discriminatory, reinforcing that businesses cannot deny services based on sexual orientation under the state’s Unruh Civil Rights Act. The ruling overturned a 2022 decision by Kern County Judge Eric Bradshaw, who had found in Miller’s favor. … Eileen and Mireya Rodriguez-Del Rio, visited Tastries Bakery to purchase a cake for their wedding. They selected a predesigned white cake — one regularly sold for birthdays and baby showers — but Miller declined to sell it after learning it was for a same-sex marriage.” [editor’s note: So no special cake, just their ordinary predesigned one? Yep, book ’em, Danno! – SAT] [editor’s note: Such discrimination, while disgusting, should be perfectly legal – TLK] (02/18/25)
https://www.sfgate.com/centralcoast/article/same-sex-wedding-cake-bakery-court-case-20168605.php
Source: Washington Post
by George F Will
“Trump and Vance might come to regret their indifference toward Ukraine in its fight against Putin.” (02/17/25)
https://archive.is/XmT3C
Source: In These Times
by Alberto Toscano
“On New Year’s Day, just hours after a man rammed his car into a crowd of revelers on Bourbon Street in New Orleans — killing 14 and injuring many others — images began circulating online of another attack: a Tesla Cybertruck parked in front of the lobby of the Las Vegas Trump Hotel, engulfed in flames. At first, the blast was interpreted as an attack on MAGA: a vehicle produced by right-wing centibillionaire Elon Musk, blown up in front of a hotel bearing the name of the president-elect. But far from targeting Donald Trump or his top fundraiser, the explosion — carried out by Green Beret Matthew Livelsberger in a plan hatched with the aid of ChatGPT — was a tribute, a 21st-century votive offering to the idea of sovereign men.” (02/18/25)
https://inthesetimes.com/article/trump-musk-bezos-authoritarian-right-strongmen
