Source: In These Times
by Avalon Edwards & Thomas Birmingham

“It had been just two weeks since Emily Lark gave birth to her second child. Her partner, Eva Lark, was already at the office, getting back into the groove of their grueling 70-hour work week as a public programs manager. In the middle of the day, while bouncing from one Zoom call to the next, Eva received a phone call from Emily. Something was off. ‘I’m dizzy. I can’t catch my breath,’ said Emily. At first, she had chalked it up to residual stress in the aftermath of an intense pregnancy. But the dizziness and shortness of breath wouldn’t go away, and when Emily called Eva, she was scared. ​’We need to go to the hospital now.’ At the hospital, Emily was promptly diagnosed with postpartum complications: preeclampsia, which, if untreated, can cause seizures, organ damage and high blood pressure.” (05/03/24)

https://inthesetimes.com/article/bird-union-workers-audubon-union-busting-contract-negotiations

Source: American Institute for Economic Research
by Paul Mueller

“The Florida legislature recently decided that, along with deregulating electric-vehicle charging stations and giving kids excused absences for 4-H and FFA activity, it would restrict the ‘manufacturing, distributing, holding, or offering’ of cultivated or ‘lab-grown’ meat in SB 1084. Several states with Republican majorities, such as Alabama, Arizona, and Tennessee, have considered similar legislation. While Governor DeSantis labeled cultivated meat part of a ‘whole ideological agenda,’ this provision has the fingerprints of powerful lobbies like the Florida Poultry Federation and the Florida Cattlemen’s Association all over it. These lobbies have an obvious economic interest: reducing potential competition. Restricting alternative products means they can charge consumers higher prices. But why would Florida legislators agree to ban cultivated meat? No evidence has yet been offered as to why the FDA and other existing regulatory oversight is insufficient.” (05/03/24)

https://www.aier.org/article/floridas-faux-meat-ban-slaughtered-free-enterprise/

Source: Garrison Center
by Thomas L Knapp

“Using tax policy to influence how much beer people drink, what kind of cars people drive, or how many babies people have is just a way of imposing some people’s social preferences (and the costs of exercising those preferences) on other people. Americans, [Catherine] Rampell tells us (citing polling data), are ‘having fewer kids than they say they want.’ She doesn’t cite any polling data on how many kids those same people want to pay the costs of conceiving, delivering, and raising. I suspect the latter number would be lower. I want one more Tesla than I currently own (the latter number is zero), but I don’t want to pay the advertised sticker price. Nor do I support taxing you, or Ms. Rampell, more to buy me one (or to give me a tax credit to reduce my cost of buying one).” (05/02/24)

https://thegarrisoncenter.org/archives/18544

Source: The UnPopulist
by Trevor Burrus

“We haven’t always had presidents with integrity. But that doesn’t capture the fundamental problem: each president who decides to push the limits of his or her power creates a new baseline for the misuse of the office by unprincipled actors. Woodrow Wilson used a variety of means to prosecute those who opposed America’s involvement in World War I. Franklin Roosevelt used an executive order to create concentration camps to imprison more than 100,000 people of Japanese ancestry. John F. Kennedy used the IRS and the FCC to shut down ‘right-wing’ radio broadcasters who he thought would be a threat to the country and his reelection. … Given what purportedly ‘good’ presidents have done with the office, it’s worth considering what a petty and vindictive president would do. Unfortunately, we may learn that lesson if Donald Trump returns to the office.” (05/02/24)

https://www.theunpopulist.net/p/stopping-a-rogue-executive-from-abusing