Quantum Vibe, 03/18/24
Source: Big Head Press
by Scott Bieser
Cartoon. (03/18/24)
Source: Big Head Press
by Scott Bieser
Cartoon. (03/18/24)
Source: United Press International
“Uber has agreed to pay a $178 million to settle a class action lawsuit involving thousands of Australian drivers who lost income and license values over the rideshare giant’s business practices. The case, which was to be tried before the Supreme Court of Victoria starting Monday, was filed by attorneys with the Maurice Blackburn Lawyers firm in 2019 on behalf of 8,000 taxi and hire car drivers. The lawsuit argued that Uber acted unlawfully when it began operating in Australia by failing to meet specific regulations on operating passenger transportation services to the detriment of their clients.” (03/18/24)
https://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2024/03/18/australia-Uber-settlement/1071710741167/
Source: Libertarian Institute
“Washington’s Urgency to Ban TikTok Is Due to Users Pro-Palestinian Views.” (03/18/24)
Source: Responsible Statecraft
by Giorgio Cafiero
“Amid the USSR’s implosion in the early 1990s, Russian-speaking separatists in Transnistria feared growing Moldovan nationalism and the possibility of Moldova, which had just declared independence, reunifying with Romania. Russian troops and Cossack fighters helped Transnistrian paramilitary groups fight Moldovan forces in the Transnistria War (1990-92), which killed up to 700 people. To this day the conflict remains frozen. Since 1992, officials in Moldova’s capital, Chisinau, and Tiraspol have prevented military clashes. Over the past three decades, the Moldova-Transnistria file has not concerned Washington too much. That is until recently. Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 raised concerns about this frozen conflict unfreezing.” (03/18/24)
https://responsiblestatecraft.org/russia-transnistria-ukraine/
Source: Law & Liberty
by Elizabeth Amato
“In March 2020, Waylon Bailey posted on Facebook a joke about zombies, and how his local sheriff’s office in Forest Hill, Louisiana had orders to shoot the infected. Appealing to Brad Pitt’s character from World War Z, Bailey added the hashtag #weneedyoubradpitt. A few hours later, the sheriff’s office arrested him and charged him with terrorism under a state law that forbade spreading information with the intent of causing panic. The district court convicted Bailey and ruled that disseminating false information in the early days of the pandemic was like yelling ‘fire in a crowded theater.’ … These five little words, ‘fire in a crowded theater,’ are invoked like a magical talisman to justify, by analogy, the regulation of false speech and lies.” (03/18/24)
https://lawliberty.org/book-review/free-speech-beyond-the-marketplace/
Source: TomDispatch
by William Astore
“In an age when American presidents routinely boast of having the world’s finest military, where nearly trillion-dollar war budgets are now a new version of routine, let me bring up one vitally important but seldom mentioned fact: making major cuts to military spending would increase U.S. national security. Why? Because real national security can neither be measured nor safeguarded solely by military power (especially the might of a military that hasn’t won a major war since 1945). Economic vitality matters so much more, as does the availability and affordability of health care, education, housing, and other crucial aspects of life unrelated to weaponry and war. Add to that the importance of a Congress responsive to the needs of the working poor, the hungry and the homeless among us.” (03/18/24)
https://tomdispatch.com/daring-to-look-a-sacred-cow-in-the-teeth
Source: US News & World Report
“Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump is expected to include Paul Manafort, the former campaign manager he pardoned, as a campaign adviser later this year, the Washington Post reported on Monday, citing four people familiar with the talks. … Trump pardoned Manafort in 2020, seven months after he was released to home confinement, sparing the long-time Republican operative from serving the bulk of his 7-1/2-year prison term for federal tax evasion and bank fraud.” (03/18/24)
Source: EconTalk
“Voices from Gaza (with Ahmed Alkhatib).” (03/18/24)
https://www.econtalk.org/voices-from-gaza-with-ahmed-alkhatib/
Source: The Daily Beast
by Matt Lewis
“‘[D]ouble-haters’ are voters who don’t like either Donald Trump or Joe Biden. This is an emerging cohort that many of us can identify with (although I try not to venture into ‘hate’ territory). Every year, we are treated to a plethora of news stories about undecided voters. You know the cliche: people who are socially liberal and fiscally conservative. Because these voters (who somehow manage to make it through life without picking a team) are persuadable, they get a ton of ink and disproportionate attention from politicians. If you like receiving voter mail, tell a canvasser you’re not sure which candidate you like — but that you definitely plan on voting. Well, double-haters are undecided voters on steroids — at least, in terms of their size.” (03/18/24)
https://www.thedailybeast.com/who-will-win-the-biden-trump-double-haters
Source: BBC News [UK state media]
“Authorities in the northern Chinese city of Handan have detained three teenage boys over the brutal death of their classmate, local media report. The case of the 13-year-old boy, identified only by his surname Wang, has sparked anger and furious debate on juvenile crime. Authorities found his remains buried in an abandoned vegetable garden. The boy was bullied in school, according to his father. Police are investigating the case as an intentional homicide, state-run Global Times said. All three detained teens are under 14. Under Chinese law, those above 12 years of age but under 14 can face criminal prosecution only when allowed by the Supreme People’s Procuratorate, the country’s highest public prosecutor. The victim and his classmates are ‘left-behind children,’ a term used to describe kids in China who live with their grandparents in rural areas while their parents work in the cities.” (03/18/24)