The Learning Curve, 04/24/24
Source: Pioneer Institute
“Hoover at Stanford’s Stephen Kotkin on Stalin’s Tyranny, WWII, & the Cold War.” (04/24/24)
Florida’s Amendment 2: Fishing and Hunting Rights on the Ballot
Source: Palm Beach Examiner
by Karl Dickey
“This amendment would enshrine the right to hunt and fish into Florida’s Constitution, in addition to existing Florida statutes dealing with hunting and fishing in the state. The proposed amendment looks to preserve forever fishing and hunting, including by the use of traditional methods, as a public right and preferred means of responsibly managing and controlling fish and wildlife. … Personally, as I wrote regarding Amendment 1, I will be voting against Amendment 2 as it has multiple potential for unintended consequences, especially when it comes to one’s property rights in the state. It is yet another government-generated proposal looking for a solution to a problem that does not exist; we have effective laws on the books already regarding hunting and fishing.” (04/24/24)
https://palmbeachexaminer.substack.com/p/floridas-amendment-2-fishing-and
TikTok vows to fight unconstitutional US ban
Source: BBC News [UK state media]
“TikTok says it will challenge in court an ‘unconstitutional’ law that could result in it being sold or banned in the United States. President Biden has signed into law a bill which gives the social media platform’s Chinese owner, ByteDance, nine months to divest the app or it will be blocked in the US. The law has been introduced because of concerns TikTok might share user data with the Chinese government – claims it has always denied. ‘We are confident and we will keep fighting for your rights in the courts,’ said TikTok boss Shou Zi Chew. ‘The facts, and the Constitution, are on our side.'” (04/24/24)
American Aristocracy
Source: Law & Liberty
by Andrew Beck
“In the modern context, ‘aristocracy’ is believed to be those possessing the earmarks of inherited wealth, unearned social privilege, and personal vanity. Classically understood however, aristocracy is simply ‘the rule of the excellent’ (from the Greek aristo or ‘excellence,’ and kratos or ‘rule’), where according to Plato, governance is entrusted to individuals deemed to be of superior virtue, wisdom, and merit. Noticeably absent from Plato’s qualifications is property and material possessions, or reputation, i.e. ‘honor.’ While the Greeks believed that inherent traits of strength and intelligence qualified one as an aristocrat, the Romans required more suitable measurements.” (04/24/24)
Germany: Regime to restart funding for UNRWA after independent report
Source: United Press International
“Germany said it plans to resume funding the United Nations Release Agency for Palestinian Refugees after joining more than a dozen other countries in suspending support amid allegations that employees were involved in the Oct. 7 attacks on Israel. Germany’s Federal Foreign Office and Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development issued a joint statement announcing that the country would ‘shortly resume its cooperation with UNRWA in Gaza’ following the release of a U.N.-commissioned report that found Israel did not offer enough evidence to support the claims.” (04/24/24)
Economics applied, 04/24/24
Source: Hoover Institution
“Russian Economic History — A Conversation With Sergei Guriev.” (04/24/24)
https://www.hoover.org/research/russian-economic-history-conversation-sergei-guriev
The Digital Era Will Prompt Revolutions — as Did the Print Era
Source: CounterPunch
by Nick Licata
“The breakthrough technologies of the printing press and data digitization allow the masses to access information. That flood of new information crumbled the legitimacy of the established political orders. Will great powers fall again due to the greater information flow in the new digital media era? Over 500 years have separated the invention of the Guttenberg Press and the creation of digital data. Each begat substantial social and political upheavals. Those changes could come sooner since the speed and breadth of the digital era’s impact dwarfs that of the printing press.” (04/24/24)
Alvin Bragg has his Trump trial, all he needs now is a crime
Source: New York Post
by Jonathan Turley
“For many of us in the legal community, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s case against former President Donald Trump borders on the legally obscene: an openly political prosecution based on a theory even legal pundits dismiss. Yet Monday the prosecution seemed to actually make a case for obscenity. It wasn’t the gratuitous introduction of an uncharged alleged tryst with a former Playboy Bunny or expected details on the relationship with an ex-porn star. It was the criminal theory itself that seemed crafted around the obscenity standard Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart famously described in 1984’s Jacobellis v. Ohio: ‘I shall not today attempt further to define [it]. … But I know it when I see it.’ The prosecution must show Trump falsified business records in ‘furtherance of another crime.'” (04/24/24)
https://nypost.com/2024/04/24/opinion/alvin-bragg-has-his-trump-trial-all-he-needs-now-is-a-crime/
SCOTUS split over Idaho’s strict abortion ban in medical emergencies
Source: Reuters
“U.S. Supreme Court justices, wading back into the battle over abortion access, appeared divided on Wednesday in a case pitting Idaho’s strict Republican-backed abortion ban against a federal law that ensures that patients can receive emergency care. The justices heard arguments in an appeal by Idaho officials of a lower court’s ruling that found that the 1986 U.S. law at issue, the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA), supersedes the state’s near-total ban in the relatively rare circumstances when the two conflict. President Joe Biden’s administration, which sued Idaho over the abortion law, has urged the justices to uphold that ruling. The court has a 6-3 conservative majority. No consensus seemed to emerge among the conservative justices, who expressed concerns including what protections federal law extends to ‘unborn children’ and whether Congress had clearly spelled out that EMTALA can mandate abortion in certain emergency cases.” (04/24/24)
My faith puts health first. Supreme Court abortion ruling would pander to Christian extremists.
Source: USA Today
“On Wednesday, the Supreme Court will hear oral arguments on whether a state’s near-total abortion ban conflicts with federal requirements for emergency care under the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act. EMTALA was passed by Congress in 1986 to ensure that all patients can access emergency medical care, free of discrimination. We have all needed to use the emergency room at some point in our lives. This case will have real consequences on real lives and jeopardizes our fundamental right to religious freedom. Protecting emergency reproductive care that prioritizes the life of the pregnant person is at its very core about our right to religious freedom in a country that claims to have separation of church and state. People of all faiths must be able to practice what their religion teaches.” [editor’s note: If my religion requires me to … make involuntary withdrawals from … banks, do I get to practice it? – TLK] (04/24/24)