Source: American Prospect
by Rick Perlstein
“No matter how much I try to ward it off, a certain curse of my career repeats: Every time protest signs bloom, scribes seek my input for ‘historical parallels’ pieces. Isn’t this just like in Nixonland when …? My initial response is always the same: Maybe … but there will be time to reflect on that later, and wouldn’t it be better to spend energy figuring out what’s going on now? I’ve never felt more that way than during these past several weeks. Angry kids setting up tents on university quads, taking over administration buildings, cops dragging them away: The more energy we spend on baby boomer games of compare and contrast, the less we can understand how, this time, the response to students protesting Israel’s war on Gaza has taken shape as a pure product of the interlocking derangements of the Trumpocene.” (05/08/24)
https://prospect.org/politics/2024-05-08-new-anti-antisemitism-college-protests-gaza/
Source: Freedom’s Phoenix
“Adam Kokesh (FREEDOM!) comes on the show to provide and update on what he has been doing as of late; also has a story to tell about the FBI.” (05/08/24)
https://www.freedomsphoenix.com/Media/362115-2024-05-07-2024-05-08-ernest-hancock-touches-base-with-adam-kokesh.htm
Source: Cato Institute
by Ryan Bourne
“‘Greedflation.’ ‘Shrinkflation.’ ‘Junk fees.’ ‘Price gouging.’ ‘Monopoly power.’ Barely a week goes by without President Biden or some other politician slamming companies for the prices they charge. It’s not surprising. We’ve just experienced the first major burst of inflation since the early 1980s. American families are angry that grocery prices rose 21 percent in three years after January 2021, as interest rates for new mortgages and auto loans have surged. Politicians and central bankers have every incentive to blame external forces or greedy businesses, rather than their own macroeconomic stimulus, for these consequences of inflation. Depressingly, the buck‐passing is working.” (05/08/24)
https://www.cato.org/commentary/costly-ignorance
Source: BBC News [UK State Media]
“Police have arrested 33 people at George Washington University (GW) after officers moved to clear a pro-Palestinian encampment from the campus. A spokesperson for Washington DC Metro Police told the BBC that ‘a number of arrests’ were made for assaults on a police officer and unlawful entry. University students had been inside the encampment since 25 April. Since mid-April pro-Palestinian demonstrations have broken out at nearly 140 US colleges. According to the university’s independent student-run newspaper, GW Hatchet: ‘Officers gave their third and final warning to demonstrators to move at about 03:30 local time, saying all who remained in U-Yard and the stretch of H Street in front of the plaza would be arrested.’ Previously, despite GW’s efforts to offer an alternative protest site, the encampment remained. University officials say they are unsure how many of the demonstrators were students.” (05/08/24)
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-68976244
Source: mint [India]
“Scientists have developed a vaccine with a new approach called ‘proactive vaccinology,’ which has shown protection in mice against a broad range of coronaviruses with potential for future disease outbreaks, according to a new study published in the journal, ‘Nature Nanotechnology’ on Monday. Under the proactive vaccinology vaccine development process, scientists develop vaccines preemptively, often before the disease-causing pathogen even emerges. The vaccine, ‘Quartet Nanocage,’ developed by Oxford and Caltech, is expected to commence phase one clinical trials in early 2025. However, its intricate design poses manufacturing challenges that may constrain large-scale production. The new vaccine functions by instructing the body’s immune system to identify particular regions of eight distinct coronaviruses, encompassing SARS-CoV-1, SARS-CoV-2, and several strains presently prevalent in bats, which hold the potential to cross over to humans and trigger a pandemic.” (05/08/24)
https://www.livemint.com/news/india/our-vaccine-may-protect-against-future-coronaviruses-says-oxford-study-11715147790346.html
Source: Antiwar.com
“Israeli Forces Capture Rafah Border Crossing, Biden Declares ‘Ironclad’ Support for Israel, and More.” (05/08/24)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=POJSiQyI6vQ
Source: Orange County Register
by Dan Walters
“It was something of a shock to restaurateurs because when the bill [SB 478] was making its way through the Legislature last year, they inferred from the discussions that restaurants would be exempt. That assumption meant that restaurants were not among the business groups opposing the measure. The Chronicle’s reporting generated a sharp reaction from restaurant operators, many of whom have added fees to their bills to cover rising costs, particularly for wages, without raising their basic menu prices. … Restaurants and other businesses could – and should – be upfront by posting prices that reflect what it costs them to operate. Some are arguing, instead, that to attract customers they must mislead them with lowball prices. That’s bait-and-switch and SB 478 rightly prohibits it.” (05/07/24)
https://www.ocregister.com/2024/05/07/california-restaurants-shouldnt-be-shocked-law-banning-junk-fees-applies-to-them/
Source: Town Hall
by Stephen Moore
“Everything that is happening in our fractured nation today seems so worrisomely reminiscent of America’s last lost decade — the 1970s. For those who don’t remember, the late 1970s under part-time President Gerald Ford and then much worse under President Jimmy Carter was one economic and national security setback after another. The witches’ brew of high inflation of 7% to 10% by 1979 and ever-increasing tax rates — which rose as high as 70% — drove the economy into a ditch. Real family incomes cratered under Carter because inflation rose so much faster than family take-home pay. Homes became unaffordable, with interest rates on mortgages skyrocketing up to 17%. Gas prices tripled. Carter blamed ‘Big Oil’ and ‘invested’ in pipe-dream green energy alternatives that all went bankrupt. Every time inflation rose, the economic whiz kids in Washington assured us the high prices were just temporary.” (05/08/24)
https://townhall.com/columnists/stephenmoore/2024/05/08/that-70s-show-is-biden-taking-america-back-to-the-age-of-jimmy-carter-n2638760
Source: Associated Press
“Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has challenged Donald Trump to a head-to-head debate for when both address a Libertarian convention later this month, a move that comes as the presumptive GOP nominee has ramped up both criticism of Kennedy’s independent bid and demands that President Joe Biden meet him on a debate stage. Arguing that he is ‘drawing a lot of voters from your former supporters,’ Kennedy said to Trump in an open letter posted Tuesday to X that the Libertarian convention provides ‘perfect neutral territory for you and me to have a debate where you can defend your record for your wavering supporters.'” [editor’s note: I’m hoping (a little) that if this happens, it might include the LP nominee in that debate, assuming one has been nominated by then – SAT] [editor’s note: It’s about as likely to happen as my wedding to Jennifer Lawrence – TLK] (05/08/24)
https://apnews.com/article/robert-f-kennedy-jr-trump-debate-libertarian-fb72b3da879e368aad055d0fc86861c9
Source: Semafor
by David Weigel
“The Republican counteroffensive against the protesters has taken two forms. One has been a wave of legislation and hearings that aim to limit criticism of Israel on campus. The other is a combination of hearings and media hits that highlight, and sometimes overstate, the most offensive reports of what’s happening there. … The White House has tried for weeks to differentiate between ‘peaceful protesters’ and agitators. Comer and other Republicans don’t get so specific. The existence of the campus protests is a reason to pull back government grants to universities and student loan forgiveness; Cotton’s ‘No Bailouts for Campus Criminals’ legislation would bar people ‘convicted of any offense’ from getting that.” (05/08/24)
https://www.semafor.com/article/05/07/2024/the-great-republican-counter-protest-of-2024
