MCViewPoint

Opinion from a Libertarian ViewPoint

Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category

« Previous Entries
Next Entries »

‘The Great Southwest Airlines Rebellion?’ – Ron Paul’s 11 Oct Column

Posted by M. C. on October 12, 2021

https://mailchi.mp/ronpaulinstitute/southwest?e=ff526b933a

Oct 11 – The incredible cruelty and folly of forced vaccines finally came home to roost. The vaccine mandate backlash has been bubbling just under the surface, but now it has spilled out into the open, threatening to completely derail an already crumbling economy and to obliterate a deeply unpopular US President and Administration.

Seemingly out of nowhere what appears to be a Southwest Airlines rebellion has taken flight this weekend. According to media reports, scores of pilots and other Southwest employees have coordinated the taking of “sick days” to use them up in advance of a Southwest Airlines mandate to get the jab or lose the job. Over Saturday and Sunday more than 2,000 flights have been cancelled, with airports experiencing full-on mayhem.

The Southwest Airlines Pilots Association is suing the airline over the imposed vaccine mandate, bolstering the claim that there is a “sick out” underway among angry Southwest pilots.

The mainstream media is doing its best to keep a lid on the expanding rebellion against the vaccine mandates, and Southwest Airlines itself is blaming the cancellations on bad weather and a lack of air traffic controllers. However, the weather problems that Southwest claims to be experiencing seem unique to that carrier: no other airline (thus far) is reporting such weather-related cancellations. And FAA spokesperson Steve Kulm told USA Today that “No FAA air traffic staffing shortages have been reported since Friday.”

Will other pilots, such as at American Airlines, follow suit? Rumors are circling that this is only the beginning.

Over the past few weeks, thousands of nurses, medical workers, and first responders have either quit or been fired for refusing to receive a medical treatment they do not want or need. The “nursing shortage” that Democrat politicians and the mainstream media had been blaming on “rising Covid cases” has been in reality a man-made disaster of historic proportions. The nursing crisis is not caused by “Covid” – cases have been in decline in the US for weeks. It is caused by the firing of medical personnel who refuse to take the experimental Covid shots.

The stupidity of adopting a policy of firing healthcare workers while at the same time claiming that there is a raging pandemic gripping the country has not been lost on Americans. President Biden’s polling numbers have unsurprisingly been in freefall, with major Democrat candidates like Virginia’s Terry McAuliffe openly complaining that the deeply unpopular Biden is threatening him in a tight race for governor.
While Biden Administration lackeys like Fauci are telling Americans they can’t celebrate Christmas again this year, more and more of America is finished with this “public health” terrorism. Here in Texas, a hundred thousand unmasked Texas A&M fans poured onto the football field on Saturday after a last minute surprise victory over Alabama. In Texas and elsewhere, the Administration is losing the fear factor.

History may record this weekend as the turning point against the Biden Administration’s Covid tyranny. From nurses to pilots to truckers to even Amtrak workers, it appears that America is standing up and saying “enough!” Every one of our fellow citizens standing up on principle to oppose tyranny – facing the loss of their jobs and security – is owed a debt of gratitude by all who love liberty. Let’s hope that the peaceful rebellion continues to grow!

—

Read more great articles on the Ron Paul Institute website.
Subscribe to free updates from the Ron Paul Institute. Copyright © 2021 by Ron Paul Institute. Permission to reprint in whole or in part is gladly granted, provided full credit and a live link are given.

Be seeing you

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: , , , | Leave a Comment »

Why Today’s Abusers of the Scientific Method Are So Dangerous | Mises Wire

Posted by M. C. on October 12, 2021

The issue, then, with slogans like “believe in science” is the tendency to conflate science with morality and value. When science is wielded to make laws, it is most often done with a moral code attached. It has been shown that science is not able to do this, so the only way science can be used to make law for is someone, some real person or persons somewhere, to draw a moral conclusion based on the science. This personal, individual moral conclusion is then applied wholesale upon all that the law will reach. It is for this reason that science should never be used as a justification in any government action to enforce moral systems.

Michael Roberts

Over the past half decade, there has been a growing trend signaling a shift in the perceived and accepted role of science. It is not uncommon to see slogans and mottos such as “the science is settled” and “believe in science.” Statements like this present two major problems: first, science is determined to be final and indisputable; second, it is accompanied by a value or moral judgment. For example, scientific studies indicate that wearing a helmet can “reduce head injury by 48%, serious head injury by 60%, traumatic brain injury by 53%, [and] face injury by 23%.” While it takes little effort to align with science on such a matter, I intend to demonstrate that an application of the first behavior is contradictory to the foundation of science and the second lies entirely outside its purview.

To establish common ground, we begin by reviewing the merits and fundamentals of the scientific method. First, an observation is made, followed by a question regarding the observation. A hypothesis is then formed that could potentially answer the question. A prediction about future results based on the hypothesis is then tested via experiments. Analysis of the results of the experiments are utilized to confirm or reject the hypothesis. If the results seem to demonstrate that the hypothesis is correct, then confidence begins to build in the predictive power of the hypothesis and its ability to describe the real world. If the results seem to demonstrate that the hypothesis is incorrect, then the scientific method loops back on itself and the hypothesis is challenged, refined, modified, or discarded. The process is rigorous, thorough, and exacting. It is also deeply empirical, meaning it relies on information from the real world; it can only extract data from things that have already happened. In its most basic form, this process is what constitutes “science” as commonly referred to in media and conversation.

With common ground established, the first major problem can be addressed. It is, ironically, antiscience to ever declare that science is settled. There are a few characteristics of the scientific method that substantiate this claim. Since the scientific method is based on empirical data in relation to a hypothesis, it is reliant on the senses and perceived experiences. This means it is wholly dependent on the past. Science cannot properly predict the future; it can only model what has happened and make a reasonable projection about what could happen. All scientific law hangs desperately on statistical probability. 

In addition, since man is not omniscient, the future will forever remain unknown. As man continues to explore the physical world, there always exists the possibility that enough data will accumulate to falsify, or at least cast into doubt, a well-established scientific conclusion. Because of these conditions, statements declaring the science to be settled are altogether unscientific: they reject the core principles and practices of the scientific method and the nature of human experience. Such conditions expose the ridiculousness of any insinuation that science is settled. Strictly speaking, science is unable to ever be settled. Imagine the carnage if scientists around the world had retired their lab coats and accepted the leading theories of the early twentieth century that cigarettes were good for human health. Fortunately, continued use of the scientific method has built a compelling counterargument that cigarettes are in fact very detrimental to the body.

The second major problem may have more perilous implications when thoroughly examined. In the preceding discussion, it is clearly shown that science is only able to approach statistical truth based on empirical evidence. Science is, however, utterly unable to tell us what is right or wrong. There is nothing naturally occurring within the scientific method that empowers it to make value judgments or moral decisions. It cannot tell us what is good, bad, better, or worse. In essence, science is never able to say “should” or “must.” To return to our previous example, science may conclude that wearing a helmet prevents head injuries in motorbike accidents, but it is powerless to dictate that motorists should wear helmets. To do so is to make a value judgment that can only be made by individuals. 

Wearing a helmet is only prescriptive if the individual motorist values the possibility of preventing a cracked skull over riding freely in the wind. Knowing the risks and being informed by science, most motorists would likely choose to wear a helmet, but science is unable to tell them that is the choice of highest value, since individuals have different, and differing, value systems. In regards to science, what is right is dependent on the precise ends desired by individual actors and their values. As Ludwig von Mises stated, “There is no use in arguing about the adequacy of ethical precepts…. Ultimate ends are chosen by the individual’s judgments of value. They cannot be determined by scientific inquiry and logical reasoning.”1 

Allowing science to make universal value judgments also enables it to define morality. An example of this can be found in the debates surrounding abortion law. Science can tell us when a heartbeat begins, how developed a baby is in the first, second, and third trimester, and even the sex of the baby. But again, it is absolutely powerless to tell us whether it is or is not moral to abort the baby. Such an evaluation would rest on the value judgments and moral code of the individual.

The issue, then, with slogans like “believe in science” is the tendency to conflate science with morality and value. When science is wielded to make laws, it is most often done with a moral code attached. It has been shown that science is not able to do this, so the only way science can be used to make law for is someone, some real person or persons somewhere, to draw a moral conclusion based on the science. This personal, individual moral conclusion is then applied wholesale upon all that the law will reach. It is for this reason that science should never be used as a justification in any government action to enforce moral systems. Doing so results in the morals and values of the few being imposed upon the many. It is only individuals who can make decisions about what they will do in regard to any scientific consensus. F.A. Hayek put this neatly when he said that “individuals should be allowed … to follow their own values and preferences rather than somebody else’s.”2

The results of any scientific study require interpretation and any interpretation is necessarily subjective. The interpretation of results can go on to inform value judgments and moral codes. But if science moves into a space where its conclusions can never be challenged and it also determines morality, then it suddenly ceases to exhibit characteristics of science and has assumed characteristics of religion. When conveniently married to power, an exaltation of science to this status can have disastrous effects, as evidenced by the acts committed by the Third Reich and other horrific occurrences. The further science drifts from the scientific method and embraces religious zealotry, the more dangerous its potential to restrict choice, destroy human liberty, and harm real people. It should always be remembered that while science can tell us that a phone will carry our voices through the air, it will never be able to tell us what should be said.

  • 1. Ludwig von Mises, Profit and Loss (Auburn, AL: Ludwig von Mises Institute, 2008), p. 33.
  • 2. F.A. Hayek, “Planning and Democracy,” in The Road to Serfdom (London: Routledge, 2001), p. 62.

Author:

Michael Roberts

Be seeing you

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: , , | Leave a Comment »

The United States of Fantasy Island – by The Exit Network – The Exit Network

Posted by M. C. on October 12, 2021

We could exit the horror of Fantasy Island if enough other Americans evolved to recognize reality. A natural principle reveals the fundamental problem with political daydreaming and the ideologies that justify it. It’s called the Principle of Human Respect, and it works like this…

  • Cause: Coercion, theft, initiated violence.
  • Effect: Diminished happiness, harmony, prosperity.

https://theexitnetwork.substack.com/p/the-united-states-of-fantasy-island

The Exit Network

The nightmare of American politics is that we’re all trapped on an island with people who consistently imagine how much better the world would be if they were in charge.

The fantasizers can be heard on talk radio, read on editorial pages, and seen on Facebook and Twitter. They play a giant game of “If only…” If only their preferred politicians ruled, or better yet, the fantasizer himself or herself was the one making all the rules, Utopia would surely follow.

The fantasizers assume that the benefits of their proposed policies are obvious. People who stubbornly reject their programs are simply bad people who should move to Afghanistan or Russia or some other horrible place.

Head shape cut out of a wall, letting light in.

The Dictator Fallacy

Best-selling author and two-time Libertarian presidential nominee, Harry Browne, had his own version of the Fantasy Island problem. He called it the Dictator Fallacy.

The Dictator Fallacy is the belief that any law or program will work exactly as you, the designer, intend — as though you are an all-powerful dictator able to control every aspect of implementation.

Why is this a fallacy?

The most powerful politician in the nation is the president, right? But that isn’t saying much.

A significant portion of his schedule is spent standing on a spot he’s told to stand, saying things someone else wrote for him.

In between, he takes a ton of meetings where he’s “briefed” — meaning he doesn’t get the entire picture. He gets information only from a narrow group of politicians, such as an agency head or cabinet secretary. They each have their own agendas. These officials, in turn, got their information from top-level deputies. Each top-level deputy may have gotten the information directly from the person who observed it, but more commonly, there’s still at least one more staffer in between those two bureaucrats and the field observer.

By constitutional design, the president typically needs the cooperation of Congress. Consider that each member of Congress has their own constituency. They normally have strong incentives to contradict and fight the president’s wishes. Yet, more and more, each occupant of the Oval Office has turned to bureaucrats, going around Congress to carry out his agenda.

Still, the president won’t get his policy the way he designed it.

Bureaucrats have both incentive and ability to shade information to serve their long-term career interests or biases. Indeed, they have likely forgotten more about their area of expertise than the president will ever know; they can run circles around him. If they don’t get their way, they will outlast the president’s four-year term anyway. The president is just a glorified temp.

Then, after the policy has been crafted and implemented, the president must trust that his scheme will be executed as he intended, all the way down to the guys and gals with guns.

Even if the president could dot every i and cross every t, designing one perfect policy, there would still be a thousand cases left where he didn’t have that kind of time.

To be blunt, the notion that the president is in control is a delusion.

Heck, why do you blame the president for failed policies? How do you know what his advisors told him and what he knew that you, magically, would’ve known better had you been in this role? It’s a hallucination to think any person — even you — is suited to the role.

In truth, anyone who thinks they’re qualified is self-deceived. This self-deception should immediately disqualify any office seeker or fantasizer.

Unfortunately, elected officials have tons of followers, who themselves are living in fairyland.

Intuition

There’s a psychological theory that creativity or vision is the opposite of groundedness and evidence. An “intuitive” personality type is more likely to act on an idea and even act alone, while the “sensory” personality waits for confirmation.

Indeed, we need both types of people. Intuition is the intellectual stuff of the inventor, while citizens of Missouri and the Apostle Thomas require proof.

Share

If the theory is true, only intuitives can conceive of Utopias. Sensory personality types would have no interest in such schemes until proof arrived — except when it comes to politics. In political mode, sensory types can become intuitive Utopia builders. This likely happens when they substitute their normal demand for evidence in favor of…

Ideology

In a typical civics or political science class, an ideology is defined simply as a political philosophy. That’s an incomplete description.

Ideologies are built around a political tribe’s collection of intuitions and aesthetic inclinations. In plain language, each person in that tribe has some personal preferences and particular tastes that they then assume everyone should share.

The ideology is a ploy to make mere intuitions and inclinations sound high-minded. Intellectuals and spin doctors invent a series of justifications for why your preferences are morally superior or more effective than all other competitors for the crown.

In the giant game of “If only I were in charge,” many people would prefer to believe that they can make plans for others — that is, they believe that they can improve the lives of others by taking some measure of control over them. But the truth is harsh!

Woe to the people when an elected ideologue gets their way because we all take the trip to Fantasy Island. There a pernicious apparition awaits; this specter is called “unintended consequences.”

Ideologies are fantasies, but the unintended consequences are quite real. The people outside the ideology can often see negative side effects or outright failure coming, but the fantasizer is caught by surprise. That’s why these consequences are called “unintended.”

The unintended consequences inevitably follow, just as night follows day. This leaves the people who live in reality wondering why ideologies aren’t considered delusions. It’s because the fantasizers never really reflect and learn. They just move on to their next phantasmagoria.

Human Respect

We could exit the horror of Fantasy Island if enough other Americans evolved to recognize reality. A natural principle reveals the fundamental problem with political daydreaming and the ideologies that justify it. It’s called the Principle of Human Respect, and it works like this…

  • Cause: Coercion, theft, initiated violence.
  • Effect: Diminished happiness, harmony, prosperity.

While an ideology is built to justify personal inclinations, here we have a principle. It’s a principle because it works in a cause-and-effect fashion, like a law of science. It cannot be suspended by fantasies.

When people are free of these causes, they pursue their own happiness. Most of the time, the pursuit of happiness leads to innovations and opportunities instead of frustrations, wars, and taxes.

We can go further. We can put our human longing to solve social problems to good use. Each of us could be a bit like a king, but only if we act according to this Principle. Here’s how to do that…

We can use persuasion to invite others to join us in solving problems. We don’t need to lobby politicians to get our way, then bully everyone into funding and following our fantasy prescriptions. If we want to help, we can roll up our sleeves and try — or maybe just write a check.

At present, ideologues trap us in their fantasies. Whenever any one of us believes we can make the world better by forcing our plans on others, we’re fantasizing about our dictatorship. Our schemes, once executed, will carry with them pernicious side effects, if not failure — and we’re responsible for these things. Human Respect is our path to escape the nightmare of Fantasy Island.

Jim Babka is the Host of the Exit Network. He’s also editor-at-large for The Advocates for Self-Government and the co-creator the Zero Aggression Project which will be sharing this piece, as well.

Be seeing you

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

Erie Times E-Edition Article-Merck seeks OK for coronavirus pill

Posted by M. C. on October 12, 2021

Molnupiravir is too hard to pronounce so the popular name is the “Ivermectin pill that isn’t called Ivermectin”.

Remember the old campaign expression: I was against it before I was for it.

https://erietimes-pa-app.newsmemory.com/?publink=07024fa8d_1345f68

Matthew Perrone

ASSOCIATED PRESS

WASHINGTON – Drugmaker Merck asked U.S. regulators Monday to authorize its pill for treating COVID-19 in what would add an entirely new and easy-touse weapon to the world’s arsenal against the pandemic.

If cleared by the Food and Drug Administration – a decision that could come in a matter of weeks – it would be the first pill shown to treat the illness. All other FDA-backed treatments against COVID-19 require an IV or injection.

An antiviral pill that people could take at home to reduce their symptoms and speed recovery could prove groundbreaking, easing the crushing caseload on U.S. hospitals and helping to curb outbreaks in poorer countries with weak health care systems. It would also bolster the two-pronged approach to the pandemic: treatment, by way of medication, and prevention, primarily through vaccinations.

The FDA will scrutinize company data on the safety and effectiveness of the drug, molnupiravir, before rendering a decision.

Merck and its partner Ridgeback Biotherapeutic said they specifically asked the agency to grant emergency use for adults with mild to moderate COVID- 19 who are at risk for severe disease or hospitalization. That is roughly the way COVID-19 infusion drugs are used.

“The value here is that it’s a pill so you don’t have to deal with the infusion centers and all the factors around that,” said Dr. Nicholas Kartsonis, a senior vice president with Merck’s infectious disease unit.

“I think it’s a very powerful tool to add to the toolbox.”

The company reported earlier this month that the pill cut hospitalizations and deaths by half among patients with early symptoms of COVID-19. The results were so strong that independent medical experts monitoring the trial recommended stopping it early.

Side effects were similar between patients who got the drug and those in a testing group who received a dummy pill. But Merck has not publicly detailed the types of problems reported, which will be a key part of the FDA’s review.

Top U.S. health officials continue to push vaccinations as the best way to protect against COVID-19.

“It’s much, much better to prevent yourself from getting infected than to have to treat an infection,” Dr. Anthony Fauci said while discussing Merck’s drug last week.

Still, some 68 million eligible Americans remain unvaccinated, underscoring the need for effective drugs to control future waves of infection.

The prospect of a COVID-19 pill comes amid other encouraging signs: New cases per day in the U.S. have dropped below 100,000 on average for the first time in over two months, and deaths are running at about 1,700 a day, down from more than 2,000 three weeks ago.

Also, the average number of vaccinations dispensed per day has climbed past 1 million, an increase of more than 50% over the past two weeks, driven by the introduction of booster shots and workplace vaccine requirements.

Still, heath authorities are bracing for another possible surge as cold weather drives more people indoors.

The FDA will scrutinize data on the safety and effectiveness of molnupiravir before rendering a decision. AP

Be seeing you

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: , , | Leave a Comment »

The Future of Direct Taxation – Doug Casey’s International Man

Posted by M. C. on October 12, 2021

“The Free World,” notably the EU, U.S., and Canada, have passed “bail-in” legislation; that is, legislation that allows banks to confiscate deposits, should the banks decide that an “emergency” exists. The depositor would have no rights, no recourse. The bank right now can simply rob you of your deposits, with the full approval of the government.

To this is added a bank policy that’s been popping up all over the world – restrictions on the size of transactions that you’re allowed to make with your own money. The higher the transaction amount, the more “suspect” you are of being involved in criminal and/or terrorist acts, which is to be reported to the authorities.

https://internationalman.com/articles/the-future-of-direct-taxation/

by Jeff Thomas

The image above may be considered by some as unfair, as it suggests that taxation is a form of robbery. Well, let’s check the dictionary for a definition:

“Robbery is defined as taking away of goods or property by force or intimidation.”

Well, that certainly fits the bill. Of course, Inland Revenue (or the IRS, CRA, etc., depending upon where you’re from) would say that it’s not robbery if it’s lawful. As I see it, the fact that a law has been passed to allow robbery does not change it from being robbery. It’s merely institutionalised robbery.

Academics might say that we elect representatives to run the central government and those representatives are then entrusted to pass the laws, which we must then meekly follow. Again, this argument doesn’t hold water for me, as these individuals may have been elected, but they most certainly do not “represent” me if they pass a law that says it’s okay to rob me. No government has ever asked me for permission to take my money simply because they want it, and I have never given it.

If there’s any question as to whether the above definition is correct, I’d be happy to see it put to the test: The internet makes possible individualised referendum. If we were to all be questioned as to whether we wish to be taxed, we could easily decide on an individual basis. I’m guessing that I wouldn’t be alone if I were to say, “No, thank you.”

But, to be fair, I do approve of taxation, but only indirect taxation – taxation based on consumption. (This is lawful in my own country, the Cayman Islands, and I receive good value for money.)

Many would say that it would be impossible to operate any government without direct taxation, yet this is not so. In the U.K., income tax was initiated in 1799 to pay for the Napoleonic Wars, and the tax never went away. In Canada, income tax was initiated in 1917 to pay for World War One, and the tax never went away. In the U.S., income tax was initiated in 1913 as a means to compensate for lost revenue due to recently decreased tariffs (clever), and the tax never went away.

In most of the world, taxation is regarded as an imposition and it’s considered understandable that no one really wants to pay tax. The U.S. government promotes a rather different view – that the payment of tax is a patriotic duty. In the U.S., a tax amount can be demanded and the onus of proof is on the citizen as to whether the IRS demand is correct. (In other words, guilty until proven innocent.)

But in almost all countries, payment of tax is described by governments as voluntary, as citizens file their tax forms, pay their income tax, and then hope for the best. The governments don’t actually break down your door and take what they have decided is the “right amount.” (In the U.S. today, through civil forfeiture, billions of dollars in money and goods have been taken from citizens without even necessarily charging the citizen with a crime, but, still, at present, tax collection is handled, “voluntarily”).

But is income tax essential to keep a government alive? Or is it possibly only essential for those countries that conduct wars? Well, a part of the answer comes in the fact that income tax is so commonly justified as repayment of war debt. Presumably, if the political leaders had not engaged in war, they never would have had to introduce income tax to pay for the war. Certainly, Canada and the U.S. went through their greatest historical expansion periods (the last half of the 19th century) and the industrial revolution, without direct taxation.

By contrast, my own country, in its 500-year history, has never declared war on another country. And it has never had direct taxation of any kind.

Let’s repeat that. It has never had income tax, corporate tax, capital gains tax, inheritance tax, or even VAT, property tax, or sales tax in all of its history. Most of our tax revenue comes from company fees and consumption tax. Of course, this means that our government is limited in how big and powerful it can become, but this is something we look upon as a highly positive by-product. Indeed, the lack of direct taxation is regarded as an insurance policy against the creation of an overly powerful government.

So, it’s entirely possible for a country to have no direct taxation. In fact, few of the world’s existing countries began their life with direct taxation (although in recent times, new countries have often regarded direct taxation as a given.)

See the rest here

Be seeing you

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

Biden Tells Supreme Court That Publicly Documented Torture Is a State Secret

Posted by M. C. on October 12, 2021

In 2016, Margulies said that Abu Zubaydah is “the poster child for the torture program, and that’s why they never want him to be heard from again.”

https://truthout.org/articles/biden-tells-supreme-court-that-publicly-documented-torture-is-a-state-secret/

By Marjorie Cohn, Truthout

Part of the Series

Human Rights and Global Wrongs

When Abu Zubaydah was apprehended in Pakistan in 2002, the George W. Bush administration falsely characterized him as chief of operations for al-Qaeda and Osama bin Laden’s number three man. For the next four years, the CIA sent Zubaydah to its “black sites” in Thailand and Poland where he was viciously tortured. In 2006, Zubaydah was taken to Guantánamo, where he remains to this day. He has never been charged with a crime.

The torture of Abu Zubaydah is thoroughly documented in the 2014 report of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. In fact, several of the justices at the October 6 Supreme Court oral argument in United States v. Zubaydah referred to his treatment as “torture.”

Zubaydah’s lawyers detailed the torture he suffered in their brief (which referenced the Senate torture report) as follows:

Don’t miss a beat

Get the latest news and thought-provoking analysis from Truthout.

  • Email

On 83 different occasions in a single month of 2002, he was strapped to an inclined board with his head lower than his feet while CIA contractors poured water up his nose and down his throat, bringing him within sight of death. He was handcuffed and repeatedly slammed into walls, and suspended naked from hooks in the ceiling for hours at a time. He was forced to remain awake for eleven consecutive days, and doused again and again with cold water when he collapsed into sleep. He was forced into a tall, narrow box the size of a coffin, and crammed into another box that would nearly fit under a chair, where he was left for hours. He was subjected to a particularly grotesque humiliation described by the CIA as “rectal rehydration.”

Nevertheless, the Biden administration told the high court that Zubaydah’s well-known torture is a “state secret” because former CIA Director Mike Pompeo said publicizing it would harm national security. Thus, Solicitor General Brian Fletcher argued, the two contractors who orchestrated Zubaydah’s torture in Poland should not be permitted to testify in a Polish court’s criminal investigation into the treatment of Zubaydah.

But as Justice Elena Kagan said, “At a certain point, it becomes a little farcical, this idea of the assertion of a privilege, doesn’t it? I mean, if everybody knows what you’re asserting privilege on, like, what exactly does this privilege.… It’s not a state secrets privilege anymore.”

See the rest here

Be seeing you

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

UK Readying New Law Mandating Home EV Chargers Be Shut Down During Peak Hours | ZeroHedge

Posted by M. C. on October 12, 2021

Sounds like Newsom’s Kalifornia. This will make it tough when you have to be somewhere quick. Hospital, kids, food for dinner, the pub on quiz night.

https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/uk-readying-new-law-mandating-home-ev-chargers-be-shut-down-during-peak-hours

Tyler Durden's Photoby Tyler Durden

As EV owners are starting to unfortunately learn, electricity to power your “green” vehicles has to come from somewhere.This is a tough dose of reality that many EV owners in the U.K. could be facing next year now that a new law has been proposed to switch off home EV chargers during peak hours. The law seeks to prevent excessive strain on the grid, according to a new article from Inside EVS.Transport Secretary Grant Shapps announced the proposed law that stipulates that EV chargers may not function for “up to nine hours a day” to prevent overloading the grid.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: , , , | Leave a Comment »

NYT Finally Admits: Our Behavior Doesn’t Seem To Affect the Virus – LewRockwell

Posted by M. C. on October 11, 2021

https://www.lewrockwell.com/2021/10/thomas-woods/nyt-finally-admits-our-behavior-doesnt-seem-to-affect-the-virus/

Leonhart is also cautiously optimistic that the worst may be behind us — a rare thing coming from a New York Times writer. He cites Scott Gottlieb, formerly of the FDA, as saying, “I’m of the opinion that this is the last major wave of infection.”

Gottlieb could be wrong, of course. That’s almost not the point. It’s that they’re talking in ways that are clearly different from the Fauci wing of all this, and that’s better than nothing.

By Tom Woods

From the Tom Woods Letter:

Well, it took only 19 months, but the New York Times is admitting that the progress of the virus does not appear to have a whole lot to do with our behavior.

In an artlcle this week called “Covid, In Retreat,” David Leonhart of the Times observes that U.S. cases have fallen 35 percent in a month — a month that included Labor Day, whose celebrations were supposed to have made the numbers worse.

(Yes, I know the problems with “cases,” but he later notes that this general trend extends to hospitalizations and deaths as well.)

The virus appears to move in two-month cycles, says Leonhart, and epidemiologists “do not understand why” it works like that. It has occurred “even when human behavior was not changing in obvious ways.”

“We’ve ascribed far too much human authority over the virus,” says Michael Osterholm, the former Biden COVID adviser who has occasionally said sensible things.

Leonhart is also cautiously optimistic that the worst may be behind us — a rare thing coming from a New York Times writer. He cites Scott Gottlieb, formerly of the FDA, as saying, “I’m of the opinion that this is the last major wave of infection.”

Gottlieb could be wrong, of course. That’s almost not the point. It’s that they’re talking in ways that are clearly different from the Fauci wing of all this, and that’s better than nothing.

Now back to Leonhart: his point about a two-month cycle, and Osterholm’s point that we’ve been overemphasizing the role of human interventions in controlling the virus, obviously extends to masks as well: nobody is wearing masks in two-month cycles, and yet the virus observes that pattern anyway. Nobody in the article extends the analysis to masks, but there’s no other way to interpret what they’re saying.

Still, despite this, we have kids masked in school all day and crazy deep-cleaning protocols as if we haven’t learned a thing in 19 months. Someone joked that we should just pretend schools are restaurants so kids can just take their masks off when they sit down.

It’s never too late to say: sending the kids to this school was a mistake. There’s always the self-taught Ron Paul Curriculum, for which I prepared 400 videos on history. And if you decide to take the plunge be sure to use my link (below), because there you also get some quite valuable bonuses available only through ol’ Woods here:

http://www.RonPaulHomeschool.com

Free book by Tom Woods

Tom Woods [send him mail; visit his website] is the New York Times bestselling author of 12 books and host of the Tom Woods Show, which libertarians listen to every weekday. Get a free copy of Your Facebook Friends Are Wrong About the Lockdown: A Non-Hysteric’s Guide to COVID-19.

Be seeing you

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: , | 1 Comment »

Erie Times E-Edition Article-Many Pa. districts passing up free testing

Posted by M. C. on October 11, 2021

“Any reluctance on the part of the schools may be because we need to continue educating them on the availability of it,” acting Health Secretary Alison Beam said during a recent news conference. “And of course, we’ve tried, ad nauseam, to make sure schools are aware of it.”

Apparently PA’s teachers are too dumb to figure this out. “Continue educationing”: obedience to the state.

We are dumb if we believe tests are “free”. How is a “multi million dollar program” free? It is paid for by the money the state takes from your paycheck every payday.

https://erietimes-pa-app.newsmemory.com/?publink=40ecebc3e_1345f67

State offering schools weekly COVID tests

Jamie Martines

Spotlight PA

HARRISBURG, Pa. — Even after COVID- 19 cases rose among children and district leaders worked to contain outbreaks among students, Pennsylvania schools have been slow to opt into a multimillion-dollar Wolf administration program providing free weekly testing.

Just 396 schools signed up between mid-August and Sept. 30, according to the Pennsylvania Department of Health. That’s out of more than 5,000 charter, private, and public schools statewide.

Within that total, 60 of Pennsylvania’s 500 public school districts are represented — up from only 30 as of Sept. 14. Districts in Philadelphia and several of its collar counties are participating in a separate testing program.

Wolf administration and school officials offered different reasons for the lack of participation, including fear of finding too many cases and simply being too overwhelmed by a chaotic start to the academic year.

“Any reluctance on the part of the schools may be because we need to continue educating them on the availability of it,” acting Health Secretary Alison Beam said during a recent news conference. “And of course, we’ve tried, ad nauseam, to make sure schools are aware of it.”

After schools abruptly closed in March 2020, most Pennsylvania students spent the months that followed learning, at least part time, at home. Multiple studies have shown that students across the country fell behind in reading and math because of the pandemic, with those attending low-income schools experiencing greater setbacks in test scores compared with wealthier peers.

This year, the priority was to reopen schools and make up for valuable class-

See TESTING, Page 5A

Continued from Page 1A

room time that was lost. But a return to in-person learning has brought its own challenges, compounded by the implementation of a statewide mask mandate issued days into the new academic year.

Leaders have spent “tremendous amounts of time and energy” navigating the order, according to Mark DiRocco, executive director of the Pennsylvania Association of School Administrators.

Schools across the state have also been dealing with sudden COVID-19 outbreaks, he said, and the responsibility of contact tracing — the process of notifying people who may have been exposed to someone infected with the coronavirus — has also fallen to school staff.

Testing might be a useful tool, but it’s also one more logistical hurdle to manage. “I can understand very easily how this would have been put on the back burner,” DiRocco said.

The state Department of Health hired Boston-based Ginkgo Bioworks in July to administer the testing program. Even though case counts were relatively low at the time, Beam told lawmakers the testing program was key to preventing outbreaks in schools.

The agency estimated that the yearlong, federally funded program would cost $87 million, though that number could change depending on how many schools participate, a Health Department spokesperson said.

Students and teachers who choose to participate are typically tested weekly. Each person swabs their own nostril, and the samples from each classroom are mixed together in a process called “pooled testing.” Results are returned in one to two days, and show whether the virus is present among that group of people. If the result is negative, it’s unlikely that anyone in that group is sick. If the pooled test is positive, it’s possible that someone in that group has COVID- 19.

From there, school leaders can decide whether to recommend additional testing or quarantine.

Getting students back to class was the priority for many of the Pennsylvania schools Ginkgo met with as the program was introduced in late August, said program lead Karen Hogan.

Some school leaders have expressed concerns that if they start testing, they’ll find more cases of COVID-19 than they expected and be forced to take additional mitigation steps, like closing schools.

But that’s not what the data show, Hogan said. In fact, many districts are reporting lower than expected rates of infection, and it’s helping to show that the mitigation strategies they are taking are working.

“One of the most important things is that the granular level of data you can get in a school community is going to be super important to help us figure out, over time, how we can relax mitigation strategies,” Hogan said.

The state Department of Health would not release a list of participating districts or schools to Spotlight PA, but a spokesperson said that the information will eventually be posted on the department’s website.

Spotlight PA independently identified Pittsburgh Public Schools, the state’s second-largest district with about 21,400 students, as one of the districts participating in the program. Onsite testing for unvaccinated staff was scheduled to begin the week of Sept. 26, and plans for student testing will be announced once they are completed, a district spokesperson said.

Mount Lebanon School District, which is in the southern suburbs of Pittsburgh and serves about 5,300 students, is also participating, according to a spokesperson.

So far, about 12% of the combined student and staff population has signed up to participate in the first round of testing, which was scheduled to start the week of Oct. 3.

Outside of the state program, many districts in Southeastern Pennsylvania have partnered with the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia PolicyLab to participate in Project ACE-IT, a free, schoolbased testing program that was developed last fall and launched in January.

The School District of Philadelphia, the state’s largest district with about 124,000 students, is using Project ACEIT to run several school-based testing programs, including required testing for students participating in contact sports or performing arts groups, like band and choir.

Across Chester, Delaware, and Montgomery counties, 43 school districts — plus several technical schools, intermediate units, and private schools — are also using Project ACE-IT, said director of implementation Maggie Eisen.

Eisen didn’t anticipate a strong interest in the program this fall. But, as many schools faced unexpected outbreaks fueled by the highly contagious delta variant, more signed up to participate.

“It’s really been very, very busy over the past month with people wanting to get up and running at the eleventh hour,” she said.

From Aug. 26 to Sept. 1 — the first or second week of the school year for many districts — 4,043 cases were reported statewide among school-age children 5 to 18 years old, state data show. Since then, the number of new cases has increased week over week, reaching 7,352 new cases reported Sept. 22 to Sept. 28.

There are more than two million students enrolled in Pennsylvania’s public and private schools.

Using past data to predict how the virus will spread in schools is difficult, said Abby Rudolph, an epidemiology and biostatistics professor at Temple University. Last year, schools were closed, vaccines weren’t available, and the delta variant had yet to emerge.

Any amount of testing in schools could help monitor how well efforts like masking and distancing are working, she said, and catch outbreaks before they are widespread.

“In order to be able to operate in person, which they weren’t doing to the same extent last year, you need this extra safety precaution to just keep a check on things and make sure it doesn’t go undetected,” Rudolph said.

Spotlight PA is an independent, nonpartisan newsroom powered by The Philadelphia Inquirer in partnership with PennLive/The Patriot-News, TribLIVE/ Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, and WITF Public Media.

Be seeing you

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: , , , | Leave a Comment »

Why Americans Would Benefit from a Government Default | Mises Wire

Posted by M. C. on October 11, 2021

Of course, reducing the debt ceiling would force the government to stop borrowing so much money from credit markets. This would leave significantly more credit available for the private sector. The shortage of capital is one of the most often cited reasons for the failure of the economy to recover.

Lowering the debt ceiling would force federal-government budget cutting on a large scale, and this would free up resources (labor, land, and capital) and force a cutback in the federal government’s regulatory apparatus. This would put Americans back to work producing consumer-valued goods.

https://mises.org/wire/why-americans-would-benefit-government-default

Ryan McMaken

The Biden administration’s rhetoric on the debt ceiling has become nothing short of apocalyptic. The Treasury Department has announced that a failure to increase the debt ceiling “would have catastrophic economic consequences” and would, as NBC news claims, constitute a “doomsday scenario” that would “spark a financial crisis and plunge the economy into recession.”

Apparently, the memo went out to the debt peddlers that they are not to hold back when sowing maximum fear over the thought that the US might government might pause its incessant debt accumulation even for a few days. 

The reality, however, is quite something else.  While a failure to raise the debt ceiling would no doubt cause short-term disruptions, the fact is the medium- and long-term effects would prove beneficial by reining in the regime’s chokehold on the American economy and financial system. 

This is explained in a recent column by Peter St. Onge in which he examines just how much of a problem default really is:

In 2021 the US government plans to spend $6.8 trillion. Of which about half is borrowed — $3 trillion. So if they can’t raise the ceiling, they’d have to cut that $3 trillion.

Mainstream media, naturally, claims this is the end of the world. CBS estimates it would cost 6 million jobs and $15 trillion in lost wealth—comparable to the 2008 crisis, which was also caused by the federal government. CNN, more colorfully, claims cascading job losses and “a near-freeze in credit markets.” They conclude, falsely, that “No one would be spared.”

Considering the source, we can guess these predictions are overblown. So what would happen?

Well, $3 trillion is a lot of money—roughly 15% of America’s GDP. But we have to remember where that $3 trillion came from. The government, after all, doesn’t actually create anything, every dollar it spends came out of somebody else’s pocket. Whose pocket? Part of the $3 trillion was bid away from private borrowers like businesses, and the rest was siphoned from peoples’ savings by the Federal Reserve creating new money.

This means that, yes, GDP would decline sharply. But wealth would actually grow, perhaps substantially. The businesses would be able to buy things they need, while the savers keep their money that was doing useful things like paying their retirement.

So GDP drops, wealth soars.

See the rest here

Author:

Contact Ryan McMaken

Ryan McMaken is a senior editor at the Mises Institute. Send him your article submissions for the Mises Wire and Power and Market, but read article guidelines first.

Be seeing you

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: , | Leave a Comment »

« Previous Entries
Next Entries »