The USA PATRIOT Act provides a textbook example of how the United States federal government expands its power. An emergency happens, legitimate or otherwise. The media, playing its dutiful role as goad for greater government oversight, demands “something must be done.” Government power is massively expanded, with little regard for whether or not what is being done is efficacious, to say nothing of the overall impact on our nation’s civil liberties.
Tag: government
Impeachment: Trump Has Already Confessed to “High Crimes”
Every time a witness testifies behind closed doors in the US House of Representatives’ methodical march toward the impeachment of President Donald Trump, Trump supporters scream “no quid pro quo” while Trump opponents breathlessly inform us that the “smoking gun” has turned up and that impeachment is now “inevitable.” What’s with all this “smoking gun” stuff?
Roderick Long on the Plight of the Worker
In response to my Nickel and Dimed posts, my old friend Roderick Long referred me to his original review of the book. Highlights of Rod’s review: Ehrenreich went “undercover” to document the lives of the working poor and the Kafkaesque maze of obstacles they face: the grindingly low wages; the desperate scramble to make ends […]
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Doubly-Damned Lies II
When I shared the previous effort, Doubly-Damned Lies, there were objections … predictably. I was given the example of homelessness in the Bahamas, as the result of the recent hurricane. The claim was implicitly made that statistics would somehow make a factual situation better, that facts organized into appropriate knowledge would indicate a bright line along the path which should be taken. But, is there a statistical, one-size-fits-all? Why not let the facts speak directly to each case at hand?
Coming Sooner or Later: Elizabeth Warren’s Mondale Moment
“Let’s tell the truth,” said Walter Mondale as he accepted the Democratic Party’s 1984 presidential nomination. “It must be done, it must be done. Mr. Reagan will raise taxes, and so will I. He won’t tell you. I just did.” That comment looms large in popular memory as the cause of Mondale’s crushing defeat that November. Of 50 states, he carried only one, his home state of Minnesota, polling only 40.6% of votes nationwide to Ronald Reagan’s 58.8%.
The Roots of Inertia
Why don’t low-skilled workers try harder to better their condition? While this might seem a neoliberal question, it weighs on Barbara Ehrenreich’s mind: I was baffled, initially, by what seemed like a certain lack of get-up-and-go on the part of my fellow workers. Why didn’t they just leave for a better-paying job, as I did when […]
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Brexit is Progress
It’s interesting to me how Brexit is portrayed by the statist media as a step backwards. Like anyone who is intelligent should understand it’s a disaster to pull out of a Big State, and only rubes would want such a thing. And, obviously, it’s going to lead to starvation and chaos in the streets. How ridiculous.
Chicago Teachers’ Strike Shows Why We Don’t Need Public Schools
Without government involvement and compulsion, civil society steps up and quickly mobilizes to care for children and families.
Jason Brennan: Is Democracy Just? (46m)
This episode features a lecture by philosopher and political scientist Jason Brennan from 2017. Brennan looks at justice and democratic government.
Doubly-Damned Lies
Edward Tufte, a master statistician, said, “It is straightforward for me to be ethical, responsible, and kind-hearted because I have the resources to support that.” But it takes more, because too often, too many people with resources choose exploitation, irresponsibility, and mean-spiritedness to gain more resources, pointedly those of power.