On January 17, three days before the end of his term as United States president, Joe Biden announced he was commuting the sentences of almost 2,500 people who had been convicted of nonviolent drug offenses. In response, some people have suggested that included in these commutations were commutations for murder convictions. This suggestion is deceptive.
Tag: Adam Dick
The choices Americans make about the products they use in their homes can seem trivial in comparison to matters like violent crime, diseases, and war. Yet, these choices are in fact very important. Consider the days of the Cold War when Americans were thankful that they could make many choices in this regard while the average person in the Soviet Union was limited to inferior conditions, scarcity, and limited choices.
President Joe Biden has stood out among United States presidents in his refusal for years to talk with the leader of the Russia government. This refusal to talk with Russia President Vladimir Putin has been particularly precarious because over the same time period the US has been delivering large quantities of money, weapons, and intelligence to Ukraine to prop up a military effort against Russia that threatens to spiral into a third world war.
Luckily for free speech and free press in America, Donald Trump, who is set to be sworn in as president on Monday, seems determined to ensure that the many millions of American TikTok users will be able to continue posting and watching videos at the popular social media platform. Hooray for Trump taking this stand. But, previously, Trump was a free speech and free press villain in regard to TikTok. Indeed, if Trump had stood up for First Amendment rights from the beginning instead of taking action against TikTok, the whole United State government effort to ban the social media platform may have been avoided.
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Downsized DOGE
Elon Musk stirred up much hope among many small government advocates when he spoke on stage at Donald Trump’s October 27 presidential campaign rally at Madison Square Garden in New York City. Musk declared then his expectation that the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which Musk would go on to run with Vivek Ramaswamy, would reduce yearly United States government spending by “at least two trillion dollars.” This week, Musk let those small government advocates down, reducing by more than half the spending cuts he predicts DOGE will accomplish.
In a Wednesday Twitter post, United States Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) expressed his confusion why “[z]ero dopes have shown up at my home or office, or blocked a road to chant and protest over an actual genocide in Sudan.” Proceeding, he questioned why “South Africa engaged the ICJ over Gaza, but not for an actual genocide on their own continent” — in Sudan.
On Saturday I wrote advising that people should be cautious about expecting the promotion of Joel Kaplan at Meta means the company will end, or even make a big reduction in, its censorship at its social media sites of Facebook and Instagram. I stand by my analysis in that article. Yet, new comments from Meta leadership and actions by the company in the days since do weigh in favor of optimism.
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Polio Poppycock
“Polio.” That is a common go-to word for trying to silence people expressing any concern about any vaccine. The emotion-centered tactic relies on people having great fear of polio and great reverence for the polio vaccine commonly understood to have vanquished the disease. Voilà, all vaccines are wonderous medical tools, and anyone who questions them must want children to be struck by the horror of polio.
In June, I wrote about Deborah Birx, one of the key “public health” officials from the orchestration of the American coronavirus scare, being back in action stirring up fear of another disease. This time Birx’s fearmongering was about bird flu. And she was advocating for government to follow a similar disastrous course to supposedly counter this disease as had been pursued in regard to coronavirus in the crackdown begun years back.
Here is an update.
Upon his inauguration as president, Donald Trump will become the leader of a United States executive branch mired in two major wars via its continuing pumping of money, weapons, and intelligence into support of the Ukraine and Israel governments. Trump has declared his opposition to the continuation of these wars. But, how can he end them?