A United States executive branch official evading answering questions at a congressional hearing is not a new thing. But, on February 11, Attorney General Pam Bondi took the evasion to a new level.
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Vaping Madness at the FDA
“For the children.” That is a go-to justification for politicians and bureaucrats seeking to infringe on individual rights. It was on display last week in the final minutes of the testimony of Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Commissioner Marty Makary before a subcommittee of the Senate Appropriations Committee. Makary was exaggerating the extent of vaping among high school students and saying that the addiction to vaping among “kids in America” is “something that we have to address” and a “top priority” for Donald Trump’s presidential administration.
Speaking Tuesday before the Homeland Security Subcommittee of the United States House of Representatives Committee on Appropriations regarding the implementation of REAL ID mandates on travelers, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem displayed succinctly in one sentence her disdain for the right of Americans to travel freely and her support instead for an authoritarian approach to travel.
On November 9, a few days after Donald Trump won election to return to the White House, I wrote an article titled “Defunding NPR.” In the article, I presented reasons why “a spending cut that jumps out as among the most obvious for [Department of Government Efficiency leader Elon Musk] and the incoming Donald Trump administration to pursue is eliminating all US government support for National Public Radio (NPR) and its affiliated programing and radio stations.” Here is an update.
Later this month, Julian Assange of Wikileaks is scheduled to have what may be his final Great Britain hearing regarding the ruling that he will be extradited from Great Britain to America. In light of this situation, legal scholar and former New Jersey state judge Andrew Napolitano posted on Friday a video commentary in which he directs comments to the British judges who will preside at the hearing, asking them to reject extradition.
Remember President Donald Trump saying he wanted things to open up in America by Easter? Oh well. Throughout most of America, the coronavirus crackdowns are continuing strong five months after Easter. And United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Director Robert R. Redfield said Wednesday at a US Senate subcommittee hearing that “regular life” will not begin to return until, he predicts, the “late second quarter, third quarter” of next year — around the middle of 2021.
Why the long wait? Redfield says the wait is so a coronavirus vaccine can be distributed and injected around America first.
Following up on his previous call for caution in the effort in the United States House of Representatives to impeach President Donald Trump, George Washington University Law Professor Jonathan Turley on Wednesday presented to the House Judiciary Committee oral testimony and an extensive written statement regarding the case as it now stands for impeaching the president. Unlike other witnesses at the hearing, Turley did not give the deed his blessing.
United States Department of Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, in a Monday press conference, attacked cryptocurrencies, including Facebook’s planned Libra. Mnuchin charged that Libra and other cryptocurrencies “could be misused by money launderers and terrorist financiers” and are a “national security issue.” Further stated Mnuchin: “Cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin have been exploited to support billions of dollars of illicit activity like cybercrime, tax evasion, extortion, ransomware, illicit drugs and human trafficking.”
Mnuchin, however, likely has no real reason for such concerns about Libra. It looks like backers of Libra are prepared to help the US government crack down on cryptocurrencies and financial privacy.
A United States House of Representatives subcommittee held a hearing on Wednesday at which countrywide marijuana legalization was considered. The hearing of the Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security Subcommittee of the House Judiciary Committee appears designed to start off deliberative action in the House out of which the advancement of legalization legislation to the House floor will arise. However, the focus by Democratic majority House members on racial issues in the hearing titled “Marijuana Laws in America: Racial Justice and the Need for Reform” suggests the move toward legalization is off to a rocky start.