On March 8, President Joe Biden declared, in a speech announcing a ban on imports of Russian oil and gas, that these and other actions taken by the United States government “to inflict further pain on [Russia President Vladimir Putin]” would “cost us as well, in the United States.”
Since then, the US government’s economic sanctions on Russia — as well as spending, military training, intelligence sharing, and weapons transfers to attack the Russian military — have increased as the economic conditions in America have declined. Some of that economic decline is a result of the actions against Russia, as Biden suggested would be the case. Other parts of the decline have other causes.
Tag: poll
The intense effort to convince and compel Americans to take experimental coronavirus “vaccine” shots has been a dire threat to liberty. One of the manifestations of this effort has been mandates imposed by President Joe Biden requiring many millions of Americans to take the shots in order to keep their jobs or be hired for new jobs with either government or private employers. State and local governments, as well as government-funded educational institutions, have also pursued efforts, including shots or no job mandates, to push individuals to take the shots.
Exerting a religious exemption in many cases has been the only means employees can exercise to protect themselves against a shots mandate.
Opponents of coronavirus crackdowns have found encouragement in the results of a new Monmouth University poll in which 70 percent of surveyed Americans responded that they tend to agree with the following statement: “It’s time we accept that Covid is here to stay and we just need to get on with our lives.” Supermajority agreement with this statement does seem to be a good sign for freedom. But, considering respondents’ answers to other questions in the poll suggests that a substantial portion of people saying we need to “get on with our lives” are actually supporting doing so in a “new normal” manner that incorporates significant aspects of violations of freedom that government has imposed in the name of countering coronavirus.
Twice this century, a greater number of Americans, when asked a yearly Gallup survey question, said their opinion aligns more with the view that government “should do more to solve problems” than with the view that government is “trying to do too many things.” The first time was in 2001, shortly after the September 11, 2001 attacks. The second time was in 2020, in the midst of the coronavirus scare. Fear, pumped up incessantly by people in government, media, and beyond, at these two time periods helped lead to a big shift in the poll answers. Every other year, polled people’s opinions came out with a plurality or majority aligned with the view that the government does too much.
In November, I wrote about Dennis Kucinich considering running for the office of Mayor of Cleveland, Ohio, a position he last held in the 1970s. While Kucinich has not yet officially launched a campaign, a new poll places Kucinich in first place among nine candidates.
Traveling around Texas, I have found that areas where election votes go strongly in favor of Republican candidates tend, during the coronavirus crackdown, to be the best for stopping for gas, food, or other shopping, or just to use a restroom. In these areas it seems I am least likely to be accosted by some person telling me to put on a mask. Indeed, often in these areas a store will not have a “Masks Required” sign on the door and employees will not be wearing masks or will be wearing them on their chins or with their noses exposed.
NATO is marketed as providing each member nation with the benefit that the other member nations are committed to coming to its aid militarily in the event of an attack by another nation, especially Russia. However, Pew Research Center poll results released Sunday indicate that the majority or plurality of people in 11 of 16 NATO countries where individuals were questioned oppose their respective governments meeting this commitment, at least if the military adversary were Russia.
Categories
Libertarians for the Drug War?
Kyle Jaeger, in a Marijuana Moment article last week discussing answers to a drug war question from a March Cato Institute poll, suggests that a substantial percentage of libertarians, even higher than among liberals, support continuing the drug war. Yet, when you look at the poll question at issue, a much different alternative interpretation becomes evident.
Results released this month of a new Gallup poll of marijuana legalization supporters in America indicate that 60 percent of them view legalizing marijuana being “a matter of freedom and personal choice” as a very important reason for supporting legalization, while an additional 29 percent see this as a somewhat important reason.