During the 2016 and 2020 campaigns, Trump’s opponents in the Democratic party (and elsewhere) often pointed out that Trump’s protectionism hobbles private markets and the economy overall. Yet, the allegedly anti-protectionist Biden administration has done virtually nothing to end Trump’s protectionists policies put in place from 2017 to 2020. The motivation is unclear, but it is possible that the Biden administration realized that protectionism is a useful political tool. These policies offer a way of punishing opponents, rewarding allies, and pandering to voters. Now that it’s election season, the pandering side of the equation is in full swing. Biden this...

It does not take too much upstairs to see through the Biden administration’s rejection of the JetBlue-Spirit Airlines merger. The latter is on the verge of bankruptcy. It is $1.1 billion in debt. It faces the headwinds of a new labor agreement raising pilot pay by 34% and has trouble with its Pratt & Whitney engines. JetBlue offered Spirit a $3.8 billion buyout. Together the two of them would account for a 10.5% market share, fifth in this industry. It is exceedingly difficult to see the logic behind this antitrust refusal, unless it is to protect the market share of the “big...

First-Time Buyers Must Earn $120,000 To Afford The Average Home Earlier today we reported that for at least 40% of Americans - up from 27% just two years ago - the American Dream is dead and buried and has been replaced with the American nightmare: renting for life. And here's why: according to a new survey from Clever Real Estate, a St. Louis-based real estate company, thanks to the galloping housing inflation, the median-priced home in the U.S. now costs $332,494, with NAR and Census Bureau data reporting that the...

Police Officer Disciplined Over Undercover Conduct On Jan. 6: Agency Authored by Zachary Stieber via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours), A police officer in Washington was disciplined after violating rules guiding the conduct of undercover law enforcement, according to Washington’s police department. The investigator “was disciplined for violating general orders relating to undercover operations” during the breach of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, a spokesperson with the Metropolitan Police Department told The Epoch Times via email. “The member violated policies and procedures specific to working in an undercover capacity,” the...

Boeing Dumps After Moody's Downgrade To One Notch Above 'Junk' Update (1420ET): Moody’s Ratings downgraded Boeing’s credit rating to Baa3 from Baa2 - just one notch above 'junk' status (with a negative rating outlook) - with headwinds related to the Commercial Airlines segment expected to persist at least through 2026 The downgrades reflect the inadequate performance of Boeing's Commercial Airplanes segment ("Commercial Airplanes"), which has prevented free cash flow generation from reaching the levels Moody's had previously expected. The negative outlook incorporates Moody's view that the headwinds buffeting Commercial Airplanes will...

Op 27 juli viert men feest in Penadexo, de libertarische gemeenschap in NoordWest Spanje. Ter ere van onze patroonheilige Titus Brandsma, in het Spaans Tito, krijgen we de pakkende naam […] The post Colonistas XXV, festival Santito first appeared on Vrijspreker.nl.

Amazon geeft de kassaloze ‘Just Walk Out’-technologie in zijn Amazon Fresh-supermarkten op. The Information meldt dat nieuwe winkels zullen worden gebouwd zonder bewakingstechnologie op basis van computervisie, en dat bij […] The post De AI sweatshop first appeared on Vrijspreker.nl.

In my last post I promised a more optimistic subject, but then life happened. A distressing personal event that made positive thinking quite difficult; then I came across an article fitting right into the train of my own thoughts in the past few posts: Monopoly on Knowledge: The Era of Epistemic Security – A guest post by Dr. Monika Gabriela Bartoszewicz on the  John Carter Substack. The post is superb, please read it. It is a treasure trove of references and most beautiful art. It guides us through a number of books to explore the evolution of our present state of fear and...