Hit by Scandal, Petro Can Still Ruin Colombia
Daniel RaisbeckLess than a year ago, I wrote of the almost certain regret that awaited the prosperous, urban, multiple ‐degree‐holding types who voted for Gustavo Petro, Colombia’s Chavista president. They thought they had supported a Nordic‐style social democrat—failing to notice that they had helped to elect a tropical socialist who, given his past as a guerrilla group member and Hugo Chávez supporter, was also a potential autocrat.Caveat emptor (or rathersuffragator) indeed. But I never thought that voter’s remorse would set in so quickly. Or so extremely.According to poll data from June 1...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - June 11, 2023 Category: American Health Authors: Daniel Raisbeck Source Type: blogs
Chileans Vote to Step Back from the Socialist Brink
Daniel RaisbeckBack in August of 2022, I wrote about how a small band of sanctimonious, sophomoric malcontents had—astoundingly—taken over the Chilean state. President Gabriel Boric, who was elected to his country’s highest office in 2021 at the age of 35, had assembled a team of former student activists. Since the early 2010’s, their main contri bution to Chilean society had consisted of leading numerous protests against the country’ssoi disant“neoliberal” model. First, it was against school choice and profit in the education sector. Then it was against the private pension system. Finally, in 2019,mild ...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - May 10, 2023 Category: American Health Authors: Daniel Raisbeck Source Type: blogs
Title 42 Failed. It Should Not Be Extended in Any Form
David J. BierWith thesunsetting of the public health emergency this week, Border Patrol will lose its ability to expel some immigrants at the border under Title 42. Under Title 42, Border Patrol could quickly remove someone from the United States, sending them back to Mexico or, in some cases, their home country without allowing them the ability to request asylum in the United States. President Biden ’s plan to replace Title 42 involves more legal immigration andan asylum ban for those who cross illegally paired with deportations to Mexico for eight nationalities.Title 42 has failed on its own terms. Crossings have incre...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - May 10, 2023 Category: American Health Authors: David J. Bier Source Type: blogs
Title 42 Failed. It Should Not Be Extended in Any Form.
David J. BierWith thesunsetting of the public health emergency this week, Border Patrol will lose its ability to expel some immigrants at the border under Title 42. Under Title 42, Border Patrol could quickly remove someone from the United States, sending them back to Mexico or, in some cases, their home country without allowing them the ability to request asylum in the United States. President Biden ’s plan to replace Title 42 involves more legal immigration andan asylum ban for those who cross illegally paired with deportations to Mexico for eight nationalities.Title 42 has failed on its own terms. Crossings have incre...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - May 10, 2023 Category: American Health Authors: David J. Bier Source Type: blogs
How Your Brain Is Connected to Your Gut: 7 Facts About Gut Health
We've all had a "gut feeling," or someone has told us to "follow our gut." It's that feeling that we may know something just by knowing—our intuition telling us something. It turns out that this feeling is more than just a feeling. The human body is an intricate series of systems, each individually playing a vital role in our overall health and well-being, and at the same time, they are all connected to make our whole body work.
One of these systems is the gut, also known as the gastrointestinal tract, which is responsible for digesting food and absorbing nutrients. When we combine its superpowers with the brain...
Source: PickTheBrain | Motivation and Self Improvement - April 28, 2023 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Irene Rondom Tags: health and fitness self-improvement brain health gut health Source Type: blogs
TikTok Panic Threatens Speech
Will DuffieldTikTok is a social media app that hosts short ‐form videos and serves them to users via algorithm. Because TikTok is owned by the Chinese tech firm ByteDance, its surging popularity with teenagers and young adults in America has prompted concerns that it could be used for illicit data gathering and influence operations. These concerns, and a broader crisis of confidence in American culture, have launched host of proposals to ban TikTok. A ban would frustrate the many millions of Americans who use TikTok to express themselves, and efforts to crush the app risk giving the government new power...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - April 21, 2023 Category: American Health Authors: Will Duffield Source Type: blogs
Are crypto currencies destroying the planet?
TL:DR – Bitcoin mining uses vast arrays of energy-hungry computers many of which are powered with an unsustainable, non-renewable energy supply, generating enormous carbon emissions. It is estimated that Bitcoin is currently wasting 140 terawatt-hours of electricity annually and producing 70 megatonnes of carbon emissions each year.
Bitcoin is a form of digital currency. Each Bitcoin has a digital ledger, a blockchain, that records all transactions and is at the heart of the value in the currency. Bitcoin transactions are typically irreversible and can be made anonymously, providing a level of privacy. It operates o...
Source: David Bradley Sciencebase - Songs, Snaps, Science - April 11, 2023 Category: Science Authors: David Bradley Tags: Environment Source Type: blogs
Biden ’s Border Immigration Policy Is Still Reducing Border Crossings and Illegal Immigration
Alex NowrastehFrom December 2022 to February 2023, encounters of migrants crossing the southwest (SW) border with Mexico are down 39 percent. President Biden ’s immigration and borderplan that expanded legal migration to the United States through humanitarian parole should take credit for this decline. Under Biden ’s plan, up to 30,000 migrants from Venezuela, Cuba, Nicaragua, and Haiti (VCNH migrants) are allowed to enter the United States legally each month through humanitarian parole. As a result, more of them are waiting to come legally rather than attempting to cross illegally.In February 2023, the number of VCNH...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - March 29, 2023 Category: American Health Authors: Alex Nowrasteh Source Type: blogs
Militarism in Mexico: Another Unforeseen Result of the Drug War
Daniel RaisbeckIn 2012, during his second failed campaign for president of Mexico, Andr és Manuel López Obrador promised repeatedly that, if elected, he would send the Mexican army back to its barracks within six months of his inauguration. The country’s militarization was a political issue since 2006, when former president Felipe Calder ón, who narrowly defeated López in that year’s election, resorted to the army to combat the increasingly powerful drug cartels.During his third campaign in 2018, when he finally won the presidency, L ópez remained a critic of Mexico ’s militarization, promising to use ...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - March 15, 2023 Category: American Health Authors: Daniel Raisbeck Source Type: blogs
Goodbye and God Bless, Gail Kastorf
I learned today that autism support guru Gail Kastorf, has died. My heart hurts hearing this because Gail was my very first support group leader. Gail was the one who showed me I was not alone. Her pamphlet, from the Autism Support Center in Danvers (1993? 1994?) was the first hands-on information I had every been given about autism. I wrote about Gail in my first book, Making Peace With Autism, Shambhala, 2006):
Reaching Out
My next step was to locate other people like me. I called the local branch of the Department of Mental Retardation, [as Department of Developmental Services was called back then], which ran an ...
Source: Susan's Blog - February 23, 2023 Category: Child Development Authors: Susan Senator Tags: Uncategorized Source Type: blogs
Immigrating to the U.S. Is The Main Way To Escape Poverty in Dozens of Countries
David J. BierImmigrating to the United States is the main way to escape poverty in many countries. For about 3 dozen countries, most of their not‐in‐poverty population lives in the United States. Indeed, under the developed world poverty standard of $30 per day, immigration is just about the only way to escape poverty for several nationalities. Since poverty is practically assured in their home c ountries, it should not surprise lawmakers that millions of people would risk everything to immigrate to the United States.In 2019, only about 16 percent of people in the United Stateslived below the $30‐per‐...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - February 21, 2023 Category: American Health Authors: David J. Bier Source Type: blogs
Overstating Crypto Crime Won ’t Lead to Sound Policy
Jennifer J. Schulp,Jack Solowey,Nicholas Anthony,& Nicholas ThielmanLast week, the Justice Departmentannounced criminal charges against Anatoly Legkodymov for violating anti-money laundering laws while operating Bitzlato, an off-shore crypto exchange alleged to have processed over $700 million in illicit funds over several years. Concurrently, the Treasury Department ’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN)ordered covered financial institutions to cease transacting with Bitzlato.Like all financial instruments, crypto is used for crime, and this fact ought to be taken seriously. But blunt claims like Senator E...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - January 27, 2023 Category: American Health Authors: Jennifer J. Schulp, Jack Solowey, Nicholas Anthony, Nicholas Thielman Source Type: blogs
What Is the Legal Authority for Biden ’s Parole Programs?
David J. BierPresident Bidenannounced on January 5, 2023 that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) would be creating new programs for Venezuelans, Haitians, Cubans, and Nicaraguans that would grant parole —a temporary discretionary status—to qualified applicants with U.S. sponsors for up to 2 years. Now several statesare suing to stop the programs, which will lead to more illegal immigration. Without getting into the states ’ various administrative law claims, my view is that there is little support for the states ' narrow view of the parole power in the legislative history or judicial precedent.[1]Parole is com...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - January 25, 2023 Category: American Health Authors: David J. Bier Source Type: blogs
Biden ’s New Legal Migration Border Plan Could Work If He Wants It To
ConclusionPresident Biden has announced one of the largest expansions in legal migration in decades, and if he succeeds in drastically reducing illegal crossings with these new procedures, it will likely lead to expansion to other nationalities. This is the first serious intentional effort to use legal migration to secure the border since the 1950s Bracero Program. Whether it succeeds depends more on how it is administered than the policy on paper, but the administration already knows the blueprint, so failure will have to include an element of intent. (Source: Cato-at-liberty)
Source: Cato-at-liberty - January 6, 2023 Category: American Health Authors: David J. Bier Source Type: blogs
Most Venezuelans Were Let in Legally in November
David J. BierOver the summer, the Biden administrationsuccessfully slashed illegal immigration from Haiti by letting Haitians apply for asylum at legal crossing points along the U.S.-Mexico border. In November, following its decision to expel Venezuelans who cross illegally, it has also begun to let many Venezuelans enter legally as well —both at airports and at the land borders. It shows how the administration can easily end the border crisis by increasing legal migration.The number of Venezuelans at legal crossing points —officially labeled “inadmissibles”—jumped to 6,817 from just 781 in October and 184 in S...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - December 27, 2022 Category: American Health Authors: David J. Bier Source Type: blogs
