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Dog food recalled after euthanasia drug found in it – CNN

Posted on February 9, 2017 by Danzig

The pets had eaten a dog food called Hunk of Beef Au Jus, the best-selling offering from Evanger, an Illinois-based pet food company. The company quickly launched an investigation. After a month-long testing process, Evanger has zeroed in on the cause: the presence of pentobarbital -- a chemical that's used to put down pets.

For the first time in its 82-year manufacturing history, the company issued a recall. It affects all Hunk of Beef products produced the same week as the tainted can.

The recall affects 15 states: Washington, California, Minnesota, Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, Massachusetts, Maryland, South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida.

The lot numbers of the affected products are: 1816E03HB, 1816E04HB, 1816E06HB, 1816E07HB, and 1816E13HB. The cans were manufactured in June 2016, with an expiration date of June 2020.

Mael said she fed her four pugs Tito, Talula, Tinkerbell and Tank the canned wet food.

In a news release, Evanger's described the four-week investigation into the Mael pug's death.

Pentobarbital is very tightly controlled and, if an animal is euthanized, it's done so by a veterinarian.

But there's no regulation that says a vet then needs to put any kind of marker on the animal indicating it's been euthanized. Such a marker would ensure that product from euthanized animals didn't enter the food chain.

"We continue to investigate how this substance entered our raw material supply," the company said.

Evanger said it's ended its 40-year relationship with the meat supplier that sold them the contaminated meat.

"All Evanger's suppliers of meat products are USDA approved," the company said. "This beef supplier provides us with beef chunks from cows that are slaughtered in a USDA facility."

The company is paying for Mael's veterinary bills. It also made a donation to a local shelter in honor of the pug who died.

Link:

Dog food recalled after euthanasia drug found in it - CNN

Imagining a future with compulsory euthanasia – MercatorNet

Posted on February 9, 2017 by Danzig

Imagining a future with compulsory euthanasia
MercatorNet
Is this a great documentary? No. Is it an amazing feat by a high school student? Yes. This is a terrific warning from New Zealand about the possibility of legalised euthanasia. Will it happen in a Western democracy? Probably not. But why not in ...

Euthanasia ‘Safeguards’ Soon Seen as ‘Hurdles’ – National Review

Posted on February 9, 2017 by Danzig

Just a quick post to show you how the slippery slopeslip slides away.

Canadas Supreme Court imposed a nationwide regime on the entire country. An obedient Parliament passed enabling legislation, including safeguards to protect against abuse.

Now, these supposedly vital protections in actuality, they are loosey-goosey are increasingly seen instead as hurdles that interfere with the right to be made dead.

Heres an example from a journalists opinion column out of London, Ontario:

Canadians should be forewarned that the road to a medically assisted death is paved with speed bumps and potholes: that the law and its regulations were hastily devised and are imperfect; that the supply of doctors who are both willing and competent enough to safely assist in a patients death is severely limited; and that the pathway to release from suffering can take unexpected and sometimes inexplicable detours.

Our parliamentarians should look to improve the legislation sooner rather than later.

These improvementswill likely include such culture-of-death agenda items as alegal mandate for MDs to participate in killing even if they have religious or moral objections an expansion of eligibility to specifically includenon-terminal conditions, and authority to kill Alzheimers patients who asked to be killed in an advance directive.

We need to think about this as the assisted suicide argument unfolds here: Accepting euthanasia changes a societys collective consciousness. The impetus to protect life soon morphs into a drive to embrace death.

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Euthanasia 'Safeguards' Soon Seen as 'Hurdles' - National Review

Dog food sold in Minnesota recalled over euthanasia drug – TwinCities.com-Pioneer Press

Posted on February 9, 2017 by Danzig

Evangers Dog & Cat Food of Wheeling, Ill., is voluntarily recalling specific lots of Hunk of Beef over the presence of a drug used to euthanize animals in one lot of the product, according to the Food and Drug Administration.

Pentobarbital, a barbituate, was detected in 12-ounce cans of Hunk of Beef that were distributed and sold online in Wisconsin, Washington, California, Minnesota, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, Massachusetts, Maryland, South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida, according to an announcement from Evangers posted on the FDA website.

One dog died and four dogs became ill after consuming the product with lot number 1816E06HB13, according to the announcement.

The recalled products were manufactured the week of June 6 through June 13 and have lot numbers that start with 1816E03HB, 1816E04HB, 1816E06HB, 1816E07HB and 1816E13HB, and have an expiration date of June 2020, according to the post.

The second half of the bar code, which can be found on the back of the product label, reads 20109, according to the company.

The rest is here:

Dog food sold in Minnesota recalled over euthanasia drug - TwinCities.com-Pioneer Press

High rates of parental incarceration among African-Americans means that criminal justice reform is now education reform – USAPP American Politics and…

Posted on February 9, 2017 by Danzig

African-American schoolchildren have a one in four chance of having a parent who is in jail, or who has been previously incarcerated. In new report Leila Morsy and Richard Rothstein argue that incarceration of African Americans which has been on the rise due to increasingly punitive sentencing policies as well as the ramping up of the War on Drugs has made a significant contribution to the racial achievement gap in education. They write that criminal justice reform is now education reform, and that it should be high on educators lists of concerns.

During the 2016 election campaign, the now President Donald Trump advocated a nationwide policy of stop-and-frisk, a police practice concentrated in low-income minority neighborhoods that invariably leads to the arrest and eventual imprisonment of men, African American men in particular, for non-violent victimless crimes. Yet stop and frisk as well as excessive sentencing for minor crimes, are not primarily federal policies, and the Trump administration has little influence over them. These are policies and practices of local and state governments, and reform is no less realistic or urgent now than it was before the presidential election.

Our new report, Mass Incarceration and Childrens Outcomes, however, urges education policymakers and educators in states and localities to pay greater attention to the mass incarceration of young African American men. The evidence is overwhelming that the unjustified incarceration of African American parents, fathers especially, is an important cause of the poorer performance of their children. On any given day, 10 percent of African American schoolchildren have an incarcerated parent; 25 percent have a parent who is or has been incarcerated. The numbers of children affected has grown to the point that we can reasonably infer that our criminal justice system is making a significant contribution to the racial achievement gap in both cognitive and non-cognitive skills.

Two policies have been mostly responsible: a more punitive sentencing policy, including prison terms for violent crimes that have increased by nearly 50 percent since the early 1990s; andthe declaration of a war on drugs that has included severe mandatory minimum sentences for relatively trivial victimless drug offenses. The incarceration explosion is primarily an expression of our race relations and of the confrontational stance of police toward African Americans in neighborhoods of concentrated disadvantage. (The incarceration rate of middle-class African Americans has declined and has made no contribution to the rapidly rising rate of incarcerations.) Young African American men are no more likely to use or sell drugs than young white men, but they are nearly three times as likely to be arrested for drug use or sale; once arrested, they are more likely to be sentenced; and, once sentenced, their jail or prison terms are 50 percent longer, on average.

Comparing the children of incarcerated parents with economically and demographically similar children, the former perform worse academically, are more likely to suffer from a variety of learning disabilities, drop out of school at higher rates, and have worse behavioral and health outcomes. Our report discusses the biological processes by which the stress of parental incarceration can predict these conditions.

We have reviewed sophisticated studies from diverse fields epidemiology, economics, sociology, child development that control for background factors and conclude that these differences are not reasonably the result of economic or demographic differences between the children of incarcerated parents and children of those without a criminal record. Rather, the differences plausibly result from the experience of parental incarceration itself.

However improbable reform of federal policy may seem in a Trump administration (and we hope we are wrong), many more children are harmed by the incarceration of their parents in state than in federal prisons. In 2014, over 700,000 prisoners nationwide were serving sentences of a year or longer for non-violent crimes. Over 600,000 of these were in state, not federal prisons. This reality presents an opportunity, and necessity, for educators to press for change in state and local policing and criminal justice policies that will substantially benefit their students.

We will be discussing our findings in a forum held at the Economic Policy Institute in Washington, D.C. on March 15 at 10:30 a.m. US Eastern Standard Time. Valerie Strauss, the online education columnist (The Answer Sheet) of The Washington Post, will moderate the forum, and our presentation will be discussed by Glenn Loury of Brown University and Ames Grawert of the Brennan Center for Justice. It will be livestreamed here and available for viewing at the same site after the event.

Featured image credit:Jacques Lebleu(Flickr, CC-BY-NC-2.0)

Please read our comments policy before commenting.

Note: This article gives the views of the authors, and not the position of USAPP American Politics and Policy, nor the London School of Economics.

Shortened URL for this post:http://bit.ly/2k7YPg9

_________________________________

About the authors

Leila Morsy University of New South Wales Leila Morsy is a senior lecture in education at the School of Education, University of New South Wales, and a research associate of the Economic Policy Institute.

Richard Rothstein Economic Policy InstituteRichard Rothstein is a research associate of the Economic Policy Institute and a senior fellow at the Thurgood Marshall Institute of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund.

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High rates of parental incarceration among African-Americans means that criminal justice reform is now education reform - USAPP American Politics and...

Family of Collision Repair Shop Owners Allegedly Scammed Insurers Out of $560000 – BodyShop Business

Posted on February 9, 2017 by Danzig

California authorities are attempting to break up a family-run organized crime ring involving the owners of seven body shops that allegedly bilked insurance companies out of more than $500,000.

Detectives from the California Department of Insurance detectives and investigators with the Auto Insurance Fraud Task Force arrested seven suspects, charged an additional 22 who are self-surrendering, and still are seeking 11 more suspects for allegedly running an organized automotive insurance fraud ring

The state filed more than 230 felony charges against 40 suspects in connection with crimes committed in seven auto body shops across Coach Valley, a region in between Los Angeles and San Diego. The body shops staged up to 40 false insurance claims receiving payouts totaling $560,492 from 10 different insurance companies, including some of the largest auto insurers in the nation, according to authorities.

This was an elaborate conspiracy to rip off insurers to the tune of nearly a half a million dollars, said Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones. Insurance fraud is not a victimless crime. The cost of fraud is shouldered by consumers who pay higher premiums when insurers pass along their losses.

Investigators from the Department of Insurance initially received information about the crime ring in 2014, as part of a previous bust of suspects allegedly running a similar crime ring. Investigators with the departments Urban Auto Insurance Fraud Task Force allege that the owners of the seven body shops conspired with employees and family who posed as insurance consumers and filed fraudulent claims for collisions that were either staged or never occurred at all.

Two examples of fraudulent claims filed by the conspirators included one claiming substantial bodily injury in which the insurer paid over $100,000. In another, the suspects allegedly staged a collision that targeted an innocent motorist leaving her vehicle with significant damage.

Family of Collision Repair Shop Owners Allegedly Scammed Insurers Out of $560000 - BodyShop Business

Perfectionism Is Insanity And Impossible To Accomplish – Being Libertarian

Posted on February 9, 2017 by Danzig

This Futile Goal Is Not What Our Founders Wanted For Us

Nothing, no matter what it is, will ever be perfect.

Herein lies the problem we have in America; we want everything to be perfect! However, this is not rational, and is quite frankly ridiculous, when it comes to realism and our individual freedoms.

Perfectionism requires the removal of individual freedoms to attain a societal goal of perfect peace, protection, and safety. This is, literally, impossible to accomplish, because every one of us is a unique individual.

The preamble of our Constitution should have been the last time the phrase to form a more perfect anything was ever used.

As a nation, we strive like hell in every effort to make our cities, our states, and our country more perfect. We do this by continuously passing an avalanche of city ordinances, state statutes, and federal laws all in the supposed name of public safety, to control every aspect of our individual lives.

It is a futile attempt, however, because it is based on control. You cannot, through government control or any other fashion, make anything or anyone perfectly safe and secure. In short, you cannot legislate morality for individuals.

Plato once said Good people do not need laws to tell them to act responsibly, while bad people will find a way around the laws. We have so many laws at the local, state, and federal levels, that no one can even keep up with all of them anymore. How is the average citizen supposed to know every single law in existence, when even judges and attorneys have to look them up?

To attempt to create such an environment of control over the citizenry equates to socialism or totalitarianism. It creates an invisible prison that most of the public dont even realize they are living in. This is quite the opposite of what our founders envisioned, and is why all victimless crimes quite frankly need to die in a fire.

Throughout history, whenever those in power sought to control the masses they eventually failed, no matter what means they used (except for North Korea because theyll just kill you instead). Any empire attempting to enforce perfection eventually crumbled, for various reasons.

One of the reasons why Rome fell was because it started more wars than it could afford, in an effort to control the world.

When are we going to learn from our own world history, this does not work? You cant have the level of freedom our founders meant for us to have, and at the same time, allow the government so much control over our personal lives that we dont know when we may be breaking the law in some idiotic, victimless crime. When will we learn that allowing people to be free in their pursuits, as our founders said, is the only way to perpetuate a long lasting and successful society and country?

We have the 2nd Amendment for a reason, and that is so individuals, not the government, can take care of ourselves.

The far right love the law, and those that enforce it, your rights be damned! I cannot tell you how many times one of my hard-core right wing friends would say f*ck their rights, or screw the 4th Amendment, I dont care when referencing a criminal act of another American; all while hypocritically claiming to love the Bill of Rights and be an avid 2nd Amendment supporter.

The far-left hate laws all together and want complete freedom with no rules at all. They then, hypocritically, want big government to take care of them in a never-ending system of welfare.

Neither of these systems can, or will, work long term; our founders understood this. To quote Thomas Jefferson The policy of the American government is to leave their citizens free, neither restraining, nor aiding them in their pursuits. I would argue that this same idea should be applied to the state and local governments as well today. I mean this sincerely.

I know its a lot of reading, but seriously, take the time to read what our founders wanted for us. Here are some links to the actual words they spoke, rather than random memes you read on social media.

Our country is in massive disarray. Not because of Trump (I mean hell I voted for him), but because of decades upon decades of policies and laws that were never meant to exist in the first place.

Rediscover what Liberty means again!

* Shane Foster has worked his entire career in military, law enforcement, corrections, and as a private investigator. He has a unique perspective into how law enforcement and our judicial system operates from within its ranks, as well as knowledge on our privacy laws, in which, every day, our individual freedoms and liberties are gradually taken away from us and our individual rights are abused.

The main BeingLibertarian.com account, used for editorials and guest author submissions. The views expressed here belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect our views and opinions. Contact the Editor at editor@beinglibertarian.email

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Perfectionism Is Insanity And Impossible To Accomplish - Being Libertarian

The Ayn Rand scene Sajid Javid reads every year – Spectator.co.uk

Posted on February 9, 2017 by Danzig

Just before Christmas, Sajid Javid performed a ritual he has observed twice a year throughout his adult life: he read the courtroom scene in The Fountainhead. To Ayn Rand fans, its famous: the hero declares his principles and his willingness to be imprisoned for them if need be. As a student, Javid read the passage to his now-wife, but only once she told him shed have nothing more to do with him if he tried it again. Its about the power of the individual, he says. About sticking up for your beliefs, against popular opinion. Being that individual that really believes in something and goes for it.

As Communities Secretary, he oversees the planning system and has embarked upon a new mission: addressing the housing shortage which he says has become one of Britains worst social curses. The estimate is that there are at least two million people out there who cant find decent homes and are being forced to live with parents or in overcrowded conditions. Were dealing with a 30-year backlog. He aims to increase the number of homes built from 190,000 a year to between 225,000 and 275,000 at least. And so he has become the latest in a long line of ministers to promise to do something about a housing shortage.

Why, I ask, should we believe hell have any more success than his predecessors? People are right to be a bit sceptical because theyve heard it from governments over 30 years, he says. But Javid has new tools: more support for so-called factory homes pre-fabricated buildings that he says can be erected on-site within a week. And the biggest constraint, he says, is lack of the fundamental raw material: land. This, he says, is where government can help. He plans a use-it-or-lose-it planning permission system to stop developers hoarding land while they wait for its value to rise.

More controversially, there will be a more muscular approach to councils who refuse planning permission; even (or, indeed, especially) Tory ones. Javid has said hell honour the party manifesto commitment to sparing the green belt, but there are exceptions like 6,000 new homes recently authorised outside Birmingham, to the fury of the local Tory MP, former chief whip Andrew Mitchell. He promptly declared war on Javid and has been waging it ever since.

Javid expects more such wars, not just over housing but over the definition of Conservatism. One of the reasons, or the main reason, I joined the Conservative party was to promote social progress and social mobility, he says. The biggest barrier to social progress is our broken housing market. Fixing it means taking on a number of vested interests. It might make me a bit unpopular, but as long as I know Im doing the right thing which I do then thats what Im in politics for.

I ask about the property crash that was supposed to follow the Brexit vote, making homes much more affordable. He laughs, politely. He was an unexpected recruit to the Remain side, to the dismay of many Tories who assumed hed been bought off by David Cameron. The truth is more complicated. Javid has always been a vocal Eurosceptic, but as the referendum approached he decided he could not go so far as backing Brexit.

He told me about his decision during the campaign. Part of him, he said then, would feel a great sense of elation at the freedom and opportunity if Britain voted to leave. But as Business Secretary, he believed the companies who told him of their fears about leaving. As a former banker, too, he feared for the City if financial firms were to lose their passporting rights to do business across the EU. His decision was made with a rather heavy heart, knowing that, in such a polarising campaign, hed please neither side and be portrayed as being all bark and no Brexit.

Has this episode damaged him politically? I dont look at it that way, he says, almost convincingly. The way I see it, you pay a much bigger price if you dont stand up for your beliefs.

This is one of the many ways in which Sajid Javid is not a very good machine politician. Hes the son of a Muslim bus driver who prefers to let others talk about his roots unlike another son of a bus driver, Sadiq Khan, the Mayor of London, who has a gift for dropping his background into every interview. The biography-is-destiny approach to politics has never appealed to Javid. He grew up in poverty but ended up as a vice-president of Chase Manhattan Bank at the age of 25 he says he struggles to see what he has to complain about.

He found out a few years ago, for instance, that his early home life would nowadays would be categorised as homelessness a family of seven cramped into two bedrooms. But I would not pretend for a moment that I was homeless, he says. I had a loving family, a loving home and a lovely environment to grow up in. Such restraint has its virtues, but could be seen as folly in an era when politicians are expected to blend what they say with who they are and where they came from.

Javid joined the party leadership race last year as the running mate of Stephen Crabb, whose cabinet career was brought to an abrupt end by a sexting scandal. When the winner, Theresa May, signalled a new direction for the Tories, using her party conference speech to attack the socialist left and libertarian right, it sounded as if she might have Ayn Rand-reading cabinet members in mind.

Javid suggests that his definition of politics is the same as Margaret Thatchers: about doing something, not being someone. He sees the Tories as the party of change and opportunity, and says such principles underpin his housing reforms and if they upset fellow Tories, then so be it.

The Conservative party that I joined is not a party that stands up for the privileged and the moneyed, he said. We stand up for ordinary hard-working people helping them to get on in life. And if this means a few more battles with Tory councils andMPs over where to build houses, then he is ready for thefight.

Link:

The Ayn Rand scene Sajid Javid reads every year - Spectator.co.uk

Tim Scott reads racist tweets by ‘liberal left’ over support for Jeff Sessions – Washington Times

Posted on February 9, 2017 by Danzig

Washington Times

Tim Scott reads racist tweets by 'liberal left' over support for Jeff Sessions
Washington Times
You see what I'm surprised by, just a smidgen, is that the liberal left that speaks and desires the rest of us to be tolerant do not want to be tolerant of anyone that disagrees with where they are coming from, the senator continued. So the ...
'Disgrace to the Black Race': Sen. Tim Scott Illustrates How Liberals Show ToleranceCNSNews.com
Sen. Tim Scott: Liberal Left Activists 'Do not Want To Be Tolerant'Breitbart News
SC's Scott aim takes aim at intolerant liberals in Senate speechThe State
Charleston Post Courier -The Australian
all 2,188 news articles »

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Tim Scott reads racist tweets by 'liberal left' over support for Jeff Sessions - Washington Times

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker proposes surprisingly liberal budget – Chicago Tribune

Posted on February 9, 2017 by Danzig

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, a conservative Republican, put forward a surprisingly liberal budget Wednesday that includes a huge boost in funding for schools, sizable tuition cuts for college students and increased tax breaks for the working poor.

The shift by the famously tightfisted governor designed to position him for a third term in 2018 also appeases his conservative base with more welfare reforms, elimination of the prevailing wage and nearly $600 million in tax cuts.

"This budget includes historic investments in our priorities," Walker told the Republican-controlled Legislature as he released the plan Wednesday. "We're putting more money into public education than ever before, making college even more affordable, caring for the truly needy, building a stronger infrastructure, rewarding work, and cutting taxes to the lowest point in decades."

Democrats, and even some Republicans who control the Legislature, called his $76 billion budget that increases spending 4.2 percent over two years unrealistic and designed to boost his approval rating before another run for office.

"It's a death-bed conversion because he's going to be up for re-election in two years," said Democratic Sen. Tim Carpenter, of Milwaukee.

Republican legislative leaders were slow to jump on board with seemingly popular increases in education spending, sharing the fear with Democrats that Walker wasn't being realistic.

"We have to be cautious," said Republican Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald. "We have to be sure that we're not doing something we're going to have to revisit two years from now, or god forbid, sooner than that."

And Republican Sen. Alberta Darling, co-chair of the Legislature's budget committee, said the level of spending Walker proposed was an issue for her.

"We need to dig in and see how much is responsible and what is sustainable," she said.

The budget would spend $649 million more on K-12 schools, but districts would have to show they are in compliance with a law requiring teachers to contribute a certain amount for health care and pension costs in order to get more money. He's calling for extending a University of Wisconsin tuition freeze for a fifth year, then cutting tuition by 5 percent for all resident undergraduate students.

His budget would also increase pay for state workers 2 percent each of the next two years, cut the two lowest income tax brackets to save a median income family of four about $70 a year and eliminate the state portion of the property tax.

The budget is Walker's first since his short-lived run for president and the final one before he would appear on the ballot for a third term in 2018. Walker is raising money and taking other steps to run again, but said he won't officially announce until after the budget is done.

The budget comes after Walker previously cut funding for K-12 schools and UW, and froze tuition the past four years, while also giving them new ways to control costs. Walker credited an improved economy as allowing him to propose spending more money on education and other areas he had previously targeted for cuts.

"Of course we're pleased that there is some reinvestment, rededication to our schools, our families, our roads," said state Sen. Janet Bewley, of Ashland. "We are trying to make up for lost time and it's going to be very, very difficult to catch up."

Some Republicans have joined with Democrats in urging Walker to consider raising taxes and fees to pay for ongoing highway projects and plug a nearly $1 billion transportation budget gap. Walker relied on $500 million in borrowing and other budget moves to keep ongoing major road projects on track, while possibly leading to delays of other pending work.

Republican Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, one of the leading advocates for considering transportation-related revenue increases, said he'd be willing to delay passage of the budget from late June into October if that's what it takes to find a long-term transportation solution.

"I think it's definitely possible that we are going to look at a gas tax," Vos said. "We are going to look at registration increases. We're going to look at tolling. It is not responsible for us to just continue to kick the can down the road and put more and more spending on the state's credit card."

Transportation, school funding and welfare reform will be the biggest areas where the Legislature works with Walker to find compromises, Fitzgerald said. At the same time, he said Republicans who have their largest majorities in the state Legislature in decades will be itching to make their own, unspecified "sweeping changes and more reforms."

The rest is here:

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker proposes surprisingly liberal budget - Chicago Tribune

Why the liberal world order is worth saving – Irish Times

Posted on February 9, 2017 by Danzig

about 10 hours ago Updated: about 9 hours ago

Berlin 1989: It was no accident that, once the Berlin Wall had come down, the freedoms available in the west of the continent were grabbed with both hands by the formerly communist nations in the east. Photograph: Lionel Cironneau/AP.

Sometimes a landscapes contours dissolve into the detail. This is happening now amid the fracturing of the wests liberal order. Brexit, Donald Trump, angry nationalism and populist politics - all are closely reported and rudely debated. Lost to the cacophony is clear sight of just how much is at stake.

For all its blemishes, the post-1945 settlement ushered in a remarkable period of relative peace and prosperity. We can all list the mistakes - whether hubris in Washington, corrupt politicians in Europe or greedy bankers everywhere. But for the most part, the story has been one of rising living standards and a spreading politics of generosity.

Freedom has advanced in step with the absence of war between the great powers. We too easily forget that there is nothing inevitable about peace or the march of democracy.

We might have noticed also the synergy between a rules-based world order and flourishing open societies. What unites peace abroad with democracy at home is the rule of law. Substitute arbitrary power and states fall to war and societies slide towards authoritarianism. That is why we should shiver when Mr Trump, the president of the worlds most powerful democracy, casually challenges the right of US judges to uphold basic freedoms and disdains international co-operation in favour of America-first nationalism.

The system established after 1945 was built on US power. But it endured and, after the end of the cold war, expanded because US leadership was embedded in multilateral rules and institutions. Everyone had a stake. Washington sometimes over-reached - in Vietnam or with the invasion of Iraq. By historys standards, however, the Pax Americana was essentially benign, resting as much on the force of example as military might.

In Europe, a legacy of war between states was replaced by a system that recognised their interdependence. There are lots of things wrong with the EU, but nothing at all when set against what came before. Compare the peace and prosperity of the second half of the 20th century with the barbarism of the first. It was no accident that, once the Berlin Wall had come down, the freedoms available in the west of the continent were grabbed with both hands by the formerly communist nations in the east.

This order, of course, was the creation of the west. The redistribution of power within the global system was always going to impose stresses. Nations such as China have been among the biggest beneficiaries of the US-led open trading system. But Beijing was never going to sign up to liberal democracy or forever abide by rules and institutions of exclusively western design. The challenge was whether the system could be revised to accommodate the aspirations of rising states and contain the resentments of a declining Russia.

What was not predicted was that the rich democracies would turn against their own creation, and the question would become whether they could manage the insurrections within. The textbooks tell us that at moments of global transition established powers such as the US defend the status quo, while rising states such as China seek to upend it.

History has been turned on its head. With Mr Trump, the US has joined the ranks of revisionist powers, threatening to surrender US global leadership in the cause of economic nationalism. Britain has done something similar by repudiating the EU. Germany and Japan are almost alone in seeking to hold on to the old multilateral order.

The charge sheet against western elites is by now familiar enough. Globalisation was rigged in favour of the one per cent. Politicians, mesmerised by markets, conspired in the theft. The incomes of the majority stagnated even as they carried the burden of post-crash austerity. Bankers who should be in jail are still pocketing bonuses. Unchecked migration has heaped cultural dislocation on to the economic insecurities wrought by technological change.

These grievances cannot be brushed aside. Mr Trumps xenophobia, the vote for Brexit in the UK and rising populism across Europe have been fed by the complacency of a political establishment in thrall to unfettered capitalism. Winning back public confidence requires mainstream politicians to deploy the tools of government - taxation, education and welfare policies, and yes, redistribution - to balance the excesses of globalisation.

No one should pretend, though, that the populists have the answer. Protectionism impoverishes everyone. Demonising Muslims will not make anyone safer. Locking out Mexicans or, for that matter, Polish plumbers, will not raise the living standards of workers in the US or Britain. Closed societies are meaner, poorer and more repressive. Rising nationalism most typically provides a backdrop to wars.

Memories are short. In Britain, the Brexit vote has stirred a fashion for rose-tinted spectacles. The 1950s were tough, the story goes, but communities stuck together. There were jobs and opportunities for the white working classes.

Breadline wages and slum housing, hotel signs declaring no dogs, no blacks, no Irish and cabinet ministers who denounced homosexuality as a contagious perversion as dangerous as heroin addiction go unmentioned. Opportunity? University was for a privileged five per cent.

The danger with nostalgia is that it can blind you to progress.

Financial Times Service

Link:

Why the liberal world order is worth saving - Irish Times

The Marco Rubio knockdown of Elizabeth Warren no liberal media outlet will cover – Conservative Review

Posted on February 9, 2017 by Danzig

In a speech you didnt hear because it doesnt make for good TV or reaffirm the liberal narrative, Senator Marco Rubio, R-Fla. (C, 74%) warned that tolerating Warrens brand of slanderous rhetoric on the floor of the U.S. Senate undermines the institution and weakens our republic.

I want people to think about our politics here today in America, Rubio exhorted his colleagues. Because Im telling you guys, I dont know of a single nation in the history of the world thats been able to solve its problems when half the people in the country absolutely hate the other half of people in that country.

This is not a partisan issue, it really is not Rubio said. Turn on the news and watch these parliaments around the world where people throw chairs at each other, and punches. And ask yourself how does that make you feel about those countries? Doesnt give you a lot of confidence about those countries.

Rubio continued, saying the nation and the U.S. Senate is flirting with becoming the sort of place where reasonable disagreement and debate is dead.

We are becoming a society incapable of having debates, he warned his colleagues.

Criticizing both Republicans and Democrats for contributing to the kind of hyperbolic rhetoric that divides, and noting that he himself is guilty of such words at times, Rubio warned that the floor of the Senate must be a place where that behavior is not tolerated.

If we lose this bodys ability to conduct debate in a dignified matter then where in this country is that going to happen? In what other form in this nation is that going to be possible?

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Chris Pandolfo is a staff writer and type-shouter for Conservative Review. He holds a B.A. in Politics and Economics from Hillsdale College. His interests are Conservative Political Philosophy, the American Founding, and Progressive Rock. Follow him on Twitter for doom-saying and great album recommendations:@ChrisCPandolfo

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The Marco Rubio knockdown of Elizabeth Warren no liberal media outlet will cover - Conservative Review

This day in Liberal Judicial ActivismFebruary 9 – National Review

Posted on February 9, 2017 by Danzig

2009Three decades later, President Carters sorry judicial legacy lives on. A three-judge district court consisting of three Carter appointeesNinth Circuit judge Stephen Reinhardt and senior district judges Lawrence K. Karlton and Thelton E. Hendersonissues a tentative ruling that finds that overcrowding in Californias prisons is the primary cause of the states inability to provide constitutionally adequate medical care and mental health care to its prisoners and that would require Californias prisons to reduce their inmate populations by as many as 57,000 prisoners. The trio asserts that the release can be achieved without an adverse effect on public safety.

Even California attorney general Jerry Brown, usually an ardent supporter of liberal judicial lawlessness, condemns the ruling as a blunt instrument that does not recognize the imperatives of public safety, nor the challenges of incarcerating criminals, many of whom are deeply disturbed.

In May 2011, by a 5-4 vote (inBrown v. Plata), the Supreme Court will affirm the district courts judgment.

In the aftermath of the Courts ruling, the district court will repeatedly be forced to extend its deadline for compliance with its ruling. Only in March 2016nearly five years after the Courts rulingwill the district court determine that California is in compliance. Even then, the district court will retain control over the matter and require California to submit monthly reports.

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This day in Liberal Judicial ActivismFebruary 9 - National Review

Strategies for Saving the Liberal Arts – Inside Higher Ed (blog)

Posted on February 9, 2017 by Danzig

Strategies for Saving the Liberal Arts
Inside Higher Ed (blog)
The challenges facing the liberal arts are well-known. Humanities departments, in particular, struggle to attract students. A loss of enrollments at the freshman level, as a result of Advanced Placement and dual degree-early college credits, has ...

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Strategies for Saving the Liberal Arts - Inside Higher Ed (blog)

Liberal groups file lawsuit to block Trump’s deregulation order – Washington Examiner

Posted on February 9, 2017 by Danzig

Liberal groups sued President Trump on Wednesday over his "two-for-one" executive order issued last week that requires agencies to kill two existing regulations for every new rule they want to institute.

The environmental and advocacy groups the Natural Resources Defense Council, Communication Workers of America and Public Citizen argue that the Trump order is unconstitutional, "irrational" and seeks to scuttle programs meant to protect the public.

"President Trump's order would deny Americans the basic protections they rightly expect," said Rhea Suh, president of the Natural Resources Defense Council. "New efforts to stop pollution don't automatically make old ones unnecessary."

Suh poked at Trump's lack of seriousness in addressing policy, saying "when you make policy by tweet, it yields irrational rules."

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The coalition argued in its lawsuit that any reduction of federal regulations would be inherently harmful, especially if the goal was to prevent overall spending from rising.

"It will be harder to limit pollution, protect consumers, safeguard our food supply, guard against financial abuses or to take any other action to limit corporate actions that impose costs on the public," the groups said in their complaint.

The deregulation order, also known as the regulation budget order, "imposes a false choice between clean air, clean water, safe food and other environmental safeguards."

The executive order includes a section saying: "It is essential to manage the costs associated with the governmental imposition of private expenditures required to comply with federal regulations. Toward that end, it is important that for every one new regulation issued, at least two prior regulations be identified for elimination, and that the cost of planned regulations be prudently managed and controlled through a budgeting process."

The groups filed suit in U.S. District Court in Washington.

Also from the Washington Examiner

"I should not have said it. I apologize," Cuomo said on Twitter.

02/09/17 4:39 PM

Sean Higgins contributed to this report

Top Story

The bigger issue, beyond Conway's comments is whether Trump remains too close to his business holdings.

02/09/17 5:11 PM

Liberal land – Richfield Reaper

Posted on February 9, 2017 by Danzig

Stan Ivie likens Donald Trump to a Pied Piper, leading we mesmerized villagers into an alternative reality. Lets look at the reality of what I call Liberal Land.

In Liberal Land, so-called feminists march in protest, dressed like womens privates, screaming obscenities that would make sailors blush, allowing their children to carry vulgarity-laced signs.

Madonna announces she thinks about blowing up the White House. Ashley Judd likens Donald Trump to Adolf Hitler.

Another featured speaker Donna Hylton, convicted in 1985 of the murder of a New York real estate broker. Before he died, Hylton and others tortured the victim in ways so gruesome this newspaper would not print them. Their mantra abortion on demand. Great role models all.

No boys or girls in Liberal Land. Teachers refer to kids in gender-neutral terms such as purple penguins. Bruce Jenner becomes Caitlyn, the first man to be voted woman of the year.

If youre male, but feel female, its OK to use the womens restroom. The term expectant mother banned in Britain, because it might offend somebody.

Heroes are snubbed (Chris Kyle), thugs iconized (Michael Brown), victims dismissed (Kate Steinle), traitors excused (Bowe Bergdahl).

Patriotism is racist; individualism, taboo; globalism, supreme; national sovereignty, an abomination; killing the unborn, glorified.

Its open season on cops. Black on black murder, ignored. Block the freeway if you feel oppressed. Burning, looting and destroying other peoples property is condoned.

Denizens of Liberal Land hail themselves as pro-feminist, pro-gay/lesbian/transgender and defenders of children, yet laud Islam and Sharia law, which views women as property, supports female mutilation, pedophilia, child marriage, barbaric execution of dissidents, and the murder of gays tossing them alive from building tops.

In Liberal Land, you can marry anyone or anything you want. Same sex marriage is OK. If gender doesnt matter, neither does age. Soon, adults will be allowed to marry children. Marry your dog, your car, a rhinoceros. Whatever you want. Beware the horn.

Free speech? Tolerated so long as its liberal speech. Colleges, historically bastions of the open exchange of ideas, are now little more than dispensaries of liberal propaganda. Conservative speakers are banned from campuses, or forced to flee because of leftist riots.

Those who libs disagree with are given derogatory labels monikers such as racist, fascist, bigot, narrow-minded, misogynist, xenophobe, islamophobe, homophobe and, a Stan Ivie classic, mesmerized villagers.

Ill take the Pied Piper, thank you.

Kevin Jones

Annabella

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Liberal land - Richfield Reaper

The United Kingdom and the Benefits of Spending Restraint – Cato Institute (blog)

Posted on February 9, 2017 by Danzig

When I debate one of my leftist friends about deficits, its often a strange experience because none of us actually care that much about red ink.

Im motivated instead by a desire to shrink the burden of government spending, so I argue for spending restraint rather than tax hikes that would feed the beast.

And folks on the left want bigger government, so they argue for tax hikes to enable more spending and redistribution.

I feel that I have an advantage in these debates, though, because I share my table of nations that have achieved great results when nominal spending grows by less than 2 percent per year.

The table shows that nations practicing spending restraint for multi-year periods reduce the problem of excessive government and also address the symptom of red ink.

I then ask my leftist buddies to please share their table showing nations that got good results from tax increases. And the response isawkward silence, followed by attempts to change the subject. I often think you can even hear crickets chirping in the background.

I point this out because I now have another nation to add to my collection.

From the start of last decade up through the 2009-2010 fiscal year, government spending in the United Kingdom grew by 7.1 percent annually, far faster than the growth of the economys productive sector. As a result, an ever-greater share of the private economy was being diverted to politicians and bureaucrats.

Beginning with the 2010-2011 fiscal year, however, officials started complying with my Golden Rule and outlays since then have grown by an average of 1.6 percent per year.

And as you can see from this chart prepared by the Institute for Fiscal Studies, this modest level of fiscal restraint has paid big dividends. The burden of government spending has significantly declined, falling from 45 percent of national income to 40 percent of national income.

This means more resources in private hands, which means better economic performance.

Though allow me to now share some caveats. Fiscal policy is only a small piece of what determines good policy, just 20 percent of a nations grade according to Economic Freedom of the World.

So spending restraint should be accompanied by free trade, sound money, a sensible regulatory structure, and good governance. Moreover, as we see from the tragedy of Greece, spending restraint doesnt even lead to good fiscal policy if its accompanied by huge tax increases.

Fortunately, the United Kingdom is reasonably sensible, which explains why the country is ranked #10 by EFW. Though its worth noting that it gets its lowest score for size of government, so the recent bit of good news about spending restraint needs to be the start of a long journey.

P.S. The United States got great results thanks to spending restraint between 2009-2014. It will be interesting to see whether Republicans get better results with Trump in the White House.

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The United Kingdom and the Benefits of Spending Restraint - Cato Institute (blog)

Business divided on Malloy budget – CT Post

Posted on February 9, 2017 by Danzig

By Ken Dixon, Connecticut Post

Photo: Brian A. Pounds / Brian A. Pounds

Joseph F. Brennan, president and CEO of the Connecticut Business and Industry Association

State Sen. L. Scott Frantz, R-Greenwich, opposes a proposed local option real estate tax on hospitals.

State Rep. Cristin McCarthy Vahey, D-Fairfield, opposes Gov. Malloys proposed shift of state aid away from wealthier towns like hers, to troubled inner cities.

Stamford Hospital would pay about $8.3 million a year in local real estate taxes under a proposal by Gov. Malloy.

Stamford Hospital

The town of New Milford would collect about $757,000 a year from New Milford Hospital, under a budget proposal by Gov. Dannel P. Malloy.

Danbury Hospital would pay $7.2 million a year in local real estate taxes under a budget proposal pending in the state Capitol.

Griffin Hospital would pay the city of Derby about $2.9 million a year in local real estate taxes under a proposal by the governor.

Bridgeport Hospital. Under a plan by Gov. Malloy, Bridgeport would collect about $20 million a year in local real estate taxes for hosting Bridgeport Hospital and St. Vincents Medical Center.

Exterior of St. Vincent's Medical Center, in Bridgeport, Conn. Dec. 12, 2016.

Business divided on Malloy budget

The business community is divided over Gov. Dannel P. Malloys proposed two-year, $40.5 billion budget proposal, with Connecticut hospitals opposed to a plan that would end their freedom from local real estate taxes.

But the states largest business organization says that Malloys attempt to create regional relief for troubled inner-city schools could mean greater economic growth in the long run.

Joe Brennan, president and CEO of the Connecticut Business & Industry Association, said that given the projected $1.7 billion deficit for the fiscal year starting July 1, corporate leaders had been concerned that Malloys budget plan might include higher taxes.

We understand there are some tax increases in the budget, but were not seeing this huge, broad-based tax increase that weve seen in the past, which the governor has said ... was not his desire, Brennan said. I think its a good thing that hes begun, maybe, a new dialogue with municipalities on how were going to fund both state and local obligations going forward.

Taxes on the way?

Gov. Dannel P. Malloy has proposed that towns and cities levy local real estate taxes on hospitals. This is that could mean in extra municipal revenue:

Greenwich: $2.87 million per year

Stamford: $8.3 million per year

Norwalk: $9.9 million per year

Danbury: $7.2 million per year

Bridgeport: $20 million per year

Derby: $2.9 million per year

Milford: $1.47 million per year

New Milford: $757,000 per year

For the first time, under Malloys plan, hospitals would lose their exemption from local real estate taxes, which for cities such as Bridgeport home of St. Vincents Medical Center and Bridgeport Hospital could result in added tax revenue of $20 million annually.

Jennifer Jackson, CEO of the 98-year-old Connecticut Hospital Association, called Malloys plan a direct attack on the fabric of our communities. She warned of previous plans that have resulted in more than $2 billion in taxes and cuts to local hospitals.

The hospital tax has increased costs for patients, caused the loss of thousands of health care jobs, extended wait times and reduced access to care for those who need it most, Jackson said in a statement.

State Sen. L. Scott Frantz, R-Greenwich, supported Jackson. The question is, how much more money is the state going to try to extricate from our hospitals? Frantz said in a statement. This is nothing but a shell game.

Malloys budget staff estimates that if cities that support hospitals tax their real estate, hospitals would be exposed for about $212 million. The governor has budgeted $250 million, including federal Medicare support, to reimburse hospitals for their losses.

Overall, we are pleased with the net-positive budget number for Bridgeport and we deeply appreciate the governors commitment to Connecticuts cities as hubs of regional growth, said Av Harris, director of legislative affairs and public policy for Bridgeport Mayor Joe Ganim. We know this is not an easy budget, and there are many who are disappointed.

Second-term state Rep. Cristin McCarthy Vahey, D-Fairfield, said Thursday that she is concerned about net cuts totaling more than $7.6 million that Malloy plans for her town.

This would create a tremendous strain on Fairfields budget, Vahey said in a statement. Simply shifting such a large share of the cost burden to municipalities is not a comprehensive solution to our budget challenges.

Malloys budget includes $1.36 billion in spending reductions and $205 million in new taxes, including higher tobacco taxes to add $60 million in revenue, and the elimination of the $200 property tax exemption to bring in $105 million annually. The governors proposal would also reduce taxes on the insurance industry, lowering the rate that premium are taxed from the current 1.75 percent, to 1.5 percent.

While officially presented on Wednesday, the budget will reach the legislative process on Friday morning when Ben Barnes, Malloys budget director, presents it to the legislative Appropriations Committee for questions. Public hearings will follow as the General Assembly heads toward its statutory deadline of 12:01 a.m. on June 8.

kdixon@ctpost.com; Twitter: @KenDixonCT

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Business divided on Malloy budget - CT Post

Police Criticized as Violence Continues in Brazil’s City of Vitria – The Rio Times

Posted on February 9, 2017 by Danzig

By Lise Alves, Senior Contributing Reporter

SO PAULO, BRAZIL As tension continues in the streets of Vitria, the licensed governor of the state of Espirito Santo said on Wednesday that the actions taken by the military police and their family members could be construed as a blackmail and that the state would not give in to the ransom demands.

What is happening in Espirito Santo is clear blackmail, governor Paulo Hartung, on medical license since December, told reporters on Wednesday.

It is the same thing as hijacking the freedom of the Capixaba [Vitria] citizen and [demand] paying of ransom. We can not pay [the] ransom due to ethical reasons and [falling into] non-compliance with the Fiscal Responsibility Law.

The situation in the state capital, Vitoria, did not improve on Wednesday, despite federal troops on the streets to guarantee pubic safety. Defense Minister Raul Jungmann announced on Wednesday that federal action in Vitoria, dubbed Operation Capixaba, would receive an additional reinforcement of 550 military personnel from the Armed Forces.

In addition, said the minister, another one hundred members of the National Public Security Force would join the 1,200 army troops who are already patrolling the metropolitan area streets.

Since Friday when family members of military police officers blocked off the entrance to the battalions, the city of Vitria has faced a wave of looting and violence. Shops were forced to close, leaving the population without food supplies. The local government ordered schools and health clinics to close until the situation is cleared up.

Bus companies, which had halted all public transportation on Wednesday, said that they would partially resume routes on Thursday, but G1 media reports that by 9AM on Thursday morning all busses were back in the patios and the city was once again without public transportation service.

Wednesday night state officials met with protest representatives to start negotiation talks. The population is frightened, people are dying in the streets. This is serious. The police are fully aware of the gravity of the moment we are living. I am very confident that we will be able to restore sanity, because what we are living here is a state of total insanity, the states Secretary for Human Rights, Julio Pompeu, said after leaving the first day of negotiations with demonstrators.

According to local media the leaders of the movement presented two demands: general amnesty for all police, and a one hundred percent increase in wages for all military police officers. Protesters say that the officers have not had wage increases in seven years, and with inflation and the current economic crisis facing the country, many families had to resort to financial help from friends to survive.

Although Pompeu said government officials would discuss the demands, earlier in the day, acting governor Cesar Colnago told reporters that wage increases were out of the question. Since the protests began local media reports that there have been at least one hundred violent deaths in the metropolitan area of Vitoria.

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Police Criticized as Violence Continues in Brazil's City of Vitria - The Rio Times

A notable show BAMPFA’s ‘Hippie Modernism: The Struggle for Utopia’ – Berkeleyside

Posted on February 9, 2017 by Danzig

Untitled, c. 1970; screenprint on paper; 14 x 22 in.; collection of Lincoln Cushing/Docs Populi Arc

Times of political and social turbulence often foster innovative and creative forms of expression. That was undoubtedly true during the years from 1964 to 1974, the period covered by the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archives notable new exhibit, Hippie Modernism: The Struggle for Utopia.

The resistance to the buildup of the Vietnam War and the easy availability of mind-altering drugs, glamorized by early counterculture icons such as Ken Kesey and his Merry Pranksters, makes 1964 an apt starting point for the show, while the oil embargo and Nixons resignation in 1974 is an appropriate end date. During those years, the spirit of idealism, mind-expansion, political resistance, new technologies, and electrifying music strongly shaped art, architecture and design, and affected society as a whole. The influence of that period resonates soundly today.

While reducing the era to objects is a tough assignment, Hippie Modernism: The Struggle for Utopia effectively displays about 400 well-researched examples, including installations, photographs, fiber art, books, magazines, posters, film and furniture, with about 80 images augmenting the show in Berkeley (it was originally curated by the Walker Art Center of Minneapolis). Efforts have been made to present mixed media from various countries and to include the full range of the artistic and technological efforts of the era. Its a diverse collection and some of the choices seem a bit obscure, albeit intriguing.

Of particular note are: Ira Cohens 1968 color photograph of Jimmy Hendrixs reflections in a Mylar chamber (above); the 1973 Community Memory Terminal, billed as the first public computerized bulletin board system; J.B. Blunks 1965 carved redwood furniture; many psychedelic rock posters; Gorilla Graphics and Kamikaze Designs powerful anti-war posters; the room-sized Knowledge Box in which visitors are surrounded on three sides by sound and images beamed from 24 slide projectors; and of course, a geodesic dome. The Berkeley pieces include memorabilia of The Diggers, The Cockettes and the 1969 to 1971 Alcatraz occupation.

In addition to numerous public programs, the museum presentation is accompanied by Hippie Modernism: Cinema and Counterculture, 1964 1974, an exciting four-month film series at BAMPFAs 232-seat Barbara Osher Theater. The series, which will run through May 2017, includes documentaries, experimental works, and iconic feature films that explore the social, political, and aesthetic interests of the era. Highlights include BAMPFAs newly completed restoration of Steven Arnolds Luminous Procuress, Haskell Wexlers Medium Cool, Peter Watkinss Punishment Park and Michelangelo Antonionis Zabriskie Point. Same-day admission to the museum is free with a movie ticket.

And dont forget to try the cool new augmented reality app, Free the Love (available now on iOS and shortly on Android) created in conjunction with the exhibit by Goodby Silverstein & Partners and Adobe. The app provides a Love Tour of the Bay Area and allows users to release virtual Love Balloons with personal messages.

The word hippie, apparently coined by the late San Francisco Chronicle columnist, Herb Caen, was intended to be derogatory, but it is positively embraced as part of the title of this exhibit. Those who remember their hippie days will experience a bit of nostalgia when viewing the show, while others will receive an education than is distinctly more complex, imaginative and nuanced than the Hollywood version of the era.

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A notable show BAMPFA's 'Hippie Modernism: The Struggle for Utopia' - Berkeleyside

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