Monthly Archives: January 2022

Its an issue that has long engaged my attention: Where do we draw the line between autonomy and subjugation, between when we should be left alone and when we must be made to conform for the common good?

I have strong libertarian instincts, so I have always argued for the minimum government necessary to protect us against threats to our lives and property, and that otherwise we should be free to pursue our own interests and flee our own demons. The laws should be few but well defined, clearly explained and enforced equally against all offenders.

That viewpoint gives us an obvious place to draw the line: If my actions would harm only me, let it be. If they could harm others, a case can be made for government intervention.

But we can see a problem with that simple demarcation just by looking at Indiana traffic laws.

Prohibitions against driving under the influence are entirely justifiable because the drunken driver endangers everybody else on the road. Mandatory use of seat belts and motorcycle helmets should be on the other side of the line, since we only risk our own lives with noncompliance.

Indiana, alas, cannot handle the distinction. Seat belts are mandatory; motorcycle helmets are not. And the reason is not complicated: politics. Motorcycle riders have an active lobby. Car drivers do not.

That dilemma the implementation of necessary and understandable law complicated by political considerations - has been brought into sharper focus by the COVID pandemic and the response to it. We should now be thinking much more deeply about the relationship between governors and the governed.

That relationship may not have been broken, but it has certainly been sorely tested, because the government has squandered the faith of the governed without which we lack the trust civil society needs to exist.

Time and time and again, we have been misled about well, everything. Masks. Vaccinations. Social distancing. The chances of serious effects, hospitalizations, death.

It could be said that our politicians lied to us in a cynical attempt to curry favor with one group and demonize another group, or merely to savor the sense of power the emergency gave them.

Or we could be less cynical and say we have succumbed to a mistaken idea of science. Starting with global warming alarmism, we were encouraged to view the science as settled truth instead of a trial-and-error search for the truth. Now, with the pandemic, we expect the scientific answers to always hold instead of being subject to change as more data emerge. The pairing of politics, which is about short-term answers to immediate concerns, and science was always a bad marriage; we should be beginning to understand just how dysfunctional it is.

In either case, we keep repeating the same mistakes. Given the low threat level to everyone except the elderly and those with underlying conditions, the economy should not have been shut down, and incalculable damage was done to a whole generation of children by closing their schools. Yet, with every wave of new-variant infections, there are those who call for those same responses, and too many who willing accept them.

Early in the pandemic, I wrote that another crisis, similar to this but worse, would surely come, and we should learn from this episode to better handle the next one. Today I really wonder if we are capable of that.

As I write this, Novak Djokovic, the No. 1 tennis player in the world, has been kicked out of Australia and denied the opportunity to compete in that countrys Open tournament because he refused to get the COVID vaccine, despite the fact that he had suffered through the virus and thus had better immunity than the vaccine could give him.

They could have forbidden entry to the country in the first place, but they let him come and then jerked him around for 11 days before sending him on his way. Not for any valid medical reason but because, in the words of one analysis, he was seen as someone who could stir up anti-vaccine sentiments.

I feel for you, pal, I really do. A line was crossed here, but not by you.

Leo Morris, columnist for The Indiana Policy Review, is winner of the Hoosier Press Associations award for Best Editorial Writer. Morris, as opinion editor of the Fort Wayne News-Sentinel, was named a finalist in editorial writing by the Pulitzer Prize committee. Contact him at leoedits@yahoo.com.

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COVID and the Djokovic Line - Journal Review

The U.K. government is beefing up regulation over crypto assets, announcing Tuesday that it plans to tackle predatory advertisements less than 24 hours after Spain did likewise.

Recent studies conducted by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), the U.K. securities watchdog, highlight why legislators are concerned. Although 2.3 million people and rising are believed to own such tokens, roughly 4.4% of its population, but only 58% of crypto users surveyed believed they possessed a good understanding of how cryptocurrencies and the underlying technology works.

This 4 percentage point decline suggests U.K. consumers are not fully cognizant of what they are buying, and some even falsely believe their investments enjoy some form of regulatory protection, indicating "inaccurate promotions are a key risk to consumers," according to the Treasury.

Following the research published in June by the FCA, the government now argues that "evidence of risks to consumers provides a strong case for intervention," citing data by which nearly a third of cryptoasset holders that saw an advert were encouraged to buy as a result.

Cryptoassets can provide exciting new opportunities, offering people new ways to transact and investbut its important that consumers are not being sold products with misleading claims, U.K. Chancellor Rishi Sunak said in a statement on Tuesday.

Britain's head of the exchequer wants promotional material for cryptoassets to be issued by businesses authorized either by the FCA, or the countrys bank regulator.

This will provide the Financial Conduct Authority with the appropriate powers to regulate the market more effectively, the government explained.

Regulators like the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission have likened the proliferation of digital tokens to the Wild West, when lenders were able to freely issue their own currencies with little interference from the federal government. But despite an understanding that more oversight is needed, little action has been taken in Europe and North America.

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Downing Street's desire to be among the first to impose new red tape after exiting the European Union is surprising. Britain prides itself on its historic role linking the East and West, and is typically wary of erecting any barriers that might threaten Londons status as the leading financial center.

A key motivation behind Brexit was the explicit desire to swap the EU's perceived nanny state approach to governing in favor of becoming a lightly-regulated, low-tax, high-growth innovator patterned on more nimble jurisdictions like the U.S.. This coined the phrase Singapore-on-Thames among many libertarian Brexit advocates.

Widely tipped to be Britains next prime minister, Sunak's Tuesday announcement means it is likely just a matter of time before cryptoasset advertisements are brought within the scope of existing financial promotions legislation and hence subject to oversight by the FCA, the countrys equivalent of the SEC.

Any ads for new coins would need to follow the same strict standards governing other financial securities like shares in equity or even insurance products. Binding rules state such promotional material must be fair, clear and not misleading.

Spain went even further than Britain on Monday. While the U.K. is currently launching a consultation into the planned legislation, the Iberian nation already mandated similar regulations that go into effect by the middle of next month. Madrid even went so far as to require all material include the same identical explicit warning to investors that they may lose everything.

Criminals have in fact sought to capitalise on the combination of market euphoria and lax oversight to cheat people of their hard-earned savings. Most recently, people gambling on a rise in a token unofficially linked to the hit Korean Squid Game series on Netflix found out they had been the victim of a fraud.

"We are ensuring consumers are protected, while also supporting innovation of the cryptoasset market, Sunak said.

Non-fungible tokens will be excluded from the regulatory crackdown in both the U.K. and Spain, since they are not viewed as a financial services product in the conventional sense.But Sunak's ministry reserved the right to revisit the subject at a later date should new developments emerge.

Appetite for such digital collectibles has been soaring, with virtually every business, including Fortune, examining whether to issue NFTs if they haven't already.

"As the non-fungible token market is evolving rapidly and remains at an early stage of development, the government does not yet have sufficient information on risks and use-cases," the U.K. Treasury said this week. "As such, seeking to bring non-fungible tokens into scope might have unintended consequences for the market. Instead, the government will continue to closely monitor market developments, and stands ready to take further legislative action if required."

In order to close potential loopholes in which a fungible token like a new crypto coin is wrapped inside a non-fungible token, the U.K. government said it could determine the eligibility of such "wrapped tokens" on a case-by-case basis.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

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Crypto advertisings wild profit claims are coming under the microscopeand countries are cracking down - Yahoo Finance

Nevertheless, Bundy dismissed McGeachins governor-for-a-day anti-mandate orders as a political gimmick. The only one they benefit is her. What would he have done in her place? I would have done what I did do, rally the people. I would have used the office of the lieutenant governor to unite the legislature to end the [governors] emergency order. As governor, he added, he would focus on downsizing the executive agencies and restoring power back to the legislature, where it belongs. But without appearing to see a contradiction, he said he would do so by executive fiat: I think I could spend four years doing that and not have to deal with the legislature at all.

In Idaho as elsewhere, Republicans tend to extol local control rather than high-handed state and federal directives. But that principle tends to hold only as long as local governments do what conservatives want. Boise, for example, elected its city councilmembers at large, which reinforced its Democratic-leaning majority. So in 2020 Republican legislators passed a law ordering all cities with more than 100,000 residents which then meant only Boise to hold district elections, in hopes of capturing some seats. This may have unintended consequences: Two Republican-dominated cities in the Treasure Valley, Meridian and Nampa, have since passed the 100,000 threshold.

Bundy, however, leapfrogs over this contradiction. When I asked him if local control meant school boards and cities should be free to adopt Covid restrictions, he responded in classic libertarian fashion: The primary local control is the individual, over his own life and body. Theres no role of a city to come in and say, you cant come out of your homes unless you wear a mask.

Still, theres something inconsistent about his Keep Idaho Idaho slogan. He proposes to restore the original Idaho, to rescue it from the likes of third-generation Idahoan rancher Brad Little. But Bundy himself only moved to Idaho six-and-a-half years ago; he grew up on his fathers ranch in Nevada, then lived in Phoenix. The city had grown up around us there, he explained. I just didnt want to raise my children in the city. He and his wife visited state after state seeking a new home that, as he put it, still believes in freedom. But, he laments, the whole West is changing. I grew up in Nevada. I never thought it would be predominant Democrat. Even Utah has its struggle right now. Its converting over. In Salt Lake theres a gay mayor. Which is fine, but

When the Bundys reached Emmett, they knew it was the place we needed to be. Idaho is a beautiful land, but its also a beautiful idea. Idaho is basically what the United States was.

No one seems to expect him to win the primary; according to one political operative, an unreleased Republican poll showed him with single-digit support, McGeachin in the low 20s (pre-Trump endorsement) and Little above 60 percent. Bundys brother Ryan, running as an independent for governor of Nevada in 2018, won just 2 percent of that vote.

Even if Bundy were somehow nominated, he might not get help from the party. Weve got to unite around whoever wins the nomination, Luna told me. Even if its Bundy? Lunas expression darkened. Hes not a Republican.

Hes right, Im not the Republican they are, that is for danged sure, Bundy responded. I never will be. Im going to give the people of Idaho a decision are you Republican or are you conservative? Cause theyre not the same thing, especially in Idaho right now.

Newcomer that he is, Bundy represents a demographic trend that is transforming politics and life in the Gem State. Call it right flight. From the 1950s through the 1980s, California was what would now be called a purple state; it elected Republican governors half the time and voted R in nearly every presidential race. Since then, California has turned deep blue; Republicans loss there has been red Idahos gain. Fueled by migration from California and, to a lesser extent, Washington and Oregon, Idahos population has soared since 2015, rising faster than any other states.

This growth has been concentrated in Boise and the sprawling, conservative suburbs and exurbs west of it places such as Star, population 11,000, roughly twice what it was 10 years ago, and Meridian, the states second-largest city, which grew 1,157 percent, from fewer than 10,000 to nearly 120,000 residents, between 1990 and 2020. Population has also surged in the far northern Panhandle, which stretches up to the Canadian border. In the heyday of unionized mining and timber industries, the north was the states most Democratic region. Now its an incubator of armed militias and fiercely ideological local politics and the center of the decade-old Redoubt Movement, which promotes the Inland Northwest as a conservative Christian refuge.

Republican migrants to Idaho outnumber Democrats about two-to-one, according to a statewide annual survey of public attitudes conducted at Boise State University. Rather than importing the liberal politics of the coastal cities theyve left, many bring smoldering resentment of government regulation and socialism. They want to make sure people here know how evil liberals are, says Alicia Abbott, a political independent in Sandpoint, the largest town in far-northern Bonner County. Shes doing voter outreach for 97 Percent, an effort to counter the Three Percenters armed extremism.

Those who fear and those who cheer the effects of right flight agree on one point: The newcomers are pushing Idaho politics farther to the right. Like Bundy, they bring a converts zeal for the hallowed rugged individualism of their new home. New to Idaho, true to Idaho, proclaims the influential Idaho Freedom Foundation, which vets legislation and legislators for their conservative correctness. Are you a refugee from California, or some other liberal playground? Did you move to Idaho to escape the craziness? its website says. Welcome to Idaho.

A thriving local preparedness real estate industry is cashing in on right flight. One broker, Todd Savage of the PATRIOTS ONLY real estate firm Black Rifle Real Estate and a self-proclaimed conservative libertarian refugee from San Francisco, had to revise a listing that read, This property is for sale to Liberty / Constitutional Buyers ONLY because the Multiple Listing Service thought it suggested bias against immigrants. No big deal, Savage told me: Business is fantastic! This whole pandemic thing has really fueled land ownership in rural areas. A lot of my clients are in police, fire, and medical fields. They are coming here in droves. They dont care about real estate prices. They have money to burn.

Luna likewise speaks of sending out the political welcome wagon to these new Idahoans, to make sure they dont get the wrong idea about Republicans: We want to make sure the first time they hear about the Idaho Republican Party, its from one of our volunteers, not on TV or in the newspapers.

The question is, which Republican Party? The power centers in Boise and the Panhandle are not moving in step. The rift opened publicly in July when the Kootenai County Republican Central Committee unanimously passed an effusive resolution endorsing the John Birch Society and urged the state party to adopt it too. (It refused.) The Kootenai resolution also urged those who do not support our party platform to follow the example of Bill Brooks, and voluntarily disaffiliate from the Idaho Republican Party. Brooks, a Kootenai County commissioner, quit the party to protest its cozying up to the Birchers, though he still considers himself a staunch conservative. He sees it as symptomatic of a broader shift: We came here 20 years ago because it was the closest thing we could find to Norman Rockwell, he told me. Now people come looking for George Lincoln Rockwell the founder of the American Nazi Party.

Candidate lawn signs dot the side of the road. | Eric Scigliano

The newcomers may denounce the cities theyve left, but they bring a combative, impatient post-urban edge to once-mellow Idaho, an impatience that shows in politics as in the increasingly congested traffic in Idahos fast-growing cities.

Chris Fillios, who serves with Brooks on the Kootenai County Commission, feels the heat. Unlike Brooks, hes stayed in the Republican Party, even though he says hes been called communist, Marxist, socialist. Its not his politics that have changed, suggests Fillios, whos lived in Idaho for 21 years and spoke at the first local Tea Party rally. Its the party. Its a psychological mass movement. People are coming here for freedom, thinking, I dont have to mask, I dont have to be nice.

Most people dont understand that we control only the county departments budgets, he continued. They think were legislators. They want to know where we stand on gun rights and abortion. They want us to reflect their values.

Fillios succinctly summed up his partys paradoxical predicament: Weve become so politicized with this single-party dominance.

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Why Theres a Civil War in Idaho Inside the GOP - Swift Digital news agency

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. Sarah Huckabee Sanders reports raising over $12.8 million total from more than 87,000 donors for her campaign for governor, with 66% of that being raised outside of the Natural State.

According to a release from the campaign, just $4.4 million of the donations came from around 11,000 Arkansans.

Sanders is now the only Republican running for office after other candidates, including Attorney General Leslie Rutledge and Lt. Gov. Tim Griffin, dropped their bids for governor.

For the fourth quarter of 2021, during which time Sanders was running virtually unopposed for the GOP nomination, the campaign said they had brought in more than $1.6 million

After Rutledge left the race in early October, Sanders received a slew of endorsements in the race from Republican officials like Gov. Asa Hutchinson and Senators Tom Cotton and John Boozman.

Our campaigns record-breaking support across the state is a testament to the leader Arkansans want one who will invest in our kids education while ensuring parental control, create higher-paying jobs, and keep our communities safe, Sanders said. Clearly this message of opportunity for all is resonating, and together we will make our state the best place to live, work, and raise a family.

Currently, Sanders is the only candidate declared to run for the GOP nomination. Four candidates Anthony Bland, James Russell, Chris Jones and Supha Xayprasith-Mays are running for the Democratic party nomination, while Ricky Harrington is the lone Libertarian running for the office.

The general election for governor will be held on Nov. 8, 2022.

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Arkansas governor candidate Sarah Huckabee Sanders raises over $12.8 million total for campaign, 66% from out of state donations - KNWA

For those who have considered throwing their proverbial hat into the ring and making a run for office in either the West Virginia State Senate or the West Virginia House of Delegates, now is the time to file the official candidate Certificate of Announcement for 2022 elections with the Secretary of States office.

According to information provided in the West Virginia Secretary of States 2022 Running For Office Guide, 17 of the states 34 Senate seats are up for election. This includes that of West Virginia Senate Minority Leader Stephen Baldwin (D), who represents Senate District 10.

Following the redistricting process in 2021, Senate District 10 now includes all of Greenbrier, Monroe, Nicholas and Summers counties and a portion of eastern Fayette County.

Those who have already filed their pre-candidacy intent to run, or certificate of announcement, for this four-year term District 10 seat include incumbent Baldwin (Ronceverte), Republican Vincent Scott Deeds (Renick), Libertarian Jonathon Fain (Alderson), Republican Harry Lee Forbes (Forest Hill), and Republican Thomas Perkins (Frankford), according to candidate filings with the Secretary of States office.

As for those interested in one of the newly formed 100 single-member Delegate District seats in the West Virginia House of Delegates, every two-year term seat will be on the ballot in 2022.

This includes District 46, which contains the portion of Greenbrier County east of the Route 219 corridor and a portion of southern Pocahontas County; District 47, which includes the portion of Greenbrier County west of the Route 219 corridor and a small portion of Monroe County; and District 48, which includes only a small portion of Greenbrier County down the Route 20 corridor to Quinwood.

Republican Mike Honaker (Lewisburg), recently appointed to his seat following the resignation of Barry Bruce, has filed his intent to run for a full-term for District 46.

Republican Todd Longanacre (Alderson) has also filed his intent to keep his House of Delegates Seat. He has registered to represent District 47.

The last day to file the candidate certificate of announcement is at midnight on January 29.

The West Virginia Daily News will provide updates on candidate filings as they become available.

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Now Is The Time To File Official Intent To Run For Public Office In 2022 - West Virginia Daily News