GD's Political Animal: June 2024

Sunday, June 30, 2024

US DOJ incorrectly charged >300 J6 defendants, SCOTUS rules

The Department of Justice misused a law against evidence-tampering to charge some 350 January 6 protesters with an offense carrying a 20-year prison term, the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled.

Supreme Court rules in favor of J6ers, DOJ incorrectly charged hundreds of defendants | Post Millennial | Thomas Stevenson:

June 28, 2024 - "The Supreme Court ruled in favor of a January 6 protester who entered the Capitol building and was charged with obstructing an official proceeding. Some 350 others who entered the Capitol building that day were also charged under the same law. The case may set a precedent for the various cases against the people who went into the Capitol who were charged under Section 1512(c)(2) of the US code....

"On Friday, the court ruled in favor of Joseph Fischer, a former police officer from Pennsylvania, saying 'To prove a violation of Section 1512(c)(2), the Government must establish that the defendant impaired the availability or integrity for use in an official proceeding of records, documents, objects, or as we earlier explained, other things used in the proceeding, or attempted to do so.... The judgment of the D. C. Circuit is therefore vacated, and the case is remanded for further proceedings consistent with this opinion. On remand, the D. C. Circuit may assess the sufficiency of Count Three of Fischer’s indictment in light of our interpretation of Section 1512(c)(2).'"

Can Jan. 6 Rioters Be Charged with Obstruction? | Wall Street Journal Opinion | April 17, 2024:

Supreme Court Rules for Jan. 6 Defendant Who Challenged Obstruction Charge | Epoch Times | Matthew Vadum:

June 28, 2023 - "The Supreme Court ruled 6–3 on June 28 in favor of Jan. 6 defendant Joseph Fischer, a former police officer charged under an accounting law after he briefly entered the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.... The majority opinion in the case was written by Chief Justice John Roberts. Concurring in the judgment were Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Ketanji Brown Jackson. Justice Jackson wrote a separate concurring opinion. Justices Amy Coney Barrett, Sonia Sotomayor, and Elena Kagan dissented.... The case was being closely watched because the Supreme Court’s decision could affect hundreds of Jan. 6 prosecutions, including the Jan. 6-related case against former President Donald Trump.

"Mr. Fischer, from Jonestown, Pennsylvania, was indicted on several counts following the Capitol breach on Jan. 6, 2021, including obstructing an official proceeding under Enron-era obstruction law 18 U.S. Code Section 1512(c). Convictions under the section can lead to 20 years in prison. The wording of 1512(c) is focused on documentation and ensuring it is made available for official proceedings. Section 1512(c) states:

Whoever corruptly (1) alters, destroys, mutilates, or conceals a record, document, or other object, or attempts to do so, with the intent to impair the object’s integrity or availability for use in an official proceeding; or (2) otherwise obstructs, influences, or impedes any official proceeding or attempts to do so, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than 20 years, or both.

"The charge relates to the alleged obstruction of the congressional certification of the 2020 presidential election results, a proceeding that paved the way for the inauguration of President Joe Biden two weeks later. Mr. Fischer argued that he should not have been charged under section 1512(c), an evidence-tampering provision of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act aimed at curbing wrongdoing on Wall Street....

"Some defendants who arrived at the Capitol after Congress was evacuated on Jan. 6, 2021, were also charged with obstructing an official proceeding.... Legal experts, including Mr. Fischer’s defense counsel, have criticized the Justice Department for using the law against defendants, including former President Donald Trump, arguing it is an inappropriate vehicle to prosecute people who were exercising their First Amendment right to protest the congressional certification of election results.

"In the majority opinion, Chief Justice Roberts wrote that proving a violation under Section 1512(c)(2) requires the government to establish that the defendant 'impaired' or attempted to impair the availability of a record, document, or other things used in an official proceeding.... [T]he federal government used a 'novel interpretation' of the statute that sweeps too broadly. That interpretation 'would criminalize a broad swath of prosaic conduct, exposing activists and lobbyists alike to decades in prison, the chief justice wrote. As the government acknowledged during oral arguments, this could lead to a 'peaceful protester' being charged under Section 1512(c)(2) and facing 20 years in prison, he said. 'And the Government would likewise have no apparent obstacle to prosecuting under (c)(2) any lobbying activity that "influences" an official proceeding and is undertaken "corruptly."' Such peculiar results underscore how implausible the interpretation is, he wrote."

Saturday, June 29, 2024

SCOTUS overturns Chevron deference rule

The U.S. Supreme Court has overturned the Chevron rule, a 40-year precedent under which lower courts had to defer to regulatory agencies when interpreting the laws the agencies enforce.

SCOTUS Takes on Chevron Deference | Reason | Peter Suderman:

April 2024 - "Separation of powers is a core concept of America's Constitution. In the Founders' scheme, Congress, the courts, and the executive are independent branches of government, with their own roles and duties, intended to check one another. But since 1984, the Supreme Court has hamstrung its own ability to act independently in the face of executive power. In Chevron U.S.A., Inc. v. Natural Resources Defense Council, the high court adopted a blanket presumption of deference to statutory interpretations put forth by regulatory agencies in any case where the statute was ambiguous, so long as the interpretation was reasonable.... In practice, the Chevron deference undermined the Court's independence, since it forced courts to just accept executive branch interpretations in many tough cases.

"The doctrine also creates perverse incentives for the other two branches. For example, by giving deference to agencies in ambiguous cases, it gave executive branch regulators incentive to hunt for ambiguities in order to expand their own power. This led to decades of executive overreach, as administrations used convoluted readings of statutes to pursue agendas Congress never imagined. By the same token, Chevron deference shifted the burden of making well-written and fully thought-out laws away from Congress. Empowering regulators meant that, at the margins, Congress had less reason to write clear, consensus-based legislation.

"The result, over 40 years, has been a shift away from the intended constitutional order, in which Congress writes laws, the executive branch implements them, and the courts rule independently on matters of dispute. We now live under an often dysfunctional system in which Congress is less inclined to compromise and legislate on tough issues, regulators are more inclined to take matters into their own hands, and courts have less power to tell executive branch officials when they have overreached. The system lends itself to politicized regulatory pingponging, as courts are generally required to defer to the differing and even dramatically opposed interpretations put forth by shifting Democratic and Republican administrations.

"This was what was at stake in January, when the Supreme Court heard oral arguments that put the legacy of Chevron on trial. In Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo, a group of herring fishermen from New Jersey objected to a federal rule requiring them not only to host government monitors on their boats but to pay the cost of those monitors—about $700 a day. That requirement was based on the 2007 Magnuson-Stevens Act (MSA), which does require some types of fishing operations to host and pay for government monitors. But the fishermen in this case weren't explicitly covered by that requirement, so when the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) decided to expand the purview of the MSA in order to cover a budget shortfall, the fishermen went to court."

SCOTUS overturns Chevron decision, taking weight away from federal agency regulations | WKOW 27 NEWS | June 28, 2024:

The Supreme Court's Decision Overruling Chevron is Important— But Less so than You Might Think | Reason | Ilya Somin, Volokh Conspiracy:

June 28, 2024 - "Today's Supreme Court decision in Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo overturns the important 1984 precedent of Chevron v. Natural Resources Defense Council, which required federal judges to defer to administrative agencies' interpretations of federal laws, so long as Congress has not addressed the issue in question, and the agency's view is 'reasonable.' It's an important reversal, and I think the Court was right to do it. Chief Justice John Roberts' majority opinion lays out a compelling critique of Chevron, including explaining why it should not be retained out of respect for precedent. But, contrary to the hopes of some and fears of others, today's ruling will not end the administrative state or even greatly reduce the amount of federal regulation....

"Despite the likely limited scope of its impact, I still think today's ruling is a valuable step. While it won't lead to large-scale deregulation, it can help strengthen the rule of law. It could also limit the aggrandizement of power by the executive. Liberals who lament Chevron's demise may be happier about it if Donald Trump returns to power and his appointees try to use statutory ambiguities to advance his ends....If Trump returns to power, do left-liberal Chevron fans believe his appointees will scrupulously 'follow the science' when they interpret statutes? Or will they have a political agenda that will usually trump (pun intended!) science when the two conflict? The answer seems pretty obvious, at least to me.

"The same question can be posed in reverse to the dwindling band of conservative defenders of Chevron. Even if they think GOP administrations will 'follow the science,' they probably don't have equal confidence in Democratic ones.

"Partisan and ideological bias aside, many issues handled by agencies are simply impossible to resolve through technical expertise alone. They also involve questions of values. And even the most expert of government planners have severe limits to their knowledge, which is one reason why it's usually best to rely on markets, which aggregate information better than planners do."

Friday, June 28, 2024

Stossel talks to LP POTUS nominee Chase Oliver

John Stossel talks to Libertarian Party presidential nominee Chase Oliver.

'I Don't Support Mandates From Government': John Stossel Interviews Libertarian Presidential Nominee Chase Oliver | Reason | John Stossel:

June 26, 2024 - "Former President Donald Trump spoke at the Libertarian Party Convention, asking delegates to vote for him, promising, 'I will put a libertarian in my Cabinet!' But Libertarians nominated Chase Oliver instead....

"For my new video, I grill Oliver about what it means to be a libertarian. 'Someone who allows you to live your life in peace, free from government intrusion,' he answers. 'Don't Democrats and Republicans basically believe that?' I ask. 'They love to talk the talk about freedom,' he says, 'but they push government programs that invade your privacy, your business, your life.'

"What about the poor and the helpless? 'Just because I don't want the government to help people," Oliver answers, "doesn't mean that we don't need to help people.' He argues that private individuals will do a better job....

"Two years ago, Oliver ran for the senate in Georgia, got about 2 percent of the vote, and forced a runoff between Democrat Raphael Warnock and Republican Herschel Walker. When Warnock won the seat, some Republicans called Oliver a 'spoiler.' Oliver replies, 'You can't spoil something that's already rotten. Approval ratings of Congress and the president are always below 50 percent…. People are sick and tired of the two-party system'....

"Ben Shapiro criticizes Oliver, saying, 'He supported the employer vaccine mandates … the least libertarian policy in human history.'

Oliver replies, 'I don't support mandates from government.' He ... argued that private store owners should have the right to set policies at their store. "You as a consumer then have a choice: 'Will I work at this business or take my talent elsewhere?' A lot of businesses who required vaccines probably lost good talent to firms that didn't. That's the way the marketplace is supposed to react, not government.'

"Like many Libertarians, Oliver supports mostly open borders. I ask, 'You would let anybody in, who's not a criminal?' 'Yeah, come through a port of entry to declare who you are. If you're not dangerous, come right through'....

"Libertarians don't think America should police the world. Oliver is the most anti-war candidate. 'I started out in the Democratic Party,' he recounts, '"An anti-war protestor opposing the Bush wars. [Then] I realized it wasn't really an anti-war party, it was an anti-Bush party masquerading as an anti-war party. Libertarians [are] the real anti-war party.'

"When it comes to what I fear is the biggest threat to America's future, Oliver doesn't pander like the Republicans and Democrats, who claim they will 'protect' Social Security. 'People around the age of 40, we recognize that even if we contribute to Social Security, we're never going to get those benefits because of how unsustainable this system is....

>We have to sound the alarm that Social Security is unsustainable and frankly, if you were given your wealth back, you could just put that into the marketplace and earn a far better retirement than what the government's providing you in their Ponzi scheme of Social Security.

"I point out that politicians who admit that don't win elections. 'You have to be bold in your principles,' he responds, 'even if it costs you a few votes.'"

A Presidential Candidate Who Believes in Economic and Personal Freedom: Chase Oliver | John Stossel |June 25, 2024:

Thursday, June 27, 2024

Final charges stayed against Diagolon creator

The final outstanding charges against podcaster Jeremy Mackenzie, the creator of Diagolon, have been stayed. All 23 criminal charges against him have now been stayed, dropped, or resolved.

Jeremy MacKenzie, (r) and Morgan Guptill, Tuesday, April 30, 2024, outside provincial courtroom in Dartmouth, N.S.

(Richard Cuthbertson/CBC)

Diagolon founder Jeremy Mackenzie’s final charges have been stayed | True North | Clayton DeMaine, True North Wire:

June 8, 2024 - "Controversial podcaster Jeremy Mackenzie is free and clear after the final outstanding charges against him were stayed. Charges against Mackenzie, a 14-year military veteran who served in Afghanistan, and his girlfriend Morgan Guptill, were stayed by a Nova Scotia judge who found that the 19 months between being charged and the end of the trial was an unreasonable length of time.

"These were the last remaining criminal charges against Mackenzie after charges in Quebec and Saskatchewan and others in Nova Scotia were similarly stayed or dropped.... Each of the 23 charges thrown at Mackenzie across three separate provinces has been dropped, stayed, or resolved, including a series of firearms charges in Saskatchewan.

"Mackenzie created an online community called Diagolon, which he describes as a fictitious meme country represented by a black flag with a diagonal white line.

"In an interview, he told True North that although he is 'relieved' the criminal cases are behind him, he was disappointed that he didn’t get a chance to defend himself in front of the public and a jury. 'In a way we’re relieved and just thankful to have that real estate in our heads back. This is just another problem we don’t have to deal with anymore. But this never should have happened in the first place. And it’s just a travesty of justice and our resources,' Mackenzie said.

"Mackenzie, who testified before the Public Order Emergency Commission remotely from jail in 2022, said the way that he and his girlfriend have been treated by the justice system has been disproportionate....Mackenzie said that on top of having his bail denied, he was placed in solitary confinement multiple times. He also said he faced physical attacks because of the media’s and the Liberal government’s characterization of him.

"Mackenzie and Diagolon were singled out by the Liberal government during the Freedom Convoy as a national security risk, a position partially relied on to justify the use of the Emergencies Act. An investigative report by lawyer Caryma Sa’d, who has represented Mackenzie, alleged that the government knew that Diagolon was not violent....

"Despite being free of criminal charges, Mackenzie still maintains that he was targeted for his political views. 'It lends more weight, not less, to the idea that people in this country who are political dissidents and unhappy with the way our rulers are conducting business are targeted by the state and punished for dissenting,' he said, 'It doesn’t paint a good picture of our legal system and doesn’t do anything to dispel that.'

"Mackenzie also took aim at the relative media silence about his charges being stayed. 'A lot of things were said. Media had printed a lot of out of context things and headlines. They really went to town to slander my reputation,' Mackenzie said. 'Now that it’s all over, they have nothing to say. And there’s no one here to apologize and say "We jumped to conclusions and painted you as this person without getting the facts." None of them showed up.'"

Jeremy MacKenzie: the Podcaster Canada tried to destroy | Greg Wycliffe | June 26, 2024:

Wednesday, June 26, 2024

Coutts conspiracy trial, week one

Week 1 of the trial of the Coutts 2 (Tony Olienick and Christ Carbert) on charges of conspiracy to murder police consisted mainly of testimony from three undercover RCMP officers.

Coutts Two Trial Begins With Evidence that is Primarily Hearsay | The Intrepid Viking | Roxanne Halverson, Substack:

June 20, 2024 - "[F]inally, on Thursday June 13, 2024 the trial of the Coutts Two, who had previously been known as the Coutts Four began in earnest.... On trial on charges of conspiracy to commit murder of police (RCMP members) are Tony Olienick and Chris Carbert. They are two Alberta men who were caught in a dragnet of RCMP operations and raids that occurred during the Coutts border blockade protest just outside of the border town of Coutts, Alberta, which was part of the larger Freedom Convoy protest which took place in Ottawa in February of 2022. Protesters were calling for an end to the draconian COVID mandates and restrictions that had been imposed on Canadians by the federal and provincial governments for two long years.

"Olienick and Carbert were arrested and charged with the conspiracy to murder police along with two other men – Jerry Morin and Chris Lysak. However, this past February, after spending 723 days in custody as they were denied bail, all the original charges against Morin and Lysak were suddenly dropped as they plead[ed] guilty to minor firearms offences.... All four of these men, according to the RCMP, were identified as ‘key’ members of a larger ‘cell’ of bad actors involved in a plot to overthrow the Canadian government. In media briefings the RCMP indicated that there were other ‘unidentified suspects’ of a purported ‘criminal organization’ that the four men allegedly belonged to. Yet, despite assurances by RCMP brass that these ‘unidentified suspects’ would also be rounded up through the intrepid investigative efforts of the RCMP, no such suspects were ever found, or were arrests ever made....

"So why, one might ask, has it taken two years to bring the case to trial? After all, under Canada’s justice system, the accused are entitled to a speedy trial. One would think that even a year’s delay in bringing a case to trial would seem unduly long, particularly when said suspects were not granted bail – in the justice system, where under the Trudeau government, bail is even granted to accused cop killers. Yet, now that it’s been two years no one has even batted an eye over this travesty. Not the justice system, not the government and certainly not the media....

"The Crown in its opening statements to the jury, which were widely reported in the mainstream media, who now have taken a sudden interest in the case after two years of wilfully ignoring it, were quite dramatic. The Crown prosecutor who gave the opening statement, Matt Dalidowicz told the jury that Olienick and Carbert had, indeed, conspired to kill police officers and believed they were justified in doing so.... According to the Crown, the RCMP faced a 'challenging situation' when the blockade began in January of 2020. He then went on to explain that ... they learned more through their undercover officers (UCO). Those would be three attractive female RCMP members they had assigned to investigate the activities at the Coutts blockade. Dalidowicz told the jury that these UCOs had ... 'discovered a plot to kill police officers, if police enforce the law to end the blockade'....

"But there is one fly in the ointment regarding the Crown’s assertions about this ‘plot'. It is predicated on the testimonies and evidence of what these three UCOs ‘uncovered’ and undoubtedly reported to their superiors, one would think. Yet, these police women, who were given this assignment, to investigate, infiltrate and gather evidence on any suspicious activities around the protest, used no wires or recording devices to record the conversations of, or with, any of the protesters. So, it is only their memories and perhaps notes of what they observed or heard that they are relying on.... Strangely enough as the mainstream media were recounting the testimonies of these UCO’s and their ‘conversations’, primarily with Tony Olienick, they didn’t think to mention that none of the evidence they presented could be backed up with recordings of said conversations. The were reporting it as though it did come from wiretaps or recordings, but that has been par for the course on the mainstream media’s laziness in reporting on this case....

"Because these RCMP members continue to operate as UCOs in other operations, their identities had to be protected, therefore they gave their testimonies in a separate courtroom where only the judge, lawyers, the jury, the defendants and the courtroom staff were present. The public and media remained in another courtroom where they could only hear the audio of their testimonies. During their testimonies they were asked whether the RCMP generally used wiretaps and body cameras during undercover operations, to which they replied they usually did. As to why they did not do so in Coutts, their only answer was that did not know, and that someone else would have to answer that question....

"The testimonies of the three seemed to focus in on Olienick who seemed to have interacted with them more than the other men. As a matter of fact they all indicated they had little, if any contact with Carbert, which causes one to wonder why he is on trial at all. Many of the things the UCOs testified to in their conversations with Olienick seemed to centre more on how he felt about the police presence there, rather than any particular plot against them. Any such words spoken by Oienick in that regard could also be open to misinterpretation and innuendo as was revealed under cross examination by the defence.

"But coming back to Chris Carbert, who[m] the UCO’s admit they had little if any contact with. Where or how does he fit into the picture? Well, the Crown’s problem is that ... in a ‘conspiracy’ charge, more than one person has to be involved in the plot. When Lysak and Morin were offered and took a plea deal, that left only Carbert and Olienick to keep the ‘conspiracy’ charge alive. So, it would seem that Carbert is being brought along simply to secure such a conviction. But if the evidence against Carbert is so thin, how can a jury possibly convict him? And if they can’t convict him, then how can they convict Olienick, alone, on a conspiracy charge? That seems to be quite a conundrum. How the Crown plans to tackle that conundrum remains to be seen."

On-the-ground: Recap of Day 1 at the Trial of The 4 Coutts Men Accused of Conspiracy to Murder RCMP | Media Bezirgan | July 24, 2023:

Tuesday, June 25, 2024

Julian Assange is free

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is free and has made a plea deal with the U.S. government that will put an end to his 12-year legal ordeal.

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange to plead guilty to espionage charge as part of deal with U.S. | CBC News | Associated Press:

June 24, 2024 - "A plane carrying Julian Assange took off from Bangkok on Tuesday after refuelling, as the WikiLeaks founder was on his way to enter a plea deal with the U.S. government that will free him and resolve the legal case that spanned years and continents over the publication of a trove of classified documents. Chartered flight VJT199 from London's Stansted Airport landed after noon at Bangkok's Don Mueang International Airport.... Airport officials told The Associated Press earlier the plane would then depart for the Northern Mariana Islands, a U.S. commonwealth in the Western Pacific, where Assange is to appear in court Wednesday morning local time.

"Assange is expected to plead guilty to an Espionage Act charge of conspiring to unlawfully obtain and disseminate classified national defence information, according to the U.S. Justice Department in a letter filed in court. Stella Assange told the BBC from Australia that ... details of the agreement would be made public once the judge had signed off on it.'He will be a free man once it is signed off by a judge,' she said....

"The deal ensures that Assange will admit guilt while also sparing him from any additional prison time. He had spent years hiding out in the Ecuadorian embassy in London, after Swedish authorities sought his arrest on rape allegations. Assange denied those charges, and whle Sweden eventually dropped its sex crimes investigation because so much time had elapsed, he had remained in London's high-security Belmarsh Prison during the extradition battle with the U.S."

Plea deal: Julian Assange makes his way to US court and later freedom | We Are Iowa Local 5 News | June 25, 2024:

Julian Assange, a Free Man | Reason | Liz Wolfe:

June 25, 2024 - "Assange, who has been at risk of being extradited to the U.S. and prosecuted under the Espionage Act for publishing documents — an activity protected by the First Amendment — that the government says contain classified national security information, will plead guilty to a single felony count and return to his native Australia. Prior to reaching this deal with the U.S. Department of Justice, Assange could have faced up to 170 years in prison if extradited to America.

"From 2012 to 2019, Assange had been living at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, caught in legal limbo and fearing extradition by British authorities. In 2019, Ecuador's president was angered by allegations of corruption made public via WikiLeaks and pulled Assange's asylum protections. The British authorities rounded Assange up and put him in Belmarsh....

"In 2010, WikiLeaks published a video called 'Collateral Murder,' which showed a 2007 U.S. airstrike in Baghdad in which several civilians, including two Reuters journalists, were killed. The organization, which received leaks from various government and military personnel, including the now-famous whistleblower Chelsea Manning, received retribution from the U.S. government for publicizing possible violations of military rules of engagement and showing the extreme brutality of war, including the massive civilian death toll in Iraq at the hands of the U.S. Army. For more than a decade, Assange was not treated like a journalist, but like a criminal. Now, his ordeal will finally come to a close."

Monday, June 24, 2024

Rockefeller Int'l CEO says Canada breaking down

Economics writer Ruchir Sharma, chair of Rockefeller International, classes Canada among the "nations that not too long ago were billed as star performers but are now breaking down."

Chair of Rockefeller International says Canada a leader in ‘breakdown nations’ | Western Standard | Jen Hodgson:

May 9, 2024 - "Chair of Rockefeller International Ruchir Sharma has observed Canada to be leading the way in once great economies that are 'now breaking down.' The head of the institution that 'served the Rockefeller family and institutional investors for generations' singled Canada out for its rapidly declining GDP, the inability for the nation’s young people to buy homes and its lagging in technological advancements.

Ruchir Sharma, 2012. Photo by Zj007ny.

CC BY SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons.

"In an article headlined A warning from the breakdown nations ... published in the Financial Times ... Sharma argues there are lessons to be learned for 'current stars' on the world stage like the US and India from countries that once had thriving economies but since have shrunk.... Sharma lists the examples of these 'breakdown nations' and advises they 'carry a lesson' — 'growth is hard, sustaining it even harder, so the stars of today are not necessarily the stars of tomorrow.'

“'It is worth looking at nations that not too long ago were billed as star performers but are now breaking down,' writes Sharma. 'Led by Canada, Chile, Germany, South Africa and Thailand. All are among the world’s 50 largest economies and, so far this decade, have suffered both a sharp decline in real per capita income growth, and a fall in their share of global gross domestic product.'

“'Take Canada first,' Sharma writes, recalling how Canada was once 'widely admired for how it weathered the global financial crisis of 2008' but the nation 'missed the boat when the world moved on, driven by big tech instead of commodities.'

"Sharma notes Canada’s per capita GDP has been declining each year since 2020 by 0.4%, ... worse than any developed country in the top 50. He further attributed any new investment
and job growth [to] 'being driven mainly by the government.'

"'Private-sector action is confined largely to the property market, which does little for productivity and prosperity. Many young people can’t afford to buy in one of the world’s most expensive housing markets,' writes Sharma. 'Pressed to name a digital success, Canadians cite Shopify — but the online store is the only tech name among the country’s 10 largest companies, and its shares are trading at half their 2021 peak'....

"The takeaway is to be wary of 'hidden traps (that) line the path of development and can spring on nations. Any country can find itself stuck — until it finds the leadership and vision to chart a way out,' he concludes. 'For current stars, the message is a warning: don’t take growth for granted.'”

Economic Vandalism | Pierre Poilievre | June 11, 2024:
[Note: This video is political propaganda, and selectively presents only facts that fit its narrative. But (in its first 14 minutes, up until the campaign commercial at the end) it is the best presentation and explanation of those facts that I can remember seeing. - GD] ,

Sunday, June 23, 2024

Reject the culture of fear

Fear has its place, but we can’t let it dominate our lives.

There Are Better Ways to Keep Our Society Safe Than Creating a Culture of Fear | Epoch Times | Cory Morgan:

June 21, 2024 - "A culture of fear develops when everything is an emergency and danger lurks around every corner. To watch a full newscast these days is to immerse oneself in stories of violence, anarchy, and a plethora of unseen viral and climatic dangers. The trend is harming our collective psyche and will create a generation of introverts afraid to leave the safety of their homes.... We live in one of the safest places on earth during the safest period in human history.... However, you wouldn’t know it to listen to some media outlets, activists, and politicians....

"Fear is a strong motivator. It’s hard to raise funds for an environmental cause when telling somebody, 'The earth’s temperature may rise a degree in the next 50 years due to emissions.' When an activist describes a looming 'heat dome' or 'atmospheric river' that may kill seniors in their homes or cause flash flooding putting their children at risk on the way to school, the wallets of donors open....

"When a campaigner promises to protect people from a foreign invasion from a distant, hostile land, the votes come their way. A politician campaigning on law and order is motivated to highlight every violent crime while one promising to fight climate change will paint every weather event as extreme. Small protests are described as budding, violent revolutions, and fringe groups on every side of the political spectrum are presented as potential risks to us all. The real risks are minimal, but the political benefits of exaggerating those risks are real.

"Media has always been in the business of reporting the negative. The [phrase] 'if it bleeds, it leads' has been used for over a century. The eyes of readers and viewers are instinctively drawn toward sensational, dangerous, and frightening stories. In today’s hypercompetitive and financially challenged media world, reporters and writers are being trained, even if unconsciously, to find shocking or fearful stories to draw the attention of the public. When clicks and views are so easily measured, it becomes clear that fear provides the low-hanging fruit of garnering traffic.

"Weather reports used to be about as dull and innocuous as it gets.... Now though, ... maps are coloured in deep, dangerous reds implying fiery, perilous heatwaves even when reporting on typical weather conditions.... A short period of temperatures a little above normal in Ontario recently led to ominous fearful reporting for a week. Stories abounded of the hazards for seniors, the risk of fires, and even tied into social justice and wealth inequity, as one media outlet wrote on how renters were at a higher risk of 'heat death' than homeowners. The few days of heat came and went with little consequence.

"The City of Calgary has declared a state of emergency due to a broken water line, while Niagara declared a state of emergency over an eclipse....

"The COVID-19 pandemic was the granddaddy of fear events. The world wrapped itself into a state of emergency coupled with the most fearful and negative reporting ever seen. With the benefit of hindsight, we can see that while the virus was harmful, the number of people permanently harmed was tiny. The fear caused much more societal damage than COVID itself ever could....

"We should embrace the good things and not allow baseless fear to creep into our lives. Don’t worry about the bird flu and focus on the one man who died of it. Try to remember that 8 billion people didn’t die of it.... Get out and enjoy life and be sure to click on those good news stories now and then. It encourages the writers to stay optimistic. Fear has its place, but we can’t let it dominate our lives. The culture of fear can be avoided if we try."

Saturday, June 22, 2024

Block and Futerman make case for Israel

A small excerpt from Marco den Ouden's review of The Classical Liberal Case for Israel by Walter Block and Alan Futerman.

A New Book Makes a Solid Case for Israel and Zionism | Savvy Street | Marco den Ouden:

May 30, 2024 - "I was asked to review a new book supporting both Israel and Zionism, The Classical Liberal Case for Israel by Walter Block and Alan Futerman.... I had a review of well over 5000 words divided into a discussion of Block and Futerman’s book followed by a critique based on ... elements they chose to ignore. I opted to publish the critique as a stand-alone essay called The Battle for Israel’s Soul without mentioning the book. Now I am presenting the other side of the story: Block and Futerman’s compelling case for the moral right of Israel to exist and the moral right of the Jewish people to have a homeland, namely Zionism....

courtesy Amazon..com.

"The authors argue forcefully for the legitimacy of the state of Israel as a Zionist enterprise. They provide considerable documentation to support their charges.... The basic thesis of their book, they state, is that 'The Land of Israel was built up and developed by Jews who were unjustifiably expelled from their homeland thousands of years ago and are now back to reclaim their lost property and add to it by building and developing otherwise virgin land. It is really as simple as that.” (xxvi)....

"In Chapter 1 they argue that some parts of ancient Judea are demonstrably of Jewish origin.... They also contend that there are Jews alive today who can be genetically traced to these ancient Jews.... In Chapter 2 — Zionism — they argue that Zionism, the political movement promoting a Jewish homeland state, namely the country of Israel, is justified on a number of counts. They point out that emigration to Palestine took place long before the 1948 UN partition that created the state. 'It arose from the spontaneous actions of hundreds of thousands of Jews who returned to Zion in order to build their homes, and only much later their state.' (37) Cultural Zionism preceded political Zionism.... They challenge the idea that 'the Jews somehow stole the land from Arabs,' arguing that Jewish migrants to Palestine purchased land from existing owners, some of them absentee landowners. They purchased uncultivated land, and in many cases, land that had been regarded as uncultivable. And they homesteaded unowned (government-owned) land....

"Chapter 3 on The Palestinian Fiction Factory, the longest chapter in the book at 70 pages (excluding bibliography) argues that claims that Palestinians were expropriated and/or forced from their land are false.... Jewish land was either bought at exorbitant prices, much of it from non-resident Arab landowners, or it was homesteaded on land declared as uncultivable. Jewish entrepreneurship turned much barren land into productive farmland. As a result, there was an influx of Arabs, increasing the Arab presence in the area. They were drawn by Jewish wealth and the opportunities it presented. So, far from ethnic cleansing, Jewish settlement encouraged Arab immigration into the area. All Jewish land was either purchased or homesteaded, they aver. None was forcibly taken....

"Section 4 of the chapter on The 'Expulsion' Plan discusses the immediate aftermath of the UN declaration. It argues that Israel’s Arab neighbors launched an aggressive war to destroy Israel and that Israel had the legitimate right to self-defense. The Arab aggressors warned Arabs resident in Palestine to flee for their own safety. Many did. The objective of the war was Israeli genocide, to wipe Israel off the map. Israel encouraged Arabs to stay. Arabs who opted to stay in the state of Israel now comprise twenty percent of the population.... Regarding alleged massacres of Arabs such as Deir Yassein, 'there was no policy of massacres, and Israeli authorities investigated and even condemned such incidents.' (emphasis added) (Benny Morris in Kramer et al., “Counter-Error: Separating Fact from Fiction in the Middle East,” The Washington Institute, October 27, 2016, page 95)....

"[In] Chapter 6: Critique of the Classical Liberal Case for Anti-Zionism — the authors critique Murray Rothbard’s analysis of the Israel/Palestine conflict.... Rothbard’s position is that Zionism was an offshoot of British imperialism..... But this is untrue, the authors argue. They cite Ilan Troen’s 2011 study which argues that the first forty years of Jewish migration to the area took place under the Ottomans. It had nothing to do with imperial expansion.... While they acknowledge that the Balfour Declaration supported the Zionist enterprise during the British Mandate, in fact, according to Charles Bard, the British reaction to waves of Jewish immigration in the '30s following the rise of the Nazis was to restrict such immigration to appease the Arabs....

"The authors argue that Rothbard is totally wrong in his analysis of events post-partition in 1948. 'Contrary to Rothbard, the Jews accepted the partition and the Arabs who already lived in Jewish areas were an integral part of the new State of Israel (and treated as such)'.... But at the time of partition, 'seven Arab armies invaded Israel after it was completed. Why should Israel be blamed for the resulting situation when it was only defending itself from outside attack?' (265) Moreover, Rothbard offers 'no explanation of why and how a new state built virtually entirely on homesteaded or purchased areas, labored on and developed by Jewish majorities, constitutes an aggression against the collective of Arabs of the entire Middle East'....

"As I noted earlier, I also found a lot to disagree with, points I elaborate on in my separate essay, The Battle for Israel’s Soul. But this essay looks at the positive points they make, points that should be noted and bear repeating:

Zionism was a cultural movement long before it became a political one. Jews started emigrating to Israel, their historic homeland, from the late 1800s on, decades before the creation of the state of Israel.
No land was usurped from Arabs. It was either bought, often at exorbitant prices, or homesteaded on unowned land deemed uncultivable.
Arab antisemitism was rife before the creation of the state of Israel. The Grand Mufti of Jerusalem himself was a virulent antisemite and concluded a pact with Hitler to exterminate the Jews.
When the state of Israel was created, its seven Arab neighbors launched an immediate war against the new state, expecting a quick and easy victory. Israel was, from day one, a victim of aggression by its Arab neighbors.
Decades of peace talks and attempts at a two-state solution have been consistently rejected by Palestinian authorities, no matter how favorable the deal was for the Palestinians.
Israel has repeatedly been the victim of suicide bombers and rocket attacks by Palestinians.
The Palestinian Authority pays and incentivizes Palestinian terrorists to the tune of $300 million a year or 22% of its foreign aid budget.
The Palestinian Authority forbids trade with Israel and selling land to an Israeli is a capital crime.
Hamas uses human shields and builds missile launch sites and tunnel hideouts under and near schools and hospitals and other areas populated by civilians. It uses its citizens to create martyrs.
Anti-Zionism in the form of BDS is completely one-sided. Only Israel is targeted. Egregious tyrannies and dictatorships are completely ignored.
There are double standards in the treatment of Israel, even by its parent and creator, the United Nations. Israel has been condemned by the UN more often than every other country in the world combined. The violent, fascist, repressive, misogynistic state of Iran has been censured a mere six times by the UN compared to 68 times for Israel. Russia the invader of Ukraine, Cuba the operator of extensive repressive political prisons (See Against All Hope by Armando Valladares), and China the largest mass-murdering regime in the history of the world, have never been censured by the UN. Not once!

"These are just a few of the points that Block and Futerman make. Despite some drawbacks that I pointed out in my other essay, this book deserves a hearing."

Is Zionism a libertarian movement? | גלעד אלפר | October 1, 2023:

Friday, June 21, 2024

Iran's Revolutionary Guard listed as terrorist group in Canada

Canada's government lists Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as terrorist group after years of pressure.

Canada listing Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as terrorist group after years of pressure | CBC News | Ashley Burke & Michael Woods:

Jun 19, 2024 - "The federal government is listing Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a terrorist organization under Canada's Criminal Code after years of mounting pressure. Federal ministers delivered the news Wednesday afternoon.... Once a group is placed on the country's terror list, police can charge anyone who financially or materially supports the group and banks can freeze its assets.

"The IRGC is a branch of the Iranian armed forces that answers directly to Iran's supreme leader. The IRGC shot down Ukraine International Airlines Flight PS752 above the skies of Tehran in January 2020, killing 175 passengers, including 55 Canadian citizens and 30 permanent residents.

"Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly warned that Canadians in Iran might face a heightened risk of arbitrary detention after Wednesday's announcement. 'For those who are in Iran right now, it's time to come back home. And for those who are planning to go to Iran, don't go,' Joly said.

"This latest development comes after years of pressure on the federal government to list the IRGC. The association representing family members of Flight PS752 victims, members of the Iranian Canadian community, the Conservative Party and the NDP have all called on the government to designate the entire militia group as a terrorist entity. MPs voted unanimously last month to do so.....

When asked why it took the government so long to make the move, [Public Safety Minister Dominic] LeBlanc said the decision was made based on the advice of security services and foreign policy considerations.... LeBlanc added that Canada's security services hold a monthly review to determine whether to recommend that various entities be listed as terrorist entities under the Criminal Code. 'The government of Canada has concluded after a deliberative process, based on very, very strong and compelling evidence that the cabinet received, that now is the time,' he added.

"Canada does not have an embassy in Iran; it cut diplomatic ties with the country in 2012."

CBC News: The National | Canada lists Iran’s IRGC a terrorist group | CBC News: The National | June 20, 2024 (0:00-4:40):

The U.S. did it. The EU might. Why Canada won't put Iran's revolutionary guard on its terrorist list | CBC News | Mark Gollom:

November 4, 2022 - "The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) was formed following Iran's 1979 revolution, created to protect the new government. It has since, according to the Council on Foreign Relations website, grown to become one of the most powerful paramilitary organizations in the Middle East. It operates its own intelligence services and answers directly to Iran's supreme leader. It is a branch of the Iranian armed forces but operates independently of the regular military and has vast economic interests across the country.... But it has also been accused of orchestrating a number of state-sanctioned terror attacks throughout the world, while also offering support to terrorist organizations, accusations Iran denies....

"In June 2018, the federal Liberals supported a House of Commons motion introduced by the Conservatives that sought to 'immediately designate the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a listed terrorist entity under the Criminal Code of Canada'....Still, Canada has not taken the extra step to list it as a terrorist entity....

"Attorney General and Justice Minister David Lametti explained that since the IRGC is part of Iran's military, and military service is mandatory, there are concerns that ... Including the IRGC in those terrorist listings might unfairly capture Iranians in Canada who oppose and fled the regime, but had been conscripted into the IRGC.... Thomas Juneau, who specializes in the politics of the Middle East at the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs at the University of Ottawa, agreed that the problem with the IRGC is that in the over 40 years of the Islamic Republic, there are over 'hundreds of thousands of individuals, mostly men, who have been in the IRGC, in many cases conscripts'....

"The implementation of listing the IRGC as a terrorist entity would be extraordinarily resource intensive, Juneau says. The demand that such a listing would impose on agencies like the RCMP, CSIS, the Canada Border Services Agency, and FINTRAC, the financial intelligence unit, would be massive, he said.... 'You need to hire people with very technical skills in financial intelligence and border security. You need to train them. You need to get them a security clearance, usually at the top secret level,' he said.

"But there's also a legal issue that the government has not discussed.... Andrew House, who specializes in national security law and who was the chief of staff to former public safety minister Vic Toews, said that ... [u]nder the Criminal Code, entity is defined as "a person, group, trust, partnership or fund or an unincorporated association or organization.' That means the IRGC, as an arm of the Iranian government, might technically not fit into that category; arguably, it's a state actor, which are subject to sanctions, but wouldn't be placed on a terrorist list. 'That's the purist legal position,' House said. 'Judges make a big deal of these types of differences'....

"Yet House ... points out that the Taliban, for example, are on the list, and that they are the de facto government of Afghanistan. 'If you want it to be legally pure about this, you should delist the Taliban. And I don't know anyone who would be supportive of that.'"

Thursday, June 20, 2024

RCMP investigating federal gov't contracting

Canada's RCMP has at least six ongoing investigations into irregularities in federal government procurement contracts, its commissioner has told the House of Commons.

RCMP Has ‘Multiple’ Open Investigations on Federal Contracting Irregularities, Commissioner Says | Epoch Times | Matthew Horwood:

June 19, 2024 - "The RCMP currently has over six investigations open into irregularities around federal procurement, its commissioner confirmed during committee testimony on its investigation into the ArriveCan app.

“'This committee, and Canadians, are looking for answers and accountability around ArriveCan,' RCMP Commissioner Michael Duheme testified before the public accounts committee on June 18. 'The RCMP has multiple investigations underway into these matters,' he added.... Mr. Duheme said the force has 'more than six' investigations open in regard to irregularities around federal procurement. 'That'd be as precise as I can get,' he said.

"When Conservative MP Garnett Genuis asked how many police investigations there were into government corruption, Mr. Duheme did not answer the question directly, but said it was 'too early' to refer to the cases as corruption. 'We are currently investigating several files that are looking at the procurement process that could lead to an element of corruption. But at this point in time, I’m not saying that we’re anywhere close to that. And again, I don’t want to get into any details,' he said.

"There have been months [of] committee hearings into the ArriveCan application, which was used to check the COVID-19 vaccination status of travellers crossing the Canada-U.S. border.

"A report by the auditor general in February found that the application cost an estimated $59.5 million to develop, but that record-keeping was 'so poor' that the precise cost of it could not be determined. The report also found that agencies like the Canada Border Services Agency, Public Health Agency of Canada, and Public Services and Procurement Canada failed to follow 'good management practices' in the contracting, development, and implementation of ArriveCan.

"Back in October 2023, the RCMP confirmed it was conducting an investigation into the potential misconduct of three companies that worked on the ArriveCan app — GC Strategies, Dalian, and Coradix — but not ArriveCan specifically.... On April 16, the RCMP raided the home of GC Strategies managing partner Kristian Firth as part of its investigation into allegations from Botler AI, a tech company that did not work on ArriveCan but was contracted for a separate project through GC Strategies. Mr. Firth was admonished by the House of Commons the next day for his failure to answer a government committee’s questions on the app."

Government refers suspected contractor fraud to RCMP, more cases could be coming | CBC News: The National | March 26, 2024:

Wednesday, June 19, 2024

Coutts conspiracy trial gets underway in Alberta

After being held in custody without bail for more than two years, Canada's Coutts 4 – now the Coutts 2, after charges were dropped against two of the alleged conspirators – are finally getting their day in court in Alberta.

Lawfare Comes to Canada as the Coutts Four Get Their Day in Court | Newsweek | Gord Magill:

June 18, 2024 - "A trial is currently underway in Canada, and the rights of every Canadian citizen are at stake. Tony Olienick and Chris Carbert are facing farcical charges stemming from their participation in a peaceful protest against Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's COVID-19 response.... Olienick and Carbert are the remaining two of a group of political prisoners arrested in Canada and held without bail since the Freedom Convoy in 2022.

"The Freedom Convoy was a populist revolt against Trudeau's authoritarian approach to COVID-19 in the form of a mass act of civil protest led by truck drivers. To combat this peaceful protest, the largest of its kind in Canadian history, Trudeau invoked the Emergencies Act to suspend civil liberties across Canada, freezing bank accounts and laying numerous spurious charges against hundreds of peaceful protesters. Olienick and Carbert were arrested February 13, 2022 in Coutts, Alberta, at a Freedom Convoy protest site the day before Trudeau invoked the Emergencies Act, along with two other men.

"The group came to be known as the Coutts Four, and they stand accused of some damning charges — conspiracy to murder police officers among them. The charges are completely bogus, yet throughout Canada, early reporting about the men painted them in such a negative light that that many people have presumed them guilty. Their assumed guilt is tied up with Trudeau's larger effort to legitimize the use of the Emergencies Act against peaceful protestors; an inquest into Trudeau's suspension of civil rights surrounding the Freedom Convoy hinges on a conviction in the case of the Coutts Four.... Complicating this effort is the fact that two of the four men were released from prison and had all the original charges against them dropped....

"Olienick and Carbert have been kept in a form of carceral purgatory called 'remand' since being arrested for exercising their once-protected rights to protest. In this purgatory, where they do not have the normal rights afforded convicted felons, they have been denied access to necessary medical care, among other indignities, and Olienick had spent over 90 days in solitary confinement, which is considered torture in most civilized societies.

"Olienick and Carbert's trial finally got underway earlier this month. What little coverage there has been of the trial proceedings has focused on testimony from the undercover officers who were casing the protesters. There is nothing by way of corroborating evidence or recordings of what the accused are alleged to have said, and the Crown's case relies entirely on a negative interpretation of their words based entirely on claims made by the undercover officers.

"The story comes apart under the lightest scrutiny: A group of young female undercover officers were ostensibly sent in to investigate protesters tarred as extremists, who their superior officers suspected of having weapons and an intent to kill them. Yet these officers were sent in with no wires or recording devices of any kind, and no weapons to defend themselves. Does this not raise some pertinent questions? Who authorized this undercover operation? Was it not convenient to make these allegations, given that the day after these men were arrested, the Emergencies Act was invoked? Why has it taken 28 months for such an important case to get under way? Why did two of the co-accused, Jerry Morin and Chris Lysak, have all of the original charges against them dropped?...

"Media coverage of this case has done a great disservice to the Canadian public in not asking these questions. Instead, the media has been cheerleading for a conviction before all the evidence is in by repeating the unsubstantiated claims of the officers and failing to report any countervailing evidence or context crucial to understanding the story....

"If the Canadian government can level ridiculous and baseless charges at people, throw them in jail for over two years while denying them bail for trumped up political reasons, and then have their friends in the media smear the accused, what right to protest does anyone have? What right to free speech, or to any other civil liberties? The trial of these men in Alberta, like the trial of Donald Trump, raises serious questions about our democracy. It is clear that those in our ruling class would rather control the narrative so that you don't ask them."

Witness testimony day 3 at Coutts 2 trial | Thursday, June 13, 24 | Landon Hickok | Bridge City News | June 13, 2024:

Tuesday, June 18, 2024

UK gov't restricts puberty blockers for minors

The British government has stopped the use of puberty blockers to transition under-18s within its National Health Service, and is now temporarily banning them for all prescribers.

Health service in England curtails puberty blockers for minors | CBC News:

March 13, 2024 - "Children in England will no longer be prescribed puberty blockers at gender identity clinics, according to the country's National Health Service (NHS). In a policy document released Tuesday, the NHS said that following a review of published research, 'we have concluded that there is not enough evidence to support the safety or clinical effectiveness of [puberty suppressing hormones] to make the treatment routinely available at this time.'

"Under the new policy, puberty blockers for those under 18 will only be available as part of research studies. One such study is slated to begin by the end of 2024....

"According to a published report by BBC News, fewer than 100 young people in England are currently prescribed puberty blockers by the NHS. The report said they will all [be] able to continue their treatment.

"The blockers have become a contentious issue in Canada, the U.S. and Europe.... They've been banned for minors in several U.S. states. In Alberta, Premier Danielle Smith ... plans to introduce similar policies. Federal Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre has said he does not support trans kids under 18 taking puberty blockers. The Canadian Paediatric Society and Canadian Medical Association have both stated their support of gender-affirming care."

UK Decision to Block Puberty Blockers for Minors Could Impact US | CBN News | March 19, 2024:

New restrictions on puberty blockers | Gov.uk | Department of Health and Social Care:

May 29, 2024 -"The government has today introduced regulations to restrict the prescribing and supply of puberty-suppressing hormones, known as ‘puberty blockers’, to children and young people under 18 in England, Wales and Scotland. The emergency ban will last from 3 June to 3 September 2024.... During this period no new patients under 18 will be prescribed these medicines for the purposes of puberty suppression in those experiencing gender dysphoria or incongruence under the care of these prescribers.

"The NHS stopped the routine prescription of puberty blocker treatments to under-18s following the Cass Review into gender identity services. In addition, the government has also introduced indefinite restrictions to the prescribing of these medicines within NHS primary care in England, in line with NHS guidelines.... This action has been taken to address risks to patient safety.

"Patients already established on these medicines by a UK prescriber for these purposes can continue to access them. They will also remain available for patients receiving the drugs for other uses, from a UK-registered prescriber."

Sunday, June 16, 2024

400K Canadians fell into poverty since 2020

Canada's Department of Social Development estimates that 4 million Canadians are living in poverty, an increase of 400,000 since 2020.

Feds admit cost of living flattened poverty progress | Western Standard | Jen Hodgson:

15 June 15, 2024 - "A report from the Department of Social Development shows the cost of living has overtaken years of progress in lowering poverty rates, per Blacklock’s Reporter.

Courtesy Dimensions of Poverty Hub

"The department counted a half million Canadians who fell into poverty due to inflation in a December 11 briefing report. 'Future increases in the rate of poverty could stall progress towards reaching the 2030 poverty reduction target of a 50% reduction in poverty versus 2015 levels,' said the federal report.

"The department estimates 9.9% of Canadians, approximately four million people, live in poverty compared to 6.4% in 2020. That works out to 'approximately 400,000 more Canadians,' the report said. 'High inflation coupled with lagging household incomes has led to affordability pressures among many households.'

"The National Advisory Council on Poverty prior to the December report said inflation remained a worry for millions of Canadians. 'We noted a growing sense of hopelessness and desperation,' wrote the council.

Persons with lived expertise of poverty and service providers alike told us things seem worse now than they were before and during the first years of the pandemic.'
We heard that people are worried about the rising cost of living and inflation. More people are in crisis and these crises are more visible in our communities.
Recent increases in the cost of living represent one of the most important socioeconomic challenges faced by people living in Canada following the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. It is expected this will put upward pressure on poverty rates.
In speaking to people it seems as though the feelings of hopefulness and optimism for change that we saw early in the pandemic have faded. Hopelessness and desperation have replaced these as the cost of living continues to increase....

"The social development department last November 28 acknowledged inflation was driving more Canadians into poverty. 'The rising cost of food will be reflected in Canada’s poverty rate,' it wrote."

Canada is Becoming Poor, Here's Why... | Griffin Milks | March 9, 2024:

Saturday, June 15, 2024

SCOTUS strikes down bump stock ban

In 2017, the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (BATF) banned rifles with bump stocks by classifying them as machine guns (which were already prohibited by Congress). This week the U.S. Supreme Court found the regulation misinterpreted the legislation and struck it down.

Supreme Court’s Welcome Bump Stock Ruling | Wall Street Journal | Editorial Board:

June 14, 2024 - "Why should Congress ever take a vote if lawmakers can simply defer hard policy choices to the regulatory state? That is the subtext of the Supreme Court’s welcome 6-3 ruling Friday on 'bump stocks,' which are rifle accessories that facilitate rapid firing....

"The opinion in Garland v. Cargill, written by Justice Clarence Thomas, is a straightforward case of statutory interpretation. Federal law strictly regulates machine guns, but it defines them as weapons that 'automatically' fire multiple rounds 'by a single function of the trigger.' A bump stock doesn’t do that. As the majority explains, it’s 'a plastic casing that allows every other part of the rifle to slide back and forth.' This helps a user to quickly and repeatedly 'bump' the gun’s trigger forward against a stationary finger. The mechanics matter, Justice Thomas writes, because the statutory definition of a machine gun 'hinges on how many shots discharge when the shooter engages the trigger.' A semiautomatic rifle fires one shot per trigger pull, bump stock or no.

"Writing in dissent for the three liberals, Justice Sonia Sotomayor says that when the law refers to a 'single function of the trigger,' it really means 'a single action by the shooter to initiate a firing sequence.' She uses that logic to try to erase distinctions: 'Just as the shooter of an M16 need only pull the trigger and maintain backward pressure (on the trigger), a shooter of a bump-stock-equipped AR–15 need only pull the trigger and maintain forward pressure (on the gun).' This is unconvincing, and the obvious difference is the latter trigger operates once per shot. Her best argument is that the bureau of alcohol and firearms (ATF) has sometimes considered other gun tinkerings to be machine guns, including when a man attached a motorized fishing reel to a firearm, so its rotation would pull the trigger.

"But Justice Thomas says the ATF 'on more than 10 separate occasions' acknowledged that bump stocks did not qualify as machine guns. In 2018 the agency estimated that there could be up to 520,000 of them in circulation. The ATF does not get to turn something like half a million Americans into potential felons without any say-so from Congress....

"[T]he bump stock diktat wasn’t a Biden Administration regulation. The ATF moved during the Trump Administration after the Las Vegas mass shooter used a bump stock in 2017. The Trump White House approved it. In doing so, it let Congress off the hook, as Justice Samuel Alito points out in a concurrence. 'There is a simple remedy for the disparate treatment of bump stocks and machineguns,' he says. 'Congress can amend the law — and perhaps would have done so already if ATF had stuck with its earlier interpretation. Now that the situation is clear, Congress can act.'

"This is an especially important message in an era when regulators in both parties have decided they can rewrite laws regardless of the plain language of a statute. In this and other cases, the Supreme Court has been saying loud and clear that regulators can’t exceed their authority—and that Congress needs to get back in the business of debating and writing laws rather than ducking difficult votes in favor of the administrative state."

Supreme Court 6-3 CRUSHES ATF Bumpstock Ban Cargill v Garland 2a is BACK!!!Supreme Court 6-3 CRUSHES ATF Bumpstock Ban Cargill v Garland 2a is BACK!!! | Tom Grieve | June 14, 2024:

Sunday, June 9, 2024

To Whom It May Concern

GD's Political Animal will be taking a break so that GD can have a small vacation. Take care; talk next weekend!

Saturday, June 8, 2024

Trudeau regime's extremist attack on free speech

Canada's Online Harms Bill C-63 would impose draconian criminal penalties on hate speech and curtail people’s liberty in order to stop crimes they haven’t yet committed.

Canada’s Extremist Attack on Free Speech | The Atlantic | Conor Friedersdorf:

June 6, 2024 - "In 1984, George Orwell coined the term thoughtcrime. In the short story 'The Minority Report,' the science-fiction author Philip K. Dick gave us the concept of 'precrime,' describing a society where would-be criminals were arrested before they could act. Now Canada is combining the concepts in a work of dystopian nonfiction: A bill making its way through Parliament would impose draconian criminal penalties on hate speech and curtail people’s liberty in order to stop future crimes they haven’t yet committed.

"The Online Harms Act [Bill C-63] states that any person who advocates for or promotes genocide is 'liable to imprisonment for life.' It defines lesser 'hate crimes' as including online speech that is 'likely to foment detestation or vilification' on the basis of race, religion, gender, or other protected categories. And if someone 'fears' they may become a victim of a hate crime, they can go before a judge, who may summon the preemptively accused for a sort of precrime trial. If the judge finds 'reasonable grounds' for the fear, the ... judge may put the defendant under house arrest or electronic surveillance and order them to abstain from alcohol and drugs. Refusal to 'enter the recognizance' for one year results in 12 months in prison. This is madness.

"The proposed law ... does many other things too. One section concerns the obligations of online platforms to police content. Another bears on the worthy goal of protecting children from viewing pornography and stopping the distribution of child-sexual-abuse material, raising the odds that the bill will pass with too little attention to its worst provisions. (In February, it passed its first reading in the House of Commons. Becoming law would require a second and third reading in that body, where amendments can be proposed; passage in the national Senate; and approval by the governor general.)...

"Arif Virani, Canada’s minister of justice and attorney general, is championing it. 'We need the ability to stop an anticipated hate crime from occurring,' he declared last week. 'The Conservatives need to get on board. Now.' According to The New York Times, some version of the bill is likely to pass, because 'Trudeau’s Liberal Party has an agreement with an opposition party to support government legislation.'

"Just countries do not punish mere speech with imprisonment, let alone life imprisonment. Just countries do not order people who have not committed and are not even accused of a crime to be confined to their home or tracked with an ankle bracelet. I have reasonable grounds to fear that the Trudeau government is going to trample on the civil rights of Canadians. That is hardly sufficient to secure the house arrest of its officials.

"Earlier this year, the Canadian Civil Liberties Association urged substantial amendments to the legislation. 'The broad criminal prohibitions on speech in the bill risk stifling public discourse and criminalizing political activism,' it warned. 'The bill imposes draconian penalties for certain types of expression, including life imprisonment for a very broad and vaguely defined offence of "incitement to genocide," and 5 years of jail time for other broadly defined speech acts. This not only chills free speech but also undermines the principles of proportionality and fairness in our legal system.'

"But amendments would not go far enough. No one who favors allowing the state to imprison people for mere speech, or severely constraining a person’s liberty in anticipation of alleged hate speech they have yet to utter, is fit for leadership in a liberal democracy. Every elected official who has supported the unamended bill should be ousted at the next opportunity by voters who grasp the fraught, authoritarian folly of this extremist proposal."

Trudeau's new online censorship law - Problems with Bill C-63 / the Online Harms Law | Canadian Constitution Foundation | March 4, 2024:

Friday, June 7, 2024

David Boaz (1953-2024)

David Boaz (1953-2024) RIP

David Boaz | Wikipedia:

June 7, 2024 - "David Boaz (/ˈboʊ.æz/; born August 29, 1953 - June 7, 2024, Mayfield, Kentucky) was Distinguished Senior Fellow and the former executive vice president of the Cato Institute, an American libertarian think tank. He is the author of Libertarianism: A Primer, published in 1997 by the Free Press and described in the Los Angeles Times as 'a well-researched manifesto of libertarian ideas.' He is also the editor of The Libertarian Reader and co-editor of the Cato Handbook for Congress (2003) and the Cato Handbook on Policy (2005).

"He frequently discusse[d] such topics as education choice, the growth of government, the ownership society, his support of drug legalization as a consequence of the individual right to self-determination, a non-interventionist foreign policy, and the rise of libertarianism on national television and radio shows.... Boaz, a graduate of Vanderbilt University, is the former editor of The New Guard magazine and was executive director of the Council for a Competitive Economy prior to joining Cato in 1981."

Read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Boaz
Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 4.0; additional terms may apply.

David Boaz at Young Americans for Liberty conference, 2019. Gage Skidmore, CC BY-SA 2.0, Wikimedia Commons.

Remembering David Boaz | Cato at Liberty { Peter Goettler:

June 7, 2024 - "Our inestimable colleague, David Boaz, passed away on June 7, after a year‐long battle with cancer. It’s impossible to express how deeply his friends, colleagues, and all libertarians will miss him. David was the longest‐tenured staff member in the history of the Cato Institute, serving the organization and its mission for forty‐three‐and‐a‐half years. He was the executive vice president of the Institute for decades until 2022, when he ascended to the title of distinguished senior fellow of Cato....

"David made an incalculable contribution to building Cato into the respected institution and voice it is today, as well as to the “mainstreaming” of libertarianism as a legitimate political philosophy worthy of a seat at the table in all of the nation’s policy debates. Few did more than he did to earn it that seat.

"David was the first person from Cato whom I ever met. I was a new contributor in 2001 when he visited my office in New York to thank me.... I learned from David during that 2001 meeting and would never stop learning from him over the next 23 years. The visit took place about two weeks after the terrorist attack of 9/11. The building was across the street from Ground Zero.... We went up to the top‐floor cafeteria to look over the devastation of what used to be the World Trade Center. David remarked, 'After this, I’m very concerned about terrorism. But I’m equally concerned about what this will mean for our civil liberties.'

"This was a lesson. Because at that time, I only shared David’s first concern — of terrorism. Barely a month later the PATRIOT Act was passed into law, and we would soon see the national security surveillance state mushroom in ways few might have imagined. Later came revelations of extralegal and unconstitutional spying programs. This confirmed that, in the wake of the World Trade Center tragedy, authorities’ respect for civil liberties were at a low ebb and these rights indeed had been degraded. David’s fears back in September 2001 were well‐founded and prescient.

"I recall this story because it epitomizes the most important thing I learned from David: all our liberties matter. In defending individual rights we can’t pick and choose, or somehow prioritize the ones that are most important to us. First, because they are interconnected. If we allow some to be threatened or diluted, others will soon be. Second, the ones we deem 'less important' may be crucial to us in ways we can’t foresee. And even if not, they are undoubtedly critical to other fellow citizens.

"David did much to imbue Cato with a similarly holistic view of individual liberty. He also never ceased to stress the Institute’s need to be truly independent, to be truly nonpartisan, and to adhere faithfully to libertarian principles. It’s now the duty of the Cato staff of today, and of the future, to honor David by upholding all of these values as faithfully and as capably as he did."

Read more: https://www.cato.org/blog/remembering-david-boaz
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David Boaz | The Reason Interview | ReasonTV | March 20, 2024:

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