A second lesson of 2024 rings the death knell of the National Popular Vote (NPV) Initiative or Compact, intended by its supporters to avoid election “inversions” in which the presidential candidate winning the popular vote loses in the Electoral College. The compact was first introduced in 2006 but reinvigorated by Donald Trump’s 2016 defeat of Hillary Clinton.
There is an old proverb known as the “law of holes.” It goes something like this: “Let me tell you about the law of holes: If you find yourself in a hole, stop digging.”
Most political pollsters were wrong about how close the 2024 U.S. presidential election would be, especially in so-called battleground states, which were expected to be toss-ups just days before November 5. Why did the polls underestimate Donald Trump’s popular vote margin wildly and, by extension, his dominance of the Electoral College?
Millions of Cubans remain without power in the wake of Hurricane Oscar, but bad weather is not Cuba’s real problem. Its centrally planned socialist economy is the root cause of the blackout and most of its other problems.
In a global landscape marked by supply chain shifts, rising state-led economies, and new geopolitical frictions, America’s trade policies have been a focus of the news cycle this presidential campaign season. Both Donald Trump and Kamala Harris have proposed anti-free trade approaches, and these strategies raise questions about the implications for markets, individual choice, and the true cost of protectionism. Let us take a look at how their records stack up.
Ready for a pre-Halloween scare?
For forty years, the dominant political philosophy on the mainstream American right was the fusionist conservativism of Ronald Reagan. Under Reagan’s formulation, the right formed an alliance between free-market economics, social traditionalism, and a strong anti-communist defense policy. The American right has changed in recent years, with the current GOP presidential ticket looking more like a bean bag chair than Reagan’s three-legged stool. While elements of the other planks remain, nowhere is this shift more apparent than in the political right’s retreat from free markets. In its place we have seen the emergence of a populist New Right typified by Ohio senator and vice-presidential candidate J.D. Vance.
An article featured in Annals of Internal Medicine highlights an ongoing effort by the Food and Drug Administration to bring more nicotine replacement therapies (often called NRTs) to market. Although rates have plummeted over the past several decades, smoking remains one of the most common causes of preventable death in the U.S.
Whatever the politicians say during the presidential campaign, the United States will continue to need a significant number of immigrants and Latin America will need to continue exporting part of its population to this country.
Millions of Americans have turned to weight-loss injections to help them lose weight and live healthier lives. As of May 2024, about 25,000 people have begun using Wegovy (the most common injectable weight loss treatment) each week. Similar treatments are being used off-label to help adolescents lose weight. The New York Times reports Wegovy may soon be used to treat addiction.
