What is the dumbest thing the federal government has wasted money on lately?
That’s a difficult question to answer, but only because politicians waste so much of U.S. taxpayers’ money. Fortunately, government spending watchdog OpenTheBooks provides their answers to that question in their annual “Where’s the Pork?” report.
“The former Minneapolis Police officer who fatally shot an unarmed woman while responding to her 911 call in 2017,” CNN reports, “was released from prison Monday after serving over three years behind bars.” The officer, Mohammed Noor, was convicted of third-degree murder in April 2019. His release last month came just 18 days from the fifth anniversary of his crime.
As we noted, Justine Ruszczyk Damond, a dual citizen of Australia and the United States, heard a woman being assaulted and called 911. When Minneapolis police arrived, Damond approached their car, and officer Noor shot her dead. The 40-year-old woman was to be married within a month.
Actually, it’s a trick question.
Google (excuse me, Alphabet) doesn’t have a monopoly.
Not by any sensible definition of the word. Is Google the only way to “search” to find information? No, there are libraries full of books, and there are other people, many of whom know things.
Even regular moviegoers might have been a bit baffled on March 27, 2022 when CODA won the much coveted Best Picture Academy Award. Critics derided it as a “feel good” coming-of-age drama. Simultaneously released on AppleTV+ streaming service, the movie also didn’t spend much time in commercial movie theaters. Nevertheless, the American-French feature film also scooped up Best Supporting Actor (deaf actor Troy Kotsur) and Best Adapted Screenplay (Sian Heder).
The last time the Federal Reserve Bank (Fed for short) announced its inflation rate target, it was 2%. Discussing a good target rate seems almost like a joke, with inflation now running at more than 9%. What difference does a target make when the Fed misses its mark by that much?
Let’s think about it anyway.
Somewhat lost in the excitement surrounding Dobbs (no fundamental right to abortion), Bruen (right to carry a firearm outside the home), and Kennedy (coach’s midfield prayer was not an establishment of religion) was the decision in West Virginia v. EPA. The MSM went into apoplexy over the Court’s latest ruling on the power of the Administrative State. CNN’s headline squawked that “Supreme Court curbs EPA’s ability to fight climate change.” Such alarmism is uncalled for.
The capture theory of regulation, popularized in an article by Nobel laureate George Stigler, concludes that regulatory agencies become “captured” by the firms they regulate. Regulatory agencies act in the best interest of the firms they regulate rather than serving the general public interest.
Independent Institute scholars believe in individual rights, but that doesn’t mean they embrace everything that claims to be an individual right, or that the Constitution’s 9th Amendment confers judicial protection for every rights claim. In fact, they disagree with one another on this. Even when they disagree, though, the discussion is pretty illuminating… as occurred on our most recent episode of Independent Outlook, discussing the Dobbs case on abortion law. Take a look.
A slew of California police departments, from Long Beach to Pleasanton, are set to discuss “military grade equipment” with their city councils. This comes as a recently effective law places limits on law enforcement and state agencies acquiring and using martial hardware. Intended to curb police militarization, the act is noteworthy for its potential to increase financial transparency, accountability, and to slow down police surveillance.
In the Dobbs case, the U.S. Supreme Court (SCOTUS) sent abortion back to the states. In West Virginia v. EPA, the high court tackled the administrative state. In the wake of those landmarks, a key case to watch is Consumer Financial Protection Board v. All America Check Cashing, now in the Fifth Circuit.
