The Good, the Bad, and the Uncertain
I’m not sure why I’m sending you this. What follows are notes I took about recent news events that caught my attention. Maybe, after you read them, you’ll understand why I sent them. In case you want to know more, there are links that follow each item.
Good: “No, You Can’t Trespass to Indoctrinate My Workers”
The Supreme Court struck down a regulation giving union organizers the right to enter private farms without permission in order to organize workers. The “regulation appropriates for the enjoyment of the third parties the owner’s right to exclude,” Chief Justice John Roberts wrote. He was joined by justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett.
Click here.
Bad: Hong Kong Daily Closed
Hong Kong’s only outspoken pro-democracy newspaper, Apple Daily, published its last issue on Thursday, June 24. The 26-year-old paper was majority owned by Jimmy Lai, a wealthy critic of Beijing.
Click here.
Uncertain: Delta’s Force
The Delta variant is the great threat in the US to our attempt to eliminate COVID-19, Anthony Fauci said on Tuesday, June 22. It’s spreading quickly in the UK and other European countries, and is expected to surge in the US, according to the CDC. British scientists are estimating that the variant is 40% to 80% more transmissible than the Alpha variant, which accounts for the fact that the caseload is up nearly 500%. The good news is that it is resulting in fewer hospitalizations and fatalities.
Good: HR-1 Defeated
An astonishingly anti-democratic, power-usurping Congressional bill, the first submitted to Congress by the Biden administration, failed to get the 60 votes needed to pass the Senate, even though all 50 Democrats voted for it. Among other idiocies, the bill made voter ID requirements illegal, gave voting rights to felons, and promoted ballot harvesting, which is custom-made for voter fraud.
If you’d like to know how crazy this bill was, Ted Cruz does a good job of explaining it here.
Bad: Google Nation Shrugs Off Challenge by Pipsqueak European Union
The European Union opened an antitrust investigation against Google last week, trying to determine if they are making it impossible for rivals to buy ads on Google and Google-owned YouTube. Google is not sweating this. They are as rich as the richest European nations, they are growing faster, and they have no debt. Prediction: Google will end up paying a negligible fine and moving on with their nation-building empire.
Click here.
Uncertain: Big Blue Cities Recalling Refugees and Tourists
In the Travel & Entertainment section of the WSJ on June 23, there was an article about how some of the larger, pro-BLM/defund-the-police Democratic cities are launching campaigns to draw tourists and fleeing residents back to enjoy their urban benefits. New York, Washington DC, Detroit, and Portland are busy promoting their parks, museums, and other amenities to raise post-shutdown revenues. We’ll see how that works.
Click here.
Good: Some Hope for Students’ Free Speech Rights
The Supreme Court supported free speech for students last week in an 8-1 ruling that a Pennsylvania school district overstepped its authority by punishing a high school cheerleader who used vulgar language on Snapchat after she failed to make the cheerleading team. The ruling left the door open for schools to censor speech within school-run assemblies, publications, and communications. But they don’t have the right to regulate speech generally on social media.
Click here.