I’m trying something new this week. If it is received well, I will look to continue it every Friday/Saturday.
None of us has the time to keep up with all the news out there so it can be helpful to have someone we trust highlight important stories. I’m not sure if I’ve earned your trust yet, but if you’re reading my Substack then at the very least you know where I stand on many issues. Trust may come but for now I’ll settle for understanding. The stories I highlight will be the ones that resonate with me and which I believe are important in economic, political, or social terms.
This Week’s News
Free speech for me but not for thee – Last week Claudine Gay, the president of Harvard, Sally Kornbluth of MIT, and the University of Pennsylvania’s Liz Magill testified before the House on antisemitism on college campuses. All three subsequently faced calls to resign for failing to answer the seemingly simple question: “Would calling for the genocide of Jews violate each university’s code of conduct?” Their protestations regarding the importance of free speech ring hollow given their years of promoting “safe spaces,” cancelling right wing speakers, and focus on “microaggressions.” While both Gay and Kornbluth remain in their positions for the time being, Magill resigned over the weekend after Wall Street CEO Ross Stevens threatened to pull a $100m donation if she did not step down.
“Be thankful I don't take it all” – The Liberal government, in an absurdist show of “I can give with one hand and take away with the other” has announced that it will spend $13B on a dental-care program while also increasing the cost of Employment Insurance (EI) and Canada Pension Plan (CPP) premiums and adjusting Federal Tax Bracket thresholds higher by 4.7%. It appears that “free” dental is not free, and the money has to come from somewhere…and that somewhere is your pocket.
Hunter Biden, Guns, Drugs, and Tax evasion – in the history of US presidents one would be hard pressed to think of a relative of a president who is a bigger political liability than Hunter Biden. To refresh your memory, the President’s son who had been charged with failure to pay $100,000 in taxes and accused of possessing a firearm as a drug user (yes that’s a crime) saw his plea deal fall apart in July when the presiding judge thought the terms represented “preferential treatment.” (What?!? Isn’t it typical to get two years’ probation and have the firearm charge expunged from your record?) Hunter is once again in the news as the US Justice Department filed three felony and six misdemeanor tax offences against him including a charge of or evading $1.4m in taxes. Given the position of his father on gun control, the younger Biden’s attempts to have the gun charges dismissed base on the 2nd Amendment seem…ironic. Whatever the ultimate outcome, Hunter will no doubt be an albatross around the President’s next in 2024 as he seeks reelection.
Macron’s Immigration Bill – the role of immigration remains a heated topic in Canada, the United States, and Europe as political parties continue to debate (and I use the term generously) its economic and cultural impact. The most recent evidence that a compromise seems unlikely came this week when Macron’s “flagship immigration bill” was defeated by a combination of votes from the center, left, and right, with those on the left arguing that it was too repressive and those on the right saying it was too lenient. Immigration looks to be a major issue in both the 2024 US Presidential Election and the next Canadian Election (whenever Trudeau decides he’s been PM long enough) and is a topic I wrote about here:
What I’m reading
The World’s Richest Communist – Suzy Weiss of The Free Press profiled multimillionaire heir to the Cox Communications fortune Fergie Chambers who has set himself up on a commune in Alford, Massachusetts as a combination, spoiled rich kid, far-left activist, and cult leader. Fergie is the General Secretary of the Berkshire Communists, which is, in its own words, a “revolutionary Marxist-Leninist collective, aiming to promote the formation of a powerful workers’ party.” The irony of one of the richest people in America fighting for communism seems to have escaped him.
“The Democratic Coalition is Falling Apart” over at the Liberal Patriot, Ruy Teixeira examines recent polls and sees very little (if anything) for Democrats to be enthusiastic about. Whether its black voters, Hispanic voters, independent and moderate voters, women voters, working-class voters, or young voters (who else is left?) all signs point to tough times for the Democrats in 2024. Sure, it’s still early but Teixeira sees a “very real possibility that Donald Trump will (gulp) win next November.”
“Why Two Parents Are the Ultimate Privilege” by Bari Weiss of The Free Press Interviews University of Maryland economist Melissa Kearney about her new book, The Two-Parent Privilege: How Americans Stopped Getting Married and Started Falling Behind which argues that the dramatic decline in the percentage of children living with married parents is behind many of the country’s biggest economic problems. It is surprising that what many see as common sense would require a book to explain.
My Podcast Recommendation of the Week
The Glenn Show – The Truth about George Floyd’s Death
Glenn Loury, Professor of Economics at Brown University and Paulson Senior Fellow at the Manhattan Institute. In this episode he speaks with John McWhorter, an associate professor of linguistics at Columbia University and frequent contributor to the New York Times. In this episode the two discuss the documentary, The Fall of Minneapolis, “which brings to light some startling evidence about the circumstances surrounding Floyd’s death and Derek Chauvin’s conviction on murder charges.”