Black Lives Matter and Antifa
Post-verdict St. Louis protesters
In St. Louis, following a “not guilty” verdict of a police officer accused of murdering a black male, Black Lives Matter protesters hurled rocks at the mayor’s house, seriously injured three police officers, and surrounded and hit with bottles a Fox News reporter. An adjunct professor who made numerous jokes about dead cops and openly supports Antifa has been placed on administrative leave by the New York college where he taught. Democrats are being criticized for reluctance to repudiate Antifa.
Law enforcement
Former U.S. district attorney Andrew McCarthy defends Attorney General Sessions against charges that he is being “too tough on crime” and is overthrowing the previous administration’s efforts to reduce “racial disparities in the criminal justice system.” A coalition of civil liberties organizations and think tanks, however, is petitioning Congress to reverse the administration’s decision to renew supplying surplus Defense Department “weapons of war” to local police departments.
Conflicting math
Breitbart News is convinced that the “DACA amnesty DREAM Act will cost $115 billion.” Cato’s immigration policy analyst comes to the opposite conclusion, namely, that “deporting 700,000 DREAMers will diminish future tax revenue by $158 billion,” including the cost of $12,500 per deportation.” The diverse estimates don’t bode well for upcoming Congressional budget and immigration negotiations.
China – North Korea update
Korean peninsula
Chinese President Xi Jinping claims that “China remains persistent on the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula,” but does nothing decisive to curb his saber-rattling nuclear proxy, North Korea. A strategy article in the National Interest recommends that the U.S. supply nuclear arms to South Korea and Japan to catch China’s attention to the self-defeating nature of its lifeline to the North Korean regime, and to give Korea and Japan the ability to defend themselves in case the U.S. were to blink in a nuclear showdown.
German elections
Anti-Merkel protesters
German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s election campaign is plagued by hecklers enraged over her open door policy to Muslim immigrants from North Africa and the Near East. The anti-EU, anti-immigration Alternative for Germany (AfD) party is reportedly behind the protests and may be close to 10% support in the upcoming September election, which would give it parliamentary seats for the first time and possibly make it Germany’s third largest party. This is a shift from a few days ago when it was thought that the pro-business Free Democratic Party (FDP) was likely to win the number three slot.
Diet and longevity
World oldest person dies
The world’s oldest person has just died at at 117 years of age. But for the rest of the population, diet is now the “second highest risk factor for early death after smoking.” Research into the drivers of aging and death are now pointing to the central importance of methylation drift, which alters the DNA-expression-controlling epigenome.
The recently deceased world’s oldest person does not look like a poster child for calorie restriction, however!
Click here to go to the previous Founders Broadsheet post (“Friday’s news (9/15/2017)”)
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