I don’t keep up much with the politics of Central American countries. It’s always the same story, let’s try socialism for the 400th time. But El Salvador has been making some noise lately, and they’re doing things that deserve attention. So what exactly is going on in El Salvador?
Brazil is referred to as “the country of tomorrow.” The only problem is that a country can only be called that for so long until people wonder when tomorrow will actually show up. It remains to be seen if Brazil can live up to its potential. Brazil has the goods to become a player – they are the 8th largest economy in the world, with a GDP nearing $3 trillion. Brazil is very high on other lists – unfortunately, they have the world’s highest net homicide rate per annum. They also have a propensity to routinely destroy their economy by electing socialists. Riding on a global wave of post-Brexit, post-Trump populism, Jair Bolsonaro was elected Brazil’s president in 2018 to address these problems.
The great Thomas Sowell often notes that when looking to solve problems, there are no perfect solutions, only trade-offs. You weigh the cost of your various options and look for the one that creates the fewest additional problems. You look for the best trade-off. Make your concessions based on three factors – compared to what, at what cost, and based on what evidence? Nowhere does this practice come into play more than in foreign policy. Today we’re going to look at the ongoing situation in Ukraine, and weigh the options based on historic parallels.
Economic uncertainty hangs in the air. Inflation is rising, supply chains are disrupted, and global conflict only compounds those problems. I’m not going to talk about the ongoing crisis in Ukraine as that is beyond the scope of this post. But the fallout of Putin’s actions, and the U.S. response, may set an interesting chain of events into play that could reshape the world.
Today, we are wrapping of Declaration of Independence month at Salerno Schools. The 1776 Declaration has four parts: the preamble, the philosophical, the indictments of King George and the actual declaration of action. You can check out my coverage of all 27 indictments, with modern counterparts, here. Going through this project made me realize that the things King George III was indicted for pale in comparison to the things our federal government does today. The federal government violates the Constitution and inalienable rights on a daily basis. Without further ado – here is my 2022 Declaration of Independence.
2022 is a midterm election year, so the topic of voting rights is once again front and center. House Democrats are pushing a bill that would give the Federal government near-total control over elections. Under the Constitution, election law is prescribed to the State Legislatures. But I’m not here to talk about the constitutionality of the bill itself, I want to talk about democracy. Criticism of nearly any legislation today equates with “an attack on democracy!” The official slogan of the Washington Post is “democracy dies in darkness.” But what exactly is democracy?
When the topic of border security comes up, the conversation is never about our northern neighbors, or the fish on the east or west. No, it’s always one particular problem spot. A 3,111 km line that separates us from our southern neighbor, Mexico. Whether it’s explicitly stated or not, everyone knows that Mexico is who we’re talking about when we debate border policy.
When the Biden administration pulled U.S. troops out of Afghanistan in summer 2021, it signaled the end of the War on Terrorism that the United States has been involved in since 2001. However, we are still involved in Yemen and other areas in the Middle East. And the Biden administration is still waging economic war on Afghanistan, starving their citizens, and even drone striking innocent civilians. While it doesn’t seem that our Middle East adventurism will ever truly be over, leaving Afghanistan does seem to close the chapter on a significant phase of U.S. foreign policy. So, the question begs, what next? Since the era of early-20th-century global progressivism, outside of very brief periods, U.S. foreign policy has always proactively looked for dragons to slay. The military-industrial complex that Eisenhower belatedly warned us about cannot afford to rest. This is why you should pay very close attention to what U.S. corporate media tells you about Kazakhstan over the next few weeks.
