Tag: CATO Institute

Rolling Back Protections for Child Labor in the Name of ‘Parental Rights’ + Notes

Ms. Cat

One hundred years ago this month, I was reminded by Portside’s “This Week in People’s History” feature (5/29/23), a constitutional amendment passed both houses of Congress, with large majorities, and went to the states for ratification. It remains a proposal, not a law, to this day, because the necessary three-quarters of states didn’t accept it.

…

In April 2023, the Washington Post (4/23/23) reported on the Foundation for Government Accountability, a Florida-based think tank with a lobbying arm, the Opportunity Solutions Project, that’s crucially behind these state-level moves to undermine rules to keep children from working long hours in dangerous conditions. The Iowa state senate had just approved an FGA-maneuvered bill letting children as young as 14 work night shifts.

…

Does every story on child labor need to mention the advocacy group? Of course not. But if you consider the rollback of child labor laws a problem, connected to other problems, then calling groups like them out adds something key to understanding that problem and how to address it.

Rolling Back Protections for Child Labor in the Name of ‘Parental Rights’

Related SourceWatch Articles:

Foundation for Government Accountability

Opportunity Solutions Project

American Legislative Exchange Council

Atlas Network

Atlas Network, updated 4-3-2024Download

Bradley Foundation

Cato Institute

Ed Uihlein Family Foundation

Franklin News Foundation

Koch Family Foundations

Sarah Scaife Foundation

State Policy Network

The 85 Fund

There’s more, but I’m not going to beat a dead horse with this one. They’re basically the same groups that have been trying to privatize education, destroy unions, etc.

[2012] The Demise of Higher Education in the United States

Ms. Cat

The United States has experienced two major growth spurts in higher education. In 1862, the Morrill Act changed the face of higher education will by granting each state 30,000 acres of public land for each senator and representative. Sale of the land was intended to create an endowment fund for the support of colleges in each of the states. Prior to the creation of the land-grant colleges, higher education was predominantly intended for wealthy students and those intending to serve as clergy. The land-grant colleges expanded higher education to different regions and a different class of students. This expansion, however, was still incomplete.

The Demise of Higher Education in the United States

Previously:

The Origin of Student Debt: Reagan Adviser Warned Free College Would Create a Dangerous “Educated Proletariat”

The Powell Memo Revisited

Front Organizations

Biden Offers to Turn U.S. Military Personnel Into Saudi Royal Bodyguards

Ms. Cat

President Joe Biden has made a habit of putting the interest of foreign governments before that of the American people. Like the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and its de facto ruler, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. 

Biden Offers to Turn U.S. Military Personnel Into Saudi Royal Bodyguards by Doug Bandow

Flashback (has he forgotten?):

[2019] American Soldiers Are Not Bodyguards for Saudi Royals by Doug Bandow

President Donald Trump believes in America First except when it comes to the Saudi royal family. Then it is Saudi Arabia first.

China vs. the US: shipbuilding, subsidies, and the Jones Act

Ms. Cat

Hypocrisy thrives where double standards prevail.

Earlier, I stupidly tweeted out an article about the Jones Act and shipbuilding and Colin Grabow, from the Cato Institute, liked it (he was quoted in the article). I looked him up and decided to listen to this video on the shipbuilding competition between China and the US, where he and a lawyer for United Steelworkers were on the panel. China is eating their lunch, and it’s the ruling elites’ own fault, yet they scapegoat China for it. The double standards over China’s “unfair economic practices” AKA the subsidizing of their shipbuilding industry irritates me (liars irritate me even more). States give subsidies, grants, and tax breaks to corporations, all the time. Fincantieri Marinette Marine is just one example, but Wisconsin had done the same for Foxconn. Foxconn received tax breaks and $3B in subsidies, which was “the largest ever subsidy provided by a state to a foreign company”, despite not living up to their promises.

Rumble

Colin Grabow wants to end the Jones Act. I’ve made at least three video clips regarding the Jones Act, two with Sal Mercogliano from What’s Going On With Shipping and one from the government-funded CSIS (I’ve posted them, below). Spoiler alert: Sal says that the problem isn’t the Jones Act. Meanwhile, both CSIS and the Cato Institute (part of the Atlas Network) blame the Jones Act. Deregulation is a wet dream of big corporations (which fund both the Cato Institute and CSIS).

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Tulsi Gabbard is running for Opportunist-in-Chief

Ms. Cat

Tulsi Gabbard is running for Opportunist-in-Chief

But what’s disappointing about her recent Maga makeover is that she’s abandoned a lot of the positive portions of the Sanders agenda she once espoused, policies designed to help working people: higher wages, better health care, and stronger unions (she got a 100 per cent voting score as a congressperson from the AFL-CIO). Instead, she now dismisses all aspects of Bidenomics as “fascism” and plays up the culture wars.

Related:

Former Hawaii congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard will be keynote speaker at Mar-a-Lago fundraiser

Trump revealed Tuesday that he’s considering Gabbard as a running mate.

The fundraiser is not technically for Trump; it’s for the 917 Society, a nonprofit that promotes education about the Constitution.

917 Society Founders Club

917 Society Tax Filings

Tulsi Gabbard

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ACLU Wisconsin files records requests for banned books across school districts

Ms. Cat

ACLU Wisconsin files records requests for banned books across school districts

Menomonee Falls School District banned 33 titles. The same day the ACLU made its open records requests, Elkhorn Area School District received a request from a parent challenging 444 books, prompting the temporary removal and review of those titles.

Related:

ACLU of Wisconsin Files Open Record Requests with Six School Districts That Recently Banned Books

The letter to the school districts accompanying the requests notes that removing books from school libraries threatens the First Amendment rights of students and their families. The Supreme Court held over 40 years ago that “local school boards may not remove books from school library shelves simply because they dislike the ideas contained in those books.”

…

The largely forgotten book ban case that went up to the Supreme Court

Pressley Bill Would Classify Discriminatory Book Bans as Civil Rights Violations

Pressley Bill Would Classify Discriminatory Book Bans as Civil Rights Violations

Ms. Cat

The bill would also require public and school libraries to have a diverse book collection.

Pressley Bill Would Classify Discriminatory Book Bans as Civil Rights Violations

Parents should be able to have a say in their children’s education (although, they shouldn’t be astroturfed). The thing is, these articles are selective in revealing the money behind some of these groups. I’ve included links to a few, of the financials/partnerships, below the cut. I wasn’t able to find information on a couple of them, though. Another thing, PEN has ties to the CIA and the Congress for Cultural Freedom.

Related:

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CBDC Failed: Congress Is Banning CBDC With Massive Support

Ms. Cat
Lena Petrova, CPA – Finance, Economics & Tax

Related:

Dueling Digital Dollar Bills Debated in Congressional Hearing on U.S. CBDC

Will Citizens’ Distrust of Government Surveillance Stop CBDCs?

But the eNaira launch came nine months after the CBN effectively banned cryptocurrencies, which were used to fund anti-police brutality protests that swept the country in late 2020. The CBN claimed crypto jeopardized the financial system and could be used to fund terrorism and froze protestors’ bank accounts.