Category Archives: Libertarianism

A 40-year-old from Buenos Aires City was the lucky winner of the raffle for libertarian deputy Javier Mileis first monthly paycheque this week and while the lawmaker was happy to follow through on his campaign promise, he probably isnt as pleased with the result.

The winner reportedly registered at the last minute on Tuesday night, competing with almost one million participants competing for the sum of 205,596 pesos (around US$1,000).

"The winner is called Federico Hugo Nacarado, 40, who registered last night at 9.10pm," Milei confirmed on Wednesday.

However, the ideology of porteo Nacarado is far removed from the liberal economist since he considers himself to be a fanatical Kirchnerite.

"I love Cristina[Fernndez deKirchner]," maintainsNacarado, who works in the construction sector. He said his wife entered him into the raffle "because you have to if there is a contest going.

Mileis parliamentary salary will be raffled the same way every month, Libertad Avanza sources informed, open via https://mipalabra.javiermilei.com to all Argentine-born citizens aged over 18.

How are you doing, Javier? Thanks a lot, the money will come in handy, Nacarado told the deputy in a brief dialogue maintained via Todo Noticias television news channel, telling him that much of it will go to pay off bank overdrafts.

"At least he made a good start because he kept a promise, he commented on Milei and his recent incursion into politics.

"At home we are super K, the winner later told La Nacin, naming his three favourite Argentine politicians as first, Cristina Kirchner, then (Buenos Aires Province Governor) Axel Kicillof and third,Mximo Kirchner."

As for the ultra-liberal and anti-system economist Milei, 51, his comment was: "That money is mine, I can spend it like any other deputy or burn it in public or seek a form whereby that money stolen from the people returns to the people."

Just 25 years after swearing in on December 10, the deputy raffled his December salary of 200,000 pesos in a street overlooking a Mar del Plata beach at the height of the holiday season, transmitted directly by television news channels. The name of the winner emerged ahead of the presence of Milei himself.

The libertarian sprang from the academic world and political consultancy when he created his La Libertad Avanza party in 2020 which rubbishes what he calls the "political caste" and considers the state "the enemy, a violent oppressor who robs us of the fruit of our labours," in his words.

In the November 14 midterms, Mileis party finished third in the City of Buenos Aires with 17.3 percent of the vote, winning two seats in the Chamber of Deputies although not represented in the rest of the country.

The initiative was criticised by many of his fellow-deputies while the Agencia de Acceso a la Informacin Pblica, an autonomous government entity, began an investigation to corroborate that it complies with personal data protection legislation, given the possibility that the real aim of the raffle was to assemble a data base of possible voters.

"What does Milei live from, how does he pay his bills?" asked deputy Sabrina Ajmechet, of the centre-right opposition Juntos por el Cambio coalition, warning that if legislators do not collect their salaries, "only the wealthy could enter politics."

"I pick up money for my work, as outlined by Article 74 of the Constitution," said his ally Jos Luis Espert, another ultra-liberal economist, differentiating himself from Milei, who argued that he renounced his earnings from private activity before swearing in as a deputy on December 10 and that he will live in future from economics lectures.

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Milei raffles off monthly pay and the cash is won by a Kirchnerite - Buenos Aires Times

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Election season 2022, a look at the ballot | Local News | waxahachiesun.com - Waxahachie Sun

WASHINGTON, DC Gov. Chris Sununu laid out some of the work he says the state needs to continue to do to be the best place to live and work in the nation in an interview at the Cato Institute Thursday.

The libertarian think tank in Washington ranked New Hampshire Number One among the states for fiscal, regulatory, and personal policy in 2021. But it has recommendations for improvement.

Entering his fifth year as the state's chief executive, after recently announcing he plans to run for a fourth term rather than for the U.S. Senate, Sununu, a Republican, said his agenda going forward is to work on existing issues like the COVID-19 pandemic, reduce overdose deaths, increase school choice, pass right-to-work legislation, agree to his version of paid family leave which is "not an income tax" and try to tackle the lack of available housing as the state grows in popularity and prosperity.

While COVID-19 "is still very much with us," and on his front burner, Sununu said he would resist government mandates over the choice of businesses and hospitals to decide whether mandatory vaccinations among employees and mask-wearing among visitors and patrons was necessary.

In much the way he said local control has been the hallmark of the state's success, he said individual choice over government mandates always work out better saying those approaches are eventually "doomed to fail."

He criticized teachers' unions in general saying they are "out for themselves."

"I try not to be a union basher," Sununu said but he called their approach a "failing model."

Sununu said he embraces school choice now and going forward particularly for low-income families who find that their public school is not working for them, and he noted the popular voucher approach the state has taken for that demographic.InDepthNH.org reached out to both the NEA-NH and the New Hampshire Democratic Party for a response to the interview that was livestreamed but did not immediately receive a response from NEA-NH.

NHDP Chair Ray Buckley said: "Instead of attacking New Hampshire teachers and pushing a costly school voucher program that will gut public education, Chris Sununu ought to be doing his job and working to fund public education for all students in New Hampshire."

"Chris Sununu and the NH GOP need to end their obsessive culture war on U.S. history that's hurting Granite State children, and let teachers teach," said Buckley.

Sununu traveled to Washington D.C. for the policy conversation with William Ruger, a research fellow at the Cato Institute, and Jason Sorens, an adjunct scholar there, and the director of the Center for Ethics in Society at Saint Anselm College.

The conversation was virtual and was watched by many with three questions taken at the end of the hour from the public in a chatbox.

Both Ruger and Sorens are authors of Freedom in the 50 States, its sixth edition which is an index of personal and economic freedom in America by states during 2021.

In 2020, Florida was ranked the number one state on the basis of how their policies promote freedom in the fiscal, regulatory and personal realms but in 2021, New Hampshire returned to the number one position with Florida second, Nevada third, Tennessee fourth, and South Dakota fifth.

The 50th or the worst-ranked state according to the Cato index was New York while neighboring states Massachusetts ranked 30th, Vermont 43rd, and Maine 43th.

Sununu said the top five states on the list produced by the report are where "people flock to."

The report indicates that due to the pro-freedom direction of New Hampshire and its legislative policies it is likely to be harder for other states to "regain the crown" next year.

New Hampshire's 400-member House of Representatives, considered by Sununu to be the most representative in the nation, flipped from Democratic to Republican control a year ago with more than 100 endorsed Freedom Caucus candidates being elected. They are all up for re-election this year.

Sununu called it an honor to be considered the number one state for freedom and said "who you elect matters."Sununu said he was fearful that the next generation is shying away from politics because it has become so divisive and personal but he urged those in states which don't have the freedoms that New Hampshire enjoys to run for office or get civically engaged as the best way to make a difference and see change.

"Stay positive," he said. "You need hope."He gave an example of success in that regard as the town of Walpole which built affordable housing which looks like a barn and in character with the community.

He said the state needs to engage the business community and entice and empower them to be part of the housing solution as a way to fight against the "NIMBY" or not in my backyard philosophy obstructing housing development.

He also pointed to his efforts to reduce taxes as part of the reason the state is doing so well noting that he reminds his father John, a former governor, that he was not able to do what he has done.

The report had some concerns for New Hampshire from its freedom-loving perspective.

It said New Hampshire's regulatory outlook is not so sunny and noted: "the granite state's primary sin is exclusionary zoning."

It recommended that the state needs to legalize gambling, pass a right-to-work law and that local governments need to get a handle on school spending and taxation.

Sununu was asked by a caller about legalizing marijuana and said the state has decriminalized it under his watch and he would be receptive to bills that would handle it in the right way, but he worried about the state's drug problems and does not want to exacerbate or diminish advances to turn that crisis around.

Sununu said the bottom line for freedom in New Hampshire is that local control means individuals have more of a say. That brings with it an inherent sense of freedom from government and the ability to engage at a micro level to come to a consensus and see meaningful change and feel that individual voices are heard, which is not a top-down government at all but by the people and for the people, he said.

A copy of the CATO report can be found here.https://www.freedominthe50states.org/

This story was originally published by InDepth NH.

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Sununu Goes To Washington To Talk To Cato Institute About New Hampshire - Patch.com

Novak Djokovic's father called the Serbian tennis star the "Spartacus of the new world" in a bizarre rant in which he also described him as a symbol for the poor and oppressed.

Speaking in the hours after his son was turned away by Australia's Border Force as he tried to enter the country for the Australian Open, Srdjan Djokovic launched a tirade in which he also said that Novak is a "leader of the libertarian world."

Djokovic had previously been granted a medical exemption from having a COVID-19 vaccine by the Australian Open, however an issue at the border saw him held for several hours, before being moved to a quarantine facility ahead of deportation.

As of Thursday, the 34-year-old is being kept at a hotel in Melbourne while his legal team fights his ordered deportation.

"Novak has become the symbol and a leader of the libertarian world, a world of poor and oppressed nations and people," Srdjan Djokovic told Russian media on Wednesday, according to The Guardian.

"They can incarcerate him tonight, shackle him tomorrow, but truth is like water, as it always finds its way. Novak is the Spartacus of the new world that doesn't tolerate injustice, colonialism and hypocrisy."

Spartacus was a Thracian gladiator who led a slave rebellion against the Roman Republic and has since served as a symbol for those revolting against oppressive rule.

"Novak has shown you can achieve anything if you have dreams, and he shares these dreams with billions of people who look up to him," added Srdjan.

On Wednesday, Srdjan Djokovic also claimed that his son was being held "captive" at Melbourne airport, and threatened to take to the streets in protest.

"If they don't let him go in half an hour, we will gather on the street this is a fight for everyone," he said.

Srdjan Djokovic isn't the only person to speak out against his son's denied entry to Australia. The star's former mentor Niki Pilic described the situation to Reuters on Thursday as a "disgrace."

"Politics have interfered with sports here as it so often does," said Pilic.

"The Australian Prime Minister is trying to please a part of the country's society and improve his poor political rating by saying 'Djokovic can't compete because I said that unvaccinated athletes will be banned from competing'.

"In my opinion it's politically motivated. To deny entry to the winner of nine Australian Open titles because of wrong paperwork, if the visa application was erroneous, is farcical."

Ossian Shine, Global Sports Editor for Reuters, tweeted on Wednesday to say that the visa Djokovic was using to enter Australia was the "same one" successfully used by "three other tennis players."

According to the Daily Express, however, errors in the supporting documents provided by the Serbian's team are believed to have resulted in his entry to the country being denied.

Srdjan Djokovic is a longstanding and outspoken advocate for his son. In the weeks leading up to the tournament he accused organizers of attempting to "blackmail" Novak into getting a COVID vaccine.

"Whether he will appear there depends on them how they will position themselves. He would want it with all his heart because he's an athlete, and we would love that too," Djokovic senior said when asked if his son would be at the 2022 tournament.

"Under these blackmails and conditions, he probably won't. I wouldn't do that. And he's my son, so you decide for yourself."

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Novak Djokovic's dad called him 'Spartacus' and a 'leader of the libertarian world' in a bizarre rant about hi - Business Insider India

Namaste. First off, welcome to the new year that is 2022. Secondly, let's discuss the consciousness of man, the innate benefits of capitalism, and the turmoil that can result from extreme governmental oversight as it applies to small- and medium-sized businesses. Not of interest to you? Oh, perhaps you haven't read Ayn Rand's Atlas Shruggednoted favorite novel of Aaron Rodgers and every 17-year-old libertarian interested in majoring in fuh-nance.

How do we know this? During Monday Night Football, Peyton and Eli Manning had Rodgers on for a segment and couldn't resist asking him what he was reading from the bookshelf behind him on camera. Earnestly, Rodgers points to the collection and says, "A lot of French poetry," before pointing to the other side and saying, "Got Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand over here." Then, he adds that he also has a football helmet on the shelf, signed by both Manning brothers, leading me to believe that Rodgers reads that regularly, too.

While I'm intrigued by the idea of Rodgers kicking back with a tall glass of room temperature kombucha, reading the works of de la Fontaine and Hugo, the part that caught the attention of the internet is, of course, the Ayn Rand of it all. Rand's best-known work, Atlas Shrugged is often referenced as a favorite in libertarian and conservative circles, so when our guy proudly pointed to the nearly 1,200 page work as a highlight of his library, people took notice.

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For most of us, Atlas Shrugged was the summer reading assignment we skimmed a third of before resorting to SparkNotes. You didn't need to read it, reallyBlake, that guy from your junior year literature class who has big thoughts on the free market, wasn't going to let you get a word in edgewise during class discussion anyway. And that's because Atlas Shrugged is the Bible for people who might describe themselves as, simultaneously, "cerebral" and "free-thinker." It represents an ideology that values the individual and his own decisions, or, as my friend Zack used to say, it's a "real douche-nozzle's guide to the world."

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This all aligns pretty nicely with the headline-making course that Rodgers has been on for the past six months. After claiming to be "immunized" in August, Rodgers tested positive for Covid-19 this fall and further explained that he's not actually vaccinated in the, you know, actually vaccinated way, but that he's taken alternative treatments like ivermectin, which is an anti-parasite medication often used on horses. Looking back, Rodgers's explanation on The Pat McAfee Show should have tipped us off on what was to come:

His worldview gels perfectly with two facts seared into my mind for eternity: Rodgers' finace Shailene Woodley absorbs vitamin D through her vagina and sometimes eats clay. I don't fault Rodgers for loving Ayn Rand; I fault myself for not assuming Ayn Rand was an inspiration in this tall lug of a man's life from the jump. Now, I simply want to know what else is on the book shelf. Eat This, Not That? Three unopened paperback copies of Animal Farm? A VHS copy The Scarlet Letter where Demi Moore takes baths? Open my mind, Aaron Rodgers. Save me from myself by recommending Chicken Soup for the Sports Fan's Soul.

The Packers are set to play the Detroit Lions this Sunday at 1pm. Aaron Rodgers is set to play himself again at some point in the near future.

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Aaron Rodgers Loves Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged and We're Not Shocked - Esquire

Broken glass is seen on the floor of the U.S. Capitol in Washington Jan. 7, 2021, after supporters of then-President Donald Trump occupied the building the previous day. (CNS/Reuters/Jonathan Ernst)

An organization that provided hefty sums of money to nonprofits that spread misinformation about the 2020 presidential election and organized the Jan. 6, 2021, attack at the U.S. Capitol building has also funneled millions of dollars in anonymous donations to right-wing Catholic nonprofits and official Catholic groups.

The organization, known as Donors Trust, has been described as a "dark money ATM" for the political right and has provided funding to groups linked to white supremacist and anti-democratic elements, as the Daily Beast reported on Nov. 22.

"This is really dark, scary money connected with some of the most radicalized extremists on the right. It's really just appalling," said Stephen Schneck, a national Catholic political activist who recently retired as executive director of the Franciscan Action Network.

Among the recipients of Donors Trust funds were traditionalist Catholic parishes, dioceses headed by conservative bishops, pro-life organizations, religious liberty law firms, a free-market think tank, and academic groups at Catholic colleges that advocate libertarianism and constitutional originalism.

Included in those receiving funds were the Diocese of Spokane, Washington; the Thomas More Society; the Acton Institute; and the San Francisco Archdiocese's Benedict XVI Institute for Sacred Music and Divine Worship.

In total, nonprofits affiliated with the Catholic Church or that have worked closely with church officials on anti-abortion advocacy and other policy and legal matters received at least $10 million from Donors Trust, a donor-advised fund that in 2020 doled out more than $182 million in grants to organizations like the VDARE Foundation and New Century Foundation, which the Southern Poverty Law Center and the Anti-Defamation League consider to be white supremacist groups.

Stephen Schneck (CNS/Tyler Orsburn)

"We're not talking about the moderate right here. We're not talking about the usual conservative financial interests. We're talking about real creepy stuff here," Schneck told NCR.

Other observers raised concerns about Catholic organizations receiving money from groups like the Donors Trust, which over the last 20 years has provided hundreds of millions of dollars to nonprofits that lobby against labor union protections, climate change mitigation policies, economic regulations, voting rights and immigration reform.

"People with economic interests have figured out that they can use the cultural antipathies that have grown out of the abortion debate to combat climate change [mitigation measures], COVID regulations, to do all these things that serve a libertarian agenda, which is inimical to Catholic social teaching," said Steven Millies, director of the Bernardin Center at Catholic Theological Union in Chicago.

But others say the fact that conservative Catholic-affiliated organizations received money from a group that supports far-right political movements and causes in some ways mirrors situations in which Catholic nonprofits have accepted funding from and worked with left-leaning groups and nongovernmental organizations to provide charitable and relief services.

"Part of living in a world where things are morally messy is that to do good, you have to cooperate with people and organizations that are doing some things that you disagree with," said Melissa Moschella, a philosophy professor at the Catholic University of America.

Meanwhile, one Catholic organization that received financial donations from Donors Trust in 2020 pushed back against suggestions that the money would politicize or unduly influence its operations.

"The donations in question are within a normal tithing range of some of our parishioners and would not stand out as unusual or influence our decision making," said Mitchell Palmquist, a spokesman for the Spokane Diocese.

The interior of the Cathedral of Our Lady of Lourdes in Spokane, Washington (Wikimedia Commons/Antony-22)

The Spokane diocese led by Bishop Thomas Daly, an outspoken conservative prelate received $10,000 for its annual Catholic appeal and $500 to support a local Catholic school. The Cathedral of Our Lady of Lourdes in Spokane was given $15,000 for general operations.

Palmquist told NCR that donations are routed to the diocese through "a variety of means," including checks from financial institutions on behalf of donors.

The term "dark money" is often used to refer to political spending by nonprofit organizations that are not legally required to disclose their donors.

As a donor-advised fund, Donors Trust essentially is a clearinghouse it receives funds from outside groups, and then uses those funds to make contributions to recognized charities. People who donate to donor-advised funds can recommend where their money goes, but the funds themselves have final say over how the money is allocated. The donors may get a larger tax write-off than they would giving to other charities or foundations.

Steven Millies (CNS/Courtesy of Steven P. Millies/Mark Campbell)

Individual contributors to Donors Trust are mostly anonymous, but tax documents indicate that charities and foundations bankrolled by major conservative benefactors like the Koch and Mercer families have given tens of millions of dollars to the organization in recent years.

Millies told NCR that the church's involvement in the nation's culture wars has made Catholics "very exploitable" for wealthy and powerful interests with political agendas.

"As the culture wars now have their own momentum and their own life, it's not hard to imagine that Catholics look like an interest group that can be deployed if someone's got enough money to do it," Millies said.

First obtained by CNBC, the Donor Trust's 990 tax return for 2020 details the network of right-wing groups that received hefty donations: Tea Party Patriots Foundation, Turning Point USA, American Enterprise Institute, the Federalist Society, the Second Amendment Foundation, the Cato Institute and the Heritage Foundation, among other nonprofits.

The Tea Party Patriots were one of the groups that helped organize the Jan. 6, 2021, rally preceding the attack on the U.S. Capitol. Turning Point USA helped transport busloads of Donald Trump supporters to the rally and participated in the "March to Save America" ahead of the event.

Supporters of President Donald Trump attend a rally in Washington Jan. 6, 2021, to contest the certification of the 2020 presidential election. (CNS/Reuters/Shannon Stapleton)

Donors Trust is the major donor-advised fund for the political right. On the left, organizations like the Tides Foundation dole out hundreds of millions of dollars every year to progressive groups in the United States and abroad. Left-of-center organizations that received $457 million in funding from the Tides Foundation in 2019 included nonprofits that advocate for abortion rights, LGBTQ equality, anti-racism initiatives, environmental protections and get-out-the-vote drives.

Catholic affiliated nonprofits that received money from the Tides Foundation in 2019 included Catholic Charities in the San Francisco Archdiocese; a homeless shelter in Venice, California; the Laudato Si Challenge Inc.; Catholic Partnership Schools in Camden, New Jersey; Mount St. Mary's University in Los Angeles; and the University of San Francisco.

"This cuts across both left and right. There are dark-money organizations on the left as well," said Moschella, who mentioned Arabella Advisers, a nonprofit that serves as a hub for a network of progressive dark-money groups. "This happens on both sides."

Melissa Moschella (NCR screenshot/Catholic University of America)

Moschella told NCR that she didn't see any ethical problems with Catholic organizations receiving money from nonprofits like Donors Trust if the money does not come "with strings attached." (Tax documents and other available public information do not indicate whether donations to charities are made with expectations for specific actions to be taken.)

"If accepting funding from this group would mean that they're only going to support you if you advocate for certain causes that are contrary to your mission or contrary to Catholic teaching, then obviously you would have to say, 'No, we can't take funding from you,' " Moschella said.

"But if it's just a matter that this group happens to support my position because I'm pro-life but they also support other things that I don't agree with, then fine, I can work with them because we share a common pro-life commitment even though I disagree with them on other things."

In 2020, Donors Trust directed $20 million to the 85 Fund, another dark money group formerly known as the Judicial Education Project that helps finance various conservative groups. The 85 Fund was founded by Leonard Leo, co-chairman of the Federalist Society who was critical in advising Trump to appoint conservative judges to the federal judiciary.

Founded in 1999 with the goal of "safeguarding the intent of libertarian and conservative donors," the Donors Trust also directed donations in 2020 to organizations that lobby for the decriminalization of sex work, as well as the legalization of recreational marijuana and physician-assisted suicide.

"It's clear that pure libertarianism cannot fit under a Catholic umbrella," said Schneck, who is also a former director of the Institute for Policy Research & Catholic Studies at the Catholic University of America.

"Everybody should realize that by taking this money, they're opening the door to the far right's efforts to further politicize our church," Schneck warned.

Millies argued that Catholic organizations and leaders should be wary of accepting money from organizations with stated partisan goals and hardline political ideologies that run counter to Catholic social teaching principles in some cases.

"Taking the money can seem like it's rather helpful in the sense that it supports Catholic organizations," Millies said. "But in the long run, it's actually quite destructive because the tendency of polarization is to drive people toward the extremes."

Despite those concerns, several nonprofits affiliated with or having close ties to the Catholic Church in the United States received substantial donations from Donors Trust in 2020. Among them:

The Denver-based Little Sisters of the Poor speak to the media outside the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington, D.C., in 2016. The Becket Fund represented the sisters in their fight against the Affordable Care Act's contraceptive mandate. (CNS/Reuters/Joshua Roberts)

A view of Wyoming Catholic College's campus in Lander (CNS/Courtesy of Wyoming Catholic College)

NCR contacted each of the organizations named in this article for comment about the donations they received, but only the Spokane Diocese responded.

Moschella said the criticisms that Catholic groups compromise their integrity, or risk damaging their reputation or independence by accepting money from groups like Donors Trust are unfair.

"If they can prove you took money and the money had strings attached and those strings actually compromised your ability to fulfill your mission with integrity, well then that's a fair criticism," she said. "But if the money doesn't come with strings attached that involve compromises on matters of principle, then it's not problematic."

Millies, of the Bernardin Center, argued that taking money from an organization like Donors Trust misrepresents the church and "positions it badly" in the public square while making it more difficult to fulfill the Great Commission's mandate to "make disciples of all nations."

"In the public mind, we have reduced Catholicity in the U.S. to a set of political positions or a side in the culture war," Millies said. "Taking money from an organization devoted to libertarian ideas continues and deepens, worsens that trend. In the long run, it's not a strategy for building the church."

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Right-wing Catholic causes got millions from group that funded some Capitol rioters - National Catholic Reporter

A report released this week examines telehealth policies on a state-by-state basis in an attempt to highlight what authors see as best practices in terms of patient access and ease of providing care.

The study is a joint project from the libertarian think tank Reason Foundation; the Cicero Institute, which partners to design "market-driven policy systems"; and the Pioneer Institute for Public Policy Research, whose mission focuses on the application of free markets.

Their criteria of best practices focuses on supporting modality-neutral options, supporting the ability of all providers to use telehealth and allowing for interstate licensure.

On the other hand, they advise states not to require in-person visits before using telehealth or mandating payment parity. The latter is a particularly thorny issue where advocates, providers and policymakers are concerned.

"While they cannot and should not replace all in-person medical appointments, virtual visits can save patients time and help them avoid germ-filled waiting rooms. Providers can also cut down on their risk of exposure and take some pressure off overburdened systems as they can see patients from an office or home," wrote the report's authors.

WHY IT MATTERS

According to the report, nearly every state does not require in-person visits prior to telehealth: Only Alabama, Tennessee and West Virginia do so in some capacity.

Meanwhile, 22 states allow any provider to use telehealth, including Alaska, Hawaii, Illinois and Texas. California and New York, however, are two of the states with codes limiting their definitions of the kinds of providers who can use virtual care.

More than half of states are "modality-neutral," defined as allowing synchronous and asynchronous forms of care.

By contrast, nearly every state has barriers in place to telehealth across state lines. Only Florida, Arizona and Indiana have what the report defines as a "clear, straightforward, predictable registration or licensing process for all out-of-state health care providers."

Steps exist to address those hurdles, however: Many states have established compacts to try and ease the process for cross-border care. Half the country is a member of both the Nurse Licensure Compact and the Interstate Medical Licensure Compact, with 16 more states claiming membership in one.

"As more Americans are mobile, being able to stay in touch with providers who know the patients history and have their trust is imperative to better health outcomes, and far better than the status quo that forces patients to start over with a brand-new provider," argued report authors.

THE LARGER TREND

Although telehealth continues to be a rare example of policy supported on both sides of the political aisle, the devil is in the details particularly around insurance coverage and interstate licensing.

As the report shows, several states have passed their own policies in lieu of long-term federal action. However, many pursued changes through administrative action, which may not be permanent.

ON THE RECORD

"States need to act now to ensure the physical and economic needs of their state are met with a more quality and future-oriented health system," read the report.

Kat Jercich is senior editor of Healthcare IT News.Twitter: @kjercichEmail: kjercich@himss.orgHealthcare IT News is a HIMSS Media publication.

Originally posted here:
See where your state ranks on telemedicine - Healthcare IT News

The primary example of this shift was a November article in The American Conservative, co-written by Pecknold, Ahmari, and Pappin. The piece, In Defense of Cultural Christianity, began with four scenarios: a cohabitating Matteo Salvini, the former deputy prime minister of Italy, waving rosary beads at a political rally; a divorced Marian Marchal Le Pen, the former French politician, declaring Christianity the bedrock of French identity; a biblically illiterate Donald Trump brandishing a Bible during a photo op condemning anti-racism protests; and Orbn using public money to restore churches in an overwhelmingly secular country. The punch line was that none of these seeming examples of hypocrisy was problematic but, rather, they were commendable instances of a culturally Christian order that didnt guarantee the salvation of every soul, but laid down structures that made such a thing easier. The four leaders might be bad Christians, but their embrace of Christian symbolismthe fumes of religiosity, as another NatCon speaker put itcould go further toward establishing the culture integralists want than purity alone. After all, if woke ideology had been able to conquer the public square despite the fact that its true-believing adherents form a minuscule share of the population, cultural Christianity might be able to do the same, and thus save the countries that embrace it.

To Hazony, the argument demonstrated an exciting graduation to pragmatism, similar to his own conference proposalwhich he, too, repeated at Hungarys Mathias Corvinus Collegium this fall. The American Conservative article called not for the total conversion of the public but rather a brokered agreement that Christianity should dominate the public square, even in places where the population is far from devout. It also renewed the vows between nationalism and traditional religion, since all four examples of cultural Christians the authors chose were clear nationalists, as well. Here were the building blocks of a new conservative fusionism.

In historical terms, this is the way the conservative movement has operated since the 1940s and 50s, said Jerome Copulsky, a research fellow at the Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs. You had these different wings of the conservative movement, like the Catholic traditionalists, the Southern agrarians, the libertarians, the Cold Warriors, but youre facing this liberal beast. So you find the Venn diagram where you all have a shared space and go forward on that. Many of todays right-wing marriages of convenience negotiate similar truces between its jockeying factions: from minor discrepancies, like the fact that Deneen and Ahmari dont call themselves integralists, to larger questions about how to square Catholicisms claims of universality with nationalism.

While no serious Catholic can take an uncomplicatedly nationalist stance, Ahmari told me, he supported the new nationalism in a narrow, tactical way. Nationalism was good insofar as it stands against the utopian ideal of a borderless world that, in practice, leads to universal tyranny, atomizing people into self-maximizing consumergig workers and threatening traditional belief. Nationalism could check those abuses, and cultural Christianity could help. The whole point is that cultural Christianity is this vestigial structure that cant be stamped out, he explained. As liberalism falters, that structure could help reconnect Western nations to their deepest roots and prompt moral renewal, even and especially among populations that arent possessed of a profound and spiritual faith.

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The New Right's Grim, Increasingly Popular Fantasies of an International Nationalism - The New Republic

Two Austin residents were elected to office in Austin Borough, but with both having felony convictions, will they be able to retain those positions?

The answer to that question may be Yes unless action is taken by either Potter County District Attorney Andy Watson or Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro.

One of the officials must fire a quo warranto in the court of common pleas to remove one or both candidates from office.

In November 2021, Kaitlyn N. Crosby was elected to the office of mayor of Austin. She ran as Kate Crosby for the Libertarian party garnering 38 votes to Republican James Setzers 30.

Libertarian Andrew Dynda, who ran as Andy Dynda, was elected to one of three four-year terms on borough council with 57 votes along with Republica Bill Soloman, 73 votes, and write-in Jesse Valenti, 22 votes.

But their felony convictions may render them ineligible to hold the office they were elected to fill.

On July 7, 2021, Crosby pleaded guilty to a felony level aggravated assault by vehicle, misdemeanor level involuntary manslaughter and summary count of careless driving. Charges of homicide while driving under the influence, aggravated assault by vehicle while DUI, DUI, DUI highest rate of alcohol level, controlled substance and careless driving were withdrawn. She was sentenced to 11-24 months confinement to run concurrently with 36 months probation.

On Dec. 21, 2014, Crosby was operating a vehicle which struck two men walking along Old West Creek Road in Shippen Township, Cameron County. The impact resulted in the death of David Croyle, age 62, and injured the second, Patrick Hornung, then 25.

Dynda pleaded guilty July 8, 2015 to the felony count of criminal trespass by breaking into a structure, misdemeanor count of criminal mischief damaging property and summary counts of harassment and driving while operating privileges are suspended. He was sentenced to 3-12 months confinement in the Potter County Jail followed by 12 months probation.

Dynda charges trace back to an incident on July 20, 2014.

The Pennsylvania Constitution Article II, Section 7 bars anyone with a criminal conviction for an infamous crime from holding office in Pennsylvania. The courts have determined that felonies are infamous crimes.

Once in office, they can only be removed if either the DA or attorney general files a quo warranto, the legal procedure to remove an individual from office, of if they resign.

Under Chapter 1000 of the Pennsylvania Code, the district attorney must file a complaint with the prothonotary in the court of common pleas in the county where the municipality is located. Arguments would be heard in front of a judge unless one or both individuals resign.

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Can someone hold office with felony convictions? | Local | tiogapublishing.com - The Wellsboro Gazette

Its time to set the record straight. Too many who write or pontificate about Bitcoin do not know what progressivism means in the political realm of American politics looking at you Daniel Kuhn. In reality, many ideas among progressives and the left, are wholly aligned with Bitcoins mission.

Progressive is really an umbrella term that lumps together many left-leaning political ideologies under a set of demands that we deem to be inalienable rights of any human. These are education, healthcare, a living wage and housing. It is true that progressives do put demands on the government to protect and nurture these allegedly inalienable rights. However, you shouldnt believe that progressives and the left are defenders of the state simply because they demand better of it.

In practice, progressives do their best work when they are not focused on electoral politics. At the local level, progressives focus on mutual aid, trade unions and grassroots organizing. These stem from the revolutionary anarchist tradition which came about due to horrific working conditions during the early centuries of capitalism.

The 19th century revolutionary anarchists goal was the absolute dissolution of the state by any means necessary. Anarchists despised the state with a passion that went beyond anything Murray Rothbard could have expressed. Anarchists of the time engaged in guerrilla warfare and many died trying to destroy the state (Rothbard lived out his life comfortably under the state, I might add). Progressives may not be trying to blow up the state these days, but they put major emphasis on providing for communities without help from the government.

Many assume that since Bitcoin inherently protects the right to property and individual ownership that it must be ideologically opposed to the beliefs of progressives. Actually, progressives arent opposed to owning things, in general. What it boils down to is rent, interest and democratic enterprises. What progressives really want are rent-free economies.

In fact, if you go back to the 19th century classical economic discussions of a free market, thats what people like Adam Smith, John Stuart Mill, Karl Marx, Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, David Ricardo and others were trying to figure out. So, owning bitcoin is not in opposition to progressivism. Progressives are not inherently opposed to money, just opposed to how it is used as a means of control and power. Progressives and Bitcoiners are in opposition to neoliberalism because, among other problems that it created, neoliberalism is upheld through state violence.

As for exclusive individual ownership in Bitcoin, that is just a misunderstanding of Bitcoin. Bitcoiners are very proud of El Zonte, El Salvadors Bitcoin Beach experiment. Its hailed as a model for a successful circular economy based on Bitcoin. Here, the developers of the Bitcoin Beach wallet realized that locals would benefit from a community-based custodial option. In this case, the wallet makes it possible to designate a trusted member of the community to be the holder of the private keys for other peoples wallets. Here, responsibility is now coupled with community-based trust, not individual responsibility.

The idea of individual responsibility is one that is unique to the West and more so to the United States. Community identity is much more important in other parts of the world. Since Bitcoin has done so well in many developing nations where community is more valuable than individuality, it is hard to believe that Bitcoin is truly only for those concerned with strict individualism.

Another interesting community-owned idea in Bitcoin is the federated mint (FediMint). Here, a community with a certain amount of trust among its members, can effectively co-own the mint. This leads to a whole set of new ideas about community-based currencies that are backed by Bitcoin, that remind me a bit of Paul Grignons ideas about self-issued credit but also of Prodhouns concept of a Peoples Bank, both coupled with John Nashs work on ideal money. There is so much here that appeals to the progressive!

The only real part about Bitcoin that seems ideologically opposed to progressives at the moment is the 21 million bitcoin cap. The main reason is that there are economic leaders in the movement who are followers of John Maynard Keynes. This stems likely from the Keynesian critique of neoclassical economics and the argument that markets do not tend toward full employment, among other things.

Some of the desire for post-Keynesian approaches may be nostalgia for that long-dead constrained era of capitalism during the post-WWII period. Some of it is a seemingly pragmatic approach to softening boom-bust cycles, in which Keynes argued that deficit spending should occur during economic crises and be constrained during surpluses. Hyman Minsky, another pillar of economics for progressives, attempted to unite Joseph Schumpeter (Austrian school) and Keynes to understand how to stabilize an unstable economy. By the way, this unification (written in the early 1980s) provided a prophetic prediction of the Great Recession.

Even though there seems to be contradiction here between Keynesian ideas and Bitcoins monetary policy, some of the most progressively-aligned economists, like Michael Hudson and Steve Keen, regularly appear on Max Keisers Keiser Report for their sharp critiques of the banking system, dollar hegemony, quantitative easing, and neoclassical economics. Are you surprised? Progressive economists get it, they just arent convinced that the existing system can operate under a capped monetary policy. This is the problem in understanding, really. What Bitcoiners are really advocating for is a new system altogether.

Today, modern monetary theory (MMT) has taken hold of the progressive movement because it also centers the idea of a full employment guarantee where the government backstops the private sector employment with non-competitive jobs. MMT advocates also believe that they can control the money supply and inflation through fiscal and monetary policy. They argue that by bringing full productive forces online (no more, no less) that inflation can be properly managed. However, it has never been tried; the Federal Reserve Board does not practice real MMT at this time. To be clear, even MMT advocates are critical of quantitative easing.

This is not to say that the left gives a full-throated endorsement of MMT, either. There are plenty of critiques of MMT from the left, all one has to do is look for them. Even so, Bitcoin is still appealing to a progressive even if they are MMT supporters simply because of the concerns over the goodness of their money over time. All one really needs to do is explain to the progressive how inflation decoupled from adjustments in living wage is a silent killer of their paycheck. Whats the alternative? Save some of that purchasing power over the long term by hodling bitcoin, of course.

Progressives are well aware of the damage the Federal Reserve and the government did during the Great Recession. Progressives supported Occupy Wall Street because many of them lost their homes to illegal foreclosures. Progressives need to be reminded, though, that the ivory towers of central banks are not any more our friends than the mega-corporation banks are. We can do better to educate our fellow progressives on money as a technology and on the idea that we can have a different economic system where a 21 million cap works.

To stimulate this idea of a different economic system, lets pull from the degrowth movement. Degrowth encompasses a lot of ideas, but the main one is that our economic system should be tied to our planets ability to sustain life. Given the ease at which the banking system generates money (has anyone else compared the S&P 500 chart to the CO2 hockey puck chart?), and the obvious trends that as our Gross Domestic Product has gone up, so have our carbon emissions, it seems entirely logical that we should have a cap somewhere.

In the degrowth literature, there have been discussions about tying a currency to the amount of energy produced. Bitcoins network is backed by access to energy resources. Its mining protocol scales based on the price of electricity. It also has the ability to bring online wasted and stranded energy. This means that the network grows with a speed limit. We can plan whole economies around this prospect.

Furthermore, Bitcoin disintermediates the banking system and puts banking not only in the hands of the individual but of communities (something that Occupy Wall Street advocated for). Communities and/or cooperatives (like in the autonomous peoples economy in Rojava) can issue their own community-backed loans using bitcoin as the backing. Theres much to be explored here and progressives (and leftists more broadly) can really lead the way.

The reality is not that Bitcoin needs to be rebranded to fit a progressive narrative. It is that Bitcoiners and non-Bitcoiners alike need to realize that while the networks genesis block was a political attack on the central banking system, that this sentiment is not exclusive to American libertarianism. This is why progressives are in the Bitcoin space, because we know that Bitcoin is for everyone, and were going to make sure that everyone, not just Libertarians, know that there is a way to exit the system and that Bitcoin can help us find the way out.

This is a guest post by Margot Paez. Opinions expressed are entirely their own and do not necessarily reflect those of BTC, Inc. or Bitcoin Magazine.

Read more from the original source:
Progressivism And Bitcoin Are Not Opposed - Bitcoin Magazine