The Morning Dispatch: Biden the Trustbuster?

Plus: The CDC relaxes school masking recommendations for vaccinated students.

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Happy Monday! Let’s have a great week, all right? 

Quick Hits: Today’s Top Stories

  • Massive protests erupted in cities across Cuba Sunday, with thousands taking to the streets to demand an end to the country’s decades-old communist dictatorship. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said last night the United States “would strongly condemn any violence or targeting of peaceful protesters.”

  • President Joe Biden signed an extensive executive order Friday—including 72 separate initiatives to be carried out by more than 12 federal agencies—aimed at combating what he deemed anti-competitive policies and practices in different American markets. 

  • Haiti’s government under acting Prime Minister Claude Joseph has identified 28 suspects—including two Haitian-Americans and more than a dozen Colombian nationals—in connection with last week’s assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Moïse. At the request of the Haitian government, the White House announced plans Friday to send FBI and DHS officials to Port-au-Prince to assist in the investigation. The Biden administration, however, has thus far held off on sending U.S. troops to the region.

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  1. Avatar photo
    cheerio

    QOTD: I belong to a local CSA for produce during the season. I try to shop at local places for groceries-the main large grocery chains are local/regional (Wegmans/Price Chopper) as well as our local village grocer. Most liquor stores here are locally owned and neighborhood places. Prices are up.. I am sure I can do better with shopping sales and being more strategic and maybe picking up some at Aldi.

    We usually will eat at local restaurants when we eat out but it is very infrequent. During the pandemic we became accustomed to cooking for ourselves and it is quite budget friendly. We celebrated our 29th wedding anniversary yesterday by grilling a steak and I made roasted potatoes, and zucchini sauteed with garlic and olive oil and it was tasty. Many of the good local places are very crowded, understaffed and expensive right now and not very enjoyable for the "experience."

    I do tend to order clothing from Uniqlo (lots of basics) which is a global company (originally from Japan), Nordstrom (shop sales from the main store and the Rack) and sometimes purchase clothing and housewares from Target and Thrift Stores; last Spring I did place an order of clothing from Walmart and was pleasantly surprised with the quality of a few of the items and I sew a few outfits a year myself. I do all my own alterations and mending. I order fabric from a jobber/shop in PA mostly but sometimes get it from other small businesses. I generally never personally enter a shopping mall if I can help it. I have become accustomed to shopping for new stuff online and the mall stores etc. tend to be overstimulating and I get a little vertigo when I go, especially if it is holiday time--too much muchness.

    Lately I have reduced my purchases from Amazon and I plan to contemplate and measure the value of Prime membership in our household in the coming months. I shop for books at Amazon, Thrift store, Barnes & Noble, Abe Books.. but I am cutting back and hitting the library more frequently. I subscribe to YouTube Music and borrow CDs to play in my car from the library.

    I plan to purchase or lease a new car soon and plan to diverge from my usual Chevrolet and check out the Subaru Outback, the Honda CRV, possibly Mazda... (I still may try the comparable Chevy). My current car was made in the USA (Chevy Sonic) but I plan to pass it over to my son and his SO as they are broke hard working grad students and need a second car.

    We tend to get much of our home improvement products from Lowe's or HD but for specific items, I like to check out our local Ace Hardware first. I buy paint from Purcells (a local chain). We currently buy cable tv and have stream channels like Netflix but we watch a lot of TV now, probably too much.

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  2. Pohl

    QOTD:I have no real preference for most shopping needs aside from I have been boycotting Chinese goods for 30 years. I am amazed it’s taken this long for that to catch on a little more. I will pay more for a non-Chinese item. Taiwan and almost anywhere else, especially America, is preferable. Lately, I am without bamboo skewers. Same with insulated steel mugs. Ditto much else.

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  3. Safety Cone

    "...ending the detention of undocumented immigrants who are pregnant, postpartum, or nursing."


    -M.W.-
    Definition of postpartum
    1 : occurring in or being the period following childbirth

    A textualist might interpret that as any mother, no matter how long ago, should not be detained.

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  4. Safety Cone

    One of these things is not like the other one....

    -The Dispatch-
    "The Centers for Disease Control relaxed its education-based COVID-19 guidelines on Friday, advising schools not to require that vaccinated teachers and students wear masks."

    -CDC-
    "Masks should be worn indoors by all individuals (age 2 and older) who are not fully vaccinated. Consistent and correct mask use by people who are not fully vaccinated is especially important indoors and in crowded settings, when physical distancing cannot be maintained."

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  5. Kevin Brady

    QOTD: Despite all prognosticating in the early 2000's, independent record stores and book stores are still thriving throughout the country. How sweet it is that vinyl outlived CDs (cassettes are making a comeback; I can't stand 'em). Records have a warmth and depth of sound that other mediums just can't match. It's fascinating to me that what we're left with after 100+ years of sound recording is vinyl records and digital sound files. The oldest and newest forms, who woulda figured.

    I wonder if what we're seeing here is people starving for physical music and books that they can literally touch as we spend more of our lives online. The e-reading craze now seems passé.

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  6. Avatar photo
    rlritt

    I'm right there with controlling big pharma. I used to pay $10 a month for a generic medication for a common condition and now its $60. My son used to pay $50 for a brand name drug that has been around for 40 years or more and it's now over $300. That's just robbery.

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  7. Avatar photo
    SandyG

    Re the Reason article on school choice as the solution to the curriculum wars - I tried to write a response but it was too hard to bring in all the points I wanted to make and the evidence for them. But the major point was that I have a problem with parental choice in curriculum. And it's really just social studies curriculum that the fights are about. Not math, not English, not Science.

    Then I came across this guy from CPAC and thought this is EXACTLY why we don't want parents to choose the Science curriculum: At the morning prayer at CPAC, a pastor says that God made heaven and earth, “and that’s all the science we need to know.” https://twitter.com/i/status/1414230082156175365.

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  8. Avatar photo
    The Stray Goose

    Imagine if Trump fired the SS administrator for no apparent reason. Imagine how nuts the left would be. O.k. Got it. We'll remember this...

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  9. CatoTheElder

    My late-to-the-party quick rundown:

    I "buy local" to the extent reasonably possible/practical. First level of application is at storefront--if the store is a local, non-chain establishment, they get to be first in line. If I have to buy from a large chain (e.g., "Tar-jay", Best Buy, whatever), I prefer a real brick-and-mortar place, since at least some of what I spend remains in the local area. When it comes to actual product, the closer the point of origin, the better, generally speaking. If it's made in China, I look for another option, though if that's the only source, and I don't discern a significant likelihood that I'm contributing to enslavement of Tibetans or Uighurs or whomever, I'll buy Chinese. Much rather buy from Taiwan, though. Or South Korea. Or Japan. Or....one gets the idea. This all said, I much prefer to patronize local shop owners, producers, makers, builders, etc. My shop tools are as much American-made as possible. But my vehicle was made in Japan. Clothing is a difficult arena--I try to go with companies ethically sourcing work and product, though I pay more, and very little is made in the US.

    Cuba's people are protesting against their government? Good for them. Let's hope that Cuba moves gradually to a state where just that--protesting--doesn't incur a significant risk of very unpleasant prison time.

    Haiti now has 28+ people in custody who allegedly had something to do with the assassination of Moïse. The surrounding stories sound like late-night-concocted plots for one last Chuck Norris movie. There are two kinda-sorta-probably prime ministers, no properly functioning legislature, gangs--one led by a guy called "Barbecue"--are in charge of the streets, and Biden has offered US assistance with the "investigation" and is considering the request of one of the prime ministers that we send troops.

    Meanwhile, Biden is moving to do what he can, in a mostly nibbling-about-the-edges sort of way, regarding anti-competitive practices, such as...wait for it...buying hearing aids. [Disclosure: My wife is excited about this. She thinks it'll cost us less for me to finally get devices that ensure I'll hear what she says....] Biden's efforts are nice, as far as they go. Let's just go a wee bit farther, though.

    The CDC issued some very reasonable, practical guidance regarding plans for school-reopenings and the necessity (or lack thereof) of mask-wearing. To which I'm awaiting a CPAC response accusing the CDC of being communist critical-race-theorists out to destroy America, because, well, CDC = Evil Leftist Propaganda Machine.

    Biden reportedly called Putin to give him an earful regarding Russian hackers and their eagerness to disrupt American life with ransomware here, there, and everywhere. Putin put the call on speaker, and he and his IT people muted their end so they could all laugh raucously.

    Tune in tomorrow for the latest on South Sudan, which is strikingly similar to all the old news about South Sudan. We'll also explain why Ethiopia isn't the stellar example of African peaceable democracy we were all hoping for, and update you on the latest Boko Haram atrocities.

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  10. Avatar photo
    Dennis

    I hate shopping—for anything. Fortunately, anything can be had online, and that’s where I go. Size, as they say, doesn’t matter.

    But about that new immigration directive. First, it’s very long. But it constantly refers to undocumenteds “known to be pregnant” without defining that term. Known when? And to whom? Would gynecological exams have to be performed on demand? Somehow I think this detention exemption will become known as the “speed bump.”

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