The Post-Partisan Emporium

  Remember What Happened Right Before 9/11? It's Happening Again. THE CORBETT REPORT by James Corbett Remember way back in the year 2000, when the Taliban took over large swaths of Afghanistan and set about eradicating the nation's poppy crop that feeds the world opium supply? Of course you do. Well, guess what? It's happening again. That's right. After Uncle Sam's ignominious  retreat from the graveyard of empires  in 2021, the Taliban infamously regained control of the country and set about reinstituting their campaign to ban the cultivation of opium poppies. And, once again, the results of that ban have been nothing short of remarkable. In fact, the Taliban's latest anti-poppy campaign is already  being hailed  as the "most successful counter-narcotics effort in human history" by self-proclaimed Afghanistan experts, with the country's opium production down a jaw-dropping 90% this year. And since you  do  remember the story of the Taliban's f...

 

  Reinventing Democracy The whole point of democracy and free markets is to force competition on elites who are desperate to eliminate competition. What's the point of discussing reforms that aren't even possible in the current status quo?  That's a good question, as any discussion of major systemic changes can be dismissed as pointless (since they'll never be adopted), and a distraction from the "real work" that can be managed within the current system. On the other hand, we might ask: what's the point of discussing what is do-able in the status quo, i.e. superficial feel-good  policy tweaks  that change nothing in the  power structure ? In other words, everything is ultimately a superficial feel-good  policy tweak  if it doesn't change how power, "money," credit and resources are amassed and distributed. The argument for discussing "impossible" systemic changes is this:  we must ponder other ways to structure who has power for two...

  The Death of Informed Consent By  Stella Paul Here's what  never  happened in the hospital during COVID: a doctor sat down next to a patient and said, "You have a choice.  We can give you Remdesivir, which killed  53%  of the patients in an Ebola trial.  It was so bad the trial had to be shut down.  And you'll notice here in Remdesivir's fact sheet, it says, ' Not a lot of people have used Remdesivir.  Serious and unexpected side effects may happen. '  Or we can give you  ivermectin , a safe and effective drug that's been successfully used for decades, and send you home.  Which do you prefer?" The reason that conversation never happened is that it would have cost the hospital too much  money .  If the hospital gave you ivermectin and sent you home, the federal government paid the hospital $3,200.  If the hospital gave you Remdesivir, the federal government paid the e...