Monday, May 23, 2022

Your Government Hates Your Baby

The FDA loves its power more than it loves seeing your baby fed, so it seizes baby formula during a national shortage:

https://www.wsj.com/articles/fda-seizing-seizes-baby-formula-crisis-shortage-europe-abbott-nutrition-hipp-holle-kendamil-infant-producers-11653248212?mod=opinion_lead_pos9 (paywall)

From the article: "Parental demand led to American mom-and-pop vendors selling European formula because the manufacturers wouldn’t make the effort. They even provided translated instructions. But the FDA in the past year has cracked down on these sellers. Without notice, thousands of families were left scrambling to find more formula. Parents who tried to purchase directly from Europe had hundreds of dollars of formula seized by U.S. customs agents. One parent reported that she had nearly $700 of formula destroyed at the border—in the middle of a national formula shortage.

The FDA’s actions have exacerbated the problem they were trying to solve. The agency cites concerns about storing and transporting powdered formula to avoid bacterial contamination or product deterioration. But by shutting down trusted vendors who had built a reputation on importing and selling high-quality products, the FDA drove desperate parents to untested sellers, creating the storage and handling concerns that caused the FDA to distrust European products. The difficulty finding preferred baby formula brands also increased the likelihood of inauthentic products and unscrupulous sellers taking advantage of parents in need."

More from the WSJ about government causing the shortage:

https://www.wsj.com/articles/governments-baby-formula-shortage-abbott-mead-johnson-tariffs-wic-fda-perrigo-democrats-11652996346?mod=opinion_lead_pos1 (paywall)

A bit more:

https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/house-republicans-were-right-to-vote-against-more-fda-funding/

Your government loves tariffs and control more than your baby. 17.5% tariff on baby formula:

https://fortune.com/2022/05/17/us-infant-baby-formula-shortage-imports-fda-nutrition-tariffs-usmca/


Friday, May 20, 2022

Your Government Is A Thief...Again

 "A Michigan couple says their town seized a building they owned and then demanded that they buy two cars for the police department to get their own property back."

https://reason.com/2022/05/19/michigan-couple-says-town-seized-their-building-and-offered-to-return-it-if-they-bought-two-cars-for-police/

"A February 24, 2021, email provided to Reason by the Kozbials' attorney, Marc Deldin, shows that a Highland Park police officer, ferrying a message from city attorney Terry Ford, sent the Kozbials quotes for two cars from a local Ford dealership, totaling about $70,000.

Civil liberties groups often criticize civil forfeiture for creating a perverse profit incentive for police and local governments, since forfeiture revenues often go straight into their budgets, but it's practically unheard of to see such an overt shakedown put into emails and court documents.

"Extortion, there's no other way to explain it," Deldin says."

An interesting document that is very common from other cases:

https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/4614019-Chappell-Notice-of-Intent-to-Forfeit.html

Thursday, January 20, 2022

Brookside, Alabama's Government REALLY Hates You!

 Emblematic of everything that is wrong with civil asset forfeiture, the fact that this is not stopped instantly tells you everything you need to know about Your Government's disdain for you and your rights. You are an ATM.

https://blog.simplejustice.us/2022/01/20/a-dog-named-cash/

Wednesday, January 19, 2022

Saturday, November 27, 2021

China May Be Incompetently (In Addition to Evilly) Lead

 "A big lesson of the past twenty years has been “actually liberal democracy isn’t necessary to reach developed-country status”, so it would be quite the twist if it turned out you needed liberal democracy to reach developed-country status. This gets pretty close to the great mystery of why some less-developed countries “catch up” and others don’t; whatever happens in China is going to be a really useful data point." - Astral Codex Ten

https://noahpinion.substack.com/p/what-if-xi-jinping-just-isnt-that

Friday, November 19, 2021

China - If You Believe Them You Are Deluded - #MeToo Not Allowed There

 Anyone who thinks that powerful Communist Party officials didn't sexually harass or assault with as much or more impunity as the powerful in America is on crack. The main difference between China and America is that while the powerful could, at least until recently, make you figuratively disappear from public view and fame, the Chinese Communist Party can LITERALLY make you disappear:

https://www.espn.com/tennis/story/_/id/32665214/china-foreign-ministry-not-aware-situation-surrounding-tennis-player-peng-shuai

https://www.cnn.com/2021/11/18/china/wta-ceo-peng-shuai-steve-simon-intl-hnk/index.html

UPDATE: In which I still don't believe those liars:

https://www.espn.com/tennis/story/_/id/32671331/photos-missing-chinese-tennis-star-peng-shuai-posted-online

UPDATE: Still not buying it:

https://www.cnn.com/2021/11/23/sport/hrw-peng-shuai-china-sportswashing-spt-intl/index.html

Putin Is Letting Soldiers Get Away with Murdering Conscripts as Long as They Go Fight in Ukraine

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