STATE OF THE NATION - CounterStrikeMedia

TRUMP'S APPROVAL RATINGS GOING UP & THE RAGE IN THE US SENATE IS REALLY ABOUT ABORTON

9/26/2018

Kavanaugh Rage Is, In Essence, About Abortion
By JENNIFER BRACERAS, Special to the Sun | September 28, 2018
https://www.nysun.com/national/kavanaugh-rage-is-in-essence-about-abortion/90405/

Secret History Of The Controversy Over Kavanaugh
By IRA STOLL, Special to the Sun | October 1, 2018
https://www.nysun.com/national/secret-history-of-the-controversy-over-kavanaugh/90409/

LESSONS FROM IRAN CONTRA: SENATE MAKES ITS OWN RULES

9/26/2018

BOTTLENECKS DRIVING US OIL PRICES UP

9/26/2018

WHY ENTITLEMENTS KEEP GROWING & HOOVER'S NEW POLICY ED VIDEO SERIES

9/24/2018

The Entitlement Crisis Is Looming
Yuval Levin & James Capretta, Weekly Standard

A failure of responsibility
Yuval Levin and James C. Capretta | The Weekly Standard

A failure of responsibility

The High Cost Of Good Intentions
by John F. Cogan via PolicyEd
Entitlements grow over time because of a force called “the equally worthy claim,” where eligibility for benefits continually expands until programs no longer resemble their initial, honorable intentions. Over time, entitlements programs have grown into a costly and complex system. Reforms should focus on preserving the programs’ original intentions and putting them back on a sustainable fiscal path.

Perspectives On Policy: Hoover Institution Launches New Video Series
via PolicyEd
The Hoover Institution is releasing a new series of videos, Perspectives on Policy, that feature its scholars accompanied by visuals that enliven and emphasize key points of their research and analysis. The metaphors and illustrations create an engaging narrative to bring policy scholarship to life, especially for audiences that are less receptive to charts, graphs, and conventional depictions of data.

If entitlement reform is too hard, lawmakers can take baby steps
The bad news on entitlements piles up 

If Republicans won't confront entitlements, who will?

2 VISIONS OF MARKET BASED HEALTH CARE REFORM & WHAT'S DRIVING THE OPIOID CRISIS

9/21/2018

2 visions for market-based health care reform
James C. Capretta | RealClearPolicy

The myth of what’s driving the opioid crisis
Sally Satel | Politico
As Congress prepares to pass legislation addressing the opioid crisis, it is imperative for policymakers to understand the reality of opioid abuse.

Chinese manufacturing is not main reason for fentanyl problem
Roger Bate | AEIdeas
At AEI's event this week on the opioid crisis, Sen. Rob Portman (R-OH) talked about China making fentanyl for export to kill Americans. While this plays into the ongoing, multilayered US versus China battle, it is also rather more complicated.

ECONOMICS & OPIOIDS Roger Bate

The other G20 deal: China agrees to control its fentanyl production
Roger Bate | AEIdeas
China has agreed to ramp up efforts to prevent unauthorized fentanyl sales to the United States, but that probably won't be enough to solve the problem in the long term.

CHINA DUMPS OPIOIDS IN USA

Fentanyl and fatal overdoses
Roger Bate | AEI Economic Perspectives
Original research of online sellers in China and surveying drug users and dealers in the Philadelphia area leads to the inevitable conclusion that fentanyl use has exploded over the past two years, and with it has come a significant increase in fatal overdoses.

bipartisan achievement on opioids: Congress recognizes employment as a crucial component of recovery
Robert Doar | AEIdeas
Last week, the Senate passed a bill containing several measures meant to combat the opioid crisis. Robert Doar argues that perhaps the most important achievement of the bill is the provision for a grant program that would provide job training, housing, and health care to those attempting to overcome their addiction. People with substance abuse disorders need care and temporarily comprehensive assistance, but they also benefit from getting back into regular work. Doar believes that work provides a routine, a sense of purpose, and camaraderie with coworkers and can keep recovering substance abusers from relapsing. These changes, coupled with state-level reforms to limit the widespread prescription of potentially dangerous drugs, should bring about some progress in the fight against opioids.

The geographic variation in the cost of the opioid crisis
Alex Brill and Scott Ganz | AEI Economics Working Paper Series
As the opioid epidemic worsens in the United States, the toll it imposes on the US economy has risen to staggering heights. Alex Brill and Scott Ganz estimate per capita state-level and county-level non-mortality and total economic burdens of the opioid crisis in 2015 by distributing national estimates based on variation in local wages, health care costs, and criminal justice costs; variation in opioid-related death and addiction rates; and average age-adjusted value of statistical lives lost. Their findings indicate that among the lower 48 states in 2015, per capita non-mortality costs were highest in the District of Columbia ($493) and New Hampshire ($360). Median per capita non-mortality costs were $205 in Kentucky and Pennsylvania. Per capita total costs (including mortality costs) were highest in West Virginia ($4,378) and the District of Columbia ($3,657). Median per capita total costs were $1,672 in Nevada.

WHAT THE SUPREME COURT ALWAYS GETS WRONG

9/17/2018

CONRAD BLACK: OCTOBER SURPRISE COMES EARLY

9/13/2018

Dirtiest Trick In U.S. History Comes Into Focus
By CONRAD BLACK, Special to the Sun | September 13, 2018
https://www.nysun.com/national/dirtiest-trick-in-us-history-comes-into-focus/90384/

A CAPITAL GOODS BOOM ARRIVES, A LOOK AT THE JOBS REPORT 200K JOBS ADDED IN AUGUST ALONE & WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE POOR IN THE US

9/12/2018

Levels and changes in income poverty, consumption poverty, and material well-being
Bruce D. Meyer and James X. Sullivan | AEI Economics Working Paper Series
This paper responds to a working paper by Luke Shaefer and Joshua Rivera, which criticizes some of Bruce Meyer's and James Sullivan's published work on trends in income and consumption-based poverty measures in the US.

TRUMP'S SECRET OP-ED NEMESIS IS: THE ENTIRE D.C. SWAMP

9/7/2018

CHINA'S ROLE IN THE OPIOD CRISIS

9/6/2018

China's Role in the U.S. Opioid Crisis
Today, RAND's Bryce Pardo is testifying before Congress to explain China's role in the production and supply of synthetic opioids. Synthetics are now involved in about 60 percent of all opioid overdose deaths in the United States. And China is an important source of synthetic opioids and fentanyl precursors that enter North America. To address the problem, Pardo suggests lawmakers look beyond traditional drug policy tools. Read more »

LIBERAL MEDIA DIED: VILLAGE VOICE SHUTS DOWN & THE DECLINE OF WESTERN MEDIA

9/5/2018

Exeunt Omnes: Farewell to The Village Voice
The counterculture’s consummate organ shuts down.

The Decline Of Western News
featuring Markos Kounalakis via World Affairs
Just as the global economy increasingly is influenced by rising powers in the East, so too is the global news media. Today, Western journalism is in decline.

EXAMINING THE THREAT OF US POPULIST MOVEMENTS

9/4/2018

Read the full report.

WHAT'S THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN POLAND & HUNGARY: Continue here.

THE CLINTON'S FAILED 2016 STRATEGY GOES ON ANYWAY

9/2/2018