2013 Oslo Freedom Forum Archives

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Dissidents and Powerbrokers unite in Oslo to challenge state power

This blog post was sent in by Yaël Ossowski, Executive Board Member of European Students…

The Blaze
30 November, 2023

How politicians are using fake news to crack down on digital currency

Elizabeth Warren and other critics seized on the October 7 Hamas attacks to crack down on Bitcoin. But the terrorists use cash, not crypto. In war, the Greek poet Aeschylus said, the first casualty is truth. In the war between Israel and Hamas, there have been plenty of opportunities for lies to achieve political ends. In the United States, we’re seeing the demonization of and crackdown on cryptocurrencies and stablecoins like Bitcoin and Tether. U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) stirred crypto-skeptic politicians in Washington into a frenzy last month, alleging that Hamas funded its heinous attacks on Israeli civilians with cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin. This followed an initial report in the Wall Street Journal, which detailed a significant crypto fundraising operation by Hamas across various platforms. There were congressional hearings, press releases, and letters dispatched to various elements of the national security establishment and to the Biden administration itself, seeking to understand Hamas’ use of cryptocurrency and how it could move money undetected. Warren penned a letter with 28 other senators and 76 House members demanding answers on the alleged $130 million in crypto used by Hamas, relying on the Wall Street Journal’s story. The only problem is that the,...

Consumer Choice Center
22 November, 2023

Fun Police Episode 2: The Billionaire

Fun Police Episode 2: The Billionaire Every prohibitionist movement needs its funders. Its moneymen. Usually, there are powerful industrialists who’ve made it big and are “giving back” by restricting choices of the little people. For popular movements against alcohol in the 1900s, Andrew Carnegie, John D. Rockefeller, and Henry Ford were the principal philanthropists. Neoprohibitionists now rely on a man with a name as iconic as his money: Michael Bloomberg. Through his three-term New York City mayoral stint and global funding campaign against sugar, salt, trans-fats, and vaping products, Fun Police Captain Michael Bloomberg cuts above the prohibitionist industrialists of the past. With his major connections and funding to hundreds of NGOs and global treaty organizations, including the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control and groups like Campaign For Tobacco-Free Kids, Bloomberg’s quests have gone far beyond simple education to directly shape policy that deprives consumers of making their own choices. For more, we interview investigative journalist Marc Gunther, who has studied this in depth, and unveils the unfortunate human toll of Bloomberg’s crusade against vaping products used by adults. Act 1: The fruits of capitalism grow poisonous Act 2: The Bloomberg Terminal cause Act 3: Where it all ends Released,...

Orange County Register
20 November, 2023

Legal attacks on fossil fuels will only make us poorer

Nearly half of all US states have pledged to go totally carbon-free by at least 2050. While many states and the federal government are pushing and subsidizing entrepreneurs to scale up carbon-free alternatives to fossil fuels such as nuclear energy, wind, and solar – other states are hoping to reach their goals by seemingly suing oil and gas companies into extinction. Though American consumers have been the primary customers for fossil fuel companies, several Democratic state attorneys generals have staged elaborate lawsuits hoping to legally pin climate change on a handful of companies. Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison has been at the forefront, but he’s had plenty of support and funding along the way, including from key law firms across the country and the billionaire former New York mayor, Michael Bloomberg. Though our judicial system is supposed to be immune from political agendas, these third-parties target certain industries and corporations for litigation, hoping to tip the balance in prominent cases being heard across the country. This trend is so troubling that the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability held a hearing in September to evaluate this threat. But missing from that congressional discussion about deep-pocketed, heavily coordinated movements to influence legal,...

Interviews
10 November, 2023

Lessons from the recent policy wins on nuclear power in North Carolina – Interview with Nick Craig on Wilmington 980 WAAV

Today I was interviewed on Nick Craig’s morning radio program in Wilmington, North Carolina. We chatted about nuclear energy’s status quo in North Carolina, recent policy victories, and why many pro-green activists aren’t championing the power of the atom enough for future electricity generation. We also touched on why solar and wind tech both are far from a silver bullet for either climate goals or creating enough energy to make us prosperous. Links: November 10, 2023 Article mentioned: https://www.realclearenergy.org/articles/2023/11/08/a_nuclear_renaissance_is_the_best_path_forward_991545.html Nick’s program: https://www.980waav.com/shows/wilmingtons-morning-news-with-nick-craig/ Entire show: https://omny.fm/shows/wilmington-s-morning-news-with-nick-craig/real-history-of-1898-friday-november-10th-2023

RealClearEnergy, Zero Hedge
8 November, 2023

A Nuclear Renaissance Is the Best Path Forward

For decades, the fruits of the fracking revolution, plus our newly minted status as the world’s top net exporter of natural gas, demonstrated that American consumers were swimming in bountiful energy. But as the pandemic effects of supply chain shortages, the war in Ukraine, and higher government spending gave way to inflation hikes, suddenly all eyes were on utility bills. In 2021, Americans spent as much as 25% more on energy than in the previous year. Compounding that problem for energy consumers are political pledges aimed at the “electrification of everything,” including massive subsidies for electric vehicles, home heat pumps, and solar panels in pursuit of a carbon neutral future. Now state policies are accelerating that, as at least 22 states — plus Puerto Rico and Washington, D.C. — have committed to either 100% carbon-free electricity generation or “net zero” carbon emissions by 2050. But rather than subsidize our way toward political climate goals with foreign-made solar panels, batteries, and wind turbines, what if we looked to the new generation of a safe technology that is already the densest and carbon-free source of electricity in the world? What if it’s time to once again champion nuclear energy? Energy investors, customers, and even green politicians,...