The Outsider Perspective Issue 377 | The Beltway Outsiders

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Good Friday Morning! Except to the NCAA, who has decided to launch another investigation into the University of Tennessee. This time, the focus is on NIL in college football. The only problem is this: the NCAA is deciding to enforce a rules interpretation that every major program in the country is using. The University of Tennessee has responded by suing the NCAA and challenging the very validity of the NCAA’s existence.

A few years ago, the NCAA lost a Supreme Court case that opened the doors to allow players to get paid. In his concurrence, Justice Kavanaugh noted that no one involved with the case, from the NCAA to the universities themselves, believed the NCAA could survive anti-trust scrutiny. The NCAA openly runs a monopoly on collegiate sports and dictates what players and institutions can and can’t do. In his barn-burner concurrence, Justice Kavanaugh wrote:

The NCAA couches its arguments for not paying student athletes in innocuous labels. But the labels cannot disguise the reality: The NCAA’s business model would be flatly illegal in almost any other industry in America. All of the restaurants in a region cannot come together to cut cooks’ wages on the theory that “customers prefer” to eat food from low-paid cooks. Law firms cannot conspire to cabin lawyers’ salaries in the name of providing legal services out of a “love of the law.” Hospitals cannot agree to cap nurses’ income in order to create a “purer” form of helping the sick. News organizations cannot join forces to curtail pay to reporters to preserve a “tradition” of public-minded journalism. Movie studios cannot collude to slash benefits to camera crews to kindle a “spirit of amateurism” in Hollywood.

Price-fixing labor is price-fixing labor. And price-fixing labor is ordinarily a textbook antitrust problem because it extinguishes the free market in which individuals can otherwise obtain fair compensation for their work.

The Supreme Court didn’t decide the question of whether or not the NCAA broke antitrust laws because that question wasn’t before them. But Kavanugh and the majority opinion heavily hinted that the NCAA would fail any antitrust scrutiny. Tennessee lawsuit squarely accuses the NCAA of violating antitrust laws. The response from Tennessee to this investigation is to directly call for the end of the NCAA as we know it. And I don’t know a single legal scholar that thinks Tennessee will lose that argument.

Time will tell how this plays out, and I could rant on it forever. Moving on, this week, I’m going into the recent attacks by Iran-backed forces that killed three American soldiers – links to follow.

Quick Hits:

Here in Tennessee, a federal jury charged six pro-life demonstrators for violating the FACE Act, which involves “violent, threatening, damaging, and obstructive conduct intended to injure, intimidate, or interfere with the right to seek, obtain, or provide reproductive health services.” Sentencing will happen later this year, with the penalties potentially going north of 10.5 years and $260,000 fines. While looking at that story, I also read about another idiotic protest by anti-Israel racists in Washington DC. They shut down traffic and made everyone’s lives miserable. Early this month, similar groups attacked the White House (pretty close to insurrection as defined by Jan 6 liberals) – the White House had to relocate staff and police were in danger from objects being hurled at them. It’s not hard to find racists in those protests calling for the deaths of all Jews. You can also find plenty of stories of environmentalists gluing themselves to streets, defacing museums, and more. Given all that, it’s hard not to see a double standard when pro-lifers are getting heavy sentences while the inbred morons of the left get treated differently, both in the media and court.
Long-time readers know that I’ve written a lot about the Chinese real estate developer Evergrande. A Hong Kong court ruled this week that the company needed to liquidate. It was notable because it’s an acknowledgement of how bad things are in the Chinese property sector still. In terms of actual meaning, this ruling has no real impact. China won’t recognize the court ruling and Evergrande won’t be forced to liquidate. But it does underscore the Chinese economy is deeply underwater. The WSJ reports that China is deleting negative stories about its economy from any sites it controls. Journalists, academics, researchers, and more are all watching their works vanish. China is hiding everything and eliminating all negative news. This is not a healthy country.

Where you can find me this week

Please subscribe, rate, and review my podcast on iTunes, Spotify, or Google Play — the reviews help listeners, and readers like you find me in the algorithms. Make sure to sign up for the Conservative Institute’s daily newsletter.

Canadian Healthcare Has Become A Death Cult – Conservative Institute

Disney Loses Against Florida – They Fight For Nothing – Conservative Institute

Biden Backs Off From Iran

On Sunday, January 28, a drone attack killed three American soldiers and injured several more. They were identified as“Sgt. William Jerome Rivers, 46, of Carrollton, Ga.; Spc. Kennedy Ladon Sanders, 24, of Waycross, Ga.; and Spc. Breonna Alexsondria Moffett, 23, of Savannah, Ga. The three were all reservists assigned to the 718th Engineer Company in Fort Moore, Ga.”

And at first, I thought everyone was clear on what happened. Biden said in a speech that he “blamed Iran-backed militias for the first U.S. fatalities after months of strikes by such groups against American forces across the Middle East since the start of the Israel-Hamas war.” But since the initial act, there’s been this slow attempt by various parts of the US government to walk back the seriousness of three dead Americans.

The natural reaction from Republicans was to push Biden to respond and avenge the deaths of the Americans who died. The attacks from Iranian-backed proxies in the region have grown considerably since October 7, 2023. It’s been an easy criticism to lob at the White House that they’ve allowed this threat to grow, and an incapable response has now led to dead Americans.

But after Biden gave his “I’m tough” speeches, and we were promised action, the walkbacks began. First, the next day, reports started coming out that the drone attack was a mistake. They claimed the drone was seen as a friendly and not shot down:

A preliminary report suggests human error may have been involved too.

It says U.S. forces may have mistaken the enemy drone for an American one and as a result they didn’t try to shoot it down as it entered the base.

“We are still assessing what happened and how a one-way attack drone was able to impact the facility,” said Singh.

And the way the coverage was tilted, this was made to be seen more as a mistake and less as an attack by a foreign entity. The phrasing and wording of this bothered me, but I mostly ignored it.

But the mistake angle to this story grew later in the week when Politico reported: “US intelligence officials estimate Tehran does not have full control of its proxies.”

Intelligence officials have calculated that Tehran does not have full control over its proxy groups in the Middle East, including those responsible for attacking and killing U.S. troops in recent weeks, according to two U.S. officials familiar with the matter.

The Quds Force — an elite branch of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps — is responsible for sending weapons and military advisers as well as intelligence to support militias in Iraq and Syria as well as the Houthis in Yemen. The groups have varying ambitions and agendas, which sometimes overlap, but Tehran does not appear to have complete authority over their operational decision-making, the officials said.

In two stories, we get the sense the White House and its leaders are trying to say: 1) It’s our fault, and 2) Iran isn’t to blame.

It’s a bizarre point to make at this juncture. No one, until this exact moment, has doubted Iran’s control of its proxies. Iran funds, trains, and strategizes with all of them, from Hamas to all the groups firing at the US military.

The day after the October 7th attacks in Israel, The Wall Street Journal was already reporting that Iran was deeply involved in the planning of the attacks. The White House would go on to deny that reporting. The WSJ quoted people in the groups involved. No one doubted Iran’s impact.

No one except the White House. So now we have a story where American troops are dead, and the White House talked strong but is backing down once again. I know part of the reason this is happening is because no one in that White House wants to escalate to a full war with Iran. So they’re trying to provide some outs to explain what is happening without naming Iran.

But it’s also impossible to look at this shift from the White House and not also consider all the links they’ve had with Iran. Robert Malley, the former Biden envoy to Iran is under FBI investigation for his connections to Iran. He’s currently teaching with Yale and Congress has asked some pointed questions over why Biden has kept Malley hidden from view.

Semafor released a stunning and in-depth report last September on Iran’s influence operation in the United States. They detailed members of the White House and staffers all over DC who were connected to this influence-peddling ring. This is similar in scope to the Obama administration, who openly courted Iran and built the original “Iranian echo chamber” in Washington DC.

The problem is that while these were an issue in the past, we’re beyond them being an issue now. It’s a direct threat to national security, and Iranian-backed forces are seeking to kill Americans and our allies in Israel. Iran is not some random country petitioning the United States. Iran is actively funding and aiding groups that seek to kill Americans and have succeeded.

Biden’s strong talk sounds good. But watching the full defense establishment pull back is telling a different story. Biden says we’ll hit Iran hard, and the rest of the government is trying to give Iran an out for what has happened.

I’m not advocating Biden rush into a full-scale war with Iran to prove he’s tough. I’m asking for this White House to represent Americans and our safety first, not the notions of those who are bought and paid for by the Iranian regime. But between the Obama and Biden administrations, that seems like an impossible task.

We’re in a dangerously escalating situation, and it’s unclear whose interests the White House is more interested in protecting. That’s a dangerous spot to be in for the American military abroad.

Links of the week

Taylor Swift, Donald Trump and the Right’s Abnormality Problem – Ross Douthat, NYT

Fed Signals Cuts Are Possible but Not Imminent as It Holds Rates Steady: Central bank abandons formal guidance that had kept hikes on the table since last raising rates in July – WSJ

Tracey Jacobson Abandoned Our Afghan Allies. Now She’s Getting a Promotion: The woman who failed to rescue U.S. friends from the Taliban is Biden’s nominee for ambassador to Iraq. – Eli Lake, The FP

Denny’s follows Starbucks, Subway, and In-N-Out Burger in closing its doors in California due to crime and safety concerns – DailyMail

Car commutes have largely gotten slower across America since the mid-pandemic era, per new data from mapping and location tech giant TomTom. The findings are a reflection of increased traffic as more people head back to the office at least some of the time. – Axios

Judge refuses action against DeSantis over effort to remove Students for Justice in Palestine off campuses: Judge refuses to take action against Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis over Students for Justice in Palestine deactivation order – Fox News

Massachusetts governor opens migrant shelter in Boston rec center because “we really don’t have a choice” – CBS News

Terrorist who crossed border allowed to roam US for nearly a year, arrested only after ICE ‘became aware’ – Fox News

Insects Aren’t Attracted to Artificial Lights. They’re Tortured by Them: The next time you see bugs circling a porch light, you’ll know what’s really going on. – Gizmodo

X/Twitter Thread(s) of the week

At a California Congressional Debate – Candidates deny Hamas did anything wrong on 10/7.