Dec 31, 2018

The coming collapse to Social Security as we know it

fromFoxBusiness: Social Security is a pay-as-you-go system. Even though there is an estimated nearly $3 trillion in the trust fund, this simply reflects accounting entries of the net surpluses the fund has been credited with.

Economic Policy: Statism Versus The Free Market

Mayor of California city destroys more than 100 police shooting records before new law goes into effect

fromTheDailyMail: The new law would makes public records of officer-involved shootings, major uses of force, and confirmed cases of sexual assault and lying while on duty.

Police State America        The Government is Not Us

George H.W. Bush’s biggest failure? The war on drugs

fromTheWashingtonPost: When Bush took office, the federal drug control budget was around $5 billion. When he left office in 1993, it was over $12 billion.

The War on Unapproved Voluntary Exchange

Missouri University says a man asking out a woman who's smaller than him could be sexual harassment

fromTheDailyMail: It came after student Jeremy Rowles asked dance instructor Annalise Breaux on a date in 2016 and was hit with allegations he had violated Title IX.

Political Correctness and Other Nitwittery

VIDEO: Tucker Carlson - Warmongers Outraged Over Syrian Pullout

fromLibertyPen/YouTube: From Tucker Carlson Tonight, even though there is no longer any U.S. interest in Syria, the forces of the warfare state decry the pullout of American troops from Syria.

Defense Versus The War Machine

Congress ramps up war on sex workers and customers with secret votes on four new 'protection' laws

fromTheDailyMail: A national strategy for arresting sex buyers and letting local cops wiretap sex workers are among the approved changes. *Congress uses taxpayer dollars to buy silence from the prostitutes they use.

The War on Unapproved Voluntary Exchange

June 11, 2016

Social Security and Medicare going broke even faster than projected

fromSchiffGold: For the first time since 1982, Social Security will have to dip into its $3 trillion trust fund in order to cover benefits this year. The program’s expenses will exceed its revenue three years earlier than projected.
Economic Policy: Statism Versus The Free Market

Berkeley scholar admits "climate change has run its course"

fromZeroHedge: Treating climate change as a planet-scale problem that could be solved only by an international regulatory scheme transformed the issue into a political creed for committed believers.
Politics and Other Official Acts of Corruption

Trade clash: EU to hit US with $3.3 billion in tariffs next month

fromCNNMoney: Americans are about to start paying for Trump's economic misconceptions.
Economic Policy: Statism Versus The Free Market

Jerry Brown wants to tax drinking water

fromTheDailyCaller: The California governor will not be happy until every penny you earn is transferred to the politicians who run the state.
The Government is Not Us      Politics and Other Official Acts of Corruption

Cops swarm and beat a black man unconscious in Arizona for no apparent reason

fromTheDailyMail: Robert Johnson was beaten unconscious by members of the Mesa Police Department because he "wouldn't sit down", though the law prohibiting standing was not provided.
The Government is Not Us      Police State America

Venezuela’s oil meltdown defies belief

fromWolfStreet: The problems for Venezuela continue to mount, and the news that it is considering force majeure points to a more catastrophic decline in production and exports.
Economic Policy: Statism Versus The Free Market

March 2, 2018

No jail sentence for woman who falsely claimed rape by three unidentified black men

fromReason: What should the proper punishment be in such cases?
Justice is a Result, Not Just a Process

VIDEO: Thomas Sowell - Brilliant Economic Insights

fromLibertyPen/YouTube: Professor Hanson looks at how the Obama administration deployed tribal affiliations to divide the American people by creation of a majority grievance culture.
Economic Policy: Statism Versus The Free Market

Andrew Napolitano: In Defense of the Right to Keep and Bear Arms

fromCreators: The Second Amendment was written to protect the right to self-defense — whether against bad guys, crazy people or a tyrannical government bent on destroying personal liberty.
2nd Amendment Assaults

Police unions defend bad cops who do awful things. Why won't they defend Broward County deputy?

fromReason: "Why bad cops need to pay their union dues" or "Get-out-of-jail-free cards aren't free."
Police State America

Dick’s Sporting Goods announces end to ‘assault rifle’ sales — again

fromBreitbart: The operative word is "again". Dick's made the same grandstanding claim on December 18, 2012.
2nd Amendment Assaults

From the land of fruits and nuts: California city ban distracted walking

fromCBSLosAngeles: The greedy hand of government hopes to pluck $500 from the wallets of any pedestrian listening to headphones or talking on an iPhone.
The Government is Not Us     Regulation Nation

January 17, 2018

A breath of healthcare freedom for the New Year

fromCapitalismMagazine: For more than a century we have learned to expect that government can only grow more powerful. The elimination of the individual insurance mandate of ObamaCare should be celebrated as a reversal of this trend.

Regulation Nation

House votes for six more years of warrantless surveillance

fromNakedSecurity: If you’re a member of the US “intelligence community” – the FBI, CIA and NSA – this past Thursday was a great day for homeland security.

Government is Watching Every Move You Make

Constitutional ignorance -- perhaps contempt

fromCreators: Is it ignorance of or contempt for our Constitution that fuels the movement to abolish the Electoral College?

Politics and Other Official Acts of Corruption

3 lessons from prohibition, which started today in 1919

fromReason: The 18th Amendment was ratified, extending an existing ban on liquor passed during World War I.

The War on Unapproved Voluntary Exchange

VIDEO: Harry Browne - Abolish the FDA

fromNakedSecurity: American consumers are risking their lives, being deprived of medicines and having their options destroyed due to the power of federal government busybodies.

Regulation Nation

Start saving now, because Social Security is screwed

fromReason: If Congress doesn't address its insolvency issues, payouts will need to be slashed by a quarter starting in fewer than 20 years.
The Government is Not Us     Economic Policy: Statism Versus The Free Market

December 23, 2017

The secret backstory of how Obama let Hezbollah off the hook

from Politico: An ambitious U.S. task force targeting Hezbollah's billion-dollar criminal enterprise ran headlong into the White House's desire for a nuclear deal with Iran.

Politics and Other Official Acts of Corruption   Defense Versus The War Machine

Cops kill 7-year-old boy while executing unarmed woman in a neighborhood full of kids

from TheFreeThoughtProject: Multiple deputies opened fire on an unarmed woman in a neighborhood full of children on Christmas break and they killed a 7-year-old boy.

Police State America    The Government is Not Us

VIDEO: The Vision of Harry Browne

from LibertyPen/YouTube: From C-Span (2000), former Libertarian presidential candidate Harry Browne shares his philosophy on the gun rights, affirmative action, taxes, Social Security, drug laws and other political topics.

Individual Liberty: America's First Principle   2nd Amendment Assaults

Rand Paul: Obama administration against Trump might be 'worse than Watergate'

from WashingtonExaminer: Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., argued Thursday that senior Obama administration officials might be guilty of trying to keep President Trump from getting elected last November.

Politics and Other Official Acts of Corruption   The Government is Not Us

The trillion dollar welfare program

from FFF: What is especially significant about fiscal year 2017 is that total outlays of the Social Security Administration (SSA) exceeded a trillion dollars for the first time

The Welfare State: Promoting Dependency

The myth of the playground pusher

from Reason: In Tennessee and around the country, "drug-free school zones" are little more than excuses for harsher drug sentencing.

The War on Unapproved Voluntary Exchange

November 27, 2017

Warning: one of these monopolies is going to control you

from TheDailyBell: It is time to break up the only true monopoly in the United States, the federal government.
The Government is Not Us

VIDEO: Milton Friedman - Social Security Lies and Deception

from LibertyPen/YouTube: Milton explains how Social Security, which was sold to the American people as an insurance scheme, is in reality a bad tax and a bad welfare distribution system.
Economic Policy: Statism Versus The Free Market

On Roy Moore: When did 'proof' become immaterial?

from WND: Most definitely a man in his 30s who tries to make out with a 14-year-old girl deserves 30 days in the electric chair. But have you ever forced yourself to face up to the other side of things? A Barry Farber column.
Justice is a Result, Not Just a Process

Freedom for Television and Radio

from Mises: There is one important area of American life where no effective freedom of speech or the press does or can exist under the present system. That is the entire field of radio and television.
Regulation Nation

Bay Area takes police-state approach to tobacco

from Spectator: San Francisco, Oakland, and other cities have banned vaping and flavored tobacco, thus exposing their progressive hypocrisy.
Regulation Nation

Facebook removed this small town business’s ads for American flags because it sell guns

from TheDailyCaller: Facebook unmasked. The Sportsman’s Shop says it can no longer advertise products like American flags on Facebook because its Facebook page promotes the sales of guns, and includes links that lead to the same.
Indoctrination and Censorship

Terence P. Jeffrey: Obama Claims Power To Make Illegal Immigrants Eligible For Social Security And Disability

Democrat vote-buying 101.  Does the president of the United States have the power to unilaterally tell millions of individuals who are violating federal law that he will not enforce that law against them now, that they may continue to violate that law in the future and that he will take action that makes them eligible for federal benefit programs for which  ... MORE

VIDEO: How Big Is The U.S. Debt?

Thomas Sowell: Toxic Words

The assumption of lies.  During this election year, we are destined to hear many words that are toxic in the way they misrepresent reality and substitute fantasies that can win votes. One of these words is "entitlement." To hear some politicians tell it, we are all entitled to all sorts of things, ranging from "affordable housing" to "a living     ... MORE

James Hall: Undeniable Social Security Demographics

The math does not add up.      What are the consequences for Social Security in an economy where fewer and fewer workers have a job? Add in the tax burdens that come to comply for Obamacare coverage and it is difficult to see where all the needed new employment will come from to keep funding the government Ponzi scheme? Government    ... MORE

A Sneaky Way To Reduce Social Security Benefits

Ponzi's next move: raise the retirement age. Americans like their Social Security benefits quite a bit: They oppose cuts to them by a margin of two to one. Even Millennials, who won’t be seeing benefits anytime soon, feel protective of Social Security, according to a poll from the Pew Research Center. One way to effectively      ... MORE

VIDEO: Who Perverted The General Welfare Clause?

Ed Feulner: Breaking The Budget

The pace of unsustainable spending is quickening.   Let’s say you were a financial adviser, and a family came to you with the following situation. They make the median family income in the United States — $52,000. But last year they spent $61,000. That’s right, $9,000 more than they’re making, and it all went on the family credit card.      ... MORE

Medicare and Social Security Tabs Coming Due

by Michael Tanner.    The tidal wave of red ink. The national debt has dropped out of the headlines recently, but that doesn't mean that it has gone away.   In fact, just a few weeks ago, the debt officially topped $18 trillion. For those keeping score, that equals roughly 101 percent of GDP. In other words, we now owe more than the value of all goods    ... MORE

IRS Defends Refunds To Illegals Who Never Filed Taxes

by Stephan Dinan.      The IRS is defending its decision to let illegal immigrants claim up to three years’ refunds on income even if they never paid income taxes, telling Congress in a new letter last week that agency lawyers have concluded getting a Social Security number triggers the ability to go back and ask for previous refunds. President     ... MORE

John Stossel: Kochs And Unions

Lots of people sure hate the Koch brothers. The Kochs get death threats like this: "If I had a chance to murder a Koch brother in cold blood, I would surely take it." Jim Dean doesn't want to kill the Kochs, but he does want new laws to limit their influence. Dean's brother Howard was a Democratic presidential candidate, and Dean chairs a group    ... MORE

VIDEO: Harry Browne's Social Security Solution

VIDEO: Milton Friedman - FDR and Social Security

What Happens When Libertarian Fantasies Become Reality?

by Daniel J. Mitchell. No, this post is not about that kind of fantasy. Instead, we’re dealing strictly with public policy and specifically addressing whether the libertarian agenda is unrealistic. This is because when I talk to people about libertarianism, they often will say something mildly supportive such as: “I like the idea of getting         ... MORE

Income Redistribution About Votes, Not Helping The Poor

by Jeffrey Dorfman.     Everyone knows the famous Chinese proverb: Give a man a fish and you have fed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you have fed him for a lifetime. So why does the federal government spend so much money on giving away fish and so little on teaching people how to fish? Because Democrats want people to depend on     ... MORE