LibertyPen: Venezuela

Showing posts with label Venezuela. Show all posts

May 5, 2016

Spy agency NSA triples collection of U.S. phone records: official report

fromForbes: The U.S. National Security Agency collected 534,000,000 records of phone calls and text messages of Americans last year, more than triple gathered in 2016, a U.S. intelligence agency report released on Friday said.
Government is Watching Every Move You Make

Surveillance oversight across the Golden State

fromEFF: Too often, law enforcement makes unilateral decisions about surveillance equipment in the dark, driven by the sales pitches of vendors rather than an open dialogue about the public safety needs of the community.
Government is Watching Every Move You Make

Venezuela hikes minimum wage by 155% -- should McDonald's and Walmart match it?

fromForbes: The ugly truth about Venezuela’s minimum wage hikes: they are part of the country’s problem rather than solution.
Economic Policy: Statism Versus The Free Market

John Stossel: Propaganda Networks

fromForbes: Why does American journalist Abby Martin do propaganda for socialist murderers? Few viewers know that teleSUR is funded by the tyrants who control Cuba and Venezuela.
Media Bias on Parade

VIDEO: Cathy Areu - Sherpa Guides Tucker Carlson Through Leftist Nitwittery

fromLibertyPen/YouTube: From Tucker Carlson Tonight, Cathy Areu (publisher of Catalina magazine) explains the finer points of progressive thinking (also known as leftist nitwittery) to the traditional-thinking host.
Political Correctness and Other Nitwittery

Public support for marijuana is growing. Will lawmakers follow?

fromPBS: Politicians may wind up under so much duress that they are actually forced to represent the will of the people.
The War on Unapproved Voluntary Exchange

May 3, 2016

Tariffs are self-imposed sanctions

fromReason: We restrict trade to punish our enemies. Why would we do the same to ourselves?
Economic Policy: Statism Versus The Free Market

Are restrictions on opioids a threat to human rights?

fromWashingtonPost: When government imposes regulations that make it near impossible for a physician to prescribe an essential medication, or for a pharmacist to stock the medication, that becomes a human rights issue..
Regulation Nation The War on Unapproved Voluntary Exchange Individual Liberty: America's First Principle

Walter E Williams: Colleges: anti-diversity and pro-exclusion

fromCreators: It is a cowardly act for a professor to take advantage of student immaturity by indoctrinating pupils with his opinions before the students have developed the maturity and skill to examine other opinions.
Indoctrination and Censorship

Feinstein finally catches up with her voters, abandons her opposition to marijuana legalization

fromReason: A tired old drug warrior checks into rehab.
The War on Unapproved Voluntary Exchange

In Venezuela, inflation quadruples to 18,000 percent in two months, with no end in sight

fromMiamiHerald: Venezuela's inflation rate spiked from 4,966 percent to nearly 18,000 percent in just March and April — a trend that, if it continues, could push the country's annual rate to more than 100,000 percent.
Economic Policy: Statism Versus The Free Market

CNN hosts porn star's lawyer Michael Avenatti 59 times in less than two months

fromNewsbusters: The newest incarnation of CNN's anti-Trump fetish.
Media Bias on Parade

April 5, 2016

The Supreme Court's continuing immunity crusade

fromReason: For cops, that is.
Police State America

Assange works for the people – now we need to save him

fromReason: Julian Assange has been silenced again. With the Cambridge Analytica story dominating the news, it seems some powerful people have reasons to keep the brave WikiLeaks boss quiet right now.
Indoctrination and Censorship Politics and Other Official Acts of Corruption

Congress should stop ‘policing for profit’

fromOCRegister: For decades, federal, state and local law enforcement agencies have been free to seize the property of Americans without so much as bringing criminal charges.
Police State America The Government is Not Us

“The most successful deception since the Department of War became the Department of Defense”

fromTheLibertyConservative: NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden is calling out Mark Zuckerberg and his social media company Facebook for their surveillance activities throughout the world.
Indoctrination and Censorship

The ‘nice girl’ who saved the Second Amendment

fromNationalReview: “For me, trust in the common man is such a basic principle. Few governments actually allow it. They want to keep their people vulnerable and disarmed.”
2nd Amendment Assaults

The Cafe Con Leche Index: Venezuelan price inflation hits 6567%

fromReason: Cafe Con Leche Index tracks just one item: a cup of coffee at a bakery in eastern Caracas. Its price has jumped to 120,000 bolivars from 1,800 bolivars over the past 12 months.
Economic Policy: Statism Versus The Free Market

March 30, 2016

How Trump's steel tariffs harm America

fromReason: The American people will suffer more than the moguls in the steel industry will benefit.
Economic Policy: Statism Versus The Free Market

Privileged whites leave inner-city minorities defenseless with gun control push

fromPBNews: Gun control has always been about disarming the common man. The ruling class and their wealthy donors will always be armed to the teeth.
Police State America 2nd Amendment Assaults

Why you should NEVER talk to police

fromLewRockwell: Should be required reading ESPECIALLY for honest, law abiding citizens with nothing to fear from law enforcement. Think about how tight-lipped they get when they are the ones accused!
Police State America Individual Liberty: America's First Principle

California, other states sue over citizenship question on next census

fromSFGate: Leftwing tyrants panic at the prospect of illegal aliens not providing them with political power.
Politics and Other Official Acts of Corruption

Socialist utopia: child gangs fight for "quality garbage" with machetes in Venezuela

fromZeroHedge: The Miami Herald has detailed the lives of children forced to live under the harsh realities of socialism.
Economic Policy: Statism Versus The Free Market

Detroit taxpayers cough up $225,000 to pay for unjustified dog killings by cops

fromTheNewYorker: Some cops have killed more than 70 dogs.
Police State America

March 26, 2016

New law will make it illegal for people to walk and smoke at the same time

fromTheFreeThought: NOT FROM THE ONION. Have residents of New York City just been deemed too dumb to smoke and walk at the same time?
Political Correctness and Other Nitwittery Regulation Nation

Scott Walker is making it harder to receive welfare in Wisconsin. Will this become a nationwide blueprint?

fromTruthOut: Trouble is, the legislation will cost the state's taxpayers about $37.9 million and federal taxpayers around $35.5 million. Somehow, Walker found a way for both recipients and taxpayers to lose.
The Welfare State: Promoting Dependency

In gambling battle, both sides are wrong

fromReason: Neither supporters nor opponents want to consider personal liberty.
The War on Unapproved Voluntary Exchange

Canadian disabled man denied care but offered euthanasia

fromTheNationalReview: Will euthanasia be about money? Does CNN hate Donald Trump? A look at how socialized medicine works.
Economic Policy: Statism Versus The Free Market Regulation Nation

Venezuela experiencing free fall

fromTheGoldTelegraph: Socialism circles the drain. Worried about higher prices when you go to the supermarket? So are Venezuelans. Consumer prices saw a 6,147 percent annual increase in February.
Economic Policy: Statism Versus The Free Market

School district arms teachers with ‘bucket of rocks’ to defend students from mass shooters

fromTheFreeThoughtProject: Not from the Onion. The superintendent said arming each teacher with a 5-gallon bucket of rocks is the most he can do under the current laws.
Political Correctness and Other Nitwittery

February 28, 2018

Armed and dangerous: If police don’t have to protect the public, what good are they?

fromRutherfordInstitute: In the American police state, police have a tendency to shoot first and ask questions later. So when police in Florida had to deal with a school shooter, what did they do?
Police State America The Government is Not Us

How environmentalists keep heating bills high

fromCreators: Making the poor poorer is merely collateral damage for those with a religious devotion to environmentalism.
Regulation Nation Political Correctness and Other Nitwittery

VIDEO: Victor Davis Hanson: Obama's Legacy of Identity Politics

fromLibertyPen/YouTube: A look at how the Obama administration deployed tribal affiliations to divide the American people by creation of a majority grievance culture.
Politics and Other Official Acts of Corruption Political Correctness and Other Nitwittery

Walter E Williams: Another Liberal-Created Failure

fromCreators: The dollar cost of the liberal vision of deinstitutionalization of mentally ill people is a relatively small part of the burden placed on society. Many innocent people have been victimized by mentally ill people.
Political Correctness and Other Nitwittery

The pension nightmare for California’s cities is getting scarier

fromSacramentoBee: For politicians who have long been buying votes from the public employees union, the chickens are coming home to roost.
Economic Policy: Statism Versus The Free Market The Government is Not Us

Venezuelan inmates eating rats and pigeons to avoid starvation

fromBreitbart: Venezuelan prisoners are eating rats and pigeons as a means of survival as food supplies continue to dissipate in the failed socialist state, according to a report published this weekend.
Economic Policy: Statism Versus The Free Market

February 22, 2018

VIDEO: Walter E Williams - The Proper Role of Government

fromLibertyPen/YouTube: Dr. Williams explains the legitimate functions of government as designed by our founders and laments America’s trek from land of liberty toward totalitarian state.
Individual Liberty: America's First Principle

Border bouncers don't need Big Brother spying powers over Americans

fromReason: ICE and border patrol agents want access to NSA intel obtained without warrants.
Government is Watching Every Move You Make

Revealed: two secret cogs in the FBI national surveillance machine

fromForbes: Civil liberties activists, legal experts and even former intelligence analysts are crying foul about the possibility of widespread domestic surveillance occurring across America with zero oversight.
Government is Watching Every Move You Make

Rand Paul bids to mold the GOP in his image

fromMcClatchy: Is Sen. Rand Paul the new Steve Bannon, the former Trump aide who promised to wage a “season of war” on the Republican establishment and champion like-minded conservatives?
Politics and Other Official Acts of Corruption

The incomprehensible horror of Venezuelan socialism

fromPeoplesPunditDaily: Street vendors in Venezuela are weaving baskets from banknotes after 13,000 per cent inflation rendered them practically worthless.
Economic Policy: Statism Versus The Free Market

The hypocrisy of the New York Times: America is a surveillance state

fromActivistPost: The New York Times is more than willing to point out the surveillance state in China and other nations; however, they remain silent about America’s surveillance.
Government is Watching Every Move You Make Media Bias on Parade

February 18, 2018

VIDEO - Sharyl Atkisson: How real is fake news?

fromNYTimes: Highly recommended. Was the effort to focus America's attention on the idea of “fake news”—itself a propaganda effort? Connect the dots and learn who’s behind it and why.
Media Bias on Parade

People will eat what they want, not what government prefers

fromReason: Now that Michelle and the other busybodies hellbent on minding YOUR own business have finally been relegated to the dustbins of history, the end of the menu-labeling nitwittery could be in sight.
Regulation Nation

None of these popular gun control proposals would have prevented the Parkland shooting

fromReasonBlog: Policies favored by both experts and the public would not have prevented the Florida shooting.
2nd Amendment Assaults

How we got Trump's clash with the Deep State

fromTheNationalInterest: Had the deep state gotten its way, Donald J. Trump would never have come close to the Oval Office, let alone be sitting in it.
The Government is Not Us Politics and Other Official Acts of Corruption

In Colombia border town, desperate Venezuelans sell hair to survive

fromNYTimes: Venezuela is steeped in economic and political turmoil. Inflation last year surpassed 2,600 percent, according to opposition lawmakers, which has exacerbated severe shortages of food and medicine.
Economic Policy: Statism Versus The Free Market

Reality check: More Minnesotans own guns, violent crime remains low

fromCNSMinnesota: Proof that when guns are restricted from law-abiding citizens only criminals are safer.
2nd Amendment Assaults

February 6, 2018

VIDEO: Want to make an untraceable handgun at home? Cody Wilson can help.

fromReason/YouTube: Cody Wilson's Ghost Gunner milling machine and 3D printed firearms are destroying the concept of gun control.
2nd Amendment Assaults

Students hate Trump's SOTU quotes...until finding out they're actually Obama's

fromCampusReform/YouTube: Some students reacted negatively to quotes they believed were from President Donald Trump’s recent State of the Union Address, until realizing they were actually quoting Barack Obama.
Political Correctness and Other Nitwittery

Leave right now or arm yourself to the teeth: life in Caracas

fromBloomberg: A frightening look at end-stage socialism in Venezuela.
Economic Policy Statism Versus The Free Market Politics and Other Official Acts of Corruption

Vacant lots, empty homes and dying orchards on bullet train route attract squatters, vandals and thieves

fromLATimes: State lawmakers believe parents who homeschool their children are more likely to become child abusers and should be subjected to involuntary home visits to prove they are acceptable parents.
Economic Policy Statism Versus The Free Market Politics and Other Official Acts of Corruption

Proof that 50 years of drug policy is based on lies

fromTheDailyBell: More terrifying than monsters, murderers, snakes, and rats: politicians. They create horror stories that go on for decades. And their tales are real.
The War on Unapproved Voluntary Exchange

VIDEO: Milton Friedman - Enemies of the Free Market

fromLibertyPen/YouTube: Professor Friedman identifies the two primary enemies of economic freedom.
Economic Policy Statism Versus The Free Market

January 27, 2018

Businesses are being forced to pay the police to let them spy on customers

fromMassPrivateI: In Michigan, politicians are mandating businesses install surveillance equipment connected to the police department.
Police State America Government is Watching Every Move You Make

Why no gadget can prove how stoned you are

fromReason: The truth contained within this article is for your consumption only. Don't expect it to influence authorities to who are vested in the prevailing wisdom being otherwise.
The War on Unapproved Voluntary Exchange Regulation Nation Police State America

Venezuela's economy circles the drain, inflation jumps 1000 % in just one day

fromEconomicPolicyJournal: Prof Steve Hanke reports: Yesterday, Venezuelan inflation surpassed 6,000% for the first time. Today, it has surpassed 7,000%, sitting at 7,155%. #Venezuela is in an economic free fall.
Economic Policy: Statism Versus The Free Market

New York governor wants taxpayers to fund college education for illegals

fromReason: Andrew Cuomo refuses to take a back seat to Jerry Brown in the crazy car.
Politics and Other Official Acts of Corruption Political Correctness and Other Nitwittery

Tyrannical Law will throw waiters in jail who offer customers unsolicited plastic straws

fromReason: Busybodies minding your own business. Lawmakers will use the barrel of a gun to enforce a tyrannical state laws to reduce customer service.
Regulation Nation

The plan is for driverless police cars to patrol freeways to insure zero speeders

fromDigitalTrends: The filings explain Ford’s autonomous patrol car would primarily rely on a vehicle-to-vehicle communication system.
Regulation Nation Police State America Government is Watching Every Move You Make

January 23, 2018

California moves to register illegal aliens to vote -- automatically

fromTheDailyMail: The California New Motor Voter Act is expected to add more than two million new registrants in the first year.
The Government is Not Us Politics and Other Official Acts of Corruption

Minimum wage hikes inflict maximum pain

fromReason: Hiking the minimum wage is feel-good humanitarian idea that’s guaranteed to hurt actual humans.
Regulation Nation

2017 might have been worst year in U.S. history for media bias

fromTownhall: A society is on the path to tyranny is when the majority of a nation’s journalists are committed to doing whatever they can to destroy one political group while feverishly covering up the scandals of another.
Media Bias on Parade

Jury nullification: A powerful tool for the advancement of liberty

fromReason: You may see no better opportunity to advance liberty on an individual yet highly effective level.
Justice is a Result, Not Just a Process

Taxpayers held liable after video showed cops make K9 “eat” handcuffed man

fromTheFreeThoughtProject: After police sicced their K9 on a non-violent man, who was not resisting, and actually handcuffed, they were found justified as the taxpayers shell out $250,000.
Police State America

'We loot or we die of hunger': food shortages fuel unrest in Venezuela

fromTheGuardian: End-stage socialism is an awful thing to witness.
Economic Policy: Statism Versus The Free Market

January 19, 2018

The Case for Jury Nullification, Part I

fromPeoplesPundit: Nullification occurs when a jury votes “not guilty” because a law is either unjust or wrongly applied, not because a defendant is actually innocent.
Justice is a Result, Not Just a Process

Police now conducting mouth swab checkpoints to test drivers for marijuana

fromFreeThoughtProject: With the legalization of marijuana comes the bolstering of the police state and the new mouth swab checkpoints for weed are evidence of it.

The War on Unapproved Voluntary Exchange Police State America

The Case for Jury Nullification, Part II

VIDEO: Our Corruption Coma

fromBillWhittle/YouTube: Remember when the world made sense and movies showed us evil just long enough to be vanquished? What happened? What spell have we been under?

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

You can't get $1 out of the bank in Venezuela. I tried.

fromCNNMoney: End-stage socialism is always a tragic sight. Cash is gone.

Economic Policy: Statism Versus The Free Market

VIDEO: Ayn Rand - Duty, Charity and Love

fromLibertyPen/YouTube: The brilliant philosopher expounds on three powerful concepts.

The Pursuit of Happiness

December 26, 2017

Jury nullification: A powerful tool for the advancement of liberty

from Capitalism Magazine: You may see no better opportunity to advance liberty on an individual yet highly effective level.

Justice is a Result, Not Just a Process

Classic Thomas Sowell: Trickle Down Ignorance

from Capitalism Magazine: Students can spend years in educational institutions, discussing all sorts of issues, without ever having heard a coherent statement of the other side of those issues that differ from what their politically correct teachers say.

Indoctrination and Censorship Political Correctness and Other Nitwittery

Dimming Christmas lights reflect Venezuela's grim crisis

from ABCNews: This season, for the first time in years, no festive lights will bring it to life.

Economic Policy: Statism Versus The Free Market

How fines and fees criminalize poverty: explained

from InJusticeToday: To increase revenue, many states and municipalities impose hefty fines on those charged with minor offenses like traffic violations, jaywalking, or even leaving a trashcan on the street.

Justice is a Result, Not Just a Process The Government is Not Us

UNC takes steps to crack down on heckler’s veto

from LegalInsurrection: The “Campus Free Speech Act” requires a policy on free speech and free expression that guarantees “the fullest degree of intellectual freedom and free expression” on campus.

Indoctrination and Censorship

Why governments treat you like a number, not an individual

fromTheDailyBell: Students can spend years in educational institutions, discussing all sorts of issues, without ever having heard a coherent statement of the other side of those issues that differ from what their politically correct teachers say.

Regulation Nation

December 7, 2017

House Republicans prepare contempt action against FBI, DOJ

from Bloomberg: The Deep State is being challenged at last. What will happen when push comes to shove?
Politics and Other Official Acts of Corruption

Supreme Court asked to stop warrantless searches of vehicles parked on private residential property

from Rutherford Institute: The Rutherford Institute has asked the Supreme Court to prohibit police from entering private residential property uninvited and without a warrant, in order to search a vehicle parked a few feet from the house.
Police State America

Wisconsin court affirms mom's conviction for swearing at son, without deciding First Amendment issue

from Journal Sentinel: The last count was for profanely berating and insulting her 14-year-old son after he burned some popcorn. The boy had been talking to a friend at the time, who heard the tirade over the phone.
Political Correctness and Other Nitwittery

Anti-white bigotry on the rise in college newspapers

from TheNewAmerican: Bigotry against blacks would never be given an outlet in a college newspaper. Neither should bigotry against whites — or anyone else.
Indoctrination and Censorship Political Correctness and Other Nitwittery

Swat-style raid over tea leaves headed to court

from USNews: Whether police lied about testing discarded tea leaves found in a Kansas couple's trash to get permission for a SWAT-style raid is the focus of a federal trial.
Police State America

Ex-coach cited malnutrition for poor performance by Venezuela’s national women’s soccer team

from Dangerous: The Venezuelan Soccer Federation claims that the under-20s national women’s soccer team was “largely insulated” from the country's food crisis, where citizens have been forced to raise pet rabbits for food, and even hunt flamingos.
Economic Policy: Statism Versus The Free Market

November 21, 2017

Don’t just give thanks, pay it forward one act of kindness at a time

from Rutherford Institute: It’s been a hard, heart-wrenching, stomach-churning kind of year filled with violence and ill will. It’s been a year of too much hate and too little kindness.
Individual Liberty: America's First Principle

Top NSA whistleblower claims "Russiagate" a fake to increase war-spending

from Zero Hedge: Basically, he is saying that the keepers of the keys are blocking the public from the truth, because they know that the truth will expose the fact that they’ve been lying to the public, all along.
Defense Versus The War Machine

Asset forfeiture: inherently abusive, and awful in Alabama

from YellowHammer: Outright thievery unmasked. One town uses a “speed trap” not just to generate outlandish fines but also to seize property.
Police State America The Government is Not Us

VIDEO: Milton Friedman - The Expanding Nature of Government

from LibertyPen/YouTube: Friedman explains why the philosophy of government has become that of the cancer cell: growth for the sake of growth.
Economic Policy: Statism Versus The Free Market

Sex, jobs and smoking: What's legal for teens in your state?

from Reason: In California, you can work and get an abortion without parental consent at 12, but you must be 21 to buy a vaping device.
Regulation Nation

Venezuela's default disaster

from Mises: Socialism always promises heaven and gives hell.
Economic Policy: Statism Versus The Free Market

November 13, 2017

Wonders of socialism: Venezuelan kids turn to prostitution for food

from Yahoo: End stage socialism: girls as young as 12 working at brothels, all driven there because of the hunger crisis.
Economic Policy: Statism Versus The Free Market

Once taboo, socialism finds comrades among US millennials

from Yahoo: Reaping the harvest of a dumbed-down America. Those ignorant of history are doomed to repeat it.
Economic Policy: Statism Versus The Free Market Indoctrination and Censorship

Texas church shooter’s last two Facebook posts were “supporting Antifa”

from Got News: The media does not want you to know that Texas church shooter Devin Patrick Kelley had a history of violent anti-Christian threats and supporting Antifa.
Media Bias on Parade

Media silent on Dem senator’s corruption trial despite lynch mob coverage of Roy Moore

from Downtrend: As day three of the concerted push to kill the U.S. Senate bid of Alabama’s Judge Roy Moore gets underway, there is an enormous double standard at play with the media.
Media Bias on Parade

Giving real meaning to Veterans Day

from Capitalism Magazine: Veterans Day arouses three emotions in Americans: solemnity, because it celebrates the veterans who have defended our great country; sadness, because so many have lost their lives and pride, because they have fought so well.
Defense Versus The War Machine

California will put free tampons in schools

from Circa: A legislative analysis estimated that it will cost "millions of dollars" to install the dispensers and "hundreds of thousands" to stock them. But that does not discourage the drunken sailors of Sacramento.
Political Correctness and Other Nitwittery