June 20, 2020

Op-Ed: Those who exercise free speech should also defend it — even when it’s offensive

fromLATimes: As we rise up to remake America, free speech must be not only something we rely upon, but also part of what we fight for.
Indoctrination and Censorship

How Federal courts gave us qualified immunity and forced it on all 50 states

fromActivistPost: A legal doctrine first created out of thin air by judicial fiat went unchallenged – and the court did what it does so well, it eventually forced that same doctrine on all 50 states.
Police State America

Police violence, COVID-19 lies, and the end of legitimate authority

fromReason: Our leaders and institutions are failing us spectacularly. It's up to us to reboot society.
The Government is Not Us

San Francisco police were ordered to turn off body cameras in raid on journalist's home

fromReason: Their illegal search was not recorded. If police were actually public servants, and not merely state agents, this would not happen.
Police State America

PG&E pleads guilty to 84 counts of manslaughter tied to deadliest wildfire In California history

fromZeroHedge: An investigation eventually found that PG&E inadvertently started the fire when a transmission line broke from a nearly-100-year-old Pacific Gas & Electric Tower after years of neglect.
Regulation Nation                      The Government is Not Us

Business licensing makes it too easy for politicians to punish people they don't like

fromReason: Making a living is a right, not a privilege, and should be respected as such.
Regulation Nation

April 7, 2020

In what sense do you think we are free?

fromAmericanThinker: "But arguments about the suspension of such civil liberties aside, does a citizen’s life or death even matter, in the context of our Constitution?"
Individual Liberty: America's First Principle

Court hears final arguments in censorship suit against Google, Facebook, Twitter

fromReclaimTheNet: Laura Loomer and Freedom Watch argued that social media companies should be held liable for First Amendment violations.
Indoctrination and Censorship           Media Bias on Parade

For a glimpse into your dystopian police state future, just visit your local Walmart

fromEndOfTheAmericanDream: Hopefully once this pandemic is behind us we will see these ridiculous restrictions at Walmart locations go away.
The Government is Not Us             Police State America

Why the government Is no good at fighting Coronavirus

fromReason: The problems with the federal response to COVID-19 go far beyond Donald Trump and deep into bureaucratic inertia.
Regulation Nation

Ted Cruz: ‘We don't live in a police state’

fromAMC: "Resist authoritarianism and don’t abuse power."
The Government is Not Us              Police State America     

Deputies issue citations to 22 people watching sunset at beach in Encinitas

fromTimesofSanDiego: Government never misses an opportunity to shear the sheep, even in times of crisis. "The violations carry fines of up to $1,000 or six months in jail or both, the department said."
The Government is Not Us

March 20, 2020

Coronavirus will be deadly to your liberty

fromReason: COVID-19 is the healthiest thing to happen to government power in a very long time.

Individual Liberty: America's First Principle                     The Government is Not Us

It's up to the Supreme Court to teach Seattle 'Free Speech 101'

fromTheHill: The Constitution protects not only your right to speak but also your right not to speak, including your right to refrain from paying for the speech you oppose.

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

Save sports for the next generation of female athletes

fromTownhall: Stop biological males from competing in female sports and provide a legal remedy for girls deprived of opportunities from policies that permit males to compete on female teams.

Political Correctness and Other Nitwittery

VIDEO: Ayn Rand - Don't Confuse the Two Kinds of Capitalism

fromReason: Ayn Rand explains that there are two types of capitalists in America and only one reveres the free market.

Economic Policy: Statism Versus the Free Market

Victor Davis Hanson: The mysterious rise, fall and rise of Joe Biden

fromTownhall: At no time did Biden cease his bloopers or embarrassing moments of forgetfulness and confusion. The field changed, not Biden himself.

Politics and Other Official Acts of Corruption

David Stockman says coronavirus is sparking a financial crisis, warns ‘Wall Street is toast’

fromCNBC: “It’s going to end as a financial crisis because the illusion that central banks always have your back and the economy would keep expanding and growing forever was complete nonsense.”

Economic Policy: Statism Versus the Free Market

March 2, 2020

Politicians want to destroy Section 230, the Internet's First Amendment

fromReason: Four myths about the law that made the modern internet possible.

Indoctrination and Censorship

John Stossel: Bloomberg the nanny

fromCreators: Bloomberg targeted smoking, flavored tobacco products, fattening sodas, loud music, grass clippings, cellphones in schools, salt, guns, Styrofoam and restaurant menus without calorie counts.

Regulation Nation

Schools are pushing the boundaries of surveillance technologies

fromActivistPost: Schools are experimenting with the very same surveillance technologies that totalitarian governments use to surveil and abuse the rights of their citizens everywhere: online, offline, and on their phones.

Government is Watching Every Move You Make

California reinvents the English language yet again and other nitwittery

fromDailyBell: In the latest attempt to sugarcoat turds, California will now refer to “at risk youth” instead as, “at promise youth.”

Political Correctness and Other Nitwittery

Vaping prohibition would create black markets and put American health at risk

fromTownhall: "Democrats are attempting to take things too far and are promoting prohibitionist policies that we know don’t work and often cause more harm than good."

Regulation Nation

How can Bernie Sanders happen in America

fromTownhall: Why would any people trade individual liberty for government control?

Politics and Other Official Acts of Corruption

January 20, 2020

Why laws against hate speech are dangerous

fromGatestoneInstitute: Pending legislation seeks to bar all kinds of large cash payments to "fight crime and money laundering." Banning cash will allow the government to monitor all citizen transactions for approval.

Indoctrination and Censorship            Individual Liberty: America's First Principle

Top priority for California voters heading into 2020 primary? Homelessness

fromSacBee: Candidates visiting California will likely need to focus more of their energy on explaining how they’d tackle homelessness and work to make housing cheaper.

Politics and Other Official Acts of Corruption

Michelle Obama’s school lunch program faces new cuts on former first lady’s birthday

fromImpact2020: The proposed rule announced Friday would increase “flexibility” for vegetable requirements and allow schools to change fruit servings during breakfast in favor of meats or meat alternatives.

Regulation Nation 

Trump and Comey are united against encrypted communications

fromReason: Don’t worry—America’s ruling factions still disagree over who should be in charge of the snooping.

Government is Watching Every Move You Make

Australia aims to ban cash spending

fromAsiaTimes: Pending legislation seeks to bar all kinds of large cash payments to "fight crime and money laundering." Banning cash will allow the government to monitor all citizen transactions for approval.

Regulation Nation               The War on Unapproved Voluntary Exchange

Proposed bill to make cellphone use under 21 a crime punishable by 1 year in prison

fromAsiaTimes: Pending legislation seeks to bar all kinds of large cash payments to "fight crime and money laundering." Banning cash will allow the government to monitor all citizen transactions for approval.

Regulation Nation                   Individual Liberty: America's First Principle

November 1, 2019

Four different reports released last night indicate the days ahead will be devastating for the deep state

fromGatewayPundit:  Last night it was as if the planets aligned against the Deep State.  On four different fronts it’s now clear that the crooks in the Obama Administration should be very worried.

Politics and Other Official Acts of Corruption

CEO of Constitution Center wants to cancel First Amendment, pass hate speech laws

fromReason: Freedom of expression is under attack from politicians, activists, and, saddest of all, journalists who benefit most from it. When hate speech is banned, the only alternative is hate action.

Political Correctness & Other Nitwittery

The pro-war assumptions in your newspaper

fromCurrrentAffairs:  If you want to know why America’s giant military apparatus seems never to shrink and our wars never seem to end, you’ll find a big clue on the front page of yesterday’s New York Times.

Defense Versus The War Machine

Why do environmentalists seem determined to torment, rather than convince?

fromReason:  From plastic bag bans to plastic straw bans to bans on shampoo bottles in hotels, California is adopting supposedly environmental policies that won't save the environment but will piss off residents.

Political Correctness & Other Nitwittery

Walter E Williams: Gun grabbers misleading us

fromCreators:  Gun controllers' belief that "easy" gun availability is our problem ignores U.S. history. Guns were far more readily available yesteryear.

2nd Amendment Assaults

Why kids are socialists and how to start fixing it

fromTownhall:  It's taken us almost 250 years to build this country, and we could wreck it in a single generation. At this rate, we will. In order to prevent the looming disaster, we need to be clear on what has gone wrong.

Economic Policy: Statism Versus the Free Market

October 15, 2019

What if there is no climate emergency?

fromWattsUpWithThat?: The premise that scares the daylights out of the left.

Political Correctness & Other Nitwittery

John Lennon vs. the Deep State: One man against the ‘monster’

fromRutherfordInstitute: “You gotta remember, establishment, it’s just a name for evil. The monster doesn’t care whether it kills all the students or whether there’s a revolution. It’s not thinking logically, it’s out of control.”—JL

The Government is Not Us

Judge approves Devin Nunes’s lawsuit against Twitter

fromGatewayPundit: Opens door for thousands of conservatives mistreated by social media giants.

Media Bias on Parade

Trump's new executive orders To restrain the administrative state

fromReason: Federal agencies evade the rule-making process, yet still levy fines, revoke permits, and seize property via “guidance.” Trump’s orders may put a stop to this practice.

Regulation Nation

VIDEO: Ayn Rand - Politics for a free society

fromLibertyPen/YouTube: From a 1965 Columbia radio broadcast, Ayn Rand explains the necessary components for a free society.

Individual Liberty: America's First Principle

👉🏻 Pointing a finger gun lands 12-year-old Johnson County student in handcuffs

fromWattsUpWithThat?: It’s a felony if a kid commits the same crime a second time -- regardless of whether the finger is loaded. So hand gestures are not considered to be free expression, protected by the First Amendment?

Political Correctness & Other Nitwittery

September 23, 2019

Parents told not to terrify children over climate change as rising numbers treated for 'eco-anxiety'

fromTheTelegraph: Parents? It is not the parents who are preaching climate catastrophe, it is the schools.

Indoctrination and Censorship            Political Correctness and Other Nitwittery

Fighting the minimum wage: McDonald’s makes a move to automate the drive-thru

fromEconomicPolicyJournal: Company decides to keep fast food affordable.

Regulation Nation        Economic Policy: Statism Versus The Free Market

E-cigarette restrictions raise a question: Can governors unilaterally ban products they don't like?

fromReason: Pending restrictions on vaping products in Michigan and New York are based on an alarmingly broad understanding of the executive branch's "public health" authority.

Regulation Nation

VIDEO: Tucker Carlson - The Gun Grabber Schemes

fromLibertyPen/YouTube: Tucker and his guests discuss assault weapon bans, bullet restrictions, red flag laws, and buyback/confiscation schemes.

2nd Amendment Assaults

Comedians are demolishing progressive thought police, and It’s driving the media nuts

fromDailyCaller: The idea that comedy should adhere to politically correct speech hasn’t landed well with comedians.

Indoctrination and Censorship            Individual Liberty: America's First Principle

EPA set to revoke California's authority to set vehicle standards

fromCNNPolitics: Finally, some restrictions placed on one form of California's nitwittery.

Regulation Nation

July 9, 2019

Trump’s citizenship question isn’t controversial. Obama deleting it should’ve been.

fromHumanEvents: Barack Obama was the first U.S. President to not include a question on nationality in the decennial census.

Politics and Other Official Acts of Corruption

Some big farms collect big checks from Trump aid package

fromRiverFrontTimes: Trump's tariff policy is a big help to big farming. Tariffs, bailouts, entitlements and subsidies, at their root, are always about vote-buying.

Economic Policy: Statism Versus The Free Market

France has turned into one of the worldwide threats to free speech

fromTheHill: "While our politicians in the United States may applaud Macron like village idiots, most Americans are hardcore believers in free speech. It runs in our blood."

Indoctrination and Censorship

VIDEO: Brendan O'Neill - Political Correct Bigotry

fromLibertyPen/YouTube: British columnist Brendan O’Neil gives an in depth explanation of the sugar-coated tyranny we call political correctness.

Political Correctness and Other Nitwittery

Biden vows to bring back Obamacare’s individual mandate penalty for not having insurance

fromRiverFrontTimes: Candidate insists on dictating how previously free Americans must spend the money government doesn't take off the top.

Politics and Other Official Acts of Corruption

The St. Louis County SWAT team blasted a dog. Now the county owes $750,000

fromRiverFrontTimes: Five years after a St. Louis County SWAT Team raided her home in order to conduct a property inspection related to a missed gas bill, Angela Zorich is walking away with a $750,000 settlement. 

Police State America

June 21, 2019

Decentralize the drug war — on the way to abolishing it

fromTheDailyBell: It was only a few decades ago that legalizing marijuana was still considered fringe. Now, marijuana legalization is a commonly accepted policy proposition.

The War on Unapproved Voluntary Exchange

VIDEO: Bernie Sanders - How America would Feel the Bern

fromLibertyPen/YouTube: Bernie Sanders' vision for America, in his own words.

Economic Policy: Statism Versus The Free Market           Politics and Other Official Acts of Corruption

"He will get subpoenaed": Congressman assures 'triggered' Joe Scarborough that Mueller will testify

fromZeroHedge: "It's going to happen. He will get subpoenaed."

Politics and Other Official Acts of Corruption

Enemy of the state: The war on Julian Assange

fromMedium: Assange is to be made an example of to journalists not only in the US but in other nations as well. If he winds up extradited and found guilty, this will be a hammerblow to reporters who constantly are working on exposed truths and secrets and pertains not only to the US but to other governments as well.

Indoctrination and Censorship              The Government is Not Us

Central planning is poisonous to innovation

fromCreators: It was only a few decades ago that legalizing marijuana was still considered fringe. Now, marijuana legalization is a commonly accepted policy proposition.

Regulation Nation

We fabricated drug charges against innocent people to meet arrest quotas, former detective testifies

fromNYDailyNews: A former NYPD narcotics detective snared in a corruption scandal testified it was common practice to fabricate drug charges against innocent people to meet arrest quotas.

Police State America                                 The War on Unapproved Voluntary Exchange

June 12, 2019

California Democratic Party: First Amendment ‘Limited to exclude hate speech’

fromDailyWire: The First Amendment exists primarily to protect unpopular speech (hate speech for some) since popular speech needs no protection, a concept lost on California's Democratic Party.

Indoctrination and Censorship        Individual Liberty: America's First Principle

VIDEO: Rachel Maddow - Julian Assange and the Future of a Free Press

fromLibertyPen/YouTube: When the operations of government are shielded from public view democracy is a farce. Prosecuting the publisher of such information could only be acknowledgement that the government is not us.  

The Government is Not Us       Individual Liberty: America's First Principle

VIDEO: Walter E Williams - The Future of Free Enterprise and Liberty

fromLibertyPen/YouTube: A warning about the trajectory of economic and personal liberty in America.  

Economic Policy: Statism Versus The Free Market

Empty words: Why Pelosi is suddenly saying she wants Trump ‘in prison’

fromWashingtonExaminer: The “in prison” line allows the speaker to look like a good anti-Trump ally, but it is clearly in service of avoiding an impeachment.  

Politics and Other Official Acts of Corruption

Not the Onion: Biden promises to cure cancer If elected

fromZeroHedge: This begs the question, why do politicians lie? Answer: Voters want the impossible and only a liar will promise it.

Politics and Other Official Acts of Corruption

Federal court rules citizens well within the law to tell a cop “f**k you”

fromFreeThoughtProject: While a federal court ruled this month that citizens can swear at police officers and the police officers cannot arrest them for it, it is still not recommended.  

Indoctrination and Censorship        Individual Liberty: America's First Principle

May 22, 2019

College students believe that hate speech is not free speech

fromNewser:   They are obviously not taught that the First Amendment expressly exists to protect unpopular speech, since popular speech needs no protection.

Indoctrination and Censorship

You’ve been warned: Widespread US face surveillance is ‘imminent reality’, says tech privacy report

fromRT:   Georgetown researchers are warning Americans about a sophisticated real-time face surveillance system that’s about to become an “imminent reality” for millions of citizens across the country.

Government is Watching Every Move You Make

US prosecutors to 'help themselves' to Julian Assange's possessions

fromTheGuardian:   Julian Assange’s belongings from his time living in the Ecuadorian embassy in London will be handed over to US prosecutors on Monday, according to WikiLeaks.

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

Walter E Williams: Socialist promises

fromCreators:   Socialism promises a utopia that sounds good, but those promises are never realized. It most often results in massive human suffering.

Economic Policy: Statism Versus The Free Market

His house Is worth $125K. The fine over his lawn Is $30k

fromNewser:   His lawn was higher than ten inches for two months. This is one way local governments are financing their deficit spending.

The Government is Not Us       Regulation Nation

Three reasons flawed capitalism is still better than perfect socialism

fromTheDailyBell:   With the example of suffering Venezuelans right before their eyes, it seems incredible that so many Americans are still buying into the promises of socialism.

Economic Policy: Statism Versus The Free Market

May 6, 2019

Extradition of Julian Assange threatens us all

fromConsortiumNews:  Even if charges are later dropped, governments still win because the tactics used damage the truth teller professionally, financially, socially and psychologically, and foreseeably chill other whistleblowers.

Indoctrination and Censorship

VIDEO: Victor Davis Hanson: How Mueller Put the Deep State at risk

fromLibertyPen/YouTube:  Sex trafficking—especially when it comes to young girls has become the fastest growing business in organized crime and the most-lucrative commodity traded illegally after drugs and guns.

Politics and Other Official Acts of Corruption

Red flag laws and individual rights

fromAmericanThinker:  ‘Red flag’ laws brazenly violate the Second, Fourth, and Fifth Amendments of the United States Constitution.  ‘Red flag’ laws cannot and should not ever be enforced.

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

Less food, higher bills, colder houses, less travel: UK government’s prescription for climate action

fromWattsUpWithThat:  You would think a country with rapidly worsening rates of child poverty would have other priorities than worrying about what the weather will be like in 50 years time.

Political Correctness and Other Nitwittery

The essence of evil: Sex with children has become big business in America

fromRutherfordInstitute:  Sex trafficking—especially when it comes to young girls has become the fastest growing business in organized crime and the most-lucrative commodity traded illegally after drugs and guns.

Individual Liberty: America's First Principle

Department identifies the cops who shot 3 kids in face, while trying to kill fleeing suspect

fromFreeThoughtProject:  We now know that the suspect did not fire on police before police opened fire on the truck full of children. The officers are now on paid administrative leave pending an investigation.

Police State America

April 24, 2019

NYT: The tables have turned -- Time to investigate the FBI, Steele and the rest of the 'witch hunters'

fromZeroHedge:  Now that the shoe is on the other foot, and key Democrats backing away from talks of impeachment, let's see if lady justice will follow the rest of us down the rabbit hole. 

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

Is nationwide marijuana legalization just around the corner?

fromReason:  It's hard to be pessimistic about marijuana legalization these days. Recreational cannabis is legal in 10 states and decriminalized in another 14.  

The War on Unapproved Voluntary Exchange

Walter E Williams: Millennials for socialism

fromCreators:  If one needed evidence of the gross ignorance of millennials, and their teachers and college professors, it's their solid support for socialism and socialist presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders.

Economic Policy: Statism Versus The Free Market           Indoctrination and Censorship

VIDEO: Victor Davis Hanson - The Russia Collusion Hoax, A Retrospective

fromLibertyPen/YouTube:  From American Thought Leaders, historian Victor Davis Hanson provides a brilliant retrospective of the Russian Hoax, detailing the players, the playbook and what could come next. 

Politics and Other Official Acts of Corruption

Should prostitution be a normal profession?

fromBBC:  When prostitution is illegal “what ends up happening is the sex workers themselves have to pay bribes to the police – either sexual bribes or financial bribes – to then escape the enforcement of the law. That simply means they have to do more sex work in order to make up the money they’ve paid to the state.”

The War on Unapproved Voluntary Exchange

The panic over ‘social media addiction’ threatens free speech

fromReason:  Classifying heavy internet use as medical addiction leads to bad policy and inferior patient care. 

Indoctrination and Censorship

April 22, 2019

Financial tyranny: America has become a pay-to-play exercise in fascism

fromRutherfordInstitute:  We get taxed on how much we earn, taxed on what we eat, taxed on what we buy, taxed on where we go, taxed on what we drive, and taxed on how much is left of our assets when we die, and yet we have no real say in how the government runs, or how our taxpayer funds are used.

Economic Policy: Statism Versus The Free Market

The battle Isn't right vs left. It’s statism vs. individualism

fromFEE:  How high does the death toll need to get before people realize that communism, like its sister ideology of Nazism, is despicably evil?

Individual Liberty: America's First Principle

Ancestry websites giving FBI access to DNA data

fromActivistPost:  FamilyTreeDNA is the first company known to be cooperating directly with the FBI to give its agents access to its genealogy database, according to a BuzzFeed report.
Police State America     Government is Watching Every Move You Make

Tucker Carlson: Assange's real sin was preventing Hillary Clinton from becoming president

fromFoxNews:  He only told the truth and used her own words. Unforgivable.

Politics and Other Official Acts of Corruption

Assange and the unforgivable sin of disemboweling official narratives

fromCharlesHughSmith:  There is really only one unforgivable sin in the political realm, and that's destroying the official narrative by revealing the facts of the matter. This is why whistleblowers who make public the secret machinery of the elaborately artful lies underpinning all official narratives are hounded to the ends of the Earth.

The Government is Not Us

The Assange exception to the First Amendment

fromReason:  Freedom of the press is not limited to "legitimate journalists."

Individual Liberty: America's First Principle        Indoctrination and Censorship

April 12, 2019

Alexa is listening to everything you say

fromBloomberg:  Tens of millions of very foolish people use smart speakers and their voice software to play games, find music or trawl for trivia

Government is Watching Every Move You Make

The best reason to not buy any new car

fromEricPetersAuto:  Free health care, free college tuition, free child care are the beacons for the liberal Left. Everything but the freedom to think for yourself.

Economic Policy: Statism Versus The Free Market

The miserable, squalid campaign to stifle Tucker Carlson

fromTheSpectator:  The Fox News host’s only real crime is daring to be provocative in a dull media world.

Media Bias on Parade

VIDEO: Tucker Carlson - The Shame of White Privilege and Other Leftist Crimes

fromLibertyPen/YouTube:  A look at the apologetic whining from Democratic presidential candidates for having been born white, advocating borders, failing to champion reparations to blacks and other high PC crimes.

Political Correctness and Other Nitwittery

Police claim teen shot herself in the mouth with hands cuffed behind her back during traffic stop

fromFreeThoughtProject:  Sounds impossible, but the police investigated this themselves.

Police State America

Mar 1, 2019

The Left wants everything free, except free speech

fromAmericanThinker:  Free health care, free college tuition, free child care are the beacons for the liberal Left. Everything but the freedom to think for yourself.

Indoctrination and Censorship

Victor Davis Hanson: California's rendezvous with reality

fromTownhall:  For years, high-speed rail has drained the state budget of transportation funds that might have easily updated nightmarish stretches of the Central Valley's Highway 99.

Economic Policy: Statism Versus The Free Market      The Government is Not Us

Scientists want Orwellian A.I. sentient smart assistants to snitch on owners and discuss contacting police

fromActivistPost:  Smart assistants like Siri, Google Home, and Amazon Echo could soon be implemented with a “moral AI” to decide whether to report their owners for breaking the law. George Orwell does not hold the patent. 

Government is Watching Every Move You Make

Military intervention in Venezuela would be a reckless, dangerous option

fromReason:  The push for intervention is no surprise, and it should be given no quarter.

Defense Versus The War Machine

Oregon passes nation's first statewide rent control law

fromReason:  The bill comes with new risks for tenants and property owners alike.

Economic Policy: Statism Versus The Free Market

No permit required. Oklahoma Becomes 15th gun-carry state

fromFreeBeacon:  Residents of Oklahoma just got freer and safer. Protection is everywhere

2nd Amendment Assaults