June 6, 2020

From 9/11 to COVID-19, it’s been a perpetual state of emergency

fromTheRutherfordInstitute: "Freedom from servitude comes not from violent action, but from the refusal to serve. Tyrants fall when the people withdraw their support.” —Étienne De La Boétie, The Politics Of Obedience
Police State America

Joe Biden basically admits libertarians were right all along: cops shouldn't have military gear

fromReason: Biden voted for the 1997 bill that created the Pentagon's 1033 program, which allows surplus military gear to be passed along to local cops. It took 23 years, but he finally changed his opinion.
Police State America           Politics and Other Official Acts of Corruption

Policing for profit: How civil asset forfeiture has perverted American law enforcement

fromAmmo: Asset forfeiture is having devastating consequences: In 2014 alone, law enforcement took more stuff from American citizens than burglars did.
Police State America

The state’s priority is protecting itself, not you

fromLibertarianInstitute: The state is far more punitive against those that threaten the comfort and authority of government institutions and workers than they are against crimes against citizens.
Police State America

The lockdowns are now a scandal

fromNationalReview: Last week, the media, politicians, and many experts decided that every argument they made for destroying the lives of millions of people in America could be deferred to advance a preferred political cause.
The Government is Not Us

Lockdown supporters embraced wildly wrong COVID-19 projections that fit their preconceptions

fromReason: The episode illustrates the perils of confirmation bias on both sides of the debate about disease control measures.
Police State America           Politics and Other Official Acts of Corruption

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

Jan 15, 2019

The Democratic Party’s voters are becoming far more militaristic and pro-war than Republicans

fromTheIntercept: Trump's announcement that he intends to withdraw all U.S. troops from Syria largely provoked bipartisan outrage among Washington’s reflexively pro-war establishment.

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

Ominous new ‘fact checker’ approves MSM lies to start wars while attacking alternative media

fromFreeThoughtProject: "This fact checking service is being sold to the public under the name “NewsGuard” but the only thing it appears to be guarding is the establishment."

Media Bias on Parade

Walter E Williams: Politics of immigration

fromCreators: Does everyone in the world have a right to live in the U.S.?

Politics and Other Official Acts of Corruption

Supreme Court to consider whether police can order blood draws from unconscious drivers

fromReason: Warrantless "implied consent" laws are under review over Fourth Amendment concerns.

Police State America

4 reasons requiring background checks for all gun sales is a bad idea

fromReason: The policy is very popular and a top priority for House Democrats, but it would hurt innocent people without doing much to improve public safety.

2nd Amendment Assaults

Trade war’s wounded: Companies improvise to dodge cost hikes

fromSacramentoBee: The higher costs resulting from Trump's tariffs have yet to inflict much overall damage to a still-robust American economy, which is less reliant on international trade than most other countries are.

Economic Policy: Statism Versus The Free Market

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

Dec 15, 2018

Truth and free speech are being taken away from us

fromForeignPolicyJournal: "Moreover, as the claim is that government was harmed by Wikileaks publishing the truth, Assange’s secret indictment sets the precedent that truth is harmful to government."

Indoctrination and Censorship

DEA spy cameras In vacuum cleaners: surveillance state

fromZeroHedge: The government website USASpending.gov reports that "the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) awarded a contract to an American defense company to build a vacuum cleaner for surveillance purposes."
Government is Watching Every Move You Make

The media incentives to align themselves with the state at the expense of truth

fromCaitlinJohnstone: Insightful explanation of the why the mainstream media becomes a statist propaganda tool. 

Media Bias on Parade

Walter E Williams: Acceptable racism

fromCreators: Muhammad Ali had it right when he said: "Hating people because of their color is wrong. And it doesn't matter which color does the hating. It's just plain wrong."
Political Correctness and Other Nitwittery

It’s in America’s best interests to stop overspending on our military

fromtheFederalist: We spend gobs of money on our military, so what do we get in return? A lot of foreign intervention that has little clear benefit to Americans.
Defense Versus The War Machine

Trump's cluelessness is his best defense against charges that he 'knowingly and willfully' violated law

fromCreators: If Trump did not recognize hush payments to his (alleged) former mistresses as illegal campaign contributions, he is not criminally culpable.
Politics and Other Official Acts of Corruption

February 21, 2018

CNN and MSNBC helped Russia sow discord by promoting fake anti-Trump rally

fromMRCNewsBusters: A level of shamelessness that knows no bounds.
Media Bias on Parade      Politics and Other Official Acts of Corruption

The U.S. military will have more robots than humans by 2025

fromMintPressNews: Armed with a budget of over $700 billion for the coming year, the Pentagon’s dystopian vision for the future of the military is quickly becoming a question not of if but when.
Defense Versus The War Machine

VIDEO: Victor Davis Hanson - Immigration Reality

fromLibertyPen/YouTube: Professor Hansen shares a historical perspective as he relates the necessary factors for a successful immigration policy.
Politics and Other Official Acts of Corruption

Walter E Williams: Will Automation Kill Our Jobs?

fromAmericanGreatness: The number of jobs is unlimited, for the simple reason that human wants are unlimited — or they don't frequently reveal their bounds.
Economic Policy: Statism Versus The Free Market

Get ready for the war on meat

fromMisesWire: When placed under the microscope, the modern vegan movement has shown signs of increased politicization and a tendency to mesh with socialist causes. 
Political Correctness and Other Nitwittery

John Stossel: Success Academy

fromCreators: There is something wrong with a system, a monopolistic system that is not allowing kids to succeed.
Indoctrination and Censorship

Defense Versus The War Machine

Latest Update: July 9, 2017

Documents expose how Hollywood promotes war on behalf of the Pentagon, CIA and NSA

Preparing for war? US House wants to create first new military branch since 1947

Trump gives generals more freedom on ISIS fight

Trump's hard choices in Afghanistan

JOHN STOSSEL: The Bloated Military

Army major says “everything’s in place” to round up antiwar dissenters for military detention

Why won't anyone admit that America is fighting 5 wars? 

Congress needs to declare war on terrorist groups

VIDEO: What If The Constitution No Longer Applied?

John Stossel: Political Promises

How to buffalo low-info voters. Democrats trash businesses. But if businesses promised things the way politicians do, the owners would be jailed for fraud. It's not legal to promise more than you can deliver. I don't suggest that prosecutors should go after politicians who lie. Voters can do that. Political speech should be free. But politicians' promises   ... MORE

More Defense Dollars Don't Guarantee A Better Military

by Daniel L. Davis.    Everyone agrees that federal spending is out of control, yet there’s little appetite to go after bloated Pentagon budgets. Americans from the left, right, and center all too often give the military a pass because they grudgingly believe current levels of defense spending are necessary for national security. But is there such a thing as  ... MORE

The Age Of Authoritarianism -- Government Of The Politicians, By The Military, For The Corporations

by John W. Whitehead.   America is at a crossroads. History may show that from this point forward, we will have left behind any semblance of constitutional government and entered into a militaristic state where all citizens are suspects and security trumps freedom. Certainly, this is a time when government officials operate off their own inscrutable,   ... MORE

U.S. Backed Troops Fighting With Each Other In Syria

by Mike Giglio.   Obama administration nitwittery on display. American proxies are now at war with each other in Syria. Officials with Syrian rebel battalions that receive covert backing from one arm of the U.S. government told BuzzFeed News that they recently began fighting rival rebels supported by another arm of the U.S. government. The   ... MORE

Gender-Integration Of Combat Jobs Fuels Legislation, Lawsuits To Impose Draft Registration On Women

by Morgan Chalfant.    The Obama administration’s decision to open up all combat roles to women has led to a heated debate over whether women should have to register for the draft and has sparked both legislation and legal action that could change the Selective Service’s rules. It remains to be seen what the impact of Defense Secretary    ... MORE

Generals Want Women To Register For The Draft

by Ilya Somin.     Instead, Let's Abolish It. Top Army and Marine Corps generals recently stated that they believe that women should be required to register for the draft, now that they are no longer barred from most combat positions in the armed forces:  The top Army and Marine Corps generals told senators Tuesday that it will take up to three years  ... MORE

Walter E Williams: Blacks And The Confederacy

The War of 1861 was not about freeing slaves.      Last July, Anthony Hervey, an outspoken black advocate for the Confederate flag, was killed in a car crash. Arlene Barnum, a surviving passenger in the vehicle, told authorities and the media that they had been forced off the road by a carload of "angry young black men" after Hervey,     ... MORE

VIDEO: Donald Trump Explains His NY Values

Movie Review: 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers Of Benghazi

by Kurt Loder.    Haters of Hillary Clinton may be disappointed to find that there’s no mention of the former secretary of state in Michael Bay’s new movie about the 2012 Benghazi attack that left U.S. Libyan ambassador Chris Stevens dead and ignited a Congressional uproar that continues to this very moment. But Clinton’s State Department  ... MORE

Stats Show Hillary’s Policies Cause Terrorism, Not Trump's

by Lee Stranahan.     While Hillary Clinton claimed that ISIS is using Donald Trump to recruit members, reality shows that worldwide terrorism skyrocketed due to the policies of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and her boss, President Barack Obama. A November 2014 piece in the New York Times—well before Donald Trump entered the race for   ... MORE

Walter E Williams: Our Timid Military Leaders

Sending the weaker sex to battle.    This month, President Barack Obama's defense secretary, Ashton Carter, decreed that there will be 220,000 combat military jobs offered to women — including in Army special operations forces and the Navy SEALs. He said, "They'll be allowed to drive tanks, fire mortars and lead infantry soldiers into combat ... MORE

VIDEO: Ralph Peters Identifies Obama As A 'Total Pussy'

Commentator suspended. Could it be for passing federal secrets?