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

June 14, 2019

Cuba rations food as its socialist economy enters crisis mode

fromMises: You probably know what is going on in Venezuela. You probably don't know what is going on in Cuba.

Economic Policy: Statism Versus The Free Market

Great lakes reveal a fatal flaw in climate change ‘science’

fromIssues&Insights: "if nothing can disprove a theory, and every event, no matter how contradictory, is proof that the theory is valid, is that really science? Sounds more like a religion."

Political Correctness and Other Nitwittery

New cars to be equipped with breathalyzers, drivers given mental health assessments

fromActivistPosts: Seeking to emulate China, Rep. Kathleen Rice’s H.R. 3374 bill, otherwise known as the End Drunk Driving Act, would put breathalyzers and ignition interlock devices in every new car.

Regulation Nation

The city of Vallejo, California, has a police problem—and it's all being caught on camera

fromReason: A small city in California has been plagued by police shootings, costly civil rights lawsuits, and incidents of excessive force.

Police State America

From 2015 to ’18, Contra Costa cops seized $1.1 million from people not charged with a crime

fromMises: Marijuana made up $1.2 million, the largest single source of cash. If we are governed by consent of the people, the people must have been demanding this. Or, perhaps we should check our premises.

The Government is Not Us          Police State America

Rising conservatives are as hostile to freedom as the Leftists they disdain

fromReason: Republicans, who have gleefully warned the public about Democratic flirtations with socialism, shouldn't be quick to gloat given the emergence of an anti-freedom movement on the Right.

Politics and Other Official Acts of Corruption

Dec 27, 2018

Policing for Profit

fromHPR: A primary incentive to violate citizen's rights. Money is a powerful driving force, an element of abuse, whether based upon good intentions or simply just a failure to reform.

Police State America

Top 10 inbound vs. top 10 outbound US states in 2017

fromAEI: Americans are moving from states with higher tax burdens and unfriendly business climates with fewer economic opportunities to fiscally sound states that are more economically vibrant.

Economic Policy: Statism Versus The Free Market

More Syria Thoughts: The Case for Intervention Was Never Made

fromNationalReview: "Someone needs to explain to me why I should be outraged at Trump, but not outraged that we got into this mess without making sure the public, through Congress, was on board."

Defense Versus The War Machine

John Stossel's New Year's resolution

fromTownhall: My New Year's resolution: Make a careful distinction between speech and violence.

Individual Liberty: America's First Principle

Kansas Supreme Court says cops can search your home without a warrant if they claim it smells like pot

fromReason: Cops supposedly smelled 25 grams of pot inside a plastic container inside a safe inside a closet 30 feet from a guy's doorstep.

The War on Unapproved Voluntary Exchange     Police State America

Cop gets 15 day vacation for drunken road rage shooting that left Innocent dad paralyzed

fromFreeThoughtProject: For shooting two innocent people in a fit of road rage, leaving one of them paralyzed, a San Antonio cop received just 15 days suspension and is back on the job.

Police State America

July 23, 2016

Trump’s tariffs injure another American business

fromReason: Tariffs always divert resources toward government-favored firms and away from everyone else.  
Economic Policy: Statism Versus The Free Market

Gambling, smoking and drinking give Pennsylvania a lot of money in 'sin taxes'

fromPennLive: How one state profits wildly by exploiting citizens for exercising politically incorrect liberty.  
The War on Unapproved Voluntary Exchange

As branches close, some banks are saying they don't want people's money

fromLATimes: Edward Manley, 91, asked his son to deposit $38.50 in coins into his Wells Fargo account. Wells refused to accept them. Manley and his son are now suspected money launderers.  
Regulation Nation

Cop costs taxpayers $60,000 and a drug bust after lying about almost everything related to the traffic stop

fromTechDirt: The only thing in this story that makes it an anomaly is the resignation. Other than that, it's par for the course. Cops lie. And the reason they do it so frequently is that they almost always get away with it.  
Police State America

VIDEO: Tucker Carlson, Rand Paul - Deep State Warriors and Their Security Clearances

fromLibertyPen/YouTube: From Tucker Carlson Tonight, Rand paul joins Tucker to discuss how and why leakers and liars, such as John Brennan and James Clapper, continue to possess national security clearances. 
The Government is Not Us           Politics and Other Official Acts of Corruption

DOJ demands a sheriff to return the $69,000 in seized drug money he spent buying a Dodge muscle car

fromDailyMail: This is policing for profit, a program that allows police departments to legally steal property if they can conjure probable cause of a crime. No conviction needed.  
Police State America        

March 6, 2018

The awful Supreme Court precedent that helped create today's asset forfeiture nightmare

fromLibertyPen/YouTube: Tucker explains how politicians in California and Chicago have devised tactics to register illegal aliens as a central feature of their electoral strategy.
The Government is Not Us       Police State America     Justice is a Result, Not Just a Process

VIDEO: Tucker Carlson - The Illegal Alien Voter Drive

fromLibertyPen/YouTube: Tucker explains how politicians in California and Chicago have devised tactics to register illegal aliens as a central feature of their electoral strategy.
The Government is Not Us       Politics and Other Official Acts of Corruption

EU looks to familiar playbook to hit back at Trump plan

fromTheWallStreeJournal: The European Commission will review an approach that led then-President George W. Bush to remove tariffs in previous dispute.
Economic Policy: Statism Versus The Free Market

State legislatures have a duty to protect free speech at public universities

fromForbes: If state action is deemed “unnecessary” to protect free speech--one of our most cherished civil liberties, if not the most cherished civil liberty—then one is hard-pressed to explain when it is ever necessary.
Indoctrination and Censorship    Political Correctness and Other Nitwittery

84yo Holocaust Survivor abused by TSA draws ominous parallel with her time in Auschwitz

fromTheFreeThoughtProject: An 84-year-old grandmother and holocaust survivor says her treatment by the TSA was so bad that even though she survived Auschwitz, she barely survived the TSA.
The Government is Not Us       Police State America      Regulation Nation

Trump's impulsive trade war is lousy economics and worrisome politics

fromReason: President's hasty new "trade war" will damage the American economy while continuing his process 
of removing tariff-reduction from two-party politics.
Economic Policy: Statism Versus The Free Market

February 12, 2018

Convictions thrown out after police caught paying labs for positive DUI test results

fromTheFreeThoughtProject: A judge has ruled that the practice of state forensics labs receiving financial compensation for positive tests that lead to DUI convictions is unconstitutional. 
Police State America    The Government is Not Us

CNN’s reporting not holding up too well

fromConsultingByRPM: A look back at CNN's now debunked contention that infamous Steele dossier was not fake nor funded by the Clinton campaign.
Indoctrination and Censorship     Media Bias on Parade

When will it stop? Conservatives who vowed to cut spending keep spending

fromMcClatchyDCBureau: Old Chinese Proverb: When I talk, I put on my mask. When I act, I take it off.
Economic Policy: Statism Versus The Free Market      The Government is Not Us

Journalists "begging" not to be told about surveillance abuses; "propagandists" in newsrooms

fromZeroHedge: Investigative reporter Sharyl Attkisson said she has never seen journalists "so uncurious and begging" not to be told about alleged or supposed violations of citizens rights.
Indoctrination and Censorship     Media Bias on Parade

VIDEO: Milton Friedman - What is Monetary Policy?

fromLibertyPen/YouTube: Professor Friedman brilliantly explains monetary policy, what money really is, the Federal Reserve and the price system.
Economic Policy: Statism Versus The Free Market

$20 billion hidden in the swamp: Feds redact 255,000 salaries

fromZeroHedge: The only thing the bureaucratic resistance hates more than President Trump is the disclosure of their own salaries.
Politics and Other Official Acts of Corruption      The Government is Not Us

Police State America

Latest Update: August 10, 2017

Once again, our public servants go to wrong address and kill the man who lives there

Trump encourages police to brutalize suspects as cops applaud

Police devise new revenue scam by citing people who forget to press crosswalk button

New Texas law allows for separate courts when police are accused of crimes

A bill in Congress to limit liability for police departments that violate your rights

Georgia cops are now trained to arrest innocent people on false charges

Rules of engagement for interacting with police

VIDEO: When Police Pull You Over

VIDEO: It's Back: Federal Asset Forfeiture Laws

Government gives itself a license to steal. No crime necessary.

Feds Resume Program That Lets Cops Steal From You

by Bonnie Kristian.      Well, that didn’t last long. In December, the Justice Department (DOJ) announced it would halt a program which made it easy for law enforcement agencies to profit from civil asset forfeiture: The “equitable-sharing” program gives police the option of prosecuting asset forfeiture cases under federal instead of state law.     ... MORE

VIDEO: John Stossel - Drug War Corruption

Civil Asset Forfeiture Allows For Abuse Of Police Power

by Allison Chavez.    People need to be aware of the practice of civil asset forfeiture and understand their rights when dealing with the police. The police doctrine known as civil asset forfeiture is barbaric and needs to be more strictly regulated. Civil asset forfeiture is essentially an excuse the police employ in order to steal civilians’ property and    ... MORE

Shining A Light On Police Seizures, Civil Forfeitures

by Nick Sibilla and Lauren Krisai.    How a town of 7,000 can build a $4.1 million dollar police station.  Mississippi has some of the strongest protections in the country for private property rights. But those protections are shockingly lax when it comes to a little-known police practice called “civil forfeiture.” Unlike criminal forfeiture,     ... MORE

Asset Forfeiture Steals Due Process Rights

A Las Vegas Review-Journal editorial. On a dark desert highway, a sleek, Navy-blue Ford Explorer forces a car to the side of the road. Armed men emerge from the SUV and demand that the occupants of the car open their trunk. Inside, they find $250,000 in cash. The men take the money, leaving the car's passengers on the roadside. They   ... MORE

Force Awakens As Asset-Forfeiture Plunder Is Threatened

by Orange County Register editorial.    The Justice Department gave civil liberties advocates an early Christmas present last week when it announced that it would be suspending indefinitely its “equitable sharing” asset forfeiture program, which notoriously allowed state and local police agencies to bypass restrictions on forfeiture by partnering with  ... MORE

DOJ Suspends Asset Forfeiture Equitable Sharing

by Mikayla Hellwich.    Police currently take more of citizens’ assets than thieves do. The Department of Justice released a memorandum addressed to local, state, and tribal law enforcement agencies Monday to announce that the equitable sharing program for asset forfeiture funds has been temporarily suspended due to financial considerations.    ... MORE

DOJ Suspends Abusive Asset Forfeiture Program – For Now

by Ilya Somin.     On Monday, the Justice Department suspended its abusive “equitable sharing” asset forfeiture program, which incentivizes state and local governments to seize the property of criminal suspects – including many who have never even been charged with any crime, much less convicted. The program enables state law enforcement     ... MORE

Public Safety's Greatest Threat: The American Police State

by Matthew Harwood.       If you’ve been listening to various police agencies and their supporters, then you know what the future holds: anarchy is coming—and it’s all the fault of activists.  In May, a Wall Street Journal op-ed warned of a “new nationwide crime wave” thanks to “intense agitation against American police departments” over   ... MORE

Drug Czar Wants More $ To Spend On Taking Your Stuff

by Nick Gillespie.       The Washington Post reports that the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) wants more money "to identify assets, prosecute cases and 'manage the massive paper flow associated with forfeiture.'"   Asset-forfeiture, in which law enforcement seizes property, cash, and goods that it says is connected to drug      ... MORE

Charles P. Pierce: That Whole "License To Steal" Thing

Civil forfeiture is a civil shitshow.       There was a very interesting statistic that popped earlier this month as regards criminals and criminal justice in the United States. According to economist Martin Armstrong, in 2014, the police seized through civil forfeiture more of the property of their fellow citizens than was stolen by all the burglars in the    ... MORE

J.D. Tuccille: Business Opportunities For Corrupt Cops

Drug laws and gun controls.  Following in the footsteps of so many people before him, Juan Pimentel saw opportunity in restrictive laws. It's an old story; government officials tell people they can't have what they want, and that prohibition creates a lucrative business opportunity for anybody willing to break the law to keep buyers happy. But     ... MORE