November 15, 2019

Ukrainian officials release records of 46 payments to Hunter Biden totaling over $3.1 million

fromGatewayPundit: On Tuesday, CD Media posted leaked records of payments to Hunter Biden from Burisma Holdings totaling millions.

Politics and Other Official Acts of Corruption

Florida county becomes latest place to declare itself a 'second amendment sanctuary'

fromDailyMail: Lake County Commission in central Florida passed a resolution to protect its residents from having their assault weapons taken away by state legislation. 

2nd Amendment Assaults

Day one of impeachment hearings: Schiff lies again, Jim Jordan goes ham

fromZeroHedge: Jim Jordan: You didn’t listen in on President Trump & Zelensky’s call? 
Taylor: I did not. Jordan: You’ve never talked with Chief of Staff Mulvaney? 
Taylor: I never did. Jordan: You’ve never met the President? 
Taylor: That’s correct. Jordan: And you’re their star witness.

Politics and Other Official Acts of Corruption

Venezuelans are marked with numbers to stand in line at government supermarkets

fromBusinessInsider: The lines to get into government supermarkets are so long that people mark their arms with their place in line.

Economic Policy: Socialism Versus the Free Market

Eric Ciaramella: 5 fast facts you need to know

fromHeavy: Spoiler alert: Don't read if you like the "whistleblower" being anonymous.

Politics and Other Official Acts of Corruption

Two-thirds of Americans support marijuana legalization

froPewResearch: If America was governed by consent of the people, marijuana would be legal. 

The War on Unapproved Voluntary Exchange

September 30, 2019

Brett Kavanaugh debate exemplifies culture war between left and right

fromTheHill: Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh is either a sexual brute or a badly-aggrieved victim of a witch hunt. The debate on this question exemplifies two diametrically opposed approaches to justice.

Justice is a Result, Not Just a Process

Face masks to decoy t-shirts: The rise of anti-surveillance fashion

fromThompsonReutersFoundation: Fashion designers are coming up with novel ways to stay private in public.

Government is Watching Every Move You Make

Court says using chalk on tires for parking enforcement violates Constitution

fromNPR: Anything that weakens the state's ability to exploit the citizen with confiscatory fines is ok with me.

Regulation Nation

This law allows hospitals to kidnap you for profit

fromTheDailyBell: "Florida’s Baker Act allows doctors, police, or judges to involuntarily commit patients to psychiatric hospitals for up to 72 hours if they show signs that they may hurt themselves or others."

The Government is Not Us

VIDEO: Tucker Carlson - That Existential Threat

fromLibertyPen/YouTube: Tucker Carlson explores the veracity of claims that climate change is as “existential threat.” Do the presidential candidates who advocate policies based on that premise believe it themselves?

Political Correctness and Other Nitwittery           Economic Policy: Statism Vs The Free Market

51% of young voters believe humanity could be wiped out within 15 years

fromScottRasmussen: No wonder poor little Greta is a basket case. She has been convinced that climate change is an existential threat. See video above.

Political Correctness and Other Nitwittery

Feb 18, 2019

VIDEO: Off the Rails - California's High Speed Boondoggle

fromLibertyPen/YouTube:  A tribute to the ability of politicians to rip off taxpayer money and grab citizen land with no accountability. 

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

Feds collect record individual income taxes in calendar 2018--as debt climbs

fromCNSNews:  The federal government collected a record $1,665,484,000,000 in individual income taxes in calendar year 2018, according to the Monthly Treasury Statements for the year.

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

These are dangerous times, and the government is to blame

fromRutherfordInstitute:  Mind you, it is not because of violent crime, which remains at an all-time low, or because of terrorism, which is statistically rare. The real danger comes from the U.S. government its powers to has granted to its standing army to steal, cheat, harass, detain, brutalize, terrorize, torture and kill.

The Government is Not Us         Police State America

You can't say that on Twitter

fromCreators:  She tweeted that "men are not women," and for that, Meghan Murphy, feminist journalist, was banned from Twitter. The truth qualifies as "hate speech" for some of the gnomes at Twitter HQ.

Indoctrination and Censorship          Political Correctness and Other Nitwittery

The ‘war on drugs’ is causing great damage

fromTheGuardian:  Readers discuss the best way to combat the violence fueled by the drugs trade.

The War on Unapproved Voluntary Exchange

Majority of California residents want to leave: poll

fromBreitbart:  Sixty-two percent of respondents realize the Golden State's best days are in the past.

Political Correctness and Other Nitwittery        Politics and Other Official Acts of Corruption

February 13, 2018

Why Americans trust CEOs more than politicians

fromTheDailyBell: Just 15% of Americans think the government will bring us to a better future. 59% say the government is the most broken institution, followed by 21% who think the media is the worst.
Economic Policy: Statism Versus The Free Market

China’s surveillance police glasses could usher in a new age of government tracking

fromSanvada: China's cops will wear sunglasses with facial recognition technology capabilities as their police state marches on.
Police State America

John Stossel: Silk Road

fromCreators: Give me a break. Locking some people up forever will not stop sales of drugs. Americans should have learned that from our last attempt — Prohibition. 
Justice is a Result, Not Just a Process     The War on Unapproved Voluntary Exchange

VIDEO: Insights of ex-CIA Ray McGovern - Corruption@FBI 9

fromLibertyPen/YouTube: Ray McGovern knows a lot because after 50 years in the CIA, he has seen a lot. Closely examining the recent facts revealed regarding FBI corruption, McGovern shares his take.
Politics and Other Official Acts of Corruption

Libertarian Party spotlights jury nullification

fromDailyInterLake: “Jury nullification is a tool, and like any tool you can use it in a lot of ways. And one of the ways is to uphold the rule of law when government is violating the rule of law.”
Justice is a Result, Not Just a Process

Here’s what’s wrong with Ayn Rand’s Philosophy

fromTheObjectivistStandard: An accounting of some of the problems created by this philosophy.
The Pursuit of Happiness      Individual Liberty: America's First Principle

November 3, 2017

The tip of a prosecutorial iceberg?

from Creators: Judge Andrew Napolitano looks at the implications involved in the grand jury indictments in the Trump-Russia investigation.
Politics and Other Official Acts of Corruption

280,000 children could die of malnutrition in Venezuela

from CNA: End stage socialism. Caritas Venezuela has warned that some 280,000 children could die of malnutrition due to food shortages amidst the country’s grave economic crisis.
Economic Policy: Statism Versus The Free Market

🎬   Tucker Carlson - Players Posing as Refs (Mainstream Media's Anti-Trump Agenda)

from LibertyPen: Excerpts from Tucker Carlson Tonight. Media bias by the mainstream media in general, and CNN in specific, has become transparent for all who wish to see.
Media Bias on Parade

Dear Democrats: Did you look everywhere?

from World News Daily: Barry Farber examines left's 'total team amnesia' over $9 million spent on the anti-Trump propaganda dossier.
Politics and Other Official Acts of Corruption

The marijuana machine rolls ahead

from Bloomberg Business: The billion-dollar bud faces new momentum and problems as three more states legalize it.
The War on Unapproved Voluntary Exchange

Political correctness is ruining America, poll says

from NY Post: But, poll also says Americans are wimpy when it comes to protecting the First Amendment.
Political Correctness and Other Nitwittery

October 17, 2017

Survey find Americans’ views on free speech is a whole bunch of crazy

from the Daily Bell: Why a whole bunch of crazy?
"There are no contradictions. If you see a contradiction, check your premises. One of them is wrong" -- Ayn Rand
Indoctrination and Censorship

Who's the Harvey Weinstein of sex work? The police

from Reason: This week has a lot of people wondering "who's the Harvey Weinstein?" of their industry. For sex workers, the answer is all too often a local cop.
Police State America

Chicago's soda tax fizzles

from Reason: Everybody realized it was about bringing in money, not improving public health.
Regulation Nation

⭐️  Walter E Williams: Who pays what in taxes?

from Creators: Today, some politicians argue that the rich must pay their fair share and label the proposed changes in tax law as tax cuts for the rich. Let's look at who pays what.
Economic Policy: Statism vs. The Free Market

Rand Paul: The insurance companies are extorting us, Trump stopped that

from RealClearPolitics: Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) discusses the president's executive order on the Affordable Care Act, why he says the plan is an attempt to empower consumers and why this could be a bipartisan issue.
Regulation Nation

ICE’s civil forfeiture guidelines leaked, and they’re not good

from RealClearPolitics: A government handbook reveals details of its legalized theft program. The concern is strictly about the value of property with no consideration of justice.
The Government is Not Us

September 18, 2017

Should you tell the cops you have a gun?

from Reason: Some gun owners argue that disclosure is considerate and prudent, while others worry it will escalate a routine traffic stop into a tense, unpleasant, and possibly life-threatening encounter.
2nd Amendment Assaults

25 most commonly used recreational drugs in America

from St. Louis Post-Dispatch: The drugs Americans prefer most. Of course, all of them are either illegal or severely restricted and heavily taxed. Government reverence for the pursuit of happiness is not exactly that of the founders.
The War on Unapproved Voluntary Exchange

Irma watch: How likely are prohibitions on ‘price gouging’ to help the poor?

from The American Spectator: Some gun owners argue that disclosure is considerate and prudent, while others worry it will escalate a routine traffic stop into a tense, unpleasant, and possibly life-threatening encounter.
Economic Policy: Statism vs The Free Market

Gun rights top media poll

from The Daily Caller: Lost in the storm of hurricane coverage, a recent Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll demonstrates Americans’ growing support for gun rights. 

2nd Amendment Assaults

John Stossel: The best part of the Constitution

from Reason: Stossel shares his thoughts about Constitution Day (September 17).
Individual Liberty: America's First Principle

Will Las Vegas be ‘Amsterdam on steroids’? Door opens for pot lounges

from NBC News: What happens in Vegas will still stay in Vegas — but perhaps no longer behind closed doors, at least when it comes to pot.
The War on Unapproved Voluntary Exchange

Support For Marijuana Legalization Hits All-Time High

by Christopher Ingraham.     A new survey released today by the the Associated Press and the University of Chicago finds that a record-high percentage of Americans -- 61 percent -- say they support marijuana legalization. The survey uses the same question wording ("Do you think the use of marijuana should be made legal, or not?") on marijuana as  ... MORE

Lefty Protesters Drive People Into Arms Of Donald Trump

by Robby Soave.   Trump's useful idiots. Donald Trump's supporters aren't fazed by his decision to cancel an appearance at a Chicago rally over the weekend—in fact, they are more likely to vote for him to be the Republican nominee because of it. That's according to a new poll of likely Republican voters conducted by Monmouth University.         ... MORE

Thomas Sowell: What Are Elections For?

Donald Trump and the insight of Eric Hoffer.     After months of watching all sorts of political polls, we are finally just a few weeks away from actually beginning to see some voting in primary elections. Polls let people vent their emotions. But elections are held to actually accomplish something. The big question is whether the voters themselves   ... MORE

Stephanie Slade: Why Polls Don't Work

Election predicting hits an accuracy crisis.  On October 7, 2015, the most famous brand in public opinion polling announced it was getting out of the horse-race survey business. Henceforth, Gallup would no longer poll Americans on whom they would vote for if the next election were held today. "We believe to put our time and money and brain-power   ... MORE

Americans Are Abandoning Political Parties

by Kenneth Walsh. Both major political parties are in trouble with the American people. The latest Gallup Poll finds that loyalty to the Democrats and Republicans is at or near historic lows. In 2015, for the fifth straight year, "at least four in 10 U.S. adults identified as political independents," a Gallup spokesman said. Forty-two percent said they were       ... MORE

American Gov't Has Lost The Consent Of The Governed

by Pat Caddell.  Fox News analyst and one of the country’s top pollsters, Pat Caddell, says there is “no doubt” that government has lost the consent of the governed in America today, pointing out that 90 percent say Washington “doesn’t work for the people,” but now works for its own interests instead. “Look at what’s happening there,” Caddell   ... MORE

Media Seen To Be Biased Against Trump And For Clinton

Unintended transparency.    Voters are far more likely to think the media is biased against Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump than against his chief Democratic rival Hillary Clinton. Forty-seven percent (47%) of Likely U.S. Voters think most reporters are biased against Trump. A new Rasmussen Reports finds that 31% disagree, but 22%      ... MORE

Beyond Distrust: How Americans View Their Government

from Pew Research.     We should be worried about the 19%. A year ahead of the presidential election, the American public is deeply cynical about government, politics and the nation’s elected leaders in a way that has become quite familiar. Currently, just 19% say they can trust the government always or most of the time, among the lowest      ... MORE

Great News! Americans Don’t Care About Climate Change

by David Harsanyi. Sanity returns. There is a preventable calamity out there, purportedly the root cause of nearly all wars, refugee crises, sickness, misogyny, terrorism, hunger, poverty, and everything else troubling mankind these days. The world is perpetually on the precipice of catastrophe—despite much evidence to the contrary —  if we   ... MORE

Poll Shows NRA Is 50% More Popular Than Hillary Clinton

Maybe the people are not-so dumb.    We’ve been hearing a lot about this subject in the last few weeks.  Among the list of the “enemies” that Hillary Clinton is most proud of having made, the National Rifle Association is right near the top of the list. This led one of her prominent supporters to declare that the demise of the organization was   ... MORE

Poll Says Marijuana Legalization Support Nears 60%

by Trevor Hughes.   More Americans than ever are smoking, eating and drinking marijuana, and they now overwhelmingly support full legalization of the long-banned plant, a new study and poll show. A Gallup poll released Wednesday shows 58% of American adults think marijuana should be legal, up from 51% a year ago, with just 40% believing it     ... MORE

25% Do Not See Widespread Corruption In Goverment

Political blindness strikes one in four.    Three in four Americans (75%) last year perceived corruption as widespread in the country's government. This figure is up from two in three in 2007 (67%) and 2009 (66%). While the numbers have fluctuated slightly since 2007, the trend has been largely stable since 2010. However, the percentage of   ... MORE

Supreme Court Gets Lowest Favorability Rating In 30 Years

by Jennifer Harper.   Even politicians in robes are having a bad year. “Following major, end-of-term rulings on the Affordable Care Act and same-sex marriage, unfavorable opinions of the Supreme Court have reached a 30-year high. And opinions about the court and its ideology have never been more politically divided,” reports the Pew Research   ... MORE