May 7, 2020

Apple data shows shelter-in-place is ending, whether governments want it to or not

fromForbes: Apple’s Mobility Trends report shows that traffic in the US and other countries like Germany has pretty much doubled in the past three weeks. It had been down up to 72%.
Individual Liberty: America's First Principle

What's the real story behind continuing lockdowns?

fromPJMedia: While the lockdowns began as a public health measure, their continued extension appears to have more to do with power than safety.

The Government is Not Us

Why I didn’t rat on my neighbor for cutting hair

fromTheFederalist: It brings up an interesting question about the nature of American civil life. Is my primary duty to my government or to my neighbors? For me the answer is clearly the latter.
Individual Liberty: America's First Principle          Regulation Nation

VIDEO: Tyranny in America: What Can't They Do?

fromLibertyPen/YouTube: America’s governors have been flexing the political muscle by violating the rights of citizens by proclamation. Is there any limits to their power? Tucker Carlson, Andrew Napolitano.
The Government is Not Us                  Individual Liberty: America's First Principle

The case Of General Flynn: Exposing Washington's "big game of liars' poker"

fromTheZMan: One thing that is now confirmed with these new revelations is that the Special Counsel was always just part of a larger effort to cover-up this conspiracy. In fact, that was the whole point of it.
Politics and Other Official Acts of Corruption

For better health, find a cure for government

fromReason: In a time of health crisis, government has proven to be a crippling underlying condition.
The Government is Not Us

May 5, 2020

Your freedoms don’t have to be muzzled just because you’re wearing a mask

fromTheRutherfordInstitute: The government may act as if its police state powers suppress individual liberties during this COVID-19 pandemic, but the Bill of Rights—still stands in theory, if not in practice.
Individual Liberty: America's First Principle

Walter E Williams: The nation's report card

fromCreators: The DOE just released results of the quadrennial National Assessment of Educational Progress tests in U.S. history, civics and geography given in 2018 to thousands of American eighth-graders.
Political Correctness and Other Nitwittery

Fever-reading drones just first of a wave of privacy challenges, civil liberties advocates say

fromPLiberty: Police departments in Daytona Beach, Fla., and Connecticut unveiled what was initially touted as a potential new tool against a pandemic: drones capable of taking a person’s temperature from 300 feet in the air.
Government is Watching Every Move You Make

A diseased progressive dream

fromAccuracyInMedia: Progressive ideas and global pandemics go together like a strain of COVID-19 and a mucous membrane. One progressive policy after another has been found to be a major cause of the spread of COVID-19.
Politics and Other Official Acts of Corruption

VIDEO: Why wouldn't someone buy weed from the legal market?

fromReason: Answer contained within.
The War on Unapproved Voluntary Exchange

How the CDC and the FDA wrecked the economy

fromReason: The failure to conduct early and wide testing left politicians ignorant of basic facts about the COVID-19 epidemic.
Regulation Nation

May 3, 2020

Next in coronavirus tyranny: forced vaccinations and "digital certificates"

fromMises: a commentary by Ron Paul.
Political Correctness and Other Nitwittery

The inevitable coronavirus censorship crisis is here

fromMattTaibbi: As the Covid-19 crisis progresses, censorship programs advance, amid calls for China-style control of the Internet.
Indoctrination and Censorship

A woman set up a little free pantry without a permit. The county threatened criminal charges.

fromReason: A civil rights lawsuit alleges that the government violated Kathy Hay's constitutional rights when it shuttered her free pantry.
Regulation Nation             The Government is Not Us

Las Vegas is bravery, the corona response is cowardice

fromTheDailyBell: In March of 2020, the idea of America died. The pioneer, the risk taker, the one who pushed past the accepted frontiers. It was replaced by comfort and conformity.
Individual Liberty: America's First Principle

Here's a timeline of how wrong Dr. Fauci has been on coronavirus

fromMarkSimone: "I like Dr. Anthony Fauci, a cute guy, but the truth is that he’s been totally wrong every step of the way on Coronavirus."
Political Correctness and Other Nitwittery

North Carolina Supreme Court: Flipping off cop did not justify traffic stop

fromReason: A state trooper believed a man driving by and flipping the bird at the cops constituted disorderly conduct. (It didn't.)
Indoctrination and Censorship                                  Individual Liberty: America's First Principle

April 9, 2020

The crackdown on ‘price gouging’ helps no one, except politicians and the media

fromTownhall: Governments can’t alter the laws of economics any easier than they can the laws of physics. Yet, they seemingly never cease trying, either under some private or public pressure to skew economic outcomes.
Economic Policy: Statism Versus The Free Market

Congress proposes 50% tax on guns and ammunition in the US

fromDailyBell: Congress is considering a bill to require citizens to apply for a federal license before being able to purchase a firearm. And the government would have the authority to deny a license without demonstrable cause.
2nd Amendment Assaults

Thermal imaging cameras are still dangerous dragnet surveillance cameras

fromActivistPost: Surveillance cameras in public places can chill free expression, movement, and association; aid in the targeted harassment and over-policing of vulnerable populations.
Government is Watching Every Move You Make

Feds classifying all coronavirus patient deaths as ‘COVID-19’ deaths, regardless of cause

fromNYPost: Obviously, it is in someone's self-interest to inflate the numbers.
Indoctrination and Censorship

HuffPost’s clickbait headline claims Trump invested in coronavirus cure

fromAccuracyInMedia: The amount of Trump’s investment was estimated between $100 and $1,500, which is far from a vested and significant financial investment in the drug.
Media Bias on Parade

To enforce social distancing rules, cops fined a Pennsylvania woman who was driving alone

fromReason: Not every apparent violation of a quarantine order is a risk to other people, and not all need to be 
(or can be) enforced equally. To a mindless hammer, everything is a nail.
Police State America

March 19, 2020

Panic will end but tyranny will not

fromDailyMail: We saw it with 9/11 and we’re seeing it the covid-19: people will give up their freedom and accept expanding government power when they’re afraid.

The Government is Not Us

Joe Biden’s plan to shut down the firearms industry

fromNationalReview: His political attacks on the industry are why we have a law barring attempts to hold arms manufacturers legally responsible for shootings.

2nd Amendment Assaults

To track virus, governments weigh surveillance tools that push privacy limits

fromWallStreetJournal: Geolocation and facial-recognition systems can locate vectors of infections, but they also gather highly personal data.

Government is Watching Every Move You Make

Civil asset forfeiture should be eliminated entirely

fromStarTribune: Police and prosecutors should be bound by criminal law, a system where citizens—and their stuff—are innocent until proven guilty.

Police State America

Orange County threatens to jail people who walk outside with others not in household

fromDailyMail: Covid-19 has given authoritarians carte-blanche to run roughshod over the rights of citizens

Regulation Nation                      The Government is Not Us

The plastic bag ban backfires

fromWallStreetJournal: While California's governor is quick to close bars under the pretense of stopping the spread of the virus, they promote reusable bags that are notoriously dirty transmitters.

Regulation Nation                      The Government is Not Us

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

November 21, 2019

10 reasons why this impeachment ‘inquiry’ is really a coup

fromNYPost: Analysis from the incomparable Victor Davis Hanson.

Politics and Other Official Acts of Corruption

Colorado's growing Second Amendment sanctuary movement

fromReason: What happens when cities and counties have their own ideas about a law that authorizes the seizure of guns from people who are mentally ill?

2nd Amendment Assaults

Walter E Williams: Young people ignorant of history

fromCreators: Today's leftists, socialists and progressives would bristle at the suggestion that their agenda differs little from that of past tyrants. But ...

Political Correctness and Other Nitwittery

Pending ban on flavored e-cigarettes in Massachusetts authorizes forfeiture of vapers' cars

fromReason: The bill, which the state House passed yesterday, says police may seize vehicles in which they suspect untaxed vaping products. It was never about safety. It was always about property.

Regulation Nation          Police State America

Biden vows to keep marijuana illegal - right after Pew reveals 80% of liberals want legalized

fromZeroHedge: "The truth of the matter is, there's not nearly been enough evidence that has been acquired as to whether or not it is a gateway drug," he said.

Politics and Other Official Acts of Corruption           The War on Unapproved Voluntary Exchange

One bad apple? Over 1,000 cops caught illegally accessing police database to stalk citizens

fromActivistPost: ust as in other even more serious crimes involving law enforcement personnel, often records request violations resulted in very little punishment if any towards cops.

Police State America

November 11, 2019

Why raw butter producers are suing the FDA

fromReason: Raw butter advocates are understandably salty about a prohibition on interstate commerce.

Regulation Nation

Another drug-war massacre

fromFFF: Drug warriors are scratching their heads over what to do about the latest drug-war massacre in Mexico. They are considering three options -- but only one can succeed.

The War on Unapproved Voluntary Exchange

Elizabeth Warren wants to raise taxes by $26 trillion

fromReason: What she and Bernie Sanders are proposing is nothing short of a wholesale transformation of the size and scope of government.

Economic Policy: Statism Versus the Free Market

Snowden autobiography makes a plea for the Fourth Amendment, the right to privacy, and encryption

fromReason: America's most famous whistleblower calls for restricting the power of government.

Government is Watching Every Move You Make

VIDEO: Ayn Rand - A New Rebellion for Freedom

fromLibertyPen/YouTube: Rand explains the governing philosophy of modern day society and advocates the path toward freedom.

Individual Liberty: America's First Principle

Japan wants to go cashless, but elderly aren't so keen

fromReuters: Only a totalitarian should be keen on a cashless society.

Economic Policy: Statism Versus the Free Market

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

August 12, 2019

Overbearing regulations are slowly killing restaurants

fromReason: Running a restaurant is hard enough without government micromanagers trying to stir the pot.

Regulation Nation

TSA drops fine against man who opted not to board a flight rather than be subjected to invasive search

fromRutherfordInstitute: Texas man not punished for opting out of third warrantless search. He refused an invasive pat-down after he had already been through metal detector and whole body scanner.

Police State America       The Government is Not Us

FBI stats show knives kill far more people than rifles In America – it’s not even close

fromDailyCaller: According to the FBI, 1,604 people were killed by “knives and cutting instruments” and 374 were killed by “rifles” in 2016.
2nd Amendment Assaults

How the government can steal your stuff: 6 questions about civil asset forfeiture answered

fromPennsylvaniaCapital-Star: Law professor and criminal justice expert Nora V. Demleitner explains how this procedure works and why it irks conservatives and progressives alike.

Police State America

Cops still not charged after dumping 26 rounds Into truck full of small children, shooting 3 Of them

fromFreeThoughtProject: “How am I supposed to tell my kids that the people who are supposed to protect them are the ones that shot them?” father of the children, Quin Jacobs said.

Police State America

VIDEO: White Supremacy and White Privilege in America

fromLibertyPen/YouTube: The truth about the left's favorite issues.

Political Correctness and Other Nitwittery

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

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 13, 2019

President Trump's tariffs, once described as negotiating tools, may be here to stay

fromGreenwichTime:   Failure of the United States and China to reach agreement Friday on a comprehensive trade deal raises the possibility that high tariffs on imported goods may be a permanent feature of the U.S. economy.

Economic Policy: Statism Versus The Free Market

VIDEO: Tucker Carlson - Trump's Claims of Spying

fromLibertyPen/YouTube:   From Tucker Carlson Tonight, a look back at Trump’s allegations that the Obama administration was spying on him and the accompanying media coverage as well as the upshot to the story.

Media Bias on Parade        Politics and Other Official Act of Corruption

Food prices to soar thanks to the trade war's tariffs

fromSHTF:   The consequences of the Trump Administration’s trade war on China and other countries will be rising food prices for the American consumer.

Economic Policy: Statism Versus The Free Market

The new green serfdom

fromReason:   The Green New Deal is a path to a more militarized and authoritarian society.

Economic Policy: Statism Versus The Free Market

Walter E Williams: Higher education in America

fromCreators:   "Colleges should be forced to share in covering loan defaults, namely they need to have some skin in the game. More importantly, Vedder says that we should end or revise the federal student aid program."

Economic Policy: Statism Versus The Free Market

Idaho repeals its regulatory code

fromMercatus:   Forcing a fresh start by repealing the entire regulatory code may be the newest arrow in the red tape cutter’s quiver.

Regulation Nation

May 8, 2019

Supreme Court says no to NYC’s Second Amendment-avoidance scheme

fromActivistPost:  High Court denied the state’s request to delay briefing until NY resolved its rule making process. As a result, the briefing will go forward on the first true Second Amendment case since McDonald v. Chicago.

2nd Amendment Assaults

John Stossel: A lie, a myth and a question

fromReason:  Socialists like Bernie Sanders tell us that "the rich get richer, and the poor get poorer." Bernie's wrong about that. The poor are much better off.

Economic Policy: Statism Versus The Free Market

Democrats want to fight poverty, but don't value letting people work

fromReason:  All the welfare programs California Democrats can dream up won't do as much as some commonsense reforms to let people who want to work, work.

Regulation Nation             Economic Policy: Statism Versus The Free Market

15 questions Robert Mueller must answer

fromAmericanConservative:  1. You didn’t charge President Donald Trump with “collusion,” obstruction, or any other new crime. Tell us why. If the answer is “the evidence did not support it,” please say so.

Politics and Other Official Acts of Corruption

New Jersey politician wants to ban all bags—paper or plastic

fromReason:  The Garden State's plan to ban all grocery store bags could have negative consequences for consumer convenience and the environment.

Regulation Nation        Political Correctness and Other Nitwittery

Study finds burdensome federal regulations are 'hidden tax' which cost $1.9 trillion

fromWashingtonTimes:  'Regulatory costs are largely obscured from public view,' the research found.

Regulation Nation

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 19, 2019

US government’s net worth is now NEGATIVE $75 TRILLION

fromDailyBell:  And that doesn't calculate the negative value of tyranny.

Economic Policy: Statism Versus The Free Market

Four ways that Uncle Sam will respond to its $75 trillion insolvency

fromDailyBell:  1. Ignore the problem, 2. raise taxes, 3. default, 4. continue creating inflation.

Economic Policy: Statism Versus The Free Market

The reasons behind the relentless ideological onslaught against free markets

fromAlt-Market:  Whenever disaster strikes economically, free markets are blamed. Whenever something is fixed, even if that fix is a band-aid on a sucking chest wound, government involvement and socialism are applauded.

Economic Policy: Statism Versus The Free Market

How Rachel Maddow turned into Infowars

fromAmericanConservative:  She's still spinning Russiagate conspiracy tales, even as her ratings crash down.

Media Bias on Parade

Massachusetts And New York beginning to see the ugly side of minimum wage hikes

fromForbes:  On December 31st, NYC raised the minimum wage to $15, a 15% increase from the 2018 level, and a 34% hike from 2017. The result? Close to three-quarters of restaurants in New York City have cut labor input.

Economic Policy: Statism Versus The Free Market

The GPS granny nanny

fromEricPetersAuto:  "All of this is due to the Safety Cult, which obsesses about “risk” in the same way that ‘50s McCarythism obsessed about communism."

Regulation Nation

Jan 29, 2019

America’s public schools have become socialist indoctrination factories

fromAmericanThinker: How is it that the same generation that has benefited more from capitalism than any other in human history is also the generation most willing to destroy it?

Indoctrination and Censorship

Washington state lawmaker wants to ban dwarf tossing, says it 'ridicules and demeans'

fromReason: What's actually demeaning is thinking you know what's best for an entire group of people.

Regulation Nation

VIDEO: Deep State Double Standard - The Persecution of Roger Stone

fromLibertyPen/YouTube: The Mueller investigation doggedly persecutes Trump associates over crimes not associated with Russian collusion but rather stimulated by his own inquisition.

Justice is a Result, Not Just a Process        Politics and Other Official Acts of Corruption

One way outraged Americans can beat Robert Mueller

fromAmericanThinker: Jury nullification can be used to rebuke abuses of power committed by unaccountable, out-of-control special counsels like Robert "Gestapo" Mueller.

Justice is a Result, Not Just a Process        Police State America

America's stubborn left clings to Nicolas Maduro despite all evidence

fromReason: It's time to admit the failure of Venezuela's "21st century socialism."

Economic Policy: Statism Versus The Free Market

California governor calls for a tax on the very water citizens drink

fromTheFreeThought Project: Communities throughout the state struggle with dangerous pollutants in their supply, but opponents of the suggested tax say there is no need to tax residents in order to solve the problem.

Political Correctness and Other Nitwittery      Regulation Nation

Jan 14, 2019

Please, TSA workers, don’t come back

fromReason: And take the rest of your federal colleagues with you.

Government is Watching Every Move You Make   Regulation Nation    Police State America

Congressman slams civil forfeiture as 'a series of government shakedowns'

fromForbes: Tim Walberg (R-MI) sharply criticized the federal government’s use of civil forfeiture, which lets law enforcement confiscate property and pocket the proceeds for themselves, all without filing criminal charges.

Police State America

A marijuana "420" bill was just introduced in Congress

fromTheMotleyFool: If passed, cannabis would be removed as a controlled substance at the federal level and treated like alcohol. Could the end of government's reefer madness be in sight?

The War on Unapproved Voluntary Exchange

Publishers, not Trump, endanger free speech

fromNationalReview: And take the rest of your federal colleagues with you.

Indoctrination and Censorship

Assault weapon bans are all about appearance

fromReason: Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s latest bill classifies firearms not by what they do but based on how much their looks scare her.

2nd Amendment Assaults

LA's battle for Venice Beach: homeless surge puts Hollywood's progressive ideals to the test

fromHollywoodReporter: It finally happened. California's elitist left is now having to deal with the ramifications of their policies.

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