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

May 17, 2019

Judgment day for John Brennan

fromTheUnzReview:   What's ahead for the mastermind of the Russia hoax.

Politics and Other Official Acts of Corruption

Stung by tariffs, farmers seek bailouts and more protectionism

fromReason:   While Trump prepares another round of aid payments for farmers, Marco Rubio is pushing for tariffs on Mexican fruits and vegetables that will send prices soaring.

Economic Policy: Statism Versus The Free Market

☆ VIDEO: Remy - People will die

fromReason/YouTube:   Remy channels his inner Elizabeth Warren to vilify the other side.

Politics and Other Official Acts of Corruption

Fear, loathing, intolerance – and worse

fromWattsUpWithThat:   The climate-fearing, capitalism-loathing Left cannot abide questions or differing opinions.

Political Correctness and Other Nitwittery

Conviction will soon be required before civil asset forfeiture is initiated

fromTheUnzReview:   New standard may hamstring law enforcement's ability to legally steal.

Police State America

Las Vegas, which just authorized cannabis lounges, aspires to be the 'new Amsterdam'

fromReason:   The tourist mecca will be one of the few U.S. jurisdictions that give visitors a place where they can legally use the marijuana they can legally buy.

The War on Unapproved Voluntary Exchange

May 15, 2019

Drivers beware: The deadly perils of traffic stops in the American police state

fromNationalReview:   Russiagate has always been a political narrative masquerading as a federal investigation.

Police State America

Barr appoints US Attorney to investigate FBI/DOJ spying on Trump; has investigated FBI before

fromZeroHedge:   US Attorney John H. Durham has been appointed to examine the origins of the Trump-Russia investigation to determine if the FBI's spying on the Trump campaign was "lawful and appropriate."

Politics and Other Official Acts of Corruption

VIDEO: John Stossel - Moral panic over sex work

fromReason/YouTube:   Police often accuse people of "sex trafficking." Usually, it’s simply prostitution.

The War on Unapproved Voluntary Exchange

'Fake news' is a really dangerous excuse for censorship

fromReason:   Whatever excuse they raise, government officials will always find an excuse to try to suppress criticism and ideas they find uncomfortable. It's our right to speak out anyway.

Media Bias on Parade          Indoctrination and Censorship

Russiagate: Law in the service of partisan politics

fromNationalReview:   Russiagate has always been a political narrative masquerading as a federal investigation.

Politics and Other Official Acts of Corruption

Trump's latest trade war scheme might be the nuttiest one yet

fromReason:   The most likely end result of Trump's literal Buy American policy: lots of American farm goods rotting in federal warehouses.

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 9, 2019

No, Mr. President, tariffs do not cause prosperity

fromAIER:  Taxing your own people and hobbling their trading relationships does not create more wealth. 

Economic Policy: Statism Versus The Free Market

Denver voters approve measure to decriminalize psychedelic mushrooms

fromForbes:  Voters in Denver, Colorado made their city the first in the U.S. to decriminalize psychedelic mushrooms by approving a ballot measure on the issue on Tuesday.

The War on Unapproved Voluntary Exchange

Walter E Williams: Discrimination and disparities II

fromZeroHedge:  Different social classes raise their children differently. Studies have shown that children whose parents are professional heard more words per hour than children whose families are on welfare.

Political Correctness and Other Nitwittery

Major Mueller report omissions suggest incompetence or a coverup

fromZeroHedge:  Robert Mueller's report contains at least two major omissions which suggest either incompetence, or purposeful concealing of major crimes committed against the Trump campaign and the American people.

Politics and Other Official Acts of Corruption

Vilifying gun owners doesn't lead to a better society

fromReason:  Progressives push their luck with their totalitarian insistence that everybody is with them or against them on guns and so much else.

2nd Amendment Assaults

Man arrested, facing a year in prison for telling police they are ‘pissing on the Constitution’

fromFreeThoughtProject:  After police refused to respond to his calls for assistance, a Texas man gave police a peaceful piece of his mind, but it landed him in jail. So much for free speech.

Individual Liberty: America's First Principle        Police State America

Nov 28, 2018

George Will: Civil forfeiture makes law enforcement lawless

fromAVPress: "Such laws are incentives for abusive governments, because the entity that seizes the property frequently is allowed to profit by keeping or selling it. Lucrative law enforcement will become lawless."
Police State America        The Government is Not Us

Grade school rolls out fingerprint ID lunch system, parents don’t approve

fromNYPost: A Nebraska public school system is failing kids by forcing them to get their fingers scanned to pay for lunch, according to irate parents.
Government is Watching Every Move You Make

After losing $1 billion to tariffs, General Motors announces 14,000 layoffs

fromReason: Trump's rally promises won't happen because of his trade policies.
Economic Policy: Statism Versus The Free Market

Proposed New York gun law violates five Constitutional amendments

fromIndependentSentinel: In New York, they want to allow law enforcement to peruse your social media history going back three years to decide if you are fit to exercise your Second Amendment right to own firearms.
2nd Amendment Assaults

Drug-sniffing dogs facing early retirements due to legalization of marijuana

fromFoxNews: Snitch dogs are free to become man's best friend again. 
The War on Unapproved Voluntary Exchange

Red flag gun laws: Yet another government weapon for compliance and control

fromRutherfordInstitute: We never learn. In the right (or wrong) hands, benevolent plans can easily be put to malevolent purposes.
2nd Amendment Assaults

Nov 26, 2018

Beijing to judge every resident based on behavior by end of 2020

fromBloomberg: Coming to a tyranny near you? China’s plan to judge each of its 1.3 billion people based on their social behavior is moving a step closer to reality.
Government is Watching Every Move You Make

Dear TSA, please stop molesting kids at the airport

fromCreators: "Normally, I would have reported this incident to the proper authorities. Inappropriate contact with a child is a criminal act. But in this case, the proper authorities were the ones feeling up the kid."
The Government is Not Us

VIDEOS: Migrant caravan storms border, U.S. shuts down crossing in response

fromGrabieNews: Some in the caravan are launching projectiles at U.S. border authorities.
Defense Versus The War Machine

Violence Against Women Act diminishes the seriousness of domestic violence

fromTheHill: An opinion piece from Wendy McElroy. The pending bill would expand the definition of DV in a way that could harm abused women and other innocent people. 
Political Correctness and Other Nitwittery

Thomas Sowell returns

fromReason: America's top social scientist on what has changed since he sat down with Reason 38 years ago.
Economic Policy: Statism Versus The Free Market

Trump's Trade war bailout program Is a predictable mess

fromReason: More than 1,100 people living in America's 50 largest cities have received bailout funds intended for farmers harmed by Trump's trade war.
Economic Policy: Statism Versus The Free Market

September 5, 2018

‘Five Eyes’ governments call on tech giants to build encryption backdoors — or else

fromTechCrunch: This kind of backdoor access would allow each government access to encrypted call and message data on their citizens. 
Government is Watching Every Move You Make

Why civility in politics won't be getting better

fromTownhall: Politicians at Senator McCain’s funeral were bemoaning the loss of civility in politics, and Judge Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation hearing this week for the Supreme Court surely promises to prove that. 
Politics and Other Official Acts of Corruption

California bill passes PG&E fire liability on to customers

fromABC30: "What we voted on last night was to allow PG&E, if they are negligent and can't afford to pay that liability, we will pass that cost onto ratepayers, make them pay for it," Hill said, referring to PG&E customers.
Economic Policy: Statism Versus The Free Market

Tariffs on steel, aluminum, and lumber blamed for spiking home construction prices

fromReason: Around the nation, construction costs for new homes are up by about 60 percent this year.
Economic Policy: Statism Versus The Free Market

Criminalizing childhood: school safety measures aren’t making the schools any safer

fromRutherfordInstitute: In communities across the country, children and adolescents spend the majority of their waking hours in schools that have increasingly come to resemble places of detention more than places of learning.
Regulation Nation    Police State America

The ideological blindness at the heart of media bias

fromNationalReview: Over the Labor Day weekend, NBC’s Chuck Todd published a much-discussed call to arms for American journalists. Decrying an “artificially stoked” hatred of the press, he calls for a “more aggressive” media.
Media Bias on Parade

July 13, 2016

How to file a complaint against a police officer

fromRonsSpot: Never … ever…walk into a police station by yourself and try to file a complaint against a police officer. Civilian testers have shown that you may be harassed or falsely arrested for doing so.
Police State America

Walter E Williams: Shooting ourselves in the foot

fromCreators: It's as if you and I were in a rowboat out at sea and I shot a hole in my end of the boat. What should be your response?
Economic Policy: Statism Versus The Free Market

John Stossel: Dads needed

fromCreators: Warren Farrell was once considered a feminist leader. He hung around with Gloria Steinem and wrote about why men and women should break out of rigid old gender roles. But then, as he learned more ... 
Political Correctness and Other Nitwittery

Facebook algorithm flags, removes Declaration of Independence text as hate speech

fromReason: The social media site has a difficult time telling the difference between white nationalist ravings and the writing of Thomas Jefferson.
Indoctrination and Censorship

VIDEO: Rush Limbaugh - Harvard and The Deep State

fromLibertyPen/YouTube: Rush Limbaugh relates an interesting article about the linkage between Ivy League schools and The Deep State — one that even transcends partisan politics.
Politics and Other Official Acts of Corruption

Gambling and drugs may be the cure for Connecticut's ailing economy

fromCNBC: Connecticut’s legislature is considering legalization of sports betting and recreational marijuana, which could potentially generate hundreds of millions in revenue, creating jobs and promoting tourism.
The War on Unapproved Voluntary Exchange

July 2, 2016

Laws that are 'impossible' to follow can still be Constitutional, says California court

fromTheIntercept: California judges insure the state remains the gold standard for nitwittery, deciding that just because it is impossible to comply with a law doesn’t make it invalid.
Justice is a Result, Not Just a Process     Regulation Nation    Political Correctness and Other Nitwittery

Cops arrested a black man. He called them Nazis, so he was charged with a hate crime.

fromReason: "This is not what the hate crime statute was for. This is criminalizing pure speech, and that violates the First Amendment."
Police State America

Marijuana legalization is having its best year ever

fromVox: From Canada to Vermont to Oklahoma to California, this has been a huge year for legalization advocates.
The War on Unapproved Voluntary Exchange

Shocking moment a cop uses a stun gun on a suspect sitting on a curb who WAS following police orders

fromTheDailyMail:     Video shows a Lancaster, Pennsylvania police officer deploy his Taser on a nonviolent man complying with orders.
Police State America

The wiretap rooms

fromTheIntercept: The NSA’s hidden spy hubs in eight U.S. cities: Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, New York City, San Francisco, Seattle, and Washington, D.C.
Government is Watching Every Move You Make

Home builders are building smaller homes because of Trump's tariffs

fromEconomicPolicyJournal: Lumber is the biggest component of a new home. An average house last year had more than $60,000 in wood products. Since early last year, lumber costs have shot up by more than 60 percent.
Economic Policy: Statism Versus The Free Market

June 29, 2016

VIDEO: Thomas Sowell - Disparity is Not Discrimination

fromLibertyPen/YouTube: Professor Sowell looks at why economic and other outcomes often differ greatly among individuals, groups and institutions.
Political Correctness and Other Nitwittery

Trump's trade war requires handing more power to unelected bureaucrats

fromReason: One government intervention into the economy begets another, and American businesses are caught in the chaos.
Economic Policy: Statism Versus The Free Market

Supreme Court will decide if civil forfeiture is unconstitutional, violates the Eighth Amendment

fromForbes: The U.S. Supreme Court will review the constitutionality of civil forfeiture laws, which allow the government to legally steal a citizen's property if law enforcement suspects them of crime.
Police State America        Justice is a Result, Not Just a Process

Why "Permit Patty" called the cops on an 8-year-old entrepreneur

fromFEE: This is a symptom of our society's "entrepreneurial decay." 
Regulation Nation

Three glaring examples proving Snopes and the AP have no business being official ‘fact checkers’

fromTheFreeThoughtProject: Snopes and the Associated Press have been given power over social media to define truth but they are often wrong and the consequences are grave.
Indoctrination and Censorship

30 years of global warming forecasts all failed

fromLewRockwell: What actually happened, they got $1 billion for research by scaring the HELL out of everyone.
Political Correctness and Other Nitwittery

June 11, 2016

Social Security and Medicare going broke even faster than projected

fromSchiffGold: For the first time since 1982, Social Security will have to dip into its $3 trillion trust fund in order to cover benefits this year. The program’s expenses will exceed its revenue three years earlier than projected.
Economic Policy: Statism Versus The Free Market

Berkeley scholar admits "climate change has run its course"

fromZeroHedge: Treating climate change as a planet-scale problem that could be solved only by an international regulatory scheme transformed the issue into a political creed for committed believers.
Politics and Other Official Acts of Corruption

Trade clash: EU to hit US with $3.3 billion in tariffs next month

fromCNNMoney: Americans are about to start paying for Trump's economic misconceptions.
Economic Policy: Statism Versus The Free Market

Jerry Brown wants to tax drinking water

fromTheDailyCaller: The California governor will not be happy until every penny you earn is transferred to the politicians who run the state.
The Government is Not Us      Politics and Other Official Acts of Corruption

Cops swarm and beat a black man unconscious in Arizona for no apparent reason

fromTheDailyMail: Robert Johnson was beaten unconscious by members of the Mesa Police Department because he "wouldn't sit down", though the law prohibiting standing was not provided.
The Government is Not Us      Police State America

Venezuela’s oil meltdown defies belief

fromWolfStreet: The problems for Venezuela continue to mount, and the news that it is considering force majeure points to a more catastrophic decline in production and exports.
Economic Policy: Statism Versus The Free Market

March 16, 2018

Facebook's war on 'conservative' sites

fromWND: The king of social media has been making algorithm changes seemingly intended to marginalize the traffic of right-of-center online news operations, and they have been effective. 
Media Bias on Parade

President Trump and the freedom of speech

fromCreators: The limits of power. Freedom of speech trumps Trump -- as it should. 
Indoctrination and Censorship

VIDEO: Walter E Williams - No Skin in the Game

fromLibertyPen/YouTube: Professor Williams contends that spending constraints will never occur so long as half of the citizens have no skin in the game. 
Economic Policy: Statism Versus The Free Market

ACLU is suing the government for info about TSA device searches

fromMotherboard: The TSA won't release information about its warrantless searches of electronic devices carried by US citizens on domestic flights. 
Government is Watching Every Move You Make      Police State America

John Stossel: Lies about Trade

fromCreators: All a trade deficit shows is that a country sells us more than we sell them. We get the better of that deal. They get excess dollar bills, but we get stuff.
Economic Policy: Statism Versus The Free Market

Say no to “hardening” the schools with zero tolerance policies and gun-toting cops

fromRutherfordInstitute: Just what we don’t need: more gun-toting, taser-wielding cops in government-run schools that bear an uncomfortable resemblance to prisons.
Police State America

March 13, 2018

Deep State operative Clapper will face no consequence for lying under oath to the American people

fromWashingtonExaminer: Former intelligence chief James Clapper is poised to avoid charges for allegedly lying to Congress after five years of apparent inaction by the Justice Department. 
The Government is Not Us      Politics and Other Official Acts of Corruption

'Trade wars' don't put Americans first

fromReason: You cannot advocate trade restrictions without also advocating state-bestowed privilege.
Economic Policy: Statism Versus The Free Market

Death penalty for drug dealers? Count Trump in

fromReason: America's president equates unapproved voluntary exchange with murder. A Duterte fanboy?
The War on Unapproved Voluntary Exchange

Walter E Williams: Trump's Steel and Aluminum Tariffs

fromCreators: Professor Williams identifies the winners and losers of Trump's trade policy. Guess which side 
you're on?
Economic Policy: Statism Versus The Free Market

Social services worker fired, escorted out by cops for having a gun permit—NOT a gun

fromReason: A social services worker claims she was fired from her job and removed by police after her employer learned that she had a concealed handgun permit—even though she had never brought a gun to work.
2nd Amendment Assaults      Police State America

State to force homeschoolers to submit to warrantless home inspections, trampling rights

fromActivistPost: Under the guise of preventing child abuse, lawmakers in Maryland have introduced a bill that will allow the state to intrude in the lives of innocent families and destroy their right to privacy.
Police State America

VIDEO: John Stossel - Trump Appeal

China Trade Isn't Killing America's Working Class

by Shikha Dalmia.    Politicians & misconceptions. American politics aren't exactly immune to bouts of protectionism. A Bloomberg poll has found that two-thirds of Americans, Republicans and Democrats, are four-square behind it—a sentiment that Bernie Sanders is exploiting on the left and Donald Trump on the right. But although free trade has     ... MORE

The Candidates' Public Disservice On Trade

by A. Barton Hinkle.   Almost three-fifths of Americans recognize that international trade offers the country an opportunity to expand the economy; only 34 percent see it as a threat. Unfortunately, the leading presidential contenders are doing their best to change that. Bernie Sanders, Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump have been spouting a  ... MORE

Walter E Williams: Trade Deficit Angst

Donald Trump's primary bluster.   Let's look at the political angst over trade deficits. A trade deficit is when people in one country buy more from another country than the other country's people buy from them. There cannot be a trade deficit in a true economic sense. Let's examine this. I buy more from my grocer than he buys from me. That   ... MORE

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

Walter E Williams: The Seen And The Unseen

Why Congress should get out of the miracle business.  Claude Frederic Bastiat (1801-50) — a French classical liberal theorist, political economist and member of the French National Assembly — wrote an influential essay titled "That Which Is Seen and That Which Is Not Seen." Bastiat argued that when making laws or economic decisions,   ... MORE