May 20, 2019


Why everyone in the U.S. who counts wants Julian Assange dead

fromCommonDreams:   It's not for being a jerk that the Establishment state wants the Wikileaks publisher dead. They want him dead for publishing videos like these. Only the bravest will watch the video contained within.
The Government is Not Us       Politics and Other Official Acts of Corruption    Defense Versus The War Machine

Some US cities are moving into real-time facial surveillance

fromWired:   The lack of federal rules on facial recognition may create a patchwork of surveillance regimes inside the US.
Government is Watching Every Move You Make

Camille Paglia: Neo feminism teaching women to live in ‘a permanently juvenile condition’

fromCommonDreams:   “What I am saying throughout my work is that girls who are indoctrinated to see men not as equals but as oppressors and rapists are condemned to remain in a permanently juvenile condition for life."
Political Correctness and Other Nitwittery

VIDEO: Larry Elder - Reparations for Slavery

fromLibertyPen/YouTube:   Commentator/author Larry Elder comments on a scheme to extract money from people who were never slave owners and give it to people who were never slaves.

Federal funding for California bullet train boondoggle formally canceled

fromReason:   Jerry Brown's bait and switch scheme goes up in flames, as taxpayers suffer another ramification of the Obama administration.
Politics and Other Official Acts of Corruption

Is California ready to ban gas-powered cars? Not yet. But they're thinking about it

fromUSAToday:   Fresh of the high-speed rail fiasco, state politicians plot yet another way to torture citizens.

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.

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.

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.

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.

May 11, 2019


Mexico wants to legalize all drugs and negotiate with the U.S. to do the same

fromNewsweek:   “Prohibition policies have caused more harm to people and communities than the drugs they were intended to eliminate, and they haven’t come anywhere close to eliminating the supply or the demand.” 
The War on Unapproved Voluntary Exchange

Gun crackdowns have already led to too many federal abuses

fromTheHill:  Gun control advocates have called for prohibiting possession of AR-15 rifles — a ban that could create five million new felons overnight.
2nd Amendment Assaults

Trump plans to redefine poverty, cutting Americans from welfare

fromZeroHedge:  “Because of this, changes to the poverty thresholds, including how they are updated for inflation over time, may affect eligibility for programs that use the poverty guidelines.” 
The Welfare State: Promoting Dependency

On free trade, even Karl Marx is smarter than Donald Trump

fromReason:  Marx “was a champion of free trade, and no friend of tariff barriers.” 
Economic Policy: Statism Versus The Free Market

California's rent control advocates are about to get what they want, good and hard

fromReason:  Everywhere rent control is tried, the same things happen. Landlords exit the market. Developers stop building apartments. Supply drops significantly. 
Regulation Nation

Want to make money? Work for the government

fromCNSNews:  The median earnings of state and local government workers were higher than the median earnings in any of the four categories of private-industry and self-employed workers. Federal workers were even higher.

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.

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.

May 6, 2019


Extradition of Julian Assange threatens us all

fromConsortiumNews:  Even if charges are later dropped, governments still win because the tactics used damage the truth teller professionally, financially, socially and psychologically, and foreseeably chill other whistleblowers.
Indoctrination and Censorship

VIDEO: Victor Davis Hanson: How Mueller Put the Deep State at risk

fromLibertyPen/YouTube:  Sex trafficking—especially when it comes to young girls has become the fastest growing business in organized crime and the most-lucrative commodity traded illegally after drugs and guns.
Politics and Other Official Acts of Corruption

Red flag laws and individual rights

fromAmericanThinker:  ‘Red flag’ laws brazenly violate the Second, Fourth, and Fifth Amendments of the United States Constitution.  ‘Red flag’ laws cannot and should not ever be enforced.

Less food, higher bills, colder houses, less travel: UK government’s prescription for climate action

fromWattsUpWithThat:  You would think a country with rapidly worsening rates of child poverty would have other priorities than worrying about what the weather will be like in 50 years time.
Political Correctness and Other Nitwittery

The essence of evil: Sex with children has become big business in America

fromRutherfordInstitute:  Sex trafficking—especially when it comes to young girls has become the fastest growing business in organized crime and the most-lucrative commodity traded illegally after drugs and guns.
Individual Liberty: America's First Principle

Department identifies the cops who shot 3 kids in face, while trying to kill fleeing suspect

fromFreeThoughtProject:  We now know that the suspect did not fire on police before police opened fire on the truck full of children. The officers are now on paid administrative leave pending an investigation.

May 3, 2019


Extradition hearing "life & death" for Assange and journalism itself

fromZeroHedge:  Conviction under the 1917 law geared toward protecting the nation's military secrets and most sensitive security matters could result in life in prison or even the death penalty for Assange.
Indoctrination and Censorship

The real ‘bombshells’ are about to hit their targets

fromAmericanGreatness:  In the next several weeks, Inspector General Michael Horowitz is expected to issue his summation of the potential abuse of FISA by top officials in the Obama Administration.
Politics and Other Official Acts of Corruption

US abandons all semblance of rule of law to go after Assange

fromDailyBell:  Apparently a judge’s contempt of court order trumps due process, the Fifth Amendment right to remain silent, and all semblance of Western legal standards.
Police State America       The Government is Not Us     Individual Liberty: America's First Principle

VIDEO: Tucker Carlson - Should America Intervene in Venezuela?

fromLibertyPen/YouTube:  From Tucker Carlson Tonight, General Douglas MacGregor discusses the ramifications 
of U.S. intervention in Venezuela.
Defense Versus The War Machine

Time to abolish Congress

fromTownhall:  Congress has either ceded or overstepped its constitutional authority since long ago. Would we really be worse off without a federal legislature?

May 1, 2019


America’s drug war is ruining the world

fromTheNation:  It is verifiable. 
A half-century of Washington’s harsh drug prohibition policies has brought misery to millions across the globe.
The War on Unapproved Voluntary Exchange

VIDEO: Andrew Klavin - Making Sense of a World Gone Mad

fromLibertyPen/YouTube:  From a speech delivered at Hillsdale College, commentator Andrew Klavin shares his insights on the modern war of ideas.
Political Correctness and Other Nitwittery

Can the damage done by the CDC's opioid guidelines be reversed?

fromReason:  It is no public service when the law enforcement establishment makes mandatory medical policy.
The War on Unapproved Voluntary Exchange

Kamala Harris: We need to raise taxes on the middle class and force workers into unions

fromTownhall:  Democrats like Harris would not only roll back middle class benefits by raising their taxes, they're gunning to undo the policy progress that has led to robust employment and GDP growth.
Economic Policy: Statism Versus The Free Market

NSA says warrantless searches of Americans’ data rose in 2018

fromTechCrunch:  You wouldn't know it now, but there was a time when the Fourth Amendment had teeth.
The Government is Not Us           Police State America        Government is Watching Every Move You Make

Activists say Biden's hardline drugs policies didn't apply to his children's cocaine and marijuana use

fromTownhall:  During his 36 years in the Senate, Biden helped craft some of the strictest anti-drug laws of the 1980s and 1990s. However, his own children were able to avoid the brunt of these laws.

April 29, 2019


Key body camera footage missing after Chicago police officers raid wrong homes, point guns at children

fromCBSChicago:  While every patrol officer is required to wear a body camera – 8,200 have been issued to officers, including tactical teams. Still, it is amazing how often the cameras fail during unflattering events.
Police State America

The Immorality of student loan forgiveness and free college

fromReason:  If college students have skin in their own game, they'll think more seriously about going to college in the first place and be more motivated to be serious and to finish. 
Political Correctness and Other Nitwittery       Politics and Other Official Acts of Corruption

New bill will force owners of hybrid & electric cars to pay fees to offset gas they don’t buy

fromFreeThoughtProject:  If ever you thought the government cares about possible solutions to environmental problems — like electric cars — the following case out of North Carolina proves just how much of a farce their “caring” is.
Politics and Other Official Acts of Corruption         Regulation Nation

Walter E Williams: Discrimination and disparities

fromLibertyPen:  If historical injustices and persecution were useful explanations of group disadvantage, Jews would be some of the poorest and least-educated people in the world today.
Political Correctness and Other Nitwittery

VIDEO: Paul Harvey - Bad News in America

fromLibertyPen:  From Landon Lecture Series (2003), Legendary radio broadcaster Paul Harvey shares his insights about all of the bad news in America.
Media Bias on Parade

San Francisco's war between the rich and homeless Is at "boiling point"

fromZeroHedge:  With 7,500 people homeless, affluent sections of SF have become borderline dangerous with open-air drug use, tens of thousands of discarded needles, and, sadly, overflowing human excrement.

April 27, 2019


The Feds are dropping child porn cases instead of revealing info on their surveillance systems

fromReason:  Human Rights Watch and other groups say these systems draw serious concerns. 

VIDEO: The original role of Clinton-Podesta in the Trump collusion narrative

fromTargetLiberty:  Amazing! Left-wing comedian uses facts and documents to show the original role of Clinton-Podesta in the Trump collusion narrative
Politics and Other Official Acts of Corruption

Taxpayers hit for $270k after cops beat, kidnap 4’11” grandma for refusing warrantless search

fromFreeThoughtProject:  For refusing to allow police to illegally search her home, an innocent grandma was attacked, kidnapped, injured and denied treatment -- and taxpayers, not cops were held accountable. 
Police State America

Google may be helping the government conduct warrantless searches in 'massive file scanning program'

fromDailyMail:  The Electronic Privacy Information Center filed an amicus brief concerning Google's role in helping the government seize data via warrantless searches. 

Assange’s imprisonment reveals even more corruption than WikiLeaks did

fromCaitlinJohnstone:  Understanding everything that WikiLeaks has done to shine light where powerful people want darkness makes it abundantly clear why powerful people want to sabotage it. 
Politics and Other Official Acts of Corruption

Facial recognition creeps up on a JetBlue passenger and she hates it

fromZeroHedge:  Facial recognition systems don't want you to stop and think about them. This is what happens when someone does. 

April 24, 2019


NYT: The tables have turned -- Time to investigate the FBI, Steele and the rest of the 'witch hunters'

fromZeroHedge:  Now that the shoe is on the other foot, and key Democrats backing away from talks of impeachment, let's see if lady justice will follow the rest of us down the rabbit hole. 
The Government is Not Us           Politics and Other Official Acts of Corruption

Is nationwide marijuana legalization just around the corner?

fromReason:  It's hard to be pessimistic about marijuana legalization these days. Recreational cannabis is legal in 10 states and decriminalized in another 14.  

Walter E Williams: Millennials for socialism

fromCreators:  If one needed evidence of the gross ignorance of millennials, and their teachers and college professors, it's their solid support for socialism and socialist presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders.

VIDEO: Victor Davis Hanson - The Russia Collusion Hoax, A Retrospective

fromLibertyPen/YouTube:  From American Thought Leaders, historian Victor Davis Hanson provides a brilliant retrospective of the Russian Hoax, detailing the players, the playbook and what could come next. 

Should prostitution be a normal profession?

fromBBC:  When prostitution is illegal “what ends up happening is the sex workers themselves have to pay bribes to the police – either sexual bribes or financial bribes – to then escape the enforcement of the law. That simply means they have to do more sex work in order to make up the money they’ve paid to the state.”

The panic over ‘social media addiction’ threatens free speech

fromReason:  Classifying heavy internet use as medical addiction leads to bad policy and inferior patient care. 

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?

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."

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.

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."

April 17, 2019


Blaming prescription pain pills for the opioid epidemic is fake news

fromTheFederalist:  How negligent media have helped inflate a deadly moral panic over prescription opioids and ignored the real sources of addiction, while hurting people who live with devastating chronic pain.
The War On Unapproved Voluntary Exchange

China’s social credit system – It’s coming to the United States

fromInternationalMan:  The infrastructure for this system is already in place in the United States. Under the new system of life by government approval, survival becomes simple: Obey… or die.
The Government is Not Us        Government is Watching Every Move You Make

The latest scheme to turn gun owners into criminals

fromFEE:  "... man was prosecuted and convicted of the misdemeanor crime of merely holding a B.B. gun in public."
2nd Amendment Assaults

How China turned a city into a prison

fromNYTimes:  The state of the art surveillance/police state

Smollett case reveals the danger of DOJ’s “start by believing” push

fromFEE:  “Believe the victim” is a moral mantra with a ferocious backlash against anyone who expresses disbelief.
Political Correctness and Other Nitwittery

Left-Wing Cities Going LAWLESS

fromLewRockwell:  Boston orders police to stop arresting criminals for breaking and entering, destruction of property or shoplifting. In the name of equal justice, the DA proclaims that criminals to be the new victim class.

April 15, 2019


Julian Assange and WikiLeaks deserve our thanks for making governments more transparent

fromReason:  The world is a better place now that it's harder than ever for governments to keep secrets.
The Government is Not Us       Government is Watching Every Move You Make     

The Washington establishment seems pretty happy about Julian Assange’s arrest

fromReason:  Deep state tyrants figure to sleep a little better if they can eliminate Assange.
The Government is Not Us       Government is Watching Every Move You Make 

Assisted dying: The death panels are coming

fromGaryNorth:  Rationing is inevitable in a world of scarcity. You can ration by price: high monetary bid wins. You can ration by standing in line: first come, first served. You can ration by bureaucratic procedure: fill out forms. 
But there is always rationing.
Economic Policy: Statism Versus The Free Market

Why an internet regulator is a bad idea

fromSpiked:  We should be stripping away curbs on speech – not adding more.
Indoctrination and Censorship

Looking into surveillance

fromProvidenceJournal:  If our government has improperly used its immense power to spy on citizens for political purposes, it is vital that it be stopped, and those involved be punished, lest we become a police state.
Government is Watching Every Move You Make        Police State America

Your Volvo will soon call the cops on you if it thinks you've been drinking

fromZeroHedge:  It is unclear if demand for Volvos will collapse as a result of big brother watching over every move, or if potential customers will welcome this latest incursion of their privacy.