Apr 11
The climate blogger Tony Heller (Steven Goddard) has often alerted readers to the fact that government data sets have been altered to make the past seem colder. See here.
“NASA has altered their own data by 0.5C since 2001, yet claims that everyone agrees within about 0.05C.”
Apr 09
As the digital age dawned on the newspaper industry a decade ago, most of the major U.S. and western newspapers recognized that they should create online editions to capture readers who abandon print newspapers.
But it turns out that content is more important than forum. Newspapers are dying; and so are the online editions! See here.
Alternative news sources– –sources which question government supremacy and are suspicious of government claims– –are thriving. But readers are simply turning away from the government-worshipping ‘mainstream’ press.
Apr 09
Socialism is a curse that should be wished on one’s enemies. All societies who embrace it will ultimately become sick and weak.
Venezuela is an oil-rich country, but has been saddled with central planning and socialism for decades.
Now the country is so short of electricity that its rulers are demanding that women stop using hairdryers. See here.
Apr 09
It is the dream of every tyrant: to hold all power over others’ property and resources, to know all things about others while entrenching government privacy, and to kill all who resist.
Now a group of power-gorged U.S. Senators are pushing (again) for a bill to ban (private-sector) encryption. See here.
The king’s keys must unlock all doors. All must be naked before the state.
Of course, America is still ostensibly a democratic republic, and the American people have been voting for more freedom-friendly senators for years. Yet the votes of the people seem pointless.
Apr 08
Government regulations aimed at helping the poor almost always harm the poor. After 6 years, the Affordable Care Act is increasingly harming the poorest Americans.
In March, the Obama administration celebrated the Affordable Care Act’s anniversary by proudly declaring, “Thanks to this law, 20 million more Americans now know the security of having health insurance, and our uninsured rate is below ten percent for the first time on record.”
But new research reveals that health care costs are rising just as fast as they rose before Obamacare. And wage growth rates are going lower.
And in addition to rising premiums and falling wage growth, deductibles have also grown in recent years. According to data made available by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and analyzed by Freedom Partners, only five states and Washington, DC, saw average Obamacare exchange deductibles decrease from 2015 to 2016. Twenty-one states had average Obamacare deductibles rise by $300 or more, including eight states with deductible increases topping $500.
Lower-cost “Bronze” plans experienced the most significant deductible increases, hurting lower- and middle-income families. Average Bronze plan deductibles fell from 2015 to 2016 in only two states: Alaska and Arkansas. In 34 states, Bronze plan deductibles rose by at least $500. See here.
Apr 08
It is widely recognized that government-supported academia lacks diversity of opinion and is generally intolerant of free-market or anti-government ideas.
Yet a new study reveals that the percentages of college professors who describe themselves as “far left” or “left” is actually INCREASING.
The percentages of all other groups is declining in academia. See here.
Although there are exceptions, popular discourse increasingly uses the term “conservative” as code for a distruster of the state. The terms “left,” “progressive” and “liberal” are increasingly used as code for those who embrace intrusive expansive government.
Apr 05
In Vermont, taxes have recently been raised on home heating oil, mutual funds, banks, drivers, and businesses who don’t provide health insurance to employees. Consequently, thousands of Vermonters have fled the state over the past decade.
In New Jersey, more than two million people have left after two decades of ever-higher taxes and outrageous spending on government pay and pensions. The fleeing New Jersey residents have taken billions of dollars in income and economic activity with them.
Now half of all New Jersey residents say they want to eventually leave the state, and more than a quarter of them say their future departure is “very likely,” according to a new Monmouth University poll.
Apr 05
Yesterday’s headlines blared with news about leaked documents from a Panamanian law firm which show major world government leaders have been laundering money in secret off-shore bank accounts. In some cases, billions of dollars appear to have been siphoned from impoverished taxpayers around the globe to enrich the secret (tax-free) bank accounts of government officials.
Now there is speculation that the U.S. government is behind the leaks. See here.
Apr 04
Detroit public schools have exacted enormous funds from their surrounding taxpayers yet underperformed for decades.
Now it emerges that some overpaid Detroit Public School Administrators have been funneling hundreds of thousands of dollars meant for ‘school supplies’ to themselves. See here.
One Detroit principle accepted nearly $60,000 in bribes from a school vendor. The Detroit Free Press noted that she “once drove a Maserati with a Gucci vanity plate.”
One investigation found that $900,000 had been taken from taxpayers for ‘school supplies’ which padded the accounts of a handful of Detroit public school principles.
Apr 04
High taxes, cops on almost every streetcorner, and burdensome regulations are the norm worldwide. Yet a USA Today report documents that numerous ‘world leaders’ have been caught hiding money in offshore private bank accounts.
In some cases, the money hidden away by these government officials was looted directly from government accounts gorged with funds from the long-suffering taxpayers of their respective countries.
The USA Today reports that the ‘Panamanian Papers’ scandal broke when an anonymous tipster leaked years of financial records that appear to have belonged to a Panamanian law firm.
