Mar 30

In popular nomenclature, a “moderate” means a pro-government extremist

Merrick Garland

Reason Magazine’s Barton Hinkle carefully analyzed the judicial record of Merrick Garland, the D.C. judge nominated by President Obama to replace Justice Scalia on the Supreme Court. See here.

Garland has been widely described in the pro-government media as “moderate.” This, according to Hinkle, means that Garland tends to rule for the government and against the private sector on business or property cases, and also tends to rule for the government on law enforcement cases.

Reason Magazine perfectly nails the real description of Garland. He is a pro-government extremist.

Mar 30

Under Cuban socialism, hookers could be had for toothpaste

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Government-funded professors of social science frequently extoll the supposed virtues of socialism, ‘single-payer’ government healthcare, and ‘free’ college, entitlements, and redistribution.

Here is a Jon Stossel interview of Gloria Alvarez, a Cuban-American who recounts that under Castro’s centrally-planned government economy, Cuban hookers could be had for a tube of toothpaste. See the interview at 3:20

Mar 29

Another top European journalist admits that some of his ‘news’ stories were written by U.S. government officials

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The “mainstream” press is dying. Alternative sources of information are blossoming.

Several prominent “mainstream” journalists have recently come forward and admitted that many “news stories” found in the most prominent newspapers and TV news broadcasts are entirely generated by government agencies. In fact, “reporters” are explicitly paid to print the stories, and threatened with firing if they refuse!

News readers have long recognized that most large-circulation newspapers tend to report news from a pro-government perspective. Viewers and readers are increasingly recognizing that one must look to alternative sources for the truth. See here.

Mar 24

Supreme Court nominee Merrick Garland helped cover up Oklahoma bombing case 20 years ago

Merrick Garland

Merrick Garland, the man selected by President Obama to replace Justice Antonin Scalia on the U.S. Supreme Court, helped the Justice Department conceal and cover up important evidence regarding the Oklahoma City bombing during the 1990s.

William Grigg’s column is here.

Twenty years ago, Garland was a Justice Department lawyer working to keep lawyers for Timothy McVeigh (and other lawyers) from getting their hands on evidence of the government’s undercover role in causing the Oklahoma City bombing, and the related murder of Ken Trentadue.

Mar 23

Atlantic Sea Levels have been FALLING for 6 Years

Polar Bears -Ursus maritimus-, female and juvenile on an ice floe in the pack ice, Spitsbergen Island, Svalbard Archipeligo, Svalbard and Jan Mayen, Norway

Polar Bears -Ursus maritimus-, female and juvenile on an ice floe in the pack ice, Spitsbergen Island, Svalbard Archipeligo, Svalbard and Jan Mayen, Norway

A central claim among government-funded climate scientists is that manmade global warming is causing sea levels to rise.

This claim was part of the UN IPPCC report(s) and has been a primary feature of government central planning. Hundreds of millions– –if not billions of dollars have been taken from taxpayers to bolster and promote this ‘seas are rising’ agenda.

A prominent Navy admiral has been touring the country speaking about the ‘national security’ implications of sea-level rise.

But the data is not there. In fact, sea levels on the east coast appear to be lowering. See here.

Mar 19

Health care premiums have risen nearly double the rate of inflation for at least a decade

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Government has made health care vastly more expensive. By subsidizing demand, government programs like Obamacare, Medicare and Medicaid have made health care out of reach for most poor people.

Moreover, Americans HAVE TOO MUCH health insurance (due to government programs):

First, the excess of health insurance actually drives up cost. The more insurance for a procedure, the more expensive it is. Health inflation and premiums has been rising by nearly double the consumer price index for at least the last decade. This is also why there are so many frivolous procedures performed. Patients have been removed from the decision-making process.

See this article by Stephen Moore.

Mar 19

No one even knows how many federal agencies there are

Columnist Paul Driessen discusses a recent report by the Competitive Enterprise Institute, “Ten Thousand Commandments.”

The report details the bone-crushing costs of federal regulations. Regulations keep business from starting. Regulations keep poor people from launching successful careers. Regulations make America poorer. See here.

No one even knows how many Executive Branch agencies there are – estimates range from 60 to 438 – much less how many new rules they implement and impose each year.

The report estimates that regulations add $1.9 TRILLION dollars of costs (and produce not much benefit) to the economy each year!

Mar 17

Little Rock, Arkansas has only one taxi business because of overregulation

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Governments everywhere have overregulated transportation and travel. In typical regulatory schemes, a good-ol-boy taxi service lobbies for laws that prevent competitors from starting up and competing with them.

The laws are generally passed with assurances that the laws are needed to “protect the public” from dangerous, unsafe, diseased cabbies, etc.

Of course, the laws create the opposite environment. Studies show that government-approved cab businesses provide worse service, and are dirtier and less safe than services such as Uber and Lyft.

Little Rock, Arkansas has only one taxi business … and it’s illegal to start another.

The Institute for Justice has teamed up with taxi entrepreneur Ken Leininger to file a lawsuit, seeking to reinvigorate the Arkansas Constitution’s anti-monopoly clause, to open Little Rock’s taxi market to competition, and to remind the city that monopolies are un-American. See here.

Mar 17

Fed Continues to Claim it is “Bipartisan” Even as its Officers Overwhelmingly Support Big-Government Political Campaigns

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Central banking and big governments have long shared in something of a symbiotic relationship. Central banking allows governments to give their subjects the appearance that government is a “good deal.” By running up massive debts to central banks, governments can trick their subjects into thinking that big government is “worth it.”

Modern Americans, for example, are highly taxed. But government appears to provide a large amount of goods and services–beyond what mere taxation would justify.

The magic of central banking! Governments simply run deficits and deflate their currencies.

Now it has come out that the highest officers of the Federal Reserve Bank tend to donate to Democratic, big-government campaigns and not small-government political campaigns.

The Fed Chairwoman has now been forced to go public with a claim that the Fed is “bipartisan”! See here.

Mar 16

Socialist Venezuela shuts down for a week as electricity is rationed

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When people are free to choose and purchase energy in free markets, there are rarely any power outages or energy shortages. The private sector can quickly scramble to profit from people’s energy needs.

But in centrally planned economies like Venezuela, government picks and chooses energy sources for everyone. Government also chooses what prices will be paid for energy.

Now there is news that Venezuela is in the midst of a week-long power shutdown.

Electricity is being rationed, even though the government subsidizes the oil energy heavily. See here.