Jan 27

Bozeman Chronicle Finally Produces Evidence of Montana’s “Dark Money” “Corruption”: Politicians May have Approved of Volunteer Efforts Which Political Police Liken to ‘Contributions’ (!)

The Bozeman Daily Chronicle is, arguably, Montana’s most extreme pro-government publication. For years, the newspaper has poured out steady support for government control over political messaging under the auspices of campaign-finance regulation. (‘The private sector must never defend itself from regulation!’)

It is rare that one reads the word “shadowy” outside the editorial pages of a newspaper. But the Chronicle has printed the word in actual “news” reports about some of Montana’s private political advocacy groups. The Chronicle has probably printed the phrase “dark money” on hundreds of occasions while describing Montana’s political landscape. The Chronicle has even printed the word “corruption” in stories about politicians who dared to allow nonprofit groups to support or echo their messaging. (‘How dare they!’)

It is doubtful that the BDC’s readers have a good grasp of what the Chronicle has been hinting at; but a reader would be forgiven for thinking the Chronicle had unearthed some scandal involving secret bribery under darkness of night.

Now, after years of reporting on the “shadowy” world of private-sector political advocacy, the Chronicle has revealed its evidence (see here):

thousands of pages of documents obtained by Montana Political Czar Jon Motl indicating that Right-to-work groups “provided services and labor to certain candidates [also known as volunteer work] without disclosing [to the government] what was done or how much was spent.”

“In some cases, the documents show, those groups gave away those services for free.”

Oh my!

Jan 26

After government poisoned Flint, private companies donate clean water. Government trusters complain that this “sends the wrong message.”

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Government officials purportedly “in charge” of Flint, Michigan ran the City into the ground after decades of corruption. Then the government secretly exposed the people of Flint to polluted, lead-contaminated drinking water.

Yet those who trust and worship intrusive, expansive government are now complaining that Wal-Mart, Pepsi, Nestle, and Coca-Cola are offering to provide free water to the residents of Flint, Michigan for the rest of the year! See here.

If these for-profit private corporations are allowed to donate water to Flint’s residents, according to a writer for The Atlantic, the residents “may find that the private sector has supplanted many of government’s functions” (!)

As Reason Magazine’s Robbie Sloave writes:

Is government-managed delivery of public goods really an absolute moral necessity, even if the government is bad at delivering said public goods?

Jan 26

Total Government Failure: Detroit Public Schools Spend as Much on Debt Service as Salaries & Benefits

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Socialism is a curse that should be wished on one’s enemies.

Markets always win in the end, and no big-government welfare state can outlive its financial irresponsibility.

Here is a story about a public school system that has overpaid teachers and administrators so much for so many years that interest payments on its debts now approach the same costs as current salaries and benefits.

And these interest payments have been required in a period of low interest. Imagine what will happen when interest rates rise!

Jan 26

More corporations fleeing high U.S. tax rates

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The U.S., once the global flagship of capitalism, now has the world’s highest corporate tax rates.

The New York Times reported this week that Johnson Controls is renouncing its U.S. corporate citizenship by selling itself to Tyco International, based in Ireland.

This is designed to reduce the company’s tax bill, which it said should drop by about $150 million annually.

The Times, known as a “progressive,” high-tax-promoting newspaper, reported that “Until Washington lawmakers reform the tax code, we will continue to see an exodus of American companies from our shores in search of a lower tax rate.” See here.

Jan 25

Who Needs Data? TIME Magazine already predicting 2016 will be the hottest year on record!

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Climatedepot.com reports that TIME Magazine recently (before 2016 even began) pronounced that 2016 will be the “hottest year on record.” See here.

Jan 25

Edward Snowden Exposes French “ISIS” Video as Fake

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The CIA and other western intelligence agencies have been producing fake “Islamist” videos for years. Edward Snowden recently tweeted that a recent widely-viewed “ISIS” video was actually produced by “SITE,” a CIA front group. See here.

Jan 23

Government purports to issue “travel ban” for New York City

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Under the Constitution and Bill of Rights, every person has freedom of movement and travel. Such rights are fundamental, natural rights, and it was once understood that any person had a right to use violence against any government official who tried to interfere with them. Including deadly violence if necessary.

(Don’t believe me? Read Roger Roots’ “The Originalist Case for the Fourth Amendment Exclusionary Rule” (providing numerous court citations from the 1800s).)

On January 23, 2016, various government officials in New York–including at least the governor and the mayor of New York City–purported to issue a “travel ban” for the people of the City, in response to a massive snow storm. News outlets like the USA Today seemed to report this story as nothing unusual. See here.

The NYC mayor, known as an extreme socialist and powermonger, decreed that parents would be “permitted” to let their children play in the snow, but only near their homes under tight supervision.

New York Police Department officials tweeted that citizens, . . .er, subjects caught out on the streets would be arrested.

The Weekly Standard seemed to recognize the “ban” for what it was: a declaration of martial law in response to a snowstorm:

Martial law has been declared in New York City.

See here.

Jan 23

Governments of the Middle Ages Killed 50,000 Witches for Causing Climate Change

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In this video, Dr. Sallie Baliunas, Staff Astrophysicist at the Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, discusses her research into the “climate change” hysteria that spread across Europe between the 1500s to the 1700s.

Authorities prosecuted witches for acting with Satan to cause strange weather. Witch trials were administered by the most highly educated upper level clerics and governmental authorities.

Skeptics were considered sorcerers or witches and were tortured until they confessed. Then they were executed.

Jan 23

Government-funded computer models have thus far not been able to predict temperatures for even short 10-year periods

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Paul Dreissen posts a tribute to the wonderful Australian scientist Bob Carter, who died of a heart attack last week. See here.

Carter exposed a number of climate-change claims as fraudulent. He documented that IPCC computer climate models have thus far not been able to predict warming or other climate changes accurately for even short 10-year periods. It is therefore highly unlikely that they can do so for 100 years in the future. Therefore, they should not be used as the basis for energy and economic policies.

Jan 22

“Alternative Energy”: California government to charge taxpayers millions to build electric-car charging stations

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There seems to be a religious hatred among government trusters against fossil-fuel suppliers. A loathing almost as irrational as the unshakeable, almost hypersexual, love of self-styled “conservatives” for men in government uniforms.

Even as petroleum products have been made cheaper and cheaper by private sector innovators, the government of California is poised to forcibly take millions of dollars from the State’s long-suffering taxpayers to build an infrastructure of electric-car-charging stations.

See here for details.