Jan 17
Since 9/11/2001, the U.S. government has diverted well over A TRILLION DOLLARS from the productivity of America into government programs supposedly aimed at protecting Americans from “terrorism.” (To put this in perspective, the total output of the country–public and private sectors combined–is around $16 trillion.)
Yet terrorism is a miniscule threat. An American has about a 1 in 90 million chance of dying from a terrorist act in any given year. See here.
Jan 13
The collapsing socialist city-state of Chicago is plummeting into bankruptcy, hiking taxes, and torturing its citizens at record pace.
Now the public teachers of the City intend to strike! They have a median salary of $71,017 and contribute—on the high end—only 2 percent of their salaries toward their very lavish pensions.
Their average salary (as INDIVIDUALS) is 51 percent higher than Chicago’s median HOUSEHOLD income, which is estimated at $46,877. See here.
Jan 13
The public is largely oblivious to one of the biggest scandals in recent American political history. A tale that includes midnight raids by SWAT teams, machine guns brandished in the middle of the night, secret wiretaps of internet traffic, gag orders and secret evidence–aimed at suppressing inconvenient political movements.
As many are aware, the politics of Wisconsin have undergone major changes in the past decade. The State has a socialist, extreme pro-welfare-state, pro-union-control history; but voters and governor Scott Walker have made some mild inroads against this tradition in recent years. In response, the State’s establishment has launched an all-out political witch hunt against Walker (and his perceived backers), and against free-market ideology generally.
(It seems that the political inquisition was aimed at proving that Walker was ‘coordinating’ his campaign with independent issue organizations, or the Koch Brothers, or the ghost of Joe McCarthy, or something. According to one commentator, “the campaign finance probe turned into a five-county shakedown of nearly every right-of-center group in the state.”) See here.
(Note: nothing herein should be interpreted as expressing any support whatsoever for Scott Walker (who is mostly a typical politician).
The Wisconsin Supreme Court previously ruled that the State’s fanatical political police violated age-old constitutional protections when they launched midnight raids of Walker’s offices and the homes of supporters and various Republican activists. (Midnight search warrants have been banned for centuries, except in the most extreme violent settings or circumstances.)
But political prosecutors balked at court orders requiring them to return the stolen documents. They claimed that they needed to keep all the illegally-seized documents to defend themselves from lawsuits that might come in the future. (Some have already come.)
Earlier this week, the Wisconsin Supreme Court boldly ordered the State’s Inquisitors to return the documents and destroy any copies.
Stay tuned!
Jan 12
More on the “fake, but peer-reviewed” front: in 2013, the “prestigious” journal, Psychological Science, published a paper supposedly finding that climate skeptics tend to have “conspiracist ideation” (whatever that means). The journal suggested that people who disbelieve the moon landing are more likely to doubt government climate claims.
The “study,” by Lewandowsky, Oberauer and Gignac, entitled, NASA faked the moon landing—therefore, (climate) science is a hoax, was quickly found to be filled with statistical errors.
of the 1145 participants in the study, only 10 thought the moon landing was a hoax. Of those who thought climate science was a hoax, almost all of them, 97.8 per cent, did NOT think the moon landing was a hoax.
This editorial suggests that there is a direct relationship between the status of a journal and the likelihood of it publishing fraudulent studies. Or it may be that academia is so riddled with flawed studies that most of them pass unnoticed, but such studies in the most influential journals tend to get exposed more often.
Jan 11
Government voices claim that it is settled science that manmade carbon dioxide is the primary driver of global temperatures.
The debate is over!
Yet well over 100 peer-reviewed papers have found a stronger correlation between sun activity and temperatures on the Earth. See here.
Jan 10
Government subsidies of health care–often enacted with claims that they “help the poor”–increase demand without increasing supply, causing prices to rise.
Medicare, Medicaid, Obamacare, and the VA system have all INCREASED the basic costs of medical care for poor people.
But there are areas of medicine that are ‘elective,’ meaning that people make choices for the care and pay out of their own pockets. One example is LASIK surgery to correct vision. No insurance policy pays for it, and no government program provides it.
And guess what? The quality of LASIK surgery has increased significantly while the costs HAVE GONE DOWN!
One prominent LASIK surgeon is now charging 35 percent LESS than he charged a decade ago–and quality has greatly improved.
Jan 09
There was a time, long ago, when “mass transit” was mostly provided by private companies. Passenger train, bus and jitney transportation was highly profitable. Fares were low.
Trusters of government decried the outrageous profits of the “railroad barons” and demanded more regulations. The regulations made the industry less profitable, and train and bus fares increased.
Companies went broke, and government took over. Today, the government’s “Amtrak” line is THE ONLY MAJOR PASSENGER railroad line in America. It LOSES MILLIONS ANNUALLY, and needs to be supported by taxpayers. Fares are high.
And a recent report by the Office of Inspector General reveals that Amtrak employees may be fingering passengers for arrest and are paid by the D.E.A.!
Government “workers” are already paid twice what private-sector workers are paid. Now it is revealed that they may be making money on the side as government snitches.
The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration inappropriately paid one Amtrak employee more than $850,000 over 20 years to identify passengers who may be smuggling drugs.
Jan 09
More darkness, evil and corruption out of the failed socialist city-state of Chicago.
Information has surfaced that Chicago Mayor Rahm Emmanuel and City lawyers conspired to pay $5 million in hush money to the family of murdered pedestrian Laquan McDonald. See here.
You couldn’t make this stuff up if you were writing a horror script for a Hollywood film.
The police dashcam video shows McDonald innocently walking AWAY from officers, who fired 16 rounds into him from some 40 FEET AWAY and murdered him. (McDonald was apparently holding a knife, which is perfectly legal.)
The details are shocking. The Mayor was facing a tough runoff battle for reelection. Knowing that public release of the incriminating police murder video might harm him in the runoff election, the City government made a series of backroom secret deals to cover up the murder by offering to pay $5 million in hush money (taken by force from the unknowing long-suffering citizens of Chicago) to the murder victim’s family.
“[T]he City Council voted unanimously to approve the $5 million settlement in just 36 seconds,” preventing public discussion of the matter at the time.
* The City of Chicago is a failed socialist state, buried in debts and taxes and grasping for money and power as it collapses into bankruptcy. It is dragging the State of Illinois down with it.
* Despite its precarious financial position, the City has paid out $500 million for police killings, rapes, beatings, torture and cover-ups. See here.
* Government trusters make a big deal of the supposed influence of private-sector ad spending on elections. Yet the private sector DOES NOT COVER UP MURDER, AND CANNOT DISPERSE MILLIONS OF DOLLARS TAKEN FROM TAXPAYERS IN ORDER TO CONCEAL CORRUPTION AND MISCONDUCT to win elections.
Jan 08
by Dr. Roger I. Roots
Last Fall I proposed a $5,000 bet that there will still be glaciers in Glacier National Park in 2030. This is contrary to DOZENS of signs inside Glacier National Park, as well as many government flyers and pamphlets that are handed out to GNP visitors.
As of yet, no one has taken me up on my $5,000 offer.
This got me thinking: What is the government going to do as 2030 approaches and it becomes clear that their preposterous claims are untrue?
I have no doubt that the government will begin modifying these claims by 2025, if not sooner.
Knowing that government officials and their government-supporting scientists might try to avoid embarrassment, I have started recording screenshots of government websites (and the websites of various pro-government “environmentalist” groups) which make the claim that manmade-global-warming will melt the GNP glaciers by 2030.
I came across a shocking National Geographic website making an even more extreme prediction: that the GNP glaciers will all be gone by 2020–FOUR YEARS FROM NOW!
Screenshot image is above. The website is here.
Jan 07
In the summer of 2007, there were news reports that commercial jets were occasionally stuck for hours waiting to depart.
Government responded heroically. The Obama Administration decreed that if passengers on a plane are stuck on the tarmac for more than three hours, the carrier is liable for a fine of $27,500 per passenger.
Now, however, a study finds a sharp increase in flight cancellations.
“[P]assengers who might have waited four hours to take off may find themselves waiting even longer to catch another flight. They may be stuck at airports far from home, sitting or sleeping on the floor. They may miss connecting flights.”
They may also incur expenses for food, lodging and other needs. Some of them won’t ever get where they planned to go, because the delay renders the trip pointless.
