Dec 21

Money is Speech. And this has been Known since at least 1830

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by Roger I. Roots,
Founder, Lysander Spooner University

Over the past few years, I have become more interested in the topic of campaign finance laws, and how such laws interfere with freedom of speech.

Since the Supreme Court’s 2010 Citizens United decision, there have been thousands of published proclamations that campaign speech freedom will bring an end to democracy itself. There have even been votes in Congress to repeal parts of the First Amendment in order to give government more power to regulate and control political speech.

Occasionally I hear people proclaim that “money is not speech!” And therefore, such voices suggest, the First Amendment is no bar to government regulations aimed at campaign spending.

Is this true?

I spent a few moments googling to try to find out if any ancient voice had pronounced that money is speech (or that money is not speech).

It didn’t take long to find the following:

An 1830 essay by Josiah Warren of Cincinnati, Jan. 30, 1830. “It is well known . . . that printing is a power that governs the destinies of mankind: and therefore those who can control the printing-press can control their fellow creatures. . . . At this time, 1830, the means of printing are so expensive that the great mass of the people are almost totally deprived of their use–while the wealthy few (by their capital or influence) wield this mighty engine, to increase their own power, and to weaken that of others.

Thus, as early as 1830 it was recognized that political speech was not “equally distributed.” The “rich” could exercise their rights more than the “poor.”

* Josiah Warren, Reduction in the Cost of Printing Apparatus, Mechanics’ Magazine and Journal of Science, Arts, and Manufactures, Volume 13 (1830).

Dec 21

America’s millions have produced blowback against gay rights in Africa

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A lesson in unintended consequences. The New York Times has a detailed expose’ on the blowback caused by U.S. government efforts to promote tolerance for gay rights in Africa. See here (republished by MSN news).

According to the report, U.S. taxpayers have been forced to spend $700 million dollars for a government program promoting gay rights around the world. This outrageous spending has prompted several African countries to enact harsh anti-gay laws.

In Nigeria, Africa’s most populous nation, the final passage of the 2014 law against homosexuality — which made same-sex relationships punishable by 14 years in prison and made it a crime to organize or participate in any type of gay meeting — is widely regarded by both supporters and opponents of gay rights as a reaction to American pressure on Nigeria and other African nations to embrace gay rights.

Dec 20

Puerto Rico: a Case Study in How Central Planning Benefits the Ultra-Rich

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Fascinating expose’ in the New York Times yesterday. “Inside the Billion-Dollar Battle for Puerto Rico’s Future”
The report details how the outrageous overregulation and overspending by Puerto Rico’s “leaders” led to territorial debts which are unpayable.

In turn, Puerto Rico’s “leaders” sought bailouts from the world’s richest investors, promising a 20 percent annual return for billionaires who “invested” in Puerto Rico’s central planning.

And now that it appears Puerto Rico is poised to declare bankruptcy and repudiate its debt, the billionaires are pushing for yet another bailout from U.S. taxpayers.

“Liberal,” “progressive” policies always lead to slavery.

Socialism is a curse that should be wished only on one’s enemies. Any society that adopts it will inevitably become sick and weak.

Dec 18

Saudi Arabia Prepares to Behead Teenager for Attending Protest

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Every government that ever existed ultimately came for all freedom, al property, all money, and to kill all who resist.

Saudi Arabia is preparing to behead a teenager who attended a protest rally at age 15. The teen says he didn’t even understand the nature of the protest at the time. See here.

Like Joan of Arc, the teen was forced to sign a confession, and was denied other rights of fundamental due process.

Dec 17

The myth of “Austerity”: Congress Moves Forward with Monster Budget, Huffington Post Implies Congress Poised to Cut Spending

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Two of the largest news aggregator sites are Huffingtonpost.com and Drudgereport.com. Today, December 17, 2015, both sites led with headlines about the massive, record-breaking, unpaid-for federal budget that just cleared Congress.

Both sites linked to the same article in politico.com, which details the impending budget. The Politico tagline is “Budget austerity takes a back seat as lawmakers prepare to pass nearly $700 billion in unpaid-for tax cuts.”

Laughably, the Huffington Post linked to the story with this outrageous headline: “Austerity-Lovers Gun For $700 Billion Tax Cuts.”

Say that again? Are “austerity lovers” driving the budget process in Congress? The plain wording in the Politico headline is that “austerity” is taking a “back seat.” Huffingtonpost construes this as “austerity lovers” are “gunning” for $700 Billion in “cuts.”

Austerity means cuts in government payroll and spending. THERE HAS BEEN NO AUSTERITY in America or any western country in years!

The current budget moving through Congress REPRESENTS THE PRECISE OPPOSITE OF AUSTERITY; it (1) grows government spending by 700 BILLION DOLLARS, (2) without ANY cuts to offset this outrageous spending explosion.

The word ‘austerity’ is like the word ‘deregulation.’ It is often invoked, but rarely seen. See here.

Dec 17

Billings tobacco shop shuttered by government for displaying a “cigarette rolling machine”: State claims the shop is an “unlicensed cigarette manufacturer”

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In case more evidence is needed that Montana “Justice Department” officials need some budget cuts, the Department has recently targeted a Billings smoke shop because the smoke shop displayed a cigarette rolling machine. See here.

The State claims the display of the cigarette rolling machine–which tobacco buyers can use to roll a couple cigarettes on their way out the door–makes the shop a cigarette “manufacturing facility.”

Dec 15

Wal-Mart Shares Plummet 30 % after Company Hikes Wages

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Years of criticism and attacks have taken their toll on Wal-Mart. “Back in February, CEO Doug McMillon of Wal-Mart agreed to raise his company’s pay for entry-level employees to almost $9 an hour come April and up to $10 early the year after.” See here.

Announcing the company’s third-quarter results in November, Mr. McMillon had to admit that the pay raise was a significant cause of Wal-Mart’s 8.6 percent drop in corporate earnings from U.S. stores. The company now says the higher wages and other education programs have added $1.2 billion in annual costs to the company’s expenses this fiscal year and will probably add another $1.5 billion to the company’s balance sheet in the next. It’d be safe to assume most of that money, though, went to wages.

Wal-Mart stock is now down more than 30 percent so far in 2015.

“By substituting daydreams for common sense,” writes Paul Greenberg, “the character of a once great company” may have been lost forever.

Sam Walton, Wal-Mart’s legendary founder, used to say that his dream was to serve the under-served by providing more value for lower prices. In doing so, he may have done more to help lower-income Americans than any government program ever.

Dec 15

Gov’t Workers ‘Absent’ 50% More Than Private-Sector Workers

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A government worker is 38 percent more likely to be absent from work for personal reasons or illnesses than a private-sector worker, and government workers miss 50 percent more of their usual work hours as a result of such absences than do private sector workers, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The BLS found that in 2012, 4.0 percent of government workers reported being absent from work in the typical reference week compared to 2.9 percent of private-sector workers.

See here.

Dec 14

Billionaires are Waking to the Fact that Political Spending Makes Little Difference.

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It is one of the biggest myths of modern politics: that repetitive advertising (or the spending of campaign money in general) can ensure electoral victory.

Every argument of “campaign finance reformers” is false. There is no (or almost no) correlation between campaign spending and victory. Only a slight number of voters (maybe 1, 2 or 3 percent) are manipulatable by repetitive ad spending.

The vast majority of voters do not change their votes in response to political spending.

Finally, political observers are waking up to this reality. See this fascinating expose here.
Most Americans never donate to political campaigns. They wisely view such spending to be an utter waste. Billionaires who have spent fortunes on politics are increasingly admitting that their contributions have made little difference.

Dec 14

“Journalists” cheer and jump wildly as Paris Climate-Change Agreement is announced

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Here is amazing video of alleged journalists supposedly covering climate treaty negotiations in Paris objectively. Watch as they scream and jump for joy at the announcement!

Now we know why such alleged journalists rarely report facts which undermine the government-controlled manmade-global-warming thesis.