Oct 11

Remember those claims that government had to take over the internet to ensure equal access? California’s PG&E just showed why “Net Neutrality” is a bad idea

Shortly after the development of electricity as a viable means of household energy, governments sought to regulate it. Soon every state required electricity providers to get permission from “public utility” commissions. Then came government control over pricing, profits and implementation. Today’s electrical companies are essentially monopolies—with government licenses.

Later studies debunked the government arguments—too late. A study by Walter Primeaux, “Total Deregulation of Electrical Utilities: A Viable Policy Choice,” in Unnatural Monopolies (1985), showed that communities with competing electric companies had average prices that were 33 per cent lower.

Today it is almost impossible to start a rival utility and compete with modern power firms. You will be stopped by the government.

This week, Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E)—the government-licensed monopoly utility in many areas of California—simply shut off electricity to a million Californians upon a claim that it hoped to prevent wildfires. (There was wind in the forecast.)

PG&E was bankrupted last year when its power lines were blamed for causing deadly wildfires. The company has lost, or is on track to lose, over a billion dollars. Now PG&E is, well, somewhat unresponsive to customer needs. And there are no competitors.

Groceries have rotted, shops and businesses have shuttered and lost millions, cars and lives are at a standstill.

If ever there were a lesson for advocates of “net neutrality”—a government takeover of the internet to ensure “access”—it is this tale. If internet providers ever become government-sponsored monopolies they will be able to shut down their services at any moment—and consumers will have nowhere else to go.

Oct 06

Ecuador government begins arresting shopkeepers for price increases

In a free market, rapid price increases are quickly fixed by suppliers who, seeking quick profits, hurriedly get more product to market. This growth in supply then leads to rapid reductions in prices.

A sure way to ENSURE that consumers will be deprived of plentiful, cheap goods, on the other hand, is for governments to deploy troops to arrest retailers who price their goods in a way that government dislikes.

But governments worldwide are often oblivious to these basic laws of economics.

Now, in Ecuador, government agents have begun arresting storekeepers whose prices are higher than the government likes. See here.

Oct 04

Remember that professor who mocked academia by publishing preposterous joke “studies” in peer-reviewed journals? He is now being fired by Portland State University

Contemporary higher education is suffering a crisis of legitimacy. Government funding and bias have so corrupted it that larger and larger proportions of society view modern universities as unnecessary overfunded wastelands of government propaganda. A recent Pew Research poll found that only half of all Americans now have a positive view of colleges and universities and that 59 percent of Republicans believe colleges are bad for America.

Now Peter Boghossian–1 of 3 liberal college professors who recently placed a number of fake research papers in peer-reviewed academic journals in order to demonstrate that almost any preposterous “study” can get published in so-called “grievance studies” journals as long as the study supports government expansion or political correctness–is facing disciplinary charges at Portland State University.

Boghossian is a whistleblower of a sort. He plagiarized large sections of Hitler’s Mein Kampf and almost got it published in academic journals simply by changing “Jews” to “white males.” (The research paper would have been published in a peer-reviewed journal except that reporting by the Wall Street Journal disrupted the hoax before it was completed.) Boghossian also concocted a ridiculous “study” which sought to show a connection between dog parks and “rape culture.”

Boghossian is paying a price for so thoroughly embarrassing modern academia and the peer review process. PSU claims that he failed to get Institutional Review Board (IRB) approval for his research and fabricated data when he and his team claimed, for their dog park article “to have tactfully inspected the genitals of slightly fewer than 10,000 dogs whilst interrogating owners as to their sexuality.”

Here is a Reason podcast interview of Boghossian discussing his work and his travails.

Oct 03

Worldwide, scientists who disagree with climate doomsday messaging are attacked, fired, defunded and ostracized

Tony Heller documents numerous cases where expert scientists who disagree with governments’ theory of manmade apocalyptic global warming are fired from their positions, stripped of support and funding, and violently attacked.

“This is how “consensus” is maintained – through the same thuggery used to silence Galileo hundreds of years ago. A return to the Dark Ages, by the same people who tell us they are “progressives.””

University of Washington climate professor Cliff Mass has recently described years of mistreatment on the UW campus. Mass has been sanctioned, admonished and silenced repeatedly for opposing a political initiative aimed at imposing a carbon tax on the residents of Washington.

At times, groups of graduate students have openly hissed, shouted and screeched at Professor Mass as he walked across campus. The UW administration has done nothing to protect him; and has actually targeted him for persecution.

Oct 02

Chinese must now pass facial recognition test to access internet

The Epoch Times reports that the Chinese government now requires residents to pass a facial recognition test to apply for an internet connection.

In addition, no cell phone or landline number can be transferred to another person.

Oct 01

Pentagon price negotiator who saved taxpayers billions is abruptly fired

Lobbyists for so-called U.S. “defense” contractors often live lavish lifestyles. Many have mansions in Maryland or Virginia with swimming pools and iron gates.

The billions spent on government defense and intelligence generates powerful forces in Washington.

Now Yahoo News is out with a report that the Pentagon official who saved taxpayers billions of dollars on defense contracts, Shay Assad, was fired shortly after proposing a money-saving regulation in the Federal Register.

On Aug. 24, 2018, the proposed rule was published. The rule would pay many defense contractors 50% of their contracts until the contractors completed their contracts. Then the other 50% would be paid. (The current ratio is 80%/20%.)

Defense companies were outraged. Many pressured their congressmen.

Not long after, Assad was ordered by Pentagon superiors to delete all emails about the proposal (perhaps to immunize superiors from fallout).

“At the end of October, Assad was given an ultimatum: He could be demoted to a position within the Defense Contract Management Agency in Boston starting January 2019, or he would be terminated.”

Oct 01

Hong Kong government fires live rounds at protesters

Governments worldwide equate anti-government protests with violent military assaults. (The same governments will often treat pro-government protests with gentle reactions (or even support); witness the treatment in the U.S. of recent “climate strike” protesters–many of whom were openly allowed to be absent from government schools.)

In many cases, governments will position dozens of armored troops in open areas and then claim that protesters “charged” or “advanced” against them.

Today, on the 70th Anniversary of the brutal communist takeover of China, the Chinese-government affiliated government of Hong Kong opened fire on a protester, claiming the protester was advancing threateningly. See here.

The brave people of Hong Kong–one of the freest places on earth–have been protesting Chinese government encroachments on their liberties throughout the past month.

Sep 28

New blood test can detect 20 types of cancer with great accuracy

Invention and innovation has been a hallmark of free market capitalism for generations. It barely exists in government-controlled environments.

The United States were the world’s flagship of capitalism and invention for two centuries. Americans cured polio, eradicated smallpox, perfected heart, lung and brain surgery and drove tuberculosis to the edge of extinction.

But as government money and regulation have taken over an increasing proportion of the medical industry, rates of growth of medical innovation have slowed. (The U.S. still leads the entire world in medical innovation, however.)

Now a team of mostly private-sector doctors and researchers led by Dr Geoffrey Oxnard of Boston’s Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, part of Harvard Medical School, have developed a simple blood test which can detect some 20 types of cancer with great accuracy. See here.

Sep 27

Venezuela imposing Chinese-style ID cards upon its starving slaves

Reuters is out with a detailed story about the socialist government of Venezuela. The Venezuelan government now requires its starving subjects to obtain ID cards manufactured in China.

The ID cards, known as “fatherland cards,” give Venezuelan subjects access to government payments, voting, pensions, fuel subsidies and even food lines.

The cards are also quickly being linked to a social credit system in which subjects are ranked according to their loyalty to the government.

Those who refuse to accept the cards are demeaned as “right wing.”

Sep 27

Governments increasingly linking ID systems with “social credit” systems

Orwell’s famous book 1984 imagined a future world in which government identifies and monitors the behavior and lifestyle of every subject.

Increasingly, the world’s governments are implementing the very controls foreseen by Orwell.

The Chinese government, for example, is now implementing technology that will link facial recognition surveillance with the government’s “social credit” systems.

The social credit system seeks to identify and rank every person according to their loyalty to the state. Persons who obey and comply with every government command have the highest social credit, while those who defy or resist the state are ranked at the bottom.

The ranking system brings privileges for those who are considered most loyal to the government; while those considered less loyal find themselves last in line for housing, transportation and education.