Nov 23

Heller: the “melting Arctic” scam is now on its last legs

The relentless temp data analyst Tony Heller has tracked claims that the Arctic is melting for years.

As the “mainstream” (meaning pro-government) news media has amped up claims that manmade global warming is melting ice in the Arctic away to nothing, Heller has repeatedly published satellite data showing the contrary.

Ice in the Arctic declined for a time during the years 2000 to about 2011 or 2012. But, according to Heller, ice in the Arctic is now at around the mean for the years 1981 – 2000.

“The scam is on its last legs,” according to Heller.

Nov 23

Canadian government to fund pro-government “news media” with tax breaks

An astounding story from Ottowa, Canada.

Concern that “mainstream” (code for government-supporting) newspapers are dying has led Canadian officials to propose efforts to support the government-stenographer news media.

With the explosion of more truthful and critical alternatives, consumers will no longer pay to read pro-government propaganda.

The proposal will give Canadians a 15 percent tax credit for subscribing to online pro-government “news” institutions. Government agencies will decide which media outlets are deserving of government support. See here

Nov 11

French tax authorities switch focus to monitoring “social media”

The All-Seeing Eye of the State

French tax authorities now are using a powerful new tool to identify “tax cheats”: Facebook and other social media.

Government agents scour through people’s social posts to see if people are using cars, meals, or housing which appear to be ‘outside their means.’ See here.

Nov 11

New York City SWAT raids of short-term rental industry

The Omnipotent State Strikes Again

New York City’s government imposes so many taxes and regulations on short-term lodging entrepreneurs that the City recently sent dozens of armed agents to raid a condo complex.

The accusation? That several of the condo owners were making a few bucks by lending out their condos to NYC tourists. See here.

The City recently imposed an ordinance requiring short-term-rental providers and networks such as Airbnb to notify the government of all rental transactions in the City. Government investigators also employ teams of investigators to monitor social media to identify black-market renting.

Nov 08

Another mass killing by former government employee

No group of Americans are more privileged than government “workers” and former government employees. Now another decorated former government combat veteran has opened fire on innocent private-sector Americans, killing 12.

The former Marine Corps corporal, 28-year-old Ian David Long, was likely on permanent disability checks for PTSD. On November 7, he reportedly walked into a country bar in Thousand Oaks, California and began killing private-sector Americans indiscriminately.

Just last year, a retired millionaire IRS employee, Stephen Paddock, reportedly murdered 59 country music fans at a festival in Las Vegas.

Nov 07

Campaign finance regulations place the private sector at a disadvantage

The Montana and federal constitutions supposedly guarantee equal protection of the laws.

Yet governments everywhere place campaign restrictions on private sector political campaigns. Such regulations do not apply to government advocacy.

Campaign finance regs infringe on the speech and press rights of the (nongovernment) citizenry, forcing private citizens to disclose to government every penny raised and spent by the private sector on political positions and candidates.

Yet government agencies openly promote themselves and campaign for pro-government positions. Recently in Bozeman, Montana, the Bozeman government promoted a ballot initiative designed to extract some $37 million from City residents. The City government erected signs all over the town and loudly called for voters to vote for more taxes.

According to the pro-government Bozeman Daily Chronicle:

This election season, Bozeman employees spent more than 556 hours on the center ballot initiative and the city put roughly $27,827 into getting the word out on the details of the bond. Bozeman also spent $32,263 on its latest design plans.

Montana law allows public employees and bodies to plug time, money and resources into campaign issues when it’s tied to their function.

Montana laws are so unfair that if a private resident erects a sign asking voters to vote AGAINST the proposed marble and oak government palace complex, the resident could be investigated, prosecuted and fined.

Many elected officials turn their official government websites into quasi-campaign websites–and are under no obligation to report such expenditures to the government political police. Witness the attached screenshot of the official Montana Secretary of State website. It is practically a campaign site, with “Cory Stapleton’s” name featured larger than any other print on the page. Corey Stapleton’s smiling image also dominates the website. (Any political opponent of Stapleton in future elections would need to spend thousands of dollars and disclose the source of every penny to the government.)

Nov 03

Another fake study: billionaires secretly promote libertarianism

America’s government-supporting colleges and universities spew a steady stream of pro-government academic “research.”

Recent revelations show that it is ridiculously easy to get fake “scientific” studies published in government-supported peer reviewed scholarly journals–so long as the studies support government expansion and intervention.

Now a trio of government-trusting academics have produced a “study” purporting to show that billionaires secretly promote anti-government, deregulatory agendas without saying so or doing anything directly. The evidence? Well, billionaires must promote their own interests, right?

The most glaring problem with the purported research is that the world’s most prominent billionaires who take vocal positions on social policy issues tend to promote heavy taxation, expansive regulation and wealth distribution (ironically). Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, and Tom Steyer are just a few of the billionaires known to be “center leftists” in their political advocacy.

But the Guardian article reassures us that there are billionaires who secretly promote deregulation and pro-liberty positions. Such billionaires do so from the shadows, according to the “study.” Only the Koch Brothers are mentioned in the article as being such pro-liberty advocates.

An analysis of how most billionaires acquired their riches found that most are in highly regulated industries. Thus, it would seem to be in their self interest to promote MORE, not less regulation.

Oct 19

Richest 1,409 taxpayers pay more tax than bottom 70 MILLION

A dominant narrative among socialists, progressives and sociology departments everywhere is that capitalists and the rich are controlling American ‘policy.’

Yet tax receipts tell the opposite story. The poorest 50 percent of Americans barely pay any income tax, while the richest few are forced to pay a majority of all federal income taxes.

See here.

Oct 18

Poverty in the U.S. Was Plummeting—Until Lyndon Johnson Declared War On It

From FEE (Foundation for Economic Education) (quoting the Wall Street Journal):

During the 20 years before the War on Poverty was funded, the portion of the nation living in poverty had dropped to 14.7% from 32.1%. Since 1966, the first year with a significant increase in antipoverty spending, the poverty rate reported by the Census Bureau has been virtually unchanged…Transfers targeted to low-income families increased in real dollars from an average of $3,070 per person in 1965 to $34,093 in 2016…Transfers now constitute 84.2% of the disposable income of the poorest quintile of American households and 57.8% of the disposable income of lower-middle-income households. These payments also make up 27.5% of America’s total disposable income.

The government’s programs have made matters worse for the poor, relative to others:

By 1975 the lowest-earning fifth of families had 24.8% more families with a prime-work age head and no one working than did their middle-income peers. By 2015 this differential had risen to 37.1%…The War on Poverty has increased dependency and failed in its primary effort to bring poor people into the mainstream of America’s economy and communal life.

Oct 13

Government programs will push millions into poverty in old age

A new study predicts that 40 percent of “middle class” Americans will likely live in poverty in their later years.

Social Security and Medicare both incentivize Americans to save less, work less, and invest less. Harvard studies (which are likely quite conservative) suggest that Social Security alone caused the U.S. to be at least 3 percent poorer by 1980. This gap between what is and what might have been has almost certainly grown in the 38 years that followed.

And because Medicare, Medicaid and obamacare increase demand for health care without increasing supply, they have all caused prices to rise significantly.

The study by the Schwartz Center for Economic Policy Analysis at the New School concluded that many pension accounts are substantially underfunded. Some 74 percent of senior citizens must continue to work in retirement.