Jun 13

Mainstream newspaper circulation down another 10 percent in 2017

Alternative news is thriving and Americans have access to more information than ever before.

But government-supporting (“mainstream”) newspapers continue to fall in circulation and importance.

The Pew Research Center has found that total US daily newspaper circulation, print and digital combined, was down 11 and 10 percent, respectively, from the previous year.

(Two major papers, the New York Times and Wall Street Journal, were excluded from the calculation because their circulation data is computed differently. Both the NYT and WSJ are said to be doing well.)

News ad data is also declining.

And, according to US government data (always suspect), 39,210 people worked as reporters, editors, photographers, or film and video editors in the newspaper industry in 2017, down nearly eight percent in a year and 45 percent from 2004.

See here.

Jun 11

U.S. Air Academy employs undercover informants to build cases on students

Most people who go off to college don’t worry about being shadowed by undercover government informants.

But students at the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs must contend with fellow students who are secretly working undercover for the government.

And, of course, the government abuses and burns its snitches just as it does everyone else.

Here is a column about a young man who volunteered to become an undercover rat at the Academy but was later expelled for demerits related to his undercover work.

Jun 09

4th amendment pointers for living with others

When dealing with cops at the door remember these pointers:

(1) The U.S. Supreme Court and every other court in the land have held that an entry or search of a residence requires a warrant. The home–whether rented or owned–is the most protected space in one’s life.

There are very few exceptions to this rule.

(2) One big exception is consent. Cops will do almost anything to claim that a home’s occupants consented to entry or search.

(3) The Supreme Court, and most other courts, have generally held that where more than one adult resides in a home, ANY ONE OF THEM may give consent to the government to enter. This is why it is extremely important to train relatives and choose one’s roommates, friends and associates wisely. Fernandez v. California, 134 S. Ct. 1126, 1132-33 (2014).

(4) However, where A SINGLE OBJECTING resident is present, cops may not enter–even if another resident gives consent to the cops. Georgia v. Randolph, 547 U.S. 103, 120 (2006).

(5) In the real world, things are often hectic and confusing and many people are intimidated into being overly gracious to cops. Many others falsely assume that cops will comply and obey the Constitution. It is often up to a single very strong and brave individual to firmly tell the government “No.”

(6) Remember that cops and other government agents will always sound reasonable and rational when they sit on the witness stand months or years later. Record them constantly and take note of their demeanor and mannerisms.

(7) There are many 4th amendment questions which are unsettled, such as the effect of posted “House Rules” indicating no resident may ever consent to a government search.

Jun 08

Russian museum discovers a secret government order to destroy files

The Soviet Union crumbled in 1989 under the weight of its own widespread socialist poverty, darkness and misery.

The Guardian is reporting that workers at the Gulag History Museum in Moscow have discovered that certain evidence of the darkest days of government control have disappeared.

Further inspection has uncovered a secret government order–apparently implemented by undercover government agents among the museum curators–directing that case files regarding the evils of mass slave camps be destroyed.

Jun 08

Government university now bans “harsh” text messages

It is mostly forgotten that government colleges were originally launched for three reasons: (1) to provide access for poor people to higher education, (2) to counteract the supposed tendency of private (mostly church-owned) colleges to stifle speech and expression, and (3) to provide for more ‘public interest’ scientific research and education, which supposedly wasn’t being adequately provided by private-religious-owned institutions.

Today it has been shown that government universities fail to achieve–and actively obstruct–all three goals. Government colleges are temples of state worship, promoting a constant stream of elitist, socialist ideology and ‘science’ which exalts the state.

Any American becomes immediately less free upon walking onto a government college campus.

Costs such as parking and meals are often double what is charged elsewhere in the neighborhood.

Now the University of West Alabama–a government university–is imposing a Cyberbullying and Cyber Harassment Policy which outlaws harassment such as “conduct that disrupts the educational environment of the university.” Conduct that the university has defined as harassment includes “harsh text messages or emails, rumors sent by email or posted on social networking sites, and embarrassing pictures, videos, websites, or fake profiles.”See here.

Of course, the policy conflicts with settled and binding Supreme Court precedent regarding freedom of speech and expression.

Jun 01

Climate change apocalypticists can’t convince the insurance industry to believe; so now they seek to force the industry to pay up

The latest imposition

For several years, promoters of catastrophic-manmade-global-warming-by-CO2 hysteria have sought to get the insurance industry to recognize that ‘climate change is real.’

Two years ago, on-again,-off-again-world’s-richest-man Warren Buffett, the chairman of Berkshire-Hathaway (which owns or controls several large insurers including Geico) authored a statement on the subject in his annual investment letter. Buffet noted that most insurance policies are for 1-year terms and that the insurance industry will surely be able to adjust its premiums to address any alleged problems posed by future climate change.

(By the way, climate-related property damage, deaths, and insurance claims (per capita, adjusted for inflation) have been going steadily DOWN for years, while atmospheric CO2 levels have steadily increased.) Crop yields have been going steadily up; crop losses from weather (adjusted for inflation and per-capita) have gone steadily down.)

Buffett’s letter enraged the apocalypticists, who generally demand that the world become socialist to address the allegedly looming threat of manmade global warming.

Now climate-change apocalypticists are demanding that state insurance regulators impose rules upon the industry forcing the industry to pay for “green energy” schemes. Such impositions will of course be passed on to consumers who pay the premiums.

California’s State Insurance Commissioner is said to be mulling just such a new rule.

Stay tuned!

May 27

Algerian gets 10-year sentence for protesting a financial law

An Algerian blogger named Merzoug Touati was sentenced last week to 10 years imprisonment for providing intelligence to “agents of a foreign power” likely to damage Algeria.

In January 2017, Touati was arrested after he posted an online video interview with an Israeli foreign ministry spokesman and a Facebook post in which he called for protests against a new financial law.

May 23

Tens of thousands flee socialist Illinois

Illinois was once an international flagship of capitalism, freedom, commerce and manufacturing.

Today the bloated government of Illinois has raised taxes so high that tens of thousands have fled for freer pastures in each of the past several years. See here.

One couple is quoted saying that by moving to Tennessee, they managed to take back 25 percent of their income.

Illinois’ government workers live like royalty among starving peasants. The State now spends so much on retirement pensions for its “workers” that the budget for RETIRED Illinois college professors is higher than the budget for the current entire state university system. See here. (And many Illinois government retirees take their padded pensions and retire elsewhere, such as in lower-tax Florida, Nevada or Texas.)

Illinois government is panicking at the exodus of productive people, and planning to raise taxes even further on those who stay.

Recently the editorial board of the Chicago Tribune–which, like most ‘mainstream’ news editorial boards has cheered government growth for years–conceded that living in Illinois makes no financial sense.

May 19

“Beware of the day we get arms”: Iranian protesters chant as government shuts off internet and cell service

Deadly protests in the southern Iranian city of Kazerun have followed the government’s killing of two protesters and the arrests of many others.

“After anti-riot forces were dispatched to the city from Shiraz, the people charged at them and hand-to-hand clashes ensued,”
Iranian protesters, angry at government corruption, have gathered outside an Iranian police station. The protesters reportedly vow not to leave until those falsely arrested are released.

“Beware of the day we get arms,” they reportedly chanted. See here.

The Iranian government–which controls the internet and cell service–has shut off both in an effort to quell the uprising.

May 19

Over half of all witnesses testifying before congressional committees are government-funded; and almost all request more funding

Over half the witnesses testifying before committees of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives [are] funded directly by the federal taxpayer. In 1995, 35 percent of witnesses were federal employees; of the remaining “public” witnesses, one of every three was a government grant recipient. Grant recipients testified during the 104th Congress roughly 6,000 times: 3,000 times a year, or an average of a dozen times every working day.

And the vast majority of witnesses before such committees ask for more government money as the solution to every problem. See here.