Nov 17

Huffington Post predicts 2018 will be “the year of the climate voter”

The “Huffington Post” is a pro-government extremist online “newspaper” that delivers a steady stream of news reports from the government’s perspective.

The “Post” frequently repeats the government meme that “climate change” is a major issue for the common man (even while all polling continuously shows the issue is important only to wealthy elitists in government and government-supported academia).

Huffington Post, (like NPR and other government cheerleader sources), also repeatedly trumpets the line that skepticism of the government’s climate-change-socialist messaging is a product of oil- and coal-industry-funded libertarian think tanks. In fact, skeptical think tanks such as the Heartland Institute receive PENNIES ON THE DOLLAR compared to the massive funding that is received by pro-government-climate alarmists. And the largest oil and coal enterprises SPEND MUCH MORE money to promote the government’s climate agenda (and thus appease their masters) than such companies spend on skeptical science.

Today’s Huffington Post includes a preposterous prediction that 2018 will be the “year of the climate change voter.” See here.

“After record seasons for hurricanes, wildfires, heat waves, and flooding, the impacts of climate change have never been more apparent,” says the piece.

Of course this is science fiction. Not a single major record was set regarding such disasters, with the possible exception of some spending records (which can be mostly attributed to inflation, increased unionization of the government sector, and increased government focus on such things).

In fact, this past season’s wildfires were barely above average. The same goes for hurricanes and floodings. 2017 “heat waves” were actually below average, by any measurement: intensity, severity, numbers, etc.

Nov 16

The world’s richest 1 % now own half the world’s wealth due to overregulation

Government regulations are essentially a wealth redistribution program from the poor to the rich. Those in poverty increasingly find themselves trapped by licensing and other regulatory barriers.

In the 1950s, only one in 20 U.S. workers needed the government’s permission to pursue their chosen occupation. Today, that figure stands at almost one in three. See here.

Even barbers, makeup artists and manicurists are now required in many states to undertake hundreds of days of government-approved “education” (at a cost of as much as $20,000 in many cases) just to start working.

A new study shows that these governmental barriers are having a profound effect on the world distribution of wealth. The wealthiest 1 percent now have more money and property than the bottom 50 %. See here.

This is true even though the U.S. and other western countries now have very “progressive” tax structures (meaning that the richest earners pay most of the taxes).

The wealthiest 1 percent are the greatest beneficiaries of government regulations. A recent study found that the surest pathway to becoming a 1%er is to work in a heavily-regulated industry (because the government does most of the work of eliminating your competition for you). See here.

Poorer households spend a higher proportion of their incomes on more heavily regulated goods. Consequently, the costs of regulations falls disproportionately on the poor.

And increasingly, licensing barriers prevent poor people from traveling like they could in previous generations. See here.

Nov 16

Federal Election Commission now seeks to control political discussion on the internet

Forget the Alien & Sedition Act prosecutions. Forget Lincoln’s arrests of pro-secession newspaper editors. Forget the Palmer Raids of World War I, the “Red Scares,” the imprisonment of Eugene V. Debs or the McCarthy Hearings of the 1950s.

By far the greatest threat to freedom of speech and press that America ever faced was and is, “campaign finance reform.”

Campaign finance “reformers” mask their agenda under cloaks that appeal to a mass audience: “Money Isn’t Speech!,” “Corporations Aren’t People!,” etc.

Yet their agenda threatens to gut the very heart of the First Amendment.

Here is a news story about the FEC (the Federal Election Commission) voting recently for new policies which empower the federal government to monitor and control political advertising or paid political discussion on the internet.

This move paves the way for the federal government to monitor political blogs, political news sites, and ideological content on the web. It empowers the agents of the U.S. government to investigate who pays for what, and which show/video/post/article is secretly a campaign ad.

Every single claim made by campaign finance reformers is untrue. Hillary lost to Trump despite spending SEVERAL TIMES more money on her campaign than Trump. Then the “campaign finance reformers” shifted to a claim that “Russia” secretly influenced American voters to vote for Trump.

Nov 12

The cycle of poverty under total government

Michael DiFrancesco, a 22-year-old man from Bozeman, Montana, never had a chance. In 2009, DiFrancesco was convicted of being a minor in possession of alcohol and fined $185. He was ordered to pay for and complete a substance abuse course, neither of which he could afford.

DiFrancesco’s driver license was later suspended due to the fines and he was ordered to pay a $100 reinstatement fee.

He has since racked up $4,000 in unpaid fines for convictions for driving without a license, and he spent about five months in jail.

Without a license, DiFrancesco is unable to work consistently, causing him to lose employment and become homeless.

In August, DiFrancesco filed a federal lawsuit arguing that “Montana has trapped him in an inescapable cycle of poverty.”

Like so many millions of others, DiFrancesco cannot be productive due to government impositions, licensing laws, and punishments.

The Bozeman Daily Chronicle reports that Montana’s Attorney General’s office is seeking dismissal of the lawsuit.

Nov 11

Doctor stripped of medical license for not entering medical data on computers for the state to monitor

New London, New Hampshire.

An elderly local physician has been stripped of her license to practice medicine because she doesn’t use computers.

Health care regulations increasingly demand that doctors must move toward electronic medical records. Such records allow for easy transfer of patient information between doctors and hospitals–and the government.

The move toward digitization of everyone’s medical records threatens to fundamentally undermine the tradition of confidentiality and doctor/patient privilege that has prevailed in western medicine for centuries.

In New Hampshire, government authorities monitor medical records to see if physicians are overprescribing painkillers. A doctor who refuses (or declines) to enter her prescription dosages into the government data system may jeopardize the government’s control over medicine. See here.

Nov 09

TSA again fails 80 percent of security tests

In the aftermath of 9/11/2001, Congress created the “Transportation Security Administration,” the agency that strips, fondles, and molests the American people as they attempt to exercise their right to travel. The government claimed that private screeners were inadequate and only government agencies could be trusted to protect air travel from terrorists and hijackers.

For more than a decade, the agency has been conducting tests to determine how well TSA agents detect bombs, guns and knives. Undercover TSA officials try to sneak such items past the TSA employees at airports.

And repeatedly, the undercover experiments show that TSA airport screeners fail to detect such weapons SOME EIGHTY PERCENT of the time. See here.

Nov 01

As government grows, its subjects are stricken with anxiety, fear and depression

As societies become saddled with more government, their subjects become depressed, fearful, anxious and pessimistic about their lives.

Every government that ever existed sought the same powers: total control over all human affairs, the total elimination of privacy (except for the masters in government), all money, property and wealth, and to kill all who resist.

A recent poll shows that two-thirds of Americans now believe that America is now at its lowest point in history. See here.

Government is like a poison masquerading as a medicine. The federal government is now seven (7) times larger (in real terms, thus adjusted for inflation) than it was at the beginning of FDR’s presidency in 1933. Government regulates and controls almost every profession and industry, toilet use, every manner of transportation, births and deaths.

Oct 28

US Postal Service has had one profitable quarter since 2006; it has lost $63 billion during that time

The U.S. Postal Service monopoly is unconstitutional* and has caused great harm to the American economy.

The Postal Service has had one profitable quarter since 2006. It has lost $63 billion during that time, averaging around $5 billion in losses each year. (To put this in perspective, the annual budget of the State of Montana is less than $5 billion).

The “Service” lost $2.1 billion in the most recent quarter, and expects to lose another $6 billion or so this year. See here.

The USPS has EVERY ADVANTAGE in the marketplace, yet cannot make a profit. In an age when technology is driving engineering to be ever more efficient, the Postal Service continues to use outdated models of processing and delivery.

Now the USPS is seeking to alter its regulations so it can raise its prices faster than the rate of inflation. (See the above link.)

* The Constitution has a provision (Art. 1, Sec. 8) allowing Congress to “establish Post Offices and post Roads” but elsewhere makes clear (through, example, the due process clause, the contracts clause, etc.) that there was to be no government monopoly on delivering mail. The 1st amendment freedom of the press also seems to prohibit the government from controlling the market for shipping newspapers and printed matter.

Oct 27

African governments get used to SHUTTING DOWN the internet

An astounding story was published by Reuters reporters last week. In most countries, “the internet” is a multidimensional thing emanating and maintained by thousands of different businesses, people and institutions. But in some African countries, “the internet” may depend on a single cable system.

“Since the start of 2016, governments in 13 African nations have intentionally shut down the internet on 21 occasions, mainly during elections and protests.”

“Africa is becoming a new testing ground for authoritarian practices online,” said Francois Patuel, West Africa researcher at Amnesty International.”

African governments control the internet by licensing. “When a sovereign government gives licenses to telecoms companies, those companies have little choice but to comply with the government’s demands,” said Doug Madory, director of internet analysis at Oracle Dyn, which monitors international internet traffic flows.

See here.

Shockingly, some American “civil liberties” groups such as the ACLU are demanding a similar system of government-licensed (what they somehow call “free”) internet. They call the concept “net neutrality.”

Oct 25

Vietnamese Government Orders Student Imprisoned for 6 Years for Blog Criticisms

According to Yahoo News, a Vietnamese student has been ordered jailed for 6 years for blog posts that criticized life under the Vietnamese government. See here.

Like the government of the United States, the Vietnamese government employs teams of agents to monitor the internet and control the content of what subjects post.