Oct 13
Salon.com, the pro-government extremist site, has published a rare story critical of government.
Reportedly, FEMA “disaster relief” officials in Puerto Rico have been living in luxury among hurricane victims. See here.
Just one example given by the Salon article: Overpaid federal ‘disaster workers’ reportedly took “spa days” and used emergency tents provided by the U.S. government to have local Puerto Rican hurrican victims perform manicures and pedicures on them.
Oct 13
The Huffington Post is typical of government-supporting news media in the Trump era. Because the Post‘s journalists despise Trump, the online news site publishes countless reports regarding Trump’s failings.
Today’s Huffington Post features a story about three volunteer nurses who are doing disaster relief in Puerto Rico in the wake of a recent hurricane. See here.
The story is filled with details of how Trump’s FEMA agency is failing, misreporting facts, and boasting of accomplishments which are actually attributable to others.
The nurses report that FEMA has mostly just posted signs and posters around Puerto Rico which tell people to contact FEMA’s website or phone number. Phone service, internet, and power is mostly disconnected throughout the island.
But the nurses’ report is actually a testament to the power of human ingenuity to overcome disaster in the absence of government assistance. The report speaks of people rigging power and light systems from car generators, of local volunteers providing food and water even to the nurses themselves, and other ways that the people of Puerto Rico are succeeding to beat back the devastation caused by the hurricane.
Why, after all, is FEMA even necessary?
Oct 13
One of the recurring claims of pro-government voices is that apocalyptic-manmade-global-warming-by-CO2 is causing sea levels to rise due to melting ice in the Arctic and Antarctic. Government trusters use this claim to demand ever more government power, taxation, and central planning by elitists.
But the precise opposite is true. NASA data confirm that global sea levels are LOWERING. See here.
Ice and snow levels in both the northern and southern hemispheres are significantly above normal for the date. See here.
The English growing season is now a week SHORTER since the 1940s. See here.
Oct 03
Connecticut is one of the wealthiest states in America. Its residents have a high per-capita income. Its corporations are some of the world’s wealthiest and most powerful.
But Connecticut has been dominated by socialistic, pro-government extremist policymaking for generations.
Today’s Connecticut taxpayers pay some of the highest tax rates in America.
Now the State is BILLIONS in debt. A recent proposal to cut some State agencies has been vetoed by the governor.
Now the towns of Connecticut are freezing hiring, freezing raises, and desperately trying to make cuts. See here.
The market always wins. Stay tuned!
Oct 02
Catalonia is the wealthiest district of Spain. It has the highest standard of living in the entire country, and Catalonians are more geographically and culturally related to the French.
Just a month ago, most Catalonians disfavored a referendum to secede from Spain.
But weeks of repression by the Spanish government, with thousands of government troops invading the district, widescale state violence and abuse, the destruction of polling places and theft of ballots, and hundreds of beatings and injuries by Spanish government thugs have changed the climate in Catalonia.
Yesterday, in the face of brutal repression by the government, the brave people of Catalonia voted to leave Spain. By 92 percent.
See here. A wikipedia article with extensive details is found here.
The Spanish government in Madrid vows to do everything in its power to crush the independence of Catalonia.
Oct 01
In the past 20 years, some 4.5 million Americans have died from medical accidents.
According to Johns Hopkins University, medical errors are now the THIRD LARGEST CAUSE OF DEATH in the U.S.
Almost all of these deaths are among people on Medicare.
According to David Goldhill, Medicare “drives a certain type of care”: overtreatment, with an emphasis on surgeries and procedures.
Because Medicare subsidizes demand without increasing supply, it has caused health care prices to skyrocket.
Today according to Goldhill, if you are over 75 years old, there is a 50% chance you are on 5 drugs. And if you are–there’s a 50% chance that two of those are contra-indicated: you shouldn’t be taking both.
See this fascinating debate sponsored by Reason Magazine.
Oct 01
Governments worldwide try to cast themselves as the voice of the people. They may publicly extol the virtues of democracy even as they do everything in their power to undermine and thwart the will of people to be free.
Governments secretly (and sometimes openly) spend vast portions of their treasuries to propagandize, brag, and publish false claims of their benevolence–even as they seek to ban “money in politics” by the private sector.
Governments hunt, stalk, threaten, and sometimes cage or kill opposition politicians or libertarian statesmen or spokespeople.
Now, the Spanish government has sent thousands of armed troops to Catalonia (a wealthy region of northwestern Spain) to crush today’s vote on Catalonian independence.
Thousands of Catalonians have been injured in brutal government violence. Spanish secret police have surveilled and infiltrated independence groups and shut down dozens of polling stations. See here.
Sep 22
If the power of deregulation, capitalism and freedom was unleashed on health care, prices would quickly decrease while quality would improve dramatically. Innovation would flower. Even the poorest and most desperately ill Americans would be able to afford life-saving treatment.
But for decades, U.S. policymakers have driven Americans toward the stink and stain of slave-plantation healthcare dispensed by the government.
Government laws and programs increase demand while sharply limiting supply of caregivers, facilities and products–causing prices to rise.
Now, health insurers in New Mexico are increasing premiums at the highest rate ever seen.
Insurers will increase premiums next year from a range of 36 to 41 percent for midlevel insurance plans. For all plans, premiums are expected to rise a range of 17 to 49 percent.
Sep 21
Catalonia is a wealthy district of Spain that has suffered under years of Spanish rule. Recently the people of Catalonia have been seeking to hold a vote to determine if Catalonia should separate from the tyrannical government headquartered in Madrid.
Last week, the Spanish government sent police to arrest hundreds of mayors of Catalonian villages who appeared to favor separation.
Now the government is launching further efforts to stop the vote. Hundreds of armed Spanish officers have been sent to Catalonia to spy on Catalonians.
Swarms of cops have raided print shops suspected of printing ballots or other vote materials.
The government has also sent a cruise ship filled with 16,000 cops and docked it at a Barcelonan port. According to the government, the troops are there for “riot control.” See here.
Sep 19
In 1978, courageous Californians circulated and passed a forward-thinking ballot initiative known as Proposition 13. Under Proposition 13, the annual real estate tax on a parcel of property is limited to 1% of its assessed value.
In the years that followed, real estate became something of a tax shelter even as the vampire-like California legislature raised and gorged itself on taxes of every other kind.
Today, California is collapsing under the weight of overregulation, socialistic government, and high taxes across nearly every dimension (other than property taxes). In many California communities, the largest houses belong to mid-level government employees who live like royalty among starving serfs.
And because real estate is seen as a tax haven, property values have steadily increased. Now 60 % of Californians say they are ready to leave. See here.
