Jun 23
The New York Times continues to lose customers, readers, advertisers, and money.
Even with the secret payments of government agencies such as the FBI and CIA, the Times is having trouble staying afloat. People simply will not pay money to read the Times‘ tired, old, pro-government extremist content.
Here is a recent report indicating that the Times may soon be firing or laying off additional “reporters.”
Jun 22
The “Tesla” auto company and its CEO Elan Musk have received more than $500 million dollars of government subsidies to produce electric cars that are supposedly better for the environment than conventional gasoline cars.
Believers in the government’s apocalyptic-global-warming-by-man-made-carbon-dioxide theory generally support Tesla cars because they supposedly have a smaller “carbon footprint.”
But a new study finds that the battery-making process upon which Tesla engineering is based generates a great deal of carbon dioxide.
Producing a single lithium battery to install in a Tesla produces as much CO2 as a typical car releases in 8 years of driving. See here.
Jun 20
Study upon study shows that the American people are increasingly saving little or nothing in response to government policies.
If you save anything in modern America, you are an utter fool. Near-zero interest rates, Social Security and Medicare incentivize Americans to save nothing.
“About 1 in 4 literally have no emergency savings. A survey released Tuesday by Bankrate.com found that 24% don’t have even a single dollar saved for an emergency.”
“A survey released in January by Bankrate found that nearly 60% of Americans wouldn’t have enough savings to pay for a $500 expense if it came up unexpectedly.”
While government officials increasingly live like kings, with extravagant pensions and savings plans, “more than half of Americans will be broke when we retire, according to a survey from GoBankingRates.com.”
Jun 18
The Associated Press is reporting that “Scores of dairy farm workers and activists marched Saturday on a Ben & Jerry’s [ice cream] factory to push for better pay and living conditions on farms that provide milk for the ice cream maker that takes pride in its social activism….. See here.
Although we at Lysander Spooner University loudly cheer for the private sector, this is one case of a truly evil business empire that needs to be protested and boycotted.
For years, the makers of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream have loudly proclaimed that they are seekers of “social justice.”
Both “Ben” and “Jerry” donate massively to Democratic, big-government political candidates and organizations.
And since 2010, Ben & Jerry’s has spent hundreds of thousands (if not millions) of dollars to promote the repeal of the First Amendment–claiming they want to “get the dough out of politics.” See here, here, and here.
Ben & Jerry’s claims it wants to keep corporations from spending money on politics. Yet it is part of a Fortune 500 corporation (Unilever) and spends massively to promote government empowerment.
As Dr. Roots has pointed out, every single claim used to promote “campaign finance reform” is untrue. See here.
(Very few other Fortune 500 corporations (perhaps none) spend so much corporate money to promote any other political agenda.)
Jun 15
THE STATE NOW SPENDS MORE ON ITS UNIVERSITY PENSIONS THAN IT DOES ON ITS UNIVERSITIES
Socialism is a curse that should be wished only on a hated enemy.
A generation ago, Illinois was known for farm and manufacturing production, and was one of the wealthiest areas of the United States.
But years of political domination by government supremacists and central planners has left the State reeling from one financial crisis to another. Like many States run by pro-government extremists, Illinois makes its government employees and officials wealthy beyond imagination while impoverishing the vast majority of its subjects. See here.
Here is a graph of Illinois State spending on its “higher education system.” Notice that Illinois now spends more on the PADDED PENSIONS of retired faculty, staff and administration than it does on its actual college operations.
Jun 14
On June 12, 2017 Lysander Spooner University was on the ground at Glacier National Park where President Roger Roots and a small team of intrepid researchers inspected the St. Mary Visitor Center.
The official visitor center contains a panorama of the Park’s mountain peaks. The panorama has an interactive light display depicting locations of glaciers in various years (beginning in 1850). (Each light supposedly represents a glacier.)
The lights steadily go out as viewers ponder the past 170 years of glacier melt. Astoundingly, the lights go completely dark in the year 2020 (showing all glaciers gone as projected by the NPS).
Thus the official position of the government, on display at the St. Mary Visitor Center, is that there will be no glaciers left in Glacier National Park in only 2-1/2 years.
Of course it is only a matter of time before the government removes or alters its exaggerated claims. The question is not if; it is when.
The most recent winter has seen record or near-record snowpack in the Sierra Nevada Range and many ranges in the Rockies.
Jun 09
Governments everywhere demand that people get government licenses before engaging in certain businesses.
Most States require that those who cut hair, perform manicures or help others with makeup must first go through hundreds of hours of government-approved ‘training’ before doing so.
Such licensing laws keep poor people down by preventing them from starting businesses or launching careers.
Typically, state licensing schemes place a group of entrenched ‘good ol’ boys’ as ‘commissioners’ or members of a ‘board of cosmetology’ (or ‘board of outfitting,’ ‘board of transportation,’ etc). Thus, the very people who have an interest in keeping newcomers out of their fields are placed in gatekeeping positions.
Reason Magazine features the story of Japhet, a Boise makeup artist who recently tried to get the Idaho governor to deregulate the State’s ridiculously overregulated cosmetology industry. See here.
“Idaho requires 467 days of training in makeup and hair-styling for a license (and an even more insane 630 days of training to be a barber), even if an applicant doesn’t have any interest in doing hair-styling, which is why Japhet says she’s never sought a license.”
Japhet recently boycotted the governor after the governor refused to support licensing reform.
Jun 09
Every government ultimately comes for all freedom, all property, all money, and to kill all who resist.
Statistically, the average person in the world is more likely to be killed by his own government than by any foreign government, any terrorist, or any criminal.
Now a man in Thailand has been sentenced to 35 years in prison for posting 10 messages on Facebook that supposedly insulted the monarchy.
(The Defendant was initially sentenced to 70 years, but he groveled and pled guilty to several counts to get his sentence reduced to just 35 years.) See here.
Jun 08
America’s government youth concentration camps (er, . . . ‘public schools’) have become prisons for both the body and mind. Metal detectors are found at many entrances and students are subjected to a steady stream of pro-government indoctrination.
Now there is news that police in one Georgia public “school” patted down and searched EVERY SINGLE STUDENT without warrant in a search for . . . ‘drugs.’ See here.
Jun 06
Hartford, Connecticut is typical of eastern cities in that its voters have placed great trust in government management.
Connecticut is a wealthy state with thousands of high-earners who work in the insurance industry, and in the greater New York City area. But the State’s tax rates are among the nation’s highest.
Hartford, the capitol city, has the highest property tax rates in the state, but the city government cannot pay its bills and is approaching bankruptcy. See here.
The Wall Street Journal reports that “Half of the city’s properties are excluded from paying tax because they are government entities, hospitals and universities.”
