Apr 09
FREEDOM VERSUS GOVERNMENT
SATURDAY, APRIL 15, 2017
Scholars Confront Tyranny
Join us for a star-studded symposium at the West Las Vegas Public Library, 951 W Lake Mead Blvd, 1:00-4:00 pm.
Auctions, book-signings, trivia, and more!
Call Roger at 406-224-3105 for more info!
Apr 09
The market always wins. Every economic regulation creates a black market, and prices and distribution balance out in unpredictable ways.
The brilliant economist John Goodman explains in a new column that Americans actually have ‘school choice’ but don’t realize it.
For example, many parents deliberately locate or relocate into school districts with better schools. They are willing to pay more for life in better school districts. There is one street in Dallas which separates one (good) school district from another (much worse) school district. Houses on either side of the street appear indistinguishable in value from those on the other side.
But homes on one side go for an average of $72,000 more than houses on the other side. See here.
Apr 09
While Americans slept, government has been drastically increasing its numbers of “asset forfeitures” against innocent Americans (who are not charged with any offense). U.S. attorneys seized an estimated $12.6 billion between 1989 and 2010. And the numbers grew rapidly over that period. The growth rate during that time averaged +19.4% annually.
Analysis by Armstrong Economics reveals that in 2014 the Justice Department seized $4.5 billion from Americans. (This is greater than the annual budget of the State of Montana.)
According to the FBI, the total amount of goods stolen in (nongovernment) burglaries in 2014 was $3.9 billion. This means that the police are now taking more assets than the criminals.
Apr 09
Some (but not all) Americans are aware that all banks are required to report to the IRS whenever a customer deposits or withdraws cash in the amount of $10,000 or more.
The stated aim of this federal law is to catch criminal activity such as money laundering and drug trafficking.
Often, the IRS swoops in and simply steals the money from bank accounts where someone has deposited $10,000 or more in cash.
A new report by Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) has found that MORE THAN 90 PERCENT of the accounts and transactions which the IRS steals from are those of innocent restaurant owners, car dealers, merchants or other lawful business people. See here.
Apr 05
For years, government-funded “scientists” have been spreading hysterical apocalyptic claims about manmade global warming.
Only government can save us, these government-funded professors claim. Only by adopting socialism and empowering government can the earth be saved.
Yet glaciers and snowpack in the western U.S. is way above average as spring begins.
Apr 03
The District of Columbia has decreed that the directors of any licensed “Child Development Centers” — or day care — must have a “Bachelor of Arts (BA) in early childhood education or a BA with at least 15 semester credit hours in early childhood by Dec. 2022.”
The regs also mandate that “teachers” possess at least an “Associate of Arts (AA) in early childhood education or an AA with at least 24 semester credit hours in early childhood by Dec. 2020.” What the non-state’s Office of the State Superintendent of Education calls “assistant teachers” must have a “Child Development Associate (CDA) by Dec. 2018.”
The regs will further increase costs for the working poor and incentivize the creation of more useless, unnecessary and fake government-supported college “education” programs.
Mar 31
One of the most fundamental rights of a prisoner is the right to have candid attorney/client visits protected by the attorney/client privilege.
Jails and prisons assure defense lawyers that their visits with inmates will be unrecorded. Lawyers and prisoners commonly wonder (only half-jokingly) if prison facilities are secretly recording their visits. (As the courts have virtually collapsed as protectors of defendants from the government.)
Now it has been revealed that federal prison facilities at Leavenworth, Kansas–along with the U.S. Justice Department–have been recording and monitoring the visits of federal inmates with their defense lawyers.
Federal prosecutors have thus been able to know defense strategy, sabotage defenses, and otherwise wrongly convict dozens or hundreds of inmates. (The DOJ denies using the recordings for that purpose.)
See this story from a Topeka newspaper (which is quite favorable to the government).
See also this more balanced report by the Daily Beast.
The Daily Beast story reveals that CoreCivic and Securus—the two companies providing inmate phone service at the prison (at exorbitant prices)–have been accused of violating inmates’ constitutional rights at other institutions. Someone hacked Securus in 2015 and released 70,000 recordings to The Intercept, which found some 14,000 attorney-client conversations in the database.
Mar 29
Crusading newsman John Stossel writes that “[b]ecause there’s no real health care market, costs rose 467 percent over the last three decades.” In fact, 7 in 8 health care dollars are now paid by Medicare, Medicaid or” insurance (which is mostly required and incentivized by government policies). See here.
Government subsidies–designed to bring health care to ‘the poor’–have drastically driven up costs.
“By contrast, prices fell in the few medical areas not covered by insurance, like plastic surgery and LASIK eye care. Patients shop around, forcing health providers to compete.”
The National Center for Policy Analysis found that from 1999 to 2011 the price of traditional LASIK eye surgery dropped from over $2,100 to about $1,700.
Mar 28
Ken Medenbach, the world’s foremost authority on judicial oaths and their impacts on constitutional authority, will give a lecture at Lysander Spooner University’s upcoming April 15 symposium in Las Vegas.
Professor Medenbach has spent years studying constitutional history and will inspire and amaze the crowd with his knowledge and insights.
Medenbach was one of the “Malheur 7,” wrongly arrested and prosecuted for his role in events near Burns, Oregon in January 2016.
Mar 28
Kelli Stewart, Oregon’s most provocative self-help freedom activist, mother of 4, and goat milk proponent, has been confirmed for April 15 at the West Las Vegas Public Library.
Kelli will provide an inspiring lecture on contemporary threats to American families and freedom. She will address the startling growth of power among “child protective service” agencies nationwide, and the threats imposed by the encroachment of government into our private lives.
Kelli will also speak of her own struggles as a freedom activist in the Portland area during recent criminal trials of constitutionalists. Her talk will both shock and inspire!
$6 at the door.
