Aug 10

Starving Venezuelans Break into Zoo to Eat Rare Horse

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Socialism is a curse that should be wished only on a hated enemy.

Just 15 years ago, Venezuela was a rising, thriving, dynamic society.

Today, after 15 years of government central planning, men die in the streets fighting over pennies. People drink dirty water. Hookers sell themselves for food scraps.

Now there is news that a group of starving Venezuelans broke into a zoo and slaughtered a prize horse for food. See here.

“Economists say that strict price controls . . . imposed by Venezuela’s socialist government . . . make it unprofitable for businesses to import or produce food.

and,

“The India Times reported last month that 50 animals have starved to death over the past six months due to food shortages at the same zoo.” See here.

Aug 10

Former Communist Countries that Rapidly Shifted to Market Economies Fared Better than those that went Gradually

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Markets are a miracle cure. They transformed stone age societies with no plumbing and no electricity into world commercial powers with long life expectancy, advanced art and culture and healthy populations in only two generations (South Korea, Singapore, Tiawan, etc.).

When the Berlin Wall came down in 1989, 27 former Soviet countries faced an uncertain future.

Some of the 27 countries leaped quickly toward market reforms. Others went more slowly, not wanting to unravel socialist social programs, government “health care” operations, etc.

A new study shows that those countries which embraced markets quickly did much better.

Aug 09

Vast Majority of Americans Dispute Government’s Claim that CO2-Caused Climate Change is “Settled”; Oppose Persecution of Doubters

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Last Month the Democratic National Platform was changed to support government prosecution of those who doubt the government’s apocalyptic-global-warming-by-human-produced-carbon-dioxide theory.

Now there is polling showing the VAST MAJORITY of voters–Republicans, Democrats and Independents–oppose such persecution.

In fact, the VAST MAJORITY disagree that “the science is settled,” as government voices loudly decree.

Only 25 percent of voters said they believe the debate on global warming is settled. 61 percent said the debate is not over.

Only 21 percent of Democratic voters said in the survey they favor the government investigating and prosecuting climate-change skeptics.

See here.

Aug 08

Government experts now claiming glaciers at GNP are melting faster than predicted!

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Throughout Glacier National Park there are signs, posters and statements predicting that all of GNP’s glaciers will disappear by around 2030. The government films and flyers provided at GNP also make this claim.

A new government website–published by the U.S. Geological Survey–now suggests this (2030) prediction is too conservative:

A computer-based climate model predicts that some of the park’s largest glaciers will vanish by 2030 (Hall and Fagre, 2003). This is only one model prediction but, if true, then the park’s glaciers could disappear in the next several decades. However, glacier disappearance may occur even earlier, as many of the glaciers are retreating faster than their predicted rates.

See here.

Dr. Roger Roots has offered $5,000 if the glaciers at GNP are all gone by 2030. Thus far, no one has taken him up on the bet.

Aug 08

South American Socialism has destroyed the environment

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Professor Thomas Dilorenzo of Loyola University of Maryland writes about the way that socialism destroyed the environment of the old Soviet Bloc:

The world learned that the socialist countries dumped untreated sewage into their rivers, streams, and lakes for decades; the Volga River in Russia was so polluted that boat were equipped with signs warning against throwing cigarettes in the water for fear the chemical-laden water would catch fire; factories had no pollution controls whatsoever; massive fish kills were routine; and the Polish Academy of Sciences reported that by the early 1990s one-third of the Polish people lived in areas of “ecological disaster.”

Dilorenzo recounts these facts in light of the current environmental devastation currently on display at the Olympics in Brazil:

* Triathletes have been told not to put their heads under water; bacteria and virus levels in Guanabara Bay, where the triathlon will take place, are 1.7 million times higher than health-hazard levels in the U.S. and Europe.

* Rubbish in some of the bays is so thick that you cannot see the water and rats live on top of the floating rubbish. A floating corpse and a severed arm were recently spotted floating in Guanabara Bay.

Nearby, Venezuela suffers from massive deforestation and its Lake Maracaibo is heavily polluted with 10,000 gallons of raw sewage per second.

“Socialism is always and everywhere an economic and environmental disaster.”

Aug 07

North Korean socialism devastated the environment

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Government social planning in North Korea has destroyed much of the natural ecosystem.

The poverty and starvation caused by North Korean socialism has led many North Koreans to eat grass and bark from trees. Consequently, the nation has lost a million hectares of forest. See here.

Even the pro-government PBS NOVA program has commented on the environmental destruction unleashed by North Korean socialism. Barely a tree branch or a bird survives on much of the landscape.

Aug 07

FIRST AMENDMENT LECTURE: Every Claim of Campaign Finance Reformers is Untrue

Roger Roots, J.D., Ph.D.

Roger Roots, J.D., Ph.D.

It is perhaps the biggest myth in American politics: that the private sector is “buying” elections through campaign spending. A version of this myth goes further and contends that capitalist billionaires are using political ads to move American government toward more free-market policies.

One can find dozens of books (and hundreds of politicians) making these claims. A powerful movement to repeal parts of the First Amendment has arisen around this mythology.

In this one-hour lecture, Dr. Roots shatters these myths with raw data and Powerpoint slides.

* Have American industries become deregulated? What do the data show?

* Have the super-rich shifted the tax burden away from themselves onto the middle class and the poor? What do IRS records show?

* Did the Citizens United decision in 2010 lead to an explosion of campaign spending by business corporations? What are the facts?

* Do people really change their votes in response to campaign ads? What do studies find?

Questions will be taken afterward. Everyone is welcome.

FREE TO THE PUBLIC

Missoula Public Library

Monday, Sept. 12, 2016, 6:30 PM

A 25 question exam will be offered

Aug 07

Government pushed “Medicaid Expansion” on State Governments with False Price Claims

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When Obamacare was pushed down American’s throats in 2009, the Act allowed states to opt out of “Medicaid Expansion.”

Those state legislatures that did opt out were bullied and lied to about the costs. Within the states, loud movements of shrill government trusters arose who constantly accused any skeptical state legislator of being partisan or of voting against “Medicaid Expansion” out of pure animosity to Obama or Obamacare.

The Expansion, these government trusters said, would be a cheap way of helping poor people in the states, using cheap federal money without any additional state-government cost.

Montana’s legislature–the most Republican in the state’s history–finally gave in to the claims and passed “Medicaid Expansion.”

ALL LIES

Now we know the claims were all lies.

According to the Mercatus Center (see here):

On rare occasion, however, a prior projection proves so far off that its significance must be noted. . . . It turns out that the 2015 per-capita cost of this Medicaid expansion is a whopping 49% higher than projections made just one year before.

Enrollments in “Medicaid Expansion” are far higher than expected. And per-enrollee costs are far higher as well.

Aug 06

Our annual research trip to Glacier National Park: weekend of September 9-11

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The average date of first freeze in East Glacier, Montana falls around September 13. Around this date every year, summer melting begins to cease and snow and ice tend to start growing again in the Glacier Park area.

Last year, Lysander Spooner University launched our climate change glacier-chasing research project. We aim to photograph and record glacier size around the same dates each year (focusing on Montana’s mountain ranges).

This year, we will embark on our GNP research trip on Friday evening, September 9.

Please join us! Expect to camp in primitive fashion. Bring sleeping bag and other camping gear.

More info here.

Call 406-224-3105 (rogerroots@msn dot com).

Aug 06

Dr. Roger Roots will Lecture on the Myths of Campaign Finance Law in Missoula on September 12

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The Missoula Public Library will host a free lecture and clinic on September 12, 2016 at 6:30 pm. Speaking will be Dr. Roger Roots, J.D., Ph.D.

The title: “Every Claim Untrue: the False Narrative of Campaign Finance Reformers.” Dr. Roots will show that every material claim by people promoting campaign finance regulation is false.

Roots will provide data showing that there is no cause-and-effect relationship between election spending and outcomes, that few voters change their opinions based on campaign ads, that governments constantly promote their positions in a variety of ways and that private-sector spenders tend to be at a distinct disadvantage in politics.

Questions and answers will follow.