Hornberger's Blog

Absorbing Half of Mexico Altered American Culture

by Jacob G. Hornberger April 2, 2024

Proponents of America’s system of immigration controls lament what they say are “invaders” crossing the U.S.-Mexico border and entering the United States. Many of them say that this “invasion” is a conspiracy to alter the culture of the United States in a Hispanic direction. Ironically, very few, if any, of these anti-invaders ever condemn what the U.S. government ...

Immigration, Freedom, and the Price System

by Jacob G. Hornberger April 1, 2024

Rightwing proponents of America’s socialist system of immigration controls claim that foreign citizens should not be able to enter the United States without “permission.” They are referring to the need to secure “permission” from two entities — the federal government and the private sector. In making their “permission” argument to justify America’s socialist system of immigration controls, conservatives ...

The Schengen Area’s Open Borders

by Jacob G. Hornberger March 29, 2024

In a blog post at Marginal Revolution, Alex Tabarrok has an interesting reminder of the virtues of open borders in Europe. Tabarrok is a professor of economics at George Mason University, which arguably is the best free-market, Austrian economics department in the country. He is also the Bartley J. Madden Chair in Economics at ...

Does Social Security Demonstrate “Compassion”?

by Jacob G. Hornberger March 27, 2024

I’m always fascinated by people, including libertarians, who convince themselves that they are being good, caring, and compassionate by advocating the continuation of Social Security. Claiming that it would be heartless to suddenly terminate this program, they say that the moral thing to do is continue the program for at least one generation. Of course, we all know ...

Serfdom under the TSA

by Jacob G. Hornberger March 26, 2024

By now, I’m sure that most Americans have their own personal stories about TSA abuse. The U.S. government’s takeover of airport security after the 9/11 attacks has made flying an unpleasant experience. This past weekend, I was flying back to Virginia. A TSA agent took my carry-on suitcase aside and opened it up. She then pulled out a ...

A Great Book on the U.S. Empire

by Jacob G. Hornberger March 25, 2024

Martin Luther King called the U.S. government “the greatest purveyor of violence in the world.” No one can reasonably deny that he was right. U.S. invasions, occupations, wars of aggression, coups, regime-change operations, inciting and provoking wars and conflicts, sanctions, embargoes, and state-sponsored assassinations have all contributed to what amounts to a massive death toll among foreign citizens. ...

CIA Secrecy on JFK Points to Criminal Culpability

by Jacob G. Hornberger March 21, 2024

More than 30 years ago, Congress enacted the President John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection Act of 1992. Enacted in the wake of Oliver Stone’s movie JFK, which posited that the Kennedy assassination was a regime-change operation on the part of the U.S. national-security establishment, the law mandated that all the assassination-related records of the Pentagon, the CIA, ...

Has the U.S. Seizure of Russian Assets Boomeranged?

by Jacob G. Hornberger March 19, 2024

After the Pentagon, operating through NATO, succeeded in provoking Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, U.S. official and their allies seized $300 billion in Russian assets. The seizers are now talking about giving the loot to Ukrainian officials, who would then use it to buy armaments and ammunition from U.S. “defense” contractors. Meanwhile, the news media is reporting that central ...

No Emergency Powers in the Constitution

by Jacob G. Hornberger March 14, 2024

It has become an article of faith that under our system of government, federal officials can declare an emergency, which then purportedly authorizes federal officials to exercise emergency powers. However, it just ain’t so. There is nothing in the Constitution that authorizes the federal government to declare an emergency or to exercise emergency powers. Keep in mind that ...

The Importance of Capital

by Jacob G. Hornberger March 13, 2024

I was recently walking through a construction site near my house, where a new townhouse project is being built. The townhouses are four stories high. The basic construction of all four levels has been finished. A man was using a gigantic piece of equipment that lifted an entire bedroom section, which must have weighed around 1000 pounds. He ...

Is the Drug War Finally Over?

by Jacob G. Hornberger March 11, 2024

The U.S. government just convicted Juan Orlando Hernandez of a drug offense. Who’s he? He’s the former president of Honduras. U.S. officials charged him with conspiracy to import hundreds of tons of cocaine into the United States. Last Friday, a federal jury in New York found him guilty. Yay! The drug war is now over, right? Well, not ...

Warrantless Searches Near the Border

by Jacob G. Hornberger March 7, 2024

The Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution reads: “The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or ...