Let’s Not Forget FDR’s Court-Packing Scheme by Jacob G. Hornberger October 21, 2020 The Democrats are threatening to enact a court-packing law if Amy Comey Barrett, President Trump’s nominee to the Supreme Court to replace Ruth Bader Ginsberg, receives Senate confirmation. The Democrats feel that Joe Biden, should he win the November 3 election, should name Ginsberg’s replacement. The court-packing law would add additional justices onto the Supreme ...
What Will Amy Comey Barrett Say About Lochner? by Jacob G. Hornberger October 16, 2020 Undoubtedly, leftist opponents of Supreme Court nominee Amy Comey Barrett are going to bring up the Supreme Court’s decision in the 1905 case of Lochner vs. New York. In Lochner, the court held that a state law that set a maximum limit on the number of hours worked by employees was unconstitutional. This was the ...
Democracy Is Not Freedom by Jacob G. Hornberger October 15, 2020 With the presidential election nearing, it’s important to remind ourselves of an important fact, one that Democrats and Republicans and their supporters in the mainstream press fail to realize: Democracy is not freedom. Democracy enables people to elect public officials. That’s all. That’s in contrast to countries that are ruled by people that are not ...
Tyranny and the Right to Bear Arms by Jacob G. Hornberger October 14, 2020 Not surprisingly, the gun-control crowd is using the supposed conspiracy to kidnap Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer to advance their agenda. The idea is that if the American people are disarmed, then the chances of some group overthrowing a state government or even the federal government diminish to slim and none. That would be fine with the ...
Election Year Farm Candy by Jacob G. Hornberger October 13, 2020 American farmers, many of whom have been bankrupted by President Trump's trade war against China, are undoubtedly ecstatic that this is an election year. That’s because Trump is flooding them with federal monies in the months preceding the election. According to an article in yesterday’s New York Times, “Federal payments to farmers are projected to ...
Needed: Libertarian Faith in Freedom by Jacob G. Hornberger October 12, 2020 It goes without saying that if we are to achieve a genuinely free society, people need to have a deep and abiding faith in freedom. If people are convinced that freedom won’t work or if they have serious doubts as to whether freedom will really work, then the chances of achieving the free society are slim.
A Big Liberal Blind Spot by Jacob G. Hornberger October 9, 2020 Two sentences in a New York Times op-ed today summarize perfectly a big blind spot that afflicts liberals (i.e., progressives). The op-ed, entitled “Don't Give Up on America” is written by a liberal novelist named Marilynne Robinson, who writes: As a liberal, I am loyal to this country in ways that make me a pragmatist. ...
Where are Open Borders in the Presidential Race? by Jacob G. Hornberger October 8, 2020 Unfortunately, but not surprisingly, immigration is not a big burning issue in the presidential race. There is a simple reason for that: Both Donald Trump and Joe Biden believe in America’s system of immigration controls. Their only difference between them is over the enforcement measures that come with that system. Alas, needless to say, that ...
The Cuban Embargo Has Destroyed the Liberty of Americans by Jacob G. Hornberger October 7, 2020 There is no doubt that the 60-year-old U.S. embargo against Cuba inflicts horrific economic suffering on the Cuban people. That is its purpose — to squeeze the Cuban people through suffering and even starvation into ousting their communist regime and replacing it with a regime that will be subservient to the U.S. State Department, the Pentagon, and ...
Who Should Run the Country? by Jacob G. Hornberger October 6, 2020 In one line in an editorial today, the Los Angeles Times has summed up everything that is wrong with America today. The editorial is about Trump’s early return to the White House after his hospital stay for treatment for Covid-19. That’s not the issue I wish to address. I wish to focus on this line that ...
Reform versus Abolition by Jacob G. Hornberger October 5, 2020 Whenever I read an analysis that calls for reforming or fixing something the federal government is doing, I yawn. I find that sort of thing incredibly boring. In fact, when I first discovered libertarianism in the 1970s, if all that I had heard or read was libertarians calling for some reform program — school vouchers, Social Security ...
They Are All Socialists Now by Jacob G. Hornberger October 2, 2020 In his reelection campaign, President Trump declares, “America will never be a socialist country” … well … except for: Social Security Medicare Medicaid Public (i.e., government) schooling The federal income tax Welfare Public housing Education grants Farm subsidies Food stamps Corporate bailouts Stimulus payments Immigration controls The ...