Hong Kong Reminds Us of Ike’s Warning by Jacob G. Hornberger July 2, 2020 Just before he left office in 1961, President Eisenhower delivered what is quite possibly the most shocking Farewell Address in presidential history. In his speech, which newly elected President John Kennedy listened to, Eisenhower warned the American people about the grave threat that the U.S. “military-industrial complex” posed to the liberties and democratic processes of the American ...
Depoliticize the Statues by Jacob G. Hornberger July 1, 2020 The ongoing controversy over which statues to dismantle demonstrates the problem with government (or “public”) ownership of property: There is no way to come up with a solution that is going to satisfy everyone. Whatever decision is made on whether to keep this statue or that statue is inevitably going to leave some people unhappy. How ...
Whiplash and Reverse Déjà Vu by Jacob G. Hornberger June 30, 2020 I must confess that interventionists have given me a case of foreign-policy whiplash given the constantly changing array of official enemies of the United States on which Americans are supposed to focus their attention. One day it’s China. The next day it’s Russia. Then Iran. Venezuela. North Korea. Syria. The terrorists. The Muslims. Illegal immigrants. ISIS. Al ...
The Conservative (and Libertarian) Embrace of Socialism by Jacob G. Hornberger June 29, 2020 When President Franklin Roosevelt enacted his New Deal economic program in the 1930s, including Social Security, he revolutionized America’s economic system. For more than 100 years after the Constitution called the federal government into existence, the American people lived without an income tax and an IRS. During that period of time, they also lived without ...
Conservative Hypocrisy on the Looters by Jacob G. Hornberger June 26, 2020 I have found the outrage among conservatives over the looting of private businesses during the anti-police brutality protests to be amusing because it is so riddled with hypocrisy. Conservatives indignantly say that the looters were acting immorally because they trespassed onto privately owned businesses and stole merchandise that belonged to the owners. The essence of ...
The Nonsense of “National Security” by Jacob G. Hornberger June 25, 2020 President Trump’s attempt to suppress publication of a new book by his former national-security advisor John Bolton has, not surprisingly, raised First Amendment issues. But there is another issue that everyone ignores: the “national security” argument that Trump is using to justify his attempt to suppress the book.
The “Greatest” Generation’s Refusal to Fight the “Good War” by Jacob G. Hornberger June 24, 2020 The most sacred shibboleth of U.S. foreign interventionists is World War II. Whenever the issue of foreign interventionism arises, you can count on interventionists to raise what they call the “good war” and the “greatest” generation who fought it. If the “greatest” generation had not intervened in the “good war,” they exclaim, Nazi Germany and imperial Japan ...
Fear in the JFK Assassination, Part 2 (of 2) by Jacob G. Hornberger June 23, 2020 Fear in the JFK Assassination, Part 1 (of 2) Let’s now move to the autopsy that the U.S. military conducted on the President John F. Kennedy’s body on the evening of the assassination, November 22, 1963. Texas law required the autopsy to be conducted in Texas. Dr. Earl Rose, the Dallas Medical Examiner, insisted on conducting ...
Fear in the JFK Assassination, Part 1 (of 2) by Jacob G. Hornberger June 22, 2020 Fear in the JFK Assassination, Part 2 (of 2) One of the fascinating phenomena in the JFK assassination is the fear of some Americans to consider the possibility that the assassination was actually a regime-change operation carried out by the U.S. national-security establishment rather than simply a murder carried out by a supposed lone-nut assassin. The ...
Seven Days in May by Jacob G. Hornberger June 19, 2020 Like many of his counterparts in the mainstream press, Los Angeles Times senior editorial writer Michael McGough is aglow over the apology issued by Army Gen. Mark A. Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, for having participated in President Trump’s photo-op in which military troops used tear gas on peaceful protestors in the nation’s ...
Why Do Libertarians Support School Vouchers? by Jacob G. Hornberger June 18, 2020 For the life of me, I simply cannot understand why some libertarians still support school vouchers. Libertarianism, after all, is about achieving a free society. What do school vouchers have to do with freedom? They are the very antithesis of freedom. A genuinely free society necessarily entails getting government out of education entirely. That includes ridding ...
Police Bigotry and the Drug War by Jacob G. Hornberger June 17, 2020 To suggest that all cops and all judges are racial bigots would obviously be ridiculous. But it would be equally ridiculous to suggest that there are no racial bigots within law enforcement or even the judiciary. In fact, the DEA, the state police, and local law enforcement all serve as a magnet for racial bigots. ...