Oversight of Billions for Ukraine Is Not What Is Needed by Laurence M. Vance March 21, 2023 In an interview with ABC News last month, after it was noted that U.S. aid to Ukraine now totals at least $113 billion, President Joe Biden was told that “many” Americans were asking, “How long can we spend like this?” His response was to first question the number of Americans ...
Geofence Surveillance: First, They Spied on Protesters. Then Churches. You’re Next by John W. Whitehead March 16, 2023 “I know the capability that is there to make tyranny total in America, and we must see to it that this agency and all agencies that possess this technology operate within the law and under proper supervision, so that we never cross over that abyss. That is the abyss from which there is no return.”—Senator Frank Church on Meet ...
The Right to Be Let Alone: When the Government Wants to Know All Your Business by John W. Whitehead March 10, 2023 “Experience teaches us to be most on our guard to protect liberty when the government’s purposes are beneficent.”—Supreme Court Justice Louis D. Brandeis There was a time when the census was just a head count. That is no longer the case. The American Community Survey (ACS), sent to about 3.5 million homes every year, is the byproduct of a government that ...
Sports Gambling: The Latest “Public Health” Crisis by Laurence M. Vance March 3, 2023 The Kansas City Chiefs were not the only winners in Super Bowl LVII last month at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona. The American Football Conference (AFC)Chiefs defeated the National Football Conference (NFC) champion Philadelphia Eagles by the close score of 38–35 to become the champion of the National Football League (NFL) for the 2022 season. A record 50 ...
When the Government Thinks It Knows Best by John W. Whitehead March 1, 2023 “Whether the mask is labeled fascism, democracy, or dictatorship of the proletariat, our great adversary remains the apparatus—the bureaucracy, the police, the military.”—Simone Weil, French philosopher It’s hard to say whether we’re dealing with a kleptocracy (a government ruled by thieves), a kakistocracy (a government run by unprincipled career politicians, corporations and thieves that ...
The Roots of American Dysfunctionality, Part 2 by Jacob G. Hornberger March 1, 2023 Part 1 | Part 2 The United States once had the finest health-care system in history. When I was growing up in the 1950s — before Medicare and Medicaid came into existence — medical costs were low and stable. Hardly anyone had major-medical insurance. That’s because they didn’t need it. Going to the doctor was like going to the ...
Biden’s Atrocious Assange Prosecution by James Bovard March 1, 2023 “A confident government that is unafraid of the truth embraces a free press,” proclaimed Secretary of State Anthony Blinken. But he was referring only to the Chinese government crackdown on Hong Kong journalists early last year. Unfortunately, the Biden administration continues rushing to destroy one of the most important truth tellers of our times. Julian Assange has been locked away ...
“Law and Order” and Libertarianism by Laurence M. Vance March 1, 2023 The election year of 1968 was a tumultuous one marked by the assassinations of Sen. Robert Kennedy and civil rights leader Martin Luther King, urban race riots, college antiwar demonstrations, and a Democratic National Convention that saw the Chicago police and the National Guard have violent clashes with protestors. The 1968 election Republican presidential candidate Richard Nixon (1913–1994) campaigned on a ...
The Great German and Austrian Inflations, 100 Years Ago by Richard M. Ebeling March 1, 2023 This year marks the 100th anniversaries of the great German and Austrian inflations that began with the coming of the First World War in 1914 and reached hyperinflationary severity following the war’s end in November 1918. While the German and Austrian inflations were particularly pronounced, all the belligerent countries in the conflict resorted to the monetary printing press to ...
Fed Up with the Fed by Robert E. Wright March 1, 2023 The Federal Reserve (“the Fed”) began operations in 1914. Thus, many find it difficult to fathom an America without it. Yet as it conducts its own major framework review, everyone, including the Federal Reserve itself, knows that the Fed is unnecessary. Congress could abolish the institution and ...
The Cost of the Nation’s Endless Wars by John W. Whitehead February 23, 2023 “Autocrats only understand one word: no, no, no. No you will not take my country, no you will not take my freedom, no you will not take my future… A dictator bent on rebuilding an empire will never be able to ease the people’s love of liberty. Brutality will never grind down the will of the ...
Trump’s Big Lie about Medicare and Social Security by Laurence M. Vance February 21, 2023 In a recent brief video message to his supporters, former president and current 2024 presidential candidate Donald Trump warned Republicans about cutting Medicare or Social Security: Under no circumstances should Republicans vote to cut a single penny from Medicare or Social Security to help pay for Joe Biden’s reckless spending spree. . . . Do not cut ...