Showing posts with label California. Show all posts
Showing posts with label California. Show all posts

June 27, 2020


Venezuelans take extraordinary steps to beat water shortage

fromAP: Critics of the socialist government blame chronic infrastructure failures on years of corruption and mismanagement that have also left the electrical grid fragile and destroyed Venezuela’s once-thriving oil industry.
Economic Policy: Statism Versus The Free Market

Will government mandate COVID-19 vaccinations?

fromTheHill: Government mandated vaccinations for adults would be a major and controversial step. But then government has taken a number of major and controversial steps recently, such as shutting down the economy.
Individual Liberty: America's First Principle

California agency blocks release of police use of force and surveillance training, claiming copyright

fromActivistPost:Our elected officials can pass laws regulating the police, and watchdog bodies can review law enforcement policies, but if training materials are kept secret, it provides a back door for manufacturers of surveillance technology and private organizations to influence police practices without oversight or accountability.
Government is Watching Every Move You Make        Police State America         Regulation Nation

Walter E Williams: Insults to black history

fromCreators: Both blacks and whites can benefit from a better appreciation of black history.
Indoctrination and Censorship

The pandemic's economic carnage looks worse than expected

fromReason: If you thought the economic toll wrought by the COVID-19 pandemic was only going to be horrendous, you may have been overly optimistic.
Economic Policy: Statism Versus The Free Market

VIDEO: Black Wisdom Matters - Good Intentions of the Welfare State

fromLibertyPen/YouTube: Thomas Sowell, Walter E Williams, Star Parker, Jason Riley, Bob Woodson and Larry Elder share their insights on how a half century of the welfare state has changed America and the American family.
The Welfare State: Promoting Dependency

March 9, 2020


US government’s net worth is now NEGATIVE $75 TRILLION

fromTheDailyBell: Nearly three quarters (73 per cent) added that they were worried about the state of the planet right now, including 22 per cent who say they were “very worried”. 
Economic Policy: Statism Versus The Free Market

Americans continue to vote with their feet towards low-tax states

fromTheHill: Based on the 2019 estimates it is likely that California will actually lose its first congressional seat since 1850 due to residents leaving the state. 
Economic Policy: Statism Versus The Free Market

2-year-old taken from parents for using medical marijuana, murdered in foster care

fromFreeThoughtProject: The state removed a child from a home with loving parents over marijuana and put her in a home with an abusive woman and her crack addict husband who ran a racket keeping foster children.
The Government is Not Us

States are depriving innocent people of their Second Amendment rights

fromReason: "Red flag" laws leave gun owners defenseless. 
2nd Amendment Assaults

California's government has turned homelessness Into big business

fromReason: The new money will be consumed in a bureaucratic hiring frenzy, used to pay state-level salaries and pensions, and build a bigger "homeless industrial complex." 
The Government is Not Us

Children are losing sleep and having bad dreams over climate change, study says

fromIndependent: Nearly three quarters (73 per cent) added that they were worried about the state of the planet right now, including 22 per cent who say they were “very worried”. 

January 29, 2020


Ready to move, Californians tour their top destination: Texas

fromLATimes: Little wonder that Golden State residents are seeking an escape route. California has become a hostile environment for producers as it morphs into a haven for illegal aliens, drug addicts and looters.
Economic Policy: Statism Versus the Free Market    The Government is Not Us

The EPA wants to get out of puddles and ditches. Environmental activists are outraged.

fromReason: A welcome new federal approach under the Clean Water Act.
Political Correctness and Other Nitwittery

National security surveillance apologists are starting to see the light

fromReason: Privacy advocates have long warned about potential abuses. Will the mishandling of the Carter Page investigation change some minds?
Government is Watching Every Move You Make

Brazil’s attack on Greenwald mirrors the US case against Assange

fromMediaToday: This is an obvious attack on journalism.
Indoctrination and Censorship

VIDEO: Ayn Rand: The Early Years - In Her Own Words

fromLibertyPen/YouTube: Ayn Rand tells of her childhood in Russia. From Ayn Rand, In Her Own Words.

The rage of the Democrats

fromAmericanThinker: It is obvious that the Democrat Party is at war with America, and Democrats are not interested in stopping any time soon.
Politics and Other Official Acts of Corruption

January 20, 2020


Why laws against hate speech are dangerous

fromGatestoneInstitute: Pending legislation seeks to bar all kinds of large cash payments to "fight crime and money laundering." Banning cash will allow the government to monitor all citizen transactions for approval.
Indoctrination and Censorship            Individual Liberty: America's First Principle

Top priority for California voters heading into 2020 primary? Homelessness

fromSacBee: Candidates visiting California will likely need to focus more of their energy on explaining how they’d tackle homelessness and work to make housing cheaper.
Politics and Other Official Acts of Corruption

Michelle Obama’s school lunch program faces new cuts on former first lady’s birthday

fromImpact2020: The proposed rule announced Friday would increase “flexibility” for vegetable requirements and allow schools to change fruit servings during breakfast in favor of meats or meat alternatives.
Regulation Nation 

Trump and Comey are united against encrypted communications

fromReason: Don’t worry—America’s ruling factions still disagree over who should be in charge of the snooping.
Government is Watching Every Move You Make

Australia aims to ban cash spending

fromAsiaTimes: Pending legislation seeks to bar all kinds of large cash payments to "fight crime and money laundering." Banning cash will allow the government to monitor all citizen transactions for approval.
Regulation Nation               The War on Unapproved Voluntary Exchange

Proposed bill to make cellphone use under 21 a crime punishable by 1 year in prison

fromAsiaTimes: Pending legislation seeks to bar all kinds of large cash payments to "fight crime and money laundering." Banning cash will allow the government to monitor all citizen transactions for approval.

November 8, 2019


Why everything they say about California fires — including that climate matters most — is wrong

fromForbes: Can the increase in fires in California really be blamed on climate change?
Political Correctness and Other Nitwittery

Rep. Devin Nunes: GOP’s First Witness to Testify in Impeachment Hearing WILL BE ADAM SCHIFF (VIDEO)

fromGatewayPundit: Is forcing a liar to testify under oath a perjury trap?
Politics and Other Official Acts of Corruption

VIDEO: Milton Friedman - What is Monetary Policy?

fromLibertyPen/YouTube: Can the increase in fires in California really be blamed on climate change?
Economic Policy: Statism Versus the Free Market

'Coup Has Started': Whistleblower's attorney vowed to 'get rid of Trump' in 2017

fromZeroHedge: The Democratic operative attorney representing the anti-Trump whistleblower vowed to "get rid of Trump", and said that the "#coup has started" in 2017 tweets.
Politics and Other Official Acts of Corruption

The county seized man's property, sold it—and kept the profits because he underpaid taxes by $9.

fromReason: Presumably as a public service, the state law allows counties to effectively steal homes over unpaid taxes and keep the excess revenue for their own budgets.

November 5, 2019


The DNA database used to find the Golden State Killer is a national security leak waiting to happen

fromMITTechnologyReview:  Here’s how spies could use a crowdsourced genetic ancestry service to compromise your privacy—even if you’re not a member.
Government is Watching Every Move You Make

Pregnant Florida mom uses AR-15 to kill home intruder

fromNYPost:  A pregnant woman is credited with saving the lives of her husband and daughter after she used an AR-15 to fatally gun down a home intruder, a report said.
2nd Amendment Assaults

Why John Brennan, Peter Strzok and DOJ needed Julian Assange arrested – and why UK officials obliged…

fromConservativeTreehouse:  Peter Strzok appears to have acted as a bridge between the CIA and the FBI.  The perfect type of FBI career agent for CIA Director John Brennan to utilize.
Politics and Other Official Acts of Corruption

California's war on weed continues thanks to a red tape-fueled black market

fromReason:  California has botched its legalization so badly that the state's attorney general is putting out press releases to brag about how many people they're still arresting.
The War on Unapproved Voluntary Exchange

Walter E Williams: Disproportionalities: Whose fault?

fromCreators:  Of those killed by lightning, 82% are men. One can only wonder what social justice warriors would do about these and many other disproportionalities.
Political Correctness and Other Nitwittery

A new kind of tyranny: The global state’s war on those who speak truth to power

fromRutherfordInstitute:  “What happens to Julian Assange and to Chelsea Manning is meant to intimidate us, to frighten us into silence. By defending Julian Assange, we defend our most sacred rights. Speak up now or wake up one morning to the silence of a new kind of tyranny. The choice is ours.”—John Pilger, investigative journalist

October 21, 2019


FISA court ruled that FBI improperly used NSA surveillance data to snoop on Americans

fromNola.com:  In 2017 alone, the FBI conducted over 3.1 million searches of surveillance data
Government is Watching Every Move You Make

A New Orleans man faced a felony marijuana charge; too many potential jurors wouldn't consider it

fromNola.com: Jury nullification. Learn it, love it, live it.
Justice is a Result, Not Just a Process

The late great state of California

fromMisesInstitute: Are people leaving California? More people are out-migrating to other states than those coming in, but much of that was offset by international migrants resulting in a net population loss of only 38,000 (2018).
The Government is Not Us

Tulsi Gabbard: Canary in the Democratic coal mine

fromAmericanSpectator: The imminent demise of her presidential campaign portends disaster for her party.
Politics and Other Official Acts of Corruption

Walter E Williams - Intolerance in academia

fromCreators: There's nothing better than the sounds of pocketbooks snapping shut to bring a bit of sanity to college administrators.

Mentions of government as top U.S. problem near record high

fromGallup: "Government," which includes negative comments about leadership and politicians, has been the top problem in 31 of Gallup's 34 readings since January 2017.

September 23, 2019


Parents told not to terrify children over climate change as rising numbers treated for 'eco-anxiety'

fromTheTelegraph: Parents? It is not the parents who are preaching climate catastrophe, it is the schools.
Indoctrination and Censorship            Political Correctness and Other Nitwittery

Fighting the minimum wage: McDonald’s makes a move to automate the drive-thru

fromEconomicPolicyJournal: Company decides to keep fast food affordable.
Regulation Nation        Economic Policy: Statism Versus The Free Market

E-cigarette restrictions raise a question: Can governors unilaterally ban products they don't like?

fromReason: Pending restrictions on vaping products in Michigan and New York are based on an alarmingly broad understanding of the executive branch's "public health" authority.
Regulation Nation

VIDEO: Tucker Carlson - The Gun Grabber Schemes

fromLibertyPen/YouTube: Tucker and his guests discuss assault weapon bans, bullet restrictions, red flag laws, and buyback/confiscation schemes.

Comedians are demolishing progressive thought police, and It’s driving the media nuts

fromDailyCaller: The idea that comedy should adhere to politically correct speech hasn’t landed well with comedians.
Indoctrination and Censorship            Individual Liberty: America's First Principle

EPA set to revoke California's authority to set vehicle standards

fromCNNPolitics: Finally, some restrictions placed on one form of California's nitwittery.

June 12, 2019


California Democratic Party: First Amendment ‘Limited to exclude hate speech’

fromDailyWire: The First Amendment exists primarily to protect unpopular speech (hate speech for some) since popular speech needs no protection, a concept lost on California's Democratic Party.
Indoctrination and Censorship        Individual Liberty: America's First Principle

VIDEO: Rachel Maddow - Julian Assange and the Future of a Free Press

fromLibertyPen/YouTube: When the operations of government are shielded from public view democracy is a farce. Prosecuting the publisher of such information could only be acknowledgement that the government is not us.  
The Government is Not Us       Individual Liberty: America's First Principle

VIDEO: Walter E Williams - The Future of Free Enterprise and Liberty

fromLibertyPen/YouTube: A warning about the trajectory of economic and personal liberty in America.  
Economic Policy: Statism Versus The Free Market

Empty words: Why Pelosi is suddenly saying she wants Trump ‘in prison’

fromWashingtonExaminer: The “in prison” line allows the speaker to look like a good anti-Trump ally, but it is clearly in service of avoiding an impeachment.  
Politics and Other Official Acts of Corruption

Not the Onion: Biden promises to cure cancer If elected

fromZeroHedge: This begs the question, why do politicians lie? Answer: Voters want the impossible and only a liar will promise it.
Politics and Other Official Acts of Corruption

Federal court rules citizens well within the law to tell a cop “f**k you”

fromFreeThoughtProject: While a federal court ruled this month that citizens can swear at police officers and the police officers cannot arrest them for it, it is still not recommended.  

June 10, 2019


U.S. government’s moves against Julian Assange are a blueprint for making journalists into felons

fromTheStar: Empowering prosecutors to decide who does or doesn’t deserve press protections would restrict “freedom of the press” to a small, cloistered priesthood of privileged citizens designated by the government as “journalists.” The First Amendment was written to avoid precisely that danger.  
The Government is Not Us        Individual Liberty: America's First Principle

VIDEO: Homelessness - California's Ugly Growth Industry

fromLibertyPen/YouTube: California has an epidemic of homelessness that is hard to believe. A look at what is going on in Golden State’s richest cities. Karen Hix, Tucker Carlson.  
Economic Policy: Statism Versus The Free Market      The Welfare State: Promoting Dependency

Hacking dirty government secrets is not a crime

fromCounterpunch: "Corporate media’s instant reversal on Assange—from rapist scum to First Amendment hero—elevates self-serving hypocrisy to high art. But that’s OK. Whatever gets Assange closer to freedom is welcome."  
The Government is Not Us        Individual Liberty: America's First Principle

Give up your password or go to jail: Police push legal boundaries to get into cellphones

fromNBCNews: “The world should know that what they’re doing out here is crazy,” said a man who refused to share his passcode with police.  
Police State America

You’re under arrest: How the police state muzzles our right to speak truth to power

fromRutherfordInstitute: "What the architects of the police state want are submissive, meek citizens who don’t talk back, don’t challenge government authority and don’t speak out against government misconduct."  
Police State America

Oakland, California decriminalizes magic mushrooms and peyote

fromUSAToday: The city council’s vote directed law enforcement to cease investigating and prosecuting individuals for using or possessing drugs sourced from plants, cacti and – most commonly – mushrooms.  

May 20, 2019


Why everyone in the U.S. who counts wants Julian Assange dead

fromCommonDreams:   It's not for being a jerk that the Establishment state wants the Wikileaks publisher dead. They want him dead for publishing videos like these. Only the bravest will watch the video contained within.
The Government is Not Us       Politics and Other Official Acts of Corruption    Defense Versus The War Machine

Some US cities are moving into real-time facial surveillance

fromWired:   The lack of federal rules on facial recognition may create a patchwork of surveillance regimes inside the US.
Government is Watching Every Move You Make

Camille Paglia: Neo feminism teaching women to live in ‘a permanently juvenile condition’

fromCommonDreams:   “What I am saying throughout my work is that girls who are indoctrinated to see men not as equals but as oppressors and rapists are condemned to remain in a permanently juvenile condition for life."
Political Correctness and Other Nitwittery

VIDEO: Larry Elder - Reparations for Slavery

fromLibertyPen/YouTube:   Commentator/author Larry Elder comments on a scheme to extract money from people who were never slave owners and give it to people who were never slaves.

Federal funding for California bullet train boondoggle formally canceled

fromReason:   Jerry Brown's bait and switch scheme goes up in flames, as taxpayers suffer another ramification of the Obama administration.
Politics and Other Official Acts of Corruption

Is California ready to ban gas-powered cars? Not yet. But they're thinking about it

fromUSAToday:   Fresh of the high-speed rail fiasco, state politicians plot yet another way to torture citizens.

Mar 1, 2019


The Left wants everything free, except free speech

fromAmericanThinker:  Free health care, free college tuition, free child care are the beacons for the liberal Left. Everything but the freedom to think for yourself.
Indoctrination and Censorship

Victor Davis Hanson: California's rendezvous with reality

fromTownhall:  For years, high-speed rail has drained the state budget of transportation funds that might have easily updated nightmarish stretches of the Central Valley's Highway 99.
Economic Policy: Statism Versus The Free Market      The Government is Not Us

Scientists want Orwellian A.I. sentient smart assistants to snitch on owners and discuss contacting police

fromActivistPost:  Smart assistants like Siri, Google Home, and Amazon Echo could soon be implemented with a “moral AI” to decide whether to report their owners for breaking the law. George Orwell does not hold the patent. 
Government is Watching Every Move You Make

Military intervention in Venezuela would be a reckless, dangerous option

fromReason:  The push for intervention is no surprise, and it should be given no quarter.
Defense Versus The War Machine

Oregon passes nation's first statewide rent control law

fromReason:  The bill comes with new risks for tenants and property owners alike.
Economic Policy: Statism Versus The Free Market

No permit required. Oklahoma Becomes 15th gun-carry state

fromFreeBeacon:  Residents of Oklahoma just got freer and safer. Protection is everywhere

Feb 25, 2019


The case for legalizing blackmail

fromMises:  Don't confuse blackmail with extortion. Extortion is about applying pressure under threat of bodily harm. Blackmail is about applying pressure under threat of simply revealing the truth.

Phony Houston drug warrant prompts FBI investigation and review of 1,400 cases

fromReason:  Lying to justify a search that killed two people could be a capital crime.

NYC fast-food workers stunned some are being fired after $15 minimum wage hike

fromFEE:  Serving as ground zero for the $15 minimum wage battle, New York City saw its fast-food workers also serve as the subjects in an experiment that completely ignored the laws of economics.

The top four reasons California Is unsustainable

fromForbes:   California is moving ever farther left and wants the nation to pay for it. Economically, it is on a high-speed rail to unsustainability.

VIDEO: Away with Pretenses - Unabashed Media Bias

fromLibertyPen/YouTube:  From Tucker Carlson Tonight, commentary from Lara Logan and Brit Hume on how the pretense of objectivity no longer exists in modern journalism.

To reduce money in politics, slash the size of government

fromReason:  Reformers always have a new scheme to take “the money out of politics," but it usually just makes the government larger and campaign spending increase.

Feb 21, 2019


The United States should legalize prostitution

fromCollegian:  Sex working is the most dangerous job in the country, even more so than logging or oil workers. Despite the general taboo associated with prostitution, legalizing it would benefit everyone more than expected.
The War on Unapproved Voluntary Exchange

Houston narc who lied to justify a deadly drug raid had been accused of perjury

fromReason:  There may be a consequence for the lying narco cop responsible for the deaths of two innocent people and the injuries to five other state agents.
Justice is a Result, Not Just a Process

Trump wants taxpayers reimbursed for billions thrown away on California's high speed rail scheme

fromCNBC:  Politicians lied about every aspect of the plan to rob federal taxpayers. The costs, feasibility and speed bear no resemblance to what had been promised.
Politics and Other Official Acts of Corruption         Economic Policy: Statism Versus The Free Market

Supreme Court to hear biggest gun rights case since 2010

fromReuters:  The U.S. Supreme Court took up its biggest gun rights case in nearly a decade, agreeing to hear a challenge to New York City’s strict limits on handgun owners transporting their firearms outside of the home.
2nd Amendment Assaults

Oregon on track to be 1st state with mandated rent controls

fromAP:  Now Oregon property owners are as helpless to dictate rents as they are to dictate taxes.
Individual Liberty: America's First Principle

How people in 1968 used jury nullification to block unreasonable arrests

fromCATO:  There wasn’t much doubt that the men had been doing what the law prohibited. Yet Long Island juries found them not guilty. That’s a phenomenon often called jury nullification.

Feb 18, 2019


VIDEO: Off the Rails - California's High Speed Boondoggle

fromLibertyPen/YouTube:  A tribute to the ability of politicians to rip off taxpayer money and grab citizen land with no accountability. 
Economic Policy: Statism Versus The Free Market         Politics and Other Official Acts of Corruption

Feds collect record individual income taxes in calendar 2018--as debt climbs

fromCNSNews:  The federal government collected a record $1,665,484,000,000 in individual income taxes in calendar year 2018, according to the Monthly Treasury Statements for the year.
Economic Policy: Statism Versus The Free Market       Politics and Other Official Acts of Corruption

These are dangerous times, and the government is to blame

fromRutherfordInstitute:  Mind you, it is not because of violent crime, which remains at an all-time low, or because of terrorism, which is statistically rare. The real danger comes from the U.S. government its powers to has granted to its standing army to steal, cheat, harass, detain, brutalize, terrorize, torture and kill.
The Government is Not Us         Police State America

You can't say that on Twitter

fromCreators:  She tweeted that "men are not women," and for that, Meghan Murphy, feminist journalist, was banned from Twitter. The truth qualifies as "hate speech" for some of the gnomes at Twitter HQ.
Indoctrination and Censorship          Political Correctness and Other Nitwittery

The ‘war on drugs’ is causing great damage

fromTheGuardian:  Readers discuss the best way to combat the violence fueled by the drugs trade.
The War on Unapproved Voluntary Exchange

Majority of California residents want to leave: poll

fromBreitbart:  Sixty-two percent of respondents realize the Golden State's best days are in the past.

Feb 7, 2019


California Democrats are united in their efforts to continue damaging gun rights

fromUSNews:  Lawmakers take aim at law-abiding citizens. Increasingly, gun ownership itself is becoming a crime.
2nd Amendment Assaults

Documents indicate CNN was tipped off about the FBI's arrest of Roger Stone

fromTargetLiberty:  Stone’s attorneys are asking the House and Senate Judiciary Committees to provide answers to the American people on how someone could have obtained sealed grand jury indictments.
Media Bias on Parade       Politics and Other Official Acts of Corruption

Welcome to the literal nanny state

fromActivistPost:  Oregon and Washington are making an unprecedented move that could go to yet another level of overreach  – home inspections for new parents.
Political Correctness and Other Nitwittery         Regulation Nation

Massive Harvard study contradicts anti-pot propaganda told to us for decades

fromZeroHedge:  It has long been stated that cannabis is a “gateway” drug, which leads users to experiment with other drugs, leading up to the most deadly, such as heroin. But the researchers in the study found ...
The War on Unapproved Voluntary Exchange

The winter is wreaking havoc on electric vehicle batteries

fromZeroHedge:  Disgruntled owners of Tesla Model 3s have been widespread on social media and online forums, talking about numerous issues they’ve had with cold weather on their vehicles.
Political Correctness and Other Nitwittery

Welcome to California, land of 1,000 laws — and that’s just this year

fromTheHill:  Given the current composition of the state legislature, there’s no telling what lawmakers will attempt next.