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Thomas Knapp

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Thomas L. Knapp is director and senior news analyst at the William Lloyd Garrison Center for Libertarian Advocacy Journalism (thegarrisoncenter.org). He lives and works in north central Florida.


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Cerberus-Blake., From WikimediaPhotos
(4 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, December 13, 2020
2020: I'm So Sick of Superlatives Yes, 2020 has been a pretty crappy year, but let's try to keep a little perspective here. There's never been a year that some people didn't think -- at the time -- was the worse year ever.
Kennedy Nixon Debat %281960%29., From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Monday, August 10, 2020
America Doesn't Have Presidential Debates, But It Should The events put on by CPD are not "debates." Debates involve formal arguments over questions of substance. CPD events are theatrical productions -- side-by-side candidate commercials, financed by millions of dollars in arguably illegal campaign contributions from corporate sponsors.
For-rent-sign, From WikimediaPhotos
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, November 18, 2018
Hypocrisy Alert: Republicans Agreed with Ocasio-Cortez Until About One Minute Ago I get it. It's easy to mock a self-proclaimed "democratic socialist" who wants to re-make the US economy when she hasn't proven her own financial acumen by piling up a nice nest egg before running for Congress. But return with me now to those thrilling days of yesteryear ...
President Donald Trump receives a briefing on a military strike, From WikimediaPhotos
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, November 5, 2017
Chickenhawk Donald: A Complete and Total Disgrace If there's anything worse in public office than a proud veteran who learned the wrong lessons, it's a gutless but grandiose chickenhawk like Donald Trump.
P062113PS-0390, From FlickrPhotos
(5 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, February 4, 2018
The Nunes Memo Only Partially "Vindicates" Trump, But it Fully Indicts the FBI and the FISA Court Trump triumphantly tweeted that the Nunes memo "totally vindicates" him in the ongoing "Russiagate" probe. It doesn't really do that -- proving a negative is always difficult -- but it does add a great deal of credibility to his charge that the probe is a politically driven witch hunt rather than a serious criminal investigation.
Russian Embassy US, From WikimediaPhotos
(23 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, December 9, 2017
Finally, Evidence of Russian Election Meddling ... Oh, Wait On December 1, former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn pleaded guilty to two counts of lying to the FBI .... Finally! Hard evidence! The Trump campaign really did work with the Russians to fix the election and deprive Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton of her pre-ordained return to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue! But there are big problems with that narrative.
Lee Harvey Oswald arrest card 1963, From WikimediaPhotos
(25 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, August 5, 2017
If You've Got Nothing to Hide, You've Got Nothing to Fear, JFK Assassination Edition The CIA has long since copped to its Castro assassination campaign. But admitting that that campaign's sole fruit was the killing of an American president even as the agency's actual target lived to a ripe old age and died a natural death would smart to this very day.
President Joe Biden swearing in ceremony., From WikimediaPhotos
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, April 25, 2023
2024: We Can Do Better ... Or Can We? Political power lends itself well to holding onto political power. So much so that that seems to be its main use by those who grasp it even once. Which explains why our two mostly likely future presidents are two age-befuddled geezers, and why Capitol Hill is swarming with Senators who can't find their car keys without pulling staffers off of "look for a good sale price on adult diapers" duty to help.
USS Harry S. Truman takes on ammunition (150603-N-NK123-359), From WikimediaPhotos
(36 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, March 2, 2019
Aircraft Carriers: Give Truman and Ford a Burial at Sea The US government's "defense" budget is the single largest discretionary area of federal spending. It's an aging hippie in dire need of a clean shave and a buzz cut. There's no better place to start trimming than the US Navy's carriers and their supporting ships and infrastructure.
Hampa Cannabis sativa L. %28n%C3%A4rbild%29., From WikimediaPhotos
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, February 24, 2023
Instead of Stuck in Court or on Some Future Ballot, Legal Marijuana Should Be On DeSantis's Desk ASAP Why are Floridians spending so much money begging for permission to use a ubiquitous plant that's been medicine for millennia, has well-established medical uses, and is apparently just plain fun for some? Because every time we try to put full legalization on the ballot, the measures get jammed up in court and Floridians are denied the right to vote on them.
Statue of Liberty, From WikimediaPhotos
(7 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, June 2, 2018
Political Parties Should Say What They Mean. The Libertarian Party Does. A political party should always be completely honest and crystal clear about its positions when addressing the public. Yes, we want the public to agree with us and to elect our candidates to office. No, we shouldn't try to trick the public into thinking it agrees with us if it doesn't.
The inspection and sale of a slave., From WikimediaPhotos
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, July 3, 2023
SCOTUS Rules For Free Speech, While Upholding Slavery Establishing a "protected class," entitled to involuntary service on the part of others, makes that "protected class" a class of slave owners, and everyone else their slaves.
powerlines, From FlickrPhotos
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, September 30, 2023
Electricity: Cooperation and Competition Are Better Than Government Monopolies While it's true that rural electric cooperatives were, like municipal utilities, created by governments, not all "non-profits" are created equal. RECs answer directly to their customers. Municipal utilities answer to politicians who use them as ... well, tax collectors.
.Turkish Stars. at NATO Days 2011, Ostrava. Attribution: Konflikty.pl via Wikimedia, From WikimediaPhotos
(7 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, November 26, 2015
NATO: This Deal is a Turkey Turkey should never have been admitted to NATO in the first place, and both its membership and the existence of NATO itself have long outlived any possible value they might once have had.
HRC's concession, From WikimediaPhotos
(10 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, March 14, 2018
There She Goes Again: Clinton's Blame Game Hillary Clinton has tons of reasons why she lost the 2016 presidential election. And, oddly, none of those reasons are herself or her campaign. This week, the excuse is that millions of whipped women just did as they were told.
Countries with USA military bases, From WikimediaPhotos
(7 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, August 1, 2017
US Foreign Military Bases Aren't "Defense" A reasonable definition of "national defense," it seems to me, is the maintenance of sufficient weaponry and trained military personnel to protect a country from, and effectively retaliate against, foreign attacks. The existence of US bases abroad runs counter to the defensive element of that mission and only very poorly supports the retaliatory part.
Gavel, From WikimediaPhotos
(26 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, April 22, 2018
Just When You Thought "Russiagate" Couldn't Get Any Sillier ... April 20 is cannabis culture's high holiday, and the Democratic National Committee celebrated it with fervor this year: Blaze up, get silly, file a bizarre lawsuit accusing the Russian government, Donald Trump's 2016 presidential campaign, and transparency activist group WikiLeaks of conspiring to steal an election.
Voting booths., From WikimediaPhotos
(45 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, August 23, 2019
Will the DNC Snatch Defeat from the Jaws of Victory Yet Again? All the Democrats have to do win the White House in 2020 is pick a nominee ever so slightly more popular than Hillary Clinton. That's a low bar that the Democratic National Committee seems determined, once again, to not get over. As in 2016, the DNC is putting its finger on the scale in favor of "establishment" candidates, the sentiments of the rank and file be damned.
US Senate Session Chamber, From WikimediaPhotos
(4 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, January 20, 2018
The Worst Thing About Federal Government "Shutdowns" The second worst thing about federal government "shutdowns" is that they're almost entirely meaningless theatrical productions -- tales told by idiots, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing -- from beginning to end. The worst thing about such "shutdowns" is that they end, usually in a way that undoes most of what little good they accomplished in the first place.
Florida counties., From WikimediaPhotos
(5 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, May 19, 2023
About That "Border Crisis" It's hard to make Americans afraid of other Americans crossing city and town limits, county lines, and state borders, simply because hundreds of millions of us do that hundreds of billions of times per year. ... The only way to make Americans afraid of "border" crossing is to pick a smaller subset of immigrants ... and make them sound like a threatening "other."
(4 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, July 29, 2016
Snowden and Media Friends: L'etat, C'est Nous On July 28, [Edward] Snowden took Wikileaks to task via Twitter: "Democratizing information has never been more vital, and @Wikileaks has helped," he wrote. "But their hostility to even modest curation is a mistake." ... Wikileaks is right and Snowden is wrong here.
Biomedical Science Research 2010., From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, September 27, 2023
"March-In" Isn't Enough: All Government-Funded Research Belongs In The Public Domain Government-funded research should be treated as "work for hire," and its results should always, in every case, go instantly into the public domain. The idea isn't far-out or fringe. It's how government-employee-generated writing and text are already handled where copyright is concerned.
Adolf Eichmann takes notes during his trial USHMM 65268, From WikimediaPhotos
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, February 10, 2016
Election 2016: The Banality of Evil on Steroids [T]he GOP's presidential nomination race has become a rhetorical arms race to see who can position himself as most boisterously supportive of reprising all the crimes we've doggedly and piously pursued and hanged the Nazis for over the last 70 years.
Defendants in the dock at nuremberg trials., From WikimediaPhotos
(5 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, November 27, 2019
Trump Sentences Accused War Criminals to Death If the military justice system doesn't charge, try, and punish people whose crimes endanger their comrades because the president panders for votes from "support the troops" types, the (unsupported) troops will deal with such matters on the spot.
Murder scene, From FlickrPhotos
(68 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, May 16, 2017
Seth Rich, the DNC, and WikiLeaks: The Plot Thickens Who killed Seth Rich, and why? We may never know for sure. On the other hand, a significant piece of the puzzle may have just fallen into place.
From commons.wikimedia.org: Bds-online, From Images
(38 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, December 19, 2018
The Strangest Loyalty Oath You Probably Never Heard Of Agree with BDS or not, it's entirely proper for people who oppose a government's actions to adhere to their convictions peacefully, by refusing to trade with that government or with businesses operating in that government's jurisdiction.
Social Media today, From WikimediaPhotos
(8 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, October 14, 2018
Facebook Meddles in the 2018 Midterm Elections Who benefits from the meddling? It doesn't seem to fall along "left/right" lines in particular. The victims come from across the political spectrum .... The primary thread connecting victims of the purge seems to be that they are critics and/or opponents of the American political "mainstream" or "establishment."
Bernie Sanders 
We're going ALL THE WAY, From FlickrPhotos
(4 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, April 23, 2016
Bernie Sanders Won't Drop Out. Here's Why. Bernie Sanders says he's taking the Democratic presidential nomination contest all the way to the party's national convention in Philadelphia at the end of July. Believe it.
Robot worker, From WikimediaPhotos
(23 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, June 16, 2017
Contemplating a Jobless Society: I For One Welcome Our New Robot Overlords Will the current era of automation culminate in the opposite of historical results -- mass unemployment, a dramatic increase in the wealth and power gap separating rich and poor? Or are we at the doorway to a "post-scarcity" era, a product of what Ray Kurzweil calls the Law of Accelerating Returns, in which work as we know it becomes highly optional?
World-Trade-Center 9-11, From WikimediaPhotos
(24 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, November 21, 2018
Two Numbers That Explain Why Trump Won't Sanction Saudi Arabia Two simple numbers clarify just how much importance successive administrations, including Trump's, have placed on the US-Saudi relationship. The first number is the number one. ... The second number is 2,977.
From commons.wikimedia.org: John Kasich, From ImagesAttr
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, February 26, 2018
Who's on Third? Not John Kasich The only reason John Kasich suddenly thinks fondly of third parties is because he fell short of his own party's top slot. Back when he thought the sky was the limit for himself, he couldn't stand the idea. Sore loser much? He may be right that a third party is coming, but not for the reasons he wants one.
Anti-conscription badge, From WikimediaPhotos
(8 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, February 13, 2016
Just Say No to Draft Registration for Women -- and Men Testifying before the US Senate's Armed Services Committee in early February, Generals Mark A. Milley (the US Army's chief of staff) and Robert B. Neller (commandant of the US Marine Corps) endorsed extending mandatory Selective Service registration to women. Because, you know, equality. I have a better idea. It's time to end draft registration for everyone. Because, you know, freedom.
First Amendment, From FlickrPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Monday, July 3, 2023
Religious Freedom Isn't About Employment "Accommodations" There was never any question that Gerald Groff was free to exercise his religion as he chose. Yes, he had to choose between his religious beliefs and any number of jobs that weren't consistent with those beliefs. But we all have to make such choices, don't we? ... Unlike Groff, most of us don't go to court to get our religions unconstitutionally established in law as trump cards that employers must "accommodate."
Heroin asian, From WikimediaPhotos
(12 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, March 21, 2018
Death Penalty for Drug Dealers? Be Careful What You Wish for, President Trump "If we don't get tough on the drug dealers," said Trump, "we're wasting our time. That toughness includes the death penalty." ... odd, coming as it does from a high-level drug dealer like Donald Trump.
Day 47, From FlickrPhotos
(6 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, September 15, 2023
The War on Drugs is Why We Can't Have Nice Things -- Pseudoephedrine Edition For nearly two decades, you've probably been taking what amounts to a placebo for one of the most common cold and flu symptoms. Why? Because of the war on drugs.
Mexican drug cartels 2008., From WikimediaPhotos
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, July 8, 2023
A US War on Mexico Wouldn't Win the US War on Drugs Any "war on the cartels" would be fought at least partly on US soil, and it would be fought by the kind of people who don't quail from things like leaving severed human legs hanging from bridges to send their messages. Do we really want more of that kind of thing here? I have to ask, because sending US troops barging into Mexico is how we get things like that here.
Announcement Day - Lawrence%2C MA - 47108769091 %281%29., From WikimediaPhotos
(51 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, October 23, 2019
Coming Sooner or Later: Elizabeth Warren's Mondale Moment US Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) has spent the last few weeks running from her own Mondale Moment, refusing to answer the straight-up question from debate moderators and interviewers: "Would funding your Medicare For All proposal require a middle class tax increase?"
From FlickrPhotos
(19 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, October 19, 2017
Hillary Clinton: Cold Creepiness with a Side of Corruption Was Hillary Clinton's latest lunge at Julian Assange and WikiLeaks a preemptive strike? An attempt, perhaps, to get ahead of extreme ugliness in the coming news cycle?
Vladimir Putin and Robert Gates, From ImagesAttr
(46 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, October 7, 2015
War Party's New Line: Vladimir Putin is Why We Can't Have Nice Things Remember the good old days? The US and the Soviet Union constantly staring each other down? Mutual Assured Destruction? Perpetual brushfire and proxy wars punctuated by deadly and disastrous conflicts like Korea and Vietnam? They're baaaaaaack "
Panorama of United States Supreme Court Building at Dusk., From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, November 18, 2023
The Supreme Court's New "Code of Conduct" Is About Appearances, Not About Ethics As codes go, this one's far more Emily Post than Exodus 20. It's not about what the justices may or may not do, it's about how the court wants or doesn't want to look.
Greta Thunberg 4., From WikimediaPhotos
(37 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, October 4, 2019
Instead of Explaining Greta Thunberg, Debate Her Claims Critics slam Thunberg as everything from "mentally ill" (a claim which got one Fox News guest blacklisted), to naive pawn in a well-funded propaganda operation, to just plain annoying teenager. I think those critics miss the point. If they disagree on the facts, they should dispute those facts rather than focus on Thunberg at all. But since the focus IS on her, let's take a closer look.
President Trump at Davos, From FlickrPhotos
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, December 23, 2021
We Do Need a Great Reset -- and a Different Burden of Proof As a panarchist, one of the most amusing demands I run into is that I prove how, without monopoly government in the form it exists now, we wouldn't run into the problem of ... well, insert any major problem we already have. They've had 400 years to solve Problem X, and haven't. Where Problem X is concerned, the burden of proof should be on them.
Kamala Harris in Selma - 2018., From WikimediaPhotos
(4 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, August 15, 2020
Kamala Harris's Problem Isn't Her Identity. It's Her Character. Skin color and eligibility concern trolling aside, Kamala Harris would make a perfect post-Nixon Republican candidate for any office, including president or vice president.
COVID Vaccine %2850745583447%29., From WikimediaPhotos
(97 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, August 4, 2021
Government Vaccine Mandates: Immoral and Impractical There's no moral difference between sticking a needle in someone without consent and sticking a penis in someone without consent. We have a word for the latter, I'm pretty sure.
White Phosphorous bombardment of German emplacements - 1944, From WikimediaPhotos
(5 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, June 11, 2017
The Problem Isn't Willie Pete. The Problem is War Crimes. The New York Times reports that the US and/or US-allied forces in Syria may be using white phosphorous munitions in the assault on Raqqa, capital city of the Islamic State in Syria. The use of white phosphorous in war is a perennial complaint among human rights activists. And while it's valid as far as it goes, it misses a larger and more important point.
USS Nimitz UFO incident jets%27 initial location., From WikimediaPhotos
(10 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, September 18, 2019
The US Navy's Attitude About Releasing UFO Videos is More Disturbing Than the UFO Videos The US Navy confirms that three online videos showing two military air encounters with what it calls "unexplained aerial phenomena," and the rest of us call "unidentified flying objects" are authentic, Popular Mechanics reports. The videos are interesting, and some might find them disturbing. What's more disturbing to me is that the Navy thinks they're none of our business 15, or even four, years later ...
Israel - Boycott%2C divest%2C sanction., From WikimediaPhotos
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, July 26, 2019
American Politicians Use Jews as Pawns to Excuse Their Collusion with a Foreign Political Party The anti-BDS resolution is a far more overt, and likely far more effective, instance of US government meddling in Israel's elections than anything the Mueller Report credibly accuses the Russian state of doing vis a vis the 2016 US election. That's disgusting. But not as disgusting as its supporters' virulent resort to racial politics.
Cryptocurrency market capitalizations, From WikimediaPhotos
(43 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, September 22, 2017
Jamie Dimon is Right to Fear Cryptocurrency Jamie Dimon considers cryptocurrency "worth nothing" for one reason only: Because his company -- the largest bank in the United States and among the largest in the world -- doesn't control it. And that's one of several reasons why others find it very valuable indeed.
Historic Courtroom.JPG, From WikimediaPhotos
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, July 8, 2023
Legal Eagle Monopoly is for the Birds The theory of law as such is that we're responsible for our actions. Why should we be robbed of our agency when it comes to defending those actions?
Ron DeSantis and Benjamin Netanyahu., From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, October 31, 2023
Which Country Are Ron DeSantis and Opponents Running for President Of Again? These days, pretty much every major party presidential candidate makes at least one visit to Israel to promise unlimited American blood and treasure in support of its rulers' interests, your interests be damned. And when those promises come back to bite us, they assure us that's because Israel's enemies "hate our freedom."
Surveillance video of Michael Drejka's shooting of Markeis McGlockton, From InText
(9 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, August 26, 2019
Michael Drejka is a Political Prisoner Yes, Michael Drejka started an argument. But McGlockton started a fight. That bad decision cost Markeis McGlockton his life. It shouldn't cost Michael Drejka his freedom.
Florida Driver License., From WikimediaPhotos
(7 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, July 8, 2019
Photo ID is Obsolete and Unnecessary. Facial Recognition Technology Makes it Dangerous. In recent decades, and especially since 9/11, the conversation over personal privacy has revolved around how much of that privacy "must" be sacrificed to make law enforcement's job easier. The answer to that question is "none." It's not an American's job to make law enforcement's job easier. It's law enforcement's job to respect that American's rights.
Voting booths, From WikimediaPhotos
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, March 19, 2018
New Hampshire: Once More Unto the Breach With nearly two years to go before the 2020 presidential primaries kick off, the vultures are already circling New Hampshire. The Washington Post's John Wagner reports on recent or coming visits to the state by US president Donald Trump, vice-president Mike Pence, 2016 also-ran John Kasich, and former US Senator / anti-Trump gadfly Jeff Flake (R-AZ).
HP cartridges, From WikimediaPhotos
(12 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, September 20, 2016
Lies, Damned Lies, and Hewlett-Packard Printers September 13 was an unlucky day for an unknown number of Hewlett-Packard printer owners. Instead of going dutifully to work, their printers displayed the error message "One or more cartridges appear to be damaged. Remove them and replace them with new cartridges." The cartridges weren't damaged, though. The printers had been sabotaged with, for all intents and purposes, malware. And the saboteur was Hewlett-Packard itself.
HRC 2016 concession 20 %28cropped%29., From WikimediaPhotos
(5 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, October 18, 2019
Excuses, Excuses: Now Hillary Clinton's Attacking Her Own Party's Candidates Nearly three years after losing the 2016 presidential election to Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton's still trying to find someone other than Hillary Clinton to blame. And sooner or later it always comes back around to !THEM RUSSIANS!
Fatalities in the Syrian civil war (SOHR), From WikimediaPhotos
(5 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, April 7, 2017
We're Asking The Wrong Questions About Syria After more than six years of civil war, the Syrian government has (with Russian assistance) turned the tide. Assad is well on his way to defeating both the Islamic State and the "moderate rebels" (read: al Qaeda) backed by the US, restoring his control over the country. A chemical attack on Khan Sheikhoun doesn't seem to fit into that scenario.
1st Battalion 6th Marine Regiment take cover outside Marjah., From WikimediaPhotos
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, December 12, 2019
Afghanistan: Oh, When Will We Ever Learn? War is always ugly. Optional and prolonged wars with nebulous objectives are always built on lies -- lies stacked sky-high atop one another for no other purpose than to keep the ugliness going for as long as possible.
Butterfly Ballot%2C Florida 2000 %28large%29., From WikimediaPhotos
(15 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, November 18, 2019
Voters Say They Want a Third Party. They Should Vote Accordingly. Pluralities or majorities of independent, "swing," and even Democratic and Republican voters always respond positively to polls asking them, generically, about the desirability of a "third party" in American politics. But generically and specifically are two different animals.
Constitution We the People., From WikimediaPhotos
(7 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, February 11, 2020
Yes, the ERA Has Been Ratified On January 15, Virginia became the 38th state to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment. According to the US Constitution, that makes the ERA part of "the supreme law of the land." But, say others, not so fast ...
Green New Deal place-name-sign-1647341, From FlickrPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, March 27, 2019
Note to Six Senators: "Present" is not Presidential Booker, Gillibrand, Harris, Sanders, Warren and Klobuchar don't want their positions on the Green New Deal indelibly recorded as votes in the US Senate. They want freedom to triangulate their positions toward the desires of Democratic primary voters over the next year, and general election voters over the next year-and-a-half, with minimal explanation required. People in hell want ice water, too.
FBI National Security Branch seal med, From WikimediaPhotos
(14 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, January 17, 2019
Now More Than Ever, It's Clear the FBI Must Go Donald Trump is no Martin Luther King, Jr., but he's certainly disruptive. That, not some cockamamie theory about a Russian mole in the White House, explains the FBI's declaration of war on his presidency
President George W. Bush and Barack Obama meet in Oval Office, From WikimediaPhotos
(11 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, February 5, 2017
Trump's Foreign Policy: Obama's Third Term, Bush's Fifth On foreign policy, Obama served George W. Bush's third and fourth terms. Now Donald Trump looks set to serve Bush's fifth term and/or Obama's third.
John Hospers, 1972 presidential candidate of the fledgling Libertarian Party., From WikimediaPhotos
(6 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, June 24, 2018
The Libertarian Party: Bringing Good Ideas to America Since 1971 Like most Libertarians, I'm amused when our ideological opponents see a parade forming around one of our ideas and try to hustle their way to the front to "lead" it. Unlike some Libertarians, I don't follow up amusement with getting down in the mouth about being "co-opted." I'm just happy to see good ideas gain steam from any source.
Wikileaks truck at Fox News, From WikimediaPhotos
(4 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, August 26, 2017
WikiLeaks: Hostile is as Hostile Does Simply put the US government's problem with WikiLeaks -- the basis for its claim of hostility -- is that WikiLeaks tells the truth about the US government.
Backlit keyboard., From WikimediaPhotos
(4 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, August 29, 2019
In Cybersecurity, Decentralization and Diversity are Strength The US Department of Homeland Security's Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), the New York Times reports, fears "ransomware" attacks against America's voter registration systems in the run-up to the 2020 presidential election. In response, it's launching a program that "narrowly focuses" on protecting those systems. A laudable goal, to be sure, but should we accept the premise?
Electric cattle prod 1917., From WikimediaPhotos
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, December 29, 2022
Yes, Government is A Business. No, You're Not The Customer. In reality, government can be run like a business, and government is run like a business, because government is a business. But, as with broadcast television, social media platforms, and "free" Internet services, the taxpayer or "average citizen" is government's product, not its customer.
Homeless man sleeps adjacent Snowman themed graffiti in 2nd Street tunnel, Los Angeles, From FlickrPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Monday, June 10, 2019
Los Angeles: Homelessness Meets Economics 101 Eric Garcetti, Mark Ridley-Thomas, meet Ronald Reagan: "If you want more of something, subsidize it."
Big Brother poster illustrating George Orwell's novel about modern propaganda, 1984., From WikimediaPhotos
(8 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, October 8, 2016
Surveillance State 2016: Orwell was an Optimist Most of us are easy surveillance targets even before the state intercepts our emails at the provider level. And as for the people the state takes an individualized interest in? If you're singled out for special attention, the resources governments have at their disposal to track your every activity are, if finite, nearly inexhaustible as a practical matter ...
Edward Snowden 2013-10-9, From WikimediaPhotos
(8 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, September 16, 2016
@Snowden: Give That Man a Medal, Not a "Pardon" Edward Snowden shouldn't NEED a pardon. He performed a public service of inestimable value by exposing the crimes, the criminals, and the techniques of the largest espionage ring in human history: A conspiracy directed at the very public expected to pay the gigantic tab the conspirators run up.
US Census 1860 Dundee Roll, From WikimediaPhotos
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, February 6, 2018
The Census for Dummies (Including the US Department of Justice) The purpose of the census is to count noses, period, end of story. Not what citizenship the noses hold. Not what color the noses are. Not what direction the noses are pointed in for purposes of prayer. Not what language the mouth beneath the nose speaks. Not whether the nose in question is attached to a male, female, transgender, gay, straight, bisexual, or differently abled body. Number of noses. That's it. That's all.
Million Dollar Band 2010-09-11., From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Friday, June 7, 2019
If the University of Alabama Doesn't Need Hugh Culverhouse, Jr.'s Money, it Doesn't Need Yours A federally funded university which turns down a private donation over the donor's constitutionally protected speech should have the full amount of that donation subtracted from its federal funding for the following year.
1900 New York polling place., From WikimediaPhotos
(8 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, December 11, 2020
Yes, the Election Was Rigged. No, Not Like That. Yes, the presidential election was rigged. The next American presidential election that ISN'T rigged will be the first in living memory. No, it wasn't rigged to ensure a Biden win, or a Trump loss. It was rigged to ensure victory for the status quo and for our de facto one-party system.
Virgil Griffith's face. Age 34., From InText
SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, December 5, 2019
Meet Virgil Griffith: America's Newest Political Prisoner On November 29, FBI agents arrested hacker and cryptocurrency developer Virgil Griffith. His alleged crime: Talking. Yes, really.
TechnocracySign., From WikimediaPhotos
(5 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, August 12, 2020
CNN: "Scientific" Means "Agrees With Us" This ongoing duel over which "experts" to trust incorporates two faulty assumptions. One is that "experts" must be trusted rather than tested. Another is that "experts" can never disagree. The duel also demonstrates that "public health" is at least as much a political ideology as a scientific endeavor, and that politics doesn't end at science's edge.
Satterfield cartoon about floods of political scandals., From WikimediaPhotos
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, September 23, 2019
Yep, These People are Stone Cold Crooked Those with power tend to act to preserve that power. As the amount of power requiring preservation increases, so does the temptation to use that power in corrupt ways to protect and expand it. The positions of president and vice-president/potential president, entail considerable power. Suspecting corrupt motives on Biden's part, Trump's part, or both, is not only not beyond the pale, it's perfectly reasonable.
Infektionsschutzzentrum im Rautenstrauch-Joest-Museum%2C K%C3%B6ln-6313., From WikimediaPhotos
(14 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, April 8, 2020
COVID-19: Resist Much, Obey Little, and Never Forget Politicians are expensive serial killers who pose unacceptable risks to our lives and liberties. We can usually "afford" their depredations. ... But every once in a while their antics boil over into a Holodomor or a Holocaust or a Great Leap Forward. And that should keep you lying awake nights trying to think of a better way.
Hundred dollar bill 03, From WikimediaPhotos
(24 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, June 28, 2018
Is the US National Debt Finally Coming Home to Roost? I'm no expert in finance generally or in government debt specifically, and those matters are complex. But I don't think it's controversial to say that when large creditors stop buying and start start dumping someone's debt, it's a bad sign for future borrowing: A de facto reduction in the borrower's credit rating.
Smoot and Hawley standing together, April 11, 1929, From WikimediaPhotos
(9 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, January 28, 2018
Protectionism: Trump's Tariff-ic Attack on Your Wallet On January 22, US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer fired the first shots of the Trump administration's 2018 trade agenda: Tariffs of 30% on imported solar panels, and tariffs starting at 20% on imported residential washing machines. In the name of "protecting" jobs -- "America First!" -- the administration is dead-set on making you poorer.
Iran's Nuclear Future, From ImagesAttr
(11 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, July 17, 2015
The Iran Deal: What You Need to Know Supporters of the nuclear agreement between Iran and the P5+1 nations have a better case than anti-Iran hawks.
Statue of Liberty, From WikimediaPhotos
(8 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, January 13, 2018
In Defense of Immigration from "Sh*thole Countries" Well, of course, he shouldn't have put it that way, if he did (he denies it). Between the language and the demographics in his supposed example, he's handed his opponents the opportunity for a doubly delicious round of public moral preening -- look how vulgar, and how racist, Donald Trump is! Maybe they're right. But they're missing much bigger points.
Jeffrey Epstein mug shot., From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, July 24, 2019
No Bail is Excessive Bail, Even for Jeffrey Epstein The US Constitution's Eighth Amendment is short and sweet: "Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted." What would constitute "excessive" bail in Jeffrey Epstein's case? Whatever it might be, no bail at all fits the definition, especially given what Epstein put on the table by way of a bail proposal.
A happy Christmas, 1888, From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, December 2, 2017
Happy Holidays. Yes, All of Them. Like it or not (personally, I like it a lot), America IS a multi-religious and multi-cultural country with holidays galore. So what if you don't celebrate them all? Why not just congratulate those who do?
FBI, From FlickrPhotos
(9 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, January 23, 2018
Bye, Bye, FBI? The Case for Disbanding the Federal Frankenstein's Monster The FBI has had 110 years to prove its worth. A dispassionate look at its history says that it's far more often served as a center for blackmail, corruption, and political manipulation than as anything resembling a legitimate law enforcement agency. In fact, it was a bad idea in the first place.
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, March 6, 2020
Coronavirus: Politically Created Panic is the Real Pandemic Rahm Emanuel's Law: "Never let a serious crisis go to waste." Every Politician's Corollary: "Even if you have to manufacture that crisis out of whole cloth."
Bernie Sanders %2848023064061%29., From WikimediaPhotos
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, January 26, 2020
Bernie Sanders, Joe Rogan, the Human Rights Campaign, and Truth in Advertising HRC's official motto is "Working for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer Equal Rights." If political advocacy was subject to "truth in advertising" laws, that motto would be "Turning Contributions for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer Equal Rights Into Support for Establishment Politicians."
Comedie italienne avec Scaramouche, From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, July 25, 2017
Send in the Clown: Scaramucci versus the Leakers In Italian comic theater, Scaramouche is a clown, the boastful poltroon whose antics frequently bring him to grief. Presumably new White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci's name is related to that tradition. His personality seems tailored to it as well: He's off to a running start with the boast that he's going to put a stop to White House leaks.
Obama, Biden, and Clinton await updates on bin Laden., From WikimediaPhotos
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, November 14, 2019
Trump's Democratic Critics Want it Both Ways on Biden, Clinton When Republicans act criminally and/or corruptly, it's because they're criminal and/or corrupt. When Democrats act criminally and/or corruptly, it's because they're just poor, temperamental, out-of-their-element naifs who of course have no criminal or corrupt intent, but whose staffers neglect to take them by their little mittened hands and carefully walk them across all those busy, dangerous legal/ethical streets.
London Ambulance Service Ambulance, From WikimediaPhotos
(7 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, July 14, 2017
Death Panels: Sarah Palin Was Right, Sort Of Healthcare is a "scarce resource," by which I mean that there is more desire for it than there are doctor hours and hospital beds and bottles of medication to fulfill all that desire. In any healthcare system, therefore, care is going to be rationed. If people want or need ten units of health care and there are only nine units available, someone is going to lose out.
1900 New York polling place., From WikimediaPhotos
(6 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, July 6, 2019
Marianne Williamson is Right About American Elections Why aren't there any current members of Congress from the Libertarian, Green, or other "third parties?" And why are independent and "third party" members of Congress a rarity since early in the 20th century? Two reasons.
(13 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, October 13, 2016
War Crimes: John Kerry's Really Got Some Kind of Nerve US Secretary of State John Kerry opined (in an October 7 appearance with French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault) that Russian military actions in Syria "beg for an appropriate investigation of war crimes." French President Francois Hollande echoed the sentiment. Kerry might want to keep the fate of his German predecessor, Joachim von Ribbentrop, in mind when making such statements.
Donald Trump speaking at AIPAC, From WikimediaPhotos
(4 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, February 16, 2019
The First Rule of AIPAC Is: You Do Not Talk about AIPAC We're not supposed to talk about AIPAC. Ever. And it's easy to see why. If most Americans noticed that many members of Congress (as well as most presidents) are selling their influence over US policy to a foreign power, we might do something about it.
Bill Of Rights Captioned With 'Save The Constitution, Impeach!, I Miss Habeas Corpus, Close Guantanamo' & Capitol Rotunda At The Public Witness Against Torture (Washington, DC: March 10, 2008), From CreativeCommonsPhoto
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, May 13, 2023
How to Make Impeachment Great Again While "bipartisanship" is usually a terrible thing, just horse-trading between both sides to give each other the worst of what each side wants, it's really the only way to both give teeth to, and require real weight to invoke, impeachment proceedings.
80.Rally.MAGA.PennAve.WDC.14No vember2020, From FlickrPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, October 10, 2023
Politics: The Cults We Will Always Have With Us As political cults go, MAGA differs from most only in that it's so centered on Trump's person. ... American political cultism usually breaks down by party -- remember "Vote Blue, No Matter Who?" -- or clusters around the party best able to attractively package the world's perennial champion death cult, nationalism, for the moment.
Sack of Rome by the Visigoths on 24 August 410 by JN Sylvestre 1890., From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, September 13, 2023
Disapproval Voting is a Sign of Decline These days, it's hard to make a case that voters are voting for the politicians they like best for the nation's higher office. Instead, they're mostly voting against the politicians they hate the most, and for politicians they hate just a little bit less.
Luddite., From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Friday, January 13, 2023
Text Singularity? Oh, the Humanity! Much as it grinds my Austrian economics devotee gears to think so, it could be that the impending "text singularity" and similar developments are bellwethers leading us toward the post-scarcity of Aaron Bastani's "Fully Automated Luxury Communism" -- an age in which few if any humans really need to "work" because automation makes EVERYTHING abundant and free or nearly so.
Panorama of United States Supreme Court Building at Dusk., From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, August 5, 2023
Term Limits Wouldn't Fix the Supreme Court Might term limits help at the margins, encouraging "citizen politicians" and "respected jurists" to engage in "public service" as an interlude rather than a career? Maybe, but so far performance versus that expectation seems very spotty.
Jeffrey Epstein mug shot., From WikimediaPhotos
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, August 12, 2019
Sneering at "Conspiracy Theories" is a Lazy Substitute for Seeking the Truth Is Jeffrey Epstein really dead? If so, did he kill himself or was he murdered? If he was murdered, whodunit and why? Those are legitimate questions. Calling everyone who asks them, or proposes possible answers to them, a "conspiracy theorist" isn't an argument, it's intellectual laziness.
Classified intelligence material found during search of Mar-a-Lago., From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, January 15, 2023
Top Secret: The Real Classified Documents Scandal Two presidents in a row have proven they can't even impress upon their underlings the importance of not abandoning the nuclear launch codes in a garage or on the floor of a resort. Would you trust someone with such poor managements skills to run a convenience store or coffee shop?
James O'Keefe, From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, November 28, 2017
James O'Keefe versus the Cardinal Rule of "Gotcha" Journalism Investigative journalism ... plays an important role in informing the public. Real stories are broken. Real corruption is revealed. Real institutional flaws are outed. But "gotcha" journalism of the Project Veritas type must, if its practitioners want to remain trusted and relevant, hold itself to even higher standards f truth and disclosure than might be expected in "straight news" coverage.
Mk4 Fat Man bomb, From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, August 12, 2017
Don't Trust Trump's North Korea Bluff, Bluster, and Brinksmanship US president Donald Trump put much of the world atwitter and ajitter Tuesday with his comment to the press: "North Korea best not make any more threats to the United States. They will be met with fire and fury like the world has never seen." Trump's certainly proving himself Kim Jong Un's equal at foreign affairs smack talk. Is he serious? I believe so.
No Vaping Sign %2818562436519%29., From WikimediaPhotos
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, August 17, 2019
Lung Disease Outbreak: First Casualties of the War on Vaping? Teens are still vaping, and teens and adults are still using marijuana. But instead of buying "juice" from a reputable company at a local convenience store, they're buying it on the street.
Roomba 780, From WikimediaPhotos
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, July 30, 2017
Privacy: J. Edgar's Not the Hoover You Need to Worry About Anymore In the latest phase of our frenzied technological advancement, it's clear that yes, our gadgets do collect and use more and more information about us, and that that information progressively ramifies across more, bigger, and more integrated networks. The bigger question: Is it worth it? The answer: It depends.
Police attack protesters with chemical weapons in Ferguson, Missouri., From WikimediaPhotos
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, April 13, 2022
Mariupol: Let's Talk About "Chemical Weapons" Propaganda Usually when the western governments start quacking about "chemical attacks," it means they're planning to take action of some kind -- airstrikes in Syria, sanctions on Russia, what have you -- and are looking for an excuse. Mariupol doesn't look like an exception to that rule.
First Amendment inscription.JPG, From WikimediaPhotos
(7 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, April 2, 2020
Neither Pandemic nor Panic Supersede the First Amendment There is no "unless someone jumps up and down and screeches that there's an emergency" exception to the First Amendment
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, March 25, 2019
Florida: Why Republican Lawmakers are Defying -- and Denying -- the Voters If Amendment 4 is implemented as clearly, concisely, and unambiguously written, Florida will cease to be America's biggest presidential "swing state." ... Rather than work to avert this outcome by courting the African-American vote, Florida's Republicans are falling back on a strategy their party has vigorously pursued nationwide for decades: Find ways to keep African-Americans from voting.
Buried IED blast in 2007 in Iraq., From WikimediaPhotos
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, December 31, 2019
Iraq: America's Other "Longest War" US president Donald Trump talks a good "let's get out of all these stupid wars" game. But in actuality he has increased, and continues to increase, the size of US military deployments to, and the tempo of US military operations in, the Middle East and Central Asia. Several thousand US troops remain in Iraq and the war looks likely to stretch into a fourth decade.
Bitcoin, From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, March 8, 2017
Cryptocurrency Will Survive And Thrive, But Will Bitcoin? As Bitcoin enters its ninth year, the future looks very bright for an idea that many have spent the previous eight years scoffing at and predicting the imminent demise of. But this time they may be right. Bitcoin is in crisis, and the crisis could kill it.
Our %28Almost Traditional%29 Thanksgiving Dinner., From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, November 26, 2019
Thankful in 2019 Speaking to a crowd of Democratic donors on November 21, former president Barack Obama said "everyone needs to chill out about the candidates, but gin up about the prospect of rallying behind whoever emerges from this process." My Thanksgiving advice is to "chill out" entirely over the holiday weekend and set the "ginning up" aside for later. Yes, we're really allowed to do that.
Panorama of United States Supreme Court Building at Dusk, From WikimediaPhotos
(22 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, September 30, 2018
Brett Kavanaugh is the Swamp Brett Kavanaugh is "in the club" and has been from birth. His arrogant and even angry demeanor in the Senate hearings seems less about the sexual battery allegations than about the gall and temerity of anyone to question his entitlement to a Supreme Court throne.
US Manbij fe'vrier 2018(3), From WikimediaPhotos
(13 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, January 18, 2019
Syria: In the History of Bad Excuses, This One's Top-Tier US Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) thinks I'm using the term "thinks" very loosely here that Americans dying in Syria is a compelling reason to continue exposing Americans to the danger of dying in Syria. So do Senators Marco Rubio (R-FL), James Inhofe (R-OK), and Jack Reed (D-RI). ... this is the best they can come up with? If the troops don't stay in Syria, they can't keep getting killed in Syria? Wow, that really shows Trump!
COVID-19 Outbreak World Map per Capita.svg., From WikimediaPhotos
(32 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, June 14, 2020
COVID-19: "Second Wave" or Not, No More Lockdowns Here we go again: Fear of a "second wave" of COVID-19 infections is on world tour. Naturally, the same "experts" who demanded a global lockdown/shutdown in response to the "first wave" are saddling up for an encore. Their logic, faulty the first time around, is even more so the second.
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, May 14, 2020
Don't Accept COVID-19 as an Excuse for Medical Assault Forcing a needle or a pill into someone's body without that person's consent is no different in principle than forcing a penis into someone's body without that person's consent.
Fat man., From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, July 2, 2019
North Korea Nuclear Freeze? Finally, a Realistic Proposal A nuclear freeze agreement would not, in and of itself, produce peace. But it would be a giant step in that direction.
Donald Trump and Mike Pence RNC July 2016., From WikimediaPhotos
(16 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, May 29, 2020
Trump's "Free Speech" Doctrine: Never, Ever, Ever Mention He's a Liar Stripped of its empty self-congratulation and whiny victim-playing, Trump's executive order is about the opposite of protecting free speech. It's about "clarifying" -- that is, neutering -- Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act of 1996.
US Capitol, From CreativeCommonsPhoto
SHARE More Sharing        Friday, December 2, 2022
Gridlock Just Ain't What it Used to be Once upon a time, and not that long ago, Congress at least occasionally fought real battles, over real issues, with winners and losers. Legislation passed or it didn't. The Current Thing got done, or it got thrown into the dustbin (until after the next election, anyway). These days, ideas that can't pass as stand-alone bills get slipped into "must-pass" omnibus bills.
Operation Crossroads Baker Edit, From WikimediaPhotos
(7 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, November 19, 2017
How to Stop a Rogue President from Ordering a Nuclear First Strike Possession of the "nuclear football" is nine tenths of the law. To keep Donald Trump, or any other president, from using nuclear weapons wickedly (as if there were some other way to use them), Congress needs to get rid of the nukes, not just tinker with the legal authority to use them.
Huwwara Checkpoint July 2005., From WikimediaPhotos
(6 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, July 24, 2023
Congress Tries to Wish Away Israeli Racism and Apartheid Claiming something's justified doesn't magically make it something other than what it is. Nor does lying about it in a congressional resolution.
Voting United States., From WikimediaPhotos
(25 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, September 22, 2022
Should You Even Vote? Not Necessarily. It's time to start making some decisions. Not just on which candidates to vote for, but on whether to vote at all.
Israel and occupied territories map., From WikimediaPhotos
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, February 9, 2020
Trump's First Offer was a Better Deal for Palestine -- and Israel Trump's offer is quite a shift from his former "neutrality." As Lando Calrissian said in The Empire Strikes Back, "this deal is getting worse all the time." Worse for the Palestinians, obviously, but worse for Israel as well.
Bernie Sanders (I-VT), From WikimediaPhotos
(37 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, September 8, 2018
Bernie's Bezos Boondoggle (or, How to Keep Low-Income Workers Unemployed) The desired effect [of the Stop BEZOS Act] is that Amazon, Walmart, and other large employers will pay their workers "living wages" such that those workers needn't turn to food stamps, subsidized housing, etc., to get by. The more likely effect is that Amazon, Walmart, and other large employers will 1) speed up their adoption of labor-saving technologies such as robotics, and 2) change their hiring and employee policies.
ADX.CELL.DESIGN.svg., From WikimediaPhotos
(4 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, April 4, 2023
Let's Make Post-Presidential Indictments Business as Usual EVERY president should live in constant fear of future prosecution for crimes committed while in, or seeking, the office. Don't want to do time in the Big House? Don't do crime at the White House.
Donald Trump - Caricature, From WikimediaPhotos
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, August 20, 2016
Scott Adams, Trump Card Scott Adams's General Theory of the Inevitability of Trump differs substantially from my own simplistic hypothesis, so much so that the former deserves a grandiose title and the latter doesn't. Adams believes that Trump has masterfully scripted himself into the lead role in a presidential campaign produced as a three-act movie. I just think that Americans despise Hillary Clinton even more than they loathe Donald Trump.
Paul Krugman, From FlickrPhotos
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, November 9, 2016
Election 2016: How About You Whine a Little, Democrats? Those of us who supported third party candidates (I cast my vote, in Florida, for Libertarian Party nominee Gary Johnson) didn't owe our votes to the Democratic Party or to Hillary Clinton. If they wanted our votes, they should have gone to the trouble of EARNING those votes.
Vladimir Putin and Benyamin Netanyahu (22-09-2015) 01, From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, December 24, 2016
About That Foreign Meddling in US Presidential Elections ... So we had an election and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump won it. If I had all the ink that's been spilled on why and how Trump defeated former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, I'd be an ink tycoon. Much of what passes for analysis focuses on alleged "foreign meddling" in the election. There certainly was some of that. There always is. But some meddlers get more attention than others.
Nancy Pelosi %2816526886414%29., From WikimediaPhotos
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, September 27, 2019
Impeachment is on Rails. That's Not the Hard Part. Donald Trump abused his presidential power to pressure a foreign government to investigate a political opponent, then tried to hide what he'd done. That's indisputable. More importantly, it's enough. "Quid pro quo" in the form of foreign aid or not, and any other extant allegations aside, these are acts most Americans understand as corrupt.
SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, January 21, 2023
An Unkind Reflection and a Call for Kindness I may not have feelings to hurt, but others do. Please be kind to them. Or, if you can't be kind, shut your trap and go be unkind somewhere else.
SpanishAmericanWarPOW, From WikimediaPhotos
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, December 20, 2017
Trump's "National Security Strategy" is the Opposite of National Security The Goldwater-Nichols Act requires the president to submit a "National Security Strategy" report each year. Every president since Ronald Reagan has failed to comply with the law in one or more years of his administration, but on December 17 Donald Trump issued his report. Unfortunately, Trump's offering is of a piece with his prior displays of economic illiteracy and foreign policy jingoism.
DSC_0165, From FlickrPhotos
(5 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, August 10, 2019
Reading Is Fundamental. Congress Should Try It. We have way too many laws. Those laws are too long and at turns too vague and too detailed, depending on whether vagueness or detail better facilitate the arbitrary exercise of government power. If Congress can't be bothered to even know what's in the laws it passes, why should the rest of us be bothered to understand and follow those laws?
Mexican Migrant Workers in the Imperial Valley., From WikimediaPhotos
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, April 1, 2020
By The Time We Notice We're Hungry, It May Be Too Late Most Americans aren't hungry. Yet. But unless something changes, we're going to start GETTING hungry in a couple of months. And by then, it will be too late.
Pride in London 2016 - Chelsea Manning banner in the parade, From WikimediaPhotos
(4 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, September 15, 2017
Harvard Disgraces Itself to Appease CIA Crybullies The Washington Post reports that Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government has rescinded its offer of a visiting fellowship to whistle-blower Chelsea Manning. ... the Kennedy School's action and Elmendorf's statement are a stain on the nearly 400-year-old university's honor.
Kamala Harris %2848004626686%29., From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, June 30, 2019
Kamala Harris: Trump, But with Darker Skin and Better Hair The math says that Trump's path to re-election is exceedingly narrow. In order to lose in 2020, the Democrats would probably have to nominate a candidate even more openly narcissistic and authoritarian than Trump (or Clinton). In Kamala Harris, they may have found their next loser.
Hiroshima, From ImagesAttr
(25 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, August 4, 2015
August 1945: Let's Talk About Terrorism Terrorism, per WordNet, is "the calculated use of violence (or the threat of violence) against civilians in order to attain goals that are political or religious or ideological in nature." The Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings meet that definition in spades.
Swine Flu Masked Train Passengers in Mexico City., From WikimediaPhotos
(6 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, February 28, 2020
The Politics of Panic are Far Deadlier Than the Coronavirus Political grandstanding over the coronavirus and "emergency measures" versus the coronavirus will almost certainly kill more people -- in the US and abroad -- than the coronavirus itself.
Seller holding rifle.JPG, From WikimediaPhotos
(16 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, June 11, 2022
Civil War Is Not the Solution to Mass Shootings I don't think a government war on America's gun owners would be anything like Afghanistan. I think it would be far worse, for both the government and for Americans, gun owners and non-gun-owners alike. Only 2,448 members of the US armed forces died in Afghanistan. The approach Rob suggests would likely produce at least Vietnam-level casualties (58,281 dead) ... and an outcome similar to both those wars.
Into the Jaws of Death 23-0455M edit., From WikimediaPhotos
(53 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, September 30, 2021
Military Vaccine Mandate: A Teachable Moment In the quarter century since my honorable discharge from the US Marine Corps, I've occasionally been asked by friends to have "the talk" with their teenagers who are considering military careers. Here's a short version of "the talk," for those considering enlisting and those who have, in the age of the COVID-19 vaccine mandate.
North Atlantic Treaty Organization %28orthographic projection%29.svg., From WikimediaPhotos
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, December 3, 2019
NATO is a Brain Dead, Obsolete, Rabid Dog. Euthanize It. If NATO was merely brain dead or obsolete, that would still be good reason to dissolve it. But it's actually far worse than that.
Andrew Johnson impeachment trial., From WikimediaPhotos
(7 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, January 31, 2020
Impeachment: The Problem with Biden Whataboutism I'm no lawyer, but I doubt that law schools teach the "what about HIM? He did it too!" defense. It probably doesn't fly in criminal trials. It shouldn't fly in an impeachment trial either.
Jeffrey Epstein mug shot., From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, July 10, 2019
Did Jeffrey Epstein "Belong to Intelligence?" More money buys more formidable lawyers (in Epstein's case, Alan Dershowitz and Ken Starr). More money usually means friends with more money, and with the influence that goes with having more money. It's just a fact of life that more money sometimes means getting away with -- or at least getting off easier for -- things would put you or me in jail for a long, long time. But another possibility rears its ugly head.
No Vaping Sign %2818562436519%29., From WikimediaPhotos
(8 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, September 20, 2019
E-Cigarettes: Media Bury the Lede, We Get to Bury the Bodies American regulators and politicians are hopping on the bandwagon of a baseless moral panic over e-cigarettes, created by so-called "public health" advocates and promoted by the mainstream media. The regulations and bans those regulators and politicians are proposing will increase, not decrease, the illnesses and deaths associated with "street vapes."
Google wordmark, From WikimediaPhotos
(5 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, August 11, 2017
Google to Employees: Feel Safe Sharing Your Opinions, as Long as They're Our Opinions Former Google engineer James Damore is suddenly between jobs. He's been fired, Bloomberg reports, for writing "an internal memo blasting the web company's diversity policies." Google has long cultivated a reputation for hiring smart people, turning them loose, and listening to them. This firing puts a giant dent in that reputation.
Philipp Jakob Loutherbourg d. J. 002., From WikimediaPhotos
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, June 27, 2023
The Industrial Revolution: Truth and Consequences "The Industrial Revolution and its consequences," reads the opening lines of "Unabomber" Ted Kaczynski's notorious manifesto, "have been a disaster for the human race." Personally, I'm a fan of the Industrial Revolution.
Stop Abortion Bans Rally, From FlickrPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, June 5, 2019
Election 2020: Biden Gets One Thing Right, But it May Cost Him Obviously pro-life Americans have good reasons to support the Hyde Amendment. But so do pro-choice Americans, if they're really pro-choice.
Core military and foreign aid expenditures of USA, NATO, Europe, Japan, From WikimediaPhotos
(8 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, December 21, 2017
US Foreign Aid: Bad for America, Bad for the World Supporters of foreign aid love to point out that it constitutes less than 1% of the federal budget. True, but that 1% comes with lots of strings attached for both parties.
500kV 3-Phase Transmission Lines., From WikimediaPhotos
(8 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, October 12, 2019
"The Grid" is the Problem, Not the Solution Americans should no longer trust aging "grid" distribution systems to reliably and safely supply electricity to their homes and businesses.
Discurso funebre pericles.PNG, From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, November 18, 2023
Vox Populi, Vox Humbug People exist. "The people," on the other hand, is a fiction that falsely implies unanimity of support, or at least of representation, to justify claimed unanimity of obligation.
Andrew Johnson impeachment trial., From WikimediaPhotos
(5 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, December 15, 2019
A Modest Proposal for Improving Senate Impeachment Trials Once the House passes articles of impeachment, Chief Justice John Roberts should order his clerks to drop everything else and get to work examining the public statements of all 100 members of the US Senate. His first order of business at the trial should be to excuse any and all Senators who have publicly announced their prejudices on Trump's guilt or innocence from "jury duty."
US Federal Debt Held By Public as of Feb. 2023., From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, May 9, 2023
There's Nothing "Clean" About a "Clean" Debt Ceiling Increase What does a "clean" increase mean? It means no politician has to give up anything. Nobody on Capitol Hill or at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue has to make any sacrifices. Congress just votes to increase the limit on a very special credit card, spent by it but billed to taxpayers (including future unborn generations). It seems like magic. But, of course, magic isn't real. And there's nothing "clean" about it.
Memorial to Michael Brown, From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Friday, March 17, 2017
Stranger Fruit Meets Rotten Fruit: Robert McCulloch and the Michael Brown Shooting I'm no more sure what to believe about the [Stranger Fruit] footage and its import than I am of precisely what happened that day between Brown and Wilson. But I am sure that the last person entitled to have his opinion on the matter taken seriously is St. Louis County, Missouri prosecutor Robert McCulloch.
Andrew Johnson impeachment trial., From WikimediaPhotos
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, October 24, 2019
Impeachment: Trump Has Already Confessed to "High Crimes" What's with all this "smoking gun" stuff? The decision to impeach is political, but in terms of evidence, it's already a lock. President Trump publicly confessed to multiple "high crimes" before House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) even announced the impeachment inquiry, then threw in a corroborating White House document.
Yes California, From WikimediaPhotos
(22 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, April 27, 2018
California Secession: A Good Start If Californians want to go their own way, they should be free to do so, as should other existing states and even smaller areas and groups.
Protest march against police violence - Justice for George Floyd %2849941871086%29., From WikimediaPhotos
(4 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, June 1, 2020
Time to Stop Messing Around and Strike at the Root of Police Violence The root of police violence isn't racism, nor is it the presence of "a few bad apples" on police forces, nor is it the absence of sufficient safeguards such as body cameras and civilian review boards. The root of police violence is the modern conception of policing itself: The creation of "police forces" as state institutions separate from the populace and dedicated to suppressing that populace on command.
BBC Eliminate DRM, From WikimediaPhotos
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, September 19, 2017
W3C Turns the Clock Back on an Open Web On September 18, Ars Technica reports, the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) published a new specification recommendation, Encrypted Media Extensions. The recommendation, which natively implements a "Digital Rights Management" scheme in web browsers, marks a giant step backward for user freedom and an "open" World Wide Web.
Protest march against Donald Trump, From WikimediaPhotos
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, January 23, 2019
Parkland and Covington: Two Schools, Two Causes, One Lesson As Finley Peter Dunne wrote, "politics ain't beanbag." Those who enter the public square in support of a cause ANY cause thereby open themselves up to mockery, misunderstanding, the whole panoply of unpleasant "engagement."
Huawei Mate 7., From WikimediaPhotos
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, May 27, 2019
Trump's Trade War Has Probably Permanently Damaged America's Tech Leadership Position Nothing Trump does can likely put Huawei out of business. He can temporarily hurt it, but he can't permanently kill it. The most momentous effect of his order is to put Huawei on notice that it must not, under any circumstances, ever again find itself at the mercy of US suppliers and of the US government's good will.
Blue Mailboxes, From WikimediaPhotos
(22 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, May 11, 2017
The US Postal Service is Dying. Let it. Like most monopolies, the US Postal Service isn't interested in changing its business model. An enterprise hemorrhaging cash in a free market would cut prices, improve service, look for new revenue streams, or simply close its doors. The USPS solution, as usual, is to raise prices and hope for the best. Alternative proposal: Let's put it out of its misery.
Twitter-logo.svg., From WikimediaPhotos
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, October 28, 2022
Musk, Twitter, and Friedman's Social Responsibility Observation Why did Musk buy Twitter? "I didn't do it to make more money," he writes. "I did it to try to help humanity, whom I love." That might seem an odd approach toward the people who use Twitter to make more money, and of course there's always the question of whether to believe him. But he sets out a vision that those advertisers should find attractive.
Foreclosedhome.JPG, From WikimediaPhotos
(6 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, April 24, 2023
US National Debt: "Validity" Doesn't Forbid Default The United States, as Alex J. Pollock notes at The Hill, has previously defaulted on its debts no fewer than four times, three of them since the ratification of the 14th Amendment. While doing so certainly entails consequences, it's obviously not fatal, else modern world maps would no longer advertise something called "Argentina."
Freedom Convoy lined up on Wellington Street Jan 28., From WikimediaPhotos
(49 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, February 15, 2022
O Canada: Let Us Now Praise the "Freedom Convoy" COVID-19 police statism looks like it's on the defense in some places, in full retreat in others, and on the verge of total collapse everywhere. Why? Because some truckers in Canada finally said "no more" and resolved to make it stick.
Hong Kong anti-extradition bill protest %2848108527758%29., From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, November 28, 2019
Non-Intervention: An Imperfect Solution to a Terrible Problem Yes, Hong Kong was "returned" to a "China" completely different from the "China" it was torn from, but nobody gets to tell the new "China" what to do within the agreed borders. At least, it seems, not for more than 20 years or so. I don't like that, but I don't have to like it. That's how it is whether I like it or not.
US Capitol west side.JPG, From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, December 8, 2019
Congress: The Snail's Pace Race On one hand, I often thank the Almighty for gridlock. If Congress isn't doing anything, Congress isn't doing anything stupid or evil, right? On the other hand, if Congress isn't doing anything, why do we continue to pay their salaries, hand them significant portions of our earnings, and listen to them flap their gums 24/7 about how important they are?
Anthony-De-Jasay., From WikimediaPhotos
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, July 20, 2019
Power, Not Policy, Drives American Politics From any debate between candidates for public office, one may collect a veritable basket full of promises. But listen closely to the promises and you'll find that unless the candidate is a Libertarian, they're always conditional: Give me more power, give me more money, and I'll give you X.
Flag of the Animal Farm.svg., From WikimediaPhotos
(39 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, May 13, 2022
"Privacy": Some Animals Are More Equal Than Others Your right to protest the actions of Very Special Important People like Supreme Court justices is subordinate to their right to not be annoyed, embarrassed, or in even the slightest manner inconvenienced by such protests.
Voting booths., From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Monday, May 29, 2023
Pre-Election Advice: Try Looking at Yourself the Way Politicians Do The usual way of thinking about politicians is: What do we think of them? ... I suggest trying to look at them from the other direction. What do those politicians think about us, and what do their attitudes toward us tell us about them?
Pirate Flag.svg., From WikimediaPhotos
(5 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, September 4, 2019
War in All But Name as US State Department Offers Bribes to Pirates The US State Department is offering cash bribes to captains of Iranian ships if they sail those ships into ports where the US government can seize them. The offers are funded from a "Rewards for Justice" program authorizing payouts of up to $15 million for "counter-terrorism" purposes. It's not about counter-terrorism, though. It's about doubling down on US President Donald Trump's decision to violate the Iran nuclear deal.
Pinocchio dolls in a shop window in Florence. Photo by Vladimir Menkov. Dual-licensed under the GFDL and CC-By-SA-2.5, 2.0, and 1.0., From WikimediaPhotos
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, October 29, 2019
Don't Make Mark Zuckerberg America's Political Truth Czar Politics consists of conflicting narratives. No two opposing narratives can both be true. In fact, both could be false. The question is not whether politicians' claims should be fact checked. The question is who should do the checking. In an even remotely free society, the only answer is "all of us."
Patriot Prayer vs Antifa protests. Photo 11 of 14 %2825095096398%29., From WikimediaPhotos
(5 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, June 19, 2020
No, We're Not All Antifa Now. But We Should Be. With respect to fascism, there are three possible orientations: Fascist, anti-fascist, and politically neutral. If the whole idea of antifa has you up in arms, you're clearly neither of the last two. Kind of narrows things down, doesn't it?
Supposed UFO%2C Passaic%2C New Jersey %28cropped%29., From WikimediaPhotos
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, June 17, 2023
UFOs: I Want to Believe, But I Trust No One (Well, No One from the Government, Anyway) I truly do want to believe that at least some "Unidentified Aerial Phenomena" (aka UFOs) are spacecraft of extraterrestrial origin. But to really believe it, I'd need to see real proof, not just claims un-backed by physical evidence, no matter how seemingly credible the source.
Julius and Ethel Rosenberg NYWTS., From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, June 27, 2023
The Rosenberg Case is Closed. Time to Open the Books. It's been 70 years since the executions of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg on charges of spying for the Soviet Union. ... But we still don't know the whole truth, and not everyone who's interested in the truth has forever to wait around for it.
1st Battalion 6th Marine Regiment take cover outside Marjah., From WikimediaPhotos
(5 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, August 3, 2019
Afghanistan: In Search of Monsters to Not Destroy Afghanistan is not and never has been a military threat to the United States, let alone the kind of existential threat that would justify 18 years of war. Yesterday isn't soon enough to bring this fiasco to an end. But Lindsey Graham and company would, given their way, drag it out forever.
Newseum 5 Freedoms 1st Amendment., From WikimediaPhotos
(17 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, August 6, 2019
Don't Let Mass Shooters and the New York Times Destroy Freedom of Speech Free speech is a core moral value for any society that aspires to freedom of any kind and to any degree. We must -- MUST -- have the right to form our own opinions, and to express those opinions, no matter how ugly others may find those opinions. Without that freedom, no other freedoms can survive.
Outside midtown of Tahrir area%2C Cairo during martial law%2C 4 February 2011., From WikimediaPhotos
(14 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, March 19, 2020
Don't Let Politicians Use Pandemic as an Excuse for Dictatorship A month ago half of us didn't trust Donald Trump, half of us didn't trust Nancy Pelosi, and many of us trusted neither. Now all of a sudden most of us seem to be practically begging both of them, and their henchmen, to order us around.
US Capitol west side.JPG, From WikimediaPhotos
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, May 31, 2019
The First Amendment Protects Ex-Politicians Too Yes, powerful entities with lots of money like to hire former members of Congress to lobby on their behalf. Yes, there's a "revolving door" between Congress, the federal bureaucracy, and those lobbying jobs that lends itself to corruption and sweetheart dealing. Yes, that's a problem. No, a ban on those practices isn't the solution.
Nancy Pelosi %2816526886414%29., From WikimediaPhotos
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, December 19, 2019
Trial and Error: Pelosi's Foolish Impeachment Ploy To the extent that the third presidential impeachment in US history is a "victory" -- the public jury is still out on that question and likely to remain so for some time -- House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) seems determined to snatch defeat from its jaws.
Donald Trump %2822663248423%29., From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Monday, July 22, 2019
Peckerwood Populism is About Political Strategy, Not Personal Belief Peckerwood Populism is enjoying a nasty resurgence in the Age of Trump (and Trump is far from its sole practitioner). Why? Because the Republican Party has failed to expand its base. ... If you can't expand your base, you win by working harder to get more of that base out to the polls.
Haitian national palace earthquake., From WikimediaPhotos
(11 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, July 9, 2021
Hands Off Haiti! Haven't American politicians spent the last several years kvetching about supposed "Russian meddling" in US elections? Is there some particular reason why "election interference" is bad when others do it to us, but good when we do it to others? The United States has intervened in Haiti's internal affairs for more than 200 years, almost always with poor results for both countries' populations.
Afghan graveyard, From FlickrPhotos
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, March 4, 2020
Yes, Trump Should Talk With The Taliban The word isn't being openly used by either side, but let's call it what it is: Surrender. The US government has surrendered in Afghanistan. No, not unconditionally. But it has surrendered nonetheless. And that's a good thing.
The Old Grand Jury Road, Saintfield, From WikimediaPhotos
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, August 7, 2017
Mueller v. Trump: Ain't Life Grand? The Wall Street Journal reports that "Special Counsel Robert Mueller has impaneled a grand jury to investigate Russia's interference in the 2016 elections." That report diverges from reality when it comes to purpose. Mueller's aim (and therefore the grand jury's real purpose) is to "get" US president Donald Trump and key members of his administration. "Russian meddling" is just the pretext.
The Kremlin, Moscow, From WikimediaPhotos
(4 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, September 29, 2017
The Russia-Blamers Think You're Stupid American voters are morons who can be gamed into doing anything by anyone with the ability to buy ads on Facebook and Twitter. I didn't say that. Russian hackers didn't say that, at least in public. That's what the propagators of the new Red Scare are claiming.
Kratom leaf 2, From WikimediaPhotos
(8 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, September 7, 2016
DEA Declares (Kr)atomic War on Americans Why is the DEA picking on kratom? The agency offers numerous excuses -- insufficient testing for the plant to have an approved medical use, its historical use as an opium substitute, its increasing use "to self-treat chronic pain and opioid withdrawal symptoms, with users reporting its effects to be comparable to prescription opioids." DEA says that last bit like it's a bad thing.
NL New Hampshire Governor%27s Forum %2830269963736%29., From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Monday, July 24, 2023
No Labels: An "Insurance Policy" ... for the Establishment No Labels would rather have a Republican in the White House for four years than a Democratic Party that rocks the policy boat or even, horror of horrors, stops providing cushy Capitol Hill sinecures exclusively to the members of an elite club.
Jeff Sessions, From FlickrPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Monday, October 16, 2017
Microsoft Corp. v. United States: Jeff Sessions Wants Open Borders, But Only for Police Hopefully the court will uphold the Second Circuit's decision and make it clear to Jeff Sessions that the whole border/sovereignty thing goes in both directions. But the tech sector and individuals who value their privacy shouldn't just sit still and hope for the best.
KOREAN WAR MEMORIAL, From WikimediaPhotos
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, March 4, 2018
More Korean War is "Worth it?" To Whom? Speaking to CNN on the possibility of resuming hostilities in the nearly 70-year-old Korean War (in uneasy ceasefire since 1953), US Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) says "all the damage ... would be worth it in terms of long-term stability and national security." Worth it, Senator Graham? To whom?
Andrew Johnson impeachment trial., From WikimediaPhotos
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, October 15, 2019
The Down Side of Impeachment Unless there's some dramatic change in the political landscape over the next month or so, I believe that the US House of Representatives will impeach President Donald Trump. Unless there's some dramatic change in the political landscape between now and Trump's trial in the US Senate, I don't believe the Senate will vote to convict him. Taken together, those two outcomes constitute a bad thing.
Propaganda Poster Art Centre, From WikimediaPhotos
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, December 29, 2016
Obama's Christmas Gift to Trump: A Ministry of Truth The CFDAPA's purpose is to set the federal government up as the plenary arbiter of truth and to marginalize any and all narratives that don't accord with whatever line gets pushed out of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. It's Orwell's Ministry of Truth in drag. Overt censorship might not be far behind.
Titanic iceberg, From WikimediaPhotos
(18 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, April 30, 2018
Social Security is the Titanic. 2022 is the Iceberg. Anybody See a Lifeboat? Whether or not one supports the original logic of Social Security (I don't), American demographics since the end of the Baby Boom boil down to fewer children per family combined with longer life expectancy. Or, to put differently, fewer young workers paying Social Security taxes to support more retirees for longer. That can't and won't continue in the same direction forever.
censored, From CreativeCommonsPhoto
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, August 14, 2023
Scary Story: Lindsey Graham and Elizabeth Warren Want to Run the Internet It's a giant leap of faith to expect a new government bureaucracy, armed with powers that clearly violate the First Amendment and other basic principles of anything resembling a free society, to accomplish much in the way of fighting Very Bad Things, real or imagined. The next time that happens will be the first time it happens. And there's not going to be a first time.
Dept of Justice, From WikimediaPhotos
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, July 17, 2018
Have Mueller and Rosenstein Finally Gone Too Far? House Republicans, already incensed with Rosenstein over his attempts to stonewall their probe into the Democratic Party's use of the FBI as a proprietary political hit squad, are planning a renewed effort to impeach him. If he goes down, Mueller likely does as well. And at this point, it would take a heck of an actor to argue with a straight face that the effort is unjustified.
Schoolhouse, Freedom, NH, From WikimediaPhotos
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, January 28, 2017
Why Are Republicans Backing Betsy DeVos? US president Donald Trump's nominee for Secretary of Education, Betsy DeVos, faces a great deal of opposition to her confirmation. Most of that opposition comes from Democratic politicians and Democratic organizations. But if both parties stuck to their stated principles and goals, the Senate would vote 100-0 against her nomination.
Cryptocurrency Mining Farm, From WikimediaPhotos
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, July 28, 2017
The State is at War -- with the Future What we're seeing is the latest bit of backlash from a political establishment scared witless by technologies which threaten to make it superfluous.
Barack Obama addresses joint session of Congress 2-24-09, From WikimediaPhotos
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, May 4, 2017
The Scandal Isn't Post-Presidential Speaking Fees, It's Political Pensions Under the aptly named Former Presidents Act, former presidents receive pensions equal to the salaries of cabinet secretaries. Right now, that's more than $200,000 per year. They also receive $150,000 per year for staff and office space. ... As of 2013, the average congressional pension was about $60,000 per year. Why on Earth should politicians receive taxpayer funded pensions at all?
People burned as heretics, From WikimediaPhotos
(19 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, February 20, 2018
Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Russiagate In case anyone's forgotten, Russia is a nuclear power. Throwing around the phrase "act of war" is over-the-top insanity. It's a call for the transformation of some Facebook ads into burning cities and piles of body bags, all because an election didn't come out the way some people wanted and expected it to.
Juul in hand, From WikimediaPhotos
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, July 26, 2018
JUUL Heist: Addicts Sue Company for Providing Their Fix Yes, nicotine is addictive. The plaintiffs knew (or, in the minor's case, at least should have known) that it was addictive before JUUL ever entered their lives. All JUUL did was offer them an arguably safer, and probably less socially awkward, way of getting their fixes.
Kerrymnoct21., From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, August 20, 2019
"Nuance" in Politics and Public Policy? No Thanks. Of all the words in the political lexicon, none makes for a brighter neon DO NOT TRUST sign than "nuance." According to WordNet, "nuance" is "a subtle difference in meaning or opinion or attitude." Nuance is a wonderful characteristic in painting, literature, music, and the other arts. In political philosophy and public policy, it's a cheat mechanism used for the purpose of creating unwarranted wiggle room.
Damage in Gaza Strip during the October 2023 - 49., From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, October 31, 2023
"Collateral Damage" Is A Confession, Not An Excuse War is an intentional activity and "collateral damage" is therefore by definition not "accidental." When YOU squeeze the trigger on a rifle, pull the lanyard on a howitzer, or press a button that drops a bomb or launches a missile, YOU are morally responsible -- and should be held legally responsible -- for the results of your actions.
SIG Pro by Augustas Didzgalvis., From WikimediaPhotos
(17 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, January 31, 2023
Guns: When "Constitutional Carry" Isn't Many gun rights supporters laud HB 543 as not just a good step, but something called "constitutional carry," even though among other defects, it doesn't seem to legalize "open" (that is, unconcealed) carry. Let's review what restrictions the US Constitution empowers government at any level to impose on the possession or carry of firearms: THIS SPACE INTENTIONALLY LEFT BLANK
WinonaSavingsBankVault.JPG, From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, September 13, 2023
The Lesson of Liberty Safe: Don't Just Lock Your Back Doors, Brick Them Over It's not criminal to value one's privacy and want to keep one's belongings secure from theft by criminals or governments (but I repeat myself).
American bases worldwide.svg., From WikimediaPhotos
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, June 3, 2019
Instead of a US Peace Plan for the Middle East, How about a US Peace Plan for the US? As addiction counselors say, the first step is admitting you have a problem. With addiction, the way out is not "if at first you don't succeed, try, try again." It's admitting that the thing you're addicted to will never solve your problems and giving up that thing. The United States suffers from a long-term addiction, since at least the end of World War 2, to trying to run the world.
Destroyed neighborhood in Raqqa., From WikimediaPhotos
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, October 27, 2019
In Syria "Withdrawal," Less is Probably More If past performance is an indicator of future results, what's going on in Syria isn't a US withdrawal at all. Instead of US forces departing the country, more troops and heavier weapons seem to be flowing into the country (and the region, including B-1B bombers to Saudi Arabia).
Donald Trump star Hollywood Walk of Fame.JPG, From WikimediaPhotos
(9 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, November 8, 2019
Impeachment: A Night at the Movies "If you say in the first chapter that there is a rifle hanging on the wall," wrote Chekhov, "in the second or third chapter it absolutely must go off. If it's not going to be fired, it shouldn't be hanging there." When Pelosi announced the House impeachment inquiry on September 24, she was figuratively hanging a gun on the wall of the House chamber ...
Net Neutrality Vigil, From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Monday, August 21, 2017
Net of the Long Knives? Neutrality Advocates Put it in Reverse What gives, guys? A month ago, you were promoting the message that stuff like this would end the "free and open Internet." Why is Net Neutrality sauce good for the geese (ISPs), but not for you ganders (other providers of Internet services)?
Garrison Keillor at Wilshire Theatre, From WikimediaPhotos
(4 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, November 30, 2017
And Now, A Prairie Home Sexual Harassment Complaint America is in the middle of an agonizing reappraisal of sexual conduct. What constitutes sexual harassment or assault? Where is the line that separates acceptable, or merely rude, actions from unacceptable, and possibly criminal or civilly actionable, behavior? ... It's impossible to know in advance how far any social sea change will go, or how far it should go. But this one may have just seen its first bit of backlash ...
Wuhan Institute of Virology main entrance., From WikimediaPhotos
(17 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, June 13, 2021
Wuhan Lab Leak: It's Not a "Theory" Was SARS-COV-2 -- the virus responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic -- created (or at least weaponized by being made transmissible to and between humans) in a Chinese research lab? Was it then leaked, accidentally or intentionally, from that lab into the human population? ... Seventeen months into the news cycle surrounding those questions ... they're still putting off lots of heat and very little light.
US Capitol west side.JPG, From WikimediaPhotos
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, September 30, 2019
Politicians: A Necessary Demystification Politicians are people with jobs and with bosses. On its face that seems like a relatively uncontroversial statement, but I'm always surprised at how much time people spend looking for high principle in the decisions politicians make instead of considering the mundane dynamics of political employment.
Well Rohtas qila, From WikimediaPhotos
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, June 27, 2017
What The Deep State Is Buzzwords come and buzzwords go. Lately, a trending buzzword -- or, I guess, buzz phrase -- among the politically inclined is "Deep State." Google News returns 127,000 recent media uses of the phrase. So what, precisely, is the Deep State? There's actually both more and less to it than you might think.
ITT Technical Institute campus Canton Michigan, From WikimediaPhotos
(16 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, September 15, 2016
College Loan Debt: Former Students Strike the Wrong Pose As a callow youth, I attended but quickly dropped out of college with some student loan debt. It wasn't the huge debt a full four-year degree would have entailed, but yeah, it was hard. I fell behind, defaulted and eventually my wages were garnished to pay it off. But for some reason it just never occurred to me to hold anyone else -- the bank, the government, society -- responsible for me getting myself into debt.
Bitcoin, From WikimediaPhotos
(8 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, January 14, 2017
Bitcoin Isn't The Corpse. It's The Undertaker. Every time the market value of Bitcoin drops as measured by its exchange value against government fiat currencies, the same people who declared it dead last time, and the time before that, come out of the woodwork to declare it dead again. The world's most popular cryptocurrency, which just celebrated its eighth birthday, once again finds itself surrounded by priests offering it last rites ...
Legal Gavel, From WikimediaPhotos
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, October 11, 2017
Excessive: Bail Isn't Meant to Enable the Holding of Political Prisoners The sole legitimate purpose of bail is to ensure that the defendant shows up for trial so as to not forfeit some significant amount of money or property. Conditioning bail on the defendant's political beliefs -- or, worse, denying it entirely over those beliefs -- is by definition "excessive."
YPG and US army Hassaka 1-5-2017., From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, October 8, 2019
Entangling Alliances Make For Forever Wars Like adhesive bandages, entangling alliances cover ugly wounds and seldom come off without pain. But leaving them in place and letting the wounds fester is even worse.
Blood test %281%29., From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Friday, March 31, 2023
Fraud Is Baked Into the American Healthcare Cake There are many structural defects in an American HMO/PPO/prepaid care system that masquerades as "insurance." One of them is a tendency to mask outright fraud. If ProPublica's reporting is accurate, Cigna's practices are an example of that defect.
Heroin aufkochen, From WikimediaPhotos
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, June 7, 2017
Drug Overdose Deaths, 2016: Casualties of War Drug overdose is now the leading cause of death among Americans under 50, the New York Times's Josh Katz reports. In 2016, overdoses claimed somewhere between 59,000 and 65,000 lives. ... those 60,000 or so dead Americans aren't victims of a faceless "epidemic." They're casualties of a decades-long war waged on the American public by the federal and state governments.
Bellamy salute 1915, From WikimediaPhotos
(6 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, October 8, 2017
Take a Knee. Take a Seat. Take a Chill Pill. I was brought up to respect the flag. The Marine Corps reinforced that tendency. ... My personal politics notwithstanding, I'm a little bit attached to its symbolism. But at the end of the day, the flag is a piece of cloth that some people don't attach positive, let alone reverent, feelings to.
Boercamp1., From WikimediaPhotos
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, June 26, 2019
Yes, They're Concentration Camps Yes, the detention facilities in which the US government forcibly holds large numbers of immigrants are concentration camps. Yes, most Americans in this day and age associate the term with the Holocaust -- and AOC certainly encouraged the comparison. But words mean things and inflammatory comparisons from either side don't change the meaning of the term "concentration camp."
1857 panic., From WikimediaPhotos
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, March 15, 2023
Bank Collapses: Yes, It's a Taxpayer Bailout US president Joe Biden "stresses that Silicon Valley Bank is not getting a bailout," The Hill reported on March 13. "[N]o losses will be borne by the taxpayers," he said of the federal government's decision to cover depositor losses in excess of $250,000. "Instead, the money will come from the fees that banks pay into the Deposit Insurance Fund." But Biden's explanation doesn't support Biden's claim.
Construction crews continue work on the new border wall. Photo by Mani Albrecht. Public Domain., From InText
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, February 18, 2020
Freedom for $5.30 -- and This Time Mexico Really IS Paying For It No matter how much money politicians like Trump spend trying to restrain and impoverish the people they stole it from, those seeking freedom and prosperity find ways to win through -- and to do so for far less.
Jefferson_Barracks_Cemetery_20 12_048, From FlickrPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, November 11, 2017
Veterans Day: "Appropriate Homage" Armistice Day is a thing of the past. In 1954, Congress struck the word "Armistice" from the 1938 law and inserted the word "Veterans." Why? "[I]n order," wrote president Dwight D. Eisenhower, "that a grateful Nation might pay appropriate homage to the veterans of all its wars." What does that mean, 63 years after Eisenhower's proclamation and 99 years since the guns fell silent? USA Today reports that it means Free Stuff.
Maduro and Guaid (Presidential crisis), From WikimediaPhotos
(16 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, January 27, 2019
Venezuela: None of Our Business How Venezuelans choose to conduct their political affairs never has been and is not now the business of the US government. One need support neither Maduro nor Guaido to reach this conclusion. It's simply not up to Donald Trump, Mike Pence, Marco Rubio, or any other American politician to run Venezuela.
Illustrated London News - Christmas Truce 1914., From WikimediaPhotos
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, December 23, 2019
The Christmas Truce of 1914: Proof that Peace is Possible he "Christmas truce" didn't end "the war to end all wars." It dragged on for nearly four more years, at a cost of more than 20 million lives. But for a brief moment peace reigned, proof that the already hardening hearts of opposing armies could at least temporarily melt and that soldiers could treat each other as human beings rather than as mortal enemies.
Republican National Convention 1912, From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, June 30, 2016
Yes, a GOP Delegate Revolt is Possible Is Trump right? Is it "illegal" for the delegates to do what they want instead of what Trump and the RNC claim the rules demand? In a word, no. Keep in mind that at a national convention, the delegates run the national committee, not the other way around. They make the rules. They can change the rules. They can suspend the rules. And even the rules as written leave room for a revolt.
Ivanka Trump and Donald Trump, From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, October 31, 2017
What Difference at This Point Does the Trump Dossier Make? None. All political campaigns -- or at least all political campaigns worth their salt -- do what's called "opposition research." They dig as deeply as possible (or as they can afford to) into their opponents' political, business, and personal lives looking for dirt that can be used to win elections. ... If this sounds like a bad thing to you, think again.
From commons.wikimedia.org: March on Washington for Gun Control 038, From Images
(7 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, February 18, 2018
Why We Must "Politicize" Guns Support for or opposition to "gun control" legislation is by definition political. It can't be anything else. We're not sitting around the dining room table talking about the weather, baseball, or little Bobby's upcoming piano recital. We're in each others' faces over proposed or opposed use of force by government.
Voting booths, From WikimediaPhotos
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, July 21, 2018
Elections: More than Half of Americans Believe Fairy Tales are Real According to a new poll ... 51% of respondents agree (15% "strongly" and 36% "somewhat") with the statement "American elections are fair and open." The Ipsos headline characterizes that percentage as "only half." That's akin to noting that "only half" of Americans believe the Earth is a flat disc of provolone cheese, balanced atop the fingertips of seven celestial belly dancers. "Only" half?
Health topic image, From WikimediaPhotos
(7 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, July 16, 2017
Healthcare: A House Divided Cannot Stand Let me define the problem by mangling a famous Abraham Lincoln speech: A house divided against itself cannot stand. I believe this healthcare system cannot endure, permanently, half government-run and half kind-sorta private. I do not expect healthcare to disappear -- but I do expect it will cease to be divided. It will become all one thing or all the other.
Melania Trump with Michelle Obama at the White House %28crop%29., From WikimediaPhotos
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, August 18, 2020
An Open Letter to Michelle Obama Given your party's Herculean efforts to blow its second presidential election in a row, and your complete cooperation with those efforts, you've got a lot of nerve to lecture millions of Americans, wagging your finger at us and demanding that we not "withhold our votes in protest or play games with candidates who have no chance of winning."
Bitcoin Vietnam ATM, From WikimediaPhotos
(6 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, June 8, 2017
Bitcoin: Riding High, But in Crisis Any currency, digital or otherwise, has to function well as a "medium of exchange" if people are going to use it. That is, they need to be able to actually buy and sell stuff with it. If they can't, it's also not going to be something they trust as a "store of value" to save for later buying and selling. Bitcoin has come up against the problem of more transactions than the network can handle quickly.
US Capitol west side.JPG, From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Monday, February 17, 2020
Don't Let Trump's Budget Proposal Be Used to Distract You From the Real Spenders For nearly a century, under the Budget and Accounting Act of 1921, the president has been required by law to submit an annual budget request. And for nearly a century, Congress has felt free to ignore that budget request.
Image of Air Force One, Secret Service Agents and the Presidential Limousine, From WikimediaPhotos
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, April 12, 2017
Trump's Security Tab: A Good Case for Separation of Church and State Treating presidents and former presidents as God-Kings at taxpayer expense violates the First Amendment's establishment clause. It's ceremonial observance of an official state religion, a religion the Libertarian Party's Statement of Principles calls "The Cult of The Omnipotent State."
1st Battalion 6th Marine Regiment take cover outside Marjah., From WikimediaPhotos
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, September 11, 2019
Trump Didn't Start the War in Afghanistan, But He Owns It Firing John Bolton is a good start. Nobody sane wants a guy who looks like Captain Kangaroo but talks like Dr. Strangelove whispering foreign policy advice in a president's ear. The main effect of his departure from the White House is to shift perceived responsibility for America's ongoing fiasco in Afghanistan back where it belongs: Squarely on the shoulders of Donald J. Trump.
E-Cigarette E-liquid by Vaping Monkey %289628487175%29., From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, November 21, 2019
Trump's Course Correction on E-Cigarettes: Great Idea, No Matter His Reasons President Franklin Delano Roosevelt once told a group of lobbyists, who were pushing a policy change at him, "Okay, you've convinced me. Now go out and bring pressure on me." That's how politics works. Politicians appease voters and activist groups who can help or harm their careers. Sometimes that works out well for the public, sometimes it works out badly. In this case it works out well ...
2017-us-green-card-specimen., From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, August 15, 2019
Politics versus Policy in the New "Public Charge" Rules If Americans want fewer "public charges," the solution isn't to single out immigrants for exclusion from government welfare benefits. It's to eliminate, or at least drastically reduce and toughen eligibility requirements for, those welfare benefits. For everyone, not just for people who happen to hail from the "wrong" side of an imaginary line on the ground.
Alleged lizard monster photographed by Louis B. Reynolds near Fort Myers, Florida. Public domain., From Uploaded
(35 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, August 31, 2022
Florida Gubernatorial Election: Swamp Monster Cage Match Rick DeSantis and Charlie Crist ARE the swamp. They may not represent EVERYTHING wrong with American politics, but between them they represent most of those things. They're twin poster boys for term limits, with the preferred number being "zero."
Long past time, From FlickrPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, June 17, 2023
Thank You, Donald Trump. Yes, Really. As I write this, former US president Donald Trump's probably finishing up his morning shave routine and picking the suit he'll wear to his arraignment, later in the day, on 37 federal criminal charges relating to his possession and handling of "classified information" since leaving office. For this matter, if nothing else, Trump deserves the thanks of a grateful nation. Wait ... what? Yes, really.
Gary Johnson, From WikimediaPhotos
(6 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, September 9, 2016
Election 2016: It's a Presidential Campaign, Not a Geography Quiz [M]ost Americans probably know little if anything about Aleppo and don't care to, so they can probably sympathize. [Gary] Johnson's foreign policy focus as a presidential candidate is "big picture." He wants the US to stop militarily intervening everywhere around the world at the drop of a hat. He doesn't have to know the name of every city in the world to know that he doesn't want to bomb them.
SigP220-pistol, From WikimediaPhotos
(37 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, April 25, 2017
NYC Gun Permit Scandal: Graft is Inevitable in a Corrupt System The US Constitution is crystal clear on the subject at hand: "[T]he right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed." Legally conditioning exercise of that right on possession of a permit is most manifestly an infringement. Additionally, leaving issuance of permits under the clearly unconstitutional scheme to the discretion of bureaucrats is a recipe for both tyranny and corruption.
Eichman Trial judges., From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, May 24, 2020
The Banality of Evil, COVID-19 Edition The policies Adolf Eichmann executed and enforced -- policies aimed at the extermination of the Jews -- were intentionally murderous. The policies Andrew Cuomo executed and enforced were deadly too, but in a grossly negligent rather than openly intentional, way. That's the DIFFERENCE between Cuomo and Eichmann. The SIMILARITY between the two is in their shared defense.
Casa de locos., From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, May 13, 2023
Terrible Ideas + Evil Actions /= "Mental Illness" Is it ever reasonable to blame "mental illness" for terrible ideas and violent behavior? If so, what are the metrics for distinguishing between individual responsibility and helpless derangement?
FEMA - 5399 - Photograph by Andrea Booher taken on 09-28-2001 in New York, From WikimediaPhotos
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, September 12, 2016
9/12: The Appeal to National Narcissism is Alive and Well 9/11 will remain American political propaganda's killer app (pun intended) for many years, I'm sure, but I consider 9/12 and the following few days far more important in the scheme of things.... Fifteen years on, it is clear that America's political class still relies on Americans having learned nothing, forgotten nothing, and forgiven nothing.
COVID-19 highway sign in Toronto%2C March 2020., From WikimediaPhotos
(13 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, April 21, 2020
Whither the Precautionary Principle? Over the last half century or so, regulators and activists have regularly invoked the precautionary principle .... Then came COVID-19, and all of a sudden many of the same voices who'd have followed the precautionary principle to hell and back to stop construction of a nuclear power plant or delay the logging of a plot of old growth forest completely abandoned it.
Ramesseum on West Bank of Luxor Egypt., From WikimediaPhotos
(10 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, October 3, 2022
Imperial Delusion is the Enemy of Peace and Prosperity With the Russian empire trying in vain to stave off final collapse, the US empire clearly in terminal decline, the EU threatening to come apart at the seams, and any near-future Chinese imperial ambitions likely to fail, the future of humanity might best be served by discarding the notion of empire itself.
Modern loading dock., From WikimediaPhotos
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, May 13, 2019
Trump's "Trade War" is a War on You Punitive tariffs on Chinese and other foreign goods are simply corporate welfare. They are a mechanism for redistribution of wealth from American consumers and workers to the most politically connected American business owners.
Fundamentals of Business - Fig. 2.9 - The United States National Debt, From WikimediaPhotos
(23 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, September 8, 2017
Trump on Debt: Even More Establishment Than The Establishment White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders characterizes the Trump/Schumer proposal as "a more permanent solution to the debt ceiling." By which she means that in the future, no one on Capitol Hill or at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue will even bother to put on a burlesque of fiscal responsibility. Any time the credit card is about to max out, the limit will just go up automatically.
Huawei P10, From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Friday, February 16, 2018
No Huawei! US Spy Chiefs Reverse Course on Phone Spying In early 2017, James Comey took Apple to court, demanding that the company help the FBI hack into the iPhone used by San Bernardino terrorist/murderer Syed Farook. Other officials have kept up a steady whine against strong encryption ever since. But now, CNN reports, the FBI and other US intelligence agencies are suddenly and ever so deeply concerned with preserving your smart phone privacy.
USS Ronald Reagan (CVN-76), From WikimediaPhotos
(4 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, December 12, 2017
Here Comes the Next "Defense" Shakedown Is Trump truly under the mistaken impression that US military might is ailing? Or is he mindlessly aping Ronald Reagan and hoping it brings in the re-election votes? Or perhaps something else entirely? The NDAA budgets nearly $700 billion for the US military next year. Despite its name, there's precious little "defense" involved.
Internet stats, From WikimediaPhotos
(9 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, June 20, 2017
Mere Anarchy: The Center Cannot Hold One side effect of the Industrial Revolution was centralization. Production moved from home workshops into factories. The fragmented political and economic power of small feudal fiefdoms was consolidated into the hands of national political classes and central planners. Three quarters of a century into the Information Revolution, its ramifications are finally becoming clear. We're decentralizing.
Surveillance-camera, From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, September 26, 2017
Privacy and Politics: The Hypocrisy of the Surveillance Statists The New York Times reports that at least six members of the Trump administration used personal email accounts to discuss White House matters. Excuse me for a moment while I break out the world's smallest violin and compose "Dirge for the Lost Privacy of Sarah Palin, Hillary Clinton, Jared Kushner, Stephen Bannon, Reince Priebus, Gary Cohn, Ivanka Trump and Stephen Miller."
Meijer, From FlickrPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, June 3, 2023
Earned Income versus Student Debt: When the Shoe Is On The Other Claw ... That "claw back" expression seems to be Elizabeth Warren's word version of a Swiss Army [TM] knife. Sometimes it's positive, sometimes it's negative, and coming from Warren it seems to mostly just be used to make falsehoods sound true.
Ivanka Trump and Donald Trump, From WikimediaPhotos
(19 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, September 10, 2018
The Anonymous Anti-Trump Op-Ed Inadvertently(?) Exposes Real Danger The op-ed itself was a jejeune and mediocre example of a time-honored American pastime, talking smack about one's boss behind his back. On its own terms, it deserved at most a brief period of public mockery before fading away to something less than an historical footnote. But then Trump responded swiftly and decisively from his favorite bully pulpit, Twitter.
Artificial intelligence prompt completion by dalle mini., From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Friday, May 19, 2023
Regulatory Capture Won't Stop the Singularity If regulation won't stop technological singularity -- and the accompanying obsolescence or even extinction of humankind -- what will? Nothing.
President Joe Biden speaking at the joint session of Congress., From WikimediaPhotos
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, September 8, 2022
Joe Biden's Battle for "the Soul of This Nation" is a Fascist versus Fascist Cage Match Joe Biden has been a cog in the American fascist machine ... for more than 50 years, promoting everything from mass incarceration to state control of enterprise through "industrial policy." His sole valid complaint about "the MAGA philosophy" is that it re-introduces the "cult of personality" aspect of fascism's Spanish and pre-World-War-2 Italian, German, Japanese, and Soviet variants.
Usdollar100front., From WikimediaPhotos
(10 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, September 10, 2019
Universal Basic Income is a Totalitarian State's Dream Scheme Supporters of a basic income span the political spectrum and the economic upheavals of the 21st century -- especially fears that automation will increasingly replace human workers -- are likely to fuel its journey to the center of policy discussions over the next few years. A guaranteed income for the masses isn't here, but it may well be coming. That's a bad thing.
Cryptocurrency logos., From WikimediaPhotos
(5 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, January 2, 2020
Real Democracy Requires a Separation of Money and State Involuntary taxation is the opposite of the consent of the governed. It's the opposite of democracy. We can have financial regulators and central banks, or we can have democracy. We can't have both. Cryptocurrency threatens the reign of government over money. It bodes a future in which, as an old antiwar slogan puts it, the Air Force will have to hold a bake sale if it wants to buy a new bomber. That's the future I want.
US Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) addresses the 2016 Democratic National Convention (public domain, Wikimedia commons), From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Friday, August 12, 2016
Holiday Greetings From Planet Elizabeth Warren How exciting! A new "birther" controversy motoring over the horizon in our direction! Senator Warren passed on a presidential run this year but enjoyed considerable buzz and may well reconsider in 2020 or 2024. So I'd like to see her birth certificate -- long form, please -- with a view toward contesting her eligibility. She's obviously not from this country, and probably not even from this planet.
Voting booth3, From WikimediaPhotos
(7 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, December 5, 2017
A Pizza Problem: Why Those Third Party Polls Don't Pan Out In every presidential election, pluralities or majorities say they're "willing to vote for" or "interested in seeing" a third party candidate. In between, pluralities or majorities proclaim the "need" for a third party. That excites third party activists like me (I'm a long-time Libertarian). But in election after election, the actual voting returns Republicans and Democrats to Congress and the White House. Why?
Money, From CreativeCommonsPhoto
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, February 14, 2024
Foreign Military Aid: $95.3 Billion Sounds Like a Lot of Money. So Does Your Cut. Don't let them dazzle you with political marketing. They're just taking your money and giving it to their friends, and that's all they're doing.
Eugne Delacroix - La liberte' guidant le peuple, From WikimediaPhotos
(4 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, November 4, 2017
Will the Real Populism Please Stand Up? Populism is quite easy to define. It is the separation of people into two warring classes. Let's call them "the righteous masses" and "the power elites." The populist, of course, sides with the "righteous masses". It's as simple as that. But the devil is in the details of defining those two classes.
Thomas B Jeffery Works Drawing, From WikimediaPhotos
(39 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, April 20, 2017
"Buy American, Hire American" is Anti-American Capital tends to flow to where it can be most profitably invested. There's no secret conspiracy to deprive Bob in Wisconsin of gainful employment so that Li can have a job in Shenzhen. If a manufacturer can make a widget in Shenzhen, get that widget to America, and sell it at less than the cost of making it in Kenosha, Shenzhen wins ... and so does the consumer who buys that widget for less.
Prostitution laws of the world, From WikimediaPhotos
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, May 29, 2018
Rubio and Warren Join Forces Against Working Folks In April, a year after its introduction in the US Senate by Marco Rubio (R-FL) and Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), the US House of Representatives passed the End Banking for Human Traffickers Act, "an act to increase the role of the financial industry in combating human trafficking." Of four quick and easy tests for bad legislation, the bill passes three ...
College Hall NCF., From WikimediaPhotos
(4 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, March 30, 2023
Florida: New College, Same Old Problem If Ron DeSantis wanted New College to become a "Hillsdale of the South," the correct approach would have been to sell it off (or donate it to) "conservative" private sector operators. Instead, he did exactly what he (and other "conservatives") constantly accuse "the left" of doing, and have been doing themselves for decades: He imposed his own political viewpoint on a state-operated school.
Sample Bitcoin paper wallet., From WikimediaPhotos
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, June 21, 2019
Facebook's Libra Isn't a "Cryptocurrency" When it comes to the goal envisaged by cryptocurrency's creator, the pseudonymous Satoshi Nakamoto -- to free money from control and manipulation by governments and central banks -- Libra is a dead end. Instead of being manipulated by one government or central bank, Libra will be manipulated by all of them.
Project Runway, From WikimediaPhotos
(18 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, October 21, 2017
The Cure for Weinstein is a Cultural Change We need a culture change. The current culture of planting seeds of fear -- the "stranger danger" mentality and such -- before victimization and offering sympathy after clearly isn't getting the job done. Instead of #MeToo after the fact pageantry, this problem calls for the inculcation of a strong, affirmative #NotMe attitude -- an unwillingness to be Victim Zero, or to remain silent as other victims inevitably follow.
Thanksgiving grace 1942., From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, November 22, 2022
Thankful 2022 I recently ran into a situation that summarizes my biggest "thankful" takeaway from 2022: A crowded Walmart. As in REALLY crowded. Uncomfortably crowded. "Please let me out of here" crowded. No, I don't like shopping, nor am I fond of packed crowds in stores. But this is 2022, and crowded stores mean that the COVID-19 pandemic panic is over.
US flag burning., From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, June 18, 2019
The "Solution" to Flag-Burning is Simpler Than a Constitutional Amendment If flag-burning is really a "problem," it's a problem with a simple solution: If you don't want to burn a flag, don't buy a flag, soak it in kerosene, and set it on fire. If you do want to burn a flag, don't steal someone else's flag, and don't burn a flag on the private property of someone who objects, or in a way that creates a danger to others (in a dry forest, for example).
Andrew Johnson impeachment trial., From WikimediaPhotos
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, November 9, 2019
Explainer: No, House Democrats Aren't Violating Trump's Rights "If the facts are your side," famed attorney and former law professor Alan Dershowitz instructed his students, "pound the facts into the table. If the law is on your side, pound the law into the table. If neither the facts nor the law are on your side, pound the table." As Republican attacks on the US House of Representatives' impeachment inquiry grow in fury, they more and more resemble the third instruction ...
MQ-9 Reaper - 090609-F-0000M-777.JPG, From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, January 5, 2020
The Soleimani Assassination: Worse Than a Crime, a Mistake Whether Trump is "wagging the dog" in an attempt to distract from impeachment, or playing "6D chess" in an attempt to get the US out of Iraq at the demand of the Iraqis themselves (I've heard both claims), he's turning friends against him and currying renewed European sympathy for Iran.
Charging Tesla Model S 01., From WikimediaPhotos
(20 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, June 6, 2022
Electric Cars: Great Idea, But Not a Panacea Over the last few years, the world's transition from powering our cars with gas-burning internal combustion engines to zipping along on battery power has accelerated faster than the Tesla Model S Plaid .... But the urge to get society completely electrified and off of fossil fuels suffers from both propaganda oversell and from practical problems.
International Criminal Court logo.svg., From WikimediaPhotos
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, March 18, 2023
International Criminal Court: Sauce for the Goose ... Vladimir Putin no doubt has a lot to answer for, but he's not alone.
Ambulance NYC, From WikimediaPhotos
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, September 6, 2017
Utah Case Highlights Need for Separation of Medicine and Law Enforcement Instead of merely changing the way they assist police, hospitals should make it clear that assisting police isn't their job. Around the country, police have long conscripted medical professionals as investigative assistants, demanding not just blood draws but forced catheterizations, enemas, and colonoscopies. The purpose of a hospital is to treat the sick and injured, not to act as an arm of law enforcement.
Hulk Hogan in TNA, From WikimediaPhotos
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, June 26, 2017
Everyone Should be Listening to Nobody Speak Terry Bollea's legal argument boiled down to "my feelings are hurt -- don't let Gawker get away with telling the truth." For this, he was awarded $115 million in compensatory damages and $25 million in punitive damages .... It turns out that Bollea's lawsuit had an angel investor, someone willing to pay for his lawyers with the express intent of killing Gawker
CellPhoneChargingStation., From WikimediaPhotos
(4 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, July 12, 2022
Don't Put the Government in Charge of Charging "Consumers shouldn't have to keep buying new chargers all the time for different devices," US Senator Elizabeth Warren tweeted on July 7. "We can clear things up with uniform standards -- for less expense, less hassle, and less waste." Looking to government for "less expense, less hassle, and less waste" is like looking to your favorite local buffet restaurant for fewer dishes and smaller portions.
1953 Iran coup d'etat -- writing motto against shah on wall, From WikimediaPhotos
(11 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, August 4, 2016
$400 Million: The Partial Price of Peace? When the US government sends $400 million in cash, stacked on pallets, to Iran on the same day the Iranian government releases four imprisoned Americans, it looks an awful lot like ransom. On the other hand, when the US government decides to keep $400 million sent to it by the Iranian government pursuant to an arms deal for 35 years without ever shipping the arms, it looks an awful lot like stealing.
Foggy Bottom - aerial view., From WikimediaPhotos
(13 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, August 18, 2021
Afghanistan: Did the Deep State Strike Out, or is it Striking Back? The claim that 13,000 troops, plus embassy and Afghan support personnel, couldn't be evacuated from Afghanistan in 18 months without the operation devolving into a deadly circus doesn't pass the smell test. It didn't happen because those ordered to make it happen didn't want it to happen.
Trinity Detonation T%26B., From WikimediaPhotos
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, June 25, 2020
Stop Blaming Russia, China for US Disarmament Failures The purpose of arms control talks is to reduce the likelihood that nuclear weapons will be used. The purpose of "modernizing" those weapons is to make those weapons easier to use. The US government needs to commit to the former goal and renounce the latter possibility.
Mary Street during the COVID-19 pandemic in Brisbane%2C Australia., From WikimediaPhotos
(9 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, September 18, 2021
"It Can't Happen Here," Down Under Edition Less than two years ago, Australia could be plausibly described as a "western liberal democracy." Today, Australia's regime is doing its best to show up Joseph Stalin and Kim Jong-Un as amateurs. And succeeding.
Douglas MacArthur signs formal surrender., From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, January 21, 2023
World War Three Isn't Coming. We've Been Living it All Our Lives. With all the nuclear saber-rattling lately, many fear that we're on the cusp of World War Three. In actuality, that war has raged for 78 years now, if such markers make any sense at all (we could just as reasonably posit a single war starting between some primordial Cain and Abel).
Voting booths., From WikimediaPhotos
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, September 2, 2019
Your Vote, Your Voice: Don't Waste It The message of the Republican and Democratic parties and their supporters to the rest of us is: If you don't like what we're offering you, tough. Vote for us anyway. Instead of voting FOR what you want, vote AGAINST what you hate. Don't listen to them. Whatever value your vote may have, that value resides in its power to reflect YOUR preferences.
OvermanCommittee, From WikimediaPhotos
(8 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, October 27, 2017
Twitter versus RT: Which One is State Media Again? Whether Twitter really buys into the "Russian election meddling" theatrics or not, it's pretending to. It's appeasing to the US government in the same way American film producers did with their post-World War Two "blacklists," and with respect not just to RT and Sputnik, but to anything and everything its masters in DC deem unacceptable (for example, accounts linked to Islamic and other alleged "extremists").
Monopoly board on white bg., From WikimediaPhotos
(4 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, May 15, 2019
Facebook Isn't a "Monopoly" -- Let's Not Make it Into One Facebook isn't a "monopoly" in any of the services it offers. It has loads of competitors, many of them doing quite well, and its users and customers have the option of using those competitors instead of, or in addition to, Facebook any time they like. More importantly, Facebook has no ability to prevent new competitors from entering the markets it serves. And therein lies a political paradox.
Pill box with pills.JPG, From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, October 2, 2019
Want Lower Drug Prices? Make the FDA's Authority Advisory, Not Regulatory No, we don't want more patient deaths and injuries. But it's not clear what a true balance sheet would say about how many lives FDA has saved versus how many Americans its regulations have killed.
RIAN archive 24609 Troop withdrawal from Afghanistan., From WikimediaPhotos
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, June 29, 2020
Afghanistan Bounties: Pot, Meet Kettle (and Turn Off the Stove!) If there is a Russian bounty program on US troops in Afghanistan now, it's clearly been less successful than the equivalent US program was 30-40 years ago. And with that program, the US government gave up any conceivable standing to complain about a Russian remix.
Andrew Johnson impeachment trial, From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, November 16, 2017
Impeachment Theater, 2017 Edition If past performance is an indicator of future results, then -- political theater -- is really all we can expect here. Two past presidents -- Andrew Johnson and Bill Clinton -- have been impeached. Neither was convicted. A third, Richard Nixon, might have been, but he resigned before the House could vote on impeachment.
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, March 14, 2020
Of Paul Krugman, COVID-19, and Broken Windows Contra Krugman, any "bright side" to catastrophe costs more than it's worth.
Terri Sewell holding Black Voters Matter sign on Election Day 2020., From WikimediaPhotos
(17 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, May 2, 2022
Note to Biden Administration: Election Years Are Particularly Bad Times to Call Black Voters Stupid Insulting the intelligence of America's 30 million black voters, and going especially hard on a third of those voters, doesn't seem like the smart play in an election year when the Democratic Party -- which usually enjoys high turnout and overwhelming support from those voters -- is already in trouble.
Joseph F. Smith Family., From WikimediaPhotos
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, November 19, 2022
"Respect for Marriage?" Not Really. Actual respect for marriage would involve getting both federal and state governments completely out of the business of deciding who can be, or is, married. Not just "on the basis of the sex, race, ethnicity, or national origin of those individuals," but completely.
Minutemans MIRV, From WikimediaPhotos
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, July 6, 2017
Who's That You Called Dangerous, President Trump? Kim Jong Un's regime has, in recent months, test-fired a handful of missiles harmlessly into the ocean. Only two months ago, Donald Trump ordered the firing of 59 missiles at military bases situated on the territory of a sovereign nation with which the US is not at war (Syria). North Korea invaded South Korea in 1950 and hasn't invaded another country since. How many countries has the US invaded since then?
100203houston lg, From WikimediaPhotos
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, March 28, 2018
Immigration Enforcement: Just as Bad for Americans as it is for Immigrants For many Americans, the issue of immigration enforcement is colored by a mistaken notion that its depredations are the price we pay for protection from ... well, something. Mistaken, yes, but sincerely held. So let's look at things from the other side of the ledger: The costs immigration enforcement imposes on non-immigrants.
From commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Washington_Post_building.jpg: Washington Post building, From Images
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, November 20, 2016
The Washington Post vs. "Fake News": Pot, Meet Kettle The Post's editors, mining the bottomless pit of mainstream media excuses for not predicting Donald Trump's victory in November's presidential election, think they've hit the mother lode with their newfound focus on "fake news" stories going viral in social media. The Post coming out against "fake news?" That's rich ...
1900 New York polling place., From WikimediaPhotos
(7 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, June 15, 2020
"Ballot Access" Fairness: The Answer is Already in Some Voters' Hands What's the virtue of the Federal Write-In Absentee Ballot? Simple: It's uncensored. Neither any candidate's "access" nor any voter's preferences are disallowed. Neither your local nor state election authority, nor the political party in power in your neck of the woods, gets to interpose itself between you and the candidates seeking your support.
Actiq-30-pack-600mcg-fentanyl- base., From WikimediaPhotos
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, September 30, 2022
Biden, Immigration, and Fentanyl: Republicans' Strange Version of "Logic" Our mutual friend Bob doesn't drink, and I can prove it -- see that trash can full of empty bourbon bottles on his back porch? Airtight case! High-quality deductive sleuthing on my part. You're welcome.
Cocaine lines 2., From WikimediaPhotos
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, November 6, 2019
Mexico: One Failed US War Doesn't Justify Another In the "war on drugs," there was never any chance that the drugs would lose. Who does lose? All of us who continue to tolerate our rulers' deadly and expensive folly.
Original Death Chamber at the Red Hat Cell Block at the Louisiana State Penitentiary. The chair is a replica of the original. The Red Hat was closed in the early 1970s. (Photo credit: Wikipedia), From WikimediaPhotos
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, December 25, 2016
Capital Punishment: Can We Cut It Out Already? Capital punishment seems to be going away, but it can't go away fast enough. Even as the Libertarian and Democratic Parties finally added opposition to the death penalty to their platforms this year, majorities in California, Nebraska and Oklahoma voted, to their shame, to retain the barbaric practice. The US is part of a shrinking club of evil ...
Eisenhower d-day, From WikimediaPhotos
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, January 25, 2018
Veterans in Politics: It's Not About Honor Forming a political organization around veterans is like forming a political organization around restaurant workers, stamp collectors, or avid kayakers. If it ever made sense, it stopped making sense a long time ago.
Eagle Claw wrecks at Desert One April 1980., From WikimediaPhotos
(4 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, May 20, 2019
A US War on Iran would be Evil, Stupid, and Self-Damaging Perhaps the most serious fiction at play here is the claim that the US seeks "regime change" in Iran because Iran is a brutal Islamic theocracy. If that was the point, the US would also seek "regime change" in, for example, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia ... The US seeks "regime change" in Iran because Iran goes its own way and refuses to take marching orders from the US.
White House lawn, From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, November 13, 2018
Talkin' Jim Acosta Hard Pass Blues: Is White House Press Access a Constitutional Right? The First Amendment protects not only a free press but freedom of speech, freedom of religion, and freedom of peaceable assembly to petition the government for redress of grievances. Does this mean that anyone who wants to report, speak, pray or just have a non-violent political get-together must be allowed to do so at the White House, on demand?
Andrey Vyshinsky reads the indictment of Karl Radek., From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, June 3, 2017
Stand With Ross Ulbricht. Shun His Tormentors. The polite language of procedural appeal in criminal cases is "reversible error" by the judge. But Katherine Forrest didn't fumble around and screw things up. She intentionally fixed the trial at every opportunity, for the express purpose of seeing Ross Ulbricht convicted of, and giving him the maximum possible sentence for, "crimes" for which he deserved not a day in prison ...
Gag-tapegag-lorelei-15610., From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, October 17, 2019
On Twitter, Some Animals Are More Equal Than Others It's neither judicious nor impartial to make some rules, then announce exemptions from those rules for Super Very Important Special People while heaping new rules on Normal Completely Unimportant People to keep us from acting like Super Very Important Special People.
Gifts xmas., From WikimediaPhotos
(4 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, November 13, 2019
Holiday Consumerism: Who Decides What "Nobody Really Needs?" I wouldn't dream of claiming that my "need" for a Les Paul is more urgent than, say, a starving child's need for a hot meal or a homeless person's need for shelter. On the other hand, my purchase of that guitar helped create paychecks that put meals in bellies and roofs over heads.
Ashtray with cigarette butts, From WikimediaPhotos
(6 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, November 16, 2018
Scott Gottlieb's Nicotine Nazism Will Kill Kids, Not Save Them Does tobacco kill people? Yes, it does. The more relevant question at the moment is why Scott Gottlieb is working overtime to guarantee that it kills more people at younger ages.
National Park Service 9-11 World Trade Center Debris, From WikimediaPhotos
(16 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, July 18, 2016
9/11: 28 Pages Later In December of 2002, Congress released its report on the "Joint Inquiry into Intelligence Community Activities Before and After the Terrorist Attacks of September 11, 2001." Part of that report, anyway: 28 pages remained classified until July 15, 2016, when they were finally presented to the public with significant redactions. Why the long wait, and what do the 28 pages reveal?
Donald Trump by Gage Skidmore 5., From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, March 15, 2023
Indict Trump? Sure, But Don't Forget That's Exactly What He Wants. If there's probable cause to believe Trump committed crimes, he should be charged and prosecuted. Prosecutors in New York and Georgia may make their moves soon, and special counsel Jack Smith could conceivably recommend charges relating to the January 6, 2021, Capitol riot. But, buyers beware: That's exactly what Trump wants.
Screen shot from a video released by US Defense Department's Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program, showing an encounter between a US Navy F/A-18 and an Unidentified Flying Object [public domain]., From ImagesAttr
(8 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, December 18, 2017
A Crowdfunding Proposal: UFOs Deserve Better and More Public Investigation Among the public, opinion on UFOs runs the gamut from belief that the whole idea is a product of fevered imaginations to conviction that Earth is frequently visited by extraterrestrial beings possessed of technologies beyond our ken. But all along that spectrum there remain good reasons to investigate UFOs.
%22Police Line%22 Tape., From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, January 16, 2020
A Loophole for the Lawless: "Qualified Immunity" Must Go Government employees are supposed to know their jobs, including the limits on their authority. If they don't, they shouldn't be given guns and badges, let alone protection from liability when they exceed those limits.
JediKnights., From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, December 11, 2019
JEDI Mind Tricks: Amazon versus the Pentagon and Trump Global Firepower lists 2019 defense budgets for 137 of the world's countries. Of those countries, 61 -- nearly half -- spend less than $1 billion per year on their entire armed forces. That is, less than the Pentagon wants to spend per year on a single computing system. It's not Amazon who's getting screwed here, it's the American taxpayer.
Millions March NYC %2815990456536%29., From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, June 10, 2020
Police Violence: "Reform" Is Not Enough The Justice in Policing Act isn't "transformative structural change." It's a band-aid on a gaping, traumatic wound that is, indeed, structural. The root of the problem isn't police violence. It's police themselves, and the system they serve.
Brett Kavanaugh and Mike Pence, From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, September 23, 2018
Kavanaugh: A Little Perspective, Please In what universe does not getting a gig as one of the nine most powerful judges in the United States equate to having one's life "ruined" or "destroyed?" ... Don't worry too much for Brett Kavanaugh. He's going to be fine.
TheWitch-no3., From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Monday, November 4, 2019
Messaging as Manslaughter: Massachusetts Modernizes the Salem Witch Trials Text messaging isn't manslaughter, any more than it's rape, robbery, or driving 60 miles per hour in a 50 mile per hour zone. Nor is possession of a doll or a mole or birthmark "witchcraft" as fantasized in 17th century Puritan New England.
Operation mallorca raid DEA., From WikimediaPhotos
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, March 12, 2023
War on Drugs: Terror Kingpins Condemn "Terrorist Organizations" Why do Mexican drug cartels exist? Why do they smuggle cocaine, heroin, and other substances into the US? Why are they willing to kill to protect their turf and snuff out competition? Because, as Willie Sutton supposedly said when asked why he robbed banks, "that's where the money is." Why is that where the money is? Because politicians like Roger Marshall and Rick Scott want it there, that's why.
Operation Crossroads Baker Edit, From WikimediaPhotos
(5 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, September 24, 2016
Twenty Years, Three Minutes: Time to Ratify the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty Four years after the Julin tests, the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty. US president Bill Clinton welcomed and signed the pact, but 20 years later the US Senate has yet to ratify it. Why? Your guess is as good as mine.
Family trump in the Easter Egg Roll (cropped), From WikimediaPhotos
(12 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, January 17, 2018
No, I Really Don't Care Much About Donald Trump's Sex Life. Here's Why. By Election Day -- November 8, 2016 -- everyone who wanted to know the truth about Donald Trump's sex life, marital foibles, etc. had received a crash course on them. And then America voted. Case closed.
SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, January 28, 2023
Lies, Damned Lies, and George Santos "There are three kinds of lies," Mark Twain wrote, (falsely!) quoting Benjamin Disraeli: "Lies, damned lies, and statistics." Politicians also tell three kinds of lies.
Tear Gas outside United States Capitol 20210106., From WikimediaPhotos
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, November 10, 2021
"Executive Privilege" Should Be Ended, Not Extended If Trump's name goes down in history for anything of substance rather than mere flash, it should probably be for his bizarre claim that people who aren't executives anymore retain "executive privilege" over information pertaining to their time in office.
WWII US Office Of Censorship-Pin, From WikimediaPhotos
(15 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, November 11, 2018
The Gift of Gab: Pennsylvania AG Abuses Authority to Chill Internet Speech Josh Shapiro is proving himself far more dangerous than Gab. It is he who should be investigated -- and hopefully shut down.
Top secret ver1., From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Friday, April 21, 2023
Mainstream Media Turn Coats on "National Security" Leaks In theory, journalism's job is to inform the public. In practice, "mainstream" journalism has, for at least the last few decades, largely become the government's stenography pool, reliably reporting every official assertion as fact and seldom asking pointed questions about any subject more important than which politician has been having sex with which porn star.
Powell UN Iraq presentation, alleged Mobile Production Facilities, From ImagesAttr
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, January 1, 2017
Russian Hacking Report: All Hat, No Cattle Marcello Truzzi, a skeptic of paranormal claims, once said "an extraordinary claim requires extraordinary proof." The claim of Russian interference in the election is certainly extraordinary .... So is US president Barack Obama's response ... The "evidence" in the report, however, is not extraordinary. It's not even ordinary. It's non-existent.
Voting booth2, From WikimediaPhotos
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, February 27, 2018
America's Democracy Hypocrisy Writing in The Atlantic, veteran election meddler Thomas O. Mela -- formerly of the US State Department, the US Agency for International Development, the National Democratic Institute and Freedom House -- argues that election meddling is different when the US does it, because ... well, "democracy."
Macuto incursion 02., From WikimediaPhotos
(5 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, May 8, 2020
Who Was Behind the Incompetent Venezuela "Invasion?" Was "Operation Gideon" a comedic interlude, or just the latest failed US intervention in Venezuela?
Rainbow flag breeze., From WikimediaPhotos
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, April 3, 2022
Florida's "Don't Say Gay" Bill Is Really About Politics, Not Sex The "Don't Say Gay Bill" is what we get when politics and education combine to produce a "wedge issue." So long as education is politically funded and politically regulated, we'll never lack for such issues.
Speak, Memory!, From YouTubeVideos
SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, July 11, 2018
Our Evil Gift to a Generation Which Didn't Deserve it Next year, the first generation of Americans who weren't yet born on September 11, 2001 will come of age. They'll graduate high school. They'll get jobs. They'll vote. What they will not do, because they can't, is remember: Remember a time before the 9/11 attacks, or the changes in American society that took place in the aftermath of those attacks.
Field of opium, From WikimediaPhotos
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, May 28, 2017
The War on Drugs is Why We Can't Have Nice Things, North Carolina Edition Apparently this month's crop of stabbings, armed robberies, rapes/molestations and teacher/student sex scandals in Catawba County, North Carolina aren't enough to keep the sheriff's department busy. Or maybe they just have too many deputies on the payroll. Something's obviously out of balance: They have time to go after gardeners.
Historic University of Florida Campus, From WikimediaPhotos
(9 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, October 17, 2018
One Libertarian's Free (Well, Nearly Free) College Plan With college as we know it becoming less valuable and online/distance learning becoming more viable, change is coming whether we like it or not. Why not seize an opportunity for "free college" as we wind down the existing system?
Jar for tips at a restaurant in New Jersey.JPG, From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, November 1, 2023
Anti-Tipping Rules Hurt Workers The idea of replacing tipping with a minimum wage doesn't provide a "floor" to the employee's earnings -- that "floor" is already there. Rather, it creates an artificial "ceiling" to those earnings.
AIP double feature., From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, September 13, 2023
Political Theater Double Features: The New Normal? "Speaker Kevin McCarthy returns to Washington this week," CNN reports, "confronting a twin set of challenges: avoiding a costly government shutdown and addressing growing calls on the right to impeach President Joe Biden, despite resistance from the party's moderates." Fans of DC theater may get a fall double feature!
Codex Magliabechiano %28141 cropped%29., From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, July 31, 2019
Human Sacrifice: A Grand Old American Political Tradition On July 25, US Attorney General William Barr ordered the Federal Bureau of Prisons to update its execution protocol and schedule five executions starting this December. Whether you support the death penalty or not ... it's worthwhile to ask: Why? More to the point, why now? Politics, that's why.
Amazon Fresh., From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, December 18, 2019
In Praise of Home Delivery Culture Much of the focus on home delivery culture, both positive and negative, is on lots and lots of stuff becoming more and more accessible. That's true, and relevant, whether you're a fan of consumer culture or bemoan it. But home delivery culture also incentivizes businesses to do things that are good for all of us. And it does so through market mechanisms rather than through political haggling.
Hurricane Harvey, 08/24/17, From MyPhotos
(4 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, August 30, 2017
Hurricane Harvey: About That Wall ... The conflict Donald Trump faces now is one of priorities. He can indulge his immigration obsession or he can let the market rebuild Houston. He can't do both.
Family trump in the Easter Egg Roll (cropped), From WikimediaPhotos
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, January 5, 2018
Fire and Fury: A Tale of Two Trump Lawsuits Two days before Donald Trump's inauguration as president of the United States, a former contestant on his reality TV Show, The Apprentice, sued him for defamation. At issue was his public response to her allegations of unwanted kisses and forceful gropes. He had caller her a "liar" and claimed she was motivated by greed and/or politics. Now the shoe is on the other foot ...
Top secret ver1., From WikimediaPhotos
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, April 14, 2023
Classified Docs Leak: Who Should Go To Prison Those documents should never have been classified in the first place. And the people who classified them KNEW that. If they were of any importance, they wouldn't have been shown to random 21-year-old members of the Massachusetts Air National Guard, especially in such an insecure manner that those personnel could hand-copy and/or photograph them, walk out with them, and share them with a bunch of gamer friends.
It's the Economy, Stupid, From CreativeCommonsPhoto
SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, February 6, 2024
Election 2024: It's Not The Economy, Stupid If you're seeking a reason to support either of them, look elsewhere.
Washington Constitutional Convention 1787., From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, January 19, 2020
Executive Power: Alan Dershowitz's Imagination versus the Constitution "The Constitution," Alan Dershowitz claims, "allocates to the president sole authority over foreign policy (short of declaring war or signing a treaty)." Where in the Constitution do we find the "allocation" Dershowitz refers to? He doesn't say, for good reason: The actual Constitution, unlike the one in Dershowitz's imagination, says the opposite.
Barack Obama and Donald Trump., From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Monday, January 15, 2024
Presidential Immunity: Trump Makes a Good Point Without Meaning To What's so outrageous about suggesting that a president who orders American citizens murdered should be held to answer in the same way, and face the same penalties, as a Mafia don who orders a competitor killed, or a regular American who hires a hit-man to murder a spouse?
South San Francisco Police -- Photo by D.C. Atty, Creative Commons Attribution license, From FlickrPhotos
(6 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, November 3, 2015
"Papers, Please" is Un-American The US government has spent the last 20 years or so turning its ID schemes into an internal passport system. It's nearly impossible to travel commercially on a plane, train or bus without showing "papers." Civilians who encounter police officers are treated as guilty of SOMETHING, until ID checks against a government databases establishes their innocence.
The Gerry-Mander Edit., From WikimediaPhotos
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, May 2, 2023
To End the Gerrymander Wars, Get Algorithmic The drawing of legislative districts across America is a never-ending partisan war. As the Forward Party's platform points out, "over 80% of Congressional districts are considered 'safe' seats -- they are either clearly Republican or clearly Democratic, leading to a reelection rate over 90%." That's not a side effect. It's the intent.
Figure 2. Examples of characteristics that may indicate a deepfake., From FlickrPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, June 27, 2023
Deepfake Porn is Creepy, Disgusting ... and Speech/Expression As creepy as deepfake porn -- essentially using software to e.g. put a recognizable facsimile of a person's head "on" the body of an actor in a pornographic video -- may be, it's inescapably fiction and expression, and entitled to the same protection as other fiction and expression.
(9 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, April 12, 2020
Will We Learn COVID-19's Most Important Lesson? If general lessons can be drawn from our experience of COVID-19 so far, here are three of them: First, never expect government to be prepared to respond to a pandemic. Second, never expect government's ad hoc responses to a pandemic to be the correct responses. And third, never expect government to admit its errors.
Occupy Portland, first day, From WikimediaPhotos
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, May 31, 2017
Free Speech: Ted Wheeler is the Enemy He Invokes The difference between Ted Wheeler and an "alt-right" agitator with a baseball bat is that Wheeler has a full-time police force, armed with lethal weaponry and effective legal immunity for its actions, at his beck and call. We've seen societies in which the likes of Wheeler lay down a party line and the police break out their tear gas and truncheons to suppress all opposition to that line.
KingsNortonInterior., From WikimediaPhotos
(24 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, April 3, 2021
America Unchurched: A Sign of the Times For the first time in its more than eight decades of surveying Americans' religious attitudes and practices, Gallup reports, church members constituted only 47% of the US population in 2020 -- down 23% since 1999, prior to which the percentage seldom dipped below 70%. Why the precipitous drop, and what might it portend for the future?
Judge Roy Moore, From WikimediaPhotos
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, November 13, 2017
Election 2017: The Moore You Know ... I personally loathe Roy Moore, and don't hold with a "presumption of innocence until the charges are proven beyond a reasonable doubt" standard when it comes to personal reputation. Public opinion is not a criminal court proceeding. My personal biases push me toward believing Moore's accusers. On the other hand, the timing is suspspect.
Censorship Word Behind The .Do Not. Signs, From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, November 15, 2017
The Honest Ads Act: "Fundamental Rights," Real and Imagined There's a right to speak. There's a right to listen or not listen to what someone says. There's a right to ask who's saying it, and to condition one's belief or non-belief on the answer. But that answer may be "none of your business," and there's no right to forcibly dictate otherwise.
Fars Photo of Casualties in Gaza Strip during 2023 War 26., From WikimediaPhotos
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, December 28, 2023
War and "Democracy": An Appeal to Self-Interest Why does the US government continue to mind everyone's business but its own -- providing arms, "advice," and even direct muscle to at least one side in almost every conflict on the planet, at your current financial expense and at your and your loved ones' future risk of experiencing the same horrors now inflicted on others? If all the talk about "democracy" means anything, the answer is: Because you allow it.
Thanksgiving in Camp, From WikimediaPhotos
(4 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, November 21, 2017
Things I've Found to be Thankful for in 2017 It's that time of year, and like most of you I'm planning on a big meal and a lazy afternoon as America celebrates yet another Thanksgiving. Naturally, I'm also thinking back over the previous year and looking for things to be thankful for. I've found some. Here are a few that aren't about family, spiral cut ham and so forth ...
Donald Trump by Gage Skidmore 3., From WikimediaPhotos
(22 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, November 7, 2020
America in Transition: Two Things Donald Trump Can Do to Burnish His Legacy Donald Trump has more than two months remaining in office. During that time, there are several steps he can and should take to burnish his legacy and set himself up to be remembered more kindly than his first four years and ten months in office might otherwise merit. Here are two of them.
Pentagon, From FlickrPhotos
(23 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, June 9, 2016
Got Milked? US "Defense" Spending 2017 In the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson asserted that the purpose of government is to secure the rights of the governed to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Jefferson, to put the best face possible on things, was hopelessly naive. The purpose of government is -- and always has been -- to transfer wealth and power from the ruled to the rulers.
Lord Acton in a Group Portrait at Tegernsee., From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, January 9, 2020
Trump versus Iran: Power Doesn't Just Corrupt, it Deludes America emerged from World War Two as the world's sole nuclear power and, unlike other combatant countries, with its wealth virtually unscathed and its industrial capacity increased rather than demolished. Its rulers saw themselves as able, and entitled, to dictate terms to almost everyone, on almost everything. ... the delusion persists.
Flag of the United Kingdom.svg., From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, July 17, 2019
Westminster: Bulldog, Not Poodle, for Best in Show The elephant in the UK's political room at the moment is, of course, Brexit. But another issue looms large as well, especially from across the Atlantic. That issue is foreign policy, particularly the UK's tendency to throw in with US military interventions in the Middle East.
VOA Ferguson protests (public domain, via Wikimedia), From WikimediaPhotos
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, August 6, 2016
Police Violence: Peace Isn't The Priority Precisely how did Korryn Gaines die? We don't know, and probably never will. The Baltimore County, Maryland Police Department admits that one of its officers shot her dead on August 1. ... The police also admit that before forcing their way into Gaines's apartment and killing her, they went out of their way to ensure their actions would be hidden from public view.
ElectoralCollege2016.svg., From WikimediaPhotos
(13 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, July 7, 2022
Third Party? America Doesn't Even Have a Second Party. Why can't a third party break through? There are plenty of reasons, but they all come back to the fact that the "major party" duopoly is actually a monopoly.
Netherlands, The Hague, International Criminal Court, From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, September 11, 2018
John Bolton versus the International Criminal Court: A Simple Solution Why is John Bolton suddenly so concerned with protecting notions of "sovereignty" (he uses the word nine times) that the US government itself routinely ignores at its convenience, claiming global jurisdiction over individuals and organizations outside its own borders in matters ranging from the 17-year "war on terror" to its financial regulation and sanctions schemes? The answer, in a word: Afghanistan.
US Supreme Court, From WikimediaPhotos
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, June 21, 2016
Utah v. Strieff: SCOTUS Fuels a Dangerous Fire The US Supreme Court's majority opinion in Utah v. Strieff, issued on June 20, is the latest in a long line of rulings expanding the powers of police at the expense of everyone else. Such expansions represent a clear and present danger to the public, and when resistance to the abuses they encourage explodes into open violence, as it surely will sooner or later, to police themselves.
Challengedballot004, From WikimediaPhotos
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, February 19, 2017
Florida's Shenanigans Make a Great Case for (Re-)Separation of Ballot and State In mid-February, Florida's Division of Elections stripped the state's third largest political party of its official recognition. ... this dirty trick [exemplifies] the real purpose of so-called "ballot access laws": To safeguard the Republican and Democratic Parties' near-complete control of American elections.
US Air Force Wikileaks blocked screenshot, From WikimediaPhotos
(4 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, April 19, 2017
Pompeo vs. WikiLeaks: It's No Contest CIA director Mike Pompeo calls WikiLeaks "a nonstate hostile intelligence service often abetted by state actors like Russia." WikiLeaks says that no, it is not in fact abetted by Vladimir Putin's regime. If I have to choose between believing WikiLeaks or believing Mike Pompeo, I'll believe WikiLeaks six days a week and twice on Sunday.
Campaign finance web final., From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, August 8, 2019
Tweeting Publicly Available Information Isn't "Shameful and Dangerous" Campaign contributions are, by law, easily discovered public information, on the premise that we all have a right to know who's giving money to which candidates ... and to act accordingly (short of criminal violence) with respect to both those candidates and those donors. And, let's face it, someone who donates the maximum legal amount ($2,700) to a presidential candidate has an agenda.
Straitjacket-rear., From WikimediaPhotos
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, January 12, 2020
It's Not Just Trump Supporters: Politics is a Pile of Shared Psychoses Donald Trump isn't some lone Typhoid Mary of "shared psychosis," nor are his supporters its only victims. Politics as we know it is made up almost entirely of shared psychoses.
Sample 09-F9 protest art%2C Free Speech Flag by John Marcotte.svg., From WikimediaPhotos
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, December 10, 2022
"Free Speech" and "Permissive Platforms" Aren't the Same Thing, But They're Both Good Speech regulated by law -- even law that embodies "the will of the people," were there such a thing -- isn't free speech. Free speech is simply an absence: The absence of threats of force (by law or otherwise) to forbid or punish speech.
Identification document United States passport photo ID document, From WikimediaPhotos
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, August 3, 2018
Papers, Please: Unfortunately, Trump Isn't Much Ahead of His Time Over the last few decades, the US has effectively re-created the Soviet Union's old "internal passport" system. Your rights to move about, to work, to conduct your financial affairs, and in general just to live your life, are subject to the government's demand that you prove your identity at any time and for any reason.
ElectoralCollege2024.svg., From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, June 17, 2023
Finally, Some Good Arguments for the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact You've probably heard the expression "a solution looking for a problem." The National Popular Vote Interstate Compact isn't really such a thing. It's more like a problem looking for another problem. But, thanks to Washington Post columnist Jason Willick, I've finally found some reasons to like it.
SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, March 1, 2020
Instead of Tax "Holidays," How About Real Tax Cuts? I'm all for lower taxes, but tax holidays aren't about lower taxes. They're about three things: Social engineering, political grandstanding, and special interest pandering.
Dashcam video of police officer Jeronimo Yanez shooting motorist Philando Castile, From ImagesAttr
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, June 22, 2017
The Castile Doctrine: Cops Without Consequences On June 16, a jury acquitted St. Anthony, Minnesota police officer Jeronimo Yanez of all charges in the 2016 killing of motorist Philando Castile. That acquittal was, in a sense, also a death sentence -- not for Yanez, but for future motorists unfortunate enough to encounter cops like him.
USPS mailbox, From WikimediaPhotos
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, October 22, 2018
Trump Goes Postal. But in a Good Way. On October 17, president Donald Trump announced plans to withdraw the United States from the Universal Postal Union, a 144-year-old international agreement which coordinates postal policies between 192 member nations. Trump left open the possibility of remaining in the UPU if those policies can be successfully renegotiated. Unlike many of Trump's initiatives relating to international trade, this one makes real sense.
Student loan debt., From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, January 15, 2020
Two-and-a-Half Cheers for Elizabeth Warren's Student Debt Plan I'm all for Warren's idea of "forgiving" a bunch of the existing debt. But any kind of lasting solution calls for less, not more, government involvement in general.
Marijuana2., From WikimediaPhotos
(5 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, April 3, 2019
This One Weird Trick for Legalizing Marijuana There's nothing complicated about this. People have used marijuana for millennia. New Yorkers have used marijuana since there have been New Yorkers. They're using marijuana now and they'll be using marijuana a hundred years from now. The only relevant question is whether or not they should go to jail for using it. The only correct answer to that question is no, they shouldn't.
Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan %282015%E2%80%93present%29.svg ., From WikimediaPhotos
(8 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, August 14, 2021
Afghanistan: Taliban Victories Explain the Wisdom of US Withdrawal The Taliban's march down the road toward Kabul didn't come out of nowhere. The Taliban didn't wake up one morning, realize US forces were withdrawing, and start planning to take over. They've been fighting to re-establish their rule of Afghanistan for two decades now, and for most of that time they've been winning.
Voting booths., From WikimediaPhotos
(4 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, August 8, 2020
The "Election Interference" Fearmongers Think You're Stupid When it comes to international political interference, turnabout seems like fair play, not like something to panic over.
Oprah Winfrey in Strget, Denmark on 30 September 2009, From WikimediaPhotos
(54 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, January 9, 2018
Oprah for President? Why Not? Just a few short years ago, the idea of a president without prior experience in political office was nearly unthinkable. Prior to 2016, the last major party nominee, let alone president, with no political resume was Dwight D. Eisenhower, who, you may remember, whipped Hitler in World War Two. And then came Donald Trump.
Bank Run on American Union Bank., From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, August 5, 2023
The Fix For Failure: Banks Should Sell Their Services, Not Gamble With Your Money Instead of "capital requirement" rules and "insurance" schemes to make fractional reserve banking "work," we need banks that keep 100% of their deposits on hand instead of loaning or investing those deposits, taking their profits in fees for processing checks and debit card transactions.
Irwin Schiff, From ImagesAttr
(24 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, October 20, 2015
The Death of an American Political Prisoner Irwin Schiff spent much of his later life in prison. He died in prison on October 16, blind and suffering from lung cancer, having been denied "compassionate release" to die at home with his family. So, who was this Schiff fellow? A mass murderer? Perhaps a serial rapist? Well, no. Irwin Schiff's "crime" was saying and writing things the federal government didn't want you to hear.
Behold... Technocracy!!, From CreativeCommonsPhoto
(12 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, September 2, 2021
COVID-19: Technocracy Flowered, and Failed While most of us gripe about particular technocratic edicts, few question the premise itself. It's just taken as obvious that the man in the lab coat knows more about air bags and crop yields than the Honorable Representative from Minnesota. Technocracy took root. And with the COVID-19 pandemic, it blossomed ... into the man-eating plant from Little Shop of Horrors.
Slide Fire Solutions Slidefire Stock on a GP WASR-10 AK-47 (no watermark), From WikimediaPhotos
(7 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, October 5, 2017
Bump Stock Ban Boogie: The Latest Silly Political Dance Craze Republican politicians and the National Rifle Association are already jumping on the bump stock ban wagon. I'm not surprised. There's no "there" there. The whole idea is even dumber, and less pernicious in effect, than the 1994 ban on "assault weapons" (defined as guns that people like Dianne Feinstein think look scary).
Form 1040%2C 2005., From WikimediaPhotos
(11 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, March 16, 2020
A Proposal for Real Coronavirus "Stimulus" If the US government is serious about "stimulus," it should announce that instead of accepting tax returns this year, the IRS will immediately (no waiting for April 15, no questions asked) cut and mail refund checks for every dollar of income tax it collected in Fiscal Year 2019.
Ronald Reagan and Clarence Thomas in 1986., From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Friday, April 21, 2023
More Equal Than Others, Clarence Thomas Edition Sure, he's been caught red-handed, after years on the take in an embarrassingly over the top way that should have been noticed long ago. But that's not HIS fault, it's the fault of those who noticed. Impeach him? Prosecute him? At least harry him into resigning in disgrace? Why, we mustn't do any of that. After all, he's CLARENCE THOMAS. He got his Political Class membership card punched decades ago.
Voting booths, From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, August 23, 2017
Breaking up is Hard to do. Or is it? The fighting at the extremes, and between wings of the mainstream political class, doesn't reflect the gooey, ever-shifting political center where most Americans live. Elections are centrifuges which temporarily spin that center out into two halves (with a small remainder of third party voters), after which the people involved go back to living with each other in relative peace.
Oil fires rage outside Kuwait City, 1991. Public domain., From WikimediaPhotos
(29 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, May 11, 2021
Fossil Fuels vs. Renewables: ALL Forms of Energy are "Intermittent" For the last few years, as the price of electricity produced by sunlight and wind power has continued to drop, fossil fuel flacks have insistently informed us that the problem with solar and wind power are that they're "intermittent and incapable of meeting our needs." Pot. Kettle Black.
Voting booths, From WikimediaPhotos
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, July 27, 2016
Election 2016: Think Three's a Crowd? Try 2,000 History and money say the odds are with Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton -- that one of them will be the next president of the United States. ... But it's strange year. It feels like almost anything could happen. And while Clinton and Trump are the frontrunners, the field is, well, YUGE. As of July 27, the Federal Elections Commission lists 1,814 candidates for president on its web site.
Internal Revenue Service Building, From WikimediaPhotos
(16 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, April 9, 2017
Income Tax: No Honor Among Thieves Internal Revenue Service commissioner Josh Koskinen informed the US Senate that fraud-enabling information on as many as 100,000 taxpayers may have been compromised via an application allowing students applying for financial aid to import tax data. This breach seems to have produced more than 20,000 fraudulent tax returns, only 2/3 of which were caught ($30 million in "refunds" were sent out). How did we get here?
Polygamy, From FlickrPhotos
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, March 5, 2016
Marriage Freedom: Yes, Polygamy is Next Back in the bad old days before the US Supreme Court's ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges, many opponents of same-sex marriage warned us that if it became legal, polygamy would be next. They were -- some no doubt for the the first time in their lives -- right. Polygamy is, as it should be, next.
SHARE More Sharing        Monday, March 9, 2020
Happy National Tired and Grouchy Week On Sunday, March 8, millions of Americans woke up an hour early, having set their clocks ahead by an hour the night before, and dug in for a week or so of bleary-eyed, irritable attempts to tweak their bodies' natural sleeping and waking rhythms. This fatuous semi-annual "spring forward, fall back" ritual, called "Daylight Saving Time," ranks high on my personal list of "dumbest ideas in the history of mankind."
NDU-main-building, From WikimediaPhotos
(5 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, April 13, 2017
"Safe Spaces," Notre Dame Edition: Who's Afraid of Mike Pence? There are all kinds of good reasons for students to protest over their schools' speaking invitations to politicians they dislike. There are all kinds of good ways to demonstrate at or around the offending speeches, persuading others and promoting social dialogue. "I'm scared, please don't let the bad man talk" is neither one of those good reasons nor one of those good ways.
SPRAWL, From CreativeCommonsPhoto
SHARE More Sharing        Monday, May 29, 2023
Muh Roads: Stop Subsidizing Sprawl When a developer decides to turn a large plot of land into a piece of "suburbia," one of the main considerations is ease of commute ... and neither developers nor prospective residents want to shoulder the costs of road expansion to keep traffic moving. Instead of "paying their fair share," they want to shift much of the cost.
Defendants in the dock at nuremberg trials., From WikimediaPhotos
(9 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, May 22, 2019
War Crimes Pardons: A Terrible Memorial Day Idea After World War Two, the US and other governments which participated in victorious alliance versus the Third Reich and the Empire of Japan tried and punished -- up to and including execution -- German and Japanese soldiers accused of war crimes and the political leaders who ordered, encouraged, or excused those crimes. If the US doesn't hold itself to at least as high a standard, eventually someone else will.
%D0%9F%D1%80%D0%B0%D0%B2%D0%B4 %D0%B0  18.11.1940s., From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, April 13, 2023
State Media: He Who Pays the Piper ... FDR once told a group lobbying him on behalf of a reform they wanted, "you've convinced me -- now go out and bring pressure on me." The mission of state-affiliated media is to "bring pressure" on the US government to do what it's already doing. Want to know what the American political establishment thinks -- and wants you to support? Just tune in to the daily episodes of "Morning Edition" or "All Things Considered."
Pro-choice and anti-abortion demonstrators outside the Supreme Court in 1989, Washington DC, From MyPhotos
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, May 6, 2022
"Democracy" Doesn't Work as an Argument Against Overturning Roe v. Wade In the wake of a leaked draft Supreme Court opinion which, if it represents a final vote, would overturn Roe v. Wade, pro-choice advocates are marshaling their best -- and worst -- arguments against removing that ruling's protections for abortion. And the worst argument I'm hearing right now is ... the envelope, please ... Overturning Roe would be "undemocratic."
Skulls from Choeung Ek in Cambodia, From WikimediaPhotos
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, May 25, 2017
This Memorial Day, Remember the Victims of Democide There's something to be said for the contraction of the holiday into just another weekend of shopping and recreation. War is horrible to contemplate and there's a strong case for the proposition that long weekends are really for the living. But to be honest, I'd rather expand the holiday back to its original purpose -- mourning and remembering all those killed in war and by state violence, not just those in uniform.
The Problem with Censorship is XXXXXXXXX, Budapest, Hungary, From FlickrPhotos
(5 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, July 12, 2019
Free Speech Just Isn't That Complicated There are plenty of reasonable arguments to be had about what, if any, exceptions to unfettered freedom of speech might make sense. But when it comes to matters of opinion, the only reasonable position is that you're entitled to have opinions, and to express them, period.
censored, From CreativeCommonsPhoto
SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, April 23, 2023
A Counter-Proposal: RESTRICT the RESTRICTors Politicians love to quack about "buy American," but in this case they seem to be intent on going with an import. The RESTRICT Act is just a clone of the Great Firewall of China (and the Internet restrictions imposed by those other "adversaries").
USS Maine wrecked in Havana Bay, From WikimediaPhotos
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, July 8, 2016
Note to Media: Less Maine, More Socrates, Please Too often, "what we know" turns out to be "what someone told our reporter," or "what we heard at a press conference," or "what we read in a press release." And "what we know" (again too) often turns out not to have been true at all and to instead have just been "what we thought we knew at the time, and now what you will go on thinking because you don't have time to keep up forever with our changing versions of every story."
A bunch of guys with no photo IDs, preparing to vote., From WikimediaPhotos
(9 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, June 3, 2021
A Convention of States Wouldn't Fix the US Constitution A constitution is, even at its very perfected best, only as good as adherence to that constitution. Why do supporters of an Article V convention expect the US government would obey the proposed amendments any more than it obeys the existing document?
Courtyard - Flickr - The Central Intelligence Agency, From WikimediaPhotos
(4 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, March 8, 2017
Vault 7: What it Means for You Bottom line: You should accept the possibility that for the last several years anything you've done on, or in the presence of, a device that can connect to the Internet was observed, monitored, and archived as accessible data. Paranoid? Yes. But the paranoia is justified.
US Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrest, From WikimediaPhotos
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, March 10, 2018
"Sanctuary State" Suit: The Trump Administration versus California and Federalism United States v. State of California sounds like it's about immigration -- and the administration can be counted on to play up that perception in the secondary court of public opinion -- but it really isn't. It's about whether or not state and local governments are required to enforce, or assist in enforcing, federal law.
Form 1040, 2005, From WikimediaPhotos
(5 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, October 4, 2017
GOP Tax Plan: Hardly "Reform," But Tax Cuts "Cost" Nothing The Trump administration and congressional Republicans released their grandiosely titled "Unified Framework for Fixing Our Broken Tax Code" on September 27. The plan looks a lot more like a grab bag designed by lobbyists than like any kind of carefully considered plan for "tax reform."
Charles Ponzi., From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Friday, November 18, 2022
Cryptocurrency: Don't Blame the Medium for the Scam The FTX scandal did hit cryptocurrency prices, and maybe it should have. The hit is a market signal to all of us. Message delivered, if we'll listen: When you hand your money over to shady hucksters on the promise of unrealistic profits, bad things happen.
Nancy Pelosi signs the article of the second impeachment of Donald Trump 24., From WikimediaPhotos
(7 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, May 15, 2021
Contempt for "the Science," Nancy Pelosi Edition Last September, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi issued a press release announcing that "we need science, not politics." ... But now that "the science" isn't saying what she wants it to say, she's got a sudden case of said contempt herself.
Donald Trump %285440995138%29., From WikimediaPhotos
(4 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, May 17, 2019
Donald Trump, Socialist America's Republican president campaigns against socialism while attempting to implement it. Meanwhile, America's progressives campaign for socialism while attempting to thwart actual worker ownership of the means of production (e.g. the "gig economy"). Talk about cognitive dissonance!
Battle of Gettysburg., From WikimediaPhotos
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, July 1, 2020
A Modest Proposal for Compromise on "Confederate" Military Bases Both sides will drag this fake, silly fight out until after Election Day because it's the fight itself, not the outcome, that brings in the campaign contributions and the votes. Style over substance, as usual. But just for laughs, let's think about what a compromise could look like if the two sides actually worked for the taxpayers instead of for the military industrial complex.
ICE.Arrest lg., From WikimediaPhotos
(12 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, June 17, 2021
About That "Border Crisis" If there's a "border crisis," it's caused by those who obsess over controlling other people's travels, not by the travelers.
U.S. Supreme Court building-m., From WikimediaPhotos
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, October 15, 2020
Tucker Carlson and the Cult of the Court The Court has a pretty big bailiwick, covering various kinds of litigation that turns on applications of statute or treaty, as well as appeals of supposed judicial error in lower courts, rather than on questions of constitutionality per se. But where constitutionality IS concerned, it's far from obvious that the Court has a very good record vis a vis "judicial review."
TikTok, From FlickrPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, February 28, 2023
The Proposed TikTok Ban Goes Too Far. The Current TikTok Ban Doesn't Go Far Enough. If the goal is to protect the government, and the government alone, it's appropriate to not just ban TikTok from government devices, but to ban government use of devices that could conceivably run TikTok or similar apps (including apps that install and run without the users' knowledge).
Constitution We the People., From WikimediaPhotos
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, May 23, 2023
If the Constitution Doesn't Matter, Why Keep Pretending Otherwise? The Constitution is meaningless if it's toothless -- if there's neither any reversal of, nor any penalty for, actions which violate it. That's as true at the level of the presidency as at the level of a local beat cop conducting a search without the constitutionally required warrant.
CourtGavel.JPG, From WikimediaPhotos
(41 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, November 23, 2021
Rittenhouse Verdict: Justice, But Not Joy The "not guilty" verdict seems just, but it really just makes the best of a terrible, and at multiple points avoidable, situation.
Banking Closure in 1929 - New York City., From WikimediaPhotos
(6 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, October 24, 2021
Political Power is the Problem, Not the Solution Authoritarian politicians and bureaucrats have spent the last year-and-a-half using the pandemic as an excuse to seize more control over our lives than they ever enjoyed before. Now they're loath to give up that power, casting about for any excuse to hold onto it and expand it even further. The corollary of "never let a crisis goes to waste" is "never let a crisis end if there's any way to keep it going."
Total-tax-revenues-gdp., From WikimediaPhotos
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, May 23, 2023
Why is the "Debt Ceiling" a Problem? Because Everybody Wants to Go to Heaven, But Nobody Wants to Die Americans want all kinds of goodies, and American politicians want to hand out those goodies. Americans don't want to pay for those goodies, and American politicians don't want to demand payment for those goodies.
UN Security Council, From WikimediaPhotos
(5 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, May 10, 2018
The Iran Nuclear Deal Isn't Just a Good Idea -- It's the Law On May 8, President Donald Trump announced US withdrawal from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, colloquially known as "the Iran nuclear deal." While that decision has come under criticism for being both a really bad idea and a severe betrayal of trust, both of which are true, it's worth noting that the US withdrawal is also a breach of treaty obligations ...
Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, From WikimediaPhotos
(7 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, February 14, 2018
Purpose versus Excuse: Why Congress Might Buy Trump's Food Stamp Reform Plan Politico reports that the Trump administration wants to partially replace "food stamps" with "a box of government-picked, nonperishable foods every month." ... From the initial response, one might expect this plan to go nowhere. But it still might pass.
(7 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, October 9, 2021
"No First Use": An Empty Gesture That Would Cost Nothing A "no first use" proclamation, whether passed by Congress or simply announced by a president, would be the equivalent of an abusive husband buying flowers for his wife. The flowers don't mean he's not going to throw her down the stairs the next time he comes home drunk, just like he did the last time and the time before that. Nor is she likely to take them that way. They're just a nice, pretty, empty gesture.
RuPaul with All Stars 7 Contestants at LA DragCon 2022 by dvsross., From WikimediaPhotos
(4 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, June 22, 2022
Florida: So Much for "Parental Rights" In late March, Florida governor Ron DeSantis was all about "parental rights" .... Only three months later, he's threatening to have parents investigated by the state's 'child protective' bureaucracy should they choose to take their kids to entertainment events he doesn't approve of.
International Data Encryption Algorithm InfoBox Diagram Output Trans, From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, October 29, 2017
Encryption: Christopher Wray's "Huge, Huge Problem" is an Age-Old Inconvenience Yes, encryption can frustrate criminal investigations. Some of the Zodiac Killer's hand-encrypted messages remain unbroken more than 40 years after his killings ceased. Whining about it won't change it. The "balance" Wray and his counterparts in other federal agencies and abroad (such as UK Home Secretary Amber Rudd) keep calling for what amounts to outlawing properties of math and logic that they find inconvenient.
Protest against Donald Trump, From WikimediaPhotos
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, May 19, 2017
Donald Trump and the Politics of Whine For decades, Trump publicly epitomized Barry Switzer's observation that "some people are born on third base and go through life thinking they hit a triple." Now he's finally made it to the big league and it turns out his whole skill set consists of kicking dirt at the umpire and trying to empty the dugouts for a brawl every time a fastball gets past him.
MQ-9 Reaper in flight %282007%29., From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Friday, March 17, 2023
Cacophany, Not Harmony: US Foreign Policy's Terrible Tune If the world is a big band, nowhere near all of its 195 regimes agree to accept the US as its leader, play in the same key, or keep the same beat.
Forward Party Logo, From Uploaded
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, August 5, 2022
Can a Third Party "Fail Forward?" While the Forward Party's rhetoric is "centrist," its stated priorities focus on individual freedom and its specific policy proposals -- Ranked-Choice Voting, Nonpartisan Primaries, and Independent Redistricting Commissions -- are at, not beyond, the edge of the aforementioned Overton Window: Good ideas that most people like but that the "major" parties refuse to touch.
The Internet is Down Again, From FlickrPhotos
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, March 30, 2019
Big Government and Big Tech versus the Internet and Everyone Big Governments and Big Tech are engaged in a long-term mating dance. Big Governments want to regulate Big Tech because that's what governments do, and because, as with Willie Sutton and banks, Big Tech is where the Big Tax Money is. Big Tech wants to be regulated by Big Governments because regulation makes it more difficult and expensive for new competitors to enter the market.
-Trump%27s Firing of Comey Sets Off Political Firestorm.webm., From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, May 29, 2019
"Spying": Comey Doth Protest Too Much The important question here is not whether the FBI spied on the Trump campaign. It did. Period. The important question is why Comey doesn't want to discuss, or even acknowledge, that fact.
ICE.Arrest lg., From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, May 6, 2023
Anti-Immigrationists Dance in Texas Blood to Deliver False Lesson "White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre on Monday discussed the brutal slaying of five people in Texas," the New York Post whines, "without noting the fugitive accused of the heinous crime is an illegal immigrant who had previously been deported four times." What does the accused's immigration status have to do with anything? I'm tempted to say "nothing," but on further thought this strikes me as a teachable moment.
USMC-100324-M-6847A-001., From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, October 25, 2023
"Return To The Office" As Corporate Welfare If the job gets done, why should employers care where it gets done from -- and if they do care, why shouldn't they, rather than employees and taxpayers, cover the costs of doing it from that place?
Hampa Cannabis sativa L. %28n%C3%A4rbild%29., From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, November 25, 2021
For Christmas, How About an End to the War on Marijuana? Some US states have taken steps toward a ceasefire, legalizing marijuana for medical and/or recreational use, but it still remains illegal at the federal level despite the occasional introduction of bills to change that. The latest such offering comes from US Representative Nancy Mace (R-SC), who introduced the States Reform Act on November 15.
Lincoln Douglas Debates 1958 issue-4c, From WikimediaPhotos
(14 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, September 22, 2016
Election 2016: Of Dog Legs and "Debates" The idea of a "debate" presupposes reasoned arguments for and against specific propositions. The Hofstra event and its followups won't be debates. They'll be combination beauty contests, "professional wrestling" matches, and campaign commercials.
1900 New York polling place., From WikimediaPhotos
(9 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, July 15, 2019
National Polls Don't Mean Much. Here's Why. What's Trump's 2020 problem? A few tens of thousands of Democratic votes in Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin and possibly Florida would enough to reverse the Electoral College outcome. In 2016, Trump was at the top of his turnout game and the Democrats were at the bottom of theirs. He has nowhere to go but down. They have nowhere to go but up.
USMC-101106-M-7708K-010., From WikimediaPhotos
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, April 17, 2021
Joe Biden Reaffirms Washington's Message to the World: Never, Ever Trust Us The US military is great at moving people. ... Five months after Saddam Hussein's invasion of Kuwait, the US had moved 697,000 troops to the theater of operations for what became Operation Desert Storm. For any competent commander, moving 2,500 troops from Point A to Point B is a weekend hobby project, not a major undertaking. All Biden had to do was give the order.
Fracking Site in Warren Center, PA 07, From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, September 27, 2016
Crony Capitalism and Political Privilege: Earthshaking. Literally. Hydraulic fracturing, aka fracking, causes earthquakes. Or, rather, deep-injection disposal of the wastewater from fracking causes earthquakes. Some people -- namely, public relations flacks and lobbyists for the petroleum and natural gas industries, and their political allies -- would have you believe that's a disputable, even controversial, claim. It isn't. It's something we've known for half a century.
SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, March 12, 2020
Freedom: Don't Let Politicians Tell You to EARN IT The Wile E. Coyotes of the Internet -- US Senators Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) -- are sure that THIS time they've finally found a made-to-order tool that can take out the Roadrunn ... er, those meddling ki ... er, the First Amendment and Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act.
Nast-Boss-Tweed-1871., From WikimediaPhotos
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, August 28, 2022
Student Loan Forgiveness: Politics, Not Problem-Solving This "forgiveness" does nothing to address the underlying problems with the high costs of higher education. It's just a Democratic Party vote-buying scheme that Republicans are hoping to use as a BOGO for their own base.
From commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Hillary_Clinton_%2825055755464%29.jpg: Hillary Clinton, From Images
SHARE More Sharing        Monday, September 5, 2016
Hillary Clinton, Servergate, and the Steve Martin Defense Some jokes are funny because they reveal uncomfortable truths. Other jokes, like the "I forgot" routine, tickle our funny bones because they're absurd. Nobody could possibly get away with armed robbery by informing the judge "I forgot armed robbery was illegal" in the real world, right?
NATO countries international expansion fixed, From WikimediaPhotos
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, March 18, 2017
McCain versus Paul: The New Red Scare Masks US Foreign Policy Insanity Lest we forget, the Balkans are known for producing wars both small and large. Montenegro borders Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, Kosovo and Serbia. Is there any particular reason the US should commit itself by treaty to intervene in the military spats that break out in that region at the drop of a hat (or the assassination of an Archduke)?
US Federal Government expenditures., From WikimediaPhotos
(5 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, July 22, 2020
"Peak Libertarianism?" No, Thom Hartmann is Just a Sore Winner. The actual numbers say America hasn't moved so much as a whisker in the direction of "peak Libertarianism" over the last 40 years. Rather, it's continued steadily down the road toward "peak Hartmannism" ever since LBJ's Great Society, with relatively few bumps in that road since FDR's New Deal.
Anjem Choudary, From WikimediaPhotos
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, August 22, 2016
War: The Islamic State and Western Politicians Against the Rest of Us The United Kingdom is back in the business of holding political prisoners on a scale not seen since before the 1997 ceasefire in occupied ... " err, "Northern" ... " Ireland, and American social networks are handing the US government de facto power to censor Internet communications. What could possibly go wrong?
Berryman political cartoon on income tax vs sales tax %283 June 1933%29., From WikimediaPhotos
(10 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, January 28, 2023
"Fair" Tax: A Terrible Idea That Just Won't Die Here we go again: The "Fair Tax Act" is out for its perennial limp around the dead legislation track. ... In baseball, three strikes is an out. With legislation, three lies means extra innings until the bill passes or everyone dies.
Hillary Clinton vs. Donald Trump - Caricatures, From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Monday, March 28, 2016
Election 2016: The X-Files/Napoleon Dynamite Factor Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton look positioned to be the two horses who break free of the pack and make a neck-and-neck run down the final straightaway toward 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. That pairing and the likely outcome tell us some interesting things about America's voters and their chosen candidates.
RussBrandRegPark140920EARLY-13 %2850345409677%29., From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, September 28, 2023
Russell Brand: Shoulds, Mays, Shouldn'ts, and Must Nots I have no opinion on the truth or falsehood of allegations that comedian/podcaster Russell Brand is a serial rapist. I do, however, know (or at least believe) a few things about how matters like this should, may, shouldn't, and must not be handled by various people and organizations.
Chicago Wigwam (site of 1860 Republican National Convention), From WikimediaPhotos
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, July 14, 2016
Is the Party Over for Republicans? Next week's Republican National Convention in Cleveland may be ground zero for America's next great partisan implosion. The issues involved are both more numerous and more nebulous -- foreign policy, immigration policy, trade policy, gun policy, tax policy, what have you -- than in similar previous episodes.
Newport cigarettes., From WikimediaPhotos
(6 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, April 29, 2021
Menthol Cigarette Ban: At Least This Time, Biden's Racism Won't Put His Victims in Cages Biden and company are saying that black Americans are too stupid to make the "right" choices on their own and that government must therefore make those choices for them. There's a word for that kind of attitude toward people based on skin color. The word is "racism."
Aerial view of the Capitol Hill., From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, March 29, 2020
Congress Declares Itself Non-Essential Around the US, "essential" workers are going to work everyday and doing their jobs, COVID-19 pandemic or not. Factory workers are producing things. Truck and delivery drivers are transporting those things. Grocery store employees and food service workers are making sure food reaches our tables. Congress, not so much.
Department of Education - NCLB door, From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, June 13, 2017
Federal Education Budget: Teapot, Meet Tempest President Donald Trump's proposed budget for FY2018 calls for a 13% ($9 billion) cut to the US Department of Education versus 2017's discretionary funding. That may sound like a big big hit to your kids' schools, and the usual suspects would like you to think it constitutes a gutting of "public" (read: government) education in America, but there are a few things to keep in mind when thinking about it.
Voting booths, From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, October 27, 2018
For Better or Worse, Early Voting is Changing American Elections In the US, "Election Day 2018" falls on November 6 this year. But Election Day isn't what it used to be.
Voting booths., From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, February 26, 2020
Election 2020: Those Meddling Kids ... Having abjectly failed to make Kamala Harris, Joe Biden, or Elizabeth Warren palatable to pluralities, the DNC is still trying to whip those meddling voters into line behind Pete Buttigieg or Amy Klobuchar instead of accepting Bernie as their choice. Now, in desperation, it's playing the "Russian meddling" card again.
Newspaper bag., From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, November 21, 2021
When Giving Thanks, Don't Forget Your Local Paper As Thanksgiving approaches, I usually take a little time to think about who and what I'm thankful for and express my. That seems to be the point, after all. This year, for various reasons, my thoughts and appreciation turn toward journalists, newspapers, and other news media.
From Uploaded
(5 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, September 16, 2022
Ron DeSantis's Costly Political Stunts Turn Florida's Taxpayers Into Involuntary Presidential Campaign Contributors Ron DeSantis is running for president at the expense of Florida's voters and taxpayers. Maybe they should think about that before they give him another term as governor.
Cleveland Steel Mill, From WikimediaPhotos
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, April 30, 2017
"National Security": The Last Refuge of Vote-Buying Politicians More than half a century ago, Congress passed the Trade Expansion Act of 1962. Since mid-April, US president Donald Trump has twice invoked one of the laws nearly forgotten provisions, ordering Commerce secretary Wilbur Ross to investigate the possibility that steel and aluminum imports "threaten to impair the national security."
Internet Censorship and Surveillance World Map.svg., From WikimediaPhotos
(8 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, August 2, 2020
Ten Years After Lieberman's "Internet Kill Switch," the War on Freedom Rages On A single thread connects the "Internet Kill Switch" to the passage of Internet censorship provisions in the name of fighting sex trafficking ... and President Trump's threats to ban video-sharing app TikTok. That thread is the burning, pathological compulsion which drives politicians and bureaucrats to control every aspect of our lives, on the flimsiest of excuses and no matter the cost to us.
.Crime Scene Do Not Cross. tape, From WikimediaPhotos
(4 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, February 5, 2019
"No-Knock Raid" is Just Another Term for "Violent Home Invasion" On January 28, home invaders murdered 58-year-old Rhogena Nicholas and 59-year-old Dennis Tuttle of Houston, Texas. Nicholas and Tuttle wounded five of the (numerous) armed burglars before being slain. That's not how the news accounts put it, of course. Typical headline (from the Houston Chronicle): "4 HPD officers shot in southeast Houston narcotics operation, a fifth injured."
Hillary Clinton vs. Donald Trump - Caricatures, From FlickrPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, August 13, 2022
"But Her Emails?" Well, Yes. Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump should be subject to the same "rule of law" they enthusiastically inflict on the rest of us at every opportunity.
Cryptocurrency transaction, From ImagesAttr
SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, October 11, 2018
The IMF Fears Cryptocurrency. It Should. The International Monetary Fund refers to cryptocurrency only once in its 215-page World Economic Outlook for October 2018, but that reference is telling: "Continued rapid growth of crypto assets could create new vulnerabilities in the international financial system."
SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, January 12, 2019
Gambling: Let People (Not the Government and not "the" People) Decide In what universe is it legitimately the business of DoJ, or Disney, or the Seminole Tribe, or a legislature, or the little old lady next door who thinks that a deck of cards is The Devil's Picture Book, if you and I want to bet five bucks on the outcome of a coin flip or anything else?
.Down Goes McGinty,. by Eugene Zimmerman, 1900, From WikimediaPhotos
(11 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, May 6, 2016
Election 2016: Wherever You Go, There You Are There's a major crackup/realignment going on in American politics, from the parties' rank-and-file all the way up to leadership. The nation's transpartisan ruling class is in the throes of something approaching civil war. Maybe, hopefully not, one as dangerous as the crackup preceding the REAL Civil War.
Voting United States., From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, August 7, 2022
Kansas: What it Looks Like When the "Center" Wins Letting people vote on one specific issue often produces very different outcomes from letting people vote on "representatives" based on the candidates' baskets of multiple issues.
Federal Government debt.webp., From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, May 31, 2023
Debt Ceiling: Wrong Kind of Disarmament Agreement If you're not serious about cutting spending, you're not serious about reducing the deficit or paying down the government's debt. And if you're not serious about cutting "defense" spending -- by far the single largest discretionary item in the federal budget -- you're not serious about cutting spending.
Voting booths, From WikimediaPhotos
(4 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, November 8, 2018
Election 2018: The More Things Don't Change, the More They Stay the Same The voters chose, with few and mostly local exceptions, the same old thing. Again. Many of those voters will likely spend the next two years complaining that they got what they voted for. The same old thing. Again. Two years from now, many of those voters will likely meditate on the need for change. Again. And vote for the same old thing. Again. And get the same old thing. Again. And wonder why. Again.
Panorama of United States Supreme Court Building at Dusk., From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, October 6, 2022
Note to SCOTUS: Section 230 is an Acknowledgement of Reality, Not a "Liability Shield" Attempting to unmake reality by repealing or undoing the effect of Section 230 won't stop terrorism. It won't keep us safe. It will just make us easier to muzzle.
RfkjrOCT2017., From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, October 10, 2023
RFK Jr.: "I See!" Say the Blind Men A PAC associated with RFK Jr.'s campaign is polling on his possible strength as an independent, the New York Times reports that he met with the chair of the Libertarian Party's national committee in July, and the candidate himself has scheduled an event with an "historic announcement" for October 9 in Philadelphia. Suddenly, his visibility registers with both "major party" establishments as an emergency.
White house south, From WikimediaPhotos
(10 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, April 10, 2018
Mueller is Desperate -- But For What? So far Mueller's secured indictments of a few Trump associates on charges having little or nothing to do with his overt mission, and of a few Russians for running an Internet "troll farm" that posted some cheesy social media ads. But he has yet to put real meat on his mandate and doesn't seem to be getting much closer to Trump himself than when he started. Now he's hitching his wagon to Stormy Daniels's star. Why?
Dhs-advisory-high, From WikimediaPhotos
(5 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, July 9, 2018
The New Normal: Our Evil Gift to a Generation Which Didn't Deserve it Next year, the first generation of Americans who weren't yet born on September 11, 2001 will come of age. They'll graduate high school. They'll get jobs. They'll vote. What they will not do, because they can't, is remember: Remember a time before the 9/11 attacks, or the changes in American society that took place in the aftermath of those attacks.
%22Plant a WIN garden%22 button.JPG, From WikimediaPhotos
(11 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, July 24, 2021
No Whodunit Here: The Cause of Inflation is Not a Mystery Inflation is a hidden tax. Instead of hitting you up for a dollar or ten, the government just makes that $100 bill in your wallet worth $99 or $90 in terms of what you can buy with it now as opposed to what you could buy yesterday. The only way to "whip" politically created inflation is to separate money and state.
Medvedev - Russia Today 3, From WikimediaPhotos
(5 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, January 11, 2017
Who's More Anti-American, Russia Today or the US Director of National Intelligence? Someone should take US Director of National Intelligence James Clapper aside for a talk. He desperately needs to be told that when you're deep in a hole, the first step toward getting out is to stop digging.
IMG_6344, From FlickrPhotos
(7 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, October 5, 2021
Help Wanted: The Labor Shoe is on the Other Foot US unemployment is low (5.2% in August; economists consider 5% or lower to effectively constitute "full employment"). Those who "want to work" are working. Why do so many seemingly not "want" to? Put simply, they're not being offered as much for their time and effort as they consider it to be worth.
SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, October 27, 2022
Older Politicians Aren't Necessarily Wiser Politicians At the time the Constitution was ratified, the life expectancy for white males (the only people permitted to exercise political power) was about 35. We didn't have a big problem with senile politicians back then because most people didn't live long enough to develop dementia.
Greg Abbott and John Cornyn highlight Crime Stoppers Month., From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Friday, April 14, 2023
Abbott: I'll Free a Murderer to Own the Libs Is Greg Abbott plotting a presidential run? Or jockeying for a cabinet position in a future Republican administration? Those two possibilities -- both instances of "owning the libs to please my base" -- seem like the only plausible explanations for his plan to put a known, confessed, convicted killer back on the streets among a law-abiding public whose population that killer has already reduced by one.
Silly Proles ... Laws are for the Little People!, From ImagesAttr
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, July 7, 2016
Hillary Clinton: More Equal Under the Law Than Others In his July 5 press briefing, FBI director James Comey spoke 2,341 words explaining his decision not to recommend criminal charges over Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server to transmit, receive and store classified information during her tenure as US Secretary of State. He could have named that tune in four words: "Because she's Hillary Clinton."
NY Foundling Hospital - Roof Playground - circa 1899 - Byron Company - MNY19551, From WikimediaPhotos
(7 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, July 9, 2017
Our Paranoid Society is too Hard on Kids -- and on Parents Not a week goes by without a report of parents getting arrested, or having their children seized by social workers, for the "crime" of letting them walk to or from school or a local playground. Despite the fact that violent crime -- including crimes against children -- has been on a downward trend since the early 1990s, we're constantly propagandized about the danger of letting kids out of our sight.
Fire destroys the Mount Carmel complex outside Waco, Texas., From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, November 9, 2016
Janet Reno: Justice Delayed was Justice Denied In the early hours of November 7, Janet Reno died at the age of 78 from complications of Parkinson's disease. Her niece "confirmed to CBS News that Reno died peacefully at home surrounded by family and friends." It's unfortunate that, unlike many of her victims, she was permitted to shuffle off this mortal coil a free woman, unpursued by the hounds of justice. Janet Reno had a lot to answer for.
White house south, From WikimediaPhotos
(10 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, January 11, 2018
Two Modest Proposals for Choosing Better Presidents A prospective president must be at least 35 years old, be a "natural born citizen" of the United States, and have resided within the US for 14 years. But, of course, many people want more than just those three things .... [they want] a sitting or former governor or US Senator (or, occasionally, a victorious ggeneral). They want "political experience." I disagree.
Ryanair 737-200 EI-CKS., From WikimediaPhotos
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, May 25, 2021
The US and EU vs. Belarus: Pot, Kettle, Black On May 23, a fighter jet intercepted Ryanair Flight 4978. Belarus air traffic control ordered the Boeing 737 to turn around. Regime police entered the plane and abducted an opposition journalist. Unfortunately, neither the US, nor several EU regimes, have any business grandstanding on the matter. They've pulled the same kind of stunt before, at least as recently as eight years ago.
Ivanka Trump RNC July 2016, From WikimediaPhotos
(12 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, February 16, 2017
That's Hypocrisy: DC Swamp Creatures vs. Kellyanne Conway Talking up a presidential family member's business when it's in the news is an ethics violation? My hypocrisy meter is pinging in the red zone right about now.
Hydroxychloroquine.svg., From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, May 19, 2020
Morbidly Obtuse: Pelosi and the Media versus Hydroxychloroquine Is hydroxychloroquine effective either as a treatment for, or protector against, COVID-19? Various juries are likely to be out on that question for a long time. Are there known side effects associated with the drug's use? Sure. Find a drug with no side effects and you've probably found a drug with no effects at all. Do any of the facts above really matter? No.
USS Shaw- Pearl Harbor attack 80G32577, From WikimediaPhotos
(5 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, December 7, 2016
Pearl Harbor: Should Abe Apologize? Some Japanese citizens -- especially those who survived, or lost loved ones in, Hiroshima -- believe an American apology is warranted. Some American citizens -- especially those who survived, or lost loved ones at, Pearl Harbor -- believe a Japanese apology is warranted. Both groups are wrong.
Trump Withdraw Iran Deal., From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, June 25, 2019
One Cheer for Trump on Iran Every time Trump avoids escalation toward outright war with the Iranians or anyone else, he's doing the right thing and should get credit for it. As to the bigger picture, the question now is whether Trump will undo his earlier errors on US policy toward Iran instead of compounding them. He doesn't seem inclined to.
SpentShale., From WikimediaPhotos
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, May 4, 2020
If Gas Prices Jump at the Pump, Thank Trump (and Other Politicians) From the "oil depletion allowance" and other special tax tricks, to taxpayer-funded roads into drilling areas, to much of the US "defense" budget (why do you think US military policy for the last 40 years has been to keep the Middle East in turmoil and Iranian -- and now Venezuelan -- oil off the market?), petroleum is one of America's most subsidized industries.
Statue of Liberty restoration project., From WikimediaPhotos
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, January 23, 2020
US v. Sineneng-Smith: Does Immigration Law Trump Freedom of Speech? Are you free to express your opinions? The First Amendment says yes, but 8 US Code § 1324 says no.
Ingsoc logo from 1984.svg., From WikimediaPhotos
(14 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, January 24, 2021
Political "Unity" is Neither Necessary Nor Desirable Polarization is not the opposite of unity. The two are simply complementary sides of one coin. One both produces and requires the other. To transcend one, we must transcend both. And we can, by trading them in for another coin, the two sides of which are freedom and peace.
Donald Trump State of the Union 2018, From WikimediaPhotos
(8 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, January 25, 2019
A Campaign Finance Proposal: Let's Do Away with SOTU The Constitution requires the president to "from time to time give to the Congress Information of the State of the Union, and recommend to their Consideration such Measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient." It does not require the president to do so in the form of a live speech.
Trump Family Hand Up., From WikimediaPhotos
(25 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, April 24, 2019
On Obstruction, the Mueller Report is Clintonesque On April 18, US Attorney William Barr released Special Counsel Robert Mueller's report on the probe into "Russian meddling" in the 2016 presidential election. The report cleared President Donald Trump and his campaign team of allegations that they conspired with the Russian government in that meddling. But on the question of "obstruction of justice," Mueller punted in an eerily familiar way.
TikTok, From FlickrPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, March 7, 2023
The US Government's War On TikTok is Idiotic, But There Are Up Sides As I've written before, I'm all in favor of banning government use of TikTok. And all other apps. And smart phones. And the Internet. And as I've pointed out before, the idea of a general ban on TikTok for the American public is unconstitutional, stupid, insane, and evil. But that doesn't mean there aren't silver linings in this cloud of political idiocy.
Korean War armistice agreement 1953, From WikimediaPhotos
(4 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, February 10, 2018
A Korean Spring after the Winter Olympics is Unlikely. Here's Why. The two Koreas have been in "ceasefire," but still formally at war and with occasional outbreaks of violence, since 1953. Could this Olympic thaw result in permanently improved relations, a peace treaty, perhaps even reunification? Don't get your hopes up.
NYPD Snout, From ImagesAttr
(28 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, July 25, 2015
Police Violence: An Anti-Obscenity Proposal I have to credit [NYPD police union president Ed] Mullins with inspiring my proposal for consideration by his association, by New York City, and by police unions and city governments everywhere: Insurance. Yes, insurance. Cities should require every police officer in their employ to carry a $10 million liability policy for torts inflicted while on duty.
Panopticon Jeremy Bentham, From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, August 16, 2017
@YesYoureRacist Crowdsources Social Preferencing Projects like @YesYoureRacist make the information needed for rational Social Preferencing decisions more widely available and more easily accessed. Ostracism (and its opposite) need no longer be handled retail, by word of mouth at the barber shop and on the phone. We're all just a click away from being, if not famous, at least easily known in some detail to anyone who has reason to care and to look.
Covington Catholic student Nicholas Sandmann's speech at the RNC., From YouTubeVideos
(5 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, August 26, 2020
Nick Sandmann: GOP's Poster Child for Fake Victimhood Grievance-based politics is nothing new, nor does America's political "left" enjoy a monopoly on it. For proof of that latter claim, one need look no further than the case of Nick Sandmann.
COVID-19 School closure sign in Williamsport%2C PA%2C USA., From WikimediaPhotos
(4 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, September 1, 2022
On Reading and Math, the New York Times Flunks History COVID-19 didn't "shutter schools." Humans -- adult humans in positions of authority -- did that. ... Instead of admitting that the decisions they made were, in most cases, massive unforced errors based on panic and political power grabs rather than on sound science or any previously existing conception of "public health," the people who made those choices keep trying to shift blame.
(23 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, January 10, 2019
Shutdown Theater: Trump is Winning As of tomorrow, the shutdown will become the second longest in history, surpassed only by a 32-day funding fight in December of 1995 and January of 1996. Does anyone want to bet against president Donald Trump holding out for the record?
Comparison of Table Salt with Kitchen Salt., From WikimediaPhotos
(6 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, April 19, 2021
Congressional Democrats to Biden: Pour Some SALT on That Infrastructure Federal tax policy shouldn't be manipulated to artificially benefit tax-happy state governments. The SALT deduction shouldn't be capped. It should be eliminated.
Artificial intelligence prompt completion by dalle mini., From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, September 27, 2023
Litigious Authors: Buy Our Books, But Don't Read, Remember, Learn From, Or Be Influenced By Them Whatever the legal grounds for the lawsuit, its essence comes down to a claim that the function of a reader (whether that reader is "human" or "artificial") is to buy authors' books ... and do nothing with them except perhaps display them prettily on household shelves, if even that.
Commons Division 2012., From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, July 10, 2022
On "Democracy" Metrics, the US Lags Britain Boris Johnson, the United Kingdom's scandal-saddled premier, is finally stepping down ... In conjunction with America's recent annual July 4th celebration of independence from the British monarchy as declared in 1776, it seems worth noting that our former rulers seem to have long outdone us when it comes to claims of "representative democracy."
Shopping center in Kremenchuk after Russian shelling%2C 2022-06-27 %2801%29., From WikimediaPhotos
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, February 10, 2023
Two Cheers for Matt Gaetz's Ukraine War Resolution If two authoritarian regimes -- and make no mistake, Volodymyr Zelenskyy's gang has proven itself just as violent and authoritarian as Vladimir Putin's -- want to fight, there's not much the supposedly "democratic" US regime can or should do to stop them. Not our circus. Not our monkeys.
SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, October 29, 2016
Dakota Access versus the American Way The go-to excuse among proponents of these "public/private partnership" type land thefts is always "jobs and economic development," but even if that excuse flew (it doesn't), it's a pretty poor one in this case. The $3.7 billion pipeline is advertised as creating a whopping 40 permanent jobs. I'm not sure how many people work at the average Wal-Mart, but it looks like more than 40 to me.
Humpty Dumpty Tenniel., From WikimediaPhotos
(41 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, March 18, 2021
"Censor": When a Word Means Everything, it Means Nothing Some words carry emotional force such that using them creates an immediate negative reaction on the part of the listener or reader. That makes such words useful -- until they get over-used and misused so much that they cease to have the effect. Lately, the trending "creep people out to get them on my side" word of choice is "censor" or "censorship."
Ian Florida Landfall., From WikimediaPhotos
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, October 3, 2022
Presidents Should Avoid Disaster Areas As surely as day follows night, a presidential visit follows any major disaster in the United States, so it's no surprise that US president Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden plan, as reported at Politico, to personally "survey storm damage" from Hurricanes Fiona and Ian, and "meet with officials," in Puerto Rico and Florida. That's always how it goes, and it's always a bad idea.
President Donald J. Trump at the United Nations General Assembly %2843978178255%29., From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, September 30, 2023
Nikki Haley: Far Too Unhinged For The Presidency Every time Haley speaks, she sounds a little bit dumber, but I doubt that's Vivek Ramaswamy's fault. Nor is it Ramaswamy's fault that she comes off as unhinged on the level of Brigadier General Jack D. Ripper, the fictional character who engineers a nuclear attack on the Soviet Union for "corrupting" his "precious bodily fluids" in the 1964 film Dr. Strangelove.
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, June 30, 2017
Mourn on the Fourth of July, 2017 I guess every generation of adults feels like things have gone downhill since they were kids. But as someone a little too young to have understood Vietnam or Watergate and just exactly old enough to have exuberantly celebrated the nation's bicentennial, these days I find each 4th of July to surpass the last as an occasion for mourning an America that no longer exists.
Cumulative deaths since the beginning of the Syria war, From WikimediaPhotos
(5 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, March 30, 2018
Syria: Is Trump Finally Putting America First? If Trump's serious about withdrawing from Syria, if the more hawkish members of his administration don't dissuade him, and if he follows through, Trump will be taking a giant step in the right direction on foreign policy. The US never had any legitimate business in Syria. Its military adventurism there has been both dumb and illegal from the beginning.
From commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Donald_Trump_and_Hillary_Clinton_during_United_States_presidential_election_2016.jp, From Images
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, October 18, 2016
"Rigged Election" Rhetoric: A Dangerous Two-Way Street Trump is preemptively positioning himself to claim that a victorious Clinton and her party rigged the election. That could lead to fireworks. Clinton is preemptively positioning herself to accuse a foreign power of rigging -- or at least unduly influencing -- the outcome to her loss. That could lead to fireworks of a nuclear variety.
Voting booths, From WikimediaPhotos
(4 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, March 6, 2016
Election 2016: Rage Against the Voting Machines After Florida's "hanging chad" debacle in 2000, most states and cities moved to new, theoretically easier to use, but technologically more complex, voting machines. Those machines came with their own problems, including very real fears that election results could be (and perhaps were) hacked and manipulated. ... this generation of machines is on its last legs and the search is on for replacements.
From flickr.com: Taxes, From Images
(8 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, April 23, 2017
Tax Reform: Two Places to Start If Trump, his administration, and congressional Republicans were serious about real tax reform (they aren't, but if they were), I'd expect to see two major initial proposals: A measure increasing the "personal exemption" to the federal income tax once a year, every year, automatically, and a "FICA floor" that likewise increases each year.
Voting United States., From WikimediaPhotos
(6 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, August 5, 2020
Election 2020: Biden vs. Trump is an Echo, Not a Choice It's fair to criticize politicians for pandering to the largest blocs and lowest common denominators of voter fear and self-interest. But it's also worthwhile to consider just who those pandering politicians think they're pandering to. Based on the candidates the "major" parties put up and the campaigns they run, it's easy to figure out what they think about you.
VariousPills., From WikimediaPhotos
(9 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, June 12, 2021
After COVID-19 Fiasco, a Sign of Internal Reform at FDA? In a free society, FDA would have no authority to come between doctors, patients, and medical treatment choices in the first place.... Nonetheless, "accelerated approval" of aducanumab is a good sign and hopefully the beginning of a trend.
Solar panels on house roof., From WikimediaPhotos
(4 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, June 8, 2022
The Corporate Welfare Devil is in the "Clean Energy" Details If Joe Biden was serious about spurring adoption of clean energy, he'd take a meat ax to tariffs and restrictions on importing the relevant goods. Instead, he's just writing welfare checks to Big Business and handing you a "Green" Raw Deal.
Panorama of United States Supreme Court Building at Dusk, From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, May 24, 2017
SCOTUS: Patent Trolls' Loss is a Win for Honest Commerce obscure case that nonetheless has huge implications in an area where millions or even billions of dollars are frequently at stake. In TC Heartland v. Kraft Foods Group Brands, the Court came down against the practice of "forum shopping" in patent disputes. Hopefully this will reduce the incidence of "patent trolling."
SHARE More Sharing        Monday, May 18, 2020
Ready or Not, the Lockdown Season is Coming to an End Americans, it seems, are collectively deciding amongst ourselves that COVID-19 lockdown time is over. Our decision isn't up for debate or subject to appeal. Politicians and their pet "experts" are fresh out of veto power. For better or worse -- almost certainly some of both -- America is opening back up.
Rainbow flag and blue skies., From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Monday, June 5, 2023
In Praise of Caring Less and Being Better Treating everything as an outrage leaves us perpetually outraged at neighbors we should instead consider having over for dinner, (real) beer, and maybe a swim.
Voting booths, From WikimediaPhotos
(16 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, March 16, 2016
Election 2016: "One Person, One Vote" Kills Real Choice Many of us vote for our second choices -- the "lesser evils" -- because our first choices "can't win." Many of us could live with either of two or more candidates, but vote for the one who "can win" rather than the one we may like best. What if you could vote for ALL the candidates you like, instead of just one ...?
Long-s-US-Bill-of-Rights, From WikimediaPhotos
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, November 25, 2018
"Red Flag Laws": Rights Can't be "Suspended," Only Violated What might we call a system under which anonymous judges can secretly order anonymous police officers to expropriate property from citizens who have neither been accused of nor convicted of crimes, on pain of death for resistance?
The Slave Trade by Auguste Francois Biard, From WikimediaPhotos
(14 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, February 22, 2019
Mandatory National Service: "Strengthening American Democracy" by Ignoring Americans' Rights "Mandatory national service" is slavery, full stop. It's a moral abomination with no conceivable justification in anything resembling a free society, and under the US Constitution in particular it is clearly and unambiguously illegal. And yes, that includes the military draft.
Coronavirus. SARS-CoV-2., From WikimediaPhotos
(8 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, November 30, 2021
OMG, Omicron: Next Step Down the Path From Pandemic to Endemic? So far, Omicron looks like it may well be the virus's next step down the path toward becoming yet another version of "the common cold." If so, we should be praying for its arrival on our shores. And even if not, we shouldn't let authoritarian politicians use it as an excuse for yet another round of mass hysteria cultivated to accrue more power over our lives.
-2021-11-19 Nancy Pelosi BBBA.webm., From WikimediaPhotos
(5 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, December 29, 2021
Gridlock Cure: Democrats Should Get Off the (Omni)Bus and Walk There are probably a few reasonably popular -- even "bipartisan" -- things in Build Back Better. Why not break these popular items out into single-issue bills that can actually pass?
Prostitution laws, From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, November 17, 2016
Backpage.com: Dismissal is Insufficient -- Charge Harris On November 1, Superior Court Judge Michael Bowman dismissed pimping charges against Carl Ferrer, the CEO of Backpage.com, as well as the site's controlling shareholders, Michael Lacey and James Larkin, on free speech grounds. The ruling is a victory against Internet censorship, but it's just a start. It's time to send a strong message to grandstanding prosecutors who abuse the justice system for self-promotional purposes.
Boeing 747 Iran Air London - August 1979, From WikimediaPhotos
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, December 6, 2016
Boeing's Iran Business: The War Party versus American Jobs Why do House Republicans (the vote was pretty much party-line) want to destroy thousands of American jobs and hammer the revenues of a major American manufacturer?
US Capitol west side, From WikimediaPhotos
(9 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, March 7, 2018
Capitol Punishment: Or, Keeping House is too Expensive Before leaving Congress last year, US Representative Jason Chaffetz (R-UT) proposed an additional "housing allowance" of $2,500 per month to help members of Congress cover the costs of a second residence. I have a better idea.
American Cash.JPG, From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Monday, June 14, 2021
The ProPublica Tax Report: Much Ado About Non-Income It's a tantalizing headline from investigative journalism group ProPublica: "The Secret IRS Files: Trove of Never-Before-Seen Records Reveal How the Wealthiest Avoid Income Tax." ... But digging into the details, the promised revelation is ... well, kind of boring. How do the wealthiest Americans "avoid" income tax? By not having "income."
Old exit sign., From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, November 30, 2022
#leavingtwitter is Tiresome Performance Art If other people (even Bad People) saying what they want to say (even Bad Things) troubles you that much, especially when you have the power to keep that speech out of your own "hearing," you're as much a part of society's problems as they are. The cure for bad speech is more speech, not self-imposed exile.
Average US Federal Tax Rates 1979 to 2013, From WikimediaPhotos
(10 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, December 8, 2017
"Tax Reform": Dump the Home Mortgage Interest Deduction I'm a big fan of tax cuts. In any amount, of any kind, for anybody. The less money the government takes from Americans, the better. But I'd rather those cuts didn't come in the form of "targeted" deductions or credits.
20 Dollars art3, From WikimediaPhotos
(4 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, November 3, 2017
Sorry, Republicans: If You're Not Cutting Spending, You're Not Cutting Taxes. President Donald Trump and Republican congressional leaders rolled out their new tax plan on November 2. Since all bills must have titles, they're calling this one "The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act." Republican "tax reform" theatrics have worn thin over many months of waiting, but I still prefer a more theatrical title. "A tale Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, Signifying nothing" rings true.
1900 New York polling place., From WikimediaPhotos
(4 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, May 12, 2020
Republicans Can't Seem to Make Up Their Minds About Mail and Voting Republicans and Democrats both seem to believe that when more people vote, Democrats win. Are they right? Who knows? But by their fruit you will recognize their true belief.
High school students, From WikimediaPhotos
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, October 2, 2018
Sleep Research Shows How Homework is Harmful The average public high school student works a full 40-hour week plus 10.7 hours of overtime -- without pay, of course, and on a uniform schedule taking no heed of individual kids' natural sleep cycles. ... Is it any wonder our kids are tired?
FixedBroadbandInternetPenetrat ionWorldMap.svg., From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, March 30, 2023
The Internet Needs a Country of Its Very Own Globally, various regimes (including supposed "democracies" like India) increasingly arrogate to themselves the power to just shut down the Internet any time they find public communication inconvenient. While there are workarounds for all this nonsense, and while each such episode encourages more people to learn about those workarounds, what the Internet really needs is a country of its very own.
Defendants Nuremberg-War-Crimes-Tribunal 1945-11-27, From WikimediaPhotos
(6 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, February 2, 2017
War Crimes: Key Decision Point for a New President New US president Donald Trump has a decision to make. Is he going to prosecute American war criminals who murder eight-year-old girls, or is he going to be a war criminal himself?
1900 New York polling place., From WikimediaPhotos
(7 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, June 6, 2020
This is the Most Important Presidential Election Since the Last Presidential Election Henry Ford offered his Model T in any color you wanted as long as the color you wanted was black. This year, America's "major" political parties are offering you any kind of president you want as long as what you're looking for in a president is a creepy, handsy, corrupt, senile, septuagenarian, authoritarian hack.
COVID-19 highway sign in Toronto%2C March 2020., From WikimediaPhotos
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, April 17, 2020
"China Lied, People Died?" Look Who's Talking! If a government lies and people die as a result, that government and its functionaries should be held responsible, right? Good enough for me. But sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander, so if we're having Peking Duck this week, I'd like to know when Marc Thiessen plans to cough up his share of US government's tab.
Houston Gun Show at the George R. Brown Convention Center., From WikimediaPhotos
(7 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, June 4, 2022
Of Car Keys and "Gun Control" According to a recent poll on "gun control," 56% of Americans resemble the proverbial drunk looking for his car keys under a streetlight, rather than a block away where he lost them, because "the light is better here."
Marijuana031904 fig1, From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, March 1, 2017
The War on Marijuana is Ending. Disarm Jeff Sessions. The writing is on the wall: The war on marijuana is ending, and freedom won. [Jeff] Sessions can't undo that any more than the Ku Klux Klan was able to undo Appomattox. Unfortunately, as the newly confirmed Attorney General of the United States, he does enjoy a great deal of Klan-like power to continue terrorizing the millions victimized by his side during its 80-year war on a benign and useful plant.
Puck monopoly, From WikimediaPhotos
(4 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, March 13, 2019
Will Elizabeth Warren Take on the Biggest Monopoly of All? Is Senator Warren is serious about "breaking up monopolies" and "promoting competitive markets?" If so, I look forward to her proposal for breaking up the federal government and allowing real alternatives to compete for its market share.
Terminator1984movieposter., From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Friday, June 9, 2023
How I Learned to Relax and Love the AI-pocalypse The genie is out of the bottle, folks. AI is a thing. It's going to remain a thing. It's going to keep getting better and faster at doing all sorts of stuff that, once upon a time, only humans can do. If the US government tries to "regulate" it, its advancement won't stop.
Donald Trump, From WikimediaPhotos
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, January 31, 2017
Trump: Just the Newest Leader of an Old Cult The theory of American government is that the president is the chief executive. Words mean things. The president's job is to implement -- to execute -- the will of Congress as expressed in legislation. He's not the homeowner. He's the housekeeper. That's the theory. In practice, presidents have, over time, carved out considerable personal power for themselves.
Debt to GDP.webp., From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, February 2, 2023
Debt Ceiling: Extortion! Hostage-Taking! Irresponsibility! The current Democratic criticisms of Republicans' debt ceiling theatrics are, on the whole, correct ... if they're levied at both major parties and the whole of the federal government. The whole matter of the "national debt" is a classic case of extortion, hostage-taking, and irresponsibility.
Andrew Johnson impeachment trial, From WikimediaPhotos
(5 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, September 5, 2018
What is an "Impeachable Offense?" The US Constitution envisions impeachment for two specific offenses (treason and bribery) and for other not specifically defined offenses ("other high Crimes and Misdemeanors"). That second category does carry historical meaning, but the meaning is broad and, more importantly, determined politically and in the moment. Which means that pretty much anything can be an impeachable offense.
US National Debt., From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Friday, February 7, 2020
State of the Union: No, Nick, Your Children Owe Nothing The only people who owe the $23 trillion "national debt" are the people who borrowed the money.
Transgender Pride flag.svg., From WikimediaPhotos
(21 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, March 31, 2021
Gender and Medicine: Two Questions for Arkansas Legislators Whatever happened to the "conservative" Republican lines on business (best operated with minimal government interference or regulation -- yes, medical practices are businesses) and family (e.g. the sanctity of parental authority in nearly every aspect of child-rearing)? While "conservative" Republicans talk those two lines quite loudly, they seldom walk either line much at all.
Plough 1, From WikimediaPhotos
(5 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, August 26, 2016
Farm Follies: The Cheese Stands Alone (With Its Hand Out) I come from a farming family. My grandfather started out as a "share cropper," eventually farming several hundred acres of his own. I spent my formative years living on a subsistence farm and working on others' commercial farms. My father retired from a dairy operated by a farmers' cooperative. If anyone should appreciate the extra super specialness of farmers, it's me. But I don't.
Ted Geisel NYWTS 2 crop., From WikimediaPhotos
(4 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, March 10, 2021
Dr. Seuss Monetizes the Culture Wars On March 2 -- the late Theodor Seuss Geisel's 117th birthday -- Dr. Seuss Enterprises announced that, some time last year, it ceased publishing/licensing six of the popular author's children's books which "portray people in ways that are hurtful and wrong." Cue woke approval, deplorable outrage, investor interest, and low-information reader fear, all of which are good for business.
From commons.wikimedia.org: Hillary Clinton Speech at Democratic National Convention (July 28, 2016) , From ImagesAttr
(18 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, August 28, 2018
Democrats Move Back Toward Trusting the People "[A] political party which wishes to lead," reads the preamble to the Democratic Party's charter, "must listen to those it would lead, a party which asks for the people's trust must prove that it trusts the people ..." On August 25, the Democratic National Committee took that passage to heart by limiting the power of "superdelegates" in choosing the party's presidential nominee. Good move, and long overdue.
Bowery men waiting for bread in bread line, New York City, Bain Collection, From WikimediaPhotos
(8 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, March 6, 2019
Wish List Politics: Green No Deal "Aspirational" is another of saying that the Green New Deal isn't a real legislative proposal. It's just a feel-good wish list of things its proponents think Americans want and want us to believe they want too.
Georgetown University campus from the Key Bridge 2006, From WikimediaPhotos
(10 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, March 20, 2019
I'm Shocked -- Shocked! -- that Wealthy Parents Love Their Kids Too The public heartburn over Lori Loughlin and Felicity Huffman seems less about them bribing their kids into good schools than about them being able to AFFORD to bribe their kids into good schools.
Censorship Word Behind The .Do Not. Signs, From WikimediaPhotos
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, March 22, 2019
Suppressing Discussion Doesn't Solve the Problem. It is the Problem. The only appropriate response to "bad" speech -- that is, speech one disagrees with -- is "better" speech. Attempting to shut down your opponents' ability to participate in an argument isn't itself a winning argument. Forbidding your opponents to speak to a problem doesn't solve that problem.
-3 Layer Gag.ogv., From WikimediaPhotos
(4 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, April 27, 2021
SCOTUS Should Clarify Tinker in Favor of Free Speech, Not School Control The government gets substantial control of our kids for several hours a day, five days a week, not counting homework and extracurricular activities. That substantial control must end at the schoolhouse door and at the final bell. ... what our kids say, how they say it, and who they say it to when they're not at school is simply none of the school's business.
Allen Funt 1972.JPG, From WikimediaPhotos
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, May 27, 2022
America's Ruling Class: Candid -- But Only In Camera If you're not willing to be "candid" with the public you claim to work for, you're not a "public servant," you're a "public enemy."
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, January 16, 2017
The Jackson Family versus Martin Luther King and the Cast of Hamilton Joseph Fiennes isn't being judged on his acting skills, on whether or not he captures the essence of Michael Jackson's personality and successfully conveys that essence to viewers. He's being judged on the color of his skin, and the show's creators are being judged on their decision to ignore his skin color.
CuriaIulia.JPG, From WikimediaPhotos
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, September 14, 2019
Election 2020: Time to Stop Pretending and Start Over Read We're most of a century into what some call the age of the "imperial presidency" -- America's sickening descent to the status of banana republic. No wonder candidates for the presidency act like they're running for Mom or Dad of Everyone.
Justin Amash, From FlickrPhotos
(14 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, April 30, 2020
Burying the Lede: Justin Amash Just Made History For the first time ever, there's a sitting member of Congress whose party affiliation is "Libertarian."
US Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) laughs at some of the people she's fooled into believing she's .working class.., From WikimediaPhotos
(5 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, September 22, 2021
AOC Unmasks the Ruling Class Marie Antoinette supposedly never uttered the phrase "let them eat cake," or displayed the lack of awareness of or compassion for working class conditions associated with that phrase. Is her unfortunate image as manufactured and mythological as AOC's "working class" pretensions?
US Immigration and Customs Enforcement SWAT, From WikimediaPhotos
(20 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, June 17, 2018
Child Abductions: A Conversation It's Hard to Believe We're Even Having I'm just completely floored by the idea that, in this day and age, Americans need the Archbishop of New York to remind us of something as obvious as the fact that it's wrong to abduct children.
Money poster.JPG, From WikimediaPhotos
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, July 13, 2020
The Road to Hell is Paved with Economic Plans Behind politicians' "economic plans" lies the kind of hubris that that turns recessions into depressions, droughts into mass starvation episodes, and trade wars into shooting wars.
Rotten apple on ground closeup., From FlickrPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Monday, November 14, 2022
Election 2022: Time for the "Spoiler" Whining Every time a "major party" candidate loses an election or is forced into a runoff by a Libertarian, Green, or other third party or independent candidate, a festival of tears and butt-hurt ensues.
La Roche Jagu chanvre 1.JPG, From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, April 13, 2023
"Free The Weed" For More than Medical and Recreational Use Now that both "marijuana" and "industrial hemp" are legal in many places, why isn't the latter taking off? If you have to ask why, the answer is usually "money."
Bernie Sanders in New Hampshire (photo by marcn, licensed under Creative Commons Attribution)., From ImagesAttr
SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, October 1, 2015
Private Prisons: Bernie Sanders is Right As a libertarian, I'm all for "privatization." I'd love to see as many services as possible taken out of government's hands and left to the private sector. But "private prisons" aren't "private" in any meaningful sense of the word.
Cryptocurrency logos, From WikimediaPhotos
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, January 4, 2019
Why I am Still a Cryptocurrency Enthusiast, 2019 Edition I'm still enthusiastic about cryptocurrency because I've seen what it can do and make plausible predictions about what it will be able to do in the future. Cryptocurrency seizes control of money from governments and puts it in the hands of people. With improvements in its privacy aspects, that's only going to become more true. In short, cryptocurrency fuels freedom.
Fuel tank pictogram on 50 ccm scooter., From WikimediaPhotos
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, March 7, 2022
Support Sanctions on Russian Oil? Don't Complain About High Gas Prices According to a Reuters/Ipsos poll released on March 4, 80% of Americans support a US government ban on the importation of Russian oil. Meanwhile, Americans are also complaining about high gas prices .... While Russian oil constitutes only a tiny portion of US petroleum imports, a complete ban certainly wouldn't help hold US gas prices down. It also wouldn't help with much else.
Sana%27a after airstrike 20-4-2015 - Widespread destruction- 15., From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, December 21, 2022
The Yemen Yes-Men Ride Again Every time Congress rattles its war powers saber against continuing US support for Saudi Arabia's war on Yemen, presidents simultaneously threaten to veto such resolutions, and pretend they're just about ready to end that support, if only Congress will back off. And it does. Meanwhile, the war rolls merrily along.
P20210703AS-1795, From FlickrPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, February 14, 2024
State of the Presidency: 46+25 = 47? If Joe Biden can't remember basic facts or even be trusted to not throw important documents on the "donate to Goodwill" pile in his garage, is he competent to remain, let alone be re-elected as, president?
1928 REO Speedwagon Truck, Cotati, CA, From CreativeCommonsPhoto
(4 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, August 29, 2023
A Tale of Two Countries To me, Jason Aldean's recent hit "Try That in a Small Town" provides the best answer to an Internet joke question I've seen floating around for several years: "If you could completely eliminate one genre of music, what genre would you choose and why would it be modern country?"
Ritalin-SR-20mg-1000x1000., From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, July 26, 2020
Executive Orders: This is Trump's Brain on Drugs On July 24, US president Donald Trump signed four executive orders with an eye toward altering the way prescription drugs are priced and purchased in the United States. Three of the four orders embody good ideas that accord with the goals of think tanks supposedly supporting "free-market policy solutions" to America's healthcare problems.
US Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrest, From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, March 29, 2017
Sanctuary Cities and DoJ Funding: The Hypocrisy of Jeff Sessions In a surprise White House appearance on March 27, US Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced his intent to make America's cities less safe and more vulnerable to crime unless he gets his way.
%E9%9B%BB%E6%B0%97%E3%83%A1%E3 %82%AC%E3%83%9B%E3%83%B3EM-202 .JPG, From WikimediaPhotos
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, April 15, 2020
Instead of a Column, by a Man Too Burnt Out to Write One I keep hearing about the need for a "plan" to "open the economy back up." We don't need a "plan" for that. If you take your boot off someone's neck, he can get up on his own just fine, with no need for a "plan" from you. Ditto an entire population. But the politicians don't want us to notice that. Their livelihoods depend on us believing that their "plans" are why things happen.
Bryan, Judge magazine, 1896, From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, August 3, 2016
Donald Trump: Unprincipled Populist Donald Trump's presidential campaign rhetoric is, by most accounts, "populist, " but that's a broad description. Trump takes his "populism" from a particular historical tradition -- one with a baleful history in American politics. What is populism, and what's the problem with Trump's version of it?
Fight the state%2C not wars., From WikimediaPhotos
(4 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, July 27, 2020
"Anarchist" is not an Insult It's somewhat amusing that Donald Trump considers the word "anarchist" an insult, or that he fancies himself morally fit to insult anarchists.
President Bush presents William Safire the 2006 President Medal of Freedom, From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, May 24, 2018
Election 2018: Make Gridlock Great Again? Prediction markets aren't perfect, but they reflect the opinions of people who have money riding on being right, instead of just the opinions of people who happen to have opinions. A considerable percentage of people with skin in the game think that Republican president Donald Trump will face a partially or completely Democratic Congress, instead of a Congress dominated by his own party, starting next January.
Sharia-law-Billboard, From WikimediaPhotos
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, August 25, 2016
Travel Advice for the Islamo-FraidyCat Set This is far from the first reported incident of travelers being held up by freaked-out Islamophobes. It's probably far from the last. But it COULD be the last if those suffering from constant, crippling fear of sudden violent death at the hands of terrorists read this and follow a few simple rule of the (so to speak) road.
Wreaths Across America 131214-A-SW162-006., From WikimediaPhotos
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, November 7, 2021
When Our Politicians Buy Never-Ending War, We Get What They Make Us Pay For As the US Senate considers the latest National "Defense" Authorization Act, Congress clearly intends to bestow more money, not less, on the armed forces. And this despite the end of America's ruinous 20-year misadventure in Afghanistan. That's not just fiscally irresponsible, it's physically dangerous to the very people "Veterans Day" purports to honor and the peace Armistice Day was intended to celebrate.
%22Colored%22 drinking fountain from mid-20th century with african-american drinking., From WikimediaPhotos
(9 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, February 9, 2022
It's Time to Take the Racism Out of Redistricting If voters want to vote based on race, they will do so whether I like it or not. But gerrymandering congressional districts specifically to give weight and power to that practice and produce outcomes based on it, is classic Jim Crow "separate but equal" segregationism.
Abu Ghraib 56, From WikimediaPhotos
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, June 4, 2017
CIA Torture Report: Where's Our Next Heroic Whistleblower? What do the CIA, the US Senate, and the White House have to hide? My guess is quite a bit. Should they be allowed to hide those things from the taxpayers who pay the bills and whose lives are put at risk by the criminal acts of the US intelligence community? Absolutely not. Will they get away with hiding it? Not forever.
Emblem of the United States Marine Corps.svg., From WikimediaPhotos
(4 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, January 28, 2020
Government Organizations Shouldn't Enjoy Trademark Protection Just as written works created by government employees pursuant to their jobs fall into the public domain under copyright law, official government symbols should fall into the public domain under trademark law.
Bottled water., From WikimediaPhotos
(4 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, March 28, 2021
In Georgia, Republican Dumbness Whets Democrats' Thirst for Victory If you've ever voted in an urban center with heavy turnout, you may have spent hours waiting in line (I know I have). Under the new Georgia law, anyone offering you a bottle of water in the heat of the day risks arrest.
Facebook on Nasdaq., From WikimediaPhotos
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, October 26, 2021
"The Public Good" Isn't Mark Zuckerberg's -- or Congress's -- Priority Zuck decided to work for Hanoi instead of for Facebook's users in Vietnam. And in the US he'd be happy to work for Congress rather than for Facebook's American users, as long as doing so doesn't get in between and his real customers (advertisers), and perhaps even herds more of those customers his way.
Payday-loan-store, From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, May 8, 2018
CFPB Makes War on the Poor in the name of "Protecting" Them People who need money will do what they have to do to get that money. CFPB would rather you went to a loan shark, or robbed a liquor store, or sold your children into sex slavery, than paid interest rates they consider too high.
13-02-27-spielbank-wiesbaden-b y-RalfR-094., From WikimediaPhotos
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, January 29, 2021
Robinhood: Stealing from the Poor to Give to the Rich Hedge funds bet heavily against -- "shorted" -- GameStop. Robinhood's band of merry men and women bet for GameStop by buying its shares, bringing the price up. The hedge funds lost billions. Naturally, those hedge funds howled. And Robinhood, instead of siding with its users, sided with the funds.
Leviathan by Thomas Hobbes., From WikimediaPhotos
(14 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, December 9, 2021
Elections: Is There Light at the End of the "Big Lie" Tunnel? The best solution to the perceived problems of election "rigging," election "meddling," etc., isn't to resign ourselves to dictatorship, or even to seek more trustworthy elections. It's to cut the power of government down so much that elections become too unimportant to bother "rigging" or "meddling in."
Reflecting pool monument, From WikimediaPhotos
(6 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, January 14, 2019
Shutdown Theater: Blame? Why Not Credit? "Blame" is only one variant of "responsibility." CNN's coverage of its own poll begs the question by conflating the two, assuming universal belief that the "government shutdown" is a bad thing. That take ignores a very different viewpoint.
Yakov Guminer - Arithmetic of a counter-plan poster %281931%29., From WikimediaPhotos
(5 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, August 20, 2021
1984 in 2021: We're Doing Big Brother's Job for Him The political class's openly stated desire for a Ministry of Truth to suppress "misinformation" on social media notwithstanding, there's little evidence that it needs any such brute mechanism to let it have its way with the facts.
Antifa 2, From WikimediaPhotos
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, February 13, 2017
Hey Antifa: Free Speech is Not Negotiable "Antifa" is short for "anti-fascist," but the actions of those identifying with the Antifa movement falsify the implied claim. Antifa activists tend to show up whenever and wherever they sense an opportunity to use violence to silence speech they disagree with. Not to fight fascism, to silence speech. Not just fascist speech, but any speech they happen to disagree with ...
War in Gaza 096 - Flickr - Al Jazeera English., From WikimediaPhotos
(6 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, May 13, 2021
Peace in Palestine? Not if American Politicians Can Help It Biden and members of Congress from both sides of the partisan aisle feign surprise and dismay as the Israeli regime once again makes war on the populations of the Israeli-occupied West Bank and the Israeli-blockaded Gaza Strip. What the heck did they expect?
NYC IRS office by Matthew Bisanz.JPG, From WikimediaPhotos
(6 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, December 14, 2021
No, President Biden, We're Not Your "Customers" Portraying government as a business and you as its "customer" ranks right up there with "the consent of the governed" on the list of fictions contrived to confer "legitimacy" on an institution that does its best to run every aspect of your life, at your expense, whether you consent or not.
The Pentagon January 2008., From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, September 20, 2022
Pentagon's Information Warfare Review Should Cover the Domestic Side, Too Among supposed American constitutional values are separation of the military from politics, and its subservience to civilian government. While those values have always proven more noticeable in the breach than in the observance in wartime, the post-World-War-Two national security state has turned that breach into a well-funded, 24/7/365, campaign of political influence.
McKinley sworn in., From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, November 16, 2022
And Now We Return to Our Scheduled Programming: Presidential Election Theater These days, we spend two solid years out of every four listening to (or trying to tune out) a herd of hucksters telling us why they or the person they support should be elected president. And it's always -- always! -- "the most important election in history."
A final wave to the chanting crowd #Trump #politics #boca #DSLR, From CreativeCommonsPhoto
SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, January 10, 2023
2023 Political Prediction: Donald Who? It's taken six years, but Trump's whiny, spoiled, sore-loser shtick finally feels less like a rallying cry for angry Americans and more like the persistent, annoying buzz of a gnat in one's ear on a hot summer day.
2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine.svg., From WikimediaPhotos
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, May 13, 2022
The War in Ukraine Highlights Two Empires in Decline In the 1990s, John Walker's "bumper sticker" graphic popped up on the Internet: A Soviet flag with an "X" through it, next to an American flag without the "X." The slogan: "Evil Empires -- One Down, One to Go ..." Both empires are, indeed, going ...
Crowd simulation, Covent Garden, From WikimediaPhotos
(11 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, March 16, 2018
Some Questions from the Edge of Immortality What or who is a "person" -- a human being whom we recognize as having rights that ought not to be violated? Is a physical body a necessary component of "personhood," or would a mind running on a computer likewise enjoy the right to not be robbed or killed, the right to own property, to vote, etc.?
UKUSA top secret, From WikimediaPhotos
(7 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, September 19, 2018
Two Cheers for Trump's Declassification Order US president Donald Trump partially declassified a government surveillance application targeting former campaign consultant Carter Page and directed the US Department of Justice to publicly release text messages relating to the "Russiagate" probe between former FBI Director James Comey and other DoJ/FBI personnel. Whether or not this is a SMART on Trump's part remains to be seen, but in my opion it's the RIGHT move.
UN General Assembly hall., From WikimediaPhotos
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, May 6, 2021
About That "Rules-Based International Order" If the Biden administration really wants a "rules-based international order," the first step is to start following the rules.
New York Draft Riots - fighting., From WikimediaPhotos
(17 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, July 26, 2021
Don't Expand Draft Registration. End It. Nearly half a century after the last involuntary induction, the shadow of potential conscription still looms over young Americans.
1900 New York polling place., From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, July 18, 2020
Political Parties: Inevitable and Ugly, But Not Entirely Useless Any system that apportions power through political means is going to sprout factions. If those factions contest power through elections, they're going to become parties.
Censorship, From WikimediaPhotos
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, October 6, 2016
School District Declares "Gorilla" War on Employee Speech As a libertarian, I'm generally indisposed to defend either government education (I favor complete separation of school and state) or government employees (I favor complete separation of everything else and state as well, which would leave nothing for them to do!). But the government shouldn't be allowed to punish people for what they say. There's a word for that. That word is "censorship."
SARS-CoV-2 without background., From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, March 22, 2020
Yes, the COVID-19 Panic Does Call for Drastic Measures I agree that the situation calls for drastic measures, and I have one to offer: I propose a 90-day total quarantine, effective immediately, on all elected or appointed government officials. By "total," I mean they are to be restricted to their homes without telephone or Internet access, and physically restrained if they try to leave, have a communication device smuggled in, or to speak to anyone through an open window.
Terminator 2 - 3D Entrance Universal Studios Florida., From WikimediaPhotos
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, December 10, 2022
Donald Trump Isn't The Terminator -- He's Just Saying the Quiet Part Out Loud The Constitution is, and always has been, a convenience to justify the exercise of political power, and an inconvenience quickly discarded whenever it gets in the way of exercising political power. While it's uncertain that former president George W. Bush actually called it "just a goddamned piece of paper," his actions demonstrated that that's how he, like his predecessors and successors, regarded it.
Free speech reason progress, From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, August 19, 2017
Charlottesville Haters: Test Case for the Internet as Public Square John Gilmore famously noted that "The Net interprets censorship as damage and routes around it." Libertarians like me view the market in much the same way. This situation is a practical, nuts and bolts test of those views. There's a great deal riding on the outcome.
World population growth rate 1950%E2%80%932050.svg., From WikimediaPhotos
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, February 19, 2023
Government Population Control Isn't About Population, It's About Control The real specter isn't population growth or population (or "ethnic") decline. The "market" has that in hand and a la Darwin and Mill naturally selects for how to make most people most happy. The real specter is the threat to government's control over individuals' choice to reproduce or not.
1st Boston Marathon blast seen from 2nd floor and a half block away, From WikimediaPhotos
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, July 16, 2016
The Problem Isn't Tools, It's Terror "Our rifle is only a tool," Private Joker notes in Gustav Hasford's The Short-Timers (adapted to film as Full Metal Jacket). "It is a hard heart that kills." Focusing on tools misses the point entirely: When they choose to attack, terrorists will buy, beg, borrow, steal or make the tools to do so (the Tsarnaevs used pressure cookers, nails, gunpowder from fireworks and remote detonators made from toy car controllers).
SWAT team prepared %284132135578%29., From WikimediaPhotos
(8 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, July 2, 2021
Facebook Gives the Most Dangerous Extremists a Free Pass Only the least popular and least powerful extremists need worry that they'll be targeted by Facebook. The company actively coddles and cuddles up to the most powerful, violent, and deadly extremist groups on the planet: Governments.
Donald Trump by Gage Skidmore 2., From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, October 4, 2020
How the 25th Amendment Could Help Trump Win Re-Election He's off the campaign trail for at least two weeks, his medical condition is the center of attention, and any kind of illness tends to make a president look "weak" (not good less than a month ahead of an election). But Trump could use his unfortunate affliction to his own political advantage, by invoking the 25th Amendment.
Hillary Clinton by Gage Skidmore 6., From WikimediaPhotos
(8 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, May 25, 2022
Sussmann Trial: Mook Outs Clinton as "Russiagate" Shot-Caller The best we can hope for is that history will treat Hillary Clinton as very much the political twin of Donald Trump -- a con artist, a sore loser, and a Big Liar.
Carl-von-Ossietzky-Medaille 2014-12-14 2., From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, March 2, 2023
Kevin McCarthy is No Edward Snowden -- But He Should Find the Comparison Flattering Edward Snowden is probably the 21st century's greatest American hero, driven into exile under threat of life imprisonment for exposing the crimes of agencies like those Walder worked for. While McCarthy should find the comparison flattering, he isn't putting his life or freedom, or even his job, at risk by doing the right thing here.
Reefer Madness %281936%29., From WikimediaPhotos
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, March 21, 2021
Reefer Madness: Biden White House Director's Cut If you believed that Joe Biden and Kamala Harris were really going to take a different approach to the "war on drugs," and voted for them on that basis, you got conned. And you should have known better.
Corona pentagon, From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, March 24, 2018
On Military Spending and Trade, Trump Puts Americans Last The US armed forces are far too big, far too powerful, and far too expensive to bear any plausible relation to defense. The primary purpose of US military spending is not to defend the United States, but to continuously transfer as much wealth as possible from the pockets of working taxpayers to the bank accounts of large "defense" contractors. It's a giant welfare program.
Tear Gas outside United States Capitol 20210106., From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, June 15, 2022
January 6th Hearing: Don't Let Motives Obscure Facts If truth in advertising laws applied to Congress, the January 6 committee's name would use the word "exploit" rather than "investigate." Politics being politics, it's always safest to assume ulterior motives. An intention to exploit the facts, however, does not change those facts. And the facts are these:
The defendants at Nuremberg Trials, From WikimediaPhotos
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, April 16, 2018
Trump Isn't the First War Criminal President. He Should be the Last. As the Nuremberg Tribunal noted, "To initiate a war of aggression ... is not only an international crime; it is the supreme international crime differing only from other war crimes in that it contains within itself the accumulated evil of the whole." Donald Trump, Theresa May, and Emmanuel Macron are war criminals.
Casitas del Sur Missing Children March, From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Monday, May 28, 2018
Missing Children: The Pottery Barn Rule Revisited In 2002, US Secretary of State Colin Powell allegedly invoked "the Pottery Barn rule" -- "you break it, you bought it" -- by way of trying to get President George W. Bush to rethink the ill-fated invasion of Iraq. Pottery Barn actually has no such rule, but when I was a kid a lot of stores sported signs saying exactly that. Government doesn't have such a rule either, but it should.
Surgery, From FlickrPhotos
(10 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, April 30, 2019
9/11 Every Month -- Where's the Outrage? As you may remember, Americans got pretty exercised about 9/11. Heck, we still DO get pretty exercised about it (for a recent example, note the reaction to US Representative Ilhan Omar's "some people did some things" comment). But every month, month in and month out, year after year, the US government kills that many or more with its policies. The public response? Crickets.
Free Assange protest outside Belmarsh, From FlickrPhotos
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, June 19, 2022
Free Assange? Yes, But That's Not Nearly Enough. Stopping the extradition of Julian Assange isn't enough. Nor should we settle for an acquittal in court or a presidential pardon. Crimes HAVE been committed, and examples DO need to made of the criminals who committed them.
COVID-19 highway sign in Toronto%2C March 2020 %28cropped%29., From WikimediaPhotos
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, April 24, 2020
"Essential": What's in a Word? The best mechanism for answering questions pertaining to how essential a business or a job might be is called "the market." If customers consider a business "essential," they'll do business with it. If not, they won't. If employers consider a job "essential," they'll pay what it takes to convince someone to do that job. If not, they won't. Yes, it really is that simple.
Shenzhen CBD and River, From WikimediaPhotos
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, April 20, 2018
Shadow Protectionism: The US Government vs. Chinese Phone Makers In a globalized economy, it's impossible to hurt one country or firm without also hurting several enterprises in your own country -- and your own country's general economy. More domestic companies will be harmed than helped, and the harm will exceed the benefits.
Omarosa Manigault - Caricature, From WikimediaPhotos
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, August 18, 2018
Omarosa Manigault Newman, Public Servant I can understand why some people were surprised when a reality TV personality got elected president. I can understand why some people were surprised when that reality TV personality president hired another reality TV personality to work at the White House. What I can't understand is why anyone would expect two reality TV personalities to stop acting like reality TV personalities ...
Minneapolis Derek Chauvin Trial march %2851013669003%29., From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, April 24, 2021
Police Violence: The Standards Are Topsy-Turvy In 2019, there were 16,425 reported homicides in the US. Of those, the Washington Post reports, 999 -- 6% -- were police shootings, even though cops constitute only about 1/5th of 1% of the population. To phrase it differently, a police officer was about 30 times as likely as the average American to commit a homicide in 2019.
White House Coronavirus Update Briefing %2849784743606%29., From WikimediaPhotos
(11 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, January 5, 2021
Yes, Dr. Fauci, You DO Need to Have Some Humility Here If you're startled by Dr. Anthony Fauci's admission that he lies to the public depending on what polls say, you shouldn't be. It's not the first time.
Obama with Nobel Peace Prize, From WikimediaPhotos
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, May 5, 2018
Trump: For Whom The Nobel Tolls? According to South Korean president Moon Jae-In and to 19 Republican members of the US House of Representatives, Donald Trump is the man of the hour and deserves the Nobel Peace Prize for bringing the two Koreas to the negotiating table. Maybe so. But frankly I'm not sure why he would want it, given the trophy's tarnished history.
Sunballoon.JPG, From WikimediaPhotos
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, February 14, 2023
Aloft in Search of Monsters to Destroy In anything like a sane world, "there's a balloon over [insert latest location here]" wouldn't make the news at all, crowding out important information like the local Pop Warner league's box scores and someone's great-aunt's recipe for peanut butter no-bake cookies, let alone become the basis for Defcon Freakout.
Rick Perry, From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, January 24, 2017
Rick Perry's Sudden Change of Heart is Business as Usual When Rick Perry sought the Republican Party's 2012 presidential nomination, eliminating the US Department of Energy was part of his campaign platform. Granted, he had trouble remembering its name, but he wanted the department gone. Completely. ... How does he feel about the department these days? Well, somewhat differently ...
Dirty Girl 2012, From FlickrPhotos
(5 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, June 15, 2019
Opposition Research: It's Not Trump's Fault That Politics is a "Dirty" Game Campaign opposition research is a primary source of public knowledge about the candidates who are seeking our votes. If that information is true, it's true whether it originated in Minneapolis or in Moscow. If that true information is pertinent to our voting decisions, it's neither moral nor patriotic to ignore or denounce it solely on the basis of where it came from.
ElbeDay1945 %28NARA ww2-121%29., From WikimediaPhotos
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, April 28, 2020
Concern Troll is Concerned, Elbe Day Edition There's a deep divide within the US political establishment at the moment over whether the next US Cold War should pit Americans against Russia or China. Iran and Venezuela are dark horse contenders, but ever since the 2003 Iraq fiasco it's become a lot more difficult to portray smaller regional players as convincing "threats."
Operation Intrusive - Birmingham, From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Monday, December 19, 2016
Raid Encryption: This Should Be The New Normal In the digital age, law enforcement worldwide is increasingly nosy. Its leaders and advocates bemoan any technological development or practice which might in any way impede their ability to find out anything they might happen to want to know for any reason. They want our lives to be open books, and for us to just trust them to not abuse their power. History says we should begrudge them that trust.
Marihuana 1 %281936%29., From WikimediaPhotos
(7 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, December 4, 2020
The Most Dangerous Thing About Marijuana Marijuana is not and never has been a dangerous drug. It's a medically and commercially useful plant, and as a recreational intoxicant it's considerably less unhealthy and dangerous than alcohol or tobacco. In fact, the most dangerous thing -- practically the ONLY dangerous thing -- about marijuana is the possibility of getting arrested over it.
E-ticker., From WikimediaPhotos
(10 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, March 30, 2022
Family Matters Frustrate Attempts to Enforce Political Ethics It's one thing to impose restrictions and guidelines on people who have sought and accepted particular jobs. They agree to those restrictions and guidelines as part of the deal. It's another thing entirely to assume such authority over people who haven't even sought, let alone been offered or accepted, such employment and who, especially in the case of children, may not have even been consulted.
US Immigration and Customs Enforcement SWAT, From WikimediaPhotos
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, February 27, 2017
The Immigration Enforcement Police State is Here The near-total police state blossoming before our eyes is the inevitable result of America's 70-year romance with the astoundingly stupid idea that it's the government's business to monitor and control who travels, lives and works where.
NSA UTAH DATA CENTER, From ImagesAttr
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, September 24, 2015
Pwned Again: Don't Trust These Jokers With Your Information There's a word for people who trust their data security to screwups like president Barack Obama, would-be presidents Hillary Clinton and Chris Christie, FBI Director James Comey, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, and other politicians and bureaucrats. That word is "naive."
Voting booths., From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, February 4, 2020
Election 2020: The State of the Union is Screwed Up The Republicans offer us enslavement to their three-year-old cult of personality; the Democrats, enslavement to their octogenarian cult of bureaucracy. Flip a coin. Heads, authoritarianism wins; tails, freedom loses.
US Supreme Court - corrected, From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, June 28, 2016
SCOTUS: Amply Serving Law Enforcement Interests versus Society's The Fourth Amendment's prohibition on unreasonable searches and seizures isn't there for the convenience of law enforcement. It's there to protect everyone else's rights from abuses BY law enforcement.
Cobra Gold 2014 - Hat Yao Beach Thailand, From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, September 28, 2016
US Military Aid: Thai-ed to Torture Per 22 US Code 2378d, ("Limitation on assistance to security forces," better known as the Leahy Law), "No assistance shall be furnished under this chapter or the Arms Export Control Act ... to any unit of the security forces of a foreign country if the Secretary of State has credible information that such unit has committed a gross violation of human rights." Surely 74 cases of torture constitute such a gross violation ...
Censorship Word Behind The .Do Not. Signs, From WikimediaPhotos
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, September 25, 2017
Social Media: When Does "Actively Working With the Government" Become Censorship? At what point does "actively working with the government" and "partnering with public authorities" cease to be private, albeit civic-minded, market activity and become de facto government activity? Or, to put it differently, when does it cease to be merely "you can't talk like that in my living room" (exercise of legitimate property rights) and start becoming "you can't talk like that, period" (censorship)?
Representative Ron DeSantis%2C Iran%27s Missile Program %2817983165814%29., From WikimediaPhotos
(9 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, June 26, 2021
Real Law, Fake News: No, Ron DeSantis Isn't Making People "Register Their Political Views" Reading legislation is incredibly boring. But if you're going to report on it, carefully reading it first seems like part of the job.
Metaverse Roadmap Matrix, From CreativeCommonsPhoto
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, November 4, 2021
The Metaverse: Gateway to Unanimous Consent and Panarchy? If our major social and commercial activities can be moved entirely online -- and that's where we're headed, metaverse or not -- there's no particular reason why our political activities should remain constrained by geography.
Ellis Island Immigration Museum, From WikimediaPhotos
(10 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, February 9, 2017
Sorry, Judge Napolitano: Immigration Isn't "Foreign Policy" Immigration is not a foreign policy matter. Foreign policy relates to matters outside the United States and to relations between US government and other governments around the world. Immigration relates to individuals wishing to enter and possibly reside in the United States. It is therefore a matter of domestic, not foreign, policy. It's also a matter constitutionally reserved to the states ...
MarineBarracksBeirut 23October1983, From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, March 14, 2017
Sorry, Non-Interventionists: Donald Trump is a War President Clearly candidate Trump was a mixed bag on foreign policy, but he was marginally better than most of his opponents. Some antiwar activists took heart at the possibility that he might, as president, cut back on US military adventurism. No such luck.
Spice Synthetic Substance, From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Friday, August 17, 2018
New Haven Overdoses: It's Time for Indictments As law enforcement likes to tell us, getting a single dealer off the street does little good. We need to move up the food chain and nab the people at the origins of this thing. Who are those top dogs? Whose names can be presented to a grand jury for indictments in the conspiracy to put "synthetic marijuana" on our streets? Here are two: Uttam Dhillon and Scott Gottlieb.
Hurricane Kate %282003%29- Good pic., From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, August 31, 2023
Disaster Politics: My Perennial Plea for Presidents to Stay Home I'm not a big fan of presidents in general, but I'll be tempted to vote for the re-election of the next president who sees a large-scale disaster and resists the temptation to visit.
U.S. National Debt - Dollars and Relative to GDP, From WikimediaPhotos
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, March 10, 2017
The First Step Toward Fiscal Discipline: Cut Up The Credit Card If a regular person ends up in deep debt, he knows that the very first step to getting out of the hole is to cut up the credit cards and stop borrowing money. Supporters of continuously growing government debt try to make the matter seem more complicated for Congress than it is for you or me. In reality, it is exactly as simple.
CambridgeTripleDecker., From WikimediaPhotos
(4 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, July 15, 2020
Yes, the Rent is Too Damn High -- But Not Because the Minimum Wage is Too Damn Low Is the rent, as Jimmy McMillan says, too damn high? In some places, absolutely. In many places, probably. Is the rent being too damn high a function of the minimum wage being too damn low? No. A tiny fraction of one percent of Americans struggling to make rent are full-time minimum wage workers without secondary sources of income. The rent is too damn high because the housing supply is too damn limited.
Nike Fussballschuhe mit Stollen, From WikimediaPhotos
(8 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, September 17, 2018
Political Boycotts with Taxpayer Money? Just Don't Do It One nice thing about markets is that they're hyper-democracies in which we all get to vote with our patronage, every day and with every purchase. Unfortunately, some people think they're entitled to vote with other people's dollars. Marshall Fisher, head of Mississippi's Department of Public Safety, is one such.
Ambassador Nikki Haley visit June 2017 Ambassador Nikki Haley vi %2835064841051%29., From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, October 11, 2023
Nikki Haley: Still Far Too Unhinged for the Presidency Haley's proposal, in summary: Perpetuate the captivity of American hostages and flush the US government's credibility deeper into the untrustworthiness sewer -- if that's even possible -- in order to perpetuate mutual murder in the Middle East.
Nicasius Bernaerts - Fight between cats and dogs, From WikimediaPhotos
(13 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, September 15, 2018
The House Gets Bi-Partisan. They Should Have Had a Food Fight Instead. "The Dog and Cat Meat Trade Prohibition Act of 2018" is exactly what it sounds like: A bill "to prohibit the slaughter of dogs and cats for human consumption." What's up? Is there some pressing public health concern at stake? Is America in the throes of an epidemic of stolen pets ending up in stew pots? Well, no.
Florida electric-chair., From WikimediaPhotos
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, October 22, 2022
Capital Punishment Places Too Much Trust In An Untrustworthy Institution Does Nikolas Cruz deserve to die? In my opinion, he does. Do the rest of us deserve to live with the possibility of wrongful execution hanging constantly over our heads? No.
1871 Vereshchagin Apotheose des Krieges anagoria.JPG, From WikimediaPhotos
(4 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, February 8, 2023
Why I Am Anti-war (And What That Means) As the post-Russian-invasion phase of the war in Ukraine approaches the end of its first year (its previous, lower-intensity, phase blazed into military flame in 2014), I continually find my own position pigeon-holed into convenient categories by those who hold other positions on it.
Riot in Richmond, May 11, 1867 - The soldiers dispersing the mob, From ImagesAttr
SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, April 8, 2018
The Atlantic is at Sea Publications should run per the judgment of their editors, not the whims and tantrums of the Twitterati.
Emergenza coronavirus %2849501382461%29., From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, May 7, 2020
No, Government Didn't Save Us From COVID-19 Politicians don't start parades. They notice parades that we regular people have spontaneously organized, then run as fast as they can to the front of those parades, hoping to be seen "taking charge." And yet, for some reason, large numbers of Americans remain devout congregants of what Libertarians call the Cult of the Omnipotent State.
Representative Ron DeSantis%2C Iran%27s Missile Program %2817983165814%29., From WikimediaPhotos
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, August 29, 2023
Ron DeSantis is the Republican Party's Elizabeth Warren Like Warren, when DeSantis sees a problem -- real, imagined, or manufactured -- his automatic response is to propose "solving" that problem by putting him in charge, with sweeping powers to "fix" it by ordering people around.
Richmond Virginia damage2, From WikimediaPhotos
(6 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, November 13, 2016
December 2016: A Republic, if You Can Keep it The American political system can stand a few faithless electors casting protest votes now and again. They're a burp in that system, a noise in the machinery that lets us know it is actually running. But the American political system cannot survive electors defecting en masse from the clear winner to the clear loser of a national election. That's not a protest or an act of civil disobedience. It's an insurrection.
Judenfrei Bydgoszcz synagoga., From WikimediaPhotos
(6 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, April 10, 2021
"Vaccine Passports" and the Holocaust: An Invalid Comparison? Supporters of vaccine passports tout them as a way to "allow" us to do things such as attend concerts and sporting events. We've never needed health-based government permission to do those things before, and there's no compelling argument that we should be required to seek such permission in the future.
Mitch McConnell by Gage Skidmore., From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Friday, September 1, 2023
The Problem With Mitch McConnell Isn't His Age, It's His Occupation Every time Mitch nods off or freezes up at a meeting, or misses a vote to get a hip replacement or botox injection, there's at least a chance of innocent lives being spared.
SARS-CoV-2 without background., From WikimediaPhotos
(11 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, November 20, 2020
Mask Mandates: COVID-19 and the Law of the Instrument Producing a particular result hardly ever explains or justifies a particular government policy very well. Mask mandates aren't about masks. They're about mandates. Tony Evers's obsession with issuing orders demonstrates Abraham Kaplan's Law of the Instrument: "Give a small boy a hammer, and he will find that everything he encounters needs pounding."
Willamette University College of Law Library stacks.JPG, From WikimediaPhotos
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, November 3, 2021
When It Comes to Legislation, Reading Should Be Fundamental If there's anything worse than a law passed by Congress, it's a law passed by Congress that no one, even Congress, knows the contents of. Many big bills end up on the floor for debate and voting before they're complete enough to be printed and distributed to the people who are supposed to debate and vote on them.
Food Delivery Service., From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, June 16, 2022
Anti-Gig-Work "Progressives" Are Not Gig Workers' Friends In attacking the gig economy, "progressives" aren't supporting workers and trying to protect them from exploitation. They're attacking workers and trying to force those workers back onto what amounts to an exploitative, state-operated plantation where they'll do as they're told and gratefully accept whatever crumbs their "progressive" masters deign to graciously feed them.
Funding of K-12 schools map., From WikimediaPhotos
(4 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, July 7, 2020
School's Out. Reactionaries Hate That. The COVID-19 pandemic was a perfect opportunity to scrap "public education" as we know it, perhaps transitioning entirely to distance learning as a waypoint on the journey toward separation of school and state. Naturally, the political class hates that idea.
Elon Musk at TED 2017., From WikimediaPhotos
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, April 22, 2022
Why Elon Musk Shouldn't Buy Twitter My question isn't whether Musk should be "allowed" to buy Twitter (he should, if its shareholders are willing to sell). It's why he would want to shell out that kind of money for an old and busted platform with likely insoluble problems, when he could build something better, and likely more successful, for a fraction of the cost.
Torture Inquisition, From WikimediaPhotos
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, May 8, 2018
Gina Haspel: Torturers Should be Punished, not Promoted Gina Haspel doesn't belong at the head of the CIA. She doesn't belong in the CIA at all. Nor does she belong in any other position of government authority. Gina Haspel belongs in prison.
Censorship Word Behind The .Do Not. Signs, From WikimediaPhotos
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, August 15, 2018
Murphy's Law: Big Tech Must Serve as Censorship Subcontractors We don't need "more government oversight" of social media. What we need is for it to be recognized, and treated, as a criminal abuse of power (and a violation of US Code Title 18 241 -- "conspiracy against rights") for government officials or employees to attempt to "oversee" or "manage" social media's content standards.
1900 New York polling place., From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, August 15, 2023
Disqualify Trump? Maybe ... But Not By Ukase Even accepting the legitimacy of the existing system, the only legal way to bar Trump, or anyone else, from the ballot is to prove to a court's satisfaction that he is indeed an "insurrectionist."
CourtEqualJustice, From WikimediaPhotos
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, June 24, 2016
Jim Crow is Alive and Well and Attending the University of Texas When the expression "race-conscious" crosses my field of view, it's usually a safe bet that the person using it is a "white supremacist" or "white separatist" chiding those of similar skin tone for not joining him in his dislike of those of darker hue.... But not when racial quotas and set-asides come up for consideration in the courts. Then racism suddenly becomes not just acceptable but mandatory, or at least de rigueur ...
Lady justice standing enlgd, From WikimediaPhotos
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, February 13, 2019
Judicial Secrecy: Where Justice Goes to Die To allow secret judicial proceedings invites corruption and makes a mockery of the conception of justice the courts supposedly exist to uphold.
Better for America ... or Better for Trump?, From ImagesAttr
SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, August 9, 2016
#NeverNeverTrump: What's Evan McMullin Really After? For months, voices from the #NeverTrump movement have confidently promised Americans a fifth credible presidential candidate .... echoing those promises, a shadowy group calling itself "Better For America," funded by Mitt Romney associate John Kingston III, has been doing prep work for that unnamed candidate. On August 8 the suspense, such as it was, came to an end. The candidate is David Evan McMullin ...
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, August 18, 2016
Clinton: Unhinged? No, I can't bring myself to support Donald Trump. But it's getting harder and harder to peg him as the distinctively harebrained, irresponsible, unhinged one in the race. Clinton is still a game down to Trump in the World Series of Crazy, but it looks like the series will go all the way to seven.
White house south, From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, February 12, 2019
"Second Shutdown" Theatrics: Heads Trump Wins, Tails America Loses The border wall is fast becoming more than just a morally bankrupt and economically stupid political ploy. It's in the process of becoming yet another milestone on the road to the presidency as an openly proclaimed, and uncontested, dictatorship.
Bitcoin-Genesis-block.svg., From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, August 27, 2023
Enough with the DAOs, Time for the DAPs In the future, we're going to need Decentralized Autonomous Programs, not organizations -- anonymously authored, open source software that, once released into the wild, fulfills its functions without further human supervision.
Donald trump at the game, From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, October 4, 2016
Two Things That Don't Really Bother Me About Trump, Two Things That Do I won't be voting for Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump in November. I won't be voting for his Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton, either. I'm not sure who I'll vote for, but I'm sure it won't be either of those two. Still, I try to be fair-minded, and in my opinion Trump doesn't completely deserve the hits he's taking over two recent stories.
White House lawn, From WikimediaPhotos
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, February 19, 2019
The Real Emergency Isn't About the Wall. It's About the Separation of Powers. By asserting the "emergency" power to spend money on a project that Congress has explicitly declined to fund by appropriation (multiple times, in fact), Trump has effectively resigned the presidency and declared himself an absolute monarch. And THAT, friends, is a REAL emergency.
Julian Assange, From WikimediaPhotos
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, February 6, 2016
When in Rome: "Criminal Consequences" for Assange's Tormentors? Prior to this ruling, Assange's persecutors might have been able to plausibly claim legal uncertainty as an extenuating circumstance. That defense is no longer available. Assange's continued confinement after the ruling constitutes the knowing and intentional commission of several prosecutable war crimes.
From commons.wikimedia.org: Afghanistan rubble, From Images
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, May 10, 2017
Congress Should Just Say No to Trump's Afghanistan Surge Trump seems to have rejected the idea of withdrawing US troops and ending the war [in Afghanistan]. Instead, he intends to become the third president in a row to roll the dice on a "surge" -- that is, to send in more troops (the initial estimate is anywhere from 3,000 to 5,000 more in addition to the current 8,400) and hope for the best. That idea has never worked before and it's not going to magically start working now.
Russian passports, From WikimediaPhotos
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, October 1, 2016
Papers, Please: Polling Place Edition It wasn't until the 1980s that all 50 all states even offered photo driver's licenses, let alone required photo ID to vote. Somehow America managed to elect 40 presidents without everyone showing photos of themselves to bureaucrats on demand. Now for some reason not carrying an unflattering picture of yourself in your wallet is suddenly an existential threat to the Republic. Or at least to the Republicans.
Alex Jones, From WikimediaPhotos
(4 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, August 8, 2018
I Didn't Join Facebook to "Feel Safe" Why on Earth would Facebook's users require protection from Alex Jones? He's loud and red-faced and nuts, but it's not like he can pop out of the screen and grab us. ... note to Facebook: These "I don't feel safe" people will never "feel safe" enough to stop demanding that you reduce the content options other Facebook users enjoy. It's not about their actual safety. It's about their compulsion to run everyone else's lives.
Signing of the Declaration of Independence, From WikimediaPhotos
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, July 2, 2016
America: Mourn ... er, Born ... on the 4th of July I'm sure every generation agonizingly reappraises what we mean by the word "America," whether or not our present is worthy of our history, how well or poorly we've maintained the society our founding fathers envisioned. The 4th of July -- "Independence Day" to commemorate the date on the 13 colonies' Declaration of Independence -- seems like an appropriate occasion for such reflection.
Press freedom 2021.svg., From WikimediaPhotos
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, December 10, 2021
Censorship as an Investment: Turn Two Cents Into $311,562! Writing for a foreign publication, even a state-funded or -operated publication, even for money, is not a crime. Threatening writers for doing so is a crime in both the legal and moral sense.
Capitol Building Full View, From WikimediaPhotos
(6 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, February 26, 2019
Congress's Cowardly "Emergency" Rebuke Trump's declaration of a fake "national emergency" was actually a declaration that he is now an absolute monarch, a dictator, no longer accountable to Congress for his actions. If that's not covered by the Constitution's "high Crimes and Misdemeanors" clause outlining grounds for impeachment, what is?
World total population UN 2019., From WikimediaPhotos
(5 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, December 16, 2021
If You Want More of Something, Subsidize It (Population Edition) I'm agnostic on the relationship between population and climate change, but I can't help notice a contradiction when prominent progressives who claim to believe that overpopulation is a problem simultaneously support paying Americans to have more kids.
Facing death by lethal injection in Nevada, From FlickrPhotos
(19 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, April 27, 2019
Capital Punishment Isn't Unconstitutional. We Should End it Anyway. The claim of inherent jurisdiction over life and death -- the claim of a "legitimate" power to kill disarmed prisoners, in cold blood and with impunity (as opposed to the currently violent, in defense of self or others, subject to requirement to justify the deed) -- is the very definition of totalitarianism. You can have limited government or you can have capital punishment. You can't have both.
Pro-choice and anti-abortion demonstrators outside the Supreme Court in 1989, Washington DC, From MyPhotos
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, May 3, 2022
The Draft Opinion Leak Isn't the Real Supreme Court Scandal Why are we still waiting on the Court to publicly announce a decision it made months ago?
Mick Mulvaney by Gage Skidmore, From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, March 5, 2017
Budgets, Taxes, Deficits and Debt; or, Mulvaney versus the Math It's not possible to spend more, and tax less, and pay down crippling debt, and bring a runaway budget into balance. Unless Trump and Republicans in Congress are willing to buckle down and get serious about spending cuts (if you're not serious about cutting military spending, you're not serious about cutting spending) [Mick] Mulvaney's real job for the next four years won't be balancing budgets, it will be making excuses.
ParchmanGateNewPhoto.JPG, From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, March 26, 2020
Decarceration: COVID-19 is Opportunity Knocking The COVID-19 outbreak should mark the beginning of mass decarceration, not just a temporary exception to a dumb and damaging practice.
Shower head, From CreativeCommonsPhoto
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, July 17, 2021
The Biden Administration is All Wet When it Says You Can't Be Millions of Americans have pulled the "flow restrictors" out of their shower heads, hopefully wagging their middle fingers in the direction of Washington, DC as they did so. Manufacturers are required to put those flow restrictors in the shower heads they sell, but you're not required to leave them there. Yet.
Classroom, From WikimediaPhotos
(4 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, July 12, 2018
Why School Vouchers are a Terrible Idea Most opposition to vouchers comes, as one might imagine, from supporters of government-run, aka "public," schools for the vast majority of students. ... My own opposition comes from a very different direction: I'm against vouchers not because they might damage, or fail to replicate, the existing system, but because they threaten to make "private" alternatives more LIKE that system.
Die Wallfahrt der Fallsuechtigen nach Meulebeeck., From WikimediaPhotos
(4 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, August 6, 2021
The '80s Called. They Want Their Safety Dance Back. The COVID-19 Safety Dance seems to have less to do with actually "being safe" than with "feeling safe." In fact, it arguably has less to do with "feeling safe" than with obsessively finding reasons to continue "feeling unsafe" whether the feeling is justified or not.
Soyuz TMA-5 launch, From WikimediaPhotos
(22 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, March 20, 2017
Risk, Reward, Regulation and Space Tourism Space is the final frontier and frontier life is dangerous. Just ask those who explored Earth's seas or settled the American west. Despite the dangers, they did those things. Just as, if one of the private space companies asks for volunteers to man an experimental crew capsule tomorrow, the next day they'll find a line of eager applicants several miles long outside their door ...
We Can Do It%21 NARA 535413 - Restoration 2., From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, March 25, 2020
COVID-19: What Would Rosie The Riveter Do? I'm far too young to remember World War 2, but I've listened to veterans talk about it, read its history, and love the era's propaganda posters. Rosie the Riveter in "We Can Do it!" "Lay-Offs Cost Lives!" "Work To Win." I'm trying to imagine a propaganda poster for "our World War 2," and all that comes to mind is a hand reaching out from under a bed to grab a government check.
F-35 Lightning II variants in flight near Eglin AFB in 2014., From WikimediaPhotos
(7 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, May 31, 2021
Joe Biden's a Big Spender, But Not Quite Big Enough for Republican "Defense" Scammers Given that the US is drawing down its 20-year war in Afghanistan, one might expect some kind of peace dividend on the mis-named "defense" line of Joe Biden's budget proposal, but no such luck.
The Yellow Press by L.M. Glackens., From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, September 25, 2022
Journalism: "Objectivity" and "Neutrality" Aren't the Same Thing The "objectivity" of the post-Lippmann press didn't consist of eliminating bias. It consisted of smothering bias under a bland gravy of pretended neutrality.
US Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrest, From WikimediaPhotos
(4 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, June 26, 2018
Negative Social Preferencing, ICE Edition On June 19, New York based artist, programmer, and activist Sam Lavigne published a list of 1,595 Immigration and Customs Enforcement employees and publicly available information about them (remember those two words: "publicly available"). Lavigne provided a public service that in anything resembling a free society would be completely uncontroversial. Instead, moral panic ensued.
A 20ft x 20ft community garden plot in Harrisonburg%2C Virginia., From WikimediaPhotos
(7 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, March 27, 2022
Global Food Shortages: How Does Your Garden (or Pantry) Grow? Food prices are going to keep soaring, probably even more so than they have the last couple of years. More of our incomes will go to putting food on the table, and less to other things. We're getting, in a word, poorer. At least a little "prepping" is definitely in order.
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, September 1, 2018
Prosecutors: Flipping Off the Law with Impunity If the goal of the American "justice" system is indeed to seek justice, prosecutors should charge defendants with the actual crimes they can prove those defendants committed and judges should levy the penalties prescribed for those crimes, assuming the laws and penalties are indeed just (that's a different question). But that's not the goal, as many prosecutors see it.
Grocery Line, From WikimediaPhotos
(27 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, March 10, 2019
Don't Panic: The Retail Apocalypse Isn't Disaster, It's Progress The Retail Apocalypse is here, and it has consequences. Including, reports Krystal Hu for Yahoo! Finance, 41,000 retail jobs cut in January and February. Yet the US economy recorded a net gain of 20,000 total jobs each in January and February, its 101st straight month of job gains.
20 Dollars art3, From WikimediaPhotos
(9 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, February 26, 2017
The Target of the "Border Adjustment Tax" is You The BAT is promoted as a "tax on imports." Which, I guess, is technically accurate, but doesn't tell the whole story. It's not just a tax on imports. It's a tax on people who buy the imports. That is, it's a tax on you.
Julian Assange full., From WikimediaPhotos
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, February 12, 2021
Same as the Old Boss, Julian Assange Edition On February 9, the US Justice Department announced that US President Joe Biden, as in so many other areas, intends to serve Donald Trump's second term when it comes to persecuting heroes guilty of exposing US war crimes and embarrassing American politicians.
Activist protesting infant circumcision., From WikimediaPhotos
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, February 8, 2022
Circumcision: Pope Francis States the Obvious, but Omits Half of Humanity Why is it considered unacceptable to genitally mutilate infant girls, but acceptable -- or at least not important enough to vocally oppose -- to genitally mutilate infant boys?
Pro Juventute Aufklrungskampagne .Sexting' Themenbild_08, From CreativeCommonsPhoto
SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, February 19, 2023
Law Enforcement Porn: Manufacturing Fake Crimes Instead of Solving Real Ones According to statistics from the National Center for Victims of Crime, one in five girls and one in 20 boys are victims of child sexual abuse nationwide. ... How many of those real crimes go unsolved -- in fact, are never even noticed -- because law enforcement agencies spend their employees' time and your money manufacturing sick fantasies and arresting those who fall for stings based on said fantasies?
Atlas Blaeu-Van der Hem - Taioan., From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, November 16, 2021
US Policy on Taiwan is a False and Dangerous Two-Step On one hand, the US has neither any obligation nor any good reason to continue guaranteeing Taiwan's de facto independence from the mainland regime. ... On the other hand, there's also no obligation on the part of the US government to pretend that Taipei is part of the People's Republic of China and subject to the Beijing regime's authority.
Damaged housing gaza strip april 2009, From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, July 12, 2016
Shurat HaDin versus Facebook: Vexatious Litigation as Warfare Suing Facebook because Hamas operatives use social media is like suing AT&T because Hamas operatives talk on the telephone.... Shurat HaDin's lawsuits against Facebook ... are, in a word, "lawfare": Asymmetric warfare carried out through abuse of legal and judicial systems to accomplish military aims."
Hurricane Harvey, 08/24/17, From MyPhotos
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, September 1, 2017
Preparedness versus "Price-Gouging": Don't Hold Out for a Hero Maybe you can afford your own generator, maybe you can't. Maybe you can afford a boat or a four-wheel-drive vehicle with a winch or snow blade to pitch in with, maybe you can't. You may or may not be inclined to keep ten years' worth of freeze-dried food in the spare bedroom. But most people can afford to take some simple measures to prepare for emergencies both predictable and sudden.
14th Amendment Senate & House votes June, 1866, From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, November 3, 2018
This Too Shall Pass: "Birthright Citizenship" Kerfuffle is Mostly a Get Out The Vote Tactic Trump used birthright citizenship as a rallying complaint on the campaign trail in 2016. He's done nothing about it in the nearly two years since. Now he's weaponizing it again .... After which he will almost certainly go back to doing nothing about it for another two years, until he trots it out a third time when seeking re-election in 2020.
(11 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, February 1, 2019
Is Making Election Day a Federal Holiday a "Democratic Power Grab?" Yes, But ... Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) opposes a Democratic bill that would make election day a federal holiday. He calls it a Democratic "power grab." Is he right?
Social Media., From WikimediaPhotos
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, July 12, 2021
Internet Censorship: The Real Monopoly Threat Social media platforms aren't monopolies. If you don't like Facebook or Twitter, you can go to Minds, MeWe, Diaspora, Mastodon, Gab, Discord, et al. The US government, however, IS a monopoly. Arguments in favor of government regulation of social media platforms aren't arguments against monopolies. They're arguments in favor of extending the government monopoly's reach into new markets.
2021 Cuban protests., From WikimediaPhotos
(5 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, July 15, 2021
Note to Joe: Try These Two Easy Tricks to Promote Freedom in Cuba If Biden really wants to "stand with the Cuban people," there are two easy steps he can take to do so in an honest way. First, he can ask Congress to lift the embargo and declare a policy of unilateral free trade with Cuba. Second, he can ask Congress to end all restrictions on travel and migration between Cuba and the US.
Minutemans MIRV, From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Friday, July 13, 2018
Helsinki: How About a Fresh START? Russiagate or not, this summit may represent the two countries' last, best opportunity to halt or even reverse a decade of backsliding toward frigid Cold War relations. And Trump has a ready template at his disposal for pursuing warmer relations with a formidable, but hopefully former, foe.
Browning 1910 .380 559138 L DSC 3370, From WikimediaPhotos
(30 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, July 27, 2018
"Stand Your Ground": A Good Law for Bad Situations "Stand Your Ground" isn't about cases in which the victim has ten minutes to make a decision while watching a known serial killer approach from afar, wearing a hockey mask, chainsaw in one hand and severed head of his last victim in the other. "Stand Your Ground" is about cases in which a victim has to make a difficult and almost certainly life-changing decision, in a very short time frame, and under extreme pressure.
Malkassignboard.JPG, From WikimediaPhotos
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, September 29, 2021
"Language" Arguments Against Immigration Freedom are a Tower of Babble When debating immigration policy with people who have deluded themselves into believing that it's any of their business where other people choose to live or work, I run into a lot of bad arguments. Of all those arguments, probably the silliest is "but they don't speak English."
Create GPG Key, From FlickrPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Monday, March 27, 2017
Rudd Re-Declares Governments' Lost War on Strong Encryption UK Home Secretary Amber Rudd is upset. She considers it "unacceptable" that she can't read your private chat messages and wants that fixed. Naturally, she publicly ties her demand that you surrender your privacy to the fight against terrorism. Fortunately, Rudd won't get her way. That's not because her demand is evil and wrong-headed, although it is. It's because her demand is impossible to implement.
Gazasmoke.JPG, From WikimediaPhotos
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, May 21, 2021
When Israel's Regime Buys US Weapons, it Buys Them with Your Money President Biden says he supports a cease-fire, but his UN ambassador blocked a UN Security Council resolution calling for one. And those Boeing munitions are presumably on their way to help keep up the carnage for as long as possible. Let's at least be honest about those weapons. The Israelis aren't really buying them. You are.
Port of Long Beach%2C California -4., From WikimediaPhotos
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, November 19, 2021
How Markets are Like the Internet and Dinosaurs As Jeff Goldblum's character in Jurassic Park, Dr. Ian Malcolm, puts it concerning supposedly non-reproducing dinosaurs, "life finds a way." Markets are one of the best examples of that phenomenon.
KOREAN WAR MEMORIAL, From WikimediaPhotos
(6 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, March 22, 2017
It's Time to End America's Longest War Today, South Korea is twice as populous and 35 times as wealthy (in terms of Gross Domestic Product) as the North, boasting the 11th largest economy in the world (North Korea ranks 113th). In what universe does it make sense for American taxpayers to continue picking up a substantial portion of the check for South Korea's defense from its smaller, poorer, less industrially advanced neighbor?
Office Of Censorship 1945, From WikimediaPhotos
(5 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, March 16, 2019
Social Media Companies "Struggle" to Help Censors Keep us in the Dark Do you really need to see first-person video footage of an attacker murdering 49 worshipers at two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand? Maybe not. ... But whether or not we watch it should be up to us .... Social media companies should enable our choices, not suppress our choices at the censors' every whim.
Psilocybe mexicana 313748., From WikimediaPhotos
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, May 9, 2019
Two Cheers for Denver: Let's End the War on Unapproved States of Consciousness The practical justification for complete legalization of psilocybin (and all other drugs) is that humans have sought altered states of consciousness for as long as we've been humans and are always going to .... The moral justification for complete legalization of psilocybin (and all other drugs) is that what you put in your body, and for what purpose, is your business and no one else's.
PEACE Tilde Symbol, From WikimediaPhotos
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, February 9, 2019
A Preference for Peace: Not the Same Thing as Support for the Bogeyman of the Week I'm a peacenik. I think war is a bad thing. I've seen it up close and personal as an infantryman, and I'd like to see less of it, preferably none at all, either up close or from a distance. In part, this desire also makes me a "non-interventionist." And this, in turn, leads to scolding claims that I am "soft on" politicians from states who happen to be at odds with the politicians from "my" country.
Liberator XP002 with treated barrels, From WikimediaPhotos
(8 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, July 23, 2018
The First Amendment Saved the Second Amendment. What's Next? Effective August 1, America goes back to having a free press vis a vis guns. A free press plus rapidly proliferating DIY production technology equals the final nail in the coffin of "gun control" as a practical notion.
White House Coronavirus Update Briefing %2849784743606%29., From WikimediaPhotos
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, March 16, 2022
Rand Paul's Solution to Anthony Fauci: Three More Anthony Faucis In his quest to "get" Anthony Fauci, US Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) proposes to create three new "public faces" to push whatever policies they happen to support, and three new points of control over research funding to justify those policies. That's like trying to subdue a knife-wielding maniac by handing him a machine gun and a baggie full of PCP-laced methamphetamine.
Lysenko with Stalin., From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Monday, October 31, 2022
Missouri v. Biden: Putting America's Lysenko Under Oath After nearly three years of stamping unjustified endorsements from "SCIENCE!" on pure, undiluted authoritarian political measures, Dr. Anthony Fauci will now have to explain himself under oath.
Andrew Classroom De La Salle University., From WikimediaPhotos
(7 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, October 11, 2021
Try This One Weird Trick to Get Politics Out of Education What's important here isn't so much whether Critical Race Theory or "patriotic education" constitutes an historically accurate curriculum (I vote "neither"). This isn't actually a struggle over the facts. It's a struggle to determine who gets to indoctrinate America's future voters in a particular political ideology.
Cracker Barrel %283432634625%29., From WikimediaPhotos
(8 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, August 13, 2022
Cracker Barrel's Offering a New Sausage Option. The Response is Bananas. In an effort to keep up with the times and serve a profitable market segment, southern-style comfort-food restaurant chain Cracker Barrel recently added a new item to its menu. ... Cracker Barrel isn't "going woke." Cracker Barrel is noticing a market opportunity and hoping to profit from it.
Obama salutes, From WikimediaPhotos
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, March 14, 2016
Strong Crypto: An Offer in Compromise for President Obama With apologies to the late Barry Goldwater, absolutism in defense of individual privacy and strong encryption is no vice, nor is moderation in their defense a virtue.
Remember the Maine! And Don't Forget the Starving Cubans! - Victor Gillam, From WikimediaPhotos
(8 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, September 27, 2018
We Need More, Not Less, Separation of State and Journalism I agree with Rob Kall on the problems journalism faces. But the supposedly "free" American press already tends to act as a free stenography pool/ press release service for government. Direct government funding of journalists would just exacerbate that problem.
President Trump Welcome the Prime Minister of Israel to the White House%2C 25 March 2019., From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Monday, September 16, 2019
Trump and Netanyahu: "Mutual Defense" or Just Mutual Political Back-Scratching? On September 14, US president Donald Trump tweeted (of course) the suggestion of a US-Israel "Mutual Defense Treaty," citing a call with Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu. ... maybe Trump's tweet is just politics. But if it's for real, it's a bad idea for the US, a bad idea for Israel, and a bad idea for world peace.
Inflation rate%2C United States and Eurozone%2C January 2016 through June 2022., From WikimediaPhotos
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, August 6, 2022
Taxes, Benefits, and Inflation: When a Raise is Actually a Cut In at least some cases, the Social Security COLA may end up costing seniors more than they get. As Martin Luther observed of certain people in his Commentary on the Sermon on the Mount, government's "giving is of such a character, that the right hand gives, but the left hand takes."
U2F.USB-Token., From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Monday, February 27, 2023
2FA Change: Good for Twitter, Good for Twitter's Users Saving $60 million a year is good for Twitter, whether it increases new revenue from Twitter Blue subscriptions or not. The added security of using an app or physical key instead of trusting a more vulnerable authentication method is good for you.
-Donald Trump%E2%80%99s acceptance speech RNC July 2016.webm., From WikimediaPhotos
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, June 24, 2020
COVID-19: Freedom Means That We Can Do Stupid Things, Not That We Have To The "lockdowns" should never have happened, it's a good thing they're ending, and the sooner life gets back to something resembling normal the better. On the other hand, it's a real disease that's really killing people, and taking reasonable precautions is, well, reasonable.
Sow with piglet., From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, June 12, 2019
Pork is Not the Problem Silly earmarks are fun to point out, but concern over them comes at the expense of addressing the bigger problem: The spending is too damn high.
Kulldorff gupta bhattacharya., From WikimediaPhotos
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, December 21, 2021
Collins Emails Spotlight Bureaucracy's Attempted Subjugation of Science and Scientists "Francis Collins has spoken" was neither good science nor a good up-or-down test for determining the quality of public policy recommendations. Freedom of scientific inquiry and unconstrained public discussion of the alternatives are too important to sacrifice on the altar of technocracy.
Against abortion%3F Don%27t have one%21., From WikimediaPhotos
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, June 27, 2022
Abortion: No, Dobbs Isn't "Decentralization" This column is not about abortion. I'm not going to try to tell you that it's right or wrong, or that it should be legal or illegal. You've probably got opinions on that. They're probably not going to change. I'm not going to try to change them. I'm less interested in abortion itself than I am in the quality of arguments about it. And I see a truly silly argument being advanced by supporters of the Dobbs ruling.
US Capitol west side.JPG, From WikimediaPhotos
(5 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, April 21, 2021
How "Representative" is US Democracy? Among the world's states, the United States ranks third in population, but 25th in the number of members comprising its national legislative bodies. ... In terms of the ratio of legislators to population, only the European Union and India are "less representative."
Ace Hotel NY Grassroots Donor Pop Up %2847967853656%29., From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, May 29, 2021
When Politicians Cry "Accountability," Ask "Accountability to Whom?" The relevant question when Senator Warren brings up "accountability" is, of course, "accountability to whom?" And the feeling one gets, regardless of her claims to be acting on behalf of workers, consumers, or corporate shareholders, is that it's really all about accountability to ... drum roll please ... US Senator Elizabeth Warren.
US flag burning, From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Friday, December 2, 2016
Hey, @RealDonaldTrump, Hands Off My Flag If someone wants to set fire to a brightly colored piece of cloth, it's nobody else's business unless the flag is stolen, the flag-burner is trespassing, or burning the flag endangers other people's lives or property.
Panorama of United States Supreme Court Building at Dusk, From WikimediaPhotos
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, April 3, 2017
SCOTUS: The Nuclear Option is Not Enough Under current Senate rules cloture requires 60 votes. Republicans, with a bare majority in the Senate and no hope of winning cloture, are threatening "the nuclear option" -- a rules change, which only requires a majority, to make cloture itself a mere majority vote. I don't think the "nuclear option" is enough. I'm with MacBeth: "If it were done when 'tis done, then 'twere well It were done quickly."
No to War in Ukraine - 28, From FlickrPhotos
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, February 27, 2022
Ukraine: Don't Look to Politicians for Peace Like all other wars in my lifetime, this one is a violation of every worthwhile human value, a brawl between overgrown street gangs with delusions of grandeur. It was avoidable, it is unnecessary, and it is unjust. Where I find myself in disagreement with many who oppose this particular war but have supported others is the notion that there are any "good guys" to be found among the political decision-makers ...
Facebook and Firefox, From WikimediaPhotos
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, April 14, 2018
The Senate vs. Facebook: Beware Untrustworthy Partners, Revisited The US Senate wants you to believe that it can, if it deems itself called upon to do so, excel the efforts of Mark Zuckerberg to safeguard the information you entrust to social media. Cue laughter, followed by horror as the realization dawns that yes, the US Senate will undoubtedly soon deem itself called upon to do that.
Tear Gas outside United States Capitol 20210106., From WikimediaPhotos
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, January 25, 2023
"Seditious Conspiracy": Trying to Do Unto Government as Government Does Unto You What I find interesting about the "seditious conspiracy" statute -- other than that Congress breaks it every time it conspires to pass a measure "hindering" the Supreme Law of the Land, the Constitution -- is that it describes, in a nutshell, the operating theory of government itself.
New York City Hall exterior%2C October 2016., From WikimediaPhotos
(30 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, July 1, 2021
Ranked Choice Voting Isn't the Problem in New York City's Mayoral Election The New York City Board of Elections's apparent inability to quickly, competently, and accurately count votes isn't an indictment of Ranked Choice Voting. It's an indictment of the New York City Board of Elections.
Golfer swing., From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, December 29, 2021
On Foreign Policy, Biden Should Have Taken Golf Lessons If foreign policy was a game of golf, the Afghanistan withdrawal would sound like the driver making solid contact with the ball for a likely long drive off the tee. But in foreign policy, as in golf, the initial swing is likely to go bad if the golfer doesn't "follow through." Unfortunately, Biden isn't.
New-colossus-emma-lazarus-stat ue-of-liberty  NPS., From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Monday, July 4, 2022
Who's Murdering Immigrants? It's No Mystery. A vote for a non-"open borders" politician -- these days, that means pretty much any Republican or Democrat -- is a vote for mass murder.
(7 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, October 26, 2016
ObamaCare: Things Fall Apart In 2009, I described (the then notional, yet to be passed into law) ObamaCare as "[g]overnment feeds you to the insurance companies, while simultaneously feeding the insurance companies to you. The state takes home a doggie bag." Which is about the size of it, and I was far from the only person who noticed and warned that the plan not only wouldn't work, but COULDN'T work ...
IWW demonstration NY 1914., From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, July 21, 2020
CARES Act: Prelude to a $15 Minimum Wage? For several years now, ongoing campaigns have tried to sell Americans on $15 an hour as the bottom end of "living wage" territory, and as a proper minimum hourly wage to be required by law. ... Election-year politics being what they are, I expect a compromise as the House, Senate, and White House negotiate a second edition of the CARES Act ...
Cole Thomas The Course of Empire Destruction 1836., From WikimediaPhotos
(6 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, August 17, 2021
Now, About That Peace Dividend ... If the people who keep getting us into expensive fiascoes like Afghanistan are allowed to just roll old money over into new scams when the old ones finally collapse, those scams will keep coming and keep getting more expensive. The US "defense" budget must be cut by at least $70 billion per year going forward.
Killerdrug., From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, May 31, 2022
Marijuana: John Carney and Delaware's Law Enforcement Lobby versus "The Children" "War" on marijuana means more police jobs and bigger budgets for police departments. And perp-walking a harmless citizen over a bag of weed is much safer than, say, saving a school full of children from a gunman. Officer safety is the first priority, followed by job security. Back the Blue!
P2P Online Sharing Economy, From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, June 6, 2018
"Progressives" Against (Economic) Progress Most opponents of the sharing economy, the gig economy, the cryptocurrency economy, etc., posture as "progressives" even as they openly side with corporate dinosaurs and parasitic bureaucrats and against workers and the entrepreneurs who empower those workers. Let's call these self-styled "progressives" what they really are: Reactionaries.
Wattsriots-burningbuildings-lo c, From WikimediaPhotos
(4 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, October 29, 2018
Yes, Things Have Been This Bad Before. In Fact, They've Been Far Worse. Things seem pretty bad, don't they? In fact, in a Facebook political conversation the other day a loved one somberly informed me that "things have never been this bad." Whoa. Just one minute there. Never?
Maiasaura in Smithsonian Dinosaur Hall, From WikimediaPhotos
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, December 1, 2018
In the House, Everything New is Old Again Given an opportunity -- even arguably a mandate from their voters -- to change things up, the Democratic party establishment is doing the same old thing again while apparently anticipating different results.
CBO U.S. Federal Spending as Pct GDP 2013-2024, From WikimediaPhotos
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, January 30, 2017
Reagan Redux? The Federal Budget Battle Shapes Up The developing Trump plan is the usual tinkering around the edges, searching for "waste, fraud and abuse" in "discretionary spending." Baby steps like that will never bring the budget into balance, but they're still too much for Congress. "Discretionary spending" is politicianese for "spending Congress uses to buy votes back home."
Money, From FlickrPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, March 1, 2022
The West's SWIFT Kick is Aimed at Russia, But it Will Also Hit the US Dollar In the short term, the SWIFT kick and other sanctions may hurt Russia more than they hurt you. But the uncontested reign of the US dollar among global currencies seems to be nearing its end, in part because the US government is driving the world away from it with the constant threat of sanctions.
Trump and DeSantis., From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, April 24, 2022
Will Ron DeSantis's Latest Mickey Mouse Political Tantrum Cost Him His Career? Positioning himself as opposed to "woke" Disney couldn't possibly hurt Ron DeSantis with Florida's Trump-addled Republican base, and Orange and Osceola counties voted for his Democratic opponent by huge margins in 2018 anyway. What could possibly go wrong? The answer is: A lot.
Map of NATO chronological., From WikimediaPhotos
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, July 2, 2022
Don't Expand NATO. Disband It. NATO is a clear, present, and constant danger to world peace. It outlived its notional usefulness as anything else more than three decades ago.
Ansel Adams - Farm workers and Mt. Williamson, From WikimediaPhotos
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, June 12, 2018
Let's Call the Farm Bill What it is: Corporate Welfare The rawboned, overall-clad man driving a tractor 12 hours a day, calling the cows in for their evening milking, slopping the hogs, and sitting down for an evening pipe on the front porch before bed was once my grandfather. Now he's a carefully cultivated image of the past, used by organizations like Duvall's to propagandize for the transfer of billions dollars every year from your pockets to theirs via the political process.
Federal Notice of Domain Theft, From ImagesAttr
(4 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, April 9, 2018
First They Came for BackPage The federal government has openly arrogated to itself the power to outlaw speech and punish publishers for allowing that speech on their platforms, so long as it clicks its collective heels together and says "there's no crime like human trafficking" three times first.
White House, From FlickrPhotos
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, April 19, 2019
The Mueller Report Changed my Mind on Term Limits I haven't read the Mueller report yet. I'm writing this on the day of its release (with redactions) by US Attorney General William Barr. I'll read it later, but I didn't have to read it, or even wait for its release, to reach one conclusion from it: It's time to amend the Constitution to limit the President of the United States to one term.
Big brother is watching you., From FlickrPhotos
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, February 12, 2022
Business as Usual: Politicians Cynically Exploit Child Sex Victims in Attack on Your Freedom EARN IT is a one-two punch against freedom and privacy that would effectively destroy the Internet we've come to know and love (and, yes, hate) over the last 30 years.
Ransomes00., From WikimediaPhotos
(4 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, April 7, 2021
Time to Get Government Off Our Lawns The lawn is such a familiar part of everyday American life that it might seem like the natural state of things. In reality, it's evolved over the last two centuries from an aristocratic plaything to what Washington Post columnist Christopher Ingraham rightly calls a "soul-crushing timesuck" that most of us would be better off without.
Benito Mussolini Roman Salute., From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, August 12, 2023
Totalitarianism: The Oak is in the Acorn No amount of power is ever enough. Sooner or later, EVERYTHING becomes a priority. The more control the state has, the more it wants, the more it interprets dissent or even diversity of opinion as an existential threat to its prerogatives, and the more excuses it manufactures for cracking down on them.
what goes on behind the curtain of vote counting? And why don't they want you to know?, From MyPhotos
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, January 27, 2017
Why Trump is Doubling Down on the Voter Fraud Fraud There are rare cases in which individuals will try to vote illegally. Former Republican congressman Todd Akin of Missouri, for example, who got caught voting at his old polling place after moving, presumably to hide the move from his constituents and opponents. But the key word is "rare." Voter fraud is not a strategy used by candidates and campaigns to move the needle on election results.
Wishes %28221399%29., From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Monday, April 11, 2022
Beauty and the Culture War Beast: Buycott Beats Boycott Buycotting Disney is as easy as continuing to do what you're probably already doing. Boycotting Disney? Well, that's significant and probably unpleasant work.
W80 nuclear warhead., From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, June 20, 2021
Nuclear Arms Reduction: Actions Speak Louder Than Words On June 16, US president Joe Biden and Russian president Vladimir Putin issued a Joint Statement on Strategic Stability, in which they "reaffirm the principle that a nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought" and "seek to lay the groundwork for future arms control and risk reduction measures." But talk and action are two very different things.
Total deaths in US mass shootings., From WikimediaPhotos
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, July 13, 2021
No, the Air Force is Not "60% Responsible" for Devin Kelley's Crimes Devin Kelley, and no one else, was responsible for Devin Kelley's actions. Period.
Port of Long Beach%2C California -4., From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Friday, October 15, 2021
Economic Woes: Biden Blames Trump. Trump Blames Biden. They're Both Right. After four years of trade wars and 18 months of trashing various sectors of the economy in the name of "fighting COVID-19," all while cranking up the fiat currency printing press and handing out fat stacks of money to all comers, the US government has attracted a flock of chickens home to roost their tailfeathers over the American economy.
Alexei Navalny marching in 2017., From WikimediaPhotos
(4 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, February 17, 2024
Russia: Why Navalny, and What's Next? According to the Russian regime, he was incarcerated for crimes ranging from embezzlement to fraud to money laundering. According to his supporters in Russia and elsewhere, he was a political prisoner whose anti-corruption work and campaigns for public office represented a threat to Vladimir Putin's rule. I've always found his status as a darling of western Putin opponents puzzling.
Gulfstream G500%2C EBACE 2018%2C Le Grand-Saconnex %28BL7C0677%29., From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, August 12, 2023
Air Travel Privacy: Is Elon Musk's Personal Security More Worthy of Protection Than Yours? We regular folk who travel on the 84% of flights the FAA designates "commercial" pay 98% of the taxes that fund the FAA. "Private" jet operators, responsible for the other 16% of flights, pay about 2%. They want us to subsidize them AND be barred from knowing where those subsidies are going.
WWII-HolocaustDeaths-Pie-All.s vg., From WikimediaPhotos
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, February 3, 2022
Who Owns the Holocaust? The only positive aspect of the Nazis' orgy of persecution and murder is that it inspired a continuing, persistent sentiment and determination: "Never again." But even that positive aspect is continually tarnished in one of two ways. One is inapplicable invocation .... The other is inapplicable claims to sole ownership of Holocaust victim status by organizations (and states) claiming to represent the Jewish people.
Senator of Arkansas Tom Cotton at NH FITN 2016 by Michael Vadon 08., From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, September 13, 2022
Cotton Mouth: Political Careerist vs. Ranked Choice Voting The "major" parties' shared monopoly on ballot access, debate inclusion, gerrymandering, etc., combines with "first past the post" plurality elections to guarantee political careerists like Tom Cotton the paychecks and power to which they consider themselves as entitled as George III is to his newly acquired throne, crown, and scepter.
Apr14. Daily #chalkupy Free Chelsea Manning, From ImagesAttr
SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, August 13, 2015
It's Classified: A Tale of Two Scofflaws I find it painful to compare Chelsea Manning to Hillary Clinton. Chelsea Manning is an American heroine who knowingly exposed classified information for the purpose of revealing war crimes in Iraq and other government lawlessness ... Hillary Clinton is a power-monger who carelessly exposed classified information because she believes she's above the law.
Halloween, From FlickrPhotos
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, November 3, 2016
Culture Isn't Property. Copying Isn't Stealing. News flash: Anything and everything you do, anything and everything you use, anything you have or own, originated in some culture, and for any given thing there's a very good chance that said culture isn't the one you call your own. Every human being living in any modern society begins "culturally appropriating" when the alarm clock goes off in the morning and doesn't stop doing so until the lights go out at bedtime.
From commons.wikimedia.org: US Department of Justice Scales Of Justice, From Images
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, November 28, 2018
Doing Justice to Trump's "Invasion" Claim An invasion is a violent military operation. Moving from Tegucigalpa to Topeka to find a job and rent an apartment isn't anything like that. But Trump used the word, and even promised a military response. So, for the sake of argument, let's take him seriously. There's a war on at the border, at least in his fevered imagination.
Razor and strop.JPG, From WikimediaPhotos
(4 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, September 12, 2022
Does Sparing the Rod Really Spoil the Child? Corporal punishment becomes a shortcut that superficially "solves" problems without the time and effort required to understand and work through those problems for real. It's the crack cocaine of dispute resolution -- an instant high followed by the constant need for more.
SHARE More Sharing        Friday, February 17, 2017
Trump: Triumph of the Permanent Campaign Trump is well-known for his hyper-sensitivity to being perceived as anything less than top dog in every respect. He decries negative press and polling as biased and can't wait to tout his latest triumph, even if he has to invent it himself (see, for example "inaugural attendance figures"). It's time to stop thinking of that as a character defect and recognize it for what it is.
Julian Assange, From ImagesAttr
(7 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, October 12, 2015
Five Years is Five Years Too Long: Free Julian Assange! Julian Assange has already spent the last three years and four months under de facto house arrest, trapped in the embassy and prevented from traveling to Ecuador proper, where he's been granted political asylum. And let's make no bones about this: Assange is a political prisoner.
Progreso TX port of entry., From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, April 16, 2022
Abbott's Border Antics: An Airtight Case for Under-Used and Over-Used Constitutional Clauses Greg Abbott's escalation creates a whole new supply chain problem with one of America's largest trading partners (Mexico runs neck and neck with Canada and China for the top spot). You may not be seeing his antics in your grocery bill or price paid for car parts yet, but if he keeps it up you will soon.
Data is collected on everything we do, From WikimediaPhotos
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, April 4, 2017
Want Privacy? Washington Isn't Where You'll Find It. Perfect privacy probably isn't possible, and if it was it would take a herculean effort to achieve. But you're not noticeably less well off on that front now than you were the day before Trump signed the law relaxing restrictions on ISPs.
ANES feeling thermometer 1980 through 2016., From WikimediaPhotos
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, January 27, 2021
The Next Major Party Won't be a Trump Production Duverger's Law puts it bluntly: "[T]he simple-majority single-ballot system favours the two-party system." With more than 140 years to entrench themselves in that system and fortify their position with ballot and debate access barriers to keep competitors broke and voiceless, the Republicans and Democrats have little to fear. Or do they?
Mask Mandate IG image for Biden Administration - 2021-01-20., From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, July 24, 2022
COVID-19: Block the "Emergency" to "New Normal" Pipeline We're still taking off our shoes in airport lines on command more than 20 years after Richard Reid's unsuccessful attempt to blow up a plane. If the political class has its way, we'll still be donning ceremonial headgear on command 20 years from now.
Marijuana031904 fig1, From WikimediaPhotos
(10 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, March 4, 2019
Why Wait for 2021? End the Federal War on Marijuana Now! Marijuana legalization is an unstoppable parade. Time for the presidential candidates to run for the front of that parade instead of just standing in the crowd hoping the voters will throw them some candy.
Cleveland Tariffs %28edit%29., From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, May 27, 2021
Trump's Trade Wars Aren't Over Yet, and You're Still Losing Trump's tariffs aren't the only reasons that the stuff you buy (especially stuff made of steel or wood) is more expensive now than in 2018. But they're among those reasons. Four months into his presidency, Joe Biden seems disinclined to roll Trump's tariffs back and bring these ruinous trade wars to an end.
Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson - Wikimedia Commons., From WikimediaPhotos
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, March 23, 2022
GOP Senators' Case Against Ketanji Brown Jackson: She Did Her Job Lindsey Graham's and Josh Hawley's problem with Jackson is that she did her job -- and that, above and beyond doing her job, she supports the Constitution while they oppose it.
Berlin Wall 1961-11-20, From WikimediaPhotos
(8 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, March 31, 2016
"Secure the Border": Politician-Speak for "I'm a Tyrant Who Thinks You're an Idiot" Attempts to "secure the border" can only have two consequences: First, they can increase the likelihood of terror attacks and so forth ... Second, they can turn the US into a police state like East Germany.
James Stewart in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington trailer 2 crop.JPG, From WikimediaPhotos
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, January 22, 2022
The Filibuster: Schumer Gets it Half Right Senators spend millions getting elected to, and are paid $174,000 per year to serve in, what Edmund Burke called a "deliberative assembly." They should have to deliberate their rear ends off to secure victory or impose defeat.
Donald Trump swearing in ceremony, From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Friday, December 28, 2018
Trump's Holiday Gift to America: Hope for a Little More Peace on Earth? Nothing's written in stone, and both US foreign policy and Donald Trump are prone to sudden and unexpected turns. But the holiday season is a time of hope. Maybe, just maybe, nearly three decades of US war in the Middle East are coming to the beginning of their end.
Guy-Fawkes., From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, September 16, 2021
Words Mean Things, and the "Treason" Talk is Tiresome Since about the time that Donald Trump won the 2016 presidential election, the word "treason" has become one of the most over-used -- and more importantly MIS-used -- words in the English language.
UberEatsSubwayRestaurant., From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Friday, October 14, 2022
California's "Progressive" War on Workers Goes National The war on the gig economy is just one of many examples of how conservative today's "progressives" really are. They're more interested in saving an old and busted system, in the name of "the workers," than they are in the actual interests of real workers.
Bottled water., From Uploaded
SHARE More Sharing        Friday, March 26, 2021
In Georgia, Republican Dumbness Whets Democrats' Thirst for Victory If you've ever voted in an urban center with heavy turnout, you may have spent hours waiting in line. Under the new Georgia law, anyone offering you a bottle of water in the heat of the day risks arrest.
Seal of the United States Congress.svg., From WikimediaPhotos
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, September 1, 2021
Congress is a Deadly Extremist Organization Webster's offers a clue as to what might constitute a real moderate: "[O]bserving reasonable limits; not excessive, extreme, violent, or rigorous; limited; restrained." In other words, the exact opposite of Congress.
Vote Carefully!, From Uploaded
SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, October 15, 2022
Public Service Announcement: Look for the Libertarian Label -- But Look Carefully at the Candidates While I strongly encourage those who vote to never, ever vote Republican or Democrat, this year I also urge you to take a close and careful look at Libertarian candidates before voting for them. Support the genuine article, but accept no Mises PAC substitutes.
Sherlock Holmes, From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Friday, December 16, 2016
Servergate/Hackergate: The Case of the Investigatory Double Standard When is it proper to investigate alleged wrongdoing by, or on behalf of, powerful politicians? Apparently it depends.
what goes on behind the curtain of vote counting? And why don't they want you to know?, From MyPhotos
(6 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, January 7, 2017
Term Limits: Painkiller, Not Cure Two favorite arguments in favor of term limits are that they will replace the corruption and careerism of incumbency with wholesome "citizen legislators" who labor briefly in the political vineyards before returning to private life. But will that really work out?
Gerard van Honthorst - Adoration of the Shepherds %281622%29., From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, December 22, 2022
Holiday Musings: No News is Good Snooze My family celebrates Christmas. Yours may celebrate other winter holidays with different roots and stories. But all of those holidays, I think, express in common the desire celebrated by the angels in the second chapter of the Gospel of Luke: "On earth peace, good will toward men."
US Senate cloture since 1917., From WikimediaPhotos
(7 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, March 23, 2021
The Filibuster: Imperfect, But Better Than Nothing Whether it's 60 votes for cloture or Senators yammering about recipes for green bean casseroles, I like the filibuster and want to see it continue regardless of which party is in power. And my reason for that isn't complicated: Political power, especially on the sheer size and scale wielded by the US federal government, is a very dangerous thing.
Syrian refugees in Lebanon (public domain image from Wikimedia commons), From WikimediaPhotos
(10 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, November 22, 2015
The US and the "Refugee Crisis": Three Complaints, One Solution I oppose president Barack Obama's plan to import and re-settle 10,000 Syrian refugees at American taxpayers' expense. But hey, I'm a libertarian. It's hard to find a government program I DO support. On the other hand, as the old saying goes, "you break it, you buy it."
Cryptocurrency Wallet for Storing Crypto, From FlickrPhotos
(7 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, February 24, 2022
The Politicians Keep Proving You Can't Trust Their Money. So Don't. If you're not moving your disposable cash into cryptocurrency or metals ... you're pretty much just begging Joe Biden, Vladimir Putin, and a host of lesser gangsters, to rob you blind. One caveat, which the Trudeau coup made explicit: Holding cryptocurrency doesn't protect you if you keep it in exchanges with "custodial" wallets that can be frozen on orders from politicians.
Voting booths, From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, November 4, 2018
Election 2018: To the Victors Go the Spoils, to the Losers the "Spoiler" Complaints Note to Tuesday's losers: You can whine about your third party and independent opponents if you really want to, but remember, nobody likes a whiner.
US Capitol west side.JPG, From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, May 28, 2020
Quorum Call: Don't Expect the Constitution to Stop Pelosi's House Hijinks How many legs does a dog have if we call its tail a leg? Four -- calling a tail a leg doesn't make it one. Ditto bills supposedly passed by a House with no quorum present and therefore with no authority to pass anything at all.
Homeless, From WikimediaPhotos
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, February 26, 2016
Government Has a Hard Heart for the Homeless Across the country, local governments seem hell-bent on preventing anyone from actually helping the homeless.
World marriage-equality laws %28up to date%29.svg., From WikimediaPhotos
(9 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, July 27, 2022
The Respect for Marriage Act Doesn't Go Far Enough The Respect for Marriage Act makes sense, at least within the context of "marriage" as a state-sanctioned privilege requiring a "license." It's clearly constitutional, and its likely effect is to protect rights. But why are state governments regulating and licensing marriage in the first place?
Solar panels on house roof., From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Monday, December 12, 2022
"Intermittency" and "Density" Arguments Favor Household Renewables Over Fossil Fuel and Grid Dependence Avid supporters of coal, oil, and gas (and opponents of wind and solar energy, but I repeat myself) seem convinced that they've got the ultimate gotcha arguments in "intermittency" and "energy density." They're right, but not in quite the way they seem to think.
Rape perpetrator pie chart, From WikimediaPhotos
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, June 12, 2016
Rape, Culture, Responsibility, and Brock Turner Brock Turner didn't sexually assault an unconscious woman .... "Party culture" did that. Brock Turner didn't penetrate that unconscious woman with a foreign object .... Binge drinking, sexual promiscuity and risk-taking behavior did those things. Blame booze. Blame college. Blame culture. Just don't blame Brock Turner. Poor, poor Brock. Bad culture! Bad! Go stand in the corner, culture!
Microphone studio, From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, November 30, 2016
The End of Privacy is on Sale, and We're Buying [I]f you're going the voice-controlled home appliance route, ask yourself one important question: Who's listening, and how much are you comfortable with them knowing?
SARS-CoV-2 without background., From WikimediaPhotos
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, October 18, 2020
COVID-19: Two Things About "The Science" Claims of a "scientific consensus" on the pandemic are worse than false: They're irrelevant. The truth is whatever it is, much of that truth remains to be discovered, and the percentage of scientists agreeing doesn't tell us right from wrong. "This well-known scientist says it, I believe it, that settles it" isn't respecting science, it's practicing religion.
UN-Sicherheitsrat - UN Security Council - New York City - 2014 01 06., From WikimediaPhotos
(6 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, November 15, 2020
America in Transition: How Joe Biden Can Score a Major Foreign Policy Win on Day One of His Presidency Even assuming fault on both sides for the Iran nuclear deal's collapse -- and that's a false assumption -- Biden's current approach is a recipe for beginning his presidency with failure to deliver on a major campaign promise. There's a big foreign policy win available here, if Biden is willing to claim it. And in doing so he would enjoy the support not only of the law, but of more than 90% of the US Senate.
JCPOA Signatures., From WikimediaPhotos
(6 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, February 2, 2021
Biden's Iran Dilemma: Serve Obama's Third Term -- or Trump's Second? "The time for the United States to come back to the nuclear agreement is not unlimited," Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif tells CNN. "The United States has a limited window of opportunity ..." If becoming president is like celebrating Christmas, Biden woke up to a lump of coal in his stocking from Donald Trump and a big, fat, pretty box under the tree from Barack Obama.
Pill box, From CreativeCommonsPhoto
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, September 14, 2021
Prescription Drug Prices: Politicians Are All Talk, No Action Medicare Part D isn't a monopsony (that is, a single buyer, just as a monopoly is a single seller), but it is the biggest single buyer of prescription drugs in the US healthcare market. It's well-positioned to demand a quantity discount, or at least a reasonable price. And it should. Overpaying for prescription drugs is healthcare's version of paying "defense" contractors $800 for toilet seats.
History of NATO enlargement.svg., From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, January 15, 2022
Vladimir Putin Is Not the Neville Chamberlain the US/NATO is Looking For Some US hawks liken the situation to Munich in 1938, and they're not wrong -- but they've reversed the roles. It's NATO that's gobbled up Czechoslovakia after Czechoslovakia, and Vladimir Putin whom they're trying to cast as Neville Chamberlain. He seems disinclined to accept the role.
BMarsha Hunt and John Way in Born to the West (1937)., From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Monday, September 12, 2022
Elizabeth II and Marsha Hunt: Two Passings That Impoverish Our Memory The median global age is around 30. Half of humans now living can't remember a world before the World Wide Web. Marsha Hunt and Elizabeth II were adults before television became common and before most households even in "developed" countries had telephones, let alone telephones that could be carried around, take photos, and run sophisticated computer applications.
SIG Pro by Augustas Didzgalvis., From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, April 13, 2021
Joe Biden's Latest "Gun Violence" Fairy Tale A White House "fact sheet" tells us that "the President is committed to taking action to reduce all forms of gun violence." The "fact sheet" departs from the facts starting with its title, which characterizes gun violence as a "public health epidemic." Gun violence is a set of volitional human behaviors, not an infectious disease spread by gun cooties and amenable to "public health" remedies.
RedHatsExecutionChamber., From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, December 21, 2022
Kate Brown Finally Finds the Courage of Her Convictions "If Gov. Brown wants to change the laws of Oregon," Kevin D. Williamson opines, "she should run for the state legislature." ... Brown DID run for the state legislature ... she has been elected to public office no fewer than seven times, including twice by the state's entire electorate. ... This, as protesters like to shout during their street demonstrations on various issues, is what democracy looks like.
Sample Bitcoin paper wallet., From WikimediaPhotos
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, December 11, 2021
Cryptocurrency and the Shocking Revelation That White Supremacists Like Money Having mined out the moral panics over cryptocurrency being used by drug dealers and human traffickers, it was certain beyond doubt that the next step would be tarring Bitcoin and its siblings and children with the brush of racism and antisemitism (and trying to dip libertarianism in that tar as well).
Student loan debt., From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, April 21, 2022
Student Loan Forgiveness: Don't Confuse Policy With Politics Student loan forgiveness may not "save" the Democrats from losing the House and Senate this November, but it certainly won't hurt them at the ballot box. And that really has nothing to do with whether forgiveness is sound policy.
Classified intelligence material found during search of Mar-a-Lago., From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, November 5, 2022
The US "Intelligence Community" Can't Be Trusted to Police Itself New government offices/officials seldom solve anything, and usually make things worse. But something obviously needs to be done about the "intelligence community's" lawlessness. How about a single replacement for multiple agency inspectors general?
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, October 15, 2016
Sandy Hook Suit Victimized Families Yet Again For Political Gain Freedom won an important battle on the lawfare front on October 14, when Connecticut Superior Court Judge Barbara Bellis dismissed a lawsuit filed in the names of 10 of the Sandy Hook victims' families against Remington Arms, Camfour Holding LLC, and Riverview Sales -- respectively the manufacturer, distributor and retail seller of the Bushmaster rifle Lanza used in his killing spree.
KOREAN WAR MEMORIAL, From WikimediaPhotos
(11 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, June 13, 2018
North Korea: Pelosi versus Peace Which is worse: The specter of nuclear war, or giving US president Donald Trump credit for a significant diplomatic accomplishment? In her official statement on Trump's Singapore summit with North Korea's Kim Jong-un, US House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi makes it clear that a few million incinerated human beings are a small price to pay to keep the 68-year-old Korean War going.
SWAT team prepared %284132135578%29., From WikimediaPhotos
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, June 24, 2021
Missouri's New Gun Law Should be Extended to Other Issues The US Constitution neither requires state governments and state employees to enforce federal laws, nor empowers the federal government to compel them to do so. In the normal course of things, local and state law enforcement agencies assist federal law enforcement agencies with great enthusiasm. Why? Well, money.
Third debate 3267., From WikimediaPhotos
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, April 20, 2022
Republicans Abandon America's "Bi-Partisan" Infomercial Provider. Will We Get Real Debates Now? On April 14, the Republican National Committee announced its withdrawal from the Commission on Presidential Debates .... While the RNC's reasons are self-serving, this may be the most encouraging development in presidential election politics in decades. The American public hasn't seen anything like a genuine, all-party presidential debate since 1996.
free speech costs, From ImagesAttr
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, August 25, 2015
Unacceptable Speech at Old Dominion With the fall semester beginning at colleges and universities around the US, it's time for a new round of controversy over student speech. Right out of the gate, Virginia's Old Dominion University takes an early lead: WTKR News Channel 3 reports that ODU "officials took time from their weekend to respond to some banners hung up at an off-campus home that are upsetting many."
SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, October 11, 2016
Hillary Clinton, Closet Libertarian? Not Likely. I have to confess that, as a libertarian, I get a Chris Matthews-style thrill going up my leg when I hear a major party presidential candidate cited in favor of "open trade and open borders." Even the Libertarian Party's 2016 presidential ticket isn't on record with as clear a statement of their party's message on those two issues (or, frankly, on many others). But of course there's a catch.
Sala de cine., From WikimediaPhotos
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, September 15, 2020
I Watched Cuties so You Wouldn't Have to (But You Should) According to US Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) Cuties may be, and according to US Representative Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI) it actually is, child porn. It sexualizes young girls and, per Gabbard, will "whet the appetite of pedophiles & help fuel the child sex trafficking trade."
Cryptocurrency Mining Farm., From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, May 18, 2021
Rumors of Cryptocurrency's Death Are Still Greatly Exaggerated The technology underlying cryptocurrency is sound. It will survive, and it will become dominant. The only question is whether it will completely displace, or be at least partially co-opted by, government monetary schemes. Hopefully the former.
Victory-Cigar-Congress-Passes- DST., From WikimediaPhotos
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, January 2, 2022
A Modest Proposal: Pandemic Saving Time As the 20 years since the 9/11 attacks have shown us, many Americans are willing to embrace authoritarian rule for as long as politicians are willing and able to curry abject fear -- even long after such fear has proven itself unjustified. With COVID-19, many Americans have graduated from that willingness to, well, eagerness.
Andrew Classroom De La Salle University., From WikimediaPhotos
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, January 8, 2022
COVID-19 and the End of Government Schooling's Main Value Proposition The value proposition government schooling offers is: "Sure, we do a fairly crappy job of teaching your kids to read, write, and do arithmetic ... but hey, who turns down free daycare?" The pandemic threw a wrench into that value proposition. ... Now it's January of 2022 and another problem with that financial equation, and with the government school value proposition, is rearing its ugly head: Reliability.
Psilocybe semilanceata 6514., From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, August 27, 2022
More Young Americans are Using Cannabis and Hallucinogens. That's Good News. People have both self-medicated and recreationally dosed themselves with various things since there have been humans. They'll keep doing so, even if politicians get together and decree that they mustn't.
Comedian Michelle Wolf roasted U.S. President Donald Trump at the annual White House Correspondents' Dinner., From YouTubeVideos
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, May 1, 2018
Roast Beef (or Wolfing Down the Faux Outrage) From some accounts, one might reasonably assume that Michelle Wolf simply took the stage, said a bunch of mean things about Sanders, and walked off to mixed moans and applause. In fact, Wolf spent about a minute and a half, out of nearly 20, on Sanders. Oddly, I have yet to hear any conservatives complaining that Wolf called out the late Senator Ted Kennedy as a murderer ...
Monopoly board on white bg., From WikimediaPhotos
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, February 1, 2021
Big Tech's Playing Monopoly. It's Going to Lose. Why is Big Tech finally showing us an anti-freedom face? If you have to ask why, the answer is almost always "money." That's certainly true in this case. Most of the firms in question enjoy substantial revenue from government contracts. ... But at this point, it's also safe to say that they're looking for "regulatory capture."
Smog Downtown, From CreativeCommonsPhoto
SHARE More Sharing        Friday, December 23, 2022
The Air Up There, or, Trickle-Down for Real The Latest New Thing is almost always expensive, for various reasons. Inventors spend a great deal of time and capital developing it. Patent protection gives them exclusive rights to manufacture or license it for a little while. And as soon as The Latest New Thing looks like a winner in the market, everyone else goes to work making something like it. Only better. And cheaper.
False Sunrise., From WikimediaPhotos
(11 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, March 15, 2021
Daylight Saving Time Kills It makes a certain amount of sense that my clock and my neighbor's clock should be in sync with each other. It makes no sense at all that both clocks, and all others, should "spring forward" by an hour in March and "fall back" by an hour in November.
US National Debt public intergovernmental., From WikimediaPhotos
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, September 29, 2021
Brother, Can You Spare $29 Trillion? Well, it's time for one of those periodic "debt ceiling" fights in Congress. Every so often, American politicians argue over whether to allow themselves to borrow more money, with their promise to beat it out of your hide, plus interest, later, as their collateral.
KourosOfFlerio., From WikimediaPhotos
(6 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, January 19, 2022
Of Pockets, Legs, and Polarization America is certainly "polarized," or at least most Americans seem to think so. And since polarization is about what people think, it amounts to the same thing. Alternative realities and celebrations of violence are both symptoms and causes of such polarization, but the polarization itself seems to be the big problem. What can we do about polarization, though?
Bitcoin Teller SIBOS Boston 2014 2., From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, March 27, 2021
Value, Cryptocurrency, and the State's War on Both On March 16, federal agents raided (among other places) the studio of radio show Free Talk Live. They abducted six people, including several friends of mine, on charges of conspiracy to "operate an unlicensed money transmitting business." Their "crime" was openly and publicly buying and selling cryptocurrency -- which, by the way, the government says isn't money.
10elqpi., From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, November 16, 2021
Cryptocurrency: Dave Troy is Partly Right, But on the Wrong Side Giving government control of money was one of our worst mistakes. Cryptocurrency is how we're correcting that mistake.
Writing, From PixabayPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, May 19, 2022
Think Words Aren't Magic? Think Again. Well-chosen words -- especially words that poke at our existing inclinations or fears -- can move the individuals hearing or reading them that first and most important step down one path or another, after which the path is like as not to become a set of rails that tend to keep one moving down the same track.
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, July 16, 2022
Nuclear Deal: It's Iran Doing the "Waiting" The Iranians don't seem to have, want, or be working on getting nukes. But for some reason, Joe Biden seems bound and determined to poke and push at them until they decide heck, why not get nukes?
Democratic Donkey & Republican Elephant - Caricatures, From CreativeCommonsPhoto
SHARE More Sharing        Monday, January 9, 2023
American Politics is Designed to Minimize "Reckonings" Political "reckonings" have become short-term inconveniences. Americans under 30 years of age or so missed an era when one party (the Democrats) controlled both houses of Congress for nearly 40 years. These days, control of one or both houses changes at least once per decade. Even after nominating, electing, and re-nominating Trump, the Republican "reckoning" lasted only two years before they regained control of the House.
Slavery map., From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, July 28, 2021
Yes, the Constitution was "Pro-Slavery" Where the Constitution touches on slavery, it was, irrefutably and beyond a shadow of doubt, crafted for the benefit of slave owners and with the goal of perpetuating slavery.
Who's More Concerned About the Deficit?, From CreativeCommonsPhoto
SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, April 5, 2022
Attention! Deficit Disorder! American politicians don't fight to cut spending, borrowing, debt, or deficits. They just fight over how much to increase all four. They're building a house of cards, and one day a stiff breeze will come along and blow that house -- and them -- over.
Censorship TMPD, From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Friday, December 9, 2016
Censorship: Tech Firms Should Abandon the EU to Its Madness The European Union has a censorship addiction, and a desire to inflict the costs of indulging that addiction on the world's top tech companies. Vera Jourova, the EU's Commissioner for Justice, Consumers and Gender Equality, complains that Facebook, Twitter, Google and Microsoft respond too slowly to demands that they delete posts deemed "hate speech" from their platforms.
Fuel tank pictogram on 50 ccm scooter., From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, June 23, 2022
Happy "Holiday," Motorists! Well, Maybe Not So Much. On June 22, by popular demand, US president Joe Biden asked Congress to pass a three month "holiday" on collection of the federal gasoline tax. I hate taxes, and I'm all for tax cuts, in any amount, for any length of time. Yay, Biden! But before breaking into a collective happy dance over the "holiday" proposal and how great it's going to be for our wallets, let's look at some numbers.
OFFICE OF THE SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE%2C WASHINGTON D.C.., From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Monday, January 9, 2023
House Speaker Kerfuffle: Political Theater, Not Constitutional Cataclysm How vital is the position of Speaker? What's its role and function? What can or cannot happen while the office remains vacant? The answer to all those questions is "whatever Congress decides."
For Rent sign, From CreativeCommonsPhoto
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, August 13, 2021
In Defense of Landlords As the US Centers for Disease Control moves to extend a federal eviction moratorium that has now been in place for most of 18 months and that President Joe Biden himself concedes is "not likely to pass constitutional muster," most of the public rhetoric and advocacy boils down to "what about the tenants?" That's understandable. Much less often asked, though, is the question "what about the landlords?"
Vladimir Putin and Barack Obama %282015-09-29%29 04., From WikimediaPhotos
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, April 19, 2021
A Biden-Putin Summit: Jaw-Jaw is Better than War-War In 1958, British prime minister Harold Mcmillan, paraphrasing predecessor Winston Churchill, held that "jaw-jaw is better than war-war." He was right. Joe Biden and Vladimir Putin need to have a long, serious talk.
Muhammad Ali 1966, From WikimediaPhotos
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, June 4, 2016
Muhammad Ali: A Profile in Moral Courage His stand rang the opening bell on a generation's resistance to war and conscription and inspired Martin Luther King, Jr., who had hesitated to oppose civil rights supporter Lyndon Baines Johnson on the subject, to come out against the war in Vietnam.
Trotsky in Vienna., From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, August 25, 2021
Afghanistan: America's First Step Out of Trotsky's Long Shadow? In every instance and without exception, the results of American politicians listening to neoconservatives have been disastrous for Americans and for the world.
E-ticker., From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, October 13, 2021
Raise Congressional Pay -- and Tax the Rich Congress is one of the wealthier groups in America. A majority of its members are millionaires, and their median net worth exceeds $1 million. And many of them seem to rack up a lot more wealth while actually serving in Congress (as opposed to before running for office) than the $174,000 base salary would account for. There's a way to fix that.
Police at Sandy Hook.PNG, From WikimediaPhotos
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, February 18, 2022
Remington's Insurer Pays the Danegeld. The Rest of Us are Stuck with the Dane. The point of this vexatious litigation was to discourage insurers from covering gun manufacturers. Not because those manufacturers are actual liable in any sense for other people's use of their products, but because the plaintiffs and their supporters want to make it harder for you to get those products. It's a Pyrrhic victory.
The New York Times newsroom 1942., From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Monday, December 12, 2022
JCPA: A Good Idea, Promoting a Stupid Behavior, Rolled into an Unrelated Bill The intent of the JCPA is to "allow" media organizations to get together and create "joint negotiation entities" (the kind of cartel antitrust law forbids) to "collectively bargain" with digital platforms for compensation. Compensation for what? Promoting and giving advertising to those same media organizations and their content.
Operation Upshot-Knothole - Badger 001., From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Friday, October 21, 2022
So Long as There are Nukes, We Had Better Hope We Live in a MAD World The notion that hey, maybe we could live with nukes being used here and there, in very special cases, by very special regimes, and just pile on some more sanctions or throw a non-nuclear cruise missile or two at the rogue state to express displeasure, is madness ... which is the opposite of MADness.
Immigrants Approaching Statue of Liberty, From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, October 24, 2018
A Convenient Caravan: Cui Bono? If the migrant caravan indeed "has but one intent: to disrupt and influence our midterm elections," what individual, group, or political party benefits from that disruption/influence? IBD's complaints about Democrats come apart at the seams as soon as cui bono is invoked. If the caravan disrupts or influences the 2018 US midterm elections, it does so entirely and exclusively to the benefit of the Republican Party.
Ruins Secession Hall Charleston 1865, From WikimediaPhotos
(13 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, November 15, 2016
America: Time for an Amicable Divorce? Is there any particular reason why the people of Los Angeles, and the people of Dallas, and the people of Miami, and the people of New York MUST be directly governed by the same executive, legislative and judicial organizations? I can't think of one.
Trump Mirziyoyev, From WikimediaPhotos
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, February 25, 2019
Mueller Report: Secrecy Shouldn't be an Option Robert Mueller has spent nearly two years and more than $25 million supposedly getting to the bottom of the "Russian meddling" claims claims .... Mueller may answer to Barr, but both he and Barr claim to work for the public. ... That report is, by any reasonable standard, your property.
Fallujah 2004 M1A1 Abrams., From WikimediaPhotos
(4 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, October 21, 2021
Powell Lied, People Died: Justice Delayed Was Justice Denied The process of seeking justice for the victims of Nazism has been long, difficult, and spotty in application, but at least it's still pursued. The process of seeking justice for the victims of Powell, Rumsfeld and other architects of the Iraq war -- hundreds of thousands of Iraqis, thousands of US troops -- hasn't even begun.
Public key encryption keys.svg., From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Monday, January 24, 2022
"For the Children": The Last Refuge of Anti-Encryption Scoundrels End-to-end encryption -- encryption built directly into apps and requiring little or no effort to invoke -- brings the benefits of online privacy to everyday Internet users. The campaigns against it aren't aimed at terrorists or child pornographers or child sex traffickers. They're aimed at you.
SHARE More Sharing        Monday, October 24, 2022
Contra Hobbes: Peace and Political Government are Opposites Political government as we've constructed it is geared toward maximizing death to increase its own power and expand its own reach at the expense of everyone. We've still got perpetual war of every man against every man. Only now it's highly organized, well-funded, and waged for the benefit of the political class.
SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, January 4, 2017
New Boss(es), Same as The Old Boss(es) Donald Trump ran for president in part on a promise to "drain the swamp" that is Washington, DC. He positioned himself as a political outsider, beholden to no one and capable of bringing sweeping changes to a federal government set in its ways. But as Inauguration Day approaches, it's becoming increasingly clear that the fundamentals aren't going to change much.
Slide Fire Solutions Slidefire Stock on a GP WASR-10 AK-47 (no watermark), From WikimediaPhotos
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, December 21, 2018
Trump v. Bump: A Potentially Deadly Holiday Decision The best possible outcome of this stunt is that it will simply be ignored both by its supposed enforcers and its prospective victims. Otherwise, Trump's Christmas present to the anti-gun lobby may well turn into an Easter basket for America's trauma units and funeral homes.
1900 New York polling place., From WikimediaPhotos
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, September 25, 2020
Unfortunately, Voters Aren't "the Adults in the Room" "Democracy," H.L. Mencken wrote, "is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard." On the evidence, he wasn't wrong. Of those Americans who bother to vote, 90% or more will probably vote for one of two circus clowns, for all the wrong reasons.
Sydney Wikileaks 2010-Dec-10.JPG, From WikimediaPhotos
(11 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, May 5, 2019
Julian Assange: An Opportunity for the US and the UK to Change Direction on Press Freedom Trump could redeem himself on the press freedom front, essentially wiping the slate clean, by pardoning Assange for all alleged "crimes" committed prior to May 1st, 2019. Even better, he could publicly justify the pardon, pointing out that this is solely and entirely a political prosecution premised in the notion that it's a "crime" to embarrass politicians by revealing verifiably true information about their actions.
TSA fingerprints, From FlickrPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Friday, January 8, 2016
Disband and Defund the Touchy, Stealy Administration Turning every airport terminal in the US into the functional equivalent of one of Uday Hussein's "rape rooms" is apparently a feature, not a bug, in America's post-9/11 "security" software. It's time and past time to permanently disband TSA and let airports and airlines go back to providing for their own security.
Table Service MET DT11573 %28cropped%29., From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, September 9, 2021
Happy 20th Anniversary. Guess What Your Gift Is? Twenty years after the 9/11 attacks, the US government is finally -- well, probably, kinda sorta -- ending its lost war with Afghanistan, drawing down its presence in Iraq, and reducing the heat of its "global war on terror" from a rolling boil to hot-tub temperature. Good news, right? Well, not so fast.
Scott Walker - Caricature, From ImagesAttr
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, July 20, 2015
Election 2016: Scott Walker vs. "Government Dependence" Google returns more than 5,000 results on [Scott] Walker's name and the phrase "government dependence." He seems to have focused on it for many years. And on a quick read of his biography, I doff my cap to his stature as world-class expert on the topic.
LARGE MURAL BY JOE CASLIN [SAME-SEX MARRIAGE] REF-103588, From ImagesAttr
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, September 2, 2015
Religious Liberty: Some Unsolicited Career Advice for Kim Davis One of the jobs of the County Clerk in Rowan County, Kentucky is to issue marriage licenses to couples who meet the legal standards for such licenses. Recently, those standards changed, and now same-sex couples can license their marriages. That new standard conflicts with Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis's religious belief that marriage is only valid between one man and one woman. No problem.
Caricature of Ammon Bundy, From WikimediaPhotos
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, January 29, 2016
Killer Cops Should Be Held To The Same Standards As Citizens I don't know exactly what happened on Canfield Drive in Ferguson or along US 395 in rural Oregon. Neither, in all likelihood, do you. We weren't there. But there's one thing we can do. We can reaffirm the basic American principle that law enforcement personnel and other government employees aren't special.
Donald Trump - Caricature, From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Friday, April 29, 2016
The Problem With Donald Trump's Version of "America First" Trump calls for US allies to increase their military spending while claiming that America's own military -- still by far the most expensive and powerful in the history of the world and the single largest line item in the federal budget -- has been "weakened" and must be rebuilt. This is not a proposal that NATO stand up while the US stands down -- he calls for an escalation, not a drawdown, of military force.
Silk Road Seized 2014, From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Friday, July 6, 2018
President Trump, Please Free Ross Ulbricht As of this coming October, Ulbricht will have spent five years behind bars. He's appealed his conviction and sentence all the way to the US Supreme Court, which declined to hear the case on June 28. At this point, presidential clemency would seem to be his only hope of ever walking free again.
Bundesarchiv Bild 119-1486%2C Hitler-Putsch%2C M%C3%BCnchen%2C Marienplatz., From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, January 7, 2021
The Beer Belly Putsch: A Sign of Things to Come The attempted putsch was never going to succeed. Not just because its shock troops seemed to be mostly even fatter and more out of shape than me, nor because they were obviously going to be out-gunned once the surprise wore off and the government's law enforcement and military machinery responded. Even if those things hadn't been true, grievance just isn't a sound substitute for strategy.
White House lawn, From WikimediaPhotos
(4 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, October 30, 2018
The Pittsburgh Double Bind: Presidents Shouldn't Be So Important If we're going to have a president, why not keep him or her in Washington -- at a desk with a stack of paperwork, away from television cameras and smart phones -- instead of centering every aspect of public life around his or her actions and utterances?
Powerloom weaving in 1835., From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Friday, November 11, 2022
Who Does Protectionism Protect? Not You. Protectionism's beneficiaries are politically connected business interests who want to charge you $500 for a laptop computer and so ask the government to keep you from buying a competing Chinese model for $350. And, of course, the politicians who give those business cronies what they want. American consumers don't benefit. We pay.
Portion of IRS Form 1040 for 2012, showing the OMB Control Number, From WikimediaPhotos
(4 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, August 26, 2018
SALT Shakeup: So Much for "Their Fair Share" On August 23, the Internal Revenue Service announced new rules on the federal income tax's State and Local Tax deduction. The rules are intended to thwart an interesting scam several state governments worked up to "save" that deduction. It's an interesting reversal of the two major parties' usual talking points.
Ivory for exportation, From WikimediaPhotos
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, May 1, 2016
Want to Save the Elephants and Rhinos? Privatize Ivory and Horns If governments are serious about reducing poaching and smuggling, and saving shrinking populations of elephants and rhinos, there's a simple and nearly foolproof way to go about it: Instead of fattening the bank accounts of poachers and smugglers, auction off harvesting rights to ivory from elephants and horns from rhinos who have died natural deaths.
County Insane Asylum, Milwaukee, From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, July 5, 2016
No, It's Not Just You. Politics Really Does Drive People Nuts. To my mind 1993-2001 is the period during which [insert name here] Derangement Syndrome metastasized from a persistent but flu-like malady into the (unfortunately not mercifully fatal) equivalent of Ebola -- acute at the time, chronic ever since. Poor George W. Bush. Poor Barack Obama. And there's no end in sight.
President Trump Meets with Mark Zuckerberg %2848765678712%29., From WikimediaPhotos
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, July 21, 2021
It's Time to Take Away Government's Social Media Privileges Short of abolishing the state itself (which I'm all for), there's only one way to get the Donald Trumps, Joe Bidens, Josh Hawleys, and Adam Schiffs out of the social media bullying business. We need to take away their social media access. Completely.
SHARE More Sharing        Friday, October 5, 2018
The US Makes One Too Many Parties to the Spratly Spat The USS Decatur had no legitimate business in the Spratly Islands. It was there for one and only one purpose: To rattle the US saber in a continuing domestic propaganda campaign for "containment" of Chinese "expansionism," (read: "Keep spending lots of money on the US Navy").
Reefer Madness %281936%29., From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, October 13, 2022
Biden's (Mild) Marijuana "October Surprise": Good Start. More, Please. "October surprises" come in all flavors. The surprise on my part is mild rather than extra hot, but it's still a welcome move in the right direction, and consistent with Biden's recent conversion to the position that "no one should be in jail just for using or possessing marijuana." No one should be in jail for growing or selling marijuana either.
Ted Cruz by Gage Skidmore 4., From WikimediaPhotos
(5 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, February 23, 2021
Cancun Kerfuffle: In Defense of Ted Cruz Is a sun-soaked vacation during a winter weather event "bad optics?" Only to people who place greater value on and trust in Ted Cruz, his position, and his activities than they should. Making sure you have electricity just isn't his job -- and if it was you could probably expect longer and more frequent blackouts, not shorter and fewer ones.
From commons.wikimedia.org: Trump at King Khalid International Airport, From Images
SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, June 10, 2018
Trump the Politician: Anti-Abortion vs. Anti-Immigration Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission ("the gay wedding cake case") soaked up most of the Supreme Court decision media limelight, even though (or perhaps because) the court's ruling doesn't really dispose of the major issues in the case. Another case, also not decided on its merits, got much less attention. But that case reveals conflicting priorities in, and signals from, the Trump administration.
Elementary classroom in Alaska., From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Friday, January 28, 2022
The Choice in "School Choice" is Mostly Government's, Not Yours I'm all in favor of "school choice," in terms of parents and students having the ability to choose the educational options they prefer, but it's important to be realistic about who's really making -- and who's entitled to make -- which choices.
The Problem with Censorship is XXXXXXXXX, Budapest, Hungary, From CreativeCommonsPhoto
(4 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, October 16, 2021
Legacy Social Media: Free as in Beer, Not as in Speech Free speech requires complete separation of social media and state.
Photo by Jagz Mario at  flickr.com/people/70196349@N00/
License: Attribution-ShareAlike License (creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/), From FlickrPhotos
(14 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, December 5, 2015
An American Guilt Trip: This is How the Terrorists Win The goal of terrorism is to terrorize us. What could possibly be a more effective means of that than getting us to live in fear not of some far-away foreign threat, but of our own neighbors? It's a numbers game, with hooks reaching down into one of the darkest and ugliest aspects of our history: Our racial and ethnic stereotypes and prejudices.
SHARE More Sharing        Monday, November 7, 2016
Wikileaks and the Podesta Emails: Two Things Are the Podesta emails authentic and unaltered? Clinton and her surrogates don't want to answer that question. They stick to claiming that the mails haven't been authenticated and hinting that they may have been altered. The facts: Not all of the emails can be authenticated as to origin and content. But some can be, and some have been.
Privacy written in tiles, From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, February 22, 2017
The Absurd Consequences of a "Right to Privacy" A number of rights do, in effect, protect personal privacy. ... It's proper that information gained in violation of those rights be excluded from criminal proceedings, if for no other reason than to discourage police from violating those rights. But personal and public opinion aren't court proceedings ...
A bunch of guys with no photo IDs, preparing to vote., From WikimediaPhotos
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, January 15, 2022
Photo ID to Vote? Well, OK, But ... Anyone who's ever worked door security at a nightclub (yes, I have) knows that possession of a card with a photo vaguely resembling the person possessing it is no guarantee of identity. And polling places have a built-in advantage over nightclubs: EVERYONE has to be on the guest list to get in.
AllochiriaClock., From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, February 15, 2024
Suggestion for Presidential Candidates: Turn Cognitive Impairment Lemons Into Campaign Event Lemonade When presidents and presidential candidates can't seem to hang on to important thoughts or remember key names and dates well enough to deliver their messages in complete and coherent sentences, voters WILL notice. The candidates have two choices: Address it, or accept that not addressing it will cost them votes.
Voting booths, From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Friday, June 8, 2018
Election Omens: Blue Wave or 2018 Flushes? The Blue Wave isn't shaping up as a tsunami. Why? One clue might be the gigantic collective yawn greeting rumors that former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz might run for president in 2020. His centrist "Democrats need to look more like Republicans to win" message -- also pushed by the Democratic National Committee versus upstart progressive midterm primary candidates around the country -- just doesn't excite anyone very much.
Seal of the President of the United States.svg., From WikimediaPhotos
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, September 14, 2020
No One is "Mentally Fit" to be President Even if the US Constitution's original restraints on presidential power still held, and they haven't for more than a century, the duties of the office are just too inherently complex for a single manager to do well, and too lucrative and empowering to avoid attracting corrupt megalomaniacs like Trump and Biden and their hangers-on.
US State Department, From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Monday, June 20, 2016
Syria: Change the (Dissent) Channel The "judicious use" of US military force in the Middle East and Central Asia has made things worse, not better, for 25 years now.
ICC member states.svg., From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, September 3, 2020
Trump regime vs. the ICC: The Wrong Side of "Sovereignty" Afghanistan's US-installed, US-allied regime ratified the Rome Statute in 2003, thereby placing war crimes committed on its territory, and the persons accused of committing those crimes, under the International Criminal Court's jurisdiction. Like it or not, that assignment of jurisdiction is an exercise of Afghan sovereignty.
Facebook Mal, From FlickrPhotos
(4 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, April 2, 2019
Social Media Regulation: Speak of the Devil and in Walks Zuck The Internet's potential is encapsulated in the expropriated Maoism "let a hundred flowers blossom." Zuckerberg agrees, but only if each of those hundred flowers is cloned from a geranium grown in his proprietary nursery.
Lucha House Party., From WikimediaPhotos
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, October 2, 2020
Trump vs. Biden: Keeping Up With Toddlers and Tiaras A real debate -- between, say, the Green Party's Howie Hawkins and Libertarian presidential nominee Jo Jorgensen -- would have likely featured genuine policy proposals and real arguments over the merits of those proposals. ... Alas, that's not how politics is done in the age of Real Purse Snatchers of Washington, DC.
Crowdfunding-history, From WikimediaPhotos
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, December 24, 2018
Go Go GoFund.gov! If instead of collecting taxes, Congress simply approved project goals and appropriated "as much money as is voluntarily donated toward" those goals, it would constitute a giant step toward a free society. Instead of an Internal Revenue Service, the federal government could contract with GoFundMe to set up and operate GoFund.gov.
Inside a Harvard Business School classroom., From WikimediaPhotos
(6 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, December 16, 2020
Welfare for the Wealthier? What Else is New? Student loan debtors have a better case than most for relief. They spent their entire young lives being told they absolutely must go to college, and then got lured into borrowing money to do so precisely because the loans were "guaranteed" by the government, please don't read the fine print. They got caught in a long con, put over on them by Big Government, Big Finance, and Big Education.
Eisenhower in a jeep in Normandy orchard, From WikimediaPhotos
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, April 28, 2016
Let's Let Veterans Be Regular Americans Again America has a complicated relationship with its veterans. Those of us who served in the military sport a suicide rate more than twice that of the civilian population. We're 10% of the population and 16% of the homeless. Apparently we're a pretty screwed up demographic. Yet our opinions, especially on politics, enjoy a measure of nearly automatic respect.
Gag-overthemouth-lorelei-kibf9 03., From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, August 11, 2021
Social Media: Ignorance is a Peace Plan, not an Excuse Social media platforms which emphasized offering users a broad array of engagement choices instead of wrestling their (or the political class's) opinion straitjackets onto everyone would respond to content complaints with tutorials on how to use the block button instead of with suspensions and bans.
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, February 21, 2022
Ukraine: US "Diplomacy" is the Problem. Can it Become the Solution? After weeks of unsuccessfully attempting to either bully Russia's Vladimir Putin into submission or bait him into war, US president Joe Biden may finally be looking for a face-saving exit from of the Ukraine "crisis" of his own making.
Heads on pikes., From WikimediaPhotos
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, September 6, 2020
Politics and Violence Go Hand in Hand As America's latest long hot summer drags into autumn, politicians and pundits are getting louder and more shrill in their denunciations of political violence. Considering the sources, those denunciations smack of hypocrisy.
Joe Biden sworn in 1-20-09 hires 090120-N-0696M-204a., From WikimediaPhotos
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, January 21, 2021
Hey Joe, Where You Goin' With That Pen in Your Hand? Ol' Joe obviously walked off the inaugural stage with his honeymoon plans well-laid. While I don't personally respect presidential honeymoons for either party, I do try to look at each new president's actions with an open mind and search for the good. Here are a few high points you may have missed while sipping champagne at an inaugural ball or swilling cheap beer and watching MSNBC ...
George H W Bush and Dorothy Walker Bush, From WikimediaPhotos
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, December 3, 2018
Why I am Grateful to George Herbert Walker Bush I am grateful for Bush and for his presidency for two major and positive changes in my life for which he deserves at least partial credit (or, if prefer, bears at least partial responsibility).
Fingerprints close-up, From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, May 4, 2016
The End of the Bill of Rights is at Our Fingertips Unfortunately, the convenience of "biometric" identification comes with a cost. When you take that route, at least two judges (first a Virginia circuit court judge and now a federal judge in California) have ruled, you can be forced to put your finger on the phone to unlock it.
Liberty-statue-from-behind., From WikimediaPhotos
(5 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, February 20, 2021
Joe Biden and "Open Borders": As If On February 9, more than 50 Republican members of the US House of Representatives sent President Joe Biden a letter decrying his "open border" policies. Of all the hyberbolic claims I've read regarding the Biden administration since Inauguration Day, that one takes the cake. In neither word nor action has the new president come within a country mile of supporting "open borders" in principle or in policy.
From Uploaded
SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, September 20, 2022
Ron DeSantis's Immigrant Trafficking Stunt Keeps Looking Weirder and Dumber For all of Ron DeSantis's posturing about immigrants being such a thorn in Florida's side that he needed a $12 million legislative appropriation to "deport" them to other states, he had to go all the way to San Antonio (nearly a thousand miles from Tallahassee) just to find enough immigrants to fill a plane for his stunt.
Colt Python IMG 6785., From WikimediaPhotos
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, October 29, 2021
Who's Responsible for the Rust Shooting? It sounds like there may have been plenty of negligence to go around on the set of Rust. And Baldwin may bear a good deal of responsibility for that negligence in his role as a producer trying to squeeze a lot out of a small budget ($6-7 million, a pittance by Hollywood standards). Competence, experience, and trustworthiness may be expensive, but they aren't optional where guns are involved.
Hillary Clinton, From FlickrPhotos
(5 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, March 29, 2016
Election 2016: Hillary Clinton is a Bad Hand in the World Series of Political Poker I tremble at the prospect of one party exercising absolute control over both the executive and legislative branches of the federal government -- especially with Donald Trump or Ted Cruz at its head. Those are the stakes in this year's game of presidential poker.
Obesity6.JPG, From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, December 29, 2020
Yes, Americans are Fat. The US Military is Fatter. Instead of trying to trim fat off America's adolescents, trim fat off the US Armed Forces.
P Airplane, From WikimediaPhotos
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, June 16, 2016
No Fly, No Buy? No Dice. There's a name for a system under which your ability to travel can be abridged by force of law absent evidence, without charge, sans trial and conviction, without due process of any kind. That name is "police state." ... extending that evil measure into additional areas of American life is equally evil if not more so.
Gulf war playing cards ('villains'), From CreativeCommonsPhoto
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, March 11, 2022
Putin's Alleged "Kill Lists": Evil, but Not Unusual "[W]e have credible information that indicates Russian forces are creating lists of identified Ukrainians to be killed or sent to camps following a military occupation." That sounds pretty bad. In fact, if true, it IS pretty bad. It's also something the US military and intelligence establishments have done for decades ... so much so that these days it doesn't even really try to hide it.
Voting United States., From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Monday, November 7, 2022
Election 2022: The More Things Change ... So, how was it for you? Are you basking in the afterglow of "your team's" victories, or venting loudly about the unfairness of "your team's" losses? Are you convinced that, after all the months of constant foofooraw leading up to "Election Day," anything substantial really changed between Monday and Wednesday? It didn't.
Chelsea Manning at protest in front of .A Night For Freedom., From WikimediaPhotos
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, March 12, 2019
Chelsea Manning: No Good Deed Goes Unpunished Again One of the 21st century's greatest heroines is behind bars again, held in contempt by federal judge Claude M. Hilton for refusing to help prosecutors trump up charges against the journalists who published information she paid dearly for giving them.
B I K I N I from the SHOW-ME STATE 1984, From CreativeCommonsPhoto
SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, January 11, 2022
Missouri Governor Mike Parson Tries to Stick it Where the Sun Don't Shine Politicians and bureaucrats at every level of American government love keeping secrets from the media and from the mere serfs they claim to work for. They "classify" information, try to hide that information behind novel claims of "executive" or "attorney-client" privilege, or just jack up Sunshine Law fees so that the average taxpayer can't afford to find out what his supposed employees are up to.
ElectoralCollege2024.svg., From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, July 21, 2022
The Constitution versus "Independent State Legislature" Theory While we could argue over precisely what constitutes a "republican form of government," a lawless legislature, declaring itself unbound by the votes of the electorate and the constitution which empowers it to govern, clearly doesn't meet the standard.
Panorama of United States Supreme Court Building at Dusk., From WikimediaPhotos
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, September 20, 2020
Supreme Court: Playing for Time vs. Advise and Consent The first Supreme Court justice, John Jay, was nominated by President George Washington on September 24, 1789. He was confirmed by the US Senate two days later. ... These days, far more is both knowable and known about prospective Supreme Court nominees well in advance of their nominations. Yet the process has mutatated from "advise and consent" to "multi-month political campaign."
Gay Pride Flag.svg., From WikimediaPhotos
(9 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, October 15, 2020
Why "Preference" is a Dirty Word to the New Puritans Attempts to erase the idea of "preference" from discussions of sexual orientation and gender identity are attempts to deny and suppress the free will, choice, and agency of the very people who constitute "the LGBTQ community." Neither I nor my many friends in that community deserve to be treated as helpless slaves to a biological equivalent of the old religious doctrine of predestination.
Tear Gas outside United States Capitol 20210106., From WikimediaPhotos
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, August 27, 2021
Byrd v. Babbitt: Beliefs and Expectations, Reasonable and Unreasonable Ashli Babbitt is neither a martyr nor an innocent victim of police abuse (of which there are far too many). She willingly joined a violent mob. She willingly took part in that mob's violent actions. She willingly went an extra foot or two beyond the actions of most of that mob's members. And that extra foot or two was fatal.
ICE HSI Special Response Team %28SRT%29 training using armored vehicle., From WikimediaPhotos
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, May 17, 2022
Crime Begets Crime, ICE Edition On May 10, Georgetown Law's Center on Privacy & Technology released a report -- "American Dragnet: Data-Driven Deportation in the 21st Century" -- which you should find disturbing but shouldn't find surprising. ... a number of commentators pronounce themselves shocked -- shocked! -- that a federal agency which the US Constitution says can't be allowed to exist would do things the US Constitution says it can't be allowed to do.
Papierosa 1 ubt 0069., From WikimediaPhotos
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, December 10, 2023
New Zealand's "Generational" Smoking Ban Repeal: Finally, Taxes Do Some Good Repeat after me: Prohibition of substances never works, at least if the goal is to decrease or eliminate the sale, purchase, possession, or use of those substances.
Libertarian Party Text logo, From WikimediaPhotos
(5 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, March 1, 2016
Election 016: Finally a Real Third Way? Since 1972, the Libertarian Party has consistently offered American voters their best shot at national resurgence and a new birth of freedom. We've been right on economics. We've been right on foreign policy. We've been right on immigration. We've been right on all the burning social issues. But being right has never been enough.
Decline text on calculator screen on the hundred dollar bills, From CreativeCommonsPhoto
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, January 22, 2024
Overdraft Fee Cap: A Terrible Solution to an Already Solved Problem Sometimes it's hard to tell whether the CFPB's mission is to actively and intentionally make life harder for poor people (as with its war on "payday loan" operations), or whether that's just a side effect of good-hearted but idiotic and unnecessary ideas.
2019 16-inch MacBook Pro %2849183242933%29., From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, March 20, 2022
When The Press Tries to Hide or Discredit the Facts, It Discredits Itself Instead "Just the facts, ma'am" journalism has always been myth, not reality. But our media should willingly give us those facts, even with partisan spin, instead of trying to hide or discredit them.
From commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:F-35A_-_Inauguration_Towing.jpg: F-35A - Inauguration Towing, From ImagesAttr
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, December 15, 2016
Trump on Military Spending: An Encouraging Sign The F-35 is indeed one of the more insane wastes of taxpayer money in recent history. If Trump could find a way to kill the whole project, both taxpayers and the armed forces would be better off for its demise. But even if Trump is serious, he's in for a fight with 75 years of history.
Reefer Madness %281936%29., From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, August 3, 2022
Get Brittney Griner Back? Sure -- But Release Her Counterparts in America, Too The US government cares about Brittney Griner because she's a celebrity who's been arrested by America's Enemy of the Week. ... That doesn't mean she should go to prison. She shouldn't. But neither should anyone else, anywhere, go to prison for possession of a beneficial plant.
Marines in Saddams palace DM-SD-04-12222., From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, March 22, 2023
Iraq War Anniversary: Never Back Down on the Only Important Fact In March of 2003, the United States launched an illegal war of aggression against Iraq.
Into the Jaws of Death 23-0455M edit., From WikimediaPhotos
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, November 5, 2020
November 3: D-Day in the War to End the War on Drugs The US government's war on drugs is going to end sooner or later. Sooner is better for everyone, so let's start talking about the terms of DC's surrender.
Justice Gavel, From CreativeCommonsPhoto
SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, December 2, 2021
Criminal Justice Reform Needs to Catch Up With the Meaning of "Public" It's 2021, not 1821. Allowing an artist to draw pictures, and a reporter to take notes, for publication in a newspaper is neither necessary nor sufficient to make a trial "public."
High-flying-candidate Gillray., From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Monday, May 23, 2022
Politics: The Real Meaning of the Word "Prompt" I read a lot of news stories each and every day, and I'm always surprised at how often I see various events characterized as "prompting" calls for action -- the same calls, for the same actions, from the same people who were making exactly the same calls for exactly the same actions long before the events in question.
Net Neutrality, From CreativeCommonsPhoto
SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, August 3, 2022
"Net Neutrality" is Back. It's Still a Corporate Welfare Scam and Internet Censorship Enabling Act. The purpose of the term "Net Neutrality" is to fool you into voting for people who sound like they're promising you something cool and even necessary. The purpose of "Net Neutrality" policy is to leave you with less money and less choice.
Shoeless Joe Jackson by Conlon%2C 1913., From WikimediaPhotos
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, March 4, 2021
Biden's Foreign Policy: No Joy in Mudville Well, at least he hasn't started any NEW wars! For four years, that was the excuse I got from anti-war Donald Trump supporters every time he escalated one of the several wars he inherited from George W. Bush and Barack Obama. I expect to start hearing it from anti-war Joseph Biden supporters soon.
Commodore64, From WikimediaPhotos
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, May 11, 2016
Government and Technology: A Modest Proposal If there's going to be a differential in technological power between citizens and government, that differential should work to the advantage of citizens, not government.
14 12 31 US Patent Office Sign Alexandria VA 01., From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, July 16, 2022
Public University Patents are a Racket Why should taxpayers fund research just so that taxpayer-funded institutions can keep the money for themselves ... and keep demanding more money for more research? And what's the additional "social cost" of funding research, then letting the results be trapped in patent protection rather than put in the public domain?
The Skeleton Dance %281929%29., From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, October 13, 2022
The Herschel Walker Life Hack for Would-Be Politicians We ALL probably have a few skeletons in our closets. Things we'd rather everyone didn't know. Things we don't talk about unless we have to. Things we'd find embarrassing, and that would damage our own reputations, if they pranced out and started dancing around in public. But we're not running for US Senate, so we don't have to worry about that. Herschel Walker IS running for US Senate, so he does.
Hampa Cannabis sativa L. %28n%C3%A4rbild%29., From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, October 28, 2020
In Five States, the Presidential Race Isn't the Most Important Thing on the Ballot Sooner or later, Congress and the White House will cave and end the war on marijuana. Voters in Arizona, Montana, New Jersey, South Dakota, and Mississippi can make it sooner rather than later. And hopefully they will.
The Pentagon%2C cropped square., From WikimediaPhotos
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, December 8, 2020
There Ain't No Such Thing As a "Must-Pass" Bill Congress's heavy gun in the NDAA fight is the pretense, put on by politicians and parroted by media, that military spending bills are "must-pass" material. But they aren't. Unlike "mandatory" spending such as Social Security, which occurs automatically absent congressional action to stop it, "defense" spending is "discretionary."
US Capitol west side.JPG, From WikimediaPhotos
(4 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, December 28, 2020
Why Not Take Congressional Proxy Voting All the Way? Why not allow each supposedly "represented" American to choose a proxy that sticks, instead of casting a "vote" that may or may not result in real representation?
OSIRIS Mars true color., From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, November 1, 2020
SpaceX's Declaration of Space Independence is Just Common Sense Like settlers departing Independence to start down the Oregon Trail -- or for that matter, young adults moving out of Mom and Dad's house -- humans leaving Earth will immediately start making their own rules, to deal with their unique situations. The worst mistake Earth's governments can make is to pretend otherwise.
Victory-Cigar-Congress-Passes- DST., From WikimediaPhotos
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, March 18, 2022
Daylight Saving Time: Finally, Some Government Action I Can Get Behind If my picture appeared in the dictionary next to a word, that word would likely be "anti-government." Or perhaps "pro-gridlock." But on March 15 the US Senate, in a stunning display of un-gridlocked bi-partisanship, voted unanimously to do something I wholly approve of.
SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, January 19, 2021
The Trump/Biden Handoff: Back to Business as Usual, as Usual The new boss looks a lot like the old boss, minus a flair for the melodramatic. And the old boss looked a lot like the older boss, too.
Sex Workers Rally, From ImagesAttr
SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, July 29, 2015
Celebs vs. Amnesty: Do The Entertainment Elite Hate Women? There's no sex work without sex workers. Pimps can't broker transactions in, nor can "Johns" purchase, something that isn't for sale. And as the public-facing part of the business, the workers are the easy ones to detect and to persecute. Where prostitution remains illegal, it is they who suffer.
Sir Peter Paul Rubens%2C Pan Reclining%2C possibly c. 1610%2C NGA 56608., From WikimediaPhotos
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, September 30, 2020
COVID-19 Panic is the New State Religion When we didn't know what was going on, panic wasn't the correct answer. Now that we have a better idea of what's happening, holding onto the visible vestiges of panic isn't the correct answer either. It's just a new, state-imposed religion.
1040 federal income tax form, From InText
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, April 10, 2019
The Government is Hard at Work Keeping Tax Preparation Complicated and Expensive You've probably heard political candidates promise to make your tax return "so simple it will fit on a postcard." Ever wonder why they never deliver on that promise? [Tax perparers] don't just lobby to be the middlemen in a complex system, they also lobby against legislation that would simplify the system (potentially making their services unnecessary).
The execution of Louis XVI., From WikimediaPhotos
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, January 13, 2021
The Political Class: At War with Each Other and on the Rest of Us If you're looking for good guys, you won't find them on either side of this fight. It's a fight between two factions of the political class, with Big Tech trying to appease and co-opt one of those two factions. It's neither a revolution nor a fight for freedom. It's just a schoolyard brawl over which gang gets to rule. The interests of ordinary Americans aren't represented.
Inflation & Gold, From CreativeCommonsPhoto
SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, March 15, 2022
Biden's Latest Excuse for Inflationary Monetary Policy: Blame Putin Inflation is caused by increasing the money supply faster than society increases its production of goods and services for sale. Everything else is an effect, not a cause.
Dumpster Fire, From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Friday, December 7, 2018
Election 2020: I Can Smell the Dumpster Fires Already American politicians can't seem to make themselves wait until 2019 to start acting like it's 2020.
SIG Pro by Augustas Didzgalvis., From WikimediaPhotos
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, November 11, 2020
American in Transition: Why I'm Not Worried About the Biden/Harris "Gun Control" Talk Yes, politicians will make impassioned speeches to roust votes and campaign donations out of the ignorant and fearful. They might even get some token legislation passed for gun owners to ignore and for politicians to ignore gun owners ignoring. But they know any attempt to impose real "gun control" would be political, and possibly literal, suicide.
Neil-Young-Crazy-Horse-6, From FlickrPhotos
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, February 1, 2022
Neil Young v. Joe Rogan: The Remedy to be Applied "If there be time to expose through discussion the falsehood and fallacies, to avert the evil by the processes of education," Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis wrote in 1927, "the remedy to be applied is more speech, not enforced silence."
Panorama of United States Supreme Court Building at Dusk., From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, February 22, 2023
"Qualified Immunity" Strikes Again Over the last few decades, we've seen numerous bad actors escape punishment for their bad acts -- ranging from theft to sexual misconduct to summary execution -- for no better reason than that they were government employees, under the doctrine of "qualified immunity." Now the US Supreme Court appears to have dropped the "qualified" part in favor of just plain immunity, full stop.
For Sale By Owner %285678413086%29., From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, September 22, 2020
Is Home Ownership Really the "American Dream?" Is home ownership the embodiment of the "American Dream?" Are Donald Trump and Joe Biden trying, in their own ways, to deliver the goods for you? Or are they just beholden to special interests whose members make larger campaign contributions than you do -- for example, realtors, developers, and mortgage lenders?
Chief Justice John Roberts presides over the impeachment trial of Donald Trump., From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, February 10, 2021
Impeachment: Why the Senate Will Acquit Trump This is a "heads the Democrats win, tales the Republicans lose" situation.
COVID Vaccine %2850745583447%29., From WikimediaPhotos
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, February 5, 2021
Better COVID-19 Vaccination Policy: Stick it to'em! If the vaccines work, every immunized person is one person less likely to catch COVID-19 or pass it on, and puts us one step closer to hopefully achieving herd immunity. Every vaccination administered is a win, if the goal is to reduce the numbers of cases, reduce the numbers of deaths, and hopefully bring this ugly era to an end. Every missed opportunity to stick a needle in an arm is a loss on those same criteria.
Dr. Ben Carson, From FlickrPhotos
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, September 21, 2015
Religion and Politics and Presidential Qualifications Most Americans adhere to some system of religious belief. I'm one of those Americans. I don't consider that a disqualifier for public office. What I do expect from candidates vis a vis their religious beliefs are two things ...
Parting of the ways., From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, March 13, 2021
The Stimulus Bill's Anti-Socialist Poison Pill Why do Joe Biden -- a supposedly "pro-labor" moderate -- and America's growing herd of self-proclaimed "democratic socialists" want so badly to drive independent workers back onto the capitalist wage labor plantation?
The lay of the last minstrel - by Sir Walter Scott%2C Illustrated by James Henry Nixon., From WikimediaPhotos
(7 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, December 1, 2020
COVID-19: The Way the Music Died? As both closures and non-closure restrictions stretch on month after month, some performance venues will doubtless close permanently. ... How many musicians, dancers, and stage actors ... have already given up and sought work that neither utilizes their talents nor brightens our lives nearly as much? How many will never return to entertainment?
(5 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, April 11, 2019
Pardoning Assange Would be the First Step Back Toward Rule of Law At no point has Assange been credibly accused of a crime. He's a journalist. People provide him with information. He publishes that information. That's an activity clearly and unambiguously protected by the First Amendment. Even if Assange was a US citizen, and even if his activities had taken place in territory under US jurisdiction, there's simply no criminal case to be made against him. So they're manufacturing one.
Castro sign, From WikimediaPhotos
(4 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, March 25, 2016
Obama Visits Havana: Cuba Libre for Real? Cruz, Menendez and their ilk have done as much to prop up Fidel Castro's regime as Castro's own secret police agents or neighborhood "Committees for the Defense of the Revolution" ever could, if not more. Half a century and change of sanctions and embargo have strengthened, not weakened, popular support for the island nation's Communist rulers.
Candle %28Slava celebration%29., From WikimediaPhotos
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, October 6, 2020
If It's Important to Vote, It's Important to Vote for Freedom According to the political operatives knocking on my door (sometimes literally), my potential failure to vote -- or my decision to vote for the "wrong" candidate -- constitutes an existential threat to motherhood, apple pie, and America.
Tiobox transparent plastic ballot box, From WikimediaPhotos
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, March 19, 2016
Election 2016: They Don't Own Your Vote With large blocs of Republican and Democratic voters vowing to abandon their parties rather than vote for Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton in November -- and in the GOP, even some party establishment figures mulling an alternative ticket if Trump takes the nomination -- the "wasted vote" argument is peaking earlier than usual this year.
SHARE More Sharing        Friday, February 19, 2016
Farook's Phone: The FBI versus Apple (and Everyone Else) The Federal Bureau of Investigation wants to know what's on Syed Farook's Apple iPhone. As the old saying goes, people in hell want icewater too.
Mt Rushmore, From WikimediaPhotos
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, March 19, 2016
Mean-Spirited, Low-Lived Fellows Are Nothing New in American Politics The 2016 presidential race is a bumper crop of insults, with the usual accompanying cries for a "return to civility." Reality check: There's no era of civility for American politics to return to. It's always been a rough-and-tumble sport. Election campaigns have never consisted of the candidates holding hands and singing "Kum Ba Ya" with an occasional break for sober issues discussions.
Googleplex HQ %28cropped%29., From WikimediaPhotos
(4 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, October 21, 2020
No, Google is Not a Monopoly The supposed point of antitrust legislation is to preserve competition and consumer choice, not to slap down winners and prop up losers. I say "supposed point," because the real purpose of antitrust legislation is, you guessed it, to slap down winners and prop up losers, at the expense of competition and consumer choice, and for the benefit of whichever political party needs a punching bag this week ...
Washington, DC back when it was actually difficult to get to., From WikimediaPhotos
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, July 21, 2021
Congressional Proxy Voting? No. Do the Job or Quit the Job. For more than 200 years, if a member of Congress wasn't present at the Capitol -- in time of peace, in time of war, and yes, in time of pandemic -- his or her vote was neither cast or counted. ... Members of Congress have fewer, and less convincing, excuses for playing hooky than ever before.
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, April 22, 2016
Dishonoring Harriet Tubman I wonder how one of slavery's greatest opponents would feel about having her image appropriated for use on the symbol of its resurgence -- an instrument of debt representing the promises of politicians to hold their subjects in perpetual bondage while taking the payments out of our hides?
Tear Gas outside United States Capitol 20210106., From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, February 25, 2021
Capitol Riot: Well Past Its Sell By Date Getting important things done well is hard work, and who deserves credit isn't always obvious. Political grandstanding is easier, leading to what I call the Dairy Farm strategy of crisis exploitation: First, have a cow. Then, milk it.
Constitution We the People., From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, February 18, 2021
What Happened to "We The People?" "We The People" brought the First Amendment's right "to petition the Government for a redress of grievances" into the digital age, with the promise of official responses to petitions receiving 100,000 or more signatures within 30 days. So, why is it gone?
1973 Colt AR15 SP1., From WikimediaPhotos
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, February 15, 2021
Why I'm Still Not Worried about Biden's "Gun Control" Proposals On Valentine's Day, President Joe Biden cynically exploited the third anniversary of a school shooting in Parkland, Florida, asking Congress to pass laws making it even more difficult for people like the 14 unarmed students and three unarmed educators who were murdered at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School (while an armed cop on campus hid and failed to defend them) to defend themselves.
Whiskey Insurrection.JPG, From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, January 27, 2022
Sedition: The Foundational American Political Trait Governments, the Declaration of Independence declares, "deriv[e] their just Powers from the Consent of the Governed," and absent such consent for a particular government, "it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it." Which, as you may recall, America's British colonists proceeded to do. By force. But then came the Constitution: "Oh, we didn't mean THIS government!"
Mark Zuckerberg 1984 Berlin Graffiti., From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, August 30, 2020
Facebook's Violence Standards Make for a Bad Business Plan There's clearly a secret or hidden clause in Facebook's violence policies: Those policies don't apply to people, organizations, and viewpoints the company and its enforcers either like or consider themselves beholden to.
1900 New York polling place., From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, October 11, 2020
Why You Probably Won't See More "COVID-19 Relief" in October "There is no limit to the amount of good you can do," President Ronald Reagan once said, "if you don't care who gets the credit." Donald Trump, Nancy Pelosi, Mitch McConnell, and (in the background) Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden care a great deal about who gets the credit.
1900 New York polling place., From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, October 25, 2020
Election 2020: The Up Side of Undivided Government There's one good thing to be said for single-party government: The ruling party owns the outcomes of its policies.
Florida Driver License., From WikimediaPhotos
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, December 18, 2020
Rand Paul: Privacy for Me, But Not for Thee If a private citizen wants to open a bank account, board an airplane, buy tobacco or alcohol, or engage in many other perfectly ordinary activities, government requires that citizen to present photo identification which includes personal information ... But according to many government employees, their own personal information should be protected by law from the by law from the prying eyes of that ordinary citizen.
Canute and His Courtiers, From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, December 12, 2015
Canute's Courtiers Condemn Consumer Crypto Fortunately for all of us, Feinstein, Burr and Comey are a modern trio of King Canute's courtiers, operating on a false belief that the state can, by decree, halt the tide of progress. The strong encryption genie has been out of the bottle for 20 years, it's not going back in, and it recognizes no borders.
-3 Layer Gag.ogv., From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, September 8, 2020
Silence Is Not Consent in Politics, Either To this day, American politicians proudly claim "consent of the governed" via democratic elections. But that claim conflicts with the known facts.
ThinkPad X220., From WikimediaPhotos
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, October 22, 2020
Trump's October Fizzle: A Difference Which Makes No Difference Anyone who claims to be "undecided" at this late date is leaning hard toward the challenger, not the incumbent. Donald Trump has had four years to favorably impress them. If he hasn't done so yet, he's not going to do so in the next two weeks. That's why the whole thing is an October Fizzle rather than the October Surprise Donald Trump and Rudy Giuliani had hoped it would be.
American Cash.JPG, From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, December 22, 2020
Instead of Prosecuting Trump, Give Him the OJ Treatment Donald Trump owes the US Department of the Treasury $4 billion. It should sue, get a civil judgment in its favor, and move swiftly to collect.
The First Thanksgiving Jean Louis Gerome Ferris, From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, November 24, 2016
Thanksgiving 2016: Uncertain But Still Grateful Like many, I expected to spend the last three weeks of November heaving a sigh of relief that the most contentious presidential election of my lifetime is over.... I was looking forward to getting the ritual over and done with. Unfortunately, it continues to drag on. We expected the usual quick mass and communion; instead we're getting a Pentecostal stemwinder, replete with fire and brimstone.
4abc - San Francisco Chronicle Dripping Pen Card November 8 1969 340 Cipher COLOR., From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Friday, October 30, 2020
A Lot More People Elected Jack Dorsey Than Elected Ted Cruz Jack Dorsey is elected by more than 300 million Twitter users ... Ted Cruz, on the other hand, was elected by 4.2 million Texans. ... But for some reason, Ted Cruz seems to believe that he has a broader and more legitimate mandate to run Twitter than Jack Dorsey does. And not just Twitter. Ted Cruz thinks he's entitled to run pretty much everything ...
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, December 18, 2020
Hey, Hey, FDA! How Many Americans Have You Killed Since May? At every step, the US medical response to COVID-19 has been constrained by "you must first ask if it please the Crown" considerations.
Thyme-Bathroom-RGB, From WikimediaPhotos
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, April 9, 2016
Government Should Give Us All a Break. A Bathroom Break, That Is. You've been sharing bathrooms with trans people your whole life, and you never noticed until some idiot fearmongering political hack brought it up because he thought he could scare you with it. Did it work?
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, May 4, 2021
The Biden Administration Wants to Partner with Criminals to Spy on You At what point does "working with" government amount to "being part of" government?
Biden9 %2832932624647%29., From WikimediaPhotos
(4 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, November 24, 2020
America in Transition: What's the Hurry? If Joe Biden couldn't even get his act together enough over the course of half a century to have a cabinet picked before the election, why should we believe that a few weeks, $7 million, and some "outreach" will magically prepare him for the job he's been seeking that whole time?
Encrypting The Phone, From FlickrPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, April 13, 2016
How to Kill America's Tech Economy in One Lesson US Senators Richard Burr (R-NC) and Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) are at it again. They've released a "discussion draft" of their "bill to require the provision of data in an intelligible format pursuant to a court order. " if such data has been made unintelligible by a feature, product, or service owned, controlled, created, or provided, by the covered entity or by a third party on behalf of the covered entity."
From commons.wikimedia.org: Trump at King Khalid International Airport, From Images
SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, April 4, 2018
Uncertainty is the Root of the Current Market Craziness The market has seemingly gone nuts. Sudden one-day drops pare back weeks of gains, followed by a cautious recovery of the lost ground. There's a strong correlation between those swings and Trump's mouth, whether he's making formal policy announcements or just tweetstorming his latest obsession. To understand the problem, let's look to the seemingly unrelated fields of economics and physics.
Terrorism definition, From FlickrPhotos
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, December 9, 2015
Election 2016: Let's Stop Negotiating With Terrorists When we think of terrorism, we usually envision a suicide bomber or a mass shooter or perhaps someone who hijacks a plane and flies it into a skyscraper. But there's another, even more dangerous, kind of terrorist: The terrorist who exploits such acts for political gain. Last week's attack in San Bernardino is bringing the latter kind of terrorist out of the woodwork.
Former Gov. Gary Johnson, From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, April 14, 2016
Election 2016: The Perils of Political Welfare What was shaping up as a banner year for a credible third party presidential campaign seems to be going south for Gary Johnson -- and for the Libertarian Party, if it nominates him next month at its national convention in Orlando.
Tear Gas outside United States Capitol 20210106., From WikimediaPhotos
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, January 15, 2021
The No Fly List: More Dangerous than the Capitol Rioters The real and lasting damage of the Capitol riot will come not from the riot itself but from its exploitation by authoritarians of all stripes. The Rahm Emanuel strategy -- "never allow a good crisis to go to waste when it's an opportunity to do things that you had never considered, or that you didn't think were possible" -- is in full play, in the form of "let's stack new evil ideas on top of existing evil ideas."
Berlin Wall 1961-11-20, From WikimediaPhotos
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, April 7, 2016
Trump's Wall: Be Careful What You Wish For Remember Donald Trump's promise to not only build a US-Mexico border wall, but make Mexico pay for it? If that promise sounded sketchy, maybe even ridiculous when he made it, his campaign's March 31 memo to the Washington Post makes it sound like an authoritarian, and likely disastrous, extortion scheme.
US 131%2C M-6%2C 68th St interchange., From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Friday, May 3, 2019
The Government Should Start Planning to Spend Less, Not More, on "Infrastructure" At the end of April, President Trump met with Democratic congressional leaders at the White House. ... what emerged was tentative agreement on cooperation toward "a $2 trillion infrastructure plan to upgrade the nation's highways, railroads, bridges and broadband." ... The plan is a 20th century solution to problems that the 21st century market is already solving.
Twitter activity of Donald Trump., From WikimediaPhotos
(4 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, November 18, 2020
Section 230 Doesn't Need "Reform" "Conservative" politicians want to torture social media into obediently promoting "conservative" content. "Progressive" politicians want to torture social media into suppressing "extremist" content. Neither gang seems to care if their waterboarding kills the victim.
InVitroFertilization., From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, February 29, 2024
Alabama IVF Ruling: When The Law Has A Personal Problem What -- who -- is a "person" or "child" deserving of particular rights and protections? As a philosophical topic, that question quickly becomes interesting and highly debatable. As a political and legal question, it's likewise highly debatable and any answer produces controversial consequences.
Voting booths (Public domain via Wikipedia), From ImagesAttr
SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, October 22, 2015
Spoiled Rotten: Who Owns Your Vote? There's a word that sets my teeth on edge, bubbling up among the commentariat every other year as election campaigns heat up. In this cycle I'm starting to hear it earlier than usual, mainly because prominent candidates -- first Donald Trump, now Jim Webb -- are rumored to be considering independent bids for the presidency.
Thanksgiving at Plymouth%2C 1925%2C Brownscombe., From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, November 24, 2020
Thankful, 2020 Edition Maybe "better than nothing" isn't the most inspiring slogan for Thanksgiving, but it's what we've got.
US one dollar bill%2C obverse%2C series 2009., From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, February 29, 2024
Return of the "Student Loan Forgiveness" Vote-Buying Scheme Like previous rounds of "student loan forgiveness," this latest write-off is a $1.2 billion campaign expenditure, one that doesn't have to come out of the Biden campaign's $56 million in cash reserves, or be raised with donation drives.
Tear gas outside the United States Capitol on 6 January 2021. Photo by Tyler Merbler. Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license., From FlickrPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, January 10, 2021
Political Violence: The Politicians Doth Protest Too Much Political violence, and credible threats of political violence, are the very basis of "the American system of government."
Marine CASEVAC Fallujah
Owner: Wikipedia (commons.wikimedia.org) at commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Marine_CASEVAC_Fallujah.jpg
License: creative commons attribution 3.0, From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Friday, December 11, 2015
Millennials: Let's You and Them Fight I wish I could get inside the heads of the three-quarters of military-age people in this survey who support the IDEA of a war enthusiastically enough to send OTHERS off to potentially die or return minus limbs or with traumatic brain injuries, but not enough to risk those things themselves.
Baconator., From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, March 10, 2024
When Time Is Money, "Dynamic Pricing" Makes Everything Cheaper Everything else being equal, nobody wants to pay more for food than necessary. But everything else is never equal. For some people, saving time is worth a little extra money; for others, saving money is worth a little extra time. For businesses, keeping demand more steady is profitable.
Tom Cotton holding a kitten., From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, March 5, 2024
Then There Was The Time Tom Cotton Bemoaned "Extremism" To Cotton's mind, the Israeli regime's murders of civilians in Gaza -- the current toll stands at 30,000 or more -- are morally justifiable and worthy of his support, while killing one's self in protest against genocide is "extremist" and supportive of "terrorism."
UN Palestine Partition Versions 1947., From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, February 29, 2024
"Solution" Or Not, There's Already a Palestinian State Whenever there's talk of a "two-state solution" to the Israeli-Arab conflict in Palestine, Israel and its backers -- especially the US -- pretend that any "second state" is a proposal for the future, a proposal that can be rejected, temporarily or permanently. That little bit of propagandizing becomes less and less useful as time goes on. The state of Palestine is not a proposal, it's a fact.
Marta atlanta skyline., From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, December 10, 2023
A Desire Named Streetcar; Or, What Happened to Mass Transit? "Mass transit" these days usually refers to government-operated enterprises which run at operating losses and tap taxpayers to make up their deficits. That, however, was not always the case.
Fanciful sketch by Marguerite Martyn of a New Years Eve celebration., From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, December 31, 2023
In The New Year, Thank You For Your Service The vast majority of humans spend much of our time making other humans' lives better, and having our own lives made better by those other humans. I'm not sure we thank each other (including military veterans who've moved on from destructive to productive work) enough, or sincerely enough, for all we do. But I'm sure we should.
Ring Video Doorbell 2 capture video quality., From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Monday, January 22, 2024
Do We Need Terms of Service for Porch Pirates? Is going onto other people's porches and stealing their stuff really a "private" activity? And does recording (and, if one chooses, sharing) what happens on one's own property, or on "public" property visible from one's own property, violate anyone's reasonable expectation of privacy?
SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, September 10, 2020
Trump vs. the Marines: Semper Lactentem More than four million Americans volunteered for, or allowed themselves to be conscripted into, military service in World War One. 117,000 of them died. Hundreds of thousands more bore wounds that pained them for life. And for what? Certainly not, as US President Woodrow Wilson claimed, to make the world "safe for democracy."
US Supreme Court, From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, February 17, 2016
The "Courtpocalypse" and How to Delay It The Supreme Court is soon to be re-made in a big way, almost certainly altering the "liberal/conservative" balance. Scalia's death puts that re-making front and center in the presidential race.
Detroit Photographic Company %280707%29., From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Monday, April 15, 2019
The Most Controversial Belief The most controversial belief of libertarians (and partisan Libertarians) is the belief that you're generally both more entitled and more qualified to run your life than someone else is.
Preparation of measles vaccines., From WikimediaPhotos
(6 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, May 6, 2019
Don't Let Measles Hysteria Defeat Freedom If you've got the measles or some other infection, and know it, you should avoid contact with the public, and I have no real problem with quarantine laws enforcing that. But the current hysteria over a tiny number of cases of a usually non-fatal disease is bringing out the worst in Americans. By "the worst," I mean calls for government to force vaccinations on the unwilling.
P20231103AS-1014, From FlickrPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, March 10, 2024
The Danger in Medicalizing Murder While some people tend to unduly write off avoidable atrocity as unavoidable tragedy, it's difficult to deny that brain trauma -- natural or artificial -- can play a role in turning otherwise reasonable people into killers.
Colorado Congressional Districts%2C 118th Congress.svg., From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, January 3, 2024
It's All About Them, Lauren Boebert Edition These people don't work for you. They work for themselves. You're just there to fund their paychecks and benefits. Don't forget that.
Kwiki Wingnut, From CreativeCommonsPhoto
SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, February 6, 2024
Regarding Taylor Swift, Travis Kelce, and Thorazine Shortages Politics didn't make Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce popular and well-known. They accomplished that themselves. Even if Joe Biden needs them, they don't need him. But if they want a reason to endorse Biden, the MAGA weirdos are giving them one in the form of truly next-level wingnuttery.
Supposed UFO%2C Passaic%2C New Jersey %28cropped%29., From WikimediaPhotos
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, March 15, 2024
UFOs: Don't Expect The Truth From Government The US government isn't telling us everything it knows about UFOs. And we can be certain that at least some of what it IS telling us is untrue.
Sandwich., From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, December 12, 2023
Why I Don't Want Elizabeth Warren to Make Me a Sandwich It's not so much that Warren seeks solutions to non-problems as that she considers it a problem -- or at least an oversight -- whenever she happens across something, anything, anywhere, that she's not been put in charge of supervising.
Bonaparte ante la Esfinge%2C por Jean-L%C3%A9on G%C3%A9r%C3%B4me., From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Friday, December 15, 2023
Man On Horseback? "Rigged Elections" Are The Horse. Few of us, no matter how pessimistic or cynical, really like the idea of riot, revolution, coup and civil war. Like God in the old saying, those things don't care if you believe in them -- they'll wreck your day without regard to your political sentiments. Two presidential elections after I called out that potential, the "rigged election" tune seems to be segueing seamlessly into its second verse ...
Confederate Monument - S face tight - Arlington National Cemetery - 2011., From WikimediaPhotos
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, December 24, 2023
Arlington: Confederate Memorial Removal Contradicts the Union's Civil War Premise During the Mexican War, later Union general and US president Ulysses S. Grant wrote to his fiancee: "If we have to fight, I would like to do it all at once and then make friends."
The Death of Cleopatra arthur., From WikimediaPhotos
(4 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, February 7, 2024
Politicians Versus Your "End Of Life Options" Nature (and human nature) preclude, at least for the moment, the choice to live forever. Illness, accident, and crime cut lives short every day despite the perfectly normal desire to continue living. But the desire to NOT continue living, for whatever reason, brings up a choice that rightfully belongs to all mentally competent adults. Entirely. Completely. Without exception.
TikTok.com Screenshot., From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Friday, March 15, 2024
Congress Can Only Take Away Your TikTok If You Let Them The proposed TikTok ban isn't about "national security," nor is it about your privacy. It's about cultivating short-term moral panic for their political benefit. It's about establishing their longer-term control over anything and everything you might choose to do. And it won't take long to learn which American Big Tech lobbyists and campaign contributors it was ALWAYS about giving an economic gift to.
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, January 10, 2024
What's In Your Wallet? If CBDC Supporters Have Their Way, Nothing Reliable CBDCs aren't cryptocurrencies. They're the digital opposite of cryptocurrencies in important respects. In fact, their main function is to serve as instruments of control over you, your activities, and your finances.
Tear Gas outside United States Capitol 20210106., From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, December 24, 2023
With the Trump Disqualification, Ballot Access Barrier Chickens Come Home to Roost Did anyone really believe America's "major parties" would never get around to using ballot access barriers against each other?
1962- Net personal wealth - average in percentile ranges - linear scale - US.svg., From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, January 10, 2024
Our Political Conundrum: Two Questions That Answer Each Other Question #1: Is government too big? Question #2: Is wealth too unequal?
Hearing Room in the Hart Building., From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, December 24, 2023
About That Senate Hearing Room Sex Tape The Capitol Hill complex would no doubt take first place in any ranking of America's raunchiest BDSM clubs. It's somewhat exclusive as far as formal membership goes (536 members), but boasts thousands of staff members to see to those members' needs, and proudly televises many of its orgies. In fact, C-SPAN should strongly consider adopting "A Subsidized OnlyFans for Masochists" as a tag line / branding play.

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