Month: July 2018

Ramapo College finance professor Murray Sabrin is running for U.S. Senate from New Jersey as the Libertarian Party candidate. I included him in my discussion of the New Jersey 2018 Senate race. If you live in New Joisey, and Bob Menendez is terrible but Republican Bob Hugin is a Big Pharma crony and a lefty SJW, then please consider voting for Murray Sabrin. (If you vote. And I don’t blame you if you don’t.) Dr. Sabrin is one of the only, or one of the very few, pro-liberty candidates in this year’s elections.

Here is Dr. Sabrin in a recent Q&A on the 2nd Amendment that I think you’ll find of interest.

Jack Kerwick has an article discussing Ben Shapiro. I hadn’t been that familiar with Shapiro, except that I think he sounds like Sean Spicer, who sounds like a cartoon character (but don’t tell him I said that). And I thought that Shapiro was a part of the “alt-right,” but Kerwick says here that Shapiro’s views are more “left-leaning,” so maybe he’s of the “alt-left”? What I have known so far is that Shapiro is a bloodthirsty warmonger, or at least he was with Iraq and Afghanistan. He has been a “Never Trumper,” but now, says Kerwick, Shapiro is a “Sometime Trumper.” Maybe, sometime, sorta, kinda.

Ray McGovern has some important information on Peter Strzok and Lisa Page’s texts, not good news for the Russia-gate True Believers.

Peter van Buren on John Brennan melting down and covering up.

Jack Cashill says the Strzok farce shows obstacles to opening the TWA 800 case.

Sheldon Richman asks, Trump and Putin – how about getting rid of your nukes?

Gary Kohls with a short list of the most lethal interventions in Latin America.

And Jeffrey Kaye with an article on a Korean War commanding U.S. general possibly admitting to war crimes.

Andrew McCarthy explains the recently released FISA application by the FBI to spy on Trump campaign flunky Carter Page. The FBI knowingly used an unreliable dossier obtained by an unreliable source, British spy Christopher Steele. The FBI knowingly gave the judges FISA applications which stated, “The FBI has reviewed this verified application for accuracy in accordance with its April 5, 2001 procedures, which include sending a copy of the draft to the appropriate field office(s),” even though the FBI never verified the Steele information. And they also did not tell the judges that the Hillary campaign paid Steele for the information.

Justin Raimondo explains why not trust or believe the national security state, a.k.a. “deep state,” in its going after Carter Page and Julian Assange. The two situations are indeed related. It was Assange’s WikiLeaks that is the reason why we know the truth about a lot of the shenanigans behind the 2016 election fiascos, with the DNC, etc. And we know a lot more truth about the wars that Bush started thanks to WikiLeaks.

Justin Raimondo writes: “This is the really interesting thing about such a turn of events: predicting who will be howling for Assange’s blood and who will be demanding that he be set free. It’s the same division that’s occurring over the Russia-gate hoax: the believers (and I mean that in the religious sense) will form a mob straight out of The Lottery. The few skeptics – Tucker Carlson, Glenn Greenwald, a scattering of honest leftists, and most of us libertarians (although who knows if the Kochs will let Reason magazine come out for Assange) – will be his only defenders.”

However, at the end of his article, Justin suggests that people call the White House (and he gives the number), to tell Donald Trump that if the apparatchiks of the national security state bring Assange here to the U.S. and charge him with … with … (whatever), that Trump should pardon Assange. I don’t know about calling the White House or Congress, etc. I don’t think they really listen to the “commoners” – mainly Trump listens to his adored militarist generals and other droolers of the national security state (like Mike Pompeo). Sad.

And Glenn Greenwald writes about what might come next following a possible ejection from the Ecuadorian embassy of Julian Assange. Greenwald gets into the possible prosecution of news media outlets, such as the New York Times, for publishing “classified” information that was released by WikiLeaks. If you’re going to prosecute WikiLeaks then you’ll have to be consistent. And it isn’t “classified” information that people will be persecuted by the gubmint for, they will be persecuted and imprisoned and hanged for their embarrassing the bureaucrats by exposing the bureaucrats’ criminality, their incompetence and buffoonery, and their corruption.

The First Amendment protects the right of the people to speak, publish, openly criticize the gubmint, reveal the rulers’ crimes, the rulers’ incompetence and buffoonery and corruption.

The reason the national security state went after The Donald was because during the campaign (and in the years leading up to the campaign), Trump openly criticized the bureaucrats, the warmongers, the wars that Bush started — and the apparatchiks did NOT like it! Neither did all their followers, groupies, hangers-on, word-for-word journalist repeaters, stenographers, media WH press-releasers, think-tank pseudo-intellectuals, low-IQ witch-hunters, and other parasites. Most of them would be sweeping floors at the mall if it were not for the income tax and the bureaucracy in Washington that uses it to redistribute the earnings of the workers of society over to those parasites.

According to Zero Hedge, the FBI says in FISA application that it believed that Carter Page had been “collaborating and conspiring with the Russian government,” even though after two years Page has not been charged with anything, let alone “collaborating and conspiring with the Russian government.” Hmm, I wonder why that is. Perhaps the FBI didn’t really believe that? And they just wanted to spy on political opponent’s campaign? Nah, since when would that ever happen (in USSA Amerika)?

“Deep state,” scheming and colluding?

José Niño says that Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was predictable. “No matter how many times socialist experiments have failed—from the Soviet Union to present-day Venezuela —many naïve leftists continue their never-ending goose chase for a socialist experiment that works.” Yup.

Brittany Hunter on opportunity being the solution to poverty.

Jörg Guido Hülsmann says that charity needs markets.

Scott Sumner comments on trade: the chickens come home to roost.

Don Boudreaux says a protectionist is someone who denies the ultimate end of economic activity is consumption, and comments on the importance of unilateral free trade.

And Richard Ebeling writes, Socialism, like Dracula, rises again from the grave.

In the U.S. Senate, Tim Scott and Marco Rubio decided at the last minute to sabotage a conservative Trump nominee for the Ninth Circus Court of Appeals, one of the most leftist courts we have. Assistant Oregon U.S. attorney Ryan Bounds was given the heave-ho because of his criticism of group identity politics on college campuses. He had already been writing about the phenomenon while he was in college.

After doing some digging, I have finally found some examples of Ryan Bounds’s writing, from the Alliance for Justice. Here are some examples (.pdf via Oregonian):

“During my years in our Multicultural Garden of Eden, I have often marveled at the odd strategies that some of the more strident racial factions of the student body employ in their attempts to ‘heighten consciousness,’ ‘build tolerance,’ ‘promote diversity,’ and otherwise convince us to partake of that fruit which promises to open our eyes to a PC version of the knowledge of good and evil. I am mystified because these tactics seem always to contribute more to restricting consciousness, aggravating intolerance, and pigeonholing cultural identities than many a Nazi bookburning.”

“Strangely, the Multiculturalistas don’t seem to catch on to the inevitable non- efficacy of their rallies, protests, whinings, demands, and vitriolic brickbats towards all printed policies not incorporating the language of the 1964 Civil Rights Act in their preambles.”

“I submit that the Multiculturalistas, when they divide up by race for their feel-good ethnic hoedowns, engage in nearly all of [the fundamental behaviors of group think].”

“Multiculturalists band together not into tight cliques of mutual interests and complementary powers, but rather into social clubs of ostensibly common racial heritage.”

“The second behavior of race-think is believing that the moral superiority of the group is unquestionable. Truly, the Stanford Multiculturalists are heavy hitters in the big-leagues of sanctimony; few would dispute that.”

“Whenever a group of white males happens to be at the same place at the same time, you can be sure that the foul stench of oppression and exploitation lingers in the air. In contrast, ethnic centers, whose sole purpose is to bring together exclusive cliques of students to revel in racial purity, are so righteous that the mere mention of cutting budgets incites turmoil on the grandest scale.”

“The opponent is the white male and his coterie of meanspirited lackeys: ‘oreos,’ ‘twinkies,’ ‘coconuts,’ and the like . . . He enjoys making money and buying material things, just to make sure people with darker skin don’t have access to them. He enjoys killing children and revels in the death of minorities (if you are white, male, and pro-choice, for instance, it is often ascribed to your desire for poor black and Hispanic women to abort their children as frequently as possible).”

“If a black person is an individualist and a thoroughgoing capitalist who eschews victimhood status and its concomitant entitlements, race- thinkers are quick to brand him ‘oreo,’ ‘Uncle Tom,’ or ‘sell-out.’”

“Race-focused groups foster race- think, and the only way to rid our multicultural community of race-think is to rid it of these invidious factions. We should be cheered, however, to know that our task is not impossible. The existence of ethnic organizations is no inevitable prerequisite to maintaining a diverse community— white students, after all, seem to be doing all right without an Aryan Student Union.”

Now, while some of the comments seem over-the-top, in general he is right about the kooky, irrational way that the “diversity” clowns think and act now.

And I know there are a lot of snowflakes out there and those who view as “racist” this kind of truthful observation of today’s race-obsessed climate. They will merely glance at the above, see some un-PC language, and shout, “Racist!”

But at least someone is not afraid to tell the truth about the college campus crazies whose view of “diversity” is that everyone looks different, that we have a nice rainbow-looking crowd. The superficial is what matters to shallow zombies. But when it comes to diversity in thought and opinion, they are total authoritarians and dictators, silencing anyone who disagrees with something and censoring someone who criticizes a policy from the left.

However (and this is a big however), given that this Ryan Bounds is an assistant DA prosecuting cases on behalf of the federal government, we know what THAT means. Drug war, making use of the unconstitutional surveillance state, and on and on. So, in the end, I say thank you to Marco Rubio and Tim Scott for the derailing (albeit for different reasons).

For the Appeals Court, we don’t want a social or cultural conservative, we want a libertarian, someone who actually understands that the U.S. Constitution didn’t authorize the federal government to get involved in drugs, or education, or the environment, and on and on. 99% of what the feds are doing is unconstitutional because it was not authorized by the U.S. Constitution. The police state exists right now to enforce the criminalization of many peaceful activities!

And the “means to an end” of prosecuting, anyway? The 4th Amendment-busting and 5th Amendment-busting surveillance state? Sorry, we need someone who is not only not afraid to tell the truth about the college campuses and “diversity,” but someone who isn’t afraid to tell the truth that most of what police and prosecutors are doing is unconstitutional, immoral, and criminal.

Jacob Hornberger asks, Was Reagan a traitor, too?

And Justin Raimondo says that Trump’s “treason” is challenging the empire.

First of all, I’ve been against the idea of a “Jewish State,” or a Christian State, an Islamic State or an Atheist State, etc.

And no, I’m not an “anti-Semite.” Or a “self-hating Jew.” Please save your hate mail.

There should just be a free society in which everyone can live and do what they want, practice whatever religion they want, pray or not pray, or whatever. As long as they are peaceful. It’s not difficult.

A society based on private property, private property rights, freedom of association, freedom of thought and conscience, and of course the Non-Aggression Principle.

Sadly, Israel has not been that society. Israel is a society based on religion, collectivism and nationalism.

And now Israel has approved of a new nation-state law in which “the state shall act to preserve the cultural, historical and religious heritage of the Jewish people among Jews in the Diaspora,” and “the state views the development of Jewish settlement as a national value and will act to encourage and promote its establishment and consolidation,” and other things.

According to antiwar.com, “Arab MPs who complained about the bill following the vote were expelled from parliament. MP Ahmed Tibi in particular declared the bill a ‘racist law,’ leading Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to furiously condemn him for ‘daring’ to criticize it.”

“Can’t we all just get along?” as Rodney King once asked. Apparently not. This is what collectivism has wrought.

Why can’t Jewish people (or anyone else for that matter) just live where they feel is best for them economically or socially, where they feel most comfortable?

During the 1930s and 1940s the safest place for Jews was the U.S. And it still is, in my view. (Is Israel safer for Jews than the U.S. now?)

So for 70 years, this “Jewish State” thing just has not been working out, and the situation is only going to get worse when the authoritarian statists in control make such demands of conformity and impose official State intolerance on an entire region of people.

And collectivism is bad here in the U.S., too, especially with the immigration situation. Unfortunately, the anti-immigration statists lump all immigrants together. They are persecuting and violating the lives of the peaceful immigrants who are traveling and not harming anyone, in an attempt to keep out the ones who are violent.

Leave the peaceful people alone.

Activist Post has this article on a new app for high school students in Henderson County, North Carolina to report on their fellow students to school bureaucrats, who will then report them to law enforcement. The app is called, “Report It, Don’t Ignore It,” like the old “If You See Something, Say Something,” to encourage people to act like neighborhood stasi and to make people feel important in their dull, worthless lives. And if there’s a neighbor they don’t like or someone who said the wrong thing then report on him, too. A world of Gladys Kravitzes. In this new situation, the students can report on ex-boyfriends or girlfriends who reject them, report something on the kid who wouldn’t share his twinkies, or just report on some innocent kid for the sake of picking on someone. Just make something up. (Taking after the Mueller-Rosenstein-Comey-Strzok people.) We’re talking about kids here. Okay.

This CATO article highlights Kavanaugh’s deference to the apparatchiks of the national security state and his contempt for the “right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects,” regarding the bulk collection of telephony metadata.

The CATO article quotes Kavanaugh’s opinion from 2015:

The Fourth Amendment allows governmental searches and seizures without individualized suspicion when the Government demonstrates a sufficient “special need” – that is, a need beyond the normal need for law enforcement – that outweighs the intrusion on individual liberty

Now, I have read the Fourth Amendment, and I haven’t seen anything in there about “special need” of government law enforcement that “outweighs” the right to be secure.

The Fourth Amendment states: “The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated; and no Warrants shall issue but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.”

Does the Fourth Amendment say, “except for a special need of law enforcement”? Nope.

Kavanaugh writes (with my comments inserted):

In my view, that critical national security need outweighs the impact on privacy occasioned by this program. The Government’s program does not capture the content of communications [Yes it does, with phone calls and emails as well!], but rather the time and duration of calls, and the numbers called.

Besides being ignorant of the feds’ ongoing criminal intrusions against innocent people, Kavanaugh also cites “drug testing of students, roadblocks to detect drunk drivers, border checkpoints, and security screening at airports” as examples of allowable violations of the Fourth Amendment.

So I guess this Kavanaugh person is just not a freedom guy, not a presumption of innocence guy. He doesn’t get America as was intended to be by the Revolutionaries, and certainly doesn’t get the Fourth Amendment. Kavanaugh is really just another authoritarian who believes that the sheeple do not have “unalienable rights” to life and liberty, we are just serfs under the rulers’ control, and must obediently allow the government goons to stop us without a reason to suspect us of anything, search our cars, search our phone calls and emails, and go on fishing expeditions.

I don’t know if Kavanaugh has studied or learned anything from the Soviet Union or similar societies. But when you allow government rulers the kind of access into the people’s private lives, their persons, property, homes, cars, papers, and effects, especially without any actual reason to suspect someone of something criminal against others, you will get more than just intrusions. You will get the kind of abuses that we have seen from the U.S. government goons in their going after the Trump campaign and Trump as president, and in their and other federal and local agencies’ infiltration and/or persecution of activist groups such as Occupy Wall Street, Tea Party groups, antiwar activists, critics of the police state, gamers, Microsoft users, high school students, innocent homeowners, shoppers, school kids, minorities, airline travelers, journalists, videographers, Twitter users, and the spies, illegal searchers and infiltrators’ own fellow government bureaucrats as well. The list of government’s victims is endless!

Say “No!” to Judge Kavanaugh, and all the other apparatchiks of the police state. Trump would do much better by nominating Judge Andrew Napolitano or anyone else who understands the dangers we are in with the Soviet-like police state that MUST be dismantled ASAP!