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Caution or Catastrophe: Public Health’s COVID Response

Caution or Catastrophe: Public Health’s COVID Response

by | Feb 23, 2022 |

Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, proponents of lockdowns, shelter-in-place orders, mask mandates and other coercive government interventions have characterized these measures as benevolently “erring on the side of caution.” Now, as the grim toll of those public health measures comes into ever-sharper focus, it’s increasingly clear those characterizations were terribly wrong. What’s less readily apparent, however, is how the very use of the “erring on the side of caution” framing was injurious in itself—by thwarting reasoned debate of public health policies, diverting attention from...

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Without An Enemy, NATO Has Become Its Own

Without An Enemy, NATO Has Become Its Own

by | Feb 1, 2022 | ,

In his farewell address, George Washington said, “It is our true policy to steer clear of permanent alliances with any portion of the foreign world.” What an offensive notion to Pentagon generals, weapon industry execs, DC think tankers and State Department bureaucrats, who, rather than avoiding permanent alliances, have been relentless in their quest to pile on new ones. That impulse is vividly exemplified by the dangerously provocative post-Cold War expansion of NATO, and its consequences are apparent in today’s Ukraine-centered tensions with Russia. NATO was created to oppose a Soviet...

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Inflation Is Robbing Your Pocket, Whether You Realize Or Not

Inflation Is Robbing Your Pocket, Whether You Realize Or Not

by | Jan 5, 2022 | ,

All across the economic dashboard, inflation indicators are blinking red. Most recently, the Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) index, calculated by the Bureau of Economic Analysis, rose 5.7% from November 2020 to November 2021. That’s the biggest year-over-year surge since September 1983. Many mistakenly attribute today’s rising prices solely to supply chain woes, and government officials are happy to fertilize that mythology—as Kamala Harris reflexively did last week in her rambling, didn’t-do-the-reading response to a question from Margaret Brennan: The truth is, in the words of...

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The Ticking Time Bomb of Social Security

The Ticking Time Bomb of Social Security

by | Nov 24, 2021 |

At a time when President Biden and congressional Democrats are pushing to expand the breadth of entitlements to include free preschool and subsidized child care, little attention is given to the fact that the country’s biggest existing entitlement program—Social Security—is a financial wreck. The program’s payouts have exceeded revenue since 2010, but the recent past is nowhere near as grim as the future. According to the latest annual report by Social Security’s trustees, the gap between promised benefits and future payroll tax revenue has reached a staggering $59.8 trillion. That gap...

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Texas Is Not Free: A Case of Civil Asset Forfeiture

Texas Is Not Free: A Case of Civil Asset Forfeiture

by | Oct 18, 2021 | ,

On May 14, 2019, Ameal Woods drove from rural Mississippi to Houston with $42,300 in cash. He was ready to achieve a major goal he and his wife had worked, saved and borrowed for: Purchasing a second semi truck for the fledgling trucking business he operated with his brother, and perhaps a trailer, too. Along Interstate 10 in Texas, however, his entrepreneurial dream turned into a nightmare. It started when Woods was pulled over by a Harris County sheriff’s deputy who claimed Woods had been following too closely behind the truck in front of him. The deputy asked Woods if he was carrying...

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Raising the Debt Ceiling Is Raising Your Taxes

Raising the Debt Ceiling Is Raising Your Taxes

by | Oct 4, 2021 | ,

With Thursday’s passage of a continuing resolution that funds government operations until December 3rd, Congress dodged one fiscal cliff, but a bigger one looms ahead. The federal government has maxed out its credit, and if Congress doesn’t raise the statutory debt ceiling by October 18, the Treasury won’t be able to cover all of Uncle Sam’s obligations. With Democrats controlling the House, Senate and White House, Republicans have declared they’re leaving it entirely up to the Democrats to raise the ceiling through the budget reconciliation process. Democratic leaders and their...

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How the FBI’s War on Drugs Contributed to the 9/11 Attacks

How the FBI’s War on Drugs Contributed to the 9/11 Attacks

by | Sep 9, 2021 | , ,

The story of 9/11 is filled with painful “what-ifs.” Among the most prominent: What if the CIA hadn’t blocked two FBI agents from alerting Bureau headquarters that a future 9/11 hijacker had obtained a multi-entry U.S. visa? What if the FBI hadn’t nixed agents’ request for a warrant to search the computer of “20th hijacker” Zacharias Moussaoui after his arrest in August 2001? What if the FBI hadn’t ignored a Phoenix agent’s July 2001 recommendation to contact aviation colleges across the country, on suspicion that Osama bin Laden was preparing extremists to “conduct terror activity against...

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The War in Afghanistan Should Make You Reconsider Military Enlistment

The War in Afghanistan Should Make You Reconsider Military Enlistment

by | Sep 3, 2021 | , ,

Though the war in Afghanistan is over, its grim history is filled with hard truths about what it really means to serve in the American military. Those truths are particularly relevant to anyone contemplating enlistment or commissioning in the armed forces. With that in mind, here’s a warning label informed by the grim lessons of Operation Enduring Freedom—the failed and futile 20-year war in Afghanistan. You Could Lose Your Life Or Limbs In a War That Accomplishes Nothing After 9/11, the U.S. government was right to lash out at Al Qaeda in Afghanistan. However, that mission was largely...

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Stark Realities with Brian McGlinchey

STARK REALITIES WITH BRIAN McGLINCHEY is a Substack newsletter that undermines official narratives, demolishes conventional wisdom and exposes fundamental myths across the political spectrum. McGlinchey has spoken at the national conference of the Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity, and has appeared on the Scott Horton Show, Tom Woods Show and Ron Paul Liberty Report. Receive new Stark Realities posts via email



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