Stark Realities with Brian McGlinchey | The Libertarian Institute

Why Patriots Shouldn’t Pledge Allegiance

by Stark Realities with Brian McGlinchey | Jun 14, 2021 | Featured Articles

Flag Day is upon us, with the Fourth of July not far behind. No better time for a frontal assault on a cherished American ritual—the Pledge of Allegiance. Though conservatives will be most aghast at this undertaking, the open-minded ones will soon discover they should be among the pledge’s greatest critics. Before I open fire, a brief explanation for international readers: The Pledge of Allegiance is recited by children across America at the start of start of each school day. It’s also incorporated into many meetings held by federal, state and local governments and private groups as well....

Biden Proposes Globally-Imposed Corporate Tax Rates

by Stark Realities with Brian McGlinchey | Jun 3, 2021 | Economics, Featured Articles, Foreign Policy

In a move that would primarily benefit the world’s largest economies and most bloated governments, the Biden administration has proposed that all the world’s countries agree to impose corporate taxes at a rate no lower than 15%. Biden also proposes punishing countries that don’t adopt the minimum, by imposing heavier taxes on U.S. subsidiaries of companies headquartered in those countries. In describing the initiative, Treasury secretary Janet Yellen made her aim all too clear: “It is important to work with other countries to end the pressures of tax competition,” she said in a speech to the...

The CDC is Planning to Destroy the Summer Camp Experience

by Stark Realities with Brian McGlinchey | May 24, 2021 | Featured Articles

The Center for Disease Control’s major easing of its mask-use recommendations was a welcome development, giving Americans hope that logic can triumph over the CDC’s bureaucratic inertia and its COVID-era tendency to push the most severe restrictions on human activity at every turn. Next, let’s hope this outbreak of rationality proves contagious within the CDC, and brings a major overhaul of the agency’s absurd guidelines for summer camps. CDC Trapped in March 2020 Mindset In April, the CDC published guidance for operating youth camps that was the latest eye-rolling example of CDC maximalism...

How the Federal Reserve Inflated Away a Fourth of Your Wealth in 15 Years

by Stark Realities with Brian McGlinchey | May 17, 2021 | Economics, Featured Articles

As Americans warily eye new data showing both consumer and producer price inflation heating up beyond expectations, few of them realize the Federal Reserve has an explicit goal to relentlessly degrade the purchasing power of their savings. The Fed weakens the dollar—and pushes prices higher—by creating new money and pushing it out into the economy. If the Fed hits its stated target, the U.S. dollar will lose 10% of its buying power over the next 5 years, 26% over the next 15, and 40% over the next 25. As bad as that sounds, history suggests the dollar will fare even worse than the Fed...

2021 Will Decide the Future of Military Conscription

by Stark Realities with Brian McGlinchey | May 3, 2021 | Featured Articles, Foreign Policy

The coming year could bring a major milestone to America’s fitful relationship with the military draft: The Supreme Court may declare male-only draft registration unconstitutional, while Congress could either expand registration to women or end it altogether. Out of respect for life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, Congress should choose the latter option. Though it’s been almost a half-century since the last citizen was drafted into military service, the Military Selective Service Act continues requiring men to register upon reaching age 18, and to notify the Selective Service of...

Every Dollar the U.S. Government Gives Israel is a Crime

by Stark Realities with Brian McGlinchey | Apr 16, 2021 | Featured Articles, Foreign Policy

This fiscal year alone, the U.S. government will redistribute over $3.8 billion in American wealth to the government of Israel—violating federal law every step of the way. While having amassed upwards of 200 nuclear warheads, Israel is not a member of the the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT)—unlike every other state on Earth other than North Korea, India, Pakistan and South Sudan. That makes U.S. aid to Israel illegal under the Symington Amendment of 1976, which bars economic and military assistance to countries that acquire nuclear reprocessing technology without...

State Legislators Are Working To Reign in the Empire

by Stark Realities with Brian McGlinchey | Apr 7, 2021 | Featured Articles, Foreign Policy, Politics

Fed up after years of relentless National Guard deployments in undeclared wars, state lawmakers across the country are pushing legislation that would prohibit the use of Guard units in combat zones without a formal declaration of war by Congress. The bills are being promoted by BringOurTroopsHome.US, a self-described organization of “right-of-center” veterans working to end American involvement in “endless wars” and restore congressional authority over war-making. The libertarian 10th Amendment Center is also backing the cause. The proposed laws would require governors to determine the...

How the U.S. Media Misreported the Pandemic

by Stark Realities with Brian McGlinchey | Mar 30, 2021 | Featured Articles

If you’ve felt the media has heavily emphasized bad news throughout the Covid-19 pandemic, your judgment now has some scholarly corroboration. Dartmouth College and Brown University researchers have analyzed tens of thousands of Covid-19 articles and found major U.S. media outlets have overwhelmingly pushed negative narratives about the virus. “The most striking fact is that 87 percent of the U.S. stories are classified as negative, whereas 51 percent of the non-U.S. stories are classified as negative,” according to the study by Dartmouth economics professor Bruce Sacerdote, Dartmouth’s...