Stark Realities with Brian McGlinchey | The Libertarian Institute

Leaked: How GOP Insiders Torpedoed Attempt To Add ’28 Pages’ Declassification to Party Platform

by Stark Realities with Brian McGlinchey | Jul 26, 2021 | Featured Articles, Foreign Policy, Politics

According to leaked emails obtained by Middle East Eye, an unnamed Republican Party figure orchestrated the defeat of a proposed 2016 GOP plank calling for the declassification of 28 pages on Saudi government links to the 9/11 plotters. That individual then notified Trump presidential campaign manager Paul Manafort of the plank’s defeat and claimed credit for providing instructions to “our political team” to kill it. Manafort forwarded the news to Tom Barrack—Trump’s billionaire friend, surrogate and fundraiser—who notified Yousef al-Otaiba, the United Arab Emirates ambassador to the United...

Paying Your “Fair Share” of the Warfare-Welfare State

by Stark Realities with Brian McGlinchey | Jul 19, 2021 | Featured Articles, Libertarianism

A recurring theme in national tax debates is the idea that everyone should pay their “fair share” of taxes. While that aspiration’s validity is widely taken for granted, the stark reality is there’s no such thing as a “fair share” of federal taxes. To understand why, let’s first scrutinize what’s meant by “fair.” When paired with “share,” the most fitting definition is “reasonable, right and just.” If the United States government were limited to its only morally sound function—protecting rights, liberties and lives—perhaps one could entertain the theoretical notion of a “reasonable, right...

How Shipping Interests Have Rigged the Economic Game for a Century

by Stark Realities with Brian McGlinchey | Jul 1, 2021 | Economics, Featured Articles

There’s a 101-year-old law most Americans have never heard of, one that shaves tens of billions of dollars out of the U.S. economy every year for the narrow benefit of politically-influential shipbuilders, shipyard unions and shipping lines. The Jones Act does that by essentially barring foreign vessels from transporting freight or people between two U.S. ports. Among many other ill effects, the elimination of competition drives shipping prices far above what a free market would dictate. Only 46 countries have such laws, and, according to the World Economic Forum, the United States imposes...

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...