Jim Bovard | The Libertarian Institute

Davos’ Damndest Delusion: FBI As Good Guys?

by Jim Bovard | Jan 24, 2023 | Criminal Justice, Featured Articles

You can judge an audience by how much bullshit they accept from the podium. By that standard, the World Economic Forum attendees in Davos, Switzerland last week were either depraved or craven. Why else would FBI chief Christopher Wray not get hooted down for portraying his agency as “good guys?” Why was the FBI boss even making an appearance at a conference chockful of political weasels, billionaires, and depraved activists like former Vice President Al Gore? Actually, Wray was part of a panel on national security that included luminaries such as Ukrainian Vice-Prime Minister Yulia...

Biden’s Toxic January 6th Demonology

by Jim Bovard | Jan 12, 2023 | Featured Articles, Politics

Last Friday, President Biden held a White House ceremony commemorating the second anniversary of the January 6 Capitol riot. Biden showered a dozen Presidential Service Medals dozen people connected to the 2020 election or the January 6 events. Biden talked of the anniversary as a "day of remembrance"—perhaps echoing the International Holocaust Remembrance Day. Many Americans would be happy to never hear about January 6 again. No such luck. Vice President Kamala Harris equated January 6 with 9/11 and threw in Pearl Harbor to score a trifecta. Biden endlessly invoked January 6 in his speeches...

The IRS Straps on Their Jackboots to Enforce Biden’s Tax Laws

by Jim Bovard | Jan 9, 2023 | Featured Articles

The Internal Revenue Service is perhaps the ultimate sacred cow in Washington. It is the “goose that lays the golden eggs” for the city’s power and prestige, delivering trillions of dollars to politicians to work miracles (or at least get reelected). When criticism erupted over the 87,000 new revenooers to be hired thanks to Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act, Washington’s Defenders of Correct Thinking rushed to the ramparts. The Media Goes To Bat for the IRS Washington Post columnist Dana Milbank, in an article headlined “Another Republican Lie is Born,” caterwauled that Republicans’ anti-IRS...

Jim Bovard’s Best Digs of 2022

by Jim Bovard | Jan 5, 2023 | Economics, Featured Articles, Politics

This past year served up endless opportunities for hounding and pounding politicians and federal agencies. Here’s a round-up of the most liked or most hated lines from my 2022 articles. Hearty thanks to Hunter DeRensis and editors at other outlets who ran these pieces. The Uncle Joe Salvation Show "Biden’s pro-inflation policies are dividing Americans between those who work for a living and those who vote for a living." (N.Y. Post, January 24) "According to the White House’s 58-page Economic Blueprint, Biden has performed more miracles than accompanied the Sermon on the Mount." (N.Y....

FBI COINTELPRO Is Back, And Worse Than Ever

by Jim Bovard | Dec 27, 2022 | Criminal Justice, Featured Articles

Elon Musk has opened the floodgates to expose the FBI’s latest war on Americans’ freedom of speech. The FBI massively intervened to pressure Twitter to suppress accounts and tweets from individuals the FBI disapproved of, including parody accounts. The FBI and other federal agencies also browbeat Facebook, Instagram, and many other social media companies. Thus far, most of the American corporate media has ignored or downplayed the story, known as the Twitter Files. Since many of the individuals who the FBI got squelched were pro-Trump, the violation of their rights is a non-issue (or a cause...

Will TSA Steal Your Face?

by Jim Bovard | Dec 12, 2022 | Criminal Justice, Featured Articles

The Transportation Security Administration is running a pilot program in which travelers stand in photo kiosks that compare their face with a federal database of photos from passport applications, drivers’ licenses and other sources. TSA promises that its new airport regime, which could vastly expand next year, will respect Americans’ privacy. What could possibly go wrong? Aside from everything? Will Americans tolerate an out-of-control agency intruding ever further into their lives? The Washington Post warned in 2019 that airport facial recognition systems are “America’s biggest step yet to...

Joe Biden, Executor-In-Chief

by Jim Bovard | Dec 7, 2022 | Featured Articles

On July 4, President Biden declared, “Liberty is under assault…rights we assumed were protected are no longer.” Biden, however, was referring solely to a few Supreme Court decisions he deplored, not to the federal supremacy he championed for almost 50 years in the Senate and the White House. Though Biden took office preaching the need for “unity,” he increasingly rules like an elective dictator, relying on executive orders and dubious decrees. The Constitution is not permitted to impede the president from any action that might temporarily increase his approval ratings by one or two...

Will Joe Biden Make the Trains Run on Time?

by Jim Bovard | Nov 30, 2022 | Featured Articles

“I intend to be the most pro-union President leading the most pro-union administration in American history," President Joe Biden promised last year. But Uncle Joe has found his “inner Mussolini” and nothing is as important as the trains running on time. Biden is currently hammering Congress to enact legislation to effectively outlaw a strike next week by 100,000 railroad freight workers. Unions are threatening a work stoppage to compel railroad owners to provide more sick leave. Biden said yesterday, “I share workers’ concern about the inability to take leave to recover from illness or care...