Jim Bovard | The Libertarian Institute

Political Cynicism Won on Tuesday

by Jim Bovard | Nov 10, 2022 | Featured Articles, Politics

Cynics had another great Election Day on Tuesday. Expectations of a vast red wave became little more than scattered sightings of Democratic road kill. President Joe Biden took a “no red wave” victory lap in a White House press conference Wednesday and promised to make no changes to his policies. It’s hard to improve on perfection — even though his party probably lost control of the House of Representatives and may lose the Senate. While some commentators hail the results as a reaffirmation of “constitutionalism,” almost all the politicians who trampled the Constitution got re-elected. Gov....

Biden Goes Begging for Saudi Barrels

by Jim Bovard | Nov 7, 2022 | Featured Articles, Foreign Policy

Why don’t you talk about something that matters?” President Biden replied to a journalist asking about why he fist-bumped Saudi dictator Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) during his “begging for barrels” trip to the Middle East in July. Biden hoped the Saudis would rescue his presidency by pumping more oil in order to lower American gasoline prices and prevent the demolition of the Democratic Party in the mid-term elections. On the eve of Biden’s “begging for barrels” tour, federal data confirmed the wreckage of his economic policies. The inflation rate soared to 9.1%, much worse than forecast....

Biden, Our Boneheaded Chip Czar

by Jim Bovard | Nov 2, 2022 | Economics, Featured Articles

Jubilation erupted in Washington this summer as politicians lurched towards commandeering a key swath of the American economy. Congress passed Biden-backed legislation known as the Chip Act to spend $52 billion subsidizing semiconductor production. A Washington Post headline hailed “a big month for Bidenomics” and another headline celebrated “Biden’s hot streak.” The Chip Act’s passage sparked a volcanic eruption of economic illiteracy from the media and top politicians. Washington Post columnist E.J. Dionne proclaimed, “The chips bill means the Era of Hands-Off Government is over.” Sen....

The Mirage of Washington Intelligence

by Jim Bovard | Oct 24, 2022 | Featured Articles, Politics

“You can send a man to Congress but you can’t make him think,” quipped comedian Milton Berle in the 1950s. To update Berle for our times: You can spend $60 billion a year on intelligence agencies but you can’t make politicians read their reports. Instead, most politicians remain incorrigibly ignorant and hopelessly craven when presidents drag America into new foreign fiascos. Congressional docility has been paving the way to war since at least the Vietnam era. In 1964, President Lyndon Johnson invoked an alleged North Vietnamese attack on a U.S. destroyer in the Gulf of Tonkin to ram a...

Joe Biden’s COVID Dictatorship Will Never End

by Jim Bovard | Oct 18, 2022 | Featured Articles

The Biden administration formally decreed last week that America’s COVID “emergency” continues. That proclamation was tricky to reconcile with President Biden’s announcement last month on 60 Minutes: “The pandemic is over.” Apparently, that was malarkey—perhaps part of the Democratic messaging for the midterm congressional elections. Americans have officially been living under a state of COVID emergency since President Trump issued the first declaration in early 2020. The latest extension of came via a bureaucratic form letter posted online: “As a result of the continued consequences of the...

On the Ground at DC’s Pro-Assange Protest

by Jim Bovard | Oct 10, 2022 | Criminal Justice, Featured Articles, Foreign Policy

On Saturday, protests supporting freedom for Julian Assange erupted around the world. In London, 7,000 protestors linked hands to surround the Parliament building, demanding that the United Kingdom not extradite Assange to the United States for a show trial. Protests also occurred in several American cities, including Denver, Colorado, where Kyle Anzalone, the Libertarian Institute’s news editor, spoke. A protest also occurred on a corner of the block housing Justice Department headquarters in downtown Washington DC. The event commenced with attendees carrying a long yellow “Free Assange”...

Don’t Let Biden’s Attempted Vaccine Mandate Fall Down the Memory Hole

by Jim Bovard | Oct 5, 2022 | Featured Articles

If you pick up a COVID infection during your next visit to a hospital or medical office, maybe send a thank-you card to President Biden. His COVID vaccine mandate was one of the most perverse public-health edicts in modern times. Vaccination status went from being a proxy for health to being a substitute for sane healthcare policy. Last September, Biden announced that he was mandating COVID vaccines for all 10 million healthcare workers in America—as well as for any American working for a company employing more than a hundred people. In a televised evening speech, he announced, “My job as...

Stop Trying to Rebrand Slavery

by Jim Bovard | Sep 27, 2022 | Featured Articles

When did slavery become so chic? From The New York Times to the Aspen Institute to a bevy of failed generals and weaselly ex-diplomats, the caterwauling for mandatory national service is rising. After decades in which political betrayals and federal failures destroyed almost all public trust in the government, our ruling class believes that compelling all young people to sacrifice a year or two of their lives will restore faith in the system. I have been whacking proposals for mandatory service for 25 years. In 1997, President Bill Clinton announced at a so-called “Volunteerism Summit” that...

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