Jim Bovard | The Libertarian Institute

Biden’s New Budget Busting Bill

by Jim Bovard | Aug 3, 2021 | Economics, Featured Articles, Politics

Since the 1800s, surly Americans have derided politicians for spending tax dollars “like drunken sailors.” Until recently, that was considered a grave character fault. But Joe Biden’s American Rescue Plan Act shows that inebriated spending is now the path to national salvation. It was a common saying in America in the 1930s that “we cannot squander our way to prosperity.” But that was before the latest “best and brightest” crop took the helm of the federal government. The Rescue Act is based on blind faith in government spending—the revival of the “Magic Bean School of Political Economy.”...

America’s Gubernatorial Dictatorships

by Jim Bovard | Jul 15, 2021 | Featured Articles, Politics

There are no fact-checkers for victory laps. Last week, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo summarized his experience with the COVID-19 crisis: “Speaking for myself, it was a tremendous personal benefit.” Cuomo made that declaration in a speech concluding his one-year chairmanship of the National Governors Association. Because Cuomo’s spiel sought to rewrite history to exonerate politicians who ravaged Americans’ rights and liberties, it requires a rebuttal. Cuomo declared that “we maximized the moment as governors. Governors have a new credibility. Governors have a new status.” Cuomo epitomized...

National Service and the State’s Condemnation of Youthful Independence

by Jim Bovard | Jul 9, 2021 | Featured Articles, Libertarianism

"Beatings will continue until morale improves” has morphed from an old joke to the latest prescription for national salvation. “Compulsory National Service Could Unite America,” whooped a New York Times Op-ed headline last week. Prominent media outlets, think tanks, and too many professors and former generals are calling for government to commandeer a year of young Americans’ lives to forcibly restore their faith in the political system. Rep. John Delaney made a one-year mandatory service requirement for every 18-year-old a keystone of his Democratic presidential campaign. Last year, the...

The NSA Is Spying on Tucker Carlson (and Everyone Else)

by Jim Bovard | Jul 2, 2021 | Featured Articles

Fox News host Tucker Carlson was mocked on social media this week for stating that he had been told that the National Security Agency was reading his private emails and spying on him. The usual suspects called Carlson paranoid, because there are so many checks and balances to assure the feds would never illegally target a vexatious Biden critic. However, on Tuesday, a dissent by Travis LeBlanc, a member of the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board, revealed that one of the NSA’s most intrusive surveillance engines, XKeyscore, may be violating federal law and Americans’ rights and...

How the Biden White House Seeks to Reinvent ‘Domestic Terrorism’

by Jim Bovard | Jun 28, 2021 | Criminal Justice, Featured Articles

The Biden administration revealed on Tuesday that guys who can’t get laid may be terrorist threats due to “involuntary celibate–violent extremism.” That revelation is part of a new crackdown that identifies legions of potential “domestic terrorists” that the feds can castigate and investigate. But there is no reason to expect Biden administration anti-terrorism and anti-extremism efforts to be less of a farce and menace than similar post-9/11 campaigns. Since the French Revolution, politicians have defined terrorism to stigmatize their opponents, a precedent followed by the Biden...

How the American War on Drugs Demolished Guatemala

by Jim Bovard | Jun 9, 2021 | Featured Articles, Foreign Policy

Vice President Kamala Harris visited Guatemala earlier this week to bestow millions of dollars in new foreign aid on that government. The Biden administration is pretending that giving more US tax dollars to Central American governments will miraculously reduce the surge of illegal immigrants that Biden’s appointees are welcoming in Arizona, Texas, and elsewhere. The purpose of Harris’s trip and the new handouts is not to solve that problem but simply to make the Biden administration appear to give a damn about the issue. In her official statements during the visit, Harris included no...

How the Corporate Press Pushes War

by Jim Bovard | Jun 9, 2021 | Featured Articles, Foreign Policy

Fifty years ago, the New York Times began publishing excerpts from a massive secret report called the “History of U.S. Decision-Making Process on Vietnam Policy.” Those excerpts, which quickly became known as the “Pentagon Papers,” provided shocking revelations of perennial government deceit and spurred an epic clash over the First Amendment. Unfortunately, many of the media outlets that will celebrate the Pentagon Papers anniversary have long since become lap dogs of perfidious politicians dragging America into new foreign conflicts. The report that became the Pentagon Papers was a secret...

Memorial Day: Remember Political Lies that Caused Soldiers to Die

by Jim Bovard | Jun 1, 2021 | Featured Articles, Foreign Policy

This article was originally published at the Institute last year on Memorial Day and is reprinted below. On Memorial Day, the media do their usual sacralizing of war. Instead, it should be a day for the ritualized scourging of politicians. During the last 70 years, their lies have resulted in the unnecessary deaths of almost 100,000 American soldiers and millions of foreigners. And yet, people still get teary-eyed when politicians take the stage to talk about their devotion to the troops. On Memorial Day 2011, for instance, the Washington Post included numerous touching photographs of...