Jim Bovard | The Libertarian Institute

The Old Patriot Act Didn’t Work, and Neither Will the New One

by Jim Bovard | Mar 8, 2021 | Criminal Justice, Featured Articles

President Biden, congressional Democrats, and much of the media are clamoring for a new law against domestic terrorism. Before enacting a new law, Americans should recognize how “terrorism” has spurred deluges of political and prosecutorial malarkey for almost 20 years. Any new crackdown on terrorism will turn into a numbers game in which justice and fair play don’t have a snowball’s chance in hell. In the six weeks after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, the feds rounded up 1,200 people as suspected terrorists or terrorist supporters in the United States. All that was necessary for an Arab...

Afghanistan’s Victory Over the United States

by Jim Bovard | Mar 1, 2021 | Featured Articles, Politics

Acrimony and recriminations continue to swirl around the 2020 presidential election. Three out of four Republicans believe that there was “widespread fraud” in the election, while Democrats have sought to turn criticisms of the election into a “Big Lie” heresy against democracy. Senior congressional Democrats are pressuring the nation’s largest cable providers to cease carrying conservative networks such as Fox News that raised too many questions about Biden’s victory. What could possibly go wrong with sweeping the 2020 election controversies under the rug? Clues can be found in a recent...

Another Bogus Impeachment

by Jim Bovard | Feb 22, 2021 | Featured Articles, Politics

The Senate impeachment trial of former president Donald Trump confirms historian Henry Adams's adage a century ago that politics “has always been the systematic organization of hatreds.” The impeachment process was a farce that should fortify Americans’ disdain for Washington. Considering how Democrats are using the January 6 clash at the Capitol to justify enacting a new domestic terrorism law, Americans need to recognize the frauds that permeated this process from the start. At last week’s trial, House impeachment manager Jaime Raskin (D-MD) boasted to the Senate, “I think we have done an...

Nancy Pelosi’s Disastrous Idea To Have a ‘9/11 Commission’ About the Capitol Attack

by Jim Bovard | Feb 18, 2021 | Featured Articles, Politics

Many members of Congress remain outraged at the Trump protestors who charged into the Capitol on January 6. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi recently declared, “We must get to the truth of how this happened…Our next step will be to establish an outside, independent 9/11-type Commission to investigate and report on the facts and causes.” But another pious fraud from the political establishment is the last thing that America needs right now. The 9/11 Commission should be a warning that Washington dignitaries are the last people we should trust to expose the truth. After the 9/11 attacks, a joint...

The Military Occupation of Washington DC is a Ticking Time Bomb

by Jim Bovard | Feb 13, 2021 | Featured Articles, Politics

“Tyranny in form is the first step towards tyranny in substance,” warned Senator John Taylor two hundred years ago in his forgotten classic, Tyranny Unmasked. As the massive National Guard troop deployment in Washington enters its second month, much of the media and many members of Congress are thrilled that it will extend until at least mid-March. But Americans would be wise to recognize the growing perils of the militarization of American political disputes. The military occupation of Washington was prompted by the January 6 clashes at the Capitol between Trump supporters and law...

New Report Obscures Killing of Duncan Lemp

by Jim Bovard | Feb 3, 2021 | Criminal Justice, Featured Articles

One of the most positive developments from last year's political strife was a stronger focus on police abuses and no-knock raids. Some states and cities have imposed new restrictions, others are working toward greater transparency when it comes to police shootings. Unfortunately, Maryland, a state that has wrestled with some of the most egregious SWAT and no-knock cases in the country, remains mired in controversy. The state has a long record of SWAT debacles. After police wrongfully raided a mayor’s house and killed his dogs in 2008, Maryland required police to report every SWAT raid....

Testing Positive for COVID-Bootlicking

by Jim Bovard | Jan 26, 2021 | Featured Articles

The COVID pandemic has shown how easy it is to make people hate anyone who is not as frightened as themselves. Since last March, politicians and health officials have fanned fears to commandeer far more control over Americans’ daily lives. And millions of Americans have been happy to condemn any violators of the endlessly changing rules. After the start of the COVID pandemic, my local Harris Teeter grocery store in Montgomery County, Maryland voluntarily made extensive changes to safeguard its employees and customers. But one panicky customer wailed to the local health department that he...

Congress Prepares to Excommunicate Millions of Americans

by Jim Bovard | Jan 18, 2021 | Featured Articles, Politics

"Have you now or have you ever been a member of the Communist Party?” was the question used in congressional hearings in the 1950s in what was portrayed as a witch hunt against leftists that blighted American freedom of speech. A new witch hunt is sweeping Washington, Silicon Valley, and much of the media based on the following question: “Do you currently have any doubts or have you ever written or said anything disparaging the vote counts of the 2020 presidential election?” Anyone who questions the final vote of that election is now literally being derided as a traitor. Regardless of 65...