Jim Bovard | The Libertarian Institute

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...

Joe Biden is Manipulating Hate

by Jim Bovard | Sep 15, 2022 | Featured Articles, Politics

Fresh from denouncing Republicans as “semi-fascists” and “violent extremists,” President Joe Biden will host a White House “United We Stand” summit Thursday: Our president will assure Americans (or at least the media) that he is totally opposed to hate notwithstanding any sentences that recently scrolled across his teleprompter. Hatred is simply another issue conscripted for a desperate Democratic “Get out the vote” drive. For Team Biden, “hate” is a flag of political convenience. In announcing the summit, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre stretched back a decade to list a...

Biden’s New War on Extremism (and Liberty)

by Jim Bovard | Sep 7, 2022 | Featured Articles, Politics

President Joe Biden believes that hysterical denunciations of extremism will save the Democratic Party in the upcoming congressional midterms. Despite media portrayals of Biden as a good-natured moderate, the president has relied on sweeping castigations of opposition throughout his political career. Worse, Biden’s rhetoric on extremism could signal an attack on any limits on presidential power. Last Thursday in Philadelphia, Joe Biden overheated in a primetime speech with a backdrop seemingly inspired by a mix of the movie “V for Vendetta” and Nazi filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl. The harsh red...

Presidential Record Racketeering

by Jim Bovard | Aug 30, 2022 | Featured Articles

Former President Donald Trump is supposedly one of the biggest scoundrels in American history for allegedly retaining documents from his presidency at his Mar-a-Lago home. Trump denies wrongdoing but the Justice Department is targeting him for violating the Espionage Act and other laws. DOJ is refusing to reveal the affidavit and the specific charges that the feds claimed justified a massive, heavily-armed raid on Trump’s Florida base. Much of the media commentary on the raid castigates Trump for conspiring to block Americans’ access to official records. But the federal government has done...

The FBI Was Always This Bad; Ruby Ridge Turns 30

by Jim Bovard | Aug 24, 2022 | Criminal Justice, Featured Articles

In the wake of the massive raid at Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home, politicians and pundits are hectoring Americans to blindly trust the FBI. “The men and women of the FBI,” Attorney General Merrick Garland proclaimed, “are dedicated, patriotic public servants.” But the FBI would be more credible if it didn’t claim a right to secretly wield almost unlimited power. Most Americans (53%) view the FBI as “Joe Biden‘s personal Gestapo,” a recent Rasmussen poll found. FBI actions 30 years ago at Ruby Ridge help explain the G-men’s fall from grace. Randy Weaver and his family lived in an isolated...

Did the FBI Win Joe Biden the 2020 Election?

by Jim Bovard | Aug 11, 2022 | Criminal Justice, Featured Articles, Politics

Joe Biden won the 2020 election as a result of 43,000 votes in three states. The election was far closer than the media has usually admitted. There were plenty of dubious factors that could have tipped the scales for a Biden victory, including machinations by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The Long History of FBI Abuse Though the media usually portray the FBI as the ultimate good guys, the bureau has long history of intervening in presidential elections. Shortly after taking office after Franklin Roosevelt’s death, President Harry Truman commented in his diary: “We want no Gestapo or...