Blog
Happy Birthday Ron Paul!
Watch the greatest film about the great Ron Paul Revolution!
For Liberty!
We Would All Be So Much Safer If We Abolish All Government ‘Security Forces’ Immediately
You want security? Pay for it.
Government cops just means dog murderers on the loose everywhere.
And who’s going to protect your family from them?
Why Americans Want A President Who Ends Endless Wars
It looks like the Corporate Democrats haven’t gotten the message based on their highly visible parading of Bush Republicans and neocons at the DNC virtual convention.
At The National Interest:
Why Americans Want a President Who Ends Endless Wars
A new poll shows that the U.S. public supports a more realist foreign policy and wants its leaders to focus more on pressing domestic needs than overseas projects.
The United States has been an active military player around the globe since the end of the Cold War. It has fought bloody and expensive wars in Iraq and Afghanistan while also conducting significant military operations in the Balkans, Libya, Syria, and other hot spots in the Middle East and North Africa.
The election of Donald Trump and the significant support garnered by Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren in the Democrat primary suggests that Americans have become weary of this heavy burden. These elected officials prominently called for new thinking about America’s role in the world and benefited from it.
A new YouGov poll commissioned by the Charles Koch Institute provides further evidence that the American public supports a more realist foreign policy and wants its leaders to focus more on pressing domestic needs than overseas projects. YouGov interviewed two thousand people from July 24–27, 2020, and compiled the poll data based on their responses. Given how polarized the country is on so many other issues, it is particularly striking how unified Americans are in ending our endless wars in the Middle East and avoiding greater military entanglement in conflicts overseas.
Focus on Challenges at Home
Americans regardless of party want their leaders to focus their attention on the home front rather than abroad. Overall, 75 percent of Americans agreed with the statement, “The United States should prioritize domestic issues over foreign policy issues” while only 6 percent want the United States to prioritize foreign policy issues over domestic issues. A whopping 82 percent of Republicans agreed with the first statement and only 4 percent of those who identified with the GOP wanted to prioritize foreign policy issues. The split amongst Democrats was only slightly less skewed, at 75 percent versus 6 percent.
When it comes to the issue of U.S. military engagement in conflicts around the world, Americans again tended to favor greater caution. Nearly half—48 percent—believe the United States should be less militarily engaged in conflicts around the world with only 7 percent wanting more military engagement. There appears to be little stomach for continuing military adventurism.
Ending Endless Wars
America’s realist turn is especially notable in how the public is thinking about our long-standing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. About 74 percent of Americans support bringing U.S. troops home from Iraq with only 11 percent opposing such a move. Support for military withdrawal from Afghanistan is even higher, with 76 percent of Americans favoring bringing U.S. troops home from Afghanistan and only 10 percent opposing withdrawal. Nearly half of Americans “strongly support” withdrawing troops from that country, suggesting that President Trump and Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad have the political winds at their back in their efforts to end this endless war.
In the face of increased polarization and so many 50/50 splits in the electorate, it is noteworthy that support for withdrawal from Afghanistan has substantially increased over the last two years. In March of 2018, 50 percent of Americans supported decreasing (26 percent) or fully removing (24 percent) U.S. troops from Afghanistan with 16 percent favoring an increase and 19% supporting maintaining the same number of troops. By the beginning of 2019, 51 percent of Americans continued to say they would support the decision to remove U.S. troops from Afghanistan within the year with only 22 percent responding that they would oppose this decision and 27 percent unsure. By January of 2020, 69 percent of Americans supported bringing U.S. troops home from Afghanistan compared to 14 percent opposed. Today, as noted above, the number of Americans who favor bringing U.S. troops home from Afghanistan stands at 76 percent. Although the questions had slightly different framing, the answers show the same trend—support for withdrawal from Afghanistan has consistently risen.
Totalitarian Police State
Reason: When Teachers Call the Cops on Parents Whose Kids Skip Their Zoom Classes
If there’s one thing the public school system shouldn’t be doing right now, it’s making life even more hellishly difficult for parents. And yet many teachers in the state of Massachusetts are contacting the authorities to report parents for suspected child abuse when kids fail to show up for Zoom classes.
“Massachusetts school officials have reported dozens of families to state social workers for possible neglect charges because of issues related to their children’s participation in remote learning classes during the pandemic shutdown in the spring,” The Boston Globe reported on Saturday.
The infuriating article is worth reading in full. The Globe spoke with several parents who have received calls and visits from the state Department of Children and Families (DCF). The department has the power to remove children from their homes and place them in foster care if agents suspect that kids are being mistreated, abused, or neglected—and DCF considers distance-learning no-shows to be possible abuse cases. DCF lists numerous circumstances in which teachers should feel obliged to call the cops, among them kids appearing tired or hungry during Zoom sessions.
How could people put their children in government schools? Are you crazy?
How long before it’s a felony to turn your telescreen off?
More Afghan Bounties Garbage
They admit they have no proof right in the big scary headlines:
US intelligence indicates Iran paid bounties to Taliban for targeting American troops in Afghanistan
Iran paid bounties for targeting US troops, intelligence reportedly suggests
Since when do the Haqqanis need Iranian money to kill Americans?
Jason Ditz mocks their lies here.
Obey The Law!
There is a saying amongst liberty minded people:
“There is no law so small that the police won’t kill you for.”
The meme above pictures the “arrest” of Eric Garner. He was standing in front of a Staten Island convenience store when NYPD officers walked up and accused him of selling “loose” (individual) cigarettes from packs that DID NOT HAVE A TAX STAMP.
Garner said he wasn’t selling “loosies” and told the police he was tired of being harassed. One officer responded by attempting to put Garner’s hand behind his back and cuff him to which Garner responded by pulling away. The officer then put Garner into a choke hold. Due to the choke hold and other tactics used by police Garner died. You can read the conclusions online. No officer suffered discipline. The autopsy is clear that the police broke “their own rules.”
You read that right, Eric Garner was put to death for suspicion of breaking the tax code. People like to say that the worst that can happen to you when you don’t pay taxes is jail time. It appears that some jurisdictions take their theft a little more seriously.
You Can Check-Out Anytime You Like, But You Can Never Leave
New California wealth tax proposal raises taxes on total net worth of wealthy California residences. But, what if they decide to leave the State? No problem.
Economic impacts: Will ultra-wealthy CA residents leave the state? As mentioned above, the California share of all US millionaires and billionaires has increased over the last decade in spite of the 2012 high income surtax. Therefore, we are still far from a tipping point. The wealth tax bill is also structured in such a way CA wealthy residents who leave still have to pay the extreme wealth tax on a fraction of their wealth for up to 10 years: they pay tax on 90% of their wealth the year after they leave, on 80% 2 years after they’ve left, .. , on 10% 9 years after they’ve left, 0% 10 years or more after they’ve left. The logic is that wealth is the fortune you built over a lifetime and hence a wealth tax requires looking beyond the current year. This makes the wealth tax much harder to avoid than the income tax (where you are no longer liable after leaving the state).
Podcasts
