On COI #193 Kyle Anzalone discusses several examples of American police abusing, even killing, citizens and covering up the crimes. Police rarely face criminal charges – or any consequences – for misconduct on the clock. However, with growing scrutiny of the broken criminal justice system, some officers have faced accountability. Kyle breaks down the acquittal of Andrew Coffee IV and how it compares with the Kyle Rittenhouse trial. While other men were acquitted on the grounds of self-defense, the cases are very different. Coffee was charged for murdering his girlfriend, who was actually...
Philippines
News Roundup 11/24/21
Covid Los Angeles is preparing to bar students who are over 12 and have not taken at least one dose of a covid vaccine. [Link] An emergency room in Long Island was closed due to staffing shortages from the covid vaccine mandate. [Link] Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker orders some hospitals to cancel nonessential surgeries due to staffing shortages. [Link] The Biden administration says 90% of the federal workforce has at least one covid vaccination. About five percent of employees are seeking an exemption. About 175,000 employees are not potentially facing disciplinary action for being...
News Roundup 11/19/21
US News The FDA is expected to give emergency approval for Moderna and Pfizer boosters for all Americans over 18. [Link] The Army will no longer allow soldiers who are unvaccinated - and do not have a waiver - to reenlist or receive a promotion. [Link] The Marines say 91% of the branch's soldiers are fully vaccinated and 94% have at least one vaccine. The branch’s head says it will address the over 16,000 unvaccinated on a case by case basis. [Link] The 2022 NDAA includes a boost in funding to African militaries. [Link] Criminal Justice Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt commutes Julius...
Foreign Actors Behind the Revolutionary Curtain
Libertarians are quick to support revolutions, especially the American Revolution, as popular uprisings against a tyrannical regime. It is a narrative that allows one to believe that certain political movements are on the “right side of history." They are often rare and can be appropriate responses to improper behavior by the state, but make no mistake, revolutions are not “popular." Revolutions do not just occur anytime a state behaves in a tyrannical or authoritarian way towards its populace. If this was the case, revolts would be happening essentially every day. Plenty of authoritarian...
News Roundup 9/24/21
Foreign Policy The House passed its version of the 2022 NDAA totaling over $750 billion for the Pentagon. Several amendments were offered yesterday that would have restrained the president’s war-making ability. Only one, a provision that will end US support to Saudi’s War in Yemen, made it into the House bill. The Senate is expected to pass a version that includes an additional $25 billion in spending. [Link] The Washington Post reports from unnamed sources the head of the CIA in Vienna was removed from his post for not taking ‘Havana Syndrome' seriously enough. [Link] The leader of...
News Roundup 9/13/21
US News Two FDA regulators resigned their post over Biden’s plan for covid vaccine booster shots. [Link] The Surgeon General wants Biden to monitor for abuses of vaccine exemptions. [Link] Biden is releasing $25 billion in bailout money to healthcare providers. [Link] Six Capitol police officers will be punished for their actions on Jan 6th. [Link] China The Philippines warns it will not comply with a new Chinese law that requires all ships entering Chinese claimed waters to identify themselves. The Philippines and China have competing claims in the South China Sea. [Link] Afghanistan ...
The War in Afghanistan Should Make You Reconsider Military Enlistment
Though the war in Afghanistan is over, its grim history is filled with hard truths about what it really means to serve in the American military. Those truths are particularly relevant to anyone contemplating enlistment or commissioning in the armed forces. With that in mind, here’s a warning label informed by the grim lessons of Operation Enduring Freedom—the failed and futile 20-year war in Afghanistan. You Could Lose Your Life Or Limbs In a War That Accomplishes Nothing After 9/11, the U.S. government was right to lash out at Al Qaeda in Afghanistan. However, that mission was largely...
It’s Time to Bring Our Troops Home
“Let us resolve that never again will we send the precious young blood of this country to die trying to prop up a corrupt military dictatorship abroad. This is also the time to turn away from excessive preoccupation overseas to the rebuilding of our own nation. America must be restored to a proper role in the world. But we can do that only through the recovery of confidence in ourselves…together we will call America home to the ideals that nourished us from the beginning.”—George S. McGovern, former Senator and presidential candidate It’s time to bring all our troops home. Bring them home...
The Phony Threat of Chinese Dominance
While the US has its problems, future global Chinese supremacy won’t be one. Far from being in a position of overwhelming strength, China and its Communist leadership face imminent multifront domestic crises that will threaten the existence not only of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) but the existence of the Chinese state as a unified whole. Further, there are several insurmountable obstacles to it seriously disturbing core US interests or expanding its influence much beyond its own coasts before this happens. First, China’s geography is terrible if projecting power is a state aim....
Next on the Agenda: War With China
In 2014, Lew Rockwell wrote, “Clearly the empire is targeting China...The U.S. seeks to encircle China and make it bow down before the hegemon. The increasing prosperity and freedom of China threatens the empire’s self-image.” America’s new Cold War with China is a bi-partisan imperial project. In 2011, former President Barack Obama began it in earnest, dubbing it the “Asia Pivot.” The ‘pivot’ entails surrounding China with hundreds of bases and shifting two thirds of all U.S. naval and air forces to the Asia-Pacific, the greatest military buildup since World War II. Putative outsider...