Category: Current Events

Liberty Watch Episode 20: Liberal Media Bias on Display

The following is the outline text version of my YouTube video which can be viewed by clicking here:  https://youtu.be/8k0JGczKoxk

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Liberal Media Bias- Again

Samantha Bee flies but Roseanne dies

Shows media and corporate double standard

Rosanne Barr

Makes racist remark on twitter
Described former obama adviser valerie jarrett as the product of what would happen if  “the muslim brotherhood and the planet of the apes had a baby.”
Quickly apologizes

“I apologize to Valerie Jarrett and to all Americans. I am truly sorry for making a bad joke about her politics and her looks. I should have known better. Forgive me-my joke was in bad taste.”

gets fired anyway

Samantha Bee

Makes vile remark about Ivanka Trump
Uses the “c” word
makes a fake apology

“I would like to sincerely apologize to Ivanka Trump and to my viewers for using an expletive on my show to describe her last night,” Bee wrote. “It was inappropriate and inexcusable. I crossed a line, and I deeply regret it.”

Bees remark came one day after Roseanne Barr was fired for her offensive tweet.

backtracks on apology during tv academy awards broadcast

“Our piece attracted controversy of the worst kind,” Bee said of the segment about the Trump administration’s immigration and border policies that ended with her calling Ivanka Trump a “feckless cunt” who needed to “do something about [her] dad’s immigration practices.”

 

“We spent the day wrestling with the repercussions of one bad word, when we all should have spent the day incensed that as a nation we are wrenching children from their parents and treating people legally seeking asylum as criminals,” Bee added. “If we are OK with that then really, who are we?”

former comedy central host jon stewart comes to her defense

“I’m going to tell you something about Sam Bee, because I’ve known her for a very long time. You could not find a kinder, smarter, more lovely individual than Samantha Bee. Trust me, if she called someone a cunt…” Steward said, according to the Daily Beast, with a silence allowing the audience to finish his thought.

actress Minnie Driver

Academy Award-nominated actress Minnie Driver said Thursday that Ivanka Trump does not possess the intelligence or personality to be described as a “c*nt,” the profane term used by comedian Samantha Bee.

“That was the wrong word for Samantha Bee to have used,” Driver wrote on Twitter. “But mostly because ( to paraphrase the French ) Ivanka has neither the warmth nor the depth.”

keeps her job

Libertarian perspective

ABC should be able to fire Roseanne Barr

TBS should be able to retain Samantha Bee

If you are offended they did nothing, stop watching the show
Consumers can vote with their feet

Teachers Strike

Several states from West Virginia to Arizona

Asking for more pay and school funding

LMV Perspective

Education should be privately funded

Public schools are a monopoly

Home schooling or private school parents have to pay twice

“Too important to leave to the market”

Food more essential than education
tremendous variety provided by the market

No competition decreases quality

How much to pay teachers?

An example of the mises’ calculation problem
Problem solved by a free market

Teachers compensation underestimated by media

From the fee.org article entitled “How Media Outlets Misinform the Public about Teacher Pay.”

…During recent teacher walkouts in Oklahoma that captured national attention, many major media outlets reported misleadingly small figures for teacher pay. By failing to reveal all aspects of teacher compensation, these outlets hid the true costs to taxpayers—which now amount to an annualized average of about $120,000 for every public school teacher in the United States.

…CNN, for example, published an article by Bill Weir claiming that in “most districts” of Oklahoma, “a teacher with a doctorate degree and 30 years’ experience will never make more than $50,000 a year.” That claim, which CNN neglected to document, is at odds with comprehensive data from the U.S. Department of Education and the U.S. Department of Labor. This information for Oklahoma and the entire nation follows.

 

…For the 2016–17 school year, the Department of Education reports that the average salary of full-time public school teachers was $58,950 in the U.S. and $45,245 in Oklahoma. Those figures generally exclude benefits, such as health insurance, paid leave, and pensions.

…According to the Department of Labor, benefits comprise an average of 33 percent of compensation for public school teachers. Including benefits, teachers’ average annual compensation jumps to $87,854 in the U.S. and about $67,429 in Oklahoma. This excludes unfunded pension liabilities and certain post-employment benefits like health insurance.

…That, however, still doesn’t tell the complete story because full-time private industry employees work an average of 37 percent more hours per year than full-time public school teachers. This includes the time that teachers spend for lesson preparation, test construction and grading, providing extra help to students, coaching, and other activities.

…Accounting for the disparity between the annual work hours of full-time public school teachers and full-time private industry workers, the average annualized cost of employing teachers in the 2016–17 school year was $120,578 per teacher in the U.S. and about $92,545 in Oklahoma.

…There is yet more to this picture because the costs of living vary between states. Adjusted for this, the average annualized immediate compensation of Oklahoma teachers in 2016–17 was about $102,943, or roughly twice what CNN says “a teacher with a doctorate degree and 30 years’ experience will never make” in “most districts” of Oklahoma.

Partial end to Federal marijuana ban?

Trump said probably would support Sen. Cory Gardner(R-CO) bill

Would end Federal prohibition in states that have passed laws already

Gardner had earlier threatened to hold up Trump’s DOJ appointments

Trump quote

“I support Sen. Gardner,” the president said before departing for the G-7 summit in Canada, as quoted by the Los Angeles Times. “I know exactly what he’s doing. We’re looking at it. But I probably will end up supporting that, yes.”

LMV opposition to Federal ban

Violates personal sovereignty

Smoking weed does not violate the non-aggression principle

Not a power delegated to Congress under article one section eight of the U.S. Constitution

Violates states’ rights

States can have a ban provided it does not violate their state constitution

GOP not a small government party

From the reason.com article entitled “Stop Calling the GOP the Party of Small Government.”

There was a time when GOP lawmakers called for the elimination of entire federal agencies. Today, milquetoast promises to pursue smaller government are followed by votes for ever bigger government.

As Milton Friedman noted, the true size of the state is measured by how much money it spends. Budget data show that all modern presidents, regardless of party affiliation, have increased the federal fiscal footprint—but Republican administrations have generally increased the amount spent at a faster rate than Democratic ones.

Under George W. Bush, who was elected on a platform of fiscal restraint, total federal spending increased in real terms by 53 percent. Enabled and encouraged by a Republican-led Congress, his administration adopted the politically self-serving notion that “deficits don’t matter.” No Child Left Behind, Medicare Part D, and bank bailouts serve as a vivid reminder that shrinking the state doesn’t stand a chance.

The only way to decrease the spending?

Cut the purse strings

End coercive taxation

LMV solution:  Constitutional amendment to make all taxation voluntary

Liberty Watch Episode 19: Sports Gambling Legalized

The following is the outline text version of my YouTube video which can be viewed by clicking here:  https://youtu.be/UubIS1N8Xl8

You can subscribe to my YouTube channel by clicking here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCIb4k41f3A1lftMXivcvj5g.

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Sports Gambling Legalized?

The libertarian perspective on issue

Does not violate the non-aggression principle

No one takes your stuff without your consent

No one beats you up

Who gets to choose if you gamble on sports?

You

Someone else

The supreme court’s view

Justice Alito writes majority 6-3 opinion

PASPA ruled unconstitutional for wrong reason

The Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act

 

The Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act (PASPA) makes it

unlawful for a State or its subdivisions “to sponsor, operate, advertise,

promote, license, or authorize by law or compact . . . a lottery,

sweepstakes, or other betting, gambling, or wagering scheme based

. . . on” competitive sporting events, 28 U. S. C. §3702(1), and for “a

person to sponsor, operate, advertise, or promote” those same gambling

schemes if done “pursuant to the law or compact of a governmental

entity,”

 

And the Constitution indirectly restricts the

States by granting certain legislative powers to Congress,

see Art. I, §8, while providing in the

 

Supremacy Clause

that federal law is the “supreme Law of the Land . . . any

Thing in the Constitution or Laws of any State to the

Contrary notwithstanding,” Art. VI, cl. 2. This means that

when federal and state law conflict, federal law prevails

and state law is preempted.

[Actual text of the article VI clause 2 supremacy clause:

This Constitution, and the laws of the United States which shall be made in pursuance thereof; and all treaties made, or which shall be made, under the authority of the United States, shall be the supreme law of the land; and the judges in every state shall be bound thereby, anything in the Constitution or laws of any State to the contrary notwithstanding.]

[Laws passed that are unconstitutional are not the “supreme law of the land.”  Reductio ad absurdum.  Congress passes law that says you must kill your firstborn child.]

 

The legislative powers granted to Congress are sizable[see Madison contradicting statement],

but they are not unlimited. The Constitution confers[should be delegates] on

Congress not plenary legislative power but only certain

enumerated powers. Therefore, all other legislative power is reserved for the States, as the Tenth Amendment confirms.  And conspicuously absent from the list of powers given to Congress is the power to issue direct orders to the governments of the States.[How about the power to prohibit gambling not in article 1 section 8?]

 

…The PASPA provision at issue here—prohibiting state

authorization of sports gambling—violates the anticommandeering

rule.

…It is as if federal officers were installed in state legislative

chambers and were armed with the authority to stop

legislators from voting on any offending proposals. A more

direct affront to state sovereignty is not easy to imagine.

…Congress can regulate sports gambling directly but if it elects not to do so each state is free to act on its own.[Again, no authority in article 1 section 8 to regulate sports gambling]

Article 1 Section 8 of the U.S. Constitution

Does not authorize much of what Congress has done

Social security

Providing health insurance

Involvement in education

Prohibition of alcohol and drugs

18th amendment established alcohol prohibition
21st amendment repealed the eighteenth amendment

Prohibition of gambling

The text

The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defence and general Welfare of the United States; but all Duties, Imposts and Excises shall be uniform throughout the United States;

 

To borrow money on the credit of the United States;

To regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian Tribes;

 

To establish an uniform Rule of Naturalization, and uniform Laws on the subject of Bankruptcies throughout the United States;

 

To coin Money, regulate the Value thereof, and of foreign Coin, and fix the Standard of Weights and Measures;

 

To provide for the Punishment of counterfeiting the Securities and current Coin of the United States;

 

To establish Post Offices and Post Roads;

 

To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries;

 

To constitute Tribunals inferior to the supreme Court;

 

To define and punish Piracies and Felonies committed on the high Seas, and Offenses against the Law of Nations;

 

To declare War, grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal, and make Rules concerning Captures on Land and Water;

 

To raise and support Armies, but no Appropriation of Money to that Use shall be for a longer Term than two Years;

 

To provide and maintain a Navy;

 

To make Rules for the Government and Regulation of the land and naval Forces;

 

To provide for calling forth the Militia to execute the Laws of the Union, suppress Insurrections and repel Invasions;

 

To provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining, the Militia, and for governing such Part of them as may be employed in the Service of the United States, reserving to the States respectively, the Appointment of the Officers, and the Authority of training the Militia according to the discipline prescribed by Congress;

To make all Laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into Execution the foregoing Powers, and all other Powers vested by this Constitution in the Government of the United States, or in any Department or Officer thereof.

Comments by the Founding Fathers

Federalist 45- James Madison

“The powers delegated by the proposed constitution to the federal government are few and defined,” not “sizable” as Justice Alito writes in this opinion.

Federalist 39- James Madison

“The local or municipal authorities form distinct and independent portions of supremacy, no more subject in their respective spheres to the general authority than the general authority is subject to them within their own sphere.  In this relation then the proposed government cannot be deemed a national one because its jurisdiction pertains to enumerated objects only and leaves to the states a residuary and inviolable sovereignty over all other objects.”

Federalist 83- Alexander Hamilton

“An affirmative grant of special powers would be absurd as well as useless if a general authority was intended.”

Madison in 1792 on the House floor regarding the Constitution’s commerce clause

“I venture to declare it as my opinion, that, were the power of Congress to be established in the latitude contended for, it would subvert the very foundations, and transmute the very nature of the limited government established by the people of America.”

 

… “If Congress can employ money indefinitely to the general welfare and are the sole and supreme judges  of the general welfare they may take care of religion into their own hands; they may appoint teachers in every state, county and parish; they may pay them out of the public treasury; they may take into their own hands the education of children establishing in like manner schools throughout the Union; they may assume provision for the poor; they may undertake the regulation of all roads other than post roads.  In short, everything from the highest object of state legislation down to the most minute object of police would be thrown under the power of Congress, for every object I have mentioned would admit the obvious application of money that might be called provisions for the general welfare.”

 

LMV:  In other words, the general welfare, necessary and proper, and commerce clauses were not powers of their own but descriptions of the purposes of those limited and enumerated powers already mentioned in the Constitution.

Libertarian Humor

This graphic shows some people crawling under a barbed wire fence.  The caption reads “Look at me crawling under barbed wire to escape free market capitalism.  Said no one ever.”

Reminiscent of the wall separating East Berlin from West Berlin

Reagan “tear down this wall” clip

LMV:  That’s the show.  See you next time.

Liberty Watch Episode 18: Guaranteed Jobs for All

The following is the outline text version of my YouTube video which can be viewed by clicking here:  https://youtu.be/UlTXqUEmEuU

You can subscribe to my YouTube channel by clicking here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCIb4k41f3A1lftMXivcvj5g.

You can make a donation at patreon.com/libertymanvan

Guaranteed Jobs for All

Outline of proposal thin on details

Provide a $15/hr job AND health benefits or training “for all who want or need one.”

What happens to those making $10/hr at current job?

What happens to employees only worth $8/hr?

Effect on small businesses who can only pay $10/hr?

Will have to be funded by taxpayers

1.              Borrow the money- tax on future generations

2.              Increase taxes today

3.              Force costs on business- individuals will pay through price inflation

Businesses will either

Get a taxpayer funded subsidy

Lose employees

Pay the $15/hr plus health insurance

Layoff employees to meet payroll

Go out of business- will favor big business

II.            Dark Chocolate Please

A new study at Loma Linda University in California show dark chocolate good for health:  The darker the chocolate, the better it is for your health: Bars with more than 70% cacao do wonders for your mind, heart and immune system – and the benefits increase the higher you go

A new study by Loma Linda University is the first to assess specific benefits of cacao levels in something as small as a chocolate bar

They found anything over 70% cacao was much more beneficial than any less

The higher the concentration of cacao, the more beneficial the chocolate was.

Cacao is rich in flavanols – antioxidants found in fruit and vegetables that dampen inflammation.

People who ate chocolate every day were found to have better attention spans, working memory, ability to process speed and verbal fluency.

Experiments showed a daily hit of chocolate for elderly people improved their brain function.

The benefits were most pronounced in those people who had already started to show signs of memory decline or mild cognitive impairment that can lead to Alzheimer’s.

III.          Virgin Ban

 

From a fox news article entitled “Couple caught having sex on transatlantic flight, woman banned from airline.”

A transatlantic restroom dalliance aboard a Virgin Atlantic flight ended with the woman involved banned from ever again flying on the airline.

According to reports, the cabin crew aboard a March 13 flight that departed from Gatwick Airport in London en route to Cancún, Mexico were furious to find a man and woman – both in their late twenties – having sex in the economy cabin bathroom.

Minutes later, the rowdy woman got into a spat with her female traveling companion and reportedly threw drinks around the cabin.

A Virgin Atlantic spokesman confirmed to Fox News that the woman was not banned “as a result of one incident,” but for “repeatedly refusing to comply with crew requests, and for disruptive behavior throughout the flight.”

 Government Sins

A.             Gas Tax Raiders

From an article in Forbes Magazine entitled “The Gas Tax Doesn’t Work Because Politicians Broke It.”

…the gas tax’s problems started when Congress raided the trust fund to keep the government solvent. In 1990 Congress approved an increase in the gas tax but allotted only half of the new revenue to building projects. The other half was dedicated to deficit reduction – which then, as now, was all the rage. In 1993 Congress approved another gas tax hike and again devoted some of the revenue to deficit reduction.

B.             Government Recycling Programs Wasteful

From the mises.org article “Government Recycling Programs Waste Valuable Resources.”

… The government tells us we must recycle all kinds of stuff: bottles, cans, paper, plastics etc. They say that recycling reduces the number of products made from natural resources, which means more resources are conserved and our energy costs are lower.

… Our objective is to minimize the use of resources (including energy) in the manufacturing process for all products. In order to achieve our objective, we must be guided by market prices, without exception. As long as prices are allowed to freely adjust to changes in supply and demand, resources will be allocated to their most highly valued uses, and resource conservation will be maximized. The capitalistic process of profits and losses ensures these outcomes.

Economics of Recycling

In an unhampered market, if it is profitable to manufacture products by recycling plastics, bottles, paper etc., then it will be done, and firms might even pay us to take away our empty containers. However, if such a business is not profitable, then these items would simply be included in our regular household garbage. And by the way, we are NOT running out of landfill space.

… To determine the viability of a recycling enterprise, a free market firm must balance the cost of committing resources (labour, trucks, machines, recycling plants) to the task of recycling against the revenue it receives for its recycled products.

… if the firm does not believe the enterprise would be profitable, it will not proceed with recycling… This is the point constantly overlooked by the public when governments involve themselves in recycling. In our rush to conserve resources, we forget that resources are required for the task of recycling, and we just assume the government is doing the right thing.

… the price for recycling often tends to soar far higher than the combined cost of manufacturing from raw materials and virgin sources and dumping rubbish into landfills. To recycle waste is to use twice the energy and create twice the pollution from factories, trucks, and by-products.

… This is typical of most regulations at every level of government: (1) use propaganda to convince people of the need for a particular program in order to attract votes, then (2) use whatever resources are required to implement and maintain the program, regardless the waste.

 

C.             Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment

From “Twenty years ago today, America apologized for Tuskegee syphilis experiment.” Article dated May 16, 2017.

… In the fall of 1932, the flyers began appearing around Macon County, Ala., promising colored people special treatment for “bad blood.” “Free Blood Test; Free Treatment, By County Health Department and Government Doctors,” the black and white signs said. “YOU MAY FEEL WELL AND STILL HAVE BAD BLOOD. COME AND BRING ALL YOUR FAMILY.”

… Hundreds of men-all black and many of them poor – signed up. Some of the men thought they were being treated for rheumatism or bad stomachs. They were promised free meals, free physicals and free burial insurance. What the signs never told them was they would become part of the “Tuskegee Study of Untreated Syphilis in the Negro Male,” a secret experiment conducted by the U.S. Public Health Service to study the progression of the deadly venereal disease-without treatment.

… The researchers never obtained informed consent from the men and never told the men with syphilis that they were not being treated, but were simply being watched until they died and their bodies examined for ravages of the disease.

… Although originally projected to last six months, the study extended for 40 years. “Local physicians asked to assist with study and not to treat men,” the Centers for Disease Control reported in a timeline of the experiment. “Decision was made to follow the men until death.”

… In 1945, according to the CDC timeline, penicillin was “accepted as treatment of choice for syphilis.” The U.S. Public Health Services created what they called “rapid treatment centers” to help men afflicted with syphilis — except the men in the Tuskegee study.

D.             Why is the State Cruel and Incompetent?

1.              Lack of market forces

a)              No competition

b)              Jobs Program, Hard to end the jobs, constituency created

c)              Success not a requirement

Hillary is Back

E.              Interview with Julia Gillard

1.              Former Prime Minister of Australia

2.              Labor Party

F.              Play video segments

G.             Claims in Interview

1.              Clinton:  “There is still a very large proportion of the population that is uneasy with women in positions of leadership.”

2.              Gillard:  “It just dismayed me that for you this ended up with chants of lock her up or string her up at republican rallies.  String her up.  It is like the Salem witch trials again.”

3.              LMV comments

a)              Clinton refuses to acknowledge the real reason she lost- she was a really awful candidate.  She wants to blame her loss on being a woman.  That had nothing to do with it.  She is no Margaret Thatcher.

b)              The law regarding sensitive high security government information does not state that you must have willful intent to misuse the data.  If you are CARELESS with the information you are guilty.  Anyone else would have been severely prosecuted under the law.

c)              Gillard is typical leftist, makes up “string her up” chant.

(1)            Youtube and google search turns up no such chant

 

Liberty Watch Episode 16: School Shootings Require Gun Control?

The following is the outline text version of my YouTube video which can be viewed by clicking here:  https://youtu.be/n7E0W68zQXU

You can subscribe to my YouTube channel by clicking here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCIb4k41f3A1lftMXivcvj5g.

You can make a donation at patreon.com/libertymanvan

Liberty Watch Episode 16:  School Shootings Require Gun Control?

 School Shootings Require Gun Control?

About the Shooting

Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Broward County FL

17 dead 14 wounded

AR-15 semi-automatic weapon

FBI got a tip before the shooting occurred

Law enforcement had been to shooters home almost 40 times for disturbances

A county Sheriff’s officer assigned to the school was there when the shooting started and did nothing

A second Sheriff’s deputy arrived a few minutes into the shooting and did nothing.  They waited for backup.

It was the local police that went in and faced the gunman.

After the Shooting

Publicity for the shooter.  Massive news coverage.

Calls for gun control.  Survivors on CNN.

The Libertarian Perspective

The failure was with the school system.  They should protect the students.

Decision about what to do should be local.  Security guards?  Police on premises?  Metal detectors?  Bullet-proof compartments?  Teachers with guns?

Why we have the 2nd amendment.

Citizens with guns no match for the military?

Police Cannot Protect You.  Officer at School!

Police or Spy State not the answer

Trumponomics- Steel Tariffs

Do domestic steel companies need a handout?

Nucor $11/share 2003 to almost $70/share today

Domestic manufacturers >70% share of U.S. market

Tariff is just a tax paid by Americans

Effect on consumers

Effect on domestic manufacturers

Hurts exports

“Free Trade” agreements are 1000s of pages long

Tariffs were small and funded federal govt before the income tax

First income tax 1861 to fund the war between the states

Permanent income tax imposed in 1913 by 16th amendment

Sold as a tax on the rich

Gradually came to affect almost all wage earners

Now we have incomes taxes and tariffs

Libertarian Perspective

Tariffs interfere with freedom of exchange

International trade is just trade with people in a different country

Tariffs allow politicians to help one group at the expense of another

Taxes deny self-ownership

Libertarian Humor

Multiculturalism

Definition

The view that the various cultures in a society merit equal respect and scholarly interest.

Used a part of identity politics by the left to garner votes

All cultures are not consistent with American values

Articles

Indonesian Christians flogged outside of mosque for violating sharia law…

…Indonesia publicly caned two Christians in a rare case of non-Muslims punished under sharia law.

 

The two Indonesian Christians – Dahlan Silitonga, 61, and Tjia Nyuk Hwa, 45 – were whipped six and seven times respectively by a masked man wearing a robe, as a crowd of 300 ridiculed and took pictures of them outside a mosque in the provincial capital

Does gambling violate the NAP?  No.

Merkel Admits ‘No Go’ Zones Exist Inside Germany

The existence of no-go zones in Europe had been a matter of debate — with liberal commentators insisting they were a fiction — even after Breitbart London editor in chief published his work on the subject, No Go Zones: How Sharia Law Is Coming to a Neighborhood Near You. The admission by Merkel is a vindication for Kassam and others who have chronicled No Go Zones and their causes for years.

Michigan doctor charged with carrying out female genital mutilation

Jumana Nagarwala is accused of performing FGM on girls aged between six and eight for the past 12 years from a medical office in the Detroit suburb of Livonia

From Wikipedia:  The practice is rooted in gender inequality, attempts to control women’s sexuality, and ideas about purity, modesty and beauty. It is usually initiated and carried out by women, who see it as a source of honour, and who fear that failing to have their daughters and granddaughters cut will expose the girls to social exclusion.[8] Health effects depend on the procedure. They can include recurrent infections, difficulty urinating and passing menstrual flow, chronic pain, the development of cysts, an inability to get pregnant, complications during childbirth, and fatal bleeding.[7] There are no known health benefits.[9]

India state to give life sentences for cow slaughter

Cows are considered sacred in Hindu-majority India, and their slaughter is illegal in most states.

 

“A cow is not an animal. It is a symbol of universal life,” Gujarat Law Minister Pradipsinh Jadeja told the state’s assembly.

 

“Anybody who does not spare the cow, the government will not spare him.”

Two men publicly caned in Indonesia for having gay sex…

Two men were lashed with a cane as punishment for having same-sex relations, part of a growing intolerance of sexual minorities that has marked the rise of more conservative Islam in the world’s largest Muslim-majority country.

Saudi campaigners protest over the right to drive

Women campaigners in Saudi Arabia are filming themselves walking silently in the street in an attempt to claim the right to drive.

 

The online campaign is a protest against restrictions, which prevent women from doing everyday things unless they are in the presence of a male guardian.

Pakistan sentences man to death for blasphemy on FACEBOOK…

Blasphemy is a highly sensitive topic in Muslim-majority Pakistan, where insulting the Prophet Mohammad is a capital crime for which dozens are sitting on death row. Even mere accusations are enough to spark mass uproar and mob justice.

 LMV:  That is our show for today.  You can donate to the show at patreon.com/libertymanvan.  Be sure to join us next time on Liberty Watch where we don’t believe you need some guy with a bullhorn to tell you what to do.

Liberty Watch Episode 14: Republicans Pass Tax Reform Bill

The following is the text version of my YouTube video which can be viewed by clicking here:  https://youtu.be/MxbmJHSdRQQ

You can subscribe to my YouTube channel by clicking here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCIb4k41f3A1lftMXivcvj5g.

LMV:  Welcome to another edition of Liberty Watch.  I am your host Liberty Man Van.  Today we will discuss the tax reform bill just passed by the Republican controlled congress and signed by President Trump.  Then we will look at a funny, yet sad story to end the episode.

First up, the Republican tax reform bill.  This bill did contain federal tax cuts for individuals in all income brackets and it cut corporate taxes dramatically.  As a liberty minded person I am happy to see tax cuts because they allow people to keep more of the money THEY earned.  You know my position on the subject of taxation:  taxation is theft.  The government is the mafia posing as a human rights organization; less funding of the mafia is better.  However, I would like to have seen the tax cuts coupled with spending cuts but this bill does nothing to cut spending and will continue to explode the federal debt.  Oh, did I mention the federal debt?

Video clip:  Federal debt clock ticking.

LMV:  The proponents of this bill claim it will not have an adverse effect on the debt because the corporate tax cuts will stimulate the economy.  While this true, it will not be enough to offset the revenue losses.  The bill contains a budgetary sleight of hand to make it appear more fiscally responsible.  The trick is to include a sunset provision; the tax cuts are set to expire in 2025.  This make the long term budgetary analysis of the bill look more favorable.  However, when provisions in bill are set to expire they are more often than not just extended by a future congress.

This bill also eliminated the Obamacare individual mandate that requires people to have health insurance.  This means people have more freedom to choose, a positive feature.

In summary, the good news is many of us will get to keep more of the money we earned.  The bad news is that the Rebublicans continue to be totally fiscally irresponsible.

Next, we will look at some of the media coverage surrounding this legislation.  Democrat Larry Summers went on TV to explain how allowing people to make their own decisions regarding health insurance coverage will cause 10,000 people to die.  Here he is.

Video clip:  Larry Summers.

LMV:  To thinkers like Mr. Summers, we are all babies that have to be coddled.  He added the following comments in an article on CNBC.com:

“You have to look at the data of what the patterns are all across the country,” he said. “I don’t see how you can believe that if 10 million or 13 million, whatever exactly the number is, of people are going to lose health insurance, that’s not going to have health consequences.”

LMV:  His wording here is tricky when he says “people are going to lose health insurance.”  Nobody is going to be forced to drop their health insurance by this legislation.  Furthermore, a government study disputes his death claims.  The article continues:

Also, a National Institutes of Health Study from 2009, pre-Obamacare, found no relationship between the mortality risk of the insured and uninsured.

Video Graphic:  “It is not possible to draw firm causal inferences from the results of observational analyses, but there is little evidence to suggest that extending insurance coverage to all adults would have a large effect on the number of deaths in the United States,” the study said.

LMV:  Any time you have a tax cut proposal the big spenders are sure to be opposed to it.  Enter the Grinch.  That’s right.  Remember the Grinch pretends to be Santa Claus giving stuff away but his love of big spending will have to be coupled with big borrowing and big debt.  Who will have to ultimately pay that debt?  Not him, but our children and grandchildren.  Thus, he is stealing from the children, just like the Grinch.  Here’s a clip of the Grinch attacking the tax cut bill.

Video clip:  Bernie Sanders.

LMV:  Whenever there is a tax cut proposal you will always the socialists coming out of the woodwork to explain how it will help the rich more than other groups.  What they never mention is that upper income taxpayers pay the lion’s share of taxes.  That’s  why even if everyone got a 3% tax cut 3% of 5 million dollars will always be more than 3% of $20,000.  Let’s consider who pays the most taxes according to taxfoundation.org data.

Graphic:

  • The share of income earned by the top 1 percent of taxpayers rose to 20.6 percent in 2014. Their share of federal individual income taxes also rose, to 39.5 percent.
  • In 2014, the top 50 percent of all taxpayers paid 97.3 percent of all individual income taxes while the bottom 50 percent paid the remaining 2.7 percent.
  • The top 1 percent paid a greater share of individual income taxes (39.5 percent) than the bottom 90 percent combined (29.1 percent).
  • The top 1 percent of taxpayers paid a 27.1 percent individual income tax rate, which is more than seven times higher than taxpayers in the bottom 50 percent (3.5 percent).

LMV:  This data shows you why a tax cut will “help the rich” more, because they pay more then their share in taxes in the first place.  But those who claim this bill will only help the rich are full of baloney.  Tax rates for all brackets are reduced in the bill.  And how about those who claim the bill will not help the poor?  Baloney.  Consider the following from fee.org:

Graphic:  Despite all their talk about death and destruction, Democrats have overlooked the ways this tax bill could help the lower class. They’ve painted this cut as a handout to the top one percent, but the Tax Foundation, a right-leaning think tank, found that if the Senate bill gets signed into law, all income groups will see an increase in their after-tax incomes in 2018. Per their analysis, this reform would also create 925,000 new jobs, boost economic growth, and lift wages by 2.9 percent. That sounds like it would help the working class, not threaten their livelihood.

LMV:  Will higher wages and economic growth help the poor?  You betcha!  As a matter of fact, some businesses made announcements after the bill was signed into law:

Graphic:

Some of the announcements include:

  • AT&T will see a tax reduction from a 32.7% rate down to a 21% rate. This prompted them to announce that all 200,000 employees will receive a $1,000 bonus.
  • Third Fifth Bankcorp announced that 13,500 employees will be receiving a bonus and minimum wage will be raised companywide to $15 per hour.
  • Wells Fargo also announced that they will be raising the minimum wage to $15 per hour and that they will donate $400 million to charities and non-profits in the coming year.
  • Comcast announced it would be giving $1,000 bonuses to more than 100,000 employees and will be investing over $50 billion in broadband and network infrastructure.

LMV:  So let’s celebrate tax cuts.  They increase freedom by allowing us to keep more of the money we earn.

And finally, we will cover a news story that most will consider funny, but I think it is kind of sad.  The title of this article is really all you need to know.

Graphic:  Pennsylvania Inmate Loses Appeal After Trying to Argue Drugs in His Buttocks Were Not His.

A Pennsylvania inmate who tried to convince the court that the drugs in his rear end did not belong to him lost his appeal last week.

The Pennsylvania judicial panel remained unphased when they ruled that the bag of drugs in Edwin Wylie-Biggs’ buttocks were his, upholding a court ruling that sentenced him to three to six additional years behind bars for the incident, the New York Daily News reported.

Graphic:  When the inmate bent over to be searched for contraband, the corrections officer found “a clear plastic bag containing a small blue balloon could be seen sticking out of his rectum,” according to the court document.

LMV:  This sad part of this story is that what this man did was illegal.  If a man wants to stick a bag of weed up his ass it is none of the state’s business.  After all, whose ass is it?  And if this man wants to pull that weed out of his ass and smoke it whose lungs is it?  Laws that prohibit what you can put into your own body are a violation of personal sovereignty; the begin with the premise that you do not own your own body.

And that’s the show for today.  Thanks for tuning in and be sure to join us next time on Liberty Watch where we don’t believe you need some guy with a bullhorn to tell you what to do.

 

 

Liberty Watch Episodes 12, 13: Socialism vs. Communism

The following is the text version of my YouTube video.   You can view part one by clicking here:  https://youtu.be/QQX6j__suyU.

You can view part two by clicking here:  https://youtu.be/jUNFLHgy1dc

You can subscribe to my YouTube channel by clicking here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCIb4k41f3A1lftMXivcvj5g.

LMV:  Thanks for joining us for another edition of Liberty Watch.  I am your host Liberty Man Van.

LMV:  Today’s show is called Socialism vs. Communism.  We will look at a definition of each of these ideologies and talk about their differences and similarities.  Why an episode on socialism and communism?  We have recently passed the 100 year anniversary of the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia that ushered in a multi-decade period of communism in that country.  We begin with a definition of socialism according to the Webster online dictionary:

Socialism:

2a. a system of society or group living in which there is no private property
b.  a system or condition of society in which the means of production are owned and controlled by the state.
3. a stage of society in Marxist theory transitional between capitalism and communism and distinguished by unequal distribution of goods and pay according to work done.
1a. a theory advocating elimination of private property
b.  a system in which goods are owned in common and are available to all as needed
2.  capitalized
a.  a doctrine based on revolutionary Marxian socialism and Marxism-Leninism that was the official ideology of the U.S.S.R.
b.  a totalitarian system of government in which a single authoritarian party controls state-owned means of production
c.  a final stage of society in Marxist theory in which the state has withered away and economic goods are distributed equitably

 

LMV:  In other words, let’s just all share and share alike a live in total peace and harmony.  Right?  Not so fast.  What may sound good in theory does not always work out so well in practice.  There are many flaws in socialism or communism.  For a detailed look I recommend “Socialism” by Ludwig von Mises.  One major flaw is that when you deny private property, you put the individual in the vulnerable position of having to get his bread from the state.  This means an individual cannot control his own destiny.  Two other major flaws are the calculation problem and the incentive problem.  How do you calculate the value of goods when there is not free market?  And what incentive does a person have to work hard and maximize their personal production when they have to turn around and hand the fruits of their labor over to the state?  This leads to economic stagnation for the individual and thus for the citizenry as a whole.

Because the state owns and controls the means of production the individual has become totally dependent on the state for his existence.  This state of affairs is antithetical to liberty; freedom is the opposite of dependence.

Our first article on the subject of socialism is entitled “Disaster in Red:  The Hundredth Anniversary of the Russian Socialist Revolution” and was published on the mises.org website.  From the article:

…November 7, 2017, marks the one hundredth anniversary of the Russian (or Bolshevik) Revolution in Russia that happened on that date in November 1917, which lead to the communist “dictatorship of the proletariat” and ushered in an epoch of totalitarian tyranny and mass murder both in Russia and in every other country where socialism was put into practice.

Historians estimate that as many as 150 million people, if not more — innocent men, women and children — were killed in the name of building the collectivist utopia. They were shot, tortured, worked or starved to death in prison cells, in interrogation rooms, in labor camps, or just in the places where they lived. “Socialism-in-practice” created a chamber of horrors in which the individual was reduced to a mere expendable “cog in the wheel” to serve the collective good, or made into “enemies of the people” to be eliminated as the prelude to building the “bright, beautiful communist future.”

…In the name of a “classless society,” communism created the most minute and granulated system of privilege, favor, and power, depending upon where the individual stood in the hierarchies of the Communist Party and the management of the vast central planning bureaucracy.

…The Communist Party did all in their power to control and confine the minds of those over whom they ruled into narrow corridors of knowledge and belief so little or no doubt could arise that theirs was the best of all worlds, and far more “socially just” and materially better than anything existing in the reactionary and corrupted capitalist parts of the globe.

…The nineteenth century French classical liberal economist, Paul Leroy-Beaulieu (1843-1916), gave warning in his important work, Collectivism (1885):

How can liberty exist in a society in which everyone would be an employee of the state brigaded in squadrons from which there would be no escape, dependent upon a system of official classification for promotion, and for all the amenities of life! . . . The employee (and all would be employees) would be the slave, not of the state, which is merely an abstraction, but of the politicians who possessed themselves of power.

LMV:  Don’t take my word about the evils of socialism.  In the following video clips you will hear from a lady who once lived under the Soviet regime.

Video clips of former U.S.S.R. resident

LMV:  A current example of the ill-effects of socialism comes from the country of Venezuela.   These excerpts come from a fee.org article entitled “Venezuela Proves there is no Political Freedom without Economic Freedom.”

…The impact that the field of economics has on our daily lives is not easily recognized by the majority of people. Preoccupied with our immediate needs and daily tasks, the state of the economy not only seems disconnected from our lives, it feels almost completely irrelevant.

…But economics is intrinsically connected to almost every single aspect of our lives. From the clothes we wear to the food we eat, to our jobs and our education: economics is in all things. And without economic freedom, there can be no liberty. Period.

Anyone having any doubts that economic control will necessarily lead to tyranny and oppression, need only look to Venezuela.

…It has always been peculiar to me that socialists believe so fervently in social freedom and yet detest economic liberty. This is why many proponents of socialism and other forms of state control will advocate for economic restrictions, without a concern for civil liberties.

…But once economic control has been seized by the government, the stripping of our individual rights will soon follow.

…The situation in Venezuela has become so dire, it would fit perfectly into the plot of any dystopian novel. What started as an economic crisis has now escalated to a humanitarian nightmare of which there appears to be no end in sight.

…At its height, the country was capable of producing 3.5 million barrels of oil per day. But after Chavez came to power and an oil worker strike ensued, the leader decided to fire those on strike and instead, bring in workers who were loyal to his government.

…And after years of continued mismanagement and poor decision-making at the hand of the state, the oil output began declining significantly.

As Austrian economist Frederick Hayek once warned:  “And whoever controls all economic activity controls the means for all our ends and must therefore decide which are to be satisfied and which not. This is really the crux of the matter.”

And continuing with the fee.org article:

…Food and necessities, like toilet paper, are not only in short supply; they are also completely under state control. Those wanting to acquire these items must wake up long before the sun has risen and stand in long lines. While waiting in these lines, these “consumers,” if you can even still call them that, are sitting ducks for thieves.

It has become common for thugs and others with malicious intent to hold people at gunpoint and rob them of whatever wealth they have left. Last year, one man was killed in line in an attempt to guard his cellphone.

Meanwhile, as he lay dying, the line did not break, because to lose your place in line, even to attend to the wounded, meant that you may not get to feed your family.

LMV:  Despite the astronomical body count and economic failures socialism continues to be espoused in Western countries; it continues to enjoy admirers and apologists from the media, academia, and Hollywood.

Witness this example from MIT press, a children’s book entitled “Communism for Kids.”  That’s right, one of our beloved institutions of higher learning is promoting communism.   So what is communism?  The book tells us the following:

…Communism names the society that gets rid of all the evils people suffer today in our society under capitalism. There are lots of different ideas about what communism should look like. But if communism means getting rid of all the evils people suffer under capitalism, then the best kind of communism is the one that can get rid of the most evils.

LMV:  And what is capitalism?  According to this book…

…Capitalism exists today all over the world, and it’s called capitalism because capital rules…In capitalism, there are certainly people who have more power than others, but there isn’t a queen who sits on a throne high above society and commands everybody. So if people no longer rule over society, who does? The answer may sound a little strange. Things do…They’re just the things that people create to make life easier, to serve them. Strangely, over time, people forget that they made those things, and soon enough, people begin to serve the things!

LMV:  And now an article from Zero Hedge “Millennials Prefer Socialism to Capitalism.”  The article is based on data from the victimsofcommunism.org website.

Graphic:  Annual report on U.S. attitudes towards socialism.

Graphic:  44% of millennials prefer socialism over capitalism.  Do they know what it means?

LMV:  The previous graphic asked if millennials know what socialism is, but as you can see from the next graphic, 70% of Americans as a whole are confused about what socialism is.

Graphic:  7 in 10 Americans either don’t know the definition of communism or misidentify it.

LMV:  I am going to give Americans a pass on being confused about the definitions of socialism and communism.  Let’s take the definition of communism given by this website and compare it to the one given by the online Webster definition earlier.  Here is the victimsofcommunism.org definition:

Graphic with definition of communism:  Socioeconomic order structured upon the common ownership of the means of production and the absence of social
classes, money and the state.

LMV:  Wow!  You mean Marx was an anarchist?  I didn’t know that.  Absence of a state is the definition of anarchy.  Now contrast that with one of the definitions of communism we look at earlier- a totalitarian system of government in which a single authoritarian party controls state-owned means of production.

And britannica.com can understand the confusion.  It makes the following comments:

…Exactly how communism differs from socialism has long been a matter of debate, but the distinction rests largely on the communists’ adherence to the revolutionary socialism of Karl Marx.

…Like most writers of the 19th century, Marx tended to use the terms communism and socialism interchangeably…Marx identified two phases of communism that would follow the predicted overthrow of capitalism: the first would be a transitional system in which the working class would control the government and economy yet still find it necessary to pay people according to how long, hard, or well they worked; the second would be fully realized communism—a society without class divisions or government, in which the production and distribution of goods would be based upon the principle “From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs.”

LMV:  In this next graphic we juxtapose the definitions of communism, socialism, and fascism.  Notice how the definitions of communism and socialism do not include any mention of force while fascism includes dictatorial power and forceful suppression of opposition as characteristics?  Yet we see in practice that socialist regimes are all about the use of force.  Remember Mao’s cultural revolution and Stalin’s gulags?

This is not surprising when we consider Marx’s phrase “From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs.”  We could phrase this in another way “Take from those who produce the most and give to those who produce less.”  Did Marx really think that could be achieved without force?  Did he really think people would willfully work their tails off so they could give the fruits of their labor to strangers?  This flies against human nature.  And, contrary to socialist sophists such as Bernie Sanders, it does not make you greedy to want to keep what you have earned.  Despite being taxed heavily for social welfare programs, Americans remain the most giving people on the face of the earth.

LMV:  Now to the punch line of the “Annual Report on US
Attitudes towards Socialism” survey.  More millennials would prefer to live under socialism than capitalism.

Graphic: Millennials prefer socialism.

LMV:  And another alarming finding of the survey is that millennials are the least unfavorable towards communism.

Graphic:  Millennials least hostile towards communism.

LMV:  How can this be?  Is our educational system soft peddling the horrors of communist regimes.  Everyone should know the approximate body count of this evil ideology- 150 million dead and counting.

Graphic:  shows percent in each age bracket that correctly said communism had killed 100 million or more.

LMV:  And finally, there is another form of “socialism” that is practiced by the so-called social democracies such as in Western Europe.  It does not strictly meet the definition of socialism because there is private property and capitalism; the state does not own the means of production.  Although it does not meet the strict definition of socialism it still has many of the same damaging effects because it is based on coercion rather than voluntarism.  In the United States these are programs such as Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, Aid for Families with Dependent Children and so on.  In Western Europe many countries such as the U.K. have “free” universal health care.

In the United States the so-called “Affordable Health Care Act” or Obamacare is a movement in the direction of socialized medicine.  If you are like me and believe in liberty and free markets, these types of programs should be fought tooth and nail; they are socialistic in nature and result in a loss of individual sovereignty.

LMV:  And because socialism is all about central planning, I will close with this humorous video with a message.

Video:  Serfdom USA.

LMV:  And that’s our show for today.  Join us next time for another exciting episode of Liberty Watch.

 

Liberty Watch Episode 11: Hurricanes and Wein-Stains

The following is the text version of my YouTube video which can be viewed by clicking here:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YEp6Au3E7lE

You can subscribe to my YouTube channel by clicking here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCIb4k41f3A1lftMXivcvj5g.

LMV:  Wow!  Did you like my show intro?  I thought it was pretty cool but then I remembered this intro.

Audio clip:  Intro to Rolling Stones song Brown Sugar.

LMV:  And then I remembered this intro.

Audio clip:  Intro to Rolling Stones song Gimme Shelter.

LMV:  So I must confess my intro is not as cool as the Stones’.  Nevertheless, welcome to another edition of Liberty Watch.  I am your host Liberty Man Van.  The hurricane season of 2017 has been a particularly active one.  Coincidentally, the Miami Hurricanes are off to a great start at 7-0.  It seems that every ten years or so we have a bunch of hurricanes in one season and the years in between are relatively inactive.  No matter how many inactive seasons we have someone is sure to attribute the active one to global warming, rather, to climate change.  They used to call it global warming but after several years of cooling recently they have renamed it climate change- that is sure to encompass whatever happens.

Hurricane Harvey, the worse storm of the year hit Texas hard, including staying stationary for a while and dumping megatons of water on the Houston area; massive flooding was the result.  Here is a little of the news coverage from that storm.

Video clips of Hurricane Harvey in Houston.

LMV:  And whenever nature moves to damage an area and citizens, the price gougers are soon to follow.

Video:  Price gouging report.

LMV:  Should these natural disaster entrepreneurs be arrested or fined?  The emotional response is to say “hell yes!”, but a more careful look reveals a more nuanced answer.  Consider the following article from FEE.org entitled “Anti-Price Gouging Laws Make About As Much Sense As Anti-High Temperature Laws.”  The article begins with the typical defense of anti-price gouging laws:

“Many residents in Texas and Louisiana have suffered from the devastating effects of Hurricane Harvey in recent days, and some of those residents are now being unfairly subjected to further suffering from the unconscionable actions of businesses and individuals who are engaged in illegal price gouging for essential goods like gasoline, water, and food.

To prevent residents from being victimized by ruthless and greedy price gougers, Texas law prohibits businesses from charging “exorbitant prices” for gasoline, food, water, clothing, and lodging following natural disasters like Hurricane Harvey.

Despite those price gouging laws, one large Texas retailer was allegedly charging $42 for a case of water and a gas station in the affected area was reported to be charging $99 for a case of water according to the Texas attorney general. Those retailers are now subject to legal prosecution and fines for charging “excessively high” prices in violation of price gouging laws in Texas.”

LMV:  What is the libertarian way to view this question?  In short, the government should butt out and allow the free market to sort out prices.  This approach allows the maximum amount of freedom for people and businesses to sort it out.  In addition, it just happens to be the most humane approach because it allows precious resources to be allocated to those that need them the most.  The FEE.org article continues:

“The artificially low, government-mandated prices will cause distortions and inefficiencies in Texas and Louisiana because the artificial prices won’t accurately and truthfully reflect the economic reality that supplies of critical goods are extremely low at the same time demand for those goods is extremely high.

Price gouging laws create a government-mandated fantasy world with prices that create a complete disconnect between the true measure of a scare good’s value and a fantasy measure of that good’s value.”

“When it comes to maximizing the efficient allocation of resources following a natural disaster like Hurricane Harvey, what we want are accurate, truthful and precise measures of market conditions (supply and demand), and we can only get those measures from market prices, not from artificial, government-mandated price gouging laws.”

LMV:  When I see anti-price gouging laws and sentiment I am reminded of President Nixon’s response to the Arab oil embargo of the early 70’s.  I can remember watching the evening news and seeing the video footage of the long lines at the gas stations.  Nixon’s response was to impose price controls and rationing.  The price controls prevented price gouging and the result was scarcity and prolongation of the crisis.

Whether rising prices are due to an oil embargo or to a natural distaster, if we allow prices to develop naturally rather try to put artificial caps on prices, we are more likely to ensure that people get the scarce resources they need.  Prices convey a vital piece of information.  They tell us where goods are needed the most so that market actors can make accurate decisions and move goods with the maximum of efficiency.   In other words, anti-price gouging laws are counter-productive because they are likely to prolong the scarcity of goods.  Those who are “too greedy” will end up with goods they cannot sell and will be undercut by competitors.  Allowing the free market to determine prices will be more compassionate, more efficient, and allow maximum freedom.

LMV:  That brings us to our next article from the mises.org website entitled “The Broken-Window Fallacy is Alive and Well.”  The broken-window fallacy was passed down to us from nineteenth century French economist Frederic Bastiat.  It goes something like this.  A shopkeeper has a window at his business broken by a careless son and pay a glazier six francs to replace it.  This stimulates the economy because it has put the glazier to work.  Right?  Wrong!  The happy glazier is what is seen.  What is not seen is that the shopkeeper had planned to spend that six francs on a good pair of shoes.  So, not only is the shopkeeper out of six francs but so is the cobbler.  That is a net loss of six francs; that is what is not seen.

Fast forward to 21st century Houston in the wake of Hurricane Harvey.  The mises.org article states:

“As Hurricane Harvey, now tropical storm Harvey, makes its way across the southern US, estimates have already come in as to the cost of the storm. According to AccuWeather, Harvey is expected to cost upwards of $190 billion in damages, one percent of the national GDP. This makes Harvey the costliest storm ever to hit the United States, more than Katrina ($100 billion) and Sandy ($60 billion) combined.

Here Come The Clowns

As in the wake of every disaster, pundits and politically biased economists — including Larry Summers who declared Japan’s 2011 Tsunami would boost economic growth —  will wax elegantly on how Harvey will end up being a boon for “the economy.” CNBC, for example, reports that Hurricane Harvey may ultimately “raise wages.”  It will spawn government spending and insurance payouts to flood victims, we’re told. These victims will spend that money in the economy which will put people back to work, employ the factors of production and so on and so on.

LMV:  This fallacy seems to surface every time we have a disaster but common sense tells us that if you have to spend money to replace something that you already had, you have not created any new wealth.  In fact, you have lost wealth.

You have heard similar logic from historians discussing how World War ll helped end the Great Depression.  After all, didn’t the GDP explode upward during the war?  Yes it did but we must keep in mind that government spending is counted in the GDP numbers.  And does it follow that spending on tanks, battleships, and bombs really adds to wealth?  Surely not.  If a family spends funds on guns and ammunition to protect the home, it means you have less to spend on bicycles or televisions.  In a word, resources used to recover from a natural disaster do not spur economic growth.

LMV:  And now for our final angle regarding this year’s hurricanes.  I have noticed through the years that it seems the same flood prone areas get hit again and again.  And the houses are rebuilt in those same flood prone areas again and again.  Why does this happen?  Why do we never learn from our mistakes?  Why do we continue to engage in this risky behavior?

The short answer is that someone other than the property owners are paying for it.  If the property owners had to pay a market price for flood insurance the cost would be much greater and many of them would be discouraged from rebuilding in the same flood prone areas.

One article that captured the folly appeared in the USA Today and was entitled “Dear Texas, how many times do we have to rebuild the same house?”

From the article:

…Hurricane Harvey offers the clearest lesson why Congress should not perpetuate the federal National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP), which expires at the end of September. The ravages in Houston and elsewhere would be far less if the federal government had not offered massively subsidized flood insurance in high-risk, environmentally perilous locales. But this is the same folly that the feds have perpetuated for almost 50 years.

…NFIP embraced a “flood-rebuild-repeat” model that has spawned an almost $25 billion debt. The National Wildlife Federation estimated in 1998 that 2% of properties covered by federal flood insurance had multiple damage claims accounting for 40% of flood insurance outlays, and that more than 5,000 homes had repeat claims exceeding their property value. A recent Pew Charitable Trust study revealed that 1% of the 5 million properties insured have produced almost a third of the damage claims and half the debt.

…NFIP paid to rebuild one Houston home 16 times in 18 years, spending almost a million dollars to perpetually restore a house worth less than $120,000…The Washington Post recently reported that a house “outside Baton Rouge, valued at $55,921, has flooded 40 times over the years, amassing $428,379 in claims. A $90,000 property near the Mississippi River north of St. Louis has flooded 34 times, racking up claims of more than $608,000.

…FEMA has loitered on updating in part because many members of Congress vehemently oppose accurate estimates of the risks and updated, higher insurance rates for their constituents.

…The financial soundness of federal flood insurance will always depend on politicians’ self-restraint in buying votes. In other words, the program is actuarially doomed. There is no constitutional right to federal bailouts for flooded homes. The sooner the feds exit the flood insurance business, the safer American coasts and paychecks will be.

LMV:  In other words, like all government programs, it is to benefit the politicians and their well connected friends that tax money is spent.  There are precious few politicians in D.C. that are taking up for the taxpayers.  The expense is accrued by the many and the benefits to the few.  The is same old tired story we see again and again with government.  Let me say it as I have said it before.  The government always looks out for its best interests first.  It is not there to protect you or to be your congenial benefactor.  Get those ideas out of your head and you won’t be surprised when these types of bad programs continue to exist decade after decade.

LMV:  Our next story is a about big shot Hollywood film producer Harvey Weinstein.  As you may have heard, he has been accused being a sexual predator over the many years of his Hollywood career.  Here is a snippet from a USA today article:

…Since the New York Times and New Yorker published bombshell reports detailing decades of alleged sexual harassment and assault by producer Harvey Weinstein early this month, dozens of women have come forward with similar claims against the movie mogul.

60 women have accused Weinstein of inappropriate to potentially criminal behavior ranging from requests for massages to intimidating sexual advances to rape.

LMV:  This is not surprising for those of us who are enlightened by our love of rock and roll.  As a matter of fact, the Eagles wrote a song about this activity years ago.

Audio clip:  From the Eagles song King of Hollywood.

LMV:  The fact is, this type of behavior has been well known in Hollywood for decades.  Why is everyone so shocked.  This is old news.

LMV:  And finally, it is time in the show for a little libertarian humor.  Did you ever wonder what the libertarian version of Star Wars would look like?

Video clip:  Libertarian Star Wars.

LMV:  And that’s our show for today.  Thanks for joining us, tell a friend, and join us next time on Liberty Watch where we don’t believe you need some guy with a bullhorn to tell you what to do.

Liberty Watch Episode 10: NFL Gone Mad?

The following is the text version of my YouTube video which can be viewed by clicking here:  https://youtu.be/s1wU8PIM_vQ

You can subscribe to my YouTube channel by clicking here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCIb4k41f3A1lftMXivcvj5g.

LMV:  Welcome.  In today’s episode we will look at the controversy over  NFL player protests and then look at some stories related to this year’s active hurricane season.

We’ll take the NFL story first.  Last season in 2016 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick began kneeling during the national anthem to protest police brutality against blacks.  In case you didn’t know already, he is a black player.  A few players joined him in the protest last year and many more have joined in the protests this year.  A few of the owners have even joined with the players in solidarity as have some of the head coaches.

As I mentioned, this all started about a year ago with then 49ers QB Colin Kaepernick; he is no longer with that team.

Video 1:  Coverage of initial protests.

Here are some of the comments Kaepernick made following the initial protests:

There’s a lot of things that need to change. One specifically? Police brutality. There’s people being murdered unjustly and not being held accountable. People are being given paid leave for killing people. That’s not right. That’s not right by anyone’s standards.

Niners coach Chip Kelly told reporters Saturday that Kaepernick’s decision not to stand during the national anthem is “his right as a citizen” and said “it’s not my right to tell him not to do something.”

LMV:  Even President Trump has inserted himself into this controversy.  Here is a clip from one of his speeches.

Video clip.

LMV:  The Pittsburgh Steelers team decided to protest by remaining in the locker room before the anthem.  One of their players, former Army Ranger Alejandro Villanueva, refused to join the protest.  He came out of the locker room and placed his hand over his heart during the anthem.

In a post-game press conference his coach, Mike Tomlin, who has never been in the military, was disappointed that Villanueva came out for the anthem.  Here is text from a foxnews article:

Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin appeared to take a swipe at the Bronze Star recipient’s decision in a post-game press conference. Tomlin told the media that, prior to kickoff Sunday, the Steelers held a team meeting and decided, though not unanimously, to not come out of the locker room for the national anthem.

 “Like I said, I was looking for 100 percent participation, we were gonna be respectful of our football team.”
Let’s address several questions here:
  • Are blacks being disproportionately targeted by police?
  • Is Chip Kelly correct?  Does the NFL have any right to tell the players “what to do?”
  • Should the President weigh in on this issue?
  • Who are the winners and losers here?

> Are blacks being disproportionately targeted by police?  According to data just released here at the end of Sept. of 2017 we have these facts:

+ So far in 2017 there have been 10 unarmed blacks killed by police in the U.S., about one a month.  If you are black, you are more likely to have been killed by bees or hornets than by police officers.  That means you are more than 4.5 times more likely to be killed by lightning than to be shot by a cop.  I did the math.  You are 5x more likely to be struck and killed by a train.

+ In 2017 there were 7881 blacks murdered in the U.S. in 2016.  White people committed 243 of those murders.  That means 97% of these murders had nothing to do with white people at all.

+ In 2016 police were 18.5x more likely to be killed by a black person than was a black person to be shot by a cop.  Does the media focus on these numbers?  No, they will barely see the light of day because it does not fit their false narrative of oppression.  As a matter of fact, if a black person does speak out about these alarming statistics they are more likely to be attacked by the media.

Charles Barkley recently called blacks out for killing each other and was called a “black white supremacist” by the left-wing website the Root.  Here is a photo.

Photo of Barkley and a copy of the newspaper with the headline “Charles Barkley is a great example of a black white supremacist.”

If you are Black Lives Matter and are concerned about blacks being shot, you should be focused on preventing other black people from shooting blacks.

> Is Chip Kelly correct?  Does he or the NFL have any right to tell the players “what to do?”  The NFL owners are the employers of the players and have every right to tell them what they can and cannot do ON THE JOB.  This comes down to property rights; the owners own the team and can set whatever policies they like within the limits of the law.  Does UPS want their drivers to deliver a political message when they deliver a package?  Do you want the Wal-Mart greeter to urge you to support state funded abortion?

> Should the President have weighed in on this issue?  Yes and no.  This is a matter between an employer and employee and he has no official business stepping in between the dispute.  That’s the no part of the answer.

The yes part of the answer is that this has played really well with his supporters and has been a political win for him.

Who are the winners and losers here?  The main stakeholders here are the NFL owners and players, the media outlets carrying the games, the NFL fans, and the President.  This has been a loss for all of these stakeholders except President Trump.  The fan reaction towards the protests have been negative.  Some fans have bought fewer game tickets, burned the jerseys of players, cancelled their NFL season ticket for television, etc.

From Zero Hedge article entitled “Blowback?  NFL ticket sales crash 17.9% as owners lose control of players”:

Probably just a coincidence… or just transitory, but The online ticket reseller TickPick told The Washington Examiner that sales have dropped 17.9 percent, far more than the usual Week Three fall…

  • 17.9 percent decrease in NFL orders this week compared to the previous week.
  • Last year the drop was 10.8 percent in orders on Monday & Tuesday following Week Three games.

“We have seen a massive decrease in NFL ticket purchases this past week in comparison to years past. Week 3 seems to usually have less ticket orders than week 2, but this year ticket purchases are down more than 7 percent from this time last year,” said TickPick’s Jack Slingland.

“While we can’t specify if this decrease is due to the president’s comments, player and owner protests, play on the field, or simply the continued division of consumer’s media attention, the conversation around the NFL this week has focused on the president’s comments as well as the players’ and owners’ reaction. As viewers continue to abandon their NFL Sunday habits, both the number of ticket sales and the purchase price of tickets will drop,“ he told us.

And from another article entitled “Angry NFL Fans Lash Out, Burn Jerseys Over Protests: “You Can Take Your NFL And Shove It”:

…Some angry NFL fans have chosen a different way to express their dissatisfaction with the league and some of its players. As Yahoo reports, Steelers’ offensive-lineman Alejandro Villanueva’s jersey becomes an overnight best-seller after he stands for anthem.

…the NFL doesn’t seem to understand that while almost every American can agree that football is a great sport, roughly 50% of them will vehemently disagree with whatever political stance any given player or league exec decides to publicly announce.  And, since the NFL’s future depends on selling overpriced ad spots to massive corporations looking for a consistent number of eyeballs, alienating any group of viewers, for whatever reason, is just bad for business.

But don’t take our word for it…here’s just a couple of examples for what the fans had to say over the weekend.

“It’s a disgrace. It’s disgusting. They’re getting paid to do a job…to play ball and do whatever the fans want them to do.”

“They’re paying these guys to do a job.  They’re not supposed to be involved in politics.”

 “You can take your Kansas City Chiefs and you can take your NFL and you can shove it.”

“Now, think about that and think about the millions a year that you people are making to play a game while we got soldiers overseas that get paid minimum wage to put their lives on the line for that flag.”

“Protest does not belong in our NFL sports.  It’s a game.”

LMV:  And, this angry fan burned an NFL jersey to the tune of the star spangled banner.

Video clip:  Fan burning jersey.

LMV:  So the NFL is shooting itself in the foot with this stuff and it is hurting the league.  They should shut up and get back to playing football.

LMV:  And now for a little libertarian humor.  And the caption reads “Licensing.  When the government takes away your right to do something and then sells it back to you.”

Now that we have focused on the NFL protests let’s move the lens back and take a wider angle view.  Where does this fit into the larger picture?  It is part of a larger scheme by the democratic party to garner votes by the division of America.  They want to gain or keep your vote by pretending to protect you from some form of perceived oppression.  If you are gay they will protect you from the homophobes.  If you are black they will protect you from the white oppressors.  If you are Hispanic and illegally in this country they want to find some way to make you a citizen so that you can vote for them.  If you are a woman they will protect you from the misogynists.

So who is it that is fanning the flames of racial division in this country?  It is groups like Black Live Matter.  Consider the following 4/3/17 article entitled “Black Lives Matter Philly Bans White People from its Meetings”:

Black Lives Matter Philly banned white people from an upcoming event, claiming it is a “black only space.”

The April 15 meeting plans to discuss projects and initiatives for the upcoming year and act as a  place for people to “meet, strategize and organize.” While children are invited to attend, white people are explicitly banned from the meeting, according to the Facebook event page.

When people began questioning the ban on whites over Twitter, Black Lives Matter Philly stayed by their ban, explaining that their meetings are “black centered.”

Anyone who identifies as “African disapora” is allowed to attend, the group explained over Twitter…“African Disapora” usually refers to people who were taken out of Africa during the Transatlantic Slave Trades.

LMV:  Does this sound like actions from a group that is interested in unity or division?  You be the judge.  Surely, the white supremacists are also interested in promoting racial division but their paltry membership gets little traction. But, unlike the white supremacists, groups like BLM get support from the leftist triad of the mainstream media, academia, and Hollywood.

Another article which demonstrates that academia is on board with the division comes from a 6/2/17 article entitled “Colleges Celebrate Diversity with Separate Commencements”.  This article details how many universities such as Harvard, Emory and Henry College in VA., and Columbia are now having separate commencement ceremonies for African Americans.

“…We have endured the constant questioning of our legitimacy and our capacity, and yet here we are,” Duwain Pinder, a master’s degree candidate in business and public policy, told the cheering crowd of several hundred people in a keynote speech.

From events once cobbled together on shoestring budgets and hidden in back rooms, alternative commencements like the one held at Harvard have become more mainstream, more openly embraced by universities and more common than ever before.

“You began college just weeks after George Zimmerman was acquitted in the callous killing of Trayvon Martin,” Professor Terry, an assistant professor of African and African-American studies and social studies, said in his address.

“You were teenagers, like Michael Brown when he was subjected to the Sophoclean indignity of being shot dead and left in the blazing sun. Your world was shaped in indelible ways by these deaths and others like them, and many of you courageously took to join one of the largest protest movements in decades to try to wrest some semblance of justice from these tragedies.”

LMV:  And so it goes, identity politics is alive and well on campus.  And that’s our show for today.  Thanks for joining us.  I look forward to seeing you next time on Liberty Watch where we don’t believe you need some guy with a bull horn to tell you what to do.

Liberty Watch Episode 9: Insights from Charlottesville

The following is the text version of my YouTube video which can be viewed by clicking here:  <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Vll1xJlfuM>

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Insights on Charlottesville

Liberty Man Van:  Welcome.  It is 8/25/17.  In this episode we’ll discuss recent events of violence in Charlottesville where violence was perpetrated by two nasty groups of people- one from the extreme left and one from the extreme right.  The right wing group had been granted a permit to march and protest the proposed removal of a statue of Robert E. Lee in Charlottesville, VA.  The action started on Friday night 8/11/17.

Video clip: Shows white supremacists marching in Charlottesville on Friday night, 8/11/17.

Liberty Man Van:  Torches reminiscent of the KKK.  The march continued on Saturday when the left extremist group antifa showed up.

Video clip:  Shows antifa picking a fight with alt-right on Saturday, 8/12/17.

Liberty Man Van:  The then took a more violent and tragic turn when a murderer with a car showed up to mow down some folks.

Video clip:  Shows car storming through a crowd of counter-protestors.

Liberty Man Van:  Really nasty stuff.  One was killed and several were injured.  President Trump made these remarks the same day of the tragic events.

The White House

Office of the Press Secretary

For Immediate Release

August 12, 2017

Remarks by President Trump at Signing of the VA Choice and Quality Employment Act

Trump National Golf Club
Bedminster, New Jersey

3:33 P.M. EDT

…But we’re closely following the terrible events unfolding in Charlottesville, Virginia.  We condemn in the strongest possible terms this egregious display of hatred, bigotry and violence, on many sides.  On many sides.  It’s been going on for a long time in our country.  Not Donald Trump, not Barack Obama.  This has been going on for a long, long time.

It has no place in America…

I just got off the phone with the Governor of Virginia, Terry McAuliffe, and we agreed that the hate and the division must stop, and must stop right now.  We have to come together as Americans with love for our nation and true affection — really — and I say this so strongly — true affection for each other.

…Above all else, we must remember this truth:  No matter our color, creed, religion or political party, we are all Americans first.  We love our country.  We love our God.  We love our flag.  We’re proud of our country.  We’re proud of who we are.  So we want to get the situation straightened out in Charlottesville, and we want to study it.  And we want to see what we’re doing wrong as a country, where things like this can happen.

Liberty Man Van:  A couple of days later the President made these remarks:

For Immediate Release

August 14, 2017

Statement by President Trump

Diplomatic Room

12:38 P.M. EDT

…Racism is evil.  And those who cause violence in its name are criminals and thugs, including the KKK, neo-Nazis, white supremacists, and other hate groups that are repugnant to everything we hold dear as Americans.

Liberty Man Van:  The next day, 8/15/17, he made these remarks:

For Immediate Release

August 15, 2017

Remarks by President Trump on Infrastructure

Trump Tower
New York, New York

3:58 P.M. EDT

Liberty Man Van:  A couple of days later Trump was asked about the alt-right and its relationship to the violence that had occurred.

…But when you say the alt-right, define alt-right to me.  You define it.  Go ahead.

THE PRESIDENT:  No, define it for me.  Come on, let’s go.  Define it for me.

Q    Senator McCain defined them as the same group —

THE PRESIDENT:  Okay, what about the alt-left that came charging at — excuse me, what about the alt-left that came charging at the, as you say, the alt-right?  Do they have any semblance of guilt?

Let me ask you this:  What about the fact that they came charging with clubs in their hands, swinging clubs?  Do they have any problem?  I think they do.  As far as I’m concerned, that was a horrible, horrible day.

Q    Sir, you’re not putting these protestors on the same level as neo-Nazis —

Q    Is the alt-left as bad as white supremacy?

THE PRESIDENT:  I will tell you something.  I watched those very closely — much more closely than you people watched it.  And you have — you had a group on one side that was bad, and you had a group on the other side that was also very violent.  And nobody wants to say that, but I’ll say it right now.  You had a group — you had a group on the other side that came charging in, without a permit, and they were very, very violent.

Q    Is the alt-left as bad as Nazis?  Are they as bad as Nazis?

THE PRESIDENT:  Go ahead.

Q    Do you think that what you call the alt-left is the same as neo-Nazis?

THE PRESIDENT:  Those people — all of those people –excuse me, I’ve condemned neo-Nazis.  I’ve condemned many different groups.  But not all of those people were neo-Nazis, believe me.  Not all of those people were white supremacists by any stretch.  Those people were also there because they wanted to protest the taking down of a statue of Robert E. Lee.

Q    Should that statue be taken down?

THE PRESIDENT:  Excuse me.  If you take a look at some of the groups, and you see — and you’d know it if you were honest reporters, which in many cases you’re not — but many of those people were there to protest the taking down of the statue of Robert E. Lee.

So this week it’s Robert E. Lee.  I noticed that Stonewall Jackson is coming down.  I wonder, is it George Washington next week?  And is it Thomas Jefferson the week after?  You know, you really do have to ask yourself, where does it stop?

 Q    Should the statues of Robert E. Lee stay up?

THE PRESIDENT:  I would say that’s up to a local town, community, or the federal government, depending on where it is located.

Liberty Man Van:  Many were quick to criticize President Trump for not denouncing the white supremacists at the rally by name in his first statement.  This is to be expected from the democrats but they are not the only ones who hate Trump.  The establishment wing of the republican party don’t like him either.  The next two clowns get my chicken poop award for being so “brave.”

Video clip:  Paul Ryan makes “brave” statement denouncing bigotry.

Liberty Man Van:  This would have been a brave statement in 1840.  Welcome to the 99% Paul Ryan.  Virtue signaling.  Look at me.  Take note media.  I am against hatred and bigotry.  I am better than Trump.

Video clip:  John Kasich makes “courageous” statement condemning the neo-nazis.

Liberty Man Van:  This is sour grapes.  He lost to Trump in the republican primary for president and will take every opportunity like the democrats to try to make him look bad.  He is a cowardly establishment republican, the type that lost two elections to Barack Obama.  He represents the spineless branch of the republican party, by far the largest branch.

Liberty Man Van:  Let’s contrast that with how the media covers violence from the left, in this case black lives matter.  Is this a hate group that should be condemned?  You be the judge.  Here is the first clip.

Video clip:  Pigs in a blanket, fry ‘em like bacon.

Liberty Man Van:  That’s right, they are chanting “Pigs in a blanket, fry ‘em like bacon.”  Is this hate speech?

Video clip:  What’s better than nine dead cops.  Ten dead cops.

Liberty Man Van:  What’s better than one dead cop.  Two dead cops, etc.  Is this hate speech?  But wait.  That is not all…

Video clip:  What do you want?  Dead cops.  When do we want it?  Now.

Liberty Man Van:  They are chanting What do you want?  Dead cops.  When do we want it?  Now.  Is this hate speech?  If so, wouldn’t that make BLM a hate group?

Video clip:  Denounce BLM violence?  No, CNN commentator makes excuses for the Dallas police sniper.

Liberty Man Van:  Here the commentator blames systemic racism and poverty for black violence.  This is the same old tired argument that has been made for decades.

Video clip:  Denounce BLM violence?  No, Former congressional black caucus leader uses this “gun violence” episode to push for gun control legislation.

Video clip:  Commentator blames cops for the violence against cops.

Text: In barber shops all across America… When I was home with my daddy on the gulf coast of Mississippi, who has been worn in some ways by the history of that state, he said in response a long time ago- It might have been Mike Brown- “If they don’t do something we’re gonna start killing them.  Somebody’s gonna start killing cops if they don’t do something.”  That conversation- I’m giving some insight that white America might not have heard before.  That conversation has been had and it has been had before.  If you are not going to protect us; if you are going to subject us to this, right, then there are going to be elements in our community that are going to respond.

Liberty Man Van:  So here we have a commentator excusing violence against police officers.  In addition, the entire premise of BLM that blacks are more likely to be shot by the police is misleading.  Blacks are proportionately more likely to be shot but they are also more likely to be involved in crimes and thus encounters with police.  If you take criminality into account blacks are not more likely to be shot than whites.  It is simply a myth.

Liberty Man Van:  President Trump was attacked for not condemining right wing extremists early enough and often enough after the events in Charlottesille, VA.  Next, we will contrast President Obama’s response after a left wing extremist sympathetic to BLM killed five police and injured several others in a sniper attack in July 2016.  As we will see, he NEVER condemns this hate group and in fact lends them legitimacy in his speeches following the calculated killings.  In contrast to the spur of the moment vehicular killing carried out by the right wing extremist, the left wing extremist killer in Dallas executed a pre-meditated, racist series of murders.  Let’s get to then President Obama’s comments following the Dallas cop killing spree.  Here are some excerpts from his first speech following the attack.

… We still don’t know all the facts. What we do know is that there’s been vicious, calculated and despicable attack on law enforcement. Police in Dallas were on duty, doing their job, keeping people safe during a peaceful protest.

Liberty Man Van:  Obama and the mainstream media would wear out the phrase “peaceful protest” in the days that followed.  Never mind that many of the BLM protests have been anything but peaceful and have encouraged violent action against cops.  He ignores that important point.

Obama:  These law enforcement officers were targeted, and nearly a dozen officers were shot, five were killed. Other officers and at least one civilian were wounded. Some are in serious conditions and we are praying for their recovery.

… I will have more say about this when the facts become more clear. For now, let me just say that, even as yesterday I spoke about our need to be concerned as all Americans about racial disparities in our criminal justice system. I also said yesterday that our police have an extraordinarily difficult job and the vast majority of them do their job in outstanding fashion.

Liberty Man Van: Comment “racial disparities”, “vast majority do a good job”.

Obama:  … We also know that when people are armed with powerful weapons, it unfortunately makes attacks like these more deadly and more tragic and in the days ahead consider those realities as well.

Liberty Man Van:  Gun control advocacy opportunity not missed.

And let’s look at some of the text of the speech Obama gave at the funeral service for the slain officers:

…For the men and women who protect and serve the people of Dallas, last Thursday began like any other day. Like most Americans, each day you get up, probably have too quick a breakfast, kiss your family goodbye, and you head to work.

But your work and the work of police officers across the country is like no other. For the moment you put on that uniform, you have answered a call that at any moment, even in the briefest interaction, may put your life in harm’s way.

OBAMA: Lorne Ahrens, he answered that call. So did his wife, Katrina, not only because she was the spouse of a police officer, but because she’s a detective on the force. They have two kids. Lorne took them fishing. And he used to proudly go to their school in uniform.

On the night before he died, he bought dinner for a homeless man.

…For a while, the protests went on without incident. And despite the fact that police conduct was the subject of the protest, despite the fact that there must have been signs or slogans or chants with which they profoundly disagreed, these men and this department did their jobs like the professionals that they were.

In fact, the police had been part of the protest planning. Dallas P.D. even posted photos on their Twitter feeds of their own officers standing among the protesters.

Liberty Man Van:  Good, mentions all the slain officers by name tells us something about each of them.

Obama:  …Faced with this violence, we wonder if the divides of race in America can ever be bridged. We wonder if an African American community that feels unfairly targeted by police and police departments that feel unfairly maligned for doing their jobs, can ever understand each other’s experience.

Liberty Man Van:  “Unfairly targeted by police.”

Obama:  …The police helped Shetamia Taylor as she was shot trying to shield her four sons. She said she wanted her boys to join her to protest the incidents of black men being killed.

Liberty Man Van:  “Black men being killed.”  Makes no mention of nuance in these cases.

Obama:  … And today in this audience, I see people who have protested on behalf of criminal justice reform grieving alongside police officers. I see people who mourn for the five officers we lost, but also weep for the families of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile. In this audience, I see what’s possible.

…When anyone, no matter how good their intentions may be, paints all police as biased, or bigoted, we undermine those officers that we depend on for our safety. And as for those who use rhetoric suggesting harm to police, even if they don’t act on it themselves, well, they not only make the jobs of police officers even more dangerous, but they do a disservice to the very cause of justice that they claim to promote.

Liberty Man Van:  Here he makes an oblique reference to BLM but does not call them out by name.

(APPLAUSE)

…We also know that centuries of racial discrimination, of slavery, and subjugation, and Jim Crow; they didn’t simply vanish with the law against segregation. They didn’t necessarily stop when a Dr. King speech, or when the civil rights act or voting rights act were signed. Race relations have improved dramatically in my lifetime. Those who deny it are dishonoring the struggles that helped us achieve that progress. But we know…

(APPLAUSE)

But America, we know that bias remains. We know it, whether you are black, or white, or Hispanic, or Asian, or native American, or of Middle Eastern descent, we have all seen this bigotry in our own lives at some point. We’ve heard it at times in our own homes. If we’re honest, perhaps we’ve heard prejudice in our own heads and felt it in our own hearts. We know that. And while some suffer far more under racism’s burden, some feel to a far greater extent discrimination’s stain. Although most of us do our best to guard against it and teach our children better, none of us is entirely innocent. No institution is entirely immune, and that includes our police departments. We know this. And so when African-Americans from all walks of life, from different communities across the country, voice a growing despair over what they perceive to be unequal treatment, when study after study shows that whites and people of color experience the criminal justice system differently. So that if you’re black, you’re more likely to be pulled over or searched or arrested; more likely to get longer sentences; more likely to get the death penalty for the same crime.

Liberty Man Van:  Blacks are arrested more often and in the same proportion that they commit crimes.  For example, in 2013 blacks were six times more likely to commit murder than non-blacks.

Obama:…When mothers and fathers raised their kids right, and have the talk about how to respond if stopped by a police officer — yes, sir; no, sir — but still fear that something terrible may happen when their child walks out the door; still fear that kids being stupid and not quite doing things right might end in tragedy.

Liberty Man Van:  The vast majority of episodes of blacks being shot by police occur when they are resisting arrest.  Obama might have helped this statistic by saying simply “Stop resisting arrest.”

Obama:  …When all this takes place, more than 50 years after the passage of the Civil Rights Act, we cannot simply turn away and dismiss those in peaceful protest as troublemakers or paranoid.

Liberty Man Van:  There is that phrase “peaceful protest” again.

(APPLAUSE)

Obama:  …We can’t simply dismiss it as a symptom of political correctness or reverse racism. To have your experience denied like that, dismissed by those in authority, dismissed perhaps even by your white friends and coworkers and fellow church members, again and again and again, it hurts. Surely we can see that, all of us.

Liberty Man Van:  How about having black politicians blame you for black criminality again and again and again.

Obama:  …As a society, we choose to under-invest in decent schools. We allow poverty to fester so that entire neighborhoods offer no prospect for gainful employment. We refuse to fund drug treatment and mental health programs.

Liberty Man Van:  If poverty automatically leads to criminality then why don’t we see a crime spree in Appalachia?

Obama:  …We flood communities with so many guns that it is easier for a teenager to buy a Glock than get his hands on a computer or even a book.

…Because with an open heart, we can learn to stand in each other’s shoes and look at the world through each other’s eyes. So that maybe the police officer sees his own son in that teenager with a hoodie, who’s kind of goofing off but not dangerous.

…And I understand these protests — I see them. They can be messy. Sometimes they can be hijacked by an irresponsible few. Police can get hurt.

(APPLAUSE)

Protesters can get hurt. They can be frustrated. But even those who dislike the phrase “black lives matter,” surely, we should be able to hear the pain of Alton Sterling’s family.

Liberty Man Van:  He finally mentions BLM but does he call them out as a hate group.  No, he goes out of his way to make excuses for them.

Liberty Man Van:  President Obama mentioned Alton Sterling and Philando Castille in this speech as if they were innocent victims of police aggression. Baton Rouge Police were responding to a call from a complaintant when they encountered Alton Sterling.  Police shouted to him “Get on the ground.  Get on the ground now”.  Instead of getting on the ground instead he resisted police.  He had a gun.  He was shot in the altercation that ensued.  Officers tried to subdue him with a taser but that was not successful.  Sterling continued to resist.  Sterling had been in trouble before.  He was on probation and was not allowed to carry a gun.  Sterling had recently been released from prison and was selling bootlet cd’s, an illegal activity.  Sterling had had many previous encounters with law enforcement.  He was a convicted child sex offender and he owed much in child support that he had not paid.  He was not an innocent victim.

President Obama also mentioned Philando Castile as if he were the innocent victim of a police shooting. Castile lived in Minnesota and a convenience store near where he lived had recently been robbed and photos of the assailants had been posted.  Police pulled him over a few days after the robbery because he looked like one of the robbers.  Catile was with his girlfriend and her four year old daughter from a previous relationship.  There was marijuana in the car.  He had a gun in the car.  He pulled the gun and he was shot.  The officer was already on high alert thinking this guy may have already committed an armed robbery a few days ago.  Castile’s girlfriend starting streaming video after the shooting; we have no video record of what happened prior to the shooting.  Court records showed that Castile had at least 55 Minnesota traffic violations.  He had multiple marijuana arrests including one in which he had over 1.4 grams.  Facebook posts seem to indicate he was involved with or at least sympathetic to the crips gang.

The main topic of our show today has been about mainstream media bias and we will recap what we have learned shortly.  But before leaving the subject of policing I would like to bring a libertarian perspective to the topic.  Who do the police work for?  The state.  If you happen to be shot by a cop who will decide the cop’s guilt or innocence?  The state.  Does this give the cop a “home field advantage?”  I think it does.  One solution to this problem would be to have an independent court system, such as arbitration, that is not run by the state.  Another solution would be to have the police more accountable to the public.  This might be accomplished by contracting policing out to a private company as we do now when we hire private security guards.  If we thought these police were unfairly targeting a minority group we could refuse to renew their contract.  In other words, we could fire the rascals.  We don’t have that option now.  The police could do a totally awful job and the department will still continue to exist.

Libertarian author Murray Rothbard sheds some light on this subject in his book For a New Liberty.  He remarks:

How shall the police allocate their funds which are, of course, always limited as are the funds of all other individuals, organizations, and agencies? How much shall the police invest in electronic equipment? fingerprinting equipment? detectives as against uniformed police? patrol cars as against foot police, etc.? The point is that the government has no rational way to make these allocations. The government only knows that it has a limited budget. Its allocations of funds are then subject to the full play of politics, boondoggling, and bureaucratic inefficiency, with no indication at all as to whether the police department is serving the consumers in a way responsive to their desires or whether it is doing so efficiently. The situation would be different if police services were supplied on a free, competitive market. In that case, consumers would pay for whatever degree of protection they wish to purchase. The consumers who just want to see a policeman once in a while would pay less than those who want continuous patrolling, and far less than those who demand 24-hour bodyguard service. On the free market, protection would be supplied in proportion and in whatever way that the consumers wish to pay for it. A drive for efficiency would be insured, as it always is on the market, by the compulsion to make profits and avoid losses, and thereby to keep costs low and to serve the highest demands of the consumers. Any police firm that suffers from gross inefficiency would soon go bankrupt and disappear.

Liberty Man Van:  In summary, we have learned today about media bias and how political groups on the left and right are treated differently.  We have learned how presidents on the left or right are treated differently.

If you are a left leaning political group, such as BLM or antifa:

 

  • You can perform acts of violence and the mainstream media will make excuses for you.
  • You can show up at a right wing political rally or event, pick a violent fight and have the media blame the right.
  • You can do your best to suppress the free speech rights of the right while at the same time calling yourself “antifacist.”
  • You can engage in hate speech towards cops and never have your group noted by the SPLC or the press as a hate group.

If you are a right leaning political group:

You can be engaged in a peaceful protest, have antifa show up and mace you or throw rocks at you, then have the media blame you exclusively for the violence (Trump rallies, Charlottesville rally).

  • You can have a controversial author such as Ann Coulter or Milo Yiannopolous scheduled to speak at a taxpayer funded university, such as UC-Berkeley, and have your speech suppressed through the threat of violence by antifa.
  • You can have a mainstream conservative author such as Charles Murray threatened off your campus.

If you are a left leaning president, such as Barack Obama:

 

  • You will never be called out for not denouncing “hate speech” if that speech comes from the left (Pigs in a blanket…, What do you want? Dead cops!)
  • You can criticize cops for shooting people with long rap sheets, carrying gun, and resisting arrest without so much as a whimper from the media.
  • You can call into question the motives of police officers during the funeral of police officers and expect crickets from the media.

 If you are a right leaning President:

 

  • The media will always portray your actions in the most negative light.
  • You will be criticized for condemning violence from ALL quarters.
  • Some members of your own party will use any opportunity to make you look bad and engage in virtue signaling.

 

All of this demonstrates how the mainstream media portrays progressives as if they always have the best of intentions and conservatives as if they always have the worst of intentions.

 

I will leave you with a study of news coverage conducted by the Harvard Kennedy School’s Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy.  They analyzed news coverage of President Trump’s first 100 days in office.  They found the following:

Trump’s coverage during his first 100 days set a new standard for negativity. Findings include:

  • President Trump has received unsparing coverage for most weeks of his presidency, without a single major topic where coverage, on balance, was more positive than negative, setting a new standard for unfavorable press coverage of a president.
  • Every news outlet in the study was negative more often than positive.
  • Fox was the only news outlet that came close to giving Trump positive coverage overall – though they did not – 52% of news reports on Fox were negative towards President Trump. Only 48% were positive.

Here’s how the various news outlets treated Trump:  Graphic, comment on graphic

 That’s the show for today.  Join us next time for another episode of Liberty Watch.