By Ron Paul
Mask tyranny reached a new low recently when a family was kicked off a Spirit Airlines flight because their four-year-old autistic son was not wearing a mask. The family was removed from the plane even though the boy’s doctor had decided the boy should be exempted from mask mandates because the boy panics and engages in behavior that could pose a danger to himself when wearing a mask. Besides, four-year-olds do not present much risk of spreading or contracting coronavirus. Even if masks did prevent infections among adults, there would be no reason to force children to wear masks. Mask mandates have as much to do with healthcare as Transportation Security Administration (TSA) screenings have to do with stopping terrorism. Masks and TSA screenings are “security theater” done to reassure those frightened by government and media propaganda regarding coronavirus and terrorism that the government is protecting them. Covid oppression will worsen if vaccine passports become more widely required. Vaccine passports are digital or physical proof a person has taken a coronavirus vaccine. New York is already requiring that individuals produce digital proof of taking a coronavirus vaccine before being admitted to sporting events. Imagine if the zealous enforcers of mask mandates had the power to deny you access to public places because you have not “gotten your shot.” Even worse, what if a potential employer had to ensure you were “properly” vaccinated before hiring you? This could come to pass if proponents of mandatory E-Verify have their way. E-Verify requires employers to submit personal identifying information — such as a social security numbers and biometric data — to a government database to ensure job applicants have federal permission to hold jobs. Currently, E-Verify is only used to assure a job applicant is a citizen or legal resident. However, its use could be expanded to advancing other purposes, such as ensuring a potential new hire has taken all the recommended vaccines. E-Verify could even be used to check if a job applicant has ever expressed, or associated with someone who has expressed, “hate speech,” “conspiracy theories,” or “Russian disinformation,” which is code for facts embarrassing to the political class. Many employers will be reluctant to hire such an employee for fear their businesses will become the next targets of “cancel culture.” Those who doubt this should consider how many businesses have folded under pressure from the cultural Marxists and fired someone for expressing an “unapproved” thought. Politicians and bureaucrats have used overblown fear of coronavirus to justify the largest infringement of individual liberty in modern times. Covid tyranny has been aided by many Americans who are not just willing to sacrifice their liberty for phony security, but who help government take away liberty from their fellow citizens. The good news is that, as it becomes increasingly clear that there was no need to shut down the economy, throw millions out of work, subject children to the fraud of “virtual” learning, and force everyone to wear a mask, more people are turning against the politicians and “experts” behind the lockdowns and mandates. Hopefully, these Americans will realize that, in addition to coronavirus lockdowns and mandates, the entire welfare-warfare-fiat money system is built on a foundation of lies.
Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) had a heated exchange with CDC's Fauci in the Senate late last week, where the Senator pushed the bureaucrat to provide a single study showing that the possibility of re-infection among those who had Covid or had been vaccinated justifies current orders to continue wearing masks. What about the variants? Also today...even Fauci is admitting the six foot rule is not "science." Finally, protests in Europe.
Democracy is useful for the peaceful transfer of power. However, in an of itself, Democracy does not equal "Freedom." In fact, neither the Declaration of Independence, nor The U.S. Constitution mention the word "Democracy" anywhere. Is it a coincidence that the U.S. Constitution is almost completely ignored at the same time that America is considered a "Democracy"?
Fox News Host Tucker Carlson ignited a firestorm last week when he questioned the use of pregnant women as fighter pilots. Though his comments focused on readiness, he was immediately slammed - and even threatened - by official Pentagon social media accounts for "denigrating" women in the military. Are "woke" senior military officers more interested in waging war against non-"woke" Americans, or preparing to defend this country?
A conveniently timed new "Intelligence Community Assessment" - declassified yesterday, claims that the Russian president directed his spies and proxies to throw the US election to Trump. All the claims and evidence of Biden family corruption were actually just Kremlin spy tricks. Also today, are you ready for your vaccine passport?
By Chris Rossini
Events --> Interpretation --> Action All day, every day. Events take place, we individually perceive and interpret their meanings, and then act in a way that we believe will be beneficial to our lives. Let's take an event as simple as the wind blowing. One person perceives and interprets the wind, and decides to put on a jacket. Wearing a jacket is believed to be more beneficial to this person's life than not wearing one. So he acts, and puts the jacket on. Another individual perceives the wind and decides the exact opposite. He's been working on his roof for hours and is exhausted from baking in the sun. Not only does he not put a jacket on, he takes his shirt off so that the wind can hit his skin directly. A third person is relaxing and swinging on a hammock. He perceives the wind and does nothing. He doesn't care one way or another. He neither puts a jacket on, nor takes his shirt off. He's perfectly comfortable relaxing as he is and continues to satisfy his most urgent and valuable desires without making any adjustments to the wind. So we have the same exact event, three completely different interpretations, and three completely different actions; all taken to benefit each individual's life. To quote the great economist Ludwig von Mises: "Each individual is the only and final arbiter in matters concerning his own satisfaction and happiness." The primary concern of the ideas of Liberty is with action. It is not concerned with perception and interpretation. We all interpret events in our own unique way. We are all exquisitely and perfectly different. We are each one-of-a-kind; never to be copied or reproduced. No one ever has, or ever will, perceive and interpret events in the exact same way. So the ideas of Liberty are unconcerned and neutral with perception and interpretation. These are a private concern that take place in each individual mind. It's only with action that the ideas of Liberty kick in. The action of seeking to satisfy of one's own chosen ends must be done without using aggressive force against another person or another person's property. So, when you take the three actions described above (i.e., putting on a jacket, taking off a shirt, and continuing to swing on a hammock) all are harmonious with the ideas of Liberty. No aggressive force was used against another person or their property. So in a nutshell ... Liberty = Harmony. Were a person to choose to use violent force against another person or their property, they would be acting like a criminal. In a free society, criminal behavior is illegal. Now, let's warp this harmony by bringing in a completely different mindset: that of busybody authoritarianism. The busybody first seeks a monopoly on interpretation. When the wind blows, it means only one thing, and that one thing must be interpreted by everyone in the same way. The busybody determines the single interpretation. This single interpretation is then repeated over-and-over through every official channel. Everywhere you look, you see the one-and-only interpretation. Any deviation from the official interpretation must be censored. Should some deplorable or neanderthal individual try to speak the words of a different interpretation, he is to be called a bunch of names and discredited. Any interpretation that is different from the official interpretation must be seen as illegitimate and even dangerous! After trying to monopolize interpretations, the busybody moves into action. The busybody must forcefully intervene to make things right (as he perceives it). The busybody must never let anything be, and never leave everyone else alone. If the wind blows, there is a problem that the busybody must fix for everyone. In the case of the wind blowing, only one of our three individuals had a jacket to put on. Well, this turns out to be a problem for the busybody. In his mind, all three people should have a jacket to put on. Now, it didn't matter to the other individuals that they didn't have a jacket. But that means nothing to the busybody. The busybody does not see individuality. He only sees abstract collectives and problems that he must use force (or the threat of force) to "fix". It doesn't matter to the busybody that there isn't an actual thinking, choosing, valuing and acting collective. All of these can only be done by each individual. Only individuals think, choose and act. Collectives do not, because they are abstractions. But the busybody ignores all of this and decides to use force against all individuals who own a jacket. The busybody will forcefully take money from jacket owners. After all, nothing can be "fixed" without theft in the busybody system. The busybody will then take this stolen money (use a large portion of it to finance his own extravagant lifestyle) and then provide "access" of jackets for all. The busybody feels a surge of good emotions. He is the exceptional one, using violent force to organize the world as he sees fit. Without him, the peaceful harmony of liberty was chaos. Now, he has provided a new order....his order. The Crony Big Business jacket makers love the busybody system. If everyone must have "access" to a jacket, their business has just hit the jackpot! They don't have to worry about satisfying customers in the marketplace, and trying to figure out which jackets to make, market and sell. Their revenues now come from the stolen money of the busybody! Instead of selling to the multitude of fickle customers, they only have to sell a single busybody, whose treasury is full with stolen cash. When the Crony Big Business jacket makers sold their jackets directly into the marketplace, they sold them at $20 a piece. But since they're now selling them to the busybody, they can sell them for $100 a piece! No one cares! It's all stolen money anyway. There's plenty more where it came from. It means nothing to the busybody that he ends up creating three new (and bigger) problems by "solving" what he perceived to be a jacket problem. If anything, the three new problems provide an opening for him to intervene even more! The busybody needs to be needed. If he ends up creating needs artificially, all the better for him. More for him to do. The worst thing for the busybody is for others to not want him to "help." The busybody system of the multiplication of problems works ... for the busybodies (and their crony friends). Everyone else is the victim that must suffer a continuous ratcheting-down in their standards of living. There is no perfection in this world. Even with Liberty there are problems galore. Human life is a never-ending sequence of problem solving by each individual. But at least they are solved without criminality that is legal. Busybody Authoritarianism = Legalized Criminality. Liberty is far superior to this. Let's make criminality illegal again.
Two months after reporting on former President Donald Trump "pressuring" Georgia election officials to find fraud in the process - long after that narrative had been accepted as fact - the Washington Post yesterday announced that the quotes were made up. Who made them up and why? Shouldn't the Post have investigated thoroughly? Is there no pushback when the mainstream media continues to print biased falsehoods? Also today, one school district in Texas said a strong "NO!" to shutting down and online instruction only. And they thrived!
By Ron Paul
Last week President Biden addressed the nation on the first anniversary of the coronavirus being declared a “pandemic.” It was a disturbing speech, warning us that the “hopeful spring” will only emerge “from a dark winter” if all Americans “stick with the rules.” Whose rules? His rules. The message from the president was clear: he will only allow us to have some of our freedoms back if we do exactly as he tells us. It was the language of extortion, of a bank robber who demands you do what he says or face the consequences. It was not the language of someone we are told is the leader of the free world. In the speech Biden laid out a list of what was taken from us over the past year, “weddings, birthdays, graduations…family reunions, the Sunday night rituals.” It was as if somehow the virus, instead of authoritarian government officials, prevented us from enjoying these normal human activities. Though we continue to see Covid disappear across the country with the end of the winter season, Biden was not about to let go of his perceived power to control our lives. He said, "if we do all this, if we do our part, if we do this together, by July the 4, there's a good chance you, your families and friends, will be able to get together in your backyard or in your neighborhood and have a cookout or a barbecue and celebrate Independence Day. That doesn't mean large events with lots of people together, but it does mean small groups will be able to get together.” Imagine our Founders hearing this speech. The US president might – just might – allow small family gatherings at home in four months if we follow all of his rules. King George looked benevolent by comparison! As Rep. Thomas Massie Tweeted shortly after the speech, “If you’re waiting for permission from the chief executive to celebrate Independence Day with your family, you clearly don’t grasp the concept of Independence.” It seems like yesterday – it almost was – that Biden “asked” us to just wear the mask for 100 days. "Just 100 days to mask, not forever. 100 days," he said. So from “just 100 days” to maybe you can have a small gathering by July 4th? Perhaps he just forgot his earlier speech? As usual, the goalposts keep being moved because politicians cannot bear the possibility that they might have to give up some of that power over us they have grabbed for themselves. Fauci made the usual mainstream media rounds over the weekend and was asked by the fawning host when Americans might have permission to hold weddings again! So now Americans need Fauci’s permission to get married? What is happening to this country? The propaganda is so relentless that it seems most Americans don’t see how not normal this is! In saner times, Fauci would be laughed off the stage. Now, he’s treated as some sort of divine source of truth. Biden promised he was “using every power…as the president of the United States to put us on a war footing.” Of that I have no doubt. But Biden’s war is not against the virus. It’s against the US Constitution and liberty itself.
A 65 year old Galveston woman found herself tackled, handcuffed, arrested, and with a broken foot after she refused to leave a local Bank of America branch without her money. The bank demanded she put on a mask, she refused, so they called in the police. Property rights? Also today, first anniversary of the Covid lockdowns. Success or tragic failure?
As Americans watch their bills relentlessly rise, they're repeatedly told by official sources that there is no inflation, or 'not enough' inflation. According to the Fed, prices aren't rising fast enough! They've yet to hit their "inflation target." So which is it? Are your own eyes lying to you? Or are the bureaucrats refusing to come clean?
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