Fifty More Ways to Leave Leviathan: Innovation and Entrepreneurship can make you Freer

by Max Borders and Jeffrey A. Tucker:

It’s been over a year since we published “50 Ways to Leave Leviathan.” That successful piece showed how innovation and entrepreneurship are gradually undermining the top-down, command-and-control approach to governance.

It is happening quickly by any historical standard, but it is also happening incrementally in ways that cause us not to notice. The bigger the pattern, the more slowly we tend to recognize it. The bigger the implication, the more resistant we are to acknowledging it.

We even take it all for granted. In reality, the ground is shifting beneath our feet. Those in power feel it, and it scares them. The innovation can be slowed, but it can’t be stopped, much less reversed. This great transformation is already underway.

The theme, as always, is human freedom, which is the insuppressible urge within all of us to live full and ever more prosperous lives, regardless of the barriers put in the way.

Here are 50 more ways to leave Leviathan. Each one is worthy of a separate article and analysis, but assembling them this way shows how one paradigm of social and economic organization is crumbling and another is taking its place. The unrelenting power and energy behind these innovations and workarounds are making the old models of social organization obsolete.

1. Become an e-resident of Estonia. Estonia was once an unwilling satellite of the Soviet socialist empire. Today, the country is leading the way toward the breakdown of nation-based political organization, especially with its new e-resident program. Anyone can become a resident for $61. What can you do with that? Well, you get a cool card, and there might be some business and banking benefits. No one knows for sure, not even those who champion the program. But it’s a step in the right direction. Digital residency might mean more than physical residency in the world of the future.

2. Skip licensing with TaskRabbit. Occupational licensing is one of the dumbest ideas ever, a real holdover from 18th-century mercantilism. Why must we create a state-protected cartel for every task? Well, TaskRabbit is helping to bust them all up with a system for connecting service providers with service seekers. Know how to fix a sink or need one fixed — or hundreds of thousands of other tasks? Get connected in minutes. So much for the gatekeeping monopolists who stand between us and our needs.

3. Get anything delivered with WunWun. When you need a government service, you get it on their terms. More and more, when you need anything else, it will come to you. WunWun is fairly new and only operates in New York and San Francisco, but you can see where this idea is headed. Click a button on an app and, if it can be brought to you on a bicycle, it will be there in no time. You pay with a credit card. This service is going viral, and paying with cryptocurrency will be an option.

4. Hire or be hired with oDesk. In the old days, getting a job meant impressing a company enough to take you on long term. But in the digital age, anyone can work for or with anyone else, and oDesk is one of hundreds of platforms that make this possible. Freelancing was once the exception, but with government rules and mandates making conventions less viable, millions are turning to task-based employment. Work for whomever you want, whenever you want. It’s a great way to overcome the barriers of the regulatory state.

5. Moonlight with eLance. If you have a skill and a job, but government regulations limit you to 30 or 40 hours of work per week, you can still put those nights and weekends to productive use. Many services, such as eLance, allow you to pick up extra cash without checking with the central authorities. It is completely beyond the capacity of the Department of Labor to monitor this type of work. They call it “exploitation,” but we all know it’s just a matter of making ends meet.

6. Foil the revenue cops with Fixed.com. Since the financial crisis of 2008, local governments have been hurting for revenue, so they unleashed the cops to bring in the money. This is one major reason why nearly everyone feels oppressed by the police these days. But the app economy has come to the rescue. Scan your ticket and submit, and a local attorney will push for dismissal. The fee you pay is a fraction of what the government demands. For now, it’s mostly a San Francisco service, but it will soon expand.

7. Put that car to use with Getaround. You have to get somewhere, but it is not always easy because government transit systems are so terrible. Now there is a way to share your car with others and make money at the same time. This app, one of many such services, allows you to rent a nearby car for the day, putting idle resources to work without crazy government mandates for carpooling and public transport. It’s the market at work fixing yet another big problem.

8. Your house becomes a restaurant with EatWith. Why should the regulators say what is and what isn’t a restaurant? If you have a kitchen or an appetite, there are others who might want to make an exchange with you. Such services are busy every day busting up the eating cartels. They are also helping to bring back the dinner party.

9. Get a business loan at the Funding Circle. The Fed broke the banking system in 2008 with its crazy bailouts and zero-interest-rate policies. It is not a reliable source for doing what banks have always done to make money. But the private sector has come to the rescue with online sources for business loans. The interest on such loans is market based, revealing the weird world we have today with regard to interest: there’s the official rate, and then there’s the real rate.

10. Monitor overlords with copblocking. It’s become a thing now that the police are filmed by regular citizens all across the United States and the world. Ten years ago, filming a cop might have gotten you arrested. Today, there is nothing they can do about it, since everyone carries a video maker in her pocket. Filming is not a perfect solution, but it sure makes the cops more accountable. Livestreaming means that the video is still out there even if your phone is confiscated or smashed. Copblocking has become a way of life.

11. Try mobile health care. Time was when health care came to you. As the industry became more cartelized and expensive, the industry dictated the terms and you had to go to them. But regulations have pushed matters so far that the system is breaking down, and many providers are seceding toward a consumer-driven model. Even companies like Uber are looking into putting doctors and nurses on wheels. Such services will only be for the well-to-do — for now. But just as mobile phones got better, faster, and cheaper, so will health care delivery. Mobile health care startups are already attracting a lot of venture capital. First up: Uber for hangovers. (Note: Uber Logistics is coming soon.)

12. Get married on the blockchain. Marriage before the 20th century could be a purely private affair between individuals or within religious institutions. States took over marriage in the 20th century with licenses and strictures everywhere. There’s no better way to depoliticize this institution than finding another way to contract a marriage besides going to the State. The blockchain — bitcoin’s payment system — is perfect for posting contracts that are time-stamped, nonforgeable, and verified. Why not let it be the way out of State-controlled marriage? (See Bitnation.)

13. Use blockchain contracting. People who love the distributed ledger have counted fully 84 possible uses of the blockchain for keeping all kinds of records and contracts, including public and private equities, bonds, spending records, crowdfunding, microfinance, land titles, health records, forensic evidence, birth certificates, wills, trusts, escrow, business accounting, and just about anything else that involves contracts. This is serious future stuff: a fully functioning body of law in the cloud that works without lawmakers or bureaucrats.

14. Manage transactions with Counterparty. Let’s say you have an idea for a legal institution that isn’t yet available, or you want to pioneer a new system for business-to-business exchanges and invoicing. There are at least two well-funded platforms that specialize in innovation on distributed networks: Ethereum and Counterparty. They are busy working (in private) with some very large companies right now. Private, lower-cost alternatives to government are on the way.

15. Encrypt your smartphone data. Ever since people became aware that government is using surveillance to track our every online move and every phone call, people have demanded solutions. Apple was the first to act to encrypt all smartphone data to the point that not even the company itself can access it (iOS8). The same change is being made to the Android operating system. The FBI went nuts and denounced this encryption, but it’s too late. Users feel safer, and there’s no going back.

16. Buy and sell through Open Bazaar. Last year, the government took down the Silk Road online marketplace, seemingly ending a peaceful solution to the violence of the drug trade. Several more sites popped up to take its place, but the ultimate solution lies with a distributed network with no central point of failure. This is what the company Open Bazaar is doing. It will be a marketplace that anyone can download and implement. It lives on a network too diffuse to be dissolved. And it is designed for bitcoin.

17. Use tax preparation software. It is nearly beyond the capacity of mere mortals to prepare taxes by hand these days, but software has come to the rescue. There are so many packages available that put the power of a huge team of accountants in the hands of every person, and at a very low price. It’s amazing to see how the private sector has managed to save us time and money in this most arduous task.

18. Ditch school and go Praxis. Everyone knows there is a huge college bubble developing, with debt and costs exploding. The question has been: what will replace the traditional path to higher education? Innovative alternatives combine work and study into affordable one-year programs that bypass traditional college entirely. The student integrates into a commercial space and thereby completes the program having obtained actual, valuable skills. That’s a massive change for the better.

19. Enjoy pot legally. Forty years ago, Richard Nixon started a war on pot as a political maneuver. It boosted his credibility and attacked his enemies. Sadly, tens of millions of innocent people have been abused and caged as a result. But the public isn’t standing for it anymore. States and cities are decriminalizing it all over the country in response to noncompliance and voter revolt. Nearly half the states have liberalized. Only the South remains to act in some form. It’s a beautiful thing to see freedom from the drug war dawning at last.

20. Build your car from a kit. Federal regulations have made a mess of car coolness over the years, mandating higher hoods and trunks and dramatically reducing visibility thanks to safety standards (even as fuel economy mandates lighter cars). Whatever happened to the car of the future that looked sleek and amazing, like an arrowhead? Well, there is a loophole: you can build your own. This is what FactoryFive allows you to do. How satisfying to drive an embodiment of the rebellious spirit!

21. Become a homebrewer. It’s seems incredible that the United States once banned the production and distribution of alcohol by constitutional amendment. Talk about nuts! Prohibition was repealed in 1932, but the prohibitionist mindset is still with us. That hasn’t stopped the homebrewing of beer from taking off in a dramatic national trend, however. The craft-brew movement started with a guy working in his basement. It’s now a large commercial industry to supply enthusiasts. Be your own bootlegger.

22. Contribute to community charity online. The rap about capitalism is that it’s all about greed. That’s nonsense. A major employment of capitalist tools has been the building of huge community-based networks of philanthropy. Through sites like Groupon Grassroots, you can now support a large variety of meritorious projects right in your own neighborhood. Charity has never been more networked and effective as compared with tax-funded transfer payments.

23. Grow plants from open-source seeds. Since the movie Food, Inc., the public has been widely and rightly upset about patented seeds. Seed patents conflict with 6,000 years of agricultural practice in which people save and share seeds. The Open Source Seed Initiative is fighting back against government-protected monopolists by producing excellent seeds for sharing around the world. It’s the application of the most successful software model to the practice of growing food. No government agents or crony thugs involved.

24. Live in a tiny house. Since at least the 1920s, the American dream has been all about home ownership — and the bigger, the better. Bankers loved it and so did government, which subsidized the trend for the rest of the century. Then the system exploded in 2008. Today, people are busy rethinking, and one result is the tiny house movement. Tiny houses are affordable, easy to keep up, and allow for flexible and light living. They’re also illegal in most municipalities, but thankfully they can also be mobile.

25. Sip ayahuasca tea from abroad. Native populations of South America have used the herb ayahuasca for centuries as a natural hallucinogen. They say it makes profound spiritual revelations possible. Maybe. But whatever: the drug warriors hate it. That hasn’t stopped the development of an active market for spiritual tourism and for acquiring ayahuasca teas from abroad. Nothing can stop the forces of supply and demand.

26. Attend Voice & Exit. This festival of the future is poised to give TED a run for its money. The idea — the human algorithm — is about abandoning systems that are no longer working and starting new systems (in the spirit of this article). “Exiters” flock to the event each year to celebrate human flourishing, and there will soon be events in multiple cities. The founders are proud of their post-partisan ethos and welcome people from all backgrounds. But the focus is on celebrating voluntary solutions to improving oneself, one’s community, and the world. (Disclosure: Max Borders is a Voice & Exit cofounder.)

27. Drink butter coffee. How could something so simple and wonderful elude us for so long? The trend to mix butter and coffee underscores how brilliance and innovation need not involve complex technology. It only requires insight. When you embrace butter coffee, you are leaving that state-perpetuated myth that fats found in butter are unhealthy. It took a peer-to-peer network of ancestral health practitioners to bring down the anti-fat propagandists and scientific “experts” a peg or two.

28. Be a fully informed juror. It’s the traditional right of juries to judge not only the defendant’s guilt or innocence but also the law under which he or she is charged. But jurors are rarely told that. Sometimes, however, their conscience guides them in the right way, as with many recent marijuana cases. There are hundreds of documented cases in which juries have simply refused to convict regardless of evidence. Prosecutors have become discouraged at even finding jurors, so they shelve the cases. The FIJA is doing heavy educational lifting here.

29. Hire a virtual assistant. Minimum wage laws and other regulations mean it’s too expensive to hire assistants the way people once did. That’s tragic. But technology finds a way. You can hire an assistant online without having to fork over the big bucks for benefits, health insurance, and unemployment insurance. They work through email, Google hangouts, Skype, and other conferencing systems. And you can find them at sites like Brickwork.

30. Eat grass-fed beef. Government apparently wants all edible animals stuffed with corn — because the corn lobby remains one of the most powerful in Washington. But not all consumers are going for it. They are finding ways to import grass-fed beef and even to do ranching their own way. Food innovations such as these can’t be stopped, no matter how many agents the feds send out to arrest the supposed bad guys. Rogue farming and ranching are on the rise.

31. Read or publish an eBook. Time was when only the rich could afford home libraries. They were treasures, more valuable than houses and the land they sat on. It was only in the 20th century that home libraries became common. In the 21st century, anyone with a cheap e-reader can downloadhundreds of thousands of books at no cost. It’s a breathtaking development, and yet how many of us take all this knowledge for granted? Every dystopian novel features a world of censorship. That world is impossible today.

32. Participate in Liberty.me. The ideas of liberty have always needed an action plan, something besides begging the people in power to recognize human rights and liberties. Now there is a global liberty community that provides discussions, libraries, friendship, and turnkey publishing, effectively crowdsourcing the building of liberty. It’s a community for doers, not just dreamers, and it’s made possible entirely through digital media. (Disclosure: Jeffrey Tucker is the founder.)

33. Benefit from drones. Two years ago, the word “drone” was synonymous with US imperialism and murders abroad. Then the private sector got involved, and drones are now used for humane purposes such as delivering groceries and other products. Amazon Prime Air is the pioneer here, but it is not difficult to imagine these glorious machines flying all over the airspace in a way that serves people, getting them what they need or want in a way they want it. That even includes beer, except that the FDA shut this service down. For now.

34. Use multisig. Bitcoin can brag of its peer-to-peer structure, but what if you want more than one party around to execute a transaction? For example, business partners need to all be involved in decision making. Another example is a bequest: the beneficiary needs access. Twelve months ago, multisig seemed like a dream. Now, it’s a reality. All the main exchanges offer multisignature interfaces. You can have many people involved in making a transaction now, potentially hundreds. This is the ultimate in customizable payment and money systems.

35. Stream your music. Some readers might remember meandering through record stores looking for “long-playing” records. Then came eight-tracks. Then came cassettes. Then came CDs, and they were amazing. But they didn’t last long. The world became fully digitized with the iPod and MP3s. But that didn’t last long, either. Just within the last 12 months, we’ve seen miracles happen. Infinite libraries of thousands of years of music are now available for low fees, via tiny devices, at sites like Spotify, Pandora, Google Play, and hundreds of others. You can listen to anything, anytime, anywhere. It’s mind-boggling, and it makes a mockery of regulatory attempts to control technology and the arts.

36. View nanoscale lithography. Copyright is pretty weird, forbidding reproduction of an “owned” image or text without specifying the medium or scale. What if you take a giant picture and reduce it to microscopic size and embed it in another piece of art? Is that infringement? One artist decided to test the notion. How absurd can copyright enforcement be? The result is “When Art Exceeds Perception,” an exhibition of art at Cornell University. The reproductions can’t be seen by the naked eye, but the copyright holder is still objecting, which is, as it turns out, part of the art itself.

37. Be your own quant. Ten years ago, there was an emerging hysteria about how “quants” — super-smart number crunchers with private knowledge — were ruling the financial space, edging out individual investors and even medium-sized institutions. They were rigging the game and grabbing all available profits for themselves. Today, the same and better knowledge is being democratized with such services as Kensho, which is bringing quant-style power to every investor and institution, essentially running a Google-style search feature for investments. So much for the monopoly. The market’s tendency is to distribute valuable information.

38. Skip the student loans. A key problem with government loans is that they are not creative. Students rack up debt and find their careers hobbled for years. What if there were a different way? Lumni suggests this: they will pay for your education and, in return, you give a percentage of your income back after you get your paying job. It’s not a loan; it’s an investment — or a form of seed funding. It’s flexible, and the company benefits from your later performance. Now that’s creative.

39. Write a judge at a sentencing hearing. No one wants a case to go to trial anymore, not defenders and not prosecutors. It makes sense: courts are broken beyond repair. Sadly, this means that many innocent people plead guilty just to break free of the system. But there’s still the sentencing, and the judge has massive discretion. Your letters on behalf of the defendant can and do make a huge difference. They should be personal and authentic. Your plea for leniency can keep one good person out of a cage.

40. Learn anything. Online learning used to be a novelty. Then it started becoming mainstream and comprehensive. Today, it is exploding beyond belief. Here is a site that offers 100 other sites that teach just about anything you could ever want to know. And the crazy-great Khan Academy isn’t even listed. It boggles the mind to consider that there was a time when government imagined that it could control what we learn.

41. Transfer money ridiculously cheaply. Life was proceeding normally, then suddenly an $80,000,000 transaction floated across the Blockchain. As always, the money moved, completely and wholly and fully verified, within minutes, unlike a bank transfer or a credit card transaction. But here’s the kicker: the transaction only cost $0.04! That’s a savings of $2 million from what any other form of moving that sum would take. To anyone but the government, that’s serious money. Can Bitcoin break the network effect of nationalized money? Absolutely.

42. Remit money cheaper. Banks and wiring companies are charging too much money for people to send money home — mainly to poor countries. But remittances are about to get a lot cheaper. Companies like TransferWise, Moni Technologies, and WorldRemit are competing, paradoxically, to keep more money in the hands of people in the developing world.

43. Start a podcast. Podcasts are old school, but in this world of nonstop surprises, that doesn’t make them outmoded. They are more popular than ever before, and ever easier to start. This makes sense, given the growing length of commutes and people’s desire to gather interesting information — and to know what’s true. At the height of State power in the 20th century, the State controlled all information flows. Now, anyone can start a fireside chat with the world. The monopoly of information is ruined.

44. Make a movie. Five years ago, people were still buying camcorders. They were expensive and not that effective. They were a vast improvement over the on-shoulder models from 20 years earlier. But today? Everyone with a smartphone carries a movie maker in his or her pocket. Anything and everything can be streamed, and the competition has caused movie quality to soar. Plus, there are no more secrets in public spaces, and this has to be a good thing for human freedom, given that the State has lived on hiding its deeds from public notice for, well, thousands of years.

45. Get a Fiverr. Maybe you want to send a customized Christmas song. Maybe you need a new logo for a blog. How about a custom shirt design or a new stamp for your business? All of this can be done for five bucks. That’s right, a full website that is offering P2P services that used to cost hundreds or thousands of dollars. It’s all voluntary and everyone wins. How can you not come away with a smile? Note that the prices of state services are forever rising while the private sector is forever driving them down.

46. Pay with dogecoin. This “alt-coin” — a spin-off cryptocurrency — started as a ridiculous joke. It was an Internet meme of a Shiba dog looking oddly smart and sweet. Nothing more. The image was slapped on a cybercurrency on its own blockchain, just to show that it could be done. And then it took off like a rocket. Everyone laughed until it became real. Today, dogecoin is the number three most-capitalized cryptomoney, after litecoin and bitcoin. It’s also fun to mine and ridiculously plentiful. Sure, it could crash, like so many others. But while it lasts, it teaches us a lesson: there is value in Internet fashions. It’s all subjective.

47. Partake in the Creative Commons. Not every government imposition on market institutions allows for a way out. But in the case of copyright — a regulatory intervention that has become a major source of mischief in the digital age — Creative Commons is the answer that freedom-lovers can embrace. FEE founder Leonard Read pioneered this approach in the late 1940s, long before people even questioned copyright. FEE in 2014 has gone all the way by putting all its content in the commons with no restrictions. Goodbye censors. (Note that CC offers many varieties of licenses, and some are even more restrictive than government copyright.)

48. Tsu me. There are hundreds of social networks today, and one really big one. How long can that last? A site called Tsu.co opened in October and, within only a few weeks, it rocketted to the top of all site rankings. The move has been so fast that plugins haven’t caught up to it yet. Yes, the new social network learns (steals) from Facebook in lots of ways. But that’s the way the market works: the experience of one company becomes a collective good that everyone can try out — and then improve on. No one stays on top forever. Just ask MySpace.

49. GetGems. Instant messaging is still the thing, but what if it lived on a distributed network with no central control that also allowed instant currency exchanges at near-zero cost? That’s what going on at GetGems. It’s some pretty edgy stuff, but remember: these are the early days of such innovations. No one can prevent us from talking to each other — or exchanging with each other — in whatever way we choose. (See also other forms of crypto-texting.)

50. Buy your own kingdom. An art teacher in Portugal had a snappy idea: buy an island off the coast of Madeira. Then he had an even better idea: turn it into his own kingdom. That’s what he did, and he calls it the Principality of Pontinha. Earlier last year, there was talk of selling the Belle Isle section of Detroit. Wonderful. Even better: just sell all unowned and state-owned things and privatize the world.

The planners thought they had it all sewn up. None of these innovations was part of their plan. This is a snapshot in time, a glimpse of the dawn of something new and unexpected. We can only hope that by next year, this list will seem dated, even anachronistic.

Edward Snowden described the NSA, a well-funded government bureaucracy, building an “architecture of oppression.” But the ideas presented here show something very different being constructed. Call it a latticework of liberty, or maybe a fractal of freedom. Whatever it is, its fronds unfurl and spread into the spaces left by the State. And the State always leaves spaces.

As they say in The Hunger Games, every system has a flaw. It’s genius to find it and exploit it and bring about something new. Dramatic social and economic change is not flowing from policy circles in Washington, DC. This is not top-down reform. It’s happening despite and not because of political trends.

This list is also evidence that high theoretical arguments over the precise structure freedom should and must take are beside the point. We have to wait to see for ourselves, and, meanwhile, the real problem is power itself.

This “50 ways” phenomenon is the mechanism by which humanity evolves away from power and toward peaceful, voluntary cooperation. How far can we take it? Who knows? But erecting utopias in our heads is not nearly as useful as contributing to this latticework. You can hate the state and its works, but doing something about it requires that we devise and use more ways to hasten its obsolescence.

This is our challenge. This is our charge.

ABOUT MAX BORDERS

Max Borders is the editor of The Freeman and director of content for FEE. He is also cofounder of the event experience Voice & Exit and author of Superwealth: Why we should stop worrying about the gap between rich and poor.

ABOUT JEFFREY A. TUCKER

Jeffrey Tucker is a distinguished fellow at FEE, CLO of the startup Liberty.me, and editor at Laissez Faire Books. Author of five books, he speaks at FEE summer seminars and other events.

The Same Revolt: Breathe, Occupy, Tea Party

What if these are variations of the same revolution? by Jeffrey A. Tucker:

Viral videos of beatings and killings by police are forging what might be a significant and lasting political movement — a full-scale revolt against what everyone used to believe was the most essential function of the state. Not only has this function turned murderous; the machinery of the state is unwilling to hold police accountable.

The resulting anger is palpable, each protest more tense than the last. The police arrive to supervise the marches and sit-ins. But they arrive as the enemy. Their authority is gone. The protesters suddenly have in their sights the very embodiment of the thing they are protesting. Every gathering has the feeling of being on the verge of exploding, which only makes the cops more paranoid and quick to release the tear gas or pull the trigger.

The protests are likely to further intensify the fears and resentments on all sides. That means that the protest movements might extend much longer than the usual news cycle. Consider that these protests are only the latest in a series.

In fact, we are experiencing the third great wave of US political street protests since 2009, a real turning point in the history of American liberty. The first wave was the Tea Party. The second was Occupy Wall Street. And today, around the country, in cities and towns large and small, people are protesting the abuse and killings of citizens by the local police.

In each case, there is something to inspire the rebel within all of us. The Tea Party has valid complaints, but so does the Occupy movement. And anyone who can watch the viral videos of killings by police without some emotional sympathy does not have a well-formed conscience.

What if these are all variations of the same general revolt?

American political culture treats these protests as distinct and even divergent in their goals. The Tea Party was called “right wing” because the bones of contention at its inception were high taxes, wealth transfers, and health care nationalization.

Occupy was considered “left wing” because it emphasized the evil of the rich and the need for government to redistribute more.

The new anti-police protests are supposedly about racial disparities and injustice, mainly concerning the interests of racial minorities — blacks in particular.

There is a sense in which these categorizations are true. The protests attract different demographic groups. And these differences cause narrow political minds to think that they cancel each other out, as if these movements are just a street version of left and right, populist realizations of politics as usual.

A better way to understand them, however, is to look for the unifying factor: they are all protesting against the massive and growing use of power against the people.

They are about our aspirations for a peaceful and prosperous life. They all target the way legal privilege is being used to perpetuate injustice. In this sense, each is a different expression of the same protest, each valid in its own way.

Tea Party

The Tea Party sprang into being as a revolt against Washington’s voracious appetite for taxes and its corrupt penchant for spreading wealth around to special interests. It was a movement of the bourgeoisie. It favored getting government out of people’s lives. That was its general tenor and demand at the outset.

It’s true that later, once the movement became organized (that’s always the beginning of the end), the Tea Party became annoying and at times noxious. Speakers at Tea Party events would complain about immigration, cuts in Medicare, flag burnings, abortion rights, and you name it: anything that sounded angry elicited a cheer. That trend made it difficult for the movement to maintain momentum after a certain point.

Occupy

But it is the same with the Occupy movement. It began as spontaneous protests against the egregious bailouts of Wall Street’s largest investment banking houses by the Federal Reserve, and the Fed’s immunization of Wall Street in general from the consequences of the real estate bust. It was all good and right. But then, as the movement matured, it too became tedious, with calls for the looting of the rich, and the usual vast panoply of left-wing prattle about the need for regulation and more taxation. There were even explicit calls for socialism.

#WeCantBreathe

Of the three, the anti-police movement (sans the looting by the few) is the most unambiguously deserving of support, at least for me. The police are the frontlines of the state. There was a time, when I was a kid, when it was possible to think of them as part of the structure of civil society, the aspect of the state that we actually need to keep order.

But all of that changed after 9/11, when the federal government essentially implemented an undeclared martial law and armed local cops to the teeth with military weaponry. A crazed paranoia also overtook all law-enforcement institutions. All citizens were suddenly potential terrorists. We were treated as such by the regime. Anyone around in those days remembers the feeling of being under foreign occupation, not by Al Qaeda but by our own government.

The decisive moment came after the 2008 financial crisis, when local government turned to the cops to be revenue-collecting agents. That’s when the full force of the law came after our property and rights at every turn. Quiet and implicit antagonisms became loud and explicit.

In communities across the United States, citizens were being hunted by their own protectors. The guardians became predatory.

This third great wave of protest is the culmination of many years of growing abuse of police power, and, most importantly, growing knowledge and awareness that something is fundamentally wrong. The pain is felt most intensely by black Americans, who have been subjected to abusive treatment for many decades — and this treatment is a follow-up to racist policies with deep roots. They include exclusionist and even exterminationist policies that began just after slavery officially ended.

But blacks and other minority populations are not the only victims. What these videos reveal is the most fundamental conflict in the history of humanity: the conflict between society and state. It takes many forms. It is sometimes the taxation and regulation that the bourgeoisie loathe. It is sometimes the policies that favor the wealthy and privileged elite over everyone else — the policies most hated by the working class, the unemployed, and the poor. And it is sometimes the outright police violence experienced by the most conspicuous victims: expendable and powerless racial minorities.

But in the end, we all face the same struggle. It’s the struggle between the voluntary associations that constitute the beautiful part of our lives, on the one hand, and, on the other, the legal monopoly of violence and compulsion by the institutions of the state, which lives at the expense of society.

Remember that the protests we see are only the visible ones. Underneath them, there is a seething in the very foundations of society among all classes, races, and political outlooks. For every protester in front of the camera, there are hundreds of thousands of sympathizers, which is what happens in a country where government impositions have stopped household incomes from rising in real terms for 20 years. (And this reality has struck us during a time of explosive technological improvements that would have otherwise conferred massive material benefits on society!)

You could reflect more on the profound implications, or you could have the whole thing explained to you by Frédéric Bastiat in The Law:

The safest way to make laws respected is to make them respectable. When law and morality contradict each other, the citizen has the cruel alternative of either losing his moral sense or losing his respect for the law. These two evils are of equal consequence, and it would be difficult for a person to choose between them.

The rise of power has robbed us all. We experience different forms of victimization. We express our frustration in different ways. We have a different set of triggers. But when it comes to knowing the enemy, we should all be clear and united: it is the state. We must never lose sight of the solution, which is human liberty.

ABOUT JEFFREY A. TUCKER

Jeffrey Tucker is a distinguished fellow at FEE, CLO of the startup Liberty.me, and editor at Laissez Faire Books. Author of five books, he speaks at FEE summer seminars and other events.

Anti-Discrimination Discrimination Against Christians

Sexual deviates are using their protection under the anti-discrimination laws to discriminate against Christians.

FBI, DHS issue bulletin for law enforcement warning of lone wolf domestic terrorism

This bulletin seems a bit tardy, as there has already been lone wolf domestic terrorism recently — the axe-wielding jihadist in New York City, the Oklahoma City beheader, and more. But of course, it isn’t about jihadis at all. The FBI and DHS aren’t warning about lone wolf Islamic jihadists — rather, they’re concerned about violent attacks from adherents of the “Phineas Priest ideology.” Which group is larger? The answer is obvious. But which group has powerful advocates within the Obama Administration?

Contrast this with the FBI taking down a poster of the Most Wanted Terrorists from Seattle buses after Muslims complained that those terrorists were all Muslims.

“FBI, DHS Issue Bulletin for Law Enforcement Warning of Lone Wolf Domestic Terrorism,” ABC News Radio, December 12, 2014:

(NEW YORK) — The FBI and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security have issued a bulletin to local law enforcement agencies around the nation, warning of the threat of lone-wolf domestic terrorists.

The bulletin referenced the Austin, Texas, shooting spree last month in which Larry McQuilliams fired over 100 rounds at a number of buildings, including a federal courthouse, a bank, the Consulate General of Mexico and the Austin Police Department headquarters. Law enforcement ultimately shot and killed McQuilliams.

According to the bulletin, McQuilliams “was at least partially inspired by the Phineas Priest ideology — which advocates lone offender action.” That ideology, expressed in a 1990 book titled Vigilantes of Christendom: The History of the Phineas Priesthood, was interpreted from the story of Phineas in chapter 25 of the biblical Book of Numbers to justify white supremacist violence, the bulletin says. The book was found in a rented van used by McQuilliams during his spree, along with a handwritten note in which he described himself as a member of the “priesthood.”

Law enforcement agencies are warned about the difficulty to identify and track followers of the idology [sic], as they do not rely on “collective resources of an organization with centralized leadership, formal membership, or a coordinating body that can be tracked or monitored by law enforcement.”

The bulletin cites other examples of criminal and terrorist incident tied to believers of the ideology. It also provides law enforcement with some things they can look out for.

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‘Mr. Conservative’ Senator Barry Goldwater returns to Washington, D.C.

At a time in the history of our nation, when the results of national Congressional elections of 2014 signaled a turn away from Liberalism to Conservatism, it is wholly appropriate that the 1700 pound, eight foot high statue of the “Father of the Conservative Movement” in the United States, Senator Barry M. Goldwater be installed in National Statuary Hall in the Capital of the United States.

The video below shows Senator Goldwater’s statue being moved for shipment from the Capital Building in the State of Arizona, to the U.S. Capital in Washington, D.C. to represent the State of Arizona. Senator Barry Goldwater’s statue will be displayed in National Statuary Hall, one of the most popular rooms of the U.S. Capital, and will be displayed among the statues of the most famous of the Founding Fathers of the Republic and with many U.S. Presidents.

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Senator Barry M. Goldwater

Senator Goldwater was truly a renaissance man, a humanitarian who pushed for desegregation of the U.S. Armed Forces, was very aggressive in maintaining the strength of the U.S. Armed Forces, and in 1960 co-authored “The Conscience of a Conservative.” Barry Goldwater was born in 1909. He served in the U.S. Army Air Corps during WWII  where he became a command pilot and rose to the rank of a Brigadier General in the U.S. Air Force Reserve. He ran his family’s department store chain until deciding to pursue a career in politics. Senator Goldwater served five terms in the U.S. Senate, won the 1964 Republican primary nomination to run for President.

A notable Goldwater quote that rings true today more than ever:

I would remind you that extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice! And let me remind you that moderation in pursuit of justice is no virtue.” (July 16, 1964).

In 1998, when the Senator passed away, he was accorded the highest Military Honors during his funeral service in Phoenix, and was honored in a fly over by the U.S. Air Force in a “Missing Man Formation.” Senator Goldwater’s service was held on the campus of Arizona State, where he was a accorded the position of visiting Professor of Political Science following his retirement from the US Senate. The service was attended by nearly every US Senator in the nation of both parties. Senator Goldwater was an Honorary Chief of the Smoki people of Prescott, and was eulogized in their native tongue, by the Chief of that Indian Nation, by his son, Congressman Barry M. Goldwater, Jr., and others. Congressman Goldwater, Jr. was the first Congressman in history to serve in Congress with his father; he served in Congress with Senator Goldwater for 13 years.

The installation of Senator Goldwater’s Statue in National Statuary Hall will be a memorable day for former Congressman Barry M. Goldwater, Jr., the Goldwater family, Conservatives Americans throughout the Republic and for the 23 million U.S. veterans, who benefited greatly from the Senator’s 30 years of being a staunch advocate for their welfare, especially from 1985 to 1987 when Senator Goldwater was Chairman of the U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee.

Former Congressman Barry M. Goldwater, Jr. is a co-Founder of the Combat Veterans For Congress PAC. His biography may be read here.

EDITORS NOTE: The featured image of the Goldwater statue is by Mark Henle, The Arizona Republic.

Released: Global Climate Status Report, Edition 3-2014

The forty-four page Global Climate Status Report (GCSR), Edition 3-2014 is now available. It may be downloaded from the GCSR page of the Orlando, Florida based Space and Science Research Corporation (SSRC).

The following is the Global Climate Status Report,  Edition 3-2014 summary climate assessment:

After a thorough review of the selected climate status parameters up through December 10, 2014, the current summary climate assessment and prediction for the Earth’s climate future are as follows:

1. Current Climate Status

a. Overall Climate Status. The Earth is presently in a sustained phase of GLOBAL COOLING though moderated by recently past peak of solar heating during solar cycle #24. Though there is new evidence of a reduction in this rate during the 2013-2014 period, the rate of temperature decline on a 100 year trend line is the steepest seen during that time frame going back to 1914. We conclude that the past period of global warming, as a natural phase of climate variation caused by the Sun, has ended, and a new cold climate epoch has begun.

b. Two Hundred Year Solar Cycle Continues to Dominate Global Climate. The most recent multi-centennial climate epoch which began around 1830, has begun to reverse direction from a global temperature standpoint. The past period of generally increasing warmth for the Earth, which was caused by the Sun’s natural and regular cycles of activity, reached an average peak of warming between 2007 and 2008 as measured by global atmospheric temperatures in the lower troposphere. This change was observed in oceanic temperatures as early as 2003. Acting primarily under the influence of a repeating 206 year solar cycle, a new “solar hibernation” has begun, and is marked by a significant decline in the Sun’s energy output. Starting with solar cycle #24, this energy reduction has initiated an expected reversal from the past warm era to a new cold era.

c. Near Term Trends. Major features of the Earth’s current climate status include the following sustained trends:

(1) There has been no effective growth in global temperature for eighteen (18) years. Temperatures in the lower troposphere have temporarily stabilized from a previously declining short term trend because of 2013-2014 warming. This trend is expected to revert to COOLING in
the next year or two.

(2) Integrated Global Atmospheric and Oceanic Temperatures have stabilized in part because of the heating from the peak of solar cycle #24.

(3) Substantial flux among climate parameters is evident in the ongoing destabilization in climate trends during the transition from the past period of global warming to the new cold climate.

(4) Polar regions have now displayed a consistent trend of colder temperatures and growth in sea ice.

2. Climate Prediction for the Next Thirty Years

Based on the SSRC’s Relational Cycle Theory (RC Theory) using natural cycles as a means for climate prediction and in view of the trends demonstrated by the twenty four global climate parameters, the following climate prediction is believed to be the most accurate available for the period of 2015 to 2044:

a. Highly variable and extreme weather events are expected during the transition from the past warm period to one of rapid global cooling.
b. This next climate change to a long and deep cold era is expected to last for at least the next thirty to forty years.
c. The extent and depth of the cold weather produced in this new climate era is estimated to be the worst in over two hundred years producing a global temperature reduction of 1.0 to 1.5 degrees centigrade.

3. Likely Future Climate Scenarios

The SSRC believes existing climate change indicators support the assessment that a new potentially dangerous cold climate age has begun. It should be emphasized that unless a significant unexpected and rapid change in the present declining solar activity trend occurs, there are only two climate scenarios that appear likely at this time over the next forty years. Each scenario results in a new cold climate era:

a. Scenario 1. A solar hibernation similar to the Dalton Minimum (1793-1830). This would result in routine establishment of new 200 year cold weather records.

b. Scenario 2. A solar hibernation similar to the one during the Maunder Minimum (1615-1745). A climate period like this would see 400 year temperature records and widespread climate and weather extremes.

c. Human Impacts. A review of the history from these periods shows they were marked by significant increases in cold weather deaths, starvation through global crop losses, livestock losses, and loss of life through concurrent civil unrest, warfare and disease. Record cold effects of the current hibernation are already being felt and instances of crop damage may occur at any time. During that past Dalton era the crop damage was so severe that one US historian has called the period mankind’s “…greatest subsistence crisis.” Both scenarios for the Earth’s climate future are likely to result in substantial, global, social disruption and loss of life. The difference will be one of degree.

d. Increased Geophysical Activity. Further, the SSRC and other researchers have determined that there exists a strong correlation between solar hibernations and the largest recorded earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. Large volcanic eruptions (Volcanic Explosive Index of 6+)
may exacerbate the ongoing transition to a new cold climate epoch through augmented aerosol and dust shielding and reflection of incoming solar radiation. This correlation was examined in detail in a scientific paper in edition 2-3014 of the GCSR, dated June 10, 2014.

4. New Climate Predictions (from SSRC Press Release 4-2014)

a. The Earth is about to begin a steep drop in global temperatures. The analysis of the level and variability of sunspots in the current solar cycle 24, including the warming of atmospheric temperatures between 2013 and 2014 indicates that the Earth is following a climate change path similar to solar cycle 5, during the last 206 year solar cycle driven solar hibernation.

b. Average global atmospheric and oceanic temperatures will drop significantly beginning between 2015 and 2016.

c. The predicted temperature decline will continue for the next fifteen years and likely will be the steepest ever recorded in human history discounting past short term volcanic events.

d. Global average temperatures during the 2030’s will reach a level of 1-1.5°C lower than the peak year of 1998.

To download the full Global Climate Status Report, Edition 3-2014 click here.

EDITORS NOTE: The Space and Science Research Corporation grants unrestricted use of the above Summary Climate Assessment for reproduction or transmission to others either in total or any portion thereof.

Rep. Vern Buchanan (R-FL 16) Busts the Budget — Votes for Amnesty and Obamacare

The Republican co-Chair of the Florida delegation is Congressman Vern Buchanan representing District 16. Buchanan’s campaign website states, “Washington’s irresponsible pattern of borrowing and spending has put our country on a road to bankruptcy.  Unbelievably, America borrows $188 million every hour.  This is simply unacceptable.”

In a December 6th email to constituents Buchanan wrote, “The national debt this week surpassed $18 trillion for the first time in our nation’s history. Since President Obama took office six years ago, the debt has ballooned by nearly $7.5 trillion. Washington’s addiction to spending is putting our nation on the path to bankruptcy.”

In a December 7th InstaPoll Buchanan asked constituents: What action do you think Congress should take to reduce the federal debt, which surpassed $18 trillion this week? Sixty-nine percent of those responding answered “reduce spending.

Buchanan wants a balanced budget amendment to reign in Congress, but in October 2013 Buchanan voted to raise the debt ceiling and now has given President Obama a victory. The victory is passing a bill that busts the budget, continues to fund pork projects, Obamnesty, Obamacare and will increase the national debt.

The Conservative Review reports:

“This 1700+ page, $1.1 trillion Omnibus spending bill granted President Obama full funding for 11 of 12 federal departments for the remainder of the fiscal year – without any congressional restrictions on his unilateral action on amnesty, Obamacare, and environmental regulations. Worse, this bill actually provided Obama with an additional $2.5 billion in funds to facilitate his executive amnesty. Most egregiously, this 1700-page bill was crafted as a backroom deal by lame duck senators who were rejected by the American public in the November election. Speaker Boehner placed the bill on the floor with only 48 hours to read all 1700 pages.” [Emphasis added]

The Conservative Review gives Buchanan an “F” rating on fiscal responsibility with a score of 53%.”

Did Congressman Buchanan read the bill or did he vote for it first to see what was in it?

Buchanan sits on the House Ways and Means Committee. Does he not understand what he did by voting for this omnibus spending bill? Is Buchanan exhibiting the very “irresponsible pattern of borrowing and spending” that he campaigned against?

Buchanan’s campaign website states, “As a businessman for 30 years, and past Chairman of the Florida Chamber of Commerce, I know what it means to balance a budget, meet a payroll, and exercise the fiscal discipline necessary to keep a business moving forward.” But Buchanan is no longer a businessman. He is a member of Congress. The only payroll he is now meeting is that of the federal bureaucrats in Washington, D.C., at the taxpayers expense.

Buchanan has not exercised “fiscal discipline”. The only thing he is moving forward is President Obama’s agenda. Is that why those in his district re-elected him? Is Buchanan “grubering” those who elected him?

Buchanan’s campaign website rightly states, “Government does not create jobs, small businesses like the thousands located in Southwest Florida create the jobs.” Buchanan has a jobs plan, but it does not help small businesses. Rather it is to provide jobs to even more Washington bureaucrats and Congressional staffers while his constituents pay higher taxes. Small businesses are harmed by Obamacare’s healthcare mandate, which kicks in in 2015. Florida continues to suffer because of omnibus spending bills like the one Buchanan and many of his fellow Republicans helped passed.

Perhaps it is time to hold the Vern Buchanan’s responsible for their irresponsibility! Buchanan ends emails to constituents with “tell me what you think.” Perhaps those who voted for him should?

Here’s a Couple Of Charts That Might Explain Why Congressmen Voted For The ‘CRomnibus’ Spending Bill from IJReview’s Kevin Boyd:

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Special FairTax Legislative Report – December 2014

To read this report as a PDF with additional graphics, click here.

As we noted in last week’s FairTax® Friday, we had an aggressive week of meetings in Washington, D.C. – meeting with Members of the House and Senate and key senior committee staff. The meetings were both productive and instructive regarding how the 114th Congress may be approaching near-term tax reform.

We found a general excitement in the halls and offices as the 113th Congress comes to a close and the 114th prepares for the opening gavel. It was clear that Members believe that the mid-term changes will lead to a resumption of more normal operations, which have been stalled for several years.

Newly-elected members are locating offices, retiring members are setting up K Street digs and Washington’s elite are hosting farewell and holiday receptions, which is where deals are being made, votes are being bartered and power is being solidified. Yes, the mid-term elections brought significant change but rest assured, the power elite will always try to protect the status quo – something we must not allow to happen.

To refresh, we met with:

  • Congressman Paul Ryan (WI-1), 114th Chairman, Ways & Means Committee
  • Congressman Kevin Brady (TX-8), Ranking Member, Ways & Means Committee, Co-sponsor H.R. 25
  • Congresswoman Lynn Jenkins (KS-2), Member, Ways & Means Committee, Co-sponsor H.R. 25
  • Congressman Rob Woodall (GA-7), Sponsor H.R. 25
  • Congressman Jim Bridenstine (OK-1), Co-sponsor H.R. 25
  • Congressman Paul Broun (GA-10 retiring), Co-sponsor H.R. 25
  • Senator Mike Enzi (WY)
  • Chief Tax Counsel, Ways & Means Committee
  • Executive Director, 113th Joint Economic Committee
  • Director of Economic Policy, 113th Joint Economic Committee
  • Senior Economist, 113th Joint Economic Committee
  • David Burton, Senior Economic Fellow, Heritage Foundation Co-author H.R. 25
  • Dan Mastromarco, AFFT Trustee, Co-author H.R. 25
  • Dr. Laurence J. Kotlikoff, Professor of Economics, Boston University and Author, FairTax economic studies

Across all of our meetings, there were several key themes that emerged. These themes focused on the importance of tax reform, an essential change to dynamic scoring and the importance of increasing the effectiveness of our grassroots efforts.

We found:

  • Tax reform continues to be on everyone’s discussion card.It is clear that tax reform will be a priority agenda item in the broader 114th Congress and the House Ways and Means Committee.
  • At least in the early part of the 114th, it appears that tax reform will be incremental versus bold and sweeping. This strategy, if it holds, would acknowledge the differences and difficulties between the majority party in the House and Senate, and the executive branch.
  • The general principle of a national consumption tax seems to be gaining broader acceptance across the political spectrum. The challenge remains gaining non-partisan consensus that a single rate national consumption tax cannot co-exist with an income tax, and the FairTax must be the preferred delivery vehicle.
  • The FairTax continues to be favorably viewed. Our challenge is to fully identify those Members who are supportive of the FairTax but who have not made public their private support. It is vital that we work to further educate them and provide them with the necessary encouragement to make public their support of the FairTax Plan.
  • It was considered essential that the FairTax campaign have significant numbers of paid members in targeted districts where we are trying to exert influence.
  • The recommendation continues to be that AFFT needs to increase our paid membership as a demonstration of the growing depth and breadth of citizen support.
  • There was significant interest in the negative impact the growing evasion problem will have on the current income tax code and how the FairTax would effectively address this problem. In follow-up, recent studies that were shared verbally with Members and staff to document the magnitude of the problem will be sent to key staff.
  • Congressman Ryan is very eager to ensure that dynamic scoring (he calls it “accurate scoring”) will be used in the evaluation of all tax reform plans (see below for a further explanation as to why this is so important to the FairTax campaign). According to recent media reports, the ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee (and expected Chairman in the 114th) Senator Orrin Hatch (UT), also enthusiastically supports the use of dynamic scoring.
  • It was strongly suggested that H.R. 25 must be scored again by the Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT) – this time using dynamic scoring – and one Member enthusiastically offered to lead the charge in getting this re-score underway.
  • It was repeatedly recommended that AFFT have key representative(s) in Washington at least one week per month, every month in 2015.

As a result of what we learned and the recommendations we heard, our immediate plan is to return to Washington for one week in mid-January, mid-February and mid-March.

Our goals will be to:

  • Introduce the FairTax to the newly elected Members of the House and Senate.
  • Visit every 114th co-sponsor of HR 25 and S 122.
  • Answer questions and concerns from Members who are favorably inclined towards the FairTax but who have not yet decided to publicly support it.
  • Identify areas of potential bi-partisan agreement on consumption taxes, scoring, elimination of the IRS etc., and how the FairTax benefits all Americans.
  • Establish trusted relationships with more key Members, staff and committee representatives.
  • Provide Members and staff with in-depth briefings and analysis, and become their “go to” expert on the FairTax.
  • Develop relationships with, educate and serve as a resource to senior tax and economic fellows at key public policy organizations in the greater Washington area.
  • Provide the FairTax voice at Washington-based tax reform coalitions.
  • Begin developing relationships with Washington area political, tax and economic journalists and bloggers.

These actions will be an interim measure while we continue our Club 535 fundraising that will fund a full-time Washington, D.C. FairTax office.

Since the Budget Act of 1974, the Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT) has the responsibility for scoring most revenue-related legislation, including tax reform legislation. The purpose of scoring is to predict the amount of money either raised or lost by the proposed tax legislation. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) also provides scoring but generally does so for more limited revenue-affecting legislation like import tariffs.

The JCT consists of five members from the Senate Finance Committee and five members from the House Committee on Ways and Means.

The JCT Chairman rotates between the Senate and the House each Congressional term. In the 113th Congress, Senator Wyden (OR) chaired the JCT. In the first session of the 114th Congress, beginning in January 2015, the JCT will have six Republican members and four Democrat members, and will be chaired by Congressman Paul Ryan (WI-1). In the second session, beginning in 2016, the 114th Senate Finance Committee Chairman, Senator Orin Hatch (UT), will chair it.

By a majority vote, the JCT selects the chief of staff who then selects non-career staff. Career staff serve at the pleasure of the chairman and chief of staff and can be replaced at any time. The majority of the JCT will then direct the procedures used by the JCT staff in scoring legislation. Senator Hatch and Congressman Ryan have announced that they will insist that the JCT use dynamic, or as Congressman Ryan says, “Accurate Scoring.”

According to the JCT’s website (https://www.jct.gov/about-us/revenue-estimating.html),

“The starting point for a revenue estimate prepared by the Joint Committee staff is the Congressional Budget Office (“CBO”) 10-year projection of Federal receipts, referred to as the “revenue baseline.” The revenue baseline serves as the benchmark for measuring the effects of proposed tax law changes. The baseline assumes that present law remains unchanged during the 10-year budget period. Thus, the revenue baseline is an estimate of the Federal revenues that will be collected over the next 10 years in the absence of statutory changes. In providing conventional estimates, the Joint Committee staff assumes that a proposal will not change total income and therefore holds Gross National Product (“GNP”) fixed.”

Static scoring assumes that tax cuts will have no change on the economic behavior of affected individuals and no impact on economic growth. For example, static scoring assumes if $100 is taxed at 50% (producing $50 in revenue), and the government lowers the tax rate to 25% (now producing $25 in governmental revenue with a $25 revenue loss), the lower tax rate won’t encourage anyone to behave any differently than they currently do.

Dynamic scoring tries to estimate the changes tax cuts have on economic behavior. For example, dynamic scoring assumes that if a 50% tax on $100 produces $50 in revenue, then lowering the tax rate to 25% will produce $25 in revenue, as static scoring predicts, and predicts that individuals will work more (if it’s an income tax cut) or realize more capital gains (if it’s a capital gains tax cut, etc.) because they will get to keep more of their money. This changed behavior will produce an extra $100, for example, which is also taxed at $25, resulting in a total of $50 in revenue, and no loss for the government.

The logic behind static scoring reminds us of the story once told by a Member of the Senate Finance Committee in the mid-‘80s during another series of tax reform debates. Late one night the Senator, as a joke, asked the JCT to prepare a revenue estimate of all income over $250,000 per year if it was taxed at 100%. To his astonishment, the next morning the JCT sent over an estimate of how much additional revenue this would produce. The Senator was stunned that anyone would think that people would continue to work as hard when 100% of their income was withheld for taxes.

Economic Effects of The FairTax®

When static scoring is used to project the income produced by the FairTax (as was done in earlier scoring models on the FairTax prepared by the JCT and most recently in 2014), it does not take into account any of the economic benefits that will be produced by the FairTax Plan. More important, static scoring requires a higher FairTax rate to produce the same income as the present income tax code.

Dynamic scoring accounts for these variables and places the FairTax Plan on a much more level playing field with other tax reform measures that are being considered. All reform measures, however, can only be reviewed properly if all other assumptions, e.g. evasion etc., are properly stated and counted.

When the FairTax is properly scored using the dynamic scoring methodology, we are confident the contrast between the FairTax and the present income tax will dramatically reflect how the FairTax will:

  • Increase the rate of economic growth;
  • Increase U.S. job growth;
  • Increase federal revenues;
  • Reduce evasion; and
  • Provide all Americans with simple and fair taxation.

Our meetings this past week would not have been possible without your support. We thank you and ask you for your continued support. Now more than ever, it is vital that the FairTax have a steady and strong presence in the nation’s capital. Our campaign relies entirely upon your generosity – to have that presence we need your continued support.

The New Congress Must Save the USA from the EPA

When the Republican Party takes over majority control of Congress in January, it will face a number of battles that must be fought with the Obama administration ranging from its amnesty intentions to the repeal of ObamaCare, but high among the battles is the need to rein in the metastasizing power of the Environmental Protection Agency.

In many ways, it is the most essential battle because it involves the provision of sufficient electrical energy to the nation to keep its lights on. EPA “interpretations” of the Clean Air and Clean Water Acts have become an outrageous usurpation of power that the Constitution says belongs exclusively to the Congress.

As a policy advisor to The Heartland Institute, a free market think tank, I recall how in 2012 its president, Joe Bast, submitted 16,000 signed petitions to Congress calling on it to “rein in the EPA.” At the time he noted that “Today’s EPA spends billions of dollars (approximately $9 billion in 2012) imposing senseless regulations. Compliance with its unnecessary rules costs hundreds of billions of dollars more.”

Heartland’s Science Director, Dr. Jay Lehr, said “EPA’s budget could safely be cut by 80 percent or more without endangering the environment or human health. Most of what EPA does today could be done better by state government agencies, many of which didn’t exist or had much less expertise back in 1970 when EPA was created.”

The EPA has declared virtually everything a pollutant including the carbon dioxide (CO2) that 320 million Americans exhale with every breath. It has pursued President Obama’s “war on coal” for six years with a disastrous effect on coal miners, those who work for coal-fired plants that produce electricity, and on consumers who are seeing their energy bills soar.

AA - EPA the EnemyAs Edwin D. Hill, the president of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, noted in August, “The EPA’s plan, according to its own estimates, will require closing coal-fired plants over the next five years that generate between 41 and 49 gigawatts (49,000 megawatts) of electricity” and its plan would “result in the loss of some 52,000 permanent direct jobs in utilities, mining and rail, and at least another 100,000 jobs in related industries. High skill, middle-class jobs would be lost, falling heavily in rural communities that have few comparable employment opportunities.”

“The United States cannot lose more than 100 gigawatts of power in five years without severely compromising the reliability and safety of the electrical grid,” warned Hill.

In October the Institute for Energy Research criticized the EPA’s war on coal based on its Mercury and Air Toxics Rule and its Cross State Air Pollution Rule, noting that 72.7 gigawatts of electrical generating capacity have already, or are scheduled to retire. “That’s enough to reliably power 44.7 million homes, or every home in every state west of the Mississippi river, excluding Texas.” How widespread are the closures? There are now 37 states with projected power plant closures, up from 30 in 2011. The five hardest hit states are Ohio, Pennsylvania, Indiana, Kentucky, and Georgia.

If a foreign nation had attacked the U.S. in this fashion, we would be at war with it.

The EPA is engaged in a full-scale war on the U.S. economy as it ruthlessly forces coal-fired plants out of operation. This form of electricity production has been around since the industry began to serve the public in 1882 when Edison installed the world’s first generating plants on Pearl Street in New York City’s financial district. Moreover, the U.S. has huge reserves of coal making it an extremely affordable source of energy, available for centuries to come.

The EPA’s actions have been criticized by one of the nation’s leading liberal attorneys, Harvard law professor Laurence Tribe, who has joined with Peabody Energy, the world’s largest private coal company, to criticize the “executive overreach” of the EPA’s proposed rule to regulate carbon emissions from existing power plants. He accused the agency of abusing statutory law, violating the Constitution’s Article I, Article II, the separations of powers, the Tenth and Fifth Amendments, and the agency’s general contempt for the law.

It is this contempt that can be found in virtually all of its efforts to exert power over every aspect of life in America from the air we breathe, the water we use, property rights, all forms of manufacturing, and, in general, everything that contributes to the economic security and strength of the nation.

That contempt is also revealed in the way the EPA spends its taxpayer funding. Senator Jeff Flake (R-AZ) released a report, “The Science of Splurging”, on December 2 in which he pointed to the $1,100,000 spent to pay the salaries of eight employees who were not working due to being placed on administrative leave, the $3,500,000 spent to fund “Planning for Economic and Fiscal Health” workshops around the nation, $1,500,000 annually to store out-of-date and unwanted publicans at an Ohio warehouse, and $700,000 to attempt to reduce methane emitted from pig flatulence in Thailand! “After years of handing out blank checks in the form of omnibus appropriations bills and continuing resolutions,” said Sen. Flake, “it’s time for Congress to return to regular order and restore accountability at the EPA.”

Whether it is its alleged protection of the air or water, the only limits that have been placed on the EPA have been by the courts. Time and again the EPA has been admonished for over-stating or deliberately falsifying its justification to control every aspect of life in the nation, often in league with the Army Corps of Engineers.

If the Republican controlled Congress does not launch legislative action to control the EPA the consequences for Americans will continue to mount, putting them at risk of losing electricity, being deprived of implicit property rights, and driving up the cost of transportation by demanding auto manufacturers increase miles-per-gallon requirements at a time when there is now a worldwide glut of oil and the price of gasoline is dropping.

The United States has plenty of enemies in the world that want it to fail. It is insane that we harbor one as a federal agency.

© Alan Caruba, 2014

RELATED ARTICLE: How Obama and His Environmental Base Are Planning to Eradicate the Oil and Gas Industry

With Cromnibus passed, Boehner surrenders all leverage through 2015

Well, the “cromnibus” monster spending bill passed last night, and President Obama and Vice President Biden worked hard to get Democrat support — which they did not receive.

The funding measure passed and in doing so, the new incoming GOP majority will have little to no say in funding measures through the entire year — basically half of the new GOP majority Congress. A better approach would have been to execute a continuing resolution (CR) that went into February and then do appropriations by agency, funding what is essential by priority. Instead Obamacare is funded through October next year and funding to President Obama’s illegal immigration executive action — $2.5 billion. However, Speaker Boehner has declared that next February Congress will take up the illegal immigration fight, since the DHS is only funded through February. Whoopee.

In effect Speaker Boehner essentially surrendered the majority which the American people gave the House GOP and with it, the greatest leverage — the power of the purse. Some 1,800 pages, no doubt including pork, has passed which most did not read.

And what if the gambit Speaker Boehner has doesn’t work out next February? That’s the question The Hill asks, writing, “Even if Republicans shut down the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) next year, President Obama could still carry out his executive actions giving legal status to up to 5 million undocumented immigrants. Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) and other GOP leaders have punted the funding fight over Obama’s immigration action to February, arguing their new majority will have more leverage to stop the plan dead in its tracks.”

RELATED ARTICLE: ‘Boehner and White House win’: Omnibus bill passes 219-206 – here are the 67 Republicans who voted NO

EDITORS NOTE: This column originally appeared on AllenBWest.com.

Feinstein ‘Torture Report’ outs C. Martel as Islamophobe

Diane Feinstein’s recently released report on controversial CIA interrogation practices indicts, not only the Bush administration, but also all previous administrations going back to the controversial leader of the Franks, Charles Martel, and his victory over the moderate Muslim community at Tours in 732 AD, which can only be described as a gross law enforcement misconduct and hate crime.

Citing inside information from medieval Latin and Arabic sources, the report prepared by Feinstein’s staffers details a shocking degree of intolerance and Islamophobia on the part of Charles Martel’s administration and the army of Franks, who countered the peaceful expansion of moderate Muslims into Europe via Spain with such violent hatred that historians suspect could only be explained by racist motives.

“Clearly this was racial profiling on part of the Frankish administration,” determined Yale historian Dr. Hussein al-Isis. “Franks and other white Europeans were simply uncomfortable around brown Middle Easterners, no matter how harmless their intentions.”

While mostly white contemporary historians crowed about a “Christian victory over Islam,” understandably bitter and disaffected members of the Muslim community, victimized by Martel’s extremist policies, were compelled to fend for themselves while retreating through the Pyrenees shouting, “Hands up, don’t spear me!” and “Death to Infidels!” Through no fault of their own, villages were plundered and citizens killed by some of the elements within the otherwise peaceful group of Muslim protesters, who became radicalized as a result of racism and gross civil right violations.

“I was disgusted at what we uncovered,” said an indignant Senator Diane Feinstein. “Instead of empathizing with the Muslim community and hearing their side of the story – instead of trying to find common ground and a mutually acceptable compromise through interfaith dialogue and negotiations, the bigoted leader of Franks chose to kill the Muslim leader, Abdul Rahman al-Ghafiqi.”

“For this sickening display of barbarism,” added Feinstein, “he received the nickname of Martel, meaning ‘the Hammer,’ and has continued to symbolize the greatest threat to world peace and harmony until his title “the Hammer” was passed to the Republican leader Tom Delay.

“We have only ourselves to blame for this mess,” opined foreign policy expert and former presidential candidate, Ron Paul. “If Martel had not unilaterally meddled in Middle Eastern affairs, then there wouldn’t have been any of that blowback. The fact that Islam was spreading by violent conquest a century before the Battle of Tours is a direct result of Martel’s misguided foreign adventures.”

At a White House press conference, President Obama informed reporters that “I just found out about the Battle of Tours while watching History Channel, and let me tell you, nobody is angrier about this than I am. I have asked our outgoing attorney general, Eric Holder, to immediately investigate Martel’s activities, to get to the bottom of this issue, and if possible, to take legal action against Charles Martel and the Frankish Kingdom. We will not rest until we have a conviction.”

Nevertheless, the president did appeal for restraint. “As you protest, you’re probably thinking like I’m thinking: this is the result of over a millennia of documentable Islamophobia. You know, this touches me on a personal level: Abdul Rahman al-Ghafiqi looks just like Michelle with a beard. This isn’t just a Shia problem, or a Sunni problem, or a Sufi problem, it’s an American problem. While I understand the rage, the calls for Jihad, the desire to impale all white Christians and burn down their churches, let’s everybody stay calm and let social justice take its course.”

Meanwhile, protesters holding posters of al-Ghafiqi were blocking major highways in large cities across America, and NFL players were seen charging onto the field, then collapsing and shouting, “Hands up, don’t spear me!”

The CIA Report: A Partisan Petrol Bomb

This week the political partisanship of Washington – which everyone has spoken about so much in recent years – dealt a devastating blow not only to itself but to the reputation of America.

The Senate Intelligence Committee looking into the actions of the CIA under the last Republican presidency split long before the majority report on the committee’s findings were published earlier this week.  Indeed the Republicans on the Committee left when they realised that the Democrat majority had decided in advance that its role was to damn the CIA for its actions during the Presidency of George W Bush.  One sign that this was the case was the Committee’s refusal to interview, speak with or otherwise hear the accounts of those people who had headed the Agency during the period in question.

Well this week the report came out.  And the world’s press reported not the Minority Committee’s rebuttals, nor the CIA’s detailed refutations, but the charges that over a sustained period in the last decade the CIA had brought a ‘stain’ on the reputation of America.

It is important to remember what is and is not accurate in this.  It is true – and has long been known from the memoirs of members of the administration among others – that for a brief period after 9/11 ‘enhanced interrogation techniques’ were used on the most high-ranking captives among enemy combatants.  Water-boarding – the most extreme of these measures – was used on three individuals, including the mastermind of the 9/11 attacks, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.  This was subsequently stopped from being used.

Among the permissible techniques this was the most serious.  But there are certainly other occasions when individuals within the system stepped beyond the lines of what they should have done.  It is for the CIA to investigate and make impossible any repeat of such events.  But in all of this there are important lessons to learn.

Firstly to remember that in the immediate aftermath of 9/11 the aim was to prevent another such attack.  That aim was achieved and it is likely – as with similar such historic events – that the public will never know what lengths were gone to to keep them safe.  In addition this all took place against the background of a new type of war which politicians and publics in Britain, America and other Western countries seem very reluctant to acknowledge or understand.  It is a war against an enemy which does not wear uniform, does not subscribe to the normal laws of war and which uses our own virtues as societies against us.

Damning the CIA is easy.  Explaining how you would do things better and keep the American people safe is not.  It is therefore striking that this week’s report carried not one recommendation.  It was all simply condemnation, condemnation, condemnation.  A more worthy action of a Senate committee would have been to acknowledge the problems we all face – and which our security services are on the cutting edge of – and then work out what went wrong, what went right and create a system to ensure the best is kept and the worst consigned to history.  Instead the Senate has this week simply delivered the most terrific blow to the reputation of the USA throughout the world.  There are ways for countries to release information about their flaws.  And then there are partisan political petrol bombs.  This week’s report was the latter.  And it will take years to put out its flames.

Conservatives tip Broward County Republican Executive Committee

A hard-fought battle was won in Broward County on December 8th, 2014.

With a stunning majority, the Broward Republican Executive Committee (BREC) was snatched from the past two years of moderate/progressive Republican leadership and put into the laps of Conservatives —  those Republicans who openly advocate that the Bible, the Constitution, and the Republican Platform serve as the basis by which outcomes are decided.

Not only did Vice Chair, Christine Butler take the Chairmanship, but her entire slate was also voted-in making up the entire Board, and creating what looks to be a welcomed coming era of détente, replacing two years of wrangle and discord.

In 2012, hardly known, Christine Butler ran for Chair of BREC but lost to the more familiar candidate, Tom Truex.  Butler became Truex’s Vice Chair.  The relationship that ensued between that administration, namely the Chairman himself versus half the membership body, has been constantly referred to as, “infighting,” but in reality has been a “fight” from the Conservative wing of BREC against those referred to as “RINOs.”  Had Conservatives allowed themselves to be “silenced”, settled for “unity” regardless of the gravity of the issue at hand, or accepted that Conservatives were the cause of the ‘in-fighting’, the BREC election would not have been won.

During her two-year term as Vice Chair, Butler showed herself to be fair-minded, and clearly far more conservative than the rest of the BREC Board, easily winning the hearts and minds of TEA Party conservatives. TEA Party Fort Lauderdale elected more than 30 members to BREC over the past year and members campaigned and voted overwhelmingly for Ms. Butler.

Topics of contention over the past two years have included then BREC secretary Cara Pavalock who used a portion of the BREC email list asking members to “wear red” if they stood for those who spoke out for same-sex marriage.  Ms. Pavalock wound-up resigning from office.

Other clashes have included such issues as:

  • allowing a Libertarian to guest-speak and lobby for the Amendment 2 medical marijuana bill,
  • fights over common core and big-business charter schools to
  • in-house uprisings and shouts of accusations of the chairman ignoring the rules and platform,
  • filibustering and fence-sitting, name-calling.

At one meeting Chairman Truex referred to his opposition members, likening them to crackpots and pigs. Not nice.

This win for Broward County conservatives was fitting following the Republican victories in the 2014 mid-term elections, and sent a clear message that “The People” are sick of hearing of “diversity”, “compromise”, “moderation” and yearn for a return to Conservatism and true Constitutional Republicanism.

Also running for BREC Chair was main contender, Karin Hoffman, “[L]eader of the defunct ‘DC WORKS FOR US’ who in 2013, as reported by Red Browardasked Republican leaders to urge Governor Rick Scott to drop his 2014 re-election bid.  Hoffman’s coup attempt came amid a constant barrage of negative media for Governor Scott. Hoffman hoped Scott dropping out of the race would open the door for Florida CFO Jeff Atwater. Multiple sources say Hoffman backed away from her plans after most Republican leaders scoffed at joining her. The sources say a meeting was held with Scott campaign staffers.”

Attorney, Levi Williams, was also a contender promoting himself as the candidate who would bring-in the capital needed to run BREC and elect future Republicans.  We are looking forward to Mr. Williams’ leadership in that effort.

Hopefully, this success will serve as a model for other Republican Executive Committees around the State of Florida.  If Broward County can do this, certainly it should be possible for other such clubs to follow suit in saying “NO’ to RINOs.

Are Power Plant Transformers America’s Weakest Link?

By Wallace Bruschweiler and Alan Kornman:

On November 6, 2014 The Guardian reports, “Three arrests fail to staunch mystery of Drones flying over French nuclear plants.”  Several drones were reported flying over the protected airspace of nuclear power plants raising questions about electrical grid security.

As the sophistication of commercially available drones increases our electrical grid becomes more vulnerable.

Who was piloting the drones and for what purpose?

What lies behind the suspicious flights at night?

What if these drones were outfitted with infrared cameras to spot the strong heat signatures emanating from the vulnerable ‘open air’ giant transformers responsible for delivering electricity from the generating plant, to the municipal substations, then to your home?

Plant To Home

If several of these ‘giant transformers’ were to unexpectedly go offline, for any reason, would it could cause a ‘cascade effect’ resulting in rolling blackouts all along France’s electrical grid?

California Attacks

On August 28, 2014, Matthew Wald, of The New York Times reports, “California Power Substation Attacked in 2013 is Struck Again.”

Federal experts who examined a California substation after an attack last April were attached to the Joint Warfare Analysis Center at Dahlgren, Va, yields clues about the importance of this issue.

The attack to the California substation went unchallenged for over an hour.

The Silicon Valley power substation that was attacked by a sniper in April 2013 was hit by thieves early Wednesday morning, according to the Pacific Gas and Electric Company, despite increased security.

The substation, near San Jose, Calif., is the source of energy for thousands of customers, and the idea that it was the target of a well-organized attack, and that it might have been disabled for an extended period, raised anxieties about the possible broader vulnerability of the grid.

In the 2013 attack, shots were fired into the radiators of giant transformers.  Without these giant transformers no electricity would enter the grid disrupting power along that particular grid matrix.

power grid

Are there enough replacements of these giant transformers readily available and in the right locations to repair the damaged power stations without a significant disruption of electricity to its customers?

We should be aware the time delay of manufacturing and delivering these giant transformers can be a lengthy process taking months or even years.

Arkansas Attacks – You Should Have Expected US

Arkansas experienced three attacks to its electrical grid in August, September, and October of 2013.  These attacks were not as sophisticated as the California attacks but did cause over $2 Million dollars in damage and 10,000 people temporarily lost power.

The Arkansas attacker left an ominous note at the entrance of the electrical power station in black marker, “You should have expected US”

The drone nuclear plant flyovers are a wake up call to those who are tasked with the responsibility of protecting our United States, Regional, and Local power grids.

Remember when:  Ten years ago in Ohio, a high-voltage power line brushed against some trees, which shut down a power line, which knocked out a transformer, which cascaded through the northeast electric power grid until 50 million people from Ontario to New Jersey were without power. The Northeast Blackout resulted in 11 deaths and cost about $6 billion. It affected every segment of our society—from healthcare, transportation, and commerce to public safety and national security. In a modern world, electrical power is more than a convenience. It’s a necessity. (MITRE.org)

Important Questions

What would happen to the national and regional power grids if a small number of these giant transformers are put out of commission?

If a number of these giant transformers are simultaneously taken out, will an uncontrollable ‘Cascade Effect’ overwhelm our regional and or nationwide electrical grids?

What if a number of simultaneous attacks on these giant transformers were to happen today, are we prepared to successfully block the effects of this nightmarish scenario?

Conservatives Can Learn Something From Liberals

Despite the increasing disapproval of the draconian and otherwise harmful policies of President Obama, the leadership of the Republican Party is acting like the point of least resistance.  For example, it has been reported on every major news network, including FOX, ABC and the rest, that increasing numbers of Americans disapprove of a number of Mr. Obama’s policies.  Amongst the most unpopular are his willingness to endanger America through amnesty and crippling energy policies.  Almost everyone, including President Obama and especially the Republican Party leadership knows that no nation can thrive or remain great if it is overrun with brutish illegal immigrants.  Yet, Republicans like John Boehner continue to throw their own policies and America under the bus. The G.O.P leaders struck a deal with Senate democrats that will grant funding for Obama’s unilateral amnesty for five million illegal immigrants. The liberal progressives stuck to their guns, yet the so-called Republican conservatives folded AGAIN!

Up to this point, the United States economy continues to limp along. During the current and weakest economic recovery in our republic’s history over 25,108,000 foreign born individuals in America hold jobs, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.  CNS News reported that the Bureau of Labor Statistics also noted that in the seven years from November 2007 to November 2014 the number of native born workers holding jobs increased by 2,004,000.  To put it bluntly, the President’s support of illegal immigrants and policies that don’t stimulate the economy hasn’t and won’t increase prosperity in our nation.

Yet, according to CNS News, evidence continues to mount showing that Obama is reacting with greater defiance and lawlessness despite the people’s repudiation of his agenda in the November midterm election. But like wilting lilies, the republican leaders in congress continue to relax their resistance to Obama’s harmful intentions toward the United States.  It is as if the Republican Party hierarchy used the concern of the American people to make election gains.  But they are not willing to wrestle our republic from the grip of progressive democrats who only seem to desire economic, moral, political and social destruction to be unleashed throughout the land.

If Republicans, and in some cases Christians, were as focused on the positive goals of American restoration as Obama and his comrades are pinpointed on U.S. their negative goals of upheaval, our nation would already be in massive recovery.  For starters, the economy would be yielding tremendous opportunities for both job producers and job seekers and our borders would be sealed and protected from the illegal hordes who mean us harm.

The Republican elites sit around and try to figure out how best to kiss Obama’s backside, while he continues to heap more problems upon our republic.  According to C.N.S. News, health care policy  expert Betsy McCahey reported that the Obama administration quietly saddled our nation with 3,415 new federal regulations just before Thanksgiving.  Yet, bone head Boehner and the other R.I.N.O. elites seek to appease Obama, Reid, Pelosi and other progressives rather than seek to serve in the best interest of “We The People,”

The window of opportunity is still open, but is shutting fast and cannot be allowed to be squandered by short sighted career politicians. Their lack of desire to defeat those who are hell bent on turning the United States into a second tier of moral depravity and economic decline is heartbreaking.  Since Boehner and his colleagues love cozying up to Obama so much, it would seem that his ability to stay on course would have rubbed off on them.  But then again, it probably is not the goal of the R.I.N.O, elites to fend off the progressive onslaught and restore our Constitutionally Limited Republic. But I can dream can’t I?