Border Checkpoints Further New York City’s Descent into Tyranny and Economic Hardship

Posted on by August 5, 2020

People in New York City have been subjected to one of the most repressive coronavirus crackdowns in America. Included have been months-long forced closure of many businesses and extreme limitations placed on businesses that have been allowed to resume some operations during incremental scaling back of closure orders. Such government actions have decimated businesses in the city. A Sunday report by Lauren Thomas at CNBC illustrates the continuing economic destruction by describing vacancies and bankruptcies, along with a large drop in rents sought, in 16 major retail corridors of the Manhattan borough of the city.

The plummeting economy has come hand-in-hand with plummeting respect for liberty, with people in New York City having been prohibited from doing many of the things, in addition to operating or working at businesses, that people have long considered basic to living — doing daily activities outside home without wearing a mask, attending religious services, meeting friends at a bar for a beer, and taking children to a playground, for example.

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Ron Paul Presents Coronavirus Policy Common Sense in Fox Business Interview

Posted on by August 3, 2020

Coronavirus policy at the national, state, and local levels has been largely characterized by the abandonment of common sense as governments have imposed a new array of draconian measures on the people in response to an infectious disease that is not a particularly greater danger than others that have been dealt with in regular course over the decades.

In this environment, it was refreshing to hear Ron Paul, the former Republican United Sates House of Representatives member from Texas and long-time doctor, present in a Monday interview with host Stuart Varney at Fox Business some of the common sense approach that could have instead been employed in America in reaction to coronavirus.

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When a Mask Becomes Part of the Required Work Uniform

Posted on by August 2, 2020

Wearing a mask at a store or other place where doing so is required of customers or visitors, or where there seems to be pressure either from the venue operators or the surrounding mask-wearers to do so, can be uncomfortable, even sickening. This can especially be the case for older and less healthy individuals for whom walking around while shopping can be a physical activity approaching or as strenuous as a younger, healthier person running a mile. The younger, healthier person can run a mile alright, but consider him trying to do so with his face and nose covered. He will surely run slower or be more exhausted in his masked mile run.

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Does Rep. Louie Gohmert Have Coronavirus because He Did Not Wear a Belt?

Posted on by July 31, 2020

“Rep. Louie Gohmert, who often went without a mask, tests positive for the coronavirus.” That is the headline for a Wednesday NBC article regarding United States House of Representatives member Louie Gohmert (R-TX) having tested positive for coronavirus. Similar headlines seeking to make a connection between Gohmert’s test result and Gohmert not wearing a mask were used throughout much of the media. For example, headlines read “Louie Gohmert, who refused to wear a mask, tests positive for coronavirus” at Politico and “Texas Republican Rep. Gohmert Tests Positive For Coronavirus After Rebuffing Masks” at National Public Radio.

Suppose Gohmert often did not wear a belt when he went about his daily activities. Then, media could alternatively publish articles about his coronavirus test results with headlines like “Rep. Louie Gohmert, who often went without a belt, tests positive for the coronavirus.” Mentioning Gohmert’s belt-wearing tendency would be just as relevant to the matter as is mentioning his mask-wearing tendency. As with wearing masks, there is no clear evidence that wearing belts on net helps prevent people from being infected with coronavirus.

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The New Viral Video of Doctors Talking About Coronavirus that Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter Have Removed

Posted on by July 28, 2020

This week, video of a Washington, DC press conference of doctors was racking up millions of views. In the Monday press conference, several doctors of the group America’s Frontline Doctors challenged much of the party line that has been pushed for months by many people in media and government about coronavirus and how it should be dealt with medically and politically.

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Say What? NPR Show Represents Libertarians as Supporting Wearing Masks and Imposing Mask Mandates

Posted on by July 21, 2020

For months, much of the airtime at National Public Radio (NPR) has been devoted to interviews and stories that ramp up the coronavirus scare and advance all manner of draconian government action in the name of countering coronavirus. The effort can reach ludicrous extremes as it did on Sunday at the NPR show All Things Considered when show host Michel Martin interviewed Jessica Flanigan focused on this question: “Is there a basic libertarian view about public health measures like face masks?”

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Beware Coronavirus Surveillance

Posted on by July 17, 2020

“Concerns about curtailing contagion help to normalize detailed scrutiny of people’s lives and drive us toward a pervasive surveillance state,” writes J.D. Tuccille in an informative and disturbing Friday article at Reason. Tuccille details in the article developments in new surveillance efforts termed “contact tracing” that are marketed as part of an effort to counter coronavirus. He also addresses the continuing and expanding employment of surveillance technologies that were in use before the coronavirus scare.

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Jo Jorgensen Praises Company for Firing an Employee for Posting ‘All Lives Matter’ at the Employee’s Private Facebook Page

Posted on by July 16, 2020

Libertarian Party presidential nominee Jo Jorgensen is fond of posting the phrase “Black Lives Matter” and its hashtag variant “#BlackLivesMatter” at her Twitter page. Check out her tweets here, here, here, here, here, and here for examples from this and last month.

But, if you dare declare “All Lives Matter” at your personal social media account, Jorgensen stands ready to cheer your employer firing you in response. That is a message Jorgensen communicated in a July 11 interview at C-SPAN.

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