MCViewPoint

Opinion from a Libertarian ViewPoint

The Real Malignancy in America’s Justice System

Posted by M. C. on August 31, 2023

As whistleblowers languish in prison, allies of the national security state get sweetheart plea deals.

In other words, the FBI’s assistant general counsel had committed forgery and then committed perjury when he submitted the sworn document to the FISA Court.

https://archive.ph/lEeSw#selection-563.0-569.102

Ted Galen Carpenter

There are rising complaints from Donald Trump and his supporters that the Biden administration has “weaponized” the criminal justice system to harass and intimidate political and ideological opponents. That maneuver, they contend, is creating a corrupt, “two-tier” system with one, very lenient standard for the president’s allies and another, far harsher, standard for his adversaries.

Now, Washington Post columnist Jennifer Rubin has weighed in on the debate about the existence of a two-tier justice system, but she contends that the problem is nearly the opposite of what conservatives allege. “Four-time indicted former president Donald Trump never tires of painting himself as a victim. He and his supporters claim there’s a two-tiered justice system. They have a point on that score, but not in the way they intend.” Rubin notes that “No one, for example, has seriously considered pretrial detention for Trump—even electronic monitoring or asking him to relinquish his passport. He’s not getting the same treatment as everyone else.”

Both sides make valid points. However, they also focus on secondary manifestations of a politicized justice system. Rubin, for example, is correct that wealthy, socially prominent defendants have enormous advantages and are treated differently from poor defendants facing criminal charges. However, there are more graphic and significant examples of such preferential treatment. Being a loyal member of the political establishment and committed to preserving Washington’s entrenched foreign policy appears to be the most significant factor of all.

Rubin noticeably failed to mention the Justice Department’s effort to get court approval for the brazen sweetheart plea deal for Hunter Biden. Yet that episode was a transparent attempt to derail a serious investigation into allegations that the Biden family had engaged in illegal influence peddling with respect to several foreign governments. The stench surrounding that ploy was so great that federal district Judge Maryellen Noreika took the highly unusual step of declining to ratify the deal. The mere attempt, though, illustrates the pervasive favoritism and outright corruption in America’s criminal justice system.

Worse, the Hunter Biden episode is only the latest example of politically connected establishment types receiving preferential treatment from federal prosecutors.

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Dozens Killed By Fighting Among Washington’s Syrian Allies

Posted by M. C. on August 31, 2023

However, the IS has largely been eradicated in Syria by Bashar al-Assad along with his Shia, Iranian and Russian allies. Washington has since admitted it keeps its forces in Syria to steal resources and diminish Iranian influence in the Middle East. The policy of occupying eastern Syria has prolonged the war in the Middle East nation, intensifying the suffering of the Syrian people. 

https://libertarianinstitute.org/news/dozens-killed-by-fighting-among-washingtons-syrian-allies/

by Kyle Anzalone

sdf

Over thirty people were killed in a battle between the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and the Deir el-Zour Military Council (DEMC). Both the SDF and DEMC are supported by the US. 

Fighting erupted between the two groups when the SDF captured the leader of the DEMC, Abu Khawla, during a meeting on Sunday. In total 32 people, including three civilians, were killed amid the clashes. Sources now report that fighting between the SDF and DEMC has ceased as Khawla has agreed to step down as the group’s leader. 

On Wednesday, the SDF claimed Khawla’s detention is due to committing “multiple crimes,” including drug trafficking, and “coordination with external entities hostile to the revolution.” The statement suggests the SDF was unhappy with Khawla’s outreach to the Syrian government. 

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Woke U.S. Diplomacy: Not 100% Popular Around The Globe, Nor At Home

Posted by M. C. on August 31, 2023

Among the State Department initiatives are a $10,000 grant to a Portuguese LGBT activist group to finance a film festival featuring drag performances, incest, and pederasty. It also provided $20,000 to support a series of drag shows in Ecuador. 

The State Department’s DEI emphasis extends far beyond just events hosted and charters signed. Last year, the department announced it was completely reorganizing its hiring process for foreign service officers, deemphasizing a key test on written and language skills as well as world history and U.S. history.

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/woke-us-diplomacy-not-100-popular-around-globe-nor-home

Tyler Durden's Photo

by Tyler Durden

Authored by S.A. McCarthy via RealClear Wire,

The Biden administration is fraying relations with some allies and generating pushback from Congress by spending millions of taxpayer dollars to promote the woke ideology abroad that has stirred controversy at home since President Biden took office. 

In a “national security memorandum” shortly after his swearing-in, Biden ordered all federal agencies with dealings abroad not only to protect LGBT rights in the face of discrimination and violence but to actively advance them. His State Department has said one of its goals is to “embed intersectional equity principles into diversifying public diplomacy and communications strategies” in relations with other nations. 

U.S. ambassadors around the world have translated those words into action, championing LGTB rights in countries that oppose them; funding performances that feature drag queens; and holding diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) seminars. 

The State Department would not provide a list of initiatives and programs connected to these goals or how much money it is spending. Recent reports estimate nearly $5 million has been spent abroad on LGBT programs alone, and U.S. senators including Republican J.D. Vance of Ohio are holding up appointments of new ambassadors over concerns about exporting “woke” ideology.

Vance criticized what he called the “injecting” of “personal politics” into the U.S. foreign service, saying: “You can call it ‘extreme left,’ ‘woke.’ To me it’s leaning toward cultural progressivism in a way that alienates half of our country and, frankly, it probably alienates about 80 percent of the countries these guys are going to represent us in front of.” 

American LGBT and black advocacy groups concerned with foreign policy and diplomacy declined to respond to RealClearInvestigations’ inquiries about the State Department programs. The groups are Gays and Lesbians in Foreign Affairs Agencies (GLIFAA) and the Thursday Luncheon Group, which was founded “to increase the participation of African Americans in the formulation, articulation, and implementation of United States foreign policy.”  

Among the State Department initiatives are a $10,000 grant to a Portuguese LGBT activist group to finance a film festival featuring drag performances, incest, and pederasty. It also provided $20,000 to support a series of drag shows in Ecuador. 

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Trouble In Paradise? When The Migrant Crisis Reaches The Democrat’s Backyard

Posted by M. C. on August 31, 2023

Migrants and war, it happens somewhere else…unless it is IMBY.

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Land of The Free & Home of The Brave … We Need To Live Up To That

Posted by M. C. on August 31, 2023

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The Unwelcome Return of Covid Restrictions and Lockdowns | Mises Wire

Posted by M. C. on August 31, 2023

The doctrine of totalitarianism is too dangerous to be tolerated again. But unlike a pathogen, all this threat requires is our refusal.

I think he is saying…stand up, don’t roll over.

https://mises.org/wire/unwelcome-return-covid-restrictions-and-lockdowns

Connor O’Keeffe

Covid restrictions are back. Almost a year after President Joe Biden said “the pandemic is over,” several hospitals, businesses, and universities have reinstated mask mandates and social distancing requirements. Meanwhile, nearly sixty universities have announced that students must take a covid vaccine to attend for the fall 2023 semester.

Although these restrictions are still limited to only a handful of organizations, their implementation demonstrates that the destructive public health dogmas responsible for the devastation of the last three years are still with us. The American people must stop tolerating these ruinous policies and the totalitarian paradigm underlying them.

The current dominant SARS-CoV-2 variant is a subvariant of Omicron called EG.5. Informally, it’s been nicknamed Eris after the Greek goddess of strife. The strain was first identified back in February 2023. It overtook the previous dominant variant at the beginning of August. The symptoms of the Eris variant are those of a cold—a runny nose and a sore throat. There is no evidence that Eris is more contagious or severe than the previous dominant variant.

Another Omicron variant called BA.2.86, nicknamed Pirola, has also been detected, but the few confirmed cases have also been very mild.

In recent weeks, an uptick in covid has been detected in wastewater, indicating a rise in cases. The trend is the familiar “summer wave” in viral spread seen as people move indoors to escape the late-summer heat. Still, the case numbers are extremely low, and the virus has the severity of a cold.

And yet some institutions have reinstated restrictions on their customers and workers in response to Eris. On August 17, two New York hospitals reimposed mandatory face masking and covid testing. Then, on August 20, Morris Brown College in Atlanta reinstated its mask mandate and banned large gatherings. The school also reimplemented contact tracing, symptom monitoring, and general social distancing requirements. The next day, the movie studio Lionsgate instituted a mask mandate for its offices. Two days later, a San Francisco medical center followed suit.

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Well Done! — New ‘Mask Mandates’ Quickly Reversed Because of Pushback!

Posted by M. C. on August 30, 2023

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A New Covid ‘Variant’…Just in Time for Election Season!

Posted by M. C. on August 30, 2023

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Scorecard

Posted by M. C. on August 30, 2023

Nowadays, you can’t tell the ballplayers without a scorecard

If these leftie folk had any decency, any appreciation for proper categorization, they would issue the rest of us a scorecard (they could use one too!), depicting the exact order groups of people are to be ranked in terms of being given privileges denied to others.

https://substack.com/inbox/post/136524999

In the good old days, when men were men, it was easy to tell the political ball players without a scorecard, at least from the Socialist and Communist point of view, thanks to economic Marxism. You would always distinguish the good guys from the bad guys. Czarists versus Communists? The former, of course. Bourgeois versus proletarians. The latter take precedence. Socialists vis a vis capitalists? You’ve gotta be kidding to even ask about that. Workers (pronounced woikas in Brooklyn) compared to corporations? Fuggehdaboudit! A similar “analysis” applies to union members and scabs. Although to be fair to Brer Commie, some of them actually opposed organized labor on the ground that this would just lengthen the stay of evil free enterprise.

Nowadays, under cultural Marxism, we are as if at sea, without a rudder, and this applies, amazingly, to all of us, snowflakes and wokists most certainly included. Oh, don’t get me wrong. There are still some broad categories that are crystal clear. Blacks are to be preferred to whites (we even capitalize the former, not the latter, at least this applies to the politically correct of us). Affirmative action for the former? You betcha. Women, to be sure, take precedence over men. LGBTQIA+ take pride of place over all others.

But, still, there are anomalies. What about black men versus white women? It would appear that there is a real contest going on here. Perhaps, even, the former out-rank the latter in that they can launch the charge of “Karen” against them, and the latter have no similar verbal missile to utilize against the former. Recently, what with Kanye West and Kyrie Irving, Jewish sensibilities have taken precedence over at least the ones of these black people. But Waitasec! Jews are white, surely an inferior (that is, superior) breed in the cultural Marxist sweepstakes; surely, the hierarchy should have been the other way around.

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Doug Casey on the World’s First Anarcho-Capitalist President

Posted by M. C. on August 30, 2023

Doug Casey: It could be the most dramatic thing that’s happened politically since at least World War II. Anywhere. Why? Because he’s an AnCap libertarian who’d like to abolish the State—or come as close as possible.

International Man: Milei has called central banking and fiat currency a historical fraud. He has vowed to “burn down the central bank” and replace the peso with the dollar and whatever commodity the free market would choose as money. He is favorable to precious metals and Bitcoin.

International Man: Anarcho-capitalist Javier Milei recently won Argentina’s presidential primary. He is now the undisputed front-runner in the upcoming elections.

The outcome took many by surprise. Milei is an outsider who bested the country’s two entrenched establishment parties.

How did this happen, and why should anyone outside of Argentina care?

Doug Casey: It could be the most dramatic thing that’s happened politically since at least World War II. Anywhere. Why? Because he’s an AnCap libertarian who’d like to abolish the State—or come as close as possible. If he’s elected in October, he’ll make every move possible to eliminate—not just reduce—as many government departments as possible as quickly as possible. And most people seem oblivious to it.

Milei was in first place in the primary. Historically, in Argentina, the person who wins the primary wins the general election. There’s only been one exception to that rule. Even more encouraging is his ratings have gone up from 30% to 40% since the primary. It appears his campaign is not just a flash in the pan but a trend that’s building momentum.

Argentina was one of the most prosperous countries in the world a hundred years ago when it was about as free as any country economically. Before Peron, the Argentine GDP equaled the rest of the continent put together. But since the accession of Juan Peron in 1946, it’s consistently gone downhill every year.

Why might that be?

Peron was an overt fan of Mussolini and fascism. Fascism—a word coined by Mussolini—is defined as the complete subordination of corporations and business to the State. After WW2, the word “fascism” was a no-no, so the system was rechristened “Peronism” in Argentina. It’s not a consistent philosophy; it has many mutations. It’s all about businessmen and politicians using each other, through the State, to get rich. The lower classes are made dependent, and the middle class is impoverished. Fascism has little to do with militarism and jackboots; it’s an economic system. Almost every country in the world is fascist today—including the US, the EU, China, and Russia.

Despite the triumph of Peronism, Argentina still has the most classically liberal traditions in all of Latin America. It’s always been the most outward-looking country in Latin America. I’ve always believed it was the most fertile ground for a pro-individual liberty revolution in Latin America. Now, that may be happening.

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