Earlier this month, West Virginia state senator Charles Trump introduced a senate resolution requesting that the citizens of Frederick County consider joining West Virginia. That is, the West Virginia Senate invited the county to secede from Virginia and join West Virginia.  The Senate later adopted the resolution. Resolutions like these don’t change any laws, but …

 The US Senate is increasingly targeted by left-wing think tanks and legislators for the fact it is based on “voter inequality.” According to critics, the Senate ensures small states are “overrepresented,”and the body favors voters in smaller and more sparsely populated states. In contrast,  reformers  hold up the concept of “one man, one vote” as …

When the US places financial sanctions one one country, it de facto sanctions many other countries as well — including many of its allies. This is because not all countries and firms are interested in participating in the US sanctions-based foreign policy. Sanctions, after all, have become a favorite go-to strategy for American policymakers who …

The Iranian regime and the Saudi Arabian regime are longtime enemies, both vying for control of the Persian Gulf region. Part of the conflict stems from religious differences — differences between Shia and Sunni Muslim groups. But much of it stems from mundane desires to establish regional dominance. For more than forty years, however, Saudi …

The Fed announced on Thursday it is adding another $83 billion in “in temporary liquidity to financial markets.” And, in a development that will surprise no cynic anywhere, the Fed also noted that it “may keep adding temporary money to markets for longer than policy makers had expected in September.” Specifically, this was another move …

In the days of the 2016 presidential campaign, Donald Trump’s opponents began to suggest he was too mentally unstable to be president. Specifically, it was said he couldn’t be trusted with the presidency’s most dangerous and unchecked power: the power to unilaterally launch a nuclear war. In late October 2016, for example, the Clinton administration …

The money supply growth rate surged in November, climbing to a 33-month high. The last time the growth rate was higher was during February of 2017, when the growth rate was 7.06 percent. During November 2019, year-over-year (YOY) growth in the money supply was at 6.22 percent. That’s up from October’s rate of 4.93 percent, …

On January 3, Iraqi prime minister Adel Abdul Mahdi condemned the US’s killing of Iranian general Qassem Soleimani and Iraqi militia commander Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, calling the airstrike a “massive breach of sovereignty.” Abdul Mahdi warned that the air strike was “a dangerous escalation that will light the fuse of a destructive war in Iraq, …

The US government tells us that Iraq is harboring anti-US Iranian forces and must be bombed. Yesterday, the US bombed Baghdad International Airport, killing seven people, including an Iranian general and two Iraqi politicians. Meanwhile, US marines invaded Iraqi sovereign territory — in a move euphemistically called “arrest raids” — in an effort to capture …

On December 29, an armed gunman entered the West Freeway Church of Christ in Texas and shot two members of the congregation. Within six seconds, a third member of the congregation drew a weapon and shot the gunman dead. The events were captured on live-streamed video, with the dramatic events — in the minds of …

It’s almost Christmas time again, and that means its time for White House politicians and staff to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on Christmas decorations and events for the White House. Parties and pricey decor have, unfortunately, become “tradition” at the White House where the holiday season has become an excuse for the staffs …

In my days before I worked for the Mises Institute, I had a colleague who knew I associated with Austrian-School economists. In the wake of the bailouts and quantitative easing that followed the 2008 financial crisis, he’d sometimes crack “where’s all that inflation you Austrians keep talking about?” But then, in the very same conversation, …

Boris Johnson’s Conservatives won an outright majority in yesterday’s general election, pushing the Tories to an 80-strong Commons majority in what The Daily Mail called a “staggering election landslide.” Given that the Conservatives employed an election slogan of “Get Brexit Done,” it appears the election was largely a referendum on Brexit. The Conservative victory suggests …

Anti-capitalists on both left and right tell us that “capitalism” is destroying the weekend. The conservatives insist we need laws to punish people who try to sell things on Sunday. Leftists insist “unbridled capitalism” is destroying the weekend, which “lets us cultivate the seeds of civil society…” But it’s not capitalism that’s doing this dirty …

Not every square inch of the planet earth is suitable for a housing development. Flood plains are not great places to build homes. A grove of trees adjacent to a tinder-dry national forest is not ideal for a dream home. And California’s chaparral ecosystems are risky places for neighborhoods. This is nothing new. While people …

It’s becoming more and more apparent that the United States will not be going back to “business as usual” after Donald Trump leaves office, and it is easy to imagine that the anti-Trump parties will use their return to power as an opportunity to settle scores against the hated rubes and “deplorables” who dared attempt to oppose their betters in Washington, DC, California, and New York.
This ongoing conflict may manifest itself in the culture war through further attacks on people who take religious faith seriously, and on those who hold any social views unpopular among degreed people from major urban centers. The First Amendment will be imperiled like never before with both religious freedom and freedom of speech regarded as

It has now become commonplace for politicians and media pundits to casually assert that “everyone” — to use Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s term — is now working more and more hours — and perhaps two or three jobs — just to attain the most basic, near-subsistence standard of living. This is repeated time and time again, usually …

It’s becoming more and more apparent that the United States will not be going back to “business as usual” after Donald Trump leaves office, and it is easy to imagine that the anti-Trump parties will use their return to power as an opportunity to settle scores against the hated rubes and “deplorables” who dared attempt …

Last week, the Washington Post’s editorial board came out against sanctuary cities. No, not the kind of sanctuary cities that refuse to enforce federal immigration law. The Post’s editors have no problem with that. Instead, the Post came out against the efforts by some local governments to oppose state- and federal-level enforcement of restrictions on …

Often, government-created holidays begin with a good premise — i.e., Independence Day, Armistice Day — and get worse from there. On Independence Day, instead of celebrating armed rebellion and secession, we now sing the praises of the government. Similarly, Armistice Day — a day designed to commemorate the end of a war — became Veterans …

The money supply growth rate rose in October, climbing to a twenty-eight-month high. The last time the growth rate was higher was during July of 2017, when the growth rate was 5.07 percent. During October 2019, year-over-year growth in the money supply was at 4.95 percent. That’s up from September’s rate of 3.10 percent, and …

Increasingly in recent years, criminal-justice-reform activists in states and cities have been campaigning for what is known as “ban the box.” This is an effort to enact new laws and ordinances prohibiting landlords and employers from asking applicants about their criminal histories. The idea is that far too many rehabilitated former criminals are unable to …

School children learn that there are three branches of government: the legislative, executive, and judicial. In actual practice, however, there are four branches of government.
The fourth is what for decades now has been called a “headless fourth branch of government,” the administrative state.
As early as 1937, in a “Report of the President’s Committee on Administrative Management,” the authors write:
Without plan or intent, there has grown up a headless “fourth branch” of the Government, responsible to no one, and impossible of coordination with the general policies and work of the Government as determined by the people through their duly elected representatives.
The problem of waste and lack of accountability in this fourth

School children learn that there are three branches of government: the legislative, executive, and judicial. In actual practice, however, there are four branches of government. The fourth is what for decades now has been called a “headless fourth branch of government,” the administrative state. As early as 1937, in a ” Report of the President’s …

Thanks to the proliferation of body cameras and security cameras attached to homes and businesses, police are far more frequently being caught lying. For example, this month, NYPD cop Michael Bergmann lied about nearly being struck by a suspect’s car. Bergmann was convicted of perjury when a surveillance camera showed otherwise. Earlier this year, Florida …

Even The New York Times now admits there is a deep state — and that it serves its own agenda while ignoring the elected civilian government. Original Article: It’s Trump vs. the Deep State vs. the Rest of Us.

One of the best side effects of the Trump presidency has been the hostility of the so-called “deep state” or “intelligence community” directed at the president. This, in turn, has led many Americans to realize that America’s powerful, un-elected secret police agencies serve an agenda all their own. Consequently, polls show one’s views of the …

Were an American from the mid-nineteenth century to time-travel to modern America, he’d be truly amazed to find that Americans are often expected to thank soldiers “for your service” and to act as if the military was doing the taxpayer a favor. The lionizing of government employees in uniform has become standard fare in the …

This week marks the thirtieth anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. Decades later, the wall remains a symbol of the violence employed by socialist states, and a reminder that the egalitarian workers’ paradise of East Germany was so hated by its residents that the state had to build a wall to keep residents …

It has become nearly commonplace for pundits and politicians to claim that Americans are working more than ever before; that they’re working more jobs, and working longer hours — all for a lower income. During the Democratic debates this summer, for instance, Rep. Tim Ryan of Ohio claimed  “the economic system now force[s] us to …