“United States President Donald Trump has ordered the declassification and release of all remaining files related to the assassination of former US President John F Kennedy, the focus of popular conspiracy theories for six decades. Trump’s executive order signed on Thursday also calls for the release of the last remaining records on the assassinations of Robert F Kennedy, JFK’s younger brother, and the civil rights icon Martin Luther King Jr. … Under Trump’s order, the director of national intelligence must present a plan within 15 days for the ‘full and complete release’ of files related to JFK’s assassination and a plan within 45 days for the release of documents on the other two assassinations.” (01/24/25)
“The Pentagon Papers case was the high watermark for the freedom of speech: Freedom trumps safety. But the court studiously avoided answering Justice Douglas’[s] question about no law. If the Constitution means what it says, then no law literally means no law, and thus all sorts of legislation about speech – from defamation to treason to silencing TikTok – is unconstitutional. But if no law doesn’t really mean no law, then what does it mean? Regrettably, today, no law means whatever the court says it means. That’s what happened last week when the court upheld congressional legislation silencing TikTok.” (01/23/25)
“NIMBYism is the epitome of a parochial movement. It is bereft of nationally prominent champions and institutions. How then does it wield such overwhelming power? Because human beings everywhere have petty complaints — and almost every locality has a few activists willing to donate their time to promote those petty complaints. As a result, every city, town, and village burdens construction. When the cumulative burdens in a locality intensify enough, they strangle construction locally — even though it would be hard to find anyone who consciously wants to ‘strangle construction locally.’ And when the local burdens extensify enough, they strangle construction nationally, even though virtually no one consciously wants to ‘strangle constuction nationally.’ The lesson: NIMBY is a proverbial case of ‘death by a thousand cuts.'” (01/23/25)
“A federal judge in Seattle on Thursday signed a temporary restraining order blocking President Donald Trump’s executive order on birthright citizenship. U.S. District Judge John Coughenour heard a request by four Democratic-led states to issue a temporary restraining order against the executive order signed by Trump that purports to limit birthright citizenship — long guaranteed by the 14th Amendment — to people who have at least one parent who is a United States citizen or permanent resident. ‘I have been on the bench for over four decades,’ said Judge Coughenour, who was nominated to the bench by President Ronald Reagan in 1981. ‘I can’t remember another case where the question presented is as clear as it is here. This is a blatantly unconstitutional order.'” (01/23/25)
Source: Future of Freedom Foundation
by Jacob G Hornberger
“While there are libertarians praising and thanking President Trump for fulfilling his political promise to pardon Ross Ulbricht (or Ross Ulbright, as Trump referred to him), Trump actually deserves no praise or thanks whatsoever. That’s because federal officials never had any legitimate moral authority to arrest, prosecute, or incarcerate Ulbricht or, for that matter, anyone else for any drug-related crime whatsoever. As libertarians have long maintained, what a person ingests is simply none of the government’s business. Thus, government officials have no more business jailing people for what they ingest than jailing people for what they read or where they choose to go to church. Given such, why should anyone thank Trump or anyone else for releasing someone who should never have been incarcerated in the first place?” (01/23/25)
“Micheal Martin became Ireland’s taoiseach (prime minister) for the second time in his political career on Thursday, a day later than planned. The Irish parliament descended into uproar on Wednesday, its first day back in session after weeks of political horse-trading and coalition-building, following the country’s general election in November. Wednesday’s order of business was scheduled to start with the vote to elect a new taoiseach but this formality was delayed repeatedly. It was then ultimately abandoned for the day, as opposition parties took to their feet in loud protest over the granting of extended speaking rights to independent parliamentarians who support the incoming government. Attempts to resolve the dispute continued into Thursday morning when the government acknowledged that there was ‘ambiguity’ in speaking rights and an agreement was reached that government-supporting independents cannot for now retain extended speaking rights from the opposition benches.” (01/23/25)
“As expected, Trump has started the process for redesignating the Houthis as a foreign terrorist organization (FTO), and he is also going after USAID support for U.N. and humanitarian aid groups working in Yemen …. Trump’s decision means that many poor and starving people will die preventable deaths from hunger and disease. This is not just a wrongheaded decision. It is malevolent.” (01/23/25)
“Tens of thousands of residents remain under evacuation orders and warnings Thursday morning as firefighters continue to battle for containment on the Hughes Fire that erupted near Castaic. The blaze was reported around 11 a.m. Wednesday in the area of Lake Hughes Road near Castaic Lake and used gusty winds to rapidly spread through steep terrain. Thousands of firefighters were called to battle the Hughes Fire, which had scorched 10,176 acres as of 11:36 p.m. Wednesday. Crews had built the containment level to 14%, according to Cal Fire.” (01/23/25)
Source: Ludwig von Mises Institute
by George Ford Smith
“[P]eople suffer taxation and other abuses as long as they don’t get out of hand. When they do, heads tend to roll. Over the ages, government leaders caught on and have developed more sophisticated means to steal our property. One way was withholding, a wartime emergency measure in WWII that haunts us to this day. The idea is if you’re never allowed to hold in your hands the money you’ve earned, you might not miss it. Among others, free-market champion Milton Friedman had a hand in designing federal withholding that took effect in June 1943. The other form of theft is more subtle: Corruption of the money we use.” (01/23/25)
