tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8448424058062640292024-02-14T14:53:59.670-06:00A Voice Of LibertyThe United States Constitution is the world's first and only governing charter to elevate the rights of men above the power of government.Peter Nayland Kusthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11676552912495663957noreply@blogger.comBlogger167125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-844842405806264029.post-85627592970741894782020-09-19T16:56:00.001-05:002020-09-19T17:04:13.835-05:00How Fatal Is CCPVirus? Not Very<p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbldywhxe6UrMcz3SFyDtaH7QPEKF1n8MczaikymDLiNtMo8NHS-V44t7W7YF0IvMR7EtXOahf9YrePXkQXWSW_49cmZzOqQVJjpNBQpwozfS6I9c082B4RqrxtMtfpdamZPbJ0KdlcxPi/s1920/coronavirus-4947692_1920.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1027" data-original-width="1920" height="214" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbldywhxe6UrMcz3SFyDtaH7QPEKF1n8MczaikymDLiNtMo8NHS-V44t7W7YF0IvMR7EtXOahf9YrePXkQXWSW_49cmZzOqQVJjpNBQpwozfS6I9c082B4RqrxtMtfpdamZPbJ0KdlcxPi/w400-h214/coronavirus-4947692_1920.jpg" width="400"></a></span></div><span style="font-family: verdana;">How fatal is CCPVirus?</span><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Perversely, that is a question the legacy media has never properly answered, nor even attempted to answer. Of all the legacy media's many journalistic sins in covering the CCPVirus "pandemic", their complete ineptitude and even outright dishonesty in addressing the true dangers and risks from the disease unquestionably ranks at or near the top of the list.</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">We should not be overly surprised, therefore, that close scrutiny of the data reveals the virus to be <a href="https://archive.vn/YqJ6I">significantly less lethal than has been claimed in the legacy media</a>. </span><span style="font-family: verdana;">The legacy media has gotten the CCPVirus </span><a href="https://www.avoiceofliberty.us/2020/02/coronavirus-latest-legacy-media-epic.html" style="font-family: verdana;">story wrong from the very beginning</a><span style="font-family: verdana;">, so it perhaps to be expected that they have bungled the most crucial element of the pandemic narrative--the degree to which the virus actually causes fatal disease.</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span></span></p><a href="https://www.avoiceofliberty.us/2020/09/how-fatal-is-ccpvirus-not-very.html#more"></a>Peter Nayland Kusthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11676552912495663957noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-844842405806264029.post-16244736256943300202020-09-18T18:03:00.001-05:002020-09-18T18:06:59.135-05:00Speech Or Silence: FactCheck.org Flunks Basic English<p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: right;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEik0Zyl_aJ5txAfWwykhlp4YxvTL7X9qM0aPr0S8aUcHg5OwEg_XwtAOqvWEEfd-ecgHm3Jax1nlTPxnIz6OPGTnSQ_UtMqexNJ0b8QfqtM2OWXcLgSDRvlS1nxoPi2hX2Yf6Y4RISCxCmO/s680/EiCqpShWoAkWAb5.jpeg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="453" data-original-width="680" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEik0Zyl_aJ5txAfWwykhlp4YxvTL7X9qM0aPr0S8aUcHg5OwEg_XwtAOqvWEEfd-ecgHm3Jax1nlTPxnIz6OPGTnSQ_UtMqexNJ0b8QfqtM2OWXcLgSDRvlS1nxoPi2hX2Yf6Y4RISCxCmO/w400-h266/EiCqpShWoAkWAb5.jpeg" width="400"></a></span></div><span style="font-family: verdana;">Free Speech is a moral imperative.</span><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">I have said this innumerable times when rising to the defense of various silenced speakers, <a href="https://www.avoiceofliberty.us/2020/07/speech-or-silence-free-speech-is-moral.html">most recently to protest the deplatforming of philosopher, online commentator, and host of FreeDomain Radio, Stefan Molyneaux</a>, as well as other notable figures. What I said then is just as true today, and just as applicable to <a href="https://www.minds.com/newsfeed/1152773962918973440?referrer=avoiceofliberty">Chinese virologist Dr. Li-Meng Yan</a> as it is to any political, moral, or philosophical commentator. Free Speech is the necessary moral standard because any other stance is a moral double standard, an hypocrisy, an indefensible abdication of our status as a free people.</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"></span></p><blockquote><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">If we accept the double standard, if we tolerate and excuse one rule for conservative voices and another rule for progressive voices, then our speech is no longer free, and we are no longer free.</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">At its core, all censorship rests on the hypocrisy of the double standard. The proposition that some ideas should be silenced and others not is the very essence of what a double standard is. That hypocrisy is why censorship can never be the right thing to do, why it is always the wrong thing to do. Avoiding that hypocrisy is why the alternative, free speech, is always the moral imperative.</span></p></blockquote><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Yet we must also recognize that deplatforming is but one form of censorship. There is another, more insidious and more perverse form of censorship: the "fact check" of a claim which is itself based on a lie.</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><a href="https://archive.vn/D2CkM">FactCheck.org, in attemting to dismiss (and really to defame)</a> Dr. Li's <a href="https://archive.vn/pyJtD">research into the origins of the CCPVirus</a>, engages in an horrendous and self-evident lie, that her research is somehow "baseless". The only thing FactCheck.org establishes with its critique is that the author flunked 8th grade English.</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span></span></p><a href="https://www.avoiceofliberty.us/2020/09/speech-or-silence-factcheckorg-flunks.html#more"></a>Peter Nayland Kusthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11676552912495663957noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-844842405806264029.post-91988791477061791782020-09-07T16:06:00.001-05:002020-09-12T19:36:21.267-05:00Where Are The CCPVirus Patients? Apparently Not In Hospital<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNfJ5gHPuG17xiVrHgAj-uQ7WjZ3q49GMzHKIqcYClKBRwSD0jbt5fmV8riECEpjitn9VZs8qUFQuWd6vJSSESGBp4WxM08xYTkw3NA9B4jF5KqHprajh9-EGlES8wkBxWJyvH_FJg4s1W/s1920/insulation-station-4984462_1920.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; text-align: justify;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1280" data-original-width="1920" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNfJ5gHPuG17xiVrHgAj-uQ7WjZ3q49GMzHKIqcYClKBRwSD0jbt5fmV8riECEpjitn9VZs8qUFQuWd6vJSSESGBp4WxM08xYTkw3NA9B4jF5KqHprajh9-EGlES8wkBxWJyvH_FJg4s1W/w400-h266/insulation-station-4984462_1920.jpg" width="400"></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">As I have <a href="https://www.avoiceofliberty.us/2020/02/narrative-fail-were-missing-some.html">observed</a> on more than one occasion, perhaps the most important question when analyzing data is "does this make sense?". The data must completely explain an hypothesis or narrative, or there is more research yet to be done. The hypothesis or narrative must completely account for all the data (even if only to identify a data point as an outlier and not indicative of a broader trend) or it must be revised so that it does.</span></div><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">This is the basis of all scientific inquiry, the foundation of all diagnostic disciplines, including those that have informed my more than 25 years as a Voice and Data Network Engineer. If things do not make sense, the analysis is not yet complete.</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">When we attempt to assess the current state of the global CCPVirus pandemic, the data simply does not make sense.</span></p><span><span style="font-family: verdana;"></span></span><a href="https://www.avoiceofliberty.us/2020/09/where-are-ccpvirus-patients-apparently.html#more"></a>Peter Nayland Kusthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11676552912495663957noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-844842405806264029.post-48319698199938821032020-09-05T16:58:00.003-05:002020-09-12T18:57:34.469-05:00Rumors Of Civil War: Democrats Say This Must Happen<i><span style="font-family: verdana;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtEM2IuGx_fWEVReDvF7FVNb97Rpn2gO5XnjVPXVb0brkOLySqpkBrkiK1JjUmw21n1yJHH22Bf9ZnJ4oG1OLTXZ3izh-tD6-0w1ntDM8hETdE3mgPw8tDE0BNc28zNyQ4Vifoge_PynCR/s1920/riot-5141888_1920.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1280" data-original-width="1920" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtEM2IuGx_fWEVReDvF7FVNb97Rpn2gO5XnjVPXVb0brkOLySqpkBrkiK1JjUmw21n1yJHH22Bf9ZnJ4oG1OLTXZ3izh-tD6-0w1ntDM8hETdE3mgPw8tDE0BNc28zNyQ4Vifoge_PynCR/w400-h266/riot-5141888_1920.jpg" width="400"></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><i><span>You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. </span></i></div></span></i><div style="text-align: right;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">-- <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew%2024:6&version=NIV">Matthew 24:6</a></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">The Gospels teach us there is a certain inevitability to conflict. Good will always be matched against Evil, and men will always be called to choose the side on which they stand.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Viewed against that backdrop, <a href="https://www.minds.com/newsfeed/1142021035702910976?referrer=avoiceofliberty">the civic strife that has dominated the legacy media in 2020</a> was always fated to happen. The accumulated disputes and disagreements of decades have, in such an hypothesis, coalesced into existential crisis of putative Good against seeming Evil.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">That is one interpretation.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Another interpretation is that the orgy of violence that has racked cities from Portland to Kenosha to Minneapolis to Atlanta is not merely the boiling over of long-simmering disputes, but is rather the calculated design of malign actors as a pathway to political power. Disturbingly, this view of things is substantiated not by sacred text but by the headlines and reporting of the legacy media. When viewed as a whole and not piecemeal, the media coverage of the various riots and protests in this country presents a clear and deliberate moving of this country towards civil war.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br></span></div><span style="font-family: verdana;"></span><a href="https://www.avoiceofliberty.us/2020/09/rumors-of-civil-war-democrats-say-this.html#more"></a>Peter Nayland Kusthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11676552912495663957noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-844842405806264029.post-90188616206230646202020-08-30T16:24:00.000-05:002020-08-30T16:24:31.390-05:00Violence Is Silence: There Is No Defense For Riots<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWu9QbfZs0st59s_gJ1UXK0Yp3Ede6edCCZZ2bF7hChYjutue32Y54ddZ7Is18o954yyQ6rHY-9QwmuoQAOrnXVTFG2QyxqKuMIxRIMnomN7208Zelqiy0sAWc50zYE2gaoRrbwIewPzYp/s800/PortlandProtest.jpeg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; text-align: justify;"><img alt="Violence Is Silence: There Is No Defense For Riots" border="0" data-original-height="533" data-original-width="800" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWu9QbfZs0st59s_gJ1UXK0Yp3Ede6edCCZZ2bF7hChYjutue32Y54ddZ7Is18o954yyQ6rHY-9QwmuoQAOrnXVTFG2QyxqKuMIxRIMnomN7208Zelqiy0sAWc50zYE2gaoRrbwIewPzYp/w400-h266/PortlandProtest.jpeg" width="400"></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><a href="https://www.minds.com/newsfeed/1146801704194109440?referrer=avoiceofliberty">Portland is burning still</a>. After months of unrest and anarchic violence masquerading as "peaceful protest", Portland is still burning.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Still we have learned nothing.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Still we have the legacy media cowering behind weasel words, giving the authors of the violence--Antifa and the BLM movement--veneer of legitimacy by describing them as "<a href="https://www.minds.com/newsfeed/1146885326028578816?referrer=avoiceofliberty">protestors</a>".</span></div><blockquote><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">A man whose hat bore the insignia of a far-right group called Patriot Prayer was fatally shot late Saturday during a clash between Trump supporters and counter-protesters, capping a violent week in America that began with a white police officer shooting Jacob Blake, a Black man, in the back seven times in Kenosha, Wis., last Sunday. Two days later, a white teenager from Illinois allegedly shot three people in Kenosha, killing two of them.</span></div></blockquote><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"> No. This is not accurate. This is not honest. This is not true.</span></p><p><b><span style="font-family: verdana;"></span></b></p><a href="https://www.avoiceofliberty.us/2020/08/violence-is-silence-there-is-no-defense.html#more"></a>Peter Nayland Kusthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11676552912495663957noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-844842405806264029.post-2230329559882269852020-08-23T19:47:00.000-05:002020-08-23T19:47:48.666-05:00Ignorance Is Not Bliss: The Legacy Media Is Both Incompetent And Dishonest About CCPVirus Treatments<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAv2m1CiqaLQiwzQDa7BvMhinWBv0cd_EuUN2vHK2ceqS1eHGpzdWNHGpRhJoQZU2vOqh3Az9zpxj_eMqqBtUms5rmtudVx48MukUHJqNsN2qBUUlnk3l0HnbG9M53OJ138RqmujglizIe/s1280/coronavirus-4947210_1280.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; text-align: justify;"><img alt="Ignorance Is Not Bliss: The Legacy Media Is Both Incompetent And Dishonest About CCPVirus Treatments" border="0" data-original-height="853" data-original-width="1280" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAv2m1CiqaLQiwzQDa7BvMhinWBv0cd_EuUN2vHK2ceqS1eHGpzdWNHGpRhJoQZU2vOqh3Az9zpxj_eMqqBtUms5rmtudVx48MukUHJqNsN2qBUUlnk3l0HnbG9M53OJ138RqmujglizIe/w400-h266/coronavirus-4947210_1280.jpg" width="400"></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;">We must not be surprised when politicians engage in hyperbole. For better or worse, it is a staple of political rhetoric--everything they do is "the best" and everything their opponents do is "the worst". This has been true of politics dating back to the Roman Republic.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">We can therefore be reasonably skeptical when President Trump's Press Secretary, Kayleigh McEnany, <a href="https://www.minds.com/newsfeed/1144359734888529920?referrer=avoiceofliberty">describes FDA authorization of Convalescent Blood Plasma as a "breakthrough"</a>. We should expect such hyperbole for every bit of good news coming from any President's administration.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">We should be far less forgiving, however, of the legacy media treating the hyperbole with a strange naivete, especially when choosing to downplay both the announcement and the significance of the treatment option. Convelscent Blood Plasma may be many things, but what no treatment that has been around for nearly 160 years can be called is a "breakthrough"--and it beggars belief that the legacy media remains studiously unaware of this fact.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><span></span><a href="https://www.avoiceofliberty.us/2020/08/ignorance-is-not-bliss-legacy-media-is.html#more"></a>Peter Nayland Kusthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11676552912495663957noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-844842405806264029.post-82316463125449103342020-08-16T17:46:00.005-05:002020-08-19T17:45:27.642-05:00Farther Down The Rabbit Hole: The Long Dark Twilight Of America's Banking Collapse<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqJHAdYATyFoIVOb6pMy1eUXc3i-wtpXnpGkr7UG7nc56xDmX4aHbTVRoZK5DxLS5YgksfOa9wY6XFPpt8DTaHG0qzYwwxXDolZkVsCby4cI8rpu3PZ1SmjosayGAbBIT7DJDA8u4TpxYo/s1920/finance-4599823_1920.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1322" data-original-width="1920" height="276" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqJHAdYATyFoIVOb6pMy1eUXc3i-wtpXnpGkr7UG7nc56xDmX4aHbTVRoZK5DxLS5YgksfOa9wY6XFPpt8DTaHG0qzYwwxXDolZkVsCby4cI8rpu3PZ1SmjosayGAbBIT7DJDA8u4TpxYo/w400-h276/finance-4599823_1920.jpg" width="400"></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">In his August 15, 2020, press conference, President Trump <a href="http://archive.vn/kWe3u">delivered a glowing assessment</a> of the current state of the United States economy, spending considerable time crowing about the speed of the current economic "recovery". </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">There is just one problem with his economic analysis: it is completely wrong.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">In his zeal to both defend his policies and maintain a spirit of optimism for the future, President Trump is relying on certain top-level benchmark indicators while ignoring the far less favorable dynamics taking place underneath. The top level numbers do suggest expansion is occurring, but they overlook the distorting impact of the massive government injections of money into household incomes as well as the ongoing injections of liquidity by the Federal Reserve into financial markets. </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">To accurately assess the true state of the economy, we must first unwind these distortions.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br></span></div><span><span style="font-family: verdana;"></span></span><a href="https://www.avoiceofliberty.us/2020/08/farther-down-rabbit-hole-long-dark.html#more"></a>Peter Nayland Kusthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11676552912495663957noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-844842405806264029.post-65237401910869048382020-08-09T12:00:00.000-05:002020-08-09T12:00:10.770-05:00Congressional Bailout: President Trump Drop Kicks The CCPVirus "Relief" Can Down The Road<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHFU89TaZU_8qCpfZTsKYOvXVdtFqV8J7j7On5yFVkbxJOiDwHOlLHmRGlZ88176YykhgJYKMwXwd2csmLxcYm-dbskhH-VNSxIwKJKFPw3BKyFZmPuwwljGKMwgfU8gGYiMV68fTFjApD/s800/proxy+%25282%2529.jpeg" style="clear: right; display: block; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; padding: 1em 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><img border="0" data-original-height="532" data-original-width="800" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHFU89TaZU_8qCpfZTsKYOvXVdtFqV8J7j7On5yFVkbxJOiDwHOlLHmRGlZ88176YykhgJYKMwXwd2csmLxcYm-dbskhH-VNSxIwKJKFPw3BKyFZmPuwwljGKMwgfU8gGYiMV68fTFjApD/w400-h266/proxy+%25282%2529.jpeg" width="400" /></span></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">In keeping with the prevailing attitudes for 2020, President Trump has extended the bailout philosophy to the United States Congress, effectively taking them off the hook for a potentially disastrous second crash of the economy by letting key provisions of March's CARES Act expire.</span></div><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">After a week of stalled negotiations between the White House and Congressional Democrats over such relief measures as the eviction moratorium (which expired on July 25) and the FPUC stipend of $600 per week (which expired on July 31), President Trump <a href="http://archive.vn/BpuK6">signed a series of Executive Orders</a> to unilaterally address these items.</span></p><p></p><blockquote><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">The new orders will:</span></p><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Eliminate the payroll tax</span></li><li style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Extend unemployment benefits by $400 per week, down from $600</span></li><li style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Defer student loan repayments through the end of the year</span></li><li style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Extend protections against evictions</span></li></ul><p></p></blockquote><p style="text-align: justify;"><b><span style="font-family: verdana;">Democrats Cry "Foul"</span></b></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">In a move that surprised exactly no one, the Democrats <a href="http://archive.vn/g81Ae">reacted with their reflexive high dudgeon</a> over all things Trump. </span></p><p></p><blockquote><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">“This is not presidential leadership. These orders are not real solutions,” said presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden. “They are just another cynical ploy designed to deflect responsibility. Some measures do far more harm than good.”</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) and Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) called on Trump and Republicans to return to the negotiating table to work out a bill.</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">“We’re disappointed that instead of putting in the work to solve Americans’ problems, the president instead chose to stay on his luxury golf course to announce unworkable, weak and narrow policy announcements to slash the unemployment benefits that millions desperately need and endanger seniors’ Social Security and Medicare,” the Democratic leaders said in a statement. The payroll taxes Trump targeted fund Social Security and Medicare.</span></p></blockquote><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">In doing so, the Democrats employed a staple of modern political rhetoric: fuzzy math. It is at the very least disingenuous to accuse President Trump of "slashing" unemployment benefits when his Executive Order means that Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation recipients will be receiving $400 more next week than they did last week. The unmentioned conceit is that, since the <a href="https://www.minds.com/newsfeed/1136024911572611072?referrer=avoiceofliberty">FPUC stipend had already expired</a>, one full week of benefits were paid out <i style="font-weight: bold;">without</i> the $600 stipend that had been included in the CARES Act passed earlier in the year.</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">With as many as 30 million unemployed Americans receiving compensation, the expiration of the stipend amounted to the abrupt withdrawal of $18 billion in consumer spending from the American economy. For those wishing an example of the term "<a href="https://www.investopedia.com/terms/d/demandshock.asp">demand shock</a>", such a drop-off in spending is exactly that.</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">The Democrats are also conveniently ignoring the <a href="https://www.minds.com/newsfeed/1134937404332564480">2.3 million Americans suddenly at risk of eviction for unpaid rents</a>, once the CARES eviction moratorium expired. President Trump's Executive Orders restored the moratorium for the time being.</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">While Executive Orders are not at all any form of permanent resolution to these isues, the Democrats claim that Trump has "slashed" benefits is politely described as "horse hockey."</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><b><span style="font-family: verdana;">Republicans Discover The Constitution</span></b></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">In a move that will also shock no one, <a href="https://www.minds.com/newsfeed/1139209856148447232?referrer=avoiceofliberty">Senate Republicans are fretting over the Constitutionality of the President's Executive Orders</a>.</span></p><p></p><blockquote><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Sen. Ben Sasse (R-Nebr.), who has largely spoken out against the government spending large sums of money in coronavirus legislation, offered one of the party's more cutting rebukes, calling the theory behind the move "unconstitutional slop."</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">"The pen-and-phone theory of executive lawmaking is unconstitutional slop," Sasse said in a statement issued by email and obtained by The Hill. "President Obama did not have the power to unilaterally rewrite immigration law with DACA, and President Trump does not have the power to unilaterally rewrite the payroll tax law."</span></p></blockquote><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">While the good Senator's criticisms are not entirely without merit, they lack a certain moral gravitas given <a href="https://www.minds.com/newsfeed/1137471713090101248?referrer=avoiceofliberty">Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell's willingness to take a back seat in negotiations</a> with Congressional Democrats, preferring the Trump Administration to do all the heavy lifting.</span></p><p></p><blockquote style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">"Wherever this thing settles between the president of the United States and his team that have to sign it into law, and the Democrat -- not insignificant minority in the Senate and the majority in the House -- is something I'm prepared to support, even if I have some problems with certain parts of it," Republican McConnell told reporters on Capitol Hill.</span></blockquote><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Nor is it as if President Trump did not telegraph this move well in advance. In the middle of last week, with negotiations at a standstill, <a href="https://www.minds.com/newsfeed/1137974618139312128?referrer=avoiceofliberty">Trump said he was looking at doing these measures via Executive Order</a> if the Democrats did not bend and negotiate in good faith, and that was an escalation of his earlier rhetoric about using <a href="https://www.minds.com/newsfeed/1137389964588449792?referrer=avoiceofliberty">Executive Orders to address the eviction moratorium</a>, about which he made his position quite clear:</span></p><p></p><blockquote style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">"I could do that if I want, and I want to do that. I don’t want people to be evicted," Trump told reporters about whether he would suspend evictions. A federal moratorium on evictions, which was passed in March’s CARES Act, expired last month.</span></blockquote><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Regardless of the Constitutionality and legality of the President's Executive Orders, the Republicans had ample time to both a) register their objections to them, and b) craft an actual piece of compromise legislation with the Democrats. They declined to take either option seriously.</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><b><span style="font-family: verdana;">A Win, Politically</span></b></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">As alternative-media commentator <a href="http://archive.vn/3qbau">Mike Cernovich observed</a> after the orders were signed, the move was a clear political win for Donald Trump:</span></p><p>
</p><blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p dir="ltr" lang="en"></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Congress doesn’t want to govern. Trump can lose in court on these EOs. That doesn’t matter.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">When Trump waits on Mitch or blames ”do nothing Democrats,” he looks weak. </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">When he governs and gets hit by court, looks heroic. </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">The fight is what counts.</span></div><p></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">— Cernovich (@Cernovich) <a href="https://twitter.com/Cernovich/status/1292289079657209856?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 9, 2020</a></span></div></blockquote><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">There is little doubt that Trump's political base is energized and encouraged by the executive orders, and there is equally little doubt that Congressional Democrats have few good options available to oppose them. The simple mathematics of the orders is that, regardless of Constitutional strictures, forcing the orders to be rescinded is tantamount to subjecting over 2 million Americans to imminent eviction and snatching $400 per week out of the hands of every unemployed person in the country. Optically, that puts the Democrats in the position of "slashing" benefits.</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Moreover, as Cernovich points out, even a rebuke by the courts can be a political win for President Trump. In the wake of <a href="https://www.avoiceofliberty.us/2020/06/roberts-daca-ruling-act-of-scotus.html">Chief Justice John Roberts' undeniably politicized ruling</a> aborting President Trump's efforts to end Barack Obama's unconstitutional DACA program, President Trump's voter base is quite willing to believe the Supreme Court is a nakedly political body, and not a neutral arbiter of the Constitution. A rebuke from the Supreme Court would be received by many Trump supporters as yet another case the Court got completely wrong.</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">President Trump ran as a populist, and his rhetoric has been steadfastly populist. Regardless of their legality, it should surprise no one that populist measures are going to be well received by his political base.</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><b><span style="font-family: verdana;">Economically, A Loss</span></b></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">While the optics on the EOs are undeniably favorable to the President, their economic consequences to the country are unlikely to be entirely benign, and arguably they are counter-productive.</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">The eviction moratorium, while undoubtedly popular, particularly with lower-income voters, <a href="https://www.minds.com/newsfeed/1135706097951330304?referrer=avoiceofliberty">does nothing to address the costs and financial obligations landlords incur</a> even as it shields renters from the consequences of non-payment of rent. In very practical terms, the moratorium is an additional (and significant) regulatory burden on landlords, greatly increasing their costs and turning rental properties into a money-losing proposition:</span></p><p></p><blockquote style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Trump emphasized that halting evictions and keeping people in their homes has become a priority. A big part of the problem is that letting people remain in the property without paying rent does not stop the bills a landlord must pay from coming due. This rapidly makes being a landlord a money-losing proposition.</span></blockquote><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">The FPUC stipend, on the other hand, is extremely problematic for one simple reason: <a href="https://www.minds.com/newsfeed/1135442876090761216?referrer=avoiceofliberty">It is not much of an economic stimulus</a>.</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">A big part of the problem with the stipend is that, for many Americans, it amounts to an increase in income over their previous wages, and thus for them is a significant disincentive to look for a job.</span></p><p></p><blockquote style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Under the Pelosi policy, 5 out of 6 unemployed workers are getting paid more NOT to work than to return to the job, according to the Congressional Budget Office. We estimate that most workers who earn $30 or less are financially better off staying off the job -- even as the economy improves. Many workers can get twice as much for staying unemployed. Workers are supposed to lose unemployment benefits if they are offered a job and don't take it. But workers know how to game the system. They can pretend to be sick, and employers are loath to bring a contagious worker back in the office or factory.</span></blockquote><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Conservative thinkers blame the stipend on the odd economic phenomenon of America having some 5 million unfilled jobs, some 25 million unemployed, and no one is rushing to take one of those 5 million jobs. </span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Nor is this a criticism <i>per se</i> of workers. Those that are acting in the way described above are merely rationally attempting to maximize their income. While some might accuse them of gaming the system, the sober reality is they are playing the game by the rules laid out by Congress. That the rules arguably act as a disincentive to employment is a sin of Congress, not of workers.</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">More crucially, however, is the glaring hole in the entire political strategy of providing "relief": a complete lack of serious efforts to encourage job creation and new business formation. With <a href="https://www.minds.com/newsfeed/1138167957400592384?referrer=avoiceofliberty">71,500 businesses advertising on Yelp!</a> have closed their doors permanently, when 80% of restaurants in San Francisco and 50% of mall businesses are closing or are about to close permanently, there is a clear need for encouragements to start up new businesses to replace the closed ones.</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Nor does the stipend confront the reality of current increasing joblessness. During the first week of August <a href="https://www.minds.com/newsfeed/1138890046035488768">continuing jobless claims rose by 1.3 million</a>--almost the same amount as the <a href="https://www.minds.com/newsfeed/1138890046035488768?referrer=avoiceofliberty">number of jobs created in all of July</a> (1.8 million or 1.4 million, depending on whose numbers you are prepared to believe). That rise in continuing claims comes on the heels of the <a href="https://www.minds.com/newsfeed/1135561065109524480?referrer=avoiceofliberty">previous two weeks' increases in initial jobless claims</a>--indicating that joblessness began rising <i style="font-weight: bold;">before</i> the FPUC stipend expired.</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Nor has President Trump been able to extend or renew the Payroll Protection Program, <a href="https://www.minds.com/newsfeed/1135323412279287808?referrer=avoiceofliberty">a forgivable loan program intended to keep people on a payroll in some form or fashion that expired on August 8</a>.</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">As was shown after the 2008-2009 recession, extending and increasing government benefits does not stimulate the economy over the long term, and there is considerable evidence that the American economy resumed economic contraction during July:</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"></p><ul><li><span style="font-family: verdana;"><a href="https://www.minds.com/newsfeed/1135204199098114048?referrer=avoiceofliberty">Wholesale inventories </a>expanded at the end of June.</span></li><li><span style="font-family: verdana;"><a href="https://www.minds.com/newsfeed/1134435882464886784?referrer=avoiceofliberty">Worldwide trade volumes and shipping rates</a> have all but collapsed.</span></li><li><span style="font-family: verdana;"><a href="https://www.minds.com/newsfeed/1133776689336311808?referrer=avoiceofliberty">Spending declined</a> even before the FPUC stipend expired.</span></li><li><span style="font-family: verdana;"><a href="https://www.minds.com/newsfeed/1133645431355535360?referrer=avoiceofliberty">Depletion of PPP funds</a> meant that businesses began laying people off in July.</span></li><li><span style="font-family: verdana;"><a href="https://www.minds.com/newsfeed/1133188364267864064?referrer=avoiceofliberty">Traffic patterns in New York City</a> are a fraction of pre-pandemic levels.</span></li><li><span style="font-family: verdana;"><a href="https://www.minds.com/newsfeed/1133485228311187456?referrer=avoiceofliberty">60% of businesses are reporting revenues</a> less than 75% of pre-pandemic levels.</span></li></ul><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">Just as the FPUC stipend initially failed to mitigate these issues, Donald Trump's executive orders also fail to address these issues.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><b>Kick The Can</b></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">Ultimately, Donald Trump's Executive Orders do little more than kick the economic can down the road. The renewal of the stipend forestalls the demand shock that would have attended upon an abrupt withdrawal of some $18 Billion in spending per week from the economy. The eviction moratorium staves off a potential crisis in homelessness. Congress, for its part, is able to negotiate without pending economic crisis hanging over it like the mythical Sword of Damocles.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">Yet kicking the can down the road is all these EOs provide. It is all these EOs can provide. The real issues remain unresolved (and even unaddressed). Lunatic lockdown orders persist in many parts of the country, and are <a href="https://www.avoiceofliberty.us/p/epic-fail-disaster-of-lockdowns.html">dragging the economy down even as they fail to reduce the spread of CCPVirus</a>.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">The EOs quite possibly will fail to even sustain the economy, and do little to prevent further economic collapse.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">Aside from President Trump, the only group that clearly benefits overall from these EOs is Congress itself. With a stroke of a pen Donald Trump has removed a major Congressional logjam and spared them the growing humiliation of seeing their supine legacy media outlets grill them persistently about the relief bill and what Congress has to say to those people who's benefits were all but obliterated at the end of July.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">For the rest of America, the need is still crystal clear. The country needs jobs--lots of jobs. Until such time as there is a mammoth effort to replace the tens of millions of jobs lost, measures such as these EOs will remain but half-measures of little to no positive economic impact.</span></div><p></p><p></p><p></p> <script async="" charset="utf-8" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script><p></p><p></p><p></p>Peter Nayland Kusthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11676552912495663957noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-844842405806264029.post-28183659700927819442020-07-08T10:42:00.005-05:002020-09-05T08:10:58.996-05:00Speech Or Silence: Free Speech Is A Moral Imperative<div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHyStestMOjJBfwiCGvwLXc9tD2ELGGuarqSUFX93Nbb52nfDJbWMKKuFWfavqdYt3sBa6nRjBSP7lztWJUtxAKLVlA6OY885fzzzvXs3FnmVqyOvogbGqn5BAb_IyYwhOuia2KzpPRDrO/s600/download+%252819%2529.jpeg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><img border="0" data-original-height="305" data-original-width="600" height="204" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHyStestMOjJBfwiCGvwLXc9tD2ELGGuarqSUFX93Nbb52nfDJbWMKKuFWfavqdYt3sBa6nRjBSP7lztWJUtxAKLVlA6OY885fzzzvXs3FnmVqyOvogbGqn5BAb_IyYwhOuia2KzpPRDrO/w400-h204/download+%252819%2529.jpeg" width="400"></span></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">I have said it before and I will say it again: Free Speech is a moral imperative.</span></div></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">I will keep saying it, because it needs to be said. It needs to be heard. So long as the Big Tech social media platforms believe they can silence and suppress dissenting voices with impunity, it needs to be heard.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Because <a href="http://archive.vn/VhIWy">Twitter saw fit to suspend freethinker and philosophical commentator Stefan Molyneux without warning or justification</a>, it needs to be heard.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Because <a href="http://archive.vn/PjemI">YouTube banned Stefan Molyneux</a>, accusing him of "hate speech", while the legacy media absurdly characterized him as "far right" (proving that they have not studied any of his content), it needs to be heard.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Because <a href="http://archive.vn/uTHwY">Twitter locked Donald Trump, Jr.'s account, as well as news outlet Breitbart's account for sharing a video of medical doctors describing the efficacy of hydroxychloroquine against the CCPVirus</a>, it needs to be heard.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span></span></span></div><a href="https://www.avoiceofliberty.us/2020/07/speech-or-silence-free-speech-is-moral.html#more"></a>Peter Nayland Kusthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11676552912495663957noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-844842405806264029.post-19075080894893771522020-07-07T08:20:00.001-05:002020-09-06T05:15:44.431-05:00Justice Kagan's Accidentally Correct Opinion: The States Elect The President<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgS0nIfvvClCRJof2GL1h08QvH1dWQ40hyphenhyphenPl3ynICYJmgOvcmQYPWsy-yOxDdYdjYHYbgBooLTeGg6Z4OBwr8-0d5-EHsJ3Z1Xebtw5oi_OhnIkjNe6e8d8MDPDIhvIRr0YSCZPXawRoeL6/s1024/1024px-Red_and_Blue_States_Map_%2528Average_Margins_of_Presidential_Victory%2529.svg.png" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><font face="verdana"><img border="0" data-original-height="633" data-original-width="1024" height="248" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgS0nIfvvClCRJof2GL1h08QvH1dWQ40hyphenhyphenPl3ynICYJmgOvcmQYPWsy-yOxDdYdjYHYbgBooLTeGg6Z4OBwr8-0d5-EHsJ3Z1Xebtw5oi_OhnIkjNe6e8d8MDPDIhvIRr0YSCZPXawRoeL6/w400-h248/1024px-Red_and_Blue_States_Map_%2528Average_Margins_of_Presidential_Victory%2529.svg.png" width="400"></font></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><font face="verdana">As the Supreme Court finishes out the 2019-2020 term, it <a href="http://archive.vn/9QPhE">ruled on two small, barely noticed cases from the 2016 Presidential election</a>. Indeed, the cases were noteworthy more for having received a unanimous vote from the Court than from any contentious debate over finer points of Constitutional law, and from the fact that the two cases were heard separately, as Justice Sotomayor had to recuse herself from one case but not the other.</font></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><font face="verdana"><br></font></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><font face="verdana">However seemingly minor the cases appear to be, arising from two lawsuits over a state's authority to bind Presidential electors to a specific voting preference, the ruling reiterates an important aspect of Presidential elections that has all but disappeared from political discourse and debate in this country: A President is elected not by the people but by the States. In issuing their <i>per curiam</i> opinion in <i>Chiafalo, et al, v Washington</i> (591 U.S. ___ (2020), Docket <a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/19pdf/19-465_i425.pdf">19-465</a>), the Supreme Court laid down a legal reminder of the Constitutional order of things.</font></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><font face="verdana"><br></font></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><font face="verdana"><span></span></font></div><a href="https://www.avoiceofliberty.us/2020/07/justice-kagans-accidentally-correct.html#more"></a>Peter Nayland Kusthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11676552912495663957noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-844842405806264029.post-60296891387008978212020-07-04T09:11:00.002-05:002020-07-04T09:11:52.929-05:00Decent Respect To The Opinion Of Mankind: Declaring The Why Of Independence<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjI1t5xJhTexUWxapXD_IvqyotqW5rmg-3FAIIQ8nh9u9UWTRr40pAGIIsQPJVma87kVB5UFHBhR7pz0a74XPgH1ENrSk0GSuaJyh2V92LVqZhnhhyphenhyphenckWyylIdTWW4hIz4_4Zo_sZHcfQOd/s512/declaration.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="Decent Respect To The Opinion Of Mankind: Declaring The Why Of Independence" border="0" data-original-height="512" data-original-width="439" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjI1t5xJhTexUWxapXD_IvqyotqW5rmg-3FAIIQ8nh9u9UWTRr40pAGIIsQPJVma87kVB5UFHBhR7pz0a74XPgH1ENrSk0GSuaJyh2V92LVqZhnhhyphenhyphenckWyylIdTWW4hIz4_4Zo_sZHcfQOd/w343-h400/declaration.jpg" width="343"></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><font face="verdana"><i>When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation</i>.</font></div><div style="text-align: right;"><font face="verdana"><a href="https://www.archives.gov/founding-docs/declaration-transcript">Thomas Jefferson, <i>The Declaration Of Independence</i></a></font></div><div style="text-align: right;"><font face="verdana"><br></font></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><font face="verdana">Every Fourth of July, Americans celebrate one of the world's most remarkable documents. On that day, in 1776, the Second Continental Congress issued a declaration of their intent to be free from British rule, and by so doing made real a radical proposition that hitherto had only been a quaint abstract concept: that political authority, and the right to govern, descended from the people of a nation.</font></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><font face="verdana"><br></font></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><font face="verdana">We are rightly awed by the majesty of Thomas Jefferson's rhetoric. We are properly impressed by the hope and humanity of the ideals he set forth. From that first Fourth of July until now, America has struggled imperfectly to measure up to the premise of universal human equality at the heart of the Declaration of Independence.</font></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><font face="verdana"><br></font></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><font face="verdana">Yet the Declaration of Independence is more than its ideals. It is more than a mere assertion of inalienable rights. It is also an homage to humanity.</font></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><font face="verdana"><br></font></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><font face="verdana"><span></span></font></div><a href="https://www.avoiceofliberty.us/2020/07/decent-respect-to-opinion-of-mankind.html#more"></a>Peter Nayland Kusthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11676552912495663957noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-844842405806264029.post-71947195533760864582020-06-18T20:59:00.005-05:002020-06-19T13:16:28.623-05:00Roberts DACA Ruling: An Act Of SCOTUS Repugnant To The Constitution<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9VPJxc9ZjeryT9l4IJUtF0lEyWsiGpHA9275HVHN1EmNNT0a0rtKd660RFpJ0gjvyLNiKZL8k0kVOgCwHdabnAgcQ5AeOcGMZ74ALGJlB0IGIDXVBRu2xJkL2jkzdeE004a26IJKtWEL1/s1920/us-1978465_1920.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; text-align: justify;"><font face="verdana"><img alt="Roberts DACA Ruling. An Act Of SCOTUS Repugnant To The Constitution" border="0" data-original-height="1280" data-original-width="1920" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9VPJxc9ZjeryT9l4IJUtF0lEyWsiGpHA9275HVHN1EmNNT0a0rtKd660RFpJ0gjvyLNiKZL8k0kVOgCwHdabnAgcQ5AeOcGMZ74ALGJlB0IGIDXVBRu2xJkL2jkzdeE004a26IJKtWEL1/w400-h266/us-1978465_1920.jpg" width="400"></font></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><font face="verdana">The legacy media could scarcely contain its glee when Chief Justice John Roberts elected to ignore the Constitution and the rule of law to <a href="http://archive.vn/R9ft3">block President Donald Trump's efforts</a> to end Barack Obama's unconstitutional Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. Here was proof, they claimed, that the laws are not what Donald Trump says they are, but whatever the Supreme Court says they are.</font></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><font face="verdana"><br></font></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><font face="verdana">What the legacy media gets wrong is the same thing Chief Justice Roberts gets wrong: the only standard of law is the Constitution. No act of government which goes against the Constitution can ever enjoy force of law. No act of government which contradicts the Constitution can ever be considered part of the law.</font></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><font face="verdana"><br></font></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><font face="verdana">All acts of government repugnant to the Constitution are null and void. That includes Presidential orders and Supreme Court rulings.</font></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><font face="verdana"><br></font></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><font face="verdana"><span></span></font></div><a href="https://www.avoiceofliberty.us/2020/06/roberts-daca-ruling-act-of-scotus.html#more"></a>Peter Nayland Kusthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11676552912495663957noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-844842405806264029.post-57108445070307288812020-06-14T21:31:00.001-05:002020-06-14T21:47:15.769-05:00Lessons From Antifastan: Celebrating The Mayflower Compact<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDQyJc9KM-cNOJ_gm-uWjn1Q2g0dCl2B-F6dU-eyJ9UQfqUtPXKYYFFAl4qvyVrXQTMMXC7x_bvkn0J9y9317vrzBrYYB6RJcJtLTC7DGXzV_CtcRK29IQ_Z6BUNMVMPEsjTFY-JGOPQBT/s478/Seal_of_the_Capitol_Hill_Autonomous_Zone.png" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; text-align: justify;"><font face="verdana"><img border="0" data-original-height="478" data-original-width="478" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDQyJc9KM-cNOJ_gm-uWjn1Q2g0dCl2B-F6dU-eyJ9UQfqUtPXKYYFFAl4qvyVrXQTMMXC7x_bvkn0J9y9317vrzBrYYB6RJcJtLTC7DGXzV_CtcRK29IQ_Z6BUNMVMPEsjTFY-JGOPQBT/s320/Seal_of_the_Capitol_Hill_Autonomous_Zone.png"></font></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><font face="verdana">The evolution of the "<a href="https://caphillauto.zone/">Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone</a>", which has sprung up <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20200611012121/https://www.thestranger.com/slog/2020/06/09/43873501/the-dawn-of-free-capitol-hill">more or less spontaneously</a> around the East Precinct building of the Seattle Police Department, is arguably many things.</font></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><font face="verdana"><br></font></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><font face="verdana">With their declaration of autonomy, <a href="http://archive.vn/ARz34">the zone is almost certainly an insurrection</a> against the laws of the United States. <a href="https://archive.vn/71k7a">Their clear affiliations with the "Antifa" movement</a> (itself a domestic terrorist group) and "Black Lives Matter" (arguably also a domestic terrorist group) further enhances this depiction, leading to the somewhat unkind but not entirely inaccurate <a href="http://archive.vn/NXcR0">depiction of the zone as "Antifastan"</a>.</font></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><font face="verdana"><br></font></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><font face="verdana">Having moved into an area effectively abandoned by the Seattle Police Department, some also want to compare the zone to the <a href="https://www.thoughtco.com/paris-commune-4147849">Paris Commune of 1871</a>, and other radical communities throughout history. Without passing judgment on the merits of the zone itself, a consideration of how the zone has evolved during its as-yet brief existence offers an opportunity to reconsider--and renew appreciation for--early America's own experiments in building new societies and creating new government. In particular, events in Antifastan highlight the unique success and wisdom of the <a href="https://www.crf-usa.org/foundations-of-our-constitution/mayflower-compact-text.html">Mayflower Compact</a>, perhaps the earliest charter of self-government in North America.</font></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><font face="verdana"><br></font></div><span><font face="verdana"></font></span><a href="https://www.avoiceofliberty.us/2020/06/lessons-from-antifastan-celebrating.html#more"></a>Peter Nayland Kusthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11676552912495663957noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-844842405806264029.post-17355202160589687562020-06-14T10:57:00.002-05:002020-06-14T15:20:51.383-05:00Still No Third Option. All Lives Must Matter<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjo3OffmzGBtZBPLY1QTgLmJEe6xZFQoPAxeoVyALeMtMDa7Uy1w5hfsAYGcuuYUScJoUu8uJyyM-PxI1CgMPk6JxsJB4bbKg5S05B26nPe8cPq7uxMgGQJxnYW5kfhrvdr0T_Ntj7P6RF-/s1140/download+%25286%2529.jpeg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="Still No Third Option. All Lives Must Matter" border="0" data-original-height="641" data-original-width="1140" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjo3OffmzGBtZBPLY1QTgLmJEe6xZFQoPAxeoVyALeMtMDa7Uy1w5hfsAYGcuuYUScJoUu8uJyyM-PxI1CgMPk6JxsJB4bbKg5S05B26nPe8cPq7uxMgGQJxnYW5kfhrvdr0T_Ntj7P6RF-/w400-h225/download+%25286%2529.jpeg" width="400"></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><font face="verdana">We have learned nothing.</font></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><font face="verdana"><br></font></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><font face="verdana">We have learned nothing from the <a href="https://www.avoiceofliberty.us/2020/05/george-floyd-mattered-just-not-to.html">death of George Floyd</a>.</font></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><font face="verdana"><br></font></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><font face="verdana">We have learned nothing from the <a href="https://www.avoiceofliberty.us/2020/06/all-lives-matter-or-no-lives-matter.html">riots and anarchy that followed</a>.</font></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><font face="verdana"><br></font></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><font face="verdana">The legacy media has learned nothing about the importance of reporting stories accurately and honestly.</font></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><font face="verdana"><br></font></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><font face="verdana">Is it any surprise we have more hysteria, more riots, more howling mobs after the shooting death of Rayshard Brooks by the Atlanta Police?</font></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><font face="verdana"><br></font></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><font face="verdana"><b><span></span></b></font></div><a href="https://www.avoiceofliberty.us/2020/06/still-no-third-option-all-lives-must.html#more"></a>Peter Nayland Kusthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11676552912495663957noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-844842405806264029.post-41774996490707686592020-06-06T15:18:00.005-05:002020-06-14T10:46:43.899-05:00All Lives Matter Or No Lives Matter. There Is No Third Option<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8Z_HbOVesjevb8MAehZqDRE2J0BE_IDBruXhJbR3387K9er3auCRiYXg_8CFFw1M2m62Bf18Ltyl1NERXcHp65BGNSeNpYuYB2Z6EJjEdkGCT5bQrQKgR7uLEn5leyqfdkak47-nnXSsl/s1024/1024px-Black_Lives_Matter%252C_Anti-racism_rally_at_Vancouver_Art_Gallery_%252849958361766%2529.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; text-align: justify;"><font face="verdana"><img alt="All Lives Matter Or No Lives Matter. There Is No Third Option" border="0" data-original-height="683" data-original-width="1024" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8Z_HbOVesjevb8MAehZqDRE2J0BE_IDBruXhJbR3387K9er3auCRiYXg_8CFFw1M2m62Bf18Ltyl1NERXcHp65BGNSeNpYuYB2Z6EJjEdkGCT5bQrQKgR7uLEn5leyqfdkak47-nnXSsl/w400-h266/1024px-Black_Lives_Matter%252C_Anti-racism_rally_at_Vancouver_Art_Gallery_%252849958361766%2529.jpg" width="400"></font></a><div style="text-align: justify;"><font face="verdana">Despite the arrests of the officers involved in the killing of George Floyd, <a href="http://archive.vn/nOPOy">the protests catalyzed by Floyd's death continue</a>. Whether the protests continue to devolve into riots, looting, and anarchy remains to be seen, although in New York City at least, where some of the worst violence has taken place, <a href="http://archive.vn/gurgB">peaceful protest appears to be making somewhat of a comeback</a>.</font></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><font face="verdana"><br></font></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><font face="verdana">The rallying cry for both the protests and the riots: "Black Lives Matter", <a href="http://archive.vn/iaT9Z">the slogan popularized</a> after <a href="http://archive.vn/RR0oQ">a police officer shot and killed a young black man in self defense</a>.</font></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><font face="verdana"><br></font></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><font face="verdana">In both the present and the past, the rallying cry is simply the wrong message and the wrong motivation. In both the present and the past, "Black Lives Matter" seeks not to end injustice, but to rationalize it, and to amplify it.</font></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><font face="verdana"><br></font></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><font face="verdana">In the past, present, and the future, black lives matter only if all lives matter. If all lives do not matter, then no lives matter. There is no third option.</font></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><font face="verdana"><br></font></div><span><font face="verdana"></font></span><a href="https://www.avoiceofliberty.us/2020/06/all-lives-matter-or-no-lives-matter.html#more"></a>Peter Nayland Kusthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11676552912495663957noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-844842405806264029.post-61195158740077257742020-06-04T17:22:00.001-05:002020-06-04T17:36:56.280-05:00George Floyd Was Never The Issue<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJ2JGhWaU70U2Jo1-6Z7FGhO5Szkvt12jg2ZYdlNrkSVftH6qjP-MnGpipIGJoCUGUoN5CXP4x-h0qXfPJtKCUHAM6k2L7yBcm-jmf5QYlrQQig3_32bWUTTIpiDsW3WAfxXqmMlSfRre_/s275/download+%25285%2529.jpeg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="George Floyd Was Never The Issue" border="0" data-original-height="183" data-original-width="275" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJ2JGhWaU70U2Jo1-6Z7FGhO5Szkvt12jg2ZYdlNrkSVftH6qjP-MnGpipIGJoCUGUoN5CXP4x-h0qXfPJtKCUHAM6k2L7yBcm-jmf5QYlrQQig3_32bWUTTIpiDsW3WAfxXqmMlSfRre_/w400-h266/download+%25285%2529.jpeg" width="400"></a><div style="text-align: justify;">Today <a href="http://archive.vn/lAlzO">memorial services were held in Minneapolis for George Floyd</a>, a man wrongfully killed by Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin (since fired).</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">While Floyd is being laid to rest, the controversies surrounding his death are far from being laid to rest. <a href="https://archive.vn/u1L8B">Derek Chauvin and three other MPD officers</a> are now facing criminal charges over his death, which sparked a number of protests as well as violent destructive riots nationwide.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Yet when we examine the <a href="http://archive.vn/OXsHO">current headlines on Google News</a>, which are almost entirely stories related to George Floyd's death, there is a curious quality to most of them: very few of the stories are actually about George Floyd or even his death at the hands of the MPD. There is an important realization to be had from this, which is that George Floyd was never the issue. As counterintuitive as it may seem, the controversy and debate is not about George Floyd, nor should it be.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b><span></span></b></div><a href="https://www.avoiceofliberty.us/2020/06/george-floyd-was-never-issue.html#more"></a>Peter Nayland Kusthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11676552912495663957noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-844842405806264029.post-45681571856185175072020-05-31T19:02:00.001-05:002020-05-31T19:04:53.687-05:00George Floyd Mattered, Just Not To The Legacy Media<div class="separator"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-KisYwEROvVS_29Eb9JRQQ0GpkdBH79P12sOJv1_1gENo3I5uM90WIyGafs6X1R-4H6mrum7WZOejuRig2gjMDqLNB0sV38sY7CzZ2MsXjEymNqDznCs7lXqpzdbmuJeNZ-cxhhacEWjU/" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; text-align: justify;"><font face="verdana"><img alt="George Floyd Mattered -- RIP" border="0" height="267" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-KisYwEROvVS_29Eb9JRQQ0GpkdBH79P12sOJv1_1gENo3I5uM90WIyGafs6X1R-4H6mrum7WZOejuRig2gjMDqLNB0sV38sY7CzZ2MsXjEymNqDznCs7lXqpzdbmuJeNZ-cxhhacEWjU/w400-h267/49943807517_b46df63a8f_b.jpg" width="400"></font></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><font face="verdana">There is no question that George Floyd's death was murder. There is no doubt that Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin had no business kneeling on his neck. There is no doubt that George Floyd's death was an appalling example of police brutality.</font></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><font face="verdana"><br></font></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><font face="verdana">Because George Floyd was black and Derek Chauvin is white, many argue that Floyd's death is also an example of inexecusable racism within the Minneapolis Police Department itself. Certainly there have been few facts to rebut that particular charge, although the extent to which racial animus played a role cannot be conclusively established with facts currently available to the public.</font></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><font face="verdana"><br></font></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><font face="verdana">How many of those facts will ultimately be made public is a question still to be answered, for once again the legacy media has displayed its usual incompetence, indolence, and indifference to journalism, choosing instead to push narrative, with or without facts.</font></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><font face="verdana"><br></font></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b><font face="verdana"><span></span></font></b></div><a href="https://www.avoiceofliberty.us/2020/05/george-floyd-mattered-just-not-to.html#more"></a>Peter Nayland Kusthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11676552912495663957noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-844842405806264029.post-77986923702140203732020-05-15T17:35:00.000-05:002020-05-25T03:06:46.979-05:00No Finality For Flynn: Judicial Chaos Is Justice Denied<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiF5raXfHp6q-q9DhrEEuqLlHe6jDPUOZhyphenhyphen0-iRVh90oWxLZFjPhg3DWRfsnaafASeBcoUmXMIhsvEKqQH3feOoDVb4vhl1Fz08wVVx53uoG4WbINHbyK4LAjFIQS-nEbgJFXzUp0QVlUXf/s1600/download+%25284%2529.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="951" height="251" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiF5raXfHp6q-q9DhrEEuqLlHe6jDPUOZhyphenhyphen0-iRVh90oWxLZFjPhg3DWRfsnaafASeBcoUmXMIhsvEKqQH3feOoDVb4vhl1Fz08wVVx53uoG4WbINHbyK4LAjFIQS-nEbgJFXzUp0QVlUXf/s400/download+%25284%2529.jpeg" width="400"></span></a></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The case <i><a href="https://www.justice.gov/file/1015126/download">United States v Michael T. Flynn</a></i> has become a neverending saga of chicanery, controversy, and arguably corruption. Even though by all outward appearances, the case should have ended on May 7 with the Department of Justice filing a <a href="https://sidneypowell.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/Doc.198-Flynn-Governments-Motion-to-DISMISS-against-Michael-T.-Flynn.pdf">motion to dismiss</a> the case with prejudice, Judge Emmet Sullivan seems determined not to let the case go gently into that good night. </span><br>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br></span>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">On May 12, Judge Sullivan delayed his final ruling on the motion by <a href="http://archive.ph/OUfoc">opening the proceedings up</a> for potential filings by <i>amicus curiae</i> wishing to opine on the propriety or impropriety of the motion. On May 13, Judge Sullivan fueled controversy even further by issuing an <a href="https://www.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.dcd.191592/gov.uscourts.dcd.191592.205.0_10.pdf">order</a> appointing retired judge John Gleeson as <i>amicus</i> and directing him to present arguments against the DoJ's motion. Judge Gleeson is further ordered to present arguments regarding a possible contempt charge against General Flynn for his efforts to withdraw his guilty plea. Both orders represent a significant departure from normal trial procedure within the Federal courts.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">In many ways, the Flynn case has become a disturbing political Rorschach test across American society, with perceptions of Lieutenant General Flynn's ultimate guilt or innocence, as well as the severity of his alleged offense, colored primarily by whether one supports or opposes President Donald Trump. One need only briefly consider Congressman Jerry Nadler's <a href="http://archive.ph/epmCr">Twitter meltdown</a> over the motion to dismiss to apprehend the passion and the illogic governing peoples' view of the Flynn case.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">We must be mindful, however, that within the American legal system criminal trials are not to be governed by political considerations, but solely by relevant facts and applicable law. The facts especially in Flynn's case are not friendly to Judge Sullivan's actions, and suggest that Sullivan, far from keeping political animus away from the proceedings, has made it the essence of the case.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"></span></div>
<a href="https://www.avoiceofliberty.us/2020/05/no-finality-for-flynn-judicial-chaos-is.html#more"></a>Peter Nayland Kusthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11676552912495663957noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-844842405806264029.post-86032675702507683042020-05-09T11:50:00.004-05:002020-05-09T14:13:17.280-05:00Follow The Data -- The Facts Are Out There<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglRepyIv4gV4jmn-bvg7I7QzcrKylykWpYusKFsirglK4OnUHrD-3j09PlGE9CnnpJkUtF20sG8TeUAB1bbvhp79JDOz0fhqJrMdj8l8uTU1RMy3ecynhv9sgeGyFmVkgdEgLAIgnYebrU/s1600/universe-1044105_1920.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1090" data-original-width="1600" height="272" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglRepyIv4gV4jmn-bvg7I7QzcrKylykWpYusKFsirglK4OnUHrD-3j09PlGE9CnnpJkUtF20sG8TeUAB1bbvhp79JDOz0fhqJrMdj8l8uTU1RMy3ecynhv9sgeGyFmVkgdEgLAIgnYebrU/s400/universe-1044105_1920.jpg" width="400"></a></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<i><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">What are the facts? Again and again and again – what are the facts? Shun wishful thinking, ignore divine revelation, forget what “the stars foretell,” avoid opinion, care not what the neighbors think, never mind the unguessable “verdict of history” – what are the facts, and to how many decimal places? You pilot always into an unknown future; facts are your single clue. Get the facts!</span></i></div>
<div style="text-align: right;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/38764-what-are-the-facts-again-and-again-and-again">Robert A. Heinlein</a></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The foundation of any reasoned argument, the basis of all rational debate must be facts and evidence. Whether the topic is "collusion" between Donald Trump's 2016 Presidential campaign staff and elements of the Russian government, </span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">the legal case (or lack thereof) against Lieutenant General Michael Flynn,</span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">or </span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">the origin of the CCPVirus, </span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">reasoned discourse begins and ends with the facts, with what we can prove is so.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Thankfully, the real world abounds with facts.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b></b></span><br>
</div><a href="https://www.avoiceofliberty.us/2020/05/follow-data-facts-are-out-there.html#more"></a>Peter Nayland Kusthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11676552912495663957noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-844842405806264029.post-42405252020330557002020-05-07T21:29:00.000-05:002020-05-25T03:06:57.078-05:00Finality For Flynn: Justice Delayed But Not Wholly Denied<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrg6DKX_PJoRE3-2ePmSTzalo3gx-6gvrd8R9GQoniiNPocDdTl-5fo8OsDiAAEhqSvZ7Z3OBwKU0texQxBiHwGjgwUNFfJ8GUfvULQSrs7xCdeIuz0qp0RO-PM8o_flecYv7WtFg9fbeL/s1600/download+%25283%2529.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1014" data-original-width="1600" height="252" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrg6DKX_PJoRE3-2ePmSTzalo3gx-6gvrd8R9GQoniiNPocDdTl-5fo8OsDiAAEhqSvZ7Z3OBwKU0texQxBiHwGjgwUNFfJ8GUfvULQSrs7xCdeIuz0qp0RO-PM8o_flecYv7WtFg9fbeL/s400/download+%25283%2529.jpeg" width="400"></span></a></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Today the Department Of Justice filed a <a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1adr7GHz1gCrSbCqc4M13DvCeyytR4vG1/view">motion</a> with the US District Court for the District of Columbia to dismiss with prejudice the entirety of its case against Lieutenant General Michael Flynn, who previously had pleaded guilty to one count of lying to the FBI, and has in recent months been seeking to withdraw that guilty plea.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">This one motion marks an abrupt and final end to one of the more notorious legal controversies in recent memory. The Department of Justice' rationale for the dismissial was fittingly blunt.</span></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The Government has determined, pursuant to the <i>Principles of Federal Prosecution</i> and </span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">based on an extensive review and careful consideration of the circumstances, that continued </span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">prosecution of this case would not serve the interests of justice.</span></span></blockquote>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The DoJ moved to dismiss because it admitted it had no case, which it acknowledged in the body of the motion.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br></span></div>
<a href="https://www.avoiceofliberty.us/2020/05/finality-for-flynn-justice-delayed-but.html#more"></a>Peter Nayland Kusthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11676552912495663957noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-844842405806264029.post-48584360264207674652020-05-02T09:03:00.004-05:002020-09-17T10:03:53.559-05:00CCPVirus: Yes, It Is A Bioweapon<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh55CMCZ0KaUgYAmic2UOkqG5XuYFgKxCt5KujJIQ9nwNhPJucl996XTnZCfak9GSl4g38mBTy1phmM1IJajQA9GchsDmKaySy8PkbIaXyU8b7Ylw3-anzEOV2mkhspd0dbD5X2lUFhDfZ1/s1600/dna-4334173_1920.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; text-align: justify;"><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif"><img border="0" data-original-height="880" data-original-width="1600" height="220" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh55CMCZ0KaUgYAmic2UOkqG5XuYFgKxCt5KujJIQ9nwNhPJucl996XTnZCfak9GSl4g38mBTy1phmM1IJajQA9GchsDmKaySy8PkbIaXyU8b7Ylw3-anzEOV2mkhspd0dbD5X2lUFhDfZ1/s400/dna-4334173_1920.jpg" width="400"></span></a></div>
<span style="font-family: verdana;">There can be no disputing that the legacy media has been far more a source of <a href="https://www.minds.com/newsfeed/1071947438085353472?referrer=avoiceofliberty">propaganda, lies, and misinformation</a> about the SARS-CoV-2 virus (which I label the CCPVirus, as this virus is a gift of the Chinese Communist Party to the world) and the related disease, COVID19, than they have been a source of relevant information. They have promoted a quasi-official narrative, and undermine competing narratives with suppression and censorship, calling such narratives "conspiracy theory" or even "misinformation" (irony abounds).</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: verdana;"><br></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif">Facts and evidence are stubborn things, however, and never quite so easily dismissed. Eventually even the legacy media must bow to the inevitable and acknowledge when "conspiracy theory" has become substantive truth. Reluctantly, <a href="https://www.minds.com/newsfeed/1097303659573583872?referrer=avoiceofliberty">this they have done with theories</a> which contradict the preferred narrative on the origins of CCPVirus and assert the virus is a man-made artifact from a Chinese virology lab.</span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">The refusal of these theories to simply fade away leaves us with but one conclusion abut the CCPVIrus pandemic: it is a Chinese bioweapon, a deliberate effort by the Chinese Communist Party to inflict egregious harm upon the rest of the world.<br>
<span face=""verdana" , sans-serif"><br></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: verdana;"><b></b></span></div>
<a href="https://www.avoiceofliberty.us/2020/05/ccpvirus-yes-it-is-bioweapon.html#more"></a>Peter Nayland Kusthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11676552912495663957noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-844842405806264029.post-85708518480343198672020-04-24T17:58:00.002-05:002020-08-15T14:14:13.326-05:00Who Needs Science When You Have Experts?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcKzMFu0dvg9WdpsmXU-IZTdVtinUAnMJkhY7Bk7zoAHKL2wSh5rsBil0FenrcBGdTaAg_0ekbilWzTx5RfksRWnKYd1PDL88hu8Nhc_0468tdhbkxqOjxPkHMZ0QMQaTZeGpXIins7rOE/s1600/COVID-19_%2528Coronavirus%2529_Girl_in_mask.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; text-align: justify;"><span face="" style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1067" data-original-width="1600" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcKzMFu0dvg9WdpsmXU-IZTdVtinUAnMJkhY7Bk7zoAHKL2wSh5rsBil0FenrcBGdTaAg_0ekbilWzTx5RfksRWnKYd1PDL88hu8Nhc_0468tdhbkxqOjxPkHMZ0QMQaTZeGpXIins7rOE/s400/COVID-19_%2528Coronavirus%2529_Girl_in_mask.jpg" width="400"></span></a></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span face="" style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif;">"Science", we are told, is the foundation of all which the Centers for Disease Control (CDC)--the government agency tasked with protecting the nation's public health--undertakes. Their decisions and recommendations are always guided by science--and presumably not by politics.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span face="" style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif;"><br></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span face="" style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif;">How do we know this? They tell us this. They promise us this.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span face="" style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif;"><br></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span face="" style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif;">From the CDC's "<a href="https://www.cdc.gov/about/organization/pledge.html">Pledge To The American People</a>":</span></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<i><span face="" style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif;">Base all public health decisions on the highest quality scientific data that is derived openly and objectively</span></i></div>
</blockquote>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span face="" style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif;">When it comes to the current COVID-19 (aka "CCPVirus") pandemic, however, they are falling far short of the mark. Many of their decisions and pronouncements lack scientific support or scientific rigor. The latest and most glaring example of this is the hype du jour over the wearing of masks and facial coverings to mitigate the spread of the disease.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b><span face="" style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif;"></span></b><br>
</div><a href="https://www.avoiceofliberty.us/2020/04/who-needs-science-when-you-have-experts.html#more"></a>Peter Nayland Kusthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11676552912495663957noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-844842405806264029.post-43320935994870264032020-04-18T17:53:00.001-05:002020-08-30T19:41:26.281-05:00Lies, Damned Lies, And COVID-19 (CCPVirus) Deaths<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGQJTFFDBdvmlH818JiMQqqGfP_gwIFXAdvBGKmITSXCdjuAyQ5vdeCdtWveznXQKwn4OD_T-2W6VixH_o87TQS0MXlotrC0J5k1YvUCxqAxKNRHshoHaG4i2eWPJuRmxt8m_vJMUeDKvk/s1600/coronavirus-4947692_1920.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="856" data-original-width="1600" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGQJTFFDBdvmlH818JiMQqqGfP_gwIFXAdvBGKmITSXCdjuAyQ5vdeCdtWveznXQKwn4OD_T-2W6VixH_o87TQS0MXlotrC0J5k1YvUCxqAxKNRHshoHaG4i2eWPJuRmxt8m_vJMUeDKvk/s400/coronavirus-4947692_1920.jpg" width="400"></a></div>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbY5xO61cE3SaN7RDvEtbovrCFqHi2A8FgIx-Uk_g4ezTBe138K1c3zeXbakt-LoUzKnx3CH5oF1DqLqVAvuGKCYUJzx3zBJLAbyfIOFmmOMpOXlPKJmTYets16DZCUXHTRvtRPNqKqjbj/s1600/200417-F-PO640-0004.JPG" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span face=""></span></a><br>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<i><span face="">"There are lies, damned lies and statistics."</span></i></div>
<div style="text-align: right;">
<i><span face=""><a href="https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/mark_twain_128372">Mark Twain</a></span></i></div>
<div style="text-align: right;">
<i><span face=""><br></span></i></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span face="">Earlier, I noted that the real world data on the COVID-19 pandemic diverged from the "experts" projections in several key respects. <a href="https://www.avoiceofliberty.us/2020/02/narrative-fail-were-missing-some.html">As I said at the time</a>, "we're missing cases."</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span face=""><br></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span face="">It turns out that not only are we missing cases, we are missing quite a few deaths as well.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b><span face=""></span></b><br>
</div><a href="https://www.avoiceofliberty.us/2020/04/lies-damned-lies-and-covid-19-ccpvirus.html#more"></a>Peter Nayland Kusthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11676552912495663957noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-844842405806264029.post-33458373839204574422020-04-16T19:22:00.000-05:002020-05-05T16:37:54.302-05:00Free Fall: Where Will It End?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilBqHImzIDvs1qxrk5w_o5j_AZxx6KFYq_1vX2vbS6LIpWELp-49tGsQIyL2eD9vxRxi_eZ2XnFrM8o-2rK5ca44V6nNAmeousRpf3M4HNfETLpCsZnQQGvwVHx6BIOD5Ecu6OmTkUx5bs/s1600/Unemployed_men_queued_outside_a_depression_soup_kitchen_opened_in_Chicago_by_Al_Capone%252C_02-1931_-_NARA_-_541927.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1312" data-original-width="1600" height="327" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilBqHImzIDvs1qxrk5w_o5j_AZxx6KFYq_1vX2vbS6LIpWELp-49tGsQIyL2eD9vxRxi_eZ2XnFrM8o-2rK5ca44V6nNAmeousRpf3M4HNfETLpCsZnQQGvwVHx6BIOD5Ecu6OmTkUx5bs/s400/Unemployed_men_queued_outside_a_depression_soup_kitchen_opened_in_Chicago_by_Al_Capone%252C_02-1931_-_NARA_-_541927.jpg" width="400"></span></a></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">With the April 16 report of initial jobless claims, United States reached a grim milestone in grappling with the CCPVirus outbreak: <a href="https://www.minds.com/newsfeed/1097507855761072128?referrer=avoiceofliberty">22 million people have now filed for unemployment in the past four weeks</a>. To put that number in some perspective, the number of jobs destroyed by the CCPVirus shutdowns exceeds the total number of jobs created since the end of the "Great Recession" in 2009.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">More remarkably, these jobs were not lost due to an external supply or demand shock, but due to deliberate government action. The <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/costs-covid-19-lockdowns-cure-worse-than-disease-peter-nayland-kust/">United States quite simply chose to destroy a minimum of 22 million jobs</a>, in what is already proving to be an act of economic suicide.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I will not delve further into the particulars of why the lockdown strategy was the wrong strategy to take. My comments on the <a href="https://www.avoiceofliberty.us/2020/03/destroying-society-is-no-way-to-save.html">strategy</a>, as well as on the <a href="https://www.avoiceofliberty.us/2020/04/who-counts-deaths-from-recession.html">ultimate cost in lives</a>, have already been made, and nothing has yet arisen to cause either their revision or retraction. The legality, the Constitutionality, the wisdom or unwisdom of the strategy, are all now as they have been.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The lockdown strategy, for better or worse, is the strategy that has been chosen to mitigate the effects of the CCPVirus--which is the proper name for the COVID-19 coronavirus, for it would not exist but for the <a href="https://www.minds.com/newsfeed/1097280868895858688?referrer=avoiceofliberty">malignancy and malevolence of the Chinese Communist Party</a>. For better or worse, its consequences will shape the United States and the world going forward. We must consider those consequences if we wish to emerge from this crisis with any shred of what was.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br></div>
<a href="https://www.avoiceofliberty.us/2020/04/free-fall-where-will-it-end.html#more"></a>Peter Nayland Kusthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11676552912495663957noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-844842405806264029.post-70461125879553732822020-04-12T19:18:00.001-05:002020-05-05T16:37:02.699-05:00Who Counts The Deaths From Recession?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7Px-83hAywJZixr8s8laK9OqD8aT1M8i8e1VDjz4RBhlAuX-mbxjC65nqdnMn1YDkxxDT07xFP-YFE-723Bnd-AhBalIGCedOz3Dj3dSrPFf_bta-NhVR7qCV0TAt_zCmQ02reaO7O2Rp/s1600/download+%25281%2529.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="397" data-original-width="706" height="223" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7Px-83hAywJZixr8s8laK9OqD8aT1M8i8e1VDjz4RBhlAuX-mbxjC65nqdnMn1YDkxxDT07xFP-YFE-723Bnd-AhBalIGCedOz3Dj3dSrPFf_bta-NhVR7qCV0TAt_zCmQ02reaO7O2Rp/s400/download+%25281%2529.png" width="400"></a></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">As of this writing, there are 551,081 <a href="http://archive.ph/LB9vk">cases of COVID-19</a> (aka CCPVirus) infection in the United States, and there have been 21,668 deaths. <a href="http://archive.ph/rZA1Y">Worldwide</a>, there have been 1,837,785 infections, resulting in 113,312 deaths. To prevent further deaths, we have been told <a href="http://archive.ph/x4CJH">extreme measures </a>over and above <a href="http://archive.ph/6EHnj">rudimentary "social distancing"</a> are necessary, <a href="http://archive.ph/xHb4s">including the wholesale closures of businesses</a>, the destruction of millions of jobs, the contraction of the world economy on a massive scale.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">We are rigorously counting every death from the CCPVirus, taking care not to miss any. Yet who is counting the deaths from the economic chaos being unleashed on the world?</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"></span><br>
</div><a href="https://www.avoiceofliberty.us/2020/04/who-counts-deaths-from-recession.html#more"></a>Peter Nayland Kusthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11676552912495663957noreply@blogger.com0