The tobacco prohibitionists are at it again
Prohibitionists come in all shapes, sizes, and political affiliations. Among the major political parties, Republican prohibitionists generally oppose drug legalization in any form, while Democratic prohibitionists take a hard line…
Forcing Democrats to look at the red ink in their spending plans
House Democrats’ squabbling over the size and content of a $3.5 trillion budget bill resulted in the delay of a vote on a trillion dollar (give or take) infrastructure bill….
Breaking the tax rules to feed the state
One plan Democrats are floating to help pay for their cradle-to-grave government plan is a new, annual tax on the unrealized gains of assets billionaires own, but haven’t sold. As…
New York joins bandwagon to ban sales of new gasoline powered cars
New York passed a new law that will ban the sale of new gasoline powered cars in the state beginning in 2035. It’s the first state to enact a ban…
Cryptocurrency as an antidote to cancel culture
Regardless of what you think of so-called “cancel culture,” the concept fits within the older concept that those outside the mainstream suffer for their actions and opinions, whether it be…
Governments and law enforcement using online data to beef up surveillance
Law enforcement and government intelligence agencies are big fans of using private sector data to conduct their operations. When such practices have run into constitutional and political barriers, agencies say…
Newsom’s allies turn their ire to the recall process
With California Gov. Gavin Newsom having successfully defeated a recall effort, his allies in the one-party state are exploring ways to make sure future recall efforts never get on the…
A prohibitionist law that’s still on the books
The United States ended its disastrous alcohol prohibition regime in 1933. But the tendrils of prohibition ran so deep that a few still survive today. Among them: a century-old federal…
Cryptocurrencies and ending economic colonialism
Large sections of the global financial world, regulators in particular, see cryptocurrencies as a threat to the established financial order or, if they are in a good mood, the favorite…
Getting Uncle Sam’s books in order
We all know the federal government is in debt, and that pile of IOUs gets bigger every day. All that red ink is embarrassing, even to the most jaded pols….