USA rettet uns vor Europa: Gegenangriff auf die Zensurbehörden | Roland Tichy

Sehr empfehlenswert! Bravo! Leider muss die Welt Ursula von der Leyen noch bis 2029 ertragen! Schlimm!

Bundesverfassungsgericht: Hessisches Verfassungsschutzgesetz in großen Teilen verfassungswidrig

Typisch Bananenrepublik D!

"Keine guten Tage für die Verfassungsschutzämter: Zuerst muss der Präsident des Bundesamtes, Haldewang, einräumen, dass er für Correctiv im Migrationsskandalspiel mitgeschnüffelt hat. Dann muss das Bayerische Landesamt für Verfassungsschutz seine Verleumdungskampagne gegen Journalisten zurücknehmen. ..."

Hessisches Verfassungsschutzgesetz in großen Teilen verfassungswidrig "Karlsruhe kassiert das Verfassungsschutzgesetz Hessens ein. Grund: Verstoß gegen das allgemeine Persönlichkeitsrecht. Es geht unter anderem um die Ortung von Mobilfunkgeräten und den Einsatz verdeckter Mitarbeiter."

SEC Climate Disclosure Mandate Exceeds Agency’s Statutory Authority, Raises Constitutional Concerns

Like the Obama administration, the administration of the demented and senile 46th president tries hard to strangulate the economy with excessive and unnecessary bureaucratic burdens!

Global Warming is a hoax! Climate Change is a religion!

"The Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) plan to mandate companies disclose energy use and planning for climate change-related financial risks lacks authorization from Congress, infringes companies’ First Amendment rights, and fails any reasonable cost-benefit test ...
“The Securities and Exchange Commission does not have statutory jurisdiction to require climate-specific disclosure, and it is inappropriate for a finance agency to be making environmental policy. As the SEC acknowledges, companies already are required to disclose materially relevant climate data,” ..."

SEC Climate Disclosure Mandate Exceeds Agency’s Statutory Authority, Raises Constitutional Concerns - Competitive Enterprise Institute

FDA says it will ban all menthol cigarettes and flavored cigars

Big Government in action! Terrible government paternalism! Curtailing individual liberalism for no good reason other than raw government power!

This is blatantly unconstitutional!

According to a FDA news release dating 4/29/2021: 

"... In the U.S., it is estimated that there are nearly 18.6 million current smokers of menthol cigarettes. But use of menthol cigarettes among smokers is not uniform: out of all Black smokers, nearly 85% smoke menthol cigarettes, compared to 30% of White smokers who smoke menthols. ..." This makes this prohibition even more remarkable!

FDA says it will ban all menthol cigarettes and flavored cigars - STAT

Florida voters approved automatic minimum wage increases in 2020 election

From the Wall Street Journal:
"In Florida, 61% of voters approved an initiative that will significantly raise the state’s minimum wage, from $8.56 to $10 an hour next year, before it increases by $1 a year until hitting $15 an hour in 2026. Florida is now the eighth state to adopt that wage floor and the first to do so through a ballot initiative."

This is very regrettable and goes to confirm again the poor economic education of the people! To put it very bluntly, only fools vote or desire minimum wages!

If voters want to help the poor etc. donate money to e.g. organisations that help the poor improve their lives.

The arguments against minimum wage should be well known by many:

1. It is unconstitutional and a violation of individual liberty and property rights
2. These are big government wage and price controls. They represent a severe government intervention into free markets
3. As a minimum, the minimum wage hurts disable people to find dignity in work. With minimum wages they depend on assistance from government or others 
4. It is highly wishful thinking/a fantasy on behalf of citizens that such measures could improve peoples lives
5. The economic damage is far greater than the benefits
6. Shortsighted populism won over reality and common sense
7. By accepting such unconstitutional measures the door is wide open for government or powerful interest groups to seek bigger government

Uber CEO says service faces temporary shutdown in California over driver reclassification ruling

I recommend Uber and Lyft shut down their services in California immediately until this terrible California court decision is overturned! 

This reclassification ordered by this judge is unconstitutional, a violation of property rights and economic freedom and freedom of contract!

Who is this nutty judge Schulman anyway?

"On Monday, California Superior Court Judge Ethan Schulman granted a preliminary injunction forcing Uber and Lyft  to reclassify its drivers as employees."



Uber CEO says service faces temporary shutdown in California over worker reclassification ruling | TechCrunch

Pennsylvania House Passes Bill to Block Governor from Unilaterally Joining RGGI

Good news!  Bravo to the Pennsylvanian legislators! RGGI is clearly a socialist central planning approach! It is unconstitutional! Let's hope the PA Senate is as wise!

"RGGI, established in 2009, is an interstate cap-and-trade program made up of the New England states, along with Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, and Virginia. Cap-and-trade programs limit carbon-dioxide emissions by establishing a specific maximum amount of carbon dioxide businesses or other organizations may produce and allowing them to purchase additional capacity from other entities that have not used their full production allowance. ...

Evidence suggests RGGI membership would hit Pennsylvania’s economy especially hard because Pennsylvania is a major producer of natural gas and still has a vibrant (if somewhat diminished) coal sector, unlike other RGGI states. With RGGI targeting emissions from fossil fuels, Pennsylvania would bear a heavier regulatory burden than the other, less-industrialized RGGI states."

Pennsylvania House Passes Bill to Block Governor from Unilaterally Joining RGGI - Heartland Daily News

Boosting the representation of Black students by the U.S. Department of Energy

The Cult of Racism and the ideology of inclusion/equity/diversity as spread by the Trump Administration, i.e. the U.S. Department of Energy!

President Trump it is high time to intervene! Mr. President you still have not drained the swamp!

The preferential treatment of individuals based on skin color is gross racism and unconstitutional!

Boosting the representation of Black students | symmetry magazine

Minimum Wage Cost Me My Job

Very recommendable!

Minimum wage laws are extremely unconstitutional! Simply, these are Big Government dictates! 

Such laws should never have passed the U.S. Congress and signed into law by any U.S. President! The U.S. Supreme Court failed too! Such laws are a gross violation of private property and free market/individual liberty rights!

The Supreme Court Is Poised to Strike Down The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau

Very good news! Yes, it is high time slay this monstrosity (i.e. CFBP) of the Obama administration!

Next should be the repeal of the terrible Dodd–Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act!


The Supreme Court Is Poised to Strike Down a Major Obama-Era Agency | Cato Institute: The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau concentrates power in the hands of a single, unelected, unaccountable official.

U.S. CAFE Standards Are Utterly Unconstitutional

Posted: 8/6/2018

Introduction

I had planned for some time to write a blog post about CAFE (Corporate Average Fuel Economy), but never got around to write it.

It has been absolutely shocking that the elected representatives of the beacon of freedom and individual liberty could have ever passed such an unconstitutional monstrosity of a law in 1975 and never since then bothered to repealed it. According to the Wikipedia article about CAFE (source no. 2), this law was never even seriously challenged in courts. Further, this law set a horrible precedent for the entire world.

Trigger

Just read this Cato Institute article: Trump’s Proposed CAFE Standard. Some salient quotes from this article (emphasis added):

1. “... when Congress created the CAFE program in 1975, it specially forbade states from adopting their own stronger rules because this would greatly increase the costs of compliance to manufacturers. Despite that, the Obama administration decided to exempt California from the one-national-standard rule. The Trump administration is going back to the actual law.”
   (What a lousy, business adverse president Obama was, this is another example)
2. “Another important issue is that the CAFE program has suffered mission creep. When Congress created the program in 1975, the nation was suffering from politically induced energy shortages. But the standards weren’t needed to save energy; people responded to higher gas prices by buying more fuel-efficient cars without the government standards.”
   (Mission creep? What a misguided euphemism!)

Brevity Is The Soul Of Wit

CAFE is pure, grandiose socialist central planning; simply and utterly unconstitutional, and should be repealed ASAP!

Sources:

1. https://www.nhtsa.gov/laws-regulations/corporate-average-fuel-economy
2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corporate_average_fuel_economy

Major Federal Breaches Of Religious Freedom In The U.S.

Posted: 1/1/2018

This is a work in progress!

Motivation

If you think religious freedom in America was only threatened, attacked, and abridged in our days you are seriously mistaken.

In The Words Of Thomas Jefferson

Excerpted from Thomas Jefferson’s Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom (1777; emphasis added):

1. “... That the impious presumption of legislators and rulers, civil as well as ecclesiastical, who, being themselves but fallible and uninspired men have assumed dominion over the faith of others, setting up their own opinions and modes of thinking as the only true and infallible, and as such endeavouring to impose them on others, hath established and maintained false religions over the greatest part of the world and through all time; ...”
2. “... That therefore the proscribing any citizen as unworthy the public confidence, by laying upon him an incapacity of being called to offices of trust and emolument, unless he profess or renounce this or that religious opinion, is depriving him injuriously of those privileges and advantages, to which, in common with his fellow citizens, he has a natural right, ...”
3. “... Be it enacted by General Assembly that no man shall be compelled to frequent or support any religious worship, place, or ministry whatsoever, nor shall be enforced, restrained, molested, or burthened in his body or goods, nor shall otherwise suffer on account of his religious opinions or belief, but that all men shall be free to profess, and by argument to maintain, their opinions in matters of Religion, and that the same shall in no wise diminish, enlarge or affect their civil capacities.”

What would Thomas Jefferson have to say today about religious freedom in America?

A Brief History Of Federal Violations Of The First Amendment

A brief history of federal breaches of religious freedom:

1. Why did it take Utah almost 50 years to become the 45th state of the union in 1896? Why was Utah forced by Washington to give up polygamy in return for statehood? Utah tried since 1850 to become a state, but was repeatedly denied. President Buchanan removed Brigham Young as governor of Utah Territory in 1857-58. He sent a 2,500-man army and a new governor to Utah.
   In 1862, the U.S. Congress passed the Morrill Anti-bigamy Act. This Act prohibited polygamy in the territories and disincorporated the LDS church. President Lincoln signed this unconstitutional act into law. For many other reasons, Lincoln was a terrible president (see my blog posts about Lincoln).
   In 1874, the U.S. Congress passed the Poland Act, which gave authorities more power to successfully prosecute polygamists.
   In 1879, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of federal laws against polygamy (Reynolds v. United States). So the law making plural marriage a crime was found to be valid. Another, very dubious, but lesser known, unconstitutional decision by the U.S. Supreme Court!
   In 1882, Congress passed the Edmunds Anti-Polygamy Act, outlawing “unlawful cohabitation.” thus removing the need to prove that actual marriages had occurred. The act declared polygamy a felony. It also banned polygamists from voting, holding public office, or serving on juries. Wow, this would be called religious persecution in our days! In 1885, federal officials chased and arrested lots of polygamists—while others went into hiding. The Mormons presented President Cleveland with a formal protest—to no avail. The Edmunds Act restrictions were enforced regardless of whether an individual was actually practicing polygamy, or merely stated a belief in the Mormon doctrine of plural marriage without actually participating. It also provided for a five-man Utah Commission appointed by the president to supervise all aspects of the electoral process in Utah Territory.The Supreme Court ruled, in Murphy v. Ramsey (1885), that the statute was not ex post facto because convicts were charged for their continued cohabitation, not for the prior illegal marriage.
   In 1887, Congress passed the Edmunds-Tucker bill. This would confiscate LDS church property and take away the right of Utah women to vote. So the women in Utah had voting rights since 1870 and Congress took that away too. I was truly stunned to learn about this.The Supreme Court in the case Late Corp. of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints v. United States that upheld the Edmunds–Tucker Act in 1890
   [No matter what one thinks about polygamy, did the U.S. Congress and several U.S. Presidents violate religious liberty as protected by the U.S. Constitution when they pursued the Mormons? I am afraid, they did! Only forced or involuntary polygamy should have been the basis of any federal law. What this harsh pursuit of the Mormons represents is a severe violation of We the People and federalism! This should never have happened in the history of the U.S.! There are parallels to the American Civil War fought over the secession of southern states.]
2. Jehovah's Witnesses story. Why were the Jehovah’s Witnesses harassed so much that they sued so often like probably no other religious organisation in the history of the U.S. (to be continued)

Sources:

1. http://ilovehistory.utah.gov/topics/statehood/index.html

Perfect And Legal Cover Up For A Car License Plate!

Posted: 3/27/2017

Today, I saw the perfect and legal (perhaps debatable) cover up for a license plate on a pickup truck in front of me at the traffic light. Truly a bane for those annoying traffic cameras that have mushroomed everywhere in the Phoenix area.

Unfortunately, my photo shot is quite amateurish!

I have argued here, why I think that speed limits in the U.S. are unconstitutional and should be abolished or replaced by speed recommendations!

Trump Should Stop California Regulates The Rest Of The Country Buys

Posted: 12/17/2016

For too many years it has been complacently accepted that California can quasi impose any of its many strict regulations and standards on the rest of the country. Not least because manufacturers would produce goods according to strictest state regulations in the country and sell it to consumers in the whole country. This has been disturbing for decades!

This needs to stop! Hopefully, the new President Trump will address this situation appropriately!

Just read California to Regulate Energy Use of Desktop Computers and Monitors, which reminded me of this subject. To cite from this article (emphasis added):

1. “The rules, passed by the agency, the California Energy Commission, are the country’s first attempt to regulate the energy use of desktop computers and represent another step in the state’s efforts to drastically lower its greenhouse gas emissions to address climate change.”
2. “The new standards, some parts of which go into effect Jan. 1, 2018, would ultimately reduce carbon dioxide emissions in California by an estimated 730,000 tons, less than 1 percent of total statewide emissions, and save consumers about $370 million on electric bills annually, based on the most recent emissions data. ”

Such blatant socialist central planning is unconstitutional and should not be tolerated in the U.S.! One size fits all solutions for single, narrowly-focused, fantasized, and out of proportion problems are the preoccupations of socialists and dictators!

Phoenix Metro Area Is Infested With Traffic Cameras

Posted: 9/12/2016

Growing Like Mushrooms

I have noticed about three dozen new traffic cameras having been erected in the past two 2-3 years in the vicinity of our home with a range of about 10 miles (most of them in northern Phoenix, Scottsdale, and Paradise Valley).

I do not know whether a similar increase was observed in other areas of the Phoenix Metro as well, but I suspect so.

I also do not know whether these cameras are red light or speed cameras only or a mix of both or whether they are just decoys. However, I am very inclined and prepared to arm myself with a detector to defend myself against this aggressive money grab or greed by local governments.

Previous, Related Blogs

The Arizona Traffic Violation Racket

Why I Do Not Like HOV Lanes!

Americans Are Driving Stagecoaches Not Cars

Bike Helmet Laws In The USA

Speed Limits In The USA Are Unconstitutional

Paid Maternity Leave Socialism

Posted: 8/13/2016

Trigger

I have seen lately several articles dealing with this subject and Hillary Rotten Clinton for Prison 2016 has it also on her agenda.

Here is a Washington Post article on this subject. Funny, that the Washington Post mentions that even socialist Cuba has a paid maternity leave.

Some Notes

1. Why should any employer have to pay for parental leave because it has hired employees of childbearing or parenting age? Some businesses, for whatever reason, prefer to hire younger employees or perhaps more females than males, why should these businesses be affected heavier than others?
2. Government mandated paid maternity leave and job protection distorts the labor market as well as hiring and business decisions
3. Like minimum wage, this is a form of mandated government price and wage control
4. Government job protection is another intervention against individual freedom. Why should a mother not decide to go back to work a few days after giving birth, perhaps on a reduced schedule?
5. Government enforced parental leave paid for by employers is an unconstitutional violation of freedom of contract
6. It would be another government entitlement burdening businesses
7. Ulterior motives of government paid maternity leave are often to stimulate birth rates or to prevent population decline

Conclusion

If paid maternity leave is a desired outcome by a majority of people in a democracy it would have to be fully paid for by government alone through general taxes. Businesses should not or least be burdened by it.

Prescription Drugs Are Unconstitutional

Posted: 7/10/2016

Trigger

Sometimes patients know better than doctors what is right for them. For several months now, I have a particular need for antibiotics treatment to get rid of something that has become chronic infection of my sinuses for several months.

I went first, about two months ago, to a CVS Minute Clinic, but the friendly nurse send me home with a recommendation for a well known decongestant despite the fact that I had requested my need for antibiotics in my first sentence upon entering the nurse’s office. At least CVS reimbursed me back some of the money.

Yesterday, I walked into a FastMed Urgent Care center to request a prescription for antibiotics. Well, I was told by the manager on duty this would cost me out of pocket about $130 or over $200 (depending on payment option) to see a doctor and no guarantee that I would receive such a prescription. I offered to pay $80 if I left the office without a prescription. In an era where almost daily official warnings about antibiotic resistance and overprescription of antibiotics etc. are issued it has certainly made it unnecessarily more difficult or risky to get a prescription.

Thus, I would have to drive from Phoenix, AZ to Nogales in Mexico to obtain prescription free antibiotics of possibly unknown provenance?

A Bit Of History Of Prescription Drugs In The U.S.

Apparently, in the U.S. concerns about the addictiveness of previously freely available pain killers led to more and more restrictions perhaps beginning with the Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906, which mandated that all ingredients must be labeled. Soon after the Harrison Narcotic Tax Act of 1914 brought these addictive substances under the control of doctors, requiring a prescription (and payment of a tax) for their distribution. In the age of temperance and ongoing or imminent prohibition of alcohol this was to be expected.

From then on more and more medications came under government regulation and control. The spiral went downward.  E.g. first government handed out amphetamines to soldiers and factory workers for combat effectiveness and later determined it was too addictive and was abused.

1912 - Hague Opium Convention Treaty in China. The United States signs international agreement to limit the spread and use of narcotics.

1914 - Harrison Act uses IRS taxes on the sale and purchasing of narcotics as a way to control use. The Treasury Department assigns the first narcotic agents to enforce the Harrison Act.

1919 - United States v. Doremus court case confirms that the federal government can regulate dispensing of medicines by physicians.

1919 - Webb et al v. United States court case confirms that physicians and pharmacists cannot supply an addict just to maintain his or her addiction.

1938 - Amendments to the Pure Food and Drug Act brings the abuse of non-narcotic medicines under the responsibility of the FDA.

1951 – Durham Humphrey Bill sets up prescription and non-prescription categories for all medicines.

1956 – Narcotics Control Act updates restriction and penalties for smuggling and distribution of marijuana and narcotics. Eliminates the suspension of sentences or probation if convicted.

Apparently, again as so often, the U.S. Supreme Court played a very unfortunate role to allow and uphold this terrible  paternalism (nanny state or statism) to exist, continue, and expand in multiple decisions.

Drug Abuse Is A Pretense

Overprescription or drug abuse by individuals are a red herring propaganda disseminated by government!

Prohibitions or excessive regulations are most often a sign of incompetent politicians. Those measures reek of distrust in We the People! They are antiquated and Barbarian in nature!

We certainly need more education and awareness about drugs and their effects and how to responsibly use them and so on.

We certainly need better treatment options for those who became addicted.

Individual drug abusers may need to be held responsible (including, if necessary, jail time) for their actions and so on.

Some Consequences Of Prescription Drugs

1. The Founders have probably never contemplated such a far reaching government power and control over medical treatments. Would this qualify as a form of sophisticated government tyranny or an encroachment on our liberties in their views?
2. Government allowed and mandated doctors to have way too much power and control over our lives. Doctors are all too human, they are neither gods, geniuses, nor angels to entrust them that much!
3. Government allowed doctors to have a monopoly and to become a special, protected and favored guild
4. Health care has certainly become a lot more expensive because of that
5. Way too many medications are available only by prescription
6. Free trace of medications has been severely impeded
7. Progress and advances in medicine and drugs have been severely stymied

A Brief Remark On Antibiotic Resistance

Since I started this post how difficult and expensive it is in the U.S. for an individual to obtain antibiotics, which should be no problem at all. This subject actually deserves its own blog post.

Unfortunately, many people still believe what has been said now for over 30 years that because of overprescription, failure to follow medical regimens, and liberal use of antibiotics for almost any indication in humans and animals that humans have caused a serious crisis. And the best way to deal with it is to use less.

In the year 2016, this is dangerous nonsense! Given the incredible advances in genetics, biology, and medicine, humans, if incentivised, would easily come up with better solutions to beat bacteria. What is lacking here is better priorities and resource commitments in medical research. And certainly less meddling by Big Government!

Previous, Related Blog Posts

I wrote here about why I think that speed limits in the U.S. are unconstitutional.

This blog post is about why smoking bans are unconstitutional.