Thanks to the wonderful Robert Wenzel’s Target Liberty site for providing this superb information. This video was originally an extensive Cotto-Gottfried interview with attorney Robert Barnes, who has an absolutely brilliant authoritative command of the history of electoral politics in American history from a class/cultural perspective. Somehow the original video interview went dark but Wenzel was able to capture the essential portions for viewers on his website. There are two must watch segments. You will profit and learn more from these two segments than from virtually anything else you have ever seen on why people vote as they do. I have a degree in political science and have focused for fifty years on this particular subject area and his exposition is the most substantive and amazing I have ever encountered.

Not his best interview, but much better at 4:05 on. Anglophone countries (U.S., U.K., Canada, Australia, New Zealand) have gone COVID crazy while continental Europe has been a little better of late (according to him).

A Canadian mother, who has “studied the principles of natural law,” and who is “clear that the inherent freedom of choice of every individual is the ultimate foundation of life on Earth” put that philosophy into action when she “obtained a conscientious exemption from mask-wearing at school” for her son. Yep, this feat required Herculean effort and even more persistence. But she offers other parents a step-by-step guide to success.

Thanks to Vinnie Terranova for sending this story.

I know you are out there because you have written to me on numerous occasions over the years, sometimes to complain about something I said about the police, but usually to say that you were a liberty-loving cop who was doing the best he could to be a peace officer instead of a police officer. I have met some of you at various speaking engagements over the years. I appreciate your efforts.

To you liberty-loving cops I say watch this video of police in Ohio arresting a woman for not wearing a mask while sitting outside at a football game. Perhaps you have seen other videos of cops chasing people off a beach or out of a park. It is time to draw a line in the sand and make up your mind what you are going to do in a situation like that in Ohio. Will you risk losing your job by not arresting people for not wearing masks or will you say you are just following orders when you handcuff them, arrest them, drag them to your car, drive them to the police station, and lock them in a cage for not wearing a mask? For years now you have been arresting people for possessing drugs because you are just following orders even though you tell me that you oppose the drug war. Are you going to do the same when it comes to masks? Will you get fired or resign your position over the mask issue? I know it is a tough decision. As a Christian, I have had to quit more than one job in my life because of unethical things that were being done and that I was being pressured to do. So to liberty-loving cops I say: If you live in a fascist area of the country that has a radical mask requirement, why don’t you consider resigning and becoming a cop somewhere else like in South Dakota or in Georgia (apart from the Atlanta and Savannah areas)?

And hey Republicans in Ohio, those of you who campaigned for Republican Mike DeWine because we dare not get an evil Democrat elected governor in Ohio, how do you feel about DeWine now?

What we have been seeing played out on the streets of America, particularly in large Blue State metropolitan areas and dense urban cities is classic planned chaos and the “Strategy of Tension.” Unable to dislodge Donald Trump by the Russiagate hoax or the malicious soft coup impeachment process, his sworn enemies, using COVID-19 as their pretext, have turned to the destruction of the economy by repressive lockdowns, creating mass unemployment and annihilation of small businesses, thus fracturing civil society. Thus the Democrats, seditious elements the deep state, and their complacent, compliant regime media pawns, have turned to an age-old psy/war strategy to be wielded as an ax against the president, insidiously using the weaponized corpse of George Floyd as the new rationale for these riots and insurrections.

Historically there has been a symbiotic correlation relationship between agent provocateur groups, infiltration by police informers, and the counter-terrorism forces of the deep state. The repressive security state has molded and used such witting (or unwitting) terrorist pawns or drones in covert activities to create a “strategy of tension” to instill fear and consolidate repressive power and control which would enhance strident calls for more intense police repression and clandestine surveillance of its subject general population.

This is the post-November 3rd strategic scenario outlined by the brilliant investigative journalist/political analyst Whitney Webb in the top video interview.

The result would be implementation of Continuity of Government protocols and, in the name of “police reform,” the nationalization/federalization of all state and local police law enforcement.

With countless decades of real-world experience and clinical research in fomenting “Color Revolutions,” masters of psychological warfare and mind control, expert manipulators and programmers of cult-like behavior, recruit those alienated arrested development post-adolescents and anti-social disillusioned vicarious thrill seekers who fit a susceptible psychological profile matrix and who relish vandalism, violence and destruction as a means of striking out at a world beyond the control of their misshapened lives. An ideological construct of direct action “anarchism” or “propaganda by the deed” is put forth as a purported justification for their aberrant thug-like terrorist behavior. These trained cadres are then deployed to foment chaos and insurrection.

The CDC reports on excess deaths are the source of the following.

Excess deaths in a given area or jurisdiction are defined as Actual Deaths minus Expected Deaths.

For the week ending Sept. 12, 2020, 49,733 people died in the U.S. from all causes of any kind. Those are Actual Deaths. That number is subject to later revision, as are many kinds of data.

The CDC measures Expected Deaths using a statistical method that employs actual deaths in the period 2013-2020. For example, a crude expectation would be the average weekly actual deaths over all the weeks in that base period. The CDC averaging method is much more sophisticated, taking both seasonality and trends into account. However, there are other competing models that provide different baseline expectations, and they will give different estimates of the COVID-19 impact on excess deaths.

Still, within the CDC’s measures, the week ended Sept. 12 is special. For the week ending Sept. 12, 2020, the Predicted Deaths are 52,148. Therefore, excess deaths in that week are (49,733 – 52,148) = – 2,415. Excess deaths were negative, suggesting that COVID-19 is no longer augmenting actual deaths to a measurable extent that differs from what one may have expected in its absence.

To buttress this suggestion, notice that excess deaths went positive by 5,580, for the first time since January of 2018, in the week of March 28, 2020, and they stayed positive for every week up to and including the week ending September 5, 2020. The recent data indicate that COVID-19, for one reason and another, is no longer an urgent health concern, at least if this finding continues on.

The peak week of mortality was April 11, 2020 when 79,450 people died of all causes while the expected number from all causes was 56,259. The excess deaths, presumably from COVID-19 and from all the related actions that everyone took because of it, numbered 23,191.

Again, in the latest week for which there are data, the week ending Sept. 12, some 5 months after the peak, excess deaths are actually negative.

“No Exceptions, No Delays…. Open Texas NOW.”

That’s the call to action of a resolution passed nearly unanimously by the Republican Party of Texas executive committee, urging Gov. Greg Abbott to “immediately rescind all COVID-related mandates, closures, and restrictions” and reopen the state.

That would be Rethuglican Greg Abbott. His despotism is so egregious that his own party disavows it!

“For a state party to publicly disagree with a sitting governor of the same party is not something any of us take lightly, and the instinct of loyalty to leadership is usually pretty strong among party activists. So for this to happen underscores the depth of the anger and frustration out there,” said [Rolando] Garcia[, the newly elected committeeman for Senate District 15 in Houston who authored the “Open Texas Now” resolution.

And what prompted Mr. Garcia to come to the serfs’ defense? 

“[Abbott’s] announcement last week about another incremental increase in capacity was the last straw. It is so blindingly obvious to everyone that the lockdowns and restrictions were a mistake and devastated the lives of so many people,” Garcia told Texas Scorecard. 

“I really hoped that last week’s announcement would finally put an end to this madness. Instead, we just got more games about 50 or 75 percent capacity … for some businesses … in some regions. It’s such a farce at this point and totally disconnected from scientific or public health considerations. It was clear that the state party had to take a stand, so I authored and submitted that resolution.”

Only 4 of 58 committeemen voted against the resolution. Hearteningly, Mr. Garcia estimated that “If we were voting based on what we hear from the grassroots, it would’ve passed with every single vote…”

The Resistance grows! Thanks to Bill Martin for this encouraging news!

I found this particular documentary account of the final days of World War II in East Prussia interesting because my father, Eden C, Burris, was in a German POW camp there until liberated by the Red Army. He and his crew mates were captured by the Germans and imprisoned for 18 months in three POW camps in East Prussia. They were Stalag Luft I, Stalag Luft IV, and Stalag Luft VI. They were held as POWs until liberated on May 1, 1945 by Soviet troops of the Red Army.

The USAAF Carpetbagger’s mission was that of delivering supplies and agents to resistance groups in the enemy occupied Western European nations. Created in late 1943, their operations first flew from Tempsford, then Alconbury and finally out of Station 179, Harrington. Flying at first as two squadrons, they were given Provisional status as a Bombardment Group (801st) in late March 1944 just before they moved to Harrington.

In his 66-page ruling, [U.S. district judge William] Stickman … [said] that although “this country has faced, and will face, emergencies of every sort,” the solution to a crisis on a national scale “can never be permitted to supersede the commitment to individual liberty that stands as the foundation of the American experiment.”

WHOA!!!!

“The Constitution cannot accept the concept of a ‘new normal’ where the basic liberties of the people can be subordinated to open-ended emergency mitigation measures,” wrote Stickman.

DOUBLE WHOA!!!

“Rather, the Constitution sets certain lines that may not be crossed, even in an emergency. Actions taken by defendants crossed those lines.

Oh, boy, big time!

It is the duty of the court to declare those actions unconstitutional.”

Shall we take Ralph and the Guv out now to tar and feather ’em or wait until after lunch?

Stickman wrote that while he believes that the “defendants undertook their actions in a well-intentioned effort to protect Pennsylvanians from the virus,” 

HA! Don’t give them that out. They’re tyrants, through and through, lusting after power and hoarding all they can get.

even in an emergency, “the authority of government is not unfettered. The liberties protected by the Constitution are not fair-weather freedoms — in place when times are good but able to be cast aside in times of trouble.” …

YES!!!!!

An attorney for the plaintiffs, Thomas E. Breth, was quoted as saying in an Action News 4 (Pittsburgh) report, “This ruling stands for the proposition that even in a pandemic, the citizens of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania do not forfeit their constitutionally protected rights.”

Especially on the say-so of a guy who thinks he’s a woman.

Another attorney for the plaintiffs, Thomas W. King III, said … that you can’t “tell 13 million Pennsylvanians that they have to stay home. That’s not America. It never was. That order was horrible.”

I redouble my hopes that other lawyers will similarly argue and other judges will so rule on these cases. This one in Ohio, for example, looks to be heading the same way.

A federal judge denied Democratic Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf’s motion to stay a week after determining that the state’s coronavirus restrictions were unconstitutional…

Yee haw!

The state has been enforcing a gathering limit of more than 25 people for events held indoors and 250 people for those held outside, although [Secretary of Health Rachel (sic for Ralph: this varmint is not only hopelessly confused as to his sex but should also demand a refund from whatever quack castrated him. The “change” obviously didn’t take, judging by his photo. 

Speaking of which, let me ask why the long-suffering serfs of Pennsylvania should heed medical advice from a crank who denies basic biology and the ol’ X/Y chromosomes)] Levine was criticized by state lawmakers when it was revealed in August that the health secretary had made a secret deal to allow a car show to open for a multi-day event that attracted 20,000 people per day. The state also required “non-essential” businesses to shut down for several weeks.

That “secret deal” is only the beginning of Ralph’s “OK-for-me-but-not-for-thee” duplicity. He also busted his mother out of a nursing home after those institutions

and long-term facilities were ordered to accept coronavirus patients from hospitals.

Despite concerns that the elderly population was vulnerable to the virus, Levine ordered nursing homes to continue admitting new patients and re-admitting current patients from the hospital. 

Naturally, Pennsylvania’s sore, tyrannical losers

said they would appeal the ruling … [Pennsylvania’s Attorney General] argued that Stickman’s ruling “does not consider the manner in which COVID-19 is spread or the rationale for adopting the congregate limits.”

Ha! Neither does Ralph.

Thanks to Bill Martin for the encouraging news that the judge is sticking to his original, decidedly correct decision. I hope but doubt many more benches will follow his lead.

Linda June watched the video

by a seemingly faithful priest of the Traditional rite (Fraternal Society of Saint Peter, FSSP) whose parish is just up the road … from me. In the video, he urges the faithful to disobey their bishops and public authorities if they instruct us to do anything unwholesome such as take the dangerous vaccine they’ll soon be rolling out. He was blunt, 

And utterly heroic! 

which called down surprising approbation from an Establishment priest in his own order.

Anyway, so I sent an email to the smart priest’s parish asking if they were holding Mass without restrictions. I guess “restrictions” are in the eye of the beholder. Here’s how the conversation went:

Me:

Hello,

I’m wondering if your parish is offering public Masses without restrictions yet? I’m hoping somewhere in Colorado we can go to Mass without fear of the track and trace threat. 

Thanks for your time! May God bless and keep everyone at OLMC.

Warmest Regards,

Linda June

The parish secretary:

Dear Linda June,

Yes our church is holding masses without tracking and there is no sense of fear among the community, which is such a blessing! The only thing that we have in place is that we are asking people to sign up for Mass via our parish Flocknote. This is just to ensure that we don’t have too many people at one Mass in order to not cause trouble with the authorities.  … Would you be interested in being added to our Flocknote so that you can get the email from one of our priests that will have the sign up for the week?

God Bless! …

Me:

Hi —,

Thank you for such a quick response! I’m afraid that signing up for Mass is tantamount to submitting to a track and trace program. My own parish uses a similar app. If the so-called “authorities” decided to trace a so-called “infected” person back to the Masses they attended, they would insist (on pain of pulling your 501-c-3 corporate status) on viewing your Flocknote lists which could jeopardize everyone who had attended a Mass within a month with the person in question. Subjecting my mother, brother, sister, their families and my friends to a forced quarantine because I happened to join a Mass with someone who later “tested positive” is unconscionable. We have enough economic disaster to deal with as it is. I can’t knowingly put them at more risk.

Call me paranoid, but with this political scamdemic and the way our Church hierarchy has shamefully played along with it ab initio, I have a difficult time trusting the continued restrictions on public Mass attendance, even if they are seemingly as innocuous as signing up for a spot at Mass. Not only is it ecclesiastically wrong,

–which ought to be reason enough to reject it–

it puts the faithful in a position to either condone the farce by participation, avoid Mass or give false information in the sign-up process. 

Speaking of false info, I do like the escape from this trap that one columnist proposed–

“This is how I plan to self identify: Paul Krugman, Keynesian economist, Tel. (212) 556-3900.” (Thanks to Mark Carroll for sending that chuckle my way.)

Linda continues:

I wish there were a fourth option, namely, brave priests willing to offer Mass in homes of the faithful until our bishops turn themselves right-side up on this mass deception known as Covid-19. …

Linda grieves that this parish doesn’t

see the sign-up protocol for what it really is. Sadly, this isn’t unexpected for the times we’re in now, but it’s still sickening. I have more respect for [another] FSSP parish [with which she’s familiar] … that doesn’t participate in the sign-up rigamarole. They just don’t have any public Masses at all that I know of. At least they’re not cheerfully inviting us to step into a pit of quicksand as if they’ve  somehow struck the right balance between pleasing the “authorities” and fulfilling their ecclesiastical duties. But you just can’t serve two masters.

What is the Church’s primary responsibility after worshipping God? Yep: preaching the Gospel to all the world. So another insurmountable problem with “reservations” (as Parson Goat put it when my church’s leadership aligned with this tyranny) pertains to visitors: what happens when a man who’s never darkened the door before but is so anxious after Our Rulers destroyed his company or job with their COVID Con that he’s seeking the Lord, shows up without having previously registered?

I asked my former pastor that question; he ignored me. By way of commiseration, I posed the same problem to Linda June. She answered,

I’m not sure what they do when people who don’t know the rules show up. The only time I tried the game was in the very beginning. All the slots for the Sunday Masses had been filled except for the 6 pm Mass, which was the one I signed up for (before the weight of the track and trace issue had really sunk in). There were a few who had not signed up, but since there were lots of slots still available, they allowed  the “loose ones” in after they gave their names and addresses.

I was impressed by a young man whose wife had been waiting outside with us. She said her husband had volunteered to man the door, but had begun to regret the decision. He would not turn anyone away who wanted to attend and fully realized that he would get in some trouble for it. He had determined to fulfill his commitment that evening but had withdrawn his agreement for future duty. I congratulated his wife for having chosen such a wise husband.

I was there sans mask, as was the young wife. When others saw our naked faces, some of them removed their face diapers, too, maybe a third of the crowd of about twenty-five people. Then, the main gatekeeper came out to tell us they were almost ready to let us in. He asked if we had any suggestions for how to make this process easier. Everyone reflected a moment silently. Then I spoke up and said, “Just open the church. Just OPEN the church!” To my utter amazement, just about everyone there chimed in with a “Yeah!” or something similar. The poor, misguided gatekeeper seemed taken aback, but recovered and said they couldn’t do that and this was how things were going to be for the time being. At least he got the message. Hope he passed it along, but who knows?

Incidentally, this guy is also a local Republican party operative, so I’m not surprised he was all on board with denying entry to Mass. Politics come first in the American Christian church, not Christ, apparently. Hmm, what did Jesus tell the church of Laodicea? 

As I’ve checked in on the Mass sign-up calendar every few weeks, I notice fewer and fewer slots are getting reserved. Maybe it’s time to do a walk-up and see what happens.

At least we’re finally seeing some pushback. Let’s pray the movement grows huge!

Amen! And before our disgusted Lord spews us out of His mouth. 

Dear Pierre:

The rise and fall of empires is a fascinating study. Thanks for sending this to me. In my view, there’s a historical pattern, but no necessity that this will always be followed. I think it depends upon the decisions made by the rulers. That is, I  believe in free will, not historical necessity.

Here are my pubs on free will:

Van Schoelandt, Chad, Ivan Jankovic and Walter E. Block. 2016. “Rejoinder on Free Will, Determinism, Libertarianism and Austrian Economics.” Dialogue, Issue 2; http://www.uni-svishtov.bg/dialog/title.asp?lang=en&title=565; http://141.164.71.80/exchange/walterblock/Inbox/RE:%20Rejoinder%20on%20Free%20Will,%20Determinism,%20Libertarianism%20and%20Austrian%20Economics.EML/1_multipart_xF8FF_2_p565__DialogueBook2eng2016_81_95.pdf/C58EA28C-18C0-4a97-9AF2-036E93DDAFB3/p565__DialogueBook2eng2016_81_95.pdf?attach=1;

http://www.uni-svishtov.bg/dialog/title.asp?title=565; http://www.academia.edu/27719232/Rejoinder_on_Free_Will_Determinism_Libertarianism_and_Austrian_Economics

Block, Walter E. 2015. “Free will, determinism, libertarianism and Austrian economics” Dialogue, Issue 3, p.1; http://connection.ebscohost.com/c/articles/110798998/free-will-determinism-libertarianism-austrian-economics;

Best regards,

Walter

(more…)

From: Odessa Munroe

Sent: Sunday, July 19, 2020 3:00 PM

To: Walter Block <wblock@loyno.edu>; Victor Pross <artpross@hotmail.com>

Subject: Hello from Odessa

HI Walter!

Since you are a famous economist and know Canada… With the money change coming up in the US and all of the drama there ….Am I correct that I should get out of the dollar and continue to buy gold?

Any quick thoughts? I want to protect my family…

Odessa

(more…)

From: Andy

Sent: Monday, July 13, 2020 11:33 AM

To: walter block <wblock@loyno.edu>

Subject: Trolley problem variant

Hi Walter,

Suppose when a man is hiking he sees a button that is remotely connected to two jail cells on another continent. Cell A has 1 innocent person and cell B has 5 innocent people. If the man does nothing, 30 seconds later one of the cells will be flooded with water and everyone in that cell will die. The cell to be flooded will be chosen randomly, each cell with a 50% probability. However if the man hits the button now, the probability that cell A is chosen to be flooded will be increased to two-thirds. If the man hits the button, is he a murderer if cell A ends up being flooded? What if cell B ends up being flooded (even though that only happens with a one-third probability)?

Thanks a lot!

Cheers,

Andy

(more…)

Letter 1

From: ed

Sent: Thursday, July 02, 2020 6:22 AM

To: wblock@loyno.edu

Subject: Ancap society

Dear Walter,

You mention that libertarianism is about what should be “legal” and not what is moral. What is the distinction between the two and what is the purpose of the distinction? I would argue that the no aggression principle is a moral argument rather than legal, because even in a stateless/rothbardian society where no “laws” exist, people still follow the NAP as it is the moral framework of the society.

Thanks in advance

Ed

To blog readers:

There are 9 letters here. I’m not sure I have answered this correct. Help would be appreciated

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New video released by L. Lin Wood on the events in Kenosha, WI on 25 August 2020. Not a great case in Pirro’s view for many reasons.

I have reached a milestone: 600 pubs in refd journals/law reviews. Here are my last 10:

600. Block, Walter E. and William Barnett II. 2020. “Newly Discovered Gold Does Not Distort the Economy; It Is Not A Market Failure.” Review of Economic Perspectives, Vol. 20, No. 3, pp. 281-288; https://content.sciendo.com/configurable/contentpage/journals$002frevecp$002f20$002f3$002farticle-p281.xml; https://doi.org/10.2478/revecp-2020-0014

(more…)

After the rampaging insurrection, rioting and destruction of America’s cities over the past several months, CNN anchor Don Lemon is now publicly advocating sedition on the nation’s broadcast airwaves. CNN must fire his ass or they will be complicit in his criminal advocacy. Actions have consequences.

Continuity of Government – 2020