On August 18, 1920, the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution was ratified, guaranteeing women’s suffrage.
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Nineteenth on the Eighteenth
Author: Editor
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Against Central Banking
On August 16, 1841, U.S. President John Tyler vetoed a bill to re-establish the Second Bank of the United States. This made him deeply unpopular with his former supporters in the Whig Party — which was the party of “internal improvements” as well as an anti-Jacksonian party, and Andrew Jackson had previously set himself against central banking. It is apparent that Tyler did this because he had come to believe a central bank was unconstitutional.
We have a central bank, now, of course. It is called the Federal Reserve.
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The Wind & the Window
On August 15, 1281, the Mongolian fleet of Kublai Khan was destroyed by a “divine wind” for the second time in the Battle of Kōan.
On August 15 in 1971, President Richard Nixon ended convertibility of the United States dollar into gold by foreign investors. The dollar has remained fiat money ever since, but — mysteriously! — did not succeed in retaining its previous value.
But then, the dollar under the previous quasi-gold, Bretton-Woods Agreement wasn’t stable either, which is why Nixon felt compelled to close the gold window.
Former Democratic congresswoman and anti-warmonger gadfly Tulsi Gabbard is no terrorist. Yet, the government is treating her like one.
Last November, UncoverDC related the testimony of retired Air Marshal Sonya LaBosco, now executive director of the Air Marshal National Council, which works on behalf of Air Marshals.
LaBosco says that instead of tracking genuine threats, the TSA surveillance programs like Quiet Skies are focusing on political targets, such as those who entered the capitol (or just the capital) on January 6, 2021.
Air marshals are also being diverted to the southern border to perform mission-unrelated tasks like dispensing water.
LaBosco says she’s been getting nowhere with requests for explanations from Homeland Security chief Alejandro Mayorkas and others with oversight of the surveillance programs. Shocker.
Now UncoverDC reports that according to an Air Marshal whistleblower, Tulsi Gabbard has been added to the Quiet Skies program, created to “protect traveling Americans from suspected domestic terrorists.”
Listing Gabbard, who is now accompanied by Air Marshals and other TSA personnel when she flies, certainly appears politically motivated. Marshals “were first assigned to Gabbard on July 23, a day after she criticized Kamala Harris, Biden, and the National Security State in an interview with Laura Ingraham.”
Such targeting of critics is very disturbing. Thanks to UncoverDC’s reporting and LaBosco’s testimony, it does not seem as implausible as it might have been a few years ago. Years of similar opposition-targeting conduct by the Biden administration have helped us accept it, too.
Discussing the surveillance, Gabbard says: “No American deserves to live in fear of our own government.”
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
Illustration created with PicFinder and Firefly
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Jack Vance
What is an evil man? The man is evil who coerces obedience to his private ends, destroys beauty, produces pain, extinguishes life.
Jack Vance, The Star King (1964).
In a late July mass videochat session, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz did not in any way acknowledge the cringe in the name of the “White Dudes for Kamala Harris” fundraiser.
But the governor did advise his supporters to at least talk to their political opponents.
“Look, I got a Florida Man as a brother,” Kamala Harris’s VP sidekick said. “We all have him in our families, but these are our neighbors and our relatives, and at heart, they’re good people. They’re not mean-spirited. They’re not small. They’re not petty like they hear on stage.”
But what are these MAGA folk? How does the governor who signed a bill directing public schools to freely distribute tampons in boys’ restrooms as well as girls’ characterize people disinclined to approve of such a thing? “They’re angry, they’re confused, they’re frustrated, they feel like they got left behind sometimes.”
Somehow, Walz neglects how they feel betrayed by past representation, and are aghast at the craziness of … Tim Walz … who tells his fellow “white dudes” to “reach out, make the case.”
So, a case for what? Tampons everywhere?
Well, socialism. “Don’t ever shy away from our progressive values,” Walz said. “One person’s socialism is another person’s neighborliness.”
That’s where I bet he loses his “Florida Man” brothers.
A politician talking up socialism is never pushing “neighborliness.” Such politicians are always pushing increased expropriation (taxes), increased regulation, and massive subsidy.
Most who feel “left behind sometimes” are not asking for subsidies, much less the “neighborliness” of regulators and taxmen. And when they hear the word “socialism,” their trigger fingers itch. They know that over a hundred million people were killed, last century, by self-described “socialist” leaders, outside of war.
Killing fields do not make good neighbors.
Meanwhile, one of the most important critiques of socialism is that of Ludwig von Mises, who showed that without markets in capital as well as consumer goods, chaos and poverty reign. Without price signals, goods can only be misallocated.
Like putting tampons in boys’ bathrooms.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
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