Hornberger's Blog

The Futility and Corruption of the Drug War

by Jacob G. Hornberger February 23, 2017

I just finished watching the much-acclaimed series “Narcos” on Netflix. What a fantastic program. And what an excellent depiction of the futility and corruption of the war on drugs. The series is a true-life account of Pablo Escobar, a Colombian drug lord who headed up the Medellin drug cartel, a black-market drug group that smuggled hundreds of tons of cocaine ...

Libertarianism and Immigration Enforcement

by Jacob G. Hornberger February 22, 2017

For the past several years, there has been a running debate within the libertarian movement between libertarians who favor government immigration controls and those who favor open borders. As an advocate of open borders, I have never been able to figure out how those libertarians who favor government-controlled borders are able to reconcile their position with the libertarian non-aggression principle, ...

A Second FFF-HBCU Conference on the Drug War

by Jacob G. Hornberger February 21, 2017

  If you live within driving distance of Orlando, Florida, or just happen to be in the area, I would like to invite you to attend FFF’s conference, “End the Drug War,” at the Florida A&M University law school (201 Beggs Avenue, Room 240, Orlando, FL 32801) on Wednesday, March 22, 2017, from 6:00 pm – 8:30 p.m. Admission price: ...

Trump’s Militarism and Isolationism

by Jacob G. Hornberger February 20, 2017

I cannot recommend too highly an op-ed that appeared in yesterday’s Washington Post, entitled, “Quit Calling Donald Trump an Isolationist. He’s Worse than That” by Stephen Wertheim, a Fellow in History at King’s College at the University of Cambridge. It is an absolutely excellent analysis of Trump, foreign policy, militarism, and isolationism. Those who support U.S. interventionism around the ...

What’s Wrong with Talking to Russia?

by Jacob G. Hornberger February 17, 2017

Amidst the feeding frenzy that has taken over Washington, D.C., and the U.S. mainstream media over Russia, forgive me for asking a politically incorrect question: What’s wrong with talking to Russia? After all, is the United States at war with Russia? Well, you might think so if you read the editorial in Wednesday’s New York Times, entitled “Time to Investigate ...

Bribes, Catapults, and Corruption Trump Trump’s Wall

by Jacob G. Hornberger February 16, 2017

Donald Trump is obviously a smart man. One cannot build up a billion-dollar financial empire without being smart. Unfortunately, however, Trump is not so smart when it comes to some things, like the drug war. He thinks that simply by cracking down in the drug war and becoming more ruthless than previous presidents, he’s going to be the one who ...

Trump and Duterte: Birds of a Feather

by Jacob G. Hornberger February 15, 2017

When it comes to the drug war, the verdict is in: The big, drain-the-swamp, anti-establishment president, Donald Trump, is turning out to be just like all the other mainstream establishment politicians. He made that clear last week in a speech before a group of law-enforcement officials, where he vowed to be “ruthless” in the war on drugs. Trump told ...

Pipe Dreams, Left and Right

by Jacob G. Hornberger February 14, 2017

It amazes me how liberals and conservatives remain so committed to the welfare-state, warfare-state way of life and honestly believe that there is still some magical formula that someone is going to come up with that is finally going to make it work. Or, better yet, that some president with a magic wand, such as Hillary Clinton or Donald ...

Immigration Chaos and the Troops

by Jacob G. Hornberger February 13, 2017

Amidst all the furor over President Trump’s immigration edicts, there is one important thing that every American should keep in mind: There is a much easier and simpler solution to the threat of anti-American terrorism, which is the excuse that Trump is using for his immigration edicts: Just bring the troops home from the Middle East and Afghanistan and ...

The Misguided Attacks on Betsy DeVos

by Jacob G. Hornberger February 10, 2017

The mainstream media and American leftists are up in arms over the selection of conservative Betsy DeVos to head the U.S. Department of Education. They’re pointing to her lack of knowledge about how public schools operate and her conservative devotion to school vouchers to show that she has no business running the federal Department of Education. They are lamenting ...

The Religion of National-Security Statism

by Jacob G. Hornberger February 9, 2017

In my article last week, Fallacies of the Anti-Islam Crowd, I pointed out three fallacies of the anti-Islam crowd in America, which consists of those people who have convinced themselves that terrorist attacks against the United States are part of a supposed centuries-old war that Muslims have been waging against the West rather than blowback from the ongoing ...

Moral Blindness among the Statists

by Jacob G. Hornberger February 8, 2017

A new controversy stirred up by President Trump has propelled the moral blindness of liberals, conservatives, and the mainstream press into the forefront of American political discussion. Trump’s latest controversy involved a response he gave in an interview with Fox News commentator Bill O’Reilly, as follows: O’Reilly: Do you respect Putin? Trump: I do respect him. O’Reilly: Do you? Why? Trump: Well, ...