Ferguson Cops and the Fourteenth Amendment by Jacob G. Hornberger August 21, 2014 The antagonism displayed by the militarized police force in Ferguson, Missouri, toward the protests and demonstrations by people outraged over the police killing of Michael Brown provides a good opportunity to review constitutional principles, especially the Fourteenth Amendment. We begin with the Constitution itself. When it called the federal government into existence, it simultaneously limited its powers to those enumerated ...
Welcome to Military America by Jacob G. Hornberger August 20, 2014 Perhaps it’s finally dawning on many Americans the adverse effect that the national-security state apparatus, which was grafted onto America’s governmental system after World War II, has had on American society. It’s taken the events in Ferguson, Missouri, to cause people to see what a militarized society looks like. We’ve seen the blowback that has come with U.S. imperialist and ...
What If the Military or CIA Had Killed Mike Brown? by Jacob G. Hornberger August 19, 2014 While the facts surrounding the police killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, must still be determined, one thing is clear: If it turns out that the killing was not justified, the law dictates that he is subject to being criminally indicted and also to being sued in a civil action for wrongful death by Brown’s survivors. Not so, however, ...
Embracing Communists by Jacob G. Hornberger August 18, 2014 For some 45 years, the U.S. national-security state justified its existence and its Cold War antics based on the “communist threat” that the United States was supposedly facing. If the United States failed to maintain an enormous standing army and a CIA, the nation would almost sure to fall into communist hands. Moreover, we were told, dark-side practices, such as ...
Why Reform the CIA? by Jacob G. Hornberger August 7, 2014 Just as I predicted in my article “Why Not Simply Abolish the CIA?” critics of the CIA’s illegally hacking into the computers of U.S. senators who were investigating CIA torture are calling for reform, rather than abolition, of the CIA. Stuck in the mindset of the national-security state, they simply cannot raise their vision to a higher level—to ...
The Fiasco of the Two World Wars by Jacob G. Hornberger August 6, 2014 I sometimes wonder whether U.S. officials changed the name of Armistice Day, which commemorated the end of World War I, to Veteran’s Day in order to get Americans to forget about World War I. If so, this year’s 100-year anniversary of the start of World War I must be their worst nightmare because it causes people to focus their ...
Putin’s Regulatory Scheme Looks a Lot Like Ours by Jacob G. Hornberger August 5, 2014 Russian President Vladimir Putin is providing the American people, and specifically American businessmen, with a valuable lesson about a government-regulated economy and the benefit that regulation provides to those in power. Keep in mind, first of all, that America’s modern-day regulated economy is no different, in principle, than Russia’s regulated economy. The difference is one of degree. The Russian government ...
The Commies Are Coming! (Again) by Jacob G. Hornberger August 4, 2014 After the U.S. government’s post-Cold War encirclement of Russia, through NATO, succeeded in achieving a foreign-policy crisis in Ukraine, I repeatedly have said that it was entirely predictable that Russia would seize Crimea rather than permit it to come under U.S. control. I argued: Imagine if Russia decided to set up military bases and missiles on Cuba. We all know ...
Why Not Simply Abolish the CIA? by Jacob G. Hornberger August 1, 2014 If anyone thinks that CIA Director John Brennan is going to be severely punished for lying about the CIA’s hacking into the computers of members of Congress who were investigating torture inflicted on people by the CIA, think again. It’s not going to happen. Everyone knows that lying is the official policy of the CIA and a well-established, accepted ...
What Limited Government? by Jacob G. Hornberger July 31, 2014 One of the common misconceptions about the United States is that the federal government is a “limited government,” unlike tyrannical regimes, which are characterized as “omnipotent government” or “unlimited government.” Limited government means that the government’s powers are limited in nature and scope. Omnipotent or unlimited government means that the government can do whatever it wants. Limited government certainly was ...
The State’s Greatest Success Story by Jacob G. Hornberger July 30, 2014 Amidst the endless series of disasters, debacles and crises produced by America’s welfare-warfare state, there is one huge success story that should not go unnoticed: the state’s educational system, specifically the extent to which the state has succeeded in indoctrinating so many Americans into believing they actually live in a free society. What could be better than a society of ...
The Cold War Never Ended for the U.S. National-Security State by Jacob G. Hornberger July 29, 2014 While the Cold War ended in 1989 for most of the world, not so for the U.S. national-security state, the apparatus that was grafted onto our governmental system after World War II to fight the Cold War against the Soviet Union, which had been America’s partner and ally during the war. What better proof of that phenomenon than the continuation ...
