The Police State

James Bovard reports form Maryland, where the COVID-19 lockdowns have decimated employment and the rules only apply to powerless ordinary people. Cops and politicians can do as they like.

What we can learn from the Patriot Act is that during a time of crisis governments can pass legislation that impacts citizens’ lives long after the crisis of the day has passed.

The various levels of government in Canada have responded to the coronavirus pandemic. Their ill-advised solutions are to inflict economic hardship and withdraw civil liberties. The longer these authoritarian policies persist, the greater the risk to the social fabric.

"The reality must be faced that the new…colony of Pennsylvania lived for the greater part of four years in a de facto condition of individual anarchism, and seemed none the worse for the experience."

When the government created public police forces one hundred years ago, they often relied on torture to extract confessions. But now they have new methods: threatening to pile on new charges until the defendant takes a plea agreement.

Bob Murphy interviews Lyn Ulbricht, mother of Ross Ulbricht, the founder of the Silk Road website.

A universal basic income can easily be weaponized as a tool to punish "antisocial" behavior such as holding "unacceptable" political views or otherwise engaging in what the state doesn't like.

Bob Murphy discusses the establishment, the FBI, and the corporate media.