by Simon Black
Are you ready for this week’s absurdity? Here’s our Friday roll-up of the most ridiculous stories from around the world that are threats to your liberty, your finances, and your prosperity.
Professor Blames Private Property for California Wildfires
A public takeover of utility companies is not enough, according to Kian Goh, Professor of Urban Development at UCLA.
In order to combat California wildfires, we need to abandon “aspirations of home ownership, and belief in the importance of private property.”
Fueled by cheap energy– and of course the ever-present racism of the white middle-class– people expanded beyond cities, building little tinder-box neighborhoods into the forests.
Goh says that, “Expansionist, individualist, and exclusionary patterns of housing became synonymous with freedom and self-sufficiency.”
Ah yes, it’s not so hard to link the desire for freedom and self-sufficiency with every known evil on earth. You’re even responsible for burning down California.
But Urban Planners like Kian Goh would be happy to step in, and tell us how our lives should be designed.
For the greater good, we must collectivize and live on communal (i.e. government controlled) land.
Just a reminder– parents across the country pay top dollar each year so people like Professor Goh can teach their children.
Click here to read the original article.
Update: New York Man finally has his hemp back
In Early November, Oren Levy had his shipment of legal hemp confiscated by the New York Police. They even bragged about the “drug bust” on social media.
Too bad it was perfectly legal. Levy even had the documentation to prove it, included in every box of the shipment.
But police still lured Levy’s brother to the department under the guise that he could pick up the shipment, and arrested him.
After almost two months, and nearly destroying Levy’s perfectly legal CBD oil business, charges were dropped. The shipment was returned– though in a dry and deteriorated condition.
Levy is now suing the NYPD, the City of New York, and possibly FedEx for alerting the authorities in the first place.
Levy broke the good news in a Tweet and Instagram post.
Congress has a New Year’s Resolution: Destroy Facebook’s Libra Token
Two bills that the US Congress will consider this year seem aimed specifically at preventing Facebook from rolling out it’s digital token Libra.
One is called the “Keep Big Tech Out Of Finance Act.” It would ban “large platform utilities” from being, or being affiliated with, a financial institution.
It would also not allow large platforms to create or “operate a digital asset that is intended to be widely used as medium of exchange, unit of account, store of value, or any other similar function.”
Violators would be fined $1 million per day.
The other bill is called the “Managed Stable Coins are Securities Act.”
Libra is intended to be a “stable coin” which is a digital currency tied to the value of existing currencies.
This bill would make it law that Libra would be considered a security, like a stock or bond, as opposed to a currency, like the dollar or Swiss franc.
Sounds like the US government doesn’t want any competition with their Federal Reserve Notes.
Click here and here to see the bills.
Gig workers’ big win in California? Being fired.
In September 2019, the media company Vox ran the headline, Gig workers’ win in California is a victory for workers everywhere.
They were referring to a new law in California which classified gig workers and contractors as employees.
The story was that by classifying workers as contractors instead of employees, companies like Uber and Lyft got away with not providing employee benefits required under California law.
Then, just before Christmas, Vox showed us what the law really meant when it fired 200 California-based freelance writers.
Vox helped sell the public the lie that laws like these force companies to absorb freelancers as employees. But in reality, it means they get fired.
Click here to read the full story.