If we had played “Idiot Bingo” this year we’d almost be clear of all squares. This week’s idiot comes from the UK, again! The headmaster at a school in England, with a doctorate and a Buddhist worldview, has decided that his school won’t be using two common, everyday words anymore. Pay close attention to this episode as we believe the next stop is, as always, America.
We’ve seen it, a lot. Goals aren’t being met, headlines begin to change, then all of a sudden- so do the rules. Join us for this episode of Bob Barr’s Laws of the universe where we discuss what Bob calls a very serious law.
by Bob Barr
The American people are done hearing from Dr. Anthony Fauci. We do not need another word from him about the “science” of COVID-19, what America “must do” to defeat the pandemic, or anything else that this demonstrated liar and Deep State denizen has to say. That he continues to serve as the oracle of truth for America’s pandemic response, is beyond rational comprehension.
A popular aphorism reminds us that sometimes “the cure is worse than the disease.” If Fauci is considered the “cure” for the government’s response to COVID-19, that shoe fits perfectly. Fauci has been wrong about virtually every aspect of COVID-19, with dreadful economic, social, and public health consequences, yet he remains in the media throne.
Conveniently ignored by the Left, is the fact that Fauci was the one who, early on, created massive confusion about facemasks; first by berating Americans for attempting to secure personal protective gear in the pandemic’s early days, and later scolding the public for not wearing them, even if fully vaccinated and safe from serious cases.
Fauci has been perhaps the single biggest roadblock to moving American society back to normal, with his doomsday pronouncements like needing to cancel Christmas, or constantly warning another “wave” is just around the corner.
The Good Doctor seems to relish striking panic into the hearts of people who just want to know the facts in order to make the best decisions for themselves and their families. Fauci is, however, a shrewd operator. He understands perfectly that panic ensures his longevity as a Washington fixture.
President Donald Trump likely had no clue of the monster he unleashed in January 2020 when he appointed the then-largely unknown bureaucrat-doctor to the White House Coronavirus Task Force. And there he remained — a parasite feeding from the media spotlight as America’s “top expert,” all the while undermining at every turn both Trump’s and Vice President Pence’s efforts to get a handle on the developing pandemic.
Fauci’s not-so-subtle efforts undercutting Trump in an election year guaranteed he would land softly and prominently in the Biden Administration.
The truth, regardless of partisan politics, is that Fauci cannot be trusted on public health matters – by anyone. His priorities during COVID have always been not what is best for America, but what is best for building his reputation, and protecting the role he played in developing and furthering relationships with the Communist Chinese government (and military) on “gain of function” studies and other projects that potentially, if not actually, harm America’s national security interests.
Fauci knows the truth about his COVID shenanigans will be his downfall, and he is not about to let that happen.
The most recent revelations confirming that the National Institutes for Health was actively funding “gain of function” research in China – exactly what Fauci had denied publicly in a heated exchange with Sen. Rand Paul last July – is proof that not only should Fauci be blocked from offering any further input on COVID-19, but should himself be investigated for potential criminal misconduct, the least of which being lying to Congress.
Were the House of Representatives interested in exercising real oversight, as opposed to the showtime investigation of the January 6th Capitol Hill demonstrations, they would subpoena Fauci and others with knowledge of the role the Department of Health and Human Services and NIH played in the dangerous research with China that very well may have led to the “lab leak” scenario spawning COVID.
If serious effort were to be expended in this regard, criminal referrals to the Justice Department might very well result, which of course is why no one in this administration or on the Democrat side of the congressional aisles will touch that can of worms.
So, the status quo will remain, at least until perhaps an unrelated revelation such as the “Puppygate” dog-torturing scandal forces Fauci out, or until the GOP regains a majority in the House of Representatives in next year’s midterm election.
However, even if the Republicans regain the majority, they might decide not to follow through and seriously investigate Fauci’s skulduggery. Such a GOP cop-out would bring coy smiles to the faces of leaders in Beijing, secure in the knowledge that their Man in Washington again avoided accountability.
Bob Barr represented Georgia’s Seventh District in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1995 to 2003. He served as the United States Attorney in Atlanta from 1986 to 1990 and was an official with the CIA in the 1970s. He now practices law in Atlanta, Georgia and serves as head of Liberty Guard.
by Bob Barr
In the name of COVID, American citizens in 2021 are being subjected to a form of perverse religious persecution by elected officials and unelected regulatory bureaucrats. This is ironic, considering that the United States was founded on the principle that government is not empowered to dictate or negate, directly or indirectly, an individual’s religious beliefs.
Now, centuries after our nation’s founding, government leaders and bureaucrats at the state and federal levels are punishing those who assert a religious objection to receiving a COVID vaccination.
This intolerance is but the latest in a seemingly endless series of measures by government to use the COVID pandemic as a hammer to control virtually every segment of our society, from education to healthcare, and from the military to the entire commercial sector.
A country that produced such advocates of religious freedom and tolerance as George Washington, James Madison, Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin now chafes under the intolerance and exercise of arbitrary power by the likes of President Joe Biden and New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, who recently declared categorically that “there are not religious exemptions” for people being vaccinated against COVID.
In September, Biden confirmed by executive order what many citizens had feared for months he would do. He decreed that COVID vaccinations would be required for all federal employees, including members of the armed forces, but also for all individuals working for private companies with 100 or more employees. OSHA – the Occupational Safety and Health Administration — will be Uncle Sam’s primary vaccine enforcer. (OSHA is a regulatory nanny agency signed into law by Republican President Richard Nixon in 1971.)
OSHA was ready to go to work even before Biden’s Sept. 9 order, having declared last summer that COVID-19 is a “workplace hazard,” thereby making it an enforceable mandate on American businesses.
Meanwhile, congressional Democrats are working feverishly to pass legislation that would greatly increase the level of fines OSHA could levy on businesses failing to meet Biden’s private sector vaccine mandate.
A number of companies already are jumping into Biden’s mandate line and forcing employees to get vaccinated or be terminated.
Even though both the U.S. military and private companies offer “religious exemptions,” in practice these are a sham.
United Airlines, among the first major air carriers to salute Biden’s vaccine order, allowed the few of its employees who sought a religious exemption to do so, but then placed them on indefinite leave without pay.
Another large employer, Washington state, empowers its bureaucrats to be the ultimate arbiters of whether an employee’s claim of religious objection to being vaccinated will be allowed. Washington State University’s head football coach, Nick Rolovich, for example, was fired from his multi-million dollar job by the university’s athletic director, who summarily denied the coach’s requested religious exemption.
Similar fates have befallen employees at other businesses. One longtime employee at Trader Joe’s was grudgingly granted a religious exemption, but then fired anyway on a pretext.
Members of our armed forces wanting to assert a religious reason for noncompliance are being forced to take legal action to do so. The Navy, however, appears uninterested in allowing any meaningful opportunity for its members to assert such an exemption. Reportedly Navy SEALs, among the most elite of our military units, are being told that a religious exemption may be sought, but even if granted, requesting individuals will be terminated from the service.
Many of these cases already are being challenged in the courts, a costly and time-consuming process for most employees, and especially for members of the military. While some judges are granting temporary reprieves for employees asserting their right to religious exemptions, others are not. The latter includes Supreme Court Associate Justice Stephen Breyer, who last week refused to grant a stay to Maine healthcare workers claiming their religious beliefs precluded them from meeting their state government’s mandate.
Even if the full U.S. Supreme Court decides to step in and protect many thousands if not millions of American citizens from being arbitrarily and summarily punished for their religious beliefs, the fact that so many individuals already are being placed in such predicament illustrates the damage already done to the foundation of religious freedom and tolerance that once undergirded our constitutional Republic.
Bob Barr represented Georgia’s Seventh District in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1995 to 2003. He served as the United States Attorney in Atlanta from 1986 to 1990 and was an official with the CIA in the 1970s. He now practices law in Atlanta, Georgia and serves as head of Liberty Guard.
There’s no doubt there’s a preferred class in America. Today if you don’t fit the mold of what said class wants you to be… you get canceled, banned, fired, humiliated, doxxed, you name it. Your life is over. In this episode of Idiot of the Week, Bob talks seriously about the dilemmas we face in today‘s Clown Culture.
by Bob Barr
California has long been a refuge for people big on ideas but short on realism. Whether it is the famous sunshine, its gorgeous coastline, or the state’s tolerance for even the most extreme buffoonery, California has played center stage for more than its fair share of “movements” – from beatnik and other counterculture revolutions to murderous cults.
Knowing this history helps to understand why a state with an economy larger than most countries in the world, is swiftly heading towards total collapse. The people running California today are the same ones who for decades believed they could change the world with music and sit-ins but are joined now by millions of young “progressives” even less-anchored to reality than their hippie mentors.
The result of this strange brew is a series of public policy responses to major issues that would be utterly laughable, if not for the very real and extremely serious consequences born of such ineptitude.
Thus, while the populations of other sun-belt states like Texas and Florida are increasing rapidly, California’s population is shrinking. What should be even more troubling is that some 23 percent, nearly one-fourth of California voters, report they are “seriously considering” leaving the state. This includes the rich and famous as well as many businesses which, when leaving, take with them significant tax revenues the state desperately needs to fund its lavish social spending.
How are California’s political leaders responding? Not with any apparent measure of concern, and with some expressing anger at exiting businesses. Last year, for example, state Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez, upset that Tesla founder Elon Musk did not share her progressive vision about empowering Big Labor, tweeted “F*k Elon Musk.” When the Tesla billionaire later announced the company’s move from Palo Alto to Austin, Texas, he pointedly noted the Assemblywoman’s profane tweet.
It would be one thing if Ms. Gonzalez’s cavalier attitude was only costing the state critical jobs and tax revenues, but the problem goes much deeper.
Rabid environmentalism has fueled state leaders’ willful disconnect from reality and threatens to push California over the edge of a historic energy crisis on which it has teetered precipitously for two decades.
Many Californians remember the state’s energy crisis at the turn of the Millennium, which put the term “rolling blackouts” into the public lexicon. Millions were without power for hours at a time, disrupting businesses and livelihoods alike. In the two decades since, California’s energy situation has become demonstrably more perilous, even as state leaders seem blissfully oblivious to the looming catastrophe.
Once upon a time, California enjoyed sufficient energy infrastructure reserves that enabled it to recover from incessant bureaucratic meddling in the energy marketplace, but no longer.
Environmental extremism in pursuit of a “100 percent clean energy future” has gutted traditional energy sources like coal and natural gas. In this unrealistic scenario, California’s energy future will rely exclusively on power sources subject to natural impediments – like clouds, windless days, and drought. Not surprisingly, nuclear power, by far the cleanest and most reliable energy source, failed to survive this clean energy onslaught; the state right now is decommissioning its last remaining nuclear power station, responsible for a whopping 10 percent of the state’s energy needs.
It should be obvious to even the most casual observer that making up this deficit will be impossible relying on wind and solar alone, but state officials continue their anti-energy march, including plans to eliminate internal combustion engines from use altogether. Gov. Gavin Newsom just signed a bill banning the sale of small gas engines, like those found on leaf blowers. That’s one small step for a man, one more giant leap into the energy abyss.
The real danger, however, is that without traditional energy infrastructure, there is no way California can steer away from the iceberg into which its leaders are turning. Outside of buying energy from adjacent states (several of which are facing their own energy crises), there simply is no “back-up” power generation acceptable to California “greenies” capable of coming close to meeting the energy demands placed on it. Once the new blackouts begin, they will remain – perhaps permanently.
For the millions of the 25 percent of California citizens who already are considering leaving the state, now might be the time to do so, before the last U-Haul crosses the border eastward. It is polite to ask the last person in a room to turn off the lights when leaving, but considering California’s current trajectory, such a request will not be necessary.
Bob Barr represented Georgia’s Seventh District in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1995 to 2003. He served as the United States Attorney in Atlanta from 1986 to 1990 and was an official with the CIA in the 1970s. He now practices law in Atlanta, Georgia and serves as head of Liberty Guard.
Somewhere in an alternate reality, everything you write privately belongs to you and you need not worry about who sees or interprets the words you write. However, in today’s America, you must always write in awareness that not only could it be public, but your written communication can even be the evidence in any possible way deemed necessary. In today’s Bob Barr’s Laws of the Universe, we discuss how words can haunt you- even those a decade old.
by Bob Barr
In 1961 a previously unknown “doo wop” group, the Tokens, topped the singles chart with “The Lion Sleeps Tonight.” Considering the “woke” leadership of the United States military and our foreign intelligence agencies, many are wondering if the U.S. military “lion” sleeps while our Russian and Chinese counterparts work feverishly to overtake us in at least one key technology – hypersonic weaponry.
It is a concern worthy of serious study.
Recent public reports establish that both Russia and China have made significant advances in developing hypersonic missiles, the next generation of warhead delivery systems. These reports come as America’s commander-in-chief, President Joe Biden and his top military and foreign intelligence leaders remain fixated on ensuring a “woke” defense establishment and on mandating COVID vaccines for all military and civilian employees under their command, regardless of how many resignations such a short-sighted policy will cause.
When these factors are considered alongside Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Mark Milley’s publicly reported views that Communist China is not “an enemy,” and his self-admitted friendship with his counterparts in the People’s Liberation Army that overrode his loyalty to former President Trump, it is indeed fair to speculate where his true priorities lie.
In a similar vein, over at the Pentagon, Lloyd Austin, on assuming office early this year, made clear that his top priority as Secretary of Defense is not China or Russia, but rather to ferret out “white extremism” in the ranks.
At the CIA, recruitment videos soliciting future intelligence experts focus not on defending against foreign threats and equipping our nation’s decision-makers with the very best intelligence possible on which to base national security policy, but on ensuring that the next generation of employees are sufficiently versed in LGBTQ philosophy.
While the Pentagon’s policies on LGBTQ awareness and hiring are well-advanced, its focus on hypersonic weapon technology appears far less robust, even as Russia and China continue with major programs in this area. According to a recent, nonpartisan study by the Congressional Research Service specifically regarding “Hypersonic Weapons,” the United States currently has “no programs of record for hypersonic weapons,” and only possible production of “prototypes.”
Pentagon news releases speak glowingly about the importance of developing both offensive and defensive hypersonic weapon capability, but when officials are pressed on the matter, the picture lacks clarity. For example, in typical government gobbledygook, the Defense Department’s Principal Deputy Director for Hypersonics, Mike White, has explained that the department has not moved beyond the stage of “[identifying] the most viable overarching weapon system concepts to choose from and then make a decision based on success and challenges.”
In other words, while our primary adversaries develop functional hypersonic weaponry, our government is still “deciding to decide.”
On the defense side of the hypersonic weapon equation, the picture is equally dim. According to the same August 2021 CRS study, even as both China and Russia continue to aggressively develop hypersonic weaponry, including those capable of maneuvering in flight and carrying nuclear warheads, a former top Pentagon official, Michael Griffin, testified before Congress that the United States “doesn’t have defenses against [their] systems.”
China’s development of hypersonic delivery vehicles is especially troubling considering that its leaders reportedly are looking at possible deployment of such devastating weapons in a “regional context.” In the current heated environment Beijing is fostering vis-à-vis Taiwan, such a policy presents an exceptionally dangerous scenario.
We all are by now familiar with Gen. Milley’s promise to warn Beijing in advance of any hostile action against the communist regime by the U.S. military. Unfortunately, the good General failed to elicit a corresponding promise from his PLA counterpart to warn us in advance of Chinese action, including by hypersonic missile.
Bob Barr represented Georgia’s Seventh District in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1995 to 2003. He served as the United States Attorney in Atlanta from 1986 to 1990 and was an official with the CIA in the 1970s. He now practices law in Atlanta, Georgia and serves as head of Liberty Guard.
It’s no surprise that the media wants to twist something that was said. What’s unique in this case, is that the media tried to spin the story while the audience could CLEARLY hear the truth. Join Bob in today’s episode of idiot of the week as we discuss the region controversy around “Let’s go Brandon.“
by Bob Barr
The COVID crystal ball is murky. Will it clear or darken further?
In what seems like a lifetime ago, elected officials were selling two weeks of economic and social sacrifice as the price to control the spread of the COVID-19 virus. Today, more than a year-and-a-half later, there remain cities and states in which citizens need permission from the powers that be, in the form of vaccines and masks, to do everything from eating in a restaurant to keeping one’s job.
The extremes to which local, state, and federal authorities have gone to exercise their newfound COVID “emergency powers,” is no surprise to anyone familiar with the way modern government works. Still, the speed by which America turned from a quasi-free society to one reflecting a patchwork of punitive policies, rules, and mandates, caught all but the most cynical critics of government power off-guard. Even private-sector requirements come with tightly wound strings trailing back to the White House.
Of course, consistent with the universal law that “no matter how bad things are, they can always be worse,” it could be worse. We could be Australia.
Whereas here in the United States enforcement of COVID regulations has been mostly reactive, authorities in Australia have been far more aggressive. Aussie police cars and officers in battle gear roam the streets and sidewalks of the country’s cities, on the lookout for unmasked senior citizens, who then are wrestled to the ground and forced to mask-up before being arrested.
Videos of such brutality from countries like Russia and China, are unsurprising, but in Australia – a western-style society with a long history of democratic norms? It was unthinkable – until it wasn’t.
The question is, if it can happen in the Land Down Under, can it happen here?
Thankfully, at least for now, the roadblocks to despotic rule constructed two-and-one-third centuries ago by our Founders, have kept us safe from the COVID tyranny we are witnessing in Australia and elsewhere around the globe. But for how long will these defenses hold? How strong is our Bill of Rights, the primary shield against totally unchecked government power?
The genius of our written Constitution is that the freedoms enumerated in the Bill of Rights are explicit, thereby allowing for strong legal challenges to government overreach. This was clear early in the COVID pandemic when governments attempted to close gun stores and to restrict the right of people to travel freely from one state to another. These legal opportunities, however, are not available to our less-fortunate friends in Australia.
While successful outcomes to such court challenges are by no means guaranteed, the right and the ability to bring credible, constitutionally based challenges does provide a meaningful (and peaceable) playing field that can be the difference between living in tyranny or civil war.
The concept of federalism woven into our system of government provides an additional level of protection against COVID-based abuse by the federal government. State governors not enamored of the Biden Administration’s mandate-heavy, one-size-fits-all approach possess a degree of freedom and flexibility not enjoyed by their counterparts in Australia and other western countries. Florida and Texas, and many other “Red” states where citizens have elected governors more conservative and libertarian-minded than Joe Biden, have proven the worth of the dual-sovereignty model bequeathed to us by our Founders.
Then there is the Second Amendment, which allows for an armed citizenry and serves as a natural hedge against tyranny unrestrained by the democratic process alone. While it is unrealistic to suggest militias with small arms could stand a chance against the full might of the U.S. military, the real point is that the Second Amendment ensures that the road to tyranny would not be without painful, ruinous speedbumps. No such impediments exist in Australia, which years ago cracked down hard on the private ownership of firearms.
Still, it remains to be seen whether these vital safeguards will continue to withstand the constant pressure by “progressives” in Washington, DC, and in state capitols from California to New York, to force everyone into surrendering their remaining vestiges of individual liberty in the name of “safety.” This is the real questions voters should bear in mind as they vote next year and two years thereafter.
Is Australia’s nightmare our future?
Bob Barr represented Georgia’s Seventh District in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1995 to 2003. He served as the United States Attorney in Atlanta from 1986 to 1990 and was an official with the CIA in the 1970s. He now practices law in Atlanta, Georgia and serves as head of Liberty Guard.
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