Twenty-five years ago this week, FBI tanks smashed into the ramshackle home of the Branch Davidians outside Waco, Texas. After the FBI collapsed much of the building atop the residents, a fire erupted and 76 corpses were dug out of the rubble. Unfortunately, the...
James Bovard
After the FBI’s Pulse Nightclub Failure, Why Should We Trust James Comey Anymore?
by James Bovard | Apr 4, 2018 | Featured Articles
The FBI suffered another debacle on Friday when an Orlando jury returned a not guilty verdict for the widow of Omar Mateen, who killed 49 people and wounded 53 in his attack on Orlando’s Pulse nightclub in June 2016. The biggest terrorism case of the year collapsed...
Time for the US to End Democracy Promotion Flim-Flams
by James Bovard | Mar 17, 2018 | Featured Articles
Democracy promotion has long been one of the U.S. government’s favorite foreign charades. The Trump administration’s proposal to slash funding for democratic evangelism is being denounced as if it were the dawn of a new Dark Age. But this is a welcome step to draining...
Gun Crackdowns Have Already Led to Too Many Federal Abuses
by James Bovard | Mar 8, 2018 | Featured Articles
President Trump declared last week that the law enforcement should “take the guns first, go through due process second.” But the history of federal firearms enforcement shows that due process is often a mirage when federal bureaucrats drop their hammer. Before...
Hollywood Hoopla Ignores Media’s History of Servility
by James Bovard | Mar 2, 2018 | Featured Articles
Much of the media nowadays is portraying itself as heroes of the #Resist Trump movement. To exploit that meme, Hollywood producer Steven Spielberg rushed out “The Post,” a movie depicting an epic press battle with the Nixon administration. But regardless of whether...
25 Years Ago: Feds Attack at Waco in Name of Gun Control
by James Bovard | Feb 28, 2018 | Featured Articles
Twenty-five years ago today, federal agents launched a military style attack on peaceful Texas residents who were suspected of having modified firearms. At a time when much of the media is in a frenzy in favor of gun control, the ATF raid on the Branch Davidians is a...
George W. Bush Doesn’t Deserve the Media’s Efforts at Rehabilitation
by James Bovard | Feb 15, 2018 | Featured Articles
"Our democracy is only as good as people trust the results,” former President George W. Bush declared in a presumably well-paid speech last week in the United Arab Emirates, a notorious Arab dictatorship. Bush is being exalted as if he is the second coming of George...
Guilt by Musical Association
by James Bovard | Feb 10, 2018 | Featured Articles
Should the feds be permitted to treat anyone who is not a choirboy like a criminal suspect? Unfortunately, local, state, and federal agencies have a long history of targeting, harassing, and entrapping fans of untraditional music. Because so many innocuous activities...
Golden Boy Robert Mueller's Forgotten Surveillance Crime Spree
by James Bovard | Jan 29, 2018 | Featured Articles
When Robert Mueller was appointed last May as Special Counsel to investigate Trump, Politico Magazine gushed that “Mueller might just be America’s straightest arrow — a respected, nonpartisan and fiercely apolitical public servant whose only lifetime motivation has...
Destroying, Suppressing Evidence is FBI Standard Procedure
by James Bovard | Jan 24, 2018 | Featured Articles
Congressional investigators were rocked this weekend when the FBI notified them that five months of text messages from a top FBI investigator into the Trump campaign’s Russian connections had mysteriously vanished.The FBI-issued cell phone of Peter Strzok, whose...
Fed's Misconduct in Cliven Bundy Case Stems from Ruby Ridge
by James Bovard | Jan 15, 2018 | Featured Articles
Federal judge Gloria Navarro slammed the FBI and Justice Department on Monday, Jan. 8, for “outrageous” abuses and “flagrant misconduct” in the prosecution of Cliven Bundy and sons, the Nevada ranchers who spurred a high-profile standoff with the FBI and Bureau of...
Cliven Bundy-FBI Debacle: Another Example of Why the Feds Need to be Leashed
by James Bovard | Jan 5, 2018 | Featured Articles
The Justice Department was caught in another high-profile travesty last month that continues to reverberate through the western states. On Dec. 20, federal judge Gloria Navarro declared a mistrial in the case against Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy and others after...
Homeland Security’s Multi-Billion Dollar Comedy Show
by James Bovard | Dec 26, 2017 | Featured Articles
After the 9/11 attacks, Congress and the Bush administration pretended that unlimited federal spending was one of the best ways to thwart terrorist threats. In 2002, Congress created the Homeland Security Department (DHS), sweeping some of the most inept federal...
Yes, the FBI is America’s Secret Police
by James Bovard | Dec 11, 2017 | Featured Articles
Politifact delivered a “pants on fire” slam to Fox News on Friday because one of its commentators asserted that the Federal Bureau of Investigation “has become America's secret police.” The FBI has legions of new champions nowadays among liberals and Democrats who...
Thanksgiving Travel: Trump’s Holiday Gift is More Invasive Airport Security
by James Bovard | Nov 18, 2017 | Featured Articles
On the campaign trail last year, Donald Trump derided the Transportation Security Administration as a “total disaster.” But his administration is making TSA more intrusive and abusive while its 42,000 screeners remain as incompetent as ever. New TSA screening...
Do Trump’s Liberal Critics Seem Increasingly Unhinged?
by James Bovard | Nov 15, 2017 | Featured Articles
Last week’s anniversary of Trump’s election sparked widespread teeth-gnashing by the nation’s pundits. Trump is supposedly the gravest threat to American democracy since the secession of the Confederacy. His presidency, probably, continues to be a boon for...
Facebook Farce Shows Lawmaker Deviousness, Demagoguery
by James Bovard | Nov 4, 2017 | Featured Articles
The 2016 election was the first time in history that goofy advertisements were considered an act of war. The frenzy on Capitol Hill over a smattering of Russian advertisements would be comical except that most of the American media has jumped on the hysteria...
Torturer-in-Chief Turned Savior of Freedom?
by James Bovard | Oct 20, 2017 | Featured Articles
Former President George W. Bush gave a speech yesterday implicitly slamming President Donald Trump for dragging down democracy. Bush told political cronies and other attendees: “We are gathered in the cause of liberty this is a unique moment.” He assured listeners...
Donald Trump Didn’t Create Danger of Presidential Dictatorship, He Inherited it
by James Bovard | Oct 19, 2017 | Featured Articles
Americans nowadays have a bad attitude towards presidents. Many people are denouncing Donald Trump as a dictator. But the real problem in this nation is the dictatorial illiteracy that has allowed modern presidents to commandeer far too much power.Trump’s saber...
How World War One Still Haunts America
by James Bovard | Sep 23, 2017 | Featured Articles
This year is the 100th anniversary of Woodrow Wilson’s pulling America into World War I. Many people celebrate this centenary of America’s emergence as a world power. But at a time when the Trump administration is bombing or rattling sabers at half a dozen nations and...
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