Liberty Nation presents our selection of the best stories this week. Some may be articles, others may be podcasts, videos, or radio broadcasts, but each has been chosen for their quality and scope.
The editorial team at LN hopes you can use this weekly post to catch up on stories that you might have missed. Let us know in the comments section which is your favorite.
#1 Biden Versus Bernie? Iowa Poll Suggests Clash Of Silver-Haired Titan
By Graham J. Noble
Presidential hopefuls Biden and Sanders top Iowa poll, indicating Dems’ ideological split.
Joe Biden (left) and Bernie Sanders (Right)
Which way is the wind blowing for Democratic presidential hopefuls? Is the party veering further left, or will voters select a more moderate, pragmatic challenger to President Donald Trump in 2020? An early indicator is the recent Des Moines Register/CNN/Mediacom Iowa Poll of likely caucus-goers, and the result suggests the party faithful are split on the question of how far left is too left. Notably, one of the two front-runners has not even officially entered the race, and the rest of the pack still has a lot of work to do.
The road to the Democratic nomination is long, to be fair, and the poll in question – conducted March 3- 6 – is only a small sampling, but the candidates got an early peek into what it will take for the opposition party to win the opportunity to reclaim the White House.
The 401 respondents broke almost evenly for Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders, with the remainder of the candidates lagging significantly. Biden, who has yet to announce a run, claimed 27% of the vote, while Sanders hit 25% – well within the poll’s margin of error. None of the remaining contenders broke double figures. Elizabeth Warren, who led among the also-rans, got 9%. Read More.
#2 Is US Postal Service The New Big Brother?
By Joe Schaeffer
Police can now track your mail without a court order.
Cutting-edge technology has made fears of a surveillance state more palpable to civil libertarians. Yet the U.S. Postal Office at this very moment is helping police agencies engage in a simple, old-fashioned form of monitoring citizen activity, and few Americans realize it is actually happening.
Former CIA whistleblower John Kiriakou has written a column for MintPress News that sheds light on the little-known “mail covers” program. Kiriakou served 23 months in prison for his efforts to expose the CIA’s torture program for terrorism suspects. While incarcerated, he sent his wife a birthday card in the mail. It was returned to him with an “Address Not Known” sticker attached to it. However, another sticker on the card, which he was not meant to see, read, “Do Not Deliver. Hold For Supervisor. Cover Program.” This was how Kiriakou discovered that he was under law enforcement surveillance.
Any citizen can be similarly tracked by police, who do not even need to request a court order to do so. The U.S. Post Office photographs the front and back of every piece of mail it sends out, some 150 billion items per year. A police agency can simply request mail cover tracking from the post office and wait for approval. Police cannot open the mail but can take note of all information to be gleaned from the envelope. Read More.
#3 Hollywood College Scam Infuriates Parents
By Leesa K. Donner
A parent of two students reveals what it’s supposed to take to get into the top schools – and it isn’t a checkbook.
Tinseltown has been rocked today by a massive college admissions scam. The 270-page complaint alleges that some of the nation’s most coveted schools, including Yale, Stanford, and Georgetown, were involved in the pay-for-play “admissions.”
Supposedly included in the charges were Desperate Housewives star Felicity Huffman and Lori Loughlin of Full House fame, according to Fox News. The college admissions scam first came to light when the big-name Hollywood parents involved were exposed – but, according to the latest updates, as many as 750 families may have benefited by paying for their kids to have “ringers” take SATs for them and for “insiders” at exam sites to change student scores. As well, fake athletic profiles were created for some, and money – lots of it – changed hands.
How does all this cheating strike parents of kids who work their rear-ends off to gain an honest admission? Why, they are incensed. Liberty Nation spoke with one parent who is beyond furious after having worked long and hard along with her two children to gain admission to two of the nation’s most prestigious schools. It was an arduous – beyond exhausting, she says – process. Read More.
#4 Born For It: Beto O’Rourke Declares His Presidential Candidacy For 2020
By Sarah Cowgill
Beto O’Rourke makes it official, telling Vanity Fair “I’m just born to do this.”
Positioning himself as a political maverick of sorts, the former congressman from Texas, Robert “Beto” O’Rourke, is tossing his cap into the Democratic presidential primary field. The declaring hopefuls include a variety of politicians, government cronies, one tech entrepreneur, and one spiritual guru who claims to be a “bitch for God” – and they’re all hellbent on sending President Trump packing.
Robert “Beto” O’Rourke
O’Rourke’s announcement marks 16 candidates running with another dozen or so high-profile Swamp rats weighing their options. An eerily familiar situation, flipped in reverse of 2016, as then candidate Trump dominated the largest field of candidates the Republican Party had seen in 100 years – the previous record of 17 vying at the 1916 Republican convention.
As famed baseball icon, Yogi Berra, once said, “it’s déjà vu all over again.”
Does Beto have the cajones to whittle away at the likes of Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) or former Vice President Joe Biden – both who have a huge lead in the race so far, impressive war chests and national name recognition, and, seemingly, unlimited grassroots support?
Well, Beto thinks he does, as he told Vanity Fair, “I’m just born to do this.” And that is why he may just be the wildcard to upset the status quo. Read More.
#5 Joe Biden: Elixir or Poison?
By Tim Donner
Is Joe Biden just what the Democrats need, or the easiest candidate for Trump to beat?
If Joe Biden is actually preparing to enter the 2020 presidential fray as the closest thing Democrats can find to a moderate, he’ll find himself pedaling alone in the bike lane on the far right of the Democratic primary superhighway, with four clogged lanes of traffic roaring by to his left.
Notwithstanding some who might try to argue that the latest Democrat dance craze, the white-privileged young Beto O’Rourke, is a moderate – hardly a credible claim given his radical positions on climate change and guns, among other things, and his promise to actually tear down any wall Trump constructs on the southern border – Democrats seem intent on digging their own electoral grave in plain sight. Their top tier of candidates – Bernie, Kamala, Fauxcahontas, and Spartacus – have all affirmed their support for nakedly socialist proposals, ranging from a virtual government takeover of the economy through the green new deal to reparations for the descendants of slaves, abortion to the point of birth, open borders, sanctuary cities – and the list goes on. Oh, and since President Booker is a vegan, he’ll take action to make sure you won’t be able to eat meat either.
What a mess.
Enter Barack Obama’s vice-president, and the theory goes that if “electability” – or suitability for beating Trump – is the sole premise upon which to base a nominee, then perhaps Biden is the only one who can soothe the savage left-wing beast, serve as the voice of reason, and carry the Democrats’ banner into the inevitable white-knuckle street fight with Trump. On paper, that might make some sense, as Biden already said in 2016 that he’d like to “beat the hell” out of Trump. But remember who we are talking about here.
There are so many problems with Biden, it is hard to enumerate them all. But let’s give it a shot. Read More.
