by Bob Barr | Jan 13, 2021 | Townhall Article |
Townhall In the 1980s, Wall Street hot shots who raked in millions playing fast and loose with questionable, if not illegal, stock trades were derisively labelled “Masters of the Universe.” Today’s Big Tech CEOs, who control social media platforms used daily by billions of people, have become far more powerful and wealthy than their 1980s predecessors, yet face little meaningful push back from Democrats preparing to take control of power in our nation’s Capital. These Lords of Social Media now have become emboldened by last week’s deplorable violence inside the Capitol building, to openly do what they appear to have long desired – to deploy their vast financial, technological, and political power to silence those who dare communicate political ideas not adhering to their liberal orthodoxy. These cohorts understand the First Amendment to our Constitution does not directly apply to them since they are not the government. Conveniently ignored by these social media powerhouses, of course, is the fact that their power and wealth benefits greatly from government programs and regulations, to say nothing of the massive benefits they derive thanks to federal, state, and even local tax benefits. The notion that with great power comes responsibility – a principle these and other Liberals almost gleefully charge President Trump with violating – also does not, of course, apply to them. They claim that appearances and common sense to the contrary, their social media platforms are not subject to being held to the same standard as traditional publishers. It is the provisions of Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act of 1996 on which they hang their hat, and which provides them free rein to censure...
by Bob Barr | Jan 7, 2021 | Townhall Article |
Townhall For all the potential merit the Trump campaign’s post-November 3rd campaign election lawsuit strategy might have possessed at the start — posing intriguing constitutional challenges and a platform for evidence of voter fraud — as a strategy to win two Georgia Senate runoff elections yesterday, it was, shall we say, problematic. Runoffs, especially in Georgia, historically and almost always, turn on three things: voter turnout, voter turnout, and voter turnout. And at this moment, with both Republicans David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler’s projected defeats, Democrats appear to have done a better job. This is a reversal of the situation prevailing for three decades in the Peach State; years in which state and local GOP workers and organizations kept their messages focused and relevant to the campaigns and to the runoff candidates. In years past, Republicans marshaled their voter databases down to the block level, and micro-organized their get-out-the-vote effort to reach voters most likely to vote in the runoff in numbers sufficient to overcome efforts of their Democrat rivals, who, until the last two cycles, were slow to adapt. That now has changed with a vengeance, presenting serious challenges for the Republican effort moving forward. Evidence of shenanigans at vote counting rooms in Democrat-controlled counties are real, and this accounts for some of the Democrat margins. And yes, the mail-in ballot verification procedure pressed by failed 2018 Democrat gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams, which strangely was agreed to last Spring by Georgia’s Republican Secretary of State (not the Governor, who President Trump continues to vilify) made it far easier for illicit votes to be counted. And yes, going forward, the GOP-controlled...
by Bob Barr | Dec 30, 2020 | Townhall Article |
Townhall The recent revelation of a historic hacking attack on U.S. businesses and government targets has put America’s national security apparatus in a conundrum. On one hand, the scale of the likely Russian sponsored attack is an excellent cudgel with which to press Congress for more power and money to fund secretive — and constitutionally problematic — national security programs. On the other, it proves that privacy hawks have been rightfully concerned about the state of America’s data security. Earlier this month, reports surfaced that a major IT security company, SolarWinds, was hacked and its software corrupted to include a “back door” easily exploited by other hackers. This corrupt software was then unknowingly pushed by way of an “update” to an estimated 18,000 customers – including numerous Fortune 500 companies and several government agencies – which left the back door wide open to hackers for months prior to being discovered. Experts suggest we may never know the full scale of this attack, or the degree to which it imperils America’s national security. That the hack involved a malicious back door is an irony not lost on privacy hawks, who have for years warned against federal agencies (especially the ultra-secret National Security Agency) having the power to force private software providers, smart phone manufacturers, and social media giants to build back doors that allow for surreptitious government access to users of their products and to their companies’ databases. The resulting compromised security has been as regrettable as it was predictable. In 2015, for example, the Chinese government is suspected of hacking into the NSA itself, via an encryption back door the agency...
by Bob Barr | Dec 23, 2020 | Townhall Article |
Townhall The country is now four costly COVID stimulus packages deep. By now there is ample evidence that “stimulus” money is fleeting and can only take us so far. What the country really needs from Congress are not repetitive shots in the arm, but substantive legislative reforms to help our economy re-open and stay open. Unfortunately, this requires hard work by both Houses, at a time when it is far easier to just keep piling hundreds of billions of dollars onto the already unimaginably huge national debt. To be sure, unemployed citizens and small business owners struggling because of government-mandated shutdowns deserve monetary relief, but direct payments are at best a stop gap measure. Also, such funding represents only a fraction of overall spending included in the most recent omnibus bill. This massive spending bill once again fails to include any reforms to address the myriad underlying conditions related to the pandemic — most importantly, COVID-related liability reform. With the country still a long way away from the level of vaccination required even to hope to return to pre-COVID normalcy, it is a virtual certainty that Congress will find itself in this same predicament a few months from now, as its members continue to delay passing COVID-related liability reforms that stymie both short- and long-term economic recovery. The Washington Post recently highlighted a wave of COVID-related lawsuits already being filed in courthouses across the country, by trial lawyers eager to target business owners, many of whom do not have the means to defend themselves vigorously. Already, ads are popping up on TV, radio, and online encouraging the public to get rich quick by signing...
by Bob Barr | Dec 9, 2020 | Townhall Article |
Townhall I am not sure who he was, but when English jurist Lord Sowell in 1788 wrote that, “precedent embalms a principle,” he could just as well have been addressing 21st Century policy makers here in America as he was the protagonists in an 18th Century British court ruling. As gun owners here in America look with trepidation toward a Biden-Harris Administration come January 20th, a precedent set by the Trump Administration is likely to haunt them. Three years ago in Las Vegas, Nevada, mass murderer Stephen Paddock slaughtered 58 innocent people and wounded hundreds more, shooting into a concert audience from a hotel window on The Strip. Among the tools he used in this horrific crime was a device known as a “bump stock.” This contraption, which never has been considered by gun aficionados to be a legitimate firearm accessory, is a piece of plastic with no moving parts. It can, however, be used to increase the rate of fire for certain semi-automatic rifles, even as it reduces accuracy. In response to the Paddock mass murder, in 2018 the Department of Justice directed that the ATF (Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives) change federal regulations regarding machine guns, so that a “bump stock” would fall within the definition of a “machine gun.” With that one “stroke of the pen,” a piece of plastic previously lawful to own, was rendered illegal. Unlike gun control by legislation, this was gun control by fiat. Elected Members of Congress played no role in the decision, having already punted on the question — with some members afraid to upset their pro-Second Amendment constituents, and others fearful...
by Bob Barr | Dec 2, 2020 | Townhall Article |
Townhall There never was evidence or scientific data that in-person schooling presented an elevated virus threat for students, faculty, or staff warranting schools’ prolonged closure – no evidence whatsoever. In fact, it was clear even before the traditional school year’s start that children and young adults were far less likely to be infected with COVID or to be severely impacted if they became infected. So, was the response by teachers’ unions and bureaucratic school administrators to reopen but with common-sense health and safety measures in place, so students were not kept away from teachers, classmates, and all the other benefits in-school learning provides? Of course not. Their response was to put on blinders, ignore common sense and hard evidence, and remain…closed. There does now seem to be a glimmer of hope that this close-mindedness is softening slightly. The New York City public school system, for example, plans to open soon for in-person classes, at least for elementary students. The timing of this about-face, and whether it actually will remain in-place, are questions still on the table, and parents should continue to demand to know why it took the teachers and school administrators so long to admit what everyone else knew months ago. Even more important, parents should demand accountability, including firing teachers and bureaucrats for the waste of money caused by their bad decisions, and for the damage inflicted on the students as a result. Waiting for any apology by those self-serving public officials would be a waste of time. As with other fear-driven public policy decisions made in response to the pandemic, refusals to open schools for in-person teaching were nothing more...
