On The Independents: Enemies of Freedom!

Tonight's episode of The Independents (Fox Business Network, 9 p.m. ET, 6 p.m. PT, repeats three hours later) is a repeat of our Aug. 15, 2014 broadcast in which we count down of our top 10 "Enemies of Freedom." Guests include Townhall Political Editor Guy Benson, Forbes columnist Rick Ungar, Cato Executive Vice President David Boaz, and (spoiler alert!) Nina Khrushcheva. It's an evergreen reminder that, as Bruce Springsteen taught us, well sir I guess there's just a meanness in this world.

Follow The Independents on Facebook at facebook.com/IndependentsFBN, follow on Twitter @ independentsFBN, hashtag us at #TheIndependents, and click on this page for more video of past segments.

Comments

[Fist of Etiquette]

Tonight's episode of The Independents (Fox Business Network, 9 p.m. ET, 6 p.m. PT, repeats three hours later) is a repeat-

Stop right there.

Let me just copy and paste my comments from that live blog.

[Notorious G.K.C.]

"lol, they may be calling out the enemies of freedom, but with those wardrobes, they're enemies of good taste, am I right?"

"Why does Kennedy keep interrupting people?"

[Fist of Etiquette]

Looking back over the original comments it looks like SPOILER ALERT the number one enemy of freedom is Lou Dobbs.

And I've never lol'd in my life.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

What are you guys talking about?

[Fist of Etiquette]

Your face.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Oh that's real mature.

[Trouser-Pod]

And I've never lol'd in my life.

Awww...you seem like a rather jovial fellow*!

*the Rufus response, notwithstanding.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Your face, too.

[Trouser-Pod]

I think we have your next submission for 2MoH!

I can't wait to hear Bernie read it!

[trshmnster the terrible]

Anybody know anything about aquaponics systems? I don't think i'll set one up this year, but I would like to potentially get a greenhouse up for winter 2016 and start some winter vegetable growing.

[Bobarian (Mr. Xtreme)]

Vegetables? Yeah...

[Heroic Mulatto]

Anybody know anything about aquaponics systems?

If anyone does, I'd be interested too. I've looked into aquaponics myself.

[Meriwether]

Saltwater aquaponics are tempting because, hey, lobster. But you end up eating a ton of seaweed (yuck!). Seriously, though, I saw this great aquaponics set up at a trade show. 4 wire rack shelves with grow lights designed for tilapia and basil. It was a cool system.

[Meriwether]

Here is one link:
http://seedstock.com/2012/06/2.....ood-needs/

[Heroic Mulatto]

Tilapia and basil? That's like 2 out of the 3 staple foods in my house!

[Buddy Bizarre]

Repeat?? REPEAT??? I'm not paying good money for repeats!!

In fact, I'm not paying any money at all!!

[C. Anacreon]

Pete and Re-Pete were sitting on a fence. Pete fell off. Who was left?

Why, tonight's episode of The Independents!

[Slammer]

So all those people on the list are now DOUBLE enemies of Freedom!

[GILMORE]

Team completes free-climb of the Dawn Wall of El Capitan in Yosemite

People have been trying to 'free' that section since the 1970s. The route is 3,000 feet (~20 pitches) of 5.12-5.14 (near-featureless), often-overhanging slab climbing.

For perspective = one pitch in that difficulty range is an Olympic-level physical achievement that very few can accomplish on a good day; doing 20 in a row is simply incomprehensible.

If someone skateboarded blindfolded down mt Everest while juggling knives, i *might* be nearly as impressed.

[Trouser-Pod]

Well, they're ready to be captains on the Enterprise.

That, or maybe appear in the next Expendables.

[Derpetologist]

I was more impressed by their escape from Islamic militants in Uzbekistan. One of them shoved a guard off a cliff.

[Trouser-Pod]

shoved a guard off a cliff

They should try making a movie, not a film.

[GILMORE]

"One of them shoved a guard off a cliff."

Yes.

He got better, apparently. But still. Its the thought that counts.

[James Anderson Merritt]

Was the guard's name Pete? Who was left?

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Yeah. About this FOX/Dish feud.

The owner of Dish is a big contributor to the Democrat party according to Open Secrets:

http://bit.ly/17Jm0Hu

You do the math.

[Sevo]

Rufus J. Firefly|1.14.15 @ 9:16PM|#
"Yeah. About this FOX/Dish feud."

Is Dish not carrying FOX?

[Fist of Etiquette]

I don't buy that. Dish has had these dust-ups with various other networks that have caused breaks in service. I think this is just more of that.

[Irish]

Plus, if you're running a cable network you sure as hell wouldn't drop one of the highest rated cable networks over something like that.

I don't buy that someone could be savvy enough to make it to the head of a cable company while being petty enough to leave money on the table for political reasons.

[Sevo]

I just clicked on the link, and it looks like they spread the vig around pretty evenly.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Yeah. Was just echoing what I heard on conserv. radio. Too conspiratorial.

[Fist of Etiquette]

On the other hand this has gone on longer than usual with Dish and negotiations I think.

[Wasteland Wanderer]

Yeah...a month or two ago they were feuding with Turner Networks. They're just trying to get leverage for their rate negotiations.

[Derpetologist]

2 of the following are real quotes from Nancy Grace. Can you spot the not?

1. I majored in Shakespearean studies at a very tiny school in Georgia.

2. I wanted to be a prosecutor so I could lock up scumbags.

3. I'd rather have a black crack whore watch my children than some pot slammer.

[GILMORE]

Who is Nancy Grace?
(ok i looked her up)

wha. why.

I'm going to guess 1

[Derpetologist]

Wrong!

2 is the not.

[SIV]

FUCK
I should know this as Nancy Grace used to be a local grandstanding prosecutor. I much prefer her on TV to working out of the DA's office.

[SIV]

3.

[userve32]

Who comes up with all that crazy smack?

http://www.Anon-Best.tk

[S. Quincy]

Afghan poppy farmers?

[Sevo]

And the candy man...

[Derpetologist]

Masterderp Theatre: Lena Dunham's Uproarious SNL sketch

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n6tiyGqL9ck

[Irish]

So on your enemies of freedom list, Paul Krugman is apparently worse than Fidel Castro and the TSA is worse than Hamas.

I question your logic.

[An Innocent Man]

Depends on whose freedom we are speaking of. I'd say Krugs is a far greater threat to the average American then FC.Though I admit I'm the biggest fan of hyperbole, ever.

[S. Quincy]

When was the last time Hamas fondled your junk?

[Irish]

You're not fooling me. If I answered that question I'd end up on some kind of FBI watch list.

[Sevo]

You think you're not already?!

[S. Quincy]

Don't be bashful, the CIA might be recruiting.

*Touches index finger to earpiece.*

[Irish]

http://www.newstatesman.com/laurie-penny

Laurie Penny is my new favorite crazy feminist. She's crazier than Marcotte, and may actually be a worse writer. You can literally pick any of these articles and you will be blown away by the inarticulate madness on display.

http://www.newstatesman.com/po.....eone-blame

Here she is talking about UKIP and proving she doesn't know what words mean:

"Farage is not alone: he is part of a frightening pattern. Across Europe, candidates from the libertarian nationalist fringe are emerging to fill the void where hope should be with their vicious cocktail of prejudice and anti-politics."

Some thoughts:

1. Farage is not really a libertarian at all and neither is UKIP.

2. What the fuck is a libertarian nationalist?

3. What other examples of 'libertarian nationalist' parties are there? Does she think the fucking National Front is libertarian? The Swedish Democrats? The Golden Dawn? Or has libertarian joined fascist and neo-liberal as a word liberals can't define but which vaguely means 'something of which I wish to disapprove?'

[Irish]

Oh, what the fuck:

"Given that the Tory base shares many of Ukip's core beliefs about immigration and European integration, its leaders can only hope that they'll swallow a watered-down version of Farage's arguments while pretending he does not exist. Nor can they rely on the nuclear option of pointing out that Farage is a privately-educated, expenses-grubbing former banker, because the same applies to much of the cabinet, and anyway, integrity is not Farage's selling point. The fact that he draws a sizeable salary from his full-time political work, claims every possible taxpayer-funded expense from Europe and employs his German wife as his secretary has not hurt Farage, because it turns out the public have ceased to believe in honest politicians and would prefer to vote for a crook who's upfront about it."

So the European Union gives him money while he's working for the European Union and that makes him a criminal. Also, he married a German woman (who is in the country legally through marriage) and I guess this makes him a hypocrite because he wants less immigration.

That's some weak tea, Laurie, you fucking Communist.

[GILMORE]

An amusing characteristic of the hard-left urban youth is their mistaken assumptions about the political spectrums in the 'real world'.

They think *they* are "normal". They represent the 'moderate', middle-of-the-road views.

Its all the grownups who are by contrast, 'crazy'.

[Derpetologist]

Progs think adjectives area arguments.

"Ukip is a party of prejudice that blames people who look different, talk different and comes from elsewhere for structural social injustice."

[Derpetologist]

are, not area

[Irish]

Laurie's not even a prog, she's an admitted Communist. Her twitter handle is '@pennyred' and I'll give you three guesses where the 'red' part comes from.

For extra laughs, here's an article where Laurie Penny goes to San Francisco, discovers that the most progressive city in America has gigantic income inequality and lots of homeless people, and decides this is the fault of right-wingers.

"There are half a million long-term homeless people in the US, and a third of them live in California. Still suffering from the stripping of inpatient mental health facilities in the Reagan years, people with nowhere else to go often find themselves in downtown San Francisco, with its clement weather ? specifically, they find themselves in SoMa and the Tenderloin, which is where many of the non-profits set up to meet their needs are based."

LOL. "One out of every three homeless people lives in the most Democratic state in the country. This is the Republicans' fault."

[Sevo]

..."here's an article where Laurie Penny goes to San Francisco, discovers that the most progressive city in America has gigantic income inequality and lots of homeless people, and decides this is the fault of right-wingers."

Damn right wingers are a real threat here in SF. Why, today I heard a person suggesting that rent-control might have 'gone too far'!
Can you imagine?!

[Irish]

The whining by upper-middle class tech workers in that article gave me some really amazing schadenfreude.

'"Most of us tech people will never be the 1 per cent," says the photographer. "We're aiming for the 10 per cent, which might allow us to have our parents' lifestyle. We're just trying to get by in a world that's not giving us the same chances the baby boomers had. What did I do as an artist? I went and got an engineering degree."'

Oh no! You're only in the top 10% of earners in one of the richest countries on Earth? God, it must suck so bad to be in the top .1% of all earners in the history of the human species. My heart breaks for you.

"Think about the Carnegies, the Mellons, the Fords. Even here in the city, Levi Strauss started here," Donoso says. "All of those businesses really made philanthropy a part of their DNA and it was about solving our local issues. I don't necessarily see that in the [hi-tech] sector. People see themselves as more global."

Apparently now the horrible people of the robber baron era were noble ubermensch because it fits the progressive narrative to declare them so.

[Sevo]

Hope the fucking skwirlze don't eat this:

Yep, everyone swims in the money pool at night in SF:
"Benioff Announces $100 Million Gift to Build New Children's Hospital at Mission Bay"
http://www.ucsf.edu/news/2010/.....ital-missi

I'm tired of the server fuck-ups so just believe me that Benioff gave another $100m and Conway added another $40m last Saturday.

Now, I don't like the political leanings of either one, but I'm sure if I lived near the Kochs I could find the same sort of activity; rich people like to buy nice things.
Screw the whinny twit.

[Acosmist]

"Inpatient mental health facilities", for the record, means involuntary commitment facilities. She's pissed that not as many people were locked in cages after Reagan.

I am skeptical that it's true, but taking her word for it, she's pissed that the government locked fewer people in cages, so that's fun.

Closing the nuthouses was, at some point, a proggy thing. I guess now they've always been at war with Eastasia?

[Isaac Bartram]

"Given that the Tory base shares many of Ukip's core beliefs about immigration and European integration,..."

And yet, IIANM, Ukip has done best in areas that were formerly Labour strongholds.

[SIV]

Marcotte isn't a bad writer. We wouldn't be talking about her if she was.

[Cytotoxic]

I don't get the joke.

[SIV]

2. What the fuck is a libertarian nationalist?

About 5-7% of the American electorate?

[Cytotoxic]

No it's 0% because it's a contradiction in terms.

[Heroic Mulatto]

From a back of the envelope calculation, 7 percent of the American electorate is about 14 million people. Now the Libertarian party proper barely reached 1 million votes during the 2012 Federal elections. And even if you add the Constitution and Reform parties into that number, it's still shy of a million and a half. Of course, not everyone votes; however to claim that the rara avis that is the "libertarian nationalist" outnumbers not only the Libertarian party as a whole, but 14 times so, stretches credulity greater than Eel O'Brian.

[JeremyR]

I would probably be a "libertarian nationalist".

I am pretty much a libertarian on most things except open borders and foreign policy.

Because I just don't think all cultures are conducive to limited government. There's a reason most of Latin America is socialist. There's a reason Islamic countries are crazy (ie, Islam).

So i think open borders will only make things worse, not better.

[Cytotoxic]

Then you're not a libertarian.

[Migrant Log Picker]

By your definition, asshole. Your puritanism proves your lack of relevance to this debate, along with your congenital war bonerism.

Fuck off and die.

[Cytotoxic]

My 'puritanism'? Sorry, words have meaning, and libertarianism means freedom to move across borders by default.

[Sevo]

"Because I just don't think all cultures are conducive to limited government. There's a reason most of Latin America is socialist. There's a reason Islamic countries are crazy (ie, Islam)."

So that means anyone living in those areas is tarred with that brush?

[Acosmist]

Tar or don't tar, just keep them away from us.

[Cytotoxic]

No. Don't like their proximity to you? Tough shit.

[SIV]

Oklahoma fuckin' sucks. 9.375% sales tax on food AND they have an income tax. I briefly took consolation in that I don't have to pay Oklahoma income tax as I don't live here till I remembered my fucking employer collects that shit to pay to whatever state I'm working in, so I do, at least for a couple of weeks this year. Oh, and 3.2 beer is the only kind you can buy cold to go. This state is a serious shit hole.

[Cytotoxic]

And they are Nazis wrt pot.

[Irish]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/.....real-time/

Hilarious. Charlie Hebdo journalist angry at UK for not showing the covers because she says it's a betrayal of the dead.

She then tries to hold up a cover on Sky News, at which point Sky News jerks the camera away and cuts back to the studio.

The idiot back in the studio then says 'I apologize to any of our viewers who may have been offended.'

No wonder the Jihadists are on the march. It's pretty obvious that if we're too fucking cowardly to show a picture on the news, we're not going to do much to stop them.

[S. Quincy]

Charlie Hebdon't.

[SIV]

One way to fix that would be to make journalists too scared NOT to show pictures.

[S. Quincy]

How, exactly, would that happen?

[SIV]

I imagine it might be some sort of traditional method, perhaps involving fire and rope?

I'm certainly not advocating that sort of thing, at least not until the government starts requiring journalism licenses.

[S. Quincy]

some sort of traditional method

So, invest in stocks.

[Suthenboy]

Absolutely.

http://www.dreamstime.com/phot.....tocks.html

[Irish]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/.....rtoonists/

Glenn Greenwald declares that you shouldn't criticize American publications for refusing to publish the Charlie Hebdo cartoons unless you also criticize American publications for not being critical enough of Israel.

I don't know why, other than to say that Glenn Greenwald is fucking crazy.

[Heroic Mulatto]

Greenwald is the Platonic ideal of the Self-Hating Jew.

What scary is that what we see of him is only the shadow that is displayed upon the cave wall. I don't think a sane mind would survive viewing his pure unadulterated form.

[Cytotoxic]

He hates America and Israel, and he's gotten a lot of love here for having copacetic goals in some sectors. It's time for that love to end. See also, 'Ron Paul'.

[Irish]

No, he hates countries run by white people.

It was in the news a few months back that he was seriously critical of New Zealand's government when he was in the country. Yet Greenwald fucking lives in Brazil, which is horrible on all issues of civil liberty, and virtually never talks about his own adopted country's widespread human rights abuses.

[Cytotoxic]

That is a much better explanation.

Brazil is terrible. Police there kill 6 people a day. There's a growing right-wing political insurgency that basically is thug cops selling populist anti-crime garbage. I read about it in an article. There was one guy-he just got elected-who bragged about killing 30 people as a cop. Bragged openly. The bright side was that this movement might give some gun rights to Brazilians.

[Heroic Mulatto]

Yet Greenwald fucking lives in Brazil, which is horrible on all issues of civil liberty, and virtually never talks about his own adopted country's widespread human rights abuses.

But Brazil allowed him to get married, which is the like, the only, human right that matters. Get with the program, Irish!

[Cytotoxic]

Watch out, Hyperion is going to get real mad at us.

[Cytotoxic]

Greenwald once stated that America had done more damage to Egypt than any other country, which makes him an ignorant demented idiot.

[Migrant Log Picker]

Bingo, he lessens his credibility daily.

[Cytotoxic]

The price of BTC is getting hammered but it spikes up and down.

I read something very interesting. There are tons of teams trying to develop a panoply of apps for BTC, like smart contracts, when there's already a cryptocurrency with most of that already built in called Nxt. Most 'altcoins' are mutated versions of BTC but Nxt is its own original code. It's developers are really seeing it through. It might be a superior option. nxt.org

[Irish]

Eh. I'm going to hold off on trying to get any cryptocurrency until one of them proves to be viable long term. The problem is that ecryptocurrencies (because there are generally so few units available initially) seem to be really prone to bubbles and spikes.

That's pretty much the opposite of what you want in a currency. You want stability so it can be used for trade and when you've got something spiking and plunging it's not really a currency so much as a commodity.

[Cytotoxic]

Fair enough, although I don't think Nxt has much spikiness. It has not really taken off anyway.

The ones to really watch out for are MaidSafe and Storj. These are distributed computing projects with MS being more ambitious-essentially decentralizing the internet. No more servers in theory. Their network will be powered by a heavily altered version of BTC called SafeCoin (Storj is just decentralized cloud storage and it has a different token). You generate SafeCoin by contributing to the network and spend it to take advantage of the network. MaidSafe has been in development since years before BTC was around. It should be released this year. I believe it could change the world. A cryptocurrency back by a vast computer network that could replace the internet as we know it-better than any metal standard.

[Irish]

http://www.nationalreview.com/.....williamson

Salon and Alternet declare that a bunch of congressman are worth more than the annual GDPs of entire countries.

Problem: They misread a wikipedia table that counted GDP in millions of dollars. As a result, they hilariously claim that Hong Kong's GDP is only $274,000 because they forgot that it was denominated in millions of dollars and therefore Hong Kong's actual GDP is $274,000,000,000.

I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that Jared Polis does not actually have more than $274 billion.

[JeremyR]

As long as this place employs Sheldon Richman, it's hard to throw stones.

They should really fire him and get Kevin Williams. Dude is sharp as a tack.

[MJGreen]

Ho. Lee. Fuck.

How can someone be that stupid?

[Sevo]

MJGreen|1.15.15 @ 12:31AM|#
"Ho. Lee. Fuck."
Wee Tu Low
"KTVU producers fired over Asiana pilots' fake names"
http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/.....685627.php

[James Anderson Merritt]

I could understand repeats around the holidays. But we're halfway done with January, already, and there is a flood of discussion-worthy NEWS that needs independent/libertarian examination! I tuned in for the "two minutes hate" recap in the "Best Of" show rerun, earlier this week, but switched the channel for the Heroes and Enemies repeats. Been there, seen that. Next!

Seriously, I hope you guys are back for live action next week.

Also, I have noticed that the info ticker at the bottom of the FNC screen has been changed. I am definitely feeling the absence of the final stock prices, and hope the change is only temporary.

[JeremyR]

They are getting moved in a couple weeks to a new time slot, so I think we might see re-runs until then.

[lisaldean]

my best friend's mom makes $76 /hr on the internet . She has been without a job for 9 months but last month her paycheck was $16819 just working on the internet for a few hours. visit their website.....
????? http://www.netpay20.com

[mary.jweber]

my classmate's sister-in-law makes $82 every hour on the computer . She has been without work for nine months but last month her paycheck was $15360 just working on the computer for a few hours. read the article...........
????? http://www.cashbuzz80.com