Ep 295 | We’re Living in a Taxocracy | Guest: Scott Hodge

For the last four years, the media has persisted in characterizing January 6 protesters as a violent mob intent on overthrowing a legitimately elected government. However, many of the people now being prosecuted were innocent bystanders or journalists simply trying to cover the event. One such man is investigative journalist and BlazeTV contributor Steve Baker, who comes straight from the courthouse to talk to Matt Kibbe about how he was forced to enter a guilty plea for a crime he didn’t commit and how his life has been turned upside down by a twisted justice system bent on locking him away. With the re-election of President Trump, there is now some hope that he and his fellow journalists can finally be liberated from these politically motivated prosecutions.

On this episode of “Kibbe on Liberty,” recorded the morning after Donald Trump’s decisive victory, Matt Kibbe is joined by Jack Hunter, co-founder of BASEDPolitics, to analyze the election results. Both are cautiously optimistic about the prospects for important liberty-friendly policies, bolstered by the MAHA movement and an anti-authoritarian political realignment. Beginning with Trump’s pledge to free Ross Ulbricht, Matt and Jack lay out a white-pilled wish list. Will a new Trump administration include Cabinet posts for Thomas Massie, RFK Jr., Tulsi Gabbard, Mike Lee, and Vivek Ramaswamy? What about the waste-slashing ideas of Elon Musk and Ron Paul?

In this special election edition of "Kibbe on Liberty," Matt goes solo, unleashing an epic ramble-rant about the big political realignment happening right before our eyes and the opportunities for libertarians working to free America from the tyranny of lockdown authoritarianism. While Donald Trump openly courts the libertarian vote, a New Resistance is forming, motivated by a reverence for free speech, skepticism of endless foreign wars, and a desire to make America healthy again. With old-school liberals like RFK Jr., Elon Musk, Tulsi Gabbard, Nicole Shanahan, and Bret Weinstein now joined together, what kinds of new coalitions and alliances might we help create or join — together?

As trust in the government school system plummets, more and more parents are stepping up and taking a more active role in their children’s educations. Now, those parents are representing a major voting bloc in the swing states, and they will have to decide which candidate will better support their rights. Matt Kibbe sits down with Corey DeAngelis, author of “The Parent Revolution,” to discuss how issues like school choice and parental rights will impact the election and whether the actions taken by administrators and teachers’ unions during the pandemic will create blowback for Democrats.

Four years after the COVID-19 pandemic and the disastrous lockdowns that accompanied it, we’re still looking for answers on who to blame for the millions of deaths as well as the countless livelihoods destroyed. Since the corporate press has failed to do its job in holding government officials accountable, independent journalists have had to pick up the slack. Matt Kibbe sits down with Christian Britschgi, associate editor at Reason magazine, to discuss the role that Dr. Anthony Fauci played in funding the gain-of-function research that likely led to the release of the virus and then covering up his involvement to protect himself and his allies. While most people only learned who Fauci was in 2020, he has been a major player in researching bioweapons for decades.

As Hurricane Helene brought devastation to Asheville, North Carolina, and surrounding communities, it’s been remarkable how ineffective FEMA and other government agencies have been at helping victims. More galling, government bureaucrats are actually impeding private efforts to offer aid to those in need. Matt Kibbe sits down with Amy LePore, co-founder of Dissident Media, who explains how the centralization of emergency services after 9/11 has led to an obstructive bureaucracy incapable of responding to the needs of citizens.

The COVID-19 pandemic gave government authoritarians the opportunity to exploit the public’s fear to seize power. It was shocking to see how quickly many people were willing to abandon their principles for the promise of protection, but it’s hardly the first time this has happened. Matt Kibbe sits down with Logan Albright, head writer at Free the People and author of "Freedom over Fear," to discuss the history of the politicians and bureaucrats using the rhetoric of fear to consolidate their own power and strip the citizens of their civil liberties. From xenophobia during war and FDR’s economic fascism during the Great Depression to surrendering privacy in the name of anti-terrorism and moral panics about the corruption of children, both the political Left and Right will take any chance to scare us as long as we keep letting them. Pick up your copy of “Freedom Over Fear” here: https://a.co/d/6DrdFXX

The COVID-19 pandemic revealed a number of troubling truths about the role the pharmaceutical industry plays in shaping public policy and the financial incentives that politicians and bureaucrats have to push certain medical interventions onto unsuspecting citizens. Matt Kibbe sits down with Sharyl Attkisson, author of "Follow the Science," to discuss the hidden connections between the medical-industrial complex and the regulators who have the power to force you to take an experimental vaccine whether you want to or not. It’s impossible to have trust in the public health establishment as long as these blatant conflicts of interests exist and as long as there is no civil or criminal accountability for companies delivering products that have a high risk of causing permanent harm to those who use them.

The emergence of the SARS-CoV-2 pathogen in late 2019, and the ensuing investigation into its origins, revealed a dangerous lack of concern among bureaucrats and elected officials for biosafety and biosecurity. Not only did our government fund research to make viruses more deadly to humans, but it continues to do so, refusing to back down or admit any wrongdoing, paving the way for a future pandemic that makes COVID-19 look like the common cold. In his research for "The Coverup" series, which examines the national security apparatus’ involvement in the development of the COVID virus, Matt Kibbe speaks with Bryce Nickels, professor of genetics for Rutgers University and co-founder of Biosafety Now, to find out what we as a society should be doing to prevent the development and spread of future pathogens. Their conversation also serves as a preview of the upcoming episode of "The Coverup" featuring Dr. Richard Ebright.

Americans can’t seem to agree on how to handle crime. On the Right, we have the tough-on-crime, lock-’em-up mentality that prioritizes punishment and low tolerance for antisocial behavior. On the Left, we hear talk about compassion and rehabilitation, while thieves and vandals are allowed to loot and pillage our cities without consequences. Restorative justice constitutes a different way of thinking about criminal justice altogether, recognizing that the traditional prison model has failed to prevent recidivism, while the zero-accountability strategy implemented by cities like San Francisco has been a disaster for public safety. Matt Kibbe sits down with restorative justice professionals Kathleen McGoey and Lindsey Pointer to discuss their work in the field, as well as their new book, “The Little Book of Restorative Teaching Tools for Online Learning,” which gives practical instructions on how to implement restorative practices in your own community.