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On this episode of the Resistance Library Podcast Sam Jacobs welcomes Tho Bishop onto the show. Tho Bishop is the Assistant Editor of Mises.com and a proud Florida Man. He recently penned an article on a Rothbardian right as an alternative to the paleo-progressivism of Theodore Roosevelt. He believes this to be the fighting ideology that can effectively combat federal overreach and globalist tyranny alike. Listen now to our latest guest episode!

“The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.” - Amendment IX, The U.S. Constitution “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.” - Amendment X, The U.S. Constitution If the Crown represented anything to the Founding Fathers, it was the danger of central power. So they took pains to avoid this when drafting the new Constitution. Indeed, the Articles of Confederation period of United States history shows just how entirely distrustful Americans were of centralized power. To that end, the Constitution gives broad powers to the states while intentionally limiting federal power. While “States Rights” have become almost inextricably identified with slavery and segregation, the actual answer is much more complex than this: The states – and private organizations – have all powers not explicitly delegated to the United States federal government. This means that virtually everything the federal government currently does is extra-Constitutional and properly the role of the 50 state governments. This is not just to provide for a decentralized government structure, but also to provide for people to be able to move from one state to another to live under laws closer to their own choosing. The Founders would never have imagined that places as far apart geographically and culturally as Alabama and California would have the same laws.

Attempting to read the United States Constitution in its entirety can be an intimidating task. At over 7,500 words including the Ammendments and its place as the single most important document in the history of the U.S. – it's vital for all Americans to know what it stands for, the freedoms it provides, and the limitations it places on the federal government. This interactive guide to the U.S. Constitution serves as a digital resource for those looking to quickly find specific sections of the iconic document – from Article 1 through the Amendments of the Bill of Rights.

The current state of civil asset forfeiture in the United States is one of almost naked tyranny. Don’t believe us? Listen to the latest Resistance Library Podcast. Picture this: You’re driving home from the casino and you've absolutely cleaned up – to the tune of $50,000. You see a police car pull up behind you, but you can’t figure out why. Not only have you not broken any laws, you’re not even speeding. But the police officer doesn’t appear to be interested in charging you with a crime. Instead, he takes your gambling winnings, warns you not to say anything to anyone unless you want to be charged as a drug kingpin, then drives off into the sunset. This actually happened to Tan Nguyen, and his story is far from unique. On this episode on the Resistance Library Podcast Dave and Sam discuss the topic of civil asset forfeiture, a multi-billion dollar piggybank for state, local and federal police departments to fund all sorts of pet projects. With its origins in the British fight against piracy on the open seas, civil asset forfeiture is nothing new. During Prohibition, police officers often seized goods, cash and equipment from bootleggers in a similar manner to today. However, contemporary civil asset forfeiture begins right where you’d think that it would: The War on Drugs. In 1986, as First Lady Nancy Reagan encouraged America’s youth to “Just Say No,” the Justice Department started the Asset Forfeiture Fund. This sparked a boom in civil asset forfeiture that’s now become self-reinforcing, as the criminalization of American life and asset forfeiture have continued to feed each other.

The ATF isn’t all bad. In fact, they had a policy of letting illegal gun purchases go between 2006 and 2011. It ended up getting U.S. Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry killed on December 14, 2010, and let Mexican criminals get enough guns that they were found at over 150 crime scenes where Mexican citizens were either killed or maimed. And some of the guns were used in the November 2015 terrorist attack in Paris at the Bataclan. But other than that, it turned out just fine. (In case you’re not picking up on it, we’re laying on the sarcasm very thick right now.) You probably know what was officially called “Project Gunrunner” as “Operation Fast and Furious.” Started under George W. Bush, this ATF policy audaciously grew under President Obama and became indicative of the perceived attack on American gun owners by both policy makers and their friends in the establishment media. It’s one of many scandals of the Obama Administration that was never given as much press attention as, for example, Russia buying Facebook ads about NoFap and Pizzagate. Given that the guns run by the ATF were allowed to kill hundreds and that subsequent Congressional investigations resulted in Eric Holder, President Obama’s Attorney General, becoming the first sitting cabinet member to be held in criminal contempt of Congress ever, this is shocking. At least for anyone still under the illusion that the establishment media is a fair and impartial source of information. It is a sad truth that in our world today, there are very few actual journalists. While conservatives, libertarians and patriots tend to chafe at the mere mention of journalists, it’s worth noting that independent journalists – those not in thrall to big business and big government – fulfill an extremely valuable function of telling the truth and uncovering corruption. Case in point: The Fast and Furious scandal was broken by two independent journalists: David Codrea of The War on Guns and the late Mike Vanderboegh (who holds the distinct honor of being denounced by both Bill Clinton and the Southern Poverty Law Center) of Sipsey Street Irregulars.

Seemingly overnight, a large segment of America has gone insane. We’re not talking about the culture of paranoia and safety that has metastasized in the wake of COVID-19 hysteria. We’re talking about the ideological shift, particularly on cultural issues, that has occurred since the start of the Obama Administration. To pick an easy example, it would have been fairly uncontroversial even five years ago to say that men should not be allowed to compete in women’s sports, regardless of what they might subjectively “identify as.” And yet, this is now a subject contention across a number of sports, including mixed martial arts and powerlifting. What’s more, having the wrong opinion and expressing it publicly might make you the subject of a public shaming, up to and including losing your job and being de facto blacklisted from your industry. The point isn’t to litigate the specific topic of trans identified men competing in women’s sports. We use this only as one example of a broader cultural shift. Another, far more troubling development, is how quickly a significant and powerful minority of Americans grew to believe that America is a fundamentally racist country and that white Americans are somehow uniquely evil by virtue of their birth. Both of the above are extreme viewpoints and would have been recognized as such even five years ago. Now, one can have one’s name blackened for taking the wrong viewpoint. But this change did not come out of nowhere. In fact, it’s the product of decades of indoctrination of generations of Americans through what is called “education.” We use scare quotes here, because there is little evidence that American schools educate their students anymore – if, by education, we mean imparting knowledge rather than ideology.

On this special guest episode of the Resistance Library Podcast Sam welcomes Peter Quiñones onto the show. Peter Quiñones is the co-producer of The Monopoly on Violence Documentary, host of the Free Man Beyond the Wall podcast and Managing Editor at The Libertarian Institute. Sam had him on to discuss his recent Twitter ban, how he's ignoring it, the evil of public schools, and why most libertarians are getting it all wrong.

The Sons of Liberty flag is very meaningful to us, as it’s the flag that inspired the backdrop of our logo. Its origins go back to 1765, when a secretive group of patriots known as “the Loyal Nine” was formed – the group behind the original Boston Tea Party. The flag was then known as “the Rebellious Stripes” and it was banned by the British king, the highest endorsement the Crown could give. The Sons of Liberty Symbol: The Rebellious Stripes Flag The Sons of Liberty were perhaps the most radical group of American patriots during the pre-Revolutionary period, but the true Sons of Liberty had a relatively short lifespan. They were formed in response to the Stamp Act of 1765 and disbanded when the Act was repealed. Still, the name lived on as a popular brand name for the biggest firebrands of the American Revolution. Many of the members of the true Sons of Liberty are American legends who need no introduction. Samuel Adams. John Hancock. Patrick Henry. Paul Revere. Even Benedict Arnold counted himself among their number. It’s unclear whether the original Sons of Liberty were a clandestine organization with an official membership or just a rallying point for anyone who opposed the Stamp Act. Ultimately, it doesn’t matter. The unified identity of opposition to the Crown was the organization, whether it was official or not. The motto of the Sons of Liberty was a simple phrase known to virtually every American: “No taxation without representation.” While its origins are largely shrouded in mystery and lacking firm documentation, many experts agree that, to the extent that it was an organization with members, it was founded by none other than famous rabble rouser Samuel Adams.