We're witnessing the biggest merger in history.

Big government and big business are getting together to tell us what to do,

what to say, and what to think. And the only way they can do it is to work around the Constitution.

Sometimes this alignment is voluntary, sometimes not

for the better.

for the better. An early hint of this merger occurred in 2013.

That's when the Obama administration implemented what it called Operation

Choke Point. The idea was to choke off a type of business, Payday Lending, that the administration

didn't like but couldn't get Congress to ban.

Payday lenders make small short-term loans at high interest rates.

Their customers are usually need of quick cash, for example to pay a bill that's due before the next paycheck

arrives. This is entirely legal.

Nonetheless, the Obama administration pressured banks not to process credit card

payments to these businesses or give them loans. Banks are heavily regulated and

very susceptible to government pressure. All the government had to do was

apply pressure to two banks, Four Oaks Bank in North Carolina,

and Commerce West in California. Soon others took the hint and stopped doing business with payday

lenders. State governments have taken a the companies about reputational risk and doing business with the National Rifle Association, thereby

denying it financial services. Recently, the federal government has been pressuring social media

platforms to censor speech.

As we learned from the Twitter files in recent litigation, government agencies such as

the FBI, Homeland Security, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have been telling

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